Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Good evening. I would like to call June 16, 2026, Planning Commission meeting to order. Please note this meeting is being hosted through live stream on the city website and by teleconference via Zoom. I would like to remind the Planning Commissioners to have their microphones turned on in positions that the audience can hear. Deputy Director Pat, may we have roll call, please?

Commissioner Viramontes? Here. Commissioner Hill? Here. Vice Chair Wirth?

Here.

Chair Beemsterfer?

Here. Okay, we'll start with implication first and then flag salute. Father God, thank you for bringing us here this evening. I pray for everybody here to have good health, and I pray that you make judges and guide us to make the right decisions here this evening. I pray for our city, and I pray for our country, Lord. And in your name we pray, amen. Agenda item number four is public comment periods for items not on the agenda. Are there any members present or online that would like to make a comment that's not on the agenda?

No, Chair.

Okay, and now we're gonna move on to the approval of the minutes from the meeting of June 2nd, 2026. Does Commission have any comments or corrections?

No comments, and I'll move to approve the minutes of the Planning Commission meeting of June 2nd.

I second that motion.

We have a motion from Vice Chair Wirth and a second from Commissioner Veramontes.

Yes, is the vote on the screen? All right, that motion passes four to zero.

All right, perfect. Now we'll move on to item 6A, the receiving file. May we have presentation from staff?

Mr. Chairman, unfortunately, representatives from the fire department that were prepared to make the presentation this evening were unable to be here. So we will have to push that out probably to our next planning commission meeting of July 7th or perhaps afterwards, after that.

Okay, so we'll just make any motion for that just table the item. Okay, so why there's so much feedback. I will go ahead and table the item until the next available appointing time. We'll move on to 7a. Presentation from staff please.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, if it would be okay with you and the Commission, I'm a bit under the weather.

And if it's okay, I would like to prefer to present from up here instead of the lectern. Absolutely. Thank you, sir.

It's my pleasure this evening to present to you a conditional use permit and public convenience and necessity findings for a new New construction of a gas station with a convenience market located at the southwest corner of Koston and Stetson Avenues. Approval of this project would fulfill four of the city's strategic plan integration goals. The applicant is Michael Hadadine, and he's also the property owner. Again, the property is located at the southeast corner of Koston and Stetson Avenues. on assessor's parcel number 460-250-049. A little bit of background on this project. It goes back quite some time. There was a previously approved specific plan amendment to the Page Plaza community, planned community development. That dates back to 1993. Prior to that, this location was a cemetery known as Brethren Square, I believe. THE BRETHREN CHURCH HAD BEEN IN EXISTENCE THERE SINCE AT LEAST THE 1920s, AND THERE WERE 26 DECEASED PERSONS INTERRED IN THE CEMETERY, AND 25 OF THOSE WERE JUST BURIED IN THEIR CASKETS. THERE WERE NO CONCRETE VAULT OR THERE WAS ONE THAT WAS CONCEALED IN A BRICK VAULT. MR. WORTH MIGHT RECALL SOME TIME AGO THAT THE STATE WATER MASTER HAD SOME ISSUES REGARDING groundwater quality and the groundwater quality basins. That was about the same time that a lot of the dairies in San Jacinto had to move along. As a result of that, those bodies, the interned deceased were lawfully and properly removed from the property and reinterred at the San Jacinto Valley Cemetery on Santa Fe Street and Menlo. Subsequent to that, the property owner at the time applied for a specific plan amendment to change the land use designation and zoning to professional office, I believe. And they changed the designation in the uses in the Page Plaza community development to allow for commercial uses. IN TERMS OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION'S AUTHORITY THIS EVENING, THE PLANNING COMMISSION DOES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO APPROVE THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT SUBJECT TO THE CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL THAT ARE ATTACHED TO YOUR STAFF REPORT RESOLUTION. THE PLANNING COMMISSION ALSO HAS THE AUTHORITY TO ALLOW FOR ALCOHOL SALES AT THE CONVENIENCE MARKET PURSUANT TO THE HEMET MUNICIPAL CODE 90-90C CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT AND THE ADDITIONAL FINDINGS FOR ALCOHOL SALES. AND THEN ALSO THE PLANNING COMMISSION HAS THE AUTHORITY TO ISSUE A FINDING OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE OR NECESSITY. I'LL GET INTO A LITTLE MORE DETAIL ON THAT. BUT THE APPLICANT IS IN THE PROCESS OF OBTAINING A TYPE 21 ABC LICENSE. HE'S IN ESCRO. DOES NOT HOLD THAT LICENSE AS OF YET. THE PROPERTY OWNER, THE APPLICANT WOULD LIKE THE OPPORTUNITY. TO ALLOW FOR THE SALES OF BEER, WINE, AND DISTILLED SPIRITS AT THE CONVENIENCE MARKET. MR. HADDADINE ALSO OWNS TWO OTHER SUCH ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE CITY. IT'S POSSIBLE THAT IT COULD BE USED AT ONE OF THOSE OTHER LOCATIONS. THIS AREAL MAP SHOWS THE PROXIMITY OF THE PROJECT. IT IS LOCATED AT THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF STETSON AND CAUSTAN, ADJACENT TO THE, I BELIEVE IT'S SPECTRUM THAT CURRENTLY OPERATES THAT FACILITY. Here are some site photos. These were actually taken a few years ago, but the site conditions haven't changed much. It's still a vacant site that still has the block walls surrounding the property. And it looks very much like you see in these photos today. In terms of the general plan land use map, the land use designation has been changed to office professional, as indicated on the map. And for the zoning, it's part of the planned community development for Page Plaza. The site plan indicates that emergency vehicles can access and egress through the site from either Koston or Stetson Avenue. The turning radii are displayed on the diagram here. Staff has reviewed this, the fire department has reviewed this, Public Works has reviewed. They have no concerns with the layout of the site. There is adequate parking, there's adequate circulation, there's adequate visibility into the site from both Koston Avenue and Stetson Avenue. There's a colored landscape site plan that shows more conveniently where the gas pump canopy would be located, where the convenience market would be located, and the drive-through quick serve restaurant. There's a little bit more detail on the landscape plan. Sorry, I didn't have this blown up in color for you, but they do propose a very good varietal mix of ground covers and deciduous and evergreen trees to keep some shade throughout the property at all times of the year. And then these two exhibits indicate on the site plan and on the floor plan where alcohol could potentially be located. within the building. So they would be located at the back furthest away from the main entryway. It is a little difficult to see in a black and white. I apologize for that. But the lines that radiate from the main entryway out towards the back indicate the location of coolers off to the left. And down near the cash register area would be where the distilled spirits would be displayed. These are architectural renderings showing a nighttime view of what the convenience market would look like based on the proposed elevations and building materials. And this is what the canopy would look like in the evening. In terms of the conditional use permit findings, staff has determined that the project would meet all of the findings for a conditional use permit. Those are spelled out in your staff report and in the resolution attached to the staff report. Staff believes that all of those findings can be made in the affirmative as required by the Hemet Municipal Code for approval of a conditional use permit. In terms of the alcohol sales findings, staff has reviewed the information from ABC. I do have a couple of slides to discuss that a little further. Staff believes that currently the census tract has four off-sale licenses. There are presently two type 20, beer and wine, and two type 21, beer, wine, and distilled spirits. And ABC allows four before the census tract is deemed to be over-concentrated. So allowing an additional license here would require PCN findings to be made. Staff believes that based on the information that was provided, those findings can in fact be made in the affirmative. And for the PCN findings, again, staff has taken a look at the data that was provided. The police department has provided some data and some statistics and is available this evening if you have questions for them. It would appear that most of the calls for service by far are at the Walmart Supercenter. i'm going to actually go into that in a little more detail in a couple of slides so the information we received from abc indicated that there were four locations currently in the census tract that had off-sale licenses again two of those are type 20 and two are type 21 the type 21 licenses are presently walmart and the that i believe it's called valley liquor And this is the information that was provided in your staff report and an attachment to your staff report. The Hemet Police Department provided these statistics for a two-year period of time, ending in May of this year. And the top line is the Walmart Supercenter. By far, most of the calls are there. More than half of the calls to the census tract are directly attributable to Walmart. There is a pattern that emerges with the following four or five uses. Those are all either convenience markets or stores that sell alcohol. And they're also in or around Page Plaza. This does include the 711, which is on the east side of Sanderson Avenue at Stetson, but that is in a neighboring census tract. It's not on the same tract. This data also indicates that the further away you get from Page Plaza, the number of calls for service dramatically decreases. That could possibly be because there are no convenience markets or other outlets that sell alcohol east of Page Plaza. In terms of the public hearing notice, June 6th, I believe, or no, June 4th, I'm sorry, the public notice was mailed out and published in the Press Enterprise. All properties within 300 feet of the subject site were notified. In terms of the California Environmental Quality Act, for the previously mentioned specific plan amendment and conditional use permit for Brethren Square, a mitigated negative declaration was prepared and adopted by the city council that even though the entitlements for that project have long since expired, the environmental analysis is still valid, and therefore this project being a less intense project than was originally proposed under or approved under the Brethren Square project, is consistent with the previously adopted mitigated negative declaration and no additional analysis would be required. It is therefore staff's recommendation that the Planning Commission determine that the project is consistent with the previously adopted mitigated negative declaration and is exempt under Section 15162, subsequent EIRs and negative declarations under the California Environmental Quality Act. That the Planning Commission adopt the resolution before you to approve the conditional use permit and make the findings of public convenience or necessity for the project. And that the Planning Commission direct staff to prepare a notice of exemption. This completes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Hemet Police Department is also here to respond to questions you may have about their data. And the applicant and architect are also here to answer questions about the project.

Okay. Thank you very much for that presentation, Deputy Director Papp. Commissioners, we'll start with Vera Montes. If you have any questions for staff.

I don't have any questions. I think that it's a great location. I think that it's probably going to relieve some of the congestion on Stetson and Sanderson. Just last Monday, there was two car accidents back-to-back. I went into the Walmart. There was a car accident. I came out of the Walmart. There was another car accident. I thought it was the same, but it was different. So I think having a convenience store kind of down the road is going to really help out. Especially someone's going home I'm assuming they go down Sanderson stop the 7-eleven to grab a drink or whatnot fill up the gas and then go down Stetson The only question I would have is has a restaurant slash a corporation looked into the quick-serve drive-through My understanding is that the applicant at this time does not have a

an agreement with any specific food service provider for that location.

Okay. All right, I have no further questions.

Hi, Emery, thank you for that presentation. Can you go back to the calls of service slide with the bar chart graph? So when you say calls of service, I mean, is that everything from shoplifting to nuisance, or is this all alcohol related? What's the data show here?

The data on this table indicates the entirety of the calls for service. They were not broken down by the type of service call.

Okay. So what was the point of bringing this to our attention?

Mainly to show the locations. These are by address as well, so it shows the locations of where the most frequent calls for service would be located, and they're all a great distance away from the subject property. but the subject property is vacant, understandably so, so it's unlikely there would be a lot of calls for service there. I attempted to map this, but the addresses are so close together, they overlapped each other on the map.

Okay. All right. And then as far as the allocation of alcohol licenses for this zone, you said the allocation is four?

That is correct.

And we have how many?

There are presently four.

And so this would make five?

Yes.

Okay. All right, so is there a strategy to get alcohol licenses within the zones compliant?

Well, the process before you this evening would allow what is a compliant process. So alcohol beverage control, they have a formula where I believe it's per 1,750 residents. I think that's the metric. I'm not 100% certain. They allow one alcohol off-sale license for that number of people. So the current threshold would be four. When you hit the threshold, our municipal code and the California ABC allow for additional licenses to be issued if the planning commission can make findings of public convenience or necessity. So public convenience or necessity typically revolves around the customer's experience and whether or not it's convenient and necessary for them to be able to purchase alcohol at the location. being that it's a service station with a convenience store. This commission has had mixed feelings about that in the past. Some have been approved and some have not. So the public convenience and necessity findings are at your discretion based on the facts and the figures that have been presented to you and other information that may be supplied by the applicant, the police department, or anyone else who may attend the public hearings.

Okay, so the four is not a hard, fast ceiling. There is leeway in there to approve beyond four.

Correct. But again, you would have to make all of the findings for public convenience and necessity, as well as all of the findings for a conditional use permit and all of the findings for supplemental alcohol sales.

Okay. And you're confident in those findings?

We are.

Okay.

It is the Commission's purview to disagree with staff on that, though. If you have cause to believe that we may have erred in our judgment, It is your purview to review those and determine if there should be alternate findings prepared.

Okay. All right. I'm satisfied with the answer so far. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you, Deputy Director. Yeah, probably a question for the police department when they're available, but it's kind of a The census tract is based on just Make sure I'm I'm stating this correctly, but the census tract is based on population And so within the city we have certain corridors Where we're over concentrated and that's could be just primarily because those are more of the commercial corridors and so the in the population of is less represented in those corridors, whereas in other census tracts, we may have a lot more population and an under concentration of ABC licenses, but they're not typically commercial type corridors. Would that be a safe kind of just general assessment of how the census tract limits are applied?

Yes, that would be a very safe assumption, and those are correct and true and correct facts. Another thing I would point out that was not analyzed in the staff report is that the census tract is only approximately halfway built out. There are several hundred, if not thousands, of currently mapped lots that are undeveloped, which will add to the population in the census tract and eventually allow for additional licenses.

So I think, yeah, just kind of in general, the commission's hurt, purview here is as representatives of the community having an idea of the area, what issues there may or may not be. And to recommend a PCN is trying to balance a couple things. One is the general feel from the community of wanting to support and improve safety And then secondly is wanting to be supportive of new development and investments in our community. And to that end, I'm interested in understanding a little bit more the data on the on the calls for service. On a previous application, the calls for service was one of the key criteria that was being used to recommend denial of a PCN. And in my view, digging into that that data a little bit it didn't really provide a good correlation to a direct increase in calls for service as a result of a lawful well-maintained business that was providing a service to the community for sales and service and i think if if this information is going to be utilized as a basis for staff to help make a recommendation for either approval or denial, it would be helpful to know or at least get a sense from the police department on is there a correlation to if we have another store that is operating the way that they should be operating. They have the cameras. They have a clean facility. They have all of the training that they're supposed to have. Does that relate to a less safe environment for the community? Or is the less safe environment, like in this case, arguably from, I'm assuming, theft and things of that nature at Walmart? And so is the data doing anything to support the city's recommendation for the PCN. And so I just, it'd be helpful to, if we're gonna be utilizing this data point in the future for evaluating PCNs to have a better understanding of what the data represents. This one, I think what you were indicating was geographic proximity. The calls that we're having, there's a large volume of calls, but they're not near it. On the last project that this came up, we looked at, it was more bundled in terms of all the calls from this location to this location, and this particular project happened to be on one end of the data collection boundary, and so I don't think it also represented a good sense of would approving the PCN increase calls that would degradate safety. I'm struggling a little bit on this, because when the police department is saying this is a concern, I want to take that very seriously, and make sure that we're responsive to that, but also try to balance that with, you know, trying to encourage and support new investments. So long winded, but I just trying to understand the statistics a little bit more on how it correlates relative to making a recommendation for approval or denial of a PCN moving forward.

Understood. You're bringing back some painful memories of my college statistics days. But statistically speaking, if you threw out the highest and lowest sample, you take Walmart out of the equation, and then you take the bottom calls out of the equation, you have a fairly even distribution of calls for service to a few retailers that happen to be located in Page Plaza. Had we asked the police department to just focus on the property or maybe a certain radius around the property, there would be almost zero calls for service. So that data would have not meant anything at all. Here, is it a little biased because it's skewed based on the fact that we only have commercial businesses along Stetson Avenue corridor and the Sanderson Avenue corridor, perhaps, but that is the only data available. And that's why we presented it to you in this way.

Understand, and it's a good data point. It's just from the perspective of balancing the feedback that I personally get on people wanting to be able to go shopping and not be concerned about getting mugged and also giving the opportunity to new businesses that want to invest in our community. So just trying to balance that out and making sure that the decisions that we make are founded in something that is defendable and repeatable from a data perspective. Thank you, but I have no further questions or no other issues with the staff's recommendation.

I have a question in reference to CEQA. So the last CEQA report was from 2008. At what point do we do a new CEQA analysis? Because in 2008, I don't think that medical center was there. A lot of that shopping center wasn't fully developed. And so that alone has created a lot of traffic change, site change. There's been a lot of change since 2008 in that general area. So at what point do we do a new CEQA review? Because this is quite old and there's been a lot of changes since then.

That's a very good and fair question. I do believe the applicant was required to submit a traffic impact letter to indicate whether or not the number of trips is significantly increased from not just a level of service, which is the old school method of looking at the ratio of capacity versus the number of actual vehicle trips per day, but also under the VMT, it screens out, meaning that there's no impact. There were several other studies that were done too. In fact, the engineering division reviewed the WQMP and a preliminary stormwater pollution and prevention plan. All of those came, they were able to solve all of those issues through plan check and revisions to those documents. So there are really no, there are no new impacts to this project and being less intense than what was originally approved. I believe the original approval was for 11,000 square feet of retail space in one building, plus the convenience market, plus the gas station, and a drive-through car wash. So there's actually fewer impacts and fewer trips and fewer almost everything attributable to this project. Therefore, staff was able to make the determination that it is in fact consistent with the previously adopted mitigation, mitigated negative declaration And I did fail to mention in my presentation, I apologize for that, so I'll take the opportunity to add right now that staff would request to amend the conditions of approval to add one condition, which was omitted, and that is that if there are any outstanding MITIGATION MEASURES THAT WERE REQUIRED UNDER THE ORIGINAL MITIGATION MONITORING AND REPORTING PROGRAM, THAT THOSE ARE STILL VALID AND WOULD STILL NEED TO BE COMPLETED PRIOR TO OCCUPANCY OR IN SOME CASES PRIOR TO GRADING, PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF BUILDING PERMITS AND PRIOR TO OCCUPANCY. WE WOULD REQUEST THAT THE PLANNING COMMISSION, IF YOU'RE SO INCLINED TO RECOMMEND AN APPROVAL, THAT YOU WOULD AMEND THE RECOMMENDATION TO INCLUDE THAT CHANGE TO THE CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL.

Okay. And my issue is, and we've covered this many times before, type 20 and type 21. There's only one gas station in this entire valley that has a type 21. And with the unique circumstances that they're able to have it, this type 21 You mentioned that this applicant had other locations in the valley in the area. Is it in the general city of Hemet limits? Is it county? Is that all?

I believe the applicant owns two ARCO fueling stations in the city of Hemet. Okay. Okay.

And I know when it comes to the saturation and just something no matter and look at this map I know there's commercial across the street and we're gonna be encountering this again I'm sure once this commercial comes along and they develop they're gonna be alcohol there across the street and I I just again something more for City Council for the general plan to go back to the drawing board and kind of come up with something unique and so that cases like this don't necessarily have to come to Planning Commission for every single one, because I know it takes a lot of time from staff, and it takes a lot of time from just having a meeting to make this happen. But the only thing I'm having a hard time with is the Type 21, and that's something we can go into discussion later here in a minute. But while it's open to staff, I don't know if him and PD would like to approach the podium and kind of answer some questions that we had

Good evening, Commission and staff.

Good evening. Sergeant Gabe Gomez with the Hemet Police Department. I'm in the Professional Standards Bureau, which also encapsulates these duties. And I welcome any questions.

Yeah, so I think it's a question all of our minds here. So looking at this graph, what types of calls for service would you say are the majority of the Walmart?

So I was kind of biting my lip as we were discussing this. Currently the location at 111 South Sanderson is also petitioning to improve their current Title 20 to a 21. So I think it's important that the Commission knows that as well. With that being said, very much like the Palm, Florida location that we dealt with last month, it's a smorgasbord. It is very similar to what you would see in that same commercial corridor. It would be trespassing, loitering, theft, things of that nature. It would be very similar.

But not so much like, I don't know what the actual term is, but like drunken disorderly?

It's hard to measure these in a reasonable capacity because there's so many variables. For example, loitering typically will involve an arrest for a 647 , which would be a drunken public. But again, the statistical analysis can be read in any given way without it being completely granularized down to, okay, what was the arrest made for in the end? And I can get that data for you guys.

And the 1111 South Sanderson, is that that liquor store that's like right behind the Walgreens?

That is the 76 station that runs it on Sanderson. It would be adjacent to all the commons area there.

Oh, okay. Gotcha. Okay. I have no further questions. Thank you.

Sergeant Gomez, how are you? Mr. Hale, very well, how are you? Good. So you're saying that you can't break this data down into alcohol-related calls of service?

We can, it would just, we'd have to come back and revisit it. It would be a very tedious process, because what I would wanna do to make sure the data was accurate, would be to run every single call, and not specifically what the call for service was, but what the arrest or what the disposition of the call was. That's really going to tell you if alcohol was related in the call for service or not. Okay.

All right. And then on here, I see some of them like row 9 and row 11 and 13. They look restricted on location. Is there a reason for that?

It would just be the way the system pulled it up. Again, for the 76 station, I actually have already pulled that granular data, so I could probably provide that very quickly for you. But no, this was just an overpass of the data that I was requested. Oh, okay. So it could be vacants, could be situations. Again, this is a two-year analysis, so it could be a location that had a tenant and now currently doesn't, and it just didn't come up in our CAD. Oh, all right.

Yeah, I'd be interested in seeing the alcohol-related data, especially if this comes before us again in the same manner. So appreciate you doing this, Sergeant Gomez. This is good data to have. I think if we tweak it a little bit, it should be a little bit more meaningful for us.

It absolutely, like I said, could be boiled down quite a bit more.

Okay, thank you, sir.

Thank you, Sergeant Gomez. Yeah, that's kind of my general thought is just that is to have a correlation to be able to help inform the commission to balance those two things because, yeah, you definitely get a lot of feedback on just safety and wanting to be able to go unaccosted out to a shopping center. And if we're evaluating the approval of a business, based on the potential increase in sales of alcohol. Wanna have something there that says, yes, this is defendable, that this is why we denied it, or this is why we approved it. And any time that we get something from the police department, obviously we take that very seriously. And we want to make sure that we're considering that in any of the decisions that we do make. But would appreciate in the future if there was an opportunity to look at these calls more from a direct impact of potential additional sales of alcohol RELATIVE TO THE SAFETY OF THE COMMUNITY. AND IF A CASE CAN BE MADE THAT, YEAH, THIS ADDING MORE ALCOHOL SALES IS GOING TO CAUSE MORE PROBLEMS, THEN THAT AT LEAST GIVES US SOMETHING THAT WE CAN WORK OFF OF TO AT LEAST SPEAK TO OUR COMMUNITY AS TO WHY WE DENIED OR APPROVED THE PROJECT. BUT THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU GUYS DO.

OF COURSE. ABSOLUTELY. I COULDN'T CONCUR MORE. I'LL GIVE YOU A GOOD EXAMPLE. We have our motors, our traffic enforcers that are out there, and they have what we call, as I've done it before in this career, they have locations in which they, I wouldn't say prefer, but we have a lot of statistical analysis showing collisions, and so they work those areas profusely. And so that data would skew, for example, if they're making traffic stops 4, 5, 6, 7 times a day in front of a convenience store, that data is going to grossly skew the information that you guys have to make proper decisions. So I can agree with that.

Thank you. And it's interesting to know that the Just for Fun is coming back again for the request for the 21. I'm sure we'll have discussions on that.

Thank you. Do you, I know from hearing public input, there's a lot, Page Plaza is quite busy when it comes to car vandalisms, traffic stops, things like that. So what would you say, how often does that car vandalism happen in that parking lot? Because I know people are gonna call police, police gets involved. Is that a bigger number? Is that, because I know, I'm trying to find where these numbers are coming from. Like you mentioned traffic, you answered the one question I had, is when you do traffic stop, At that location, of course, it's going to flag that number, going to make a number. So again, it kind of breaks down to where we would like to see more of that precise alcohol-related number because there's just so many other things around. the main number there. So I don't have any other questions. I don't have questions.

No, the Commission is doing its due diligence. I understand that. It does show on this that the alcohol-related sales are the top of that pyramid, but breaking that down would be more beneficial. I agree.

I appreciate that. Any other final questions for Chairman Petey? All right. Well, thank you for your time and answering questions. And with that, before we go to discussion, we're going to open up public hearing. Are there any members present or online that would like to make a comment on this item?

Yes, Chair. I have Nicole Daly online.

She's unmuted. Ready to speak?

I believe so. Good evening, Chair and members of the Commission. Can you hear me okay?

We can hear you.

Great, thank you so much. My name is Nicole Daly with Daly Strategies, and I'm here tonight on behalf of Just For Fun, LLC. on the Hemet 76, which was just referred to by Sergeant Gomez. And thank you so much, Sergeant, for sharing that information with the Commission tonight. We were grateful to hear about this item just today. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there in person, but I just wanted to introduce myself and offer the opportunity to come and meet with any of you if you would be interested in hearing more about what we're proceeding with for the City of Clement and our Type 21 license. Just for fun, LLC has applied twice to bring their type 21 license to use in the city of Hemet. And as we've listened to some of your meetings over the last several months, we noticed that there has been a change in a shift in need within the city, as you've seen with the approvals that the commission has made. And therefore we came forward with this latest request to the city starting back in January to bring our Type 21 to use. As you can expect, ABC is hopeful for us to put that license to use as soon as possible. The applicant, Just for Fun LLC and our company is eager to do whatever we can to be good partners with the commission, do what we can to make sure that our facility is safe in terms of allowing for Type 21 sales. But I just want to make sure that you all knew that, yes, while we have that license, we are one of the four. We aren't currently able to use it because we do need the conditional use permit modified to allow for a type 21 use. So, again, just introducing myself, I will be reaching out separately to all of you and, again, offer the opportunity to meet with you ahead of our item. We do have our DRC meeting with the staff tomorrow. Or Thursday. I apologize.

Thank you very much. Any other public comments?

No, Chair.

Okay. And we can have the applicant approach the podium, of course.

Can you hear me now?

There you go, okay. GOOD EVENING, COMMISSIONERS, GOOD EVENING, EVERYBODY ATTENDING. TO INTRODUCE MYSELF, MY FAMILY HAS BEEN OPERATING GAS STATIONS IN HEMET FOR OVER 15 YEARS NOW. WE OWN THE ARCO ON STEDSON AND GILBERT AND WE JUST PURCHASED THE ARCO ON STATE STREET AND MENLO. SOME INTERESTING POINTS THAT WERE BROUGHT UP BY THE COMMISSION, JUST WANTED TO ADDRESS A FEW OF THEM, BUT BEFORE THAT, JUST WANTED TO GIVE ANOTHER INTRODUCTION ON THE PROJECT. SO WE'RE DOING A CONVENIENCE STORE, BUT IT'S NOT REALLY A CONVENIENCE STORE BECAUSE IT'S 6,500 SQUARE FEET. IT'S THE BIGGEST STORE IN HEMET FOR A GAS STATION. WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE IT INTO A MARKET. Alcohol is part of it, so we're not a liquor store. We saw this site as a good site for something like this. Knowing that our site is down the street, we wouldn't want to put something here that wouldn't make enough sales that wouldn't be a good addition to the city, knowing that our site's three miles down the road. So we know that this area needs another C-Store. And we wanted to put all of our ideas into this one center. That's why we made it 6,500 square feet. We're trying to add some food items, a little bit of produce, and we're hoping that we could be a good neighborhood market for all the new homes that are coming in, the existing homes. THAT ARE THERE. REGARDING CONGESTION THAT COMMISSIONER VERMONT HAS MENTIONED, I AGREE WITH THAT STATEMENT. WHENEVER I WANT TO GO FROM THAT STORE BACK ALL THE WAY TO HIGHWAY 74, I ALWAYS AVOID SANDERSON AND I ALWAYS TRY TO CUT THROUGH TO 74 FROM GILBERT OR ANY OF THE OTHER ROADS. regarding the census. I understand it's very tricky to comprehend the census tract because it's pulling in data and the border that are drawn are kind of not really helping with seeing where the concentration is. Because as you said, the commercial zones are super concentrated. Then you have these residential zones that have nothing in the area. So you kind of have to look at it from a macro view, not a micro view. If you go to any of our stores, you could see that we don't have a lot of issues with, you know, making police calls. I didn't see any of our stores on that list, unfortunately, but you would have seen we were on the bottom of the list because we try to handle our situations ourselves. We train our staff to de-escalate situations, to look into things. Our camera systems are visible and they're in the right locations. We keep a clean store. We show that This is a neighborhood market. Our staff has good relationships with all the local people, with all the people that come in. You can ask anybody. When we took over that one on State Street, a lot of people were coming in. They're like, seeing our workers that we would transition from the two stores. Like, oh, you guys took over this store? Glad to hear that. I'll be stopping here more often, just because our staff are very friendly, and we try to keep that community presence. I heard that when I think it was a chair, you mentioned that there's only one type 21 license for a gas station in the whole Valley. I'm not sure if that's true. I don't know the exact number, but I know it's more than one. Not in the city. I'm not sure about the stats on the city of Hemet, but I know that there are plenty of gas stations that offer hard liquor licenses and we're not an average store given that we're 6500 square feet, so I think that. Our situations a little unique and that it could be looked at in a different light regarding the qsr we don't have a tenant in place. But we've talked to some national coffee brands that have shown interest. They just want to see an approved plan and then start like really taking it more seriously. So we're hoping to hear some more information later this summer regarding that. And happy to answer any questions from anybody regarding this site. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks for that, Michael. We appreciate your family investing into Hemet. I have a couple of questions. So Mr. Papp said that you have an ABC 21 in escrow right now, but you might use it at a different location. Can you clarify that, please?

We're intending to use it here. WE COULD ALWAYS FIND ANOTHER LOCATION, BUT I THINK THIS IS A GREAT LOCATION FOR THIS GIVEN THE SIZE OF THE STORE. THE ESCRO IS FOR THIS SITE, SO THE INTENTION IS TO TRANSFER IT TO THIS LOCATION. WE'RE JUST WAITING FOR AN APPROVED CUP TO BE ABLE TO DO THE TRANSFER. WE'VE BEEN IN ESCRO FOR A YEAR NOW ON THIS LICENSE.

OKAY. AND YOU'RE OKAY WITH THE CONDITION 17 WHERE IT STATES THAT YOU CAN'T SELL ALCOHOL FROM 10 TO 7? YES. What are the hours of operation you guys are planning on that convenience store?

24 hours.

Okay. And there's a way you're going to lock up the alcohol even if it's on a shelf?

So if you pull up the floor plan, I can give some context. So the hard liquor is proposed to be behind the cashier area. So it's on display and we're going to have a cabinet system that can be lockable. And regardless, it's behind the register, so nobody should be going there. Storage is in the office area, so there's not going to be any hard liquor out on the gondolas.

Then you can see we have the five alcohol cooler doors.

we can apply a locking mechanism onto those doors to lock between those hours.

That's good to hear. Yeah, I think it's great that you guys are investing. That's going to be a cool little store. 6,500 square foot is pretty big. If you could bring produce, that's great. Because I know a lot of people in that area, especially the new communities there, It's like you've got to go to Walmart to go buy something. And those lines, you know, sometimes they're kind of discouraging. I would look into Papa Smash. They're a local company. They have, I think, three locations now. They started with one. But, yeah, they're a good company instead of another coffee store. That might be something to consider for that drive-thru. They're great burgers. There's one on the 74, and there's another one, I think it's like in Beaumont. But it's really good.

Yeah. Yeah, we're actually friends with the owners, so.

Oh, there you go.

Maybe that's an opportunity there.

Nice, all right, no further questions.

I don't have any questions, thank you so much. All right, and with that, any other public comments? No, sir. Okay, with that, we're gonna go ahead and close and go to discussion, commissioners.

Yeah, I like the idea of this store in this location. It's a great spot. I think they've done their homework well on that. As far as the alcohol license goes, you know, I just don't have the data in front of me that shows me that these calls of service are alcohol related, that there's an issue there. If I saw the data, maybe there might be an issue there, but I don't see the data to support that at this time. And I don't want to get in the way of progress in getting somebody's business off the ground and getting it moving. And I know that alcohol sales are important for the bottom line for a lot of these places. You know, with that, I think it's a great plan and I think staff has done a great job with outlining the, you know, the mitigations that are needed. And I like the idea of adding the prior mitigations need to be resolved prior to, you know, approval here. So that's my comment.

I think my only hesitation is, I mean, we heard from the online speaker, there's going to be another type 21 coming in that area. and that would be four of the five are type 21s. I think that this is very well done, and it's large enough that it could support the type 21. They're going to put everything behind the cases, behind the registers. They're going to lock. They agreed to stop sale at 10, even though they're 24 hours. Yeah, I think it's great. To that area, I really do think it's going to relieve some congestion on Stetson and Sanderson because now – You've got to get gas. You can come the back way. You can come down Stetson and Warren instead of Sanderson and Stetson. So that could release some traffic there. But I'm all for it pretty much.

I guess my only hesitation is the 21 versus 20 and going back to the criteria that we use to make decisions for any PCNs that we would see in the future. I agree that this is kind of a little different than a typical gas station store with the idea of it being more of like a local farmers market. So it's a it's a larger, larger resource to the community. And so because of that, it being a larger resource and offering more goods and PRODUCTS, IT AT LEAST IN MY MIND PROVIDES A RATIONALE FOR AS TO WHY TYPE 21 CAN BE INCORPORATED WITH THIS PCN VERSUS JUST A TYPE 20 LIKE WE DEALT WITH THE LAST PCN THAT CAME IN THAT WAS REQUESTING JUST TYPE 20 BUT THAT WAS A SMALL GAS STATION, JUST A REAL MORE SPECIFIC types of products and goods to be sold. So I feel more comfortable with the fact that this is a larger store that's offering produce, offering different types of things that would be a larger convenience to the community and therefore a PCN that includes a type 21 is more, it makes more sense in this case. But I think it's important as a commission that we continue to work on developing that criteria. that we can use to help make decisions that are defendable and transparent in the future.

Before I get to Commissioner Hill, I'm still, I don't think any gas station should sell hard liquor. I mean, beer and wine is one thing, that's alcohol still, but when I'm going around picking up trash on my property at work, there's always the plastic little vodka bottles I'm picking up, not beer cans. It just tracks a different type of crowd. And we've been pretty good at keeping Type 21 out of gas stations. And there's only one in our city, correct, that sells hard liquor for the unique condition that it's in?

I am aware of one. I'm trying to think off the top of my head its present location. I don't think we have any others.

But my issue is the type 21, because if we grant it to them, then Just for Fun's going to go for it, then their other two ARCOs will probably apply for it, and it just becomes a can of worms, and all the other places are going to want to probably apply for type 21. and we've been pretty good at keeping it at 20 at gas stations, and that's just where I am on that. I think everything else is great. I think the layout's great. The beer walk-in refrigerator looks pretty cool, and it's large, so a wide variety of different options. There's something unique that a lot of places don't have around here, but with my visioners, I just think type 21, I don't like the idea with that. Everything else, I'm for. Mr. Hill?

Yeah, thank you, Chair. My question to staff is, what is the effect of all these licenses to our city insurance situation? I know that it's an issue right now. And how do they look at this?

I don't believe the city in and of itself as a legal entity is responsible for somebody being over-served. If there was a condition existing in the road that was a hazard and that were exacerbated by somebody being intoxicated, then there perhaps could be some

additional liability but otherwise i don't believe the city accepts any liability for alcohol sales yeah but do they look at how many licenses we've we have approved and that has effect on the premium that kind of thing not that i'm aware of no um is that something you could look into for us certainly please do i i I'm a little concerned from that end because we are in a really, insurance wise, our city insurance is just, gone out the roof. And I don't wanna make it any worse if you know what I'm saying.

Yes, understood. I would say though, there currently is a provision in the Hemet Municipal Code that does allow for additional licenses upon making a finding of a public convenience or necessity, which again is at your purview, it's at your discretion. whether or not to make those findings or to not make the findings based on the information that's been provided to you this evening. If you feel that you are not comfortable making those findings, then we would just need findings of fact to craft a new resolution. The resolution before you this evening would be for approval. If the commission was so inclined to not adopt that, then we would come back with a resolution for denial. But we would need facts to support the findings of fact.

So my issue here is I'd like to have an additional finding to determine what is the impact to our city insurance for issuing licenses, type 20 and type 21 ABC licenses.

Is that something that is from a legal perspective within the bounds of the PCN?

I have not seen that because I know a city insurance carrier is pretty much a protection for the city. This is a separate issue, so I'm not aware of any of that at this point in time, but I know that any decision that the PLANNING COMMISSION WOULD LIKE TO DO TONIGHT NEEDS TO BE SUPPORTED AND I'M GOING TO ECHO EMERY'S STATEMENT THAT IT NEEDS TO BE SUPPORTED BY FINDINGS OF FACT THAT IS PROVIDED BEFORE YOU. concerns relating to things that are um intangible or not provided are just assumptions and concerns that are not within the fact of the administrative record so just want to remind the commission that any support for um under the pcn needs to be supported by the funding findings that are brought for the from the administrative record

So with that being said, the finding that was made in this staff report that it meets the PCN threshold, is there a delineation between type 20 or type 21 in that finding? Is there a distinction between the two in terms of what that finding is?

PER OUR MUNICIPAL CODE, THERE IS NOT. PER ABC, THERE IS NOT. THE FINDINGS OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE OR NECESSITY ARE FOR EITHER OR. IT DOES NOT WEIGH MORE HEAVILY OR LESS HEAVILY ON ONE OR THE OTHER. I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT AGAIN, THOUGH, THAT THERE IS NO DATA THAT EXISTS FOR CALLS OF SERVICE FOR THIS PROPERTY BECAUSE IT IS CURRENTLY A VACANT PROPERTY. other evidence that could be brought forth would be speculative.

I have a question for legal, probably, when it comes to findings or my rebuttal, in a way. And I wish we had a firm answer on this, but I think we only have one gas station that does type 21. The uniqueness of that gas station was back in, I think, the early 90s, they were a liquor store, convenience store, not a gas station. And then at some point on Stanford and Florida, and at some point they closed down for renovation. They were closed for years, and they kept their dues. They paid their dues. They were active. They never went delinquent. And then they built a gas station, later on approved by the city, which I believe at the time it was county at that time, and then annexed into the city. And then the city built a gas station with the building. And now it's the only unique, and then they only granted them the Type 20 originally. And they brought it back to the table asking why can't they have the 21 because they paid for it this entire time at that parcel. And so we granted it to them. It's just because of the circumstances. That's the only gas station that I can think of in this town that has that circumstance. I don't think we have hard liquor in any other gas stations in town.

I don't know the particulars of that specific situation or gas station, but... not wanting a type 21 at a gas station is not supported by the findings that we have before us on the administrative record so it needs to tie in to what we have just mere preference or unless there's something that I've missed at the whatever it was approved prior to that particular gas station that you're speaking of. From what I gather from the issues of fact is that whether a type one 21 or 20 is one wanting to whatever the commission wants to be grant, it needs to be tied to an actual finding on the record. So THEY'RE PRETTY MUCH ONE AND THE SAME, AND ACCORDING TO OUR CODE, THERE'S NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE TWO. OKAY.

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS OR DISCUSSIONS BEFORE WE VOTE?

MR. CHAIRMAN?

YES.

I CAN'T VALIDATE THE ACCURACY OF THIS, BUT WHILE YOU'RE DISCUSSING, I DID A SIMPLE GOOGLE SEARCH FOR GAS STATIONS IN THE CITY OF HEMET WITH A TYPE 21 LICENSE, AND IT INDICATES THREE LOCATIONS. I don't want to state my name publicly, but there are presently three.

That's good to know. Do we know how the airport feels about this? Since it's closer to the airport? Does that matter?

Well, there was the public notification was sent out, and I'm assuming the airport is within the vicinity that they would have received.

I believe it's 500 feet.

For the previous... Well, for the Brethren Square price, it was transmitted to the Airport Land Use Commission, and the only thing that they requested was an avocation easement be filed over.

Okay.

No further questions. So I'd like to take the Type 21 APC license. out of this conditional use permit and can we vote on everything else but that and have that come to Planning Commission at a later date as soon as the finding on the insurance is resolved?

With respect to the insurance, I did receive a text message from our Interim Director of Public Works who stated that that would not affect the city's insurance.

Would not? Would not. Okay, thank you. Thank you for resolving that. Real time.

Okay.

I feel better. Discussions or somebody want to make a motion? And amend the, we need to amend.

You need to include the verbiage to amend the conditions of

Yes, amend the conditions of approval to include the previously adopted mitigation measures under the mitigation monitoring and reporting program for Brethren Square.

I guess, I mean, I will move this item but I'm moving it based on input from They go on from staff in regards to what the scope of our position is and what our role is and what's in front of us and that the findings have been made in this report for the issuance of the PCN. And from my perspective, the reason why I am comfortable with those findings in this particular situation to the conversation on 20 versus 21 is that it is a different type of a store than the typical gas station. And then that it's larger, provides additional goods and services, including groceries or vegetables, I think they said, or fruits and things. So it's more of a convenience from that perspective in my mind. And so with that, a very long recommendation, but I'll try to shortcut it if I can. Let me know if I shortcut it too much. But I move that the Planning Commission determine the project is exempt from CEQA. The project is also exempt pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15315 class 15 minor land divisions. The project is also exempt from CEQA based on the provisions of CEQA guidelines sections 15162 because it is consistent with the previously certified MND or negative declaration. and that a notice of determination was filed on April 19, 2001 in accordance with CEQA requirements. There has been no legal challenge brought against the project or the environmental determination. I also move that we adopt Planning Commission resolution to approve tentative parcel map based on the findings and exhibits and subject to the attached conditions of approval. with the addition of adherence to the mitigation measures previously identified in the MMRPs, and direct staff to file a notice of exemption with the Riverside County Clerk and the State of California.

I include the amended change as well that the legal and deputy director mentioned.

That was the mitigation measures with the previously approved MMRPs.

I APOLOGIZE, BUT BEFORE WE VOTE ON THAT, I JUST WANT TO DO SOME HOUSEKEEPING CHECKS ONCE AGAIN. So we can scratch that. Chair, Commissioner Wirth, my apologies.

It looks like that you had the incorrect staff report in front of you.

But it's a shorter paragraph. I'm sorry, I have my chicken scratch on it, so please.

That's okay. Well, I apologize for the public.

No, that's not your fault, thank you.

Goodness. There's just a lot of numbers, okay. Where was I? All right, so is that?

It was item 7A. You had it on the right.

Yeah, but that's just the title. That's not the recommendation, is it? Give me one second. Let me pull up the... Okay, there we go.

All right, thank you.

All right, so starting over, I will move to determine the project as exempt from CEQA under guidelines section 15162. The proposed is consistent with previously certified mitigation negative declaration of mitigation monitoring and reporting program approved by the city council in 2008 for the Page Community Plaza Specific Plan Amendment 07-002 and CUP 06-002.

I APOLOGIZE, FACE CHAIR. I CAN'T HEAR YOU. I'M SORRY.

THAT'S OKAY. THAT'S OKAY. I DON'T KNOW WHY I VOLUNTEERED THAT. I'M JUST KIDDING. AND TO ADOPT PLANNING COMMISSION RESOLUTION TO APPROVE CUP 23-005 AND MAKE FINDINGS OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE OF NECESSITY PCN 26-001 based on the findings and exhibits and subject to the attached conditions of approval with the additional condition of approval for adherence to the previously approved mitigation measures as associated with the MMRPs from the prior CEQA document. Is that correct? Thank you. and direct staff to file an OE with the Riverside County Clerk and State of California.

I second that motion.

Are you sure?

Yeah. Seconded something.

Okay, cast your votes. Okay, and we will now move on to department reports. City Attorney Layla Suare.

Thank you, Chair. Nothing to report.

Okay, community development reports. It was 3-1. It was 3-1.

The motion passed 3-1.

Mr. Chairman, our Community Development Director was unable to be here this evening. I believe her property is under an evacuation order. There is a fire burning near her home, so we will defer the Community Development Director reports to our next Planning Commission meeting.

Thank you very much. And now future agenda items. Deputy Director Papp.

Yes, some of the items that will be coming before you soon include A presentation on the annual five-year capital improvement program update. We just heard cost in the square, so we can remove that one. The 2025 fire code cycle updates in residential construction in very high severity hazard zones. A tentative track map on Warren Road known as Valle de los Tres Cerritos, 199 subdivision, single family home, small lot subdivision off of Warren Road. PRO HOUSING DESIGNATION PROGRAM THAT THE CITY IS APPLYING FOR. WE'RE WORKING WITH A CONSULTANT TO OBTAIN THAT DESIGNATION FOR THE CITY. WE HOPE TO SOON HAVE OUR BUILDING OFFICIAL PROVIDE AN UPDATE REGARDING THE 2025 BUILDING CODE CYCLE UPDATE AND AB306 AND RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION. And then we are still working on our pre-approved ADU plans. I think we may have mentioned to you before that our new principal planner, James Atkins, is an architect by trade, and he was converted to a city planner. But we're going to take advantage of his architectural skills to assist us in putting together those ADU plans. And that includes our items for future agendas at this time.

Thank you very much for that. And Planning Commissioner reports.

Commissioner Viramontes.

Yeah, so going back to Type 21, last year we approved La Perla for a Type 21. It's that convenience store on Santa Fe in Florida. I just went in there today, and the remodel's getting done. It looks really good. I think that Type 21s do help out a lot of bottom lines. I don't agree with the gas station ones, but that just looks really good. And they still have more to go. I was talking to the guy today. They're going to redo the little restaurant area. So it's good to see that something that we did is finally paying off for a small store. Other than that, I have nothing further to report. Commissioner Hill?

I have nothing to report. Thank you.

Vice Chair Wirth? Nothing to report. Thank you. And Chair Beemsterfer?

Measure U update. Measure U oversight committee continues to monitor public safety funding and city financial health. Measure U remains as a critical funding source for police and fire services. The committee discussed last week their concerns about long-term the grant fundings for the fire department in case that funds ever deplete and will the city be able to carry that that budget as well the liability insurance cost is rising and And it's starting to put a little stress on the city. City Council also approved the new development impact fees last week. The last time they did that was in 2006. Their purpose is to ensure new development helps pay for roads, traffic improvements, public safety, facilities, parks, and infrastructure needs to support growth. Cities throughout California continue to face challenges with large vacant commercial buildings. Some jurisdictions, particularly in the Bay Area, have implemented a vacancy registration program or a tax that increases over time to encourage property owners to lease, improve, or redevelop the vacant spaces. These programs are intended to reduce flight, improve public safety, and promote economic activity. And I think that's something that maybe the city of Hemet should look into. with a lot of the vacant buildings that we have that have been empty for years to come up maybe with a program that we can kind of keep in order these vacant buildings so they don't get out of control. Community events, if you go to him at 365.com, you'll see that June 17th, the Rotary Club is having a spaghetti dinner. We have a summer bash at Valleywide this weekend from 5 to 8 p.m., June 20th, Ramona Market, the Ramona Bowl. June 20th, Live Forever, a tribute to Oasis at Historical Hemet Theater. June 26th is Summer Movies and Parks at Mary Henley Park. June 27th has three different events, a tribute to Donna Summer at Historical Hemet Theater, Musical Celebration of America at the Public Library, and a rock revival at the Ramona Bowl. Again, you can find this on 365.com if you're an owner. You can register your business and be able to post events that you may host that's open to public. And the one thing I wanted to just add to staff with the community development reports, I started since January and I went through all of our meetings and I would like to see more from the director when it comes to community development reports. When it comes to maybe giving us updates to what's going on with the city any any new businesses that are coming in that doesn't actually require planning commission. Maybe get public works involved tell us about rose upcoming projects now just kind of fill us in what's going on with the city because unfortunately community development reports. There hasn't been much to report this year. So just something that would help us as a commission to get more informed with what's going on. And there being no further business to discuss, this meeting is adjourned to the next regular Planning Commission meeting scheduled for July the 7th, 2026 at 6 p.m. Also, I'm sorry, but for staff, July 7th.