Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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recording in progress. Good evening and welcome to the Hayward uh planning commission. I am calling this meeting to order. If we will all rise for the pledge of allegiance if you are able. 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. See uh this is a notice that our meeting is being held uh in the council chambers and via uh teleconference today. Uh Miss Allen, will you call the role please? Good evening. Commissioner Hammond

here. Commissioner Hardy absent. Commissioner Low absent. Commissioner Meyers present. Commissioner Stevens present. Commissioner Yorggo here. Chair Goodbody here.

For public comment. The public comment section provides an opportunity to address the planning commission on items not listed on the agenda. The commission welcomes your comments and requests that speakers present their remarks in a respectful manner within established time limits and focus on issues which directly affect the city or within the jurisdiction of the city. As a commission is prohibited by state law from discussing items that are not on the agenda. Your item will be taken under consideration and may be referred to staff for further action. Speaker shall not use threatening, profane, or abusive language which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of a commission meeting. The city is committed to maintaining a workplace free of unlawful harassment and is mindful that the city staff regularly attend commission meetings. Discriminary statements or conduct that is hostile, intimidating, or oppressive. I lost my place. uh or or which or impedes the orderly conduct of a commission meeting. The city is committed to Oh, sorry. Let me try that again. The city is committed to maintaining a workplace free of unlawful harassment and is mindful that the city staff regularly attend commission meetings. Discriminatory statements or conduct that is hostile, intimidating, or oppressive or abusive are per se disruptive to a meeting and will not be tolerated. We will now open public comment for items that are not listed on tonight's agenda. Please state your name for the record before beginning your comments.

And Miss Allen, do we have any um comments in the chamber or online? There are none.

Okay. Okay. So we can now move to the first action item and only action item on tonight's agenda which is PH26017 and that's a proposal to allow an outdoor automobile storage yard with related fleet support activities including vehicle preparation and minor automotive repair for an automobile auctioning. company on a 6.7 acre park parcel located at 2348 Industrial Parkway West and I'm going to hand it over um to our staff to begin the uh presentation.

Thank you, chair. Good evening, commissioners and members of the audience. Steve Kowalsski. I'm the senior planner with the planning division. This is an application for a conditional use permit to allow Mannheim auctions to conduct outdoor storage of vehicles on an industrial property containing an existing truck terminal facility at 2348 Industrial Parkway West. The subject property was originally developed with the existing truck terminal in the early 1970s and was used for several decades by various truck freight companies. In March of 2010, the planning commission approved a conditional use permit or CUP for short, allowing Copart, a major auto auctioning company, to utilize the site for outdoor vehicle storage associated with its lo with its local auctioning business. In early 2023, Copart moved its operations um a short distance away at 1964 Saber Street, and the site subsequently sat vacant has been vacant for the last three years. Per the city's zoning ordinance, any use authorized by an approved CUP that ceases operation for a period period of more than six months shall be deemed discontinued and the CUP shall lapse. As such, because it has been more than six months since Copart relocated and the property was last used for outdoor vehicle storage, the proposal by Mannheim tonight requires approval of a new cup to reestablish the use. This is an aerial photograph of the property. It's highlighted in uh in yellow. The parcel measures 6.7 acres and contains an 18,692 ft truck terminal with 20 loading docks

as well as a freestanding approximately 4,000 foot maintenance garage at the back of the site. The facility has a 64 space parking lot at the front of the site directly inside the driveway. The terminal yard is enclosed by a chainlink fence with slats to help screen the operations from view from the street. The driveway serving the property straddles the property line with the lot next door and also serves that lot. Um, the property is zoned generalindustrial and designated industrial corridor in the city's general plan. So, the proposed storage yard would operate 5 days a week from roughly 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a single shift of approximately 25 employees. Mannheim expects to store between 600 and 700 vehicles on the site at any given time while receiving up to 10 vehicle deliveries per day from car carrier trucks like you typically see on the freeway. Sources of these vehicles typically include auto dealerships, rental car companies, government agencies, and banks that provide auto loans. Vehicle conditions will be checked and minor work such as door ding repairs, cracked windshield replacements, and new tire installations will be conducted on the site. If more extensive repairs are needed under the hood, for instance, on the engine or the transmission, they will be conducted offsite at a professional repair shop. Vehicles that are deemed ready for auction will have their interiors and exteriors cleaned and washed, their oil changed, and all fluids topped off before being driven to Mannheim's Auto Auction Yard, a little over a mile away to the east at 29900

Auction Way, also in the city of Hayward. This uh this site shows the proposed operation. All the areas that you see cross-hatched around the perimeter and here in the center between the truck terminal building and the garage are where the cars will be um stacked uh not stacked, I'm sorry, store, parked and stored uh temporarily. These two site photographs are straight out of your attachment five, the plans attached to your staff report. Uh you can see here I think these are this is these were taken by drones. They're very nice photographs. Shows the the truck terminal building here um perpendicular to the street with the customer and visitor the the visitor and employee parking lot at the front. the perimeter fencing with the slats running around the back side and this side is a view from the back. So here you see the service the the um the garage and um the truck terminal at the front. So staff reviewed the proposal for conformance to the general plan and compliance with the applicable zoning standards for an outdoor storage yard and determined that it is consistent with a number of goals and policies of both the economic development and mobility elements of the general plan and it complies with the applicable standards of the zoning code. The proposed use will enable a major auto auction company to expand its local operations and increase its workforce in the city while also providing an economic benefit by locating temporary storage yard for vehicles earmarked for auction at Mannheim's main auction site a short distance away on Auction Way. The proximity of the two sites reduces transportation costs

between the two facilities for Mannheim and its customers and also helps to reduce the overall number of trips on the local and regional road and highway networks. Furthermore, staff has drafted a set of conditions of approval regulating the daily operations of the use, including conditions designed to protect water quality and storm drains from accidental spills of of everyday automotive fluids, leaking automotive fluids from from the cars, and also on-site car washing that takes place. and also to deter car thefts at the facility um during off hours. For these reasons, staff is recommending tonight that the planning commission find the project to be categorically exempt from SQUA pursuant to SQA guidelines section 15301 and approve the CUP based on the draft findings in attachment two to the staff report and subject to the conditions in attachment three. And that concludes staff's presentation. The applicants um have informed us that they do have a short presentation that they would like to give, a very short presentation and they and um the prop they are represented tonight by the property owner as well as Mannheim um the company that's running the auction business. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, I'd like to invite the uh applicant forward.

Good evening. I'm Drew Hess. Uh, thanks for having us tonight. Um, I, uh, am representing Lelayline. Uh, myself and Mark English founded the company in 2023 as a small investment company. Uh, we're locally based and only work in the Bay Area. We uh wanted to say um thank you for hearing our application this evening and thank you to Steve Kolski and the city staff for capturing um all of the um data and information uh from our application um pretty pretty accurately. Um we uh really appreciate the collaborative effort with the city staff uh and their approach. Um we uh our our goal in uh we do have a a couple of slides.

Are you controlling? I think you guys might have the presentation but they don't have the ability to Oh, got it. Um that's okay. You guys have the slides in front of you. Um it was included in our packet. Okay, perfect. Yeah. So,

we're going to try to connect it. My comments are pretty brief, so I'm happy to just keep going, too. Yeah. Commissioners, if you want to pull up your packets or in the email that we received um from Mish Khan today. Yeah.

Here's the 13- pages 13 through 16. Thank you, Commissioner Yurgov. the packet that the packet that's presentation. Yes,

it looks like it's a little bit unless

Oh, nice. Perfect. Let's just do that. I like the analog approach.

Okay, perfect. So, um I'm going to roll through this briefly, but really just wanted to say hello and thank you as the the main goal here. Um but we hey, for an industrial business, um we focus on just the best industrial markets around the Bay Area. Hayward is the center, the heart of the Bay. And um we've uh Mark and I have a lot of experience developing buildings, operating buildings in Hayward uh with some previous companies and um some deep uh family ties to Hayward as well. Uh so we purchased this property in 2023 and went about uh renovating it and uh going through a comprehensive program to clean it up. We bought it vacant. It was really rundown. there was lots of deferred maintenance. So, on the exterior, we converted to LED lights. We've paved it, landscaped it, roofed it, um just really cleaned it up, did all the ADA work uh associated with the building. And on the interior, uh I have a a before and after photo where we pulled a permit and totally redid the office and we put in a windows. it now actually has daylight. Um, and we just modernized it, opened it up and and really cleaned it up. So, we completed our program uh just to clean it up and get it ready. And um we were introduced to Mannheim, a Hayward business, great Hayward business with um hundreds of employees and it's been here since 1984. We uh were excited that they were looking to expand their operations and it was a really good fit here. Um no

changes or um no construction is associated with this permit. So we're really uh just reusing what was there and reestablishing that previous auto storage use. And tonight we've got uh in conjunction with some of the employees that live here in Hayward and work for Mannheim, we've got Greg Beck, the uh general manager for Mannheim, San Francisco Bay, which is run out of Hayward. U the last slide just to say thank you and show the yard. Um we appreciate all of your help and consideration. We're here for questions. Um Greg can answer any operational questions you have and um again thank you um to the city and staff for for your help through this. Uh the approval here tonight will um keep a established long-standing Hayward business here and expand by about 25 jobs and utilize um a a really a vacant site that's been underutilized for for years. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, this matter is before the commission for questions of staff and of the applicant. Um, so commissioners, please limit your comments to questions at this time. And is there are there any uh commissioner questions at this time? And I can't see the Why don't we go ahead and just raise your hand since I can't see this on my my iPad.

Commissioner Meyers. Thank you, Chair. Um just uh one quick question. Uh I met with uh the project uh applicant uh this week. So thank you for that. Um I uh can't tell you how professional and awesome that is. I really really appreciate that. So thank you for doing that. Um quick question is um should this pass, how soon do you expect to actually move in and start using the land? Our goal is as soon as the appeal appeal period is elapsed. So, in about 10 days, they'll be in a position to move in and start using the property.

And if that happens, you will have the record for the fastest uh project ever started and moved in. So, okay. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thank you, Commissioner Myers. Commissioner Hammond.

Um, just a few questions. Um, also for the record, I want to say that I met with representatives um from Lelay Line on Tuesday uh to discuss this project, to ask questions, and to answer questions. Um, I did not discuss my vote. Um, kind of a quick question. Uh, do you need the scale at the back of the property or can you use that for extra auto storage or is it just uh No, I I don't think there's any uh uh used for the historical scale in the back. Well, you just keep it there just for Yeah, it's in in the ground and you can park on it and drive on it. Okay. So, you're not going to lose any space there,

right? Um and then uh are there any fire sprinkler systems installed in each one of the buildings? Yes, both of the buildings have um functioning um permitted and uh inspected u current fire systems because I it seemed like there were three buildings, the office, the the main and then the uh maintenance in the back. Yes. So all three of them they um historically they had two systems and in conjunction with putting in improving the office, we were required to put in a third system uh in the office building.

Okay, very good. Um and then what steps we could be taking to reduce carbon emissions on this site? Um Greg, can you address that? Hit the button right now.

Hi. Um well I as you know the uh auto industry tends to go to more the electric vehicle and we're certainly preparing for that. I would say now 20 to 30% of what we're taking in are electric vehicles. So indirectly we are helping reduce that as far as the combustible vehicles are are what they are. Um, but we do again do a lot of business with with electric companies and in fact we've got over 150 EV chargers strategically put around our main main auction and and other locations. So you'll be charging up at the other at the other site because I think this site only has what? Two two EV chargers. This this site we would also install EV chargers. Yes.

So if you have six 700 cars there um that's going to be quite a line to get those cars charged up. Huh. Well, again, only we're going to say 20 30% of those might be electric that we're that we have over there. So, uh, and most of these cars hold a charge for a pretty decent amount of time. We do kind of a a recharging system. We get notifications when those chargers become low to where it can be dangerous to the car or the battery and we'll then put it on the cycle of charging. Okay. So, we rotate them through. It's not really a big impact. All right. Thank you, Chip.

Um, also, I didn't see on the plans. I just want to add one quick thing to your question, Greg. Um was that um and I think this is important for Greg and us that their u primary facility is about a mile away in and of itself to reduce drive. I know that was very important to you, but to keep the facilities close to each other to minimize as much driving as possible and there won't be any idling or any you won't be idling the vehicles? No, no, no, no. Okay. Um, so my next question, um, are there any underground storage tanks? It didn't seem that I saw anything on the plans. Uh, no, no underground storage tanks.

Okay. Um, and then, so for me, this is a big one. Um, this project is located in a flood zone. Um, in case of a flood, um, how are you going to keep contaminated runoff water from entering the storm drain system? Um and given the nature of the business with such a large inventory of automobile automobiles um even contaminated rain well at our main facility we have u filters on a regular cycle program in terms of replacing those. So we put filters in all the drains on all the way on it. What's that? You put filters on what? Filters in the drains for the runoff. Oh you okay? Yes. Well they answered my next question. And the city's very diligent about inspecting us. So

Okay. So very good. So, the storm drains would be well protected. Yes, sir. Okay. Um, that's all my questions. Thank you. Commissioner Hammond, if if you'd like to hear from the city engineer on the project, say Si, he's on the call. If you if you'd like to hear staff's official answer from the public works department on that last. No, that that's my question. Thank you. Great. Are there any other questions? Commissioner Stevens, I I just have one quick question. So the and this might be for Mannheim, but um Okay.

So the the the dealerships, all the used car dealerships you see on mission, is that where they get their inventory through your facility there? Is that where where the cars come from? I would hope so, but we don't get we don't get all their I mean, they don't source from just us. They might buy online. There's a lot of online vehicle exchange companies that may source inventory, but we are certainly a primary location because of the amount of cars we offer, about 2,000 a week. Thank you. Any other questions?

Okay, this time we can um go to the public hearing. Uh, and we have one um speaker um in the council chambers. Uh, Mr. Miles Frasier. You will approach the podium, please. Good evening. My name is Miles Fraser and I'm a resident of Hayward. I work for Manheim and wanted to voice my support for the proposed conditional use permit on Industrial Parkway. There are a few more of us here today to represent local Mannheim employees. They're seated just behind me. If I could have you raise your hand. Um, Mannheim is a great company to work for. We've been involved with community and through the Hayward Boys and Girls Club, Alamita County Food Bank. Uh, we've even uh planted trees in Cherryland Park uh just within the last 12 months. Uh, I'm excited Mannheim has the opportunity to expand in Hayward. It will help to have us have the new site close to the main facility and it will be great to have to hire more residents. We need to support our our Hayward businesses so that they can turn support and hire our residents. That's all I have. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Frasier. Miss Allen, do we have any um public comments online? There are none. Uh at this time we can take uh commission we can close public close public comment and take commissioner comments.

Commissioner Stevens. Uh I'd like to make a motion to approve PH26019. We have a motion from Commissioner Stevens. Do we have a second? I second. and a second from Commissioner uh Hammond. And if uh commissioners could go ahead and vote, please. Were there any discussions? Go ahead. Yeah, just thank you for the presentation. Thank you to senior blender Kowalsski for uh putting this together and a special shout out for thinking on your feet and uh you know when the technical difficulties were happening. So um yeah, really appreciate you all turning out tonight. Commissioner Myers.

Thank you, Chair. Uh just wanted to say, you know, thanks for uh uh buying and and working in Hayward. Uh and thanks for uh the system that you guys have put together on KK dealing with us, dealing with the city. I think it was a a welloiled machine. So, thank you for that. Commissioner just like to add I think it's a good use of the infill infill space. it it it blends well with the with the surrounding area and I wish you guys all the best in your future endeavor and hope to see you guys in other projects in the near future.

And I want to thank uh Manheim and the applicant for also um investing continuing to invest in Hayward. It's wonderful that you guys are um staying with us and and expanding your operation and I look um very forward to um to getting you guys off the ground. Now we can vote and the motion carries. Congratulations. Thank you all for coming. All right, at this time we can go to commission reports and announcements. Chair Goodbody, you have one more item.

Oh, yes, we do. We could move to the uh approval of the minutes. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Do we have a second? I'll second.

The minutes have been uh motioned and seconded. And the motion is passed. At this time, we can move to commission reports. Okay. Thank you, chair and planning commissioners. Uh just a couple of uh announcements pretty quick. Um just wanted to promote that BART is having an open house uh that is going to actually two open houses. The first one is going to be on Wednesday, May 6 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. And the second one will be the following week on Tuesday morning, May 12th, from 7:30 to 9:30. BART staff and city staff uh will be at both of these openhouse events, which will take place um uh just uh outside of the the paygate area of the downtown Hayward Station. and BART is looking they are starting uh their transit oriented development uh process of redeveloping the downtown location in Hayward here and they are soliciting public comment and feedback on the goals and objectives. There's also going to be a QR code where people can scan that and participate in an online survey which will be open through May 15th. Uh but it's a great opportunity for the commissioners, the members of the public, the community to get to come together uh at one of these open houses, provide feedback on where they would like to see the vision for downtown Hayward and be able to uh be a participatory uh part of that discussion. Um that will be then followed by a couple of community meetings, uh a couple of council subcommittee meetings that we have scheduled um later in June. And so I would just encourage everyone that is interested or that frequently uses transit, feel free to stop by. Again, uh trying to hit that morning uh commute and that evening uh peak commute. Uh once again, it's between 4:30 and 6:30

on May 6th and then from 7:30 to 9:30 on May 12th. More information uh will be uh going out shortly uh from the city's communications officer. Um and additional details on the open house can also be found on BART's website. Um, and if you uh don't go to BART's website, all you have to do is go down to the station and you'll see a sign up there that really promotes uh and is already starting to advertise for the open house. So, I would encourage everyone to come out uh and be a part of those discussions. Um, I also want to let the commission know that currently we do not have anything scheduled on the first item uh uh first uh meeting in May. Um, we also don't have anything for the second meeting in May, but I can say probably the first meeting uh that uh likely cancellation notice will go out next week. Uh, so that meeting will likely be cancelled. The next item that we actually have scheduled on the agenda is going to come later in June uh when the commission will be asked to make a recommendation to the city council on uh the proposed general plan amendment which will increase residential densities in the downtown area here. um in alignment with uh the implementation strategies identified in the downtown specific plan that was adopted in 2019. So uh glad to finally seeing some of those uh long-term implementation items uh move forward in the process and certainly it will help uh anyone who's interested in redeveloping and Hayward hopefully if that passes uh in much higher densities and support that transit oriented uh development that we'd like to see. So, uh, but right now, uh, we don't have anything for May, but, uh, stay tuned. We'll, uh, we'll make a formal decision on that, uh, when those dates get closer. Uh, and that wraps up my, uh, comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Lero. Are there any other um, commissioner announcements? Commissioner Vasco.

Uh, if I could just highlight that um, yeah, affordable housing month, which is May, is coming up. It's just around the corner. Um, and there's going to be lots of awesome events around the bay. Um, I wish there was more happening in Hayward and I work for Eden Housing, so I wish I could invite uh folks to a grand opening here, but uh unfortunately no immediate projects coming up, but I want to flag we have the um groundbreaking for our 2700 international project um which is a partnership with uh the Unity Council of uh uh Fruit Veil. Um so that's uh coming right up, but I encourage folks to just check out the calendars. um come to as many events as you can and see the awesome things that are being built around the bay. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Hammond.

Yes. Um just want to remind everybody that uh Hayward will be holding their Earth Day um clean yearly cleanup um at Weeks Park this Saturday. um come out, grab grab a grabber and help clean up the city. And there she usually nice uh informative um exhibits and um it's always it's always a good time. Thank you.

I look forward to it. And um I have one final um comment. I'd like to close tonight's meeting um recognizing the efforts of director Lero who um unfortunately this is his last meeting with the planning commission but not his last day um at the city that won't be until uh next month and I just want to um congratulate um you know all of I don't want to congratulate us but I want to commend and comm uh director Lero for his support and his team support and work with us as we you know move through um some you know very um complex um items and and issues before the city. Um your steady hand has really um been a source of of of comfort and and I thank you for your leadership and best wishes to you. And with that, I adjourn this meeting at 7:35 p.m. Recording stopped.