Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Ready?

Yes. Good evening. I would like to call the March 3rd, 2026 planning commission meeting to order. Please note this meeting being hosted through the live stream on the city website and by teleconference via Zoom. I'd like to remind the planning commissioners to have their microphones turned on in positions that the audience can hear. Director Monnique, may we have roll call, please? Commissioner Vermont here. Commissioner Hill is absent with notice. Vice Chair Worth here. Chair Beamster here.

Okay. Uh, vice chair word, could we do invocation black suit, please? We'll do the black 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. Dear Lord, thank you for the opportunity for us to come together. We pray that you help provide a cooperative and free and o open environment for everyone to share. We pray for the wisdom to make the right decisions. In your name we pray.

Okay. Agenda item four is public comment periods for items not on the agenda. Are there any members public? Are there any members of the public present that would like to comment on an item not on the agenda? Yes, chair. We have Roy Michael present. He has donated time from Jean Fenza. Uh so he has six minutes. All right, Roy, you got six minutes. That's all right. You like that?

Good evening, uh members of the planning commission. My name is Roy. I am now an 11-year resident of Hammet. I love this town. I live at the lakes at Hemet West. On our east fence, uh five feet from my bedroom is the project plan Hemet Logistics West. Now, I uh was able to go to the uh airport authority meeting when they voted on, yeah, we're happy with it. Uh after I pointed out to them that there are two main issues that I think might cause the airport problem and also cause me and my neighbors a lot of problems. There's an issue with the airport rule stating that um an open bit of water which they're putting in a trench to catch all the water and pump up to it which happens to be in the middle of a flood zone and it's at a five degree height level from where my house is and 40 other some houses. They're going to be pumping through my calculations more water in there based on the kind of rain we get in EMTT then it will fit. Now, they said, "Well, we'll have spillways." Well, that spillway is going to put it under my bedroom. Okay. Um, I ran the numbers, but I want someone on the uh uh of you guys to run the numbers on it. Uh, in December around Christmas, we had 1.25 inches of rain in one day. If you run the numbers out from 66 acres, that's a whole lot of water. Then about two weeks ago, it was 1.65 in. Now, you get two or three storms there to uh together, there's no way what they're digging the hole is going to hold all that water. There's just no way. Please run the numbers on it. Um I was standing across the fence from the guy that did the original perk test there, the engineer that was out there, played nosy neighbor, and come to find out it didn't pass the perk test where the first rule of digging a ditch and filling it with

water is does it pass the perk test. There's a guy named uh it's Homestead Rescue. A guy up in Alaska that uh goes into Homesteads and fixes things. Whenever he puts in a pond, you know what? He lies it with clay. That field is full of clay. Something about clay holds water. It has to do with the positive energy and the negative energy of the minerals uh in the water and the clay and the positive energy of the uh water. I had that backwards. That place is an absolute mess when it's wet. There's water that sits up there by those trees for months at a time. And they're talking about this having to dissipate within 24 hours. That's the airport's rule. Now, here's another issue with it. So, please run those numbers and I think you'll find they're an absolute mess. Um, my wife and I love to sit in the backyard because we have this 66 acres in front of us. It's beautiful. It's the best view in a hammet. I can see the mountains, everything. geese coming in and going out from, you know, going to south or north, whichever they're doing, will gather there. You'll get 50, 60, 100 of them. They all stand in a or sit in a circle and then about every 10, 15 feet, they've got another goose who's looking outwards, and they're the guard geese. It's really neat to watch. Well, I've read about what happens to geese when somebody builds a building in their natural place that they've been coming to for how many hundreds of years? I don't know. They will either go on top of the buildings, which isn't really safe because they're right next to an airport, and they will spend a whole lot of time on any piece of open water, which is right, which is where they're going to cut down all the trees there. Where the arborist two years ago said, "Oh, those trees are all dead. If you drive by there, you can see hundreds of thousands of leaves. There is they're living well." So, these are the kind of people we're dealing with. They're trying to push this. The airport says up to 10,000 ft to have open water if you have birds in the area. The developer said, "Well, we're going to do 1,087 feet." And by gosh, we think that's

enough. Do you think they had 1,087 ft in mind when they did all the particulars uh all around the country to determine how far you should have nesting birds and stuff like that away from a an an airport? Remember Captain Sully going down in the Hudson? It was a goose that took him out. All right. Um, what do you think it'll do to a Cessna? All right. Now, here's the other issue. All this water, they're on a 5% grade. It's going to overflow. It also has the opportunity on a big day like in the early 1900s in Saninto when we had five days of five different storms and this whole valley was flooded. How's a Cessna going to land in three inches of water? Okay. So, I really want you to look at this stuff. see how they're really pushing the boundaries on this. But uh even the airport authority recommended a perk test that I think went down to 30 feet because they got to get past all that clay. Otherwise, they're going to be a big problem. I can only imagine the compensatory damages from the 40 houses lining that fence when the mold gets in and the people get sick and everybody knowing you don't pump water into the flood zone. Thank you. Thank you, Roy. Any other members present that would like to make a comment?

No, chair. I've spoken. Y'all can go now. Have a good night. All right. With that, we're going to go ahead and close the public comment period. And uh now we're going to move on. Any anybody on teleconference or via Zoom? No, chair. Okay. Moving on to item 5A, which is the corrections of our minutes from the planning commission meeting from February 17th. Does the commission have any corrections or comments? No. No. Okay. Can I ask for a motion? I motion to approve the minutes of planning commission meeting of February 17th, 2026. Second.

Can I get a roll call? Commissioner Vermont. Yes. Vice Chair Worth. Yes, Chair Beam Sturfer. Yes. Thank you. That motion carried.

All right. We will now move on to work study item 6A from our city manager. Mark, thank you chair. Uh good evening everyone. Uh Mark Preswitch, your city manager. Uh want to begin by uh letting you know that I'm designating today is uh dermatologist appreciation day. Uh you may notice a different complexion, but it's a preventive effort on my part and my dermatologist's part to take care of things that otherwise would be bad. Uh I'm told I'll be looking 20 years younger in about a month. So um with getting that aside, uh I do want to say um that the chair chair beam Sturfer and Vice Chair Worth um met with me recently. uh they were interested in learning ways that we could integrate uh they gave me some uh feedback on various uh city issues. Uh one in particular was an interest in ensuring that infrastructure type projects, other areas of domain in the planning commission continue to run through you. Uh we're going to have a really nice couple presentations tonight on two of those types of policy matters. Uh but I asked whether you would be interested in participating in the development of our work plan for next year and the feedback was positive. And so uh with that we quickly put together uh some homework for you and tonight we're going to go through a bit of an exercise uh that will help the city council build their work plan for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. So I'm going to begin with a little PowerPoint just to walk you through. So, we're doing essentially an abbreviated version of what the city council will do, but your work tonight will become an input on the work uh that the council will do in about a month. So, uh want to begin with just this notation from our friends at the internet. Strategic planning is the difference between dreaming big and not being able to

afford it. So, I think that's probably characteristic of a lot of uh efforts that cities make. We have essentially an unlimited uh variety of ideas and needs uh but very limited resources and we have to prioritize the use of those resources. So why do we plan? Uh we want to set realistic priorities for each year. Uh our city from a staffing perspective has a capacity uh challenge as any city would do. And so what we want to do is rightsize uh the work that we take on uh over and above the daily uh work of each of our departments. And we want to agree also on how progress will be monitored and reported. And so in the council's case, what we do is we provide quarterly updates to the city council on the progress of these goals. They live on the website, those same documents, and you were emailed a version of that. Uh I want to share with you um as we move into tonight, the city council has a mission statement and a vision statement. So I want to uh read that to you. The city of Hemet will be a destination of opportunity and empowerment for its residents, businesses and visitors by capitalizing opportunity, striving for growth and promoting diversity and respect for each member of our community. Our vision statement is the city of Hemtt will shall be a model of excellence in local government, a safe, wellplanned community with equal opportunity for all. So, as we approach any type of goal setting uh process, one of the questions I'll be asking the council when they sit down is is this is this mission statement and is this vision statement still representative of how you think about um the words that will guide this community and this organization in the next 12 months or beyond.

Um these are the strategic uh the city's strategic uh plan goals. Um they all center around five pillars which include quality of life, economic opportunity, community engagement, partnership and collaboration and organizational effectiveness. So when you see our city staff reports move forward to the city council, uh you'll see that we will uh designate which or uh which one or more of these topics um that are being brought to the city council touch these strategic plan goals. We've asked the questions since um for the past five years, do these still represent the strategic plan goals for the city council? And the answer has been a consistent yes over the past three years. And this plan was built in the prior two years before that. So I think after about 5 years, it's time to re-engage. And perhaps after the November election, this will be um something that the city council will want to carefully re-examine, right? to spend more time looking at these and making sure that these still represent the current um goals of the city council. The uh various objectives were identified as ways to achieve those goals. Uh and complementing that is something we're doing now which is called uh what we're calling strategic action items. This is really building an annual work plan that's manageable. Can't be too many items. Uh we tried uh to we we went through a prioritization process three years with ago with the city council and we put a number of ideas uh on the on the pad of paper and we came up with 82 initiatives to tackle in year one. Uh we've brought that number down to what I think is a more manageable number just under 40 this year and reporting out on those. So, uh, what's what's I think been empowering for the city council is to see what comes out of these workshops ends up

showing up in front of them on a council day only a year later in many in many respects and uh, both of the items that you have tonight come out of work that was born in this type of an environment. So when I talk about right sizing the strategic plan action items, um what I'm really referring to is the process that we'll go through over the next six weeks, let's say in maybe eight weeks as the city council receives your feedback, goes through the similar exercise themselves, we will put together a draft of a strategic work plan for the following year. It may take us a couple of map council meetings to rightsize that. We will invite the city council to identify potential opportunities for them to be involved in either serving as a liaison or forming an ad hoc to help advance a policy matter. Uh I know we have a couple of areas where we've also tapped the talents of the planning commission. I think it's fair to say that those opportunities exist moving forward and the feedback that I've received uh from the chair and the vice chair is you've really enjoyed that experience to work on an ad hoc and I I found that very uh helpful in advancing policy matters in uh governments that don't have a dedicated committee to policy development. Here's where we get to the fund. So tonight we're going to uh get our steps in. We're gonna at a certain point in time, we're going to walk over to this area. Um for the audience, u the staff presented some homework to the commission um la late last week. We you turned it around very quickly. We appreciate that in advance of today. That was really intended to accelerate the workshop tonight. Uh but uh what we've what you've done is you've identified about 19 different ideas. in two cases. I think we've consolidated those into a broader topic and we'll

talk a little bit more about that as we walk through the exercise. Uh but these represent uh ideas that you've shared with us um from a first draft. Um you didn't have too much time to think about it. You've probably slept on it since um working on this over the last week or so. Uh what I want to begin with is invite to invite you to identify any other ideas that you might have thought of or received feedback on from um residents since you began the exercise. I know at least one of you reached out to some friends and colleagues and received some helpful feedback. Um, so what might be helpful is for me to transition microphones, head over here, read these to you so that if any of you would like to elaborate on what [snorts] I mention, uh, I want to invite you to elaborate on the idea briefly so that the others will understand what the idea is and why. And then let's pause for about five minutes and see if you have any other ideas. You have a a yellow notebook, a note pad, and a pen. And if you'd like to write down an additional idea, what we'll do is we're going to put that on the wall. Then the fun begins. Uh we have currency for you tonight. Uh we have red, blue, and brown dots. And what do they mean? Uh this is our uh menu. This is really our legend tonight. Um this is going to u create an opportunity for you to help prioritize your feedback on the ideas that were presented by your colleagues. So, we're mimicking a a exercise that the council goes through because the the number of ideas was in the 18 range. Uh we didn't choose to give you five dots like we did the city council uh when they had 82 plus ideas. We're giving you three each. Uh but it's going to force you to make some decisions and that's the whole point of this exercise. And I want to

walk you through how we um will think about these different dots. So, we begin with the musthaves. This is something that's essential. We're going to call this air. Can't live uh too long without oxygen, right? Uh air is something that represents the greatest importance and contrasting the ideas that are on the wall. The water dot, the blue dot is something that's important. It's a need. But, uh we know with water also ne a necessity for life. You can get away with it for a couple of days, right? but we're going to need a drink at some point. So, not as important as air, but certainly very important nonetheless. And finally, um the wants. These are the valuable but non-critical, the nice to haves. We're calling this chocolate, right? Uh these are nice to haves. They're not necessarily needed. Uh but if you take a look again at the city's work plan right now, we have air, water, and chocolate all over our work plan. So the council took the time to prioritize each of the ideas. Some some ideas that were put up on the wall initially didn't make the final cut. Um and then with the final cut, they were organized into uh levels of priority. And what that does is it helps us understand the council's direction and uh helps us marshall resources, staff resources to prioritize the work that of the staff over the uh the fiscal year. So our process is going is going to be after I read these the planning commissioners uh will place their dots and vote and I want to invite you to set up your own rules. Right? This is you can come up with you can talk amongst yourself. This is the same invitation that I've presented to the city council. You may want to decide that you want to put all of your red dots on one item because it's that important. Right? If you had multiple red dots, for example, you might want to put all of

those on one item. uh because it was that important to you to elevate. What we're going to do is uh give you a summary of all of this. We'll tabulate uh the results. Um but talk amongst yourselves. There may be a need to clarify some of the ideas up here and I'll give you an example of that in just a minute when I walk over there. Uh but this is something that uh we invite you to strategically uh use your currency uh in the way you would like to use your currency. Then we'll discuss those results briefly, make some adjustments potent adjustments potentially, and then I may comment on some of the ideas that you have there. Does that sound like an approach that will work? Yes. Okay, I'm going to turn this one. [snorts]

Okay, I'm first going to read the ideas that are up here. I'll pause after each one so that if this is yours or you would like to comment on the idea um to either ask a clarifying question uh of your colleague or [clears throat] seek additional clarification from me um we'll do that. So the good news is we're all next to a microphone. This is going to be easy to communicate. The first one here on the left I'll go across u on each row. conduct an an amphitheater feasibility study and enhancement.

Uh was that the was that the Ramona bowl or was is that a part of the Weston project design? I think this is um I think this is a Dana Hill u okay suggestion related to um it could be related to the amphitheater. We'd have to ask him but I think he's um also thinking about economic development at the intersection of highway 79 and he highway 74. Okay. The next item is explore recreation recreational and development opportunities at the Ramona ball.

So just to expand on that a little bit that that came from um somebody that I reached out to and we discussed it a little bit. um an interesting concept, but uh kind of incorporating uh some redevelopment uh within the kind of the the remotable proper area that you know could include some improvements to what's there. possibly some expansion for restaurants or commercial or some some some other element that would that would add to um the benefits and the the functionality of the Ramona bowl. It wasn't an idea that I had ever had be be before but um I it I think that would be something that might gain a lot of traction within the community. So, this is a good example of one that um I want to talk to you about as an example of how these can evolve because with the Ramona Bowl outside the city limits, not owned or operated by the city, uh run by the Ramona bowl association. So, if the city was to war, the city wouldn't necessarily take the lead on exploring recreational and development opportunities, but the city could partner, right? So the clarification if we were going to further clarify the idea what we might request as a friendly amendment would be seek [snorts] opportunity to partner with the Ramona association to consider opportunities for development etc. So that's just an example of how this might get written up if it if it receives the votes. You know we're going to still share every idea with the city council. We're just going to share how you vote on it so that they understand your level of interest in the topics as well. Um the next item is conduct a traffic signal uh timing analysis. This was referencing several different intersections in town. One of which I know is already in in the works and we would need to add ask the public works director for additional uh

feedback on the other three locations. But this is essentially um pursue efforts to signalize and sync the signals so that it moves traffic. Probably not any need for clarification on that one. Next one is engage the community to explore recreational opportunities at Simpson Park. We're actually involved in that right now and we're building a plan called Elevate Simpson Park. And that one will be coming to you after some additional public engagement. Create uh youth activity opportunities for leisure, community service, and career. and uh explore transitional housing opportunities with vacant spaces, parking lots, buildings. Create a housing track production plan for front yards. And really, this is similar to if you had sample um plans for an ADU, uh 800 square feet,000 square feet, 12,000 1,200 square feet. You could come in and get something off the shelf. really like that idea. Um,

can we go back to the last one? It says, um, occupy vacant lands and parking lots. Is that like putting those little pods on parking lots? What is that? It says transitional housing on vacant lands and parking lots. Explore transitional housing opportunities. It probably I think I had a staff member try to amplify that. So, let's just focus on explore transitional housing opportunities. Gotcha. Okay.

Moving to this one here. Partner with neighboring jurisdictions to encourage economic development at the highway 79 and 74 intersection. Create a project status web page on the HEMT website. Enhance shopper confidence to promote local shopping. This was about safety, enhancing safety and the experience of shoppers. Conduct a Hemet Ryan Airport regional visitor access and airport expansion study. I want to let you know that this is another one similar to the one I expanded on with Ramona Bowl. Riverside County owns the airport and they did conduct a study. They built a master plan. It's now, I think, a touch over 10 years old. Uh about 10 years old, but it could be resurrected. It was never actually formally adopted. It was published, but it was never formally adopted. So, the city could encourage the county to refresh the plan that was done before. Perhaps it would be more affordable than starting over to just look at refreshing the plan. But that's an example of perhaps clarifying u this idea. Final one over here. Develop a staffled cleanup coordination committee.

Yes, I have an acronym for that. It's called cut. Clean up the town. Basically, it's uh you make a grid, 50 little squares laid over the city and every week that task force so to speak cleans up that little square. And I just think, you know, driving around Menife, Marietta, Winchester, you don't see dirty parking lots and, you know, large, you know, mattresses on the side of the road. I think a task force like that that just focuses on cleaning up the city and removing graffiti from different areas would really help encourage people to move in and just bring a sense of safety to the city.

Thank you. Uh final row uh police geographic um assignments essentially by zone uh by beat is the recommendation. Develop additional communityled adopt a programs adopt a whatever uh vacant buildings blocks etc. We have an adopt a street program but this would be an idea that expands our existing adopt a street program. I picked that one because I we have a lot of vacant buildings and I think if we have not necessarily just one business, but if we have an opportunity to have multiple business be able to adopt the building for say 30 days and that gives an opportunity to not have an it sit there and deteriorate, they can use that space and uh might encourage businesses to go in there too as well. But I just think we should do take advantage of having all these like Chick-fil-A for example was a downfall because we put in Simpson Center which I think we could have put it somewhere else. They could have adopted a Vanet building and set themselves up in there and had a better opportunity based on location. But that's one reason why I picked that.

Thank you. Uh the final three, partner with schools for youth community service opportunities. Creation of a citywide cleaning task force. Bring on new staff to support and plan day-to-day operations. That actually might be mine instead of the other one.

And it's similar, right? I mean, this is this is an exercise that we'll do with the council. Is this close enough to this that we could essentially coordinate that? So if you're voting for this one, maybe we will take this put it next to that and you're essentially voting for that idea and we'll work on the actual language of it later. Finally, uh create an economic development plan that encourages resident workforce. So these are the ideas that you shared. Uh what I'd like to invite you to do is if you have uh would we'd like an extra few minutes to write down a couple of ideas, then we'll hand the microphone over to you and you we'll help you put that up on the wall because apparently our post-it notes don't stick. So we're going to add some tape and then we'll begin our exercise.

Just a few other ideas. Any other ideas you would like to add today?

I see a few uh new ideas there. Would you like to introduce them from the table here and then we'll help you put them up on the wall? Sure.

You want me to just say what they are and Yes. And then we'll begin putting them up.

I know we used to have a senior center back in the day. I think uh we need to work on trying to bring back another senior center. a lot of s a lot of cities have them and uh that's a common thing I hear from a lot of my customers is that we just don't have anything that's a senior center anymore. Uh, the other thing I brought up is go back to bringing up the discussion with Diamond Valley Lake and trying to get hotels or restaurants up there with the view. The view is worth to have a fine dining up there, get get some tourism up there at our lake. That's something that was originally promised by EMWD and that got later changed because of nobody contact. And then as for working with EMWD, I think we should use some of that open land at Diamond Valley to do outdoor events such as like you know some of the people have like Coachella for example the outdoor not to that scale but they do concert multiple concerts. It's a beautiful setting to have a concerts out there on the land and with the with the settings around there. So those those are my three to add to it. If I could um just to for a slight correction on that, that would [clears throat] be MWD, not EMWD.

Oh. Oh, it's MWD. Bring your pen over. We'll cross that off there. [laughter] We'll just scribble out that EMW may be a partner in that, but uh as far as So, um I just uh uh expand opportunities for public private partnerships uh similar to the approach that has uh been presented for the HIMT theater. Uh, and then also look at possibly expanding the um the the area that's that's associated with that him theater project for for other um opportunities for picking up properties that the city could could incorporate into that plan. Great. Thank you.

I got uh maybe [clears throat] organize better rules or laws for our street vendors um so they're not just kind of scattered all over the place. Um be a little bit more organized, make sure they clean up their area. So, if this street vendor has this area and it's dirty after, you know, exactly that they created that mess. Also, make sure that the city is getting their proper tax revenue from those said vendors. I know some of these guys have pretty long lines. Um, yeah, organized street vendors a little better. Okay, thank you. Also, if I if I could, and I don't know if we want to maybe add this as a new one or maybe just some clarification for the one that was up there as far as the Simpson Park. Um, in conjunction with that uh recommendation, it was slashcreate a public mountain bike park. Uh, and that may or may not be conducive with that location. That's just was kind of one of the recommendations I received. But um with the with the the submitt that I gave to staff, there's a few different links um of similar uh projects that were that were successfully um designed and implemented uh in kind of a P3 kind of a an approach both in Eureka and then also uh in Arkansas in conjunction with Walmart. Um but but the idea is is to create a public mountain biking park, not like Ger Ranch, which is a more pri um private, but to have that uh at least to start a assessment and maybe a um looking at uh what the other successful parks have done. So whether that's in conjunction with Simpson Park or maybe there's some place else um within the city limits or neighboring agencies, I'd like to have that one as a as a specific

um do you want to add that and we'll I think we'll just grab that and put it up there. Okay. Um, it's probably going to take us about 15 minutes to let you um decide how to vote. And so, um, I know I want to be respectful of the other agenda items that you have on here, but I think we have a really good start. You've identified some really terrific ideas. I think a lot of these are actionable. Some are in some form of motion already. Uh, but I want to share all of your ideas with the city council. So, are you ready to after John finishes this, are you ready to we'll do some walking. We'll move the camera and we'll take a look at the wall over here. Yes. How much spending dollars do we have to mark on the wall?

Your currency is quite limited. Um [laughter] I think we have three red, three blue, and three brown. So, three air, water, chocolate each. I need to I need to redo this pile over here also.

I should mention that when we do this exercise with the city council, sometimes we end up with air and chocolate on the same idea. So, it's okay if we have different colors on different ideas. Six minutes.

[snorts]

All right, we have some priorities. I'm going to just reference a couple of these so that everyone following can see these. We're going to capture this and we'll work on putting this into a spreadsheet that we share with the city council, share with you as well. Uh I'll hit a few of these. Here's a couple chocolates. partner with neighboring jurisdictions to encourage economic development at highway 79 and 74. Another chocolate develop additional community-led adopt a street or adopt a whatever type programs. That's great. Identify temporary uh opportunities for vacant buildings. I really like this one that uh receives some chocolate as well. I think there's some really creative ideas we can do with that idea. Uh here's a red one. This is air create a city project status web page on the HMT website. that's actually in motion right now. So, that's great. Uh, conduct a traffic signal analysis signal timing analysis. Everyone loves this. I love this one. Um, I've been stuck at those intersections. Uh, here's a water item. Engage the community to explore recreational opportunities at Simpson Park. And our leading vote getter, uh, partner with schools for youth community service opportunities. So, uh, three red, three air and and one water on that. conduct a Hemet Ryan regional visitor access and airport expansion study. Uh so this is really an opportunity to partner with the county. Uh creation of a citywide cleaning task force um air explore transitional housing opportunities with vacant spaces. Love that as well. Uh work with EMWD at Diamond Valley Lake and other partners to do uh to program outdoor events. Lot of love on this one, both air and chocolate. and bring back a discussion on hotel commercial development at Diamond Valley Lake, receive some air. Uh resurrect the senior center. That's uh three different positions and we're working that into

the fiscal year 2627 budget. Uh haven't seen how it pencils yet, but those three positions are in the budget draft. Expand opportunities for public private partnerships similar to the approach with the HMT Theater. Uh that was one of the new ones that was added. And then um that was an air and then assess opportunities for developing a public um MTB multi-trail right u bike similar or park similar to other cities and um that receives some chocolate. So thank you very much for this. I want to go back to the PowerPoint to close real quick. I just have one more slide I think. Okay. So, just to summarize where are we going from here? These are our next steps. We're going to summarize and share uh your suggestions with the city council. The city council will conduct a goal setting workshop. I think that's scheduled for April 10th. and that's going to be to go through the same exercise that you've gone through. They're going to be asked to identify a number of ideas. They're going to be presented several forms of information, resource documents, including the current status of our work plan in the 2526 fiscal year, the work product of tonight's meeting, etc. And then uh they will review and approve the work plan at a future city council meeting and align it with budget resources. So, we're negotiating labor contracts. We're working with departments on building the budget for next year. Uh we'll need to assess the cost of various ideas and determine how we can incorporate the ideas and still make it a manageable uh work plan that we can that we have staff capacity to advance over a 12-month

period. So, that's where we're headed. And I want to thank you for uh engaging with us tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you, Mark, for the opportunity for allowing us to be involved and have a little voice in what we think the city needs and improved on. And uh see here with that uh really there's no questions. We were we were just kind of open discussion anyways. And with that, we're going to go ahead and open up the public hearing. Are there any members present or online that would like to comment on this item? No chair.

Okay. We're going to go and close it and uh there's no need to just work study. So we will move on to action 7A. Actually, no. Uh what we're going to do is something a little bit different. We're going to switch 7B and 7A around because I know we have some people here for 7B. [snorts] And uh we're going to have uh Ben Sandival approach the podium with the micrograms. Sorry for a last minute curveball there. Perfect. Test one, two. Everyone can hear me loud and clear. Good evening, U planning commission chair, vice chair, commissioner, committee development director, Ben Sandaval, economic development director for the city of Hemet. And you know something that was funny is last week I was here and I don't know if you counted but I think I've touched this about a hundred times. So I'm going to do my very best not to touch that microphone and keep it away from me. So hopefully you can hear me just loud and clear. So this is uh tonight I'll be presenting on the he planning u well I'm presenting in front of you the commercial facade improvement program. how we got here. The journey has been a whirlwind. But you know what? We have grants to present here to you tonight. These are the micro grants and as you can see behind me, there are a few property owners here that have come to support or voice their opinion on either results and that's what we're here tonight. U Thank you to the IT department and pulling that up. As you can see here, for the most part, this really hones in on not only quality of life, but partnerships, organizational effectiveness, and across the board, this really hones in on the five checkpoints. and we're really excited to show you what we have here tonight. I

won't really get into the whole purpose of this as this grant was presented to you all a few actually about a year half ago and then to the uh city council as well. We've had quite a few meetings. I'll go over what that is. But you know, the purpose is quite simple. We're almost building a day and that's why this particular grant was written was really to create local jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. I've said that last time and I'm going to continue honing in on that. That's what we're here to do. Jobs, jobs, jobs. But at the same time, support job creation, local entrepreneurship. This is truly what it is. As you saw, and I'm going to get into so the commissioners aware, the ad hoc members really had an opportunity to hone in on small business. He is made out of small business. Over 97% of all of our business in town are zero to 15 employees. We don't have these big conglomerates that are hiring thousands of people. So this grant was really meant on small business and this particular one that we presenting today is on the micro portion and again it's also to stimulate investment. There's skin of the game as you're going to see 5% and is really to beautify the downtown core as you're aware. We're no longer want to be just known as a city as pass through but let us stop and actually experience any dwell time that they may have. We want to make sure we enhance that. And in the near future, you may see some new things popping on downtown. We're aware that EVs are a growing trend and we may be able to bring something in the downtown corridor now to not only beautify the area, but make sure people are actually charging their vehicles and staying here. And these will be level two or three chargers. So that's at least an hour or so. Moving on here, when we presented, this was the purpose of the grant. This is an example of a city somewhere in the Central Valley. Wouldn't you know, the city manager knew exactly what city I had used this on. It cracked me up. But this is an example on before and after. This is truly what we're trying to get

out of. We want to make sure that anything that does qualify and does get approved tonight is coming back looking more appeasing, welcoming. The ambiance, people are welcome. As you can see, this is exactly what happened on that particular portion. on grant overview. As you can see, there was two different grants that we reviewed, the micro and macro history. We This was presented to council about two years ago. It grew from there. We had quite a few applications that I'm going to run through what that looked like. And it wasn't just one or two. It was a few applications that we received. So, the ad hoc had a challenge to do, but we did some diligent work to come to this point. And I'm going to cover what that is. And just so you're aware, on top of the macro, micro grants, there are certain percentage that they can use if awarded for architectural and design services. Very limited. I believe it's less than five or 10%, I'm sorry, five or 10 hours. So that would be the uh amount for that. Moving forward here, just to kind of bring to speed, um the full planning commission on the grant program, how it was distributed, how do we get here? These were general funds from the city council because again they want to stimulate and they believe on the Hemet Rises strategic plan that was approved by council that we want to bring in quality businesses, quality of life and cortel that $ 1.5 billion leakage that we have 1.5 billion leakage that the city of Hammed has. So people are leaving for as I mentioned last week when I presented on the Hemet Auto Mall people are going for services that we have here in town. We have them in town, but they're going to another city. And that can be for a variety of variables. And we want to make sure that facade is not one of them and other other things as well. And you can see from the small business grant how much allocation was granted along with the other macro for a total of $900,000 distributed between two different grants, but the same funding sources. As

you can see here, the micro grants, again, just as a refresher, was specifically for the downtown specific plan as part of the specific plan that was approved in 2015 or so. And it really covers uh a street north to east. And I'll go over what those are, but you can kind of see the breakdown. Today though, I'll be presenting on micro grants. Micro, the macro just still wanted to throw out there because it was grants that were allocated. This will be moving forward to city council at a later date, but we want to make sure that we cover today the micro. And I think something that [snorts] right at the beginning I covered the five points you that it covers every single one. Well, there's skin in the game. We are not just handing dollars. They're also putting skin in the game, which is 5% of the 30,000. It might be a lot or it might be a little, but we wanted to make sure that there's some. And again, what did I say earlier? 97% of our all of our small business are 0 to 15. And I think there's a misnomer that our small businesses are making six figures. That is the complete opposite actually. They're working 60 hours or making less than 70,000. So these are the types of services that they desperately need. As I mentioned, the downtown specific plan uh that's where it starts and where it goes. So, when we are going through these, just be aware that the five recommended awards for tonight fall within this specific plan in the downtown specific plan. Moving forward here, I won't go over every single one because again, this program was presented to the planning commission and and council, but for the newer commissioners, this is the type of allocations uh that they can submit for reimbursement. So, this is what we were reviewing with the ad hoc and it was a very diligent process. It wasn't just a matter of hours or or seconds. It was really diligent on making sure not only did they meet these criterias or they submit, but hearing the planning commission ad hoc's recommendations and

that was quite a a time in a good way. Some of the program procedural steps just kind of how we got here today. We submitted the I'm sorry, we released an uh application flyer. We brought in the ad hoc committee which was composed of our our chair and our vice chair and we were able to review these types of grants to see hey which ones are good to move forward and which ones perhaps didn't submit all of the paperwork may have not submitted art renderings we're missing a key piece or may have not needed the full reimbursement. Then we did actually in-person visits. We visited every single location. the planning commission was able to give real thoughts, real recommendations on the spot and it was really good a visit. We were able to tree a trim along the way. So, it was a worthwhile uh trip and more importantly visit all of the businesses and having the business owners directly um let the planning commission know how much this means and here are their recommendations. And then finally, we are here tonight to give you the recommendations. This was the flyer that was distributed to uh make sure all of the city of Hemtt business owners were aware. We mailed these out. We gave them to all of our shopping centers, big and small. We even did downtown visits and did our very best to pass this flyer to every single business on the screen here. I know it's kind of small for the audience. Um it might be a little hard to read it. I don't blame you. But these were the applications that were submitted to the city of Hammet for the micro grants. As you can see here, there are a multitude of applications from Florida, Harvard, Bulkman being obviously in in the Florida and Harvard corridor for a grand total of $543,000 of um requested funding for all of them. But obviously, we didn't have that me much funding available. It was eight grants at 30,000 or less depending on if

they requested the full sense. and and you'll get what I mean by that shortly. Now, before I move over to to the next slide, and this is the the beef and potatoes here in order to get to the next slide, it took multiple meetings, took a a visit, it took calling these businesses to get updated art renderings. Some may have submitted an application without knowing what exactly we're we're getting in return. So, I have a little bit uh a sneak peek on what those look like. Some were really detailed, some weren't, but nonetheless, again, they're small business, so they did their very best to provide. Here are the five recommendations for tonight as you can see here. Number one is S and and bear with me and planning commission. I would just like to go through these through because we may have people here. I want to make sure that the property owners are here or aware and hear this. So, number one for these are recommended committee micro recommendations. Recommended. Number one would be the Simon Trew property for 135, 137, 139. They're all connected in one for 30,000. And I'm going to show you exactly in a shortly what they're proposing. This would be for paint, sign, awnings, and landscaping. Having done the walk through, I can definitely see how paint and awnings is going a long way. In particular, landscaping facing State Street, we really have something going here. And if the city's able to work on our downtown parking lot there with EV chargers, all of a sudden that whole corridor became a fusion. Number two is the car wash right on Iness and State uh uh um I'm sorry, Florida Street. They're re uh proposing a mural along with potential some landscaping if any funding is available, but it would be mostly offer mural funding. And um you'll see a little bit of what they're proposing. If you never been inside, they actually have a mural there from 1992 that still looks fresh. I could have sworn they just painted it yesterday. Number three is the law

offices of William Van uh order 135 South Carmelita Street. Uh 6,000 is being recommended for paint and landscaping. Uh the some paint there and landscaping can go a long way. It's right here actually on the not too far from city hall. Number four is the Vista Park Professional Building Owners Association, 133 North Buenav Vista, sweet one and four. What a beautiful building. Uh but it definitely needs some upgrading. Uh and and I do believe with some of the paint, awnings, lighting, signage, parking lot and the vinyl uh trail, if I'm hoping I'm pronouncing it correctly. I know Mon'nique knows how to use those and say those. It's going to be such a beautiful area. So I really believe that that corridor across from city hall, we just painted city hall. We have across from us a physician coming as well right by the gas station. Birth choice just opened up. Now we have a lot of good fusion happening in that area. And last but not least, funny enough, right next to it is Dr. uh Sab Chiropractor. Uh 30,000 for a sign and lighting. The building is already pretty much up to date with paint. That's across the street from our city hall. He tends to paint his windows different seasons, so on and so forth. He just wants to get a sign so he can decorate the sign. and you'll see what I'm talking about. Sorry, I didn't even move move my slide. Geez, I was talking this whole time. So, be I'll give it a couple seconds for the audience to kind of take a look, but that's what exactly what I was referring to one through five. I should have turned the page there under the slide, but you kind of get an idea what I was proposing here. Moving forward here, again, these were some of the best art renderings that we were able to get by the applicant. This is for the 135 through 139 North Harvard. Here's a conceptual art rendering that they're proposing. It was submitted to us black and white. Uh you can see there on the left actual uh digital wise and on the right some actual architectural handwritten drawings, but it really showcases the new doors, art renderings. I'm sorry, uh the awnings and paint and

more importantly some signage on top really is going to go a long way facing the uh State Street corridor. Moving forward here, this is the car wash depot that had mentioned. They're debating on which side of the car wash they would like to go in either east or west. I believe we had recommended going on the east part. So, it's facing State Street. So, this picture may necessarily not showcase that, but when we did the walkthrough with the planning commission, it was recommended on the east end facing uh state might be at a better location for those. And these were just conceptual ideas. They are open to working with the city on providing what the city would like on their as as far as a mural. Uh this is the law office is a William van order. As you can see there, those are the uh landscaping trees that they'll plan to put in there in the precise location along with some paint. So just FYI, that's right next across from city hall. And there's also a city public parking lot right across from there. So, if that's updated in the near future, now we're again more fusion, more energy. This is the one I was talking about about the Vista Park Professional Building. Um, they did submit a nice plan. I couldn't include all uh all the art renderings, but you can get an idea of the of the Trulies or hopefully I'm pronouncing correctly on that corridor. The new sign, oh man, that's going to go a long way as you're driving there on Buenav Vista Street. You'll be able to see the sign that is pretty at this moment. I'm not sure you've seen it, but it needs some TLC. It definitely needs it. I'm sure they'll want to keep the old one if approved. Uh but definitely needs a new sign there. And then last but not least, Dr. Savet. He's looking to add a sign on top. Right now, it's not really showcasing uh his sign in the front. So, he's hoping to have a beautiful sign to showcase Dr. Sav chiropractor. So, that gives you an idea of what they're requesting. So overall, again, it it was a great time going over every single application. It

was not easy to get to this point, but here we are today for the micros, and we're hoping that today we can get some guidance and a awards if possible. So, commission, thank you for hearing me out. I'm open for questions. Thank you very much, Ben, for that presentation. I'm glad that uh we we are here to discuss this. Uh commission, any questions for staff? uh the car wash. Um would that be something that maybe I know we just recently voted on the um the art project. Would that be something that maybe the art project plan can work for instead of a grant?

That that that can be potentially something that if there was uh grants available after this first one. The second would be us looking out for grants and such or private investment. So we can possibly go off for some state funding for another grant if possible. Um so that is an option as well. Okay. And I and I believe that was a recommendation if I remember correctly by uh vice chair on looking into that grant. If not available going after the mural that's the one like right behind that um train station, right? Exactly. North of the train depot. If I recall the art program that being discussed the tax are you talking about? Yeah,

I think that was more for new development and for commercial and housing. Um I think they uh exempted remodeling from that category for that tax, but I think that's strictly going towards more new new development and new commercial development tax. Okay. And he could be selected as [snorts] the next mural, but it wouldn't be guaranteed for the next one, but just as an but it was recommended to seek state funding first, see if that's available. if not go after the the mural on this grant here. Gotcha. Okay, questions.

U see what else? Um [clears throat] I like the asphalt idea. I like the picture as well. Just drew in with the black finger. That was pretty funny. Um but that that parking lot definitely looks like it needs some improvements for sure. Um other than that, I think all these buildings um Simon uh that's going to be nice because that's hitting three. so to speak, businesses at once. That's correct. Um especially if you want to bring those EV chargers. He said it's on it's facing State Street.

The ones that he's proposing to remodel the three buildings would be on the street uh sorry State Street. The Chargers will be level two and threes. We're exploring in the downtown where exactly we we have quite a few parklands. I didn't realize how many we had. We are 10 plus. So we have to make sure just to figure out what's the best location to place 4 to eight chargers. Gotcha. Level two or three. So, for those that drive EVs, you know how imperative level threes are for long trips, so it would be perfect.

Yeah, for sure. That's a good idea. Um, and then the last thing that I would have is just the uh the signage that you said need some TLC. I noticed that you have some um some planters hanging off the side. Um are those going to be watered every day? What happens if they die? Is that going to be fake plants? This picture here, very good point on that. I have seen right now they have some plants, but it's not on there. some more like vines and such. That's a very good question, commissioner, that I can go back to and I'm not sure if the property owners are here today that they can probably comment on that. Did you have a idea on the planters by any chance? You like to comment on that? Okay, cool.

That works. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. That sign definitely definitely needs some some love and care. It look good. Yeah, I don't have any further discussion. Yeah. And and when I did the walkthrough for the Vista Park, uh they were very excited and I I feel like they might water it 10 times a day, you know, in a sense that they're going to be on top of it. All of them were ready to go. So, I do feel and it's good. You can see the support here. They're very excited for the potential. That's cool.

Now, I just want to I just want to again express um uh appreciation uh to staff and then also to all of the applicants. Um that was a really really um really enjoyable and and uh fulfilling uh experience. Um it it was it was great to meet everybody um discuss their application, their ideas uh and and kind of work through that process to um come up with a with some some support from the city to help. And I I I was I was really happy to be a be a part of it. So, thank you for um managing that and and and keeping us all on track there, Ben. Appreciate that. Thank you for keeping me on track, honestly. Commissioners,

I'm just going to echo off Vice Chair's word. I I had a great time having the opportunity to be a part of this. It is hard to be able to that big list that we had to be able to pick and choose. uh when we we we based this based on what was being presented and how it was presented and uh many hours and back and forth and meeting the property owners. Uh I I think the ad hoc committee came up with the best decision we could for these micro grants. And I just want to thank those that did apply that didn't qualify. I there will be another chance sometime in the near future, I'm sure. And uh but I just want to thank everybody for taking the chance and applying and letting us have an opportunity. So

thank you. Thank you, Ben. And if I may add one more thing, Commissioner only because you had brought up and and and it's on my brain right now at a CDBG out of a different funding stream sometime this week or next week. The goal is this by Thursday, we will be releasing a different type of commercial facade improvement program. This will not be out of general funds. This will be out of CDBG for 20,000 or below. Very restricted, just five things we're going to be um reimbursing. So for those that may be in the audience that may have not uh received award funding, that can be a grant that they can go. It won't be as big as maybe 30,000, but it'll be 20 or less with five items to select from. Absolutely. Just as an FYA chair, anything will help.

Thank you. All right. Uh with that, we're going to go ahead and open up public comment period. Are there any members of the public present that would like to comment on an it on this agenda? No chair. No. No. All right. With that, we're [clears throat] going to go ahead and close the public comment and ask the commission to Wait a minute. To direct us to staff or do we approve it? didn't say anything about it. So Teddy the Well, go ahead. Yeah. Okay. The file to receive the report and approve the city of HMIT.

Oh, okay. Approved the city of HT commercial facade improvement grant program ad hoc recommendation for small business micro grant application. So moved. You just said I said I moved it. You have a second. I second. Can I get a roll call? Commissioner Vermont. Yes. Vice Chair. Yes. Chair. Yes. That carried. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, guys. All right. Look forward to seeing those plants watered.

Yes. Make sure they don't die. Now we are going to move on to uh re-imagining our Weston Park. [clears throat] Can we have a presentation from staff? On might help. There we go. Turn it on might help. All right. Good evening, chair, commissioners, members of the public, staff. Thank you for having us tonight. My name is Eric Bungie, the executive analyst for the public works department, and I'm joined here by our team from Community Works Design Group, and speaking alongside me will be Analisa Escobar Gomez, and they were our consulting firm for this project, um, design and outreach as part of that contract. Uh we are here tonight to present the proposal for reimagining Western Park, an effort that seeks to revitalize an historic space in the heart of the city. All right. Weston Park has deep roots that date back to 1921 and its dedication in 19 dedication and naming in 1930. It's been a place of gathering. Um, as you can see, it's a little small there, but that's a still from a black and white video that we found or that actually been found from 1937. And the palm trees are a little smaller back then. They're definitely growing up now, but as you can see, there was a definitely a central gathering point for the city even back then. Um, and it's rumored that even Teddy Roosevelt came to speak to the crowd at the band stand that used to be at Weston Park. So again, the roots are deep. It's also featured in chapter seven of the downtown specific plan update. uh with a vision of a multi-generational park that includes amenities like an amphitheater, outdoor dining area, playground, botanical garden, exercise equipment, game courts, passive open space, uh stock farm inspired archway gate for entry, um and

in general just basically different areas and different things to attract different types of users. All things were similar of what we heard the community through our outreach process that we just undertook. The park was identified as a priority um by council as part of the FY2526 uh strategic plan as well as it's part of the city's broader uh downtown revitalization efforts. More specifically, it's action number nine in the places section of the of the Hemet Rises economic strategy. Currently, Western Park has some amenities such as a playground, the only public indoor shuffleboard court, two b half basketball courts, a monument sign, a restroom which is currently closed, and picnic table used to have picnic tables that were removed due to operational challenges and vandalisms, a flagpole, and a large open grass turf space. Um, technically in the gazebo that we visit Santa in during during the holiday season. While these elements provide the park some functionality, there is not an operational or it's not operating to its full potential. The park remains underutilized and limited activation of the space has unfortunately led to undesirable some undesirable activity at the park and again some sort of vandalism and um unwanted activities that I kind of touched on earlier. However, its central location within the city presents a significant opportunity to reimagine the park, transforming it into a community centralized hub once again. So, community outreach. This process dated back to our first kickoff meeting back in August. And since that time, we have worked closely with the community throughout this process. This concept before you tonight has been shaped by them, and it's not designed in isolation. We took a multi- channelannel approach to our outreach efforts, including QR code project signage in uh that was displayed in city hall in the library, included in the city newsletter

twice. Um and it has its own landing page on our website. Uh three interactive um sessions at public events where we got outreach at those. Um and Alicia will go into that a little bit in um the next couple slides. As well as we did a workshop with the youth council. Uh we had some fun ideas come from our youth which is um a Godzilla statues something Instagram worthy fish pond definitely Wi-Fi access. Um but ultimately it mirrored what we heard from the rest of the community as well with two caveats. I want to be fair and transparent with all the information that we received. Uh the splash pad and the dog park were the least desirable activity or amenities for them. Makes sense kind of from that age group, right? Um but they had this great idea of instead of just having plain concrete, we should incorporate interactive or creative designs within that concrete as well and kind of make it an art piece in a way. Um alongside that we had an online survey um both in English and Spanish with initially gathered over 400 responses and from a divi diver dang diverse range of voices we heard um the main themes being safety shade family-friendly amenities recreational opportunities uh place for events water play and art summarize we can summarize this basically into a category is a safe and welcoming place to gather. We had fun creating a social media video as well that got a lot of attraction and impressive engagement over our multiple uh social media um social media platforms. And we heard themes that were mirrored across those as well. Safety, homeless concerns, shade, flower gardens, um walking paths, recreation and water play for kids, and entertainment. Uh that said, there was two things that we received a good amount of responses in the in the comment sections of each. One was areas for uh youth football, the other was a pump track. Um there's conversations potentially about com combining the skatepark with a pump track around that. Um you know we can look at other parks as well that might have some extra space like a Gibble like Gibble Park for

example potentially accommodate football fields that the community needs as well. Um just food for thought as we go through this. Um definitely enthusiastic positive responses. Um make it safe again and it's about time. Gotta love social media right? Um combined with that as well as we had a few internal staff swap meetings. um SWAT analysis meetings and that was with planning commission, our police department, public works, uh city manager office, economic development, as well as we brought in our council subcommittee on this priority as well. Um and it's important to hear what does the community want to see at this park? And we'd be I'd be happy to go into any of those specifics further and we'll get into those as we continue throughout the presentation. But at this point, I want to pass it off to Anicia to go into the further uh community outreach efforts. Thank you. Uh, good evening, planning commission. Um, it's my genuine pleasure to be here this evening to talk to you about the community engagement process that we've conducted over the last few months. I've gotten to know a lot of your staff, um, a lot of the community members as well. And everyone has been very warm and welcoming and excited about this project. So, um, just to kick it off, we started at developing the community survey to start to try to narrow down what amenities the community would really want to see. Um, part of that was developing a place to distribute the QR codes. And we started with the September 11th um, Weston the sorry um, the concert series outreach event. And through that concert series event, we had over,300 members of the public at least be introduced to the idea of redesigning the park. Um from there we we didn't h solicit um feedback and on anything other than what amenities the people would want to see.

Uh from there we attended the first inaugural rodeo deloul. Uh there were 900 community members who showed up. We also offered a similar voting strategy to what you guys experienced tonight only we didn't have chocolate. We just passed it out. Um, so we had red and green voting stickers that were to represent um use on each of the different amenity elements.

And from there we also attended the city's shocktoberfest was which was really well attended. Um there we invited the the participants to also draw the park and what they would like to see. So we got a lot of ideas from the children about what they would most actively use because the whole goal in this whole process is to create a facility for the community to become this heart of the city and that a place that will be activated for positive use um for the whole community. So as you can see here, here's some of the results from our community feedback. So the same kind of sticker exercise was utilized to narrow down the amenities that would fit on the 4acre park site. Um once we had the direction from there, we were able to uh between the surveys where we got the first initial survey, we received 420 responses from the community as well as receiving all of the inperson feedback. Um with that the shade and comfort was one of the most important um as along with safety. 81% of the of the participants um also believe that the redesign will transform the downtown into a safe and welcoming gathering space. Um part of that too was really creating active recreation opportunities. Um and then also looking at creating social spaces. It was great being out at the at the Mary Henley Park at the concert series. You know, everyone was having fun dancing and we would love to see that incorporated um at Weston Park also. So, from the top priorities, obviously, it's a 4acre park. There's some amenities that we would we would looking to maintain, especially the preservation of the heritage trees and that are in

the park currently. Our first design was this radiant plaza and heritage gardens. Uh new mayor Krooa had uh recommended in one of the SWAT analysis meetings with stakeholders to incorporate a Howard Rose Garden. Um and so that was that kind of took the precedent on this one. Also leaving the shuffle board building intact and in place. Uh the second model, the second concept introduced uh on-site parking, but that did also eliminate some of the four acres uh that was could be utilized. And so that was taken on um to get people to provide parking on on the site as well. And then the third one, the third concept was kind of cultivated a few of the different ideas, but in this iteration, it did have the removal of the shuffleboard building to make more space for potential pickle ball courts and other items that we had heard back from the community um that they wanted to see as part of the active recreation. Uh these three concepts were taken were then put back online um and Eric and staff had reintroduced it through social media and we attended the Christmas parade uh where we had an opportunity drawing and as you can see between the voting on the final concept um between the third concept was the winner by far between the in the votes in person and on the survey. Okay. And so for the preliminary final design, we again we took everything back to the stakeholders and the city staff. We met with the police department um also to

make sure that everything that we were going to incorporate into the final design would meet safety and visibility and incorporate all of the key priorities and amenities that we had heard from the community. So, this preliminary final concept does keep a blend of all of the different um some of the different items and aspects to um concept one and concept three. And so those ones, this one does keep the fin the shuffle board building. We had a lot of feedback from the members that about of its importance and wanting to maintain it. Um so we included that in the final iteration of the concept and it this one focuses on developing a central amphitheater and maintaining those state palms that Eric mentioned earlier. Um it also includes active shade shaded playground areas and the potential for like a ninja course for older teens to play on uh to engage them.

No worries. Uh and then it also in introduces again we have opportunities to either have a pickle ball court or the ninja course. Um it also creates the one of the first I believe fullcourt basketball courts at the city of Hemet's uh parks and then also presents opportunities for new econom economic development with areas um in the front for potential food trucks. We made sure all of the all of the sidewalks essentially are you can drive up on it and have food trucks. That was a great part of most of the events that I attended and everyone was very happy to see them. Um and that's I know that's an important part of the emerging culture and um he and so we've incorporated all of those things to allow for the space to meet and accommodate that. and then I'll kick it back over to Eric because he has some final design considerations for you guys.

Yes. So, we have a couple more slides, but then we'll open it up to discussion, feedback from the community, etc. Um, and we can kind of jump back through the slides as we go as well. But, um, again, some kind of when we're looking at that amphitheater stage area in the middle, um, some considerations that we want to talk about, at least get your perspective on for sure, and ultimately this will go to council for final adoption or approval as well. Uh those are mature trees, you know, and those aren't cheap, right? So, do we want to pair it with a new tree? U maybe a 10-footer that grows up alongside of it. It can resemble something new, something we, you know, so it's you have the history as well as the new kind of blending together and growing together. It also kind of mirrors that or sets the stage so to speak, right? On both sides, there's also an idea. Do you eliminate, you know, do you eliminate that one palm tree? There's one there right now. And to the right of it, there wouldn't be in in real lifetime, right? So, you know, do we create some symmetry? Do we create some seasonal tree to where we can add some color to that scage area? So, it kind of changes over the course of time. Um, and then another consideration too, I know it's a little dense, but it's easier than backing, you know, jumping forth a bunch of different slides, but there's a lot of different design concepts and things that we can talk about too. Um, but on the very right, a recent development. Um, we talked to our, uh, partners over or our, um, neighbors, I guess, over at RTA. Um, one opportunity would to be instead of the just being a big rose garden in the front as a focal point of the park, it could potentially be a B Poland bus station. There's currently a bus stop at the US Bank. I almost said Union Bank, but US Bank as well as El Toro Market on the opposite sides that would merge those into one. So, it' be more of a user friendly thing. Kind of help that flow on Florida a little bit as well. Might drive some indirect traffic and some activity to the front of that park as well. So, that's a consideration. would love to get your perspective on that. Um as well as some other elements um elements too. With that being said, I kind of will take a little bit of a pause. I'll open up for discussions. Either that or I can go kind of through

the checklist and we can talk about them one by one as we go. Okay. Thank you for that presentation. Uh commissioners, any suggestions, any uh recommendation, any concerns? Yeah, I'm a uh I'm [clears throat] a huge fan of the conceptual landscape one. Um, I like what you did with the area, the pickle ball court, existing shuffle board. Um, there was that many people that do shuffle board. So, a few of them here, a few of them here tonight. So, actually, and that's something that covering the history part of it, too. So, it has deep roots. We're part of district 7, which has been around since 1963. So,

I can't tell you how old that building is. Maybe somebody has that historical knowledge here. Um, but it's been there for a long time. There's 50 active members approximately. Uh they they play three days three days a week currently. Four three days a week. Uh plus they host regional tournaments once a month. Plus they host a senior Olympics out there that draws a couple hundred people. Yeah. From around the region. Will that building be updated like where they get a fresh coat of paint or So what you thinking?

Oh, we can go back to the presentation. I don't know how we Sorry it back there. Okay. Um, so it's kind of hard to see, but in the middle corner right there. So there's two different kind of concepts, right? We have a big white building right now. Um, it's got a nice new there's a shuffle board on the side of it. Nice a brand new coat of paint. Could do. Or do we [clears throat] take this as an opportunity to showcase the building and use it as a mural, right? And we can even, we talked about the rich history of the community. We can, you know, just like the car wash was about to do with their the side of their property. Do we do that? So I don't know if I can laser point. Doubt it. Oh. It's not going to work on the TV, but like right in the middle left, you'll see the train. Um, there's some oranges. There's definitely a turkey show. That was There's a little history on that. I kind of a turkey show.

Yeah, I kind of geeked out a little bit when I was going in down the rabbit hole of the of the history of the town, but um so there's some different concepts there um that we can include as a mural. Or another idea um chaperel at the side of the gym. I don't know if you've driven by there, but they just did a really cool facade on the side of their gym that we can actually our logo might be may or may not be rolled out here soon. Um that we could actually use that as a metal art piece to project out backlight it seeing from Florida. That'd be a really opportunity for that building andor do you do that on the front and south side and laam do you do the mural on that side as well just to give that building enhancement. It needs a new AC unit from our facilities director and there's a little bit of plumbing issues too that could be corrected. But um definitely uh there was considerations about potentially, you know, reimagining what that looks like. Do we move it to a different park? You know, is there space at Gibble for something like that? Those were conversations that we had. Um ultimately from a just a cost analysis perspective, historical perspective, it makes sense to keep it at Western Park.

It's probably a lot cheaper not to destroy it either, right? Yeah, that too. Yeah. Those court those courts aren't cheap to build. How much does one of those uh can those palms cost? A mature palm like 30 grand. So a 30footer could be upwards of six figures. Um couple K to remove it. Um if you get a 10-footer, it's you anywhere between that like 15 to 30 grand mark. So 10 to 20 PH. So it' probably be nice to do like um you know some seasonal trees instead of buying one.

Yeah. Yeah. So, it's it's like it's a little awkward right now because again, there's one mature tree on the right. At some point, the one on the right or I mean there's a mature tree on the left. That one on the right was removed at one point. Who knows what happened? It might might have got diseased or something at that point. But again, this kind of gives our um generation per se an opportunity to incorporate the new with the history. So, it's it could kind of be a nice blend of both in a way. Sure.

Yeah. You know, something with a lot of shade. And if we do remove that other palm, do we plan to sell it? We either would sell it or we would look to move it as well. Um, you know, I don't know what the feasibility of actually moving something like that would be. Potentially selling it would be another alternative too as a mechanism to fund this as well. Um, the history it' be kind of cool to keep that in the city too. Maybe it's, you know, does it have a better place. Uh, those conversations haven't been had at this point. Um, but, you know, if that's something that we're entertaining, we'll definitely, you know, have those answers prepared for either when we come back or when we go to council. For sure.

Sure. And also I'm not the huge the biggest fan of the bus stop in the front. Um you know you see the bus stop right there on the east side of the mall. You know it gets a little trashed up and you know not the friendliest people there. I guess you can say that hang out at the bus stop. Um you know being at a park and being close to you know where kids play. I like the fenced off top. That's cool where it's fenced off so you know they're not going to be running away. And something for your consideration too that we don't have in any other other parks. The top right top left corner um they actually designed that in another park and they brought that up in one of our swap meetings and it totally matches the or

reaches the topography of our surrounding community. So we were able to kind of tie that into it may or may not tie some logo aspects into it as well. Um you know but definitely mountains um you know we talk about the topography [laughter] seeing the mountains and [clears throat] the you know the sanga peaks around here. So we wanted to be able to tie that into the park as well and kind of be really thoughtful and intentional in that design. Yeah, that looks way better than the chain link fest, right? Or even, you know, or even kind of a bigger um like shepherd hook or something like that. Yeah. And the amphitheater, is it going to be completely closed or is it going to be open?

So, it's going to be open. Um there's two different concept. One one's a closed one, one's an open one. Um the consideration for leaving it open was for safety concerns. Um if you create a shell, now you're creating kind of a potential barrier um and blind spots for PD when they drive around the park or for security or whoever's, you know, kind of managing that park. So, the open concept made sense. um kind of in the I guess top right um that's from Muretta. So something similar to that. The final design of what that is and what that looks like hasn't been ironed out yet. Okay. Um but at least from a safety perspective, it would be an open um kind of a covered area. Open covered area we'll call it. Yeah, I'm a huge fan of this concept. Looks good. I like the basketball courts, the pickle ball. It'd be cool to get a dog park in there, but doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. It's all right.

Selfishly that right. But um because our only dog park over is um on the west side of town, right? So that was one consideration about, you know, kind of moving it one central, especially a small dog park because that one's kind of a mixed blend between big and small. So, you know, but again, space considerations, it's tough to fit everything into uh four acres. But speaking of that, perfect segway because one thing that I failed to mention is actually um so part of the part of the design was actually a meandering walking path. So it's kind of a figure eight in there that's about a quarter mile and station along that is exercise equipment as well. Um so that would be something that's extra added for the park. Um it's kind of a byproduct to also get different types of users in there as well. Yeah. It's like that one park in Sanino. Right. Right. And that's kind of

that's like a little gym outside.

Yeah. And that's kind of you know got us thinking about the pickle ball courts. Right. And then you do we do ninja play that Santa Park has those cornhole boards that are concrete out there that are pretty cool. That's an amenity we don't have any at any of our parks right now. Do we do a handball court? Technically, we don't have any of those um in our parks right now either. So, those are all kind of tough considerations. Obviously, pickle ball is a popular sport, so that's why ultimately we, you know, we threw it in there. It was actually the second um most rated amenity when we went back out to the community as well. That being said, I know we're looking at different stuff of like, hey, you know, I know we've really heard from the community that we need um tournament ready courts, which you need at least a minimum of six. Do we look at the tennis courts at Gibble or adding a couple courts over there to make it tournament ready? That's a possibility. So, you know, does another pickle ball court here make sense? Who knows? That's kind of TVA, but this would be more familyfriendly versus tournament. So, it's kind of a different audience, too.

All right. Yeah. Thank you for your presentation. Yeah.

Um, so as a as a being born and raised here and my dad had his office on Buenav Vista, I spent a ton of time there back in the late 70s and early 80s. Um, uh, there was a really awesome merrygoround. I think I have a chipped tooth from it. Um, it would be awesome to I think there's probably a safety issue now with those, but but it would be so cool to have a have a have a mirror around it. Just that's a my own personal uh thing. Um, I I think it's just first off really awesome how much involvement you guys got from the community that that that I think

shows that that it's a very wellthoughtout and and um and brings in a lot of elements that the community wants. Um, for personally, keep the trees, keep the trees, keep the trees.

Uh, you know, some of those really old pictures of Florida Avenue, they they have those. they're really a pain to maintain and everything else. But just anything with that long, excuse me, that long of growth, you can't you can't replicate that. Uh, I like your your your your idea of ha of having some old and some new and then also providing some definition and some change of colors throughout the the season to kind of accent those those trees. They're kind of ugly by themselves, but but you can add to to them. Um, and then also that kind of ties in with with with some of the themes, you know, uh, you're already incorporating the kind of healthy lifestyle, um, active park, the workout stuff, PE places where where parents can come with their kids and do do a lot of things. I think that's really cool. Um, the I the I I like the idea of having one-way streets on the on both sides. So that way you get the parking without giving up the space.

I'm glad you brought that up because that was something that we didn't kind of touch on, but that was definitely something that was echoed through the community. Just an end user standpoint. Easier to pull in than parallel park. I hate parallel parking myself. So like, yep, all all in for that. So um it's about a net even when you go bumper to bumper. So just from a community, you know, accessibility standpoint and a user friendly standpoint, totally made sense to go that route.

Yeah, for sure. Um also on themes, history of the valley and the topography and the beauty of the valley. I I I like that idea of including the ridge lines and you know just just you know Titz Peak, but just just being able to kind of just uh have an opportunity at such a such a a historical site to bring all that stuff in. Um really excited about it. This is this is this is awesome. I don't really have any any other comments or things to add to what you guys have put to together. It it sure seems like it's been a very well um resourced or a solicitation to the community and so trust their their judgment on that

and input. Thank thank you for the presentation. I used to go there a lot as a kid to Western Park when uh we didn't have as much transients hanging out there as they do today. So, and I do love to see the public being involved and being able to pick the colors and what they want to do. Um, one thing that kind of the only thing in that map that kind of concerns me is is the water park part. You know, I love the idea of water. We're here in 100 degrees. It gets hot. The kids need to cool down. But from a city's perspective, that that's a that's a kind of an expensive maintenance when it comes to filtration. Uh, you know, there there is one I did a little homework. I forgot what city it was, but somebody put laundry detergent pods into the water and then they had to drain it out, clean it, and and so I just see that being kind of a long-term cost issue with the city by incorporating a water into that park.

Um, shuffle board building, I'm glad we're keeping that. I know uh the the last couple months with the plan uh city council there was a lot of representatives from the shuffle board committee that came here and as soon as they saw that it was being removed they made their voice heard and and Mayor Kupus said we're keeping that building and I think using art for all four walls would be a fantastic idea on that building because it's just an ugly plain white wall and um uh it became Weston Park in 1930 so we're less than four years away for the hundred years. And I think we should maybe do like a time capsule burial on that park too as well

as a kind of a ceremony. And uh just because we're getting near that 100 year marker with Western Park. Uh see anything else? I really don't have I I mean we we can do pickleball nights. I um that other half basketball court I think could be another pickle ball court. So So could we have shuffle board now? We got a senior attraction there and they also like pickle ball. So be able to do all that in one area would be would be a nice feature for the seniors because again we don't have really a senior center here. So senior gathering but I do thank you for your time. I love the idea. We definitely need to do something. The outdoor theater is an awesome idea and the fact it's facing towards Florida so it's not going to interrupt with the neighbors. If there's music and stuff it's going to face that direction.

I love the idea. So uh any other questions for staff? Nope.

If if I may, I have one question for you. So, as we're in front, I guess technically two, but one consideration that we're thinking for the second half basketball court. Um, all of our basketball courts are are half courts. Um, one the one side would be our first public facing full court as well as we have that additional half court. We're thinking about maybe even doing an eight and a half foot basketball hoop. One um potentially people in wheelchairs if they want to be able to access the site, that could be something that they can play on. And the kids under 12 don't shoot on a 10 foot hoop. Um, we can't really make it adjustable. There's probably some vandalism. I would I would definitely dunk on an eight foot hook for sure. Right. But so we wanted hardy steel and all that fun stuff, but that would be kind of another element that we would bring in that we don't have it offered at any of our parks right now. So um so just kind of throwing that out there for that. Um potentially making one of the playground sites full 88 um accessible with wheelchair ramps that go throughout the whole thing. I've seen Marietta put a couple of these in. Um we definitely don't have that at any of our parks now. So this is kind of our opportunity to take this blank blank slate, incorporate some of those elements and really, you know, be intentional with the design. Speaking of being intentional with the design, we have an opportunity to also theme the playground. Um, and we have a lot of different history and roots. One idea would be, hey, do we want to do a train station, mirror it off the train depot? Do we want to make it like an orchard? Do we want to, you know, uh, kind of make it off the stock farm and do do a fun farm thing? or do we just want to, you know, all the kids love firet trucks or we make it a big pirate ship, right? So, that'd be something that I would, you know, kind of put it out to to you all to see, you know, if there's a kind of a theme that one isn't represented in the park already, but two that would be, you know, really meaningful to him that say, hey, this makes a lot of sense to keep this. I know mayor uh Krupa last meeting mentioned something about when the city attorney is working on it for the language but temporary graffiti wall kind of concept for local artists to come in

and I think that would be a more cost effective inexpensive way of just putting up a kind of a a wall behind the amp at the outdoor theater where kids can do art and do graffiti walls and change the themes you know Christmas will be a Christmasy kind of theme and things like that what Mayor Koopa expanding out on expanding on. But uh but no, I'm excited. As far as a theme, one one one thing maybe for consideration would be an agricultural farming, right? Kind of a theme. That's a that's a large large um history here in in the valley. You know, some tractors and things of that nature. It's a good idea. Yeah, I like the agriculture theme for sure. Okay.

You know, instead of it being random. Yeah. in in the original design too in the downtown specific plan, it did pull in kind of those elements too of the big, you know, stock farm gate gated archways. Um, so that could be kind of something in that consideration of that playground as well um to kind of pay homage to that history too. So definitely I also liked your idea of the Chapperel mural or whatever Chapperel did um on that side that faces Florida. I think that's a really cool idea on that, you know. Yeah, if we go back to the presentation, I can kind of pull it up too and so that way the audience has a visual too. in the time capsule. That's a Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, let's circle back twice. So, sorry it if we can go back

Gus Marco.

Sorry. Thanks, Gus. Um, see if we get to the um, yeah, so it's hard to tell, but like the middle right or I mean sorry, the middle left on the screen is kind of what Chapperel did, but you know, do we do our new HM logo on it? Backlight it. Um, so and to kind of talking about the different splash pad options, that's another consideration. Um, so Tmacula has two. We definitely have some lessons learned from our neighboring cities, which is great for them to be able to provide that feedback. Um, without, you know, catastrophes happening potentially, you know, if there's pouring apparatuses and guns and different things that shoot water, you know, it's upwards of $80,000. A lot of man manh hour and man time. I actually have stats if we want them. Um, in here somewhere, but um, and then if we go something simpler like that's at Banner Park in Meny, if you drove by it, you probably don't even know it's there. is just a circle concrete ring with with jets that shoot out of the ground. That's a little more like $30,000 annually and it takes a couple um um one staff member checking it a couple times, we'd probably contract out that service because you need a specialty license, all that good stuff.

What about like a misting station kind of thing where you know even adults on a 100 degree day and if we have an event out there, they can go over there and cool down in a misting station instead of water shooting from the ground because again something people can't mess with. People can't put stuff in that water and let it recycle and uh we're a missing station. It just it's not recycled those water waste in a way. But

yeah, we threw that out there in concept one of the second round of voting and definitely the splash fed for obvious reasons was more popular. But that was something that we were looking at too. They uh even make bench stations like just um kind of seated areas that just have um like a canopy that rain it's almost like a rain down too for something to that effect. So it could be an andor, maybe a not, but that's, you know, another kind of element, added expense, all that fun stuff. But, um, you know, definitely when we were looking at, you know, um, the number one thing that was one was safety concerns. The second was a splash pad.

Um, and it's also in the council priority, it specifically calls out a splash pad at Western Park. Fun fact, um, the downtown specific plan calls that out for that the civic center um, for whenever that was looking to be developed. So that's kind of was the house of the or meant to be the house of the splashbad. Um, so I think that concept is now moving and migrating into Western Park as a more focal point. If there's a lot more kid-friendly, family-friendly activity is going to be happening there anyway. Probably makes more sense to have it there and then instead of like a, you know, in a plaza setting.

Well, maybe we can have an idea for a backup plan for a splash pad in case, you know, two years down the road something doesn't work out instead of just turning the water off and it there it sits, right? I mean, we can do something else with it as a backup plan because I just see I just see some issues with children playing in water and and it being on the city because it is a city park and long-term wise. Yeah,

for sure. Um and yeah, and some of the long-term considerations that we took into effect too is what Tmacula found at one of their splash pads is their um playground is really close to their splash pads. So either residual water spray or wet kids playing on the playground caused some erosion there too. So, um, those are that's rationale for why we spread those out a little bit further, too. Um, but yeah, there's other concepts as well as like doing, um, sculpture art that also kind of serves as a fountain area. There's, um, like splash, you know, splash water tables that could potentially be incorporated as well. Um, you know, that water kind of runs through, pours down, all that fun stuff. Like we have a plastic one in our backyard that our kid loves.

Um, so, you know, those are kind of different considerations, too. Um, in addition to or maybe that's less less jets that shoot up out of the ground and we have those interactive play toys too as a as a consideration. But maybe for the fitness you can have like a sign that you know equivalates how many how many times around the park. The figure eight like you mentioned would be a mile. Yes. So it' be four. Uh it's just about a quarter mile if you start at the very you know start at the very top. Do they do the figure eight come back to the top? It's about a quarter mile. Oh that's cool. Right. Yeah. Nice. Um, any more questions for S? So, one more question for you. Sorry, I know this is kind of a weird little back and forth.

No, this is great.

Um, so Emry actually had a great idea um about using So, the sides of the park are going to be desert landscape. That's going to be potentially one of the funding mechanisms. Um, Metropolitan has a water wise rebate grant out there right now to remove turf and um do it into waterrise landscaping. So, um, but from our plan, from our community development folks, we, you know, could use that potentially as an opportunity. We could just have one desertcape or we could potentially use it as like, you know, the front of it would be a traditional California that you see with like cactus, DG, large rocks, river rocks, but it could migrate into something that's a little more Mediterranean style. So, it can kind of almost serve as a pallet or maybe inspiration that other commercial businesses, Florida businesses could probably draw from as well. I don't know if that's something we want to entertain. If if you guys think it's a good idea, um we'll we'll pitch it to council as well. Um but just kind of as an opportunity to, you know, instead of just putting Desert Scape in the sides, like, hey, let's kind of use this as a showcase piece in a way.

Yeah. I think I think um that anytime that you can provide the community a illustration of how good that can look. Okay. and to kind of help help accept that as the new norm kind of, you know, in terms of what they, you know, what their front yards look like. That's that's a great idea. Um, you know, there's EMWD has a demonstration garden that shows different types, but yeah, to have have that as a as an educational component and maybe that might help that might get some additional partnership from EWD, MWD, South W to maybe partner in on that as well. I think that's great. I think that's a great idea. And there's a grant for it.

Um yeah, through um Metropolitan right now. So I saw one of the businesses was looking at water wise landscaping. They could qualify for that as two. Depending on which water district you're in, this would fall into our own. Um but uh which is $8 a square foot for commercial. EMWD has one that's um $9 a square foot for commercial. You have to meet certain requirements, certain amount of plants per square foot, all that fun stuff and minimums, but um just as a it would be an additional funding mechanism. we wouldn't be able to use it on a full park um because we're putting in concrete that's a permeable surface, but definitely that where in the areas that we're replacing grass and putting desert wise landscaping, especially in the front where we're going to be doing the house Howard Rose um garden as well. Um you know, that would be those would be areas that would count for that grant. Yeah, it's a good idea, Emory.

One one thought on that just we may want to um reach out to Metropolitan sooner than later. That's a very popular program and funding is going very quickly. So, you may want to try to get something at least reserved um sooner than later. It's I think that the commercial uh has just recently dropped. Um the re the residential is still up at its its original amount, but just there. Yeah, that's encourage you to get that application in or at least have the conversation with Met and I would be happy to um help with that with my other with my other hat.

Okay. Okay. Thank you very much for our presentation. With that, we're going to go ahead and open up any other questions before we open up public. We're going to go ahead and open up public hearing. Are there any members present that would like to comment on this item? Yes, chair. We have two. Our first would be Charles Heap, and he has three minutes, followed by Genevieve Widman, who also has three minutes. Okay. Thank you.

I'm not used to doing this, but I play for shuffle board district 7. We have been playing I moved here from Roondo Beach 10 years ago, and the shuffle board has taken over my life. [laughter] Um, there's hundreds and hundreds of us in this valley that play. This board has been here forever and we just want to keep it. Okay, that's pretty much all I have to say. A little paint on the outside, maybe a little board. We're good to go. I want to invite all of you to come play. Come and play. You will enjoy yourself so much. What are the hours?

Um, we can get open whenever you want. I have a poem. She has my poem. [laughter] Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next. Next we have Genevieve Whitman.

Hello. Um I at least wanted to start with the uh the surveys and stuff and the fact that the information showed it was only about 25 to 44 was the age range of um survey uh participants and stuff. Um so just to make sure that that it is fully accessible and things like that. So rather than just online maybe telephone calls and things like that. Um also too I really uh whatchamacallit functional flora um the idea you know high desert to chaperel like I I I really do like that idea of the water wise development pro program and stuff. Um but if we are going to remove say uh trees and stuff that we um replace them with oak trees and stuff that is something that has been um endemic to California but was wiped out kind of from disease and things like that. Um, also I the ninja course makes me think of the skate park where that's something that is very much all ages and stuff like that. Um, and uh, you know, yeah, basketball courts, full court and then a 8 and 1/2t like that's I don't know. I think those are great great ideas. Um, even to and you know uh the idea of cleaning up the city and stuff like that. Um, it should be done with care and not callousness. Like the idea of a public shower would be something that I think would be to everyone's benefit. Um, there's already the concept of eyes on the park. So, you know, there wouldn't necessarily be um I'm trying to think how to put it. You know, there's already safety developed into that system because there's quote unquote eyes on the park. Um, so there's only one accessible amenity uh in the area, the VA Valley Restart. They offer showers on Tuesday and Thursday

till 10:00 a.m. in the morning. Um, and so if we we always need to have a step forward and with care in mind, not punishment. And so if we aren't going to have affordable housing just yet, at least public showers would be a step in the direction. Okay. Thank you very much. Is there any members any other public comments? No, chair. All right. With that, any e comments or on zoom? No.

All right. We're we're going to go and close that and uh just basically receive the presentation from public works staff regarding Western Park reimagining incentive and also provide input which we did on the process project goals and guiding principles to inform future concept developments. So we will just go ahead and move that on to I believe city council for them to finalize it. Okay. 8A is city attorney reports. I do think that laundry soap in the is a funny thing. I could see I could see you doing that.

Thank you, chair. Nothing to report tonight. Okay. 8B, community development reports. Director Monnique. Uh thank you, chair. Nothing to report. All right. And how about some future agenda items?

Yes. Coming before the planning commission will be the 2025 general plan annual progress report. Um also uh we will be presenting some concepts for the pro housing designation program. Cost and square development conditional use permit will be moving forward um in the next um upcoming months. Uh we will be uh reviewing a palm a conditional use permit for Palm Valley mobile um uh ABC licensing proposal. Via de los Territos tenative trackmat 38979 will be coming forward in the next few months. Uh we hope to have a code cycle update for you uh regarding uh residential construction as well as uh pre-approved ADU plans and these are the items that we have planned for our future agenda.

All right, thank you very much for that. We got a little some stuff coming up to coming to the table here. Future agenda item I'm sorry, planning commissioner reports. Commissioner Ber Montes, I have nothing to report. Uh, vice chair Worth.

Uh, I just want to thank uh staff and the city manager um again for the opportunity to participate in the uh the ad hoc committee and then also for this um work session. I think it's uh it it it definitely helps um the commission at least myself feel like we're doing something that uh we're supposed to be doing here. So, thank you. Uh, also just a little side note, side personal note, I did miss the last planning commission meeting, but it was because I was meeting my sixth grandchild. So, my poor son has four daughters under the age of four years old. Not poor, he's very blessed. But anyways, so

congratulations, Chair Beam Sturfer.

I'll just start off with it if he can put that picture on there real quick. So this is just something Chat GPT came up with. It's hard to find Dr. Weston on online. Any any pictures, but Chat GPT I kind of jotted up an idea with Chat GPT of a mural kind of idea that would be on one of the walls that we can use for art. And you know, nobody knows what Mr. Weston looks like. So I mean this is just something that's his park. We should at least dedicate a wall to him at least. Um time changes this weekend. Friendly reminder, uh, city council approved for a second reading the art and public places. Um, some of them expressed some concerns. Council member Males u wanted to recommend the uh 0.25% for commercial and half a percent for uh uh I'm sorry 0.25% for residential and half a percent for commercial. I'm not sure if that will be written in this the second right uh reading. Um the ADU state mandate was approved of course because it's statemandated. We have a new interim city clerk. Uh Mrs. Homestead is it?

Holstead. Okay.

Uh the auto mallal tax sharing agreement with Mr. Ben Sandable was presented and it was approved. Toyota is going to be receiving an average about a $7.5 million under tax sharing program. That's going to include expansion of the service base, solar, EV stations, and it's going to take about two years to complete, up to 30 new jobs in Timoran Auto Group for Hyundai. It's the [clears throat] same thing, going to be receiving about $7.5 million of tax sharing program. Uh, and that's going to include new showroom service center being remodeled, solar, and up to 18 months with 35 new jobs. The payback on that is going to be a half a percent instead of a full percent from the Bradley Burns fund plus the measure which is the 1%. So we'll be getting average about one and a half% for outside uh residents coming to buy from us. Uh Ramona bowl was approved for 50,000 every year for the next five years from the city to help with just it day-to-day functions. Uh 16 shows are planned for this year for Ramona Bowl. Uh so there are busy and let's see Riverside County Planning Commission approved uh a 36 unit apartment complex with containing four buildings off of Colombia near Acacia. That's going to be moving on to the the supervisors to approve. We have a job fair coming up for him Unified School District on March 17th from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Uh and I believe that was at uh Acacia Middle School. Uh, the grant program ends March 17th. So, anybody is looking to open up a restaurant, it ends on the 17th of this month. Habitat Humanity is doing their 16th annual Diamond Valley Lake Marathon on Saturday. This Saturday, uh, Golden Era on the 28th is doing their fishing tournament. and uh Councilwoman Valley Van Deber uh from Seno was uh

woman of the year being recognized for Riverside County Supervisor uh today actually. And um another thing is Stan Avenue. I'm I'm happy we're getting a new road on Stan Avenue between Santa Fe and Buen a Vista, but it's been dirt for a week and it's kind of out of I'm glad they're starting to water it down because it is just extremely bad for the environment, the amount of dust that they've been kicking up and I hope that project, the construction contract that they have finishes it because uh it's been a week now of it being just dirt and it it needs to be fixed. So, uh, with nothing else to report, we're going to adjourn this meeting to March 17, 2026 at 6 p.m.