Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

The agenda was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2026, at 5.43 p.m. Thank you. Roll call. Commissioner Benson. Commissioner Downhower.

Here.

Commissioner Cotabande? Absent. Commissioner Martinez? Here. Commissioner Valdez?

Here.

Vice Chair Ellie? Present. And Chair Bondle? Absent.

And do we have any public comments for items not on the agenda today?

we do have one speaker you know okay thank you hi i'm i'm greg filios on september 28th of this year at the end of this month there will be a meeting concerning the new developments that are being proposed on Hecker Pass Road 24 it's 2488 Hecker Pass Road which is right next to Syngenta and then down the street 2740 Hecker Pass Road Hecker Pass Road is take First Street and once you cross over Santa Teresa Boulevard it turns into Hecker Pass Road also called 152 but Hecker Pass Road to us Okay, so these two housing projects are going up, and being that you're the planning commission, we're looking for your guidance into how good this looks to you in ASLO. A draft environmental impact report, a DEIR, is being prepared and will be out before this meeting. And essentially at the meeting, people will say, hey, this is what I read on the DEIR report. And so there's lots of information on there. And so hopefully the Planning Commission will get a chance to look at this. And hopefully, if you get a chance, on September 28th, it's a Monday night, right here from 6 to 7. Now normally on Monday nights they have city council meetings, but this time it's specifically for this one item. So if you get a chance, please, please check it out and give them some feedback because your input is important because we count on you. We look to you for help because we're not quite sure what we're doing. So your next meeting, and it's before your next meeting, your next meeting is October 1st. So once you see this, it may be important enough to you to somehow talk about it on October 1st or get it on the agenda or whatever you can do. Okay. Next month, also October 1st, I won't do it now, but next month, I'm going to mention to you, because we have crucial upcoming elections for city council and for the Gilroy Unified School District, for board trustees. So next month, I'm going to remind you guys of that, and I'll give you some input into why it's important to you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. And no other speakers?

There are no other speakers. Thank you. We will close public comments then.

I'd like to ask commissioners if we can get a consensus to move up item 8.1. We have staff from another department here just for this item. I think we have consensus. So we just call 8.1 now? Okay, great. So in respect to that decision, we'd like to bring forward informational item 8.1, Recreation Division Assessment, please.

Good evening planning commissioners. My name is Harjo Thangam, the Assistant City Administrator with the City of Gilroy. Pleasure to be before you. The item before you is for really two purposes today. One is to create awareness and number two is to invite you to participate. The recreation division's assessment, the city contracted with a consultant to conduct a recreation division assessment. Subsequent to that, in August, the city council also awarded a contract to conduct a parks and recreation trails master plan. The consultant that's conducting the efforts on both fronts are the same. So the recreation assessment commenced its effort first in July, and then soon thereafter we are bringing the parks and recreation trails conversation forward. forward as well. So again, the intent here is to create awareness that the effort is underway. The intent of the recreation division is to really take a holistic approach of analysis of all the programs and services that are provided to the community in our recreation division. And then solicit input from stakeholders, including our city council, all of our boards and commissions, as well as members at large in the community that participate in those services. So in the staff report, there is a website link to the REC assessment. That page will get updated to include additional information FOR PARKS AND RECREATION TRAILS AS WELL. THERE IS A SURVEY THAT'S CURRENTLY ON THERE, SO WE INVITE YOU TO GO AHEAD AND PARTICIPATE IN THE SURVEY. IN ADDITION TO THAT, THERE IS AN OUTREACH PLANNED IN THE MONTH OF OCTOBER WHERE THE CONSULTANT WILL BE HERE PHYSICALLY IN THE CITY AT SEVERAL EVENTS, 9 AM IN THE MORNING AS WELL AS 6 PM IN THE EVENING. AGAIN, THAT'S THE IN-PERSON OPPORTUNITY, BUT YOU'RE MORE THAN WELCOME TO PARTICIPATE THROUGH THE SURVEY THAT'S ON THE WEBSITE. IN ADDITION TO THAT, The consultant will be particularly doing outreach specifically to each of the boards and commission members to see if they'd like to provide input one-on-one. Again, effort as well. So that concludes my presentation. Happy to answer any questions.

And my answers were really brief because I don't really participate in the activities. So it kind of led me to the question of do we have any, like, little kiosks outside, you know, where all the activities take place, especially, you know, within the Wheeler Auditorium and at the Senior Center where, individuals who actually participate in the programs would be able to give you meaningful feedback.

Absolutely. So each of the programs, so in our planned community engagement, each of our sites, REC sites, there is a QR code and every activity that is being conducted, those information.

That's why I was asking if there was a specific computer and help available specifically maybe once a week or something where the activities are actually taking place or I don't know. I just think, you know, even a paper and pencil survey that could be done. I just think, you know, I mean, I've helped many seniors access QR codes. They just don't know how to use those. So access, I think, would be, I mean, you're going to get, me and citizens like me answering those things, but it's gonna be for me. I'm just telling you the honest truth. I have not participated in any activities in the last few years, So it was really limited feedback that I could give. And I'm just thinking of those who really do utilize the services. Anyways, just a comment.

Appreciate the feedback. And that is absolutely part of the plan. So our senior program is one of our wins and successes. So the consultant, in fact, spent some time at the senior center events talking to them one-on-one. So thank you.

There were two sessions already.

That's correct, yeah. So the consultant was out here in early August, National Night Out. They were here talking to our constituents as well as they hung around and took advantage of all the activities that were happening around that time.

On the October 8th engagement, location, call, period, or opportunity?

Yeah, so right above that is the website. We are still ironing out the details location-wise, but it will be on this campus. So we'll be pushing out on this campus, whether it's at the Wheeler Auditorium, whether it's in here, or it'll be at the Senior Center, so it'll be in this vicinity. We'll be sure to push out additional updates in our email weekly express once all those details are confirmed, so look out for that information.

Thank you.

Any other questions? No? Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. I'd like to move forward to Item 5.1, the Consent Agenda, 4th of July. Commissioners, any questions or comments? I move we accept the consent agenda for the regular meeting minutes from July 16th, 2006.

I'll second.

Roll call vote? Okay, roll call. Commissioner Benson? Yes. Commissioner Downhower?

Yes.

Commissioner Martinez?

Yes.

Commissioner Valdez?

Yes.

Vice Chair Ellie.

Yes. Thank you. Moving on to public hearings. 6.1, we have none listed. For new business, 7.1, planning commission, annual presentation, 2026 to council, draft presentation. Hello, welcome.

Thank you, Chelle. Thank you. Good evening, planning commissioners. Once a year, the planning commission, along with other commissions of the city, get to present their actions that they took for that year to the city council. I believe, Director Goe, like in December or November?

November. There has been a schedule every year, yeah.

Thank you. So the end of the year, close to November, the Planning Commission will be presenting a small brief presentation to the council. In order to get ready for that, we draft a draft presentation for you to review, see if you have any changes or comments. I think it's approximately five slides that we'd like to share with you. And we'll just go over them right now. Planning Commission 2026 is the first slide. Followed by that, just an explanation of what the commission does for the city, the commission members for the year 2026. Followed by some of the major actions and activities that we witnessed this year. This includes some site-specific development projects along with the Planning Commission was informative for a number of citywide policies regarding ADUs, smoke shops, architectural and site reviews. You also reviewed some of our public infrastructure city projects that provide application support and a review of our Civic Center Master Plan, the environmental review aspect of that, along with some training I believe Council Members Martinez participated in. So we'll go, we will ask that the Commission show the Councils exactly what some of these projects were. California Sports Center was a project that you opined on and provided a conditional use permit for, for a gymnastics facility that If you were curious, once you approved it, it took a month later for it to get into operation, and they seem to be a thriving business, is my understanding. So thank you for that. Also, 95 Housing Street is a development of 42 market rate townhomes within our downtown district. At this moment, I believe they're pursuing the final map application, which won't come back to Planning Commission. I believe it goes directly to Council through the Public Works Department. But you guys were... Your review of that project was required for it to move forward to the council and provide new homes in the city. You did see the vesting tandem map. It was along with the Arkansas. That's why you all pined with it. Don't be. That's what this is for. Yes. Along with that, there was some planning commissioner training. We have a limited budget where we can assign some planning commissioners to the academy once a year. And from there, we do have some major actions and activities coming up. I'll speak specifically about, well, there's also the standard current planning development projects that we have. I believe there'll be more policy review for potential zoning amendments as we get them by the city council. I'm proud to say that we have released an RFP for our zoning ordinance update. That'll be moving forward. It's actually, the RFP is out. and we're soliciting requests for proposals to help complete that zoning ordinance update, along with just continued Planning Commissioner training. AT THE END, WE JUST PROVIDE A LIST OF CITY STAFF THAT IS, THAT TRIES TO SUPPORT OUR PLANNING COMMISSION THE BEST WE CAN, INCLUDING OUR DIRECTOR, SHARON GOHEY, ALONG WITH OUR PLANNING DIVISION STAFF AND SOME OF OUR, FOR THIS YEAR, IT'LL BE OUR MANAGEMENT TEAM. SO IT DOES IT DAILY ON. SO THAT'S WHAT WE HAVE. IF THERE'S ANY SUGGESTIONS OR IF THERE'S SOMETHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD TO THIS, WE'RE ALL EARS.

I have a question about the zoning update. Is that the one that we were working on? That one? Okay. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, yes. Okay. Did you want to say something? Oh, no.

Yes. We've had a lot of staff transitions over the years, as you've seen, and really looked at this holistically over the last several years. We really need a consultant that can provide the dedicated support to help push this through. So that's why I really made a decision. This is the path to get it to the finish line. So thank you.

Thank you.

And just on a personal note, I just have to thank Commissioner Goey for allowing me to join the Gilroy team. I'm learning now, you know, you need to start with a solid foundation to kind of get, so this is a heavy lift, and I'm excited to participate along with working with the Planning Commission to kind of explain what the ordinance is about, the amendments that are associated with that. It should be an exciting time, and we're almost there. So we just hope for your continued patience.

Yeah, and I'll add that I know we've done reviews of some of them. I mean, this was back during COVID, I think. Yeah, wasn't it?

But definitely 2023.

Yeah, but we had these calls where we would take a chapter and we'd go through, and there was a lot of – it was nice because we were trying to beat appeals – some are 15 days, some are 10 days, some are 20 days. We were like, we've got to pick a number and stick with it. And also trying to make sure that certain things that used to stop at Planning Commission, like a rezoning, if you denied it, it stayed at Planning Commission to be appealed to council. But if a zoning was recommended, it went to the council. So we were trying to work through some of those inconsistencies. So Because it was confusing to staff, but if it's confusing to staff, it would be confusing to the public. So we were really trying to make it user-friendly zoning as well. And so I'm glad it's back on the table. I mean, it's been a long time going.

And it is a big, a huge uplift. What little we saw of it, it's It's a big uplift, so I'm excited also that it's back on, and I think it's going to be really good for Gilroy. Thank you.

I have a question. It says major actions, and I'm thinking, and it says planning commission training, and I just wanted to comment. Again, this is kind of like equitable access to everybody. When I went through the training, the amount that's allowed for, I don't know if it's an annual amount that you have that each commissioner can tap into, it's not enough to cover the cost of the training, the hotel, and your transportation. So I don't know if that's a future action that the commissioners may want to recommend. Just to provide equity for any new, I mean, I didn't have a problem. I had enough points added in my mileage piece, but a pain. But there may be new commissioners that come on board that may not. have that kind of funds to be able to attend that training. And I think it's essential for a new commissioner, and I think it's so worthwhile. So I would just like to, I don't know if this is the right place to bring it up, but I think, because it says major actions in there, I don't know. I don't know where that falls in the scope of things, but I just would love to have that considered in the future.

Yeah, no, thank you for your comment. Actually, we did have all this included in the budget. So we'll just, yeah. And this time, it's kind of the timing where the new commissioners, due to the appointment date, one commissioner wasn't even able to register because they were out of spots already. But yeah, there is sufficient budget. I can assure you that, yes.

just to cover everything that's involved because it would not have covered, it covered half of the cost.

I think the year before, I think I had to give you my spot because again, they were running out already. It is, yeah. Perfect.

Yes. Sorry, I was going to say, but for budgeting purposes, we did an average over the years, and that's what was budgeted.

I just wanted to say that I am disappointed. I'm glad that you're getting an RFP for the zoning ordinance update, but that was one of my major things when I applied for this position that I wanted to do that. Okay. And my commission's up in three more months.

So, at the end of December.

I'm disappointed that I didn't get to work on that. Because I've been, I had to, Kelly's physician, when she got to council, she had two years left, I believe, to check. Okay, okay, but I thought I was out of here.

And to the chair, Commissioner Benson, as Commissioner Martinez talked about equability or being equitable, we do want community members to be involved. I understand being a commissioner may have a little more involvement in the zoning ordinance update, but please don't dissuade you from not being involved with the zoning ordinance update. Anyone in the community that's interested in it, we'd love to share. And with RFP, we have those conversations, and that's kind of what we're requesting, that community meetings be involved. With that being said, if there was anything glaring outside of this item, we could change.

Thank you.

And that's it. There's really no action other than you guys just hearing me out.

Looks good.

Thank you very much. Thanks for the update. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. So we move on to informational items. We've covered 8.1, the recreational division assessment, on to 8.2, planning division staff approvals. Any questions? Item nine, planning division report.

Just want to thank the commission again for all the work you did this past year, especially some of the recent ordinance changes and the improvements and enhancements to the city's processes. Staff definitely really appreciated that, and the city council did as well, and also the entire community. So thank you.

Thank you to our planning department staff. Finally, Assistant City Attorney Report.

Nothing to report.

Thank you, Jolie. Any other questions? With that, I'm going to adjourn our meeting to our next meeting of October 1st, 2026 at 6 p.m. Thank you.

Thank you.