Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

we got all here. And so if you want to participate, there's three ways to do it. Email your comment to the planning department, submit it in writing uh via the city website, and attend the meeting. uh your email comments uh can come to the planner identified in the hearing uh and and the notice would be sent to them directly. Public comments may also be emailed to Mr. Vanlenhausen Van Lhausen. I've been practicing [laughter] by including planning commission public comments in the subjects line. Uh another way is to submit comment via the city website. uh to complete the public comment form and then the comment field box including the item that you're interested in or to speak at the meeting in person. You would be submitting a card which is in the back of the room located at the entrance and then submitted to a staff member as early as possible in the meeting. Um all written comments received by 4 p.m. on the meeting day will be provided to the planning commission prior to the meeting. Comments are not read aloud into the record. Any written comments received after 400 pm on the meeting date are not guaranteed to be received by the planning commission prior to the meeting and persons with disabilities who require auxiliary aid or services in attending or participating in the meeting should call the office uh as soon as possible. So our meeting is now open. So if you would join me in the pledge to the flag. [snorts] I pledge algiance 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.

Okay. Can we have a roll call, please? Couture present. Papua present. Nurus here. Panea here. And Satatori. All right. The entire board is here. Uh we have a quorum. So we'll continue with the rest of our agenda. The the first item is the approval of the minutes for the February 3rd uh meeting. And um does anyone have any questions or comments or require any changes? Nope. All right. Hearing none. Is there a motion to accept the minutes as submitted? I motion for approval.

Thank you. Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. Okay. Then the minutes are approved. So moving to the next item. Uh we have the zoning privilege, sir. Yes, of course. I would like to ask a question first to acting director regarding our general plan. When was this presented to the people? You remember this particular agenda topic? The general plan. Oh, the general plan. The general plan was a you know last time I yeah was present to the people was during the time I remember that

it was so do you have any plan or vision to send this again to the people for consultation like for the people to know what's the general plan just like what happened before you remember that

yes yes of course yes it was 2013 when the general plan was adopted It's been up the housing element has been updated a couple of times since then. Um, but yes, 2013 is when the city's general plan was adopted. And updating the general plan is something that uh, you know, something that we need to make a decision about when to do. It's a very uh, lengthy and costly process uh, to update to completely uh, update the general plan. But yes, that's the last time it was updated. Do you do you have any intention to present significant people for consultation or summit just like what in terms of updating the general plan? We haven't general plan. Yes.

Yes. We we don't have a work plan for doing that right now because I understand that uh what I heard is that because what the the planning department might be spending 1 million or so I don't know if that is true we have to present this to that's a possibility it's a possibility that a new general plan would cost a million. Yes. have any intention to present this to the city manager or to the council. We have we should at least we have to be transparent to the people of Daily City

for consultation. We have we haven't heard about this. It's just uh you know uh I would say people are not just reacting to whatever plan you made. They should be consulted also. I I believe so. Do you have any plans of presenting this to the city manager or to the city council? Any plan of consultation with regard to the general plan? Well, no, we actually don't because there is no plan right now to update the general plan. There's not any it's not in the city's work program.

What we're doing here is just we are just uh revising it, adopting it, then we amended through the ordinance. Right. We have we have to assault people also about this. Sure. We people. Well, maybe uh commissioner, what we might want to do is uh ask staff to inquire of the council and of the city manager um whether or not this is something in their plan and that it was an issue that was raised by the personal board during the time of consultation to like be skyline.

Amen. You know that because people thinks that some illiterate politician does not know it. I can say till now honestly they said oh this like this. So we would like to to appraise really what is for the people to know. It's not just electing people here and then passing their ego or what we have to be truthful to people. Sure. So can you do that? Yes, we can. Um just

even though even though we spend one million or two million it doesn't matter as long as we consult the people but the people should know based on the doctrine of uh is this Abraham government by the people or the people by you should know that of course yes so the general plan was um again uh it was adopted in 2013 and it had a sunset date of 2035 so the idea was to carry us through that year Um, and it, you know, it may be that the city makes a decision to start begin updating it before the 2035 sunset of it, but uh, yeah, that's since we're in 2020.

Your initiative or through your suggestion to the council and to the city. Yeah, maybe you can make that inquiry that came up at our meeting. Yes, of course. We cannot just be looking good here and then afterward we justing the ego of the people around. Understood. Okay. Thank you for that uh for that thought uh commissioner. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. Oh, excuse me, Ray. Sorry. You have to turn on your mic. Press the glass. We have new system so that YouTube can hear us. Yeah. Every the glass. Yeah. See, it's red. Yeah. Glass. Yeah. See, there you go. Like soft. There we go. Now they can hear you. It's okay. Okay. Yeah. Did Did the audience hear it? Anyway.

Yeah. I heard I We heard it from loud. Everyone hear the audience. I to the people listening here I'm asking and imploring the the acting director to really to plan

a summit meeting or a consultation meeting with the people regarding the general plan. The general plan should should be uh presented to the people as prohibition for adoption for because uh we have various changes now going on. I have a book here about the the public policy on development here in California. That's why I I'm I'm before I I don't talk about this but lately I have seen that there is some sort of lacadasical uh performance of some people around. So because probably anyway the the government they just get the salary doesn't matter whereas the to us as a volunteer here we would like to see also a a good turnout of what is to be accomplished by the city this is our function here we are not being paid here remember that we are here to help also because some people will say oh that is your opinion no no my opinion is a general opinion It's for public interest general welfare of the people. We cannot just be a blind blind eye on something that we should should do or call shoulder on this. If there is an issue or there's an opinion, we should find out what is the the issue. We we have to discern or we have to look at it then just making it as culture or that's part of the you know the the opinion of Ry or what? No to me it's it's the people's uh initiative here that should be followed. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman.

Of course. Thank you. [clears throat] Okay. So, I'm going to uh at this point u introduce for uh staff's report and recommendation uh item two the zoning change ZC 02261700 0 amendments to the city of daily city municipal code chapters 17.04.010 and 17.37.030 and 17.34.050 050 and chapters 17.44.100 and 17.45 150 regulating the definition of building height, front yard paving, the requirements of use permits as part of a condominium development and the expiration time of use permits and design review approvals. So, I'll give it over to staff to make your report and then recommendation. We are down one monitor. Um, technical difficulties. Apologize for that. Okay. Good evening, Chair Norris, Vice Chair Papua, and Planning Commission members. The item before you this evening are the zoning amendments and changes to the municipal code staff. uh identified these minor amendments and and uh clarif and deter determined to make minor amendments and clarifications uh for these code sections in order to better serve the daily city community and development applicants in the city. The first uh item is a chapter 17.04.010

010 the height def definition for buildings not within the CMU which is the commercial mixeduse zone. So when the commercial mixeduse zone was created recently it has its own specific uh height requirements and previously the municipal code had a height definition that applied to the entire city and this was had uh been dropped out of the uh the code section for some reason. So we are clarifying it and adding it back uh into the municipal code and I can uh briefly uh give you the the definition for that. The building height means the average of the vertical measurements distance from the average taken at the horizontal center point of all buildings finished walls. This measurement beginning at the ground level at the center of all such walls of a building to the highest point of [laughter] the coping of a flat roof or the deck line of a mansard roof or to the average height level between eaves and ridges for gable hip or gamrell roofs. The measurement for the height of an ADU shall be taken at the lowest measurable point for the gable hip or gamrell roof. The roof itself shall not be included in the height calculation. So that's the building height definition uh that would apply to all buildings that are not located within the commercial mixeduse zone. The next two items uh chapter 17.44 and 17.45 45 are the use permit approvals and design review approvals. Uh which would be uh amended to allow more time for the applicants to um upon approval submit their building permits to the building department.

Point of order, Mr. Chairman. Yes. Uh did you did you consulted the lawyer in preparation of this amendment to the to the uh this ordinance? Did you did you did you have a consultation? Yes. Because uh city attorney what we have here is the general provision and then you know in in law making is about general provision and then the specific pro uh special provision and then specific provision. What what we have here is a different kind of type. I don't know. It's it's like a salad salad. We call it salad. I don't know what salad food is that. It's a mixture of different things.

Well, I actually uh that's a good question and I I do have an illustration if you uh further on in the presentation that I think will provide more clar. No, because I I have it here. Your your amendment. Yeah. So more or less I when I was looking at this I said probably did that did that compare with the lawyer how to prepare a an ordinance? Yes. This will be you know after we present this and and assuming it's it's recommended for approval by planning commission the uh city attorney will be developing uh this in in the the text of the language. This is what this is what we are discussing now. Yes. You mean to say there will be another meeting for this?

Chair, looks like a a city attorney city attorney's office can respond. Um, at this time it's helpful to to view it as a redlinining of the municipal code. We will turn this into the proper ordinance when it goes to city council. So, the purpose of this meeting is to discuss it, get our input on it. Yeah. Should the planning commission move forward with this item, we will prepare it. Um, typically the ordinance does look different than this, but the red line muni code is very helpful for members of the public who don't understand the legalities of the the difference between the municipal code and the ordinance. They are different formats, but this would be turned into one for the city council meeting should you move forward. Thank you.

Do you mean do you mean to say Mr. Chairman? Yes. We are just discussing it for not the real thing. We are still going to prepare after this it it goes up to the city council and then they will just reformat this. Is that what you are saying madame? Uh

no no the ordinance would revise these sections of the municipal code. Um just for this evening we're getting direction from the planning commission if you'd like to move forward with revising the MUN code in this direction. Should you do so we would prepare it into the legal format of an ordinance which would amend the municipal code. These specific sections that staff is citing. So the red line which you have in front of us here basically shows what it is now and by showing what you're taking out what is left is what will be the the new ordinance that is correct actually looking at it so we can compare it correct the old one and see what the change

the ordinance doesn't include comparison you're ready with this one I can see it from here if you're reading it anyway I'm just speaking aloud because based on my orientation is different from what they are doing here. Okay. So, have has your question been answered that this is the red line? We're looking at it and the changes then would be what is left here? Uh and that would be it. And so, that's why we're looking at it. The things that are struck out will be gone. The ones that are added in are underlined. And uh then that will be the proper form. uh if we say yes, we want to go forward with it.

That is correct, chair. Thank you. I understand that. I understand. Okay. Well, I'm saying for myself, so I understand exactly what we're doing here. Make sure everyone else we're all on the same page, but uh thank you for that clarification. So, go ahead. You may continue.

Okay. Sure. Uh so, we're talking about uh um chapter 17.44.100, which is a expiration of the use permit, and chapter 17.45.150 45.150 the expiration of the design review permit. So uh currently the the the permit expires within one year from the date of approval and then if it can be requested for an extension of up to 6 months. What staff is proposing is that the uh use permit and the design review permit uh instead of expiring within one year would expire within three years. And then if the applicant desires additional time, they could uh extend it up to two years. And

why not five years? You're right. Why not five years instead of three years? So the the reason we're uh we're we're proposing uh three years is we want to give some additional time to the development. Let's let's make it five years because of your that you know

we can take that feedback uh and it it could be five years. Um typically we want to encourage that the applicant uh submit their their project once it's been approved when they get the use permit the design review the entitlements that they they do submit it in for building permit submitt. So uh we sort of want to strike a balance between uh um submit what we were finding basically was with the w the one year was not enough time. So that's why we're proposing this is definitely the feedback that we got from applicants is one year is not enough time and then the extending it for six months is also was not enough time. So

um we do sometimes get requests from suggesting five years for five years. Yeah. And that that's something that they can request uh at city council if they would like to extend it for 5 years. That's still an option. Oh, I mean let let be an ordinance not anymore as a request. Automatically it should be followed. Okay. That we can take that. That's my uh amendment to yours three years. I I'll have the the planning managers. I was just going to add through the chair if uh you'd like to make a motion that the it be five years instead of three years and the the rest of the plan commissioners instead of we'll send it chairman. I move that instead of the three suggestion. Let's finish the whole thing and then we'll make everything we're going to do. Yep.

Well, sometimes I forget it. So I we have to do I know but the only thing is this. We still need to have a public hearing on this and then we can u then we can because we we are Mr. Chairman, we are here in amendment for for the to ordinance. Uh we if I don't know how how they do it here, but my knowledge of law making or ordinance making is you can do it line by line or Well, the way that the way that I the way that you're a lawyer, you should know that.

Well, I I would tell you this. Uh I think that um we need to have the public have an opportunity to comment and then we hear their comments and then we can take our action. So if you can just reserve your amendment until we have the public hearing that way we can close that and we can say we've heard the public on it as well and then we can make our decision. Uh Mr. chairman, you are now we are now in the so-called inter interpolation period. Uh and this this could constitute a argumentation in debate. We can we I'm just trying to inject their check. Sometimes I we forgot it. That that's how my argumentation in debates is.

All right. Well, I've made a note of it. So Well, anyway, if you want, we can let him finish it and then we can discuss it later on. Okay. Well, yes, that's what I'd like to do. I'd like to have the whole report so we can hear it and uh then after we hear the report then the public will also have heard the report they can comment on it. We can hear the comment and then we can comment on Mr. Chairman, sometimes uh based on my experience here, sometimes uh uh when everything is uh read, the motion is do we approve it and we forgot everything. That's why I'm trying to interject this your point of interjection, your honor. I'm not trying to

to discredit or whatever. It's a report. I I'm making point of interjection on that. I appreciate that and I'm taking note of that. That's part of the process, your honor. I agree, but I I I basically I'm going to follow the process of the public hearing first. So then there's no question on whether or not we did it appropriately and then you know I don't want it to be invalidated in any way. So if you would just uh uh uh allow me to proceed on that basis and then we'll come back and I have a note that we want to talk about an amendment and we can have the amendment at that time. Does everyone agree about that? Yes, Mr. Chairman, I agree with that. Are we good with that?

Okay. So why don't we finish the report so we can hear it. Then we'll have public comment after you've made it your recommendations and then it'll come back to the board for its discussion, amendments, changes, whatever. Okay, that's how we'll proceed.

Okay. Thanks. Uh so we'll go to chapter 17.37.030 which is the use permit and subdivisions. So staff is proposing to uh amend this section so that uh the the if there's a sub if the sub subd division is for condominiums a use permit would not be required. So in other conditions and all other conditions there would be a use permit required but for condominiums it would not be required.

Okay. And the last one is chapter 17 34.050 which is a clarification to require the triangular shaped landscaping for the front yard paving program that adds a parking space. Yes.

Y that's the last thing in there. Okay. So f first uh just sort of in order of the bullet points that I had there uh wanted to show this slide of the variety of roof types that are present in daily city and you have some combination of open gable flat shed Dutch gable hip and flat roof types and this is a a nice photo that sort of shows that that variety and so these are the roof types that we're talking about in the in the ordinance. Uh there's discussion there's a section that talks about measuring up to the the manser uh deck line. So I pointed that out uh in the in the image there. You can see where that deck line is. And then these are two illustrations on how the actual building height would be determined. So for the gable roof there, uh you take the height um and then you have the eve and the the ridge and you're going to take the average there. So it would be 12 feet. Um and then the the manser roof um an example there showing how you would measure height for that type of a roof. And this is this is just an illustration uh that I pulled from the San Diego County zoning division. And lastly, just for information, uh these are the height requirements for the attached ADUs and detached ADUs. And this is based on the the daily city ADU guidelines checklist, which is based on California state law, ADU law. And one of the other items is the triangular shaped landscaping. So these two illustrations uh come from our uh our our front yard paving program checklist and guidelines.

Um and we want to amend this to actually have it in the uh municipal code. Uh because the triangular shape there is is shown in our guidelines but it's not actually um cod codified. And what has happened it um is when u uh residents come and ask about the front yard paving, they ask, "Well, why does it have to be triangular shaped?" And so the primary there's two primary reasons for that. Uh one is that uh uh when you do the the the pavement, you're not allowed to ex expand the driveway. So this triangular shape uh creates the parking space and directs the the vehicle to back out using the driveway. The other prim the other reason that it needs to be triangular shaped is that the another goal of the city daily city is to reduce storm water runoff into the drains. And so by having the larger uh um landscaped area at the bottom, you're reducing that storm water runoff from the pave surface into the drainage. So those are the two main objectives of this. And we want to include this in the in the municipal code update to actually have that as a requirement specifically when residents are interested in um expanding their payment for parking purposes only. So it can be triangular shaped. It it does not need to be exactly a triangle, but it it needs to be generally a triangular shape. So it could be sort of slightly curved or wavy. Uh but it does have to have that geometric shape.

Uh do they do we change the curb cuts or we don't? The curb cuts stay the same. The curb cuts stay the same. Yeah. this city uh does not allow expanding curb cuts. Got it. Okay, that's very interesting. And the parking situation being what it is in Daily City, since everyone has so many more cars, this does make a little bit of sense to uh be able to allow more more um parking spaces in front of your house because people put it up on the grass anyway. And so I was just Yeah, that's that's another reason. Yeah. also is to to not remove parking because if you did expand that driveway, you would lose street parking. So,

we receive a lot of push back on this regulation even though it doesn't cost people anymore. They don't want to do the triangle for whatever reason. They think it looks funny or it's bad car or something. So, we have our reason and Sam just explained it to you directing the

car to the uh driveway apron, which is really important. Um, one of the other things I wanted to just also mention is that we're also going to begin disallowing paving in the sideyard. When the city council back in 2018 began allowing uh front yard paving, uh there was no intention of allowing people to pave on corner lots to pave their sideyard only. And we've run into situations with people that says, "Where does it say I can't pave my sideyard? It's part of my front yard." We're having these, you know, debates with people about what the front yard is. And so we've also introduced that as a regulation uh for uh consideration. Okay. All right.

So this this slide here is the the SQA slide um that staff completed environmental review for the proposed project and determined that the project is categorically exempt from SQA guidelines section 15061 review for exemption as an activity that clearly has no significant effect on the environment. Staff recommends the planning commission take the following action. Recommend city council approval of minor amendments to municipal code chapters 17.04.010 17.34.050 17.37.030 and 17.44 and 17.45. This concludes staff's presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have on the proposed minor zone amendments. Thank you.

All right. Well, thank you. Uh what we'll do at this point then is uh open the matter for public hearing. So, I'm calling a public hearing to be opened at this point and inviting any members of the public to approach and to uh speak on this matter if they would like to do so. Was there anything submitted uh in the alternative ways by emails or anything to uh planning?

There was not. All right. Uh there is no members of the public that are approaching. So I will close the public hearing. Uh now the matter is to the board for further discussion. And uh at this point uh I would uh say if there's any requests for a amendments to what is there I'll entertain them at this point. Commissioner, what were your thinking for your amendment? Uh your honor. Um uh I think you were talking about

I was holding here the the proposed zoning ordinance revisions for March 2026. Uh I would like just to suggest that instead of making it to 3 years make it five years. What are the reasons why you know the design review sometimes to take a permit? How many permits um Mr. Director do you require? How many permits? I think 25 permits, right? How many permits? Uh-huh. Many permits to build a building. Mhm. Well, if you consider all of the different types of uh building permits, mechanical, electrical.

Yeah. I mean, it could approach 20.

Could be 30 permits. 32 hours. So I suggest that to be pragmatic about the situation which as a citizen of this uh daily city sometimes I I I get some feedback that takes a while to get the permit on this on that but that's I said that's a process we we cannot help it sometimes one year is too it's really too short 3 years might be not also too short to not too long so I suggest just to give them the permit the leeway So they won't be be pressured is give them at least five years. And I I suggest this also to the wi to the wisdom of the city council and the those people who are maning this because sometimes it's not only the permit your honor. It's the bank. Sometimes the bank uh will will will not issue you the just like what happened here in in cereamonte. the bank didn't really release the amount for construction because they said not this not this time so when is the time so that's the example I am saying your honor we have to give them and how another question your just to fortify my my resolve is how many uh projects that we have approved 10 years ago that is not being done how many approximately 20 30

I was going to say 15 see but yeah look at that Mr. German and that's why I I suggest I give them a little way because just like last time we have approved a building a family they came back right you remember the Chinese guy

that's that's the example wherein we have to give them also the leeway sometimes because of the situation like the covid for two years we were we were down and you know one year is show you have to get another permit which is I think very tedious and cumbersome to be dealing with with this. So I suggest 5 years will be more or less design review everything you know the permit is terrible and I to be honest with you Mr. director. I'm getting a lot of feedback from the community, especially the the ones I know. Oh, I it's hard to get. No, I said that's a process we have to follow. It's not like in the Philippines that you can build a house without a permit. I I can do that in the Philippines, but but not here in America. We have to follow the procedure, the rules. That's why give them more time or leeway to at least to to accomplish their objective or goals. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Another thing with regards to the height, how what is the height limitation now of our the city for the vertically?

Well, it depends on which zoning district in the R1 zone. The height's 30 ft, but there's many zoning districts that the What is 78? What's that? The 78 that the one that we approved before, is it the condominium or uh which exact address was it? here at the on Southgate here at West Lake. No, Lake West [clears throat] Lake. Yeah. Um that building height was approved under the uh plan development zoning. So it was approved at the building height that it was proposed at because it I remember it because it was facing here in Mission and then at the at the back is

Oh, right. facing the I remember that. So on Mission Street and Geneva Avenue and in all of the city's R3 zones, as part of the housing element uh implementation measures, we increased the building heights to essentially allow 12tory buildings. Okay. So yeah, that not going to have a problem with the maximum building height definition. So that's a lot of flexibility that we're that we've applied there. And I think that's kind of where we're heading so we can encourage people to do uh more and give them a little bit more leeway to do that. So I think that supports what you're saying. Yeah,

what happened with the building height definition is we inadvertently removed the uh when we adopted the CMU zoning regulations, we inadvertently remove the building height definitions for all the other buildings in the city. Um and so this just reintroduces it and takes away some language no one ever understood. No, it clarifies it it looked like and it and it makes it easier for everyone to understand. So the amendment then that you're suggesting is that it become five years instead of three. Uh so this is open for any other commissioners to uh speak if uh they have a thought on this that they'd like to share. Yes, Commissioner Coutur. Well, I I am suggesting this because because of our experience here in Daily City.

Well, right now though, uh we're talking about the the five years. Yeah. And so, Commissioner Couture has the floor and she can speak to it. So, so your proposal of 3 years is basically like double the amount with an extension, right? So, usually it's a the permit is a one year and they can apply for a six-month extension. So, pushing it to 3 years would make it like double the time. And you said um you know there there would have been like 15 um permits that did not go through because uh was it abandoned or was it

those don't have the reasons that those buildings didn't get built had didn't have anything to do with the expiration periods. It's it's easy to get an extension on and applicants commonly apply and they're grant the extensions are granted 100% of the time. So um yeah, just to clarify that the yes the so the so init zoning ordinance for design review approval for example it allows one year with a six-month extension. So we'd actually be tripling it to three years with a two-year extension under what's proposed. The city staff takes no exception to the five-year. U we we're just kind of throwing a number out.

Five years is what the planning commission would like to recommend to the city council. We concur with that. Thank you. Um Yes.

Sorry. So, so I I I do really respectfully um I don't own a house, but just by listening to that gentleman that brought their um proposal that they did it, but just like what uh Ray Stori was mentioning that there are um I want to say uncontrollable, you know, issues or things that happen in life that wanted the extension. But I like the idea of five years. However, with no exception of extension. So maybe changing the language a little a little bit on that. So the five years without without extension, you reach the five year and it's capped at 5 years. I

I fully agree on that. I fully agree without extension. At least uh we have given the leeway really five years. Uh yeah, I agree with that. That's cleaner. Thank you, Commissioner. Penis, you have a thought. Yeah, I just like to say that was very smart of you, right, of saying that. I feel like some people are intimidated about the timeline. Maybe they don't have enough resources or funds to finish a project. They don't want to waste put all that money in invest finish. You know, given extra time, it'll give comfort to people, peace of mind. Whoever wants to invest in daily city, that's what we want, right? Investments people.

So, my concern is Thank you. My concern is our side, right? If we know they have five years to, you know, build um and use that permit, will it make it um will it make the process slower? Right? Like we say, oh, we have 5 years um this this permit is good for 5 years so we can take our time with inspections, with granting, you know, um other permits. Will it, you know, slow us down?

No. No. No. Um, Commissioner Stori, uh, hit the nail on the head on one thing is it takes a while once once, uh, a developer has entitlements, typically that's when a bank will start looking at giving them a construction loan and then establishing permanent financing. So, um, yeah, and that takes time. Apply for the loan. The bank takes a look at it. What's your coll, you know, collateral? This kind of thing takes a while. So, the one year is completely unrealistic. Um, and it doesn't slow development down. Developers uh try and build something as soon as they can or they sell the project to someone who also wants to build it as soon as they can. That's kind of the way it works. So, um, yes, it will it will answer more succinctly. It will not slow development down

as far as um granting other permits. Mr. Chairman, you know, I have here a book.

Thank you. being a member of the planning commissioners academy and that policy has been so long it's been antiquated even in California just to get a a permit one permit it takes a while so it's it's not really like not like before it's easy but now under the news dispensation and California has been there are lots too many too many uhh uh conditionalities or or compliance that rules and regulation has been to put up. So it really it's really to be honest with you I have worked with the board of professional engineers and l survey and geologist we have seen it even engineers they're having a hard time sometimes getting a permit from like fire department it takes a while really

I think I think and from water it takes a while also but because you have to be compliance with the new rules and regulation did you hear about the so-called green building have you heard I think you heard that the green building, you know, now we we're going into this. So, the people here well taken as far as that goes and the board seems to be in concurrence. I think uh Commissioner F. I'm just saying I'm just g laying the foundation in case it goes to the city council. At least they know it. I think that we'll strongly support this uh at this point. Commissioner Fa, did you want to speak to this?

Oh, I have one more question. Is this going to apply across the floor like for any developers residentially um commercial o overall? Yes. Unless otherwise specified in a condition of approval or a development agreement between the developer and the city. Yes. What's in the municipal code would apply. Okay. Citywide. And then you know for some reason that they will finish within before five years. It's still there still a lot of room to breathe. Yeah. And most construction projects that are completed do complete within the five years. Okay. 60 station for example that's from 2024 I believe. So it's only a couple of years old maybe 2023. So um yeah

you know to be honest with you Mr. Chairman I have been here for almost 25 years and look at that 15 projects are not being done. It needs uh look at that. Which means that it really needs a a lot of uh time really to to but they were able to get the the approval of this concept and and the planning commission. It looks to me then that uh this is where we're going. Uh we would like uh the I think we're in agreement that we talking five years within a cap on it at the end of five years. So um how will you uh then amend your recommendation at this point taking into consideration what the board has said? Is that what we would be voting?

That's correct. You would you you would need to vote on an amended uh attachment A. All right. Then basically [clears throat]

at at this point then realistically we are prepared to uh vote on the recommendation of um staff and uh the the staff is recommending that we adopt the findings as outlined. uh adopt the SEC SQA exemption 15061 regulation review and approve zoning changes as conditioned herein with the amendment that the three years be changed to five with the cap on it. Uh is there a motion to that extent? I a motion for approval please second. All right. Um did it did we frame it correctly? Uh, director.

Yes. Yes, you did. Yeah. All right. Yes. Then the motion has been made and seconded. If there's no further comment, we'll have a roll call vote on that, please. Catwar, yes. Fua, yes. Nures, I. Panisa, yes. Satator, yes. All right. Well, thank you. Um, thank you for your presentation and uh, thank you for all the comment from the board and I think that we've come to a good conclusion with this to recommend to the council. Um, so uh, looking to our agenda public appearances and staff.

No, no, no. We are not through here your honor. about the height. That's all part of what we voted on. That was part of the height. Is there a second? What is the height limitation that you are putting up as far as the the proposed ordinances? We're not changing building height. We Well, there was a vote on it already, but we'll answer the question. We're not changing building heights. We're just changing the way that building height is measured. We're not changing the way. We're bringing back old language from the existing the previous the from the zoning ordinance and removing some language that didn't make sense. So, we're just reintroducing language that was there before.

It's it's the definition of the bu of a building your proposal. I mean, that's what you uh explained to us and that is part of the zoning change that we just identified and that we voted to clear that language up to add in what was left out so there's clarity regarding the height but you're not changing the height. Okay? Because that that's why uh you will notice in my opening statement here we should have a a general plan really revision where in the people will have to be uh included you you know what I mean uh we're talking we have to prepare for that because uh what we are doing here is peace meal basis

whenever there is an improvement we want R1 to C1 you you know what I mean and

we cannot just make the residential to commercial just like that we have we have to be we owe to the people also. The people should know what what are the development plans here of the city or the people around. I have been quiet for so long and now because at the time there were so many I would say fiscalizer here in the in the city like the family of a boy like the family of Christ said it's a lot but now it seems that everything is okay. So somebody has to really speak up for the people really here and we whether we are together in in one uh mission or vision but we have really to correct some of those. We cannot just say oh you're good you're you every time look at that this coming city address of the mayor. Oh a lot of them will be oh you did well excellent but I don't see anything really that good.

I'm just speaking aloud. And I appreciate Well, that's my opinion. No, and you know, and I'm glad that you raised that point because I think we made the point very clear that we would like staff to take it back to council and the manager to reconsider those things. And so that that I think is also because

I heard before Mr. Chairman is about the hype. You know, daily city, we have no more space here. What we can do is the development process should be vertical. We cannot go anymore horizontal. But there are some politician especially the illiterate politician there no development. They don't want height development. They only want just like that as a community bedroom community. To me uh how do we gauge progress? We have to be balanced. There should be presidential, there should be commercial misuse or smart growth. We call it smart growth. I'm just speaking aloud, your honor, because we only have a meeting once in a once in a while. Sometimes we don't even have a meeting.

I think we understand your points because you've articulated them very clearly and I think that uh they've been stated quite well. I appreciate that and I thank you for it. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, because pretty soon you might be in this council and at least you know where what we are saying here. Oh, I think we all understand as far as that goes are because most of them in in the in the council are my colleague before of them are here we are together but still I I don't see any

there I think also another good thing is that if this comes before the council any and all of us can appear at that meeting also and express our views to the council directly from the podium uh if uh we want to get it even clearer. So I would invite all of us to attend council that night and um raise our concerns there as well so they can hear it directly from us if in fact you wish to share that. Are there any public appearances tonight? No. No none. And anything from the staff that needs to be communicated or under the other section that's why your honor and and we don't have people around so we can consume this for discussion purposes for intellectual discussion of what's going on here.

What what are we what are we discussing? uh there needs to be a topic from an agenda. Uh so I'm just I I'm bringing out an agenda here based on the general plan because it encompasses all the development process here in of the city.

I wonder I'm sorry Mr. Resto I wonder um if I can just u make a gentle proposal for staff to perhaps look into what Mr. has um tried to to bring in you know to everybody's attention. Um I'm hearing the 2013 this was you know the proposal was um adopted or even put it in place and so the lengthy I'm also hearing to 2035. So that's a huge cap right there. Perhaps maybe we even need to put that in the language or even policies somehow to how often do we go there and revisit it, you know, so that way we have a clear understanding and also for the public to see and transparency of information. That's what I'm trying to to clarify.

Can I also ask something with the next meeting? Can we have like a quick review of the general plan because we have four new commissioners at the past 5 years? Absolutely. You know, that'd be good. So the community knows what's going on with the budget and everything, you know. Exactly. And I think what we were saying before is is sometimes we don't have a lot of action items, but we can put something on the agenda as a refresher to help bring us up to speed on that. So I think everyone would appreciate that because we talk about general plan. Uh and so now we need to learn a little bit more what it is and you can explain it to us. Yes.

And uh also what it takes to revise it and how expensive it is. It's not like we just do this. You have to bring outside consultants. You can spend a million dollars revising your general plan easily. So let's understand the whole process and maybe absolutely all that we're talking about. We can also talk about the housing element. The housing element um has become the uh because there's different elements of the general plan. There's different chapters. Mhm. Yes.

And it has become the tail that wags the dog, so to speak. Um and that was a our housing element was updated in 2015 and again um just recently adopted although that was a 2023 document that Daily City um adopted in 2024 25 I believe. And then again in 2032 um the housing element will also be updated updated.

So and and all of the other elements get updated along with it. Land use for example. Uh so the general plan actually has been updated the the major component of it and state law requires that that be done every 8 years. So 2023 2031 um and so that there there actually is a very large general plan update coming in 2031. And uh the city will probably have to hire a consultant to do that. Um the city staff has been writing the housing elements in the past and this last one a consultant wrote it. Um, and we were lucky enough to have a lot of grants to help pay for that that we applied for and received money. They our housing element was completely paid for through grants. Um, which is pretty miraculous actually. Um, so anyway, um, but we can absolutely come back.

Okay. We'll have to do that at the May meeting. Um, so yeah, that sounds great. Thank you. Thank you for those thoughts. And also just to give, you know, like a breakdown, a timeline of what's, you know, what are the projected um, developments coming up. Sure. You know, I will I would like to to know that I know the legendary Mr. Ray Stori has been on this seat for quite some time and he has know more than I do. So, um I would love to to know learn more and by that it's by asking. So,

exactly. We really like giving presentations like that that inform the public and the commissioners about what's what development projects have been approved, where they are in the process. So we can have sort of a part A on the general plan and a part B on the various development projects around the city that have been entitled given, you know, city council planning commission and city council approval and where they are in their construction process. Thank you. Yeah. And we can any questions you have about, you know, why they haven't come out of the ground, we can also try and answer those, too. Perfect. Well, that's great. That's great progress,

Mr. Chairman. Uh, in constant with the statement of Commissioner Teresa, the cardinal rule really is every 10 years there should be a major evaluation of our general plan for development and the people should be involved. But I don't I don't care spending uh 1 million or 2 million just for the sake of transparency wherein people can really suggest their their their motive. We have we have to do it and in case in case that we have to do it really because uh the people really deserve to know it is not you know it's only there is no transparency coming on from here you have a lot of people a lot of high salary but actually uh oh we we can do it we can do it something like that and if there is a problem sometimes they just hire consultant

did you not notice that sometimes city staff has written all of the city's general plans. This daily city has never hired a consultant to write a general plan. So, um we've hired a consultant and again paid for by grants to write the last housing element and the previous housing elements were also written by the city staff. So, this if we were to hire a consultant to write our general plan, it would be the first. All right. Well, thank you for the uh stimulating conversation that we've had and I think we have some good direction where we would like to go as a board and uh thank you for joining us in those thoughts. Uh so at this point I would introdate a motion for adjournment. I motion for adjournment. Second. All in favor say I. I.

Okay. So we're done at uh 3 minutes to eight. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Fielding for your presentation. Director, thank you for being our audience.