Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I left your right at the end of the day and when the item is called we'll call upon you to address us for the three minute time frame that you have. At the end of the meeting, we also offer a time for folks to speak to us regarding any non-aggendaized item. So, we have three items uh tonight or this afternoon. Gosh. Um

Yep. Old habits, that's for sure. Um the first item is approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of June 16, 2025. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Thank you. And a second, please. A second.

Thank you. Any discussion? All right, then. Please vote in a minute. There we go. Motion passes. Five yeses with two members absent. The next two items are public hearings. So without objection, the public hearing is open. Um item number two, which is a conditional use permit 25-002. Um for the record, we have received an uncontested letter from the applicant as well as a letter uh from a neighbor, Mrs. Nibbleink, um raising issues regarding parking on her adjacent property, uh periodic parking, I should say. So, Miss Alvarado, you're up on this one.

Good afternoon, Chairman Vos, members of the planning commission. My name is Mity Alvarado and I'm the case planner on this project. The next item we have before you conditional use permit 25-002, which is for Haliscoco restaurant to allow for events and live entertainment. The applicant is Haliscoco restaurant represented by Hector Eordia who is here today. The project site is located at 4252510th Street West. The restaurant is located near the southwest corner of 10th Street West and Avenue L. The property is zone commercial uh where live entertainment and special events require a conditional use permit. Here's a floor plan of the building um on the right with the aerial hair of the outdoor patio venue. The restaurant's interior dining room areas include bar, dance, and restrooms. It also has a built-in DJ booth and a stage area. The outdoor patio venue can also accommodate event setups such as dining and wedding ceremonies. The location also includes some on-site storage just north of the outdoor patio fully screened by a western town facade which has become a popular um photo op among the restaurant guests throughout the years. Here are some site photos of the property. On the top you see the main entrance into the restaurant and on the bottom you see the western town facade that screens the storage containers.

The project is categorically exempt from SQA under class one existing facilities. Public hearing notices were mailed to all owners and occupants within a 500 foot radius and posted in the on the subject property in compliance with the Lancaster Municipal Code. To date, we've received one letter. Um it was in regards to parking. And I'd also like to note that that the Lancaster Police Department has reviewed the project and provided clearance. With that, staff recommends the planning commission adopt resolution 2512 adopting CUP 25002 to allow for special events and live entertainment within the existing restaurant Halisco located at 4252510 Street West. This concludes staff's presentation. I'm available as well as the applicant for any questions you may have.

I thank you. Do we have any speakers on this item? None. All right, then. Members, do you have any questions before we hear from the applicant? I've got one question. Uh, so I noticed one of the conditions of approval was for uh minimal sight lighting. Uh, and looking at the site plan, I didn't notice any light pulse. So I'm just curious as to how that's achieved.

I'm sorry, which condition is it? uh it was under uh the heading of alcohol and it listed u maybe two foot candles, one or two foot candles. Okay, that is a standard condition of approval.

Commissioner Korea um Huim um assistant director um just wanted to chime in. Thank you for your question. um as proposed, there wouldn't be any um external modifications uh to the lighting or signage or anything like that to the building. Um so that condition is basically a standard condition just to ensure that there's not any spill over and light. And just out of curiosity, um, addressing the parking question or issue brought up by the adjoining property owner, what is the maximum what are the parking spaces if they're counted out currently existing?

Um, I'll defer to the applicant. I don't have an exact count of the parking spaces on site. And do do we know the amount of people that would be allowed to attend an event or special event there? Um per event it'll differ. Uh they do have a capacity posted on site per the fire department fire code. Um they don't foresee that it'll go over that capacity, but again I can bring up the applicant. He can confirm. Wonderful. Anyone else? This is an existing conformed bonafide restaurant which also serves alcoholic beverages. Correct. That is correct.

All right. So, the applicant is asking for the ability to hold uh special events and um entertainment within the confines of the building as well as in the patio area. Yes, they're landscaped rear outdoor patio area, right?

So, there's no we're not approving a conditional use permit then for any anything else. The existing site uses stand as written. However, if I read it correctly, um the staff report and the recommendations indicated that this will come up for a rehearing within six months. Is that correct?

So, it's up to the director's discretion. Um but planning will take a look at it uh every six months within the first 24 months. Um and it's a condition of approval. No, the commission has a right to call up a item anytime, particularly a conditional use permit where there are issues with alcoholic beverages and um law enforcement activity.

Cheros, all that is correct. Um specifically, the condition you're talking about is condition number 11. It's similar to some of the other uh conditions we've seen for other types of uses that you've seen very recently. Um in this particular condition, we've specified that it's under the discretion of the community development director to have these uh condition compliance reviews to make sure everything is above board, everything is safe and each event is secure. So we per the conditions have the ability to review the site every six months for the next 24 months. And of course, Chervos, you mentioned that you have a purview to uh um add certain conditions or call up these projects as you feel needed as well. And a lot of those uh uh conditions are expressed in the conditions of approval currently.

Very good. Thank you. By the way, um we appreciate receiving um copy of the slides that we can actually read on the day as opposed to trying to see them on the screen. Um that's a new something new that you folks are doing. I think a couple of the commissioners asked for it, so I'm glad we're seeing it. You're welcome.

If it's not too much trouble, we appreciate it. Um, since there's no speakers, however, the applicant certainly has the opportunity to address us if they choose. They're not obliged to. However, uh, the applicant may if they would like to address us on any item. If you want to state your just come up to the podium there and when the little red light comes on. Okay. Hopefully. Yeah. I'll wait for the little red light. I don't know if it's working. Hold on.

Oh, there we go. There we go.

Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. Uh my name is Hector. I own Palisco Restaurant. It's a family-owned restaurant that it's been struggling to stay in business. Uh, it's been really tough the last few months. So, that's why I decided to apply for a conditional use permit. Uh, I hope you guys consider it. Um, this would help me a lot with obviously different type of events. We get a lot of requests especially for weddings and private events but like to have the opportunity to offer the community different type of events as well like popup events. Uh also you know we got karaoke. We also offer like uh what do they call it? Comedy events as well. So we just like to have a variety options available for the community as well. And I feel like that's going to benefit us a lot.

Yeah. Very good. Thank you. I don't know. The members may have a question. Okay. Oh, there you are. I'm sorry. I just wanted to ask uh regarding the parking uh I don't know if you received that that letter. Uh yes. Have you talked to your neighbor about that?

Uh you know what? I I actually never had the opportunity to meet my neighbor. Um I just heard of her this morning from that letter that I received as well. It was forwarded to me. Uh I did reach out to her via email. I believe she's out of town. Uh just communicated and then actually mainly apologized. We had events before uh where I thought the owner of the property was a different person. It's an old man that works lives in the back. Anyways, he was doing maintenance and stuff for the property and I always communicated with him and told him uh anytime I had an event I would let him know he was fine with it. But as of today, I realized it wasn't even his property. So, I reached out to her and I explained what was going on and I told her that uh you know, we shouldn't have a need to use her land for for parking obviously. Uh and then I always have security staff so I'll make sure that uh you know, somebody parks like not to let them park on her property.

Yeah.

All right. Thank you. Thanks very much. So, no other speakers. Um, so without objection, we'll close the public hearing and consider a motion. I move to adopt resolution number 25-12 approving conditional use permit number 25-002 to allow for special events and live entertainment within the existing restaurant Bisco located at 42525 10th Street West in the commercial zone and finding the project category u exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act, authorizing staff to execute and file a notice of exemption. Thank you. May I have a second, please?

A second. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Nope. So then please vote. Uh motion passes 5 with two members absent. So best of luck on the new venture

or an expanded venture I guess it would be. Good luck. The next item is a new public hearing on conditional use permit 24-009. So without objection, the public hearing is open on this. And I'm just surprised that we're looking at another car wash. Miss Brackie, are you making a career out of out of processing these?

The duck is just so cute. I can't help it. I don't mean to make light of it. It's uh these are important investments in our community certainly. So go ahead and tell us about it. Thank you, Chair Vos, members of the planning commission. My name is Kendall Brekie, senior planner, and the item before you is the Valley Central Quickquack under conditional use permit number 24009. The project site is located at the southeast corner of Valley Central Way and Lancaster Boulevard adjacent to the 14 freeway. The site is zoned commercial plan development or CPD. A movie theater is currently present on site which opened in 1990 and has been vacant since 2020. Following the anticipated demolition of the vacant movie theater, the applicant proposes to construct and operate a Quickquack car wash. The portion of the property included in the proposed development is shown here. The proposed car wash building is outlined in blue and associated accessory structures are outlined in red. Customers would enter from the existing center parking lot at the southwest corner of the plans and proceed into queuing lanes along the southern boundary. They would then enter the car wash building from the east exiting to the west to proceed to vacuum stations at the center of the site. The easternmost portion of the site, which is shown in brown, is not included in the proposed development and is left open for future development. This portion of the site would be landscaped and layered with bark mulch to ensure aesthetic compatibility in the interim. The applicant has provided architectural enhancements beyond the standard Quickquack designs that we've seen previously, including stone veneer on both the car wash structure and accessory buildings and vine trelluses consistent with the nearby Burlington building. These enhancements are provided in recognition of the site's important location as a gateway to Valley Central and a corridor through the city. In terms of the environmental review on the project, the project is

categorically exempt as a class 32 infill exemption and the public hearing notice was posted in compliance with the Lancaster Municipal Code. In conclusion, staff recommend that the planning commission adopt resolution 2513. Staff and the applicant team are available to answer any questions. Maybe some do I have speakers on this item? None. Last chance. All right. So, members, questions, comments? None. I do have a question on the site plan. The curbcut apron access has not been relocated. It's the same one exists there now. And the so you've got turning radiuses kind of overlapping on top of one another. the access off of Valley Central with a combined ingress and egress into the site as well as onto the site and then circulating back out. So, any comments from traffic or engineering on that? Or am I seeing something that I shouldn't be too concerned about? Uh, Chairman Bose, um, the site is probably not the it's not ideal for a car wash just because it's an existing driveway, curb cut, and whatnot for the existing um, facility. the uh um the existing center takes access extra directly off of Valley Central Way

there. Um we don't anticipate any real serious issues. We did have them take a look at um queuing to make sure that the site was capable of handling the number of vehicles that they intend to process and we did not find any issues with um the storage or um access to the to the site itself. So we don't anticipate anything. Um you know it it it could happen but I don't think so. So, I mean, it just doesn't seem like it's something that would be uh overly problematic.

All right. Thank you. Yeah. The concern I have is the the risk of stacking and um ingress stacking, although the um queuing on site is what 18 vehicles within the within the lanes on site. So, it's not likely then that we're going to well other than maybe the grand opening and some other issues. Uh we may may have some site issues that need will need to be addressed from the applicant during that kind of a process. I would think if in fact you end up with it. Everything else that we've approved for this particular applicant have been um on center sites that didn't have this type of um won't call it risk but potential impact.

Right. Yeah. We like I said we did have them do a queuing study and we didn't see anything that would um be overly problematic at this point. there is a condition um that they are required to address any issues that would require that would uh result in traffic stacking back up onto Valley Central Way at their cost that um it's their responsibility at their cost. They would have to come to us to look at um to us to approve it, but it would be their responsibility to uh mitigate anything on site. Now, there's only one through lane plus the bike lane there, right? Uh yes, I believe so. Uh the there's the um turn lanes, but there's only one through lane um at that particular location.

And no left in no left turn in. There's a raised medium, right? Yes, I believe that's correct.

Okay, very good. Thank you. Anyone else? Go ahead. Do you have any idea how many square feet or the sizes of the property to the that's still going to be a buildable site there on the east side of the where you described the backfield bark or landscaping? And I'm guessing it's probably a second question to that would be there'd be no parking access in that area. Is is that correct? Parking would still remain in the in the main area in front of the existing building. That's correct. I'm I'm taking a look at the plans. I don't see that I have a specific call out for the square feet of that area. Um but you can see on the site plan provided just at the sort of south edge the existing building um that's next door sort of for scale. Um that generally speaking the site would still be able to accommodate some kind of development. Um and the existing building you're seeing just a portion of and its surrounding parking would all remain

but doubtful any parking there's no parking in that area is going to be possible. Correct. Yeah. Uh in the interim until that site is developed the applicant um is showing landscaping and bark mulch in the area to prevent um unpermitted parking.

Gotcha. Now there certainly plenty of parking unused parking on that site to the south. That's for sure. So, not likely that anyone's going to encroach to the east, but you never know. Any further members? The applicant certainly can address us if you choose to. Good afternoon. Hi, my name is Don Shiveley. I represent Quickquack. Stand before you. I'm pleased to uh take your time tonight to talk about this project. We're very excited to be here in Lancaster. Um we have been pretty aggressive with the city in uh providing a service to the uh residents of the city. We're excited to open up a fourth store here and we believe that it's going to be a high demand uh product that we offer to the uh constituents and we believe that it we will be a great uh um business for a partner in your community. Happy to answer any questions that you may have.

So, when are you going east? We're we're we're we're working our way through. But we we bid a awful lot right now. So as soon as the right site with the right price and the the right property owner, right? Yeah. Very good. Is this the fifth? Is this the fifth site in Lancaster? Fourth. 15th. I'm aware of four. Is there five? I I have the list in front of me that this should be the sixth actually.

There's one that's completed construction. That's the 15th and K site. There are four in plan check at 10th west in L, 20th east and J, 20th west and I, and 30th west and K we saw most most recently. Um, and then the project before you would be number six. So to balance the offering to the community, I mean we we're we would be pleased that you'd look on the east side of our town. I know there's some challenges with sites out there, but just from my personal experience, but I would suggest if you're not looking now, please do.

We we absolutely would. We always consider the traffic patterns of the city. Very good. Thank you. Sure. It'll be nice to see some developed in that spot, though.

Yeah. All right, then. Any others? Do we have any speakers? None. Okay, Miss Breaky. That's it. Huh? All right. Thank you. So, without objection, we'll close the public hearing. Consider a motion. I'll move that we adopt resolution number 2513 approving conditional use permit number 24009 to allow for the construction and operation of a quick quack car wash and an existing commercial center at 44790 Valley Central Way APN 3153 5126 in the commercial plan development zone and finding the project categorically exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act and authorizing staff to execute and file a notice of exemption. I second.

Thank you. Thank you. Anything further? Please vote. Motion passes 50 with two absent. So, congratulations. Good luck. All right. That concludes our action items this evening. Um, Mr. Newin, do you have anything for us?

I have a couple things. Uh, good afternoon, Chair Vos, and members of the planning commission. I am H High Newuin, assistant director, uh, for the community development department. That's new. Um, I have a couple updates. Uh, the first update is in regards to the mixeduse project on the southeast corner of Ellen 15th. Uh the project was recommended approval to the the city council by this planning commission back in April. So at the July 8th city council meeting, the council reviewed staff's report and heard the testimony of almost 30 people. The council voted to send the project back to the planning commission, citing concerns regarding the building height, water, labor agreement, or lack thereof, uh among others. So, it's now up to the applicant to resubmit a project for staff review that hopefully addresses the issues brought up by the council. And this will eventually be brought up before your commission for a decision. And I'll keep you posted on uh the progress as we uh work with the applicant to iron out some of those kinks. Um the second part uh is uh to move on uh the August PC meeting which is on August 18th. It's a pretty full agenda. So, you'll see the return of the King Bar. Uh you saw it last April. Um so, we'll be back with that. Uh we'll have a 100% affordable housing project that we're going to show to you. Um um and last and definitely not least is the Westside annexation project and specific plan. Uh staff has shared with you in anformational presentation and the public comment period for that project. So, this time in August, it'll be for real. So, you'll make a decision and you'll recommend or not uh the project move forward to the city council for ultimate approval. Um so, for August, staff needs to plan ahead and ensure that we have enough attendance. And it's important that you review the emails leading up to the hearing and confirm your attendance uh or any

conflicts you might have with any one of the projects. Um that would be very very appreciated by uh staff. So, thank you ahead of time for that. Until then, staff is always available for you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. So, did I miss something in in a change of title effective today? Then I didn't miss it. Congratulations.

It feels odd announcing that about myself, but thank you. Thank you. That's great. All right. Commission agenda. Anything from members you'd like to bring up, discuss, suggest? Could we get a moment of silence for the death of the dollar movie theater? Could we do that? I'm saying it's a place we used to go to growing up a little bit. Dollar movie is gone. I remember going to New Vista. We would take field trips over there to the dollar movie theater when when we didn't have too many demerits where we weren't able to go on a field trip. Don't ask me which kid I was. Just

Well, I I think I'm a little older than you, Commissioner Burton, because I remember when that was that movie theater first opened. I think I went on my first date at that movie theater. It wasn't a dollar theater, but it it was it was the cineark in town. So, so it's a you know, it's been a sad sight driving by it every day practically for for years watching it sit empty. So, I'm glad to see some development around there. And congratulations, Mr. N. So, you were in the U back row in the corner in the dark in the cinear way back when, or did you sit in the front row? Probably more center left. I see.

Good. Uh it's it's great to have the history of our community shared here on the deas. Um h that's great. That's great. Well, I'm looking forward to an eyesore being replaced with something useful. All right, then. Uh this brings us to public business from the floor. This portion of the agenda allows an individual the opportunity to address the commission on any subject regarding city business. Under state legislation, no action can be taken on non-aggenda items. Members of the public should be aware of this when addressing the commission this afternoon. So, if you'd like to speak to us on any non-aggendaized item, we ask you to fill out a speaker card. so we can get back to you if you have issues that uh staff will want to address. Do we have any speakers? None. All right, then. So, we'll stand adjourned then to a regular meeting of August 18th, 2025 at 3:30 p.m. here in these chambers. Thank you all for your work