Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the July 28th 2026 Planning Commission meeting. Will you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? At this time, I will call for citizens' comment. This time is set aside for citizens to address the Planning Commission on any item of interest to the public that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Planning Commission. For items that are on the agenda, public comment will be heard when the item is discussed. If your comment concerns an item that is noted as a public hearing, Please address the Planning Commission after the hearing is open for testimony. Opening the public comment at 5.31. Is there anyone present that wish to speak? Seeing none. Anita, is there anybody online? Nobody wishes to speak. I close public comment at 5.32. Going to the next item. Are there any agenda corrections?

There are none.

There are none. Are there any staff items of note?

Just that Commissioner Quigley has an excused absence today.

Yes, thank you. Yes, Commissioner Quigley has an excused absence. Are there any commissioners that have a conflict of interest of any items on the agenda this evening? I do agenda item two. Duly noted. No other conflicts? I do not have any. Moving on to the, excuse me, the minutes, the draft minutes for the May 2026 meeting will be held at the next meeting for approval. On the regular agenda, item number one, consideration of recommendation to the city council for the adoption of the vacant commercial property registration and maintenance ordinance. I'll turn it over to our community development director, Beth Lindauer. Beth?

Commissioners, since your last review of the proposed vacant commercial property registration and maintenance ordinance, several revisions have been made in response to your feedback. A reminder of your feedback from that discussion included removing notarized requirements, updating the 50% or greater language, Add a self-insured as option number six on the registration form and adding definitions and language as it relates to exemptions. The ordinance has been narrowed to focus only on vacant commercial properties that present an elevated risk of deterioration, blight, and nuisance activity or increased demands on city services. It is no longer intended to apply to properties that are simply vacant but remain secure, well-maintained, and code compliant. The ordinance continues to require registration only after a property has remained vacant for 180 days with annual renewals during that vacancy period. We have also completed an administrative cost analysis, and if in the event City Council feels fees are appropriate for the registration, they will be adopted at a future date by the City Council. These revisions better target the ordinance towards problem properties while avoiding unnecessary regulations of responsibility or requirements to be maintained on well-maintained vacant properties. Staff recommends the Planning Commission adopt resolution number 2026-18 recommending approval of the ordinance to the City Council and I am available for additional questions.

The only thing I wanted to add, Planning Commission, not necessarily about the report, but because we do have the new audio and visual system, when you do speak and ask questions, please make sure that you're speaking into the microphone so that it can be picked up on the live feed and then over the Zoom as well.

Thank you. Before we open a public comment on this, our public hearing, is there any questions that commissioners may have for staff before we open the hearing?

Not mine.

Seeing not.

I would. Oh, yes. How will we decide, how will the city decide which properties have to sign up for this program? I know you said that not all vacant properties are required to do it if they're secured. So, like, who determines whether they're secured or not? Go to enforcement or?

So it would be a collaboration between myself and the building inspector. So based on observation over that initial 180 days or complaints we've received. So it would be an overview of the property, taking a measurement of the property's conditions at that time and then moving forward. So it would be at the discretion of the building code.

The nuisance code and everything that we currently apply to nuisance properties So is you mentioned it some of its complaint driven Is there any I don't want to use the word policing but is there any monitoring of these vacant buildings in a regular schedule to for the city to be proactive on it?

So that is built into the model that every 30 days if we have not received a updated self-inspection certificate form, then code enforcement will automatically have it added to their routine drive around inspections and or the building and so it'll just be something that we build into their schedule for monitoring once we have acknowledged the property is vacant for an extended period of time.

Okay. At this point in time, I will open up a public hearing on this item at 536. Is there anybody present that wishes to speak on this item? Yes, please step to the podium.

My question, so we live in the Antelope area and when you talk about secure buildings, sometimes buildings they can go and put plywood around the windows and it looks good and then they leave everything essentially in a mess. We have a building in Antelope that's been vacant for years. There was an abandoned vehicle there and slowly getting stripped. There's homeless in the parking lot. There's garbage in the parking lot. You can't walk on the sidewalks because everything's overgrown. And that's the only sidewalk to get down to the main street on Antelope. There's homeless that caused, well, years ago, fire. There was a fire. It's dangerous. We called Cal Fire, one of the people in our neighborhood. They went out and said, okay, they had to clean up, mow the area, which they did. But because it had been vacant for so many years, the trees had grown and they couldn't get the equipment in to clear that area. So essentially right along the perimeter, We have these large trees with high grass, a lot of debris, and it's still a fire danger. A lot of these properties, not only do they have to be secure, but you have trespassers on them. We had incidents where people were riding motorcycles up and down parking lots until 10, 11 o'clock at night, dirt bikes. And essentially, we couldn't do anything about it. It's private property. With the abandoned vehicle in this parking lot, we called the people that owned the building, said, you know, we have this building here and there. Answered, well, I didn't put it there. It's a stolen vehicle, and we're not going to do anything about it. We're not paying to take it out. We called code enforcement, and they said, oh, well, we can't do anything because it's on private property. So it's kind of like having four contractors work on one thing on your house and something goes wrong and they all say, well, it's his problem. No, it's his problem. No, it's his problem. So consequently, we get nothing done and the situation still goes on. And it's not through any negligence on the part of the county by any means. It's that their hands are tied because it's out of their zone of enforcement. So I found out that there's a trespass arrest authorization form 602 that the sheriff's department and the police department carry. And if you're going to offer this program to people, I don't think you can force them to do it, but you can offer this. And that allows someone in the community to call the sheriff's department or the police department and say, you know, this is what's going on. Can you go check it out? And then they have the legal authority if this piece of paper is signed for them to go and check it out. I've been living here since 82. I've seen a lot of changes. Mostly not for the good, unfortunately. If you look at, I don't know what my wife found, but one of the 10... No, that's fine. We had a sign that used to say Red Bluff, a great place to live. And it was. In 82, this place was fantastic. Now we're listed as one of the top 10 in California. for violent crime and regular crime, property crime. I don't know. You know, the rebel left the ship. You guys are the captains. You've got to figure out how to deal with this. You know, I have neighbors that are elderly. They used to go to Food Max. They used to go to Raley's. Well, at Food Max, they had a lot of people hassling her. She said, I'm not going there anymore. So then she went to Raley's. And then she got hassled at Raley's. So now she goes out of town. The other night we had people over our house, one woman, and she said, I don't go out after 8 o'clock at night. So that's the convenience. And in 82, since 82, I've never known a single woman to bring her children to Dog Island Park by herself. But I think actually going back to what we were talking about, that form might be something you want to offer to allow citizens to maybe be able to get something done rather than being stuck in a quagmire. Thank you.

Do you mind, can I get your name? John DeLisi. Pardon me? DeLisi.

Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else present that wishes to speak upon this? Seeing none, is there anybody on the? No. I will close the public hearing at 541 and bring it back to the Commission. He certainly brought out some issues that the city is dealing with. I did see that thing on a posting where we are in the top 10 as far as violent crime. That's a bigger picture, but I believe addressing vacant buildings and not looking like it's run down will help. But that's just a little interjection on this.

Are there any other comments on this, commissioners?

I see it in my line of work. Most property owners are at the mercy of city services to handle vagrancy and it's just not being handled. Buildings are getting vandalized all over Red Bluff and homeless people sleeping in doorways and you call the police and nothing happens. They'll say, I'll be there whenever I have a chance. I'm like, well, they won't leave. And then something gets hit, something gets broken, windows get broken, and then the property owner's stuck to deal with it. It just happened to me personally last week, so right on the corner of Main Street. Luckily, the police station was one block away, but... I feel like the property owners are the victim in most of this. I can't say all of them because some of them let their properties get destroyed and are okay with it. And a lot of them board it up and then it just looks like a big boarded up building without trying to make it paint the plywood or make it look abandoned. The property he was talking about is in the county.

Okay, I was, when he said envelope and then.

Yeah, it's the Blue Shield building.

Oh, yes, that is definitely in the county.

And what he's talking about is a serious problem, but that's the wrong department. That's the county.

But some of the same issues apply. Same issues. Some of the same issues apply.

Does the city have any kind of a form similar to that?

Yeah, it's a letter of agency form. Yeah, I have a whole stack of them on my desk. But, you know. They expire every year. So I wish they didn't expire every year, but all it does is allow the police to show up and tell the person, you are trespassing. And then they say, we'll come back later and see if they leave. And then they don't leave, and nothing happens.

I've seen a lot of fencing going up as well to keep people out.

Yeah. unfortunately i and i see this is a necessary thing as i see my town with empty storefronts and there are a few that don't seem to be taken care of i'm on board with you as far as the putting it upon the owner but i'm not sure where else to put it it's uh there is there a fee to this when they fill out the form there is no fee for it correct that is correct

The fee doesn't apply until it becomes identified as a nuisance property that has to be officially registered into the program of monitoring.

And once it's identified as a nuisance, how many days do they have to take action before there's a penalty?

um i believe i built that into the ordinance i i want to say it's 30 days but depending on the type of nuisance that occurs it would potentially default to our nuisance chapter of our code which has a 30-day automatic abatement requirement and then it progresses from there. And it typically is every 30 days as it goes through the nuisance notice of violation process.

So it is the property owner's responsibility once the building becomes technically vacant under this to get the form and fill it out and give it to the city. Okay. Are all property owners in some way made aware? I know it's, if it gets adopted, it's public. Are they made aware that this is their responsibility by simply owning property within the city that should it become vacant, they have to do this?

We certainly can use our channels of communication to relay that information, whether it be maybe through our water bill system, through our e-notify, have it posted on our website. I'm happy to ensure that everybody is aware of it, yeah.

Everybody gets a water bill, I think that would be a great way to give notice. As I say, it seems like an unfortunate thing, but We're seeing a time and I've been here for 40 years, and I'm seeing my town in distress And if something like this even though it's a little bit onerous on onerous on the property owner We got to do something to not fall into Terrible disrepair it does bother me when I go down streets, and I see empty storefronts That's a different issue, but to see them deteriorate and have the image of Red Bluff doesn't care I That bothers me. So anyway, done pontificating on that.

Can this be done for residential also? Well, I'm kind of serious. I mean, there is a lot of abandoned houses in Red Bluff that I wish somebody would do something with, burnt down houses. And I know the burnt down ones you guys are dealing with. But if there was a speedier process to get it resolved, some sort of registration like this might help. It's all subject.

Yeah. And we're currently addressing residential with our code enforcement and nuisance code and blight and all of that applies. So nothing specific for residential as far as this model other than our nuisance code.

Okay.

Maybe when we get to the end of the agenda for staff direction, maybe we could touch upon this and see if there's anything. I guess we're going to take a vote. Do we have a motion to adopt resolution 2026-18 recommending that the city council approve the proposed vacant commercial property registration and maintenance ordinance? Do I have a motion? Hearing none, it fails. On to the next item, item number two. Item number two, conditional use permit. Conditional use permit 2026-03 at 508 Main Street requesting to convert an existing second floor commercial space to a residential apartment in a historic commercial zoning district. At this point in time, I will open public comment.

Hold on, Greg. Let me give you my staff report first.

I'm sorry, sir. I will defer to the community development director for background on this.

Let me tell you about it. Thank you. So commissioners, tonight we have the conditional use permit 2026-03 for 508 Main Street requesting approval to convert the existing second floor commercial space into a single residential apartment while retaining the existing ground floor commercial use. The project is located within the historical commercial zoning district. The proposed project is consistent with the intent of the district by promoting mixed-use development while maintaining active commercial storefronts along Main Street. The technical advisory committee has reviewed the project and recommends approval subject to the conditions included in your staff report and on the resolution. Staff finds the project is consistent with the general plan and satisfies the required conditional use permit findings and is categorically exempt from CEQA. Therefore, staff recommends the Planning Commission adopt Resolution 2026-20, approving conditional use permit 2026-3, subject to the findings and conditions of approval. And the applicant is present for any additional questions, as well as myself.

Before I open the public hearing, are there any questions for staff and the commissioners? Seeing none, I'll open the public hearing for this item at 5.51. Is there anybody present that wishes to speak upon this?

My name is Brian Haugen. This is a property that I currently own and I'm happy to answer any questions that the commissioners have about the request.

I've seen you've done a lot of work on all your buildings and just out of curiosity, Tom, are there any other buildings in the historic district that are similar to this where residential is upstairs and commercial downstairs? Beth?

Yes, there are. So there are a handful that have residential up top.

No, I've seen the amount of construction and effort you put in there. It's admirable, and I think I told you when I was in there one time with my wife, I really appreciate that as a resident that somebody invests that kind of time and effort and money into making our town look better, and I appreciate that.

Thank you very much.

Is there anybody online that wishes to speak? None? Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I will close the public hearing at 5.53 p.m., bring it back to the Commission. Are there any other words or requests for information on this item before we take it to a vote?

I'm just curious, what kind of a business is downstairs?

It's an eye clinic.

Okay, do I have a motion to approve Resolution 2026-20, approving Conditional Use Permit 2026-03, subject to the findings and conditions of approval. Do I have a motion?

So moved.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Anita? yes yes yes moving on to item number three I'll wait for the Commissioner to come back in Item number three of the regular agenda, consideration of the recommendation to the city council of a tobacco retailer licensing ordinance. I will turn it over to the community development director to fill us in.

Commissioner, since your previous discussion of the tobacco retail permit ordinance, staff has completed several significant actions that strengthen the proposed program. First, the city has submitted an application for the California Department of Justice tobacco grant program to help offset implementation costs. Staff has also coordinated an enforcement strategy with the police department and obtained formal letters of support from the Tehama County District's Attorney's Office. the Red Bluff Joint Union High School District, and the Red Bluff Union Elementary School District. These partnerships reinforce that the program is intended to be an education-first collaborative effort focused on preventing illegal sales of tobacco products to minors. I also want to emphasize what the ordinance does and does not do. It does not prohibit tobacco sales to adults, create new criminal offenses, regulate adult consumers, or impose new zoning restrictions. Instead, it provides the city with administrative tools to educate retailers, maintain an accurate inventory of businesses, conduct compliance inspections, coordinate enforcement, and address repeat violations of laws that already exist. If the state grants the, if, pardon me, if we are awarded the state grant, it would significantly reduce the, to implement the costs of the program. And based on these updates and additional community support received, staff recommends Planning Commission adopt resolution number 2026-19, recommending approval of the tobacco retail permit ordinance to the City Council and just a reminder your feedback from the previous Planning Commission meeting on this ordinance was interest in number of knowing knowing the number of complaints and if we had noticed the individual retailers So with that investigation, the interviews were actually conducted with law enforcement and the schools as it was felt that the people would be able to provide the most feedback. The police department did not quantify the number of complaints that they had received. Instead, they talked about their school resource officer and the number of confiscated vaping devices that are found on students and on school property, which was so significant that there wasn't a value put to that. As far as formal police complaints made to the dispatch or the law enforcement agency, that's not something typical for them. Again, a lot of the involvement has either been related to theft at stores or what has been found on students on school campus. As far as noticing the retailers and the community, we have sent out notifications there again about the ordinance, the public hearing intent, ultimately have been working more closely with the partners and the grant application to be able to put the program in place to help regulate and hopefully slow down the exposure of youth to tobacco products I'm available for any additional questions and hopefully tonight we are able to make this consideration and recommendation to City Council

Before I open the public hearing, is there any questions for the community development director on this item?

I do. What is the anticipated budget annually for the running of this particular project? Do we have one, a budget?

The grant, I can purely speak off of the grant application that's now been applied for. And if my memory is serving me right, and I apologize, I did not look prior to this meeting. I want to say it was about $50,000. However, if we adopt fees through the city council, It would be only for the fees for the code enforcement and police to receive education and provide inspection and education to retailers. So only recouping the amount of administrative fees required.

And how long is the grant for?

Three years.

Three?

Correct.

Do we have an idea when it may be approved?

I want to say September, September, October, if my memory is serving me right.

Okay.

Any further questions?

Commissioner Pifferot, you were in the high school all those years. What was the problem with kids being caught smoking? Was it pretty prevalent or?

In the later years, no, because the SROs.

Okay.

And the enforcement within the staff. Same thing applies at the elementary district.

Excellent. With no further comment by commissioners, I will open the public comment at 5.59 p.m. Is there anybody present that would wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, are there any? Nobody online. I will close the public comment at 6 p.m., bring it back to the commissioner for any further input before we take a vote. Is there any further comment? Seeing none. Do I have a motion for the adoption of resolution number 2026-19 recommending that the city council approve the proposed tobacco retail licensing ordinance? Do I have a motion?

I'll make that motion.

Do we have a motion? Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Motion and a second. Anita?

Commissioner Piffro? Yes. Commissioner Yates? Yes. Vice Chair Miranda? Yes. Chairperson Litterell?

Yes. Are there any additional items that the commissioners would like to bring up at this point? Doesn't appear to be. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes, I'm sorry, Steve.

I'd like to see a report on food trucks for the community. Because there seems to be a vast interest in having a food court area. If we could do that, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

I've gotten some feedback as well, and people are very, very interested in having something like that happen, especially at River Park. People are thinking that if we perhaps start to take back our parks by doing something along these lines, they'll be more for the public as opposed to homeless people. And they also thought it might be interesting to combine that with what you all used to do, which is a movie night. you know, something that would be for children and adults and things like that so you could have more of a community reason to be there.

Go ahead. Tom, do we have, was there any bids submitted for the river park? Was there any bids submitted for the river park?

Yeah, bids were submitted on July 22nd. They were opened. Staff is working with our consultant now to go through those bids. I expect that it might be back to the city council for their consideration at their meeting on August 18th.

How many bids were received?

Three.

And I might be out of the loop, but what was this project for?

The River Park splash pad project.

Are there any future items the Commission would like to see for a future agenda?

I think this is where Commissioner Pifferot's request would kind of fall into line. So as long as we have three people that are interested in that, it seems like there's consensus.

I would also, any positive attraction would be very welcome. Well, with no further items, I will adjourn the Planning Commission meeting. I'm sorry, staff reports.

Do you want to go first, Beth?

I'm not in a hurry. I just missed it.

Just a few things I want to mention for the Planning Commission for your information. One, currently the nomination period for the Red Bluff City Council seats are open. That opened on July 13 and runs until July or August 7, rather. I'm saying August 7th. If one of the incumbents does not apply, then that period gets extended for another five days. So currently, if there's anyone interested, their resident lives within their city Red Bluff limits, they would be eligible to run for the city council. The second thing I wanted to mention, as you know, on June 2nd, the Red Bluff residents passed the Measure S. And so currently, we're taking applications for the Measure S Oversight Committee. You don't necessarily have to be a resident and live within the city of Red Bluff. You could be a business owner within the city of Red Bluff or a property owner within the city of Red Bluff and be eligible to apply for that. Those applications can be found on the city's website, and that application period will close on August 13th. So if there's anyone interested, please direct them to the city's website or they can reach out to me. I'd be happy to chat. Also this Friday, the Tama County Canine Association is having a fundraiser at A&R Meats from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. So if you want to stop by, Corporal Lampron and our Canine Max will be a part of those activities at A&R Meats on Main Street. And then lastly, I just wanted to mention a fundraiser on August 30th for the Red Bluff Fire Department. That is going to be a spaghetti feed at the Elks Lodge. The doors open at 4 with the dinner being from 5 to 7 p.m. I believe it's a $10 donation to get in, but they're going to have raffle prizes and then a singer. So those are some of the upcoming things that I wanted to make sure you knew.

How did you remember all that?

and i have just a quick update for you commissioners you will be receiving if you have not already ethics training for you to all complete as commissioners and a part of our requirements to participate on our boards so if you have not received that already please keep an eye out for it if you don't see it by The next week or two, please reach out to Anita or myself or Tom and we can make sure that you get that. Some community development to discuss. We have had some new businesses open their doors in our community. We have DJ's sewing and clock repair on Main Street. Koloka's on the go, which is the mobile in front of Home Depot taking the place of the hot dog mobile. Mr. Prospector's Mercantile, which is a thrift store. A Pho Bonza, a Pho restaurant that will be opening. They have another location in Chico, so this will be their second location. And then we also have the Bin Store on South Market, or South Main, excuse me. So some notable mentions on new businesses that have come to the community. We do have some upcoming exciting ones to share, but I have to keep it a secret still for now. So stay tuned on that.

There's two more clothing stores that have opened on Main Street too. Across the street from the clock tower. Yes.

I believe they collected business licenses in May or June.

And then Tehama Meats will be down by Tractor Supply?

Yes.

Is there still a prospect of In-N-Out or Panda Express coming to Red Bluff? Or is that on hold?

Yes. So Panda is currently in their plan check and working on their tenant improvements for that location of the old Del Taco. And I can't speak to In-N-Out. I don't have any information on that.

I don't think they have any plans to come to Red Bluff.

I thought that Panda was ready to go. We're waiting for them to, their permit's ready to issue. We're waiting for final payment. And I believe that it's probably linked to their contractor. So once they get their contractor, they can get up to our area. But their building permit is ready to issue. It's been ready to issue for about a month. So we're just waiting on them to come in and pull that permit and then start construction. But it's completely on their timeline now. But they're ready to go.

Are they going to demo that building?

Yes.

I was wondering because there's broken windows and stuff.

Yeah, it'll be a brand new building.

Good.

Double plus a restaurant that I occasionally frequent and you get rid of an old building.

And Denny's is going to become an oil chain? I saw a sign up on it today.

That's what I heard, too. I heard it was going to be a car wash oil change place. Apparently, they haven't applied to the city for anything yet. But they put their sign up.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's no application.

Just intention.

Great. With no further comment, I will close the meeting at 6.08 PM. And thank you for coming.