Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

city website and by teleconference via Zoom. I'd like to remind the planning commissioners to have their microphones turned on in position so that the audience can hear. Director Monnique, may we have roll call, please? Commissioner Ver Montes here. Commissioner Hill here. Vice Chair Worth here. Chair Beam Sturfer here. Okay, we're going to do invocation flag salutes. We'll start with flag salutes first.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our heavenly father, guide us, guide our hearts and minds as we serve today. As 2 Chronicles 1:10 says, "Give me the wisdom and knowledge that I may lead." We ask for that same wisdom today, Lord, to make sound decisions for our community. Amen. Amen.

Agenda item four is for public public comment periods, not on the agenda. Are there any members present that would like to make a comment on an item not on the agenda? Yes, chair. We have Roy Michael uh present to make a comment on warehouse. Okay. He has three minutes.

There we go. Good evening. My esteemed colleagues, my name is Roy Michael. I'm an 11-year resident of the city of EMTT. I love it here. I really love this community. I live at the Lakes of Hemet West and 5T east from my bedroom is the planned warehouse project, Hemtt Logistics West. Uh we are a 55 plus community. So, and our average age, I'm guessing this, but I believe it's right around 70 years old. I turned 72 in a week. Um, a lot of us have breathing issues. A lot of us have other ailments. And with building this warehouse, you there's going to bring in a lot of harmful fumes. Everybody knows this. It's all part of the program. Um, I'm also a member of the press. I contacted the environmental services pro uh department at UC Davis and it took me a few phone calls, but I finally got one of the PhDs to talk to me. And I had explained to them, you know, what information I needed. I needed to know how much of an increase in harmful fumes, particullet, all the stuff that comes with cars and trucks and manufacturing and all the things like that. And they said, you know, I've never done that kind of study. I'm interested. Let me see what I can come up with and I and I'll contact you. Few weeks later, I got a call back and he said, you know, uh, there's a big difference. He says uh so what he told me was that the field itself is rather inert. Realistically it's giving out about 0.0025 in harmful fumes. And I'm thinking that's not a lot. I'm thinking maybe some gopher past gas or something. And uh he said what we're looking at is about a 6,300% increase which would take it to 15.75% harmful fumes coming out of there. If

you take 0.0025, multiply it by 6,300, you get 15.75. Now, I was at a meeting o uh week 10 days ago with the people from the project that came to the lakes at Hemet West to talk to us and try to um see what we could get from them so that we'd be happy with this thing. And I I didn't really want to have any of that. They stated there were going to be 185 trucks a day coming in. Now, please click check your records because they said this to me twice because I called them on it. Uh, multiply that, that's 370, something like that, plus all the cars and all the things that are going on there. Uh, that's a huge increase for a uh property that has a lot of old people. We have uh a lot of people in there with COPD. My wife has it. She's also a a stroke survivor. Uh there was a wonderful um woman my age named Pat. She always came to our our uh pickets and things like that. She carried an oxygen thing with her. She's since passed and I know she's watching over all of this. Um that will kill some of us or make us sicker than we already are. Uh like I said, I turned 72 shortly. Um please don't do this to us. Please don't let this happen. Um my wife's a uh an invalid. She's a stroke survivor. I have to be there to take care of her. Without me, what can she do? Again, please don't do this to us. Thank you.

Right on time, Roy. Thank you very much. All right. You guys have a good night. You You do the same. Any other members present or on via Zoom or teleconference? No, Chair. That was it. Okay. With that, we're going to move on to the approval of the minutes from the planning commission meeting of April 7, 2026 with the corrections of the minutes. Uh there was a a misprint of the date and they corrected that if I'm correct on that. Yes, chair. And everyone has a copy of the correct minutes.

Thank you very much. So, with that being said, does the commission have any comments or corrections? Anyone want to make a motion? I motion to approve the minutes of planning commission meeting of April 7th, 2026. I second.

We can vote on the screen. Might as well use the technology we paid for. There we go. And that passes 4 and0. And now we are moving on to receiving and file for the community solution coordinator presentation on the HIMT beautifification incentives. Uh may we have a staff report? There we are. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the planning commission and fellow esteemed um staff members as well. My name is Christian Tikas. I am here to do a presentation on the community solutions coordinator position and what we do uh with all the uh hemmed beautifification uh initiatives and some and so without further ado u sorry I had the wrong item number on there I'll correct that afterwards so just so you guys know community solutions coordinator has defined um implements develops and coordinates

special programs that have a broad impact on the city and are designed to address and meet specific needs, quality of life issues of the community and members of target population, including but not limited to the facilitation and integration of homelessness initiatives, engagement efforts, policies, services, and funding, which may include coordination of access to workforce, education, training programs, and other services needed to improve and promote housing stability for eligible persons. These programs are often established to meet temporary, short-term, and long-term city goals or specific grant funding objectives. The community solutions coordinator also serves as a city's unbudsman to assist in resolving resident business owner complaints received either in person, in writing, or through our wonderful Cclick Fix app. So, on our first initiative, and um this one's very near and dear to my heart. So, just a little background, uh, roughly before I started working for the city back in 2021, uh, my wife and a group of, uh, individuals that all live and and serve the city, um, just got together and said, "Hey, you know what? We need to love in our city." And we started our own adopt a block initiative which uh basically uh adopted certain areas uh of town that were dealing with some some issues whether it was um blight, you know, homelessness, um poverty, things like that. And so as we came through those areas of town, we just started meeting and meeting our neighbors really and just kind of connecting them to the resources that were available at the time. And so we started that back in 2021. And in 2023, uh the initiative of adopt a street was kind of uh brought forth by at the time our mayor I think was um Mayor Carly

Meyer. And so we uh kind of worked with her just to kind of give her a little bit of the footprint on that. Uh and uh I had uh our organization which before I worked for the city uh was a nonprofit that um took care of a lot of the local city issues with uh homelessness. Um start were was the first city to do the ribbon cut was the first organization to do the ribbon cutting for an adopt a street that we still service to this area. And since then, um, we, uh, have 30 organizations and families. And, and just to give you a little, uh, uh, run through, adopt the streets initiative, uh, is a collaborative effort between city, authorities, residents, and business owners. Under this program, individuals or groups commit to adopting a specific street section and assume responsibility for maintaining its cleanliness with a minimum twice a year cleanup. And so when I came on board with this city, I think we were only at 12 organizations that had adopted uh the uh uh different parts of the of the city. And uh we are currently at 30 organizations and on track to meeting a goal of 40 this year actually. And so we have everything from families, churches, service clubs, um, and, uh, and businesses that have adopted up to a mile of street within our city limits to just maintain them. And I encourage them to maintain them more than just twice a year. We have two um, initiatives that will, one of them that I'll talk about that will help them kind of collaborate with their own adopt a street initiative. So that's one of the ones that um again near and dear to my heart. Uh and when they told me that I was going to actually oversee it as I came here, that was kind of really cool full circle moment for me. The next one is um the hemmed

beautifification contest that's been running for the last two years. And there's a link in there, but I think on um the uh um the agenda is the links to a lot of these websites. But this uh contest runs every May to August of every year and it gives the uh opportunity for residents and businesses to beautify their properties and contribute to the vibrancy of our city. Uh the great part is that we uh reward our our um participants uh with um uh giving them thousand uh um cash uh prizes for uh beautifying their their properties. Um the um the city awards seven total winners. Two uh that are citywide. One is for residential, one is for commercial. They each, like I said, re receive a $1,000 um um cash prize. And each council district uh awards a winner in their council district as well. where we judge those um those homes based on how they uh upgrade their curb appeal, uh their creativity with their landscaping, um any architectural enhancements that they might add and and stuff that's obviously sustainable that will hopefully uh live through our our our hot summers, right? So, uh this is one that's been running uh again for the last three years. We're going to um announce it again coming here uh next month or so and just to get uh people on board and again it runs from a uh from May to August of every year. The next one which is happening so appropriately this Saturday is uh the Hemtt beautiful community day of of service. Um, if you don't know about this, um, I'm surprised, but this is,

uh, the city, uh, where we host an annual citywide cleanup event, uh, reinforcing commitment to maintaining a clean and vibrant community year after year. This reoccurring initiative unites residents, local businesses, organizations in a collective effort to pick up litter, remove graffiti, beautify public spaces, and enhance the city overall's appearance. And we'll do things just as simple as litter pickup to painting and uh improving some of the uh areas and services uh gardening, planting, weeding, uh public space and park beautifification, street and neighborhood improvement projects. And I do want to just kind of uh do a pitch for the for those in the audience that uh there's a QR code that you could sign up there. Again, it'll be this Saturday. We meet at West Valley High School. uh for a pickup uh a kickoff, I'm sorry. And um we'll break you off into different teams and different groups to go and and and help. Uh right now we have about uh 11 different project sites in the city. Uh everything from mulching to uh we're actually completely revamping one of the parks that's right across the street from city hall. And uh and yeah, it'll be a really great event. We have the uh county supervisor that comes out. Uh our city council people of course will be there and hopefully our planning commission as well. And uh just again opportunity to just loving our city and and really just work together with that pride of just being a fellow resident. So I encourage if you haven't already to sign up for for this Saturday's event. Another uh initiative that I started when I came on board here is the uh hemmed outreach partnerships for empowerment or the hope initiative.

And uh this uh is again to kind of deal with some of the issues that we deal with um at the city level uh with um things like homelessness and and and blight. So, um, just to summarize, the philosophy is based on the transformative power of collaborative partnerships to address homelessness and crime. Sustainable solutions emerge when local government, law enforcement, businesses, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and concerned citizens unite as one cohesive body working hand in hand. and the empowerment through collaboration where real change happens when communities leverage their collective strengths. Local businesses provide economic opportunities, citizens offer insight and support, and faith organizations contribute compassionate outreach all in partnership with government and law enforcement. And again, if you go to our city website, um just type in hope in the search bar, it will take you to this page. This page is a resource page really. So everything from food pantries to shelters to drug and alcohol um programs, nonprofits that help with mental health, behavioral health, you name it, we list a lot of those things on there. And um as part of it, we created the city of Hemet quality of life hotline, which is uh noted on there as well. And it gives you a few options in um kind of getting a fast pass to either reporting a concern um if you're needing homeless outreach, reporting graffiti, banning shop abandoned shopping carts, uh reporting code enforcement issues, and also requesting resources. So, they all have an extension that rings the appropriate uh departments and people that will help you with those sort of things. Um the

great part that uh this uh hope um initiative has started is that we have a monthly uh resource meeting with local nonprofits uh businesses uh you name it. We gather every month uh on at city hall and we talk a lot about the resources, the programs and uh some of their initiatives that they're helping uh with um benefiting literally our our our city residents and and whether it's the homeless population, whether it's, you know, families going through financial crisises, things like that. Um there's programs that a lot of the resources and and that was kind of the whole goal of it was to bring forth a collaboration and um a partnership with all these organizations to know who they are really because it gives them now an opportunity to uh refer to resource one another and really help the community uh as a whole uh with a lot of these complicated issues. And so it's really helped a lot of the resources including our only our own county departments like behavioral health, mental health, uh we have street medicine that comes to our our meetings and even now u I just got a call from our own sheriff's department out in the uh in the county side that wants to take part in these meetings as well just to get up to speed with things like that. So our own police is is involved with this. we have our seabbat unit that comes to it. And so it's become an amazing um just collaborative really uh where we come and we offer solutions, we offer programs, and we also case manage some of the individuals that we're dealing with uh here locally uh just to provide the proper and adequate um help for them. So this is really one of those uh like projects that I started working on when I first

came on board and it's really grown to something where uh you know even the counties taking part in in these sort of things as well uh these meetings on a monthly basis. So um it's really really um I can see the lives that have already been affected uh from those people that are you know dealing with certain issues uh that have come through the the collaborative relationships um through these meetings and whatnot. So um it's a really really you know I think powerful part that the city plays in uh kind of looping in all the resources and being a hub for them as well. So that's our hope unit initiative. And then here's another one that we just started uh this year in January called the I love HMIT project initiative. And this was really designed to uh promote again beautifification, community pride, and but it offers our residents that meaningful opportunity to volunteer uh with different service projects, whether it's um painting, weeding, trash picking up, things like that. And we're offering it on a monthly basis. Um that way it's kind of a meetup. We host it every last Saturday of the month in the mornings. We notify all the people that register. Uh here's our meetup location, what we'll be doing. And uh we get a lot of high schoolers, a lot of uh people that need community service hours, things like that to come out and uh just take place in the in the cleanups and uh it's pretty cool because they all get a t-shirt that says I love him. And I'm not sure, have any of you guys seen those shirts already out in the areas? Yeah. So these uh again it just helps ignite pride for our city and uh and just continuing that initiative of of just um you know taking care of our our our city. So moving on, this is a new one that we are

launching next month actually in May and this one is called Paint the Town New. Um, it's really just a a part of our spring beautifification initi in initiative and, uh, what it does, it invites residents, businesses to refresh the exteriors of their houses, their commercial spaces and, uh, you know, it doesn't matter if it's a home, storefront, commercial, whatever it is. Uh, we're just encouraging people to kind of freshen up the outside exteriors of their home. Um, it's a pretty simple project. Really how it works is uh you make a decision to paint, you know, or refresh the exterior of your property, home, business. Uh we have a list of participating re uh retailers that we will be announcing next week that will be taking part of this initiative. And what they'll do is if you mention the paint the town new initiative uh when you go purchase your paint or your paint supplies they will offer a discount um based on what their discounts are you know uh it's it's it varies based on the retailers. So, uh, again, another just way to just get our businesses, um, more business to shop local, right? Um, and, uh, just giving, uh, our residents, you know, that that discount that they might need just to help paint and, uh, invest into their properties as well. So, no, it's there's no registration required, but we do want to probably do shout outs, uh, social media posts of people that are just kind of taking part in in the the painted town uh, new initiative starting next month. Uh, and finally, just kind of to summarize some of the things, uh, I had mentioned Cclick Fix as an app. If you're not familiar with it, um either you can search it on your own phone, uh which is an app that you

can download, cclick fix. Uh it allows you to uh report issues whether you see uh trash, graffiti, uh potholes, abandoned vehicles, uh downed trees, you name it. Um and it allows you to take a photograph and report it. And what it'll do is it'll notify the uh the departments within the city um to handle these issues a little more uh quickly, right? Um people tend to see things a lot sooner than our own city employees uh see it out in the streets. So this gives our own residents and even people that work uh in town the opportunity to report some of the issues. Uh since I came on board, I've been uh kind of I've been monitoring this on a daily basis. What requests come through? You know, some need a little push to uh get reminded to to get the attention that they need. Um but when I came on board, uh we had 3,59 requests in 2024 and we bumped up to 3,786 requests last year, which was about a 7% increase. Uh but the great part that um we helped minimize was that the average open to closed um response time for each request was averaging around 15 days almost two weeks to get accomplished and done. Um but now uh we've moved it down to six days is the average uh for some of these requests. So, we're getting a lot of these requests responded to and moved on um a lot sooner than what what it was before. And so, and again, as as an unbudsman, um my duties are to help the citizens. I the embudsman um trait is uh basically a representative of the citizens, right?

that help them uh with whatever the issues that might come up, you know, whether it's living in town, dealing with um how to find permits, things like that. Um my background covers a lot of these extensive experiences. So, it it allows me to at least offer solutions and really be the problem solver for for some of the issues that that come up. Um I have training in conflict resolution. I respond to I rate uh um people that might come into city hall every now and then. And so it allows me just to kind of calm the the uh the circumstance and and help bring uh a solution or clarity to what the issue is and and offer just again uh uh um a basic solution or at least just an ear, right, for someone to listen to what the issue is um to help resolve um whatever the concern is. So um that's pretty much it. Um, I just posted there are some of the say no to panhandling um signs that are going to be posted around the city. Uh, just as a reminder, we do have a no panhandling ordinance. So, it's not allowed for people to be asking for money on street corners and things like that. So, as a reminder, I just tell people, you know, don't give money. Just point them to the resources because they're available. There's a lot of help out there for those that are willing to take it. And so, uh, I like to connect people in that aspect of things and really help empower them instead of just relying on handouts to take the hand up instead and to get to a better place so they can um just be more more effective in the way they live as well. So, that is all and thank you. I will be open for any questions at this point.

Thank you very much for that presentation. And it's always good to see the work and the effort to try to make downtown and our city cleaner. You know, we want to make him and his heaven again, right? The old train, the old saying. Um so, Ver Montes, you have something you like to say. Yeah, thank you for that, Tristan. Um that's a very helpful presentation there. Um I like that the um the no pan handling signs are going up. I know Lakeer does it. I believe Maria also does it.

Um the quality of life hotline, what are the hours for that? So it depends on the issue. Uh option one which is report a concern typically goes to the PD non-emergency line. So that's always monitored. Uh all the other ones whether it's public works myself is is included on one of them. We just have regular uh business hours, you know, but we get all those emails sent to us directly. So, I can monitor those after hours and and just look at the the kind of the urgency of things because I do get urgent calls and and those I I tend to at least monitor just to just to respond to them, you know, because we don't want um people's safety, right, to be affected when it comes to some of these things as well. So

yeah, I know. I used the app um as well and I had a quick turnaround one time. It was like two days. It was great. It was for some graffiti. Oh wow. Um yeah, it was really really awesome. Yeah, that's one thing that I try to push is that we need to have graffiti, especially if it's on the on our main corridors covered up within 24 to 48 hours. Awesome. Yeah, I appreciate it, Christian. It's awesome. You're doing a great job. Thank you, Commissioner Who? Yeah. Hi, Christian. Thank you for this presentation. And I have a few questions. Um, well, one statement. Um, he be he beautiful for this Saturday. Yes.

Um, I think the CRNR at the library is the same time and same day. Yes. Thank you for that reminder. We are we are working in collaboration to get rid of the junk that same day. So So we'll have um all our CR and trucks behind the library. Yeah. Saturday as well. So, I was planning on doing this on Saturday, but because I I have to get rid of some jerk, so I might be a little late. Um, can you go back to the slide that talks about hope? Sure. if I can.

There it is. Mhm. Yeah. So, under the hotline, you have those uh items there. report a concern. Can you give me an example of what a reporting a concern is? What are you talking about there? And and that's why they tend to be kind of non-emergency issues. Yeah.

Um so if someone in a sense this is the more common thing that I that I hear is, oh, there's someone that is either under the influence, right, running around either on the street or something like that, right? And so, um, that tends to be a non-emergency issue where police will tend to respond to. Um, we might actually just change it instead of report a concern, contact PD, you know, we might just change the verbiage so it's so it's more direct as far as what what that option is. Uh, we've already had discussions about that. Okay.

But, um, but yeah, issues like that. Um and then even um uh our dispatch knows kind of based on whatever that call is where to kind of uh route it to as well if it's not something that they handle. Okay.

And then homeless outreach, what can you give me an example there? What's what does that actually mean? And so that's uh when people land on our website, if you check out if you have a chance to check the website, there is a if you're experiencing homelessness, um please fill out this information. Um and that gets sent to myself and another individual that uh contacts the uh homeless population that's dealing with being on the streets, things like that. And so the homeless outreach, what it does, if it's within business hours, we can respond to them, either meet them wherever they're at and just kind of do an assessment of their situation uh to see what their needs will be or would be.

Okay. Is it sometimes if the police run into homeless people, they might bring you in as homeless outreach? Is that correct? Kind of. Okay, I got you. And then we do also have a part-time um retired police officer that's doing this position just to kind of help alleviate the the the case load on this and and he's typically on Mondays and Thursdays. Okay. All right. Excellent. Um request resources. What kind of resources you talking about?

And that comes directly to me. And so again, this allows me to at least funnel through a lot of the uh active resources that that I'm pretty acquainted with, whether it's um I need to pay my utilities, I can point them to a resource that helps them do that.

Um if they're behind on their rent, there's other resources I can help point them to that. Um, again, if they're experiencing homelessness, depending on their situation, uh, I get calls that people want to get off drugs, get off alcohol, things like that. That's another resource that we can, uh, refer them to really. So, it's it's really the resource line is kind of a linkage line in a sense where we'll link them to the appropriate um, resource or or service that will help their their need. Excellent. Excellent. Wow, Christian, thank you so much. This has been enlightening. Thank you very very much for this. My pleasure in your service. Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely. Ditto on that. Um must be a pretty u fulfilling and rewarding role. Um just on on since this slides up, can you give a sense of of the quantity of calls that you get um for for these six options?

Oh, there's definitely calls every day. um ranges between maybe three to five calls to on an an excessive day it'll probably be upwards of 10 to to 15 calls. Um so we are tracking that you know and it's um there's really no um given like um time frame when we know calls will be more I mean typically if someone's dealing with um like an eviction we get a lot of those calls being evicted they don't know where to go you know and so um sometimes things where towards the end of the month I I think I I'll see more of an influx of people either they don't have enough money to pay for their rent or that sort of um situation. So, but yeah, the calls all range, you know, from I need help to um you know, where can I get, you know, information on on on things? So,

perfect. And then on the adopt the street, um the what percentage approximately is uh is private citizens that adopt those out of those 30? That that's the first part of the question. The second part is um are there resources available uh for people that may want to for example um you know if safety vests uh traffic training um you know trash bags things of that nature are are there resources available to people if they'd like to volunteer that? So, uh, back to your first question, we have about seven families that have adopted, um, you know, whether it's they've dedicated it to a loved one or it's a family that wants to kind of care for their area. And so, we have seven that's they're all listed on our website, which is great. And yes, we do have uh um supplies available. And so, uh, WRCOG has partnered with, uh, this pro this project, I love Hammet, um, to provide pickers and vests and gloves. And so, uh, whenever someone reaches out with their interest, we do tell them that we'll provide their first set of gloves and pickers and, uh, even some trash bags. Um, the great part is that once they do the cleanup, all I need them to do is notify me where the trash was left and public works will pick it up the next day. So, uh, they don't even have to worry about disposing it.

Yeah. No, this is great and I think it's I think it Thank Thank you for the presentation and and and and come in here to um, uh, highlight some of the the really positive things that the city is doing. I think that that's a that we need to do more of that and let the community know that there is there's there's a lot of good things happening as well.

Yeah. Some of the things I haven't mentioned is that every month we do a business walk and uh it's typically with our mayor uh the particular city council member for that district. Uh myself will take uh someone from PD um Ben from economic development. uh our city managers come on these walks and we go and we'll take a certain shopping center in in the area and we'll go and talk to all the business owners uh in regards to these type of initiatives. We have a booklet that's also on the hope page. It's our our business um it's our business resource guide it's called and a lot of these things are mentioned on there u and we just kind of provide them the business owner some of the employees that are there just kind of a brief overview you know in a in a in a five minute spiel kind of um just these sort of services and and the feedback has been tremendous that the businesses are are really um just uh honored that we'll take the the time to come by and talk to them about this and and just give them updates on these sort of things. So,

well, thank you very much. Just going to go back to the resource that we were just mentioning and you said to call like you gather trash, have it in a bag and you call the city for a pickup. Is that two weeks in advance? Could I read something about it? You have to do it two weeks in advance to request that for the adoptive street. For the adoptive street to pick up the trash. No, the adoptive street. They just need to notify me of the day they're going to do it. Okay.

Um and I don't need that much notice, but um I've had people call me the day before and say, "We're going to do our adopted street." And I just tell them after you're done, send me a picture of where the trash is and the location. And uh we typically either have our public works that can pick it up either same day, depending on the day, uh or the next day. Okay. And then uh I'm not sure with the beautifification for the front yards. Um is the water district still offering rebates on turf and things like that for people that want to be unconservative on the water? Uh currently, yes, but funding is

limited is uh getting expended very quickly. So Okay. Uh, the other question I have is, um, on the paint thing, we're we're keeping it. I know we're probably going to contact Lowe's and Home Depot and stuff like that, but are we contacting the mom and pop stores like Value and all them? Absolutely. Okay. And then on CC Click Fix, I use that several times and I also show residents kind of how to use it and try to really encourage it. I'm trying to remember though. Can you report like a stray animal if it's running around on cicklic fix? There is. Yes. Okay. It's unpermitted animal. Okay. I don't have any other questions. And with that, uh, commissioners, any other questions for staff?

Well, Christian, I really appreciate your presentation and we'll go ahead and receive and file. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. And uh, we're going to go ahead and let's see. Old public comment. Are there any public comments for this? No, sir.

Okay. With that, we're going to go and close it and receive and file. Moving on to action item seven for the Browns Act. City Attorney Leo Sari. Yes. Thank you, chair. The long awaited Brown Act. Okay. So we have the disclaimer and a little background um history and Brown Act. Number two will cover the meetings and the definition of a conduct agendas and notices closed sessions and enforcement. So um what is the Brown Act? I know the commission knows what the Brand Act is, but we'll just do a little quick overview. The Brand Act is a California state law that establishes the procedural framework for members of the local government decision-making bodies to openly meet, debate, and act. The overall um understanding of the Brown Act is to promote transparency and public participation in local government. Who does the government or who does the Brown Act cover? It covers the legislative bodies of the local of local public agencies. And let me put on my glasses really quickly. Um for cities, that's the city council, advisory, standing sub subcommittees, and resident boards and commissions. All meetings must be open and public unless a specific exception applies. And what is a meeting? A meeting is what we have now and today. A meeting occurs when a majority of the members of the legislative body are present. So for the planning commission for now, I know we have a vacant seat. We have four

commissioners. So we need at least three. Um it includes meetings held via teleconference or other electronic means. Prohibited meetings are meetings where the majority of the body may not use telephone, fax, email, intermediary such as Instagram, Facebook, um that's where a majority of the body should not be communicating because then it would technically be considered a meeting. So that leads into a serial meeting which are in a series of individual communications that taken together involve a majority of the body. So we can say let's um say Commissioner Hill sends an email to Commissioner Worth and then two days later Commissioner Worth sends an email to Commissioner Bamster forwarding Commissioner Hill's um correspondence. taken as a whole, it could be considered as a meeting. So, acceptable communications and public access. Permitted communications are attorney client communications, uh, one-way staff communications with city staff and individual members, individual contacts with constituents, staff or consultants. So, Commissioner Hill can confer with Commissioner Worth and they can have that discussion. types of meetings. A regular meeting like today at the planning commission holds every other Tuesday must include public comment on non-aggenda items. We also have certain situations that we have a special meeting which is any meeting other than a regular meeting and it's typically held for a specific topic and it does not require public comment or non-aggenda items.

Agenda notice. Notice is essential to public's ability to monitor and participate in government decisions. We have posting requirements for regular meetings. It must be posted at least 72 hours in advance and special meetings require a 24-hour in advance. Close session. Um although the Bren strongly favors open and public sessions, there are instances that we do need close session. Um, for the purposes of the planning commission, we don't have close session. Um, usually that pertains to employment um, situations or um, real property negotiations that the city council um, usually has. And of course, there are enforcement repercussions for Brown Act violations. um it's very rare because there are um buffers before it gets to this position that allows the public agency to make those corrections or to cure it, but there are enforcement um repercussions. So the key takeaways are members are representative of the people, you are representing the city of HMT and you are entrusted to manage government affairs in an accessible and transparent way. The Brown Act exists for the benefit of the public and we know that failure to comply can result in legal penalties. And if you have any questions, please let me know. Um you can al also reach me um via email and if you'd like a deeper dive, I'm happy to do so. And I also wanted to take note um about the city council meeting that we had um last at this last city council meeting. They um the city

council approved an amendment to the rules of decorum resolution 4545 and the proposed rule changes are the standard time limits. So they decided to maintain the default 3 minute speaking limit. They did do an adjustment for large crowds. So if there are 15 or more speakers present, the mayor or the chair may adjust individual time limits. You can go down to two minutes if feasible. And total time limits introducing the option to set a total time limit for public comment on an item. So for example, if depending on the number of people that are present, you can have the time limit to be 1 hour or 45 minutes. And individual testimony mandating that testimony be delivered individually, effectively ending the practice of pulling minutes or sharing time with others, citing practicality following state changes under SB77. SB77 is a new bill um that is effective January 1st, 2026, but there's a two-tier part. Another part of it is going to be effective July 1st, 2026 where it requires um people that so we have someone that's on Zoom, let's say, they can't really share time with someone here. So, for the purposes of the um clarity and for an easy meeting, that's why we're deciding to mandate that the individual testimony be delivered by that individual and not shared, per se. So, there are a couple of other rules um involved with SB77. Another one is to have each commissioner have a copy of the Brown Act um pamphlet. And I believe if you haven't received one, you should receive one via email. Uh the Brown, it's pretty much a userfriendly Brown Act um guide um that

we're required to provide to the commission. Yeah. And that's all. Thank you for that presentation. Uh any questions for our city attorney, Commissioner Hill? So Leila, people cannot share their time anymore. Is that correct? Because we have allowed that in the past. Correct. So that's out. That's out. Gotcha. Thank you. Yeah, that was going to be my question. So that for for people in the audience as well. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Interesting.

I know they mentioned that if somebody wants to say something, they can always write a public comment, not necessarily have to speak it out. So So their voice is still heard. But uh Okay. With that, uh any other questions? Okay. Thank you for that presentation. Do we need to do open public comment for this discussion item? You can. It's a receipt and file. So, red here. We're going to go and open up for public comment. Is there any members present that would like to speak on this item? No, sure.

All right. We're going to go and close that. And moving on to 8A public hearing items. May we have presentation from staff, please? There we go. Everybody hear me?

Yes, we can. All right, great. Looks like the presentation got a little funky on some of the formatting there. All right. Uh, my name is Nathan Mren. I'm assistant planner here at the city of HMT in the uh community development department in the planning division. Tonight I will be presenting to you site development review modification number 25002 and tenative parcel map modification number 25-004 which is a modification of previously approved site development number 23-008 variance number 23-002 and tenative parcel map 38450 otherwise known as map number 23009 and for the palm bill is at for the city strategic plan integration integration. Uh this meets goal one quality of life and goal two economic opportunity. The applicant for this project is Palm Communities as well as also being the property owner. The location of this project is at the northwest corner of State Street and Menllo Avenue at the following parcels shown on the screen. And the applicant is here with us tonight. They are on Zoom. A little bit of background about this project. So on February 26 of 2024, the planning commission approved the following applications for a site development review. a tenative parcel map and a variance for a 100% affordable housing development known as the Palm Villas at state. Uh this original approval was for 157 units um again for a 100% affordable community on a 7.84

acre site here in the city of Hemet. The development included seven threestory family apartment buildings that are up to 35 feet in height. A two-story community building with a manager's unit, a singlestory maintenance building as well. Uh these apartments um are ranging in size from 753 ft to 1,03 square feet for two and threebedroom apartments. Um this project also included the tenative parcel maps as I'd mentioned. Um, and there was also a dedication to the county of Riverside's workforce development center of 469 square ft for a part of the parcel that was um for the workforce development that was on the project site. So they uh fixed that boundary issue um as well as the variance for a 8 foot tall block wall and um rod iron fence. Phase one was to consist of 109 affordable units and phase two was to consist of 48 affordable units and this project qualified under density bonus. Um more recently at the previous planning commission on April the 7th um the planning commission did approve extension of time 260001 which simply was an extension of time for the previously approved applications on February 26 of 2024. the authority of the planning commission per se sec pursuant to sections 90-48.9 sections 70-133 um as well as in reference to the government code 66473.5 has the authority to um make determination on the proposed modification here tonight

this item was publicly noticed in the press enterprise on officially Saturday, April 11th uh through the online posting process through column as you can see on the screen before you um in the red little box is just shown on the official publish date 411 and this is the verified proof that this was uh publicly noticed and then press enterprise. In addition, there was noticing for mailing to go out to 360 individuals. This would be for owners and also uh residents. Um on the screen before you is the notice that was sent. The residents would have received it in a black and white copy, but this nonetheless would have been what they had received in their mail. Um the aerial map on the screen shows the project site. Um it's again at the northwest corner of Menllo Avenue and State Street. Um it does have existing addressing at 6 761 and 785 North 85 North State Street and 160 260 and 320 West Menllo Avenue. For the city's general plan land use map, the land use of this location is under mixed use. um this proposed project and again this modification to you this evening. Um the land use is appropriate for this kind of a project. As for the zoning of this project, this project is zoned site as R3 which is multif family residential. Um, per the original uh approval, this was entitled for 24.5 dwelling units per acre for the density and the proposed modification is for an increase of 27.1. Uh, to note the maximum density for this zoning district is 30 dwelling units per acre.

Uh, some of this I'm going be going into might sound a little repetitive. Um just for the planning commissioners, um much of this was part of the uh presentation from the last public hearing because much of this is still the same except for the exception of the proposed modifications. Um so this project will include a resident services coordinator um that will provide on-site services um for the residents and that will be collaboration with some nonprofits um other local organizations and agencies and providing programs such as English as a second language literacy programs entering the workforce courses and nutrition and wellness programs and the residents will have the opportunity to also make recommendations for these courses to change in the future. Uh this project falls under a density bonus type project per government codes 65915F. Um with that the applicant can request incentives or concessions for this project. Um and waiverss or reductions to the standard hemtt municipal code um things such as that could be like reduced parking requirements. um per section 65915e of the government code a waiver reduction development standards um uh there's really no limit as to how many they can request um shown before you is what they have requested things such as a reduction in private open space building design modifications uh driveway locations parking locations as well as um parking reductions So shown on the screen is the what's currently entitled under phase one and phase two. We have 156 resident units and the one manager unit. Phase one with 109, phase two with 48. Um seven

three-story buildings, a laundry room, six trash enclosures, picnic areas, multisport ball court, uh 236 parking spaces to name a few of these items listed. Uh what the applicant's proposing is an increase of two additional buildings along with a uh community building as well, a laundry facility, additional bike storage sheds, um additional trees. This one will have 310. Previously was 242 trees. Uh still will have gated access. Uh previously it was 236 parking. Now it's 310 parking spaces to accommodate for the 48 additional units. Um so to give you a sideby-side comparison, the area surrounded in red is specifically the area in which they will be um requesting a modification to include additional 48 units. Um for the bedroom types, they have again 753 square ft um but then up to 781 square feet. And they do have different types of unit renderings. Uh they're all very similar with subtle differences between them, mainly storage areas and some smaller or larger living spaces. And again, two bedroom units has a total of 141. And included as amenities will be Energy Star appliances, upgraded cabinets, window blinds, carpet, tile, uh and patio or balconies. For bedroom type three, um they do have included 984 square feet up to 103 square feet. Uh the manager's unit still is 1,145 ft for both managers units. Uh we do have four different types of threebedroom uh layouts and again the the differences between each of them is is very subtle

and they're proposing a total of 63 three-bedroom units. Uh architectural plans for this have not changed any. They're still the same type as proposed previously using the uh blue Dun Edwards Marina as a as shown on the building. the black tie Dun Edwards paint showing the trim as well as the brown showing um another portion of the the building facade. These are the floor plans. Uh most of them are two two-bedroom. Uh there are a few threebedrooms. The first floor, second floor, and the third floor all mirror each other. Um of course with the stairway access up to the third floor. uh R2 buildings. None of these are proposing um to change. Um however, they are proposing an additional type of building called the R4 building, which is really an R2 building with additional attachments being the additional manager's unit, the laundry facility, um to name a few. And the floor plans as before are not changing whatsoever. They're still the same floor plans. And these will also be the same floor plans for the proposed R4 type modification that they're asking for. And that most of these are two-bedroom with the exception of a few threebedroom as well. The R3 is a little different than the R1 R2 type buildings. Uh this one is a more of a square shaped. Uh most of these are again two twobedroom and three and one threebedroom. And the floors mirror each other as you go from the first to the second to the third floor as well. Uh these are the architectural plans for the community building. This has no proposed changes to it. These are still the same as previously with the same floor plan showing the community room, a recreation area, some office spaces, a

wet bar for the residents, and a a secured mail room as well. And this would be a picture of the manager's unit showing a three-bedroom. As for architectural plans, this is a laundry building. None of this has changed from previously. Um, still going to be a single story uh with 11 washers and dryers. And with the additional 48 units, they are including additional washers and dryers and are meeting the minimum requirements for the required washers and dryers. trash enclosure. This has not changed either. Um the difference, however, is rather than just six, they're going to be including eight trash enclosures, uh two public works works standards, and they're going to have twice a week pickup. The conceptual landscaping has changed subtly. the proposed uh pallet of plants, if you will, the trees, the bushes and shrubs, these are all going to be the same as previously um as has been entitled. Um so these areas are still going to be designed to the same way as they were approved previously as the common open space. Uh in the middle there, there are some umbrellas and opportunities to have barbecue and like family gettogethers as well. Uh the recreation open space as was previously approved is not proposing to be changed at all. There's still going to be a multisport ball court as well as a tot lot in the oblong shape there with the circles in it. The common open space here shown uh is also entitled and there's no proposed changes to this location. Um however uh this is the proposed modification. It's mostly to the southern portion of the site which is closer to Menllo Avenue. Uh specifically this area in the red there shown and to kind of blow it up a little more for you

there. Um what they're adding is an additional 68 trees, two community picnic areas. Uh you can see one just above building K and also just above building L. Those will be the additional picnic areas. And they're also including an additional 14,768 square feet of landscaping open space. A side-by-side comparison shows you the the differences here. Really, it's the additional parking spaces and more landscaping to the southern portion with the of course with the inclusion of the two additional buildings making in the 48 units. Um what's shown here is what's currently entitled. Uh this project was entitled with a flood plane per FEMA. It was in zone A previously when this was approved. uh which is the location here uh shown in the red. Uh originally these were going to be infiltration basins uh to catch the the the runoff during storm events. Um however they've made the modification and is no longer in the flood plane for FEMA's zone A. Um it's now actually in zone X. Um shown on the screen you'll see this the color in brown. That would be all zone X. Um the really small sliver kind of towards the upper middle is the little blue sliver. That would be zone A. Um to zoom it in. And also on the screen shown is the official uh LOMAR letter of map revision from FEMA that the applicant has provided showing that this was changed from a zone A to a zone X which essentially takes it out of the flood plane. Um and zoom in a little more. you can see the project site. Um, what the what the brown zone represents is it's a 0.2% annual chance of being a flood hazard. Um, but as you can see, it's mostly towards the southern portion of the site where now those two additional buildings are proposed. Uh, the variance has no changes from

previous. Uh, they're still requesting an 8ft tall fence with the block and the uh, tube steel uh, fence or rod iron. Um so kind of bringing it back uh again brief history original approval of the SDR the tenative partial map and the variance approved February 26 of 2024 the planning commission approved extension of time 260001 at the April 7th public hearing and tonight we are discussing the potential for modifying this project under SDR modification 25002 and map 25004. um kind of give you some project milestones here. Um August 23rd, 2024, the city along with RTA went into a joint application. Um and they were successful in securing a $22 million loan award which went towards the is going towards the development of this project. Um in addition as well they also secured additional 15,924,000 in grant funding for um on-site amenities such as the workforce development apprenticeship program, bus passes, Wi-Fi and internet as well as sustainable transportation infrastructure for our downtown mobility hub, bike and pedestrian bath from Mano to Palm Avenue to name a few as well as five new bus shelters in the project area that meets RTA's guidelines uh to what that looks like visually that would be in the red is the downtown Hammet mobility hub. Uh that's just on Devonshshire north of the Simpson Center. Um the in green is a 1.25 25 mile bike and pedestrian path going from Menllo Avenue to Palm. That's going to create opportunities for recreation with uh pedestrians uh bicyclists um to engage the pathway between uh Menllo and Palm along the rail corridor. And shown in the orangish yellow color

is going to be a improvement of a class 4 bikeway which will be a protected bikeway uh along Menllo Avenue along with sidewalk improvements. And all this will connect to Palm Avenue which has an existing type two bikeway if I'm correct on that. And so it'll actually make this whole area uh connected with active transportation uh and shown here in our downtown specific plan. There is also part of our um goals to include an activation of the rail corridor as long uh with the transit center for our downtown specific plan from 2016. uh some conceptual rendering renderings of the downtown mobility hub. This was taken from the March 12th, 2024 application that was presented that ultimately the city was successful in securing funding for and as along with the rail corridor pedestrian path conceptual rendering of what that might look like. Um as per our general plan and our regional housing needs assessment, um the proposed development is proposing to have 71 units for extremely to very low income, which actually helps us uh increase a meter goal by an additional 8.74% to the 812 that we're trying to reach by 2029. And also for low income, including an additional 37, which is 5.05% to our goal of the 732. Currently, phase two is unknown because it's still being secured through the funding and the funding will determine what that um what those numbers look like and whether it's extremely low, very low or or just low. Um for our general plan, our housing goals, it meets the following five housing goals. And for our general plan goals with like our land use and community design, it meets the following goals and policies. uh this project as for findings it's uh the findings can be made for substantial conformance the findings are are very

very small and um modifications the overall context of the site is not really changing significantly. Um one key change to conditions of approval was that rather than abiding by the 2022 building and fire codes they have to abide by the 2025 building and fire codes. Uh as for the STR modification findings, I can say with complete confidence that they could meet all of the following findings. Uh as for the tenative parap modification findings, I can also say with complete confidence they can meet the following findings as well. And the variance hasn't changed, but they still would nonetheless meet the variance findings as well. Um as for SQA, this project is exempt uh per government code 211080.40. 40, which is basically 100% affordable housing proposed developments um are exempt statutoily under um the California Environmental Equality Act. Uh the request tonight is respectfully recommended that the planning commission determine that this project uh is exempt from SQA under the public resources code section 211080.40 4. Um to adopt the attached planning commission resolution approving site development review modification number 25002 intended parat modification number 25004 and to direct staff to file a notice of exemption with the state clearing house and the county clerk. Uh few housekeeping items I' like to point out. Um our staff report uh made a little error. I said on page four that the building is going to be 45 ft in height. It's still 35 ft in height. Um the reszo however does state 35 resolution that is prepared for you. Uh the staff report um left off substantial conformance but the resolution does include it. Um the resolution uh needs

to be updated. Um I did prepare a copy for you. Um page 10 of 14 under the tenative parcel map modification findings. It said the dwelling units uh dwelling units per acre was at 24.5 for density. It's actually at 27.1. Uh as well as on pages 7 and 12 of the staff report um accidentally labeled as 24.5 and not 27.1 dwelling units per acre. Uh otherwise that is my presentation. Thank you.

Thank you Richard. Uh thank you Nathan for that presentation. Um just for clarity for public this is a 100% affordable housing. So therefore, it with certain assembly bills and state bills, it's more streamlined. So unless we deemed it unsafe, it's something that we would normally have to approve. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thank you for that presentation. Commissioner, do you have any questions for staff?

Yeah, just a couple of questions for me, Nathan. Um, thank you for that presentation. Um, real quick, um, with the outline that was shown, um, will there be enough on will there be enough street parking on Menllo or will there be enough room for somebody to park on Menllo? It's already kind of tight right there. Um, I'm assuming it's 310 parking spaces for now 205 apartment buildings. Um, will it be any space? So there will be estimated to be 1.5 parking spaces per unit. Um based upon the density bonus that it meets um yeah the parking will be a little bit slim. Um

yeah, completely agree with you on that. Um but with the density bonus, it meets the requirements because it also is close to transit and being that this project is also helping to fund transit in the future, it will also be um kind of folded up into that as well. Gotcha. I guess my question was more does their proper does that property line go all the way to the street? Like is there any room for anybody just to park on the side of Menllo? Uh I would have to or the fence is like street and then the gate. A sidewalk and then the gate. So it would be sidewalk Yeah. and then gate. Yeah.

Gotcha. And then my um second question was last time um I believe the developer was saying he was waiting on an approval for some funds. Is there an update on that? Uh, I have not heard anything, but I believe the applicant is with us tonight. Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Any questions? I don't have any questions, but great presentation, Nathan. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Uh, great. Thank you for the presentation. The only question I have is since this was just in public hearing recently, um, in the FEMA designation changed back in 2024, the official letter, why why the two two public hearings? Why was it not covered um with the last EOT? So with the EOT, this project would have been eligible um simply because the original approval did include the flood zone and being that their application period was expiring, they first had to get an extension specifically on that approval to even be eligible to hear tonight's got or potential for modification.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. And you answered my question earlier about the 3545t. So it's 35 ft. Um, do we know I know we had a workshop with RTA in reference to the hub that they want to build. Uh, do we know when RTA is going to start this project? Because I know we've been discussing this concept for a couple two, three years now. Um, but does RTA even though they're on their own separate fundings and things like that, do we have a date with them? That I don't have any update for you on.

Okay. Okay. Well, they're they're using this the hub as a resource, but I just it would be nice to know from RTA if maybe start start construction day. Yes, chair. This is all tied to the grant funding, the loan and grant funding for the AS6 grant. So, the uh Palm Communities is the catalyst for these projects to move forward. We're all in the process of um um establishing an agreement with RTA at this time. Okay. I I don't have any other question before I open up staff.

Yeah. Are there any kind of performance provisions with that grant in terms of RTA's delivery on the improvements once this moves forward? You know what what what would be there is. Yes. Okay. So certain amount of time in terms of once this goes in because we're going to be putting a lot more people in the same same area. Don't don't want to defer the transit side of it very long.

That is yes this uh the grant uh there's an expenditure uh timeline that we're um tied to as part of the the overall grant. Um so there is going to be milestones required uh to um qualify for reimbursements and of the grant. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. Any other questions for staff before I open up the public hearing? No. Thank you, Nathan presentation. With that, we're going to go ahead and open up the public hearing. Are there any members present that would like to make a comment on this item? Chair, we do have uh three members of the public present to speak on that item. We also have the applicant and his uh planning consultant on Zoom. So, I don't know if you want to take the public first. We'll do public first. All righty. Uh first up is Kimberly Rivera and she has three minutes. Just make sure that green light's on there and you're good to go.

Hello. Good evening. My name is Kimberly Rivera. I'm the manager at 685 North State Street. Now, my tenants are here and we want to know when this project is going to start. Um, is it also include our the park that we live at? Because I heard him say 685. Um, I have 37 tenants there. Uh, I'm just concerned on when is this and then we got a field with weeds taller than me. Um, I just we're just concerned. And I mean, we have seniors that live in our park. You know, how am I going to get them out if that field catches fire? So, that's another question that they're going to also address. That's all I want to know. When is it going to start?

Well, it's more we can't really answer too much, but just for clarification, what your address you said? 685 North State. That came at Vistus. Yeah. No, that's in him and on Mllo and State. The southwest corner. It's Yeah, we're right on the corner. Right across the street from AM. Okay. Thank you.

All right. And then So you guys are going to start doing the field Zoom then, right? not the field. Okay. Because my seniors are here. They're they're concerned they have breathing problems and we have weeds taller than me. That's something we can bring up to the property manager, the applicant when he comes on board. Okay. I I'm just I don't know how to do this. I don't you know what I mean? We don't come to meetings like this. you know, we're we're just citizens and we live in a park and we just need to know what's going on with with our you know, do we have to move out? But he just said that it's behind us, I guess, right?

You're more than welcome to go and talk to Jordan. You know, it it's a perfect opportunity to talk to him with any questions you may have. Okay. Thank you, Nathan. I'm sorry, Nathan. Forgive me, Nathan. Thank you guys so much. Like I said, this is my first time being up here. We we don't know, you know, we're all in limbo. We get these letters. We're thinking, you know, where are we going to go? You know, I we don't we don't we don't get no answers from our the owner of the property. You know, we all reached out to them with letters and we're just like, what's going on here? And then he just clarified it. It's I think it's behind us. So, thank you guys so much. Have a blessed evening.

Thank you for your time. I I think it's kind of cool that we had the Brown Act training because that's that's what this whole that's the whole purpose of this public hearing is to give the public an opportunity to be a part of the process. Is there any other members that would like to make a comment? Yes. Um we have Tommy Compton next with three minutes.

All right, Tommy, if we can have you approach the podium. Good evening. Um, basically I was just wanting to know the same thing if we had to move and the condition of the field. We had to be evacuated twice and it was terrible on the lungs cuz field is just terrible. and the homeless, they they don't help, you know, and uh I feel bad for them, but they're digging holes as big as a trailer and staying underneath the ground, and it it's it's quite bizarre, but yeah, that's that's just what I wanted to know is if I I have to make arrangements to move basically.

Okay. Well, thank you for your time and coming up to the podium.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. And then our last uh public comment is Kathy Houston. I believe that says Houston. Is it Houston? Kathy. Good evening. Now, my questions like there's I've been told we've had until November to get out. No,

we have the left side. It's empty. Yeah, that's what's going to go for development. Uh then we have a field. My my trailer faces a field and her trailer. There's another field. It's been it's caught fire several times. They've been evacuated. How do we go about getting it time out that that is something the fire department is doing inspections on right now and it's part of the weed abatement program. Mhm.

So owners of the lot are getting notices I think this week as a matter of fact to clean it up because I've been there how many years? Four years now and they cleaned it up once. I got the number right here.

You can always download the CC click fix app as well and report things like that by taking a picture, posting the location. I I mean we there's so many homeless people in that field and I mean it's been catching on fire and now we're in the boots with our law enforcement. So I mean no but if anything like that you you have a contact number but you can also use cclick fix. It's an app you can download. It's free. And they respond to that a lot of times as well. If you see any homeless or if you see weed

in baitment,

can you um step to the podium? To have you come back up the podium if you're

Okay. So, we see Okay. We see so many homeless back there and the field is caught fire. No, this is literally So, we get uh somebody in our park to clean like four feet from the trailers from her trailer all the way back all the way around because we live in mobile home, you know, travel trailers. We're afraid one fire, boom, we're all good. We're done. How am I going to get all my tenants out? You know, they're seniors. They have oxygen. Some of them have oxygen, you know, tanks. And that is our main concern. But my also my main concern also was because my tenants are freaking out about this being moving and having to move their trailers. It doesn't have nothing to do with us. It's across the street. Okay. But when when it catches fire, the police tell us, "You got two minutes to get out." You know what I mean? Like and they're freaking out. Kim, what do I do? What do I do? Come on. Let's go. We're going to all get out together. You know what I mean? I mean that's what I have to do you know but

on the other hand I really do need somebody to come and Okay. Thank you very much. You got the right number to contact now. Yes I do. Thank you. I I was at the meeting at the right time. And with that any is there any uh we have the applicant online. We can give him a opportunity to speak. You guys have a blessed night. You too. You may want to stick around just a little bit. The applicant's going to be speaking, so it might get some more information.

Applicant, you can speak now if you like. Your microphone's on. Are are you there applicant? Make sure the microphone's unmuted. What's their name there? There we go. We hear you. No, that's me. I'm not sure what their name is. You're saying applicant, but they might that might not register. Is that me? Do you know Do we know what their name is?

It's David Abram. Oh, David. David, are you there? We'll give it another 30 seconds or so.

Okay. So, we'll just give him a minute to get on board. Oh, chair. While we are waiting for that technical difficulty to be corrected, I did want to mention that condition number 17 would need to read um uh buildings I and J uh facing Menllo would provide variation in architectural design. So there would need just need to be an the previous condition was buildings L and K when it was just phase one. So this would just the the building numbers have changed. So it would be buildings I and J.

I J. Director Monique, I have a um a question while we're waiting as well. Um I'm assuming that part part of the COAs and just the standard conditions for constru for con for construction um would include dust control reab those types. So, so once they start grading on the project, is there going to be a notification on who to call if there's dust or any any any problems with with um with stuff coming from the site?

That's a good question. We have our deputy public works director that might be able to help us um answer that question. What happens when there's grading and if there's dust what dust control measures are in place? green. Okay, now it is. Uh, can you repeat the question? Yeah, so once they start construction and grubbing and grading and things of of that nature, I mean, I'm I'm assuming we have some requirements in terms of dust control and things of that nature. Is there going to be um a sign or notification for residents that there's a problem that they have someone that they can call if dust is coming from the site?

Yeah, every project say it's required to put a sign up that says if you see dust coming from this project, please contact whichever. And so there'll be a number for them. Okay, great. So that that would provide some some some uh avenue for the community, especially the ones right across the street that if if there was an issue, they could and they have to abide by AQMD requirements for dust control and use water trucks when they're grading to prevent dust and stuff like that and erosion control. They'll have an erosion control plan. Very good. Thank you. You're welcome. Even on a bonus density, um

yeah, that's a state requirement. for anything that's over one acre, they have to have a storm water pollution prevention plan, which includes erosion control and all that kind of stuff. And um yeah, that's a state requirement across the board for any construction. Cool. So, it's it'll it'll improve once they start construction versus where it is now, arguably at at the end of it. Yeah. During any construction, when you move dirt, there's going to be some dust in the air, but they can mitigate it. I'm I'm not going to say that there won't be any, but uh they try to mitigate it as much as possible. So, thank you. Did our IT get that taken care of?

Uh is the applicant. David, are you there? I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.

All right. Looks like we got it fixed. Thank you. Um, David Abrams. I'm with Palm Communities. I'm the project manager uh on this project. Um, so I know we had a couple of questions. Just kind of wanted to address them as best that I can. Um, I would say that um I know that we do regularly clear the weeds. Uh, we clear graffiti. We've cleared encampments numerous times um in order to prevent homeless. We also cut down the trees because they're providing shade for homeless. Uh I know that we'll be cutting the weeds again soon. Um so it's it's it's really constant maintenance out there and um you know and I know the homeless are a problem. There's only so much we can do about it and we've I think we've we've been doing what we can. So I I think that would be uh my answer and and yes it will get uh much better um once things once construction starts. Um and I think that was really the other question here. When is construction going to start? Um last time when I was uh with the planning commission here I said that the date that we would really know um if we got funding and our final funding um would be May 12th and that's still the case. Um, I I will say that um since the last time I met with the planning commission a couple of weeks ago, we did get uh a point score letter from the California tax credit allocation committee. Um, so that really says to us that there they don't have any more questions about our application. Um, so I would just say that we're one step further uh toward winning. Um, at this point, we'd be surprised if we didn't win. I can't sit here and tell you that we're 100% going to win, which would mean, um, we would

start. So, if we do win, we would be starting construction in November. Um, so that's really the goal. Um, can't sit here and say that we we'll we'll 100% win, but we're we're pretty confident now. And that would be our our construction start date. um this project would take about I'd say maybe 20 months to complete. So that you know finishing this project would put us in uh July 2028 for for certificate of occupancy. So I hope I hope that answers some questions.

Thank you very much David. Uh Commissioner, do you have any questions for David while he is on online? Nope. Nope. Okay. Well, thank you very much, David. And uh with that, well, I hang on.

Just a minute. We just have to weave this public comment time. All right. Thank you very much, David. We don't have any questions for you. We wish you the best of luck in this progress. Thank you. Okay. And with that, uh, I believe she wants to say one thing, but we can open up the public hearing, but it just I want to get done with David. So, we can have you approach the podium if you have something else to say. Go ahead and approach the podium. No, I'm sorry.

I just was going to ask if uh we we were going to maybe get the field disc by May 12th. No, he like the applicant said he hoping trying to get the grant hopefully by May, but it won't start until probably November any of the the project. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. And with that, we're going to go ahead and close public hearing. Commissioner, questions, comments? I have a motion. If there's no comments or qu questions,

I'll make a motion. Motion to determine that the proposed project is statutoily exempt from the California the SQA code section 211080.40 40 under Assembly Bill AB1449 signed into law on October 11, 2023. and two, adopt the attached planning commission resolution approving site development review modification number 25-002 and tenative parcel map modification number 25-004 of the previously approved site development review number 23-008 variance number 23-002 and tenative parcel map 38450 map number 23-9 and3 direct staff to file a notice of exemption with the state state clearing ing house and county clerk.

I second that motion. All right, that passes four to zero. And now we are moving on to department reports. Uh, city attorney Leia Sari. Thank you, chair. I have nothing to report. Okay. And community development reports. Director Monnique, I have nothing to report. Chair,

we can go into future agenda items. Future agenda items include the biodolis tresertos tenative trackmap 38979, the 2025 fire code cycle updates for residential construction, the 2025 building code uh cycle updates um for AB306 and residential construction including uh construction in very high fire hazard severity zone, pre-approved ADU plans, a conditional use permit for cost square, a pro housing designation, and a conditional use permit for a skilled nursing facility.

Okay. And thank you for that. And we're going to move on to commissioner reports. Commissioner Vermont, I have nothing to report. Commissioner Hill, I have nothing to report. Thank you. Vice Chair Worth. Uh, nothing to report. Thank you, Chair Beam Sturfer.

Ramon, Ramona Bowl is going on right now. Um, I maybe for staff or Ben to come back around at some point in the future and just kind of give us updates on grants and what future grants that might be coming out so that we we're more informed uh so that we can spread the word as well. Uh, the other thing I had an issue with today is is public works. Um, when we work with different contractors for projects, sometimes those contractors reach out to the property owner, but the property owner sometimes doesn't have an exact date or they don't communicate with the tenants in their location. And for example, today uh at my location where I work, I had six hearing tests scheduled today, but they decided to jackhammer Florida Avenue right by the sidewalk there all day today. and it it uh the whole ground was vibrating and it's rather embarrassing. So, you know, a little communication would be nice. I could have rescheduled those appointments instead of trying to do hearing tests in that kind of situation. Communication, that's all. So, uh with that, I have nothing else to report. This meeting will be uh journ till the next one for May 5th at 2026 at 6 PM. Thank you.