Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Uh, good evening everyone. This is the regular meeting of the City of Desert Hot Springs Planning Commission for Tuesday, March 12th, 2020. No, I'm sorry, May 12th, 2026. Um, may we have roll call, please? Commissioner Parker, present. Commissioner Row, Commissioner Wagstaff, present. Vice Chair Lombardo present. Chairman Indo present.

All right. Uh, please rise for the pledge of allegiance and repeat after me. 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. Thank you. All right, we need to approve the agenda. Will somebody make a motion to approve the agenda and someone second it, please? I make a motion that we approve the agenda. All right. Second. All right. May we vote, please?

Motion passes unanimously. All right. Very good. Planning Commission regular meeting minutes u from April 14th. Um will someone make a motion to approve the minutes? And someone second it. I make a motion that we approve the meeting minutes. I'll second. All right. Very good. May we have a vote.

Motion passes unanimously. All right. Public comments. At this time, pursuant to the Brown Act, any person may comment on matters of general interest within the subject matter jurisdiction of the planning commission, but not listed on tonight's agenda. Do we have anyone who wants to make public comments this evening? I see no one. All right. Then we'll move on to our first hearing. Conditional use permit number 26-1 for a public convenience and necessity of a type 21 ABC license for El Toro Loco Convenience Store located at 13175 Palm Drive. Uh, Miss Lara, will you give us your presentation, please?

Good evening. My name is Eve, the associate planner, and I will be presenting the following item. The first item before you tonight, El Toro Loco, is for a conditional use permit number 261. Dahar, the applicant and owner of El Toro Loco, has submitted an application for a conditional use permit and a finding of public convenience or necessity to allow the off sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits for offset consumption for an ABC type 21 offsale general license. The request applies to an existing market located at 13175 Palm Drive. Elto Loco benefits from direct access from Palm Drive. It's designated mixeduse commercial which allows for retail uses by right such as a convenience store. Approval of a type 21 ABC license is subject to approval by the planning commission. The proposed sale of alcohol beverages is intended to complement the store's existing product offering and expand its available goods. The establishment will continue to operate as a convenience meat market and is not intended to function as a liquor store. The project site is located within census track number 0445.07. 07 which is authorized for four offsale licenses that is types 28 and 21. Currently nine such licenses have been issued for census track number 0445.07 of which only eight are actively operating and only four of the six type 21 ABC licenses are in operation. Two type 21 ABC licenses were approved

in 2026. However, they remain nonoperational pending ABC issuance. Before you are the surrounding land uses, um staff has reviewed and determined that no religious institutions, schools, or public parks are located within 500t radius of the convenience store per section 17.12.19A. The premises occupy a singlestory suite measuring approximately 3,882 square ft. The display of alcohol beverages will be located in a beverage cooler and utilize approximately 124 square ft of space. Storage for the distilled spirits will be located at the rear portion of the building and will occupy approximately 42 ft. Staff has conditioned the applicant to refresh the landscape along Palm Drive as part of this CUP approval in accordance with the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act. This project is categorically exempt from environmental review pursuant to section number 15301 class number one existing facilities of the California Environmental Quality Act. Staff recommends that the planning commission of the city of Desert Hotring certify the SQA exemption and approve conditional use permit number 26-1 for a finding of public convenience or necessity to allow the off sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits for off-site consumption ABC type 21 offsale general license. Since the posting of the agenda, the city has not received any common common letters. That concludes my presentation. The applicant is in assistance. Uh staff

members are available to answer any questions. Thank you.

Do we have any questions for staff from the commission? Anyone? I just have one. Um how long generally does it take to get a liquor license? You you mentioned the two other in 2026 two other organ applicants are still waiting for theirs. How long does it take usually? There was actually a delay um due to the fact um that ABC had mistakenly u believed that the city council had the approval authority and actually it's the planning commission that has the approval authority. So we had to send them a copy of our ordinance saying that fact and now it should be moving forward again.

Interesting. Okay. Thank you. Um all right, let's open the public hearing. Uh, does the applicant want to come up and introduce himself and say anything? Come on up. You have to push turn the microphone around towards you and push the button, please. Oh, that's all right. We're friendly.

Hi, my name is Dahar Haleum. Thank you for uh welcoming us into the city. We're really excited. um been actually looking out here for about 20 years. So, it's fine finally coming to together and uh everyone's been a great help and very friendly. Uh so, it's very welcoming. So, just want to say thank you guys. I look forward to working with you guys. All right. Any questions? Yeah. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. All right. Is there anyone in the audience who wants to speak in favor or against or neutral on this action? I don't see anyone coming up. So, we don't need an applicant rebuttal. So, let's close the public hearing. Planning Commission discussion. Do we have anything to discuss amongst ourselves? Questions? No. Okay. All right. Then does someone want to make a motion?

I make a motion that we approve the conditional use of permit number 26-1, the application for public convenience and necessity of a type 21 ABC license to allow offsale general uh for the sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits for El Toro Loco Convenience Store located at 13175 Palm Drive. We have a second. A second. All right. Very good. May we have a vote?

Please vote. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Very good. Congratulations. Okay. Well, let's move on to our second action. Conditional use permit number 26-2, an application for a public convenience and necess and necessity for a type 21 ABC license to allow for the sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits for consumption off the premises were sold. Located at 22745 Palm Drive and the applicant is Maverick. May we have a staff report, please?

Yes. Thank you. So, the project site is located at 22745 Palm Drive, north of the I 10 freeway, and is within the commercial highway zoning district, as shown here. A little bit of background, Maverick received entitlements back in March of 2022 and shortly after construction began. On November 13th, 2024, the project was completed and a certificate of occupancy was issued. Then on March 19th, 2026, the applicant submitted a conditional use permit for a type 21 ABC license. Shown here is a floor plan indicating the location where the alcohol will be displayed, stored, and sold. The project is currently operating with a type 20 license, and only about 21 square ft of additional shelf space will be added. Since this project is within an existing building, it is categorically exempt from SQAR pursuant to section 15301, class number one, existing facilities. And with that, staff is recommending that the planning commission approve the following. certify the notice of exemption and approve conditional use permit number 26-2 and provide a certificate of com public convenience and necessity for a type 21 ABC license located at 22745 Palm Drive subject to the conditions of approval and findings. That concludes my report. I'm available if you have any questions and the applicant is also here. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you. Do we have any questions of staff? No. No questions. All right, let's open the public hearing, take testimony from the applicant. Would you like to come up and say anything? At least introduce yourself. Okay, sure. Good evening. Thank you. My name is Stephen Anderson. I'm the store manager. Will you push the button? Yeah.

So, sorry about that. I'm the store manager of Maverick at 22745 Palm Drive. Um, Maverick just wanted to say thank you for taking this up on the uh books tonight. And that's pretty much all we have. All right. Any questions for them? Um, I do have one question. It's kind of related, but but not You're going to be storing the bottles of liquor on shelves, not behind the register, right? They're going to be on actual shelves. Was that what the diagram showed was?

Yes, they'll be in the corner. the corner back by the back door um where our wine is stored already. So, um it will just take over the place of where we have our water and energy drinks. I'm just curious, how many people steal from your store? I mean, do will people go grab a bottle of wine and run out one of the side doors? I My wine actually isn't the most stolen stuff. It's usually beer in the beer cave. Yes. They'll come in and do beer runs, but other than that, my wine is always in perfect numbers. Uhhuh. So, but it will be in a locked cabinet as well. The liquor would be in a locked cabinet. Yes. Oh, okay. Okay. Good. Very good.

Um, let's see. Anybody have any questions for the applicant? Do you want more clarification? So, so basically during the hours that we don't sell it, it will be locked up. Otherwise, it will be open available for customers to purchase product.

Okay. Very good. All right. Um, do we have any testimony from anyone? I don't see anybody back there. Anyone in favor, against or neutral on this? That's a good sign, I think. Um, so let's close the public hearing. Planning Commission discussion. Anyone have anything to discuss?

Nope. Okay. Does somebody want to make a motion? I'll make a motion to approve conditional use permit 26-2, an application for a public convenience and necessity of a type 21 ABC license to allow offsale general for the sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits for consumption off the premises were sold located at 22745 Palm Drive Maverick. Right. Do we have a second? I'll second.

All right. Can we have a vote? Motion passes unanimously. All right. Very good. Congratulations. Y All right. Nothing else on the agenda besides public comments and a couple little things after that. And I assume we have no public comments because there's no public except us. Okay. Chair and planning commission member reports. Does anyone have anything they want to report? Nope. Okay. Okay.

You're you're coming up. You're coming up. Community development director report. Uh two quick updates. Um first of all, want to let you know State Department of Housing Community Development has accepted the city's annual progress report. Interestingly, we had argued in previous years that some of the ADUs being built in the city would be occupied by lower income residents. Uh they would not count them without the city performing a study to determine incomes. This year they changed the rules and allowed us to count some of the ADUs based on size and valuation. So, we were able to count 18 units as non-deedrestricted low-income units, boosting our arena numbers. And I just want to say a big thanks to CAT for waiting through all of those spreadsheets and hundreds of permits to get all the data correct and right. So, great job. The other thing I wanted to also report with respect to the ASIC grant, we have now finished completing all the required paperwork. Um so the city is able to proceed with engineering and design of all the improvements. Uh we actually may be the first team to get to that point uh where we're ready to go and abode communities will resubmit for the tax credits this month uh for the housing component and they feel pretty good about their chances. So that is my update concerning all the housing activities. Can

I ask you one question? Since um since the city started offering pre-esigned ADU, whatever you call them, blueprints, whatever you call them, plans, how many ADUs have been built using them in the city? Do you have any idea? I would probably say 20 to 30 at least. Uhhuh. If I had to guess, we we have a couple projects now where they're using more of them. So, probably say probably closer to 30. Uh-huh. Thank you. All right. Unless there's something else, we can adjourn.

Have a good month. See you next time.

This is a record. I think