Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Tuesday August 11th to order the first item of business on our agenda will be the flag salute and will be which will be led by Commissioner Miguel.

Everyone salute.

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. Okay. Next item is public comment. This is the time on the agenda. that members of the public wishing to comment on any item not appearing on the agenda may address the planning commission at this time. State law prevents commission from acting on any matter on the agenda. However, your comments may be referred to staff for follow-up. This is also the time for the public comment on items listed under the consent calendar or to request an item be pulled from the consent calendar for discussion purposes. Comments related to public hearing and general business items will be heard at the time those items are discussed. In fairness to all who wish to speak, public comment is limited to a total of 15 minutes with each speaker allowed three minutes unless otherwise extended by the Commission. Please begin your comments by stating your name and providing your city of residence. Is there anyone who wishes to make public comment? Let's see. I'm sorry. They're right in the back, right in the door. Okay, anybody else would like to make a comment? Okay, the public comments segment of our agenda is closed. So commissioners, is there anything that you would like to talk about tonight that you have on your mind?

I just want to, I'm excited that the new homeless shelter should be opening on August 27th to start moving clients over there. So we're really excited about that. If you haven't been there, I encourage you to go by and set up a tour. They're working fast and furious, assembling furniture and getting everything ready. So it's going to be a great day when we get that open on August 27th and get our tent encampment taken down. So let's pray it all happens on August 27th. So I think it will. So I encourage you go by and check it out. and see what a fabulous place it's going to be.

I drove down to check out the Overpass, which is not open. They have a ribbon cutting, but I was kind of disappointed. I wanted to be one of the few people to drive over it early. And I have friends from out of town this weekend, and we went downtown. And He grew up here. You know, he's my age, a little couple years younger than me. And he was God smacked at how much downtown has improved and come back to life. So you just got to keep going.

Okay, anyone else? Okay next on our agenda is a consent calendar all matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the Commission to be routine and will be enacted in one motion without discussion if discussion is desired that item may be removed from the removed and considered separately. I will entertain a motion that we approve the consent calendar as presented. I so move. A 2nd, all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed. Okay, the item does pass public hearing. Comments related to public hearing items are limited to three minutes per speaker for a maximum of 30 minutes per item, unless otherwise extended by the Commission. And the first item on our agenda is Zone Amendment Number 774, and it is to receive a presentation and take public testimony to approve Resolution Number 5559 and recommending to the City Council the appointment of Frey House to the historical design. And Jonathan, this is you.

The item before you is a request by Caleb Byron to designate the Frey House as a City of Tulare Historic Cultural Landmark And to add it to the Local Register of Historic Cultural Landmarks, the project is located at 260 East Merritt Avenue. The subject property is Zone R16 Single Family Residential. The two-story late Victorian colonial revival home was built around 1905-1907 for James Drew and his family. The house is a late Victorian style. It was part of the Crocker Oak Park and was originally part of the county. Over the years, they had many additions, such as a second residence in the 60s, a carport in the 80s, and a pool in the 90s. James Frew was born in Iowa in 1862 and grew up in Nebraska. Frew was originally an educator and later owned and operated a successful dairy business. The Frew family moved to California in 1903 after purchasing the Tulare Butter Company and later became a successful businessman in the dairy industry. Frewe was active in the local community, such as serving as president of the school board, member of the Methodist Church Board of Trustees, and the City Board of Trustees, which was the predecessor to the Tulare City Council. Frewe's family lived in the residence from 1905 to 1919. The fruit house is currently owned by Caleb and Hannah Byron since May of 2025. The family hopes that the residence will become a designated historical landmark and will qualify for the Mills Act. This is exempt to CEQA pursuant to section 15301. In conclusion, staff recommends approval of Resolution 5559 recommending that the City Council designate the Fruit House property as a City of Tulare Historic Cultural Landmark and to add it to the Local Register of Historic Cultural Landmarks. Basis for recommendation include consistency of the General Plan, consistency of the Zordi Ordinance, and being exempt from CEQA. This concludes my presentation. Staff is available to answer any further questions.

Thank you. I will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone that would like to speak in favor of this proposal?

Good evening, everyone. Nice to see you again. Chris Harrell from Tulare and Madam Chair and commissioners and staff and everyone again on behalf of the on behalf of your historic cultural landmark advisory committee and also on behalf of the applicants who couldn't be here today as we continue to be advocates for them. I just want to just reiterate that this is a great addition would be a great addition to the to the local register. Just a couple of takeaways. I know you have the information that you've already read about everything, but just kind of a few things to take away from it is that keeping in mind that it's the last surviving home from the original county tract, which was known as Crocker Oak Park at that time, and then also the owner who the building, who the home was built for, James Frew, was a pioneer in Tulare's creamery industry. And as you saw in the reading, he had a hand in a lot of things in Tulare and a lot of firsts for Tulare. Just the very last takeaway, too, is when you one of the things that kind of amazed me as we were kind of doing the research for the homeowners for this. Most of us have been in Tulare long enough, always remember Merritt Manor, which is originally known as the Oaks. And we always think of that huge, just glorious mansion and thinking that it was just basically kind of out there in the very beginning out there in the middle of nowhere you know on the outskirts of town but what's interesting is this home actually was there before Merritt Manor or the Oaks even existed. So this home actually saw the construction of that mansion built. And so I think that's kind of an interesting takeaway because again, we always think about, we always just kind of tend to think about Merritt Manor itself, but just the fact that this home, which is a very nice home, it's a very lovely home, was actually there before that is really amazing. But again, we do feel that this is a very good addition. This is a home residence where the majority of the ones on the register at this point in time. are commercial buildings we do have one home on the register which is originally a home the White House but it's also but it's now a commercial business so this would be extra special as well as far as because this would be the first residence that would be on the list so again I'm here to help with any answer any questions if you have any but again I think this would be a great addition and so thank you very much for your time

Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Okay, the, the public comment period is closed.

Commissioners, I have a question and maybe for you, Jonathan, as I'm reading this and had already looked at it, it makes reference a couple of times to the White House. Did I miss something in your presentation?

No, that was just a mistake on my part. That's a mistake on my part.

Okay, because it says White House down here a few times, a couple of times on this first page. But we're not looking at the White House. I know where the White House is. So this is, it's a whole other thing. So yeah, because there's a couple of places on this first page where it's used at least twice that I can see. So that's just a typo. I just wanted to clarify that. Okay. That we're not looking at the white house. We're looking at this other house.

I have a question mentions on in here about. James shrew and I was wondering if that was a typo also. Oh, we're at it's on just before this page. I don't have a page number on it. There's no page numbers. Yeah. Which paragraph is it in the last one?

Oh, the historical narrative.

Yeah. Oh, it says 1940 and 1943. James H. Shrew.

I believe that's another typo right there.

And I got one more and it might be, you know, it's just, I don't mean to be picky, but, uh, on the last page, you were, um, of the resolution has Chuck's name on it. That's supposed to be done. That's right. Chuck's needs.

Oh, yeah, we have to fix that. So we'll get that next slide. Thank you.

All right.

The resolution, if we could just put it on the record that the, the second toy should be revised to the current chair.

And thankfully, I think those.

Yes. looks like the typos are not in the resolution, thankfully, but thank you for picking those up and stuff.

Oh, it is. It is.

Okay, is there any further comments? I was just going to add as the representative on the historic preservation committee for our group here. We kind of went back on back and forth on this 1 a little bit at 1st, because of the additions, but there was a lot many, many more pictures than what we got in our packet. And ultimately, our finding was that it is a very good representative. Of that architecture in that time period, even with some additions, the guest house was separate. The carport was separate. So we felt like this was good enough to stand alone. The other thing council has kind of directed us is, you know. The commission is not. Or the committee, excuse me is not going out and soliciting for people to. apply for these we're you know we're responding to a homeowner that is pursuing this because they want to pursue this um and i just think this is a shining example of how that process should work great anybody else yep uh looking at it the additions and changes are very tasteful you know it doesn't take away from the house at all are any phrase left

John Potter, The area or Chris was he the last he said there's no there's not a lot of that happens open that eventually we'll see the vendor mansion in the and daisies house over there on down around the corner added. John Potter, that's really about it. Always glad I'd like to see the rest of our historical home. So many of them are in disrepair, you know, like to see renovations.

And restoration to have 1 more question for Chris, with regards to the, the historical homes in hilarious there. And I haven't and I apologize. I haven't been to this museum, but a certain list. Or a book or something that addresses all those. the homes that are here in Tulare.

That's a good question. There's been several things that have transpired over several decades. At one point in time, a small booklet, a very small booklet was put out that highlighted some of the homes, not all of them, but some of the homes at that time. The biggest thing to date is, and again, this started back in the 80s and continued all the way up to second revision in the early 2000s. The city put together a historic resource survey, which is a very thick survey, which did a very good job of documenting a lot of the historic homes in town. And so each one of those has. Uh, basically a page devoted to that residents, you know, saying where it's where the address is as well as at that point in time, they were given priority ratings priority 1 through 3 saying, obviously priority 1 being the most important. so on and so forth. And that historic resource survey was done initially by the city because that was the basis to start essentially what you're doing now as a commission with having this program in place. At that point in time, they had some consultants come to do that survey. basically kind of giving them the direction, so to speak, of if we were to have a historic register in town, go through town and tell us which ones you think, you know, merit that. And so that's what they did. And they did a great job with it. The one thing that when we started the program that we found there was there were, for whatever different reasons, there were a lot of homes, this one being one of them, which weren't in that initial historic survey itself. So again, so that document exists and really has things highlighted. And as well as in the museum itself, they have different things, whether it's things on display related to some homes, but also very much so in the Tom Henion Archives Center. They have a lot of information, you know, just kind of maybe piecemeal information, but a lot of information related to Uh, the homes, but as far as a comprehensive list goes, the best bet really is that historic resource survey. And again, that's what we did when the committee was was formed by your direction and council's direction. We started with that survey. And and went through that 1st, to kind of take a look at these are possibilities. and the majority of the the ones in the survey were uh residences opposed to commercial buildings the council's direction when the program first started was to focus first and foremost on commercial buildings specifically uh in the downtown area uh with the uh knowledge of in the future as a program it continues to expand it will go into uh private residences for those that you know they're interested and so again we use that as as the basis and so um just as commissioner lemus mentioned this is a good representation of showing kind of the whole genesis of how the program started and Exactly what is it doing? Because now we do have. This being the residents, which will also kind of serve as a good. A good example for any of the other residents that may come forward in the future.

So, I think it would be nice to have maybe a. A pamphlet put together that would in the future that would identify where these homes are people wanted to drive around.

If you check those homes out it most definitely and that's a great idea. That's something that actually the committee has talked about that as the, as the. Register continues to expand because it's, it's going to be a never ending thing. It was never the intent of it to be just kind of a 1 and done. It's as time goes on and applicants see the value in it, more will be added to the register. But yes, we definitely have thought about doing that and are interested in doing that at some point in some fashion or another to be able to just for that knowledge for people to show them that this is the list, but this is also exactly where it's at so they can actually see it with their own eyes and appreciate it.

Yeah, very good. Thank you. John Potter, yeah I wish this would have all started 100 years ago. John Potter, Because so much is gone, you know we have a lot of beautiful homes on the West side and now i've considered myself i'm a senior citizen. John Potter, And the houses would not be what we know them as as historically, because the other paddy house Hello, this historical home before caddies out it same thing with the. the andersons and beautiful poems so the more that we can save the better okay anyone else so commissioners

So we need to make a motion, Mario, you said to before we vote to approve this or not the motion, the motion should include the amendment to the chair. It can all be in 1. correct. Okay. I didn't know because you said maybe a separate so I just wanted to make sure.

Okay. Okay.

I'll go for it. I'll move that we approve resolution number 5559 recommending to the city council a designation of the fruit house as a historical. Historic cultural landmark, and it's addition to the local register of historic cultural landmarks percent to municipal code with the revision of the chairman name on the resolution.

I second that.

Okay. It has been moved and seconded that we approve resolution number 5559 recommending that the City Council designate the Frue House as a City of Tulare Historical Landmark and add it to the Local Register of Historical Cultural Landmarks pursuant to Tulare Municipal Code Chapter 10.38 as described and with including the revision of the Chairman's name on the resolution. Is it okay? Do you want to?

Vice Chair Lemus? Aye. Commissioner Miguel? Aye. Commissioner Hennard?

Aye.

Commissioner Cantu?

Aye.

Chair Miller?

Aye. Congratulations. It is done. Next item on our agenda is a public hearing also, and this is General Planned Amendment It is a petition to do the general plan amendment number two zero two six zero three was zone amendment number seven seven three. And I believe Steven, this is your presentation.

Yes, good evening term Miller the commission. This will work for me. The item before you is a request by FTB AG2 LLC to adjust the general plan land use and zoning designations that were originally established for the Cartmill Crossings Master Plan and Annexation Project. The project is located on the northeast corner of Cartmill Avenue and Highway 99. In 2019, the City Council approved the Cartmill Crossings project. The project included a request to annex into the city limits approximately 127 acres for a planned mixed-use commercial and residential development. And they also set general plan and zoning land use designations for the project area. At the time an environmental impact report was prepared for the project, the adopted EIR established mitigation measures, including the requirement for the applicant to coordinate with the City on the necessary improvements for the future alignment of Acre Street so that it meets the City's design standards for a major arterial roadway. Since approval of the Cardinal Crossings project, the applicant has been working to market the property for future development and has been working to meet the mitigation measures that were adopted as part of the project's EIR. The applicant is proposing at this time to make adjustments to the general plan land use and zoning designations in order to accommodate the future alignment of acres and to make the project more marketable for future development based upon feedback that they've received from various prospective developers. So as part of the request, this is a exhibit that shows the existing and proposed general plan land use designations. This is an exhibit that shows the existing and proposed zoning designations. I would just note that the total number of acres dedicated to each land use are similar but have all been reduced A little bit in order to accommodate mostly for additional right away that is needed in order to construct and realign roadways. An addendum analyzing the proposed amendments was prepared for the existing environmental impact report for the cart mill crossings project. That was certified and adopted by the city council. pursuant to the provisions of Public Resources Code 2100 to 21176 of the California Environmental Quality Act and has been provided in your staff report materials. And so in conclusion, staff is recommending that the Planning Commission recommend to the City Council approval of General Plan Amendment number 202603 zone amendment number 773 and adoption of the addendum that was prepared to the existing environmental impact report for the Cartmel Crossings project. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. This also is a public hearing, so I'm going to open the public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak in favor or opposed to this amendment? Hello.

Good evening Planning Commission Commissioners. Tracy Myers, Four Creeks. As Steven said, thank you Steven for your staff report. And as Steven said, the applicant, Four Creeks is representing the applicant on this entitlement process. They have been looking at the master plan as it was originally set out back in 2018-2019. And as you can see in the exhibit that staff has prepared, they just looked at cleaning up some of those zoning lines to make it a little bit more marketable. So that's kind of the action before you is just to approve that general plan amendment zone amendment for future marketing. And the applicant is going to come back to staff with a parcel map to actually parcel out all the the entire site and then we'll start marketing that to potential developers so appreciate any consideration i'm here to answer any questions okay can i ask just a quick question while you're so wait wait let's if anybody else needs that's right sorry hang on don't go far is there anyone else that would like to speak

Public hearing is closed now. Okay. Sorry. So I'm just curious why the developers feel the need to do this. I mean, what were comments coming back from people that you were trying to market to that this original plan wasn't wasn't gonna work.

Sure. So you can see in the existing zoning, you've got, so most of the commercial was all along the acres alignment and towards the front of the, I call it the front of the property. But you can see where there was multifamily that was kind of extended to the north and a little bit to the east. And then you had your single family and it's, kind of sprawled out um those different zoning designations so what we were looking at is to make it a little bit more uniform so your commercial is still towards the front of the property but we've got um we're working with the city staff and public works to identify a well site uh well and tank site for this um so that is up there in the kind of the lighter brown and then the public space, more acclimated back to the single family residential, so they'd have better access to that. And then kind of just keeping the the residential towards the back and then the commercial towards the front, which, you know, the commercial users are obviously looking at that enhanced access along acre street, and then more visibility from highway 99.

Thank you.

Did I answer your question?

Yeah, it did. I was just curious. Sure. Because it doesn't look like a big change.

No, it's in substantial conformance with what was originally proposed in the master plan and the environmental document. But again, just kind of clean up just to make it a little bit more marketable once we do get it parceled out.

Okay. Thanks, Tracy.

Sure.

Yeah, I think it's definitely a cleaner map. I was looking at acres so that is the plan to make acres more substantial than it was in the original plan yeah the city's requiring that to be for four lanes okay I think it's also that turn is kind of getting

I don't know what the term is, a wider radius. Basically, it's a little too sharp in its existing alignment, and so you're kind of rounding out that turn of acres in order to accommodate a little bit higher speeds and make it safe enough for that.

So you guys are going to have four lanes on acres?

I believe it is an arterial roadway, and it will be improved and widened.

Okay.

That's good because it's like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride right now.

My question is, you put Collector A right there just above the curve. Is there concern about traffic coming around that curve?

Coming in going, so we haven't really received formal comments back from the city just as of yet, because this is just kind of just the general plan and zone amendment. But in our parcel map, we have laid out the public and the improvements that are required with that. And they've will receive some comments back from the city engineering department on that and see if there's any concerns and then we can modify if needed. Absolutely.

And then the easternmost boundary now is an orchard, correct?

It actually abuts. There is some property that is abut to the canal.

Right.

But there's enough setback from that canal.

Okay. Thank you. Sure.

And question, and I just drove by there earlier today. The oak trees that are there, are those could be removed or do you plan on keeping them there?

That's a good question. I don't know if they've been analyzed by.

I'm drawing on my memory. I remember looking at this in 2018, but I believe there's mitigation in there to replant them at a 2 to 1 ratio if they are removed.

Yeah, and I know that the applicant is amenable to somebody coming out and taking a look at those, whether or not they are able to keep them or to if they need to be taken down and relocated or replanted somewhere.

And this is just kind of like a draft, right? It's going to change a little bit in the future.

We don't see the zoning itself or the general plan designations changing, but obviously there's not this is just It just kind of lines on a map at the moment. And so obviously more detail will be provided in the future as end users are identified and their needs are identified. As Tracy has alluded to, Fort Greeks is working to submit a parcel map, which will divide this area and will correspond with zoning. And so those will become parcels for ownership purposes that can be sold laser financed. And so that's really the next step is we'll follow up this with a parcel map and that'll really start to define the area and then each parcel will start to develop as an end user is identified the city and the developer will do our best to master plan the overall area to make it sure that it's cohesive and that resolving any issues with traffic and and such that have kind of been brought up but it it will likely develop kind of as multiple users over time as it kind of, have you seen other commercial developments like the vineyards on Mooney and Prosperity, you kind of get one user at a time as they're identified and sign contracts and develop. This will highly likely develop in a similar manner as you kind of bring one user in at a time.

And with regards to the streetlight that will be there that's up against Cartmill, right?

There's already a signal there at Acres and Cartmill.

Right, right. Now is that going to line up with the street that leads into Chick-fil-A?

Yeah, it already does. There's already a signal there and it's aligned. The alignment from that position won't... There might be some signal improvements needed as the roadway widens, but otherwise it's pretty much where it will be.

Yeah, I'm just concerned with the traffic backup, especially like when Chick-fil-A opened, there was just a crazy amount of traffic there, which of course has dwindled. But I was a little concerned about that traffic back up there in the future because if it becomes successful and you start filling it up, then there's definitely be a lot more traffic out there.

Yeah, I think we will continue to do traffic studies as necessary, but this is the reason why we built a brand new interchange is to bring commercial development and be able to accommodate it. I think the interchange is set up to be able to accommodate commercial development on these corners and to flow traffic through those signals in a way that won't create issues. Obviously, Chick-fil-A was a special case there for a day or so as people kind of, the drive-thru backed up all the way into the intersection. We don't know who the end users will be. Hopefully we don't have the same issues, but if we do have issues, it'll be temporary in nature, kind of like Chick-fil-A has been temporary.

And Acres will eventually meet up with the outlets, right?

Yes, so Acres ultimately will be extended southward from its current terminus and it curves and connects into Rutherford at Corvina. So Corvina is the kind of the northern, it's north of the outlets there. So it will curve in and hit Rutherford north of the outlets.

Because what I really like is this kind of marries the South side of cart mill with the North side of cart. Yeah.

And I wanted to. Thanks the developers and the owners for leaving so much commercial space. You know, we're now, everybody's building houses, houses, houses, but we need places to shop and eat and that kind of thing. And so I was really glad to see that the commercial property acreage remained the same.

Me too. Yeah. I've been working on this for a long time, so I'm really happy to see it come this far.

Okay. Anybody else? I will entertain a motion.

I move that we accept amendment number 2026-03 zone amendment number 773 and the adoption of the addendum prepared for an existing environmental impact report for the cart mill crossings project.

I'll 2nd, it has been moved and saying, and did that we recommend and approve that approval of general plan amendment number 2026. 03 zone amendment number 773 and adoption of an agenda prepared to be an existing environmental impact report for the cart mill crossings project. Maria, would you pose the whole the commission.

Commissioner. Aye. Vice chair Lee. Aye. Commissioner Miguel.

Aye.

Commissioner Cantu.

Aye.

Chair Miller.

Aye. Congratulations. Nice to see you again. All right next item on our agenda is general business and I don't believe we have any this evening. Is that correct?

That's correct.

Now staff updates Mario.

No particular staff updates. Do we know if we have items for the next PC meeting?

The next PC meeting is going to be canceled. No items. We do plan on having the 1st meeting in September.

Okay, we will be adjourned. I'd like to bring up. The school districts are putting a lot of money into republishing the pools out. I think Western's done and they're doing union and they've rechurched. Bob Mathias Stadium. John Potter, Those of us over 65 you get down to the district office, you get a pass you get into free get free entry to all sports events and flurry so just a reminder that people need to support their local teams.

And I would also like to have the minutes reflect that Tulare today said goodbye to one of their very staunch members and someone who was very, very active in our community. Rosie Silvera had a store here that many, many brides and grooms chose their dishes from. And today was her funeral. And so we shall miss her. Is there anything else?