Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We are beginning the meeting shortly. We will begin we will be conducting tonight's meeting in person as well as in virtual sitting using Zoom. Members of the public may view and listen to the meeting tonight on Wave channel 18 and online through the city's YouTube channel. If you would like to participate in live public comment via the Zoom platform, please refer to the agenda for instructions. Chair Eric Johnson will begin the meeting momentarily. All right. Seeing at 6:00, I'll call the meeting to order. Uh to call the sorry, February 18th, 2026, City of Lincoln Planning Commission meeting to order. Uh roll call, please.

Commissioner Gilbert, here. Commissioner Herszog, here. Commissioner Hutchinson here. Commissioner Jackson here. Commissioner Jerry Johnson and Chair Eric Johnson here. Um do we need to make it known Commissioner Manning was isn't present or I know that at the last meeting he did mention about um being there ski week or school being out. Um, I did not get official through email, but there was verbal from last meeting.

Okay, thank you. Uh, item number three, pledge of allegiance. We'll have Commissioner Herszog will lead us in the pledge tonight. Please stand nation.

All right. Thank you. Item number four, agenda modifications. Do we have any agenda modifications this evening? I am seeing none. So, we'll move on to number five, public comment on non-aggenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the committee, sorry, the commission. Uh, 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-aggenda items. Please limit your comments to three minutes. So, I'll go ahead and open it to public comment. Uh, 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,formational items from the staff. Does the staff have anyformational informationational items? Thank you. We do just have oneformational 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 and but it is correct within the agenda packet and within the pres the information presented here this evening.

Okay. Thank you. Uh we'll move on to item number seven, disclosure of exparte communication. Um so this opportunity um if any my fellow commissioners have any communications to disclose, we'll start to my right. 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 8 B and 8 C um be removed for discussion and I would u move approval of uh uh the remaining item 8A. Okay, perfect. So we have uh 8B and 8 C removed with a motion to approve the remaining. I'll second. Okay, so a motion, a second. Would you like to do a voice call? Yes, voice call, please. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Excellent. Thank you. All right. So, item number 8B has been removed. Uh, let's see. So, we'll go ahead and discuss item 8B, um, which is the Grove, um, production homes design review, and that's within the village one specific plan area. So, um, I guess I'll go ahead and, uh, turn it over to the staff for that,

Mr. Chair. Uh if I could um I would um I brought this up uh really not uh germanine to the uh the architectural review committee's uh recommendation on the housing but I thought it was very instructive uh to see two different approaches to circulation element for um for the two these two housing uh developments on their pedestrian and uh bicycle circulation plans. And if I could um if I could have Tom show attachment seven of 8B, uh I will attempt to

I've got uh attachment seven up on the screen here if everyone can see that. Okay, this shows the um the trail and pedestrian circulation pattern and it um I I find it um very very poorly done because it doesn't really take advantage of the natural physical features of the site and um it's probably serves its purpose if you want to walk a dog uh for a 100 feet or so, but if you're trying to get on that trail system and go somewhere in particular, um it's difficult and you really have to resort to using um street uh streets to to get where you want to go. Uh, for example, from from that um from that circulation pattern, you really can't get to things like the commercial center um or future commercial center. Anyway, uh some major parks are not tied together with it. Um you can't easily get to the Auburn Trail, which I would hope someday would extend into um into Auburn. Um and then Um, if you would bring up uh attachment uh 11 of item 8C. Um, this is uh just remarkably uh remarkably how well done. using all of the physical features uh to make connections and you can get to uh

parks, school sites, um and other trails uh effortlessly. Um and kind of 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 um um you know, maybe we can blame it on the on the general plan being not as uh directive as it probably should have been. Um, but I would like to see us get a little bit tougher on the uh 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. And and uh if there aren't any further discussions, I would move approval of both items.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, do we have any other additional comments from any commissioners? Okay. Well, I don't see any. Um, thank you. All right. So, we have a motion to move approval of uh Perfect. We have a motion, a second um for item 8B, the Grove production home design review within the Village One specific plan area. Um, who motion? Sorry, I missed it. I did. Commissioner Jerry Johnson. Thank you. And Peter second. Uh, 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 Herszog, yes. Commissioner Hutchinson, yes. Commissioner Jackson, yes. And Chair Eric Johnson, yes. All right, motion passes. We'll go on to item C. Um please uh Commissioner Johnson have some uh comments regarding item C. That's the Liberty at Lincoln Village 1 and leave Liberty at Lincoln Village 2 production home design review within the village 7 specific plan area. I'm sorry I meant that motion to be approval of both. Oh, okay. BNC.

Did he say that? Okay, I missed it. I would like to do a roll call vote then a motion by Jerry Commissioner Jerry Johnson, a second by Peter Gilbert for this item. Wonderful. I will do a roll call vote. Um and this is for both resolutions in Liberty of Lincoln for village one village 2 design review. Um Commissioner Jerry Johnson I. Commissioner Gilbert. Yes. Commissioner Herszog. 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 um Eric Johnson.

This is this is Christine, the city attorney. I'm sorry I'm remote tonight. Um 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 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 8B and 8 C. I would I would ask that you vote on them separately, please. Okay. So, uh we are taking a vote on 8C for Liberty of Lincoln Village One design review. Uh Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Gilbert, yes. Commissioner Herszog, yes. Commissioner Hutchinson, yes. Commissioner Jackson, yes. And Chairman Eric Johnson, yes. Thank you.

Order. Point of order. We already voted on 8B previously. We did. Correct. So that that is done. We've done done them separately as the city attorney has suggested. Um I think um Christine was speaking about village uh Liberty of Lincoln 8C. We have two resolutions. One is for village one and one is for village two. Split those. Okay. Yes. Are you okay? Correct. Are you okay, Commissioner Gilbert, with your vote on village one? Wonderful. Um, Chairman, um, Johnson, can we get a motion for

I'll motion for the second part of 8C with approval of village 2? I'll second the motion. Thank you. We have a motion, a 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. All right, motion passes. I think we're covered on that one. Okay, we vote on them again just for fun. Well done, team.

Thank you, Christine. All right. So, with the consent items um 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 Michaela, associate planner, with the staff that will give us a report tonight. Please, Michaela.

Here we go. Okay, perfect. Uh good evening everyone. Uh, Michaela 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 want to address the memorandum that is provided on your desk. This was sent out to you all digitally on Friday. Um there were technical difficulties with our agenda distribution software which Nita mentioned earlier that had affected this project. So the memo just kind of cleared up those technical errors that we couldn't address online. Um 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, Pulley, 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 Third 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 sign 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 16 and 18 in the Lincoln downtown urban design plan. The design review board reviewed the project in January and did not provide any modification requests for the project. The di 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 project 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 15301

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, Michaela. Um, 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 wide ass wise ask comment, but blue, black, gray, and white are the four the only four colors one sees in Antarctica or the Arctic. Well, I don't think that's particularly relevant. I don't I don't know that this is, you know, I I I tend to think that the tans are more appropriate for our uh local area, but um I really find it kind of attractive the the way it's been presented and uh fighting a national brand is probably not uh practical.

All right, that's a thanks for the observation. Yeah. Uh, do we have any other comments for opening up to public hearing? All right. With that, I'll open the public hearing. Uh, 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. Uh, first of all, um, having spent a good part of my career for a very major American corporation, I want it to be known that they spend uh, vast sums of money on signage, what it looks like, what color it's going to be, etc. Uh 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 uh 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 I'm going to share with you another perspective. As you all know, I'm handicapped. Uh, and I do shop at this Walmart. They carry a couple products that we would have to travel maybe 15, 20 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 the 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. Um 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 and not only I been also want to comment not only don't 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, um there's less parking places. And so what they're asking for tonight is to make it more convenient for people who pre-order and want to go into the pickup area. They're going to 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. Um I guess we'll maybe we'll get some comments and then we'll see if the applicant has um any anything they'd like to say. response. Do you have any results?

Yeah, thank you. Um I I uh you know very familiar with this parking lot. It's very challenging. I I struggle to see how you can fit more spots. Um they're going to have the same number of spots total. I understand what you're saying. I too thought of that uh Peter that that uh that they're reducing the number of customers that want to go in. Um, I wonder I was hoping to hear more about maybe some research or data on the increase in people that just want to pick up um from the parking lot and and so maybe there is some more data around that. Uh I think that could help us make a decision tonight. Um but but yeah, I I this parking lot is challenging uh to get in and out of uh to walk around those one lanes. I think the angled slots you fit more cars and they are already angled. Uh so um I I don't know where you could find more spots is kind of my point. So

thank you. Commissioner Johnson, do you mind if I cut in? Sure.

Uh so to address some of the parking, um 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 onto the building. So we don't have the authority to require more spaces. Um the project that the Rainbow Market is what it was previously called back in the day. Um 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 underparked 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. Um, 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. Um, and that parking lot's always full. And they do have a traffic engineer online um, 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. Um, I'm not a traffic engineer myself, so I do have to defer to the experts on that. Um, which would be the Kimley Horn representative. And once you guys provide your comments, we can get them online um 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 going to get uh dinged or or whatever. Um, 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 um 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. Um, go go go to my left. Any additional comments over here?

Yeah, I just wanted to 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 uh definitely challenge that. Thank you. Uh Commissioner Johnson, do you have any additional items? No. Okay. Disagree. I I agree with the comments. Okay. Yeah, please.

One additional comment I forgot to mention. Um, so when you uh when you're designing and building a shopping center, you look at your demographics and you look at your customer base. Um, 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 going to fix the problem. So, uh 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 12 or whatever. Uh if it if they see the demand is there, they can come back again. So that's it. I'm not going to say anymore.

Sure. No, thank you for um all the comments um on here. Sounds like there's a lot around parking. Um I too shop there a lot um and sometimes find it challenging for parking. So, um I I completely understand kind of the line of uh comments from up here. So, um is the applicant um on the on the line that might be willing to I guess sounds like it 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. Um, Chairman Eric Johnson, uh, there are, um, representatives for the project online. Um, if you guys would like to speak, please unmute your mic. There are about six of them there again. There you go. Um if you'd like to speak um in relations to responses to the comments of commissioners um please do so.

Good evening. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Yes.

Good evening. Uh I'm Jen Gutzoff. I am with Kim Lee Horn. I am Walmart's civil engineering consultant on this project. Um first off just want to thank you all for taking the time to consider this project tonight. Um I can speak a little bit more regarding the number of pickup stalls. Um we do recognize that this parking lot is um underparked currently and is crowded um and we were aware of that in our design and we did not um further reduce the number of parking stalls in the site. Um, 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, um, 20 stalls were requested. Um, and that's a standard throughout the country um, based on store types and what level of pickup um, usage they expect at the stores. um increasing their pickup operations will allow for more customers to utilize that service um and hopefully free up some of the other parking spots. Um just as more and more people continue to use pickup, um Walmart wants to be able to provide that service to as many people as possible. Please. Oh,

I do I'm I'm going to 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. Um so there is a sorry there is a range in the number of pickup stalls that are requested. Um so this range um is dependent on the size of the market, the size of the parking lot um and then it's decided from there.

So 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, um Walmart has identified this these 20 spaces is what they would prefer to um accommodate their future pickup operations

and that would b be based on a lot of clickthroughs 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 uh 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. Uh I would be interested to know if the percentage of U pickup spaces uh is closer to the 4% that we have now or is it closer to the 16% that is being proposed nationwide? Now 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, um there's such a variance. Uh, you know, I probably was involved in the design the 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, etc. And um, everywhere you go, the requirements are different based on the demographics in the area. uh in the east where people don't own cars at the percentages that people in the west own cars, you have an entirely different uh 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 got to deal with uh what we have here in Lincoln uh in terms of age and demographics and uh you know I think the idea that one commissioner uh 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 uh city attorney, but if we wanted to say we'll go to 12. I'm just picking a number, but whatever. We'll go to 12. Convert to 12. 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 12 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 uh particularly with artificial intelligence, it's going to make it's

going to make you much more profitable as we get get artificial intelligence really driving our inventory and all the other elements, our staffing, the whole the whole wall of whack. 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 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 sign spots. I always go to the attorney because I want to be covered. legally. Don't worry, she'll correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you. Thank you. I've been quiet because she's awesome. I agree. Um, Commissioner Senator Herszog, please.

Yeah, thank you. Um, I was hoping to hear more local data about an increase in in in the need uh at this particular store uh in in relation to the need for pickup spots. like they've seen, you know, 20% 30% 150% increase in in the steam because what we're doing is we're we're I 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 going to do is we're going to create more of a traffic jam if we don't have the data that pickup spots are needed. And so we're going to cause more of a problem people that want to 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 uh that we already have in this very limited space. So I don't want to create more of a problem for people that want to go to the store and I think we will do that with 20 pickup spots because they won't all be used. Um, so I'm I'm also leaning to a much smaller number uh at this point. I'm just going to say I think Ken is a good is a good compromise to try and to track

because 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. Just put some cameras out there. You can see when they park and when they don't park. Exactly. More than likely, you're going to 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 10 I agree is a good compromise. I I do want to add something. Maybe it doesn't offer compromise and maybe a condition that says um maximum of 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. Um uh 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. If we 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 want to 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 want to 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.

Um, yes. And I had one question real quick before that too if that's okay. Um, so I'm just curious talking about current utilization. Um, forgive me if I missed it. Was there, um, 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. Um, from city perspective, we don't have any code requirements letting us dictate how many parking or pickup stalls um there's allowed to be. It's not in our code. Uh, so we don't have any staff doesn't have any regulation of that. Um, 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.

I unfortunately I don't have any specific data. Um, 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 turn out that that 20 figure in this case. Demographics is not being taken into consideration.

Yeah. And I was kind of hoping to to know if you know there was someone analysis like they found those six are absolutely used all the time just to kind of get a feel for what an ideal number would be. Um 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. Uh 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 a parking lot. But, you know, again, I'm retired. I can go shop any time 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. Um, yeah, I I'm in favor of moving forward and I'll make one additional comment. um 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 um if they can leave some of the stalls normal stalls that might be a little more accessible or friendly to you know not necessarily designate 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 um that population. So, I'll uh I'll entertain a motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh I'll make a motion that we uh accept uh the staff report uh changing it from 20 to 12 designated as uh pickup spots. I'll second. Okay. Okay. So, we have a motion um to amend um the the staff report and the proposal from 20 to 12. Um so, I have a motion that's second. Um I guess procedurally any anything else before a roll call on that motion. Just

I can take a roll call vote. I'm so my only concern is that you have amended and I think we probably need to reopen the public hearing. Yes. Okay, fair enough. So, uh we have that current motion on the table to amend from 20 to 12. So, I'll open reopen for public comment. We have any secretary please. Anyone hands raised online or anyone in the 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 time? If any applicant is um 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. Um it would be the time to make comment. If you're making a comment, please unmute your mic. There is no unmute mic. those. Okay.

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 going to vote on all of that together? Yes. Okay. Y it is it is an amended we can do it one of two ways. Uh the the easiest is just to say it's amended um with the parking change and then do a roll call vote.

My my request would be to vote on them separately uh the amended and the other continuing items. Uh and that and that's fine. 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 hope that's very you could vote twice. Okay.

Okay. And I'll officially close that public comment that we had again. Um so I'll bring it back to the commission. though if I understand clearly um so we have two two votes correct um so the one is how it's written um 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 um pickup stalls to 12. 10 10 was this was this was 12. Okay, sorry. Yep. So, this motion's for 12. Be clear. And then secretary, let's see. Michaela, from your knowledge on the um exhibit A is a number of pickup stalls noted on there.

It's not identified in the actual resolution. If you would like for just clarity sake, we can add a condition of 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. Um, Commissioner Herszog, you still want it uh voted separately, though, correct? Well, I mean, the motion is just to amend the staff report. So, we are voting separately right now, but

we shouldn't be talking about anything else. The motion on the floor is to approve 12 and then we can move 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 Herszog, no. And my no is 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 Mr. Sure. Yes. You you might want to announce that the vote was 511 for people that are listening and maybe didn't hear it real clearly. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. So that passed um five yes uh one no and one um is absent. Thank you. Okay. So we'll move through this uh step by step. So the next one is to

consider the resolution. And so the commission before you is the resolution to approve the uh 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 SQL 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 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 would be Commissioner Gilbert. Yes. Commissioner Jackson. Yes. Commissioner Herszog. Um, yes overall, but recognizing my initial no for the original parking spots. Yeah. Commissioner Hutchinson. Yes. Commissioner Jerry Johnson. Yes. And Chairman Eric Johnson. Yes. All right. So, it passes six. Yes. Uh zero and then one absent. And if I if I might uh Yes.

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

All right. Thank you. So we'll move on to item number 10 now general business. We have item 10A general plan and housing element annual progress report. So it looks like Ephine will present that to us please.

Good evening planning commissioners. Ephine 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 uh 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 1st. Um, 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 LU8.1 requires staff to share the APR with the planning commission as a procedural matter, which is why we're here today. The city of 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 uh 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 the orderly development of the city with a planning horizon of 2050 representing a builtup population of 132 residents. This slide is a summary of the information that is available in the housing element portion of the APR attachment number two. Um in 2025 the city permitted 411 dwelling units. Of those 12 were accessory dwelling units or ADUs.

Currently we are in the housing element six cycle which spans from May 15, 2021 to May 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 Arena 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 of 2029. Rena numbers themselves are planning targets, not direct build quota. So the state generally does not find or penalize a city simply because the market did not produce enough housing at those income categories. Um serious consequences are triggered when a city fails to adopt and maintain a housing element in substantial compliance and fails to plan and zone enough land to accommodate its arena. The consequences include uh reduced local decision-making authority such as builder's remedy, increased litigation risk, and loss of eligibility for or competitiveness for certain state funded programs. Uh so as you can see here on the slide, this is the um 8year cycle starting with 2021 and it expands up to 2029. So in this graph you can see every um annual progress report that we've had. You know the number of dwelling units um by affordability category. Um you can see here um 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 396. And then there was a few that were like lowincome affordable housing um for a total of $411 units. And then this is

our sum. So we were able to achieve a 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 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. Um, and so under AC is affordable affordability thresholds, homes selling for more than 412K 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 1,200 square ft to fall within the moderate income or affordable range. Um, on the rental side, ADUs and one-bedroom apartments typically rent about um 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 garage converted ADUs. Um, so again, here's the figures. Um, anything above uh 412K, that's above moderate. And so, and then this is like the mortgage price per, you know, and then the rental price. Yeah, just some context. And then of course the AMI um which means um area medium income is 120K for a family of four. Just providing some context. Um that leads us to our recommendation. Staff recommends that the plan commission receive and file the information contained in staff report

APR. Attachments and take the following action. determine that the general plan and housing element annual progress report on our projects under section 15378 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 the reports be sent to HCD and LCI. Um, next steps would be for the same reports to be sent over to city council on the March 10th, 2026 city council meeting. And we are going to request city council review and accept the 2025 APRs and adopt a resolution authorizing staff to file the report um with LCI and ACD by their April 1st statutory deadline. That concludes my presentations. Let me know if you have any questions.

All right. Thank you Ephine for that presentation. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments for Efron? Commissioner Johnson. I have one. This is relative to the general plan implementation, the imple implementation measures um which you understandably did not go through in detail. Um but in lie of that I'm I'm wondering if you or Anita could um tell us what the uh 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 go with the downtown update just because it's a bit more localized and easier. We're uh we're actually uh going to be holding a a community meeting on the 13th, March 13th. That date right in my head. 14th is a Saturday. Okay.

Uh in order to gain additional output for or I'm sorry, input for the downtown plan. Uh and uh 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 um late summer, knock on wood, uh to get that adopted before the end of the year. And then as far as the downtown plan goes, uh we are looking at um remind me Mel, general plan amendment. Yeah.

Coming up this year. Yeah, we have a general plan amendment. We're looking into um increasing the density uh from 20 the HGR density from TW up to 30 dwelling units an acre, which of course would uh assist the downtown master plan because that one is going to go higher. Plus, it's adding more units in downtown area. So having the higher amount the higher range bump up to 30 units um per per acre uh would be a necess necessary step in the G and that's one of the action item in a in a in in a in 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 uh to increase that the density in the HDR. So that would be one of the um 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 uh currently uh looking to bring on a potential new manager uh contract manager to uh help promote the uh the business of uh running the airport, providing more availability for fueling of the airport. Uh in addition, I'm sure you're aware of the construction that's going on out there with the hangers from uh the full throttle product project. And there's a second hangar project that is uh uh going to be coming online as well. Uh we are looking at uh 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 uh 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's solar project a resbeck field uh out. It's sort of more on the courtyard area than it is the airport area, but it's adjacent to the airport. Thank you.

I have any other comments? All right. Um so with that, um I can make a motion, right? Okay. As a chair. So, um, with that, I move to determine that this item is not a project under SQUA 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. We have a motion, a second. Roll call, please. You can. You want a roll call? You can do a voice call if you I'll do a voice call. All right. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Abstensions? None. All right. Thank you. That motion passes. Um, all right. Item number 11. We'll move to community development director reports. And we have uh Nita Recker, 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, uh you'll you'll notice that the Grove is on there on the first line and that just got loaded prior to um uh the agenda being finalized. And so bes right knock that one off the list. U but if you have other questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Okay. I do want to say that my regular contact coordination with your commission about upcoming PC items. So, I'll be um doing that next the first week of March because we have a handful of projects. One of them is the West Lincoln Square development. Tom will be presenting that uh heavy duty documents. Um it's the first commercial project in in the SB area right there at the corner of Highway 65 and Nelson Lane. It's a big project. It's um will support of course the um the residential area. Uh there's an ongoing um uh development there that's part of said B. But this is the sister property dead zone commercial. Um your the design view board heard that a few times couple times. So with and we'll be recommending approval to the plan commission. So we'll get the documentation put together uh and we'll reach out to your commission of if 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 uh thanks to Melanin for being available this last time. um I took advantage of that and found it very helpful and thanks for being accommodating as well. Um you know I work in Sacramento pretty much every day. So um hard to make it on-site in person um but you were willing to accommodate a team's uh virtual meeting. So thank you for doing that um is helpful for preparing this. So just like to remind and encourage uh fellow commissioners um you know if you have a chance um I'm sure you found it helpful and I found it helpful. So, thanks for being available to do that. Uh, with that, we will move to commissioner comments. So, I'll go ahead and start to my right with the You have any comments? Okay.

Yeah. I just want to say this is my uh final meeting. I'm resigning and sad that I won't be able to continue with you guys. Keep up the g the great work. um keeping Lincoln strong and unique in Plaster County and um it's been a pleasure to work with each one of you and respect and appreciate you know all the effort you put in. Uh I've been impressed uh and wish Tony was here here to u here to hear this as well. I've been impressed with the way you guys go about uh reviewing projects and asking thoughtful questions and I love this place. I've been in Lincoln for 25 years. Um, and sad to sad to step down from this really important role and I'll be praying and hopeful that someone here uh will will replace me and continue the good 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, u um good speed to you for that. Yeah, Nathan, best of luck to you. We didn't get to know each other very well, but uh little time that we did work together, I really did appreciate your thoughtful insight. So, thank you.

Uh I've enjoyed working with you, Nathan. You've made a major contribution to to this commission. Um I um elect your spirit tonight. Uh I wish we uh uh uh had it continuing. Uh but uh Godspeed uh and best wishes.

Thank you. Um I echo all those two. Uh thank you Commissioner Herszog um for your service. Um it's been a pleasure to serve on the commission with you. Um so really appreciate that and wish you the best you and your family um from here on out. So I'm sure it be nothing but success. Um, so thank you for that. Um, and if the commission's okay, um, just immediately after, um, if you're fine with, uh, taking a quick picture, um, before everyone runs off, um, 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? No.

Yeah, we'd be happy to do that. And just, you know, from the staff's perspective, Nathan, we're we're going to miss you. It's been it's been wonderful having you on the commission. You've always asked insightful questions. uh you pay well attention to the matters of this community and you will be missed. All right. Well, with that we'll adjourn this meeting. Thank you.