Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

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I will now call the regular Planning Commission meeting of Tuesday, August 18th, 2026 to order. And I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Good evening Planning Commissioners. Chair Wilkerson.

Here.

Vice Chair Banta. Here. Commissioner Vagas.

Here.

Commissioner Belmont. Here. Commissioner Dingman.

Here.

Commissioner Hampton.

Here.

Commissioner LeRoy. Here. Chair, we have a quorum.

Everyone, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. And I will ask Commissioner Dingman to please lead us in the salute to our flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation,

We will now move on with our regular business starting with communications. At this time, I will ask Director Morris if there are any communications or announcements for this evening's meeting.

There are none, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. We'll move on to the approval of this evening's agenda. Do I have a motion?

I'll move.

Is there a second?

Second.

I have a motion from Commissioner Beaumont and a second from Commissioner LeRoy. 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.

Peabody Road the old dump That property has been just a lot for over 65 years because it was the city dump. And on the paper I've got, you're not going to do anything about it. You're not going to research it. You're not going to drill, dig. I used to go down there and shoot rats at the dump and the stuff they dumped in there. I saw a semi-truck back up and pour a complete shot of peach pits in there. And do you know what they make from peach pits? Prussic acid. plus there was the onion plant. I saw them dumping 55 gallon drums of slop in there. And then when they put onion peels, it was like purple snow. So it needs to be, I haven't got back from the California EPA yet, of exact wording of what you guys are saying was making it exempt. If you're gonna just over the top of it, that's one thing, but you're gonna put in a pool, the size of the hole was 200 feet wide, 300 yards long, and 16 feet deep, and it's full. Plus, also at the church, there's another pit there that I know that one was there because I was there when they put the church in. It has a basement, so they dug it. Stunk like hell. And the guy that owned it, the contractor, He went and double shifted it, had lights at night, to form it, pour the concrete, and then right after that, they paved it before they even built the building. So that covered that part of it up. Part of the thing, too, is if you open it, anything happens. First shovel goes in, there's a kindergarten right next door to it. That could be quite, you have to evacuate the kids.

Sir, your time is up. Thank you for your time.

It's better to let sleeping dogs lie than to wake them up because they'll bite you in the ass.

Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak for public comment? I will now close public comment, and there are no speakers left. Now it's time for the consent calendar. We have one item on consent, which is the minutes from the June 16, 2026 meeting. Does anyone from the commission or the public wish to pull the consent item for discussion? Do I have a motion? A motion. Motion from Vargas. Do I get a second? Second. Second from Digman. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Motion passes. We will now move on to item seven, which is our public hearing, which will be our first public hearing this evening, which we will receive a presentation on Sapphire Luxury Apartments. We will first hear a presentation by staff, followed by commissioner questions, and then we will open it up for public comment. Before we proceed, I would like to ask any commissioners, have they received any ex parte communication on this matter? No.

No. No. No. No.

Great. May we please have the presentation? Thank you.

Good evening, Chair and members of the Planning Commission. The item before you tonight is the Sapphire Luxury Apartments Project. Oh, let me start the presentation. All right. The request before you is to construct an 82-unit multifamily apartment complex on a vacant 3.83-acre site located at 561 Peabody Road. The applications include a major design review and categorical exemption. The project is located centrally within Vacaville along Peabody Road. To the right is a project site plan at the Fairmont Square Shopping Center in which the site is located. This is an aerial image of the project site as it exists today. Fairmont Square Shopping Center was originally established in 1971. More recently, in 2022, the city council approved a conditional use permit to construct a drive-through and renovate the existing shopping center. In 2025, the director approved a modification and time extension for these improvements. in the application for Sapphire luxury apartments was submitted in September, 2025, followed by an SB three SB three 30 application in November. More recently in December city council adopted a new community facilities district policy in which granted an exemption for residential projects with a hundred units or less. The project site is zoned mixed use within the general plan and the zoning map. This allows for residential development with densities between 10 to 40 dwelling units per acre. The project sits on a 3.83-acre site and would be developed with 82 market-rate apartments in four three-story buildings. The density is approximately 21 units per acre, which would be allocated between one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. There would be 180 parking spaces, and access would be on Peabody Road with secondary access on Marshall Road. This is a site plan that shows the location of the four apartment buildings on the site. Parking is allocated towards the perimeter as well as in between buildings. And there's a dog run area near Marshall Road. The next few slides show 3D renderings provided by the applicant illustrating the proposed architecture and overall character of the development. This view looks onto the center of the project and shows a relationship between the buildings, the open space, pool area, and covered parking. And this image provides a closer view of one of the proposed elevations and shows the proposed architectural materials, balconies, as well as the covered parking. As previously mentioned, the applicant submitted an SB 330 application in November of 2025. SB 330 limits the city's review authority for qualified housing projects that are consistent with our objective standards. It also locks in standards that were in effect at the time the application was submitted. In addition, SB 330 establishes timelines for environmental review, as well as limits the number of public meetings. As part of our review, staff evaluated the project for consistency with the Vacaville Municipal Code. As summarized, the project complies with minimum parking standards, design requirements, open space requirements, as well as frontage and perimeter landscaping. Based on our review, staff has determined that the project meets the required findings for approval. Staff also reviewed the project for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The project has been deemed to be categorically exempt per section 15332 infill development projects. As a site is within city limits, it's less than five acres, surrounded by urban uses, is served by utilities and public services, and it does not create significant effects related to traffic, noise, air quality, or water quality. Staff also conducted public outreach throughout the review of the project. In October 2025, new project notices were mailed to residences within 600-foot radius of the site, followed by a neighborhood meeting notice in December. In January 15th, a neighborhood meeting was held, and the project hearing notice was mailed for this meeting on August 6th. Staff received two comments public comments regarding this project one raised concerns regarding impacts to an easement on an adjacent property in which the applicant made revisions to the site plan on the for the entrance on Peabody Road and then another concern was that the project does not provide units for moderate to low income housing and conclusion staff supports the proposed project as a project provides infill housing on an existing vacant site it is served by existing utilities in infrastructure it complies with the city's objective design standards and it is consistent with the general plan zoning and state law this project meets our required findings for approval therefore staff recommends that the planning commission approves a project subject to conditions of approval This concludes my presentation and I am available for questions and the applicant team is also here as well. Thank you.

Thank you so much for the presentation. Let's now go to Commissioner questions. We'll go to Commissioner Beaumont.

Thanks much for that briefing. I like this project, but I do have a question about no net loss and the program that we're presenting time and again about this, about not building affordable units but passing it on to a sufficient site that we might have in inventory. And it says in your presentation that we read, it says there's a more detailed analysis in exhibit A. So I go to exhibit A to see the more detailed analysis, expecting to see parcel number, addresses, things that the sufficient replacement is. It has nothing, zero. And so my question is, is there actually a replacement? If there is, I'd like to see a list of the inventory that the city has that you can fend off these affordable units from now until whenever, because we're never gonna meet the rain requirements for the affordable units. And I just think that somehow the city needs to make sure that if we build a project, there are affordable units in it because we'll never meet it if we don't. But I'd like to know about this no net loss because the program itself, the way it's described, I'm not sure there are any parcel numbers that you're fending it off to. It could be one parcel that you continually refer to, but I don't know. The commissioners don't know. So I guess I'd like to see a list of properties that you can use for this sufficient replacement for no net loss. That's my question, I guess.

Thank you Commissioner Beaumont for that question and I suspect that some of the other commissioners might have a question related to this and so yes by reference we identify the findings that are required to be made for projects with regards to no net loss but part of the reason why entire list is left out of the findings related to this project because it's partly it's not within the purview of the Commission for an entitlement like this and so we want to make sure that whenever we're presenting projects for the Commission that we're providing The list of criteria and the objective standards and the findings that are obligated from us as a commitment to the applicant for a due process and a public hearing in this. And so that's part of the reason why you won't see a detailed list is because it's not needed in order to be able to make a review for compliance with our Vacaville Municipal Code, compliance with our general plan and our housing element. That being said, we felt that it sounded like there would be some interest in at least knowing where the alternative site is, certainly in our housing element. We do list all the sites that we had worked with the state on, try and identify sites that could potentially accommodate affordable housing units. And that's the key right there is the potential for being able to accommodate that because The city right now does not have an inclusionary housing ordinance that would obligate developers to provide a certain percentage. So we have no authority to be able to obligate property owners to have to provide affordable units. We are in the process of working with city council on presenting information on a regular basis to help inform because this is one of those particular issues is if there's no requirement and you're allowing residential development projects to move forward with, but there's no requirement to build affordable units, How are we getting them built? And so the extent at which is required for projects like this is that as we're working through the process, reviewing, we see a site that might have been identified in our housing element to accommodate residential, affordable residential units. In this case, we thought that maybe 46 units could be accommodated at this site. And they're not building any affordable units that we work with the applicant on potentially identifying another location. But then the buck stops usually there, is that the applicant's not required to do anything beyond that. And so in this case, what we identified was a site that was off of Vineyard Valley Way and Markham Avenue. Now, we know this site is a potentially sensitive site, but we did find that it has the potential THAT WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE CITY'S HOUSING ELEMENT. SO THERE IS ANOTHER SITE THAT COULD ACCOMMODATE THAT. NOW, THE BURDEN OF RESPONSIBILITY DOES FALL BACK ON THE CITY OF BEING ABLE TO KEEP TRACK OF ALL THOSE OTHER SITES AND AS DEVELOPMENT COMES THROUGH. We did have a bit of a cushion when we started off with the housing element, but many of those projects that we were anticipating for affordable housing units have been developed. That's your independence in Vacaville. That was around 200 units. You saw the orange apartments and retail development earlier this year. That was another residential project that came forward with market rate units. Part of the reason was we were just trying to be careful about what kind of information was being presented so that we were making sure that our applicants are getting that proper attention and review of the findings of fact. So this is a site that we were looking at. It was about 1.75 acres in size. It is downtown commercial. There's no need to rezone it because that commercial designation does allow residential development to occur on the site anywhere from 18 to 40 units per acre. Potential units are 70 units. That's just a brief cursory review. But the housing element really was anticipating for this particular project 46 at the lower income unit bracket. So it's another site that could accommodate. Luckily, we don't have to rezone it. And really the ability to build affordable units is dependent on project applicants when they want to come in and actually build them.

development that comes after when you have this no net loss, this will be taken out of the inventory and you won't be able to use it again?

Yeah, so yes. The answer is yes. When we work with the next residential development project, if they decide to build a project that's market rate on a site that was identified in our housing limit for affordable units, We would do the exact same thing that we did for this project, which is notify them that there's a potential issue with the number of sites and ask them to look around, see if there's a potential location. Maybe there's a site that could accommodate it that needs to be rezoned in order to be able to do it. In this case, we didn't have to rezone it. So if they were to bring up this site, we'd probably say, no, we've already looked at that one already. Let's look at another location. So in that case, if there was another site that we, you know, if we run out of commercial sites or residential sites that potentially could accommodate it and we need to rezone, then that responsibility falls back on the city to be able to pursue that process to change the zoning and maybe the general plan designation for that alternative site.

I guess the last question is, if I was a resident and wanted to come in and see the list of things that you've used for no net loss, could I come in and look at that list?

Absolutely. It's on our city's website.

Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Vargas.

Thank you for the presentation. I really like the project, especially in this area that's been vacant for quite some time. I did want to point out, and I'm assuming some outreach to the local businesses, maybe in the Wilsonwood High School on some of the impacts, but I wanted to point to the area on the back of Dollar Tree. There is a building which is Christian Body Life Fellowship Church. on Marshall Silver Drive. It's a predominantly African-American church congregation. Was there any direct outreach with Pastor Willie Graham or that congregation related to the project and any insight from them?

Planning staff did not reach out. I'm unaware if the applicant team did.

That was my only question. Thank you.

Certainly, though, public notification did include that property.

Aside from the public notification, yes. Thank you.

Commissioner LeRoy.

Thank you. I do echo Commissioner Beaumont's comments. The one addition is you talked about it's on the website. Is it annotated as such as low-income housing potential so that somebody looking can see there's seven potential low-income housing areas in Vacaville that have been identified or is it just like it was there where it's sectioned off as partial?

WELL, OUR HOUSING ELEMENT IS THE DOCUMENT THAT WOULD BE IN REFERENCE IF ANYBODY WOULD BE LOOKING AT IT. THAT DOCUMENT IS QUITE CUMBERSOME. WE DID WORK WITH THE STATE, HCD, TO GET THAT DOCUMENT CERTIFIED IN JUNE OF 2023. I THINK THE LAST TIME I SAW IT WAS AROUND 700 PAGES. WITHIN THERE, THERE ARE MULTIPLE PAGES THAT TALK ABOUT all of the different properties that are vacant that have the potential, and there's also a table within there. So you wouldn't find on our website a specific section that says, you know, potential sites to accommodate the city's RHNA numbers. You would mainly point people to the city's housing element.

Okay, thank you. My next question is, it talks about significant efforts to, related to traffic. I didn't see a traffic study of 82 housing units in that, that traffic intersection there is pretty busy as it is with the school and everything else that's going on and then Costco down to the next one. Just curious if there was a study I didn't see or if there's been any discussion of the traffic pattern coming in and out of that area with significant amount of people being added.

Well, certainly at the appropriate time, I would encourage the Commission to have the applicant come up to speak about it. They do have an engineer on staff, but I will say this, is that our traffic engineering staff did review traffic created by the project and they were able to work with the applicant on improvements that are necessary for driveways and for access along the frontage, mainly median improvements right there. You wouldn't see any actual widening of the streets. This project wouldn't generate that level of traffic, but For the sake of how do movements of vehicles come out and go in, there are some conditions of approval that were imposed by the traffic engineering division that would say it would just make it safer by introducing a median and protected turn lanes.

Gotcha. Thank you. Last question is, I couldn't tell from the schematic in the presentation, but there's going to be a significant amount of parking that's disjointed from the actual apartment complex. I'm thinking lighting and I'm also thinking walkway. I couldn't see if there's going to be a, is there a sidewalk that's going to connect them? I saw there was a little sidewalk, but I didn't see it connected. I'm just thinking people walking down the street there between the behind whatever building that is, Dollar General. And I'm assuming there's a fence there. It looks like there's a fence, but I can't tell that.

the good news is that all the required parking for the apartment project site will be provided at the apartments and so this is in addition to it's a generous amount it's also part of the project is what do you do with other land that's outside of where the apartments are about what they can you know what do you do with it and so that's what their solution was is that put a dog park down there yeah put a dog park let people be able to use it um and then they could speak to more about what their vision was but that was something that we checked is can you really expect people to park all the way there and walk to the apartments and we were able to verify. All the necessary parking for these units will be provided right next to the apartments. Perfect, thank you.

Commissioner Dingman.

Albert, it's great to see you tonight. I appreciate the presentation. I don't think we've had the opportunity to meet, but thank you very much. Really nice job. Appreciate the level of effort that went into this and the comments, I think, by the other commissioners. I had a question on the traffic flow, so thanks, Commissioner LeRoy. We got that one checked off the list. One of the things is, where's the applicant? are you guys are in here it's good to see you guys thanks for being here tonight one of the things that i would like to offer there's been plenty of conversation about no net loss and affordable units and this being a luxury apartment complex with 82 units one of the things that i would just ask and offer to you guys as you think about things there's over four billion dollars of economic impact by travis air force base you know very close um to vacaville and a lot of the airmen and families come to live in Vacaville. And what I would ask you guys to do, if you haven't already, is to take a look at the basic allowance for housing, charts that are out there for the airmen, as you guys do that, because 82 units, there's not enough housing. 70% of all the airmen that live at or that are at Travis Air Force Base have to live off base. A lot of times if they end up going to West Sacramento and a lot of other places, this could be a really good place for them to not have to go too far. Last week, the executive director, Mr. Eric Fierro actually gave a testimony at the Senate in Sacramento talking about the need for affordable housing, the need for childcare and good jobs around here. And this would go a long way for that. So if you haven't done it already, I would just offer that to you. So that's all I have.

Commissioner Hampton.

Just a couple of real quick questions. First of all, within that two mile radius, there's a number of units, you know, that extend from Marshall all the way down to Elmira. Are any of those offering low income or subsidized housing? Do you know?

We do not know that. That's a good question.

Okay, and then the second is just occupancy rates. Any ideas on occupancy rates on this?

You've got some curveballs tonight. No, I don't have that off the top of my head. Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Banta. Vice Chair Banta.

Thank you for the presentation. For the most part, I enjoyed the project. I think a couple questions that I have about it are, it stated that there was a conditional use permit for a driveway or a drive-through. Will this, where's the drive-through in relation to this project?

Okay, if you turn your attention to the screen here, you'll see that there is a proposed new building and then there's the existing building. So that existing building is Fairmount Square. Let me see if I can get this to show. There we go. This existing building that's shown with my cursor right here is the Fairmount Square building that received the renovation approval. That was the modification to the existing building. This drive-thru right here is the conditional use permit where you can see the queuing lane and then the interior parking and the frontage there. And so right now there is nothing there and if we were to go over to... So the area in question would be right about here is where you would see that new drive-thru facility.

Awesome. Thank you. I think my comments are that you stole the words out of my mouth about the page seven. It said that there's going to be a longer list. I went and I looked. There's not a list. So my questions, I appreciate you bringing the site. My questions are about that site, though. So it was zoned commercial. So it has never been identified before in any of our housing elements ever as a potential area for low-income housing.

Yeah, it was really, it was one of the sites that were identified as we were working through a list of available options. It had been removed at one point. When we were working through the housing element, we were able to find sufficient sites elsewhere, and that's where you would find those tables within the housing element. And so... We do have enough with, we did have enough at the time of adoption of that housing element. So as we're working through different projects, we're finding locations like this that are probably resurrecting as other potential sites that could be utilized for housing.

Okay. So a few of my questions go along the lines more of like some housing element not specific to this project. So if we take a piece of property, we identify it on a housing element as a low income property, what would make us take it off on the next element? Why all of a sudden is it not one that we would choose?

I don't believe I was alluding to that particular site being on the previous housing element. I think that when we were working on potential sites to consider within the 2023 housing element, that it was removed from that list of inventory.

So it's never been on any housing?

I'd have to go back to see. I wouldn't say never, only because I don't have the previous fifth cycle housing element in front of us. Had we had that map, I might be able to confirm for you. Okay.

So a lot of my questions, again, aren't to the project, so I don't want to take up too much time, but I think I just become really frustrated that we find properties that are for low-income housing, 46 units. They have a beautiful project that's not going to have 46 units. Great. We find another property, and then it's just a shell game. We just keep moving the properties around. We can't find affordable housing. We're never going to build it. We don't have inclusionary housing. Like, what are we going to build for people to afford and it's not just low income it's not somebody that's homeless on the street it's your person that's making decent wages that cannot afford to live here we're not building things that people can afford and then we say oh we're going to build it by design well this is something that's smaller by design and we're still making it unaffordable and so i guess just maybe my questions are i want another study about inclusionary housing or about how we pick arena numbers but it just seems to be getting a little frustrating So, but other than that, I do like the project. I don't wanna beat up and beat the project up for that, but it is a little frustrating that what's gonna happen when we don't have any more spots.

Yeah, I could share for the commission that a lot of it has to do with availability of sites. What does the city have to contribute towards trying to make things more attractive? One of the ways that we can help things more attractive is We're moving barriers to housing. And so educational study sessions that we present to the commission or to the council about how we can strategize about that. Part of the things about the presentation and staff report that we did allude to was city council's direction about exempting projects of 100 units or less out of community facility districts, and that was one big move that City Council was able to do to try and remove barriers, financial barriers in this particular case, to try and help more development come in. And so that was one of the big things that helped this particular project, even if it didn't have affordable housing units on it. It was on pause until that action was taken, and it made it more viable for the applicant to be able to move forward. So we are certainly, it is on the top of our mind, and we are doing our best to try and figure out different solutions to help make things more attractive for development in Vacaville.

thank you for sharing thank you commissioners um i have a i'm just ready to make a motion we got to go through a couple more steps first public comment um i am going to ask the applicant to come up so while they're walking to the podium i just a couple of things albert maybe um as this presentation moves forward to the next level um i don't think that's the best site to use i think I live in this town. I drive by that site. That site's been there since I was born, and that site is probably never going to be developed, in my personal opinion, just speaking for myself. I also sell real estate, so I have a pretty good eye on those things. There's also a mural at that site already in place right there, so I just think it would behoove staff and us to, when we do make the presentation to the next level and you bring it out, identify a different site. I think that would be helpful for all.

Thank you, Chair. And I would say the identification of a site for the simplicity of providing evidence to show we are working on trying to figure out. So it may not be this site. It may be just more of a valiant effort on staff's part to try and figure out what are the sites. But it is something that's on our mind that we just got to figure out. So hearing you loud and clear, Chair.

Thank you. Good evening, sir.

Good evening. My name is Matt Ellis with CBG, formerly of PEI. This actually started as a PEI project and has continued with CBG. I heard several questions. This is appropriate time to kind of answer some of those for you guys. First, regarding the traffic study, we did provide the traffic study. It was provided to Public Works. And it was reviewed, went through several cycles. And as was mentioned by Mr. Enault here, there are several conditions of approval related to that traffic study, including some median work within Peabody that you can see, as well as some intersection improvements near Wilsey Wood. So, We took that, identified some areas where we can make some improvements and provide that with that. So there are several conditions regarding that. Again, as staff, and I want to say thank you to staff. They've been wonderful through this process, as they always are. We did create, because if you go to that piece that has the whole parcel, I'd appreciate it. This is a very unique parcel. There's the main body of the parcel that's identified in blue, but over all the years with lot line adjustments and you know trying to do the research on this parcel i mean i remember when there was a round table there many many many years ago this parcel has gone through many iterations and it's kind of a weird weird shape so we looked for ways that we could provide amenities that are not necessarily required but would be a benefit to the community and one of the things we thought of was a dog park so we provided a little dog area there you know a lot of people in apartments may have a small dog need to take it for a walk it'd be a good place to do that as well as provide some parking there for people to do that they could you know spend some time with their their four-legged friends there's also a question about lighting there is a condition of approval in there that we provide lighting as appropriate for the municipal code and we will provide that As we know, this is kind of an older shopping center that has seen its life expectancy through time, and we want to make sure that this project is going to bring further life. As you see, there's already a project that's been approved for a conditional use permit. I think having this additional housing there will bring life to the center and make this a much more vibrant place as well. There was a question regarding reaching out to the church. There were a couple comments that came through staff. Prior to them coming through staff, we had been working with the church. There are easements on the property that relate to access to the church. So yes, we were working with the church and we did make some adjustments to the site to accommodate their needs. i think it's fair to say that we uh commissioner dingman we hear you we understand my father was a civilian contractor for the navy totally understand i think that the applicant will definitely be reaching out to travis and trying to find some ways to work with them to find some ability to to collaborate on that in the future And I don't really want to get into affordable housing too much here, but I will say that during the process, two sites were provided to staff. This was the more viable of the two, which I believe is why they included in their presentation. But there was a second one that was not as viable. We hear you. I would love to talk to any of you guys at any time about affordable housing, not the time to get into it tonight, but I'd be more than happy to have a conversation. If you guys don't know how to get ahold of me, some of you do, I'm not hard to find. don't hide very well. So I'd be happy to have those conversations with you guys, because I think it is something that we need to definitely approach here in Vacaville and would love to chat with you at any time for that. So are there any other questions that you guys have?

I think we're good. Thank you. Thanks. And now I'd like to open up for public comment. One.

Good evening, Chair Wilkerson, Vice Chair Bonta, commissioners, staff, community members. My name is Ruben Galvan. I'm a field representative with the Norco State Carpenters Union, Local 180, which covers Solano County. And as you are considering approving the major design review for the Sapphire with Sapphire Luxury Apartments, I have a very important question to ask. Will there be strong labor standards on this project, meaning fair wages for the construction workers, healthcare for them and their families, health insurance? Apprenticeship opportunities for state accredited apprenticeship programs for the kids that want to learn a trade they can join a trade and meaningful labor compliance so the this job sites are safe and labor loss are up hold Without this we leave the door wide open for bad actors the kind of misclassified workers in order to avoid paying benefits They also commit what is it called, not insurance fraud, but premium, premium fraud. Tax evasion, and in worst cases, they engage in wage theft. So in order to avoid that, I recommend that you talk to the developer, let them know if there's a possibility to uphold labor standards on this project. And it'll be, it looks like a great project. The fair wages definitely, or construction workers, I don't think they could afford to move into a unit like this, but paying the fair wages, it'll at least open the door to other possibilities. With that, thank you for your time and have a great day.

Thank you so much. I don't see anybody else, so I will close public comment. Now we'll do a commissioner deliberation. We'll deliberate and provide feedback. Commissioner Banta, vice chair.

Thank you. I just wanted to thank the applicant for answering our questions as well as talking about some of the improvements along Peabody. Those have been needed for some time. And I know a lot of the public comment we hear is when there are new development projects, well, how are the streets getting fixed? How are the roads getting fixed? So I definitely appreciate that. So thank you.

I've used this site as a shortcut at times to get to where I need to get to because traffic is an issue in that area. And so it's nice to see that there will be improvements to that because I believe the applicant knows that there's two big potholes. as you're trying to go through to use the area to your advantage. And so it's very nice to see that, but that'll also make sure that people won't be using that as a thoroughfare anymore because they'll have to go around. And so happy but sad on my end. Commissioner Beaumont.

I'd just like to make a motion.

I was just going to make a quick comment if I could before the motion. So for the traffic study request, it would be nice to have something within the packet to be able to review. Having driven through Peabody, even when we'll see what is not in session, there's high traffic area. So I'm going to assume with this apartment complex, there are some safety concerns that I think I would definitely have presented. But it sounds like the applicant has that at the forefront. So I appreciate that. But I just want to put that out there. That's it, thank you.

Commissioner Belmont.

For the third time, I'd like to make a motion.

I'll second the motion. I got a motion for Commissioner Belmont. I have a second from Commissioner Vargas. And I will ask the clerk to call for roll.

Thank you. Thank you again for the presentation. We will now move on to item B.

Our second public hearing this evening, which is to receive a presentation on exotic auto body. We will first hear a presentation from staff, followed by commissioner questions, and then we will open it up for public comment. Before we proceed, I would like to ask if there's any commissioners received ex parte communications in this matter. No. Floor is yours, sir.

Chair, before we get started, I just wanted to take the opportunity to introduce our newest assistant planner, Caitlin Lovella, who will be covering this presentation for tonight.

Welcome. Welcome.

Good evening, Chair and members of the Commission. My name is Caitlin Lovella, and I'm an assistant planner with the City of Vacaville. And tonight, I am here presenting the proposed exotic auto body project. The applicant is requesting to establish an automobile collision repair facility within an existing commercial building located at 1146 East Monta Vista, which involves a categorical exemption and a conditional use permit. The proposed project is centrally located within the city. The project boundary identified in blue fronts East Monta Vista Avenue. The existing building as shown from the street view is the proposed exotic auto body. This view is taken from East Monte Vista Avenue. The site was originally established in October of 1985 following approval by the Planning Commission. In February of 2009, the Planning Commission subsequently approved the Vacaville Storehouse. The Vacaville Storehouse remained in operation until its permanent closure in December of 2025. The proposed project involves a categorical exemption and conditional use permit for a site encompassing approximately one acre. The project site is zone general commercial and contains an existing 4,400 square foot building with 20 parking spaces. The proposed outdoor storage area encompasses approximately 7,800 square feet. Proposed hours of operation are from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Vehicular access to the project site is provided by East Monta Vista Avenue. This site is zoned general commercial in both the general plan and the zoning map. The site plan identifies the existing building and the overall site layout for the proposed project. The front elevation of the existing building as viewed from East Monta Vista Avenue. The interior elevation of the existing building as viewed from the parking lot. The rear elevation of the existing building which faces the outdoor storage area. Staff's job is to review the project for consistency and compliance with the Vacaville Municipal Code. Conditional use permits are required to evaluate the proposed use for compatibility for the site and surrounding uses. Potential areas of concern identified were noise, parking, hazardous materials, and outdoor storage. Following staff's compliance evaluation, staff determined that all work will be conducted the existing building and vehicles will be stored within an enclosed area that is not visible from the street the proposed project meets the required findings for approval the project is subject to environmental review in accordance with the california environmental quality act also known as sequa staff has determined that this project is categorically exempt pursuant to sequa guidelines sections 15 301 Existing facilities this is because the project involves the use of an existing building with improvements Limited to interior renovations and remodeling and no expansion of the existing structure no additional environmental review is required and a notice of exemption will be filed with the state clearinghouse and On July 14th of 2026, staff mailed out a new project notice to property owners and residents within a 600 foot radius of the project sites. No public comments were received. And on August 6th, 2026, staff mailed out a planning commission public hearing notice to property owners and residents within the 600 foot radius. To date, no public comments have ever been received. Staff supports the proposed project because it will help reduce commercial vacancies by establishing a new business within an existing building. The project is served by existing utilities and infrastructure and access. The project also complies with the city's applicable performance standards, is consistent with the general plan and zoning map and meets the required findings for approval. Staff recommends that the Planning Commission approves the conditional use permit subject to the conditions of approval. This concludes my presentation for exotic auto body. I am available to answer any questions as well as the applicant.

Great job. Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Beaumont.

I guess I really like this because they're not doing anything to the outside. It's all inside. It's all contained. I guess my only question is, are they moving their existing business from Callahan, Callan Road to this building so that we'll end up having another vacant building, but it'll be on Callan instead of on Monta Vista? That would be my only question.

Yeah, can I answer that?

Commissioner Beaumont, that'd be an excellent question for the applicant at the appropriate time to come up as to their business proceedings on what they intend to do.

Commissioner Vargas.

Full disclosure, my kid plays baseball or has played baseball with the applicant's kids. I'll just put that out there. I will say this area here seems to be kind of that vehicle repair tire location. So I think it's actually pretty fitting in this location here for East Monta Vista and Cal. I take my car to Firestone. There's various other places there. So it's not like anything out of the ordinary. So I'll just comment on that.

Thank you.

Commissioner Betta.

Thank you for the presentation. I also have a question for the applicant but for staff. I know we just received a presentation about the Markham neighborhood plan not too long ago and I think this area was in it all the way up Monta Vista. Has this been applied to that plan at all because there is part of economic development and you know making more businesses and stuff and so if it hasn't I would like to see it included.

thank you vice chair manta we'll take a quick look at that while the applicant addresses the commission and get back to you yeah let's invite the applicant up to give some of these talking points real quick you're good oh

good uh tony profetto cmp civil engineers land planners uh to answer your first question jared brett's um his existing building and he's purchased this property to expand um and again he says we're not expanding the building the looks of the building it's a takeover of the building a new signage um can you come kind of simplify what you were asking

When I moved to Cowan in 2016- Can you step all the way up to make it- Yeah.

Thank you. In 2016, the owners of the building had I worked there in the 90s. I went to school with their kids and they promised to sell me those buildings in 2016 and then some tragic events for their family. But over the time, here we are a decade later, process hasn't happened and now the kids are involved. Looking like they're probably never going to sell me the building. So that's where this purchase became, that building became available. I felt it was in the proper in the city of Vacaville. So I went ahead and made the purchase and hoping I wouldn't meet too much resistance down at the city, you know, but that was the forethought of it. I thought, you know, being in a, surrounded by likewise, like-minded businesses, it wouldn't be a bad location for it. So, and plus being on an acre, I can, hide a lot of the cars that you know they'll be in the back behind the fence they won't be visible from the street where right now we do a lot of backing cars in and out of county streets i have three buildings on calum where we're constantly pulling out there's people walking by i think it's more of a hazard for me on calum to be honest i like it there but i don't get to own the buildings that's kind of part of the uh in an adult plan so yeah that's that answers that question thank you any other questions for the applicant yeah my question my questions were kind of building off that so are you going to be moving completely from talon to mona vista or expanding it um we're not sure partially right now because um we still have to go through the paint booth permit process and whatnot there's one building the the 1312 i am going to be moving that portion of the business to monte vista as soon as possible. And the 1306 location, I'll probably at least be there, I would assume, for at least a year. I have a couple of like-minded businesses that are interested in taking over, you know, so it won't be just like a vacant structure. And Joe McGeer that owns the building, I mean, we were still good friends, even though they never sold me the buildings. And he's getting into his 80s and age, and I told him, I said, I will help you find somebody you know, fill the void of me leaving because I just, I mean, they've honestly, they've been good to me too, even though they didn't follow through, but they've been good to me. So I can't complain about that. So yes, I'm going to try and help them assist getting somebody in there also.

Awesome. Thank you. And you kind of answered my next question was going to be just you sharing a little bit about is this going to improve your business? And I'm assuming by owning the building.

Absolutely. Just signage on the main drag, you know, and plus the buildings. I mean, that's why I don't want to change the face of it because it's a very attractive building when you drive by. So, I mean, yeah, I'm going to have to make some concessions and work around some things, but I really don't want to. change anything of the the optics of it as you're driving down i'm not i don't plan on asking for any big roll-up doors in the face but i don't plan on doing that so you know um maybe eventually change the paint color but you know i'll live with it for now awesome thank you thank you

Commissioner Hampton.

Quick question. Just, you know what, like I said, definitely an upgrade with where you are now. The challenge that I see, okay, is simply parking. As overflow with, you know, Goodyear and some of the other businesses there, the concern is is that there's a lot of alternative, parking sites that have been utilized that are not on site. So how are you going to address some of the overflow issues if you have those issues on that site? Now, I know the back end is great. You'll be able to do that. But how are you addressing potential overflow where it goes beyond the capacity of what your current parking space is a lot?

Okay. That site currently has more parking spaces than I have amongst all three buildings on Cowan Street. So, I mean, right now my customers, I have two parking spots for riding estimates and the rest of it is consumed by the cars that we're fixing. Monte Vista, I'll be able to have all the cars we're fixing in the back lot and I will have How many parking spots are out front there? Like 20? You know, so actually I'll have more of my customers parking in the parking lot to get service than parking up the street on Callen in front of another business or, I mean, I can't tell you how many times I had parked in front of the tent shop and I got to run up there and get out of that guy's way. No, it actually cleans up my operation and I don't really foresee myself having much of a parking issue. I do plan on retaining the 1318 building that I have on Callen that I'm renting and that's just used solely for the overflow situation that I have at 1306 and 1312. I mean, yeah, I spent a lot of money trying to avoid clogging up Callen Street, which a lot of people on Callen Street don't, but I have. So, yeah, this is kind of a blessing that's on an acre versus what I've been contending with over the last 10 years.

because obviously your business is going to grow and expand hopefully with full relocation potentially so it's glad that you've got a plan b for that backup because you know again the concern would be is alternative parking that's not on site and i i like to try my best to keep all of my customers vehicles indoors overnight it's like you know it's it's not known as being the greatest neighborhood for leaving cars outside so yeah i mean that's

You know, that's part of, you know, we scheduled around, you know, square footage in hopes that we can really minimize how many cars actually sleep outside. So with that stated, with the building only being roughly 5,000 feet on an acre, I'm pretty safe that I'm not going to overflow that parking lot, especially maintained in 1306 and 1318 as potential, you know, overflow, you know, parking. It is always going to be a challenge, but I can assure you this. I mean, Louis Palaio, which is a good friend of mine, you guys probably already know about some of the parking issues he had with the previous tenants. So he's already come over numerous times. Jared, I'm so happy you did this. So yeah, it's kind of alleviated something for some of the neighbors already. But yeah, I can assure you I won't be having anybody parking over at Louie's or at the Mexico meat market trying to get an estimate.

Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioner Beaumont.

Just a quick question to Caitlin or Albert. Do you know who owns the lot next to this that's just paved?

Daryl Ray. I've spoken with him numerous times. He actually just did some work there.

Is there some use for that that he's going to do, or is it just...

I've been trying to pry that question out of him for about a couple months now that I've owned that building. He just did another improvement in the back, built a block wall back there. But he has... never disclosed to me what his intention was. I'd love to buy that from him.

Well, that's why my question, yeah.

Yeah, except I thought it'd be annexed the lot and tear the fence out and make it all parking, but you should meet Darrell sometime. He's an interesting fellow. I mean, I like him, but he's an interesting gentleman.

Okay, great. Thanks.

Thank you so much, you guys. I think we're good. Commissioner questions. I'd like to open it up now for public comment. Once. Vice. I'll close public comment. And now I, yes.

out of practice. Chair Wilkerson, if I may respond to the question from Vice Chair Banta. This site is within the Markham Callen neighborhood plan. At the time the plan was approved, the Vacaville storehouse was in active operation and I don't think it was known to the city that it was going to vacate that location. I just quickly skimmed through the plan and there are several different goals in the plan that this project achieves. One of the things to keep in mind about the Markham Callen plan is it's not a neighborhood, it's not a land use plan, it's more of a neighborhood improvement and programs, but there are goals about improving property maintenance, reducing illegal dumping, and creating more employment opportunities in the neighborhood. And I would say that this kind of business taking on what is now a vacant building checks those boxes. It's not a deep dive, but I do think that there's an alignment between the goals of the plan and the project.

Thank you. Yeah, I'd like to make a motion.

Commissioner Dieman. I'll second. I got a motion from Commissioner Dingman. I have a second from Commissioner Vargas. Clerk, please call the roll.

Commissioner Vargas? Yes. Commissioner Beaumont? Yes. Commissioner Dingman?

Yes.

Commissioner Hampton?

Yes.

Commissioner LeRoy? Yes. Vice Chair Banta? Yes. Chair Bill Clisson? Yes.

Congratulations, next step. End of business. We do not have any business items this evening. We proceed straight to our director's report on the agenda.

Thank you, Chair Wilkerson and commissioners. I'm happy to be here providing the director's report this evening as Acting Assistant Director Paymon Bevan sets up the deck for me. Thank you very much, sir. So we're going to start with, on the next slide, some city council updates. Prior to the last commission meeting, I think we shared the council did consider the entertainment zone ordinance, and they actually initiated that by approving it at the first hearing. Subsequently, on June 23, the council amended our contract so we can finish preparing Vacaville's MSR, municipal services review. in close coordination with LAFCO. They also did the second reading of the entertainment zone ordinance, which means it went into effect in late July. And they also approved the Vanden Gate DA that the commission had previously reviewed, or they introduced the ordinance. On July 28th, the council did the second reading of the ordinance for the Van de Gate DA. They approved a funding agreement for Roberts Ranch Parcel M. This is a newish general plan amendment application and rezoning request that will eventually come to commission, but we did need some consultants on board to help us manage the project to prepare the environmental review. They approved another contract amendment for the Peabody Allison specific plan. We're working on a utility study that was a little bit of an unexpected requirement for the project and the goal is to get that plan moving again but we did need to do a contract amendment to keep our consultants on board and then it was a busy night at Council on July 28th they they approve introduced the ordinance that approved the general plan amendment zoning text amendment that eliminated the two filing windows during the year and also eliminated the merit hearing process and then they heard a presentation on the Northeast growth area planning study and provided direction to staff and to generally pursue alternative A and to bring the final study back in the fall. So a lot happened on July 28th at council. We'll go to our next slide. Here we are with the future planning commission items. We do expect to bring you the farm at Alamo Creek development agreement amendment really as soon as our next planning commission meeting. So mark your calendars and plan to be here. And then we have a number of pending items that will be scheduled between now and the end of the calendar year or in some cases maybe beginning of the new year. These include our East of Leisure Town specific plan study session, the Vacaville Islamic Center, the Orion Outdoor Digital Billboard, a study session on our Peabody Allison specific plan, and also eventually the Pilot Travel Center, although that last application remains incomplete and there is no hearing schedule at this time. So we're going to do our building division monthly report now. Overall permit activity is up with 374 building permits issued in a kind of a variety of categories. While the permit numbers are up, the revenues are down. that happens sometimes depending on the composition of our permits and inspections are way up at summertime. We actually currently have two full-time inspectors and are doing our best to cover a vacancy there and they are just doing a great job keeping everything moving despite very lean staffing. Let's go on to the next part of the Building Division Monthly Report. Oh, sorry, that was actually, forgive me, that was June. And now we're going to look at July. So June was up in terms of permits issued. July was slightly down from June. And July's inspection activity was still slightly down. But I would note, of course, that in July, two inspectors, roughly two inspectors completed 1,339 inspections. So they are really doing a great job. And this shows our activity trends over the course of July to July, showing that in this time period, there's been over 4,000 building permits with, as usual, summer of June has kind of spiked there. You can see that on the right. It happens every June. And if we go to the next slide, this shows... Okay, this is additional activity. This is our monthly average, month to month. And again, June and July trend high following the maybe potentially rainier months. And then we'll go to the next slide, which shows our solar permits in relation to building permits. We still have a strong solar permit business, and they still generally trend with particularly the construction of single-family homes. So we're gonna continue on to the current planning report, and I will ask people to take the next couple slides.

Thank you, good evening, Commission. So in terms of current planning activities for District 1, no new applications. We did approve a parcel map, two parcel map projects for District 2. We received a time extension for the Jepson Center Drive-Thru, which is the project at the corner of Elmira and Leisure Town Road. No approved projects for District 3. exotic auto body came in and Peabody apartments perimeter fence which I think was a resubmittal and no approved projects there. For district four we received a new application for a recycling center and we approved a accessory building for the VCS campus sports complex. District five, lots of activity, new applications for pilot travel center, and a number of neighborhoods for Lower Dugan Valley project. In terms of approved, again, some Lower Dugan Valley projects for house plans and the event center modification, and then no new activities for District six. In terms of our advanced planning monthly report, not a lot of changes. As the director mentioned, we were able to secure some more funding from MTC to proceed with the water and drainage study for that project, so that's being prepared to go forward. MSR, we're continuing our meetings with LAFCO. The entertainment zone was adopted June 23rd. I think we're working with DVBID right now to look at a October event to test out the entertainment zone program. Parkland program is going to be hopefully going forward soon in the fall as well and continuing dialogue with HC on the housing designation. They've identified some areas where the city needs to provide some more information or should look at for this process. East of Leisure Town, not a lot of changes. We're still aiming to look at the draft specific plan winter and then EIR in the spring of 27. Northeast growth areas, the director mentioned Council staff proceed with alternative A and then the general plan amendment process was approved and we'll look at the second reading on August 25th.

Okay, I'll close this out for the evening. I think staffing updates and other topics are kind of the same thing. Unfortunately or fortunately, we've had our previous assistant director, Claudia Garcia, accept a role as community development director for El Cerrito. So she's taken the helm of that department, and really we wish her all the best. We also had a wonderful associate planner, Demir Powell, who accepted a role actually outside the United States. And so that's another loss, sincere loss for the city of Vacaville. We have wonderfully talented assistant planners here tonight, one of whom debuted and one of whom was a two-peat, I think, maybe a three-peat, two-peat, yes. And we are actively hiring a senior planner and two or three, I can't remember the number right now, assistant planners. And I will be making an announcement shortly about the assistant director that I'm hiring. So the goal is to replenish the ranks, but at this point our staff capacity is quite diminished. So last thing I'll share is we did reduce our counter hours to have a lunch closure because I just can't have the same two planners working every single day covering the entire day but eventually as staffing levels improve we'll reassess that so there's a lot going on the department and we are making the best we can with the resources we have until we get more resources if you have any questions for me I'm happy to answer them thank you thank you we'll now move on to item 10 which the Commissioner comments this is the portion of the agenda is for commissioners to inform each other of items of potential interest

to others on the commission, such as interagency meetings or other announcements. I will start by going down the line. We'll start with Commissioner Hampton.

Chair Wilkerson, I just want to take a moment to recognize a past planning commissioner, Jen Aldrich, who passed tragically just a few short weeks ago. She was a tremendous community servant. She sat on the planning commission for a few terms. Some of you actually sat on the commission with her. Her passing is greatly missed. She volunteered, was very active in community. She was actually one of my volunteers at Roland Freedom Center. And she was a great addition to our team. And she was a great addition to our community. So just again, your thoughts with her family. Again, a loss for the community. She was very engaged and truly was a positive contributor to our community at large. So again, Jan, thinking about you.

Well said. Commissioner LeRoy.

I'd just like to thank staff for the presentation, Caitlin and Brenna, for being here and presenting so well. And Albert, as always, a lot goes into that, and we appreciate all the work. So, thank you.

Commissioner Vargas? I will echo. Thank you, staff. Great job tonight.

Commissioner Dingman?

Again, welcome ladies to the team. Great assistant planners. Thanks for being here. Great job by the staff. It's been a, I think, a fast and furious summer copying all the transition. It's never an easy time, but I'm glad you're taking care of the team. I'll just kind of echo some of the comments I made earlier a little bit about just, you know, what we're doing here in Vacaville really matters, not just for Solano County, but also for the folks that are serving out at Travis Air Force Base, and so it's great to see projects that are coming that are gonna hopefully help provide more housing, more development for this great little city that we have, but also just wanna continue to find ways to do it better, faster, cheaper, find those affordable options that, to Vice Chair Banta's point, I mean, we've gotta have some different options out there, so just appreciate all the work that you guys do to help find that for us, so thank you very much, that's all I have. Vice Chair Banta.

Just thank you for the presentations tonight. You guys did a good job.

Commissioner Beaumont.

Yeah, I'd just like to agree with Bob about Jan Aldrich. I served with her on the Planning Commission here for a couple, three years. She was the chair for several years. Did a great job. She always saw her around in her yellow Camaro and you knew where she was. And she was a contributor to Vacaville in many ways. So we do miss her and Godspeed to her.

Thank you for that. Great presentation tonight by everyone. Thank you for all the hard work that everybody put in. I would like to thank Vice Chair Bancher for leading the last meeting that I was not able to attend to. You did a fabulous job, so thank you for that. We have reached the end of our meeting. As a reminder, our next meeting will be Tuesday, September 15th, 2026. Thank you, and the meeting is now adjourned.