Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Are we waiting? Are we waiting for? Great. Are we waiting for Kieran? Oh, OK. OK, folks, I'm going to call the meeting to order. Okay, first item is the flag salute. Would the new commissioner, Mr. Wright, would you like to lead the flag salute for us?

Roll call, please.

Commissioner Sangha? Here. Commissioner White? Here. Commissioner Rustaller?

Here.

Commissioner Rhodes?

Here. Oops.

Here. Commissioner Milas? Here. Mr. Chair, we have quorum.

Thank you. The next item on agenda is minutes from hearings on 4-16-26 and 5-21-26. I have a motion to...

I move we accept the minutes.

Second. Moved and seconded, we accept the minutes for 416 and 26 and 521 and 26 as presented. All those in favor, can we take the roll? A vote, please. Sorry, had a different meeting earlier today.

Commissioner Mules? Yes. Commissioner Rhodes?

Yes.

Commissioner Sangha? Yes. Commissioner White? Yes. Commissioner Rustaller.

Yes.

Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you. Are there any actions or requests for continuance or withdrawals?

No, we've had no requests.

All right. So that will move on. Usually I give an explanation of the hearing procedures. I'm going to do that after we do the public speaking. speaking on items not on the agenda. So the next item I'm going to skip and come back and I'll explain the hearing procedures in a moment. The public is welcome to address the Planning Commission on items of interest to the public that are not listed on the agenda. Comments to the Commission are limited to a maximum of five minutes. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to address the Commission on items not on the agenda? Not on the agenda? No, OK. Is there anyone on the phone? OK. OK, so that will take us. OK, that's what I asked. OK, so they're more than welcome. It's not on the agenda. They're welcome to address. And it's for a maximum of five minutes. And if you can give us your name and your address for the record, that'd be great.

Sure. My name is Wendy Tokini. I'm at 23597 Santos Court in Tracy. And I actually wanted to speak about Project PA2500281C, Religious Assembly on Hanson. in Tracy. My husband and I live in Santos Ranch subdivision and we're very much against subdividing the above property into a religious assembly space. The neighborhood has worked for almost five years with the county to get Hanson Road restricted to continuous traffic over the freeway into the Prologis subdivision. Some of you may remember I sent an email about this. Anyway, we finally did get the area safe for pedestrians. We had been plagued by years of quite increased traffic from cars and trucks going over and through our subdivision, etc. And we've just finally gotten the area safe again for children who walk to the school on the corner, people who ride their bikes, people who walk their horses. It's basically a very family area with a corner elementary school that kids walk and ride to and we're extremely concerned about the safety in the area. We know this is proposed to be a 3,200 square foot religious assembly facility. We understand that there will be meetings or meals that are offered at least three times a day to people. People have been living on the property from what we understand and your plan only has 12 cars plus a handicap, which I don't think would fill up a 3,200 square foot religious assembly facility, especially if they're just having chairs for a meeting or if they're having tables for for food. The street that they're proposing to put this on, if they only have 13 car parking places, would be Hanson. And it's one lane in each direction without sidewalks or areas to park. There's no way to park off of the road in the area. So, also the neighborhood uses well water and septic lines. How much well water will be needed for a building of this size? How much of a septic system will be required for this area? They have three acres I think at this point and want to subdivide into an acre. That basically means like the whole thing would have to be covered with septic lines, as far as I could tell. The facility has been set up online as the headquarters of the US for it's an international, apparently international company. I don't really care whether it's a Catholic church, a Protestant church, whatever, whether it's a building that serves tacos. I don't care what it is, it doesn't belong in a residential area and I urge you to discuss this at another meeting, put it on your agenda and help us retain our quiet country feel, and keep our children safe from speeding cars. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. My name is John Cocchini. I also live at the same house my wife lives, 23597 Santos Court. She did a great job of detailing it all out to you. What I'm going to do is basically repeat some of this, but the closure of Hanson Road took us about five years to accomplish, and we are very proud of that. If a religious community gathering is planned, I fear the increase in traffic you know, this can take away that safety issue that my wife talked about. So my question is really, this is rather short, my question is, should a residential area be the correct area for this gathering?

Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to speak on an item that's not on the agenda?

Hi, my name is Shakila Zuhuri, and I'm living in 23403 Hanson Road, next to the same address, the 23595 Hanson Road, the place they built the They build the places they wanted to do some kind of, but like, I'm not agree, I'm agree to they build something there, because I'm very close to the people, and the kitchen open for three time a day, like the people is coming to eat food and to stay there, but I'm very close to these people, and I'm not agree to build this one, that's all. Thank you.

Anyone else? Hi, I'm Cheryl DeCarico. I'm at 16601 Wakefield Court, right across the street from her in our court. And she's the next property over to where this so-called church is going to be built. And we can see it from our house through her property. And I have grandchildren that are growing up. They're two and three. And they do their celebrating and make lots of noise. trying to explain that to my grandkids you know what are they doing and why are they doing this in our area and it's so quiet out there and we love it that's why we moved out here from newark the bay area to come out here and live a nice comfortable life and you know this has come up and we're not happy none of us are happy you know not everybody made it here tonight to say so but um you're going to have a lot of emails from a lot of people and um I don't know. We just want to keep our neighborhood quiet. We live it there. And this is upsetting to us. So whatever you people can gather together and think about our community. And you all have your own community, but this is our special community. So please do some hard work for us, please. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to speak on an item not on the agenda? Not on the agenda.

Hi, sorry I'm late. Trouble getting here. I've been a longtime resident in the Santa's Ranch area. It's been a great neighborhood. I've been there 40 years, raised my kids, raised my grandkids are growing up in the area. We closed Hanson. because we didn't want the traffic. We want to eliminate the traffic. We're all on wells. Most of us are all on wells and septic tanks. It just doesn't seem right to put a business or something that's gonna have more traffic into a neighborhood, an established old neighborhood. So it's just, I'm against it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Name and address. My name is Robert Guadagna. My address is 23465 Courier Drive in Tracy, California.

Thank you, sir. You're welcome.

Hi, Mindy Meyer. I live at 23066 Los Ranchos Road. I am also a resident in the neighborhood. Bob is my dad. I grew up in the neighborhood. I have actually moved away and come back to this neighborhood to raise my own family here because I think that it's that good of a neighborhood. I thought it was worth me bringing my own family. I want to echo everything that I've heard from my neighbors here today. Same thing, same concerns. I don't care what anybody wants to practice, what religion, anything like that. I wouldn't care if this is a church. I wouldn't care if it's a community center. I wouldn't care what it is. I don't think that it belongs in this community, in this neighborhood. It's a neighborhood. We're a rural neighborhood. We moved out here because we like the peace and the quiet. We don't live in town. I don't think that this is where it belongs. I do have some of the same concerns about the traffic. Same thing. These people out here fought hard to close down Hanson Road, like they said, because of the warehouses across the street and all the traffic that was coming through there. I've had semis driving through my neighborhood. We don't have sidewalks. I have young children, right? people speed through there and they speed because they're in a rush, right? That's not part of this neighborhood. Having a place of assembly like this and the 12 parking spaces with the one ADA compliant space, I don't know what the max capacity is of this facility. I know the 3,200 square feet, but how many people is it intended to hold? I don't think that the parking spaces are going to hold everybody that's intended to be there. There will be traffic parked out on the street in front of other people's homes. If this was your home, I don't know if you would like that very much, right? It's disrespectful to everybody else who's there, right? Like I said, I don't care what religion, what anybody wants to practice, what their personal preferences are. But I think that we should be respectful of everybody else, not just a few. One last thing with that was the septic systems. What kind of other pressure is this putting on the aquifers? We have issues already. I have brown water sometimes that comes out of my faucets because of the work that they're doing on the wells. I mean, I don't know how much kind of pressure, but I can imagine it's going to be more than people think. It impacts a lot of us. I've expressed my concerns in the way that I feel to Mr. I believe it's Pahul, who's the project manager, I want to say. I think it's very disrespectful and concerning to me as one of my neighbors stated that this is already on a website as the address and headquarters, and none of us were really notified about any of it. I find that very disrespectful. I don't think that that's taking any of my concerns or considerations into account whatsoever. And I also think that putting this in without really having the conversation with the residents out here, it's going to create issues in the neighborhood that don't exist now. I just think that a lot of that should be taken into consideration. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you all for coming.

Is that it?

You said you had nobody on the line, right? Okay, so we're going to go to the first item on the agenda, and let me just explain how this happens real quickly. First, I'll open a public hearing, and then the staff will report and make their recommendations, and then the applicant may provide an oral or written testimony limited to 20 minutes, and then other proponents Those in favor of this project will then have a chance to speak for no longer than five minutes. And then the opponents of whatever project comes before us will then have their chance. And this is either via in-person or Microsoft Teams. And then the applicant may provide a rebuttal limited to 10 minutes. Time limits do not apply to responses to questions from planning commissioners or staff. And the chair will close the public hearing and bring the matter back to the planning commission for discussion and decision. So with that, I'm going to open the public hearing for item number one. Staff, please present your report.

Thank you. We have Associate Planner Jessica Leal here to provide a presentation, and then we're available for questions.

of a conditional use permit to establish a wildlife preserve including the construction of two bird viewing platforms and a shade trellis. The project proposes a parking lot, a bus turnaround and loading area, and a portable restroom. The preserve will also offer an interpretive program for educational purposes. The project site is located on the west side of North Staten Road. Island Road, 3.25 miles south of West Walnut Grove Road, adjacent to the Sacramento County line. The parcel has a general plan designation of general agriculture and open space resource conservation, and a zoning classification of general agriculture, 40 acre minimum. The project site is surrounded by agricultural properties with scattered residences. This is the site plan submitted by the applicant. The development area outlined in orange is proposed near the center of the existing 9,072 acre parcel. Since acquiring Staten Island in 2001, the Nature Conservancy has managed the property for commercial agriculture, bird watching, and educational opportunities for local schools. In June 2025, the Nature Conservancy applied for a conditional use permit to construct an avian viewing facility and formally designate the site as a wildlife preserve. Staff reviewed the proposal for consistency with the Williamson Act and found it meets the principles of compatibility. The wildlife preserve would occupy only a portion of the contracted agricultural land and would not interfere with any on or off-site agricultural operations. The project is also located within the Delta Primary Zone Staff determined the proposal supports the general plan goals and provisions for land use in the Delta and wildlife preserves by preserving wetlands, enhancing wildlife habitat, and maintaining agricultural use on much of the property. The Community Development Department received five letters of support and one letter of opposition. Supporters highlighted the site's importance for sandhill cranes, bird watching, and educational opportunities. Concerns focused on expanded public access to potential impacts to wildlife. Staff concluded that the proposed improvements, including viewing platforms, parking, and restroom facilities, would better manage existing visitor activity while minimizing impacts. Staff has reviewed the findings and recommends that all can be made in the affirmative with draft findings included in the staff report package. These photos were taken on the project site looking west toward the North McCollumy River. This photo was taken on the project site looking north toward the proposed gravel access road. It is recommended that the Planning Commission take the recommended actions shown on the slide and included in the staff report. Thank you. This concludes staff's presentation.

Thank you. Thank you for a nice report. Anyone have any questions before we start? Okay, so at this time, the applicant may provide an oral or written testimony or someone they've appointed to do so. Please state your name and your address for the record.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Eli Ferrier. I live at 15629 Brooks Road in Grass Valley, California. So I have a short presentation, just five slides if you wanted to, just to provide a little more context.

And so this is the title of our project.

It is a memorial to Dawit Zalike, who is the founder of Conservation Farms and Ranches, which is the operator of the 9,000 acre farm on Staten Island. So basically, what we're trying to do is create a safe, comfortable, and accessible place for existing users to congregate and, in effect, control access to where people will go and bird on the island. Currently, it's farm roads and things. And so we have... Quite a lot, several thousand users that come onto our farm every year to watch the sandhill cranes and other birds of the Pacific Flyway come and roost during the wintertime. And they're exposed to our farm roads, which are narrow, gravel-sided. We have very steep ditches and things. And this is creating a place where they can go here instead of just anywhere and where they don't get into a lot of trouble very often, but when they do, it can be quite troublesome. We have big combines and other big farm equipment that frequent our roads. This is what she's going to look like. So currently it is, so one, it'll take less than two acres of our 9,000 acre road It's currently a raised area above some fields at an intersection of two farm roads. And this is just gonna, we use it for staging for farm equipment. We're not gonna lose that accessibility of being able to use this as a staging area. In fact, it'll be firmed up a fair bit when we meet all the compaction goals. To create our bus turnaround parking there'll be a portable toilet this will host 80 people At one given at one time it'll have interpretive elements. It should be a pretty nice pretty comfortable place for both burgers farm visitors and Farm employees to come and spend time should be pretty should be pleasant I And this is approximately what it's going to look like if our, thank you, if this goes through. You can see it's like just pretty open, pretty minimal. It's going to be barely overhanging one of the fields that gets flooded. It'll be a nice place for people to congregate and spend time. And that's it. Yeah, any questions? Questions? Commissioners?

How's the restaurant?

Yeah, portable restroom. Yeah, otherwise no utilities, no power, no plumbing.

So right now, they basically just come down the Farm Road Park and then go and look at the birds?

Yep. And so by not having a nexus for people to come visit, they end up all over the farm. They end up on the levee roads. They end up on roads that aren't suitable for things that aren't tractors and UTVs and stuff. What do you farm out there? What do we farm out there? We farm all kinds of stuff. Wheat, rice, corn, triticale, we ranch it. It's a really productive and successful commercial farm. And then starting in about October, we leave all of our stocks pretty high. We don't cut them all the way back down to the ground. And we leave all that forage in the fields for the birds of the Pacific Flyway. And so from October through the end of March, we just have literally thousands of birds, sandhill cranes. It's really impressive. If you haven't been out there, I highly recommend that you go. I've been spending a lot of time out there lately. And it's, yeah, it's quite the scene. It's amazing. Okay.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, you bet.

All right. Thank you. Is there anyone else... Who is a proponent of this project who would like to speak at this time? Anybody on the phone No Commissioner, no questions all right, so now we'll allow the opponents of this project to come forward and speak Is there anyone here to speak? against this project Anybody online no no Commissioner Okay, well then I don't think you'll need a rebuttal, so I'm going to bring it back to the commission for, I'm closing the public hearing. I'm going to bring it back to the commissioners to ask questions, discuss, and make a decision. Well, it looks like everybody's good, so the chair will entertain a motion to accept this project a motion to Move forward with item 1 PA 2 5 0 0 2 0 0 second Okay, it's moved and secondly we accept the conditional use permit for number PA 2 5 0 0 2 0 0 of the nature conservatory Conservancy and With the recommendations, and I don't, I had them here a minute ago, that staff presented, and it is to accept the notice of exemption, adopt the findings in the Williams and Mack principles, compatibility and conditional use permit, and approve conditional use permit subject to the conditions of the approval.

With that, I will call for a vote. Commissioner White. Commissioner Meles? Yes. Commissioner Rhodes?

Yes.

Commissioner Sangha?

Yes.

Commissioner Rustaller? Yes. Motion passes 5-0.

All right. We will move on to item number two, general plan text amendment, number PA2600209.

Thank you, Chair. I have Principal Planner Megan Ayure here to provide a presentation, and then we're available for questions.

Good evening, Chair and Commissioners. This project is a general plan text amendment number PA26209 for amendments to the adopted 2023 2031 housing element, sorry. The housing element is a required part of the county's general plan. The six cycle update to this element was found in compliance by the State Department of Housing and Community Development, commonly referred to as HCD, in August of last year. In November, the county submitted a formal request to the city of Mountain House to transfer a portion of the unincorporated county's regional housing needs allocation, or RHNA, which is a key component of the housing element. This request was accepted by the city in January of this year and then forwarded to the San Joaquin Council of Governments for coordination with HCD. Per HCD, the county is required to complete the related amendments to the housing element by July 12th, 2026. The housing element amendment includes revisions to remove references to the City of Mountain House in the analysis and programs, updates to the county site's inventory to show continued capacity to meet the revised RHNA, and revisions to the fair housing assessment to show continued compliance. RHNA indicates a housing production target each jurisdiction should meet during a specified period. As identified in this table, the unincorporated county was originally allocated 8,808 housing units for the planning period from 2023 to 2031. With the agreed upon transfer of 5,113 units to the city of Mountain House, the county's allocation has been reduced to 3,695 units. This table also shows those unit allocations as dispersed across income categories. As part of the housing element process, sites must be identified to support the county stated capacity to meet the RENA requirement. As reflected in this table, the county has a surplus in every income category for an overall surplus of 1,164 potential units. An environmental assessment was prepared for this amendment determining that the housing element is exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act for the common sense exemption. In order to approve a general plan text amendment, there are several findings that must be made in the affirmative. These are paraphrased on this slide. Staff recommends that the revised findings attached to the notes for this evening can be made in the affirmative. In order to meet the July 12th deadline that I previously noted, the Community Development Department is recommending that the Planning Commission adopt the findings and text amendment tonight. This would allow the Board of Supervisors time to review this item at the June 30th meeting in order to submit the revised adopted housing element to HCD by or before the deadline of July 12th. There are no board meetings in July, so we have a tight deadline. Therefore, it is recommended the Planning Commission forward the project to the Board of Supervisors with the recommendation to adopt the findings for general plan text amendment as revised in the notes for this evening and forward to the Board of Supervisors with the recommendation to approve general plan text amendment number PA 2600209 for revisions to the adopted 2023-2031 housing element. Thank you, this concludes staff's presentation and I'd like to note that our consultant Cynthia Walsh with Placeworks is supposed to be on the line in case you have extra questions that we can't answer.

Okay, thank you. Okay, so I really don't, I think we just bring it back to the commission to discuss or if you have any questions. If not, there's no pressure. We just need to make a motion to approve as presented. Anybody have any questions? It makes sense to me. So with that...

Sorry, Chair, do you need to open the public hearing?

You know what? I was going to ask if this... So I will. I just jumped ahead, and I'm sorry, but this is... This isn't one of the typical ones, but I will. Is there someone here to speak in favor of the changes as presented in this item? Is there anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this item number two? Is there anyone in opposition to this item number two who would like to speak at this time? Okay, so I'm going to close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission for discussion and decision.

Just a simple question. So it looks like it's pretty much just breaking it apart. So what was all unincorporated in that area, now it's designated for Mountain House, and then the rest still stays unincorporated.

Yes, so through the chair, since Mountain House was part of the county, their arena allocation was part of the counties. But once they incorporate it into a city, they get to take a portion of that. So it was just re-evaluating where the numbers lie.

Sounds good.

I had a quick question. So since we're reallocating what was in county, so is it in the city of Mountain House now?

Yes, through the chair, the city of Mountain House received their own. Yeah, so we took our 8,808 required units and then split them, and the city of Mountain House took 5,000-ish, and we were in the 2,000-ish, yeah. Okay, thanks.

Through the whole process now with their capacity?

Yeah, through the chair, they have to come up with their own housing element. They've been utilizing our general plan, I believe, still. So they... have a deadline also theirs is a little different than ours though very good thank you i'm sorry to indulge in this uh through the chair again i just had a question you may not be or may not may be able to answer does the city of mountain house even have a planning commission through the chair i'm not sure but i think they had appointed people a little while ago i'd have to double check that okay thank you i think if you remember when the

One of the last things that came before the commission about Mountain House was they wanted to have complete control. They didn't want the county to have any say in anything. And now they've got their wish. So are there any other questions or comments?

No, just a comment. But they will have to at one point get a planning commission. I think you only get so long after you incorporate to move in that direction.

Well, that's up to their city leaders to figure it out, isn't it?

Yeah.

Let them do what they want to do. Okay. Again, we're discussing item number two. Any further questions?

comments And then when someone like you make a motion to to accept item number two I Make a motion that we Go back that we accept the general plan text amendment number PA dash two six zero zero two zero nine to revise the cycle housing element adopted in 2025. Second that.

With the recommendations as presented by staff, correct?

Correct. Sorry about that.

All right. So it's been moved and seconded and we accept item number two, PA 2600209. I'll call for the vote.

Commissioner Rhodes?

Yes.

Commissioner Milas? Yes. Commissioner Sangha?

Yes.

Commissioner White?

Yes.

Commissioner Rufstaller? Yes. Motion passes 5-0.

Okay. That takes us to other business. Adoption of rules and procedures for the Planning Commission meetings.

So thank you. Yes, we got around to updating the Planning Commission rules and procedures that were last adopted in 2002, so 24 years ago. I just wanted to note some key updates we did is we updated the meeting location and time, so we no longer have to call these special meetings because we used to hold them in the public health multipurpose room, which is long gone. So we've updated it to be 6 o'clock here at the board chambers. We updated references and notations to the current development title. They were all from our old title. We have limited comments from proponents and opponents to three minutes versus it was five before, unless increased by the chair. So it still leaves that availability for the chairman. And we moved the election of a new chairman to January versus July. Those are, I think, some of the key changes

Otherwise, it was just kind of cleanups from 24 years ago, so So questions Okay, well then I this does not have to have a Public hearing so that I am aware of So we can move forward if someone has any questions or comments. I Great. If not, then let's have a motion to accept the updated rules as presented. Anyone?

I'll make a motion to accept the updated rules as presented tonight.

Second. Second. We accept the adoption of rules and procedures for planning commission meetings as presented here tonight. I'll call for the vote.

Commissioner Sangha?

Yes.

Commissioner White? Yes. Commissioner Milas? Yes. Commissioner Rhodes?

Yes.

Commissioner Rusteller? Yes. Motion passes 5-0.

Okay, Planning Commissioner, comments? I would like to welcome you aboard, Commissioner Wright. Me too. It's nice to have a full commission once again.

Just happy to be here to serve on the Planning Commission, and I'll make sure I'm fair with my decisions, which is in the best interest of the county and its citizens.

Thank you. Okay, Director's Report.

I don't have anything to report from the director's standpoint, but I can update you on some upcoming Planning Commission meetings.

Great.

So no meeting on July 2nd, so that's good. So July 16th, we have a couple of items. We have a general plan map amendment and administrative use permit for a project that is in French Camp. We have a conditional use permit for a dairy digester, and we have an administrative use permit for a residence being built in the open space resource conservation general plan designation. And then August 6th, we have a minor subdivision with a variance to create a couple of parcels out of a 15 acre parcel to go down to about five acres each. A conditional use permit to modify the Manteca Sportsman's conditions of approval that came to your commission quite a while ago. We're bringing that back so we can hopefully come to a conclusion of that. And then revisions of approved actions for quarry operations at George Reed Quarry out in Tracy. No, I'm sorry. It's not in Tracy. It's off of Peltier Road in Clements. So that's our upcoming meetings. And that's it.

Okay. Thank you. I hate to do it, but I'm going to have to adjourn the meeting. So I wish you all a very happy 250th anniversary of our nation's birth. And with that, I'll close the meeting.

Thank you.

You'll see it goes red, and then you're live. After that, and it's live.