Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Year old. Tune or turnip, moon be more mud pie. Bankroll or I know you won't you? Tell me, tell me, tell me, dream face. Am I moon bee or sawdust? Tune or turnip. What am I to you? I need your love so badly. I love you all so badly,

Okay. Let's go ahead and call the meeting of the city of Galita Planning Commission for March 9 to order. Can we all rise for the pledge of allegiance? We get a roll call vote of the Planning Commission

Commissioner Maynard.

I are here

Commissioner Penniman here Commissioner Sarakin

here Vice chair Miller

here

and chair Fullerton Here. Okay, so now it's time for public forum. At this time, the public has an opportunity to comment on any non agenda item relevant to the jurisdiction of the city. Do we have anybody for public comment?

I have no speaker slips. For those of you on the Zoom webinar who wish to speak to public forum, please use raised hand icon and I will call on you. I'm seeing none, Chair.

Okay. Thank you. Do we have any amendments or adjustments to the agenda?

Madam Chair, we do not.

Okay. Thanks. We have first A1. Can you please read that into the record?

Yes, Chair. That is item A1 approval of the Planning Commission meeting minutes of 02/09/2026, and the Special Planning Commission meeting minutes of 03/02/2026.

Okay. Thank you. I think we need to do these separately. So, let's do February. Is there are there any comments or questions? Is there any Is there any public comment?

Chair, I have no speaker slips, and there are no members of the public on the webinar, so no public comment.

Okay. Then, let's

close public comment. Do we have any discussion, or can we get a motion for the February 9 meeting?

I motion that we approve the minutes of February 9.

I second.

Can we get a roll call vote?

Yes. Planning Commission members, please lock in your votes for the February 2 meeting minutes. Commissioner Maynard?

Aye.

Commissioner Peneman? Aye. Commissioner Sorokin? Aye. Abstain. Vice Chair Miller? Aye. And Chair Fullerton?

And I abstain as well. Thank you. Okay, next, the meeting minutes from March 2. Do we have any discussion? Okay. Do we have any public comment?

I have no speaker slips, and there is no members of the public on the webinar. Thank you, Chair.

Okay. Then, we'll close public comment. Can we get is there any discussion or a motion? Okay. Commissioner Maynard?

I motion to approve the meeting minutes of March 2.

Second.

Okay. Can we get a roll call vote?

Commissioners, please lock your votes in. Commissioner Maynard? Aye. Commissioner Pendeman? Aye. Commissioner Sorokin. Aye. Vice Chair Miller.

Aye. And Chair Fullerton. Aye. Can we get the next item A2 read into the record?

Yes, that is item A2, selection of the chair and vice chair for 2026. Good evening, Planning Commission. I'm David Cataya, the senior deputy city clerk for the city of Galita. Pursuant to resolution number two thousand three and twenty three, the Planning Commission reorganizes annually, with the selection of a Chair and Vice Chair occurring at a meeting as close as possible to February 1. The Chair is responsible for leading Commission meetings and ensuring that agenda items are aimed focus, productive, and in accordance with the Ralph N. Brown Act. The Vice Chair serves in the absence of the Chair. Quick rundown of the process. I will open the floor for nominations for Chair. Once nominations are made, we will take a roll call vote of the Commission.

After Chair has been selected, we will then repeat the process for Vice Chair. At this time, do we have any questions or comments from the Commission?

Questions? No, we don't. Okay.

May I ask for public comment at this time, Chair?

Sure.

I have no speakers' lips, and there are no members of the public on the webinar. With that, I will open the nominations for Chair. Do I have a nomination for Chair of the Planning Commission?

Commissioner Maynard?

I would like to nominate Vice Chair Miller to be Chair of the Planning Commission. It has been our tradition within the Planning Commission for someone to serve as Vice Chair and have that training opportunity and then to be able to have the opportunity to be chair following. And I think Vice Chair Miller has done an excellent job as Vice Chair, and so I'd like to support and encourage her to consider the chair position.

Vice Chair Miller, do you accept this nomination for chair?

Yes, I do. Thank you.

Do I have any other nominations for chair? Seeing none, then I will take a roll call vote.

Do we need a second, or no?

No, a second is not required.

Okay.

The nominations. Thank you for asking. Commissioner Maynard? Aye. Commissioner Pendeman? Aye. Commissioner Sirocchin? Aye. Vice Chair Miller?

Aye. And Chair Fullerton? Aye. Congratulations. And

with that, Vice Chair Miller is Chair Miller. I will now take nominations for Vice Chair. Do I have a nomination for Vice Chair?

Commissioner Maynard? You're the chair now.

I would like to nominate Commissioner Peneman as Vice Chair. I do think it's valuable to have our new members have the opportunity to consider the Vice Chair of the Chair role and for us, for everybody on the Commission to have opportunities. And I think Commissioner Penman would do an excellent job in the position.

Commissioner Penman, do you accept this nomination for vice chair?

I'm going to have to respectfully decline this time around. I want to see a little bit more get a little more experience under my belt, but I would love to next time around. Appreciate it.

Okay, we'll take another nomination for Vice Chair of the Planning Commission.

I would like to nominate Jennifer Fullerton as Vice Chair.

Commissioner Fullerton, do you accept this nomination for Vice Chair?

Yes. Okay. Commissioner Maynard?

I'd like to put a second nomination for Vice Chair to have Commissioner Sorotkin be Vice Chair. I think Commissioner Fullerton is an excellent job as Chair. I think you would do an excellent job doing it again. But as I said before, I think it's really important that we rotate these roles and give an opportunity for everybody step into this role and have an opportunity to practice. And so, would

like

to see some of our new members have an opportunity at this leadership role.

Commissioner Sharakin, do you accept this nomination for Vice Chair?

I accept

with reservation. I'm going to need some tutoring. But, yes.

Okay. So, we do have two accepted nominations on the floor. First for Fullerton and then for Sarakin. So, I'll now take a roll call vote in those orders, starting with Commissioner Fullerton. So, Commissioners, please, here's the vote for Commissioner Fullerton. Commissioner Maynard?

Respectfully, no.

Commissioners Peneman? Respectfully, no. Commissioner Sirodkan? We're So, the nomination order was Peniman and then Fullerton and Sirodkan. So, we're voting for Fullerton at this time. Commissioner Sirodkan, so you're voting for Fullerton for Vice Chair? No. Vice Chair Miller? Pardon me, Chair Miller? Yes. And Commissioner Fullerton?

I will say no. Okay. But, thank you.

So, then we'll move on to our third nomination. So, we'll now vote for Commissioner Sarotkin for Vice Chair. Commissioner Maynard?

Yes.

Commissioner Peneman? Yes. Commissioner Sarotkin?

Yes.

Commissioner Miller? Yes. And Commissioner Fullerton?

Yes.

Okay. So, Commissioner Schrutkan is now the Vice Chair of the Planning Commission. And, with that, this item is concluded. Thank you so much.

So, should we switch spots? Okay.

Chair, is your mic on? Is your mic on? I don't know if we picked that up.

No, it's not. Thank you. We will now move on to item B1. If you could please read that into the record.

Yes, sure. Thank you. That's item B1, General Plan Conformity Determination for the Vacation of an Existing Underground Easement and Acceptance of a New Underground Easement through Stowe Grove Park APN 70 Seven-one Hundred Sixty-nine.

And do we have a staff presentation?

We do. And, good evening. I'm Lisa Prossi. I'm the current planning manager, and I'm assisting Joanne Plummer, who is the director of Neighborhood Services. And between the two of us, we'll be doing this presentation.

So, before you tonight is a 65,402 determination. That's government code section 65,402. And as the commission's aware, commissioners are aware, whenever the city is looking to acquire or dispose of or swap real property or easements, we need the Planning Commission to make a determination that this action would be consistent with the general plan. And the purpose of this this is on Stowe Grove Park. And Stowe Grove has been undergoing a master plan process for many years now.

And one of the things that has come to light is, as part of the planning process, there is an underground water line easement for irrigation to the ranch to the north. And the easement needs to be relocated. So, you can make it out on the graphic, the dashed line that's kind of along that runs from the north to the middle of or along this down to the south along the Eastern Park property line, that line needs to be relocated slightly to the west. And that is the blue line on this graphic. So, we are asking the Planning Commission to find that this relocation to be consistent with the general plan for the reasons that are outlined in the staff report.

And if you can do that, we're asking you to adopt the resolution. That's item one under the recommendation. And also to make a determination that no further environmental review is required since there was already a mitigated negative declaration adopted for the Park Master Plan project a few years ago by the city council. And all this project does is implement what has already been approved. I don't know if Ms. Plummer has anything else to add, but that's what we're asking, why we're here tonight.

Good evening Chair, members of the Commission. I'm so excited to be here, never get to come to the Planning Commission. This is only my second time in nine years. But Ms. Prozzi helped me limp along through this process. So thank you Ms. Prozzi. I'm here to answer any questions you might have about the project, about the park, about the easement. The planning for this new alignment was done in conjunction with the master planning process for Stowe Grove Park. Stowe Grove Park, as you know, is about 100 years old.

And that easement that's in place now is under a lot of very mature trees. So moving the easement slightly to the west allows for better access for maintenance without causing any harm to the trees because of the mature root systems. So we are very supportive of it and the family is hoping to be able to lay this before we get into construction, which will happen soon for phase one of this project.

That concludes our presentation, and we're happy to answer any questions.

Okay, great. Do commissioners have any questions? No questions. Commissioner Peneman.

Yeah, just out of curiosity, how far from the resident fences? Will any fencing be disturbed in this relocation?

No, the existing waterline will just be abandoned in place, and so none of the existing fencing will be altered. In fact, there are some areas where there's no fencing, so we'll actually be putting up fencing during construction. And as we move a little bit to the west, there won't be any alteration to any of the fence lines.

Thank you. And then, just out of curiosity, last question. There was an old the old easement that's being abandoned, there's one that bisects the park. What's that all about? Is there a pipeline there that's also being abandoned, was that just never used?

To our understanding, that one has not been used. It's not used by the Stowe family. We believe it may be a utility easement, but we're still trying to track that one down. We know there's an easement there, we're not quite sure where that comes from. So, we're still trying to track that one down.

But, in the records, again, this property was granted to the city from the Stowe family to the county, and then from the county to the city. So, we don't we're looking at the one that runs north to south. We're not looking at that one. That is not part of the waterline that's affiliated with this relocation. There's not any new water line that's going in there, but I do believe that may be a utility easement that we're still trying to hash out.

Yeah, just curious. This is a supply line, right? From the wells down near Ace?

It's a supply line to get water to the ranch that's across at Cathedral Oaks.

Okay, yeah. Cool. Thank you so much.

Any other questions from Commissioners? No. I have a question. Will this require enormous amounts of digging digging for both the new one and the old one? Or will that all be one big dig to perhaps take out the old line, put the new line in? Is that how that will work?

Chair Miller, thank you for your question. The old line will be abandoned in place. The new line will be trench dug. And in most places where there are root systems, we will have an arborist on-site. And they will, in some places, have to actually hand trench or hand dig to get through the root systems.

There is a full tree plan that has been worked with our parks and open space manager. And he's been in consult the family and their arborist has been in consultation with our Parks and Open Space Manager to work through any routes and to mitigate anything that's within the drip line of the trees. And as we go through to put in the new water line. So, is digging and trenching, and then it will be compacted. The water line will be tested in multiple areas before the dirt is put back over the water line and compacted.

And then the areas that will be constructed during phase one will just be compacted. The areas that will not be constructed will be restored back to the condition that it's found in today.

Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Could we check to see if there's any public comment on this, please?

Yes, thank you, Chair. I have no speaker slips, and there is no members of the public on the webinar. So, public comment for this item.

Okay, then. We will close the public hearing on this. No, we do deliberations first. I'm sorry.

Okay.

So we will close the public hearing on this, and we will now go to deliberations with the commissioners. Would anyone like to start?

I have a comment. I support this. I think it's much better to move the easement than disturb all of the existing mature trees. So I support this.

Yeah, I think it's a good thing to get this work done, a new pipeline in, before we start implementing the rest of the master plan.

I'm excited to see the alignment with the master planning process and the very thoughtful work that's gone into thinking about how to approach this. I also am really excited about your dedication to supporting our mature trees, so I would support this as well.

I, you know, having lived with trees, large trees, and water lines running near them,

I think it's great that you, you know, the initiative is being taken to move them before the roots have a chance to get into the pipes, which is what I've had to deal with in the past. So, I approve it as well.

And I also approve it because it just makes absolute sense. And I liked what you said about doing the hand digging where necessary. That really gives me comfort. I'm sure it will give many others comfort as well for those trees. Thank you.

Do we have a motion?

I'll motion to adopt resolution 26 dash entitled resolution of the planning commission of the city of Goleta, California, reporting that the vacation of an existing easement and acceptance of a new easement through Stowe Grove Park, APN 77 Dash 16 Sixty-nine, is in conformance with the Goleta General Plan Coastal Land Use Plan pursuant to Section 65,402 of the government code and finding no further environmental review is inquired pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21,166 and CEQA Guidelines Section fifteen thousand one sixty two Attachment one and to make a determination that no further review is required for Resolution 26 pursuant to Public Resources Code Section twenty one thousand one sixty six and state CEQA guidelines Section 15,162.

I'll second that.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. We can do a roll call vote, please.

Yes, and because some of you have moved, we're going to skip the voting tablet. So, roll call vote only. Commissioner Maynard?

Aye.

Mr. Peneman? Aye. Commissioner Sirodkin?

Aye.

Commissioner Fullerton?

Aye.

And Chair Miller?

Aye. Okay, unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you for your presentation. We will now go to planning director comments. Do you have any comments for us

this Yes. Thank you, madam chair, good evening commissioners. I would like to alert you to a few items coming up of interest. This Saturday, there are two events. The first is the Elwood Butterfly Habitat Restoration event which is happening at the Coronado Butterfly Preserve again, this Saturday from nine to one.

That's located at the end of Coronado Drive, and that is an event that is jointly being sponsored by the City of Galita, the Bucket Brigade, and the Friends of Elwood, and will involve restoration activities. You can find more about that on the City's website. And if you do plan to go, you're supposed to wear solid shoes and clothing that you don't mind getting a little bit dirty. Then the second event is a Clean Air Ride and Drive event, which is happening at the Galita Community Center, also from nine to one on Saturday, which is an event jointly sponsored by the Air Pollution Control District and the Community Environmental Center, CEC, which allows you to hop in and test drive the latest clean air vehicles in the city of Galita. It's fun, it's free and it's eco friendly.

And and both will involve food or snacks and are great opportunities for the community to participate. Then, also upcoming in April, on April 15, we have our State of the City event, which is happening in the evening, I believe, beginning at five p. M. At the Goleta Community Center, which is an opportunity to find out more about what the City is doing and hear from our Mayor and City Manager about the State of the City. We do not have a second Planning Commission meeting in March, which would normally take place on March 23, but due to spring break this year that is was not scheduled.

So our next Planning Commission meeting will be April 13. So we will see you back here then. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. And do we have any Planning Commission comments? Any Commissioner comments? Yes.

Just want to share my appreciation for Commissioner Fullerton and the excellent job that you've done with chairing over the past year. We had a lot of very controversial topics and really difficult meetings to manage. And you did so beautifully and really made sure that we all had an opportunity to share and that the public had an opportunity to share. And I just really appreciate your leadership and stewardship through so many tough meetings. So, thank you.

You. Likewise,

Ada. Thank you for leading us. You did a great job.

I'm not going anywhere. Okay. Thank you. Yes.

Thank you very much. You were it was great to be your Vice Chair. Thank you very much. You didn't hear that.

I'll say

it again. No, I didn't. Thank you. You did.

You may have heard it, but others didn't. Thank you very much. It was great to be your Vice Chair, Commissioner Fullerton.

Yes. Well, you did an excellent job as Vice Chair.

Okay, do we have a motion for adjournment?

I'll motion to adjourn.

Okay. Can we do a roll call vote, please?

Commissioner Maynard? Aye. Commissioner Peneman?

Aye.

Commissioner Fullerton?

Aye.

Vice Chair Sirodkin? Aye. And Chair Miller?

Aye. Meeting adjourned.