Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the July 16th, 2026 Stanislaus County Planning Commission meeting. Just a few reminders, please silence your cell phones during the public hearings. We're happy to accept all comments on the project, but we ask you avoid repetition. Let the record reflect that Commissioner Campo, Chima, and Huff are absent this evening. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The Citizens Forum is a time for the public to speak on issues that are not on tonight's agenda. However, the Commission cannot take action on any of those items. Is there anyone wishing to speak on an item not on tonight's agenda? Seeing none, we'll move on. I'd entertain a motion from a Commissioner to approve the minutes of June 18th, 2026.

I'll make a motion to approve those minutes.

Thank you. And a second? I will second that motion. Thank you, Commissioner. All those in favor, please, of approving the minutes of June 18th, 2026, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Nay. Any nays? And any abstentions? Hearing none, the motion carries. Director Freitas, do we have any correspondence?

Yes, you have one item of correspondence. It was received too late for the agenda. It is an email dated July 13th from Brad Johnson regarding non-consent item 7A, the use permit application for Jordao Dairy.

Commissioners, have you all had a chance to look at this? Yes, sir. All right, we'll move on. Any commissioners wishing to declare a conflict of interest this evening? Seeing none, we have no consent items on the agenda. We'll move on to non-consent item A, use permit application number PLN 2021-0080, Jordao Dairy. Ms. D'Anda.

Good evening, Emily D'Anda, Associate Planner, here to present use permit application number PLN 2021-0087, Jordao Dairy. This is a request to expand an existing dairy facility located on a 79 acre parcel in the General Agriculture Zoning District. This will allow the herd size to increase from 1,985 mature cows to 3,990 and to allow for construction of three loafing barns totaling 236,000 square feet. The project site is located at 6025 South Central Avenue between Hillmar and Bradbury Roads in the Turlock area. The project site has a general plan designation of agriculture and a zoning designation of agriculture with a 40-acre minimum. The project site is surrounded by scattered single family dwellings, dairies, and row crops in all directions, and the county of Merced is to the south of the project site. Present land uses on the project site include the dairy facility, eight single family dwellings, and irrigated crops. It also includes a wastewater storage pond, dry manure storage area, and crops consisting of corn and wheat. The project site is served by private wells and septic systems and has existing access onto county-maintained South Central Avenues. As mentioned previously, the request is to increase the herd size from 1,985 to 3,990 mature cows. The request also includes construction of the three new loafing barns, indicated in green on the screen, and conversion of a 76,000 square foot loafing barn to a freestall barn, and the installation of an anaerobic digester. Under this request, the milk truck trips are expected to increase from 3 to 4 per day, and feed truck trips are anticipated to increase from 4 to 6 per week. The number of employees is also expected to increase from 8 to 12 under the current request. No specific issues unique to this request have been identified. However, the permitting of herd expansions in general under the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board has been an issue. Since 2022, Regional Water has provided correspondence that while the nutrient management plan and waste management plans may be in agreement with the current general order, data collected by the Central Valley Dairy Representative Monitoring Program has indicated that these nutrient management practices are not sufficient to prevent the pollution of groundwater from cropland. Regional Water has placed review of all NMP and WMPs for expanding our new dairies on hold, and operators are to proceed at their own discretion. Without acceptance of the NMP and WMP from regional water, the county has prepared a mitigated negative declaration with more specific requirements to be met in terms of best management practices and protection of surface and groundwater from nitrates and wastewater. When an expanding or new dairy requires a new or modified waste permit or waste discharge requirements from Regional Water and compliance is required with CEQA, the dairy is subject to obtaining a use permit from the county. The county's purpose of requiring use permits for new or expanding dairies is to provide the dairy operators with an approved CEQA document and Regional Water can then use the approved CEQA document in determination in issuing their required permits. While previous dairy expansion requests have relied on the understanding that individual WDRs would be issued by regional water, the county has learned that regional water has instead been relying on a provision of the state water code that states that discharge will not create or threaten to create a condition of pollution or nuisance, and that statute is now in question for current herd expansions. The expansion of the herd requires regional water approval and the mitigation measures included in the project are tied to the herd expansion. This means that the dairy operator will be able to maintain their ability to pull building permits for the existing herd size without regional water approval or triggering the mitigation measures. Four other use permits have been heard and approved by the Planning Commission since the Nutrient and Waste Management Plan reviews have been on hold by Regional Water. All four previous permits included the adoption of the same three mitigation measures being applied to the current proposed project for Jodaro Dairy. The authorization of the herd expansion is ultimately dependent on regional waters approval as a responsible agency. Reliance on the state water code places regional water in a position to either accept or reject the county's CEQA determination based on their own finding that the discharge does not create or threaten to create a condition of pollution or nuisance. One item of correspondence was received on July 13, 2026, from Brad Johnson, who expressed concerns regarding contaminants to groundwater quality from the proposed herd expansion and the availability of extracting clean drinking water from groundwater within the local area. The project was referred to Regional Water, which did not provide comments regarding the specific project. However, since 2022, Regional Water has suggested confined animal facilities enroll in the Central Valley Dairy Representative Monitoring Program to meet the requirements for groundwater monitoring. As previously mentioned, the three mitigation measures have been incorporated into the project to mitigate potential impacts to groundwater quality, and they include requirements to follow best management practices, compliance with all nutrient and waste management plans, and enrollment in the Central Valley Dairy Representative Monitoring Program. General plan consistency must be evaluated when processing all discretionary project requests, including the project site's general land use element designation of agriculture and consistency with the agricultural element. Ag element policy 1.10 requires buffers between ag operations and non-agricultural uses. A dairy is included in the ag elements definition of agriculture and therefore a permitted ag use and not subject to buffer requirements. Confined animal facilities, which include dairies, are considered to be permitted and considered to be consistent with the Williamson Act. An environmental assessment for the project has been prepared in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuant to seek whether the project was circulated to interested parties and responsible agencies for review and comment. A greenhouse gas analysis was also performed by Trinity Consultants, which is dated March 2026, and the project's construction and operational missions were determined to be less than significant. As discussed in the issue section of the staff report, mitigation measures have been incorporated into the project to mitigate any potential impacts to water quality and meet the requirement for groundwater monitoring. A mitigated negative declaration has been prepared for the project, and conditions of approval reflecting referral responses have been placed on the project, which can be found in Exhibit C of your staff report. To conclude, staff recommends the required findings can be met as listed in Exhibit A of the staff report and recommends that the Planning Commission approve Use Permit Application Number PLN 2021-0087, Jordao Dairy, subject to the conditions of approval and mitigation measures as listed in Exhibit C of your staff report. That concludes my presentation. Staff is available to answer any questions.

Thank you, Ms. DeAnda. Any questions for... For staff.

Road status on Central Avenue. PCI.

Commissioner, Chair, members of the public, Chris Bolaños with Sanchez County Public Works Department. Last inspected in 2022, PCI of 50 from Hillmar Road to Bradbury Road.

Great. Thank you.

Any other questions?

So this project is possibly going to be determined by the WDR and if it proceeds or not as well, right? If you get shut down by the WDR, it won't proceed. Is that the way I'm understanding that? Just like in California, water board regulations and no one has a clear definitive.

Regional Water would be the state agency that would determine whether the herd expansion is ultimately approved under their records. While they didn't have a project specific comment, they did acknowledge receipt of the referral and that they would work with the dairy operator.

All right. If no other questions, we'll open the public hearing on this matter. Any members of the public wishing to speak in opposition to this project? Seeing none, any members of the public wishing to speak in support of this project?

MR. Good evening, Commissioners, staff, Manny Souza, Souza Engineering, Engineer of Record for the applicant, Jordao Derry, here on behalf of the applicant. Just a couple points of information. In the staff report, it stated an increase to 3,990 mature cows. It's actually 2,300 mature, 3,990 total herd. I know 3,990 sounds kind of big when you talk about mature. So yeah, there you go. That's the total number. Secondly, just in reference to the 2022 hold that was placed on report of waste discharge review by the regional water quality control board. Um, that happened in October of 2022. Uh, the report of waste discharge for this project was submitted and received by the water board in September of 2021. So that hold came a full 13 months later. So you could argue about whether it's applicable or not, but that's just a point of information. That being said, I don't have anything else unless anyone has any questions for me or the applicant.

Is there any consolidation being done or just expanding the facility?

When you say consolidation, do you mean like bringing another dairy? No, it's simply permitting to allow for future expansion by this operator.

Thank you.

How many acres is that dispersed on the water? Is it just that one? The wastewater? Oh, no. There's much more than that.

I could look at the nutrient management plan and total it up for you, but yeah, it's at least in the hundreds of acres.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you. All right, we'll close the public hearing. Bring it back to the commission for discussion and a motion.

I would just comment and say that it's important that we support our local economy and ag is obviously forefront of that. Dairy is critical. We want to keep the dairies thriving and making their products to support our consumers and our tax citizens in the area. So I would be in favor and willing to make a motion at this time.

Any other comments from commissioners? Okay.

Will we make a motion to approve the Use Permit Application PLN 2021-0087 for the Jardot Dairy with the findings and actions in Exhibit A?

I will second that.

I have a motion and a second. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Burke-Henry?

Aye.

Chavez?

Aye.

Hamrick? Aye.

Willerich?

Aye. Lipser?

Aye.

Motion passes 5-0.

All right. Thank you, Commissioners. Other matters. So our nuisance abatement joint workshop has been canceled, correct?

That actually was not another matter.

I'm sorry.

That was a whole separate thing, but yes, the workshop has been canceled. So for my director's report, since we've last met, there have been no planning commission items that have been considered by the board. We do have on the agenda for August 6th, we have one use permit application in the Modesto area and then one general plan consistency evaluation that's located out in the west side of the county. And with regards to the joint workshop, we don't know when we will reschedule it, but we will have that back to you here shortly.

Very good. I have no other matters at the chair's discretion. So with that, we're adjourned.