Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good evening, and welcome to the May fifth planning commission meeting.

I

could have a little, quiet in the chamber. Thank you. All members are present. Will you please join me in the pledge of allegiance?

To the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, individual, with liberty and justice.

Per the city's meeting rules and procedures, public comments are generally limited to five minutes, and we'll keep it at that, or less if a large number of speakers is anticipated or if approved by the chair. Speakers desiring answers to questions should direct them to the planning commission, and if relevant, the commission may direct them to staff. Speakers can also follow-up directly with staff during regular city business hours. Please file a speaker's card with the administrative secretary on the form provided at the back of the chambers. During this portion of the meeting, those in the council changes are permitted to speak on items that are not on the agenda.

Public comments for scheduled agenda items should wait until that time. Zoom participation during this general public comment will not be accepted. Please note that the commission's actions are final unless an appeal is filed with the city clerk within ten days. And, let's move into public comment. April.

At this time, we have no speakers here wanting to speak on public comment. Just wanna make sure because we have no speaker cards. Back to you, chairperson.

Thank you very much. Moving into the consent calendar. We had a request to divide these, so we'll start with the d one minutes from the March 17 meeting. Do I have a motion or discussion?

I I make a motion that we accept the I believe it's the March 17 meeting.

I'll second that.

All in favor?

Aye. And

then moving on to d two, regular commission meeting minutes from April 21. That's our last meeting.

I'll make a motion to approve the 04/21/2026 planning commission minutes.

I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Abstain. Wasn't here.

Great. Thank you. Motion carries. Okay. Public hearings.

I imagine what y'all are here for. Item e one, design review and conditional use permit for The Grove At Brentwood. Design review and conditional use permit for a new 35,900 690 square foot two story multi tenant commercial building that could feature cafes and shops which may or may not sell craft beer, wine, and spirits, 24,000 square feet of outdoor front seating area with various amenities, community theater, and on-site, off-site improvements located on a four acre site at the Southeast Corner Of Walnut Boulevard and Oak Street. The staff report from Miguel. Take it away.

Thank you, chair. Good evening, commissioners. Good evening, members of the public. Miguel with the city of Brentwood planning division here to present The Grove, which is design review application 24Dash008 and conditional use permit application 24Dash010, which is located at the Southeast Corner Of Oak And Walnut Boulevard. The project site does have a general plan, designation of downtown specific plan, and it's within the Western Gateway neighborhood zoning district.

The specific request, asks for a new, 35,690 square foot shell building as well as alcohol sales for off-site and on-site consumption as part as, as part of the conditional use permit, a community theater, and associated site improvements, which, includes trash enclosure, parking area, lighting, landscaping, and outdoor seating area. The site ex itself would be accessed off of Walnut Boulevard. The southern access that you see on the screen is, would be controlled by a four way stop sign. It would have a right in and a right left out. And access on the northern portion that you see on the screen, that would be right out only.

The site features a 144 parking spaces and a, I believe, 300 foot loading area, around 260 foot loading area. It could accommodate up to five, loading vehicles. The site also features, close to 50,000 square feet of landscape area. The community theater slash usable usable open space, the community theater would feature lighting and sound amplification. The applicant has, indicated that the hours for the theater itself would be limited from 10AM to 10PM, and the applicant would need to abide by all city noise regulations.

The outdoor area itself is 24,000 square feet of usable open space. It, it has, many amenities such as cabanas, fire pits, seating, and, entertainment for, children such as a tot lot and a splash pad. The outdoor seating area would be completely enclosed by a six foot wrought iron fence as signified by that full line on the screen. And the outdoor seating area also features restrooms. The building's architecture would incorporate a twentieth century commercial style, which is one of the downtown specific plans, preferred styles, but it also incorporates elements from the existing downtown architecture.

The building would also incorporate a flat roof. The parapet would be above the mechanical equipment, which means that you wouldn't be able to see any of the mechanical equipment. It also features lots of vertical and horizontal projections, which is important to keep a large building not looking flat. The building also has two prominent tower elements on its corners. The downtown specific plan does not specify a height limit.

That's, that would be up to the planning commission's discretion whether if, these, these heights are acceptable. In my staff report, I do mention a architectural projection on the eastern portion of the building, the rear of the building, and it's it projects about four feet beyond what the downtown specific plan has as a height limit. And once more, that would be, it could be interpreted that the, as a tower of sorts, and the planning commission could, approve this. However, right now, the draft conditions of approval require that architectural projection to come back down to the required height limit of 40 of 40 feet. The conditional use permit itself.

The applicants requesting the sales of alcohol for off and on-site consumption, meaning there could be stores within the Shell Building that sell alk or beer, wine, or spirits as well as cafes or eateries that serve wine, beer, spirits. And these would also be allowed to, you know, buy a beer and step outside in the in the seating area. And all of this would be controlled with that wrought iron fence, and the three exit points would have signage. The draft conditions of approval would require the adherence by the applicants and all their his tenants to abide by all ABC regulations and recommendations. The ABC license types that The Grove could acquire, The Grove and its tenants, would be type twenty, twenty one, 41, 42, and 47.

All tenants, would, be required to, conduct sales of alcohol between, 6AM and twelve, AM. And, temporary or special events are subjects to or subject to issuance to a temporary use permit. So for example, if, the applicant were to host an event, on the parking lot, let's say, like a farmer's market, and they intend to sell alcohol in that farmer's market, they would have to go through the temporary use permit process with the city. And no alcohol consumption would be allowed in the parking areas outside of an approved temporary use permit. The project is consistent with the general plan, the downtown specific plan, and its zoning district as well as requirements as it's exempt under a class 32 infill development.

And staff recommends that the planning commission adopt resolution, 26Dash010, approving design review 24, sorry, 25Dash008 and resolution number 26Dash011 approving a conditional use permit 25Dash010. And both would be subject to a certain findings and conditions. That would conclude staff's staff report, and, I'm available for the questions and the applicants here for questions as well. Thank you, Miguel.

Any clarifying questions for staff?

I have one.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Miguel, is there gonna be any discussion of the, traffic report tonight?

Anju from our engineering department would, would be the person to answer, any traffic or, you know, traffic right away questions.

Okay. I had some questions related to an email that we received. I think I'll hold them until discussion. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? No questions. Alright. At this time, the public is permitted to address the planning commission. Remarks are limited to five minutes per person except for the applicant who will have ten minutes. Does the applicant wish to address the commission?

Good evening, chairman Brand and planning commission. First off, I'd just like to thank you guys for taking the time tonight to review this project. It's been quite the journey to get to this point, and, appreciate your time. And I'd also like to thank the city staff. You guys have been instrumental in getting to this point. It's been several years on working in this project. There's been a lot of questions, a lot of meetings. You guys have done a lot and have been incredibly helpful to help me navigate the process and get here. So I wanna thank you guys for for getting to this point. And I also have my team here tonight.

I have my my architect, Lance Cornell from SDG, and I also have my civil engineer, which is Kieran Wright, and my landscape architect who is environmental foresight. They're here to answer any questions, and I am as well. So thank you very much.

Any questions to the applicant while we're here? Okay. Great. Let's see. So the city has received 55 public comments regarding this item that were sent via email or otherwise for our consideration. Copies of these comments would be made available on the city's website on the meeting information page. Alright. April.

At this time, share person brand, we have roughly 12 speakers. We're gonna go ahead and get started with Adam Martinez.

Good evening, commissioners and and city staff. My name is Adam Martinez. I'm a I'm a resident here at Brentwood, a business owner and a past president of the chamber of commerce. I wanted to show my support on, The Grove. I think it's gonna do very well here in Brentwood on, an eyesore that's been there for way too long.

It will help drive people into Brentwood and hopefully spend their money in local areas because it's still within walking distance of of downtown. So that actually might help the the parking situation that we that we face every farmer's market and and whatnot. So, I just wanted to lend my support. Look. I saw the stat. I saw the, the design, and, it looks amazing. And, just wanted to, that's my 2¢. Thank you.

Next, we have Denise Cosgrove.

Good evening, commissioners and city staff. My name is Denise Cosgrove. I am the current president of the Brentwood Chamber of Commerce and a twenty four year resident of Brentwood, and I'm here in both of those capacities. But first, as the, Brentwood Chamber of Commerce president, we know that the commerce exists to advocate for thriving local economy to support opportune entrepreneurs and to help make Brentwood a place where businesses and residents can flourish together. When I look at The Grove, I see a project that checks every one of those boxes and then some.

Let me tell you what this project means to the business community. The Grove would bring in over 30,000 square feet of commercial space to the Walnut And Oak Corridor with an estimated 24 tenants. Nearly all of them boutique and independent businesses, not the same national chains that you chains that you can find everywhere you turn around. Local entrepreneurs, local flavors, the kind of businesses that put down roots, hire local people and give back to the community that they are a part of. The job creation alone projected in the hundreds is, depending on, tenant mix, represents a meaningful investment in our workforce.

For the chamber, supporting small business businesses isn't just a talking point. It's our mission, and The Grove's is purpose built for exactly that. Now let me speak to you as a resident. Gruntwood has grown enormously over the past two decades. Our population has grown.

Our families have grown. But our downtown commercial offerings haven't always kept pace with what who we've become. We have wonderful momentum, new restaurants, the farmer's market, a thriving downtown, and the grow would extend that momentum rather than disrupt it. The developer himself has noted that Downtown Brentwood community currently has almost no vacancy. That tells us the the new that that the demand is there.

The Grove answers that demand. What excites what excites me the most is the vision for a true gathering place, outdoor seating, green space, a performing arts stage, activities for kids, and a design that takes full advantage of our beautiful Brentwood weather. This is not just a development, it's a destination. A place where families can spend a Saturday afternoon where visitors can experience the best of what Brentwood has to offer and where local farmers and produce producers, including those from our own Harvest Town agricultural community, can find a platform that they haven't had before. This project has been nearly four years in the making.

It's been refined through conversations with residents, restaurateurs, developers, and community members. That kind of patience and collaboration deserves our support. Commissioners, the Brentwood, Chamber of Commerce enthusiastically endorses The Grove at Brentwood. And as a proud resident of this city, I urge you to approve the project. It is thoughtful, it is local, and is exactly the kind of investment that will make Brentwood a place we are even more proud to call home. Thank you for your consideration and your service.

Erin Summit.

Good evening. Matt came to our rotary meeting recently and went over this modern design, that Brentwood could use and currently, I believe, is lacking. Like Adam and Denise said, I'm here in full support of this project, and I'm so excited. This rooftop design, currently, I drive to Walnut Creek for or anywhere outside of our city. Not only will The Grove bring more local restaurants, shops, and a family friendly gathering space to Downtown Brentwood, activating a long time vacant piece of land and thoughtful interest infrastructure while supporting local businesses and creating a lively community driven destination for all ages.

But my personal favorite of the design, as a very happy resident of Brentwood for the past nineteen years and now living downtown, I am super stoked with the amazing parking lot design that you have added. Thank you, Matt. I cannot wait to enjoy the space, and I really hope that you guys consider this.

Sergio Ortiz?

Good evening, everyone. As much as we do this, I still get nervous, so pardon me. But I'm happy to be here in support of Matt and the the people of Brentwood. And I I work in commercial banking here in Contra Costa County, and I wanted to share a moment to speak about my experience with Matt. In a previous role, I had the opportunity to work with him professionally through a banking relationship.

And throughout that experience, he was someone who valued partnership, communication, and community involvement. What stood out to me most was the way he supported local relationships. Gen he genuinely engaged with people, in the in the Brentwood community. He was not just focused on business, but on building long term relationships with people and organizations around him. I also appreciated the way that he supported members of our team who live here in Brentwood by being engaging, approachable, and willing to partner with our local community.

I also believe that projects like The Grove can have a positive impact on the city itself. Bringing development to an empty lot creates opportunity. It brings construction activity, future employment, local investment, and added energy to the downtown area. It also helps beautify spaces that may otherwise remain underutilized for years like this one. Unfortunately, in many cities today, new development continues to move farther away from the downtown areas, leaving the heart of the communities behind.

What I appreciate about what Matt is trying to do with The Grove is investing back into the heart of Brentwood. Projects like this help create energy, walkability, local business activity, and a stronger sense of community, connection towards the downtown area. Most importantly, I think it matters who's behind the project like this. There's a difference between someone who simply sees a piece of land as an as an investment opportunity and someone who truly cares about the community, they are building in. From my experience, Matt has always approached relationships and business with heart, integrity, and a long term mindset.

I believe communities benefit most when development is led by people who wanna be part of the community, not just profit from it. Buildings can change the skyline, but people behind them can shape the character of the community. I believe Brentwood deserves a project like The Grove, led by people who genuinely care about it like Matt. Thank you for your time.

Tom?

Good evening, everybody. My name is Tom Gregory. Been in Brentwood pretty much my whole life. I've lived a block from this location for a little over twenty years. My business has been a block from this location for about twenty seven years now. I think it's a great use of that space. There is no available space pretty much on the 1st Floor in Downtown Brentwood. It looks great. It's dirt lot. There's nothing but homeless passing through there right now. So if we can get something built there, I think it'd be a good thing. Only thing I'm a little concerned about is the amphitheater, for sound as far as, it not being, it's being right on the edge of the downtown specific plan. We got a mobile home park there and, obviously, residential there. Obviously, you guys will address that. Other than that, beautiful building, beautiful plan.

We need some more square footage in downtown, and I'm in support of the project. Thank you.

Carol Gibbons.

Good evening. I've had the awesome responsibility and opportunity to be representing the Karen family who are the owners of this the extended family that are the owners of this lot right now. We've worked together with the buyers and the buyer's agent to try and get this property back to life. I've spent the last four years the first few four or the first few years having to pick up garbage from that empty lot and realize that we needed to do something. So this plan that the Grove, it's inspiring.

The broker and his team that created the concept are earnest, honest. It's been a pleasure to work with them as well as my owners. And you've probably received several emails or calls from the Guerin family. We're all in support of this, not just so that it can be developed, but because it's time for something of this nature. It's different than anything else we have here, but it's jobs, it's opportunity, and it's community. I'm a 100% in support of this project. Thank you so much.

Elisa Garron?

Hi. My name is Elisa Garron. And what I wanted to say is my I was not born in Brentwood. Actually, there was not a hospital in Brentwood, so I got born in Paterson instead. But my first few years of life were in Brentwood, I so have a special feeling for the community.

My family farmed in this area for seventy five years, and, my husband is a contractor, so I could can tell that this is really a worthwhile project. I'm also a person who would say to anybody who says, well, gee, we don't really want change in Brentwood. My response is change is gonna come, you guys, and the best we can the the best thing that we can do for Brentwood is encourage high quality change and high quality development. And I really feel proud that this project is gonna go on our property, and I know that my grandparents would be happy to see this property being used for something that I wrote as an architecturally interesting, small shop feeling commercial building with landscape that'll include shade, seating, playgrounds, and game venues that will also be the perfect location for art events, small concerts, dances, festivals, and other performances. I really see this as being an asset to the community, and I support it wholeheartedly and so do my family.

Thank you.

Rupi

Good evening, members of council commission. Thank you for this time. I'm Ruby Dollywal. This is my son, Arman, and I'm here tonight to speak in support of The Grove. I'm currently in the commercial real estate space.

That journey started here in Brentwood as well through Carol Gwynn. She was here speaking earlier. My mentor, that was birthed here in that whole concept of starting, that journey. What I would like to talk about is the someone someone that has lived in Brentwood as a resident and had the opportunity to live the full cycle in Brentwood as a business owner. For four years, I owned and operated a veterinary clinic in the city, a project I built from the ground up.

I worked with an amazing team here at the city of Brentwood to get approvals for our site plan, design reviews, building permit, and code inspections. When I chose Brentwood for my veterinary practice, it was a calculated decision based on visibility, demographics, other parameters such as income, and all of those things. But more than data, I was drawn to the vision of growth the city promised. Having lived in Nashville during its major growth phase, I recognize the same vibe and potential here. In my current role overseeing veterinary real estate, I look for projects that honor a city's trajectory.

I believe The Grove is exactly that. It is the kind of thoughtful expansion that attracted me to Brentwood years ago, and I'm proud to support it tonight. And since I have a few more minutes, I just would like to say just from different facets, I share the commercial real estate angle. I was here in Brentwood as a business owner, also as a resident living in this wonderful city. My son was born a Brentwood resident, and this community has is just incredible.

And the potential I mean, I had my clinic here, I had a client every single day, at least one client, whether that client was from Brentwood or from out of the area, from Walnut Creek, they would ask for places that they could go and have dinner or lunch. And so that demand is there. And, you know, I just think that The Grove will bring so much growth to the city. It will bring in crowds from all over. And so I I think it's something that would be would be incredible and, again, in support of in support of the growth. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. I'm gonna read because I could get long winded if I didn't just stick to the subject. Good evening. I'm Lisa Gowens. I am a twenty eight year resident of East County. I'm a parent, a wife, a volunteer. I'm your current Brentwood Chamber director of the year. Just throwing that one in there for self love. I manage the ambassador team, and I would say also I do have a paying job, which is doing mortgage loans with Supreme Lending here in town, and they I'm commonly known there as the community cheerleader. Community is super important to me.

I moved around the country a lot as a child, and I just craved community. And I feel like this project I'm in support of this project, by the way. I feel like this just feels like Brentwood. It does support local business owners. One thing I really like about this project is that it creates opportunity for local entrepreneurs and small businesses who normally wouldn't have access to a space like this.

It does definitely create community and a community gathering space. Recently, you know, we've seen handles go into the streets, and I couldn't believe how crazy it was there over the weekend to get, like, a $10 ice cream. Just people were just out there and mingling, and we need it. Brentwood's had growth tremendously, but projects that truly bring bring people together are rare. This one feels like a shopping center, feels less like a shopping center, and more like a community space.

I see this as an extension of our downtown energy, not competition with it. More foot traffic helps everybody. I really feel like this reflects Brentwood's identity, which is the project for what I have researched leans into farm to table, outdoor lifestyle, local agriculture, family events, arts and entertainment. Projects like this create more than just buildings. They create jobs, energy, opportunities for small business owners, and reasons for people to stay and spend money locally. So thank you.

Sarah Christine.

Good evening, commissioners, city officials, and fellow community members. My name is Sarah Christine, and I'm a director with the Downtown Brentwood Coalition. I'm here to express my strong support for The Grove and the positive impact that I believe it'll bring to not only city, but the downtown and the local economy. As a local business owner, I had the personal experience to host Matt at one of our general meetings for the DBC, where he presented his project to the Downtown Brentwood Coalition owners and local business owners as well. The overwhelming support that we received during that meeting was nothing short than what we thought it would be.

The downtown community made it clear that this is something people truly want, and not only coming from the community members, but also the business owners, this made a huge impact to us. The Grove will not only create jobs as we've heard many times here. It'll increase foot traffic, and who can't complain with that? It'll bring new energy into our downtown and local businesses, and it will represent the important step forward into straightening our downtown and making it more of a destination location. This project is a positive investment and is a vibrant and connective future for our community.

So I am so honored to stand up here in supportive of Matt and The Grove on behalf of the Downtown Brentwood Coalition and many other organizations that I represent. So thank you for your time, and thank you for having all of us.

Amy Tilly.

Hello. Good evening. I sent a letter in. I'm gonna I'm not gonna read all of it. It was a little long,

but,

I am definitely here in support of this project. My name is Amy Tilley. So thank you to the planning commission members for having us here today, and, I hope I'm not gonna go, too dupe too too many times over things that have already been stated, but I do feel very strongly about this. So if you don't mind, I'll read read some of the letter that I sent to you all today. As the former executive director of the Downtown Brentwood Coalition, I worked extensively on initiatives focused on economic vitality, business attraction, and downtown activation.

Through that experience, I can confidently say that The Grove Of Brentwood, it represents a catalytic investment in our local economy and community fabric. This is exactly the kind of project I was hoping for during my time in downtown, and I'm very excited to see see that it's, that it's here. From an economic development standpoint, the benefits are substantial. From a job creation standpoint, it has a mix of small vendors and larger restaurant operators, and the project has potential to support dozens, if not over a 100 local jobs across food service, retail, wellness, and operations. From an increased sales tax revenue standpoint, the curated mix of food, beverage, boutique retail, and specialty goods will drive consistent consumer spending and generate meaningful tax revenue here in Brentwood.

This is my favorite part. Small business incubation. The smaller tenant spaces are very compact. They will create an accessible entry point for local entrepreneurs fostering innovation and economic mobility within our community. This is something that God brought to me a a lot, and I and I know it still does across the city is that you have businesses who are entrepreneurs who they don't need a thousand square feet. They don't need 3,000. They just need a place to get started. So I that's, like, my favorite part that it provides that launch pad for that. Extended dwell time and spillover spending. We believe in downtown community over competition.

If I can quote some of the other businesses down here that that gets said a lot down here, and I love that mentality. As a public market and gathering destination, The Grove will increase foot traffic and encourage visitors to spend more time, more money throughout downtown benefiting surrounding businesses. Year round activation. From that standpoint, the operating hours from the early morning to the late evening, this project supports a full day full day economic cycle from coffee, breakfast traffic to the evening dining and entertainment. Equally important equally important and something that is part of the Main Street America, the build out and the recognition that downtown deserves, and and earned is the placemaking and community benefits.

Placemaking is a really important word down here. It directly supports long term economic sustainability. The project includes nearly 24,000 square feet of outdoor gathering space designed for families, social interaction, and recreation, complete with seating areas, playgrounds, water features, and games. The outdoor performance stage will serve as a hub for live music, cultural events, school performances, fundraisers. I'd love to see ghost light out there.

They're always always all these local theater groups are always looking for spaces to perform, so I love that. This type of intentional experience driven development is exactly what modern downtowns modern downtowns need to remain competitive. It not only attracts visitors, but it strengthens Brentwood's identity as a destination, supporting tourism, local pride, and long term economic resilience. Additionally, the inclusion of the 128 on-site parking, it helps address one of the most common barriers to visitation, depending on who you ask. I happen to think the parking garage is quite wonderful and quite safe, but I know not everyone agrees with me.

It makes it more accessible and functional for functional for residents and visitors. In my professional experience, projects like The Grove are rare opportunities. They save they serve as economic engines and a community anchor. This project aligns seamlessly with the vision of enhancing downtown as the cultural and economic heart of our city. I respectfully urge our planning commission to support and approve and work together with the Grove for on this project. Its positive impact will not only be felt by today's residents and businesses, but by future generations who will benefit from a more vibrant, connected, and economically strong Brentwood. Thank you.

Peter Jackaway.

Good evening, commissioners and city staff. I just wanna take one second and reiterate what all the support here has been spot on. And coming from someone that I've been a a dual president of the Downtown Brentwood Coalition on the board for eleven years, I've grown up in Downtown Brentwood my entire life, which is old. I love this opportunity for Brentwood to finally expand their footprint in downtown. I can tell you firsthand how hard we've worked with along with many nonprofits over the years to make Downtown Brentwood a destination.

And with help of some wonderful entrepreneurs over the last ten years, we finally become that destination that we've worked for. So I love this opportunity. Fully behind Matt and this project and the growth. You pick capital. I think this is a perfect perfect opportunity for us. So thank you for your consideration.

Jared Castro.

Good evening. Good evening, chairman and officials. My name is Jared. I work with an architecture firm who's recently come to the town here. I've actually been with them for about fifteen years, so I'm quite familiar with the CUP process out of San Jose. Large jurisdictions and small jurisdictions. So I wanna speak to this project on a cup from a couple of different perspectives. One, I'm a father, who moved to the area about six years ago and fell in love with Brentwood seventeen years ago when I was working here as a contractor, wrapping the streets with lights and LEDs and building the Christmas displays downtown. So I I even back in college, I knew I loved the charm that Brentwood had. So I wanna commend the council currently and the past being able to rein in development while still maintaining that charm.

So that's one thing that I do think the Grove does accomplish. It does continue to do that. It has the expansion. It puts together two different hearts of Brentwood being the residential and the downtown core, and it fills that dirt land that was sitting in between it. And I also wanted to give a little bit of a compliment to the SDG team and what it takes to get I know the railway there and all the various complications that can come with that, and I know it's been many years in the making to get here even though I've only been familiar with the project for about a year now.

The development that I've seen in the plans just in that past year is it's clear to me that they're taking the community into account with how they're laying this out, the program, the uses interior, the uses exterior, and all the things that come into play for that. So as being a resident in the area, I wanna support The Grove. Being a businessman in the area, my office is actually right across the street from us, I'm eager for more restaurants and more places to go for lunch there. So I support it that way. But, also, as a tenant, actually, of Matt, I know how he cares for his buildings. I know how he cares for the businesses that he works with, and the firsthand approach that he takes with it. So I wanna support it from that perspective as well. So thank you for your time.

Greg Robinson.

Good evening, commissioner and all you commissioners and residents. My name is Greg Robinson. I am a thirty one year resident of Brentwood, and I've been driving by that Corner Of Walnut And Oak for thirty one years going, what are we gonna do with this really weird shaped piece of property? And, luckily, Matt came along and was able to, work a deal and buy the two pieces of property and make it one usable property. I think that it's really important that we think about the vision.

And as I just mentioned, that SDG architect is working on this project. It's also the architects that put up our beautiful arch downtown, the beautiful fountain downtown by the Press Building. They built several properties here in town that they understand the Brentwood vision and what they want it to look like, and you've seen that. I've actually gotten to hear Matt's presentation three times, not only at the business expo, but I'm also a Rotarian and part of the Brentwood Chamber and the coalition. And each time I hear different things that I go, this wow.

This is even better than I thought it was before. So it seems like a great project. Some of the things to think about when I asked Matt, I said, is it like the ferry building down in San Francisco where you're gonna have small little spaces where people who don't need, like someone said earlier, you know, a thousand square feet, 2,000 square feet, they just need a couple 100 square feet where the rent would be a little bit, more affordable? And he said yes. So I think it gives that opportunity maybe for some of these businesses that are working out of their home to now have an opportunity to come and have a retail spot and and do that.

Also looking at that, I believe if my geographic memory is correct, but, Vasco Road turns into Walnut. Walnut turns into Oak. This is the entrance to downtown. When people come into Brentwood off of Vasco, what do they see? They see an empty lot, right, in the back of the building, Red Dutra's offices. Now having this beautiful building is gonna improve the overall look of our beautiful downtown. Right? So I think that's another good thing. Again, a lot of these things are the same things, but vacancies. If you know about Brentwood, there are no vacancies.

And there are two businesses that just recently one of them just closed about a month ago. One of them closed today, and neither of those properties ever made it to the market to be rented because they were rented before the people even moved out. So that's telling us that we need more space because people are, you know, trying to find space. I I'm if you don't know, I own the Brentwood Press and the Press Building. I have people all the time asking me about wanting to rent my space, and I tell them no because it's the home of the press.

But there is we need more space, so this is gonna solve that problem as well, having that vacancy you know, get not having the vacancies that we that we have. Let's see here. The other thing too is, like I said, you know, we have we talk about developers. People come, people go. For those of you who don't know, Matt is a resident.

He's also a Liberty graduate, so you can't get more homegrown than having one of our own Liberty graduates that that decided that he wanted to make this his home as well and invest his hard earned money into making Brentwood a better place, I think we have to really look at that. You know? So it's really about supporting local business owners. We have the local landowners here that are saying, hey. This is a vision that their family is happy about. So as the press and as local resident, I also put a 110% support behind this project. It makes sense, and it fills all of the vacant all the voids and the issues that we're dealing with. So let's get on with this and approve it, and let's get the construction started.

At this time, we have no other speakers that would like to speak in the audience.

Lance Knoll, SDG Architects, principal architect, and twenty six year resident of Brentwood. Thank you, chair, members of the commission. I'd like to thank staff for their incredible support and their work throughout this process. I'd to talk a little bit about the architecture for a moment and the building and how we got here, just before we close-up public comment and start deliberations. Miguel, if you don't mind putting the, the elevation on the screen and the site plan, either one.

And while he's doing that there, I just wanna let you know that as mentioned before and as as Greg has mentioned, Brent Brentwood and SDG Architects are synonymous with one each and one another. SDG Architects has been around for over thirty three years in the city of Brentwood. I've been with them almost most of that, and we've been fortunate enough to work with the city all that time to help develop both residential and commercial buildings within the city of Brentwood, and it's always been a pleasure. I've had the honor of sitting on the dais for a period of time, many years ago, and so I appreciate and, and definitely honor that position that you guys are in right now. So thank you so much.

One of the things about the architecture that I wanted to kinda talk to the crowd too, and there's many business owners here, is that the architecture is befitting of the city of Brentwood and and echoes a lot of the architectural styles. But one of the great things about architecture is when you get the rare opportunity to have the exterior of the building reflect what's happening on the interior of the building. And so if you look at the elevation of the building, that's the image on the top, you'll see that it looks like a conglomeration of smaller buildings. And that's reflective what Matt's vision was was to have many tenants within one space. And so if you look at that building and that elevation at the top, you can see that it is a conglomeration of much smaller buildings, which echoes with the uses on the inside.

The towers themselves, and I know that's a point of contention and and deliberation for the planning commission, were designed intentionally at the heights that they are on the elevation for two reasons. One, the main one, if you can go to the site plan, you go. At the very bottom right corner of that aqua box right there, that's the building. That tower is on access with the Walnut Boulevard Road. So as you're coming in from Vasco Road onto Walnut Boulevard and into town, it is right in front of you, and it it serves as a landmark for the city and for the building itself.

And that's why it's on access. That's why it's rotated the way it is in the elevation. The one in the lower left hand corner of that is the corner tower of the building, and that's designed to see just over the gateway arch from City Park, which is just outside here, so that you can see that as a landmark from one end of downtown to the under other end of downtown. There's a visual connection between the two. And so you can just point, oh, I'm at The Grove at the other end of downtown, and you'll be able to see a portion of that tower there.

So the heights were, designed intentionally for that. And I know that's a point of discussion tonight, and I just wanted to make that that point as you guys were talking about it. But I wanna thank the audience and thank for the support for this project. It's been a long road. Matt is an amazing, young professional who's really driven this project. We've had many, many discussions about how this project would come about, And, it's been a incredible journey to get to this point, and I look forward to, to, as Greg said, getting this underway and getting the getting this built. So thank you so much.

One more time. Do we have any other speakers in the audience that would like to speak before we go to Zoom? Go ahead.

Hi, and thanks for, listening to me today. I just come up here as somebody that's been in Oakley Brentwood since late eighties. I graduated from Liberty in '95, and, you know, I just love the community and seeing how much it's grown. And, I wish I would have bought a piece of real estate in Downtown Brentwood when they were worth nothing, but I didn't. But if I would have foreseen how how much it's grown.

So, anyways, just wanna bring up the fact that, you know, since I've been living in this community, I've always had to go to places like the veranda, go over the hill, you know, in Concord, Walnut Creek to kind of, you know, have, like, this food court and multiple selection experience where you could grab your food and go hang out. And, you know, I have three kids that can never get along and decide on where what they wanna eat, and it's like it just tears me up every time, and it's have to drive here, drive there, drive here, and then everybody's happy. Right? That's why I like to go to these places like the the Ferry Building. We love that. And when I reviewed the plans, it reminded me of that. Everybody's happy. They go get a coffee, Chinese food, Mexican food. We all meet up in the middle. Everybody's happy.

We And I and I just love that. And so, you know, when I when I saw these plans, I was like, you know what? This is perfect. You know, I've coached baseball for many years, and we're always looking for a place to eat after the games. I got family that comes in town, and we always have to go over the hill. And it it's just really inconvenient, and it's nice to to have something like this in our home, right in our own backyard, where we could just come together and, you know, break bread, everybody get what they like, we all meet up in the middle and, you know, hang out, and the kids could run around and let all their energy out. So, you know, that's all I wanna say.

Anyone else in the audience? Come on up. And if you could be so kind to fill out a speaker card afterwards, that would be great so I can add it to the minutes.

Good evening all. My name is Brian Tardell, and unlike a lot of people, I've not been in this area very long since 2018. I relocated from Santa Cruz, California. I've been a big tech, software engineer, my whole career. I've been at, Google for the last fifteen years as an engineer.

One of the things that is desperately in need is an elevated space. Other Google engineers live here. We talk constantly about meeting up, where are we gonna meet up, and it really just sort of ends up, falling apart or we will meet, you know, closer to our offices, whether that's in San Francisco or Mountain View or Sunnyvale. My wife and I, we will frequently go out, and we will drive right past Brentwood, get on the ferry, head to the ferry building, and come back. We'll do that in three three hours just to grab lunch.

We talk so so often about the desperate need for something like this elevated space. I had the privilege of meeting Matt roughly twelve years ago. And the very first day that I met him, I learned that he is a person that plays a long game. He's pretty young at the time. Yeah. Two things have changed. He's no longer young.

And

I'm hoping the other thing that changes is that we can build this elevated space together, and bring more people like me, closer to Brentwood that relocated for the area and the special, attributes of the city. So I am in strong support, and, I can tell you many, many conversations, about having a place like this that we've had. So thank you for listening.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Dan Barnes. I'm a lifetime resident of the area. I'm 68 years old. I have been a I graduated Liberty High School 1976. I've been a permanent Brent Brentwood residence in 1979, homeowner since 1987. Just wanna say that, my grandmother lived off of McLaren, and as a youngster, probably five years old, I remember walking by that vacant lot. I've been over 55 walking by that vacant lot. I now live off of Walnut, and I drive by that vacant lot. So, obviously, the a lot of people here, everyone here is in favor of this project.

I just wanna say a couple things. Number one, I I'm I'm thirty eight year real estate broker, and I had the privilege of being Matt's manager when he was, early on in his career. And, actually, I'm proud that he actually consulted with me before he decided to change career from residential real estate to commercial where he's become very, very successful. I just wanna say that today you have the rare opportunity to utilize a long, vacant, useless lot and have it turned into a showcase for this city. And is it is on what is definitely a major gateway into Brentwood, and you can greatly, expand the downtown area that has become one of Brentwood's hallmarks.

In addition to that, you have the rare person, Matt Hagar, who is spearheading this project. In addition to the fact that he has youth, compared to me, youth and vitality. But in addition to that, he has the very rare combination of the knowledge, the contacts, the wherewithal, and the perseverance to see this project to an end. Lastly, I wanna say this. He's a very successful commercial real estate broker.

He sees opportunities like this throughout the state of California and, in fact, nationwide. He could easily invest his money elsewhere and possibly get a greater return. That's not his goal. Matt is a lifetime resident of this area, and he wants to give back to Brentwood. So I will finish it by just by saying that his love and pride in his hometown, and he has a desire to make Brentwood, which is already good, even better. I urge you to allow him to build this project. Thank you.

Let's try one more time. Anyone else in the audience? We'll be going to Zoom. So if anyone in Zoom would like to speak, please raise your hand now. Our first speaker is Marisol Baez.

Hi. Thank you so much. I can't see my timer. I don't know if that's okay, but, I'm just a resident. I don't have any vested interest in this project at all. I'm not a realtor. I'm not a commercial builder, blah blah blah. I'm a resident who absolutely loves this town. And this is my first time seeing the presentation, and I think the presentation was fantastic. I didn't get a chance to see it two or three times.

I wish all residents would have had a chance to be able to see this a few times, but I guess, they weren't. I I I think this is so fabulous. It's great, as everyone mentioned, such a great piece for someone to see as they come into the city. I really do hope that this can can move forward and be a part of our community. Some of the things I wanted to say, though, is I really do hope the planning commission understands the design review and the design standards and to be able to keep consistent with what that is and not make exceptions or not go, against the standards that we worked so hard to be able to, defend in this town, and that's why our town is so amazing.

The other thing that I was a little confused about, because, again, this is only my first time seeing a presentation on this, is that the downtown specific plan, if not mistaken, it says that businesses are only open till ten. Alcohol is only open till ten unless they, of course, they ask for a CUP. So, I'm really hoping that you will, keep it to 10PM. Midnight seems really extreme. I don't know anything else in town that is near residential that is open till midnight that is, alcohol based or or anything of lack that of of a restaurant based.

Deer Ridge residents, we were so excited, to have eight acres, and you, again, went with 10PM there near residential. The downtown plan says 10PM. I don't know why we would go past 10PM and leave it till midnight, so I'd really hope that you can take a look at that and stay with the plan and keep it only open till 10PM. There's already a lot of issues downtown, a lot of problems, I think, the police are dealing with in the downtown late in the evening. So if we don't even have that, taken care of, or I don't know if anyone's talked to the police department about the issues going on downtown in the evenings, I think, again, another reason to keep this, to to about 10PM.

So and I'm really strong about that. I really don't think that it should be open past till ten. The other thing is I keep hearing about parking and parking. So, my question is, will they put up signs that say, no Farmer's Market parking? Because everyone's talking about the parking, but a lot of the parking downtown has signs that say you can't park there on Farmer's Market. So if parking is a plus, are they gonna open and allow that for everybody to use at any time even if they're not patronizing the area? So that's those are some of my questions and concerns. But, again, great project. Thank you.

Next, we have Cindiana Todor.

Hi. Good evening. Yeah. I can't see my, timer, so I'm gonna time myself. Definitely excited about this project, expanding our footprint, for our downtown.

We spoke enough about a street of Brentwood, you know, kind of taking the attention away from our amazing downtown. So it's about time, you know, to see some projects infusing new life, and some modern flare, into our downtown area. This project definitely brings, to mind as, our, as previous speakers, mentioned, you know, Axbo market, ferry building, food halls in, big European cities. So, having that, coming to Brentwood is, something that, you know, I've always, really, wanted to see in in in our city. Dero to everything that Amy Amy mentioned, very, eloquently.

So, thank you, Amy, for, bringing all those, amazing points. I'm now gonna recap all of that, in the interest of time and, to the point of hours of operations. For the more mature crowd, this city does not offer a place where we can spend time after 08:30PM. I come from Europe. Typically, my dinner hours are after 08:30PM.

I cannot have dinner in Brentwood after 08:30PM. Nonetheless, have a drink, enjoy, a conversation after 09:00 in Brentwood with friends, family, what have you. This place has the opportunity to give us a spay you know, a space for that. So please consider giving us at least one space for more mature people to gather. Leave us the market will adjust, you know, the hours of operations.

If something happens and people my age, I'm not gonna say how old I am, or you you can probably guess, if we all go crazy after 10:00 at night, you know, the market will dictate how to adjust the operation hours. But please consider giving, you know, our age group a space to actually have a good time, enjoy an elevated drink, and, you know, gather for you know, without kids 25 and, you know, between 25 and 30 kind of invading our spaces so we can actually help at the time with people our age. So I really appreciate your attention to this, and I I really hope you will approve this project the way it's presented. I think it's amazing and, you know, much needed in our community. Thank you so much.

Next, we have Gurpreet Singh.

Hi, commissioner. My name is Preetakar Gurupreet Singh. I'm a resident resident of this community and also a real estate investor. From a real estate standpoint, this is exactly the kind of project we want to see. It takes an underperforming site and transforms it into something more active, more inviting, and more valuable.

The focus on the local retail, food, and gathering spaces is what drives foot traffic today that benefits not just this side, but surrounding areas as well. A project like this don't just redevelop the land, they create destinations, strengthen the market, demand, and add lasting value to the community. This project will help create a vibrant environment that keeps people local, supports small businesses, and gives residents more places to gather and enjoy their city. Matt has put a lot of thought into this project, and I strongly support this project and encourage its approval. Thank you.

Next, we have Samar. Hello? Can you hear me? We can hear you.

Great. Good evening, planning commissioners and members of the public. My name is Simar Gill. I'm a city planner, and I work with the city of Walnut Creek. So I'm speaking tonight as a experienced professional as well as a resident of this community.

I live in Brentwood. And from perspective, I do support this project as a strong example of thoughtful infill development. It revitalizes an underutilized commercial site into a more active community oriented destination. Given the surrounding residential neighborhood, the existing commercial uses, as well as the proximity to downtown, this location is very well suited for a walkable neighborhood serving project that really complements the existing area, and this is something that we really need to revive this area. And what really stood out to me is the emphasis that this project is putting on local retail, dining, and gathering spaces.

These types of projects help create a stronger sense of place, encourage residents to stay local, and support the local economy. I have family and friends that come visit and always looking to take them out somewhere, and this project is a perfect example of, you know, bringing the bringing the revenue, the business, the customers to our area. And in many ways, it does remind me of the neighborhood serving atmosphere and community feel that places like The Orchard or the Broadway Plaza shopping center in Walnut Creek has and has created. So based on my experience processing similar developments, I believe this project will be an asset and a positive addition to this community. And, of course, as cited by many members of the public, the many benefits this project is gonna bring.

It will create economic vitality, result in job creation, activate this area, which is much needed, attract new businesses, as well as, bring more customers to the area, which will result in more revenue for the city. And, as I mentioned earlier, I'm a resident here, and I'm really looking forward to, dining here once it's, built out. So I'm really excited and in full support of this project.

Wanna check one more time. Anyone else who'd like to speak in Zoom, please raise your hand. We have no further speakers.

Thank you, April. Do I have a motion to close public hearing?

I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Moving into discussion. Commissioner Roberts or Johnson, you care to start? Well, either way,

I'll start. Okay. So I I really appreciate the public coming out. You have no idea how it just delights me to see residents come out in support of anything we do up here, but in particular, a project like this makes all the difference in the world, not just for you here in the in this theater, but on, on online. It is, I think it's fantastic.

So thank you for that. Couple of questions I have for for you. Everyone keeps speaking to or referencing the Ferry Building, and I noticed that there's no solar in this packet. When I think of the Ferry Building, all that's kinda natural lighting, and I would take it with all of the various places that will go into this project. It would be natural lighting that you'll be leaning on. That's for for you. Yes? Yes, please.

Commissioner Roberts, thank you for that question. Yes. So solar is definitely in the equation. We live in California. California has a green building code called the Cal Green Code, which requires certain portions of the building to be supplemented by sustainable energy sources like solar.

That is definitely in the works. When we get to that point in the construction drawings, we'll evaluate that and where it could go. Because the building is primarily a parapet roof, which is shielded from the facade of the building, any solar would be hidden from view from the from the patrons and the customers of the of the space itself. So in terms of natural light, if you look at the elevation, the westerly and the southerly elevations, which where most of the direct light will be coming from, The lights are high, so light can come in, but they're there to illuminate the illuminate the interior space. There's also a large skylight from the 2nd Floor plaza area down to the 1st Floor to illuminate the Ground Floor from the very middle, which is typically the darkest part of the interior space.

So you'll have a combination of all of those to light the building naturally and to also work with sustainable energy sources.

That's great. Thank you for that answer. In packet, twenty three and twenty six, I see the delivery service is also in check. So that's that's fantastic.

I can talk a little bit about that.

Could you

talk about that a little

for me? So the the way that we designed the site Miguel, if you wanna put the site plan up there, I can tell you a little bit about it. What was really important for us when we are just conceiving of a site plan was the customer experience. The the the families coming in from Brentwood, the people coming in to patronize the space to make sure that the goods and services that are being shipped to the vendor sites themselves had their own direct path that was separate from the customer experience. So if you look at the site here, that red zone there is where the essentially shipping receiving would be.

They have a five foot wide sidewalk towards the back end of the site to get into the site itself, to load their own vending stations with their own supplies and be outside of the customer experience. So if there's any, you know, farmer's market types of groceries or or, produce being shipped back and forth, it's outside of the customer experience.

Fantastic. Alright. Thank you for that. Well, I appreciate the time you've spent on this, dropping the project around for the residents and business owners and getting the feedback and recommendations. That's gone a long way, and it's it's seen here in this packet.

In addition to the revenue, I just want to make it real clear that I appreciate the incubator and entrepreneurial feel that you're bringing into the city of Brentwood. Revenue is important, but the quality, that comes with that is more important for me. And it seems like we're going to get there together. So I thank you for that. That's all I have at the moment.

Thank you, commissioner Roberts. Commissioner Johnson.

Thank you. I only have a few questions. One is about project flow I mean, the the flow of the project. And so maybe I didn't I just wanna make sure I understand exactly what's going on. Hold on one second. So the the area where the oh, what do you call it? The area where the where the sound oh my god. I can't my words aren't coming. The amphitheater? The amphitheater.

Yep.

God dang it. What's going on with me today? Anyway, the area where the amphitheater is, that's enclosed in a gate. Correct? Correct.

Yep.

So

people will come in the South Side. They park over there. How do they get to the building? They gotta walk through the gate and then walk through there. Is that how that's supposed to work?

Yeah. It's a managed site. So it's fenced off for many reasons. One, for security, one to control the site, but also to create an environment where families feel safe, where their kids kinda walking around, while they're getting their drinks or their food or what have you or enjoying a, you know, a play or a dance recital or something that that everything is enclosed. On the south end of the of the project where the parking lot is, there is a formal gate there that you'll be coming in from. So you'll you'll be walking through that landscape site there past the amphitheater and then into the south facing side of the building.

And that's that blue area. That's correct.

The blue

area is the gate. So everybody who's doing who parks on the south side, they would walk through the blue area through past the amphitheater and the water station to go to the building where all the shops were if that was the case. They also could access it from Oak Street, I guess, if they were walking.

That's correct. Yeah. And if me if I wanna put it on the site plan. There you go. If you wanna just maybe I don't if you can zoom in on that or not, but it was very difficult to to design one large building, 270 odd square feet long, that had so much potential in it. But the idea was that you're basically walking through the long side of the spine there. And if you look at those dash lines, those are the the primary designated vendor locations. And then between those, those are two aisleways, roughly eight feet wide. And those would be the paths where people will be walking through and taking a look at bending sites on either side. Then there's various staircases to the 2nd Floor.

There'll be an elevator and then some service and storage rooms there to to manage the building.

So foot traffic from the north?

We'll be coming in from the north

side of the interior,

which is the left side of this blue box right there.

Mhmm.

You'll be walking to the right and then into that that, managed amphitheater area where there's a variety of seating areas. I know Cinziana was online talking about mature spaces. That's for her. And then there's other amphitheater spaces here for community plays, recitals, and such. And then there's a small little play area for for age appropriate hot lot type of activities.

So it was really very well thought out, and I give all the credit to Matt in his vision and guiding this process and the design team for working together to make it all happen. It it was really a collaborative effort, and it's really been just a pleasure to work with him and the design team to really create something that I think is is purely Brentwood for Brentwood by Brentwood for Brentwood in the future. So

Just one other a couple more questions, and this might be for you. But along the backside, you know, where the train tracks are

Yep.

That's gonna be a brick wall. I'm assuming it's gonna go around the whole property that's going around the whole property?

Yeah. There'll be a CMU mason CMU or some sort of solid wall on that side separating the the railroad from us. That'll be a managed site. So, you know, making sure that the site is managed and secured twenty four hours a day is gonna be paramount to the success of this project, and and Matt's been very well aware of that. And so that's gonna be a solid fence on that side. And that that aisleway is that shipping and receiving corridor that I mentioned Mhmm. To commissioner Roberts.

K. Last two questions that I have right now. The amphitheater is kind of facing the community, you know, the housing community that's that amphitheater is directly facing it. So how I guess what I'm trying to find out is the sound that would hit the community. Let's say they were having an event at night. What do we what did we do or know about that?

I can I can I can start, and maybe Miko can kinda just fill in? Sure. Yeah. Cool. But what you're not seeing in this landscape plan are the trees.

So for solar orientation, this this this westernly side of the of the project, which is the south side, which is the bottom part, there's a double and sometimes triple row of trees there to buffer some of the sound from the amphitheater to the streets, to the residents, to the west of them. So Scott from Environmental Foresight and his team had worked diligently to understand the sound and acoustic ramifications of having an amphitheater there to buffer those. And and to you know, in terms of scale, this is a very small amphitheater. It's not the large scale amphitheaters that you might see in other other cities. This is a kind of small community based amphitheater.

And I would only add that, the project is conditioned as every other business to, meet the city's noise standards and, decibel requirements for certain hours.

I just I guess, you know, the word amphitheater just means that we're gonna amplify the sound. Right? So I'm just trying to figure out for the residents who are I don't know if we know the answer to the question. I don't know if they know what kind of events you're gonna have either, so we don't know that. But is there that and the lighting. So I'm specifically talking about the lights. You know, what what way are the lights facing? Are they gonna be facing the community that's south this way or internal? I'm assuming it's internal.

That's a great question.

And then the sound hitting that that community outside there.

Well, once more, commissioner, it it would be the trees offering that mitigation as well as, the project being required to adhere to the noise, standards of the city.

And the trees were gonna be, like, fresh, those little sprigs that we put up in the beginning that grow over twenty years, or they're gonna be

It's gonna be a combination of tree species. Yes.

K. That's I think I just wanna say that, you know, the building is beautiful. It's it's a it's a gorgeous building. It it looks like it's gonna do very well in the city of Brentwood. It's an outstanding view, and I've seen that that that lot for twenty some odd years myself. So I know exactly. It's very it looks very nice.

Excellent. Thank you. Commissioner Jones.

Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. And I I wanna start just to take a moment to recognize the history of the site because I think it's pretty significant and something that a lot of people, including myself, were not really aware of. We had seen some public comments that came from representatives of the East Contra Costa Historical Society, and the the property is the location of the original railroad depot.

That played a pretty major role in establishing Brentwood as a population center back in the late eighteen hundreds. It was also a key part of the agricultural economy serving as a major shipping point for local crops well into the nineteen seventies. So the the space that's been sitting empty, and a lot of us, I think, could view this kind of an eyesore for a long time. It's not I wouldn't even say it's not necessarily another development site. It's really a

place

that helped shape the identity of the city. So I appreciate it because I had heard that, mister Hagar, you you, did connect with the East Contra Costa Historical Society to look at ways to incorporate that history into the project. And I was just wondering if we could speak to that a little bit as in terms of what that is from a design standpoint and how that would be incorporated.

Yeah. I think that's a great point. Mary Black and I have worked together many, many years and and and most recently with with Matt and I on this project. If you look at the railroad side elevation, there's a tower element there, and that is really kind of echoing back to these train station that was there before. So that was our nod to the train station's existence there that was such a central part of Brentwood's agricultural and livelihood was was that train station.

So if you looked at, if you can put it up on the screen there, you can kinda see what we were trying to do. I was trying to if you look at the middle, the the second tier there, there's a little elevated element right there that's in brick, to echo the same colors that was echoing the original train station that was there. So we were trying to find ways to, again, connect the building to the city, to the community, to create the landmark so you can see it from all points, so you can see it as an entry to the city, and you can see it from the each far reaches of the downtown region.

Wait. Is there any consideration for messaging or something on the site that sort of details these

Yes. Historical We've been in contact with Okay. Mary about a a number of different things, and that's definitely on the table for discussion.

No. I appreciate that. Yeah. I just I think that's a real opportunity, so I'm I'm I'm glad to to to see that. Going into just the the resident feedback, I share the the same sentiment and just appreciate all of the feedback that came in.

It's a lot, and we appreciate it because it helps, as as we're thinking about things. You know, overall, I think there there wasn't anything that I saw from residents, including residents that live close to the site that I would say felt like opposition. You know, I know there's been some components about noise and things like that, and and I'll I'll get to that in a in a minute. But, I I do have some questions for staff just related to, some of the design and circulation standpoints and, if I pull it up. Being at the site a few times now, one of the things I noticed is that the the primary parking areas, right, and and the driveway access are are set back a bit from the actual building area.

And I understand that from a design standpoint, you know, because the front itself is pretty constrained, but it did just make me think a little bit about just parking behavior in practice, and I just wanted to make sure this was just something we're thinking about. Obviously, I I would say adequate parking on-site, and and I think that's definitely the case here. But I I do wonder too if, you know, people might tend to park wherever they feel is more convenient to where they're actually going. So, like, I'm just looking at some of the streets like Indiana Avenue, Orchard, McLaren. You know, Indiana's pretty small.

Orchard's pretty similar. You've got the business parking lot across the street at Walnut And Oak. And I'm just wondering if there's a potential of people choosing those areas to park versus the parking lot, you know, just given the proximity to the actual building. You throw in events, things like that. I'm just thinking about potential spillover and residential concern in that area. So that might be a question from a traffic standpoint. Just has there been any consideration to that to make sure that for whatever reason down the road and I'm just I'm wanting to purely cover bearings here. Is there potential where we might have resident concern down the road?

Thank you, commissioner, for the question. I'm Anjipalin, the engineering manager. At this point, we are not looking into that aspect because I I I think Miguel can confirm that the project is providing adequate parking within with on-site. So we are anticipating those parking lot to be used. And if you look at it also, it makes it difficult for the people to cross from Indian Avenue directly over to the other side. So it makes a lot more sense for them to park on-site, and then navigate the traffic through Walnut.

Okay. Yeah. And and and, again, I'm I'm bringing this up as potential concern, just seeing things that pop up that we aren't thinking about. So I'm throwing that out there as just something to make sure that we're in a good place on. Obvi there is a lot of parking.

I agree with that wholeheartedly. But, again, as I was at the site, it felt like, I'm just wondering if that could potentially be something and just wanted to make sure we're we're thinking about potential mitigations if that were to turn into an issue, particularly when we have the, you know, amphitheater in in, you know, in play when when you might be having events and and quite a few folks coming. So commissioner Roberts, mister Johnson, you were hitting on some of those things that I talked about in particularly to the noise. And so I'm looking at just my questions. Those were hit on.

So, yeah, those were the the primary things, but I will say this. The the site itself is beautiful. The location, I think, is in in desperate need of of of something like this. And so I think it's a genuinely exciting thing, and I I I'm I'm excited to to to see there's where this goes, and I'm certainly in support of the project.

So Alright.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice chair Floor.

Thank you, chair Brand. First of all, I I wanna thank everybody that came out tonight and all the people that called for for coming in and expressing your support for this project. I have nothing but nice things to say about this project as far as for so many reasons that you all have expressed, and I I won't go over it other than to say that looking at this project, I see a project that is not just trying to comply to the the letter of the downtown specific plan, but to the very idea, the spirit of it, what the downtown specific plan is actually about. I see a place where people can congregate. They can they can walk around.

It's a walkable experience. It's it's just the kind of thing that is a real benefit to the city, and I can see the the real affection for the city that was put into the design of this project. I just wanted to get that out there. I do also need to say that this is a design review and conditional use permit hearing, and so we do need to consider whether there's anything in there that might be something that that people will be concerned about. And I did have some a couple of emails that came up, and a couple of these points have already been touched on.

There is a concern about the traffic. Looking at the email that I that I have in front of me, these emails are public record, by the way. They're emails that anybody can go and see online. Really, on Indiana, there's a stop sign only, and then there's Oak Street. So the this this letter writer is really concerned about the traffic that is already there and was asking about traffic study.

So I I did see the traffic study, but this traffic study mostly talked about keeping people from turning left, right in front of the preschool, and I didn't see a lot of other concerns expressed in the traffic study. So, hopefully, if this thing moves forward, there will be attention paid to some of these areas. And, frankly, outside of this project, there needs to be attention paid to these areas. And so, hopefully, you've seen this email, and I can make sure that it gets to you if you have. There is a concern about the noise from events.

I did see something I heard something that Miguel said that I'll get to in a minute and talking about the city garbage truck, and I think that's also a valid concern to to talk about. And, again, this the person that wrote this is happy to see the project. They just have a couple of concerns. And, again, Indiana Avenue, here we have a resident on Indiana Avenue, and there's not a lot of people on Indiana Avenue. It's a it's a cul de sac.

And she well, she says here it's essentially a court, consists mostly of small single family homes, most of which have no garages, only a space for a single car in the driveway. And at the end of the court, there's apartments. And so the concern that they have and I I can kind of see it. If you if you just take a look at the map and you look at where the where the project is cited and you look at Indiana Avenue, and you can see that people will be looking for a place to park. And if there's not one, they're gonna drive right past Indiana.

They can make a they can make a turn in there and put their car and people park like that, unfortunately. And I don't think that there's anything that I can ask the applicant to do about that. There is there are a 144 parking spaces on-site. I'll probably ask Miguel in a minute about estimates about how many people will be using the market at any one time. But it it is something where there's a lot of on street parking, for instance, for farmers market.

And because this is, you know, kind of away from the middle of downtown, people are gonna start looking at those other alternatives. And so I think it more not so much for the applicant, but for the city, it will behoove us to be paying a lot of attention to what goes on there. They were asking for perhaps a red stripe or a tow away at owner's expense signs or something that could could help. And, again, it's nothing to do. I can't I can't comment on the design related to that.

And, again, this this person was okay with the operating hours, six to midnight. They just don't want them any any any larger. And there more of this is is actually, I think, has been answered, and I I think, especially they mentioned that the neighborhood was once the hub of Brentwood's fruit industry. And, Lance, you've stated that you're already working with, with Mary Black on that on that angle. So I think that's going to to please them.

And we did have just a couple of people that mentioned that they would like to see it. Here's one person who says, hope night nose noise after 10PM will be discussed, but I do support the exciting project. I I don't want anybody to think that I'm making these comments, and I don't. And here's another one that says all music and car noise must stop at 10PM. And this person is less favorable to the project in general.

But I I do, again, understand why people don't like having loud noise after 10PM. I noticed downtown I I think Crown and Crow was the only business I saw that's open till midnight. I think the lounge closes at ten. All the restaurants close at nine or ten. I'm not sure if there's any others. If anybody knows of any others, that's fine. But

okay.

So there are a couple others, apparently. But so I I think it I think it's worth giving some quick consideration too. And, also, there was a mention I think, Miguel, did you mention that the applicant said something about closing the park at ten for alcohol or opening it in your presentation? Because I don't remember seeing that in the CV.

No. I didn't say that specifically. The hours of operation for the theater itself is 10:10PM.

The theater. Mhmm. Okay. So so as far as theater noise, for sure. And okay. And while while I have you, Miguel, the parking, how many what is the capacity of the site? I I must have missed it somewhere in the packet.

A 144 parking spaces.

But, I mean, as far as the the human capacity.

Oh, in terms of How many

people will be using the market at one time or putting the amp at

the other? That's gonna depend truly on the market conditions. I wouldn't be able to answer that question.

Because usually, like, when we talk about restaurants, there's usually a you know, there's a seating there's a ton of seating, and there is a specific Yeah. Parking requirement.

But absent tenant information, it's it's hard to say what what it would be. You know? If if it's all little shops, it could be very little. If the whole thing is a restaurant, it could be a lot. So without actually having that type of information, I I wouldn't be able to venture a number.

Okay. So I do think that that it's not unreasonable for the people who live on Indiana to be a little apprehensive that there might be overflow, especially since there's not extra parking in that area. You know, most of the extra parking is over on 1st And 2nd Street and over towards Chestnut. So I I just think it's I think it's worth thinking about. That's all I'm saying.

As far as the tower height that was mentioned in the presentation, and I didn't hear any other commissioner comment on it. For myself, myself, looking looking at at the the towers, towers, I kind of would be inclined to leave them at the height that they are in the in the design. I think that as stated in the staff report, the the downtown specific plan isn't necessarily clear. It says you want some towers, and to be a tower, as stated in in the staff report, you've gotta be above other things. Like, you're not gonna look at something that's the same height as the top of the parapet and say, oh, that's a tower.

Doesn't make sense. And they don't look like they're way over, in my estimation. They they look like they I'm I'm sorry. I'm looking at a at another screen right now. They look like they look like they they fit in nicely.

I don't think that, you know, like, they're not, like, way up in the sky or anything. They're not very huge. So I with I I would like to have some discussion with the commission about allowing the tower height. So and if there is any interest among the other commissioners of putting a 10PM instead of midnight closing for the serving of alcohol. I if there's any other discussion on that, I'd be like I'd like to hear it.

Anything else, vice chair floor?

No. Those were were my things. I think the tower height and the the 10PM are the things that I I think that are the only two things that really relate to the documents that we're looking at tonight. So, I would just like to throw those out there in case anybody else wants to discuss them.

Thank you. Lot of really amazing talk on this on this project. This I mean, I when I when the staff report came through and I saw a lot of these pictures, I I was kind of struck back thinking, like, wait. This is for Brentwood? Like, wow. Like, wow. And I thought yeah. So we got so many emails. I got I think we got my last count was 65. I tried to reply to a bunch of them.

I'm sorry if I didn't get back to you, but I was trying to work and reply to emails at the same time. So, I appreciated the community's sentiment on this because it was such a great variety. I heard a lot of parallels, Nashville esque Oxbow Market. Somebody had mentioned San Pedro Square Market, the veranda, SF Ferry Building, the Main Street America. I see a lot of that in in this in this project.

I mean, personally, I don't really have I don't really care much if they wanna keep the tall towers. I I will I'm gonna get to that, but I I'm so excited to talk about some of this. Yeah. I think the, I'm sorry. I forget your name, but the the gal from Walnut, the works at Walnut Creek, the thoughtful infill development, I wrote that down as well. I I I think thoughtfulness is the thing that comes to mind most clearly when I look at this project of well

Do want me to sit down?

Yeah. Sure. Go ahead. Yeah. Don't put your feet up. I don't have an ottoman, but sure. Go ahead. You know, it's thoughtfulness is the thing that comes through most clearly. And I I don't remember if it was commissioner Johnson, Jones. I've anyway, this idea oh, you mentioned it too.

Like, sort of that essence of the downtown specific plan. But, also, like, if you even just look at the basics, there's this there's this fascinating, I'll call it extra credit in a sense. Like, they're not required to really have any parking, and he's got a 144 spaces. And just to put in that in perspective, I dug up the old thing on the building for, the parking garage. It's two ninety.

And the only times I can see that that one is full is Oktoberfest, fourth of July, and the holiday parade. Now there's maybe others, but and so I when I see that, it's it's it's to me, that's a it's a good sort of yardstick as far as, you know, is that is that an adequate number of parking? And I I was a little skeptical at first, but then I thought I was like, oh, that's two ninety? Wow. Like, that's that's almost half the size.

Speaking of the parking lot, one of the things I appreciated about it a lot was this idea of the, the circulation, not necessarily of the cars themselves, but for, the foot traffic. So the way that the I thought it was really wonderfully linked where it's very easy for families to get out of their vehicle and have a safe path to walk that isn't asphalt. And for a family well, a somewhat family facing project like this in this application, to me, that that just speaks to the thoughtfulness. It speaks to the things that are so well considered as far as what the needs of Brentwood, Brentwood residents are. Moving on to the, you know, the center play space or I forget.

An amphitheater. I mean, first of all, amazing with this, natural shade. I you know, it's one of the things we've talked about in a number of meetings where we all know how hot our summers get. And having that natural shade there where parents can put their feet up and watch their kids run around in an enclosed space, there's only a couple of those around here. There's, like, Veterans Park and then the little park that's over at streets of Brentwood.

It's very hard to find and enclose. So, like, my twin three year olds that run-in opposite directions, I'm just thinking about them, and they're contained. So the and and the the amphitheater, I mean, it's it's a it's a lovely public space. I'm not entirely sure about the amplification, but it you know, as as far as the, the adherence to the, noise requirements and such, I understand the, completion at 10PM. That's when a lot of our noise noise standards shift.

Makes a lot of sense. I mean, even stuff the water feature. I mean, that that just blows I don't think we've seen that in a in a, in a private project before. You know, we we have a couple of them here, but they're all at public parks. And it's it's very heartwarming because I when I came here for the first time in, like, 2016, I was so I I seeing a water feature for the first time was one of the things that I I just went, wow.

Like, that's that so that always speaks to me as a Brentwood resident. The building oh, let's just let's just talk about the building design review here for a second. I think, miss Todor had mentioned it well. It's like that that's where my mind went as far as the not crowded, but, sort of a series of European buildings that are just kind of shoulder to shoulder next to each other. It's it doesn't look crowded.

It it looks like it's at home. It it yeah. I love the the bit about the variety as far as the businesses inside as a reflection of, how it looks on the outside. You know, commissioner Jones, I I'm glad you talked about the heritage part. I was gonna bring it up. You kinda stole my thunder, but,

you know,

I I I love it because, I was looking up some of the old pictures of the of the building, the of the old, train station, and, I did see quite a bit of that inspiration. And then we got the email from Mary Black, and I was just like, oh, well, she says it. It it's consistent with it. She she's the expert, so I'm not gonna not gonna debate that. And I I I look at this project, and I think most cities, not just in East County, but cities in all of Contra Costa in in the area would be, you know, drooling for a project like this.

I mean, it just it it it ticks so many of the right boxes, and I just you know, to mister Hagar, like, this is probably the most impressive project I've seen to date, and it's it's quite something. I I have to say. I'd you know, the discussion of circulation and all of that, I I feel as though, you know, the the addition of the stop signs on Walnut in front of the parking lot entrance, very, very smart, very apt. It makes it easy to go left and as well as in right. The facing of the tower I know I'm just kind of commenting on all the positives here.

The facing of the tower in alignment with Walnut all the way down for Vasco, what a great idea. What I mean, that's where all the people from the South Bay, when they come to Brentwood, that's how they get here. And so this, in a way, serves as like a preliminary introduction to downtown. And so when when you're talking about that, I was writing down a couple of things, and I I was also thinking about what you said about the heritage. And I thought about, like, that many people talked about that today, and they they're saying that this was a you know, if you look at a map, you'll see that Downtown Brentwood is sort of at a at an angle that's essentially perpendicular to the railroad tracks because it was you know, the railroad tracks came in and then boom, you get a city.

And then we sort of shifted to Northwest, know, South. But that was that was the heart of Brentwood in a sense. It was like this this core center where people were introduced through that. And seeing as how this project is aiming to fill that space, I just the thing that came to mind was this idea of, like, this is a heart transplant for Brentwood in a in such a beautiful way that just links everything that, you know, our residents want in addition to a respect for the heritage of where we've come and outward look to where the city is going. And so I just I have just so many wonderful things to say about this.

Think I mean, literally, the only thing I I just wanted to talk about the hours. I mean, like, whether it's Monday through Thursday is maybe a little bit earlier, but I I mean, that or if it's slightly, whether, yeah, 10:00, 11:00, something like that. Twelve seems a little late personally, but, I know Walnut Creek has tried a few ideas where the first, like, year or two, it's, like, 10PM, and then you can get an approval subsequent for 11PM and then 12PM. I just I'll I'll lay that out there because as I know, miss Vaya said and and I think a couple others as far as the when the Eight Acres application came through, that was one of the, consideration was, you know, obviously, we have very close proximity to, residential homes. And, yeah, I I think it's something that we ought to take notice.

And so I I appreciate you bringing it up. So, I did wanna just kind of pull this back in discussion. I think that, really, the main things we did talk about the tower. I didn't hear any objection to the tower from anyone else on the dais. The, I think between the hours, commissioner Johnson, you're talking about the sound and all of that and how the amphitheater works.

I I would say I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here, but, like, maybe the hours is is really the last thing to just kinda present as far as it relates to the conditional use permit. So, any I've just kinda laid it out there. Is there any any thoughts, consideration for a shift in hours?

Well, you know, I I I personally believe that, and I understand that, you know, the CUP is there for a reason, but we're living in a different time. I wanna believe that part of the attraction that we can keep with vendors is not cutting them off at the knees and having them shut their services down early. That's a big one. I for one, one of the callers called in. I'm grown.

And to, on the weekend, be kind of last call at 09:00, 10:00 just seems a little bit, you know, I I'm I'm I'm, for one, believe that we should keep it later, on the weekends, including Thursdays even, and maybe tapered down during the week. I understand that, the residential community might take issue with that, but I, for one, have seen over at the streets of Brentwood I mean, they closed down early. It's and no one really well, I'll take that back. I, for one, would like to see it stay open on the weekend late and maybe consider Monday through Wednesday or Thursday, 10:00. That would be my recommendation.

But to shut it down across the board, Monday through Sunday, 10:00, Vendors, that's a big ticket item. And, I wanna believe that we're a responsible group of people. I cannot see folks coming into a dining facility and carrying on and becoming a menace to such a great space. If it's a great space, it's a great space. And I I'd like to encourage us to reconsider before we cut a vendor off for operating early, shutting down early. That'd be my recommendation.

I have I just wanna interject really quickly, while while the discussion is going on. Miguel, can you check into, what the DSP says about this? One of the callers mentioned that there's a 10:00.

So the majority of the zoning districts within the downtown specific plan, most notably the downtown core, does specifically say that alcohol sales for on-site and off of off-site consumption are permitted by a right between between the hours of 10AM and 10PM. And, anything beyond 10PM requires a conditional use permit. However, for the specific zoning district for this subject site, the DSP is actually silent. It doesn't mention alcohol. So that's why we went the path of a conditional use permit.

So we we do have the option to do this if we want to to make it 12PM or 12AM? Correct. Alright. I just wanna make sure that that point was covered. You guys go on.

I just wanna say we need to I would like to give the hours as stated, and here's why. Number one, business owners any business owner who's gonna operate this, if there's nobody coming in, they're not opening. They're gonna close because it costs labor, electricity, and all the expenses that it takes to run a business. They're gonna close that they're gonna close it down. So if there's no traffic on Monday, which there prop there may not be, you know, and we don't know what's gonna be in here.

We don't know right now. We don't know what kind of what kind of businesses are gonna be in here. So they'll close it down. I think that we do need things for for people to go to in Brentwood. We, you know, we are a they call it a bedroom community in some way.

Right? And you come here to just come after work and go to sleep. Well, this will give you something to do besides go to sleep in Brentwood and some activities depending on and this is all contingent on what kind of businesses get put into this space, which we don't know. And to commissioner Roberts, as what she was saying about cutting people off at the knees. If we like this setup and we think it's gonna be effective and it's something that we need to have in in Brentwood, then we have to give the the business owner every opportunity to succeed at doing so.

If we cut them off at the knees and say, oh, we wanna we want you to close it down at 10:00, we limit the type of businesses that are gonna go in there. Because some businesses might say, it's not worth for me to go in there if I'm gonna have to close at 10:00 or not serve alcohol at 10:00. So I say, we give it to them as stated. The community is gonna decide whether that's working or not. They will decide.

They will not frequent it. I went to today, I wanted to go to lunch with a friend of mine in the streets, and a favorite restaurant of mine, which always dumpling hours was closed. Why was it closed? Because they didn't have the traffic to do it. I don't I wanna make sure this has every opportunity to succeed. It's a beautiful building. It's a beautiful project. Let's give him every opportunity to succeed.

Commissioner Jones, any comments?

Regarding the the the cup for alcohol is in terms of the off-site sales. Right? So what what can you just for everybody to understand, how is that, how is that fall into to this building? So what types of businesses would be doing off-site?

The it's kind of a misnomer, the the naming of off-site consumption. Basically, what it means is you could have look, for example, like a like a grocery store that sells wine, off-site consumption. That's what it means. You buy the wine here, and you consume it off-site at your home. For this project, it could be something like a craft beer maker who sells their craft beer or a local winery or something akin to that.

Got it. Yeah. And I I wanted I I get that, and I wanted that just to to clarify, I think, for anyone that's listening just what that means and what you would potentially see from from from that type of sale. Specific to what what we're talking about, I'm I am inclined to agree with commissioner Johnson and Roberts on the hours. I think we need to let the market decide, you know, how that's that's going to to fall.

If there's a business that will be able to generate traffic that makes sense for them to stay open, they'll stay open. And if they won't, they won't. Right? I I think it's it's it's fair. I I I understand the argument too because I brought it up myself in respect to the residential community, particularly in that area.

But I do think that there is enough processes in place to to help with that, to mitigate that. And so I I'm I'm comfortable leaving it as is, you know, but, of course, open to more discussion since I know we might have been looking for a potential compromise. But I'm I'm inclined to just go with with what was originally stated.

Alright. Well, I I wanna thank all of the other commissioners for for weighing in on this and giving a thoughtful discussion, and I'm not hearing any will to limit the hours. I mean, commissioner Roberts did mention Monday through Thursday, but overall, I'm the feeling I'm getting is that that the commission is is leaning towards leaving the hours alone. So going back to the tower height, then I'm looking in the c the this is actually in the design review. It's resolution twenty six zero one o.

Item 13, the building construction drawings shall depict the 46 foot architectural projection on the east elevation to be in in compliance with the 42 foot height limit of the Western Gateway. Is that is that what you were referring to before?

Yeah. During my staff presentation, that's what I was referring to. April, would you be able to share my screen? So, specifically, it's this middle little, projection. Based on the ambiguity of the language of in the downtown specific plan, the commission could potentially interpret this to be an tower of sorts and allow it to to be currently, as drafted, the resolution does require this tower to come back down to 42 feet, which is the height limit.

But, that's up to the commission's discretion. If, the commission were to, want to keep this, then, they would direct staff to remove, condition 13 from the design review resolution.

Okay. And that that is specifically the one I think that the architect mentioned was that particular feature is kind of an homage to the to the station that was once there. And so from my from my point of view, I think, you know, what's four feet and yeah. Four feet doesn't seem like a lot to me right now, so that would be my opinion on it. I think I think that that could just stay 46 feet.

Alright. Through the

chair, I didn't I didn't Yeah. I didn't throw in my piece about the towel. Right? I I agree. I'm sorry. I missed that piece when I was talking about the other one, but I I I don't have an issue with that either.

Understood. With that, I will look for a motion.

I make a motion.

Through the chair, I just wanna make sure there's clarification. There's two resolutions, and in your red line, it combines them. So just ensure we have two different votes, please.

I make a motion to adopt resolution number 26Dash010, approving design review number 25Dash008, and adopt resolution number sure. One at a time.

I'd like to make a friendly amendment that we remove, the restriction on the the height of the middle tower. So Okay. Just remove, I guess, 13 from that.

Okay. With what, commissioner Foy said.

I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. You may continue.

And I'd like to adopt resolution. I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution number 26Dash011, approving conditional use permit number 25Dash010, both subject to certain findings and conditions, which we've just noted.

I second.

All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Congratulations, mister Hagar.

And thank you everybody who's attending. If you will be exiting, please be quiet on your way out because we still have other agenda items. Thank you so much.

With that, I think we're gonna take a short

need a potty

You guys need five minutes, ten minutes? Five. Five minutes. We'll be back. Thank you.

Oh, yeah. I see you, April. Okay. So we are back. If I could ask a favor of the remaining members in the audience, unless you're can we can they not hear me? No.

I got you. I got you.

Hello, everyone in the audience.

We need you to

We we have a little bit more work to do here tonight, so I, I'd like to be out of here at a decent hour. Thank you so much for coming. Cleared out the house. Okay.

Hey. I love it. I love it. Alright.

Okay. We're moving on to e item e two, ordinance repealing and replacing chapter 17 dot seven eight o. Cannabis facilities and cultivations in response to recent changes in state law. Staff report from Ken Murphy.

Thank you. Good evening, commissioners. For you tonight, we have, the item is, as you said, repeal and replace the chapter 17.78 o of the Brentwood municipal code for cannabis facilities and cultivation. For a little background on this, cannabis activities have been prohibited in city Of Brentwood since 2006. Still some illegal cultivation and other cannabis related activities occur and requires enforcement activities on the part of the city.

A lien legal cannabis activities often present health and safety risks to the public as well as people engaged in the activities. At illegal cannabis grow sites, we routinely, encounter numerous violations, not only in municipal code, but other applicable codes and regulations throughout the state and federally as well. So we're here tonight, to update our ordinance to stay in step with state legislations on cannabis while maintaining the city's prohibition on cannabis activities. A couple of notable changes in state law that necessitated this necessitated this update are SB eleven eighty six, and AB sixteen eighty four, which those are not the only ones, but they're the ones that the most notable ones and the ones that really necessitated this change. So SB eleven eighty six, you may remember that came before you in 2023 and ultimately triggered a, an ordinance by the city council to allow, medicinal medicinal cannabis deliveries here in the city to qualified medicinal cannabis patients.

This this the s b eleven eighty six did not allow jurisdictions to prohibit that any longer. And we like I said, the municipal code was updated in twenty three three to reflect that. AB sixteen eighty four changed the allowed for higher violations, or fines for violations of cannabis related activities, but capped the total fines at $10,000 per day. So which was a little bit of a blow to us based on the fact that we originally had a $100 fines per violation. And you go into some of these grows and, you know, there's a thousand plants.

There's 1,500 plants. So some of our violations were quite high, but they've been capped at 10,000 per day. So that's the biggest part of 1684. But it also allowed for higher fine amounts to be levied on violations related to cannabis activities that weren't necessarily about the cannabis in particular. So for, building code violations, HVAC plumbing code violations, those types of things, it now allows us to find them the higher amount based on those violations as well if they're related to cannabis activities.

And it also identifies clearly the parties that can be fined, for cannabis activities being the owners, the tenants, business owners, they can all be fined together. So jointly and separately, they can also be they can be fined. So we can find them all at the same time.

So the

the ordinance is consistent with our prohibition on cannabis activities and is consistent with the applicable state laws. And we're recommending that you adopt, resolution number twenty six zero zero three recommending the city council adopt an ordinance repealing or replacing chapter 17.78 o of the Brentwood municipal code. We I'm here. Thank you for your time, and I'm here for any questions, that you might have. Looks like I'm the only person left in the audience, but I'm here.

Thank you, Ken. Any questions of staff? Seeing none. I have. Oh, one question.

Just a quick question. This just occurred to me, so I was chatting it. The $10,000 total, you mentioned that there are multiple parties that can be fined. Can they each be fined 10,000, or is it 10,000 for all of them in aggregate?

No. They can each be fined. The there there's an the the law, s b sixteen eighty four, there's an and. So it says owners and business owners and tenants or whatever they are, they can all be fined. And it says jointly and severally. Britney would have to speak to what that means exactly, but my understanding is it means they can all be fined together.

So they can they can each be fined $10,000, or just the $10,000 is the max for the whole violation?

My understanding is they can each be fined $10,000, but I will let Britney answer the question. Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah. That's that's right. Jointly and separately, so they would each be subject to the $10,000 maximum.

Thank you.

And that is the max, 10,000. You can't go higher.

Per day. Per day.

Per day.

Yeah. Per day.

Thank you.

Any other questions? If not, we'll move into public hearing. At this time, the public is permitted to address the planning commission. Remarks are limited to five minutes per person. April.

At this time, we have no one in the audience, so we will go to Zoom. If you are in Zoom right now and you like to speak on this item, please raise your hand. We have no speakers in Zoom.

Thank you. I'm looking for a motion to close public hearing. Make a motion to close public hearing.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Discussion. Why don't we start with commissioner Johnson?

We

it seems like we have we I don't wanna say we have to do this, but we need to bring the laws up to compliance with the state, and so I'm in agreement with that.

Commissioner Roberts?

I I agree.

Commissioner Jones? I concur.

It makes, makes sense. We have to align it, and we are. So it's good to see.

Vice floor.

I also con concur. I think it's a shame that the the state made this decision. I can tell you from personal experience, I was living next door to a grow house. And the night that city council passed that law to make it per plant per day, the next day that grow house closed. And it was next door, and I went in to the open house when they finally did get it all cleaned up and ready to sell.

And it was a shame to see what had happened to that house. My my neighbors would have been very sad. So we have to do this. It's required. But, again, I I wish the state had not put that cap on because there's so much money to be made that it it's maybe not a deterrent.

Yeah. I have to echo that myself. I, you know, I I actually I had as well, not next door to me, but in the neighborhood close by, and it's just now gone up for sale again. But the renovation's necessary as a result of the humidity and everything. It seems to be one of the, greater risks in in Brentwood, and so having this alignment with, state laws seemingly necessary. So, with that, I'll look for a motion.

I'll, I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 26Dash012, finding the cities. Wait a minute. This is not the correct one. Forgive me. Yeah. Let me get the right one. I'll make a motion to, adopt resolution number two six dash zero zero three recommending that the city council adopt an ordinance approving a zoning text amendment r z two five dash zero zero five, repealing and replacing chapter 17.78 cannabis facilities and cultivation of the Brentwood Municipal Code in compliance with recent changes to state legislation.

I'll second that.

All in favor? Aye.

Motion carries. Right. Moving on business items. Item f one, review of the twenty twenty six, twenty seven to twenty thirty to thirty one capital improvement program, also known as the CIP for consistency with the general plan, And off to Eric Nalthenius with the staff report or whatever you've got here today.

Thank you, chairperson Brand. Good evening to you and members of the commission. I do not have a presentation, so there's nothing to look at on the screen. I'm gonna keep, my verbal presentation really brief. Essentially, this is an annual item, where the commission is required to determine that the CIP is in fact, consistent with and conforms to the general plan.

And as you know from prior years, the CIP is, basically a consolidated document that provides for variety of projects related to parks and trails, wastewater, water roads, etcetera, over that five year period. Each of the project sheets, indicates, an example of how that project is in fact consistent with and conforms to the general plan. If the commission finds, such tonight, there is a, sorry, a resolution that we staff recommends you adopt, and then that would be forwarded to the city council in conjunction with its consideration of the CIP itself. I believe that is tentatively scheduled for the end of the month on the twenty sixth. So with that, I'll turn it back to the chair for any questions.

I will say, to the extent there are project related questions, I will do my best to answer them, although I probably won't have great answers tonight. So if there are follow-up questions, I'd be happy to check-in with staff from other departments and provide that information, to the commission after tonight's meeting. So hope that makes sense. Again, happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Any questions of staff on this item? Commissioner Johnson, your mic's on. Any questions of staff?

I have none at this time.

No questions at this time. Thanks.

Yeah. No question.

No questions. Mhmm.

Alright. We'll move into public comment. April? Sorry.

That's okay. We have no one here other than Ken Kenneth Murphy walking out. Let's go to Zoom. Anyone in Zoom who'd like to speak on this item, please raise your hand now. We have no hands raised in Zoom.

Thank you. We'll now close public comment and discussion.

I have no discussion.

I just have, a quick discussion. I just wanna say that I I went through, as best as I could. I couldn't find anything that was, contrary to the general plan, which is our entire con consideration here tonight. And so I'm feeling favorable toward the thing. And I just, like I do every year when when I talk about the CIP, I just like to remind the public if anybody's listening, which I I kinda highly doubt.

However, the I I I do want staff to know that I really appreciate every year, every project has a page, and there's a a very good analysis in there of where all the money goes, where it comes from, where it goes, what it's for. And the project pages themselves are quite often exciting and interesting to see, you know, projects like the the soccer field or the the amphitheater that's coming out by Trilogy. So I if if anybody in the public ever wants to know what's going on with those things, the, the CIP is the place to go and and look at them and, with that.

Commissioner Johnson, anything? Yeah. Okay. I I would completely agree. It's such a great wealth of information here for the public. If you have a question about anything that's being built, you can go in here. And, typically, as far as infrastructure projects go, you'll find it here. And I did the same. I watched the last council meeting that they talked about it, and it seems just like a lot of, you know, inner very small revisions over time, but ultimately attempting to achieve achieve the same goal and alignment with the general plan. So with that, I'll look for a motion.

I make

go ahead. Go ahead, sir.

Sure.

I make a motion to adopt resolution number 26Dash012, finding the city's twenty twenty six twenty seven to twenty thirty thirty one capital improvement program consistent with the general plan.

I second.

All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Alright. Moving into informational reports. Committees and upcoming meeting schedule. Commissioner Johnson, transplant.

We didn't have a trans the we did that to the last meeting. So we didn't

Oh, so yeah. No. No meeting. Design review. No meeting.

No meeting. No meeting. Okay.

LUD, we I had talked about it already with the, last meeting because that was our

Yep.

The day before. And, municipal code meeting. No meeting. Alright. Request for future agenda items. Any new requests from commissioners this evening? Seeing none. The next regular planning commission meeting is scheduled for 05/19/2026 at 7PM. It will be held here at the Council Chambers located at 150 City Parkway. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

I make a I make a motion to adjourn.

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you very much.