Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the September 10th, 2026 meeting of the Eldorado County Planning Commission. Madam Clerk, would you please take the role?

Commissioner Williams? Here. Commissioner Hanson? Here. Chair Fraga is absent today. And Commissioner Crostello? Here. And Commissioner Spock?

Here. Great. Thank you very much. Would you all join me? And I'd like to ask Commissioner Williams. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. Commissioner. Appreciate that. City Council Chambers, All right, so the first time for coming before the Commission is the consent calendar basically consisting of the minutes of the last meeting and today's agenda. City Council Chambers, And Clark would you care to call for public comment on the on the. City Council Chambers, consent calendar.

Now taking public comments specifically regarding the consent calendar. Individuals will have three minutes to address the planning commission. The timer will notify you when you have 30 seconds remaining and again when your time is up. Public comment will be taken first from those in the planning commission hearing room and then from those on Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, use the raise hand button. If you are joining the meeting by phone, press star nine to indicate a desire to comment. Please voluntarily state your name for the record. And now taking public comment from the room. And now taking public comment from Zoom. There is no public comment.

Thank you very much. Any questions of the commission on this item? I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve.

Second. That's been moved and seconded. Would you please take the roll call vote, please?

Commissioner Williams, how do you vote? Aye. Commissioner Hanson?

Aye.

Commissioner Costello? Aye. And Commissioner Spahr?

i motion passes 4-0 thank you uh moving on the next item would be open forum this is a portion of the meeting where the public has given an opportunity to present uh comments that they're choosing to the commission on matters that are not on today's agenda madam clerk would you please

Now taking public comment in public forum. Individuals will have three minutes to address the Planning Commission about items that are not on today's agenda. The timer will notify you when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up. Public comment will be taken first from those in the Planning Commission hearing room and then from those on Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, use the raise hand button. If you are joining the meeting by phone, press star 9 to indicate a desire to comment. Please voluntarily state your name for the record. Now taking public comment from the room, and now taking public comment from Zoom. There is no public comment.

Very good. Thank you. Then we'll move on to the next business item here, our one and only business item today. Item number two, please.

Item number two, hearing to consider a proposed ordinance amending Title 130, Chapter 130.69, Caldor Fire Resiliency and Rebuilding Ordinance to forward a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. Chair, can you please open the hearing?

I declare the public hearing open. Who's going to present this?

i'll take this one uh good morning commissioners my name is tom meyer i'm a program manager with the planning and building department uh as rihanna mentioned uh today's item before you is a proposed amendment to the county zoning ordinance uh chapter 130.69 otherwise referred to as the caldor resiliency and rebuilding ordinance This is the first time this item is before the Planning Commission, either as an amendment or the original ordinance. So this is the proposed fourth amendment. The original Caldor ordinance and previous amendments were adopted under the county's urgency ordinance process, which includes a single public hearing at the Board of Supervisors. So why this item is before the commission today? All state and local emergency declarations related to the Caldor fire have since been rescinded. So any new amendments to Title 130 not previously endorsed by the board must follow the standard zoning ordinance amendment process. So essentially not appropriate to consider it an urgency ordinance anymore. And with the standard process that includes for the supervisors adopted resolution of intention or ROI. That process was completed on August 25 at the board. And then there's the Planning Commission public hearing, which we're doing today, and then followed by a Board of Supervisors public hearing that's currently scheduled for October 20. And then if approved, the ordinance would become effective 30 days after And so what this proposed amendment does and it's a very limited change it extends the sunset date of chapter 130.69 from December 31 of this year to October 1 of 2029 and Rhiannon has the red line version, we can pull up real quick. And so, as you can see in this version, this is the only change. No other sections are being amended. The extension applies to all provisions within the chapter, even those that are not currently in use. So what this does is preserves flexibility should unforeseen needs arise between this point and October 1 of 29. A little bit of a brief background and purpose of the ordinance. It was first adopted during the Caldor Fire to provide immediate options to residents that were evacuated or displaced by the fire with temporary housing options, and then with the goal of long-term rebuilding support, primarily through the use of temporary recreational vehicles or travel trailers. permit fee waivers and other rebuilding and recovery support. Really designed to allow residents that were displaced the option to remain on their property through the use of TRV during the rebuilding process. And so why this extension is needed. The overall rebuilding process is taking longer than originally anticipated. There's progress, but it not quite as much has happened in five years as we anticipated. Many residents are still rebuilding or preparing to rebuild. And so this extension allows for that continued use of TRVs especially for those residents participating in the Title 25 program, those who are about to begin construction, and or those who have yet to submit plans or need a little more time to determine what their long-term approach is. um it also provides staff with additional time to continue working with impacted residents to determine those long-term housing needs and what assistance options may be available and then also determined that an october 1st date is a little more practical and supports the construction season so it doesn't expire right in the middle of winter um And then just to give you a little context on the number of TRVs. Since this ordinance was adopted, there were or have been 75 applications for TRV permits. There are currently 56 active TRV permits. 25 of those are directly associated with properties that are currently either in a plan check construction or nearing their permit closeout from their rebuild. And then the other 29 currently don't have plans in place, but staff will continue to work with those and then reconcile the number of permits and close out any that are no longer needed. And then as a quick note, there is a small number of TRV permits looking at less than 10 that may have been issued in error. So staff are looking into this further and may potentially seek the board's direction on revoking those permits if it's appropriate. So with that, excuse me, the recommendation is for the planning commission to forward the proposed amendment to the board with a recommendation for approval. And I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

All right. Thank you very much for that synopsis. That was good. Any questions? Let's start down here with Commissioner Williams.

Commissioner Williams No questions. Excellent job of summarizing where we're at. And so thank you. I have a comment to once we get past public comments, but thank you for the summary.

Great. Yeah.

Excellent report. Thank you very much. Is there any financial assistance that's offered through the state of the county for those seeking permits or seeking to rebuild?

And so with the calendar ordinance, it does include the waiver of permit fees that are associated with the rebuilding. So that started from the initial onset of it. So temporary permit fees all the way through rebuilding. And then these are very minimal fees, but the county did cover the state mandated permit fees. So green fees and Smith fees. If there's any other assistance.

So I was gonna ask our director if you wanted to say a few things.

Yeah, so good morning. Karen Garner, Planning and Building Director. Tom was exactly right. You know, we waive all the county fees that we can for someone to rebuild or stay temporarily. And then, of course, we have a program, the Title 25 program that the board approved financial assistance for the folks that participate in that. There is income qualifications. So they are considered low income in order to have access to that financing.

Great, thank you. Thank you very much.

Okay, Commissioner Costello, Dave, are you done? Thank you.

Yeah, no questions. You answered my only question I had, which was the October 1st date. I was curious about it, but it makes perfect sense. Sort of aligns with the end of the construction season, so that's all I have.

All right. John Potter, I was i'll just make a comment, I guess, not a question, but as an evacuee there wasn't I didn't need to avail myself of those of some of the measures that you all just mentioned, but I do know that they were they've been very much appreciated. John Potter, So anyway, all right let's go to public comment on this place.

Now taking public comment specifically on item number two. Individuals will have three minutes to address the planning commission. The timer will notify you when you have 30 seconds remaining and again when your time is up. Public comment will be taken first from those in the planning commission hearing room and then from those on Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, press the raise hand button and make sure to unmute yourself when called upon. If you are joining the meeting by phone, press star nine to indicate a desire to comment. Please voluntarily state your name for the record. Now taking public comment from the room. And now taking public comment from Zoom. There is no public comment.

Okay, thank you. We'll bring it back to the Commission for discussion and or a motion.

So we're back here, okay?

I would like to actually propose a motion And that is to accept enthusiastically the recommendations of staff on this one. If I have a second, then I'll make a comment. I'll second that. OK, thank you.

All right, we've got a motion and a second that's on the floor. Commissioner Waynes?

Yeah. Having it at a different place, different time, being involved in a similar incident. In this case, we lost, I believe, 1,300 homes. It just takes longer to recover. And the devastation, and people lived through soul shock for a long time, and they still are enduring this. The efforts that have been made by a lot of people, but particularly the planning and building department here in the county, has been superb. And on the behalf of the people that are in my district, in the Grisby Flats, they do really do appreciate everything that's been done and continues to be done. And so I just wish we could offer more. But we can't, given our budget situation. But it's still more than what FEMA and the state has offered to us. So thank you, and that's my comments.

Commissioner Williams? Anything else on the motion? Discussion? No? All right. I'll call for the question. Madam Clerk?

Commissioner Williams, how do you vote?

Aye.

Commissioner Hanson?

Very much aye.

Commissioner Costello? Aye. And Commissioner Spahr?

Aye.

Motion passes 4-0.

Very good. Thank you very much. I'm glad we got that done. That was worth our effort here. Okay, let's go now. We're finished with the business, the agendized business of the Commission. Let's go to staff and the Commission and updates.

Yeah, thank you. Rob Peters with planning just a quick update that we do intend to have the September twenty-fourth meeting. And I just wanted to thank you, knowing that this wasn't, you know, looking to be a very long item for your attendance today. And but it's a very important one. So I know that it was the only item on the agenda. We try to make sure that your time is well served and just wanted to say thank you for that.

Okay. All right. All right, let's start down here on this end for any reports. Thank you, Chair.

Yes, I received the Costco newsletter. It's a monthly newsletter. This month, I am a member. And I was quite surprised to see the highlighting of four very interesting projects that Costco was bragging about and how they have used unique architecture, design guidelines, and community input to build these four service centers in different communities. and that we might want to take a look at that here for the El Dorado Hills project to see what unique circumstances, fit design guidelines might be appropriate there as well. And if you don't have a copy of it, I will try and make copies available to you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Chair. Thanks, that was interesting. uh there's one item the shingle springs community center held its 75th anniversary little celebration free hot dogs and burgers and then they had a donation jar at the door and it was very well attended there was music and uh it was good so 75 years yeah that's all i have okay great commissioner williams anything

Just a just a quick note. I'm looking at the calendar for the rest of the year or kind of calendar. I do note that the one date that I had indicated that I will not be able to attend. There are four agenda items that day, two of which I have real interest in participating. So I will go back to staff and ask them to maybe reallocate that to just before or after that week. And I'll get back to you Rob on that one. Thank you. That's all.

I don't have anything to report. So with that fine note, note that it's 917 a.m. And the meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.

Good job.

You're hired.