Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

The August meeting. We're gonna call the meeting to order. Jenna, could you do a roll call, please?

Named to be chair Wilson. Chair Wilson?

Here.

Commissioner Habib?

Here. He

is joining us remotely today. Commissioners Lake?

Here.

Mohler?

Here.

Here. And Lovato.

Here.

Commissioner Dan.

Thanks. I'm here too. Thank

you. Can you declare the posting and agenda, please?

Tonight's meeting agenda was duly noticed and hosted in accordance with government code section 549,542.

Thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Dan, could you leave us, please? You?

Thank you. Thank you. Next

item is the public comment for non agenda items. The members of the public are entitled to address the planning commission concerning any item within the planning commission's subject matter jurisdiction. Public comments are limited to no more than three minutes except for certain specific exceptions. The commission is prohibited from discussing or taking any action on any items not appearing on the posted agenda. Mm-mm. Do we have any speakers or people online?

I don't see any raised hand.

Okay. Then we'll close the public comment. Gentlemen, for this of the day, any issues, questions? We're good. Okay.

Our one item, the continued public hearing, ZA2024001EA2024009. DeWitt West Hills Church request for a planned development with a master plan of a 5.75 acre parcel for the remodel and expansion of existing religious facility. Plan includes demolition of temporary classroom facilities, the construction of permanent classroom facilities, and the remodel and expansion listing sanctuary with the associated site improvements. Miss Tiffany Brown is going to give the staff report.

Hi. Thank you. Good evening. Can everybody hear me okay?

Yes. Yeah.

Okay. Great. Thank you. My name is Tiffany Brown. I'm with the planning department, and I am here tonight to present the West Hills Community Church plan development with master plan. We're gonna start with the project location. The project site is located at 13695 DeWitt Avenue. It's an approximate 5.75 acre site within city limits. So if you look at the map to your right, you'll see that there is a red outline of a property and an orange outline of a property. The red is the portion of the property that's in the city limits that is part of the application that we're reviewing tonight.

But just so you know, they also own the rest of the properties in orange, which total about 9.69 acres. The land use designation within the city is open space. In currently, there is an approved use permit on-site for the place of worship with Sunday school, counseling support groups, and life uses for undone reviews. Just to get us familiar with what is there now, this is the project site. Duwitt Avenue is on the far right of your screen.

There is the existing worship hall, which is here, and then there are temporary buildings and a blackhead arm facility. As we know, planned developments require a preliminary application first. So back in May back in May 2021, we came forward to this commission with a slightly different proposal that included the permitted use, also requesting wireless communication facilities that are stealth to be a permitted use as part of that plan development, and also adding conditional uses, wireless communication facilities that are nonself, day care facilities, and the potential for preschool k through 12. This is the previous proposal back in 2021. Feedback or sorry.

The development standards that they were requesting to deviate from included an increase in impervious surface coverage from 10, which is the standard, to 31, an increase in building coverage from five percent to 10, reduced side yard setbacks from 50 feet to 23 feet on one side, and an increase in height from 25 feet to four. So, again, this is what was back in 2021. We received feedback of that meeting that those unsure of the support for a conditional use to allow for a private school, consider the height limits in relation to the slopes, work with open space authority on an agreement with the easement that runs through the property, and there's consideration for the increase in impervious surface coverage and building coverage and setback reductions as it relates to spreading out the facility if needed to reduce the overall heights. And before us today is a new presentation. So they have this plan development only includes the uses that are there now.

So the permitted uses, which is part of what's part of the approved use permit. The table in front of you shows permitted using and conditionally permitted uses. This is the zoning of what's allowed or not allowed now. Existing permitted use with a use permit is what they have, which we've discussed. And then in the main proposal, you can see just in what they were including and what the current proposal includes.

So they listen to the commission. They are not proposing a day care as a conditional use nor a preschool nor a k through 12 elementary. They are just moving forward with their church facility as it is today. And the development standards went from so here, again, this is the zoning. This is what's out there today.

This is the May proposal in 2021, and this is where we're at today. So we have a decrease in the request for building coverage. We have a major decrease in the request for impervious surface coverage. We have a decrease in the maximum height, and there's only one building that is this tall, and the other one meets the height as it is today. And they are no longer asking for a reduction in psychiatric setbacks.

They are meeting all the setbacks. Before you is their master plan. So this is that section that we saw in red at the beginning. You go up the to it, it's to the right. Go up the driveway.

This is the new parking lot with a lot of landscaping. This is the location of the existing worship hall, which will be remodeled and expanded. And they are removing the three to four portable buildings, I say four because of the restroom facilities, and replacing it with one two story permanent structure. And here is a site plan where you can see the existing easement with open space authority. So this was discussed at the planning commission meeting as well to work with open space authority to ensure that the new plan doesn't hinder the access for open space authority to their property in the back.

So the orange lines are the open space authority easement to their property as it is. The purple is the new negotiated access easement, which is more accurate because this is how they access their site, and this is not how they access their site. So they work that out, and the executed agreement is attached as part of the packet. All parties agreed to this new easement. This is the breakdown of the worship center.

This is the building that you saw that's to the right close to Duet at the top of the hill. It is a one story building, approximately 650 square feet. It includes a sanctuary, a stage, a kitchenette, restrooms, cry room, green room, and storage areas. And this is the proposal of what it could look like. The next building is what they're calling the community life center.

It is a two story building totaling in 12,000 square feet that includes a fellowship hall, lobby, classroom, disability room, and kitchen on the First Floor. And on the Second Floor, you have the nursery, toddler rooms, and Sunday school classrooms broken down by age group with a restroom. And this is what that building could look like. Here is the view from the bottom of the White Hills. So this is the access to the site. I'm gonna use my mouse. Can everyone see that? Mhmm. Mhmm. Okay.

So all the way at the top of the hill, way back there. That's where the tears facility is. And here's a perspective. So if you're standing here, I know this looks like a teeny tiny dot. This is the height of an average person.

This is called a line of sight perspective looking up the hill. And what this shows you is the proposal and the ridgeline and taken into consideration with the heights that you proposed for the project and that they are lower than that ridgeline and the line of sight. Substantial public benefit. So a planned development requires what we call a substantial public benefit. The planned development allows projects like this to promote high quality development that deviates from standards and regulations applicable to the base zoning district.

So that would be those deviations that we're talking about asking for increase in height, etcetera. And what is a substantial public benefit? Substantial public benefit is a budget feature not otherwise required by the zoning codes or any other provision of local, state, or federal law that substantially exceeds the city's minimum development standards and significantly advances the goals of the general plan. Part of the proposal from West Hills Church Community is to allow for a public access easement for a future trail for the city. This is something that has been in the city's general plan for, gosh, thirty plus years, I would say.

And it's very excited to work with the church on this access easement for this future trail. Our LUPA. So religious land use and institutionalized person act of 2000 prohibits cities from imposing a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden for religious exercise. The process for permits remains the same, but the use restriction substantial burden impairs the ability to engage in religious exercise such as size and resources of the burden party, actual religious means of an individual or religious congregation, and level of space constraints. For example, courts have found substantial burden when imposing a significantly great restriction on religious facilities or uses of a property for creating a significant delay, uncertainty, or expense of Constructing or expanding the place of worship.

Then we have our little green thing in front of the words here. Different movements here. We go. It's magic. Okay. Lidgetables for other rigid facility. I did it anyway. Here we go.

Alright.

Project analysis consistency and. So this project, as proposed, is found to be consistent with the general plan and zoning as it's been summarized with the new staff report. The consistent it's also found to be consistent with the plan development master plan findings, which has also been summarized in your staff report, and it is providing a substantial public benefit as we noted the trail. An initial study was completed for the project, and a negative declaration was prepared in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, which concluded that the project would not have a substantial impact on the environment. The project was publicly noticed in the newspaper.

Signs were posted on the project site, and there was mail that went out to property owners within 300 feet from the project site. There was a project page created on the city's website, and public comments were received and attached as part of your packet for tonight's meeting. The next steps for this project, this project with this project will be reviewed by the planning commission tonight, and you will give a recommendation to city council. Then the project will go forward to city council for the final decision. If the project is supported, their next step would be an administrative design promote and then building permit and associated off-site improvement and on-site improvement permits.

GAP is recommending to open and close the public hearing, adopt a resolution recommending approval to the city council of the negative declaration, and adopting a resolution recommending approval of the plan development master plan. That concludes my presentation. Any questions?

Gentlemen, any questions? Let's go north, Paul. Anything? None for me. Thank you.

Liam? Great presentation.

Yeah. Have a couple questions for Steph. I probably have somebody up into the let's try let's try this. Good presentation as always. So I mean, this just goes back a long time. Right? Yes. Thirty plus years, I don't It's almost as old as me. So when it comes to the the carbon condition permits, I don't know if is there times of operation, or is it you know, the permit is you can operate at any point in time of the day of the week. Is that the general idea?

For that use permit, yes. We can. It's a very old use permit. It was approved back in gosh. What was the date I wanna say it was? '89. So yes. Very not that old. It's old. And so they are able to do all their uses on-site. There's not a lot of constraints sometimes in terms of that nature. This plan development would allow them to just have to place a worship.

And so in the in the new proposal, are we proposing to impose any time restrictions that is the same conditions, which is you could operate, like, a religious event or whatever open facility, any time of the day, any day of the week.

Correct. Okay.

That's what they've been doing up to now. Right? Okay. Alright? Don't take this question the wrong way, but who made the determination this was a substantial public benefit? Who makes that determination?

The general plan has outlined that access to this trail has been something that the city is trying to do. And so as general plan policies, we are trying to achieve those goals and meet those. And so that trail is one that is in a general plan and is substantially public benefit as it's something not required of them, and they are allowing for that access and that potential for a new trail to happen.

Is there any other method to get at that area other than just going through the church?

No. I know our public works director, Doctor. Fioni, couldn't be here tonight, but this is something that he has looked at for quite a few years now and has been working with the church and trying to get open space in the church to to be able to get this access. And so if there was another way, he would have he would have found it and K. And tried to pursue it. I understand. Yeah.

And then to to get that access by the open space is it open space authority? Right? That's the county. Right?

So the actual easement is being granted by the church and will be on church property. And so that public access easement, they're granting public access on their church for a new trail for their our city as a whole.

That's going to do the city or to

the open space? The city will not have time. To the city.

Which in theory, whenever the time is right, it's open public space for people to unrestricted use to to be able to get to the trail, for example.

It's a public access trail. It's a city trail.

It's a city trail.

It's a city trail that they're giving.

Okay. Alright. And then this might be more a question for you, Dan, but the whole area of the religious land use two questions. I'm not sure I fully understand them, but two, why did you put it in here? Why did you put that in the why is that in the package? Is there a relevant reason you put it in there?

I'm sorry.

The religious land use

Yeah. I will. It's in I I didn't put it in there, but it's in there because it applies to this project because it is a it is a church and a religious school. So it's really just as information to understand the the the boundaries under which we're we treat projects like this.

But it also it didn't say I don't if it said it directly in the PowerPoint or the the presentation you're seeing, but in the staff report, it did say, no, that you they still have to be compliant with with all of the building codes and all of the right? Correct. Yeah. So you don't restrict it, but they have to comply. Okay. Correct. Okay. And oh, and then so there's no schooling goes on there right now other than religious schooling, I guess. I'm not sure if I'm using the right term, but you know what I mean

Sure.

Related to the to the church. There's no independent schooling. There's no subcontracting or schooling. There's no school groups meeting there other than people that call. Is that correct?

There's not a day care facility, and there's not a private school at the center. So they have youth groups. They have events. They have other things that are similar to what other worship facilities that we have in our cities. And those are all okay. This is the uses that were requested previously specifically were the day care and the potential for a private school, and they're not asking for those anymore.

Okay. So I go back a few years. I go back a few years. No. Definitely before COVID. But I might be wrong. So credit for them. But I thought there used to be homeschool groups. They used to go there for schooling, like, once a week or once a month. Is that not the case?

I would ask the applicant to confirm that, but that's different than getting a use permit for a private school. So a K through 12 private school would be a full on in person school with the principal, teachers, and staff. So that's separate than what you're ex what you're explaining. Okay. Okay.

Alright. Thanks. That's a

check. David, anything? Just clarifying questions. So I was on the parks and rec mission for a while, so it's unique to see this side of the table of the trail easement. So I wanted to actually just come back to that. You brought us some good questions. But as far as trail security, is there gonna be fencing or signage to protect the privacy of the church and nearby residents with this new trail easement? Is there a plan for fencing or signage?

So there will be. The design of the trail will come back at a letter later date. It goes first to the Parks and Rec Commission. Mhmm. And then it will go to city council before they start construction of the new trail. But there will be signage. They will follow the same city rules for other trails. You can't go on the trail after dusk, etcetera.

And then as far as trail timeline construction, when's the public easement expected to be developed on that trail?

So the easement doesn't get executed until city council has reviewed the project and made a decision on the project.

This particular one?

Yes. Okay.

So if this permit moves forward and it's approved, the next step is to record that easement.

Okay.

And then who's responsible for funding the construction of the trail?

The city is working with OSA on the construction of

the trail.

Okay.

So I believe so, Christie and me, will come forward with that to counsel on how that will be better.

Okay. Alright.

I'm looking forward to

it it all coming together. So it's interesting. Yeah. Alright. Thank you.

Nothing else. Wayne? A couple questions. On the trail first, it starts to the east at a public street. Or no. That was just a question.

Yeah. It does.

It's okay. But

And It

starts at DeWitt. Yep.

Okay. And where does it end, if you will, as you go west?

At the top of El That's the train. The trail will go all the way to the top of El Tard. They gotta get 150 property owners to move.

I wanna see you up there.

The city is the city and the city of OSA have overlapping easements. So between the city and OSA, it will go to

the top of El Flora.

But I think the easement that we're talking about, the the church providing is is essentially to to where the where the existing trailhead is that's not accessible.

Right. Right. That's what makes it so valuable. Yes.

So as it relates to this project, the easement will start at DeWitt. It will go up the hill and to the right of the church or the top of the page in this at on this page, which is to the east.

Okay. So this section then completes the right of way needed to get to El Toro?

This session will be the beginning of a green trail that will eventually get to El Toro.

But but when you say eventually, do we have to obtain easements from other private parties?

No. No. Because this leads you to city owned property.

Okay. Okay. That's that's what I was after because if if it did not, then this really doesn't add that much value. But based on the circumstance, it's it's a fairly tremendous value. Okay. The second one I had had to do with parking. I saw, I think, a 131 or so stalls at the two parking lots. Correct. How does that mesh with the standards for parking?

Think she here. So church uses are parked in such a way that we look at our parking ratio that's part of our municipal code, and then we look at how that applies to each building. And churches, as we know, don't occupy fully all the buildings at the same time. So for example, there's two buildings before she clicks stop sharing. Oh oh, that's okay. So there's two buildings on-site. It's fine. It's fine. There's two buildings on-site. There's a fellowship hall and then the two story community life center.

The fellowship hall will not be occupied at the same time as the worship hall, so then we don't overcount the parking. So if everything was open at the same time and it was completely full, this would require a 174 parking stalls. But at the place, we're not gonna occupy the fellowship hall and the worship hall at the same time ever because that's not the operation of the church facility. It only and gets cash. The fellowship hall, you know, on its own requires 77, and the worship hall on its own requires 92.

And that alone, they have more than enough parking for the project, which they're proposing a 136, I believe. Okay. So they're needing parking.

Okay. So for the existing congregation, the number of parking spaces that are planned are more than adequate?

Correct.

How does it I'm just kinda curious. How does it compare with the ITE standards for parking for this type of facility?

We start with those ratios. So those ratios are in the municipal code and what we require, and then we do the balance as to what's actually being used when.

K. If necessary, could people park along the driveway easement?

No. It's not meant for that. But there is so you can see the property that is owned by them that on this page, this parking lot here is a overload overflow parking. In addition, they own a property down below where they have additional parking if they needed it, but there hasn't been that need. Alright.

Thank you. And the last question I had is a slide that you showed line of sight.

Yeah.

And and could you put that back up? I didn't understand what that indicated.

That's you

at the bottom unable to go.

Yeah. They're not. So

this is if you were standing at the bottom. Maybe let's I'm gonna go back one more slide. So this is if you were standing here looking up at the top of that box. So if you're standing here and you're looking up at the top of that box, that's where the church facility is going to be. And what it's showing you is that when you look up and you're looking at the ridgeline and contours of the hill, this building is not gonna impede on the view in the ridgeline of the hill. Mhmm. That's that's the line of sight.

So if I say it another way, it's just if your eyes are focused on the ridgeline Mhmm. You basically don't see or your vision is not interrupted so that top part of the building doesn't interrupt that line of sight directly to the ridgeline. It says it's below the ridgeline, which is was part of the discussion in '89. K.

And if I could extrapolate that, was that designed really to prevent homes from being built on the ridgeline?

The design of the church?

No. I extrapolating. Not having to do with the church. Oh. But on the ridgeline, in the past, homes were built right on top of the bridge, you know, looking over at on the east side of the town. Is this an ordinance that really basically precludes that from occurring anymore?

This was something that we looked into for the church facility as they're requesting for additional height. And so the importance of protecting the hillside and hillside ordinance, we wanted to see that that line of sight remained and wasn't impeded upon. I don't think that the hillside ordinance precludes homes to be built if they disturb the line of sight, but it is a goal to not impede on if possible.

And Jennifer There is general plan policy that encourages not blocking ridgeline views. We don't have any strict regulations that forbid it, but you would consider that as part of the design permit with the hillside development.

K. And we used to have an agreement with the county that they might hold for that too.

That's

But I don't believe that happens anymore.

Well, the the problem is is with some properties, you have to have a building site. Right? You can't say there's not a building site because you deviate from the ridgeline, so you you may not be able to enforce it all the time.

And then there's always the question of do you move dirt, or do you build up? And have to pick what's more important.

Our bill side of the ordinance does state that buildings are prohibited within 80 feet of original line. Okay. Good. Policies. So That's good. Good to go.

Thank you.

Any questions, Joe?

No. We just answered the one. I wanted to make sure that that was to the to the original.

Oh, excellent. Proposal and presentation.

What about mama?

Where is he? I don't see him.

He's on.

Can you hear me?

Yes, sir.

Yeah. So questions. I think the the rest of the commissioners actually asked several of the questions I was gonna go over. Let me see if I had any other ones here.

Let's see.

Oh, so the the public easement, I know we had already discussed a couple of the topics. The only one that I didn't see that was covered was in regards to the maintenance. I know we covered who would actually do the construction of the trail. Would the maintenance also be the city as well as OSA?

City maintained is my understanding.

Yes.

Okay. Alright. And then the the communication that we're having in regards to the daycare, preschool, and k 12, what was the the primary reason that that was removed? Was that based off of, the initial comments back in 2019?

That is based on the comments received by a planning commission in 2021.

Okay. And so I know we're just discussing that there are some, like, religious based, like, schooling, and that can still occur. But if the the church would like to do schooling beyond that, under the current conditions, that would not be allowed?

Correct.

Do we still have the ability to keep that open if the church still wants to, for example, if they wanted to, you know, potentially down the line have some type of, you know, k through 12 or preschooling so on, or is it just completely restricted in the current conditional use?

It is a use that would need to be added to the plan development. I'm sure and we could ask the applicant and representative of the churches here if that's something that they're interested in doing. The time has the recommendation. So they definitely could recommend that they add those as a future conditional use.

Okay. Yeah. I'll be interested in hearing the the comments in regards to the the church really feels that that's something they would like to keep just because I can see possible uses that made later or and if they wanted to have that just available to see if that was something that the commission wanted to discuss. Other clarifying questions oh, yeah. So can you pull up the the dotted orange easement map that you had previously, please? Yes.

Right. That one?

No. It was the one that you just had open before you had closed it. I was showing the series.

Okay. The way. The public benefit or the open space easement? This one?

A public benefit.

Okay. Apologies. This one.

Yes. Thank you. So, just a point of clarification. So, starting from DeWitt, we see the the easement coming up the hill, you know, instead of the thinner line. Up until it expands is the the thinner part of the easement, the where the current driveway also is?

It's just to the west of the current driveway. So there's going to be a sidewalk or there is a sidewalk that's there, and it covers that access up to pass the parking lot. And then they will cross and go over to the bigger part of the trail.

Maybe to the north? God. It's on your left today. It's on the east.

I left my North Arrow on here. So the driveway is here, so it is not on the driveway. Got

it. Okay. And that entire area is also, like, relatively the same slope and so on as a driveway that it's going up against?

Correct. The difference is it's the church property versus the neighbor's property where they have an easement for access to the church only.

Got it. Okay. And so that was the next question too is because I was thinking maybe the the church's easement was overlaying with the OSA easement with was overlaying with the the new public access easement. So it looks like the church easement is separate, and then the city easement is gonna just run across so that way it stays on the church's property. And then OSA is gonna still be running along the driveway, or is the OSA gonna be running along the city easement?

OSA is going to be running along the driveway. So it still continues, goes up, goes across, crosses over here, goes into this area, and it goes out here.

Perfect. Thank you. You you answered my next question. And just one final question here too is I think in one of the the packets, this was, I think, the West Hills Miller OSA access easement, OSA sign. It it talks, if I understand correctly, in regards to OSA mentioning that they, the the OSA property does not have any right of access for public. And so does that mean even if there's a overlap, the city trail access would supersede the OSA restrictions on their current property?

They will have access here. Yes. Ours the city staff has been in discussion with to make sure that this trail can go through, and they're excited for that to happen.

Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much. That's all I had.

Thank you. You. Sure. I have

one last question. Tell somebody else who's gonna ask it. Do it quick. Go right ahead. I hope you're good. It just becomes a open area for for the public. Where would people park?

That probably will be come forward with the design of the trail in the future to park and rec and then to council.

This is a walking through. I'd say,

do you go parked somewhere outside of the city?

Potentially.

What does potentially mean?

There's street parking. There might be opportunity for the city to purchase a piece of property for future parkings to access this trail.

It's an unresolved issue at this point. Sure.

I think there's a lot of unresolved issues with this section, but it all sounds great on paper. Don't you actually sit down and think about it. But this sounds casually all gonna come together and happen. But okay. So there is no plan for profit right now.

As of right now, that's not been part of it.

Okay. Alright.

Thanks. I just one quick comment. I was actually looking at my my list of comments. I actually was one of the ones I was gonna mention. Thank you, Commissioner, for bringing that up. I was curious. It do you know if there's some type of agreement we can also have with the the church when it comes to potential parking given the accessibility of parking space so go to so close to a future opening of a public pro?

Mohammad, why don't we see if there's a representative here, and they can give some answers to those questions? And then if we have a follow-up, we can certainly ask. So do we have someone representing the church?

We'll start with the applicant.

Please step up to the oh,

you don't open the public hearing.

Open the public hearing.

Yeah. Do you want them

You might wanna finish with questions.

Yes. Go

for questions.

Yeah. Go

So

is it about that part or is it asking questions? What's the Question.

Question and then question.

We shouldn't have the presentation. They didn't answer questions.

You have a presentation for us?

Or Yeah. A few minutes. Wanted to give you some history of the question, how much this project means to us. So, yeah, thanks for hearing us. I really appreciate this. Appreciate your time. Thanks for Tiffany and the planning commission staff. Introduce this? Oh, my name is David Frederick. I am representing West Coast Community Church. I am one of the pastors there. So but once again, thank you. I appreciate your time and your consideration for this project, and thanks, Tiffany, and the planning commission team and planning development team. This plan of development obviously means a lot to our church. We love would enable us to love and serve our community here in the coming years.

You may not know the West Hills Community Church has existed for seventy five years in Morgan Hill. We started in the late nineteen forties by Japanese farm families who gathered together for bible study, prayer, and to support one another in life. And that small beginning eventually led to them renting a facility downtown where many churches es existed, in Morgan Hill when it was a small rural farm community. And as Morgan Hill grew and the church grew, the church was able to meet the needs of the community and the needs of its congregates through temporary portable buildings after purchasing the current lot that we're on in the nineteen sixties. And so we've been able to keep up with the growth community and the growth of our church's needs through those temporary portable buildings while pursuing a more permanent solution, which has led us to this place today, this development application.

Many from our church community are here right now. As you can see, I think we counted about a 100 people between this room and the overflow room. And if you're from West Coast Community Church, can you raise your hand? Can you raise your hand in the overflow room? Thanks for being here. I'm speaking on behalf of all the folks here. Otherwise, we have dozens of public comment, and we just really value your time. I'd say West Hills Community Church serves over 400 adults who call our church home, not to mention a 100 kids from birth to high school. And West Hills provides vital services to our community from senior adult support, grief groups, counseling, marriage enrichment. We distribute food to at risk families.

We have one on one care for families impacted by disability. We also provide, foster and adoption family support, of which my family has benefited from twice. We've adopted twice. And, needless to say, without the support of our church community, it would have been very difficult and challenging. West Hills is a vibrant elementary, middle, and high school ministry that provides vital care in connection to youth in Morgan Hill, and I appreciate seeing some of teenagers here.

It's nice to meet her. It's our joy to provide spiritual guidance and faith in our modern world, and West Hills enjoys a long standing relationship with the city, through things like police chaplaincy. We're also the emergency location for the police department, and our hope is to serve the community as you've heard through access to El Toro through the trail network. And so this plan development would allow us, those community church, to continue to serve our community with updated facilities. They're replacing our aging temporary buildings.

And it's our desire to care for our community and provide hope to the hurting, help to those who seek to find care, and spiritual answers to the most important questions of life house. People representing the project here today on Zoom, we have Yvonne Sheets from twelve twenty two Ventures. She's a project manager. Jeffrey Eaton's our architect back there, Jeffrey. As well as we have Chan from BKF Engineers, our civil engineer, and then Alex Merritt from Jeffrey Mullen is our legal counsel. So

that's all I have. Questions? All? No.

You for your presentation. Liam?

Yeah. I have a question for you. So I'm just trying to understand the Yeah. Again, this is the county commissioner. We know much about the value you bring to the church. We've seen and watched you guys for years. Do a fantastic job. In your I was gonna ask staff this question, but decided to ask you this question. So in the presentation, there's a Second Floor of this new construction coming up. It's great to see the chubby stuff going away and Yeah. Going up some more kind of stuff. But even though you're building a school, it still says pre K room, first and third grade, fourth and fifth grade, out of the room. Yeah.

What about what are all those?

So on a Sunday morning, we have about 60 kids, elementary age and below, and we divide them out by classroom space that is age development appropriate. And so each of those classrooms probably has between eight and fifteen kids at a given time during each service. And so design wise, the TK room has age appropriate toys, tables that are lower spade, you know, lower height, that kind of stuff. And so it enables us to have age appropriate spaces with a great teacher to kid ratio, yeah, in those spaces.

So it's for this Sunday morning. Sunday morning.

Yeah. Sunday morning, during the week, we'll have a women's bible study that'll have, you know, 40 women there, but maybe another 12 kids too. So sometimes we use certain rooms based on ages, kids that are occupying that space.

So you need six rooms for 50 kids?

I mean, we could easily pack 50 kids in this room, but the the desire is to have them be in place where they're received well, that's warm, and there's a ability to have a good teacher ratio for for care and education.

So So what happens in this space during the week?

A large space installment. So the space, again, will be used a couple times during the week maybe for Women's Bible City group, but the largest installment we do have a ministry that happens midweek, but they don't use the TK room space. They use the the older kids' classrooms. So we try and keep them separate that way.

So the highest level of traffic, I mean, was asked the question. Highest level of traffic is typically weekend and Saturday.

It's Sunday morning between nine and 10:45.

That's the highest level of traffic. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Welcome.

David? No questions. Wayne?

Yeah. I had a question, a follow-up question regarding the attendance

Yeah.

At the trail. Could you please put up that diagram that a plan view that showed the location of the trail with respect to the church property? And Liam had a very good question about for the trail to be used, people have to get to the head, the the trailhead. And some would walk Yeah. Some would bicycle, and others would potentially drive.

And I'm thinking that if if I were there, unless somebody said I couldn't do it, like, trespassing, this is church property. Yeah. I drive up the driveway and park in that first parking lot that almost looks like it's it's made. Yeah. Yeah. You thought about that? Have you thought about would you discourage people from doing it, or would you pay or charge people, for the privilege of of using it?

Or I'm glad you asked that question. That's been our one of our largest concerns for the trail as well. The there's a gate at the bottom of the hill right now that stays shut during non truck operation time. As well as I've been in conversation with Chris Guioni and the public parks department about trail access easement that I'm sure the city council and my commission will see at some point in the future. Part of that includes the maintained working gate.

There's also that lower lot that has the majority of the overflow parking there. It has a gate as well, like a chain fence that goes across it at the moment right now to prevent parking. As you can tell, you know you know, if the gate's left open, people park around park up there all the time. It's a kind of a small nuisance, but at the same time, you see the need for something like this and the desire for something like this to happen in our community. Part of that trail so there's two easements here.

The one you're seeing right now in the orange is the trail easement with the c proposed trail easement with the city. The other easement we saw earlier is the vehicle easement. So when it talks about there being no public access, it's no public vehicle access. It's only OSA and OSA consultants and people like that accessing our church access. So the orange easement there would be public foot traffic and bike access for the trail, and we've been in negotiation with the.

Part of the negotiation, part of the easement document would require the city to, in good faith, purchase a parking property. So we know that might not happen, but that that's something that the city needs to pursue in good faith. And so we're you know, I've been in many communities with trail access that you accessed by foot. It's not impossible that you're you know, there's a concern, I think, there. But we have measures in place at the gate and stuff like that to keep our property church specific. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Joe? I have a question. I'm gonna assume for assumption a second that this goes through, and now you're gonna get ready to start construction. Yeah. How do you do that and keep all your services in place? That's a great question.

I believe that as part of our building current process, we have to grind a solution. Am correct? It really depends on when we rebuild this in one phase or two phases. You know, we're willing funds come in. We're able to build at the same time. We talked about many scenarios, including potentially moving off-site during construction. That would be, you know, prohibitive. If we're building just the the community life center, we're able to maintain services, and we'd have to just adapt for the time being for the construction because we wouldn't be touching the worship center at that point in time. So we're flexible and open to solutions pending funding and pending the building for our process.

Okay. So when you when you get ready to to remodel the current Workshop center. Workshop center. Right?

Yeah.

Is that I guess I've envisioned it to be so extensive that you might have to meet another place.

That's a that's a possibility we've discussed. Yeah. I I think any sort of any sort of building project like this would be disruptive to any any applicant who's, you know, trying to build and maintain their existing facilities and existing use. So we discussed many possibilities as a virtual cross in the future, but we have had those discussions. So

Sounds like it's gonna be phased. Well, it'll be probably the easiest way to do it.

We are open to being phased. Yeah. Yeah. It yeah.

So what I was going was is I asked the same question when Saint Catherine's across the street was doing their renovation. Right?

Yeah.

They had a plan because they had a separate building. Yes. It wasn't part of it. But the first two questions popped up until staff looked at it really quickly was, can they do that? Because they just thought they were gonna move into that building for a second.

Yeah.

And so I guess I'm looking for flexibility or some way we can work with you to understand how that plays out.

Assuming we're able to build the community last minute first, that Bellish Hall space right now is big enough for us to meet with multiple services there. We currently have two services on Sunday morning. And so we could theoretically meet in that Bellish Hall space and build the remodel of worship center. The challenging thing will be if we do both at the same time. We probably need to move off-site during that season, which we are open to. We have conversations with other churches in town as well to I

mean, it's gonna play out when you get to the details. Yes.

And that'll be during the design permit process.

Okay.

But we'll have consultation from our building.

Yeah. We haven't had preliminary conversation about this,

and so we're open at. Okay. Any other questions? You want me to

Yeah. I, yeah, I had

a brief question. So this is first of all, thank you for for bringing the the project forward and for all the community support and all the comments we've received so far. So just to the the question I had earlier and the reason I'm asking this is because, typically, I like to think about, you know, flexibility to accommodate, your future needs as they evolve. And as I was looking at, you know, what you had proposed back a few years ago, which included day care, preschool, and k 12 elementary school and not seeing that in the current proposal. Can you talk about if that is still something that you would like to incorporate as part of the conditional use permit, like, currently, or is this something that you don't think that the community needs might require those additional uses that were proposed, few years back?

Yeah. That's all part of

our current plan right now.

Okay. Thank you. And, just on the the comment for, I believe it was I couldn't hear which commissioner it was. In regards to the parking, is that something you might be open to seeing if there's an agreement that you can have for the city to have some open parking in limited times based off of public parking and getting access to the trails, off peak hours, or some some points in time that wouldn't conflict with operations of the church.

For the trail?

Yes.

As it stands right now, our negotiation with Walton Space and our neighbors would prohibit us from providing access to, a public parking lot for the trail. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We're if that would change in the future, we open to discussing that. But right now, the parties have agreed not to have that be public access for for parking or vehicle access.

Okay. Perfect. And just another question too is, it seems that you also serve a pretty diverse degree. And so I know as as youth, you know, that's something that they might also be interested in when it comes to accessing the trail. Have you thought about how they may be able to or, you know, church goers may be able to access the trail from the church level rather than having to go all the way down to do it and back up from the the access of or the main heading of the trail.

Yeah. I sorry. I missed that first part of your question about the community. You said diverse communities that or what was what'd you say there? I'm making

a chat.

Yeah. So I was just mentioning that, you know, given that you also serve a pretty diverse community, including, you know, a lot of youth. And I know youth maybe, you know, if they're coming for Sunday school or other school based operation or church based operation, then this can be for adults or anyone else. But the main question was really around access for churchgoers. And if that's something that you've thought about when it comes to connecting the current site of the church and the future development. So that way, there's easier access for churchgoers if they needed to go to the trail or would like to rather than having to go all the way down to it to go through the main heading of the trail.

I mean, they can use the exercise.

No. No. No. No. I

I mean, right now, we have access for the easement for unlimited traffic. I I wouldn't wanna abuse that access and provide, like, a shortcut for people. I mean, it hasn't been an issue so far. I don't want it be an issue. The yeah. I I we haven't thought about that. I'll talk about that much. So yeah.

Perfect. And just one last question. Again, this is way back a few years ago where there's also the proposal for the wireless communication. Yep. I think that was probably also around a way of getting revenue for the church because I think there was some type of agreement that potentially may have been available for the church and the the communications provider. Can you talk a little bit about what happened with that proposed use?

Well, I mean, we all know how bad cell phone service is in Morgan Hill, so we just wanted to do the city a a favor with that. You know? Yeah. That's

Pretty funny. Yeah.

No. You know, were we were thinking about alternative, just revenue streams and potentials for where we are. It's a it's a unique location in terms of there being some cell phone gaps there and some wireless coverage gaps and thought it might be an opportunity for revenue. At this time, we don't have a plan in play to do that, and it sounds like there's opportunity in the future if we're gonna get another conditional permit or or whatever in the future. I know we could, but it's not something we wanna have as part of the project now. We wanna stay focused on our existing use. So

Great. Thank you. That's all I had, Chair.

Thanks.

Thank you.

We good? Not good. Thank you. Alright.

Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. You're very good.

Yes. Did I think we wanna come in now. Yeah. Well, hang

on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Thanks. We just have one speaker. Right?

Yeah.

Am I understanding? Okay. Why don't we take five minutes so they can get in and get organized, and we'll go from there?

Maybe I'll just speak wondering because we're already, well, very close to the capacity of this room, and we don't want the fire marshal to get us in trouble. If we don't Super Bowl lawyer. Yeah. If if if he's really if if if they're really not gonna have public comment, I think having giving the commission an opportunity just to go into the other room, acknowledge the support, and then we can meet back here will

be We're happy to do that. Yeah.

Rather than inviting everybody in here.

Yeah. That's a great idea. Okay. Give me a call. Yeah. I'll be checking out. Five minutes? Yep. K. Yeah.

Well, you heard about that.

He told us to check the

Like, comment, is there anyone in the room that's gonna speak in opposition to the proposed work.

Okay?

We have our representative for the church.

Okay. You have a representative. Thank you. You already

you have a new presenter?

Yeah. I already made my public comment, but I was speaking on behalf of the church as well because we could have probably dozens of stories if you want them tonight. We can stay here till ten or eleven.

Your story will be great.

Yeah. I

can get a public comment. I can Yeah.

And you were

doing for that last stage.

We'll get

a line we'll get a line going right here.

Good. Any more speakers?

Any other speaker?

There are no more speakers.

Okay. We'll close the public comment.

I'll make a motion to approve the recommendation to the city council to approve the negative declaration. Any second? Second that.

Roll call. Can we have some discussion?

Sure. Do you have a question, sir Yeah. Or a comment?

I have a comment.

Yeah. Okay.

So first of all, in general, I'm in support. I think a couple of observations. It's probably not a big deal. When I see the trail access that you opened in The USA being a substantial benefit compared to some of the other substantial benefits we've seen over the years for me as one planning commissioner? No. Not necessarily. Lights are going on. Should I should I? Mhmm. Let me go ahead.

But I'm just not busy. I I'm I'm not as convinced. I think the trail is gonna have its it's got quite a ways to go to get there. But I guess this is another step close to it. Right, Jen? Probably a substantial step close to it. I'm very concerned around parking, though. I have no idea under which way you would park or where we'd come up with parking or the money team will be able to car park. So I'm not really sure of the practicality of it. But to the church and the community, I appreciate the effort to make it open and to make it accessible.

The only authorization we'd make is and, again, probably not a big deal. I think this application was simplified, which is better for us to remove the school requirement by the school requirement. But I still think and maybe there's nothing wrong with this. I think you're building it like a school. That's what your classrooms are here. It's very similar to what you had before. I think it's built with maybe the future in mind, which is purely a problem, I guess. You can always come back and ask for a conditional use permit, but that's how I see it. So even though you simplify, I suspect I wouldn't be surprised again just on a planning commission's perspective. I wouldn't be surprised sometimes in future you'll come back and maybe try and open that back up, which might be fine.

You know? I don't know. Again, I think I was one of the planning measures at the time when you did this initial discussion. And my concern really was this space, this area, that location is not so very good about school. And that's my only concern. Not to have a school. I'm not pretty allowed to expand. It was just a practicality of it, but that's how I see it. But I am sport time. That's hands. Polycometry is cool. K.

Any other comments, question?

Oh, the only comment I would make, I would say, you know, I'm not gonna climb Everest, but it's been a dream of every worth one living at Morgan Hill climbing El Toro.

Except for me.

And Yeah. Okay.

It just gets us to base camp,

but let's do it. K.

So we have a motion. Do we have a second? Yeah. I do.

Do you

have a question, Mohammed?

Oh, no. I was just gonna part of the discussion, was just gonna I did mention real real briefly that I'll be supporting the the motion. I think the the project is, you know, consistent with the general plan. You know, what we're looking at as commissioners when we make our findings, you know, is I think it has a good design. Definitely, definitely, definitely, I think, provides a really strong substantial public benefit.

And I know we've had public benefit discussions several times over the years, and I think this is probably the most, if I could say, quote, unquote, substantial substantial benefit. So I I thank you for for willing to be willing to allow that easement, to allow that public benefit of accessing El Toro. And, again, just my my comment, I know, commissioner Liam, you had mentioned the the schooling. I personally when it comes to, you know, planning for the future, you know, do envision it probably coming back to the planning commission for another conditional use in relation to that, you know, k three twelve, pre k, day care, so on. And so I personally would have been you know, if this was something that had to come up, be okay with the those additional uses coming in just because, again, when it comes to accommodating those educational programs, I mean, again, as those community needs evolve, would have been something I would have been supportive, but I'm also looks like that's not something that's necessarily needed at this time.

But, otherwise, I think it meets all the findings that you need to make. So I I would be supporting it. Thank you.

You're great. You always have to build for the future. So you're absolutely right. Anything else? So we have our motion. We have our second. Mhmm.

This is just on the negative deck.

This is on the negative.

Chair Wilson?

Yes.

Commissioners Habib?

Aye.

Commissioners Lake?

Aye.

Downey? Aye. Muller?

Aye.

Tonda? Aye. Lovada?

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay.

Motion to approve the Planning Commission resolution recommending approval of the master plan and the

PD. Nothing. Cool. Any comment? Discussion?

A roll call. Chair Wilson?

Yes.

Vice Chair Habib?

Aye.

My name, commissioners Lake?

Aye.

Danny?

Aye.

Mueller? Aye. Conde? Aye.

And Lovato? Aye. Motion passes.

You clap against it. Do

you know when is making for the city council? September 2. Okay. Okay. So these recommendations go to the city council, and September 2 was the target week for the city council. Wanna release everybody.

It would be September 30.

Oh, February 3. Okay.

I'll show up on the second.

Yeah.

That's a good thing.

Oh, okay. Well,

congratulations. Thank you. We're gonna move on to our director's report. You're welcome to stay, but there's probably no reason to.

Very happy.

So reported. So the next meeting for planning commission is August 26. We do not have any public hearing items, but we may bring educational pieces about new legislation to you on the twenty fifth, or we'll check with our team to see if there's any other presentations or any information to be shared at your August 26 meeting. The as mentioned, the next meeting council meeting is September 3 for the item you just heard for the Westfield Church. And then we are planning to have a public hearing item on September 9.

Which one is that, Don? Primrose? Primrose. Where is that?

On it's on Cochrane. It's in the same parking lot as Peace Coffee, and

I think we're the third. There's a It's on the backside.

Backside of Bay

of the property.

Like, close to the business park

area. Outside open. I'm not

sure that date will actually turn out to be the date, but that so far is

the plan. So as needed.

That's all I have unless the city attorney don't want her to say anything. Right. I have nothing.

Well, I did I did wanna add. One of the things that you may have been reading about, it's hit the paper in a lot of different ways, is recent CEQA reform, a b one thirty. It is changing everything that we do, in city hall pretty much. It is a statutory CEQA exemption that also contains a streamlined schedule that reduces down the processing period from however long it needs to be to get the CEQA done to about a hundred and fifty days. And it or else it's deemed approved.

And so that's something everyone's trying to wrap their arms around. I was on Adam and I were on a webinar today with, ABAC MTC with 400 other staffers in the Bay Area trying to figure out how they're gonna change everything. Of course, case law will end up coloring how this is really gonna work because as with any new state legislation, there are bits missing that probably should have been in the law, but we're doing our best. We already have three applications that are moving forward that will be using a b one thirty. One of them will be coming to you possibly two, but one of them is an admin level permit.

So it it's definitely really step staff has taken a step back and really reevaluating what we need to do to get applications in in a framework in order for us to process them that quickly. So

You let me ask you. But are you entitled? I mean, what I always struggle with is you get these assembly bills and so on, and you kinda scramble the work you gotta run it. You're obligated by law to do certain things versus at the time. Can you change your fee structure to accommodate with the staffing to do it? Or you know what I mean? Is there accommodation for that, or is that something you make your own choice about?

We actually redid our fees a couple years ago Oh, I It's it's a blur. To account for all the staff time it takes to actually process them. And in a lot of cases, fees went up over a 100%. And we're doing pretty well now with the the new fee structure. Whether or not we would wanna do a a new evaluation based on a more streamlined process, probably not. We still would Would you

to somebody's entitled to charge whatever fees they want to me. Obviously, it's a

there has to be a direct connection to the amount of time. We do have the ability to charge by the hour, and there are applications that do come in where we do. So it really just depends.

It doesn't have to be

a flat fee. You can charge by the We can

charge by the hour. Okay.

And we pass on a 100% of the consult the SQN consultant fees. So to the extent those fees go up because of the new requirements, that's out of our control anyways. You just pass those along. Yeah.

We pass them along and keep 22% of them as a surcharge, which is handy. So although since we're losing so many big projects, that is revenue loss to the city that we won't have that anymore. But in the end, it is probably more efficient for everyone to not have massive EIRs with and I'm sure you you would enjoy not reading them with a 100 pages of antique.

They all say the same thing anyway. That they're I was a paper pushy.

So it's just a little precursor to what we may bring forward at the next meeting.

Like, comment on that? Go on.

EIRs. It seems to me, at one point in time, we did not have environmental impact reports. In fact, I think it was during my career is when they started up, which kinda goes into the seventies. And I remember there was a guy in the planning department who was really into it, and he I thought it was a technician, but he he quit the city and got into the environmental report business, Dave Powers.

Was that the eighteen seventies?

There was one where he and that whole profession, they're so good at what they do that they produce products that, very frankly, I cannot begin to figure out what it actually says because they're they're talking sometimes a thousand pages

Right.

Of data, almost guaranteeing that nobody looks at it. Really, if it gets too large, nobody looks at it. And, you know, at a time when we're reflecting on everything, it would be so interesting to see in the history of Morgan Hill how many times some information in the EIR rose up to say, we better really stop this project or redo it or whatever, other than, you know, some group who has an axe to grind. But the good citizen reviewing a report of 500 to a thousand pages and saying, this is so significant. I think we ought to, not accept the project or challenge what's being said.

But the way it is now, the system is you pay a lot of money get this data that everybody feels you should have because maybe it really means something. It sure looks like it does with most people not understanding even what this says or does. And I bring this up because if if, let's say, you in this room, what you had was a charge, and your charge was out of all the environmental things, you had to choose the 10 most relevant because those are the only ones that are gonna stay. Everything else is gonna be discounted. And so, you know, we got the ground squirrels, which I think is number one.

But That's burrowing owls. Yeah. Burrowing owls, they're they're important too. But some of the flora and fauna, I don't know, and the ozone stuff, I don't know either. But if you did that, you know, I think there would be a large group of things that's like, I don't this doesn't meet our priority list because I have no idea what this even means.

And so, you know, at the time of reflection on how to make government more efficient, it would be maybe somebody ought to take a look at, really, do we really need this level of environmental assessment, and how is it really changing things? So that was my thought. Because, again, I I don't know how many of you have, but, oh, when I first started in the planning commission, I would read those damn things until, after a few of them, it was like, woah. This is this is not a good use of time. So I I I only peruse them at this point in time, if even that.

But, yeah, what it, actually means and probably somebody on staff has to you actually have to go through every page and take a look at it, and that clutters up your mind. So all these bits of information, that's

I just

wanna get that off my chest.

You do?

Yeah. Pretty good.

Sounds like we have to get you in. The

only question I have for CEQUA, is there any change to political sensitive processes? Actually, gonna be digging into a lot of open space with future projects.

That statutory exemption that relates to infill actually requires a travel consult. Okay. And we have an excellent working relationship with our with a number of our tribes, but one that we work with the most is Tami Nation in this area. And we negotiated out standard conditions of approval back in 2020, so they don't demand consults as long as we're using those conditions, and those are the ones that you see.

Usually standards have changed with

the CDC. Okay. Good to know.

And we have found different artifacts in town. I know the dividend projects on the the East side of the city, they actually found human remains when those developed, but we haven't stumbled upon any of that. Although, you would appreciate this. We had, the tricholas last a couple weeks ago because bones were found on a development site, but those bones were in imported soil that was brought to the site to help create a pad.

Mhmm.

But once you put the bones on the site, you have to deal with them. So it was a lot of getting the corner out, getting a specialized analyst out. Yeah. And it turns out they were animals. Oh. But we also need to track where that soil came from to make sure there aren't more resources there. So it did open up a

Well, the

Toll Brothers ran into a burial lab when they dug the the catch basin now.

Right.

And that that cost him close to a year, I think.

Right. When I when I got here to the city, they were doing ground sensing radar to find any remains that were out on on the burial

ground. Anything else? Comments? I

had a quick question just on a slightly different topic.

You're in Illinois. No.

And so in regards to the the rental dispute dispute hearing, I know John Ling had just recently sent us a a confirmation for August 28. Is that gonna be here on August 28, or is that gonna be someplace else?

No. That will

be here. I

have a conflict of that, so don't type anymore.

Oh, no way.

So, Mohammad, if you have specific questions about the hearing, I would recommend that you go directly to John Lane. But that hearing will be here at city at City Hall Civic Center.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Could

you introduce the staff who are here? I assume well, we may have some diehard residents who are here in this room, but I assume that they're new staff. You have three people back here?

Dorothy Dorothy Mazar, deputy city attorney.

Ah. You're observing. Okay. Pleasure.

Oh, well,

I meet him. Meet him.

And and Doug is not staff.

No.

But are you two with the city of Morgan Hill?

Yes. Serving the recording.

Okay. IT? Oh,

I didn't bring that. And

you're Sorry.

Oh, I Yeah. Are you with the city of Morgan Hill? There's one person here. I just wanted to get involved. An active resident. Oh, you're a volunteer possibly? I can't hear. Okay. Well, you know, you can read the EIRs for me.

Anything else?

That's it.

Meeting in Germany. Alright. You too.

Thank you.

Gotcha. Excellent.