Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Sorry. Recording in progress.

So welcome to the regular meeting of the Planning Commission on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026. This meeting is called to order. Margaret, can you please call the roll? Yes, Madam Chair.

Commissioner Alvarez? Here. Commissioner Haveman?

Here.

Commissioner Mercado?

Hello.

Commissioner Salvamini?

Here.

Commissioner Sade? Here. Chair Rodby?

Here.

Commissioner Summers has an excused absence this evening. We have a quorum.

Now to the order of the agenda. Are there any commissioners that would like to request changes on the order of the agenda? Nope. Next we'll move to the meeting procedures. The City of San Rafael is committed to... committed for all to participate in our public meetings. I want to welcome everyone that are making the time this evening to participate. Margaret, can you tell us how public comment will work this evening?

Thank you, Chair Rodby. Tonight's meeting is being recorded and streamed live to YouTube. Viewers may also watch directly through Zoom using the link on the agenda or by dialing 669-444-9171 and entering the meeting ID, which is 826-8602. 8 4 8 0 pound. We're offering closed captioning for this evening's meeting on zoom to use that option. Please select the live transcript button. If you experience any technical difficulties, please email me at Margaret Cavanaugh Lynch at City of San Rafael dot org or planning manager. If you're looking for the easy option on the website. In order to provide oral testimony, speakers must be present. Displayed on the podium is a timer to help you stay within the allotted time frame. You are invited, though not required, to introduce yourself and say what part of San Rafael you reside in or if you live outside the city. For future meetings, if you'd like to request an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide public comment virtually, please submit your request to me at least 72 hours in advance of the meeting using my email that was already noted just in the last moment there. That's the many ways people can participate this evening, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Margaret. So next on the agenda is oral communication from the public. Remarks on items not on the agenda are welcome at this time and may be anything within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Planning Commission. You may have up to two minutes. Please know that any remarks on the agenda item need to be heard at the time the item is discussed. Is there anyone that wishes to speak? Seeing none, we'll move to the consent calendar. We have one item, draft minutes of August 13th, 2024.

Little time travel. Does anyone have any comments or edits?

If not, can I have a motion?

I'll motion to approve.

Commissioner Haverman, I'll second the motion.

Margaret?

Commissioner Alvarez? Yes. Commissioner Haveman? Yes. Commissioner Mercado?

Yep.

Commissioner Salvamini?

Yes.

Commissioner Sade? Yes. Chair Rodby? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

So there's no action items this evening, so we're gonna move directly to the director's report. And the first item is the presentation of the housing element annual progress report, highlighting progress on the policies and programs identified in the city's general plan and the city's progress toward meeting its share of the regional housing need allocation. Staff, please.

Good evening. Greg Miner again, Community Economic Development Department. I'm going to walk through a PowerPoint that kind of summarizes the staff report and then open it up to any questions. So once we... We'll go through it in the meantime. I will ad lib a little bit or give you a sneak preview of the staff report. Um, the annual progress report for the general plan and housing element. As as you all may know much better than eyes. Uh, state mandated requirement to provide a point in time, uh, update every year for local jurisdictions in terms of what progress has been made towards implementing the general plan that all cities and counties have to adopt for. The larger vision for their community, and specifically what progress has been made towards the housing element component of the general plan. And there's a very specific form that the State Housing Community Development Department requires local jurisdictions to complete. And that was that really long table or series of tables that was an attachment to the report, so please don't blame me for that specific format there's many things you can blame me for but that specifically is not one of them. Yeah. Um so so that's uh that's sort of the um the legal mandate, but it's an opportunity to reflect and evaluate where we are um in terms of housing and other city policies. So it looks like the power PowerPoint might be coming together. Um the moment you've all been waiting for The exciting generic opening slide for all city staff presentation, so I think we can go ahead go to the next one, and I think I kind of touched on the first key points. in that the purpose of, can you go back for a sec, sorry, in terms of the purpose of this presentation, and then specifically when it comes to the housing element and providing an update, it's both to provide an update on housing programs, which I think is table D in that ACD required form, as well as a status check on Where the city is in terms of meeting its regional housing needs allocation arena, which is. The level of housing that. Our regional Council of Governments a bag has determined that the city of San Rafael needs to satisfy in this eight year period between 2023 and 2020, 2031. And I think I touched on. Oh, and in terms of the legal mandate, it's required that all jurisdiction local jurisdictions provide this report by April 1st. So it's typical that I think that this report is presented around this time of year and then after tonight's discussion will present this to the city council next next week. All right now fire fire away Okay, so this slide here is just the next two slides actually are just a look almost like a glossary of terms, so the the arena table breaks down. Um, housing, um, developments by income categories. And again, that's that's part of the state mandate and it's part of it. It follows the, you know, state, um, the responsibility that local jurisdictions have to plan for housing across all income levels. Um, There's like one technicality i'm just going to foreshadow that the I believe the acutely low and extremely low income categories were only introduced. In the last couple years, so like when you look backwards, they were lumped together as part of the very low income category, but here's in the staff report, as well as on this slide there's a. Basically definition for each of these income categories, there are different percentage of the average median income. And if you want to go ahead and go to the next slide you get a sense of what is the average median income so for a four person household and marine county it's actually $186,600. And then you can see, and it's been a while since I've done math, and I didn't necessarily do it all that well. But my understanding of a medium is that means that half of all households in Marin County make of a four person household make more than that much money, and then half earn less. And then you see the breakdown by these different income levels. And when it comes to housing, the above moderate category is basically presumed to be served by the market market rate housing. I think we can go ahead and go here. Okay, so the next two slides have very fine print that probably should have been blown up to kind of give you the quick, quick report. So in terms of housing units that were entitled in calendar year 2025, the total was 576. the number of, so that, and you all know, again, you know, Better than than I. But for the general public entitled means, you know, authorized to the the use has been approved by the city. Then, actually, in terms of being authorized to construct a building that falls under the permitted category, the issuance of a building permit, and then the category in the far right completed means the buildings, the construction phase is complete. It's ready to be occupied. So altogether we had 576 housing units entitled in 2,025, 33 building permits issued, and then 179 housing units completed. And then this breaks it down by A structure type what stands out in terms of this. In terms of 2025 one of the things that stands out is when you look at the 33 units that were permitted or building permits issued 28 of those were for at us. So almost all of the actual building permits for housing in 2025 were for at us, I think, go ahead and go to the next one. Um! Another tiny graph that should be blown up to make it easier to see. This is a breakdown of those thirty-three. Thank you of those thirty-three building permits, their affordability, and it might be easier to see in the staff report as well. But Basically, it's a reflection of the fact that they were and not necessarily deed restricted. So, like, are kind of. Understood to be afford it's affordable by design as opposed to say these like mixed use developments that have come before you in recent months. You know, allocate a certain percentage of the building to be below market rate. And that's that's restricted, you know, recorded as part of the deed of that property. So in perpetuity, those units have to be below market rate. ADUs are kind of presumed to be affordable by design. OK, so now we're going to transition. Go ahead and go next slide to the the so what portion of this presentation. Slide seven, I think. Thank you. So kind of taking a step back at some of those numbers like, well, what are those numbers mean? How does 2025 fair compared to the recent past in San Rafael? As you can see, based on this graph, there's been there's a huge spike in entitlements after 2023. That's largely because of the redevelopment of Northgate Mall in 2024. And then in 2,025, as this body knows, we've seen a number of mixed use projects taking advantage of recent State laws that encourage housing production by limiting local discretion. And this graph is in a way almost under. In my view, it's under reporting the amount of entitlement activity that has happened because three significant projects were approved by the city in January. 4040 Civic Center, 700 Irwin, and 1033rd Street. The latter two were actually approved by this body, I believe it was November and December of 2025, but because they were appealed, it was technically not approved by the city until January of 2026. Go ahead. question so um our project entitled after the planning commission or after the city council approves what we've approved um it only entitlements only go um feel free to correct me margaret entitlements are only um generally speaking only go to the city council if they're appealed um following the decision in this body so in those two cases they were appealed and so no they were they were kind of in a limbo status until that appeal was heard City Council Chambers. I'm trying to think as an example, but other projects that this body approved were not appealed to City Council, so their approval date would have been the Planning Commission approval date. City Council Chambers. So if you sure well, we're before we get too far along.

How are J. A. D. U. S. Categorized? Are they umbrellaed in the Adu?

That's a great question. I don't know. Do you happen to know?

City Council Chambers L' yeah I. City Council Chambers L' market Kevin Lynch planning manager i'll try not to stammer typically know they junior access for dwelling units are a part of the home that they attached to. City Council Chambers L' They have shared bathrooms often so they're they function as the traditional granny units that we used to speak of grandpa come to but at us are definitely do show up in the in the arena numbers.

I definitely appreciate questions, and to the extent can't answer them this evening. I'll prepare better and provide those answers at the Council meeting next week. So if you if we skip ahead to the next graph, I think this is a true reflection of the entitlement activity that took place last year, because it includes those projects in January. So, as you can see, between 2,018 and 2,023, the amount of entitlement activity in the city was far less. It was around 180 units a year. And then if you look at 2024, and if you look at January 2024 to January 2026, it was an average of 1400 something units a year. And so if you felt like you were really busy and my colleagues in the planning division felt like they're really busy, it's because you were. A lot of activity has happened. So that's kind of storyline one, if you will, from my perspective from this report. The second story, you can go ahead and go to the next slide, is that hasn't carried over into construction just yet. So earlier we talked about the 33 building permits. So that's reflected at the far right of this graph for 2025. The different colors reflected different income levels. That were issued. So you can see, even though it's felt like we've been super busy on the planning side, we haven't yet seen that on the construction side. But there's a lot of, you know, we have a couple of projects that have already begun the demolition phase. 930 Irwin, I believe 703 3rd Street. So I think it's fair to expect. An increase when we look at this chart next year, it may be substantially higher than all of these historic numbers. But that part a lot of this depends on factors outside of the city's control, like the economy and construction costs and things like that. So, in my view, that's kind of storyline to in terms of support. Any questions or keep going.

Yeah. 2022 on that last graph, there was a huge jump. It looks like.

Why do we know? I wouldn't happy to look into that. I don't know if anything comes off the top of your head, Margaret. My understanding from talking to colleagues and again, I'll try to be. Have answers this question next next week is that a lot of these where you see this, like. Big increases and mostly market rate developments in 2015 2020 and not so much in 2022 and 2023 is that they're just simple like single projects. The I don't know why i'm blanking on the name of the senior housing development that was completed this last year on mission street. ages living i believe that was entitled in 2023 and that largely explains uh like um the uh the large number the relatively large number of entitlements that year 2022 i'm not sure i can double check

I could just as a professional anecdotally add something during the beginning, like probably six months into coven in 2020 end of 2020. I think developers and single family residences people started to do construction and add things and build new, so I think that that lag with getting to building permit potentially could have where it be with that 2022 spike is.

yeah actually if you go back a slide margaret um just in terms of like covid's impact you see like 2021 like virtually no units were entitled so it's interesting as you know how that and and then i'm sure on the build there's some impact on the building side but there might have been a lag as well um okay sorry you can go ahead and go forward okay so the next slide is in the Staff report and it's very it's way too tiny here. My apologies work on that. Just this shows the over the horizon of the current arena cycle where we are, where we stand. And you can go ahead and jump to the next slide because it's probably easier to read. It's slide 11. Thank you. The gist of it is we are We have a long ways to go in terms of actual units being housing units that are complete ready for occupancy. compared to the state mandated targets pretty much across all income income levels there's some disparities, but overall it's like 6.5% where we are so again kind of going back. in contrast to all this entitlement activity we still have a ways to go but hopefully as more construction move as projects move forward into construction we'll see we'll see an increase in this but we still have significant ways to go another question for you excuse me um so these buildings in perpetuity have to be this this standard for low income extreme low income moderate It depends on the project. So in the case of some of the mixed use developments that have been processed recently, a lot of them as part of what authorized them to build higher than local limits and things of that nature as they pledged to or committed to having a certain percentage be below market rate in perpetuity. But it's like project by project. The income level is that you go back two slides, sorry.

Two slides?

Yeah, to the really tiny chart that no one can see.

Perfect.

But it's clear in the staff report, I swear. These are targets. These are not like legal mandates. These are targets that so there's like The state determines like the overall population that's needed in each region and then a bag allocates the certain break a breakdown by local jurisdiction. These are just targets, whereas each specific project if they commit to having a certain number of units that they are required legally. I don't know if you want to jump in.

Just a couple additional thoughts you'll see so accessory dwelling units are not deed restricted it's it's the. On the other hand, a number of the houses that buildings that qualify for density bonuses are. planning on using money that is granted by the state, and in that case they would be putting indeed restrictions as Greg said, there is an in perpetuity option, but there's also a 55 year and that's a very common one to that you'll see. And as Greg states, it's also project by project, but 55 years is a very common restriction. And you'll see that in actually the agreements we have for the housing, below market housing that usually are in your packets now, they have the fine print in there.

So a follow-up question is, who polices that? Who checks to make sure that that is happening?

Um, so in terms of the city of San Rafael, we have a housing division, um, and we, and. That actually doesn't, uh, to my understanding, doesn't police that directly, but we have a contract with the marine housing authority, and it's their responsibility to monitor that. They actually presented to our. City Council subcommittee that's now the economic development and housing subcommittee last month and gave a overview of their program and it's available on the city's website, so if you if you were to go to. City Council subcommittee meetings the economic development housing subcommittee meeting in February there's a video and they provided like a 15 minute overview of all their programs and it was it was very informative. Um, okay. So now we're going to pivot away from tiny charts that people can't see, and kind of provide an overview of some of the housing element programs and progress in 2,025. So actually following up on Our housing division, our housing division program, our housing manager, Alexis Kaptanian is stupendous and all of these accomplishments are virtually all of them are credit to her. So for example, she led a tenant workshops that completed in 2025. I think they may have begun in 2024. talking about um how tenant rights as well as just access to below market housing um and those workshops were were in in spanish and they're partly to educate as well as to inform city policies going forward in terms of what tenant policies tenant protections and other policies need to be adjusted And then Alexis also served on this steering committee for the Rooted Marin, which produced a really informative report. I would encourage the public and members of the Commission to review it if they haven't had a chance. There's some really powerful It's data at the beginning of the report, and then the second half kind of talked specifically about tenant protection policies. They have some really powerful housing statistics about Marin County, such as the amount of housing units that were constructed per decade from, say, the 19 fifties to the present. And you can just see where we have a huge deficit that we need to address. It's called Rooted in Marin. If you were to Google Rooted in Marin, it's a report that came out last year and it's part of the product of our staff. The city also allocated $600,000 from the city's affordable housing trust fund. So when market rate projects don't want to, or are completely market rate, they need to pay into the affordable housing in lieu fee. fund, and that helps fund different affordable housing projects. And so we were able to fund three different projects. One was helping with the pre-development of 519 Fourth Street. That's a city-owned property that's designated to be affordable housing. Another project was rehabilitation of existing affordable building in the canal neighborhood. And the third was a project led by, I may misstate their name, but the Marin County Foster Care Organization. So there's three great projects that we were able to support last year. Our housing manager also presented evaluations of our tenant protections. And then at the very end of 2,025 there's a I don't know if people saw the news coverage of four hundred Canal Street. It's very large. Multifamily building was able to be preserved as affordable under this Bay Area Housing Finance Authority Welfare Tax Exemption Program. So the property owner, as I understand it, gets a tax benefit for preserving units as affordable in perpetuity. So that was the result of many people, but included some of the advocacy of our housing division. And I think we actually we mentioned it before the ageist living facility, which was entitled a couple of years ago. The construction was completed this last year, providing housing for older adults. And then, in November of last year, the city acquired a two acre property at 350 Marydale Road, which will become the site of an interim shelter for unhoused individuals for one to three years, followed by a the development of a permanent affordable unit. So in addition to the numbers, a lot of other activity happened last year, and it's again largely to the credit of Alexis Captanian, our housing program manager. We can go ahead and go forward. So the next the last two slides are kind of highlights of some of the progress that were made outside of the housing element, the other elements of the general plan. So, in addition to our housing division, the rest of the city was quite busy as well. For example, the city acquired a property at 620 canal street. Thanks to different funding sources and a partnership with the trust for public land to be a future park and potentially the base of one side of a bicycle pedestrian bridge across the San Rafael creek and our public works department receive grant funding to study the feasibility of that bridge. There's also the launch of a public art program that will become more visible in the coming weeks and months and then. our planning manager referenced, I think, at the last meeting that we're kicking off two different specific plan processes, and we were able to do that thanks to the grant funding that we received last year. And then it almost goes without saying that we've been implementing the downtown precise plan, as you may be aware. So yeah, remember that general plan thing we adopted a couple years ago? with the downtown precise plan it's uh it's working uh in the sense that projects are are utilizing um our a lot of housing development is happening in the downtown area um and then there was another i think the last bullet point uh that i skipped over was in order the city council adopted an ordinance to reduce speed limits um to reduce traffic fatalities so i think that might be it or do we have one more slide but wait there's more One more. So again, these are just different different Highlights of from across other elements of the general plan. When it comes in terms of housing again, we are our code enforcement unit inspected over 100 buildings, which meant over 900 individual units. to ensure habitability we also adopted a an ordinance to establish a mobile vending program to provide economic opportunities and also encourage health and safety standards for mobile vending and our friends in the library and recreation department have been very busy updating different parks and and completing library renovations so i i think with that we'll open up for any questions

all right thank you guy um does commissioners have any questions i have some questions um okay they're they're kind of sprinkled across the report um so the in i think page 19 of the pdf that we received in the staff report um there's reference to ministerial um approval and and discretionary applications so City Council Chambers, Can you describe or explain the difference between ministerial and discretionary.

City Council Chambers, Though discretionary housing projects are the ones that are. typically you are the body of action. So when someone's doing an, when an applicant team comes in and does an environmental designer view, like Fifth Street, like Third Street, like 700 Irwin, all of those were discretionary actions. The amount of discretion may feel very narrow, as opposed to ministerial, which would be an SB 35 project or an SB 9 project, which all of that is state, I'm referencing state law, but basically I explain it to my non-planner friends as if you're this tall, you can ride that ride. There's no discretion. There's no findings. If they meet all of the criterion laid out in the state law, and we have those forms and information on our website, but if they can meet all of the criterion that the state has designated, They basically have there's no discretion at all in the conversation that goes and there's no sequel, which is a really important thing to note ministerial permits are exempt under the California environmental quality act so that's that's the that's an overview of the differences.

Okay, great and then the next question I had is regarding like it was a question and answer section it references a 2024 pit review or pit numbers which are the. homeless numbers, when do we expect to receive the 2025 numbers and do you know like anecdotally how those might compare.

I do not know, but I'm happy to follow up with our colleagues in our Community Services Division and circle back.

Okay, cool. And then I'll try to get to the important ones. Oh, same tables. There's a reference to Sandlerville being considered pro-housing. I thought at the last meeting we had discussed that it already was, but in this table it says it's not? No?

I think the reference you're, I think you're referring to a specific state designation as a pro-housing city. City of San Rafael has not applied for that program yet.

Okay.

But I believe it's part of the general plan. It's a goal.

Yeah, it's a goal in our housing element that's aspirationally going that way, but we have not achieved that status.

Yeah. No, you guys are very busy, so I appreciate all the work you're doing. And then... Another question was on page 36. I think it was regarding utilities being the main obstacle in projects from questions with developers. And I know when we approve projects, we know that they're approved by sewer, water, sanitary, marine municipal water district. So is it the bureaucracy with those projects? With those separate entities, or is it like the actual access to the services? Availability of services.

I can start off, and we can research some more detailed answers for you for the Council presentation. But in general, when a project comes in, we route it out to all of our agency partners, fire, police, building, engineering, et cetera, and we route it out to our outside agency partners, including water, wastewater, solid waste, the utilities, PG&E. look at their capacities and indicate that they are able to or will serve the project. The concept will serve to the how we're going to get the main in front of the building, and how we're going to make all of the infrastructure work is an ongoing process. So that's that the concept of they have the they are able to serve. It is something we do at the planning entitlement level. The how that gets handled is more the priority. It's a building that we need to have understanding of how all that works.

So that portion is really the obstacle, and I get that. Yeah, you're dealing with pulling up streets and stuff and very expensive work. And then page 54, which is almost at the end, my last question, besides a question I have generally we can do at the end, is regarding multiple actions. And it was like an edit to, it was an edit to title 14, I think?

That's in the second presentation. Second presentation.

Okay, I'll ask that later.

Any other questions?

Believe it or not, I have a question. So it's a two-parter. So government code 65300, is that a state code? And so that says that it calls for the improvement of circulation and transportation system, which doesn't seem to fall into any of the planning or entitlement for a building. So how do we affect, as a commission, how do we affect the transportation and circulation of what we're approving is my question.

DIRECTOR HERSEY- You want to start?

Um, you're correct. I believe it's one of the mobility is one of the required elements of a general plan. So there's a variety of programs that are. Identified as part of that. Um, but I think you're asking kind of also. Both a project by project basis and maybe a bigger policy level. How can the planning commission and city council affect mobility? That's a great question. You know, through land use policy. Um, that's that's how you can encourage. Certain. uses and density there's but there's things that the city can't control that are controlled by other transportation agencies, so I think it's a great question for us to to look into deeper and on both terms of on a broader scale, as well as on a project by project basis.

Any other questions. I have a quick one. So if we've done really well on the entitlement process and people coming in with programs, but there seems to be a real drop off in actual getting the permits, the building permits and actual construction. Do you have a feeling or have you tried to project what will happen by 3031, 2031?

I mean, I could say I've confirmed with our building division and as I mentioned earlier, I would expect the numbers to increase next year. I hesitate to say substantially because I don't want to. You know, get in the way of anything, but as the North gate redevelopment moves forward and other projects move forward on the other hand, there's things that are maybe beyond. you know anyone's control the larger economy um but um if we continue you know obviously we there's no way we can satisfy we'll meet the arena targets if we did not have the level of entitlement activity we had recently so hopefully as the those projects move forward in the their development process um we'll see we'll be much closer um but i kind of hesitate to predict precisely where we'll be

And what are the repercussions if we don't meet that I mean if we've done the city has done all that it can to try to meet our HNA. What happens if we don't do a reliable for that or.

So we're responsible, local jurisdictions are responsible for planning for meeting these housing targets at all income levels. And that's why we have the housing element and we have all kinds of programs and policies in place. But as you alluded to, there's things that are beyond the city's control. So the local jurisdictions are not required to actually build the units at the precise income levels.

And one last question. Is there a reason that some of these aren't getting built? Have any of the developers come back and said that policies are still not allowing them? I mean, considering how much they've gotten in the density bonus laws and the waivers and the concessions, do they come back and say, hey, well, we can't do this because the city won't do something? Or are we good? In your opinion.

I believe if you were to ask the three to five development teams that have come before you, they could think of a number of things that we could do that would make it more cost effective for them to build. I think that that would be inappropriate for me to produce some of those ideas for you tonight. However, it does appear that as far as the planning entitlement process is going, development teams feel comfortable enough to put down the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars it takes to get a project entitled. So it's a balance.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Do we have any questions from the public? Yes?

Hello, commissioners. I'm here on behalf of the public.

I'm a resident of San Rafael. My name is Lizzy Stahl. I also work with Cal Marin Home, and we are a coalition of organizations dedicated to advancing affordable housing in Marin. And I'd like to comment on the 2025 APR that you've all just been discussing. Excellent questions on that. The APR shows, as Greg mentioned, that San Rafael has permitted 33 units, bringing the total to 209. This means there are 3,011 units still needed for San Rafael to meet the RHNA requirements. There are almost 3,000 units that have been proposed or approved in San Rafael. However, this total includes several projects that now look unlikely to move forward. So the true pipeline in centerfell is closer to about 2,000 units, and to meet Rena goals, the city must maintain its current rate of project proposals and work to ensure that approved projects move forward to the building permit stage. We urge San Rafael to study the causes of delays in permitting and to resolve to make the necessary fixes to the approval and permitting process to move projects forward. Jurisdictions with strong track records of building housing see projects move from approval to permit in just one to two months. And in San Rafael, it can take years. If the city is truly serious about meeting the housing goals, it needs to start addressing these issues. We're also concerned at San Rafael's latest discussions to strengthen requirements for projects to get approval. San Rafael has been looking at ways to prohibit variations from the precise plan and to increase the percentage of inclusionary units from 10 to 20%. As a reminder, San Rafael lowered the inclusionary percentage to 10% because at 20% it didn't receive project proposals. So given the extremely low rate of that projects are moving from approved to permitted, we believe that staff time is better spent on the permitting process. The board-based upzoning of the downtown precise plan should be the standard for Marin. However, it's only effective if the projects approved under the plan get permitted and get built. We encourage San Rafael to do all in its power to move these projects forward. if i can just add one more point um regarding your question about the pro housing designation or in county is the only county in the nine counties of the bay area that doesn't have a single jurisdiction with a pro housing designation so if sandra fell wanted to move first on that in marin county i think that would be exciting thank you thank you i see uh no other public comments so i'll close the public hearing and ask questions are there any further questions

No, I actually asked one question in regard to the comment, I think, in the report we're showing that the several years has come down to several months correct or can you give the average of approvals in entitlements.

So from the previous presentation that we did on housing, the basic the topic of housing. Your summary is correct. We used to have a designer view board. We used to have pre or conceptual designer view, and projects would go back and forth between the design of your board and the planning commission. And then the example that we gave you, I think it was ten, ten north gateway was that took years and ten thirty third, except for the appeal took, I believe, I want to say nine months, but so it was we have the city has done a number of things that were called for in our general plan for goals to become more efficient in the entitlement process and the building permit process. It becomes much harder for the city to control that that's going to be governed by construction loans and performance and the availability of materials. So we are optimistic that our development community is entitling things that they know they can build. And I think everything right now is a little unsure in terms of especially it feels like materials, but in other ways too. Um, we are very what I have seen in other cities in my professional career is We have two projects that are underway in the downtown right now, as referenced by Mr. Minor, and once those start to go, other development teams will think like, Well, there's my comp there's that's how it's going to pencil. So we're hoping that momentum that I've seen in other cities that start to get market housing with density bonus components to it. Um other development teams and other financial institutions will be like it works here. Here's our proof. So that's that's what we're hoping that's we would love to. I want to say finally, if anyone has any ideas on how we can address the threshold of we have things entitled but not built, we would love to buy them a cup of coffee and hear what their plans are because We would love to get things over the finish line so you can actually touch them.

Okay, if not, if no more questions, can I get a motion to accept the Housing Element Annual Progress Report for 25 and direct staff to present the report to City Council for submission to California Department of Housing and Community Development?

I can make the motion, but I want to provide, I don't have any questions, but I want to provide some insight since this is kind of your dry run. I think you did a great job. It's a pretty dry presentation, like it's hard to get through it. The slides are way too small. Good job calling it out kind of making fun of it but you're going to lose people at that size so blow up a part or two. I think we kind of gave you a softball with the outliers, I would play into that more where the graph drops and goes up so much. Use that to your advantage to make a picture if that's good or bad. Because it could also be bad because it looks so dramatic that my concern is, oh, look how good it's going. And then it crashes. So the more we say now that that really was an outlier, the safer it is if in 26, 27, the numbers are back really low. So nobody can say hey we didn't flag that ahead of time so play with the outliers I think a little bit better. The other thing too, is I didn't see like a geographic analysis right, so if the idea is we're serving the Community will where are we serving the Community and I don't have time for it or not, but. I think that's a part of the discussion that could come up that I didn't see in the materials very well, so if the housing element is really the housing element for the whole city. Where are these a dues in relationship to the needs of the city? Because I don't think they align. Maybe they do, but that could be that. And that could go into the concern about flow and traffic and what's happening, you know, because everyone's be like, oh, it's all bottlenecking off of the freeway. Well, all these a dues could be up in the hills and have no impact. So whether it's there or not, but I would at least think about that. And then great point on other jurisdictions that didn't come up at all. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. But be prepared for it. Because I was thinking about the whole time, well, where are we in relationship to? Are we ahead? Are we behind? I don't really see it anywhere. Maybe we don't need to compare. But as a brother, I always compare it. So what's everyone else doing? Because maybe, you know, my room is cleaner. Yeah. So thank you for letting me input on that. Now I'm happy to make the motion to accept the report.

I have a second. Are you so good.

Are Margaret, can you call the roll.

Absolutely. Commissioner Alvarez. Yes, mission yourself a meeting yes mission Ricardo yes mission aside, yes, Mr haven yes chair rugby yes motion passes unanimously yeah.

So our second item this evening is a study session to consider two topics, an amendment to the general plan, safety and resilience element, to add the city's local hazard mitigation plans and enable the city to continue to comply with Assembly Bill 2140. And secondly, amendments to Title 14 of the San Rafael Municipal Code, the zoning code, in order to add clarifying language to simplify existing zoning regulations. Tonight, we'll consider some new and modified definitions, as well as possible changes to the appeals chapter. We have a staff report, please, Margaret.

Yes, Madam Chair. So as mentioned, this is the first in a series, I think it's going to be an extensive series of zoning code, precise plan, general plan, modifications and changes. So I'm kind of, this is a dry run again for a lot of things that you're going to see in the future. And the first thing I want to say is I decided that PowerPoints with more words on them might be not helpful. So I wanted to I know you read your staff reports. I know I've worked with each of you extensively now, and I know you're the type of commissioners that read everything. So I won't regurgitate all of it on the screen again. But I will do some highlights of it, and then we can do some questions. So this is a study session. We don't take actions at study sessions. What I want to do for each of the text changes you have coming is we'll have a study session so we can really roll up our sleeves and get into them. There's not a whole lot of depth in this, I could be very wrong and you might have a lot to say. The next time you'll see it, which will be March 24th, that will be noticed as a public hearing citywide. And you are at that point welcome to take an action to recommend approval, approval with changes, or to send me back to the drawing board to make some more changes. So that's kind of the process we're rolling into. And again, if you want to see it on PowerPoint, if you're more of a visual learner, I'm happy to do that. unlike our development projects there's just not a lot of pretty pictures with code so i'm trying to not trying to find the least dry version of what we're trying to do here so this evening um we're touching two books. We're touching the general plan, and in this case, this is a very low-hanging discussion of an amendment to the safety and resilience element to really just update a link that's already there. I mean, you'll see the exact words, and it's really important that I show you exactly what we're saying and exactly what's changing, because these are well-vetted community documents, and you want to know exactly what's being struck and what's being added, but in this case, The assembly bill 2140 originally was adopted in 2006 and our general plan was adopted in 2021. So it already referenced it. And the real behind the story story that's in your staff report is this gets us in line for more aid if we have a disaster. So our fire department is really good and very proactive and they reached out to us and you'll have. members of the fire department here for the 24th and if you have any questions i will refer to them and we'll have them for you all ready with a bow but the short advance short answer is is we have local hazard mitigation plans which are um fascinating to read if i have to me and maybe to others not so much but um we work with marin county each city has what they call an annex it talks about all the things that can happen in our city that are natural disasters um and uh and and what we plan to do, how we basically roll that out in a mid-level way. We updated those in well three times now, but the last one was in two thousand and twenty four, and now, in order to stay eligible for that funding source, we have to update our. They call it the safety element in the State law, but it's our safety and resilience element. So on page three of your staff report, and if it's italics, it's already there. If it's underlined, and I can already see I made an error there. If it's underlined, it's new. If it's italics, generally speaking, it's there already. And if it's struck through, it's going away. So that's the short of it. We're basically the most important thing of this is to say, hey, we did this again in October 2024. This is the latest and greatest, and here's a link to it. And that will be how we qualify for that disaster aid if and when we need it. Any questions about that modification?

I just had a, I had a question and I wrote it down. Um, so being new on the, on the commission, um, there's some names that are in this second, um, second report like Quinn Gardner is Quinn Gardner still the deputy emergency, um, service coordinator. Uh, how do we, um, or do we need to have, it's great that the fire will be there. I would love it if the, traffic and safety. I don't know if that's the police or who that might be for. I just have questions about like what they see in a project and how they determine what is great for the city? Is it in coordination with the police and fire, with traffic and safety? Is it the fire and police that determine that? It would be great as a commission if some of these people were in front of us, I think it sure would leave a lot. I think it would answer a lot of questions that we might have as a commission when it comes to a project or how they come, how they come about their answers, I think, would help me at least.

Certainly. Um, Quinn is going to be in attendance on the March 24th meeting. Um, this, the local hazard mitigation is a fire department project. Uh, they work with a consultant team. There is, uh, and we work collaboratively with others communities in the county Marin and Marin. So, um, she can speak to how these particular plans were created and um any questions you have about that document i think if there's something more uh On your mind about like if we have a fire, how evacuation routes work, she can tell you a little bit about that. But so emergencies are handled by police and fire. And in the case of the local hazard mitigation plans, those are predominantly fire. When you get to an emergency, we break into another whole everyone in the city is a emergency responder. If we have a if we declare that there's an emergency and then there's a whole other set of rules that come into play. Um, so that's that's another another document that I'm happy to send to you. But this is more of how the region works, how our city works. And then one of the things that happens if we do declare an emergency and we have to address some catastrophic event happening in our city is We have different groups, and i'm going to be on my scale here a little bit. But the short of it is is there's a group called Logistics, and we have to keep receipts for everything. You know we need two hundred generators. We go over to a place that has generators. We rent them. We have a typically an ongoing contract. We have to keep the receipts, and then we have to pay. So these type of things keep us eligible for additional funding beyond our general fund, which is not it's very hard to plan for disaster right in that and that level of financial commitment. So there's a number of finance buckets of money at the state and federal level. This type of thing is how we participate in those programs.

Any other questions on the general plan amendment?

We'll be doing so as charter cities, we can only amend that document five times this year calendar year. So you'll see some that are going to have more than one put together. This is mostly to kind of get our feet wet and because I really wanted to help. our fire department and our city. We all work really well together, and we wanted to make sure that they could get their funding sources in line. So one down, four to go. Okay, zoning code amendments. That's our second book. We are title fourteen. The San Rafael Municipal Code If you're ever awake at night and you just can't turn off your mind, I recommend the municipal code. There's nothing drier. You can hear your brain start to crackle. Zoning, planning, land use is in 14. And if you get through that, subdivisions is 15. that just that'll finish it so the first thing I wanted to do is add I believe there are 19 new or modified definitions and they aren't things that changed our use chart so our use chart almost reads like a Dickens novel to be very honest with you there's just terms that are so antiquated it could make you sad I didn't touch all of those I only changed definitions for terms that weren't defined so somebody's trying to do something and they were like we refer to it must be And then you could look at that definition and it does not exist in our municipal code. So I put in, and this is working collaboratively with the rest of the planning staff for the city of center fell, which is, uh, Christina Estadio, Renee, Nick and egg and. Michaela O'Brien. We all have a list of things that the zoning code needs to do differently in order for everyone to be able to do their job. And you'll be seeing more of those. This was the easiest ones to bring. There's a term that we rely on that we didn't define, which is everyone's idea of misery, including the business owner who's trying to comply, right? And, um, Things that didn't change, things in the use table. So you'll see in the zoning code, we have the, you know, this is the zoning code, it prevails, here's where it governs, here are the definitions, here's the residential sections, here's the commercial sections, and it goes like that. Each one of those themes have use charts. So I didn't change a definition that would moot a use on our use chart because that would cause unintended consequences. So this was just and again, most of this is like this is how we do this. And then each time it's going to get a little more complex likely. But so these are 19 definitions. A lot of them you'll see that I counted lots like four different ways. There's reverse corner, there's through. Can you imagine trying to put a deck on your house and not being able to identify where you're what lot you have, because all of a sudden your setbacks are in play. So a lot of things we want to do with this process is to make it as transparent and as efficient as possible for people to invest in their properties. So that's might seem crazy that I brought There's four different kinds of lots to you, but that's the why. And I put in in each of those, the director can, if you look at some of the lots in San Rafael and every other city I've worked in, especially with topography, it's not square. It's not a key lot. It looks like a Rorschach test. So the director can be like, that's the front. We're good. So that people don't have to come to you and ask, which is kind of how it used to read. zoning will never be English, but we can make it more friendly. And that's the goal of these efforts. So I will not read the 19 new definitions to you, because I like you all and I like our members of the community at home. Does anybody have anything in the definition section where you're like wait, what, why? And I can tell you a little bit more about it.

I'll ask my question. I tried to ask last time.

That's in the appeals. That's the next one.

Oh, that's the next one. Okay. But I do have a question about the lots. Because I have worked on a project that's five-sided that's on a corner. And it's in a different jurisdiction. And the planning manager... or I think the director basically said pick a front and then everything else like pick a front in the beginning because it made sense there were two like both street frontages had like made sense depending on how you looked at it but then there's like I don't know if there's two interior property lines which one do you consider back and side? So are there ways that you will continue to elaborate on this so that that can help applicants just kind of let go of some of that stuff?

Yeah, that's one of, One of the things that they don't teach you in planning school is they show you lots that are square or rectangular, right? And they're like, there's your street and those are your side yards and here's your rear yard. And then you go out and drive around and that's not, I mean, we have those too, but those aren't all of it. So if you're putting a house on a vacant lot, it is a very good time to be like, that's the front yard, because that's going to tell you homes are set back from the single family detached homes are set back a certain amount. Usually you have a front yard at some point. If you get more into the urban or the downtown area, that whole new set of rules. But for most of our city that by land use is suburban in nature, we have a front yard and we have the side yards. And that has a lot to do with not only where your house is and what you can do with your front yard, but on a corner lot It's one of those things. People look at corner lots and you go, I have so much more yard. I'm like, yes and no. Because you're going to want to put a six-foot fence on your property line, and then you're going to make it hard for people driving or riding a bike or otherwise going down that road to be able to see around the corner and not have an accident, right? So... where you put your front yard is going to be how the side yards are picked. And then the thing opposite the front yard is oftentimes the rear yard. So that's how that rolls out. It sounds kind of simple again in concept, but then you get to the five sided street side yards are always going to have more of a setback because we're trying to keep a vision triangle for vehicles and bikes and e bikes coming down the street right at 30 miles an hour, sometimes with a helmet. So interior lots are always going to have a much less setback for detached homes. And so it has a lot to do with where your where your fences are going to go, the enjoyment of your lot's going to go. And and on page four, bottom of page four, if the type of lot is not clear for any reason, determination of the lot type shall be made by the director. That's my way of saying somebody looking at a house built in 1950 who's now coming in for substantial changes can be like, well, okay, I see what they were going for, but I think I see now that this should be the front yard. So trying to allow a little common sense to be brought to the conversation. You can't change it every time. It can't be that's the front yard this week, but next week you can call back because there's going to be things literally in cement at that point. But trying to Be able to deal with the setting that's currently there and that's that's part of what I was trying to cook in because right now we don't have those options. More about fences and you ever wanted to know. Any other questions on the definitions.

I don't I don't have questions I just I noticed some of these have like monetary amounts like the amount for the cottage business those always are red flags for me because things change so quickly and sometimes it ends it ends up being. An unnecessary debate with applicants. there's probably no way around it, but.

And that is the cottage food operation, which is in the middle. Page four is a brand new definition. We are trying to that is right out of the state code. And yeah, it's right. I hate to put a number in there, but it's also in this case we decided to add it because it helps the person who's a really good cook and doesn't want to speak zoning understand what they're caught off needs to be. That's why I went that way this time.

So question then, so cottage food operation, would that allow somebody to put in an industrial kitchen into a residential facility?

So growing up in upstate New York, I had really fabulous Italian neighbors and they had a canning kitchen downstairs. And I would argue that was an industrial kitchen. It was an operation. It was not their regular kitchen. It was where really good food got made for the year. If somebody wants to add a solidly wonderful kitchen to their single family home, but it still operates as a single family home, it's still a home. The cottage food operation terminology reflects of state law that says we want people to be able to cook food to the standards set by the health department. So you could have a commercial-grade kitchen. In Marin, I'm sure there's dozens of commercial-grade kitchens in single-family homes, to be honest. it has to be health department compliant. That's the standard. And then how cool your stove is is really going to be a personal choice. But so for a very long time, you could not make homemade food and sell it. You could maybe bring it for a bake sale, and then this state law allows folks to make food that is sellable, and it goes. It's part of the larger discussion of even our food vendor permits health department. You've got to bring in the health department, and you've got to. In that case, they have a another kitchen that they're using. That's has a term to it that's not coming to me, but that the food has to be safe as defined by the health department, both local and state. And this gets to how you start to meet those standards so that you can do this use out of your home. Yeah, we're just talking about that term. So it's yes, and they've been around for decades, but now they're operationalizing it so folks can make a living making wonderful food.

Considering that's my world, I understand that.

I bet. I bet. They should use ingredients that are very high quality. I can't give you a plug per se. Any other questions in the definition section? Okay. The last topic... is the appeals and there's a lot of changes to the appeals procedures um again it's my nature to put in most of that chapter for you so you can see the context of the changes and not just drop the changes if that's makes you um concerned then tell me and we can do that differently but what i want to draw your attention to is um We're making a couple changes to clarify the language and make it more transparent. That includes putting it in English, to be honest. It can be filed by An applicant, which is always true or any other person agree with the decision. Almost anyone has standing to appeal a decision on the land use concept of city center fell. So decision of the director, which is the administration decision zoning administrator. We do non controversial items at the zoning administrator level and the planning commission. So just trying to make that who gets to almost any agree party can um the uh If someone appeals, it used to say The establishment of a proposed structure or use is held in abeyance. I just kind of brought that into 2026. It stays all proceedings in the matter, including but not limited to business license and building permits. So you can imagine if you're doing a use permit that gets appealed, the business is like, what happens next? We can't issue your business license until that appeal is dealt with one way or another. So trying to make it user friendly for more folks. The question that Commissioner Sade had, I'll start and you can definitely jump in. So the last couple projects have just been environmental design review permits. But you will also have projects that have a use permit and a map and they're like a giraffe and each leg is an entitlement. If someone appeals the environmental designer permit, this adds, it's all appealed. We're not gonna talk about the findings of one third of the project at the city council, for example. We're gonna talk about the appeal of the project. Again, just trying to bring it back to language that people speak, right? I didn't know I was appealing the use I thought I was appealing the whole thing. So, and now if it's got different entitlements which would be use permit designer view subdivision maps variances an appeal will stop that project and hold it in advance until such time as an action is taken on the appeal. so that the community and the applicant and everyone else understands the whole thing is going to hold there until we get that appeal determination on the final action the appeal so that's that's what that new language is yeah and i i understood that so i was like trying to think about different um

Like scenarios where it would create a conflict and I was like oh probably not because people aren't going to really move forward, but then I was wondering like say you had a lot line adjustment or. Like a conditional use permit that was part of it like that might allow the applicant to kind of get things moving before the appeal was complete and so does that. Does like creating the multiple actions thing. and create more of a roadblock for developers. But again like. I guess it would be more gray for the public and it would be harder to to administer.

DIRECTOR RIVERA- Yeah there's both sides of that discussion right. So if you're doing a new single family home and somehow it's come up for action somehow you've done something that move it into a discretionary discussion. And you had a lot line adjustment. You couldn't record the lot line like you couldn't finalize that but there's a lot of steps in the survey before you get to that lot line adjustment right and or if you. If someone appealed the lot line adjustment but didn't appeal the House, you could you almost always can apply for your building permits we just can't approve them until the appeal period is done so it's. It's it's really where the pinch points are going to happen the most and it legally becomes pretty complicated if you have half a project moving forward and half a project not and and from a community or a neighbor standpoint. What is it, but what just happened and what does it mean to me this basically says the end and if the Commission's like okay I see where you're going, but no. This would be a great time to say that, and we can absolutely remove that you're my sounding board you're our sounding board So if you think that's a that i've went a bridge too far, this is a great time to say it.

yeah i would i would encourage triple checking that because i think what i'm hearing i'm going to just try to keep my planning commissioner head on not lawyer hat on if i have an appeal on a project each project has its own standard of review and each project has certain checklists it has to go through there may be certain parts of my project that are not appealable maybe at some times so i wouldn't want The person appealing to think i'm attacking the lot line adjustment, even though really the only appealable issue is the building permit, so I get what you're saying, but I think there could be carve outs. City Council Chambers, The carve outs may be on a project by project, so it would be a standstill and a review in its entirety, but there may be certain parts that just can't be de novo basically looked at you by the City Council so i'm okay with it, but I would want to triple check the process of how it's implemented.

City Council Chambers, That sounds good i'll make sure that our city attorney's office triple checks this one.

City Council Chambers, And I i'll also add to kind of what i'm. And he was saying is like I was on a project that got appealed and it was because of like height like it was minimal. I forget might have been far but I think was height, we knew that the applicant when they submitted the appeal was concerned about one issue and they were in the appeal, they were listing off possible solutions and so. like we kind of knew we could keep moving forward and know that that was one issue but it then if it I guess we assumed that it was one issue but if this multiple action things takes place then it could actually if it puts a whole project kind of in question How do you, like if the appeal it comes up to the dais and says, this was in my application of appeal, these are the things I wanted to appeal, but because the whole application is under review, I also don't agree with this stuff. How do we avoid that from happening?

Well, in a way, it already happens so it's de novo to Commissioner mercado's point, there are things like you can't appeal a density bonus as you've all found out right, but you can appeal, you can well you can't prevail on, but you can appeal anything right, but you so. At a decision of planning Commission appeal to the City Council on a housing project. They look at your they look at the act they look at the whole record they look at the staff report which goes back to the planning Commission report we build this very complete legal document packet that they review and then they hold a hearing. And they have an appeal written that's saying that there's not enough open space or there's not enough height or something. They. Can take a new testimony other people can get up and say, I think that only should they look at the parking again, but I think they should triple the bike parking lots of when the projects appealed it is in play. Except for what's legally preempted from being in play right.

So any waiver or variance like if a project has like three like one variance and two waivers, then if if the waiver is being one waiver is being appealed, then all three issues are potentially on the table.

in that case right at the at a hearing before the city council um that they can they can make that focus wider typically they focus on the appeal right nobody wants to start looking for things but because the the language in here notes you know the application has to include the reasoning basically for why you think

That appeal should pass so if that language isn't in the actual. paperwork and submission and in the staff report. Like how do we keep that from. I don't know I feel like it would have to be in there in order for it to be on the table, but then this multiple action thing kind of contradicts the.

Yeah, and I can see that wordsmithing this down to making the intent clearer is probably what I'm getting from this conversation. It's on a discretionary project, and I believe it's in another section here, but it's Planning Commission, generally speaking, keeps the frame of a land use project when they look at the appeal. They are talking about the findings, they're talking about the input they've gotten from the appellant or appellants. You'll see in the staff reports for discretionary project appeals. There'll be a The appeal letter is always attached, but the staff will be like point one. The um height of the building is out of context with the surrounding community, and then there'll be a staff response talking about the height was granted through a state density bonus waiver, and is therefore, you know, pursuant to state government code, et cetera, et cetera. And they'll explain what what the response from the city has to be right. So if they have a well written appeal will be like I didn't like this part of it and this part of it and this part of it. I have seen appeals where they're like didn't like the project right and it There's a few great doctors and great nurses that are lousy appeal writers, so I'm not throwing any shade on people who are just like, no, just no. I've got to put money behind this and no. But those are much easier to respond to because that's not an objective design standard, right? And so the frame that you work in is the frame that the council has to review the appeal in.

So then it really says like de facto, there isn't really multiple actions because you don't have a framework of discussion. And also like the applicant doesn't have the opportunity to prepare to rebut the appeal like at the day of the meeting. Well, they can come to the hearing. No, no, I'm saying like if the appeal it comes up and says, this is my appeal, this is a framework of the paperwork, but I also don't like that you granted a fence height exception. The owner has not had a chance to like prepare or the applicant hasn't had a chance to prepare and be ready at the hearing to respond to that, that multiple actions clause kind of exposes them, I guess, to having to kind of be ready on the fly. I mean, I don't know. I'm just kind of like, yeah, I'm not trying to totally poke holes in it, but I think these are things that like kind of come up in this language and it's so like there's a lot of my new shit in it. And i'm sure you're so thorough you've done so many things, I guess, this one this one change kind of just like put up my radar.

I appreciate that I really do and that's the point of this conversation like please bring your radar to these meetings and from your own expertise as people who have either drawn or lived in or. You know walk I know all of you are now going through standard fail differently as you drive by or walk by you're like well I like that, but I don't like that right so you've all you become de facto land use experts, even if you didn't start there, I do want to say that. The appellant absolutely can. come and say, in addition to the letter that I filed, I found a number of things are also not to my liking, and here's why. Absolutely, right up until the public hearing is closed, people can submit evidence testimony about things they do or do not like and add to the you'll see in some projects they'll come in and they'll have a stack of information that's you know this thick and be like i'm going to put this into the record right so that happens and it's the point of this was if one component's appeal the project or the business or whatever we're talking about comes to a screeching halt and they don't all have different start times But I want to go back and review this with our legal team to make sure that that's what we end up with. And we don't make a simple concept really complicated and all the unintended consequences and certainly would not be contradictory to any of the state laws. One thing I want to say just to be super clear, there's waivers and there's waivers. Sorry, there's waivers, which mean you can get a little relief in the administrative staff level, easy peasy. You can have two more feet on that side if you're, it's two o'clock on Tuesday. There's all these little things. And then there's state density bonus waivers. I was referring to the former good yeah but those are those are common we call them like administrative designer view. But other cities will call those waivers it's just like yeah you're close, you can have this because of some positional contextual issue. But I don't just for folks, especially if anyone's possibly listening, not the state density bonus waivers there's those are as cut and dry as they've been. shown to you in the past Okay, thank you. I want to get down to ministerial. So there's nothing about ministerial determinations. Then we've talked about it. Thanks for that softball. I appreciate that, Commissioner Saade. Those have a different frame. They're based on the specific application standards, right? So there's no findings in a ministerial permit, for example. There's no gray. It's this height. It's got this setback. It's got this use. It's got this parking. It's got this open space. Those can be appealed. Those can be appealed, but they can't, they have to be based on a criterion. Did we count that setback wrong? Did we measure the height wrong? That's an appeal for a ministerial permit. That's because of all of the, everything, I'm sure you've all realized this, but everything in planning is legal, right? So we have to stay to the legally defined terminology of what a ministerial determination is, and that's why it's slightly different from discretionary. Call to review, that's brand new. Any member of the Council can call for a decision to be brought up within the appeal period. They don't they will not say, because we have a very, very smart Council. I don't like it it's got to be brought up to the Council, because they prejudged it and then they are. brown act violation or they have to step back, but if they think they really love it or they really hate it or they're not really clear about it, but they're elected, so they want to know more. There's a hundred reasons why a Council member may pull up or call a project for review, and they can do it for administrative review, zoning administrative review, or planning commission review. It's a good example would be we're running out of time. we have um housing project that's uh for some reason we're just not getting where we need to be but the deadline certain they can take whatever action's been done and pull it up and review it so it's just a relief valve i do not see that being used here commonly but it's something a lot of other cities have um so i wanted to give that option um to our city do you want to expand that and let them call it up before determination Um, I that's a great question. Um, I can ask them that.

Yeah, at the from here, especially if you're on a housing timeline and and you know it's going to be appealed. You're just going to slow it down by doing a determination like you may just want to be able to have them call direct jurisdiction, pull it up immediately and make that final determination there.

I do know from our housing study that they really love the job that you do as planning commissioners, right? So they but I will open that up as a point in the staff report, and I really appreciate that feedback. Because maybe there is times where staff has just taken way too long, and there's also telecom has things called shot clocks, which used to be basketball, but now it involves our phones. And if we go past a certain time limit alone, the shot clock expires. And they don't get free throws they just get to do what they were going to do so there's a couple things besides housing that have timers that are very loud and expensive if they get if we violate their time frame. One thing I really want to show you in the so i'm looking through here. We used to have five working days. If it was a land use issue alone and 10 working days, if it was a subdivision, because the subdivision section had 10 working days, I sat with this for quite a while, and I really, so you'll see in the language, now you have 10 calendar days to appeal. And the reasons for that is there's staff error opportunity. If there was a map, you have to give them 10, or is it five on, it's just, no one's better served by, I don't know, what do you think we just did? In addition, it's really hard to put an appeal together. And maybe giving five additional calendar days for someone to actually put their concerns into the words will make for more articulate appeals. So most cities have 10 days. I produce a table, but I five is pretty short and So that's why it's 10 days. And it's calendar not working because it starts to make you a little bit zany. And so everyone knows what a calendar day is. Working days can be like, we do publish our holidays, but it's this, what if we just made appealing as transparent as possible, right? So y'all have calendars, y'all have 10, it be clearer about date of action. So if you take an action tonight on a project, it starts tonight. It's so as opposed to I don't know, should it be the next morning? I don't want it's so as clear as I could make it like you bring it to the community development department, you make it in writing, you put the grounds of the appeal. We can't push back an appeal. It can't be incomplete, but we want to please tell us why so we can address the issues, the land use issues that are that are bothering someone. We need a cover form mostly so we know their name and their email and their contact information because it's sometimes not readily apparent who that is. Um and they have to hit the fee that's on the master fee sheet and that to your point Commissioner Mercado if I can point to a fee sheet that's going to change every year as opposed to putting in a number well um how you can appeal um in person at our counter in the mail. through the permit software, which never turns off. So that's why we have no later than 4 p.m. We're trying to catch up to, I don't know, the 90s on that in terms of technology?

So if somebody would provide an appeal tonight, it is correct it'll start tomorrow because it's after 4 p.m.

No, it starts today. Ten calendar days from the date of action.

The peel must be received by staff no later than four p.m. On the tenth day. So like, so that would apply to the opposite. I think that that four p.m. Timeline should also apply to like when, yeah, if it's received by staff no later than 4 p.m., I think the day that it actually gets considered received should also meet that 4 p.m. deadline because it's gonna be confusing for the public. They're going to read that and think that, oh, if it's after 4 p.m., we've got to get it in by 4 p.m. or else it's going to be counted tomorrow.

But I think if the date of our action is, let's say, 3-10 and 3-20 at 4 o'clock is the cutoff.

That's exactly what it means. And if it's not clear, I should go back and fix that. And why the 4 p.m. is in there is that's when the city hall closes. So we used to have like business hours. So people would try to open the door and they couldn't get in. So that's just trying to, all of this is to try to make it as simple as possible. But that's exactly the math that I'm trying to get to. Is there something I could add to make that more?

No, it's just that it's like D says, the p.m. must be received by staff no later than 4 p.m. on the 10th calendar day after the date of action. which I get, that's one issue. The other issue is when the application is considered received, and is it considered received? I guess as long as it's in that 10-day window, it's fine, but I think there may be yeah like are there any other places in the municipal code that this 4 p.m thing may will show up as we go through this or is that just i can look at our municipal code i've seen in our code in other places business you know business hours and my concern is Oh, I know. And I think that, like, with the state laws, there's also a matter of, like, you have to approve something within 30 days or review within 30 days. So, like, I'm guessing HUD has a definition of what that means as well. So maybe, like, comparing it to those definitions would be great. Sure. I'd definitely like to see it.

yeah yeah that absolutely um in the event that 10 days lands on a saturday sunday or city holiday next business day so just again trying to make it I'm trying to think of someone who doesn't think like a planner, but they want to appeal a project like what do they need to know to be able to do their civic duty. So that's the spirit of which this is written, and I will go look to see how the wording is addressed and other deadlines to see if I can make that clearer.

Can I ask just a question? So is the thought process for most of these, is it just to have it on record? Because we talked about previously, we talked about speeding up the process after a product's been entitled to when it gets, I guess, there's a shovel in the ground. But adding a lot of chances for appeal kind of puts... PB, Harmon Zuckerman, puts that on pause so. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Our job is to try and from the entitled projects to get a shovel in the in the ground. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, we're adding a lot of appeal processes, I feel like, or are we just trying to is the thought process just to confine that appeal, so that we know exactly. I guess that's my question. It seems like we've just talked about getting the processes after a project's been entitled to, now we're talking about how to slow it down.

So really good point. What you're doing, if you like this language, what I'm proposing, all those appeal rights are there today. But it's five days if it's an entitlement, and 10 days if it involves a subdivision, and it's working days instead of calendar days. And honestly, as your planning manager, I've sat there going, is it date of the action? If the action was at 11 that night, or is it the next day? And what feels fair? And then I'm off the code, and that's never good. So what you're adding is, on balance, five more days for a group of people to put together an appeal. The appeals themselves are currently there, and any decision any of us do is appealable because democracy. So it's just that we are adding five more days, and there is a cost to that, but that's the cost. Any other questions about that section so far? The other new language is basically... The Hearing Body has 30 days to make a decision after their hearing is closed. That's just standard language in other cities. We haven't had a problem yet where someone's closed the hearing and said, we'll come back next summer to tell you what we decided. That's just putting in some bumpers. When the Reviewing Body is looking at an appeal, they have to use the same standards for decision making that the original decision was. That's clarifying what's already true. uh also worth noting a tie vote shall have the effect of rejecting the appeal that's already language actually in your former handbook i think probably in our current boards and commissions handbook it's just again i'm trying to put this in a place where people can find it right and understand what what um what does a tie mean right again i wanna we can't make this super easy but we certainly can make it as There's a number of people in our community and any community who haven't thought about land use at all, and then they want to hear something and they want to appeal it and i'm trying to cook in a few more field notes in this part. Again, effective it i'm down to page. Nine bottom um. It's decision made by the City Council, because there are final administrative option. That date they act is the date of the action. So that's I think that's actually existing language, but it's, you know, again, when is it over? That's when it's over. Litigation is possible, but that's a different topic. And then it becomes final. Your decisions become final ten days after ten calendar days after your action, unless that is appealed to the City Council. That's just kind of restating what we just went over that everybody's got five more days, and we met calendar, and if it falls on a weekend, you get calendar plus one. um this was noticed um we probably won't notice all study sessions it's not legally required and it's not free um but i did this one was noticed no one's tracking um this information um maybe they will from here on out but i wanted to share that um I received no public comment on any of this, on this topic. And again, hopefully by doing study sessions and then action meetings, anyone who's at all curious or has thoughts about this will come to the second hearing and be like, I was listening, or I heard this said, or it was on Nextdoor, or it was on any number of venues that are not officially city-sanctioned, and now I wanna talk about this. So that's the other reason for our two meetings. to get this conversation bring back some um changes that i've heard tonight and then again at the next meeting you can always say okay i think you're closer but i want you to go do this or you can say i would like to recommend this to the city council as you know shown so this concludes the staff report um and i'm glad we did a question and answer version of this um my first question back to you is did you would you like this better on our screen too or is this okay

I think it's fine. I think it's fine in here, not on the screen. And then is the next meeting where we have action? Is it just on these items or are there going to be? Okay, so it's just yes.

Yes, usually, typically, that will be the plan. I did find, I sent out an email to all department heads when I started doing this. I'm like, what do you want to, what's on your list of, boy, I wish you didn't say that. I did notice that our sustainability manager wanted me to update something else in the general plan in the same element, so that might sneak onto your, I'm still, the staff report's on his desk already, so I want to see if I can slip that language in. But short version, typically, especially if it's controversial,

it'll be in the study session and that will be what we bring forward there will be exceptions but the general idea is to talk about it twice and then take an action any more questions from commissions um i see we have no one from the public i need to speak so i'm closing the public hearing and um any further discussions The next step for these items will be the public hearing on March 24th, at which the Commission may either take action to recommend approval of these changes to City Council or ask the staff to make additional modifications.

I'm sorry, did it not copy over? Just want to make sure everybody knows the good news is we're getting a new AV system in our chambers. The bad news is we can't meet here on March 24th. So we're going to be in the large conference room, which is on the third floor. We have an elevator. We have stairs. You can choose your approach, multimodal anyway. And It is accessible to all, so we're making sure that everybody is still invited to the next meeting, but it will be noticed as a special meeting because we are changing location. And then hopefully by April we'll be back here with a super-duper AV system.

All right, thank you. Does any member of the Planning Commission have any communications they wish to disclose? No? Okay. This meeting is adjourned at 822. 842. Oh, 842. So sorry. 841. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.