Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening. I would like to call the February 17, 2026 regular planning commission meeting to order. Please note this meeting being hosted through live stream on the city website and by teleconference via Zoom. I would like to remind the planning commissioners to have their microphones turned on in position so that the audience can hear. Director Monnique, may we have roll call, please? Commissioner Ver Montes here. Commissioner Hill here. Chair Beam Sturfer

here and vice chair is absent with notice. Thank you. Commissioner Vera Montes, may we do invocation flag, please? invocation first. Dear God, thank you for allowing us to wake up every day and uh please give us the strength to make the correct decisions today. Amen. Amen.

Ready? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Agenda item number four is public comment period for items not on the agenda. Are there any members of the P public present that would like to comment on an item not on the agenda? Yes, chair. We have Jean Fenza Fenza present here.

Hello. Hi everybody. Thanks for hearing me today. So, we all know that the Newand Simpson has been granted a third public hearing March 10th. I was wondering if it's been before the planning commission, if you've had any any insight into that. Two, is there a new plan? We don't know anything about it. Um, three, I do understand from this from the attorney's disclosure. It was very clear um on the 8th of February, I think that that one either the landowner or the applicant or threatening the city to sue a lawsuit. We know it was 60 million bucks and that we acquiesced and have had two council members self-recuse because of a perceived procedural bias is what it was called. I think what I'd like to tell you is that not only is he bullying you the day after the meeting, he called me personally and threatened me with a civil suit for publicly participating in objecting to his application. Greg Lancing, the owner of the land. He then threatened me with a defamation suit as well because I had said something about being a bull in a china shop. We all know that's an idiom. We all know hyperbole and opinions are protected in the court of law. First amendment rights in California. I don't know what he was thinking. We all know his admin is Wendy is not a bull and she doesn't live in a china shop. Any reasonable person would know that. So slapsuit, anti-slapsuit, whatever it takes. He doesn't intimidate me and he has also sent me a text saying take down all your social posts. Well, I just increased them. That's how that works because we have free speech and free rights. And this is the person that we are dealing with here. He owned the land that we reside in that he worked with PY. He owns a lot of acreage here. He's going to continue to

push this city around because we don't stand up to him. And whether it's right or wrong or the project is right or wrong, it it's all about what's good for the city and and the people. And this guy, this is who you're dealing with. So, of course, I've I'll talk to the city council next week since he's done this. I've reached out to the mayor. She's on jury duty trying to connect with her as well to inform her what he's doing. I've spoken to my attorney. We've got a bunch of people um Pacific Justice, a whole bunch of people looking at this at this point because it's outrageous and how what he's doing to our city. It's inappropriate. He may have a lot of money. He's told me that you have no idea how much I have, how many states I have property in. I've said to him, you know what, that's none of my business. And it doesn't impress me because I'm here for HMT and I'm not here for Greg Lancing. So, thank you for the moment. Appreciate it.

Thank you for that comment. Any other members present? No, chair. There's no members present online or in person. All right. With that, we're going to go ahead and close public comment and moving on to Okay. Uh on moving on to the approval of the minutes 5A. Does the commission have any comments or corrections? No. No. Can I entertain motion?

Um sure. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the planning commission meeting of February 3rd, 2026. I second that motion. Can I get a call? Can I get a roll call? Commissioner Vermont. Yes. Commissioner Hill here. Yes. Chair Beamsterfer. Yes. Thank you. That was carried at three to zero.

Thank you. We will now move on to receive and file for item 6A. This item has been continued till oh read keep reading here. This item has been continued till March 3rd 2026 planning commission meeting since the item on the agenda I'll open for public comment period for uh are there any members present that would like to make a comment on this agenda? Open up. There's no members who want to make a comment on that.

There's some members online or in person, chair. Okay. With that, we're going to go ahead and close. And does commission have any additional comments or questions about it? Do we have any questions about it? Why was it continued? Uh this is for the presentation of city attorney regarding for item 6A. Um requesting to um move it to the next meeting. So I wanted to encompass the new legislation that the Brown Act um covers. So just additional more time so I can prepare the presentation

because of the Brown Act. Uh, no. There's some new legislation for the Brown Act that I wanted to incorporate in the um presentation. So, I just needed additional time to have that included in the presentation. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, I see it. Thank you. All right. And we'll So, we'll go ahead and uh continue that to March 3rd, 2026. Now we'll move move on to receiving file for item 6B, the discussion of city HIT trash enclosure program. Can we have a report from staff from principal engineer Michael Garvey? Yes.

All right. Hi, good afternoon. Mike, can you hear me? Okay,

we can hear you now. Uh so tonight I'll be uh presenting about a alternate trash enclosure for commercial um sites. U let's see here. Um so the present I'll keep this short. Uh the presentation overview will go over a city objective for trash enclosures. Uh current challenges we face with the current standard. um the proposed pre-fabricated metal standard that we have in mind, uh benefits and cost savings, um alignment with our objectives, uh some ADA modifications and examples and visuals for you and uh our recommendations and next steps. So key objective for our our trash enclosures uh with regards to commercial trash enclosures is to eliminate any any blight from the public view to keep uh uh pests and and vector control um you know in these trash enclosures and people unauthorized people from accessing these uh some of the um uh current standards uh benefits and and its limitations are, you know, uh they require blocks and you know, they provide durability with very minimal maintenance. Um but they're very labor intensive. So uh in a in a grant uh funded program, the the costs for prevailing wages are are pretty high. The the cost of building these goes up in that environment. So, um, what we found, uh, when we tried to put our, uh, trash enclosure pilot program out for bid last year, uh, we

got bids from three million to $2.5 million for about 20 of them, which is about, uh, you know, you know, 95 to $111,000 a piece, which is which is beyond our budget. uh as a um what what what's happening with that is we're unable to um meet the objective because of cost constraints. So, as a alternate alternative for that, we would like to go with a pre-fabricated metal design uh that that's much more affordable that can meet the objectives keeping uh unauthorized people from getting in these enclosures uh pests and whatnot from getting in there and and also keeping water uh for MS4 permit related um you know, concerns uh under control. So, here here's a current example of of the trash enclosure we have uh right now. Um, it's very nice, as you can see. Um, and this was the only one that I could find on Florida when I went to look for pictures to to make this presentation. Um, as you can see, there's there's not a whole lot of them on Florida because it's cost prohibitive. Um, so here's the standard. Just took a screenshot of that. Uh here's McDonald's. Um theirs is enclosed. They have a video camera there to see if anyone's getting in there, but it doesn't look anything like our standards. So, which this means people are looking for other ways of doing it. So, they're not really compliant. Uh this is Kirby Industrial. Um so, why is the current why does the current standard fall short of the the trash enclosure by pro program. Uh high upfront costs uh labor costs for block

wall construction. Uh prevailing wage increases expenses. Businesses opt out or use temporary solutions allowing unauthorized access and visible blight. So uh proposed updates pre-fabricated metal standard. Mostly pre-fabricated panels uh assemble on site. It reduces on-site labor and prevailing wage needs. Uh galvanized metal construction uh provides strong non-combustible and weather resistant uh surface. Um it's customizable for different sizes and aesthetics uh to match our standard. Um so I visited the u the shop where they prefabocate some of these uh someone who would like to uh sell their product line. Um this is one that hasn't been painted but typically what they look like uh the standard that we are proposing that we've prepared has uh a modification to allow for ad accessibility which is something we have to take into consideration when using grant money. Um this is a snippet of that standard I prepared. Um, and here's some other uh images showing kind of what they look like when they're painted and finished. And I had uh tried to get a link into the presentation so you could see the website and and kind of a modular uh depiction of it, but uh was unlucky. It didn't didn't work out for me. But, uh, generally speaking, um, uh, the the objective for these trash enclosures is to keep people from getting in there, um, to prevent the the roadside from seeing uh, you know, all the trash and everything from the

road, have it enclosed. Um, you know, h having a a 1970s gas station uh putting up one of these new trash enclosures that cost about $150,000 is unlikely to happen. There's it's we're not seeing compliance uh in those instances as you know where where it's um feasible. It would it would be the you know the best way to um to address that is to not necessarily have it for every instance but where where there's a financial hardship allow us to um use one of these alternate standards uh where they're prefabricated and and can get the cost down. So that's pretty much uh the gist of what I had.

Thank you Michael for that presentation. Uh commission, do we have a question for staff? Yeah, I got a couple questions here. Um, so with the alternative metal design, they are going to be painted. Yes. Okay. And they'll be painted closer to what the building looks like? Yeah, that would be up to planning. Currently, the uh the current standard is painted also. Cool. And it goes through um planning to determine what aesthetics they should uh go with. Okay. Usually to match the the architectural, you know, backdrop. Gotcha. Okay. And I saw that it's a $1 million grant. So 50 grand. So 20 approval or 20 applications will get approved. Um we could get 20 built for 50 grand roughly. Yes.

Okay. And then with that um it looks like you want to focus or it looks like the city wants to focus on Florida Stson and I forgot what the other street was. State. State. Yeah. It's the main arterials that they're looking at. Are we going to prioritize local businesses? So, if a local business puts in the application and a chain restaurant puts in the application, will the person accepting the applications focus more on the local that can't maybe afford it compared to a chain restaurant? Um, so Ben Sandaval, our economic uh director, development director, he's been in charge of of determining who's going to get the uh the grant. Okay. Um

that's already been shown people. Oh, and it's already been chosen. It's already It's been going on for almost two years now, that trash enclosure grant. So, they already have It's the the grant program started out as uh um you know, we were going to offer like $20,000 towards, you know, to contribute towards the businesses complying with the new trash enclosure standard. And um

that didn't work out because they can't all the prices that the even the individual businesses were getting um were way too high. So, um, we've, uh, we we took it out to bid and we received really high numbers, um, the first time we took it out to bid. So, now we've developed this, um, alternative design standard. So, the idea is we're going to put it out to bid again, and it's going to be, um, an eitheror, so they can bid on our, um, original standard or this new modular steel standard. And we anticipate the prices will come in much better. Okay.

And so, that's the the plan. Gotcha. All right. So then I have no other questions. I do think that the metal is a good alternative at half the cost of a traditional, you know, what is a cinder block build. Yeah. No more questions for me. Hi, Michael. Hi. Thank you for the presentation. Can you go back to the slide where you showed uh the McDonald's enclosure? Let's see. That one there. There it is.

You said it was not the standard. Yeah, this isn't the current standard. You can see the um the the beams on the top are made out of wood. Our current standard has I beams and it has a metal uh galvanized uh B deck as well. Okay. Um the I don't know that the um the uh the fencing around it is to our standard. Also, our current standard has like a picket fence design. This is more of like a chainlink fence. Okay. So, I mean it's it's not drastically different, but it's accomplishing the same thing. Um would this be grandfathered in if we accept these alternatives?

I I I have no problem with it. Code compliance. I don't think would raise any issues with it either. Um, aesthetically, that's the only thing, you know, is is it okay with uh planning? Um, you know, Okay. I I don't think they would have any issues with it either. All right. And are these metal enclosures going out for bid as well? If we get your approval. Okay. Yes, that we would we would like to because um you know currently nothing's happening, right?

And and and it's not that it's going to always be that way. Uh new development perhaps if you know if you wanted to have a preference uh where where there's no financial hardship. Maybe they can keep something aligned with with uh with planning. Um Okay. Can you get closer to the mic or speak up? Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Um so you know yeah the the idea is um to keep the current standard where planning would prefer it to be where they would prefer new developments to to keep uh something that's a little nicer

uh but where we can't uh afford to to get it in uh to meet the objective to keep um blight and just people from getting in there. Uh this is the best alternative. I see. And if we accept this alternative, you go you go the these go out for bid and then I don't know how many bids you get, maybe three or more, but uh and then you have a good idea of what it would cost for the grant. Yes, sir. Okay, I gotcha. Y thank you for that. Y welcome.

A couple questions, Michael. Uh, so these prefabs, how much is it for a prefab with with the company you're working with that has it from the four walls to the top? How much would it cost to build a prefab an average size that we've been seeing here?

So, um, I met with Stuart Wilson here. He's from FCP Incorporated. um he he brought us a proposal just um it's it's it's with the current uh design that they sell. Uh and it it has to do with the um the quantity that that we're going to give them. So for 20 I think it averaged out to about 30,000 35,000 and then another 15,000 for the for the um foundation as well. So it cost about 35,000 to build one from well with the walls and the the ceiling and the cage

to have it installed. Roughly 50,000 a piece. 50,000 each total. And we have over what? One and a half million allocated to it. How much in budget do we have? I believe it was 1 million. It's just one 950,000. 950. Yeah. Um Okay. And then on the the stainless steel obviously as he mentioned it it can come in different paint options. Um but how durable are these the doors? They they look like just from the picture I don't see how thick the metal is. Is it thin? Can these guys kick it and bend it and Yeah, the B the B deck on the outside is 18 gauge I believe.

Right. Yeah. So um that's pretty strong. Okay. Uh there's also um on the inside some bumpers to prevent the uh the bins from rolling into the side and denting it. So that'll prevent it from looking uh you know beat up too soon. Um would you like to take a moment to to talk on this Stuart? Questions if you're okay with that. If you can state your name, please.

Yes. I'm Stuart Wilson. I work for a company called FCP and Wdemar. We've been in business for a long time, 44 years I believe. Just started in the trash enclosure business recently because there's big need and the idea on well first off we're a steel manufacturer so obviously we we like to do the steel projects but um the idea on the steel there's several objectives that we had. One obviously is cost and keeping cost to the customer reasonable or more reasonable than say a conventional block structure um should allow for more compliance, more people be able to afford it. And um so the the method on doing that is to prefabricate panels. So you have a gate panel, you have or actually two gate panels, two side panels, two back panels, and then a roof. It's it's actually built on site. So, uh, to put one of these up once the slab is there, if we're doing a few of them at a time, you can do it in about six hours with a fourman crew. And so that saves tremendously on the prevailing wage costs. Plus, it it uh reduces disruption on the job site because you've got traffic issues and all those sorts of things you have to deal with. Um, so the other thing with the steel, um, the 18 gauge walls, all the framework is, you know, 11 gauge or heavier. Um, we have special hinges on these things that I don't know how anybody would ever break one. Um, you know, because these are big doors, when you have wind and the wind, you know, grabs a door out of someone's hand, let's say, you want the hinges to be able to hold up. Um, so those are,

you know, we try to make it as rugged as possible. Um, in the event that someone crashes a trash truck into it, you can unbolt a side, put a new side on, and it's done. It's not like having to re build block and that sort of thing. We do retrofits on block, but you know, the whole steel concept just seems to be um a little more practical. Um the like the latching on them with they're designed so that if someone's in there dumping trash and someone else comes along and tries to prank them by closing the doors and locking them, you can still get out through the door from the inside. You can't open it from the outside if it's locked, but from the inside you can get out. So, you know, some safety concerns there. I mean, these aren't designed to be housing, but sometimes that happens. The idea is to keep people out. Um, the weldwire mesh is on the on the screening is six gauge, so it's pretty heavy. Um, the idea on that is that smaller animals like cats and raccoons and possums and the like cannot get in and get into the trash. whereas the pickets which I think look better quite frankly your your original design um will allow those size animals to get in. So that was one of the considerations. Also um the paint is actually powder coat. So it's electrostatically charged 450 degrees roughly. It's put on. It's got UV protection. So, um, you know, typical powder coat will last 5 10 years without fading, but with the UV protection, it lasts longer. And the idea is that if you were to actually just do a paint product on there without powder coat, then you can have to redo it more often, which people aren't real good about maintenance. At least I'm not. But so, you know, if

you're relying on it to be repainted every few years, it may or may not happen. whereas powder coat will last longer. And so that was the reason for that. It's not as cheap, but it's it becomes a better product. Everything that they're made out of is galvanized underneath. So you have the corrosion protection of the the galvanized steel as well as the powder coat over it. And then the roofing material, standard R panel roofing material that's available from any vendor. If someone tears it up or whatever, it's replaceable. many different colors. Um, so it's, you know, 30 years from now, if someone has to do something with it, it's easy to do.

Okay. And now you mentioned you have a crew. If you were to come into your crew, you can build in about six, eight hours. Six hours. Yeah. So the idea is if if if you have say three of them at a time, then you can do it in two days. Now you have to do the concrete first obviously if it needs concrete. Now, some sites might have concrete already that's acceptable. I'm not sure what we're gonna find out there, but the actual assembly of the structure, if we're doing three out of them at a time, it take about two days to do all three of them. Okay. So, I just want to make sure I'm understanding. So, we're putting it out for bid if we approve this. But are you are you not installing them? We're just getting

No, we're we're installing them in that price. Okay. 50k is right about for for labor concrete materials and installation. What if you need to demo the area? I'm sorry. What if there's an that that's included in the quote? Okay. If there's like an existing structure, you got to demo it. Yeah. I mean, it's going to go out. Can you go up to the microphone and just say that for public record? Right. So if if there's demo, we'd have to look at each particular one and figure out what that cost would be to do that. Okay. Demo is a lot quicker and cheaper than building though, so it shouldn't be too bad. But it's kind of fun. Unless it's block, I mean, that takes a while, you know.

Would you agree to that for a million for the 950,000 for all 20 of those? Well, because I'm doing the math. It's a million million. We're in the neighborhood 50k per 20. We're in the neighborhood right now. Okay. I would like to see this done. So, we've been waiting for a couple years on this. Sure. I get it. We'd like to do it for you. Yeah. Or somebody, but I mean, we'd like to do it ourselves. Okay. Certainly. But yeah, we're in the We're right around 50 for 50,000 each for quantity of 20. If you do quantity of 40, then obviously it's a little cheaper because we have production scale at the factory. Any other questions for

I have one question. One other question for staff. What is this financial hardship provision? Is that just the application? So, could you get to the

So, so say someone has a new development. Um they're going to build um a brand new restaurant and they have the money to to do the current standard and it's going to look better with that one. We we have leverage to ask for the current standard at that point. Well, we're fun. we're funding it and we have to pay prevailing wages and we're trying to do this so we can improve the the aesthetics of the city and you know um quality of life if we can't afford to do it then we're just kind of spinning our wheels. So we would like to to have this option available to us for that.

So it could be more than 20. It could be 25 and then the some people could be paying half of it let's say or whatever. Yeah. It could be that. Yeah. Yeah. But um you know in these cases at you know as a um um what's the word I'm looking for? As a concession. You know we would like to have this option available to us. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Thank you, Michael, for your time. All right. Thank you. With that, I believe we open up public hearing. Are there any members present that would like to speak on this agenda item?

There's no present. Uh there's no uh community members online. Okay. And with that, we're going to go ahead and close. Any other comments or concerns? If not, no. I think it's a great idea. I think it's smart thinking to half price. Go out and do that. 112 grand for a regular structure is insane. Yeah, that's crazy. I agree. Trash. I had uh a bid on a block wall for my house and it was insanely costly. So, I understand the issue. I ended up going with block columns with rowd iron. There you go.

Um, so this is this is good. I like this. I'd like to make a motion to retain the block wall design as default design standard for the new uh developments. And two, approve the updated standard alternative design allowing pre-fabrication metal enclosures for non-complying existing developments. And three, include a financial hardship zip provision to allow for case-bycase flexibility for implementation.

And I second that motion. Can I get a roll call?

Sorry.

Commissioner Ver Montes. Yes. Commissioner Hill. Yes. Chair Bamster. Yes. That carried. Three to zero. All right. We will now move on to work work study item 7A, consideration of a zoning text amendment for implement general plan housing element program H-3I in accordance with the California government code section 65583-2C. Can we have a report from deputy director and rep?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh this item came forth as somewhat of an urgency item. Uh we staff has been notified by housing and community development as part of their annual or ongoing uh general plan consistency program that uh we are not in compliance uh with a housing element program that was approved uh in the past. Uh in terms of the of the proposed amendment to the municipal code that we're asking for your direction on, uh this would fulfill four of the strategic plan integration uh goals for the city of Hemmet. Uh the this applicant for a proposed ordinance would be the city of Hammet. Uh there are various property owners that this uh potential that this ordinance if approved would impact. Uh there are 21 parcels that were identified in the fifth cycle housing element update of the general plan housing element. We are currently in the sixth cycle element. Uh per HCD, this requirement spans the last two housing element cycles including the fifth cycle. Uh listed here are the 21 actual parcel numbers and their combined acreage is approximately 110 acres. Under the Hemet municipal code, the planning commission has the authority to recommend approval of an ordinance to the city council. And in summary, on November 7th of 2025, the California Department of Housing and Community Development notified city staff that uh we were not in compliance with state law. Uh this would be section 665832C of the public resources code that requires um affordable housing to be approved by Wright on very high density residential

lots identified on our vacant sites inventory in our housing element. So we had uh 21 sites identified in our 2000 I'm sorry in our fifth cycle housing element update um that currently we have not amended our municipal code uh with respect to providing affordable housing by right and therefore we are in conflict with state law. Uh in order to demonstrate to HCD that we are in compliance, uh we recommend adoption of a new ordinance that would allow affordable housing by right in the very highdensity residential zones. This would be the R4 zones and specifically the 21 parcels that were identified in the fifth cycle housing element update. The following seven slides that I'm going to show you show the locations of those parcels that were identified in the fifth cycle inventory. You may have noticed that many of those parcels actually have entitled applications for multif family residential. Um, and some of those parcels we have applications currently pending for affordable housing projects uh to be in compliance with the state provisions. Um, however, uh, we are obligated uh to amend our municipal code to allow for affordable housing by right if they have a 20% affordable component on those 21 parcels. Um, under the California Environmental Quality Act, uh, the project that would be considered exempt from SQA, uh, for

two two categories. One, it complies with a mandate from state law. And two, uh, it can be seen with certainty that the ordinance itself doesn't propose development projects and therefore there would be no significant impact on the environment. Therefore, it is respectfully recommended that the planning commission determine that a proposed zoning zoning ordinance amendment would be exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. Uh that you review and comment on the propos on the information in the proposed ordinance in your uh planning commission packet. And if you're so inclined to direct staff to prepare a report and go straight to city council uh based on the expediency that is being impressed upon us by the housing and community development department. This concludes my presentation and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for that presentation. Deputy director. Does uh commission have questions for our deputy director? Uh thank you Emory. Um I don't think I have any questions. You said that some of these are already pending for um housing. Correct. Correct. Uh in fact, one of the sites uh if we can pull the map back up. You re you recently looked at one of them is a retirement community, the Laam on Laam near Lion. That was one of the sites that was proposed. We have an affordable housing project currently in the pipeline. It's being reviewed uh by the planning division.

Uh it is at the Give me a minute. I'm trying to picture in my head. is at the northwest corner of Bua Vista and Stson. It is the Santa High Point Apartments. Does affordable housing typically mean like high density housing? Typically, it doesn't always, but as far as HCD is concerned, they they've made a determination that the um minimum density for affordable housing would be 30 units per acre. It's what they refer to as the default density

per our municipal code. And uh currently the R4 allows up to 45 units to the acre. So the range is 30 to 45 units per acre. Anything within that range would fall within uh the acceptable category. But the specific provision of the ordinance that's being requested by HCD would allow any residential highdensity residential development on any of these 21 parcels to be approved by Wright if it had at least a 20% affordable component. So if you had a 100 unit complex at least 20 of those units would have to be made affordable uh at moderate or below income. Now, when I say develop by right, that means it's a ministerial approval by the city of HMT. Basically, as long as they meet all of the development criteria established in the municipal code, they can go straight to building permits.

We had that same issue with not issue, but on Stson as well, the apartment complex. I think that we approved as kind of a buy right where, you know, long as it meets everything, we just have to approve it. But I thought it was 10% not 20. Did it go up? Now, the new density bonus laws that went into effect probably two to three years ago um specify a 20% component and they can also request concessions at that point for certain development standards and some of those concessions vary depending on their proximity to a transit or a transit station which we have proposed uh but not yet built. Okay, thank you Emry. I don't have any questions.

Hi Emry. So, I'll ask you this question, and I'm sure Leila will probably want to weigh in on this one, but um why exempt SQA? I mean, you're talking about all these parcels, 21 parcels, and just no SQA, just exempt SQA from all 21 parcels. And is this all wrapped into some of the new laws? And I'm I'm kind of curious to get an answer to this question.

Yes, I'll take a stab at it, and Ila can correct me if I'm wrong. um based on some new density bonus laws uh really started being adopted about three years ago and the what did change is the requirement for affordable housing itself. It used to be density bonus used to be based on complicated formulas and factors uh that would you could build a development in excess of what was normally allowed if you provided certain density or a certain number of units to varying levels of of socioeconomic household income.

So for example, you could get more credits or more of a bonus if you dedicated those excess units to very low density households. That's all still allowable, but there are new density bonus laws that if you provide a 20% 20% of the number of units in total, if they are available to um below moderate income households, that project can be approved by right moderate as well. No, below moderate. Low moderate. Okay. So, that would be that would be low income, very low income, extremely low income. And there there's actually now a new uh category that's lower than extremely low income, but I forget the name of that category.

Oh, there's five now instead of four. Oh, wow. All right. And so, but that didn't answer the SQA issue. Well, it's exempt because it's it's statutoily exempt by state law allows for it. Therefore, SQA cannot preclude it. And those are in any of those 21 lots, they're all some of those are empty, right? Correct. Not all of them. Some of them are vacant. Yeah.

And if I can add on to that, um it's a good question because SQUA is fairly important. Um it's a it's a step that's usually part of the whole development process, but for the purposes of this and I believe what the state is what their vision is is to streamline all these approvals and SQA can sometimes delay certain projects. So their their positioning behind it from what I gather from reading on all these new legislations is that they just want to you know remove the steps or the hurdles that might be a potential hurdle and step and delay in the project. So it's all for the premise or for the understanding of streamlining the projects. So they're trying to remove any barriers for the developers.

Yeah, I I kind of thought that that would be the answer. You know, my concern is the soil might be contaminated and there's no way of uh finding that out if SQUA is exempt.

There are certain regulatory criteria that would still apply and that would be that would be one of them. We also have to do they would have to do a soil study that would be part of their building permit process to indicate whether any special engineering would be required for their footings or foundations or you know if they're on liquefiable soil and there's a huge cavern underneath kind of thing. you know, we don't want these buildings to collapse into the soil. So, yes, there are some there are some preventative measures in place, but we are limited by state statutes and the California building code. Okay. I mean, I kind of get the feeling that this is just kind of a rubber stamp thing to make us compliant.

I wouldn't word it that way, but um what I can give you some assurance is that it only relates specifically to these 21 parties. It is not citywide and some of these parcels have already been approved for development. So, it's not going to affect all 21 and and it may very well be possible that no developer would come forth with a 20% affordable project because it is a little difficult to obtain tax increment financing. Those credits are hard to come by and they're competitive and there's only so many available per year. That's true. Okay. Thank you, Henry.

You're very welcome, sir. I don't have too much to say. It's just frustrating. Um, you know, our local control is now being operated by our state assembly, our state accountability. Um, now I think all the questions were answered for me over here. So what I picture is where's that little town in Brazil where everything stacked on top of each other the homes and it just looked like a little girder earthquake. Everything would just collapse on forgot the name of that community but you know that's kind of why I picture coming I think

streamlining and everything. Yeah. Yeah. So uh I don't have any other questions. deputy director. Thank you for your presentation and uh any comments or any discussion? No, it just sounds like a company just come in and build a bunch of apartment complexes that are low-income housing and not be able to get stopped or not have any like uh cohesiveness with the city, I guess. But it's not much. It's just more and more of the city losing control. Yeah. Yeah. So do can I uh well this a discussion item right or work study item. Need a motion. So there no

no no motion or anything just moved on to city council just to make it clear. Okay. You want anybody want to make that a motion? Motion one two three.

All right. All right. I motion um to determine that the proposed zoning ordinance amendment is exempt from review under California Environmental Equality Act uh pursuit to SQUA guidelines section 15061B3 and the direct staff to prepare a notice of exemption for the adoption of city council uh pursuit to SQUA guidelines section 15061 and review and comment on a proposed new zorning ordinance amendment. And due to timing constraints established by HCD direct staff to prepare a draft ordinance directly to Hemet City Council consideration and approval to implement housing element program H-3I in compliance with government section code 65583 do uh 2C. I second Can we get a roll call? Commissioner Hill.

Yes. Commissioner Vermont. Yes. Chair Beamster. Yes. That Carrie 3 to zero. Thank you. Now we're moving on to department reports from our city attorney, Leo Sari. Nothing to report. Chair, thank you. Okay. real quick. I know it's going to be community development report director Monnique. Thank you, Chair. Um I have uh nothing to report this time. Okay. And how about future agenda items? Director Monnique.

Yes. So, um the items coming before you um in the near future include the pre-approved ADU plans uh study uh the pro housing designation program um workshop uh Weston Park redesign uh project the cost square uh shopping center uh Palm Valley mobile tenative track map for viad via deostertos the 2025 general plan annual progress report as well as uh code cycle updates for residential construction in a report.

We have a lot coming down the tubes. Okay. And last planning commissioner reports chair beamer. Uh we had an earthquake today. I felt that. I don't know if anybody else did. Yeah.

So that was a little jolt. Um, just something I read briefly is uh the Assembly Bill 1421 was passed by the assembly on January 29th and that's just one step closer for them to do traffic studies or studies on the the whole mileage tax on your mileage stuff. So disgusting to hear, but it's going into into uh studies and then and uh the Senate will have to vote on it next. So nothing else to report for me. Thank you. Commissioner Hill.

Um I just want to let uh staff know and Chair Beam Sterford that um I will not be attending the three March session. I will be out of town. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Ver Montes. I have nothing to report. Okay. With there be no further business to discuss, this meeting will be adjourned to the next planning commission meeting scheduled for March the 3rd, 2026 at 6 p.m.