Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

afternoon of the 26th and the planning commission, city of Lancaster, please come to order tonight. Um, the invocation of this afternoon, the invocation will be offered by Commissioner Hernandez and the pledge will be offered by Commissioner Burke. You'd all please stand. Let us bow our heads and take a moment. We thank you, Lord, for this day. We thank you for bringing us all together here and for everyone that made it safely. We are grateful for this community that we serve. May we approach today's decisions with fairness, with wisdom, with compassion. May you guide us in making choices that uplift and strengthen our community. May our city receive the blessings of our decisions for many, many years to come. May each person here be blessed by our collective work and may our decisions leave a positive legacy in this city. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. To the flag of the United States of America stands.

Thank you both. We have the roll call, please. Roll call. Chairman Bose here. Vice Chairman Dairberry absent. Commissioner Burke present. Commissioner Co present. Commissioner Hernandez present. Commissioner Latanzi absent. Commissioner Underwood absent. We have a quorum. All right. Thank you very much.

We have three items on our agenda tonight. Action items. the first action item. Um, well, before I discuss that, I should let you all know, uh, those that haven't been here before. Any person who would like to address the commission tonight, uh, is asked to please fill out a speaker card, which you'll find at the rear of the chamber and deposited here on my left, your right at the end of the day. And uh when that item is called uh by the commission then you'll have an opportunity to address us for three minutes. Applicants however if they choose to address us will um have a bit more time to explain their project um and any particular details that they wish to share. Um, at the end of the meeting tonight, uh, we have an opportunity to hear the community on any non-aggendaized items. And, uh, once the action items are completed, I'll call on anyone who wants to address us tonight on anything other than what's been on the agenda. So um the time limit time limits approximately three minutes each if you have wish to address the commission. All right. Our first action item tonight is the minutes of our regular meeting of December 15, 2025. Have a motion, please.

Motion. Thank you. and a second. Second.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Please vote. Uhhuh. The motion passes with four yes and three absent. We have two new public hearings tonight. The first public hearing is the general plan amendment number 25-00005. The applicant in this case is the city of Palmdale. The presenters tonight are Miss Swain and um whom else? Ah, okay. I see. All right then. Um, do we have any speakers on this item?

Chair Bos, there are no speakers currently. No speakers. All right, then. If you proceed, ladies, we'll be happy to hear what you have to say.

Sounds good. All right. So, good evening, Chair Vos, members of the planning commission. Uh, my name is Shannon Edwin. I'm a planner with community development. The item I'm presenting this afternoon is a general plan amendment for updates to the open space element and conservation element of the city's general plan. This presentation may look familiar to you. Uh we presented this in we presented anformational session on the element updates at our last planning to respond to changes in the community or as it is in this case new requirements for specific elements to be updated per state legislation. The table on the right side of the screen lists the eight elements of our general plan with the year they each were adopted. The city's current general plan has undergone several amendments over time with the most recent being in 2022 when the housing element, safety element, and environmental justice elements were updated. Today's presentation and request is for amendments went too fast. Uh for amendments to the two elements highlighted on the screen, the plan for active living and the plan for the natural environment. So now I'll give an overview of the state laws that prompted these specific updates. To start, uh, Senate Bill 1425 was passed by the state legislature in 2022, which requires local jurisdictions to update their open space elements to account for equitable access to open space, climate resilience, and rewing opportunities. The next bill is Assembly Bill 1889 which was passed in 2024 and requires the conservation element to be updated to account for impacts of development on wildlife movement and habitat connectivity.

These elements are currently in our general plan but with different names. The plan for active living serves as the open space element and the plan for the natural environment is our conservation element. As part of this update, these two elements have been officially renamed as the open space element and conservation element and now reflect the necessary changes to be in compliance with the state laws described in the previous slide. Drafts of both elements were provided to the commission at the December hearing and are included in your packets today. I want to also note that the policies and actions in the existing elements that are not related to the state bills remain unchanged and are still included in the revised elements. As part of this update, a new appendix has been added to the open space element. This includes a study of park access both citywide and for disadvantaged communities, which is shown in the map on the screen. It also has an analysis of extreme heat events, impacts of drought, flooding, and wildfires. This study also utilized information contained within the recently adopted environmental justice and safety elements and are reflected in the updated policies contained in the draft element. Based on this study and the requirements of the state bill, the draft open space element contains new and revised policies and specific actions to encourage more parks and open space amenities and recreation opportunities for all age groups, more shade and cooling in parks to account for extreme heat and enhance public safety in parks and open space areas. I also want to emphasize that while these are updates to the element, the new policies and actions incorporated largely reflect what we are already

doing as a city. For example, new and inclusive playground equipment and shade structures have been installed at Raleigh Dunley Park and Mariposa Park. Fitness equipment, sports courts, park amenities, upgraded ADA access, and parking lot lighting have also been installed at city parks, as well as various recreation programming, including a senior walking club. Now, moving on to the conservation element. This update also contains a new appendix which addresses wildlife connectivity or in other words how well wildlife can move through or between habitats. This evaluation included identifying existing biological resources and areas of high value which could support wildlife movements. As shown on this slide, the darker the red color, the higher the biological value of the area. for this element. Some of the new policies and document policies document conservation efforts that the city is already doing, while others included specifically to address the requirements of the assembly bill and future endeavors that the city is considering. These include obtaining Joshua tree delegation agreements with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, modifications to standards with respect to lighting and fencing to allow wildlife movement, exploring the development of a conservation plan specific to Lancaster and evaluating roadways to allow for better wildlife crossing. And to just briefly highlight again, a lot of these policies and actions reflect uh what the city's already doing. This includes the purchase of almost a thousand acres of conservation property through the city's biological impact fees. And we are also currently

working with a consultant to map Joshua trees throughout the city. Onto the public review and comment. The draft elements were made available on the city's website for a 30-day public review period from December 15, 2025 to January 14th, 2026. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, requested a oneweek extension, which was granted with the comment period closing on January 21st, 2026. Two comment letters were received, one from AVA QMD and one from CDFW. AVA QMD had no comments. CDFW provided a comment letter on January 21st requesting additional analysis and mapping of rare species and providing suggestions for stronger conservation policies. These comments have been noted and the information will be incorporated into a future more comprehensive update of the general plan. At this time, given that the current updates are intended only to bring the elements into compliance with recent state bills, no revisions are necessary. The element updates met all legally required public noticing which included a notice of public hearing published in the Analopee Valley Press on January 6, 2026. And lastly, just to wrap this up with these updates, uh we will now be in compliance with these state bills. And I want to highlight that we will actually be one of the first cities in California to be in compliance. So with that, uh, staff recommends the planning commission adopt resolution number 26-01 recommending the city council approve general plan amendment number 25-5. Myself and Joselyn are here if you have

any questions. Thank you. There may well be some. So the only uh did you receive any other comments other than the two you've mentioned?

No, we did not. So the element uh as it relates to counting Joshua trees, shall we say, pursuing the Joshua Tree delegation agreement from with California Department of Fish and Wildlife. So that requires the city to do what?

So with respect to the delegation agreements, we would have to it's basically an agreement you enter into and the city would be allowed in that instance to issue tape permits in certain circumstances and that would be residential, industrial and commercial developments with 10 or fewer Joshua trees based on the way CDFW counts, not how we count. and public works projects of 40 or fewer. Um, it would also allow any permits issued by the city to charge the lower of the two Joshua Tree fees for mitigation. I see. So, 10 or lower.

What about the inventory process to make those determinations? Are we engaged in that now?

No. So, there there's two different things going on. If a project is proposed, they're still required to do a project specific um biological survey, count their own trees, identify where they are. What Kendall is working on, and if I have this right, they fly it by drone or some other visual imagery over square miles, produce really high quality maps, and can tell us where all of the Joshua trees are. And so that's essentially to provide the public with a screening tool. If you're a developer who wants to build something and you have options between properties and you can look at it and go, "Oh, that one has no Joshua trees and this one has a lot, you may make different choices." Um, and so it's just something that we're providing um doing to provide to the public and for our own um benefit

better than Google Earth. Yes. Um I think we have nine square miles done. Seven, eight, somewhere in there. Yeah, you have what? I'm sorry. We we did one test square mile to per to do accuracy it because I had a um biological report that already had all of them GPSed in so you could double check it. And then we did an additional eight square miles, I believe. Fascinating. There may be other questions. I think Commissioner Go had some questions.

Uh yeah, mine were more uh more comments than questions. Um they had to do with uh the last time we were here, you guys provided us with a copy of the open space element. As I was reading through it, I noticed there's a couple different sections um that I'm not sure are entirely accurate as far as like projects that may be under construction or have already been completed, you know, a couple years in the past. Um, so I'm just more curious like I mean obviously I can point those out specifically, but uh what would be the process I guess to make sure that those items are addressed. For example, like one of them is talking about school bonds. Um I already you know last year there was a couple school bonds that were passed. Um there's like a couple projects on page six that reference I think uh if it's the project I'm thinking about would be department of mental health on Avenue I which has been completed for several years.

Correct. So, as um Shannon mentioned, the only policies that we updated were with respect to the two bills. We made no other changes. Got it. Um those will get done with a comprehensive update. Understood. Thank you.

So, if this is if these documents are used for planning purposes then and shouldn't they be accurate? For instance, I think I read and I correct me if I'm wrong, something in to the effect of um overcrowded schools, high a growth 2003, 2006 and student enrollment, which is contrary to current um details that you know in their school districts. If you if you ask most school district superintendent over the last two, three years, they have declining enrollment and they certainly not are are not overcrowded. Generally speaking, districtwide, there may be some additional school sites that may be overcrowded technically. However, district-wide um at least it's my information that um they have declining enrollment. You also have a lower birth rate now in um the country and certainly in California which produces less kindergarten first grade students which then transition over time through middle school and high school which tends to keep the enrollment lower. Am I saying that about right? I can speak to actually um I would agree. I think the intent as Shannon and Jocelyn were saying is that the those resources are there as the basis for the original version of this document. Um any research that was necessary to update the policies under review was done. Um but I would definitely agree with the age of those resources and

we're aware of that in doing any sort of planning determination. So this is 2026 and the general plan was through what 2030 correct? It's through 2030. Um most of the information in the general plan the baseline data is from 2005 2006. Um we are aware that it needs to be updated but we had deadlines we had to meet with respect to the state law for these two elements um and limited resources to do so. We obliged under state law to do it. So

if we wanted to stay in the game with the state and receive whatever appropriate funding might be available through grants and other resources the state may offer, right? Yeah, we definitely you don't have all your elements in place pursuant to state law, you don't get money. That can happen. So when is the um when is the thought um that the general plan might be updated again?

It certainly certainly needs to be I guess uh that's my comment for the evening. That's appreciated. We agree. Yeah, we are uh attempting to begin those conversations internally. Funding is important too, right? Exactly. So, what do you think? What are we talking about? Threequarters of a million dollars to do a general plan update. Maybe in that range, maybe higher.

All right. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Anyone? All right. Thank you. So, it's appropriate to close the public hearing then and consider a motion on this matter. I'll make a motion. Chair uh to adopt resolution number 2601 recommending the city council approval of general plan amendment number 25-005 and finding the project is exempt under the California Environment Quality Act. Thank you. Do we have a second?

Second. Thank you.

Anything further from anyone? No. All right, then. Please vote. Motion passes 40 with three absent. And the next public hearing um is open regarding the Parkway Village specific plan general plan amendment 25-00006 zone change number 25-00004 and specific plan 24-001. The applicant in this case again is the city of Lancaster. Do we have speakers on this item?

Chair Vos, we have two speaker cards. All right. Very good. Um or maybe three. Chair Vos, we have three speaker cards. All right. Very good. Um, let's hear from the speakers prior to the staff's presentation tonight. Sure thing. First one up is Charles Frick, followed by Aiden Marshall. All right. Thank you.

Good evening and welcome. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, well, it's kind of evening. It's afternoon and I took off from work. Hold on a second. I don't think your microphone's working. Is it working? It is now. Okay, cool. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead.

Uh hello everyone. My name is Charles Fria. I am a resident uh on Gatston Avenue. Um I'm speaking in favor of the uh specific plan. Um not only am I really excited to have more neighbors potentially, um I'm also really excited for the change in land use. Currently that land is highly disturbed. Um there's lots of car ruts. Uh there's public safety issues. That land is currently used as a dumping site, so it's littered with trash. Um right now, one of the only ways through is to uh take the lovely uh cycling lane, which I do, especially with my dog. Um, and not only that, but I I'm really excited for the potential for it being safer for me to go to like Owens Park at night or not at night, but in the evenings, especially in the summer. Um, being able to go to some of the businesses, uh, being able to go to, let's say, Bolero at night or to Bravery Brewing at night. Um, and being able to safely walk, have more people around. Um, and I'm just in general really excited for this plan. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you for your comments, sir. Next up is Aiden Marshall, followed by Alana Dixon. Mr. Marshall, Creed LA. Yes. Afternoon and welcome.

Uh yeah, thanks for having me. Uh Commissioner Vose, honorable commissioners, uh my name is Ada Marshall, speaking on behalf of Creed LA. Uh as you may know, we're a nonprofit organization uh consist consisting of labor organizations and individuals who live and work in the city of Lancaster. Uh we submitted comments on this project back in uh November on the draft EIR uh identifying a number of issues concerning air quality, health risk to nearby residents, uh greenhouse gases, energy, and noise. Uh none of these flaws have been resolved in the final EIR and the staff report that was released on Friday. Uh we submitted comments explaining that and should be at the available at the front of the room. I just want to focus on a couple uh substantive issues uh with my three minutes. Uh, one of the major issues with this project is that the EIR itself is acknowledging a significant and unmitigated operational health impact or excuse me operational air quality impact. Uh, this is mostly due to um operational uh mobile source emissions from the project. Uh, SQA requires that whenever you identify an impact that's significant and deemed unavoidable, you have to uh adopt all feasible mitigation measures. Um here the EIR only requires a couple measures uh vague measures that state we'll use um you know high efficiency you know heating and cooling and uh a measure about using low VOC paints where applicable. Uh this is far from the entire universe of feasible mitigation measures for a big project like this that has different time types of residential units commercial units. There's a lot of uh mitigation measures available to reduce uh emissions from all these different sectors. Uh one of the uh major sectors of uh

emissions from this project are the uh mobile source emissions from the residential and the commercial uses. Uh there's these voluntary standards in the California green building code that call for increased EV charging above what's currently required both for the residential and the commercial components. Um, these are not analyzed in the EIR and they're not currently required in the EIR. Uh, you know, we proposed these comments in back in November on the draft EIR. They were not responded to meaningfully in the final EIR. Uh, this is something that needs to be addressed in a corrected EIR. Um, another key issue that was not corrected was the energy analysis. Uh, in some it's very incomplete. There's a large categories of information that are missing like how much electricity would this project use. What would be the peak and base energy demands of this project? And uh you know these and many other types of energy considerations not addressed in the draft I back in November not corrected in the final e work is is needed on this. And uh I think you'll note that uh DOT also um CALR submitted a letter explaining that their concerns were not uh responded to and corrected. Uh so these are all things that should be included in a revised and recirculated EIR. Um please continue the hearing so these concerns can be resolved. Thank you very much.

Uh thank you. We may have questions for you if you don't mind. Yeah, I'll be right here. Thank you. Um, now, oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't sure if there were other public speakers, but uh That's all right. Yes.

Thank you. Um, just for the record, we did in fact receive today the commission members receive a letter that uh was transmitted to the city Sunday night uh which was yesterday. Um, typically city staff don't work on Sunday. So, um, we didn't have re we didn't have the opportunity to review it other than this morning. Uh some members of the commission actually have real jobs where they have to go to work and um don't have the opportunity to thoroughly review correspondence from applicants or those who wish to delay uh projects um for other purposes. It's been my experience at least an observation that Creed LA typically continues to do this on all environmental documents within our city and other cities for the distinct purpose to extract concessions from developers. Is that not true? Uh uh respectfully I would disagree. Um our main goals uh include clean uh projects and good jobs uh for the constituents. Um these are both uh goals that are you know explicitly uh encouraged by the SQA public participation process. Uh regarding the uh comments submitted on Sunday uh you know we would have gotten them uh earlier. Uh the staff report was released on Friday uh afternoon. Um so we basically just worked through the weekend um on this having our experts uh uh look at this uh our comments were prepared with the assistance of two experts um a expert toxicologist and an

acoustics firm uh getting all this together in time uh for the hearing. Yeah, we we were working all weekend. Uh so we regret um the delay. sure your members appreciate you working over the weekend and uh charging the appropriate fees for extra hours, right? You know, the thing about law is that you don't have overtime, you know. You don't? No. The the billable like me, nobody has I don't have overtime either.

Yeah. It's uh it's one of those things where, you know, these are important issues to our clients. They're important issues I think for the citizens of of Lancaster and uh you know for folks living you know right by the project uh I think their quality of life would be greatly increased by having increased uh noise mitigation increased air quality mitigation you know these are all uh you know done by the city and other projects and we'd encourage that in this case too.

Well we'll ultimately have an opportunity to engage our staff here a little later after we hear all the public comments. Uh, but if I did understand you correctly, your effort is to um make sure that projects meet environmental standards that you believe are correct and that your uh represented employee groups are engaged in the construction of projects as well as uh receiving some renumeration, cash considerations, donations, whatever. At least that's my observation.

Yeah, I can't speak to any kind of consideration. Uh our goal is to have good working conditions. Uh we're supporting uh you know, middle class jobs here and these are folks that live in the city, you know, their constituents. Um but you do understand the city does not have the power to impose project labor agreements on the private sector, right?

Oh, and and to be clear, uh our participation in this particular proceeding uh has we are not asking for any kind of labor consideration here. Uh just purely um SQA's environmental standards. These apply to any any project regardless of who the commenter is. uh SQA's requirement for example that a city require all feasible mitigation before declaring an impact.

So you're telling me that on projects that environmental impact reports are certified to uh and not to your liking. um you may bring suit and then have a financial settlement or a negotiated settlement with the applicant or with the developer. You're you're not you're telling me you don't do that?

Uh to my knowledge, we've never received like some sort of financial settlement. Basically, uh the way our involvement usually works is that we'll get an an environmental settlement agreement uh trying to address all the issues that we raise. Uh so in our comments we raised uh and mind you these are legally supported air quality issues, energy issues, noise issues uh if we were to withdraw our opposition to this project and recommend support. It would be after uh having an agreement that addresses each of those areas. We do not withdraw our opposition to a project unless all of those have been I understand your answer. Thank you. Yeah. And uh please let me know if you have any additional questions. Appreciate it. Thank you for your comments.

Thank you. And we have one other speaker. Yes, that's Alana Dixon.

Yes. Good evening and welcome. Hi, good evening. Apologies already if I'm a little bit flustered and I get nervous with public speaking. Um, it's okay to be nervous.

Thank you. I also live on Gadston Avenue actually and I also would like to feel safe walking to the Bolero because I think it's a fun place to hang out. Um, however, I don't think that the answer to that would be paving the majority of 435 acres of open space. If you look in the surrounding area, there isn't much accessible open space that people can go to unless you have a car to drive to like the Prime Desert Preserve, which is a lovely area. And if you also actually walk around the area there, you'll see that there are Joshua trees in about onethird of that whole space. And uh the development plan leaves some green tendrils, which is an interesting phrase, and also a very small park. And if you know anything about plants, they actually need a whole habitat because they're part of an ecosystem. So, a very minimum thing that I would ask for is that the plan be redesigned to at least leave that one-third quadrant, that whole square containing Joshua trees intact and also provide wildlife corridors as you were considering in the previous um agenda item because that um portion of open space also connects rather well to the rest of the open space south of that area. Um, and yes, there are other ways to consider how to make corridors safe for biking. um for walking at night rather than just paving everything. And also considering the noise element as well, I take my dogs out there and I also just walk out there myself. It's the area where I learned or started to learn botney and about the ecosystems in the Antelopee Valley. They're adorable little plants that you can't see with a drone like the Mojave Sun Cup that are unique to this area. And there are various different plants and animals out there that people don't know about if all they're doing is to go try to um enjoy like shopping or loud activities. It just it's a different thing when you can enjoy something for completely free just by walking outside your door and taking a couple steps. Um and it's something that gives people

more peace when you can actually hear a bird song and relax when you're not hearing your neighbors making a lot of noise. I love the sound of children having fun. But I also love the sound of nature and that's something that we don't get when we're hearing cars all the time. Um so yeah, and also in the California Department of Wildlife and Fisheries comments, they outlined there about 103 Joshua trees in that area. um and that there isn't a sufficient mitigation plan to make up for the minimal if any um surrounding open space and considering the also like rapid development in this community itself. I took the uh naturalist training with transition habitat conservancy and at the end of it the very sweet teacher Sarah Bryman actually gave me this uh wildflower book which notes that the AV used to be covered in u poppies and lupin which now has been turned into mostly single tracted housing. So it's a really unique thing that could be a big selling point for this area that we need to not just give over without thinking about it.

All right, thank you for your comments. Any other speakers? All right, then. So, Miss Swain and Miss Brady are presenting, I guess, tonight. Or Miss Break, go ahead. Thank you, Chair Vos, members of the planning commission. I'm Kendall Brekie, senior planner with Community Development. The project before you is Parkway Village, a general plan amendment and zone change for a new specific plan proposed on approximately 430 acres in the central portion of the city. This is what we have today. Parkway Village is proposed between Avenue K and Avenue L and 10th Street West and Sierra Highway, excluding the existing development north of K8 along Gadston. The subject area is primarily undeveloped despite its prime location. The area is at the center of the city surrounded by key developments including Sergeant Steve Owen Memorial Park, the Auto Mall, several apartment complexes, major retailers including Target and Costco, and the business park specific plan area across Sierra Highway. There are several existing structures within the plan area, including Bolero, Sierra Retirement Village, and the Kaiser Perente Butterfly Building. All existing and permitted development within the boundary of Parkway Village would be considered legal non-conforming and would not be removed as part of this proposal. The Parkway Village specific plan, if adopted, would only establish new zoning and development standards for the subject area. No new no specific new development is proposed or reviewed at this time. City staff and leadership have worked with stakeholders to identify the need for housing which would be attractive to young families and individuals, especially those employed by the area's thriving aerospace industry. Parkway Village would create diverse residential opportunities, amenities, education, entertainment, and retail to serve this target market and the community overall. What's shown now is a visioning land use plan. This is a highle idea of how the plan area could be configured provided by one of the city's consultants, CSA

partners. This plan is used as a basis for the project and has been adapted for implementation based on stakeholder needs, transportation, and zoning best practices. Those final implementation plans are what I'll go over in the next few slides. The Parkway Village plan includes several districts, each aimed at encouraging the development of a key market within the city. Parkway Vill's layout is largely dictated by the SHTC or Sierra Highway Transportation Corridor. Essentially, under the state's current plan for highspeed rail, it would run along the existing Sierra Highway, which is the rightmost green area. This would cause Sierra Highway to be relocated in the future, which is shown as the central green area. Planning for this now. Planning for this now allows us to ensure minimal traffic interruptions in the event that highspeed rail goes in through the Analopee Valley. The largest portion of the site is dedicated to residential uses in yellow, targeting housing types, which are least represented in Lancaster's development economy, primarily small lot subdivisions, town homes, uh condominiums, cottage courts, things like that. The business district in blue along Avenue L on the south would serve as medical office area with supporting uses like daycarees and restaurants. The purple workshop district along Avenue K on the north would be intended for semi-industrial and art related uses like live work studios. The town center district in red is envisioned with a mixeduse plaza off of 10th Street West, opportunities for highdensity residential like apartments, a central park and school, and expansion area for the existing Kaiser Permanente facility. This map details the proposed zoning for the plan area. We have medium density residential in light brown, high density residential in dark brown, vertical mixed use in pink within the town center area, uh the existing and proposed Kaiser Permanente facilities in blue, transit oriented office area and sort of salmon along the south, lower density

residential in yellow, and live work and artisan areas in gray. There is a orangey brown area. you can just see that separates the yellow single family residential from the proposed future Sierra Highway along the center. This corridor area serves as an urban wall which would buffer lowdensity residential from the high traffic of Sierra Highway. Zooming in on the area along 10th Street West, I want to call out just for context that the uppermost pink area uh is the envisioned location for our future city aquatic center which would tie in with the neighboring town center and park zoning districts. Additionally, the hash hashed lines just to the north um over park D would be a potential transit hub location if future need arises. Both public developments would be a huge benefit to the city. The Parkway Village plan is an opportunity to encourage a wider variety of development types, especially for residential. This increases housing accessibility and allows the city to comply with statemandated housing targets. To that end, the plan accounts for a maximum of 4,246 residential units, plus over 1.2 million total square feet of commercial uses across the various planning areas, up to 130 hotel rooms, and up to a 200 bed new hospital. To grant additional flexibility, the plan also features an innovative density transfer mechanism. In essence, if one developer builds uh less than the allotted density for their particular piece of property, another developer could purchase that excess density from the city by providing extra parks, amenities, or community improvements within the plan area. I'll take a moment to highlight some of the key development standards. The aim of this plan is, among other things, to create opportunities for more pedestrianoriented cohesive development throughout the plan area. To that end, the permitted uses within the plan focus largely on entertainment, boutique retail, artisan studios, and restaurants. Automotive and industrial uses are prohibited um with the

exception of any new car dealerships which may want which may want to integrate with the neighboring auto mall. In terms of height, the Parkway Village specific plan generally allows for a maximum building height of 50 feet. This height is intended to accommodate the higher allowed density and would be transitional between the existing Kaiser Permanente Butterfly building and the existing apartment building surrounding the site. The butterfly building and the LA County Courthouse on Avenue M are examples of buildings at similar height. In the lower density residential zone, the maximum height is specified at 35 ft. The plan also includes an allowance of up to 12 feet in additional height for unoccupied architectural elements like clock towers or variations in facade. Um, of course, this increased height would be subject to staff review and approval. The setbacks within the plan area are generally consistent with the city's commercial zone with many ranging from zero setback in denser areas to a 10-ft setback in more suburban areas. This supports the smaller lots and denser development intended throughout the plan area. In order to optimize connectivity and focus on a people first approach, the plan includes required amenities for both large and small parks and in addition requires pedestrian POS throughout proposed developments. This is a concept conceptual mockup of what a larger park within Parkway Village could look like. The required amenities for a large park like this, for example, include a walking trail, playground, picnic area, shade structure, activity lawn, and bike racks. The developer would be required to provide at least five additional items from a list of encouraged amenities including an outdoor amphitheater, skate park, splash pad, sport courts, a community garden or community center among others. The Parkway Village development as a whole is intended to target young professionals and families as mentioned earlier. So activities for dog owners and young children are prioritized and there is a significant focus on amenities overall. This slide outlines the noticing and EIR timeline for the project. The notice of

preparation was circulated from February February 27th, 2024 through March 28th, 2024. During that time, a scoping meeting was held on March 14th, 2024. The draft EIR was circulated from September 19th, 2025 through November 10th, 2025, which includes a one-week extension requested by Adams Broadwell representing Creed LA. The draft plan was published on September 19th, 2025. as well. The final EIR was released on January 16th, 2025, and the public notice for this item was posted in compliance with the LMC. For clarity, following today's hearing, the next step would be city council on February 10th. In conclusion, staff recommend adopting resolution number 2602 recommending to city council approval of the general plan amendment, approval of the zone change, approval of the Parkway Village specific plan, and certification of the FEIR. Myself and Jocelyn are available if you have any questions.

Expect there will be some. Thank you. Members, anything? So on the uh Kaiser building, are they planning to expand that? They've indicated to us that they have intention to expand their facility. We don't have any submitted applications to that end. Okay, no worries. I just saw that. That's always a good thing to have more health care, especially when we're growing. So,

I was actually going to make a comment. Um, so, and I'll start a little bit going back a little bit. So, when I first started, you know, working with the city about 10 years ago or so on projects, you guys used to have a banner on the back of the U building and safety when it used to be on that side of the building and it said like uh I think it was like LA Countyy's most friendliest, business friendliest city. it was a banner and I always like really like that and I still think about it and I was reading through the comment I think there was an example of uh working with Kaiser right like they were trying to get a little bit height adjustments setbacks adjustments and I just think um it says a lot I guess about the city just willing to work with developers and I've always really appreciated that with city of Lancaster so thank you that's appreciated

everyone else go ahead um I'm excited to hear about all the housing that's going to coming in. I know it's much needed. So, and I'm I am actually pretty excited about the project, too. Thank you for the time.

Yeah. And one more thing, too. I mean, our job is to recommend, right? We we don't make any decisions, but when we're looking and and why we're up here, too, is that, you know, we've been put in place to what can make this city better, right? So you have the aquatic center, things like that where people go down below for some of these things. So we're losing out on time, transportation, you know, all these different things to go down and experience these things with our families when we have enough space. We have enough to do this. It's just, you know, obviously getting people interested in coming up here to spend their money and build these projects out so that we all can enjoy it. So, looking at that, I mean, it it's it's really awesome to kind of see that section. Anybody watches AV Scanner, right, they know that that's uh that's always on that list is that street. So, if we can add more things to bring that up and kind of deter from what's going on currently and and build That's really beautiful. It might change those surroundings as well. So,

very good. Thank you. Um, you mentioned the vision is really high level on this and correct me if I'm wrong, but the a portion of the land is held or a large portion of the land is held by the private sector.

Correct. There are some indications that there are city ownerships or agency ownerships potentially or in fact within the project area. But when you talk about high level of a vision, it gives me the impression that in a specific plan where you have this high level of view on how the project might build out. The reality comes into play when specific developers come forward and negotiate their transaction with those property owners, city or whomever. And ultimately there tends to be some flexibility in design standards sometimes street alignments, size of the uh particular parcels. Um, I've mentioned this before. The school site, for instance, is under size for an elementary school by about half. Um, I I know what your answer was. Previously, we've reached out to the district and uh they didn't comment. But in reality, if a if there is enough enrollment and that jurisdiction ultimately um they'll be they'll either be knocking on the door to expand that site or uh build somewhere else because it's too small. But it gives but the system gives the gives the city the flexibility

to move lines if you will.

Yeah, I I can comment on that. The sort of highle vision that I mentioned earlier in the slides, there's a sort of more flexible version of the plan that was our starting point um in determining what the specific zoning districts and standards should be. Um, so there's the high level vision and then that's implemented into the more granular development standards as you would typically see in a specific plan. Um, the in terms of the school site or things like that, um, this plan is built in with a lot of flexibility on purpose to try to draw developers. Um, so in the event that um, the school district did need to use that site, there's some flexibility built into the plan that would allow us to shift those boundaries. um similar sort of a similar approach could be applied to any proposed development within the plan area. I mentioned the density transfer um option. Things like that can be accounted for. Um we did after the um I believe it was an info session that you mentioned um reaching back out to the school sites. We did again reach out to the school districts and didn't get a response. Um but we've made every attempt to follow up and we would be able to accommodate if needed. Um well, let's just say for instance that uh the highspeed rail uh program dies, which if I was a betting man, I won't live long enough to see it die, at least here. But um if I was a betting man, I doubt very seriously if it'll ever proceed uh and be completed the way it's proposed to be designed. Um so given that example, what would you do with that big swath of land down through the middle of it that you've identified as a highspeed rail corridor? It is designated in the plan as area um for

open space sort of regardless of highspeed rail. It's because of highspeed rail, but it is still designated as open space area. Um but as part of that sort of density transfer and the ability to have some flexibility with the boundaries of these districts that's built into the plan, um we could either consider shifting a district, making some room for some development to occur there, or hopefully maintain open space within that corridor.

All right. Very good. Thank you. Um, I'd like you to comment if you would if you've had an opportunity to review uh Mr. Marshall's letter and those attachments and if you would comment on the salient points that he brought up this evening.

So, I'll go ahead and start with the his bringing about the CALR letter. um the measures that CALR wanted specifically um complete streets those are already designed into the plan um and they had requested other improvements that are not related to this project so widening of K8 over the freeway to add in another sidewalk on the north side um that's their property not ours um and their responsibility they wanted improvements at K and the freeway which are already part of um the interchange improvement project. They wanted improvements at L on the freeway which they're currently making and they also wanted us to completely redo our VMT program um because they don't agree with it. The VMT analysis and the EIR is based on our adopted thresholds and guidelines. And that area completely screens out from analysis as already being in a low VMT area for commercial and residential uses. So in essence, it wasn't required. As Kendall brought up, this is a programmatic highlevel um it's a specific plan. The ER is a programmatic level document. We don't know what's going to develop when. We don't know what it's going to look like. We don't know what those roadways are going to be. Um, I couldn't tell you how far away one housing development would be from another. I can't tell you what their layout is going to be. I can't tell you if it's going to be town homes or single family homes in these areas. So the EI is developed with mitigation measures that require these studies um specific to individual developments which is how we do other projects that and it um lays out the measures and and the standards

in which they need to meet. Um that's for air quality that's for noise. Um air quality is significant and unavoidable with respect to operational um and cumulative operational. Um that is primarily due to vehicle traffic. Same thing. I can't get more specific on mitigation because I don't know where the cars are going to go and how they're going to, you know, where the roadways are going to go to do a a detailed analysis. These are residential. um hazardous air pollutants are not part of that requirement. Um those are typically tied to five major categories according to the air district and that includes things like dry cleaners with certain types of solvents, distribution facilities, gas stations which are prohibited by the plan um and one or two other uses which are not part of this project. Um each individual project coming in will be required to do um specific studies for their development to make sure they are consistent with the requirements of the specific plan and the EIR um and any additional mitigation that needs to be provided or subsequent environmental review for individual projects would happen at that point. When that's going to happen, I couldn't tell you. So if it so if an environmental issue in the future comes up that hasn't been addressed at this high level then the applicant developer whomever will be responsible to conform to the requirements of SQA in that specific case.

Correct. They would either need to do a supplemental or subsequent EI or they would need to tear off of the ER and do their own ISM or NADA for that matter. Huh.

Or an addendum if it it met the requirements. Um the other thing I would like to add is the issue of affordable housing um keeps coming up. There is no city requirement for there to be affordable housing um on city- owned property of which part of the specific plan area is affordable um based on state law 25% of the housing on it is required to be affordable. Um, additionally under our housing element, this site only was it 25 acres of this um specific plan was actually included in our housing element as meeting our arena numbers and that was assumed at 8 acres to um or eight units to the acre for about 200 units. Um this project is would allow for substantially more than 200 residential units in the plan area.

What about the um so-called voluntary building code addressed?

So the California green building code and the building code both have specific requirements for things like EV charging, EV charging ready, um bicycle racks and others. And those are constantly evolving and changing. And any project that is submitted and built would be subject to required subject to complying with um those standards. Um not knowing what's coming in or where it's going to be coming in, I can't say this project is going to put in this many charging stations. Um, we also as a city have never mandated that a developer comply with the voluntary provisions of it. Some choose to, some choose not to. So, the city has the power, but it's limited to the statutory requirements of the building code and cannot impose the voluntary provision. We could impose the voluntary provisions if

historically we haven't. We have not as a mitigation measure. That being said, the impacts associated with air quality for this are specific to um vehicles. Um but we can't due to its location cannot charge minimum or establish minimum parking standards. Um, but a lot of projects are already charging EV. There's EV charging at the park. There's EV charging at 10th and L that'll be going in um all in the area. Um we have and we have never required them to go above and beyond. Well, the mitigation monitoring program

uh has some very specific requirements in it. Yes, it does. and and some broad brush requirements if you will. At least that's the way I read it. Um so for example, projects have to do acoustical noise studies. They have to do noise barriers in order to ensure um that construction activities are below the threshold at neighboring sensitive uses. But that's going to be determined on a case-byase basis. So your noise, traffic, energy, those kinds of issues are on a project by project basis as opposed to

correct. They're going to have to meet the requirements of the California building code, the California just like everybody else though. Correct. Okay. Thank you.

Anything further from members? No. Um, so anything further from everybody in in their little cubicles over there? No. I know you don't like to talk unless you're called. Me, too. Um, all right. Any further ladies? No. All right, then. Be appropriate to close a public hearing without objection and consider a motion.

A motion uh that city adopt uh resolution number 26-02 recommending to the city council the following actions. Approval of general plan amendment number 25-006, changing the land use designation of the plan area to specific plan. Uh item B, approval of zone change number 25- Z004, changing the zoning of the plan area to specific plan. Item C, approving of the Parkway Village specific plan under specific plan number 24-001. And item D, certification of the final environmental impact report for the Parkway Village specific plan. Thank you. Second that. Thank you.

Any further discussion? All right, please vote. Motion passes. Four yeses and three absent. So the recommendation will go forward to the city council at probably what? March. Aiming for February.

Oh, really? Rock and roll. All right, thanks very much. That concludes our action items this evening or this afternoon. Um, so the next is community development assistant manager, Mr. Win.

Yeah, that's me. Uh, good afternoon, Chair Vos and members of the planning commission. I am Hi Newwin. I'm the assistant director for community development uh for the February PC. Uh we're still assessing uh any projects that might be able to land on that. So we'll we'll keep you uh posted. But a quick note uh same thing as uh this meeting. It's President's Day uh when we normally have it. So if we do have the February meeting, it would be just one week after and we'll let you know uh each step of the way. Um with everything else that you received today, uh you also received a Brown Act packet. So um I wanted to give some background on that. A few months ago, our own city attorney, Allison Burns, presented updates to the Brown Act for this year to the city council. So, some of the new requirements will change how we run these meetings a little bit uh mostly on the technical side. Uh the city clerk will take the lead in implementing those changes which are due in the middle of this year. So, we'll keep you posted leading up to all of that. And the only thing I have uh you met him earlier, but uh we have a new staff member, his name's Justin Hillman. He's our new community preservation manager. Uh taking over Samuel McNut uh whom we miss a lot, but Justin started a couple weeks ago and he's excited and we're all very excited. Um that's about it from me. Uh staff is always available for you.

All right. Thank you.

So, any members of the commission have anything they'd like to add to a future agenda? Nope. All right. This is the public business from the floor uh portion of the meeting. Uh when members of the public can address us for three minutes on non-aggendaized items, uh we're happy to hear from you on anything uh other than what we've already heard tonight. So, do we have any speaker cards on that non-aggenda items? Chair Vos, we do not have any. None. Okay. All right then. Thank you very much.

Um, appreciate all your work this evening, ladies. Um, and the rest of the crew who a lot of work into these documents, that's for sure. And we appreciate your skill and professionalism. Thank you, Chair Voice. Uh, Chervos, I sorry to interrupt, but I do believe we have Oh, okay. a new speaker card emerging, if I may. Um, uh, Alana Dixon once again. Hello again. Hi.

Hang on. Make sure you Yeah, you're speak. Yeah, it's on.

Okay. Um, so I wanted to bring up the idea of how we put out these public notices for different hearing items. Um, I know Lancaster City has a really great uh Instagram page and probably a Facebook one too. I'm just not on Facebook much. And I know that if you're worried about any comments for people like debating the agenda items on social media that can get really vitriolic, even if you're just putting up a benign photo of something, um, the Instagram already has the comments turned off. So, it would be really great in order to be able to get people to actually be aware of what's being decided here if you would put the agenda items in the social media where you put out things that are like public events where you get huge turnouts more than just two people from the community who are willing to speak on this. Um, so that's one point. And then, um, it was mentioned before the idea of beauty. And a lot of the buildings that I see around town are pretty much just cement rectangles. And it'd be really nice to actually have beautiful architecture in the area. And um another thing is also nature itself is beautiful. When we consider any space that does have dumping in it, it would be good if we can consider like organizing more things for people to be able to help clean up their communities and also imagine ways to restore um actual open spaces that we have. I know you mentioned earlier the idea of the open space and the natural areas. So, I was really just curious if there were any spaces that you had in mind to make another public space park that's free to access for people. Um, and also any improvements that you had in mind for public transit. Um, I know I saw something on uh a news article before suggesting that um the the buses basically had people getting on there without paying, but I myself have tried to use the bus before and oftentimes it doesn't accept my little passc card or um the people just say that it's not functioning. So, that was kind of fishy if there's anything going on with that

that somebody's trying to claim that we're losing money in public transit when we actually aren't. Um, and when considering housing, I know more than 25% of the people around my community can't afford housing. So, new developments that say that they're expanding housing access, we need to actually probably try to think of making more affordable housing that's actually more than just 25%. and also consider doing a census of the existing housing in the area. How much is being asked for it? Um, and what the actual whatever statistical it is that represents the majority. I don't know if it's the mode. Um, because the average can account for people making a heck ton more than the rest of us. Um, and actually consider how many houses are sitting vacant or how many houses are being owned by multiple people. And also consider not just apartments but also flats that people can buy. Um because people might not want to have to live in a tiny one-bedroom, maybe they want a flat. Just consider getting more people here and also more actually affordable housing instead of just benefits for developers.

Yeah, thank you for your comments and I'd suggest that you um contact Mr. New um and he will be happy to sit down with you and have a chat and direct you to the appropriate departments within our city where you can advocate for what you're interested in. Yep. All right, then there's nothing further. We'll stand a journ till our regular meeting of February 23 at 3:30.