Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright. Seeing at 06:00, I'll call the meeting to order. To call the sorry. 02/18/2026, City of Lincoln Planning Commission meeting to order. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Gilbert?

Here.

Commissioner Herzog?

Here.

Commissioner Hutchinson? Here. Commissioner Jackson?

Here.

Commissioner Jerry Johnson and Chair Eric Johnson.

Here. Do we need to make it known that Commissioner Manning wasn't present or

I know that at the last meeting, he did mention about being this key week or school being out. I did not get official through email, but there was verbal from last meeting.

Okay. Thank you. Item number three, pledge of allegiance. We'll have commissioner Herzog will lead us in the pledge tonight, please. Alright.

Thank you. Item number four, agenda modification. Do we have any agenda modifications this evening? I am seeing none. So we'll move on to number five, public comment on non agenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the committee sorry, the commission. Citizens may address the planning commission on any item on the agenda when the item is considered. Citizens wishing to speak may request to speak by raising your hand when requested to do so. This is an opportunity to speak on non agenda items. Please limit your comments to three minutes. So I'll go ahead and open it to public comment.

Secretary, do we have any hands raised online or anyone in chambers that wishes to speak?

I do not see any hands raised online. I do not see any hands raised in the room and I did not receive any cards.

Okay. Thank you. So with that, I will close public comment and we'll move on to item number six, informational items from the staff. Does the staff have any informational items?

Thank you. We do just have one informational item. So during the upload of the agenda, we encountered some technical difficulties with our software, and so you may notice, depending on which link you click to access the agenda, that there is a typo in one link that we weren't able to correct, but it is correct within the agenda packet and within the information presented here this evening.

Okay. Thank you. We'll move on to item number seven, disclosure of ex parte communication. So there's opportunity, if any of my fellow commissioners have any communication to disclose, we'll start to my right.

None. And none for me.

None.

None. None. And I also have none. Thank you. So now we'll move on to item number eight, consent.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to request that items 8b and 8c be removed for discussion. And I would move approval of the remaining item eight a.

Okay. Perfect. So we have eight b and eight c removed with a motion to approve the remaining.

I'll second.

Okay. So a motion and a second.

Would you like to do a voice call?

Yes, voice call please. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Alright. So item number eight b has been removed.

Let's see. So we'll go ahead and discuss item a b, which is the Grove, production homes design review and that's within the village one specific plan area. So, I guess I'll go ahead and, turn it over to the staff for that.

Mr. Chair, if I could, I would, I brought this up, really not, germane to the architectural review committee's recommendation on the housing. But I I thought it was very instructive, to see two different approaches to circulation element for, for the two these two housing, developments on their pedestrian and, bicycle circulation plans. And if I could, if I could have Tom show attachment seven of eight b, I will attempt to

I've got,

attachment seven up on the screen here, if everyone can see

that. Okay. This shows the, the trail and pedestrian circulation pattern. And it I I find it, very very poorly done because it doesn't really take advantage of the natural physical features of the site. And it probably serves its purpose if you want to walk a dog for 100 feet or so.

But if you're trying to get on that trail system and go somewhere in particular, it's difficult and you really have to resort to using street streets to get where you want to go. For example, from that circulation pattern. You really can't get to things like the commercial center or future commercial center, anyway. Some major parks are not tied together with it. You can't easily get to the Auburn Trail, which I would hope someday would extend into Auburn.

And then if you would bring up attachment 11 of item eight c, this is, just remarkably remarkably how well done. It's using all of the physical features to make connections, and you can get to parks, school sites, and other trails effortlessly. And kinda my point is if we can if we can do it right in this instance, why can't we do it right for all instances? And, know, maybe we can blame it on the on the general plan being not as, directive as it probably should have been. But I would like to see us get a little bit tougher on the on the developers and try to get circulation elements that looks like look like this rather than the the first one that we saw.

And that was really my only point of this whole event. If there aren't any further discussions, I would move approval of both items.

Okay. Thank you. Do we have any other additional comments from any commissioners? Okay. Well, don't see any. So, all right. So we have a motion to move approval. Perfect. We have a motion and a second for item 8b, the Grove Production Home Design Review within the Village one specific plan area.

Motions? Sorry, I missed it.

Did. Jerry

Johnson. Thank you. And Peter second. Since this was pulled from consent, I would like to do a roll call vote.

Please.

Thank you. Commissioner Jerry Johnson? Yes. Commissioner Gilbert?

Yes.

Commissioner Herzog? Yes. Commissioner Hutchinson? Yes. Commissioner Jackson? Yes. And Chair Eric Johnson?

Yes. Alright, motion passes. I will go on to item C. Please, Commissioner Johnson, have some, comments regarding item c. That's the Liberty At Lincoln Village 1 and Liberty At Lincoln Village two production home design review within the Village 7 specific plan area.

I'm sorry. I meant that motion to be approval of both

okay. Did he say that? Okay. I missed it.

I would like to do a roll call vote, then a motion by commissioner Jerry Johnson, a second by Peter Gilbert for this item. Wonderful. I will do a roll call vote. And this is for both resolutions, since Liberty of Lincoln for Village 1, Village 2 design review. Commissioner Jerry Johnson? Aye. Commissioner Gilbert? Yes. Commissioner Herzog?

I just need a point of clarification because since we pulled it, do we need to open public comment for these or do we not?

Not necessary. Up to chairman, Eric Johnson.

This is this is Christine, the city attorney. I'm sorry. I'm remote tonight. But, yes, it is up to the discretion of the chair because it is a consent item, but it probably wouldn't hurt to open it up to public comment.

Okay. Following that, I will open it to public comment. Do we have any secretary, do we have any hands raised online or in the audience, please?

There are no hands raised online. There are no hands raised in the room.

Okay. Thank you. So we'll close public comment and bring it back. So we have a motion and a second, and that is for both items eight b and eight c.

I would I would ask that you vote on them separately, please.

Okay. So we were taking a vote on eight c for Libbey Lincoln Village 1 design review. Commissioner Johnson? Yes. Commissioner Gilbert? Yes. Commissioner Herzog? Yes. Commissioner Hutchinson? Yes. Commissioner Jackson?

Yes.

And chairman Eric Johnson?

Yes.

Thank you. Point we of already voted on eight b previously.

We did correct. So that that is done.

We've done done them separately as the city attorney has suggested.

I think Christine was speaking about village Liberty Of Lincoln eight c. We have two resolutions. One is for Village 1, And 1 is for Village 2.

Oh, split those. Okay.

Yes. Are you okay? Correct. Are you okay, Commissioner Gilbert, with your vote on Village one? Wonderful. Chairman Johnson, can we get a motion for

I'll motion for the second part of 8c with approval of Village two.

I'll second the motion.

Thank you. Do I have a motion to second? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Herzog?

Yes.

Commissioner Gilbert? Yes. Commissioner Hutchinson? Yes. Commissioner Jackson?

Yes.

Commissioner Jerry Johnson? Yes. And Chairman Eric Johnson?

Yes. Alright. Motion passes. I think we're covered on that one. Okay.

Do we

vote on them again just for fun?

Well done, team.

Thank you, Christine. Alright. So with that consent items completed, we'll move on to item number nine, public hearings. And we will have Item 9A. This is the Walmart remodel design review modification. And we'll have Mikayla, associate planner, with the staff that will give us a report tonight. Please, Mikayla.

Here we go. Okay. Perfect. Good evening, everyone. Mikaela Noble, associate planner with the community development department. Nice seeing you all. It's been a few months since I've been here, so nice to see you all. The project we have before you tonight is the Walmart remodel project. The presentation in the is a summary of the project, and more detailed information was provided in the staff report. Just wanna address the memorandum that is provided on your desk.

This was sent out to you all digitally on Friday. There were technical difficulties with our agenda distribution software, which Nita mentioned earlier, that had affected this project. So the memo just kinda cleared up those technical errors that we couldn't address online. It's the full agenda packet fully corrected. Some of this has been corrected online, but just wanted to provide the memo since it was emailed to you all on Friday.

The applicant, Pooley, is requesting for approval of a design review modification for the existing Walmart neighborhood market. The proposed project is located at 255 Lincoln Boulevard at the Southeast corner of Lincoln Boulevard and 3rd Street. The project site is bound by existing commercial development to the north, south, and west. The Somerset senior living facility is located east of the project site. The property is owned commercial and is subject to the Lincoln Municipal Code and the Lincoln Downtown Urban Design Plan.

As previously mentioned, the Walmart Neighborhood Market is an existing building and business. The project is not proposing to expand the building footprint and only intends to modify the exterior paint color scheme, update existing signage, and restripe the parking lot. The site plan illustrates updates to ADA Americans with Disability Act parking stall striping to comply with current building codes. Additionally, 14 parking stalls on the Southeast corner of the park project site are proposed to be designated as pickup stalls. So their project the parking stalls for pickup are located in this area.

The project proposes to update the current warm, earthy paint scheme of the existing building and utilize shades of gray, black, white and blue to correspond with Walmart's updated branding. Wall signs would be replaced and updated. No modifications to the freestanding sign structure are being proposed. However, the sign face is being updated to reflect Walmart's new branding style, which just to reiterate, this is the area that's changing just kind of the signed, face, and copy. The actual structure itself is not being modified.

Staff analyzed the proposed entitlement request and concluded that it's consistent with the goals, policy, and intent of the city's general plan, Lincoln Municipal Code titles sixteen and eighteen, and the Lincoln Downtown Urban Design Plan. The design review board reviewed the project in January and did not provide modification requests for the project. The the design review board recommended approval of the project to the planning commission. City staff has prepared draft conditions of approval for the project to ensure order orderly and timely implementation of the project. Standard projects standard and project specific conditions have been applied.

These will all be subject to verification of by city departments, and the applicant has reviewed and agreed to the conditions of approval. Staff recommends that the Planning Commission determine the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act section under section one five three zero one existing facilities and adopt a resolution approving the design review modification for the Walmart remodel project. At this time, we had did not receive any formal public comments for the project. And additionally, we have members of the applicant team online on Zoom who are available to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mikayla. Before I open it to public hearings, I'll ask my colleagues if we have any questions or comments before we open it. Commissioner Johnson, please.

May fall under the white ass wise ass comment, but blue, black, gray, and white are the four are the only four colors one sees in Antarctica or the Arctic. And while I don't think that's particularly relevant, I don't I don't know that this is I tend to think that the TAMs are more appropriate for our local area. But I really find it kind of attractive, the way it's been presented. And fighting a national brand is probably not practical. All

right. That's thanks for the observation. Yeah. Do we have any other comments before opening up the public hearing? Alright. With that, I'll open the public hearing. Citizens wishing to speak on this item may request to speak by raising their hand when requested to do so. Please limit your comments to three minutes. Secretary, do we have any hands raised online or anyone in the chambers that wishes to speak?

I do not see any hands raised online, and I do not see any hands raised here in the room.

Okay. With that, I will close this public hearing for that item. And let's see. So I'll bring it back to my colleagues. Does anyone have any additional comments or questions? I'll start on this end. Any? Please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all,

having spent a good part of my career for a very major American corporation, I want it to be known that they spend, vast sums of money on signage, what it looks like, what color it's going to be, etcetera. If you're a national organization and you adopt, a color scheme or a sign program, it's critically important to justify your investment that you be consistent all the way through. That is probably the most important element of any signage program is to be consistent because it's they want people to recognize it. However, I asked for the floor for another reason. And, I had originally brought to the staff's attention that there was a problem with the numbers, and we found out it was with the software.

And we we do have the correct numbers. And with my background, in finance, I always make sure that things add up, and they didn't, but they do now. So thank you thank you to staff. However, I'm gonna share with you another perspective. As you all know, I'm handicapped, and I do shop at this Walmart.

They carry a couple products that we would have to travel maybe fifteen, twenty miles away so they become one of my places. My wife shops in three or four different supermarkets. She's fussy what she buys, but there's a couple things that I want to buy locally. Walmart's the place for me. Quite often when I go to Walmart, I can't find a parking place.

And, of course, being retired, I don't go the same time every time. I go when I want. So I've tried to find a time during the day where there's parking places available, and it's difficult. And, of course, there's a limited number of handicapped places, and I assume that the number they have meets our criteria for the city. Now what I see here is I've been having a problem.

Not only do I've been also wanna comment. Not only do I do I have a problem parking in the parking lot, most of the time, I have trouble parking on the perimeter of the shopping center on the street. I have that problem. Other people have that problem. You don't have to be handicapped to have that problem, which means from a marketing standpoint, you're probably losing business. And so they have a parking problem here. And they have a parking problem because people who have lived here for a while know this was another kind of neighborhood market. It closed up. Walmart decided to come in. I was on the city council at the time.

It was wonderful to cut the ribbon and welcome them to the community, and they've been very successful. They probably generated a lot more sales tax revenue for us. When I look at the numbers, however, it says to me that for the typical customer the typical customer that's going to go into the market and shop and select things rather than shopping electronically, which I do quite often myself and other places, there's less parking places. And so what they're asking for tonight is to make it more convenient for people who preorder and wanna go into the pick pickup area. They're gonna extend that.

But something has to match up on the numbers, and they're taking away additional parking places for the people who need or want to go into the store to buy. And that bothers me. I don't I've tried very diligently to figure out some suggestion to that. And if it comes to it, I will vote to in favor of this. But I think we probably are just making one problem go down somewhat, and we're creating maybe a bigger problem for the people who shop in the store. Thank you for accepting my comments.

Yes. Thank you for your comments on that. I guess we'll maybe we'll get some comments, and then we'll see if the applicant has, any anything they'd like to say in response. Do you have any?

Yeah. Thank you. I I, you know, I'm very familiar with this parking lot. It's very challenging. I I struggle to see how you can fit more spots. They're they're gonna have the same number of spots total. I understand what you're saying. I too thought of that, Peter, that that, that they're reducing the number of customers that wanna go in. I wonder I was hoping to hear more about maybe some research or data on the increase in people that just wanna pick up, from the parking lot. And and so maybe there is some more data around that.

I think that could help us make a decision tonight. But but, yeah, I this parking lot is challenging, to get in and out of, to walk around, those one lanes. I think the angled slots, you fit more cars, and they are already angled. So I I don't know where you can find more spots. It's kind of my point. So

thank you.

Commissioner Johnson, do you mind if I cut in?

Sure.

So to address some of the parking, like I mentioned, the project is not expanding the building footprint, and our code for parking requirements or adding additional spots is only applicable if they're expanding or adding on to the building. So we don't have the authority to require more spaces. The project the the Rainbow Market is what it was previously called back in the day. There has been some expansions, and, you know, that changed the parking requirement. But as it was approved with that current square footage, it was roughly about 50 stalls under parked, but it was approved that way with previous entitlements.

So we with the request today, we can't bump that number up or enforce our parking requirements. Granted, we wouldn't even be able to get anywhere near 50 more spaces in order to meet that minimum. Additionally, that was one of my comments as well too, Peter, was I've I don't live in Lincoln, but I drive past it all the time in order to get here, and that parking lot's always full. And they do have a traffic engineer online, from Kimley Horn, and what they provided with me was essentially the goal is for more people to utilize the pickup stalls to where that would decrease the need for the ordinary consumer to come in. I'm not a traffic engineer myself, so I do have to defer to the experts on that, which would be the Kimley Horn representative.

And once you guys provide your comments, we can get them online, to provide some additional color.

Okay. That was going to be my comment as well, is that we would see that there would be, excuse me, more people picking things up. I think that as we look at the different stores in today's world, we're looking at online shopping. We're looking at pickup shopping more and more in the grocery store area. Do I like it?

No. I drive a large car, and it's very difficult to park there and not and park in in a spot where I'm not gonna get, dinged or or whatever. However, I also can appreciate where, you know, where you're coming from. And I I understand Peter's concern as well, especially in in today's world of of a real strong emphasis on ADA. It's becoming more and more of a, of a factor for us to be concerned about. That's all I have to say. I think we'll see more of the pickup and more online and over the over the

Thank you. I'll go go to my left. Any additional comments over here?

Yeah. I just wanted a clarification. How many pickup spots are there right now?

Six.

And we're expanding it to? 20. Seems a lot. I mean, I think we should take back and and find out how they came up with 20. I think we've already talked about that. But six to 20, that that seems to be obsessive. And so I think we should, definitely challenge that.

Thank you. Commissioner Johnson, do you have any additional items? No. Okay.

I agree with the comments that I made.

Okay. Yeah. Please.

One additional comment I forgot to mention. So when you, when you're designing and building your shopping center, you look at your demographics and you look at your customer base. I don't know the exact number. I know there's 11,000 people of our 52,000 that live in Lincoln Hills that are all seniors. I also know that there's about and I'm guessing the number now based on when I was on the city council, about 30% of the remainder of Lincoln are seniors.

That there puts the senior population at a high number. They're not the kind of people my neighbors are not the kind of people that because they're working, like to call things in and they're under time constraints, whatever, they're retired. They like to go in and, as they say, rattle things and check things. They have the time, and some of them are that are seniors are on limited income. So the their their shopping pattern is completely different than than the typical.

Now we'll grow out of that as the rest of our community is developed and the senior population becomes a smaller percentage, But we're still going to be faced with the problem in this parking lot because as our staff has said, unless we go to Japanese plan and double park, double high, we're never gonna fix the problem. So, I I think we your your thought is exactly what I'm thinking of. Is there is there maybe a compromise that could be done that will help them with their marketing, wanting to get more people, encourage more people, and see how that works. And if it if it works fine, great. We stop at twelve or whatever.

If it if they see the demand is there, they can come back again. So that's it. I'm not gonna say anymore.

Sure. No. Thank you for, all the comments. On here, it sounds like there's a lot around parking. I too shop there a lot, and sometimes find it challenging for parking. So, I I completely understand kinda the line of, comments, from up here. So, is the applicant, on the on the line that might be willing to I guess, sounds like we'd be interested in hearing a little bit more about the thought process on how they came up with that number for the number of pickup.

Chairman Eric Johnson, there are representatives for the project online. If you guys would like to speak, please unmute your mic. There are about six of them there. Again, there you go. If you'd like to speak in relations to responses to the comments of commissioners, please do so.

Good evening. Can you hear me okay?

Yes. Yes.

Alright. Good evening. I'm Jen Gutzloff. I am with Kimberly Horn. I am Walmart's civil engineering consultant on this project.

First off, I just wanna thank you all for taking the time to consider this project tonight. I can speak a little bit more regarding the number of pickup stalls. We do recognize that this parking lot is under parked currently and is crowded. And we were aware of that in our design, and we did not further reduce the number of parking stalls in the site. In terms of the number of pickup stalls, that is a standard number that is provided by Walmart for the type of store.

So since this is a neighborhood market, 20 stalls were requested. And that's a standard throughout the country based on store types and what level of pickup usage they expect at the stores. Increasing their pickup operations will allow for more customers to utilize that service and, hopefully, free up some of the other parking spots. Just as more and more people continue to use pickup, Walmart wants to be able to provide that service to as many people as possible.

Please. No. I do I'm I'm gonna question that a little bit. First of all, with regards to this is the standard for this type of neighborhood market. Those other markets across The United States, their parking footprint, do they are they similar to the parking footprint that we have here?

It varies. So there is a sorry. There is a range in the number of pickup stalls that are requested. So this range, is dependent on the size of the market, the size of the parking lot, and then it's decided from there.

But based on a range, that means we could actually adjust this down if we felt that we needed to based on the footprint of our parking lot. Correct?

If that's how you feel, Walmart has identified this these 20 spaces as what they would prefer to, accommodate their future pickup operations.

And that would be based on a lot of click throughs with walmart.com and other things that a lot of our retirees may not be using. So I I really do think that we should take this back to Walmart and see about actually lowering it because you're talking about actually three plus times the amount that you have today. I mean, double it 12, I think we probably wouldn't be so adamant about being against this. But, you know, if you're you're taking you know, going from six to 20, with a small footprint, I I would feel a lot better if we were able to get it more to maybe 10 to 12.

I see. Commissioner Johnson, please.

I would be interested to know if the percentage of pickup spaces is closer to the 4% that we have now? Or is it closer to the 16% that is being proposed nationwide? What is your nationwide percentage of pickup spaces? Is it closer to 16% or closer to 4%?

I do not know the answer to that question.

That would be interesting to know.

If I might interject, there's such a variance. You know, I probably was involved in the design. It well, actually, the approval, but I needed to look at the design with my staff of shopping centers that were being redesigned, new out of the ground, etcetera. And everywhere you go, the requirements are different based on the demographics in the area. In the East where people don't own cars at the percentages that people in the West own cars, you have an entirely different way of looking at things.

So I think, Jerry, it was a good question, but I don't think the answer to that really affects this parking lot. We gotta deal with what we have here in Lincoln in terms of age and demographics. And, you know, I think the idea that one commissioner indicated where you know? And I think we could do that tonight. I think it's perfectly okay. I'd like to hear from the, city attorney. But if we wanted to say, we'll go to twelve. I'm just picking a number, but whatever. We'll go to twelve, convert to twelve. Let's see how that works.

And then sometime in the near future, you can come back in, and we can look at, can we go from twelve to some other number? So that we can give them some relief now because part of their marketing plan is to get people, you know, to to buy electronically because that that saves them a lot of money, a lot of effort. There's a whole bunch of other reasons, particularly with artificial intelligence. It's gonna make it's gonna make you much more profitable as we get get artificial intelligence really driving our inventory and all the other elements, our staffing, the whole whole wall of wax. So that would be my suggestion is that we we approve it, but with some kind of a number in the middle.

Yeah. I would just say that the the change to the parking lot to make them pick up spots as opposed to regular parking spots is really a matter of striping and

signing Exactly.

That is specific to Walmart. And so if this commission feels that that number needs to be a different number than the 20 that has been proposed by the applicant, you have that authority to make that determination and still approve it with a change to the number of of signed spots.

I always go to the attorney because I wanna be covered legally.

Don't worry. She'll correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank

you.

I've been quiet because she's awesome.

I agree. Commercial center Herzog, please.

Yeah. Thank you. I was hoping to hear more local data about an increase in in in the need, at this particular store, in in relation to the need for pickup spots. Like they've seen, you know, 20%, 30%, 150% increase in this need. Because what we're doing is we're we're I understand the theory behind pickup spots because theoretically, you would have more cars moving in and out quicker.

You'd be able to house more customers. But the problem that we're going to create is if you're picking up, you can use any spot. If you're not, you can't use any spot. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna create more of a traffic jam if we don't have the data that pickup spots are needed. And so we're gonna cause more of a problem, people that wanna go into the store.

So that's why I'm I'm very hesitant to approve the 20 spots without local data of increase and the need for it, particularly around the, you know, percentage of so so many times over, that we already have in this very limited space. So I don't wanna create more of a problem for people that wanna go to the store, and I think we will do that with 20 pickup spots because they won't all be used. So I'm I'm I'm also leaning to a much smaller number, at this point.

Just gonna say I think 10 is a good is a good compromise to try and to track. If I agree, how how often are these six utilized all the time? Are they? Would the 10 be utilized all the time or not? And so if you track for a few months, and then you can make, other determinations.

It'd be pretty easy to track too. I think so. Just put some cameras out there. You can see when they park and when they don't park.

Exactly.

More than likely, you're gonna see it probably more after five when people are actually coming home and they're trying to grab something. Yeah.

And if you're picking up, you can still use any spot.

Yeah. Exactly. So I think ten, I agree, is a good compromise.

I I do wanna add something. Maybe it doesn't offer compromise and maybe a condition that says, maximum 20 or equivalent to 20 spaces, but initially 10. And then at that point, you we bring back or get some kind of documentation from the applicant justifying the increase to whatever amount. We have a site plan that identifies the areas for pickup. Perhaps the the 20 that they have identified could be or the the the 10.

Because if we're if we're choosing 10 at the moment, the 10 could be, like, Stripe for no parking or whatever. But then the the 10 that we're going up to from six could be the ones that you agreed upon to be conditioned for this project to move forward.

Yeah. I I think, truthfully, I I think we don't wanna give them that on ramp. I would rather actually have an off ramp where they have to come back to us to say, this is the data, and this is why we wanna go to something more. So I would rather just go ahead and put a number down now. This is what we approve. And then if you see later based on your data that you want to increase it, come back to us, and we will then review the data.

Please.

Sales. Yes.

And I have one question real quick before that too, if that's okay. So I'm just curious talking about current utilization. Forgive me if I missed it. Was there, data? They have six now. Are they finding that those are being fully utilized? Is that kind of pushing this?

I'll defer that to the applicant. I don't have that information. From city perspective, we don't have any code requirements letting us dictate how many parking or pickup stalls. There's allowed to be it's not in our code. So we don't have any staff doesn't have any regulation of that. So I'll defer to the applicant of whether, you know, there's data on utilization of those current six stalls.

Applicant, if you're speaking, please unmute.

Hi. Unfortunately, I don't have any specific data, but I know Walmart does choose to do the increases at these stores when they do feel like the demand is there.

Okay. But it is but it is pretty much kind of their rule of thumb to use that 20. Correct?

Correct. Essentially, it sounds like there's a formula based on store size, parking lot size to kind of churn out that that 20 figure in this case.

Demographics is not being taken into consideration.

Yeah. And I was kinda hoping to to know if, you know, there was someone else's, like, they found those six are absolutely used all the time just to kinda get a feel for what an ideal number would be. Please.

As I said earlier, I shop at all different hours, and there are times when I go in where they are not fully utilized. That's not the majority of the time. That's the minority of the time. But there are times when I go in and there are lots of spaces in the parking lot. But, you know, again, I'm retired. I can go shop anytime that they're open, and I'm not the typical person that goes shopping there. But, again, if if it's acceptable to the chair, I'd like to make a motion that we can vote on.

Sure. Yeah. I I'm in favor of moving forward, and I'll make one additional comment. If we do, I guess, reduce the size number, I'm I'm hearing too there's some things to consider possibly on their part when they're picking which pickup stalls to use. If they can leave some of the stalls, normal stalls that might be a little more accessible or friendly to, you know, not necessarily designated ADA, but if there's a way to strategically place those pickup items or pickup stalls to leave the remaining ones a little bit more favorable for that population. So I'll entertain a motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll make a motion that we accept the staff report changing it from 20 to 12 designated as pickup spots.

I'll second.

Okay. So we have a motion to amend the staff report and the proposal from 20 to 12. So a motion and a second. I guess procedurally any anything else before a roll call on that motion?

Is

I can take a roll call vote. So I'm

my only concern is that you have amended, and I think we probably need to reopen the public hearing.

Yes. Okay. Fair enough. So we have that current motion on the table to amend from twenty to twelve. So I'll open reopen for a public comment. Do we have any secretary, please? Any hands raised online or anyone in the chambers?

I don't see any hands raised online. And I don't see any hands raised in the room.

Okay. Would would the applicant like to say anything during this this time?

If any applicant is speaking, please unmute unmute your mic.

This this is the time during public hearing if the applicant has any protest or comment in order to create the record. It would be the time to make comment.

If you're making a comment, please unmute your mic. There is no unmuted mic. So

Okay.

Alright. Just to be point of clarification on the motion, we're we're voting that we're approving the color and the sign, but then the only change is for the parking. Are are we gonna vote on all of that together?

Yes.

Yep. So, yes,

it is it is an amended we can do it one of two ways. The the easiest is just to say it's amended with the parking change and then do a roll call vote.

My my request would be to vote on them separately, the amended and the other continuing items.

And that and that's fine.

But just a a small point of clarification. So the motion is to amend the staff report. The motion was not to approve the resolution. So if this body wishes to make a roll call vote on amending the staff report, they would still need to make a motion to pass the resolution, with the amended number of parking spaces.

That's that's that's very

So you could vote twice.

Okay.

Okay. And I'll officially close that public comment that we had again. So I'll bring it back to the commission. So if I understand clearly, so we have two two votes. Correct? So the one is how it's written.

You're just you're essentially gaining consensus of your commission that their agreement to adjust the number of parking spaces in the staff report.

Okay.

That's the motion that's on the floor.

Okay. So we will go with the motion that's currently on the floor to amend from 20, pickup stalls to twelve. Ten.

Ten, wasn't it?

This was this was twelve. Okay. Yep. Sorry. Yep. So this motion's for twelve, to be clear. And then secretary, let's see.

Mikaela, from your knowledge on the, exhibit a, is the number of pickup stalls noted on there?

It's not identified in the actual resolution. If you would like, for just clarity's sake, we can add a condition approval saying that the maximum pickup stalls is 12.

Okay.

Not to throw another, you know, another thing at you, Commissioner Johnson.

No worries.

Okay. Commissioner Herzog, you still want it, voted separately, though. Correct?

Well, we're I mean, the motion is just to amend the staff report. So we are voting separately right now.

We shouldn't be talking about anything else. The motion on the floor is to approve twelve and then we can move on from there to additional approvals.

Okay. Specifically, this would be for changing the staff report from number of pickup stalls from 20 to 12.

Well, adding. It's adding Adding. Adding a maximum of 12. There's no indication. Right? There's no indication.

In the staff report, there is a so you would be changing the staff report from 20 to 12. In your next approval, you would be adding the condition of approval to limit it to 12 stalls, if that's correct,

Christine. Yeah. That's correct. So there

Yes. It needs to go step by step.

So we need a roll call.

Correct. Yes.

Commissioner Gilbert?

Yes.

Commissioner Hutchinson? Yes. Commissioner Herzog?

No. In my nose, because I don't have any I'm not convinced that any increase in pickup stalls is needed. So that's why I'm a no.

Commissioner Jackson?

Yes.

Commissioner Jerry Johnson?

Yes.

And chair Eric Johnson?

Yes. Okay. So that motion passes to amend the staff report from 20 to 12 for pickup lanes. Might

mister chair, you you might want to announce that the vote was five one one for people that are listening and maybe didn't hear it real clearly.

Yes. Thank you. Yeah. So that passed, five yes, one no, and one, is absent. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So we'll move through this, step by step. So the next one is to

Consider the resolution. And so the commission before you is the resolution to approve the, remodel and the reorganization of the exterior parking lot for Walmart. The commission has expressed an interest in modifying that resolution. So with your permission, I would give you a suggestion that we add a condition to the resolution and item number three in the resolution as it were under the now therefore be it resolved, that the maximum number of pickup spaces within the remodel be 12. And if that is acceptable, one of you could move to adopt the resolution with that amendment.

So moved as stated by staff.

And based on that, I do move to determine that no additional environmental analysis pursuant to CEQA is required and to adopt the resolution approving the design review modifications with the conditional 12 only parking spaces for the Walmart remodel project subject to the conditions in exhibit a.

Yes. And I believe we had the motion. Correct? And then you're a second.

Was that me a second? Okay. Yep. That was a really formal second.

Good. We're being clear. Yeah. Excellent. So we have a motion and a second, and thanks for clarifying that.

I'll take the roll call vote. That will be Commissioner McGilbert?

Yes.

Commissioner Jackson? Yes. Commissioner Herzog?

Yes, overall, but recognizing my initial no for the original parking spots.

Commissioner Hutchinson? Yes. Commissioner Jerry Johnson?

Yes.

And Chairman Eric Johnson?

Yes. Alright. So it passes six yes, zero, and then one absent.

And if I if I might Yes. Make a comment, I'm sure the applicant is still I hope the applicant's still on. And based on the comments that that my colleagues have made, I think they understand that if they wanna move towards 20, that they come back to a meeting with some specific hard numbers that will make us feel more comfortable.

And enough said. Alright. Thank you. So we'll move on to item number 10 now, a general business. We have item 10 a, general plan and housing element annual progress report. So looks like Efrain will present that to us, please.

Good evening. Planning commissioners, Efrain Sanchez, senior planner with community development department. The item we have before you is the 2025 general plan annual progress report, which is a report designed to monitor the city's implementation of the general plan. State law requires that each California jurisdiction provide an annual progress report. The same law requires that the APR be presented to the local legislative body for review and acceptance prior to submitting to the governor's office of land use and climate innovation, LCI, and the California Department of Housing and Community Development, HCD, by April 1.

The housing element portion of the APR is prepared through the use of a standardized Excel workbook adopted adopted by ACD, which is why it's been included as attachment number two. In addition to state law, the city of Lincoln general plan policy l u 8.1 requires staff to share the APR with the planning commission as a procedural matter, which is why we're here today. The City of Lincoln's general plan has a total of 109 implementation measures across all seven elements. The table found on this slide is a summary of the progress the city has made towards implementation. Additional specific information about these implementation measures can be found in attachment one.

16% of the implementation measures are completed, 65 of them are in progress, and 19% of them are yet to be initiated. The 2008 general plan guides an orderly development of the city with a planning horizon of twenty fifty, representing a build up population of a 132 residents. This slide is a summary of the information that is available in the housing element portion of the APR attachment number two. In 2025, the city permitted 411 dwelling units. Of those, 12 were accessory dwelling units or ADUs.

Currently, we are on the housing element sixth cycle, which spans from 05/15/2021 to 05/15/2029. The state has assigned the city of Lincoln a regional housing needs allocation, aka RENA, of 5,120 units. The city's progress so far has been able to produce 2,886 units towards our RINA goal, which leaves us a remaining balance of 2,287 units by the time we reach the end of the sixth cycle, which is in May 2029. RINA numbers themselves are planning targets, not direct billed quota. So the state generally does not find or penalize the city simply because the market did not produce enough housing at those income categories.

Serious consequences are triggered when the city fails to adopt and maintain a housing element in substantial compliance and fails to plan and zone enough land to accommodate its Rina. The consequences include reduced local decision making authority such as builders' remedy, increased litigation risk, and loss of eligibility for competitiveness for certain state funded programs. So as you can see here on the slide, this is the, eight year cycle starting with 2021, and it expands up to 2029. So in this graph, you can see every, annual progress report that we've had, you know, the number of dwelling units, by affordability category. You can see here, in 2024, it was a little bit more colorful as far as, like, the affordability aspect of it.

And then in 2025, we were most majority of them were above moderate at three hundred three hundred ninety six. And then there was a few that were, like, low income affordable housing, for a total of 411 dwelling units. And then this is our sum. So we were able to achieve above moderate category, and I can give you a little bit more information on the next slide about that. As part of the housing element annual progress report, I reviewed permit records for the 411 dwelling units and classified each unit into five HCD affordable categories.

So the again, those are the extremely low income, very low income, low moderate, and above moderate. So anything that's in blue is essentially affordable. Anything above moderate, that's just market rate. And so under ATS affordable affordability thresholds, homes selling for more than 412 k are not considered affordable. That's challenging in Lincoln because the average sale price is about $319 per square foot.

At that price point, a home would need to be roughly a 200 square feet to fall within the moderate income or affordable range. On the rental side, ADUs and one bedroom apartments typically rent about, 1,600 to 2,255 per month. As a result, the affordable units we were able to document in this APR were primarily ADUs, including converted ADUs. So, again, here's the figures. Anything above, 412 k, that's above moderate.

And so and and this is, like, the mortgage price per you know, and then the rental price. Yeah. Just some context. And then, of course, the AMI, which means area medium income is a 120 k for a family of four. Just providing some context.

That leads us to our recommendations. Staff recommends that the planning commission receive and file the information contained contained in the staff report, APR, dock attachments, and take the following action. Determine that the general plan and housing element annual progress report on our projects under section one five three seven eight of the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines. And two, review the 2025 general plan and housing element annual progress reports and recommend that the city council receive and authorize reports be sent to HCD and LCI. Next steps would be for the same reports to be sent over to city council on the 03/10/2026 city council meeting, and we are gonna request city council review and accept the 2025 APRs and adopt a resolution authorizing staff to file the report, with LCI and ACD by their April 1 statutory deadline.

That concludes my presentations. Let me know if you have any questions.

Alright. Thank you, Efren, for that presentation. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments for Efren? Commissioner Johnson?

I have one. This is relative to the general plan implementation, the implementation measures, which you understandably did not go through in detail. But in lieu of that, I'm I'm wondering if you or Anita could, tell us what the, top priority will be in 2026 in terms of implementation measures, you know, the top three, five, whatever.

For the for the broader general plan or the downtown update? Either? Okay. We'll we'll go with the downtown update just because it's a bit more localized and easier. We're we're actually gonna be holding a a community meeting on the thirteenth, March 13? Is that date right in

my head? Fourteenth. Fourteenth. A Saturday.

Okay.

Right.

In order to gain additional output for or I'm sorry, input for the downtown plan, and we'll we will have one more community meeting after that. And then once we get all that input compiled, we'll finalize that and bring it forward to this body and then city council. Hopefully, late summer, knock on wood, to get that adopted before the end of the year. And then as far as the downtown plan goes, we are looking at remind me, Mel, general plan amendment Yeah. We to share?

Yeah. We have a general plan amendment. We're looking into increasing the density from 20 the HDR density from twin up to 30 dwelling in the stone acre, which, of course, would assist the downtown national plan because that one is gonna go higher, plus it's adding more units in downtown area. So having the higher amount the higher range bump up to 30 units per per acre will be a necessary step in the g and that's one of the action item in a in a in a in a a measures that's identified there.

Yeah. What Mel's referring to, that's one of the action measures or implementation measures of the housing element, to increase that dent the density in the HDR. So that would be one of the, right now, we have 32 implementation measures in the housing element. So then if that's one of the projects that's ongoing, number 20 on the 25 on the table that I have listed here. So, hopefully, you know, we can move that from the category of ongoing to then completed in the next calendar year for this calendar year.

Anything with regard to the airport?

Well, in fact, the airport is, currently, looking to bring on a potential new manager, contract manager to, help promote the business of, running the airport, providing more availability for fueling of the airport. In addition, I'm sure you're aware of the construction that's going on out there with the hangars from, the full throttle project. There's a second hangar project that is, going to be coming online as well. We are looking at, some commercial opportunities within the 84 acres adjacent to the airport. So we're we really feel that the airport, which has been a financial struggle for decades, we'll say, is going to be fully self fiscally self sustaining within the next five years.

How about a solar farm in some of those acres?

Yeah, we actually do have, as part of the city solar project, a ResBEC field, out it's kind of more on the courtyard area than it is the airport area, but it's adjacent to the airport. Thank you.

Do I have any other comments? Alright. So with that, I can make a motion. Right? Okay. As a chair. So with that, I move to determine that this item is not a project under CEQA guidelines and to recommend that city council receive and authorize the the APR be sent to the state of California HCD and Governor's Office of LCI? A lot of acronyms in there.

I'll second.

Thank you. Do I have a motion and a second? Roll call, please.

You want a roll call? You need a voice call up here?

Do a voice call. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstentions? None. Alright. Thank you. That motion passes. Alright. Item number 11, we'll move to community development director reports. And we have, Nita Racker, Interim Community Development Director, please.

I feel like I just gave my report. But besides that, you do have the tracker in your packet. If you have additional questions on projects that might be coming forward, you'll you'll notice that the Grove is on there on the first line, and that just got loaded prior to, the agenda being finalized. And so that one's done. Right? Knocked that one off the list. But if you have other questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Okay. I do wanna say that my regular contact coordination with your commission about upcoming PC items, so I'll be doing that next the March because we have a handful of projects. One of them is the West Lincoln Square development. Tom will be presenting that. Heavy duty documents.

It's the first commercial project in in the Side B area right there at the corner of Highway 65 and Nelson Lane. It's a big project. It's will support, of course, the the residential in the area. There's an ongoing development there that's part of, but this is the sister property that's on commercial. Your this interview board heard that a few times, couple of times. So we're done, and we'll be recommending approval to the plan commission. So we'll get the documentation put together, and we'll reach out to your commission of if any anyone if anyone interested in having a advanced meeting with staff to go over the details of that.

Yeah. We do encourage the commissioners to try to meet with us prior to the the to these meetings because as you as you have made note, you know, some of the some of the projects are pretty heavy. And it's an opportunity for you to connect with staff, ask your questions, and also if there's issues that we can relate to the developer in advance in coming here. We'll be happy to do that.

Yes. And thank you for bringing that up. And thanks to Melanifrin for being available this last time. I took advantage of that and found it very helpful. And for being accommodating as well. You know, I'm I work in Sacramento pretty much every day. So, hard to make it on-site in person, but you were willing to accommodate a Teams, virtual meeting. So thank you for doing that. It's helpful for preparing this. So just like to remind and encourage, fellow commissioners, you know, if you have a chance.

I'm sure you found it helpful, and I found it helpful. So thanks for being available to do that. With that, we will move to commissioner comments. So I'll go ahead and start to my right with the do you have any comments? Yeah. Commissioner.

Yeah. I just wanna say this is my, final meeting. I'm resigning and sad that I won't be able to continue with you guys. Keep up the gate the great work, keeping Lincoln strong and unique Placer County, and, it's been a pleasure to work with each one of you and respect and appreciate, you know, all the effort you put in. I've been impressed, and wish Tony was here here just this as well.

I'm very impressed with the way you guys go about, reviewing projects and asking thoughtful questions, and I love this place. I've been in Lincoln for twenty five years, and sad to sad to step down from this really important role. And I'll be praying and hopeful that someone here, will will replace me and continue to go work with your team. So thank you, everyone.

Well, I just wanted to wish you all kinds of success on your new endeavor. I think it's exciting for you and your family, so, good speed to you for that.

Yeah. Nathan, best of luck to you. We didn't get to know each other very well, but, little time that we did work together, I really did appreciate your thoughtful insight. So thank you.

I've enjoyed working with you, Nathan. You've made a major contribution to this commission. I like your spirit tonight. I wish we had it continuing. But, godspeed, and, best wishes.

Thank you. I echo all those two. Thank you, Commissioner Herzog, for your service. It's been a pleasure to serve on the commission with you. So really appreciate that and wish you the best, you know, and your family, from here on out. So I'm sure it'd be nothing but success. So thank you for that. And if the commission's okay, just immediately after, if you're fine with taking a quick picture, before everyone runs off, that'd be appreciated. And if someone in the staff, if it's not too much to ask, can use one of our phones to do that. Yeah.

We'd be happy to do that. And just, you know, from the staff's perspective, Nathan, we're we're gonna miss you. It's been it's been wonderful having you on the commission. You've always asked insightful questions. You pay well attention to the matters of this community, and you will be missed.

Alright. Well, with that, we'll adjourn this meeting. Thank you.