Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

And we'll start as we do with the pledge of allegiance. Um, Commissioner Douglas, would you mind leading us in the pledge of allegiance? 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 very much everybody. It's a great way to start. All right. Well, we are fortunate tonight to be uh welcoming a newly appointed commissioner. And so, uh let's uh carry on with that. I think we have uh council member Matulik here to um do our oath of office. Is that correct? Yes.

Thank you very much. Please. So, so I will go. What do you want us? You want us right here. So, so um I'm going to have you face me and then so you can actually read it from here if you if you need to. So, aha, extra microphone. testing. Testing. Okay.

Can raise up too. There we go. Yeah, that's fine. So, please raise your right hand. So, I uh state your name. I, Chris White, do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Const the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic against all enemies, foreign and domestic and that I will bear true faith and allegiance and that I will bear true faith and allegiance

to the Constitution ution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California. And that I take this obligation freely And that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. Sorry. Uh uh uh uh mental reservation or purpose of evasion. All right. Sorry. Reservation or purpose of evasion. and that I will well and faithfully and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Congratulations, Commissioner White. Thank you, sir.

So, I like to introduce you to our latest commissioner, Commissioner White. So, and you could go ahead and take your seat right up there on the dis. Welcome to the commission, Commissioner White. It's a pleasure to have you with us. All right. Well, now that we have uh our new commissioner seated, um let us go ahead and and take our roll call. Commissioner Bellawa, I. Commissioner Beasley Stanberry, present. Commissioner Maderos, present. Chair Blind, present. Commissioner Douglas,

present. and Commissioner White absent. Vice Chair Taylor, we have a quorum. All right. Wonderful. All right. So, we are here at agenda item number five is our consent calendar and approval of the agenda. Uh there's two items on it today which is the approval of today's agenda and then um uh the approval of the minutes and I think we can do those at once um if that's okay. Um can we get a a motion to approve these two consent calendar items? I move that we approve the agenda for today's meeting as well as the uh meeting minutes for October 6, 2025 regular meeting.

Do we have a second? I second that. Excellent. All right, we'll go to a vote. We all help each other up here.

I need one more vote. We have six eyes and the motion carries. All right, look at that. We're on a we're on a roll here. All right, so agenda item number six. This is our report from our city council liaison. Um, council member Matulik, it's a pleasure to have you at the dis again.

Well, thank you very much and um, good evening. Um, Chair Blind, uh, Commissioner Douglas, Commissioner White, Commissioner Maderos, Commissioner Commissioner Beasley Stanbury, and Commissioner Belboy Buena, staff, and to the general public. Um, thank you for being here tonight for our, um, planning commission meeting. And, um, since the m, uh, many of you were not here at the last meeting, I just want to kind of re-emphasize or kind of, uh, um, remind people what I mentioned last time. So the fact that um you all have a um have a work plan to you have the ability to have a put a work plan together with a budget on that. And so with that work plan if there's any things for example for trainings or things of that nature that may cost have a cost associated with that whether there's materials you may think that may may benefit what you do as planning commissioners going to the farmers market and setting up things of that nature. um put that work plan together and then that would allow you to put a number towards any type of activity and that way um and then staff would take a look at that and kind of bring that in front of city council to get that approved. Um but once again just this is your that's your opportunity for you as a commission to come together have conversations to identify what are some of the goals um that you guys have as a commissioner. Um, I think one of the things that I would recommend is is identifying ways that you as a group can get um get a better understanding out in the community of what you do as a planning commission. I know a lot of people have a general understanding what the planning commission does, but I don't think very many people understand the the nuts and bolts of land use and how you guys set up zoning and things of that nature. So, if there's something simple that you guys would like to put out there as a community um at maybe a farmers market, um have that as maybe a conversation piece for that. Um, but other than that, I want to welcome Commissioner White to his first meeting and um here to answer any questions you may have. Oh, and and one of the other things I mentioned is if you have not whenever you guys have any spare reading time um kind of brush up on the uh general plan

20 240 uh but more specifically the specific plans that are associated with the general plan um because I would like you guys to have an understanding of the content or kind of like the intent of of a lot of those planning the zoning u but specifically um where those um specific plans have um especially when you're looking at commercial areas and residential areas so that you you can understand when a project comes in for you in that in a particular zoning area or a particular specific plan, then you can you can um add some um great conversations of of how to better improve that project potentially. So um because this goes to the vision that I have with council member Matias of kind of combining our economic development and our planning commission to kind of look forward of a lot of things that we can do concurrently and work together on. So um that's kind of what our vision is. are moving forward and if we can um at some point get a meeting between or whether it's a subcommittee and that would be dependent on staff and this uh assistant city attorney to figure out how to best go about that between the economic development team or economic development commission uh along with this planning commission then I I would like to think that that'd be something that that would be a great collaboration type of opportunity there. So open for any questions anyone might have. All right.

Does anyone have any questions for council member Matulik? No. Thank you very much. This great for letting me off easy today. Yes. All right. All right. So, uh we are on agenda item number seven. This is a community forum. Uh this is for anyone that wishes to address the commission on any matter that is uh not on our agenda today that uh is in our uh purview or portfolio. Um we can set aside some time and we'll put up a signup sheet now. Um you can do that online or in person and we'll set aside up to 15 minutes or three minutes per speaker.

Thank you chair. Uh we do have currently two speakers that have already signed up for the community forum. I also did start a two-minute timer which is reflected on the top left corner of the screen for interested parties to sign up for the community forum. Uh given that timer is running, we'll go ahead and get started by calling up the first inerson speaker. Eli Smith, please approach the podium. Following Eli, we will be uh calling upon Paul theus or Ty uh on Zoom. Wonderful. Thank you so much for making time tonight.

Hi. Um, my name is Eli and I'm on the board of several organizations in town including Vincent's Garden, Valo Family Forward and the Valo Homeless Union. Uh, and as such, I work closely with many of Valo's unhouse community members and by extension many of our lowest income house citizens. And I'm here to implore you to prioritize accomplishing the lowincome housing objectives that were stated in the housing element that was passed last December. With the federal cuts put forth by the so-called big beautiful bill, countless people will lose the ability to retain their benefits. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, many will lose their housing overnight, like literally overnight. And while all levels of housing are important and needed, including high income and market rate housing, because those housing opportunities prevent people from being displaced, the city has a duty to make sure that we have adequate housing stock at all income levels. 73% of students in the Valo school district are economically insecure. Solano County alone has almost 2,000 students who are experiencing some level of homelessness, and that does not include students that aren't enrolled in the district. And of all of the cities in Solano County, Valo actually has the largest population of homeless students. And we are not the largest city. Please expedite the passing of ordinances that were promised to prevent Valo from teetering over the edge of a looming housing disaster. Please work with staff to move this forward as quickly as possible. I can't emphasize enough how quickly this deadline is approaching and how all of the changes that are making on the federal level are going to trickle down and affect Valo.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, Paul Ty. Please unmute yourself. You have the floor.

Hi, thanks for this opportunity. I live in Valleo and I'm on the executive committee of the Sierra Club in Solano which has about 200 members in Valleo. Uh thanks for this again for this opportunity to speak with you on a matter that is not on the agenda but would needs to be on the front burner of the commission's work affordable housing in Balo. We need affordable housing to deal with the present crisis not market rate developments like the one on Rollingwood Drive that gentrify our community. Last October, the planning commission working under pressure spoke to this crisis by changing the draft housing element to include an accelerated timeline for an inclusionary zoning ordinance along with a package of render protections. The housing element passed by the council in December mandates that these ordinances, which are overdue to deal with Valleo's housing crisis, were to come before the council last month. that didn't happen. There should be an explanation for this from planning staff with a way forward to get this done. Instead, you'll be presented soon with yet another market rate development of 130 units. So far in this housing cycle, Valleo has permitted only 3% of its agreed to goals for very lowincome housing and only 6% of low income. A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle lists Valleo as the most rent burden city in the whole Bay Area. A front page article in the East Bay Times pointed to high housing costs as the key factor in Bay Area poverty and family stress. Valo's homeless population doubled in the last two surveys taken.

These are our neighbors being pushed out onto the street by rising rents. Faced with these grim facts, I ask that some form of affordable housing be included in the developers plan. Interest rate cuts will increase their profit margin. Why can't Valleo be part of that windfall? Inclusionary zoning ordinances are available off the shelf in nearby cities like Richmond and Conquer. Preliminary studies shouldn't take long. The facts are staring us in the face. Last year, the planning division was staffed up with nine lawyers on the city attorney's staff. City legal work should be turned around in short order. Meanwhile, as council member Matulak said, developers are contacting Valleo possibly to stap snap up large parcel of lands and get market rate projects approved before affordable housing ordinances are enacted. On the other hand, the city of Valleo moves at a glacial pace. Our housing element is almost three years into a seven-year housing cycle with no action so far on affordable housing. uh through the chair. That does it for our speakers per community forum.

Thank you very much.

Um all right. Thanks for all the speakers who shared with us tonight. Um we share your sense of uh urgency around this topic and we will be uh working to see what we can do to move this forward. Uh, as one of the speakers said, it's one of the reasons we did it last October and I know the council moved quickly on it in December to make sure we got under some deadlines and we advanced some of those deadlines. So, um, we may have uh created some pressure. I think it's probably positive pressure on the city staff and we know they're going to do their best to meet that pressure and those deadlines. Um, so thank you very much. All right. Um, we are here at agenda item eight. This is our public hearing that was noticed uh to consider adopting a resolution approving a major use permit. Um I think we probably have a presentation u from the city staff. Thank you chair. I would like to call up um assistant planner Donna Barsh. Um this just want to make the commission aware tonight is her first planning commission before the city below. She recently joined us from the city of Arinda. We're um little over a year now or her one-year probation actually just passed. you know, we're excited that she's part of our team. So, I present you guys Donna Bar.

Thank you very much. Good evening, Chair Blind.

Good evening, Chair Blind and members of the planning commission. My name is Donna Bar, assistant planner with the planning and development services department. Tonight, I'll be presenting a major use permit request for the extended late night business operations for Planet Fitness located at 42 Spring Center, Springtown Center in Valo. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to hold a public hearing, review the project, and take action on the major use permit request. Next slide. This item is also subject to the Lavine Act, Government Code section 84308. As a reminder, any planning commissioners who may have received campaign contributions from a party or representative involved in this project should disclose those contributions on the record in accordance to the Living Act requirements. The project site is located at 42 Springtown Center within the neighborhood mixeduse zoning district and is part of the Springtown Shopping Center. The 1.71 acre is developed with an approximately 18,093 square ft singlestory commercial building occupied by Planet Fitness. The surrounding areas include a mix of commercial and residential uses with Springtown or Springs Road to the north and Interstate 80 located 3/4 of a mile west providing regional access. A building per permit was finalized on May 9th, 2025 to establish the Planet Fitness tenant improvements. Shortly thereafter, on May

15, 2025, the applicant submitted a major use permit request to extend operating hours beyond midnight. During the internal review period, the planning staff received comments from the Valo Police Department concerning the need for additional security measures due to crime activity in the surrounding area. On August 18th, 2025, city staff held a meeting with the applicant's team to dis discuss these concerns. The applicant subsequently revised their plans to include enhanced lighting and security cameras. The updated plans were then resubmitted and determined to be complete by the city on September 4th, 2025. So, no new construction is proposed. The request is limited to a modification of hours for an existing fitness center classified as as a smallcale indoor entertainment facility under the Valo municipal code. And I've included photos of the site taken during the day here on October 16, 2025 and also at night which was provided by the applicant. The applicant is requesting approval to allow 24-hour operation 7 days a week for the existing Planet Fitness facility. Currently, Planet Fitness hours are open every day from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. The address, oh, sorry. To address safety concerns raised by the Valo Police Department, staff re is recommending conditions of approval requiring again exterior lighting at all building entrances, exits, and adjacent parking areas and security cameras providing continuous coverage of

entrances, exits, and parking areas. These measures are intended to ensure a safe environment for customers and employees during late night hours. Under Valo Municipal Code Chapter 16.323, any business operating between 12 midnight and 6:00 a.m. is subject to the late night operation standards and requires a major use permit if located within 300 ft of residential zoning districts. Because this site is adjacent to the residential medium density zone to the east and within 300 ft to the west. This request meets this threshold. The proposed 24-hour use would therefore be consistent with these regulations subject to the recommendation or recommended security conditions. The project has been reviewed in compliance with California Environmental Quality Act and qualifies for a categorical exemption under section 15301 class one existing facilities as it involves no physical expansion of the existing structure and only a minor alteration in the hours of operation. Therefore, no further environmental review is required. On October 29th, pursuant to Valo Municipal Code section 16.602, 602. A notice of the hearing was published in the Times Herald um and mailed to all active neighborhood groups, all property owners within 500 ft of the subject property, and any other interested parties and local agencies expected to provide water, wastewater, treatment,

and other essential facilities or services to the project. as well as to the members of the planning commission. No comments were received. Based on staff analysis contained in the presentation and staff report, the project consistency is consistent with general plan 2040 and the Valo municipal code. Therefore, staff recommends that the planning commission find the project exempt from environmental review pursuant to SQA guidelines. section 15301 and approved major use permit PLN2598 subject to conditions of approval requiring ongoing maintenance of lighting and security measures based on the findings provided in the resolution and subject to the conditions of approval provided as in exhibit A to the resolution. And this concludes staff presentation. The applicant, Mr. Andrew Davies, is present this evening and available to answer any questions the commission may have. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Um, let's see. Um, should we give the applicant a moment or open the public hearing first through the chair? Just to be clear, the applicant is representing a firm that represents the applicant, which is an LLC. Okay. So, I'm just Well, the the applicant is an individual who works for a firm who is representing the LLC who does business as a you know, the franchise as the the Planet Fitness franchise. Okay.

So, you're talking to several people removed from the franchisee, just so you know.

Okay. I appreciate that. Um, well, if they'd like to make any uh comments, please go ahead. Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Chair and the members of the commission. Andrew Davies from EKN Engineering. Uh to clarify the city attorney's question. Yes. So, um I represent a engineering firm. Uh we've been hired uh to process the entitlements with the city and I want to start by thanking the staff for the very thorough and uh very timely review um of the project. Um do this for the franchisee. They own um or they operate several franchises across the United States. I they believe it's seven states and then six uh provinces within Canada. Um it's well over 50 uh franchises that they do operate. uh they're very experienced in it, very caring. Uh they operate a very good business, a very um responsive to any city requirements, which I think uh the city has found um and the additional security measures that they uh have agreed to. Um I guess I'll conclude by saying we on behalf of the applicant, which is the LLC, uh they agree to the the uh conditions brought forth by the city and I'm happy to answer any questions that the commission may have. Great.

Thank you. Through the through the chair, please go ahead. And so if you're not able to answer, it's fine. Um, but some of the questions I had were concerning some of the security measures. Um, are the doors during a specific time will be will they be locked? Will there be security at the front? Um, are there additional security measures at the entrance and exits of the facility in the front where patrons may enter?

Yeah, happy to answer that. So, um, as part of the staffing plan, there's always two people on site at all times. Um, in addition, there's I believe as part of the agenda or the presentation, uh, there's a security cameras all inside, uh, the building as well as at the exterior, which was part of the conditions both at the front and rear of the store. Um, the doors are not locked, but there is always somebody at the front desk to check people in and out. Um, but they would be locked if if and when the the store were were closed, as it is now. Okay. And and as far as the two associates only, is there a time frame, is it like midnight to 6 where there's only two or does a business generally operate with a certain amount?

Yeah, that's that's the minimum. Uh there are, you know, during busier times there are more than two. Um I believe as part of there's a staffing plan that we provided as part of the application. I believe it is a total of around uh 14 employees. Uh, I think there's a maximum of six and then a minimum of two on site at all times. Okay. And do do they monitor I know some organizations monitor how many patrons come in per hour. Is there an anticipation what you would expect per hour between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.?

I don't have the specific data. They do have that data um because you scan in and out uh with your membership. Um I do know that there is quite a bit. Uh that's why they they offer that 24h hour. Um particularly in this instance where you the the opening time is six o'clock. I know a lot of people like to work out earlier in the mornings. Um traditionally they do have a lot of overnight uh or people who work night shifts that they will get off of work, they'll go to the gym and then they'll, you know, finish out their day at home. Uh which is why they they're asking for the extended hours. Thank you.

Um through the chair, I would also like to add um after the applicant did resubmit and submitted the updated plans with like the updated exterior lighting and the cameras, we did once again have a meeting with below police department where the applicant did present the security measures to the police department. And after um kind of going back and forth at then uh VPD did agree and was okay with the the um additional lighting and cameras that the applicant was proposing to the exterior of the site through the through the chair.

Sure. Um did and I don't know if specific to the the to the applicant but to planning did uh the police department state whether there's like cameras at ALPRs that are available near that area as additional security measures in general.

They did not. So, we were kind of just only going basically um on this specific request and then how the cameras will be pointed towards the parking lot and ensuring that um you know the lights are always on and if they do burn out that you know the applicant did agree to have those replaced within um I believe it was 24 hours I believe it is that we have in the condition of approval. Okay. Any further questions for the applicant or city staff before we open the public hearing? Yes. Through the chair. Yes.

Um on the staff report uh it states under notice and comments that uh August 29th the notice went out but but I believe your presentation said September which is correct. Sorry about that. It was September 29th.

September. Okay. So, was the meeting date as in today on that public hearing notice? Okay. Yes. Um, under expiration it says that uh it would automatically expire in two years and I believe there was a year extension that would have been a ministerial decision by the director. Can you tell me what happens after that extension of a year? What is the process for the city? Um the requirement is that the item would I'm sorry that the approval would expire if it's not um exercised within that time frame. So once they start operating their late night hours then it's considered exercised and we don't have to do anything further um until such time they stop operating during those hours and then that new clock would begin.

Okay. Um cameras you probably know a little bit about that. the front entrance. Um, I believe I saw two cameras that covered like I don't know if they're both 180s or if there's one camera. Can you talk a little bit about that front entrance camera? Yeah. Do we We can bring up the exhibit. Is that Yeah. Go back to the staff report that shows Yeah. Manny, there's a slide that has an image.

Yeah. There it is. It's very small on the on the um drawing that we have in our packet. It says dual lens camera. So that is that is one camera with dual lenses. So it's you know it looked as if one camera but you could see Yeah. to cover the 180. Yeah.

Okay. And do you know um the specs on that camera like how far out, what the resolution is, is it HD? Because a lot of times businesses will put in cheaper cameras and if something happens the the it's very grainy and the police it doesn't help the police whatsoever. So that's my challenge to you. Noted. I don't have the specifications I believe on I don't have them on hand, but I I can get that to the staff um to provide that as additional information for you.

Okay.

But it's all it's not old cameras. It's a new completely new system. So, one would think that it would be of new quality and not something that you may see that's you know even 10 years old. Okay, HD would be best. Uh, let me look through my packet here. If anybody else has questions, please feel free through the chair. Hello. Thank you for coming and and informing us about the project. So, did you did we receive this is for planning and you any comments from the neighbors as to u anything positive or negative? No comments were received during the public notice

and that included all the housing along what is that? Springs Road there. Yeah, right. Nothing was received.

And uh what's the other street? Oakwood where you know cuz it's right it's right by the uh Yeah, I know where it is, you know, but and I don't expect there's not much activity because I kind of hit that place a little bit along there. But um and I don't really see any people generally speaking that you know kind of hang around people there. So I think it'll be safe. I was just wondering if the residents if you got to them and actually asked them something or you just give them a piece of paper and hope that they that they write back. Huh. I mean I'm sorry to be crude like that but if that's what we've done then nobody because seems like people would be interested in responding to that. What kind of traffic will we be talking about at night generally anyway just as in numbers?

I don't recall. Um I do remember you know I've done probably 20 of these in north in you know the Bay Area. Um as far as traffic you probably get at that time between 10 and 30 an hour coming in and out. Um I just recall that from doing parking studies for um at other cities. Um but that's just from general recollection. And al and I can also say it's not unusual to not receive any comments from nearby or adjacent um residents as well.

Well, thank you. Anyway, I have a couple more. I'm just one and once we open the public hear and we'll we'll see whether we have any comments from the public. That'll be their opportunity to respond to the letter and see if they're going to sign up either online or in person. Please go ahead. Um I'm a member of your other Planet Fitness up the road. Um they have it's a ve it's very busy parking lot. I don't know about the comparison, but they have a crosswalk in front of the building. Is there currently a crosswalk for this new location? I think that's really important from the parking lot to the front entrance.

You're Are you speaking to like an ADA path of travel from the parking lot? It's just a cross crosswalk. A crosswalk, a painted crosswalk. Um I don't believe there is an an existing one.

I I think that's really important. And I've seen a lot of um close calls in front of the current Planet Fitness. Uh people fly through that parking lot. Um also under number nine maintenance uh this is from the planning division. Um it says uh for burnt out and broken light bulbs shall be replaced. I would like some sort of time element um inserted in there, you know, whether it's 24, 36, 48 hours, something.

Yeah. Yeah. U through the chair, I do want to acknowledge that I was going to bring that up that that time limitation. So, if the planning commission would like to add a time limitation of when they would need to repair or replace those lights, um the the commission can do so as part of their motion to amend that condition of approval. Okay. I I will be suggesting that one. I believe that's it for me right now. Through the chair, is this major use permit only for this specific location? Okay. Thank you. Question.

Excuse me. So, so why wouldn't the uh location on Soma extend their hours? What was what's the difference between Oh, no. They already have. Yeah. Oh, they're already 24 hours. Yeah, they operate uh 24 hours except for uh two days a week, I believe. Okay.

Yeah, it's in our report. Um, in table three, Planet Fitness 3, the one located in 30 350 Soma Boulevard is Mon is open Monday to Thursday, open 24 hours. And then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, they're limited to 12:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. And sorry, that's just Friday. Saturday is 7:00 a.m. to 700 p.m.

I have one additional question. Um, and this just goes from experience with the the current Planet Fitness. Um, sometimes I go in there and the the music is blaring. Um, so I know that this facility, this new facility backs uh residential properties. So I have a little concern about um you know keeping the noise level down after a certain hour for music.

Just a question. Do you hear that outside of the store or inside? Well, as I'm walking in. So if somebody's going in before me Oh, yeah. You can hear it. Okay. Uh noted. and we'll uh address that with the uh the franchisee for operation purposes. Okay. Any further questions for city staff for the applicant while we have them?

Um through the chair, if I could um try to offer a response on the um question about the crosswalk. Um, I wanted to let you know I just took a look at the other location and I think that the size of that shopping center is probably a little bit bigger and the design um layout for the parking lot is different in that location. Um, the location on Soma Boulevard, basically the front of of the building um fronts onto island um end caps, so there's like a clear place to add a crosswalk. The design of this parking lot is different where all of the vehicles, they're basically parallel to the building is how they how they park. So there isn't really space to add a clear crosswalk to an island or end cap. So that's probably the reason why there's not one there.

Thank you very much. All right. Well, we'll have more time to deliberate and but for now, let's open the public hearing uh and see if we have anyone that would like to uh take the opportunity to respond to this project from the public. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chair. Yes, we do have one speaker uh who is currently signed up to speak on this item. Go ahead and call him up. Uh Jose Karisales, please approach the podium. And as he's approaching the podium, we do not have any other speakers on this item.

We'll put up a timer for someone. Thank you very much for making the time today.

Jose Carisales. Um I have been going to the uh Planned Fitness gym since 2015. I first started during my my time of uh homeless unshelteredness and I needed a place to shower and my best friend opened it up. So, I have been attending Planet Fitness in the Fairfield office as my home my home gym since 2015. I wanted to address a couple of things that I wrote down. Uh um there in the mornings when I attend there's always three to four members of the staff. In the evenings at the Planet uh Fitness and Fairfield from midnight to 6:00 a.m. there's two usually a ma a male and a female. Obviously, because of the restrooms, you need a female to go in. And if there's an issue with a with a lady, you need a man. Female can't go in into the men. Um the music inside the store is very comfortable. It's not loud at all. You cannot hear anything outside. Uh if there's any music outside, it's usually the cars. Who are the people are in the car just kind of enjoying their their time in the car. uh the crosswalks. There's uh I've been going for 10 years where the Fairfield and I've been going now to the Sonoma Boulevard and then I go now to my new one which I'm so happy. Um there's usually not an issue with the crosswalk. This is a very small maybe from here to the wall. So everybody who crosses pays attention and maybe one out of a hundred or one out of a thousand. And I know one is a lot, but there's really really really not that much uh not that much of an issue. I want to stress that the the staff the expert staff uh determined that uh this does not significantly go beyond the typical operating power uh uh pattern, excuse me, of nearby gyms. It is conditionally allowed. applicant agree to incorporate additional safety measures, lighting, enhanced security, uh security cameras. So, the the Planet

Fitness personnel have done their their part. The expert staff who you hire to make these kind of decisions, to help you make the decision, to help satisfy the business owner have done their job. I'm uh respectfully asking to allow the the business to have their hours extended to midnight to 6:00. Um it's a great facility. I don't know if it's making an impact on me, but after maybe another 10 years it will, but it's a great facility. There are great personnel. Couple of the from Fairfield came to the Vallejo office. I get to go to both of them because uh the same owner or the same franchise owner. So I let I get to go to the Fairfield and the Spring Spring spring town any as many times I want three four times a day if I want. So I would respectfully encourage uh the planning commission. They have done their part. Staff has done their part. I respectfully ask that you agree to the to the their hours. Thank you.

Thank you. And that wraps up the uh public hearing portion.

Okay. All right. Well, that's the case, then we will uh close the the public hearing. Thank you very much for the you've made time today for that. Um and we can begin our deliberations if anyone has anything they'd like to discuss. Um or we can entertain a motion. I'll make a motion to approve major use uh permit for I I can't see the name of the business of Blle East Fitness LLC DB doing business as Planet Fitness uh to extend their op hours of operation from midnight to 6:00 a.m. I'd like to offer a friendly um a friendly addition and that is just to have staff um include the time limitation for the light bulbs to be replaced when needed. um

through the chair. Stanberry, do you want to uh attach that friendly amendment to your motion?

Um through the chair, if you can add um as part of that motion, if you can add a time limitation that the planning commission feels is sufficient. We will I'll go ahead and make an amendment to approve the u major use permit for East Fitness Limited Liability Company doing business as Planet Fitness with an amendment to extend their hours from midnight to 6:00 a.m. in addition to I believe it is repairing any broken light bulbs within the parking lot within 24 hours. Okay. Does

that suffice for the motion? Uh staff could are we talking about lights for like the actual parking because some of those may require uh special equipment that needs to be rented. So, we may want to extend it from Yeah. 48 or 72 hours cuz just from from owning from operating a maintenance facility sometimes I have to rent those out and they're just unavailable for a couple days. So if it's 72 or 96 let's clarify with the the city I believe this is for the security lights on the building itself that's in their premises not the parking lot lighting. Is that correct?

So that that's correct. So, it's the buildings on the exterior. I'm sorry, the lights on the exterior of the building, but if the planning commission wants to extend that to the parking lot there, you guys are more than welcome to do that as part of the motion. Okay. Commissioner Maderos, can you clear that up because that was her amendment. Well, yeah, and that's my question. back to the planning um division is whoever owns the the entire mall I guess you would call it do are they under a different set of criteria they

and is that provision in their criteria because I thought that was a I thought that was a city um code. Yeah. So, the zoning code provides maintenance for fixtures and lights. That's any light lighting. So, that's anything that's in the parking lot or around adjacent to the building. Um, just so that the commission is aware, this shopping center is owned by multiple property owners cuz it is made up by about seven to nine different parcels.

Wow. So, um, for this condition, if the planning commission would like to, you know, make sure it spells out like the building and the parking lot, it would be specifically to this parking the portion of the parking lot that's owned by the property owner and not owned or maintained by the LLC that leases out the building to operate this franchise. So only to the property owner, not to Planet or Planet Fitness. So Andrew, I don't know if you want to explain um because my understanding is that the franchise only leases out the building and they're responsible for all the lighting that's around the the building and then anything within the parking lot, it's a responsibility of the property owner.

Mhm. I think that's the sticking point right now. But that's a typical business situation for a corporate is that they would not be the the lease is not responsible. You're paying CAM. Correct. Correct. So they're responsible for shrubbery, lighting, what were you mentioning the the walkway. Um so that may be a conversation we have with them about that. Well, if they're only responsible for the building, then that's all we can we can ask them to do. But we all know that parking lot. Yes, we do.

Okay. And it's it's um a challenge because we've had we've had a lot of crime in that area of town. So, um that's my concern. But if they're only responsible for the building, that's all we can ask them to do. So I I would think that the 24hour if that's under their control and it's just a singlestory building that they could replace those bulbs. So that's that's my request. So, I'll make an amendment for 48 for the building itself that they are leasing within 48 to 72 hours per Commissioner Bal Buena's uh experience with the equipment.

Thank you. Did you have anything you wanted to clarify? Uh nothing nothing additional. 48 hours would be fine. 48 hours. Okay. All right. So, so to confirm 48 to 72 hours or we leaving it at 48 hours? No, 48 to 72 hours.

All right. Do we have what we need for a motion from staff or would you like it clarified? I got. You got it. Okay. Then we are looking for a second. If there is a second, I'll second. All right. Thank you. We'll go to a vote.

We have six eyes and the motion carries. All right. Well, thank you very much. uh look forward to the business being open for more time and helping to bring some liveless and uh security to that uh portion of our city. So, thank you very much. [Music] All right. So, we are on to agenda item number nine. This is uh written communications. Do we have anything that has uh needs to be brought to our attention

uh through the chair? No written communications were received this evening. Okay, thank you very much. All right, number 10, we've got um a report of the presiding officer, members of the planning commission. We'll start with a report from the secretary.

Thank you, chair. Um, I do want to remind the commission that um, if you do check your city of AO email, you should have received an email from Dalia um, our secretary requesting your availability for a joint meeting with city council on November 24th. Um, to continue the conversation about the inclusionary housing ordinance. Um, this is the second part. Um, we did have the first part in the Valo room. So, um, we're looking at Monday, November 24th from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Um, if you can please, uh, respond to that email to share your availability because we would like to schedule that meeting so we can continue that conversation. Um, the Rollingwood subdivision project that was scheduled for the last planning commission meeting um, was rescheduled um, was rescheduled and renoticed. So that item is tenally scheduled to come before the commission on November se uh November 3rd. Um also I would like to remind that the planning uh the commission that at the next meeting we are going to take vote on appointing a new chair and vice chair um because the it alternates individuals every year. Um so want to say thank you chair blind for the past year you know being the chair. Um so just to want to get the gears turning if anyone wants to self-nominate or nominate anyone in the commission just um that is going to be an item for next the next regular scheduled meeting. So other than that that's all the updates I have for this evening.

Great. Uh thank you very apologies. Um director Paul has an update as well.

Yeah thank you. I just wanted to share a little bit more. Um there was a comment made earlier about um from a member of the public about the housing element. So, I just kind of wanted to circle up on that and um remind you all um I sent an email, but we updated the um value list that go over all of the current planning projects as well as all of the long range planning projects. So, those are on our website right now if you want to take a look. Um specifically related to the long range long range projects, um we've got a list that's I think five pages long. So, we have a lot going on in the department. Um the housing element item uh that was specifically commented on I believe is related to program F113 which is renter protection and housing stability program. This is the one that has the tight time frame. Uh just to give you an update on this uh we have not had any uh funding resources available to really get that started. However, um I believe we shared this previously. We were able to um fold some of that um outreach work into the early phases of the grantf funded downtown development um downtown specific plan uh development project. So we um basically it'll it'll be like a first phase of work under that project umbrella. Um with regard to that specific plan, we have drafted a request for proposals. It is in its final stages of review and we are hoping to get it issued out um to the public within um I'm going to say early November if if things go smoothly. So, um, basically that's that's kind of the update on the housing ament program is that we found a way to pay for it and we are moving along with the process and hopefully in the next couple months you'll see start to see some action there and and then if you want additional information I'd be happy to um, you know, come back with a more detailed

report on uh, status update of the housing element programs. Great. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Um, just as a quick addendum to that, you know, uh, the email did go out for that November 24th. And given some of the comments we've heard from city's uh, residents about the urgency behind this, I'd encourage everyone to do what they can to try to make that time. It's hard to schedule all of us and the city council to come to one of these meetings. So, to the extent that you can make uh, yourselves available would be much appreciated. Uh, okay. Um, let's see. 10B. Um, city attorney's report. I have nothing to report. Thank you.

All right. And then um uh reports from any of my fellow uh commissioners. Anything they'd like to speak about?

Thank you so much, Director Plet, for the um update. I did want to circle back um and I know we'll talk about it uh in November, but I really would like to maybe speak uh maybe with you offline um more about um some sort of opportunity fund. um one that um requires uh developers um a price tag when they do want to develop here market rate, but specifically more in line with commercial uh developments. Um it's hard to kind of for you know residential to pay

if it's okay to tack on to that. The next phase of the inclusionary housing um workshop is going to be covering the commercial leak commercial linkage program. So that may be what you're um looking for information on. So that's definitely forthcoming. Thank you.

Okay. I I didn't quite understand what you were saying in um combining or uh it was with the downtown specific plan, but I know that there's two ordinances out there in reference to inclusionary zoning ordinance as well as the affordable housing ordinance. Is that what you were referring to or is that is that two other things that are totally non-related?

Uh I um think those are two separate programs in the housing element. So the um inclusionary housing ordinance that work is under one program and then the other one that I was referring to was the rent stabilization and renter protection and that is probably one of the programs that had the tightest time frame on it. So um that was the one I was providing the update on. Okay. Okay. Um, I did have a question. Uh, Cesar, you were supposed to get us the budget that we had for for this commission.

Yeah. Um, so our administrative analyst just came back from vacation. So that's um we have actually have a meeting um scheduled to go over that. So, I'll have an update for you guys um either via email just to let you know what the budget is for this commission or I'll bring it to the next regular scheduled meeting.

Anyone else have any please do we ever explore the iPads instead of us wasting the paper? not wasting because I I definitely like to read the paper, but I I am very in support of that. Um I think we that's another item we need to reconnect with our um analysts to make to see if we have the funds available. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

Oh, right. Um one thing I I'll bring to the uh commission's attention is just a conversation we started uh with city staff. Um, and that is, you know, in my time on the commission, we've had lots of uh great uh proposals and permits that we've issued uh for major uses. Many of them are for kind of larger um franchises uh things that are not owned uh locally. Um, and so we interested to see what we could bring forward uh to help our small business uh owners locally uh have a competitive um leg up uh when it comes to competing for some of our business opportunities. So uh just started that conversation. I think it would be a worthwhile one to try to figure out how while these um you know out of town big box stores and franchises uh provide a great service for our our city. Um they also uh take a lot of the profits uh there and uh they leave our city and so trying to figure out what we can do to try to encourage some small businesses uh to be homegrown and develop here and uh retain all those profits here. So, uh, something that we're going to talk about getting on the agenda as either kind of a study item where we can see, uh, what it is that the city does to help, um, local business owners, um, uh, move, uh, kind of their business along here in the city, um, or the things that may be out there in adjacent communities that we may be uh, interested in adopting or adapting in some way uh, to help that same purpose in this in this town of ours. Um, so hopefully we can get that uh agendaized over the next couple of meetings and try to see what we might be able to do there.

Um, all right. We Oh, please. One more thing. Um, the Mirror Island specific plan. What What are we

Where are we at with that? I know it's in review right now or in some sort of draft format. It's gone to the city. Um, can you give us an update, please? Um, yes, I can provide a quick update. We have um a third-party consultant who is assisting us in um completing our in-depth review of the document itself just to make sure we are checking all of the pieces and capturing all of the things that really need to be in that specific plan. So, um that work is um underway. It's actually getting close to wrapping up. Um we have provided preliminary comments to the applicants team with regards to some things that staff has found but this is just an extra set of eyes. Um in addition the EIR process has actually kicked off as well. Um we have brought on a consultant to prepare that EIR and they are currently in the process of drafting the um project description. So um that is underway as well. Um, just to follow up with that too, is there going to be public input uh before the EIR comes out? After it's come out, I mean, what's what's the public process in this? Um, yes. before the ER is released for review, there's going to be a notice of preparation that's sent out that allows um the community an opportunity to um provide comments and input on what information really should be included in that analysis. So, I think that's probably the first thing you'll see. Um when that goes out, there's going to be a scoping session to um basically it'll be a public workshop that will allow those folks to come in and provide comments in person.

Great. All right. Thank you all very much. Uh I don't believe we have at the current time any ad hoc subcommittees. So uh with that concludes agenda item number 10. That brings us to everyone's favorite agenda item number 11. And that's uh adjournment. Uh so we will adjourn this meeting at 8:07 p.m.

Thank you very much. Commissioner White app. Oh, this one. Yeah.