Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Regular planning commission meeting of Tuesday, 02/17/2026 to order. I will ask the clerk to take the role.

Good evening, planning commissioners. Chair Lightfoot? Vice chair Wilkerson?

Here. Here.

Commissioner Banta? Here. Commissioner Dingman?

Here.

Commissioner Hampton?

Here.

Everyone,

please stand for the pledge of allegiance and I will ask commissioner Banta to please lead us on the salute of our flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

We will now move on with our regular business starting with communications. At At this time, I will ask Assistant Director Garcia if there have been any communications or announcements for tonight's meeting.

We did receive communication this evening from a member of the public regarding the item on the agenda, and we provided that communication to you and we'll plan to upload that to our website so that it's available to the community.

And that's the one we have in front of us right here?

That's correct.

Thank you. Great. We'll move on to approval of this evening's agenda. Do I have a motion? Second. Good. I have a motion from commissioner Beaumont and a second from commissioner Vargas. Vargas, thank you. To approve the agenda, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next item is business from the floor. This portion of the agenda is available for the public to address the Planning Commission on any issue that is not on the agenda. There will be a limit of three minutes per speaker.

I welcome anyone who wishes to address the Commission regarding a topic or issue that is not on the agenda this evening to please approach the podium. Seeing none, I will close public comment. Now it's time for the consent calendar. We have one item on consent, which is the minutes I'll

over turn it the

Directors of We'll move forward with the business items on the agenda. Of Great. We will now receive a presentation on the 2025 general plan annual progress report. We will first hear a presentation, followed by commissioner questions, and then we'll move public comment. May we please have the staff presentation.

Good evening, commissioners and all those in attendance. So for background on this item, according to the California state legislation, the city must submit annual progress report to the state of California Department of Office of Planning and Research. Sorry. Land use and climate innovation and housing and community development by April 1 each reminder, the city's general plan is the city's guiding policy document containing programs and policies that implement the community's long term vision for development topics such as land use, transportation. The housing element is a required component of the general plan, with implementation programs and policies related specifically to housing.

This annual progress report identifies the implementation status of the programs and policies of these documents, upcoming priority programs, and, also provides data tracking the housing development for the city. State of California mandates that all California cities, towns, and counties must plan for the housing needs of its residents. To do this, the state department of housing community development calculate a regional housing needs allocation or arena for short for communities to determine how many housing units communities must plan to accommodate. This table shows the Solano County arena for this housing element cycle, which is from 2023 to 2031. These figures indicate the number of housing units that the county must plan for.

And these units are categorized by income levels defined as percentages of the area median income and determined by the State Department of Housing and Community Development. In the cycle, the city of Vacaville's Reno was calculated as six seventy seven very low income units, four zero four low income units, four zero nine moderate income units, and eleven oh five above moderate units for a total of 2,595 units. This table is from the HCD form and shows the number of units that have been issued a building permit for the last three and a half years within the city that have units dedicated to each arena income category. We have averaged around 400 units permitted each year and in 2025, there were four forty five units issued permits. As of 2025, the number of housing units that have been issued a building permit has exceeded the arena for the above moderate income category.

Only one low and 28 moderate income units have been issued a permit so far in this cycle. However, in 2024, planning applications and 2025, planning applications were submitted for some of the lower income

units as well.

This table indicates the total number of units that were issued permits for each housing type. In 2025, most of the units permitted were single family residential development from new major subdivisions such as Lower Lagoon Valley, Montesa, Robert's Ranch, to name a few. There was a large amount of ADU construction, which mostly resulted from Montesa and the Village's abandoned Meadows, which accounted for about 80% of the ADU permits issued in 2025. So as for the 2025, completed general plan amendments, there was the Estates, the fields of Alamo Creek, and there was a zoning text amendment for animal shelter and boarding. As for some pending general plan amendments, there's a Park Parish development, Alamo Creek, Blind Tree Estates, East Of Legertown Road, Gotha area specific plan and the Peabody Allison specific plan.

So in 2025, there were various implementation programs that were completed. Various downtown utility the half

foundation twenty one.

The landscaping project was completed as a part of the energy conservation project with over a 100 new trees planted throughout downtown in late spring twenty twenty five. Trees in Bad Hope were replaced and trees and new were also placed in new areas downtown. And urban water management plan was completed as well in November 2025. The city council authorized an agreement for the 2026 update to the urban water management plan. In September 2025, construction of the Jepson Parkway phase two project was completed.

And lastly, construction on the energy conservation project, as I mentioned, commenced in 2025 and included solar energy efficiency systems that were installed at the McBride Senior Center, Andrews Park, and Three Oaks Community Center. These are some of the recommended 2026 general plan implementation priorities. These align with the time frames for each implementation action and program in the general plan. For the downtown specific plan, there are plans to upgrade water and sewer lines. For the municipal service review and urban reserve land use analysis, staff was directed to explore planning and reserve and conduct community outreach.

In January 2026, the city completed an initial working draft of the back of the municipal services review and the draft document has been shared with Solano County LAFCO. For the specific plan, staff are currently working with the consultant to finalize land use alternatives and these will be presented to the planning commission and city council in the near future. For the Northeast Growth area specific plan, the land use and design alternatives are prepared in '21. The first 20 the working team's team. Team's

was The

team's some ADU development opportunities, marketing those, conducting a service fee study, and making various development code updates. For 2026, we would like to implement another round of housing element implementation programs, exploring various housing initiatives such as possibly developing a community land trust model, continuing to work with developers, identify sites and funding for affordable housing, incentivizing development of affordable housing in moderate and high resource areas, areas that have access to employment, parks and other resources, increasing minimum maximum densities and lower density zones and allowing increased density and streamlined review for infill development. And here are some additional implementation actions that we are looking to complete. Finding funding for rehabilitation of homes, especially for low income housing, advertising rehabilitation assistance programs, and providing training and education of landlords on fair housing laws. To conclude, the city has taken significant steps to implement the general plan and housing element.

As for next steps, present the annual progress report to the city council on March 10 and then submit on April 1 the general plan and housing element annual progress report. And staff recommend that the Planning Commission recommends submission of the APR to the City Council, Land Use and Climate Innovation Office, and Housing Community Development to HDD. Any questions or comments?

Thank you so much for the presentation. I'd like to open it up right now for Commissioner comments if anyone. Commissioner Beaumont.

Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate that. Starting off with the municipal service reserve analysis, can you tell me how we take land out of the urban reserve, put it into the land to be developed and still recognize the rights of the homeowners of what they have and what they should when we're done with it. Can you just give me a quick overview of that?

I'll probably need to provide some more information to you after the meeting. But when you talk about homeowners' rights, are you?

Well, we're taking land from out in the, let's say, off Weber Road, where you have a bunch of five acre parcels, and we want to build commercial and we want to build industrial. Do we offer them incentives to sell their land so that we can develop it? How does that work?

I'm not aware of any incentives that we provide, but through the outreach that we have for any projects such as Eastern Legion Town or the Northeast Growth area, we do outreach with community members. We we do outreach with folks that are in the county. We tell them what the plans are, what the benefits possible them coming into the city would be, but it's a conversation that occurs with them. There's no incentives that I'm aware of that that we offer to them to to join the city but it's definitely I don't say negotiations but in a way, there are conversations that occur with them so that they are knowledgeable about what the benefits are for them to join the city within the city limits or if they choose to remain in the county.

Once we get the land, then we negotiate about what they want to do with their land versus what we want to do with it?

When you say when we get the land.

Well, when we bring it into the city fear of influence and and actually into the land to be developed.

No, those conversations are occurring right now. So, for ease of leisure town project, that those

So, get

to done.

That question on affordable housing on Page 56, where we talk about community land trust and separate sites that we have for outlook, 62, sixty three and sixty four for maybe developing very low and low income. You know, we have zero very low, one low income over three years, and we have five years left of this cycle. I see no way where we're going to get any bump into these numbers. And I going to come down and tell us what we're going to do, where we're going to do it, no matter what we want to do. And I think that this planning commission is going to become a rubber stamp in a few years because we can't do what we know we can't do.

It's impossible with the costs, with everything else associated with developing very low and low income units unless you find some funding that we don't know about. Somebody gives us some land that we don't know about, and we can develop something that nobody sees in the future. And so I'm just worried that we're going to be ending up listening to the state like AB three thirty on steroids. And pretty soon, the projects that come before us are going to be on the consent agenda because we won't even talk about them. Does that make sense? I mean, that's what I foresee, unfortunately.

I may, I can share that the director of housing, Tamara, has been conducting study sessions with the city council, discussing how to fund affordable housing types here in the city. And so that's definitely a topic that we're actively discussing as staff, the city staff with the council. In addition, I think Damir compiled a list of initiatives that we're working on to further production of that type of housing in the city. So we are working on it in the background. But I do agree that it's a pressing matter.

Well, think Annie would be one that would fear the most of having state come down and tell us what we have to do versus what we can fight. And I don't think we're in that position.

Yeah. The only thing that I would add that hasn't been said already is, you know, we of course don't build the housing ourselves. I know you guys know that. But the numbers are stark, right, when you see how many we've built or not built so far. So yes, it is a situation where if it continues along that trend line, that's the kind of thing each city is paying attention to. And so that can certainly impact when we go into the next housing element cycle, what we can do and not do with our housing element and the sites that are included in the zoning.

Can we get into the next cycle without having the state come down without putting mandates on us?

So no, typically what will happen is because you're rolling some of the sites that were not developed that you said were going to be developed maybe with low income or moderate income, they roll over into the next cycle. But then it is essentially what you're saying, is a very streamlined mandatory. If housing comes to that site, it must be approved at that point. So that's what I would expect to happen for all of the sites.

Okay. Thank you. And my last point is on Page 59 HE-8C. It lists a bunch of projects that we've approved, but it doesn't tell us when they stop being approved. It's been a year or two or more that some of these have been approved and I was on the planning commission where we approved a lot of them. But I forget when they have until they have to start before they become not approved. And it would be helpful to me to see a date on there where the approval process ends so that we know what we have and how quick they have to start in order to keep it as approved project.

Most projects have a two year approval, and folks can apply for time extensions. Sometimes there are DAs, development agreements attached to that extend the life of that. So for example, if you recall a few years ago, we approved the project behind Lucky on Alamo, the Alamo mixed use project. That had a DA that extended the approval fifteen years. So if it's a general project, it's two years. But again, if there's a DA that extends that. But we can provide one

of those.

But it was like the GreenTree project I was looking for, and it was in there.

Yes. That also has a DA that goes into '32, but we can Yes. It would be helpful to me.

Thank you. Those are my questions. Thanks.

Thank you, Commissioner Beaumont. I'll now call on Commissioner Hampton.

Yes. Thank you again for your presentation. So during your depart that. To some of the low housing incentives to try to get low income buyers into those houses. So has that been a consideration or is that part of the discussion at all?

I believe our housing community services department has a first time homebuyers program that either may need more funding or there's just additional things that need to be worked out for that program. Wish Tamara was here, but we can follow-up with you on that.

I'd appreciate that. That seemed to be effective in some of the local communities in addressing some of their lower income first time homebuyers considerations. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner that's I

good question. Solutions to complicated problems. Think To kind of echo the words of Commissioner Beaumont, as we look at low income housing across the board for this city and how we grow and figure out ways to incentivize smaller homes. There's an e mail that was sent this afternoon also that kind of reinforced that piece. I'm wondering what we're doing as a city, how do we find that balance?

And I'm relatively new to the commission, right? So I was wondering if you guys could maybe explain a little bit how we're going to find that balance between the rising fees for permitting, etcetera, it doesn't matter if it's CFDs or anything else, but still meeting the a be sense to

we're of we're

a that I'm fairly new here, but I would like to hear just a little bit about how you guys are doing that.

I won't be able to

get into the fees conversation too much because that's it's fair to expect the city to be able to accommodate different types of housing. And I think our public works department is sort of committed to looking at different development standards for different types of housing. So the Harvest Ridge housing project, for example, had a number of issues simply because the standards that we have are for different for sort of more standard housing types. But also, we don't have standards that can reflect sort of on the spot proposals that might be different than your typical subdivision. So I think what we can do is evaluate where we can our standards to accommodate different types of housing projects, which again, I think we're aware of and our public works department is ready to do that.

That takes some time to come up with different standards. It requires us to look at different communities, how they look at small lot homes, small lot homes with different driveway standards. So that's one way to do it. In terms of what else we can do, I think I mentioned this at the last planning commission meeting, one before that. But we have quarterly meetings with the development community.

And that's a housing element requirement. But why we do that is to get ideas from different developers, both for profit and nonprofit, market rate and affordable, about what success they've had and how we can translate some of those or how we use some of those in Vacaville. It's difficult because we don't build housing. And for example, last several years, we have approved a number of affordable housing projects that are having trouble getting financing. So there's challenges with affordable housing. But we'll continue to look at how we can possibly partner with other folks. And that's sort of the community trust aspect of things is buying land, holding onto it for a specific purpose.

That

to the can get in the way. But it's also just being able to accommodate different housing types that right now is just a little bit of a challenge.

Is there anything further that we can do from a fees perspective to incentivize some of those and make it a little bit more affordable for folks getting it starts at the very inception like you're talking about, I know with developers and those pieces. But not having all of the background, I'm interested in throwing a common sense wrench at this a little bit, right, on how because I understand that we still have to the city has to be able to afford to be able to do all the things that it has to do for these pieces. But the fees definitely as we look at the rising cost of those things, as I've seen them, as I've lived in this community for about ten years now, that's definitely something on the horizon that definitely concerned about. So anything else you can add to that?

I can't add anything more to the fees topic. Mean, I've worked with Tom for a long time, so I know where concerns are coming from. But again, when it comes to development, there's, I think, only certain amount that we can do is sit in terms of loosening up development standards requiring less parking, for example, that Demir identified. There are some things that we can do, and we're trying to do those things. But ultimately, it's just difficult to get affordable housing projects identified.

There's no problem getting them approved. I think we've shown that. The planning committee has shown that. And city council has shown where we've had to do those projects, they've approved them. It's just the financing of it.

But also, there's always going to be some challenges for particular developers that just not built that way to be able to respond to every possible housing scenario that's out there. So while I understand Tom's concerns with housing, there's also some context to a lot of those items that were brought up, which this is the place to debate those. But we are doing FDM because we have to. It's healthy for the city to have different types of housing, different income levels, but it's also a requirement that we have to comply with. So we have a few years, but as Commissioner Beaumont mentioned, it's just not looking good right now.

But we're still looking. We're still working with anybody that is willing to hear us out and has ideas. We're listening.

Thanks. Appreciate it.

If I can just share that there are a couple of programs that developers can actively take advantage of. Currently, there's a fee deferral program that the city offers. In addition, if a developer decides to design their project to include affordable units, they can take advantage of Senate Bill three thirty, which freezes the fees once they submit their pre application. So there are opportunities that they can take advantage of currently.

Now I'll call on Commissioner Banta.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I really started to appreciate the Rina number that showed the entire county. Is there possible to also give the information on which cities are producing numbers as well? What are the outcomes?

That's a great idea.

I think that would be really helpful to also show which different cities are producing in each of those categories as well. How we regionally are approaching this because we talk a lot about what our city is doing, but it is a regional approach. And the housing insecurity and homelessness is a regional issue, not just our city issue. I think working together would really beneficial. And as well as if there are other cities that are able to do some of this affordable housing, what is it that they are doing?

And what priorities and policies and funding mechanisms are they using that are getting some projects across finish line that we may not be using. So I'd be interested to know what that looks like. And then my question on that too is, is there a regional approach to approach regional housing needs? Is there a conversation between the different jurisdictions on how we're going to meet this? Is there conversations at the state level that we're a part of as well?

There is there are regional conversations between various agencies. Not so much with the state. There are various workshops and legal sessions that we'll attend to get informed and up to date on what's going on throughout the state to address these issues. But there's definitely opportunities for improvement both regionally and statewide to collaborate more.

Awesome. And I do think that regionally, even hitting the very low number, there are different departments that hit into permanent supportive housing or very low income housing that hit under different funding needs through like homeless categories or even probation categories or substance use categories, that there's a different funding streams that can be braided together to produce some of these affordable housing, very low that. And do to that. And back potentially one. How many people are utilizing the fee deferral?

SB three thirty would be one. How many people are utilizing that and how many of those projects are getting across the finish line? And then further, I think that it is really important when we are sitting up here and then when we are discussing this with the community, it is frustrating when we see an s p three thirty project, and the narrative is, well, the state is requiring it, so we have to push it along. Well, the state is this. Well, now it sounds like a bad idea, but you just said it was an incentive for developer, and developer goes and does it. And then we beat them up for doing it and say, no. Well, our hands are tied. We can't do anything. We don't have local control. Well, it's that's a double edged sword.

Do you wanna do it or do you not wanna do it? And I also think it is frustrating, again, with the narrative that we're we're we're stating is that, oh, the state is gonna say we have to do all these things. Well, the state is gonna say that we have to produce very low, low, and moderate. These are people, and these are people's homes. Low income for a family of four in Vacaville is a $109,000 for their family. That's for two people working $26 an hour. That's not that's that's above what we're a

then

what we talk about low income and very low income, like it's just a number that we're the state is mandating us to do, this is actually 40% of our city. And I think it's really important that when we talk about the incentives, we're not talking about just the mandates or things that we to do because the state's requiring. It's actually how we're going to build our community and how we're incentivizing developers developers to build houses for our neighbors. And so I just think that that narrative is extremely important. My next question is on page 52.

I think it again it talks about the incentives and what are the guiding principles and incentives to support the missing middle. It says that that's pending and in progress. What are those guiding principles? Are they posted anywhere? Do we know what they are? Developers utilizing them? Are they helpful? And are they actually principles that are getting policies created that are going to make development for that missing middle happen? Or are we just saying this? Those are some of my questions. And thoughts.

For right now.

That's all.

Those are excellent comments, Commissioner Banta and definitely want to say that we will follow-up on some of those strategies you identified, especially looking more locally, seeing what everyone else is doing. I don't think that conversation is being had enough between cities like Fairfield, Vallejo. What specific policies

very

area city. Of make to

And

There are several initiatives, one of them being the inclusionary housing program that we were looking to get going. City Council directed us in another direction to sort of do more research rather than pursue an ordinance. But we're working with the council as well to determine what's appropriate. There are various funding strategies that can result from policies like that, such as having like a commercial linkage fee. Every time, new commercial development is built, a percentage of that could have a fee that could go to affordable housing, and that's how you could bridge that gap with, developers and help meet them in the middle.

There's also the parausing designation program. We recently met with HCD. We're finalizing our application with them to try and get funding that could also be used for affordable housing projects to fund the infrastructure and other needs that need to occur, on those locations. So there are various strategies we're using, and we will present to the commission next time, a list of all the policies exactly how we're implementing them. It's a great idea to track who is using them so we could just have performance metrics. And that'll tell us what's working, and that'll help with those broader regional conversations we're having as well.

Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I know you guys have the quarterly meetings with the developers. Do we have a list of the affordable housing developers that are present at those meetings?

I can send you that list.

Okay. Awesome. Because, again, like, I know that there are affordable housing projects that are getting done across the state. I've attended multiple conferences where the room is packed with affordable housing developers. So they are there, and they are in business. So they must be building something. I do have a couple of questions about we we have mentioned that some projects have been approved or but they haven't gone through to completion, specifically the senior housing on Allison. I know there was just a memo that went out about that being vacant, still unused, potentially for sale. Are there any updates about which projects, specifically affordable housing ones, that have been approved but haven't been built and maybe why, usually due to funding. Is that

I think the Allison Apartments is probably the most glaring one because I think that was 130 units. Oak Grove also was approved. That hasn't, as far as we know, hasn't been able to get any financing. There was a project also on Vanden oh my god, I'm blanking on the name Vacaville Victory Gardens, I think. Actually, I think that one, there might be some good news, but we sort of respond when get these projects approved.

We're sort of waiting for that plan check submittal to come in and does so as we get closer to their expiration dates, check-in with them. Allison, I think, is no longer happening. I don't have an update beyond that, but I'd be happy to check with our housing agency on that one. But again, Oak Grove is another example. We went through, as you're all aware, that was very contentious, but we went through it and got it approved. That, my understanding, is not getting financing is an issue there. And again, back with Vickie Gardens, I think there might be good news for that one. I think they are closer to getting funding for that project, which would be great because that's a pretty big project.

Awesome. And then there was one more. I'm forgetting which page it was on, But the progress report was that the city met with CSH on a project, and it was it had been approved in 2024. Is that or it was in discussion in 2024. Let me try to find it. There it is. It's on page 56. I forgot my glasses. The city approved staff to proceed with negotiating exclusive negotiating rights agreement with California supportive housing for potential development of affordable housing in partnership with adjacent property owner, but that was done in 2024. Is that the Quality Inn project on Orange Drive that was not approved?

I don't know. Let me get clarification on that one.

Because I think it would also be helpful, like, yes, that was in progress. It got approved, but then it got shut down when it got to the next level. And so again, yes, we have the RENA numbers that tell us what we need to do. We have the community that needs the housing, and then we have the housing element that tells us this is how we're going to do it. But then if we're not educating all along the way, by the time it gets to the council, it gets shut down, and now we're back to square one again. And so I'm sure I'm sure you're aware of the frustration of that. But I think just more educating information and the narrative shift may help with that. That's my soapbox for you. You.

Thank you, Commissioner Vargas.

The other question for some of these efforts, it seems as if it would be helpful if they were documented in an area where they could be accessible not only to the commission but also to the public? For example, the quarterly meetings with the developers, is there an agenda? Are there minutes taken? Is there anything recorded? Any actual items from that? And there may be. I just I don't know enough to know that. But that's just an example of some transparency. For example, I work for the county of Sacramento. Most every meeting we have is public. It's on a website, internet, for all to see. I don't know if we have similar venues or areas where we can be able to access that, not just here, again, for the commission of the council, but for all to see.

Well, the meetings are recorded.

I

think there are a number of things that we're trying to bring on to our website. Our website was recently updated, so there's a process to add new information, but that's one of our goals is to sort of have a page just for that housing related items that would include the meetings that we have with the development community. Agendas are sort of informal in a way. And they're created sort of that week, but we do record the meetings. And we have shared that recording with folks that want to attend but couldn't or just want to get that. And to

And And

And if there's a developer that mentions affordable housing, do roll out whatever red carpet we have to engage with them. But it's just difficult. To commissioner Banta's point, I think it will be helpful for us to find we

get get to the point

appreciate that. Thank you, Commissioner Vargas. Thank you for the presentation. I I do have a couple of questions that I think will help. We're talking a lot about affordability fees. Do we know the average purchase price of a home right now in Vacaville?

We did have research that was done by this consultant firm that prepared the inclusionary housing study. I believe it was north of 600,000.

Okay. So that I mean, that's that's a at a 6% interest rate. You know, that's that's a heavy cost for a young family. What's the average cost to build an ADU?

That I'm not sure.

I think those numbers would be helpful, right? I think the purchase price we're talking about affordability, we're talking about bringing family to Vacaville, keeping young families in Vacaville. Well, what's the what's the cost of doing that? Because we have fees going up, and then it's just a pass through. Developers sell us all the time. All they're gonna do is just pass it on to the buyer. I I I hear in my line of work. That's a concern of me. Also, the average cost to build an ADU, I have some friends right now thinking about how they can make some income. They're asking me what's the average cost of that and how to do that and what's the process.

I think that information would be helpful. And then we have a lot of new home developments in Vacaville. What's the average cost of a new home? So there's resale and then there's new construction. And I think those numbers are glaringly different. If you go look Lagoon, if you go look at Roberts Ranch, I think you're going to see not a disparity, but a real difference in numbers to see what's out there. And so I think we need to be mindful of those things. That's those are all I have right now. Thank you for the presentation. I will now open it up for public comment. Would anyone like to come to the podium and speak? You sure?

Stingers up. Okay.

I will now close public comment. Any other commissioners discussion or feedback?

Can I offer one additional thing on the ADU? So the city now has a preapproved ADU program that is posted visibly on our website. And so that theoretically would save someone who's interested a lot of money by having their architect or engineer just go ahead and use the pre approved plan. They may not even have to hire an architect at that point. So we do strive to try and make AD production substantially easier where we can.

Really quickly, just to add even more to that. We're also right now looking at so different cities like San Jose, Concord, Saratoga. I think they have a program where they have vendors identified on the city's website that could offer different pricing, different models that I think expands the opportunities for people. We're also looking into that in addition to the pre approved plans.

Yeah, this is a really good presentation, really good information. It makes me think about we have a conversation right now of young families and not being able to live in Vacaville. And I know my parents are so thankful that their youngest son can't afford to live in Vacaville. They remind me every day, but I have three children, and I want them to be able to have the opportunity to live close to mom and dad if they want to. This really hits home for me because this line of work I do, I see a lot of families moving out of Akibel because they just can't afford it right now.

Is about our future and about our kids. Again, thank you for the presentation. We will end business and we will now receive our department monthly report from assistant director Garcia. Thank you. No action, right?

To counsel. Yeah.

You need us to make it. You want to move it? It

would be easiest if

we can.

Can someone make the motion? Sure. We get a motion? You got a first from Vargas. Can I get a second? Second. Second from Beaumont. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you.

Thank you. So moving along to our department monthly report. On 01/27/2026, Damir Powell took an update on the downtown specific plan and land use and development code to the city council. He also led a discussion on the ADU zoning ordinance text amendment. Director Morris took initiation of a zoning code text amendment in order to streamline the processing of general plan amendments.

And she also spoke about the downtown Vacaville business improvement district annual levy and assessment. On February 10, Damir also discussed Celebrate Housing. It was a study session to kind of share all the progress and updates that were coming on. Upcoming events include the Entertainment Zone study session on April 21. We should be able also additional details on been been of the building division monthly report, this month or the previous month in January, we processed two sixty permits.

In comparison to December, we're down about 25, but overall, we're steady. And here is our progress represented in graphic form showing in comparison January 2025 compared to this January. It's a slight dip. And this includes our building division activity trends again a slight dip when we compare this time last year, but we're still going strong and processing those permits. We have an updated graph here showing the solar permits in relation to building permits, and we also added a trend line for ADU permits as requested.

And you can see that in December and January, we processed 14, which was our highest number. And then kicking it off to Planning Manager, Bavia.

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And then the projects, Peabody Allison, we're still going through some of those memos and technical reports. So nothing new to report there. We've sent over our comments on the MSR to LAVCO. We're expecting their comments soon, I think. Entertainment zone program, we had a community meeting last week. It was well attended. A lot of different thoughts on entertainment zones and parklets. So we'll be taking a study session to council and then also bringing one to commission as well. Pro housing designation, as Damir mentioned, we met with ACD staff and we are responding to their request for more information. I think they're reaching out to us with additional items.

The code update was approved by council on February 10, east of Legitown. We had our community meeting in January. That was, I think, decent number of people attended that. And that's sort of just ongoing with technical reports as well. Northeast growth area, tech studies, BESS is going to counsel on the tenth, I believe.

And that concludes our report.

Thank you so much. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Great. We will move forward to item 10, commissioner comment. Now is the time for commission comments. This is the portion of the agenda. It's for commissioners to inform each other of potential interest to other commissions such as meetings or other announcements. We'll start with Commissioner Beaumont. Commissioner Banta? Commissioner Dingmann?

Thanks for the presentations and staff work. Appreciate it. No other comments.

Commissioner Vargas?

A few things. I want to commend the City Council for addressing the unpermitted food vendors and kind of semi cracking down on that. I think it's I know some folks who have had to shut down businesses as a result of the impermanent food vendors, which is a travesty. One of the locations via Corona on Peabody in Alamo as a result has closed down one of my favorite spots. It did.

Did. I know people are looking for opportunities, but I think we have to do so in a manner that's kind of aligned with what the city desires. I know there was an issue last year with some health and safety issues related to food vendors and so I do commend the city council. Second to that, I want to say, some loss in the Wreck City Basketball Championship game for fifth graders. Poor guy was really, really inconsolable afterwards. Then I want to address gentleman in the crowd, our only individual in attendance. Stinger is up, Saks Dave Hornet is on the line. So thank you for being in attendance. Yes, Stinger is up. Here we go.

Thank you. How did his father handle the loss?

He's a coach, so he's extremely upset. We were undefeated the entire season. Wow.

Coaching. Yeah.

Just want to give a big shout out to the city and planning department. You guys came out in full force during the leisure town growth plan and the planning session that took place. I was in attendance there and you guys just did a fantastic job as one who's facilitated many, many open groups. I love the format. I love the breakouts. I love the stations with the rotations. I got flashbacks. You guys did a really good job. And like I said, you had a full team there. So I know you work a long eight hour day plus that was a long evening.

So again, just kudos to you guys. You did a real good job. You addressed the questions and the format was near and dear to an old educator. So thank you very much. Thank

you Commissioner Hampton. Last month I attended a conference, California Association of Realtors conference business meetings in Monterey. And so Commissioner Beaumont, to your point, are lot of laws that are coming down the pipe to where it does look like you may not see bodies like this or you may see changes to CEQA and stuff like that. And so, interesting meetings lasted Tuesday to Friday, and we had an interesting public policy forum conversation. Really good, really well attended.

We'll see what the legislature is up to as we move forward. I also want to say get well, chair Lightfoot. We're thinking about you. Hope you have some rest, and we will see you at our next meeting, which is Tuesday, 03/17/2026. Thank you so much. Meeting is now adjourned. Good night, Vacaville.