Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thursday, May 1, 2025
Transcript
Video
Agenda

About this meeting

Government Body
Planning Commission
Meeting Type
Planning Commission
Location
Gilroy, CA
Meeting Date
May 1, 2025

Transcript

320 sections (from 353 segments)

0:00 – 1:130

Broke her back? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. All right, commissioners. We're going to get going here in just a few moments.

1:23 – 1:590

All right. Great. Welcome, everybody. Good afternoon. I want to welcome you all to the regular planning commission meeting of Thursday, 05/01/2025. I'd like to start off with the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. Thank you, everybody. Ariana, please report report on posting the agenda and roll call, please.

2:00 – 2:111

The agenda was posted on Thursday, 04/24/2025 at 01:58PM. Roll call. Commissioner Benson? Commissioner Eli?

2:112

Present.

2:121

Commissioner Kushner? Here. Commissioner Landgard? Absent. Commissioner Valdez? Here. Vice Chair Donhauer?

2:213

Present.

2:221

Chair Bondle?

2:231

And as a friendly reminder to commissioners and staff to please turn on the mics when speaking. Thank you.

2:300

Thank you, Ariana. Any public comments for items not on the agenda?

2:361

There are no speakers.

2:38 – 3:050

All right. There are speakers here today for items not on the agenda. Now is your time to fill out a speaker card. And I don't see any. Thank you. Moving on to consent agenda. Commissioners, 04/03/2025 Planning Commission meeting minutes. Any questions, comments, concerns? I see none. I'm gonna make a motion that we accept. I'll second.

3:071

And to confirm, the second was commissioner Benson?

3:104

No. It was Ellie.

3:11 – 3:241

Ellie? Commission Ellie? Thank you. Roll call. Commissioner Ellie? I'm sorry. Commissioner Benson? Yes. Commissioner Ellie? Yes. Commissioner Kushner?

3:251

Commissioner Valdez?

3:271

Vice Chair Donhauer?

3:291

And Chair Bondo?

3:306

Yes. Thank you. Moving on to six, public hearing

3:34 – 3:500

6.1, architectural and site review for three light industrial buildings located at 8875 Murray Avenue, APN 830 Five-one-fifty 9, Application Number AS23-six.

4:07 – 4:456

Applicant heat wave in the M 1 Livident Industrial zoning district, Murray La Santimas Overlay District, and the industrial park general plan land use designation. This site is shown in red. It's an undeveloped 7.29 acre parcel located on the East Side Of Forest Street between Kishamura and Nagareta Drive and on the West Side Of Murray Avenue between Kishamura and Gavilan Court. Properties to the North include light industrial uses. To the West is Ren Transportation and vacant land under construction for light industrial uses.

4:45 – 5:276

To the South is an undeveloped site and Hope Services, and to the East is a single family residential neighborhood along Murray Avenue. The proposed project would allow an expansion of the current HeatWave headquarters site, which is currently adjacent to the Northwest. HeatWave is the company that designs and sells eyewear that has been headquartered in Gilroy since 2019, and the applicant will talk more about their business following my presentation. The project will include construction of three light industrial warehouse buildings. Building 1 would be 42,000 square feet, Building 2, forty eight thousand square feet and Building 3, thirty thousand square feet constructed in three phases.

5:28 – 6:286

The buildings would be a mix of office, warehouse and light industrial At project completion, there would be a total of two ninety three parking spaces, which meets the parking requirements. Here's the site plan with Building 1 in the Northwest corner being constructed first facing Forest Street. Building 2 to the south would be constructed in Phase two, and Building 3 facing Murray Avenue constructed in Phase three. There are two driveway access points that would be constructed along Fourth Street and one driveway access on Murray Avenue. A temporary driveway access would be constructed in Phase one between the project site and the current heat wave site to the north to allow secondary emergency vehicle access from Kishamura.

6:28 – 7:136

New sidewalks would be constructed along both frontages and landscaping provided along the full perimeter. Three trash enclosures are located internally to the first the first 20 half of of first entry is about 31 feet tall, but the rest of the building is about 29 to 31. The building would include a Second Floor deck. The building materials are concrete with metal panel accents and metal awnings above the Second Floor windows. This is a contemporary style with a neutral color palette of shades of light and dark gray.

7:14 – 7:596

This would be Building 2, built second, also facing Forest Street, same color and material and height. And this would be Building 3. This floor windows. Here's the landscape plan, full planting along the entire site and perimeter, very ample landscaping along the frontages of Murray and Forest. 21 feet is the minimum required from face of curb.

7:59 – 8:216

And along Murray Avenue, it's approximately 35 feet from face of curb and 43 feet from face of curb on Forest Street. We've in we're And very with

8:36 – 9:446

and We're be that. We're to be exempt from further environmental review under Section fifteen thousand one eighty three for projects that are consistent with the community plan or zoning. This project was analyzed and found to be consistent with the general plan EIR, and the report included in tonight's packet. Staff received only one public comment from a community group, which promotes the reduction of greenhouse gases in multimodal transportation, which provided some suggestions. In looking at those suggestions, the applicant agreed to incentivize biking to work by including employee showers and dressing areas and providing education to employees regarding local bicycle routes and transit information.

9:47 – 10:166

So in conclusion, staff has analyzed the proposed project and recommends that the Planning Commission, based on its independent analysis, determine this project is exempt from further environmental review pursuant to state CEQA guidelines section fifteen thousand one eighty three, projects consistent with the community plan or zoning, and adopt a resolution approving proposed architectural and site review permit application AS twenty three zero six. And that concludes my presentation. I'm here if you have any other questions.

10:337

'm like, are you feeling okay? I

10:38 – 11:022

think the answer is yes. But when we were looking at the ice cream warehouse on the other side of the street, they I think they're and I was away. I didn't have access great access to Internet, and I didn't download that plan in in advance. I think their sidewalks were 6.5 or 6.8. I mean, they were they were the similar size of seven feet wide.

11:02 – 11:242

And I think that that became sort of the standard for that block. Now will this this be an encouragement by the city for other developers to continue that larger sidewalk for because that's a pedestrian on a bike. I think it's a bike thoroughfare, right?

11:246

Yes. Yes. Yes. The standard is a six foot walk along along that entire each of those streets.

11:304

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Mhmm.

11:363

Other questions? Great.

11:36 – 11:470

Commissioners, if there's no other questions, I'm gonna open it up to public hearing. Brianna, are there any speakers? Would the applicant like to come up?

11:560

Wherever you're comfortable.

12:016

It's over here, so I don't know. You wanna just take it right here? Okay. And then we can

12:09 – 12:283

Thank you so much. Hello, everybody. My name is Justin Hertel, and my name is on this project. There's a and it's nice to meet you guys. I've I think we haven't met.

12:29 – 13:043

So anyways, there's a funny thing called the Bader Meinhof phenomenon. It's a cognitive bias where something you've recently learned or noticed seems to appear more frequent than it actually does. This illusion stems from increased awareness and selective attention to the new item. Today, that item is shown on the screen before you, and it's been around you for the past five years. If you haven't seen it before, look the next time you drive around town. Look at people's cars. Look at kids on their bikes. In the cars, there's probably an air freshener donning this logo dangling from the rearview mirror.

13:050

The two them. Between

13:092

And so

13:100

we're we're two going see

13:19 – 13:353

I'm not a property developer. And I'm a creator at heart. HeatWave Visual is a company that I cofounded in 2012 and then have operated as CEO and lead creative from inception to this meeting and beyond. We're do that.

13:41 – 14:333

we're going be that. And that able we're we're we're to to we're I myself grew up in the Bay Area. We just so happened to be in San Carlos with this business when we started. As much as we like the Peninsula, that door was closing for us. And you know what they say, when one door closes, another opens, we just had to find it, and we found that in Gilroy.

14:34 – 15:093

In 2019, we purchased and moved into what we thought would be our forever home, a 10,000 square foot steel building on Forest Street right off of Leasley Road and down the street from the outlets. There was five of us at the time running this whole company, including myself. We actually were only able to occupy 5,000 square feet of this first building. If we rented out the center unit, to be frank, we were actually scared that we would not be able to afford the mortgage. So having some rental kickback to help us crack that monthly nut seemed nice and surely made the decision to go south a sound business decision.

15:10 – 15:323

In 2020, I moved myself and my family to Gilroy. Heidi is in the audience. The kids are at home to save you guys the stress of hearing a crying baby. Everything at this point was growing quickly in that fertile soil Gilroy provided, but especially that palm tree, it took off. In just a short couple of years, let's see where we got to advance this to.

15:33 – 16:123

Okay, there's the there's our air freshener and the stickers on the cars and the sunglasses. There's us when we first bought this building, me and my cofounder. We were lucky to secure an additional 9,000 square feet building across the street. This nearly doubled our footprint, but we were separated now. Fulfillment, operations and creative had always been as one, but for the first time ever, we were split.

16:13 – 17:093

Things were harder this way, but like we do, we made it work. The company continued to show promise and grow. In an attempt to secure our future, I brought acreage on Forestry right next to our current headquarters, putting us all under one roof again was once again a possibility. Over the nearly three years it has taken to now get to this meeting, HeatWave had maxed out the 19,000 square feet on Forestry. I don't know how often anyone here is looking for commercial space, but the surplus we grabbed another building, and we are now at a total of 29,000 square feet split between four buildings and two cities and are now even storing items outside.

17:10 – 18:353

We have gone from five employees to over 40 in just a short couple of years, most of whom are local to Gilroy and many others are just a city or so over. We are now one of the top relative newcomers to a highly competitive space that is occupied mostly by multibillion dollar international conglomerates dominating the market and here we are, an independent shaking things up and showing the big guys how it's done from none other than Gilroy. We team of proud team and the I'm And I'm

18:430

I'm committed proud to giving be back and I'm proud to be able able

18:46 – 19:173

to to do do do that that that locally. Locally. We are pro first responder, pro military, pro blue collar, pro local, and just pro America in general. That's that's our my guys on the front page of the Gilroy Dispatch after we made a drop this year for Rebecca's. So pretty proud of that. Anyways, to shift gears slightly and for those who have raised an eyebrow at this project, there's some first responders and some military guys rocking our stuff.

19:179

I thought that was pretty cool.

19:203

Yes, here's this project. To shift gears slightly and those who've raised an eyebrow about this project, there's a few things I felt that was worth mentioning. This piece of land has long since been zoned

19:453

able to

19:540

And so

19:55 – 20:363

And do business are to in grow investing our our goals. We to We we

20:453

I may be biased

20:470

I'm biased.

20:48 – 21:203

I didn't know I was gonna have audio on that. To close, I may be biased, but HeatWave, despite the name, is probably one of Gilroy's coolest brand and businesses you will have a Bader Meinhof phenomenon with needs in order to sustain its growth within Gilroy. Thank you.

21:220

Great. Thank you. Good job. Yeah. Commissioners, any questions for the applicant?

21:330

I had a simple question for Once the build out, all three phases are done, are you planning on owner occupying? Or is it planned to be leased out?

21:57 – 22:213

Thinking that that's not going to be enough. So as we grow, as potentials change or as things shift, like, yes, we could absolutely occupy that, but I'm keeping it flexible just in case we need to subdivide it and can potentially lease it out to other businesses in suites such as other businesses or other buildings are doing in the area.

22:222

you. That was my question, too. So this Gilroy would now be your headquarters as you move from San Carlos to Gilroy to Morgan Hill back to Gilroy?

22:30 – 22:433

We are still primarily our headquarters is primarily in Gilroy. We just have some space in Morgan Hill right now. We are split between the two cities right now. This is people lot who the have

22:462

half twenty.

22:530

Alright. I'm gonna open it up for public comment. Ariana, any speakers?

22:571

Yes. We have Tom Muniz.

23:030

Mr. Muniz, just a reminder, you have three minutes.

23:10 – 24:038

Good evening. I'm one of the of the homeowners along Murray Avenue that that's the the planned project here and not necessarily representing the whole neighborhood there, but been there for a good part of my life there and want to just comment on this project. I do have some comments that maybe the planning commission can consider as far as potential opportunities to update the plan. But in general, just first off, I want to thank the applicant for everything they've done to this day in terms of it was pretty impressive to glance at the 600 page report online as far as what's coming up there. Good points about this.

24:03 – 24:408

You got you're developing this site as an infill project, so that's good. I like the part about job creation. So that's a big positive being a long term Gilroy resident here. I like the fact that there's consistency with the city policy. I was part of the team that was involved with actually putting together with the city the overlay district policy to consider the neighborhood when it came to projects in this area.

24:40 – 25:188

So the setbacks, the architecture, the walkways, all that is positive from what from my view. I am concerned about from a traffic point of view because living there, experienced the traffic, I observed the traffic. There's that road is getting busier and busier. I think you could see that on your The other concern if there is manufacturing going on is emissions. I'm not sure if this is just an assembly plant, but if there's emissions in the plant against us, you should look at that carefully if not already.

25:18 – 26:158

I'm sure From my understanding, good traffic designs when you have a true intersection. So I see that as a challenge for residents coming in and out of that community. We see it already for residents coming out of Kennedy And Lincoln Court up to through Christian Merle. So just to wrap things up here. The if you don't know the plan You

26:150

are out of time, but if you're finishing up, I'll let you finish.

26:18 – 26:538

Yes. We had the neighborhood had and the city worked with the neighborhood and established a no trucking zone, a no trucking route for this Murray. So I want to be sure that, that's the case with Murray Avenue going forward. And all truck traffic is coming off of force because believe me, there's so many residents. There's like, I estimate, probably 1,000 residents, people that live in that neighborhood, you have all the others, homeless and others that are walking through the area.

26:550

I don't want to cut you off, but Consider

27:00 – 27:328

maybe consider Phase three as going without the driveway off of Murray as an option or consider aligning the driveway with, Gavlin Court, and then further consider with the city programming a roundabout, along Murray because that's gonna help that, mitigate traffic and the speeds that we're observing out there. We've had many accidents recently.

27:320

Thank you, Mr. Ernie. We're going to have to move on. I appreciate the comment. Arianna, any other speakers?

27:391

Yes. Eli Robles.

27:47 – 28:1810

Good evening, Planning Commission. My name is Eli Robles representing NorCal Carpenters. So we do invite, you know, responsible building in the area, but we would like to see you know, we we reached out to the developer or the owner and would like to see a responsible contractor on the project that adheres to apprenticeship standards, health care for its workers and also labor standards. So that's about it. But thank you for your time. You, sir.

28:210

Ariana, any other speakers? If there's anybody out there who wants to speak, please come fill out a speaker card.

28:301

Are no further speakers.

28:32 – 28:480

Great. Thank you. I'm going to move forward with closing public hearing. Commissioners, disclosure of any ex parte communication? I see none. Thank you. Any further questions for staff?

28:49 – 29:232

I actually do. The gentleman was asking about traffic flow, and I don't remember seeing that we had a traffic flow for another project, a housing project over off of, I think it was Sixth Street. So saying trucks can only go in this egress and ingress and egress out of certain streets, but not on other streets. I don't remember seeing here. It's a big document. Is it are we just or are we just following the predefined truck traffic flow that that the city already has?

29:24 – 29:536

Yeah. So the city did adopt a truck routing plan with our general plan in 2020, which does identify Murray Avenue as a truck route. So that was established then. I think there was actually confusion or there maybe because it just changed in 2020. So there actually were old signs along that street also that said not a truck route, and I believe those have actually been taken down because Murray Avenue is designated as a truck route currently.

29:54 – 30:142

And then I had a couple additional questions and maybe for the applicant. Reduction of dust, is there any sort of mitigation for that as there is a lot of community there? So sometimes I'm I'm not in this type of engineering, but I didn't know if that was being included. Sorry.

30:146

You said reduction dust? Dust.

30:162

During construction? Yeah. Yeah. A whole okay.

30:206

Dust control is definitely a measure. It's a condition of approval, and they always have to water down

30:262

Thank you.

30:287

On '31. Public Works Construction Act

30:33 – 31:112

Thank you. I must have missed it. Mhmm. And then so when we were looking at other facilities about truck idling and deliveries, so I just didn't know. I noticed it looks like there's some bays maybe for delivering in some of the later phases. So know when we were talking, and I'm just comparing to the ice cream again because that was a very interesting site that all their trucks were electric, and so they would not be idling during that time. And even if they were, there was no emission there. So any information on that for the community?

31:14 – 31:286

I believe that there are requirements energy requirements for these trucks, that they're getting stronger as well, that they aren't supposed to idle for very long and they are becoming more electric. I don't have that off the top

31:58 – 32:372

foot tall building, huge warehouse, huge, right butted up right against people's back gardens, and they're in tears. And I just I was thinking of that when I saw this project. It's a beautiful project. The setback is larger. It has a beautiful front. It has a beautiful balcony. And I thought to myself, you know, being in a light industrial area and having a home, that's something nice to look at. So the thought was very thoughtful with the trees that were selected. None of them are invasive, some a little dirty, but people like their different trees. That's fine.

32:38 – 33:232

But very well done and very thoughtful. So I just want to say thank you to staff and the applicant and then to hear that they're putting in showers. As a bicyclist who used to bike to work, they're necessary. So well done. Yes. I just want to concur that the architectural details were really impressive and also the fact that you agreed with the bicycle commission to put showers in. Because in the past, I had we had a coworker and that was bicycling to work, not up in the Peninsula, but we ended up giving him a closed office because we didn't have shower, and it gets pretty.

33:250

And I just want to thank you for replying to the bike pack and providing us copies of the responses. That was great. Thank you.

33:311

Sure. Welcome.

33:33 – 34:020

Commissioners, any further questions for staff? If not, the floor is open for a motion or further discussion. All right. I'm going to go ahead and make a motion. I'm going to motion that based on its independent analysis, determine this project is exempt from further environmental review pursuant to state sequel guidelines section one five one eight three, consistency with the community plan or zoning.

34:03 – 34:141

I'll second. Roll call. Commissioner Benson? Yes. Commissioner Ellie?

34:152

Is exempt. Right? Yes. Thank you.

34:181

Commissioner Kushner?

34:211

Commissioner Lingardis out. Commissioner Valdez?

34:261

Vice chair Donnhauer?

34:281

Chair Bondo?

34:290

Yes. Thank you. Nobody else is gonna make the motion. I will

34:361

I'll do the next one.

34:370

Go for it.

34:376

I move that we

34:381

adopt a resolution approving the architectural and the

34:454

just you

34:51 – 35:041

on the next slide. Commissioner Benson. You. Roll call. Commissioner Benson? Yes. Commissioner Ellie? Yes. Commissioner Kuster? Yes. Commissioner Valdez?

35:051

Vice chair Don Howard?

35:090

Quarter

35:15 – 35:390

able We're We're going able our our And welcome, Mr. John Doughty.

35:40 – 36:189

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Chair, commission members, I have the pleasure to be here to present to you tonight the fiscal year 'twenty six, 'twenty seven capital improvement program project list. This is a requirement you see at least every two years for review of these projects. I'm guessing some of you have seen this presentation in some form or another, all of you perhaps, and I don't want to belabor the point.

36:34 – 37:499

Not able And we're going do going to that this is a link between the general plan and other long range planning documents, including city's infrastructure plans, the city's budget, but it also directly links to and indirectly links to much of what you're doing in terms of focusing where growth occurs, where development happens and how to build sustainability sustainable development. So I won't belabor at this point either, but I think it's critical just to remember that this is about useful life. We don't call capital projects that going to last at least more than five years. They're in a fixed location. They're nonrecurring, so it's not staff related issues.

37:49 – 38:209

These are actually fixed items. And I think that's just an important piece to understanding how some of these things are there. You got in your packet, you have an attachment one, which is a broader and a little more detail to the projects. I wanted to highlight some of the upcoming things that I think are more interesting and maybe for the community and maybe and hopefully for you as well. We're excited.

38:20 – 39:029

We're getting ready to go to the City Council next Monday to award hopefully a contract for design professional to look at the interior space renovations for the library. And just recently, we received a grant for new EV chargers at the library. So we're excited by those, and we'll try to integrate both of those things moving forward. And this is basically those improvements are utilizing remainder bond funds from when the library was originally constructed. So no general fund impact, and I think that's something the council and the community are excited about as well.

39:04 – 40:099

We are looking at citywide park improvements, and these include restroom upgrades, hardening, going in and in some cases, replacing and dealing with those. One of those that we're looking to replace in the very near future is the I think they call it the Oaks, but the area at Los Adames, which is the bathrooms there are just a mess and some others we're looking also to add on the ranch side of We're hearing more and more from that, but we had already started work on that. We're excited about those things. And then just some other major kind of resurfacing and project work. One that I think is very exciting, I get a lot of e mails from the community is the potential for outdoor pickleball courts.

40:09 – 40:409

I see one of our parks and rec commissioners there in the audience. Hello. And this is something that the commission has been pushing for quite a while. I think the community has been pushing this. And at this point, the draft staff report and budget includes recommendations and hope and the council will consider for up to four new outdoor pickleball courts and the commission has identified Los Animas Park as the place most fitting for that.

40:40 – 41:209

We'll still look at some issues, but I think that's where continue with the parking lot resurfacing downtown and at our parks hopefully with that. So those are just sort of, I think, highlight high level items that I think interest to hopefully you and the community members that are here and watching. And the other piece of this is, so the why, who, when is state law requires you to do this. But I think even if you didn't have state law, it would be the the right thing to do. And who?

41:20 – 41:579

Well, that's you. The statute basically says that the Planning Commission is the designated body and that's where you fit into this point. And when? Well, it's prior to City Council approval of the capital improvement program. Larger in 'twenty four, you saw the 'twenty four to 'twenty eight whole capital improvement program.

41:57 – 43:209

Tonight, what we're focusing in are the projects that we're proceeding with in fiscal year 'twenty six, 'twenty seven. So you're not looking at and the reason why your packet may seem thinner than you might think that it might be, it's because you're looking at just making the determination for what projects you're we're considering moving forward with and trying to build in the next two fiscal year periods with that deal. So that's just to clarify that piece of the equation. And Attachment two includes package of consistency findings for you to consider with this, and that's consistent with what you've seen in the past in the more detailed because of the whole twenty four to twenty eight CIP itself. And with that, we would ask that you receive this report and to ultimately see fit to adopt a resolution finding that the fiscal year 'twenty six, 'twenty seven list of capital projects is consistent with council adoption on June 2.

43:20 – 43:459

There's a council workshop on Monday as well to talk about priorities and which really leads into budget conversation as well, obviously. And that will be in the afternoon on Monday. And so public is welcome to that. It's an open meeting. And that leaves me at questions.

43:464

Mr. Chairman, I'm going to have some questions.

43:510

You are more than welcome.

43:54 – 44:334

I come from the Parks and Recreation Commission. I was on eight years and recently became a planning commissioner again after being in the 1980s. I went through several these by or every two year capital improvement requests. And then you're now the third Public Works Director I have dealt with. And previously, we tried to get parks master plan updates in the budget.

44:35 – 45:224

Promises made, promises broken. And the last director, Pepe, and she was she knew I was passionate about it because I was going out on my term, and this is something I'm still passionate about, that we are so far behind in updating our master plans it's affecting our impact fees and the ability to raise impact fees. So it's something that I don't think we can ignore anymore. And if I don't see it on this package, I'm not going to support it just because even the pickleball, we that's not a master plan. I was on the committee when we presented this and did our work and our study, and it's now going to council.

45:22 – 45:434

But there's no master plan for that. There's no money for it. The Civic Center master plan, we're in the middle of that. And that before, I don't know when that got in the capital budget, but it didn't come to the Parks and Rec Commission. Maybe it's because it's not a park, but it's still within the Civic Center.

45:44 – 46:204

So I'm just kind of like beseeching someone of authority to get these master plans on the capital improvement plan. I don't care if you don't do it in the next few years, get it at a marking spot on there because it has just gone. I retired from the city 15.5 ago, and we needed them then, and we still haven't done it. So it's desperately, desperately needed. So I beg you to be a supporter and get it on there somehow. Thank you.

46:21 – 46:342

I would like to add on to that. I was actually looking at our master plans this past week. And when I did a Google search, I thought, oh, this must be an old one. It was not. It was not an old one.

46:380

To the chair? Yes, sir.

46:41 – 46:569

I think there's a question there. I appreciate where you're coming from. I when my first day was March 3, but I plan on being around for a little while. Okay?

46:564

Yeah. No. I'm I'm not

46:569

here show up. I'm just here

46:590

to get an get an advocate.

47:00 – 48:079

I'm I'm I'm I'm where you're coming from. Looking at this position and doing my research, I certainly found the Parks and Rec plan and was disappointed that it for very selfish reasons that it was have been done a while back being kind.

48:084

I have a granddaughter who's 16 now, and I retired to

48:120

help And raise

48:14 – 48:549

I do appreciate that, too. And we have acknowledged that and we had a very good robust conversation at the commission. And I think you'll hear that we support that. My prior agency, we plan, two separate documents. But at the same time, actually leading into our general plan update So I appreciate that.

48:54 – 49:129

I've done worked on others. So this is something that's near and dear to my heart. I'm liaison now with the Parks and Rec Commission, and I'm there with you in terms of understanding what it is. And that's that part why I emphasized the long range plans need to be contemplated with

49:12 – 49:494

this. Yes. And we'll and I appreciate what you're saying and your support and understanding. And I just got off the commission in January. So this is but they knew it was my passion. And I came to counsel when I said my goodbyes, and I told the counsel, hey, I'm not going away. This is still my passion. And I got an e mail tonight, a text message from the Chairman of the Parks and Rec Commission. And he was just talking pickleball, and I'm going, wait a minute, that's that was my second reinforcement that it's just pickleball. And it's not where's the Parks' master plan?

49:499

So I think it was the Vice Chair, but

49:524

Well, no, Luis is the Chair. Luis Ramirez, isn't he the Chair?

49:559

No, he's the Vice Chair.

49:56 – 50:184

Okay. So then that's the Vice Chair. So I he reached out to me knowing that I'm on the Planning Commission now. But my one question is, if it's not on in this resolution to get on past the two year level or somewhere, do we lose it gets lost? I'm worried about that. How do we not lose it again?

50:18 – 51:329

I'll first say, unfortunately, the structure of this and the structure of the item is not for any commission member or commission itself to identify and designate new projects. I am certainly happy as we move forward and come to the council that we affirm if there is consensus among the commission members that this is something that is important and something critical. Certainly on the record, that will be here on the record. But we, the staff, will continue to advocate and let the council know that this is of interest and see where we can go with it. The good news is, is that we can come back that's the worst case scenario that comes out of the Parks and Rec Commission's push for that and advocacy for that master plan work to occur.

51:329

And if you don't you're right, that. To to

51:50 – 52:149

then going do we're able to at do least advocate for it that. And support it and everything with that deal, even though it's not a specific item, but we can certainly convey that consensus if there is.

52:15 – 52:264

Julie, I have a question. Could if we if there was consensus in the commission to amend the resolution to add that, would that be acceptable?

52:27 – 53:157

It's it's not on the agenda. But what I would say is when you make your motion, and you can do this as one motion, receive the report. You don't adopt the report. You receive the report, but you adopt the resolution. Make a motion on that, and then I would make something separate that you you're requesting that the council consider maybe looking at the, you know, master plan because we really it it really isn't on the agenda, but you could you could say that you want it identified in the staff report that the Planning Commission had concerns or wants the council to consider the park 's master plan.

53:157

Okay. And that could just be a direction. I mean, just a consensus view since it's not really on the agenda. But it could be added to the staff report that goes with this

53:252

to the

53:254

council. Perfect.

53:267

Thank you. So you would be heard.

53:274

I think that would work. Work.

53:31 – 54:150

So Dottie, I had a question for you. In your presentation and speaking to you about the pickleballs, in the resolution itself and the documents that were provided, especially with like the codes like 81,000. I don't see pickleball courts anywhere listed in the actual documents that were given. That includes the new projects proposed, CIP project list and also am I not seeing it? Oh, you know what? There's multiple see, look at the one I'm looking at.

54:172

Oh, there was an updated packet.

54:369

That the city administrator was pushing forward with recommended funding for the pickleballs. So we did have to amend and update the documents.

54:490

Perfect. It looks like the verbiage was changed on that coding of from sports court resurfacing to pickleballs.

54:562

Would you like to see my computer I downloaded? No, I see it. Okay. You're good. Okay. I mean, just in case you want to look at anything else.

55:020

Thanks for the clarification.

55:044

So but is all of our staff reports updated? Because it doesn't look like it. I mean, I downloaded it from counsel or wherever, and it

55:130

Are you seeing the same thing I saw?

55:14 – 55:464

I'm looking at Page six thirty seven, six thirty eight. And for six thirty seven, I see 801,050 Pickleball Courts. This project will design and construct pickleball courts at city parks. And then the next page is where you're going into the numbering of all the items. And it just says the pickleball courts, and it's part of policy 105, sixteen oh nine and one point zero five. I don't see any firmer description of that. So this is the latest?

55:460

That is the latest, yes. That's the one I

55:484

did not have. And there's no financial numbers in here, which I've usually seen in other CAPs?

55:58 – 56:149

There will be, and then it'll be the financials will all be included in the upcoming release of the capital budget, which is next week to the world with it on it. We're So

56:142

I had a couple questions.

56:19 – 56:332

we I think we did a and you have to keep me honest, a CIP that was for, I think, last year for five years, and it was a full list. It was two years ago. Two years?

56:334

Oh, it's Oh two years

56:36 – 56:552

my gosh. Okay. So and and then I have a couple questions, and then I have a question clarifying questions, and I have a question question. Who create staff creates this list without city council first

56:57 – 57:429

half do talk to the various parties and get input able to on that. Ultimately, these the documents themselves are approved by the City Council, come to you for consistent determination two years ago and was approved by the City Council. The City Council does a second piece to this, which determine within the biennial budget what they're able to fund based on the revenue and funding sources that are available, grant funds, general fund, whatever it may be. And that's what we're in right now. So they did both in you did both in 'twenty four, 'twenty eight.

57:429

You did the 'twenty four, 'twenty eight long five year plan, and you did 'twenty four, 'twenty five projects list.

57:502

Right.

57:509

Okay. So this is the unique piece at this point is that we're only talking about the '24,

57:57 – 58:159

Some of these are being added, and the ones we're talking about tonight are the ones that are added because 'twenty four, 'twenty eight plan, capital improvement program that you adopted and findings of consistency is already in place for that. So we're just trying to keep this as simple as possible and kind of the rifle shot in that.

58:15 – 58:312

And as the commissioner previous said that said they usually have information on costs, and so this this doesn't have it. Why? I'm just trying to understand the whole process.

58:33 – 58:469

Sure. Well, it's unique because we're we've we're trying to, you know, trying to time your meeting.

58:482

I know you just started to

58:51 – 59:079

the statutory requirement, I've been doing this a long time, whether it's here or anywhere else, and it's usually the same challenge of just addressing those things. So I'll start with the one that nobody do to

59:180

that. And And we're we're going going able ir

59:339

seeing do it. That. It And so wasn't intentional to try to keep you out of that point

59:382

with it. So this is we have a deadline then that we need to meet.

59:419

We have there's a deadline, and that's the issue for this. Yes.

59:452

And so in the future, we would most likely have this information?

59:50 – 1:00:069

Optimally, we would be trailing with this consistency determination after the actual CIP as a whole or the capital budget's been released. So that's kind of an optimal situation. It just didn't work out in the line this this year.

1:00:06 – 1:00:242

So can so if you said that the council can add to it, which would be to the commissioner's request that we ask them to add the master plan for parks and the trails and and and for your interest.

1:00:244

Well, I think Julie was saying we can't make that a

1:00:272

No. Saying we can can make it a We can make it a request. Request.

1:00:314

Right. To look at the master plan, and they could make that

1:00:34 – 1:00:472

change. Counsel can add it. Can they add to this CIP at any other time? Can they make an amendment to it if there's something that they're adding to the CIP outside of these windows?

1:00:47 – 1:01:149

The council theoretically can at a public hearing choose to add, but before that happens, we have to return back to you for consistency determination. If there's an added item to this, so if the council says, yes, we want to add the parks master plan, which our commission estimated about $250,000 for that, which

1:01:460

will Okay. See

1:01:47 – 1:02:272

So when we looked at the CIP two years ago, we saw that the fire station was not on that priority list, which said like and I specifically asked that there was like, within the next five years, we're not planning to work on the fire station. Now there's been a lot of things that happened since then and now, and we are at a situation where we are being told that it's being worked on. So is the fire station outside of the CIP? Does it need to be on the CIP? Was there another hearing that you know, is the fire station in this five year project?

1:02:289

The fire station the fire station is in was in the twenty four to '28. And

1:02:332

Mm-mm. It was not listed on the priority list. It was in there, but they specifically said they're not gonna be working on it in the next five years. Since then, and I know this is before

1:02:439

try to hear And there may have been amendment that I'm that I'm not privy to.

1:02:472

But it never came back to us.

1:02:494

That's true. It's never came back to us, but there's they've had an Glen Loma's had an agreement.

1:02:542

No. I'm aware of the agreement, it's not part of the CIP.

1:02:574

That's why

1:02:57 – 1:03:522

I'm asking for guidance with regard to this. And I understand that this is history that's very long and complicated, and it's not it goes way back, and it's beyond you know, before your time here. So this is something I'm kind of asking staff and counsel for an understanding of that, you know, we're being told that that's a go. We have not yet And this would be the second time around that we've gotten funding or found funding, made a plan, and nothing and shovel did not hit dirt. So now we're being told it's staff or council, I should say.

1:03:52 – 1:04:089

Jolie. Through the chair, if I could. I'll one is that the city administrator is scheduled, I think Monday, I believe, to give the council and give the community an update. And one of those updates, I believe, is on Santa Teresa Fire Station. So that's coming up.

1:04:08 – 1:04:429

I don't want to steal any thunder or anything with that. But what I can say is this, is that at this point, I'm I've assigned to myself the project management for the time being, at least for the Santa Teresa fire station. We are proceeding forward with that project, and I think the priority is there. We can come back and revisit the issue of whether we came back and did the consistency determination. We can certainly take a look at that when that modification was made.

1:04:44 – 1:04:599

But that being said, I think you're going to hear a little more of that story on Monday at the council meeting, but I can assure you that staff is working on it, and it is in the list of project work.

1:05:014

What time is the study session first before the council meeting did you were you saying?

1:05:079

What time is that, Sharon? Noontime,

1:05:124

Yes. It starts at noon. Well, that's going make it really tough for

1:05:155

some of us

1:05:166

to attend.

1:05:185

Monday? Yes.

1:05:202

won't be able to make that.

1:05:30 – 1:05:410

Great. Any further questions for staff? I see there are none. I'm going to go ahead and open for public comment. Ariana, do we have any?

1:05:411

Yes. We have Emily Miller.

1:05:460

Hi, Emily. Just a reminder, you have three minutes.

1:05:486

Okay. Thank you.

1:05:5011

Point. And think that's point. Very

1:06:02 – 1:06:3011

six-twenty seven report that John just showed. These investments are essential for improving quality of life and access to recreational opportunities in Gilroy. Our parks are in need of maintenance and repair, as guys know. While I support all the park related initiatives, I want to specifically highlight the importance of pickleball courts. This project has received widespread and growing community support.

1:06:30 – 1:07:0911

A recent change.org petition calling for new pickleball courts in Gilbert has already gathered close to two seventy signatures, reflecting a strong and engaged base of residents who care deeply about the issue. The previous Parks and Recreation Commission conducted site research and laid the groundwork for this effort, and the current commission recently voted to make the construction of new courts its top budget request priority. Driven by results of public outreach and consistent demand from residents. That's why we made it our top priority. Adding purpose built pickleball courts directly supports

1:07:17 – 1:07:4011

progress in 20. We We lot I was recently also talking to some Fremont pickleball advocates, and they said it brings significant revenue into their city with the pay to play model. So I'm working on getting those numbers. It also aligns a progress in

1:07:420

of And in

1:07:4811

COVID-nineteen the

1:07:544

COVID-nineteen past. Quarter pandemic.

1:07:550

The And And

1:08:10 – 1:08:512

And counsel. So in projects like like anything like dog parks or pickle ball park courts or parks in general or trails or anything that even if we're not directly involved like, I'm not a pickleball player, but I would like to sign a petition for that or maybe put it on my social media that there's a group of people or if there's a dog park that these people want to have made or a trail or something. Can I do that with at a very neutral sort of informational way? Yes. You can

1:08:52 – 1:09:297

you you can support show your support for parks and rec and for trails and hiking and all of that. The only thing that would be concerning is if the if the I don't know if a park would even come before the planning commission. It would come before the parks and rec. I doubt it probably wouldn't come. Just just have to be if one ever did come before you, be neutral and consider all the evidence. But you can still be you can still be supportive bees.

1:09:296

You can be supportive parks.

1:09:307

You can be supportive things. Just because you're a planning commission, you don't give up those rights.

1:09:35 – 1:09:512

Okay. Great. I was just a little concerned. I didn't want to be in a situation where, you know, ethics, we're told, like, you can do you can be supportive. You can be in clubs and stuff and still vote on things in a neutral fashion. So I just wanted it to be clear. Thank you.

1:09:55 – 1:10:227

So as I said, you could make a motion to receive the report, blah blah blah, and then adopt the resolution. You can do that as one since you're just you don't approve the report. So that could be your motion. And then we could get consensus for the and then after that, you can get consensus for the direction to have staff add something to the report to counsel about your supporting Park and Rec master plan.

1:10:256

Are we ready

1:10:264

or I do have any more didn't know if we were ready or have any more discussion. More discussion?

1:10:340

Discussions on consensus of adding?

1:10:370

I'm good for that. Think it's definitely needed. Master plans are

1:10:422

Does she need to do a motion? Because I'll second to Okay.

1:10:464

So if we went right now and did the accept the report make a motion to accept the report? Yes. Okay. So I can make that motion to accept the report.

1:10:562

Oh, hold on. Hold on.

1:10:574

Okay. To receive the report, yes.

1:10:592

So the if we wanted to add a second recommendation, would we do that now?

1:11:047

You would no, you would do it later and it'd be

1:11:062

After with Yes. The do do that.

1:11:087

Okay. Because that's on the agenda. And then the direction would just be a consensus to say you want the council you want staff to And relay your message about Marks and

1:11:184

that would show up in an amended staff report?

1:11:225

I believe that will show up in the report to counsel regarding the CIP budget. Yes.

1:11:30 – 1:12:044

Because they usually see what our action is, right? Correct. Yes. Because that's what I've seen in the past. So okay. All right. I'm ready if you are. Okay. I'd like to make a motion that we accept the report staff report. And adopt. And adopt the Resolution No. 20, I don't know what, finding the proposed 2627 capital improvement program project list is in conformance with the general plan. I'll second.

1:12:081

Roll call. Commissioner Bensa?

1:12:151

Commissioner Elli?

1:12:171

Commissioner Leyengard? Sorry. Commissioner Kushner?

1:12:211

Commissioner Valdez?

1:12:231

Vice Chair Donohaler?

1:12:241

And Chair Bondo?

1:12:27 – 1:12:454

Okay. Then the second part, I would like to make for consensus, I don't know if we have to have that as an official vote on the consensus, but to I don't know if it's a motion motion

1:12:45 – 1:13:007

No, for you would just you want the the planning commission provide direction to staff to include in the staff report to counsel that the planning commission So I would like

1:13:004

to make a recommendation? Yes. And then that gets voted on? Yeah. No.

1:13:04 – 1:13:207

You just want you you wanna give direction for staff to add it to the staff report to city council that there was a consensus of the planning commissioners to support updating the Park and Rackmaster plan.

1:13:214

I make that recommendation that Jolie said.

1:13:287

And then I'd just like to you can just raise your hands. Do we have a support of one, two? So it was we can say it was unanimous And

1:13:40 – 1:13:510

just to confirm, that's to include in staff report to city council, there's a consensus the planning Of the planning commission to update the master plan.

1:13:514

The parks master Parks. Parks. You want to ask a thing about the fire too? I did.

1:13:58 – 1:14:212

Okay. That's right. Was feverish in writing. Okay. I would also like to add a direction to the staff report that there it was a consensus to update the CIP. I don't know if I'm saying this right. The CIP for the fire station

1:14:226

Fourth fire station? For the

1:14:234

fire station. In Bolingoma?

1:14:24 – 1:14:442

For yeah. For the fire station. In that, it is part of the priority list for the CIP. Because I know it's on there. I mean, this is weird because I know it's on there, but they said it's not going to be one of the projects that they work on. So I don't know how we phrase that.

1:14:440

And is that for this fiscal year that they're asking for here, 'twenty six, 'twenty seven? If

1:14:512

appropriate. You could Yeah.

1:14:567

It will be addressed one way or another. Yeah. But you just want clarification. Yeah. You wanted clarification on the fire stations.

1:15:09 – 1:15:250

Everyone good with that, Brian? Yes. Thank you. Great. Awesome. Well, thank you, John. I hope you got all those the notes there.

1:15:254

Welcome to your baptism, John.

1:15:300

All right. Moving on, 8. 81, Planning Division Staff Approvals. Commissioners, any questions there? No? All right. Great. Oh,

1:15:422

hold on. Not sure if it's in this section.

1:15:58 – 1:16:212

Yes. I had a question about the and I'm sorry, I did not send an e mail in advance about the 641 Leavesley Road, the installation of traffic gates at various locations around the Gilroy premium outlets. Am I in the right section? Oh, that's staff approvals. Yes, staff. My apologies. Nope. No questions.

1:16:30 – 1:16:542

No, that is in staff approvals. Planning Commission staff approvals. It was in that section. Oh, sorry. My apologies. I wanted to know where are those are those located because 641 is In N Out Burger, but I know that they do some traffic mitigation around there, but it says throughout the Gilroy premium outlet. So did we have any I mean, I don't need an answer now, but Yes.

1:16:545

But it's throughout the outlets. Okay. I mean, we have the maps.

1:16:592

Okay. I'll e mail. Thank you.

1:17:035

It's correct for to help with security. Security.

1:17:092

To help with security. Okay. Thank you.

1:17:130

Great. Thank you. Moving on back to nine, Planning Division report. Sure.

1:17:18 – 1:17:435

Yes. I know the commission has seen the flyers a couple of times for the Civic Center Mass Plan Community Workshops. So I just want to remind you, there's another one coming up on Tuesday, May 20, either nine a. M. Or six p. M, two sessions. This could be on the preferred concept and visioning. So please join if you can. Thank you. He's at the Wheeler Center.

1:17:460

Thank you, Sharon. Julie, assistant city attorney report.

1:17:504

No report.

1:17:510

Very nice. With that, commissioners, I am going to adjourn to the next meeting of 06/05/2025. Thank you all.

This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.