Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

flag salute which will be led today by Commissioner Hinard. Please join me in saluting our flag. Ready? Salute. 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.

Thank you. Okay. The next item on our agenda is public comment. Members of the public wishing to comment on any item not appearing on the agenda may address the planning commission at this time. State law prevents the commission from acting on any matter not on the agenda. However, your comments may be referred to staff for followup. This is the also the time for public comment on items listed under the consent calendar or to request an item from the consent calendar be pulled for discussion purposes. Comments related to public hearing and general business items will be heard at the time those items are discussed. In fairness to all who wish to speak, public comment is list is limited to a total of 15 minutes with each speaker allowed three minutes unless otherwise extended by the commission. Please begin your comments by stating your name and providing your city of residence. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to comment on an item that is not listed on the agenda? All right. Seeing none, commissioners, this is the time that commissioners reports and items of interest. Does anyone have anything they would like to share from the days?

I do. I'd like to once again thank Mario and staff for sending me to the planning commissioner training academy. Um it was great and I did email you the dates and uh for next year's in Monterey, but um I learned a lot and I just thank you. Um I attended city council last week um and I did the chamber business after hours that was at T-Mobile. Then I had seven events in five days. And then I did the leadership tillerary killer pianos on Friday night which was a lot of fun and then proud to wear pink u event on Saturday and I did the invocation for that and then later that night world expose thank you dinner. So it was a very busy week um at different events around our city. So, it was it was a great week, an exhausting week, but I made it.

Okay. Yeah. Um, last uh sun a week ago Sunday, I participated in the uh St. Patrick's fun run in um Fresno.

It's the first time I ever walked a fun run. First time I ever been part of one of those and it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Um, also an item of interest is, um, I've seen with the Visa community course and we're having a concert April 10th and it's at St. Mary's uh, Catholic Church in Viceelia. It's at 7 p.m. and it's $20 uh, um, general admission. So, it's it's Latin music and it's going to be a full orchestra and two other choirs are going to be singing with us. Okay, thank you very much. The next item on our agenda is a consent calendar. Um, and on that is the approval of commission man meeting minutes. I will entertain a motion that we uh accept the minutes as presented. I will move to accept uh 5.1 the approval of planning commission meeting minutes. And I second of the same.

All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

Any opposed? The motion is carried. Next on our agenda is comments is public hearing. Our first public hearing is conditional use permit number 20263 and ask to consider a request by Wanita Fonka to operate a mobile vending food truck that will be located at an existing body shop and approve the personal use commit. The Uhhuh. conditional use permit. And uh Jonathan, this is yours. Thank you. The item for you is request by Wanita Bonka to operate a stationary mobile vending vehicle on the property located at 3450 South K Street. The proposed site is zone M2 heavy industrial and general plan designation is heavy industrial and the use requires a conditional use permit to be approved by the plan commission. The business will operate from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. The vending operation contains a refrigerator, cooking appliances, and food preparation areas. Customers will have access to the restrooms. Tables and chairs will not be installed or allowed. Two employees will operate the business. The project is exam pursuant to section 15304 um of the California Environmental Quality Act. In conclusion, staff recommends approval of condition application number 20 26-03 subject to the recommended conditions of approval provided in your staff report. This concludes my presentation. Staff is available to answer any further questions.

Thank you. The public hearing is now open. Is there anyone who would like to address the comm the commission on this item? Okay, I'll close the public hearing. Um, commissioners, your thoughts.

Well, I want to thank you guys for answering where it was cuz as I said, I don't like the maps and I forgot to drive by. So, thank you guys for telling me it's parked in front of Golden State. My only other question to you is what kind of food will you be serving? This has nothing to do with your permit. I just want to know. I would. Oh, wow. We should do a tour. I don't have any questions.

I do have a couple questions. Um um Jonathan, if you could put the map up again. I was just kind of curious about where do you plan on putting the uh your um your trailer or your food truck and um is that something that's going to be permanent permanently located? I mean, it's going to be temporary, but I mean, is that where you're going to be moving? Maybe one corner here and then maybe another corner another week. It'll just be in one spot. Um sir, can you come up to the microphone? We just need your name and city of residence. Turn it. Turn it on. There's a push button. There you go.

There you go. My name is Gastillo. I live in Teraryi. Thank you. And uh we're going to we're going to try to put it on the east side of the the fence. And uh is that where the grass is? Uh yeah, the highlighted little rectangle right there that's light blue. Okay. Correct. Yes. That'll give uh customers access to the parking spot. So, you're going to be located more back uh back toward the back, not where people will see it driving on K Street. Right. Correct. We're going to they're going to they're going to let us put a couple flags in the front. Okay.

Mike's actually a really good friend of mine. Um they used to be an enterprise uh rental company in there, so he actually gave me the key for the little office and the bathroom. Um, so we can use it whenever we want. Generous of Mike to do that. So, because I know he owns where the Enterprise used to be and so you're that's what it looked like you're by the we're enterprise. That's why I was just asking. I thought you were going to be more on K Street, but yeah, it is some it is a fenced area. So, that makes it really nice. Oh, so you're going to be within the fenced area. Yes. Oh, okay. That gives you low X. Yes. It's not going to be out in the open. So,

Okay, good. Okay. So, will you be moving the trailer every day? Yes. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments?

Okay. So, are we ready? I will. So I make a motion to approve a conditional use permit number 2026-03 based upon the findings and uh subject to the recommendation recommended uh conditions in resolution number 5549

and I second. It has been moved and seconded to um recommend to accept to grant conditional use permit number 2026-03 based on the findings and subject to the recommendations in resolution number 5549. Is there any further discussion? Maria, would you pull the commission? Commissioner Hannard, I. Commissioner Cantu I. Chair Miller I. The motion is count passed. Congratulations.

Next on our agenda is the city housing element and our duty tonight is to adopt a resolution recommending to the city council approval of an amendment to the city's zoning ordinance to add chapter 10.83 83 by right approvals and an amendment to the general plan use designation from medium density residential to high density residential and reszone from RM2 to RM4 for 10 acres of assessled parcel number 14907008 to meet the housing element adequate sites and Mario Good evening, uh, Chair Miller, planning commissioners. This item tonight, um, uh, actually, I think maybe only Chair Miller was involved from the beginning of this long range planning project.

Yes, I was.

Um, but, um, there's some good background to provide, uh, to Commissioner Henard and Commissioner Kau on kind of where we've been, where we are today, and, uh, really what what we're doing this evening. Um so um this is uh as a reminder this is for the housing elements. So the housing element is one of the eight mandatory elements in the city's general plan. It's covered by California government code. Um you have the government code section there and it's required to be updated unlike the general plan which has a longer time frame. The housing element is to be updated every eight years in accordance with uh the acronym you see there is RENA otherwise known as regional housing needs uh allocation which is the fair share of housing that each jurisdiction of the state um is supposed to provide to meet their what the state considers adequate housing during that 8-year housing cycle. So here's a table that shows the regional housing needs allocation for our Tiller County region by broken down by city. So you see each city has the expected number total arena. So that's the total number of housing units to be produced in the 8year cycle. Um for some reason HCD refers to it as 2023 to 2031, but it really should be 2024 because 2023 is the end of the last or fifth cycle. So really from January 1st, 2024 is when we start counting. Um then we can get credit for some of the ones in in after June 2023. But for all intents and purposes, these are the uh expected numbers and they're broken down by income. So there's very low, there's low, moderate, and you'll see numbers, and I'll get into it as I go through the presentation. Um, but those numbers represent when you see 50% or 80% AMI,

what that means is those are households or individuals that are at either 50% or below what's called the area median income for our region. There's a 50 to 80%, 80 to 120% so on. Um, and you'll see soaries is noted there. I'll see you'll see it referenced uh later on the presentation and of course in the housing element which is included in your staff report. So, we actually participated in in a multi-jurisdictional housing element update. So, all of the cities you saw listed in that table participated with the exception of the city of Iselia uh that prepared their own housing element and Tallery County at the last minute pulled out of of the multi-jurisdictional and prepared their own as well. So, you'll see participating cities are Dubai, exit, Farmersville, Lindsay, Porterville, Tari, and Woodlick. And so the way this was prepared is we have the regional analysis which is included in the multi-jurisdictional housing element and that covers information at a regional level has regional goals. Um and then attached to those are appendices for each city that's participating. So we have our own appendix that deals with specific items as they relate to the city of Toaryi and that'll be the focus of the presentation and what you have included in your staff report are to specific requirements. So we all participated in this effort but each city is adopting its own uh independent housing element. So there are several components that make up the housing element document. Um there's and they're listed there. There's housing needs, housing constraints, resources and inventory, fair housing assessment, and then finally a housing plan. And there's public participation that informs uh along with a lot of data collection that is collected as part of this effort. Um,

and we've had a number of workshops, uh, housing element surveys, stakeholder interviews over the past several years as we've worked on this housing element update. So here's a timeline of of kind of where we started. So the project kicked off in winter 2022. I think probably folks most people are probably optimistic thinking we could get this done in a year by the end of 2023. Um but uh you kind of see the schedule there. So 2023 was really where we we started it in earnest. A lot of data collection. Um the site inventory was prepared and that's where we began the community engagement. So there's a number of workshops that were held here with the planning commission in the community. Uh there were also surveys um and uh stakehold like I said stakeholder interviews as well. Um those started in summer 2023 and it took about a year to collect information, receive input through interviews, through surveys, workshops that we had um with the community as well. And there was a draft, the first draft of the housing element was released in summer 2024. And so that was uh circulated for public review. Comments were received and then that document was was provided to the state state HCD you'll see referred to a number of times as this is state department of housing and community development. So they're the ones that oversee this process and ultimately um would approve the plan. Um, and so from summer 2024 until just this past fall winter, uh, 2025, there's a lot of back and forth. Uh, we prepared gosh, I think it's four or five different iterations, uh, drafts, if you will, of the of the housing element where we, uh, did our best to address the requirements had um, actually I think that the next next, uh, table will have more detail on that. Um but then

where we are today, so we finally this past uh November 2025, state HCD said, "Hey, this is substantially compliant. You've addressed." They didn't have any follow-up comments other than the requirements to adopt the housing element. Uh which is uh what we're starting here tonight is this presentation, this public hearing, but ultimately the approval uh lies with the city council. So, uh, after this hearing this evening, uh, this has to go in front of the city council for the ultimate decision. Um, and there's various actions as you noted in the recommended action. One of which is the reszone of one one property to meet the required uh, re regional housing needs assess um, assessment need for the city allocation. So, this is a kind of a summary like I mentioned public participation involved. We had a project website, community workshops, stakeholder interviews, online surveys. We received a number of emails um as well as written letters uh during the last few years when we prepared this document and that public review as you see on the right table on the right. So it shows all the iterations where the city prepared a draft. It went off to HCD for review um after it was reviewed by the public um and then there were comments provided by the state HCD which staff and the consultant working on the project had to revise and update and resubmit. And so we did that a number of times uh to try to achieve um essentially substantial approval to get us to the point where we are this evening. So it's been quite a bit of work. Um, I started when I was a planner working on this and it's one of those projects where I was kneedeep into it when I was put into the community development directory role and one of those projects I kind of brought with me and have been working for the better part of my time here at the city. Um, so as we delve into the different components of the housing um element which is in your staff report, I'm going

to highlight kind of the sections of the housing element. So the housing needs assessment looks at uh these are some of the things that were reflected in the input um when we had stakeholder interviews as well as the community workshops and based on surveys that we circulated. So kind of what was reflected in this is there was that came out of that was need for more housing options in Tallery for both renters and buyers at different income levels the various income levels need for f more financial assistance for low-income families that rent and own need for housing close to services and jobs and the need for housing for large families were kind of the primary uh themes that emerged from that feedback. So um in the housing domain we look at affordability. Well what's considered affordability? Well it varies by region. You me you remember I mentioned AMI area median income. So this table kind of shows so kind of on the far left column it depends on number of folks in the household right from one person to five person plus and there's different thresholds. So you see those are the annual income limits. So, a lot of the service a lot of the um different subsidized housing programs that the city administers that we receive grant funding for and when you hear the term affordable housing, well, that can mean a lot of things, but there are these specific thresholds and categories. So, for a household to qualify as extremely low income, you'll see they have to make between zero to 30% of the area median income. And then very low income is considered 30 to 50% of that area median income. Um, and so that's divided based on the number based on the household. There's different thresholds. The affordable monthly housing cost that you see there, that's divided on a 12-month basis. So that's monthly. That's kind of the cap of what is considered affordable. And affordable, you'll see it referenced a couple times in the presentation for all

for everyone, including those of us here this evening. what um in the field they consider affordable or uh cost burdened is the threshold of 30%. Meaning if a household spends more than 30% of their monthly income on housing, they're considered cost burden when it comes to housing, whether they rent or they own. Um and so this table kind of lists out those various thresholds and metrics. And you'll see it's uh so we go to low income which is 50 to 80% area med of the area median income. Median uh income is 80 to 120% of that. And moderate income is actually considered once you're at the area median income and above. Right? So up to 120% AMI. Um in preparing the housing element, we did a survey of this the city's housing stock. Um and so here are some tables from the housing element. The first one lists total housing units by type that we have in in the city and it compares it to county and to the state of California. Between Tallery and Taller County, the the numbers the the percentages especially are very similar. um where you start to see some variance is when you compare it to the state and you know most of them are fairly in line where you kind of see uh a lot of divergence is kind of at both ends of the spectrum. So Tary um is over represented in single family detached about 77.4 for or almost 78% of all the housing units in the city are single family detached units statewide in in the state that's only 57.7. So we definitely have been overbuilding or you know all it says is it's we're building that much more above what the state average is. Um we really don't have condos and town homes that are attached.

Right? So if you look at that we have I think it's 3.4% 4% of our housing stock where statewide it's uh it's at 7%. So we're we're less than half of what the state produces. And then as we kind of move into two, three, fourbedroom uh units or I'm sorry, two, three, four bedroom two, three, four unit developments. So those are your duplexes, especially with triplexes and and uh quadlexes, forplexes. That's a little bit more in line closer to state average. Um, not surprisingly, we're not a large, you know, metro area like in Los Angeles or the Bay Area. So, for developments that have 10 to 19 units or 50 units and above, you know, big apartment complexes, you don't have too many of those. That's not too surprising. You'll see the state average is a lot higher. And then housing unit size is also very telling. Um, housing unit size. So, that's the second table. uh we really lack we have one under 2% studio units of our total housing stock and under 4% twobedrooms whereas if you look at the state it's not not really high but it's still you know double we have about 4% is the state average for studio apartments for example onebedroom units uh state average is about 12.8% 8% we're sitting under four. So we're sub substantially lower. Um we really produce really three bedrooms is what I mean that's over 50% of our housing stock. So most of the housing stock we have is three bedrooms and above. Um and that's a little you know actually quite a bit higher than the state average. So three four bedrooms it's not a huge difference. And then you see once we get into five or more bedrooms um we really are much lower. We're less than than half of the state state average, which is uh pushing north of 4%. Um, and that's really what that's telling us is there's a lack of a

variety of housing types. We tend to produce a lot of the same type of housing over the years um in Toary and overall in our housing stock. Our population trends, these were also pretty interesting to to look at. So, um, Tary just boomed between 2000 and 2010. um 34.7% population growth uh percentage change there in that decade. Um Ter County was about 20, the state of California was 9.7. Um definitely slowed down, you know, about half of that in in the decade since 2010 and 2020. That's the latest uh census data we have is 2020. But it's still, if you look at the numbers, we're over 3% of the growth that you see in California or even in Ter County for that matter. So, we're a growing city population wise. Um, if you look at the age demographic tables, there's all kinds of tables in the housing element, right? Um, we're a fairly young community. So, we're, you know, it's not too surprising. We're one of the more relatively affordable places in the state. So, we see a lot of folks moving here, uh, having kids, raising families, reflected a younger demographic, which also probably kind of tells the story a little bit of why we have so many three-bedroom units and above. But one of the things that came out in the housing needs assessment was a need for even larger four or fivebedroom units, which we don't have too many of. Um, so we also looked at housing constraints. So, the state these are all requirements that the state has um when we prepare our housing element. So housing constraints is okay, you've done your housing needs assessment. That's kind of what I went over some of the things that came to light as part of that. What constraints seem to be present when it comes to housing production or the number of housing that we produce at the various income levels. And those are typically things that the governmental constraints are things either set by government or that government has influence and control

over. So that's your zoning, your permitting process, building code, um required improvements, and SQL, right? equals a state law. So those are considered governmental constraints. Then you have uh your market uh constraints and you'll see impact fees. Impact fees I would characterize as being I think a mix of governmental and market because cities do uh set can set impact fees but they're also reflective of the market because they well a couple of things. one, there's certain costs to provide infrastructure, right? And so that that has to be taken into account, but also when the city would set impact fees, you you kind of have to land somewhere just for practical purposes where you're not so high that it's cost prohibitive for a developer to to develop in your community, but not so low that you're completely underfunding your infrastructure program. So, a little bit of a quasi there. Um other things that are kind of definitely out of more market out of the certainly out of government's control the to some extent you could argue that some of the laws being passed affect construction cost absolutely but things like the cost of land labor and materials right those are market uh indicators the complexities of financing especially if we're talking about ao affordable housing affordable housing projects require very complex financing structures to have those projects uh pencil and complete their their financing plan. And then there's environmental constraints which thankfully in Talleria we're blessed we don't have too many. Um we do deal with drought right and we have you know we have water challenges but there's other places like Monterey that you know they at one point they didn't even have water to serve any new development. So there are things like that. There's some parts of the state where they're building on fault zones. Some are on hillsides or uh oceans bluffs. And so there's different things that could maybe hinder your development. We have less of that here in Tallery thankfully.

So here's the summary we heard uh of local constraints as we pro provided um as we received feedback and this was especially as we talked to developers, affordable housing developers, market rate developers. So I'll read just kind of the summary of those. So one thing that came to light is that the cost of developing housing including land cost and construction costs is rising rapidly. There's a lack of federal, state, and local funding. And the funding that is available is increasingly competitive. the time and effort needed to identify, compete for, and layer affordable housing funds is a major constraint to development of affordable housing. So, that's a little bit of an insight into the folks we talked to that develop affordable housing, some of the challenges they face. Um, we looked at things like um, okay, loan approval rates, right, for folks trying to buy a home. Uh, we actually have higher loan approval rates than the than the county. Um however we did see some disparities in racial and ethnic groups for loan applications and the rate that they were approved by. Now uh discrimination in mortgage lending has been prohibited by federal by the federal fair housing act for for a number of years now. So even though it's illegal, there could be other factors that play there and some of those are reflected and are some of the things that we're going to do in our that are we're proposing in our action plan is that could contribute to this. Like it could be that uh some of these communities um h have a more challenging time securing safe financing um stable credit history, savings, and then education regarding the home buying process or even home buying programs that are out there like the city's first-time home buyer program that's available. And maybe that's something we need to work on uh having that information out in the community more. And in summary, um, when we were looking at the constraints specific to Taller, the conclusion was that although Taller's development regulations do allow for a variety of densities throughout the city, there are certain development standards that were not sufficiently flexible to pose it that could pose a constraint to development.

One example of this was we had very um strict emergency shelter requirements that limited an emergency shelter to like 13 beds. Um, and so that could pose a constraint, right? because it's so expensive to develop anything these days. And at 13 beds, you'd have to have quite a few scattered sites to meet the city's uh unsheltered housing needs. So then we look at uh what's called the site inventory uh to meet the city's arena uh which I mentioned earlier. And so this is okay, we have this amount of housing units we're supposed to produce in an 8-year housing cycle. How's the city going to do that? Um, one approach that the state has really been pushing at the in terms of legislation that's come out and procedures is the state's really gone full in on what's listed there as ADUs or accessory dwelling units, second units, right? And in uh for the past almost, you know, better part of 10 years, we've probably only been averaging about five uh accessory dwelling units that were produced. It's starting to tick up, I would say, in the last few years, but when we prepared this analysis between 2022 and 2024, we were sitting at about an average of five. So, for the 8-year housing cycle, um, you know, pretty conservative estimate is, hey, we should be able to produce at least 40 in that 8year cycle. And you'll notice they're all listed under above moderate instead of lower income and moderate. And that's because from the the folks that have developed accessory dwelling units in the community, they haven't been deed restricted. They haven't been guaranteed low income. Um oftentimes sometimes they're they're for family, right? So, or sometimes you'll have somebody who has extra land, they can build a second unit and like it could be a senior that's on a fixed income and so they rely on the on renting out that second unit to provide another fun um source of um revenue for themselves. And so for that reason, we can't take it under

moderate above moderate. Certainly, if we have one proposed that's actually affordable, we'll capture that when we do the Stephen will be bringing uh fairly soon here the annual progress report. That's the report every year where we list the number of housing units produced or permitted. Um so really the vast majority in order for the city to meet our regional housing needs assessment is going and and the allocation that we have for that is going to be really through new construction of new housing multif family single family and so you see the numbers listed there um in terms of we have what are called opportunity sites and reszone sites we were very fortunate so and well the reason I say that is when we did this assessment the city actually has quite a bit of and zoned at the right densities to provide housing units that are above moderate income. So, market rate housing, which tends to be single family as as you saw earlier in the presentation, moderate income units and lower income units, which the state equates having high density residential land to provide those. And so, you'll see those are um scattered throughout by income category in terms of opportunity sites. So those are sites that we already have zoned at the right density to provide those units if if a developer were to come forth and develop them. The reszone sites, we actually only have one uh site that we had to reszone where we had a shortfall in our lowinccome units and in our uh high density um multif family development zone.

So Mario, can I ask a question on So we have 2491 sites. Are those built on or they're just some built and some not or No, that that's that is a very good question. That's actually the capacity. So, you'll see kind of the the third row there in the table that says total capacity, right? So, these are all parcels of land that are either vacant or underdeveloped. Um, and that's the number of units that if if if they were all developed, that's how many units we could actually build. And the city the city owns this land already or we have to buy the land.

I I would say I think actually all I'm pretty sure all of these sites are privately owned. So this is not city-owned. Um unfortunately um the city well not back you know not too long ago I guess um but the city had what was called a redevelopment agency right

and they were very adept at you know compiling uh property and developing things like affordable housing. uh that was dissolved in I think basically between 2010 2012 and since we've lost the redevelopment agency cities were also required by the state to um they developed what's called housing successor agencies to oversee those properties and the city was kind of pressured I I don't know the full details it was before my time here at the city but a number of those properties um were essentially sold off to private parties to with the intent to be developed Some of them are still in that process. We have some here along the trail that were sold for that purpose. Um the city still retains ownership I think over a few but the majority are private.

Um and so that's the capacity of units on all of those sites. And there's going to be a map coming up that shows kind of where they're located. Um and then the state also required with this housing cycle, I think the last one as well, is we had to have a surplus. So, not only was it good enough to meet our um our reena number, we need to have a surplus because, hey, 8 years is a long time. Things happen. If zoning changes, we need to make sure that we have enough to cover our needs in the 8-year planning cycle. And then when we're looking at these sites, there's certain uh criteria. Most of these are infill development sites or if they're on the periphery of the city, they're kind of uh in areas that are growing uh along with other developments. in the vicinity. Um the state has some specific criteria. For example, they prefer sites that are between a minimum of half an acre in size and preferably 10 acres in size if they're standalone um as a max to count towards the lower income obligation. They also prefer vacant or underutilized sites. Um we do have a lot of that in Tiller. Other parts of the state, they rely a lot on redevelopment sites because they don't have a lot of vacant land. So these are the inventory sites. I'm sorry that's that's probably easier to read in your staff report. Um but you can kind of see it there on the screen. So there one thing I'll mention and the various colors just represent various zones, right? So you'll see starting at the top of the legend there, those are all your single family zones from R15 on six 7 kind of on through and then in the middle we have our multif family uh developed or multif family zoning designations. One of the things the state was very uh um careful, meticulous or or very much concerned with was making sure that all these sites are not in one part of town. Um this is so you heard me mention we went back and forth with the state on a

number of revisions. This was not one we had to do that on. In fact, they were complimentary there. I think they were glad to see that they're pretty spread out throughout Toari. Right. Right. So, we have opportunity sites throughout the city as it should be. Um, I think as a city generally speaking, we've done a pretty good job in the past decade especially in probably 20 years and growing in all directions and continue to do so. And it's not all growing in one direction or you know all the multif family is not on one side of the you know we're getting apartments on the east side of Talleria on the west side single family same thing. So, which is really good. That's healthy. You want your your city, you want opportunities for decent places to live, for commercial services. We have to work on providing more commercial services on the west side. That's something the city's working on. But with housing, absolutely, we have to, you know, one of the things that came out of the survey was, man, there's not enough housing near jobs or near shopping or places that we need to be or, you know, we have a lot of educational institutions in our city. Making sure they're near the schools or the college of Sequoa's campus. Um, and I'll just draw attention to two main uh the purple kind of at the bottom of the legend. So, we have the reszone and light purple. So, that's the only site that you heard me mention has to be reszoned. And that is uh the old winery site there along Mooney. So, not the whole site's being resoned, only a portion to high density from medium density. It was already zoned medium density. Um, the rest of it single family. And the darker purple down in the southeast that is the Chandler Grove master plan uh that many of you are familiar with u essentially between Mission Oak High School and the College of Sequoia campus and that's really an opportunity to have a master plan community as the city grows over the next 10 20 years that's a mix of single family multif family there's commercial um be a great site we've kind been talking to college of sequoas if they're ever ready to provide student housing

that would be a fantastic location to have something like that. Um, so you know, we have uh different opportunity sites throughout the city. Another chapter in the housing element is is called affirmatively furthering fair housing. So this is an analysis that looks at are there patterns of segregation integration in your city? What do those look like? Identifying disparities and access to opportunity. So I've kind of been building to this. You heard me mention, hey, these are all spread out. Essentially, the state's looking for because this has happened before and it happens in some cities where all the apartments are only in one neighborhood or um you know you have certain segregation patterns uh that could show up through you know uh it could be racial segregation, economic segregation. So the duty to affirmatively further a fair housing extends to the site inventory and the housing plan. Um there's also this requirement we as part of six cycle AB686 new housing element requirements that encompass some of these elements which you've heard me mention already. um substantial outreach uh the affirmatively furthering fair housing analysis or for short the acronyms AFH uh site inventory analysis which I covered identification prioritizing of contributing factors if there are patterns of segregation and AFH actions on how to address them. So at the regional level, the summary when we did the analysis was that yes, there's differences in population demographics uh between urban and rural parts of the county. I don't think any of this is too surprising, but in parts of Tallery County that are more rural, uh there tend to the population tends to be wider than in the cities. Um there tend to be more folks with disabilities. Maybe it also reflects an aging population in some of the rural rural parts of the county. Um there there were identified racially concentrated areas of affluence around around Taller Vicelia and northwest of Woodlake and

those are very just very specific neighborhoods. Um things that are similar throughout the county poverty rates uh so Terry County uh we are one of the poorer counties in the state and that doesn't matter if you're in the rural area or the urban area it's reflected throughout our county. Um the other thing that we all have in common is we all breathe the same polluted air. Um, and so we all face these environmental outcomes. It's you, it says me western Terary County, and that's because geographically speaking, eastern Tallery County is up in the Sierras and in the mountains where they're above the the bowl here in the valley where we have all the the air quality. We come down the grapevine and you see the haze. So, um, that's kind of reflected in those findings. So, going specifically to the city of Tallery, what was found for Tallery? um where there were disparities is um the data does show there's differences in educational outcomes, health outcomes, and economic opportunities between the eastern and western parts of the city. For those of us that have grown up here, um that's tended to be the case, especially as the west side tends to age and become the older part of town. Um those were the areas where there were neighborhoods with higher poverty and segregation patterns specifically in historic west and portions of southwest. Um however there were more commonalities throughout the city than there were those. So we I called out kind of those differences and disparities. But one thing uh about is it's generally predominantly Hispanic Latino throughout the city, not just in one part of the city. Um, and there's also um a high percentage of of non-white but also low-income residents compared to the state average throughout the city of Toary. Um, there are large portion of the city on all sides that have high rates of low and moderate income residents whether you're on in East Taller, South Ter, Wester, and that's really those are households or individuals that are at or below 50 to

80% of the area median income. And there are large portions of the city on all sides that have a high rate of households considered housing cost burden. Meaning folks are spending over 30% of their income on housing as well as overcrowded households. Um although renters are affected at a higher rate uh than than owner occupied households. But again these are needs we face throughout the city. So it really kind of goes hand inand the data showing us that we have these needs throughout the city. Our opportunity sites are also spread throughout the city. Um, so it's uh we're being responsive to that at least in the in the housing element plan. So going to the housing plan, I just went over a ton of data and a lot of needs assessment and analysis. Um, the final portion of the housing element is what's called the housing plan. So it says, okay, great. We've collected all this information on what the city's housing needs look like for the 8-year cycle. How's the city going to address these various issues? And so there's seven goals that you see shown on the screen, and I'll go through those. And so the housing plan goes through each goal and sets programs and policies on how the city is going to address those needs over the eight years cycle. So uh for regional collaboration, that's one of the first goal. Um we have a program called regional collaboration which focuses on furthering the regional housing goals by working with our partner agencies. And so that could include things obviously coordinating on housing but housing is tied to other areas as well, right? So maybe coordinating with our transit authority on on transit options for Tiller residents, funding opportunities at the regional level, as well as addressing homelessness at the regional level. These are things we're already doing, right? We have a regional transit authority. We have a task force on homelessness that's uh regionwide. Um for housing development goals, maintaining adequate sites, and we have programs on well, how's the city going to make sure we have enough sites for the housing that we need? Um programs for byite approval. If we've used the same site more than two housing cycles, the state now requires that if we

actually have a development proposal can be permitted by right. So our zoning code amendments that reflect that. Um so it's removing constraints, transparency in government. You know, developers, you've heard me mention before, they they want predictability. They want to know what is the city's process that it's clear that our fees and costs associated with development are consistent and clear, right? Um affordable housing option goals. Um, you heard me mention accessory dwelling units. We've already uh implemented about half of uh the programs that we need to accomplish for accessory dwelling units. The state's had legislation every year for the past at least 5 years. Uh continuing to kind of chip away and making sure that we're doing everything we can to encourage um affordable housing or I'm sorry, accessory dwelling unit development. uh facilitating affordable housing development, lower income and special needs housing, housing and neighborhood preservation goals. So working on programs and we have some of these programs already in place, but it's how do we expand those and make sure they they reach further. So replacement housing, preservation of atrisisk housing and housing preservation and rehab programs and and funding. Making sure we're providing housing for all folks in Teraria, including those with special needs. So, making sure that our zoning code is consistent with with state law and that we're providing opportunities for residential care facilities, emergency shelters, low barrier navigation centers, farmworker housing, um senior housing. We also have lower income special needs housing and and making sure we have programs aligned to address those resource conservation, sustainable development wherever we can, incentivizing energy conservation, efficiency, and new development. And some of this based on the new building codes and the California green code, a lot of new development is very green. I mean, new housing requires solar for example. And um most new developments electric only as well.

And then the affirm affirmatively furthering fair housing. Um I went over this section. There's a number of policies tied specifically to this. Um increasing fair housing um enforcement and outreach. um addressing housing mobility through a number of programs listed there, new housing opportunities at and creating new housing opportunities in high opportunity areas, placebased strategies for neighborhood revital revitalization, and we have a number of programs in place for that, and making sure we have uh tenant protection, anti-displacement measures in place. Um, so there's there's a lot uh being asked of staff. Um, I I kind of have let my bosses know we probably could have one full-time staff person working on all this implementation. Um, but we have been fortunate to grow as a department. It's going to take a combined effort between uh planning and our housing and grant staff to address a number of these items in our housing plan and probably work with consultants as well. Um for SQUA um when we prepared this housing element there was an addendum that was prepared to general planning IR analyzing the impacts of implementing the programs the policies and the residential reason of the that single property to implement the housing element. So in conclusion staff is recommending this evening that PL planning commission receive this report and recommend to the city council the approval of an amendment to city zoning ordinance to add chapter 10.83 83 by right approvals. That's a state requirement. Um there's a number of state requirements that will come into play with this housing element in a an amendment to the general plan land use designation for the property I mentioned in at the old winery to reszone it from RM2 to RM4 and general plan designation from medium density to high density uh for those 10 acres in addendum to certify the environmental impact report prepared for the city's 2014 general plan and the 20 and that the 2024 2032 six cycle housing

element and actions proposed in it be adopted um those in in the housing plan. That concludes my presentation. Thank you so much for your attention. I know this was a lengthy presentation, but it's been a lot of work uh by city staff, by uh community involvement, by the consultants that have helped us. And so uh with that, um I'll conclude and open it up for any questions or discussion. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your very hard work. This is a public hearing. I will open the hearing now. Is there anyone in the audience that would have any questions for staff? If not, I'll close the public hearing. Commissioners, you guys did a great job. There's a lot of information. I I read through the report earlier. Um, farmworker housing. I just have a couple of questions. Where where is all this located in our city? Because I think there's some over on Sonora off street. But where else or is that the only location?

There's a few. So the sonora was one of the first kind of landmark uh farmworker housing developments we had in the city uh there by um Wilson Elementary. And there's also farmworker housing that's been developed in the Parkwood Meadows area kind of south between Barsley and Paige. that residential development. Um there's some senior housing. Uh it's the Barsley Gardens apartments on uh Barsley and Lepina, near Bley and Lepina. So that project's actually um several of when that was originally developed, it it used USDA funding, US Department of Agriculture for retired farm workers even. So that's a senior housing uh complex. So we have a number of places um where we've captured that. Um but of course we do have a lot of farm workers in our community. So there's always a need uh for more and there are programs out there like the Joe Cerna farmworker housing. Um I think the Santa Fe Commons project actually uh which is the newer uh development there by Self-Help Enterprises on Western Lima. A few of those units were funded with that uh farmworker housing grant. So a few of the units did go to farmworker families

because I know there's a need for more of that. I just I know that's a Sonora project has been there a very long time. And then um with our shelter being built and the navigation center that'll meet that criteria um that you talked about, right? Because we didn't have that prior to all of this. Um and now we will. So that that will look good for us, right? Yes. Um well, I always tell people uh our department, we have to plan for housing for the whole population from folks that are unhoused to luxury housing and everything in between. So yeah, but we didn't have anything prior to this and so this is going to be huge. Um

we did have the lighthouse, but it was limited again to 12 beds. Um so a larger shelter based on what the needs are today and a new navigation center being built out there too. Yes. Okay. And then special needs housing was my other one. Where all is that? Because I know there's a special needs housing over on Inyo. Um I can't think of the name of it in Valley Burger. Yes. Uh so special needs housing there's a lot of categories. Uh the one you're prepare you're referring to um it's tied to Ter County HHSA I believe right and the housing authority and in particular I think some of those units are for behavioral health needs.

They are for behavioral health. Um but uh there's a variety of things especially with one of the things the states really um really limited um cities from passing any ordinances that limit for example group living sober living facilities or things of that sort. Um and so there are things that need to be included in the zoning ordinance to make sure that we don't have language that conflicts with those requirements. I was just yeah I I think our city is doing very well

and I think we're very well-rounded as a city trying to meet um the needs of everybody. I I think you guys and our our our council does a good job at trying to look at everything our city needs and then coming around that and creating space for that. Um low-income housing I know is still a great need and I I don't believe we have enough I I mean I looked at what the the writ was even on low for a low-income house and I that shocked me that dollar amount that people could even afford to pay that. So I but there is a need one of the greatest needs I think is for low-income housing. But who constitutes what low-income housing costs are? I remember sitting in a meeting as we were talking about that at the chamber trade room and um Margie who used to work for the city she said well we till they had it and but the rent was going to be 1,200 a month well for somebody on s senior income they can't afford that or um state assistance they couldn't afford that so I mean the 700 and whatever dollars I looked at $86 or 36 was better than that. But that's what at that point our city considered low income and that's ridiculous. Most people can't afford it. But I I do think we're growing in all directions. I think that's very positive that we're not just as you you use the word several times segregating. We're not just putting people over in one area. I think we're very wellrounded as a city and you guys have done a ton of work on this. So, um, I'm very proud of our city and all all that we're doing right now. Uh, we're moving forward and and it's all got a lot of good stuff happening right now. So, thank you. That's all I had. I just wanted to know if there was more farm

worker housing, especially, do you have any questions?

Okay, I have a few. Um, number one, when we originally did the general plan, we worked very, very hard to do an overlay of a walkability development of a um neighborhood and we selected the area out under in Chandler Grove because it was close to the to the college and we thought it was going to grow and have, you know, walkability and all that kind of Is that being in any way considered or has that overlay um process been just um ignored? H where are we with that project?

Um well, no, thank you for for your work on that. Um it was not in vain. Uh that was really so our general plan had um they were called a transit as part of our general plan. We had a transit oriented development component and there were three areas identified. one on the west side, one here in downtown which are more redevelopment areas with a floating overlay and then there was the what's considered the COS north to area. Um, and for the portion closer to Barsley as part of that general plan there it was well thought out. There was actually essentially a master plan put in place for right

for how that should develop kind of as you described. And so when that project came forward a few years ago with the annexation, um the property owner, you know, to their credit, hired a an architect and a planning firm that essentially took what was in the general plan and and and kind of fine-tuned it a little bit and that's what was brought into the city. So for now, that plan remains intact. Um probably not surprising to anyone. It's going to take a number of years, maybe a decade or more to develop fully out. And as you heard me mention, we produce a lot of single family detached housing. So, it's likely that the single family will be the very first thing that gets developed.

But as long as those, but really what we're doing, part of the things about master planning is we're laying the groundwork. So, and I had this, we actually had a meeting, it is moving forward. We had a meeting with the consultants working with the property owner right now. And actually this morning, uh, as the chair knows, we approved a parcel map to kind of take those big agricultural parcels, parcel them off so that they can start to prepare to sell to different builders to bring in maps to to start really the first phase of that development. And so, um, when we met with the property owners consultants, we said, you know, and you know, again, credit to property owners. They're willing to master plan and serve as a master developer, if you will. because what that will allow kind of what happened in where you had different developers tackling different portions of it. Um so you could have something similar like that. We hope that's how it plays out where we have the single family developers building out that portion. We have folks that do multif family developing that retail and doing doing that and so on. So um as of now it remains intact. I still have that master plan sitting behind my desk because it's just it's great planning. It was a good project. that started with the general plan and the planning commission's work and staff at that time and uh here we are trying to see it implemented now. So

yeah, it was a great experience to be on that with Commissioner Miguel. We did I was very proud of that. And then if memory serves at one point in time the area by the winery was designated multifamily. They were going to put in condos and um duplexes and that kind of thing. And in fact, they had the wires laid, everything laid, and then it the project set. I think it was 2008 kit and everything ended. So, are we going to go back to planning at the winery using using the same type of plan for that area? Well, um you're correct. It's changed a quite a bit. There was some multif family kind of closer to Mooney on both sides of the winery and um some of it's been built out, right? We have the duplexes there along what is that is Bella? Is it Bella Oaks?

Yes.

Um to the south they had something similar um that was at some point changed years ago and now it's just single family homes. Um, however, this is pretty early on. All we're all we would do if if council approves is a reszone is reszone half of it to allow for highdensity residential. And so that would allow an opportunity for a developer that builds apartments to build them on that po part of the property and then the back part of the property could be single family or or less intensive maybe multif family. Um, so we'll see that that um from my from what I recall in the specific plan, the winery was the only property in that whole kind of quadrant from Mooney to Hillman to

right that that was excluded. So it didn't have uh plans, but you're correct as you got closer to it there was some multif family opportunities. So, some have held, some have not proceeded in that fashion, but um here we have an opportunity to to kind of do a little bit of a mix. Okay. And then could you please just in plain English um tell define what is use by right?

Use by right means that the land is zoned appropriately. So, if somebody comes in and propose a development that's allowed in that zone, they don't have to come to planning commission for a special entitlement or uh they don't have to go to city council for a zone amendment. Um they don't generally have to do SQA except for a few exceptions and if it's a large enough project, I suppose. Um, and so that's what by right means is it means it doesn't require discretionary action like a conditional use permit, zone amendment, general plan amendment, uh things of that sort.

Uhhuh. And um is that a state suggested rule? Yes, it's required by the state, but it's actually that was one of the final kind of back and forths we had with the state because we actually have um this is a little bit of an insight and and I'll try not to get myself in trouble with the state, but it just it just shows, you know, we have a very varied state and the needs are different everywhere. Um you have to understand a lot of the laws that are coming out from Sacramento, they're meant to address issues that are happening in certain parts of the state. There are parts of the state, very wealthy areas of the state, where there's neighborhood groups that come out and oppose really any housing. It's not even, it could be, you know, three stories, it could be 12 units. Um and so we the when we were going when we were dealing with the state reviewers they didn't believe that you could come to Tary and have a site that is zoned um multif family high density if you will and that it's a byite approval that hey you meet the zoning you go through our site plan review process which you all know about now and if you meet the development standards we'll let you build it you don't have to go to plan commission you don't have to go to city council. We're not going to put all these different kind of hurdles, if you will, in the way to allow you to build because there are places in the state where they do the opposite and it's very hard to build. And they're like, they almost couldn't believe it. So, they made us put it in writing and put a specific section in the zoning ordinance that says yes, if you develop on one of these sites. So one one of those I mentioned in the presentation sites that have been in the because the other thing too is that has happened in other jurisdictions it I think the state was feeling that so for example we've had some properties

that we used in the last housing element cycle that sat vacant weren't developed and we're including them again and so the reviewers are looking at this with a critical eye again they're reviewing projects up and down the state and they're like are you using this property because no one will ever develop it on it you know are you trying to take the easy way out so to speak and that's not at all what we're doing. It just we don't frankly we don't have enough developers that do multif family here. Right. So and we try to explain that to them. Um we try to let them understand that there's nothing we're doing here that's uh underhanded. It's just

this is what the reality is on the ground. But to comply and and be letter of the law and specific we're adding that 10.83 83 section on by approvals right in between the density bonus law that we have. Um I think there's other streamlining provisions in there that talks about how yes we have a byite approval process if you meet the development standards if you're zoned you know to make it clear that we we're we're consistent with state law. Okay. Yeah. And then what is the plan for and where will the low barrier navigation center be? It's over the shelter.

That's actually under construction now. It's over on uh I believe the intersection is is it O'Neal and Walnut. Um it's right behind the Hillman campus. Okay. It's if you drive by you can see there because the walls are up on it. It's right by the shelter. So, is it the thought going to be that the NAV center will only be available to people at the shelter or are other citizens expected to go there? How how does that work?

No, that's a good question. So, actually this is it's kind of a hybrid um institution in the sense that it's it's really um there's a shelter, right? What's commonly known as a homeless shelter or there's an overnight shelter. There's a lot of different definitions. Ours is really going to be we're going to have a what what's called a congregate shelter, which is going to be kind of the large space with the beds, bunk beds. Um, and then there's a navigation component. Navigation center typically is not a large congregate space. Typically, it's small uh smaller semi-private, if not fully private, quarters um that have a variety of housing navigation um and other supportive services to help folks not just stay in the shelter and have a place to sleep and eat, but try to get them uh you know, if they have behavioral health needs, getting them having those needs addressed, um helping them find housing, helping them find employment, things of that sort. So, we're actually going to offer um both of those. um someone could come in and they could choose simply to just have a place to sleep and be able to eat. Um but there are other folks that uh are going to have the opportunity to work and without going fully into details of the operations there. But as folks come in, they're going to be assessed based on their need. Um one of the advantages of being located on the Hillman campus is the county has a lot of services from behavioral health. you know, they just opened an u behavioral health urgent center at their or broke ground on and then there's uh other services that county provides there. And so really the intent is that this is going to be kind of a the entry into the overall system of trying to assess individuals as they come in to see if perhaps they're they're qualified for some of the behavioral health services that the county provides. Um, right now at the encampment that the city has, there are individuals that have jobs that already have employment uh that are frankly on a waiting list to try to find uh what's called permanent

supportive housing. Um, which is you're no longer living in the shelter in the navigation center. You may have your own apartment and you have a social worker that comes, meets with you, works on your, you know, on various plans. So, um, we're going to have all those services available. So, it'll really be a hybrid navigation center component as part of the overall shelter complex. Okay. But it is specifically designed for shelter residents. Yes. All right. And then what is a ministerial plan? A ministerial plan or or a ministerial like approval?

I don't know. It says permit requirements. An applicant for a project eligible for bybright zoning approval shall submit a ministerial I'm maybe I'm not pronouncing it correctly land permit for approval of the design. Yes, that that came through from state law and so they want to ministerial just means the same thing. It's it's by right. It means that it's not a it's not uh actually I'll probably defer to our attorney here to use the correct language, but you're not using any uh discretion as a body to decide. In other words, if it meets the requirements, it's it's considered a ministerial action. Now, do you want to kind of give the the lawyer explanation?

Yeah, ex exactly what he said is correct. Um if it meets a certain set of, you know, standards or qualities, then it's by right and and the city can't deny it.

Okay. Okay. All right. Um, and then to answer a little bit um, Commissioner Henard's concern about uh, lowincome housing, my understanding from meetings with self-help enterprises and people that work there is that part of the reason that self quote lowincome housing is so expensive to build is because of the state environmental requirements. Everybody has to have solar. everybody has to have double pane windows, all those kinds of things. And each one of those things adds to the cost of the unit. So, um it's kind of a catch 22

kind of thing. It's it's tough for families. And then last but not least for Maria, and I think it's for you on page 14 of the the plan, it says Merced County. Under regional collaboration, the 2023 2031 housing element update includes policies and programs to foster collaboration with jurisdictions within Mercur County. That is actually not from RI. It's for me. I missed that typo from the consultant. So, thank you. Nothing else.

Thank you. And congratulations to your you and your staff. I know that this is just a mountain of work and you've done just a really great job with it and being able to boil it down and making the presentation tonight succinct, informative, answering questions. You did a really great job. Congratulations. Thank you. I appreciate it. Now, now the hard work begins to implement all this.

Yeah. Okay. Is there any other comments? All right. I will entertain a motion. All right. I um move to adopt. This is a lot of reading. Resolution recommending to city council approval of an amendment to the city's zoning ordinance to add chapter 10.83 83 by right approvals an amendment to the general plan land use designation from medium density residential to high density residential and reszone from RM2 to RM4 for 10 acres of assess assessor parcel number 149-070-00008 to meet the housing element adequate sites requirement for the city's regional house needs allocation an addendum to the certified environmental impact report prepared for the city's 2014 general plan and the 2024 to 2026 cycle housing element and actions proposed in the housing plan.

I'll second that.

Okay. It has been second moved and seconded that we recommend adoption of resolution commen to the city council approval of an amendment to the city's zoning ordinance to add chapter 10.83 83 by right approvals. An amendment to the general plan land use designation from medium density residential to high density residential and reszone from RM2 to RM4 for 10 acres of assessor parcel number 149-070-00008 to meet the housing element adequate sites requirement for the city's regional house needs allocation an addendum to the certified Environmental impact report prepared for the city's 2014 general plan and the 2024-2026 cycle 2026 cycle housing element and actions proposed in the housing plan. Is there any further discussion? Maria, would you please pull the commission? Commissioner Hennard.

Hi. Commissioner Miguel. Commissioner Kantu. I. Chair Miller. I. Congratulations. You're on to the next step. Okay. Next on our agenda is general business. And I see that we have none. And now we are to staff updates. Do you have any staff updates, Mario? Yes. Uh, thank you, Chair Miller. Thank you all for your attendance and and passing that um important item. Um as Commissioner Henard mentioned, she attended the planning commissioners academy. Um I'm glad she found it very useful. Um I will share those dates. Do you know when they open registration? Did they share that? No, they didn't share that. They just gave us the dates.

Great. But um what I will I'm in their email now, so I'm sure I'll get one. Maria will get one.

Excellent. Um I'll share those dates out with the commissioners in case there's interest. if you want to put a placeholder for next year. The goal is it's certainly not mandatory any of you attend, but I'll always encourage and the city will provide uh uh methods and accommodations to have you attend on the city's behalf uh on a yearly basis. It's something I want to start doing going forward. Uh so we will facilitate that. But uh that's it. Thank And I I do know the city manager when I thanked him at council the other night was very much in agreement with you and in favor of sending all the commissioners to the and any other people from other boards for training. So he was very much in favor of it. Okay. Is there anything else to come before the commission?