Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Go ahead and get to get stretching this. All right. You guys ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America.

Okay. For everyone's convenience, I'll go ahead and read the procedures for tonight's meeting. This meeting is being conducted in person and electronically. For each matter considered by the commission, there will first be a staff presentation followed by a presentation from the project applicant. Testimony from supports of the project would then be taken followed by testimony from those in opposition.

The applicant will have the right to a final rebuttal presentation prior to closing the public hearing. In accordance with section 13 of article two of the Planning Commission rules and regulations governing length of public debate, all public testimony from those in support and in opposition of the project will be limited to three minutes per person. The three lights on the podium next to the microphone would indicate the amount of time remaining for the speaker. The green light will be turned on when speaker begins. The yellow light will come on with a soft bell ring when one minute is remaining.

The speaker should be completing the testimony by the time the red light comes on, with the final bell indicating time has expired. All in person public testimony must be presented to the commissioner at the podium. Any testimony that references race, religion, ethnicity, economic status, national origin, or any other classification protected under state or federal law in a derogatory manner shall be deemed irrelevant and will not be considered by the commission in make making its land use determinations. If you challenge these land use matters in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised in written or oral testimony or before the close of the public hearing. Next, we have the agenda. Do we have any changes to the agenda?

Good evening, Vang, members of the Planning Commission. I'm Israel Trejo with the Planning and Development Department. There are no changes to the agenda. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you, sir. We're big match to the commissioners. Do we have any comments, questions, or motion from the commission? Do we have any motions from the commissioners?

I'll a motion.

Oh, go ahead.

I'll make a motion to approve the agenda, please.

Alright. So we have a motion made by commissioner Schergel, second by vice chair Bray. All approved, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say no. The agenda is approved. So under next, we have the consent calendar. We do have one item, which is item ID two five one five two. Do we have any public comments on the consent calendar? Please state your name, address, and you have three minutes.

Is this from the the planning I didn't read it. The planning committee said they were sending it here to you about the project in the Tower District. Is that on? That's not on today? No. The parking lot.

This one right here is the consent calendar for the vesting generative track map number 6345 pertaining to approximately 36.75 acres of property located in Southeast Corner Of East California. No. I don't

think that's right. Okay.

Alright. Any other comments in regards to the consent calendar? This is for the consent calendar. Okay. Do we have a motion to

Is there three different, items on there? Right?

This is for the consent calendar. This is only one item. Item ID 25152. We haven't moved on to the new matters yet. Thank you. Alright. So we have a motion by commissioner Schroeder. Do we have a second?

Second.

Oh, sorry about that. We have a motion by commissioner Calandra. We have a second by commissioner Diaz, if that's okay. All in favor, aye. Aye. All opposed, say no. Consent calendar is approved. Do we have any reports from the commissioners?

Got it. So this weekend, had an opportunity to drive around Fresno. So I do like driving around Fresno just to see what is happening with their taxpayers money because we do pay a lot of taxes. I must commend Veterans Boulevard. I actually saw a lot of flowers.

It's very welcoming to see flowers in Fresno. And I hope one day, Freeway 99 would be all flowery. Like, we'll have a lot of flowers whenever people are passing through our beautiful city of Fresno, the city of choice. It'll be beautified throughout as they as they you know, as they're driving through Fresno, they should see a lot of flowers. So I must say great job to all the people who are involved with the Veterans Boulevard.

That has connected a lot of communities, especially for commuting. And then let's continue working hard. And one day I hope Fresno Fresno Street exit should be the most beautiful. Because that comes into our beautiful downtown Fresno. Downtown is the heart of a city. So so I just wanna say good job for Veterans Boulevard's beautification.

Thank you. Do we have any other reports from the commissioners? I see none. We'll go ahead and now move on to new matters. The first new item is going to be item ID 26163.

Before we move on to this, do we have any commissioners that need to recuse himself?

I do.

So, commissioner, you need to state the reason for your recusal.

I own property within the a thousand feet from that.

Okay. So with I mean, this is the only item that we're gonna have. Are we just gonna have commissioner Diaz move to the back, and then we'll just have her come back? Or is she are you gonna

be excused?

Because this is our last item. She can be released for today. Okay. Yep.

Alright. Good evening, Chair Vang, commissioners. Chris Lang from the Planning and Development Department. I just wanna take a moment to introduce to you Matthew Woodward. This is his first time presenting to you. Matthew is born and raised in Fresno and also a Fresno State graduate. He started with the planning department as an intern and worked his way up to a planner, and he's been with us for about four and a half years. So we're excited to give him this opportunity to present to you.

Good evening, chair Vang and members of the planning commission. My name is Matthew Woodward with the planning and development department, and tonight staff brings forth consideration of conditional use permit number P24DashO4502 and the associated environmental assessment. The subject property is located on the Northwest corner of West Lemon And South Thorn Avenues. The project proposes a six unit apartment complex on a point five one acre parcel zone residential medium density and is located in the neighborhood revitalization overlay district. The subject property is mostly surrounded by existing single unit residential land uses except for some light industrial uses located to the west of the property closer to Chandler Airport.

And additionally, there's some neighborhood mixed use zone property into the Northeast that currently are a mix of single unit and multiunit residential land uses. This project is before the planning commission tonight because although multiunit residential projects are permitted in the R S 5 Zone District pending a conditional use permit, the planning commission is designated by the development code as the review body for such applications. The project consists of six three bedroom units divided between three buildings. There are nine covered parking spaces and four visitor parking spaces. The property is limited by a pre existing 30 foot FID easement, indicated on your screen there in blue, along Thorn Avenue.

Because the project is directly adjacent to existing single unit residential land uses, a type one landscape buffer must be provided. This project is conditioned to provide four trees along the northern property line and six trees along the western property line. Pursuant to residential transition standards, the project has been conditioned to further ensure adequate screening between Building Number 3 and the existing adjacent single unit homes. The applicant has been conditioned to provide drought tolerant trees with a minimum height of 20 to 30 feet tall at full maturity. On the current slide, Building Number 3 is highlighted in yellow.

The type one landscape buffers are outlined in red on the northern and western portions of the subject property, and the area of additional screening are highlighted in green. The project was reviewed by members of the council three project review committee on 09/23/2025. The project was noticed to all landlords and tenants within a thousand feet of the subject property. No letters of opposition or support were received. Staff recommends adopting the class three and class 32 exemptions prepared for the project 01/09/2026 and conditional use permit number P24DashO4502 authorizing the six unit apartment complex.

This concludes the prep presentation. Staff as well as a representative from of the project are available to answer any questions from commissioners and the public.

Thank you. Do we have any questions from the commissioners? Thank you. Do we have the applicant here?

Good evening.

Good evening. Good evening.

Any questions of me? No. Any questions? So basically I just wanna say thank you for the opportunity to build in West Fresno. I was raised in West Fresno all my life. I believe that it is very important to put a project over there that is affordable for the community. So that is the goal. Affordable housing for members of the community.

Do we have any questions from the commissioners for the applicant? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Alright. We're gonna go ahead and go to the public. First, we're gonna go ahead and allow individuals who would like to speak in support. If you're in support of the project. Alright. We're gonna go ahead and go to the public any individual who would like to speak in opposition.

Please state your name, address, and you have three minutes.

My name is Brunette and I'm with the Heath for Southwest Fresno community. Once again, I don't care where this this was having to do with a District 3, whoever this committee is, they're still not informing the community of what's going on. It doesn't matter what's being built in Southwest Fresno, we as a community need to know. And we're not, once again, we're not being notified. Everybody wanna holler, oh, within a thousand, no, this has to do with District 3.

We got a lot of stuff going on in Southwest Fresno right now. And everything that's going on is going to put us out of our community. We're not included in it. So everything that goes on in Southwest Fresno, if our community is not notified, we don't want it. We wasn't notified, period, point blank.

Alright. Please state your name, address, you have three minutes.

Yeah. So I wanted to speak on affordable housing. They said this is an affordable housing project. I wanna know is it at what percentage of affordable housing? How many units are gonna be at 30% or below?

Because that's really what's needed in affordable housing. If we do affordable housing at fifty, sixty, 80%, that's not gonna be enough for the people in the low income district to be able to afford to be able to live in D3. We So really need to start thinking about what are our we have a lot of housing units that were way behind, think 36,000, I mean correct me if I'm wrong, I don't care, but we all need to know, how many of these units are gonna be at 30% or less, That's true affordable housing and that's what we need. We got people on fixed income, our percentage of homelessness in California is elderly, elderly is the highest growing percentage of homelessness in the state of California. Here in Fresno, California, we have had a 49% rise in homelessness over the past five years.

In just the past year, we've had another 12% rise in homelessness, and these are elderly because they are on fixed income and they're being out, put out. And also, I didn't hear about a covenant, is there a covenant on the affordable housing, like fifty five year covenant to protect individuals, or who's gonna own it? Are you guys gonna own it, or is it gonna belong to the state or the city? Are we using any state funding, are we using tax credit, are we using any federal funding? These are very important questions because if we are, there's a lot more questions to be asked than just this.

To have 13 units, I don't know, I don't know who that's gonna help, we need more than that, we do. I appreciate them trying, but if it's not at 30%, if it's not, doesn't have a covenant to protect us to keep the rent at that rate, then we're gonna be losing out. We're just gonna be giving over property to individuals that come in to feed us a good affordable housing line, and then in a few years, they're, you know, they own it. They own the property, and this is the problem that we're having now with the funding. With state funding, HHAP, Homekey, Homekey Plus, Encampment Resolution Funds, Emergency Solutions Grants, we're having a lot of problems with all these grants.

Right now, we're on a federal cut, so I would really really think about what is being called affordable housing, how many units are really affordable at 30% or less, because that's what D3 needs. We don't need apartment complexes that are gonna run 1,200, thirteen hundred, fifteen hundred, we have a lot of elderly that want to stay in the district, and they should be allowed to. That's where they were raised, that's where they grew up, those are the schools they went to, why can't they stay there? Just because they're on fixed income doesn't mean they should have to move into a apartment complex that has 258 young individuals, like we really need to think about affordable housing being affordable.

Thank you. Do we I'll I'll allow you some time to answer some of these questions. Okay? Do we have another individual who'd like to speak in opposition? Please state your name, address, and

opposition. But was it I saw that the city presented on it and it seemed like an individual, maybe someone from the community. So I was kind of interested in maybe I should take more time since it's okay. It's my fault. But whether this is like there's what money's behind this and so I guess I'll just listen to her.

Any other individuals who would like to speak in opposition? Alright. So I'll go ahead and close the public, the public comments. You and Israel, you wanna answer some of these questions first?

Yes. I'd like to, discuss some of the the issues that were raised today. First, start with with the noticing. So, as mister Woodward mentioned, we did, notice, property owners as well as tenants, within a thousand feet of the subject property. And we also provide notice, on the City of Fresno website.

So, regarding, if this project is affordable, so the the pro the applicant has not requested any concessions, pursuant to, like, an affordable project. So there are no, state or federal funds or city funds that are, proposed as part of this project. It's private development, which meets the requirements, of the development code. And the the applicant mentioned that it's affordable. That's that's more of like a term of art, meaning it's affordable, you know, for the area. But it's not a covenanted affordable housing project.

Okay. Thank you. Do we have the applicant? Do you wanna address some of these questions that the public went ahead and brought up to?

When I say affordable, I wanna give a few examples. So this is my second project in West Fresno. My first project, there was very very rarely a turnover. Most of my tenants either died out of my apartments or moved to because they could then afford a home. Typically the going rate for apartments is $18.95, my apartment stayed at 900 for a three bedroom for many many years.

I didn't, I probably raised my rent three times in about fourteen to fifteen years, and those were I had two bedrooms and three bedrooms. That apartment complex was only sold because it was for, I had to sell it because I was getting a divorce. Otherwise, that was my plan to keep them for a lifetime, that I named them after my mother, they were supposed to be there, unfortunately, due to divorce, I had to sell them. These apartments will be with me, I am a private owner, there are no covenants, there are no governmental tax credits or anything that I've received for the first project, nor will it be for this project. So again, when I say affordable, my, the apartments are still there, everyone that started with me for the most part stayed there because they were so affordable.

But what

is affordable?

Affordable ease.

Let's go ahead let's make sure that On a three bedroom My apologies. $100 Let's go ahead and for

three bedroom. So 950 Let's go ahead and three bedroom.

I'm just gonna have you address us.

Oh, Just I'm so that

I'm fine. Yeah, you're

fine. So $950 for a three bedroom is substantially lower than most rents. When we eventually raised the rent, we went to $11.50 and then $13.50 again on a three bedroom. So for the most part it it it stayed very very affordable.

You know, the these these ladies, they always attend a lot of the meetings and very you know, they always have that big concern about not being included in some of these conversations too. Have you, I know it might not be a requirement, but have you had any kind of community outreach to that area too?

I've spoken to the young lady, I can't think of her name, Debbie, Debbie, who is a part of the commission as well, who had extensive questions about, raised several questions about me staying in the community, how long was I gonna be there, who was very aware of the last project, they were very happy with the project, and how it was cared for, how it was treated. One of the things I shared with them and is that most of our community that knows me have an affinity for how I keep my apartments, how I take care of the people in my

apartments. Questions? Go ahead.

May you please inform me how much are you thinking about? Like how much rent would you wanna charge? I mean the rents they have skyrocketed. I mean, and and even affordability, even for the builders, everything has gone up. Even your cost of building Oh. Apartment is probably, I don't know. Could that maybe tripled right after COVID. So so a lot of things inflation is eating up a lot

of

things.

Mhmm.

So how much rent are you thinking? Approximately, please?

I'm thinking I haven't done the math specifically on what my private loan will be with the bank. But my thought was about 1,500 to 1,600.

Thank you.

So, and again, three bedroom, three bath, excuse me, two bath car garages, there's no additional cost for garages and things like that, And most departments have additional cost for pretty much everything.

Any other questions? Thank you.

Mhmm.

Appreciate it. We'll bring her back to the commissioners. Do we have any additional questions for the applicant, for the city, for the staff? Any comments? No.

I just have a comment about we're always like complaining about, like we don't have enough housing, there's a shortage of housing, or there's a particular area that's getting a lot of development. I'm actually excited that there is development in West Fresno. I mean, I I don't live too far away from that area. I mean, I'm literally about, I would say seven to eight minutes away. My house is about eight minutes away from there.

So there is a development in the area. Families who stay in the area, they'll have an opportunity of people who wanna move into the area. They'll have that opportunity as well. Mean, $1,500 rent in today's market, consider it consider it very affordable. And Fresno is, I would say, one of the last fort standing in California on affordability. So, I would like to support this project.

Okay. And with that being said, we have any motions from the commissioners?

Make a motion to recommend adoption of the environmental assessment number P2404502 and approve the conditional use permit application number P2404502.

I'll second it.

Alright. So we have a motion by vice chair Bray. We have a second by commissioner Scherger. For this one right here because we have four individuals, let's go ahead and take individual votes on this.

Commissioner Scherger.

Yes. Commissioner Calandra. Yes. Vice Chair Bray.

Yes.

Chair Vang.

Yes. Passes. Motion's approved. Thank you. Alright. Next, we have reports. Any reports from the secretary?

Yeah. Chair, appreciate the opportunity in the last couple of meetings to do some trainings. We don't have one tonight. We will resend out our findings workshop from a few weeks ago just to make sure that we're reviewing the municipal code findings as we make determinations and not considering additional information that's outside of the code for us to consider. So we'll resend that out.

But I anticipate that we'll see some additional trainings in the next few meetings. If you have any specific issues or items that you'd like to work on from the development code, please let us know. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. Do we have any unscheduled oral communications? Please state your name, address, and you have three minutes.

My name is Brunette and I'm with HEAT. And this is the problem that I have with this particular board. You guys are studying agreeing to stuff and we telling you we don't want it. And I don't know where you live, I don't know where he lives, but the point is this is Southwest Fresno. This is West Fresno.

All our people are elderly people. A thousand dollars is a lot in their pocket. That's just about all that they get talking about social security. But obviously, this board do not care because the point is it has to do with people that don't have. Because you have, they don't have that in Southwest Fresno.

And we've been up here complaining and it's it doesn't seem to be doing any good, so it has to be at a federal level because this doesn't make any sense. It doesn't matter because you live across town, you can afford to live over there. They stay in West Fresno because of the cost of living is low. They cannot afford this. And everybody that comes up here that wanna do something in West Fresno, you guys are agreeing to it.

She talking about Deb Darden. Deb Darden is on the board that we don't even see Deb Darden. We know her name, but we don't see her. We're not included, and we keep telling you guys that. You are either a board that cares because we are here to tell you, and I'm quite sure some of you know the condition of West Fresno.

$1,500 is a lot, but if you got a person that sits on this board and he can afford to help our community with their rent, he needs to do that. We're tired of it. Because you feel good about it, you stay across town, you make money, they do not do that. Elderly people are taking care their grandkids and everybody else's kids. They can't afford that.

Like I would say, what's going on there now, we didn't have anything to do with it. We got the planning commission running their mouth, they don't even meet with us. They meet with developers and whatever they want, but it's going to stop because if federal dollars have to be shut down in this city, that what has to happen. Because our voices don't mean anything. You come here, you vote, and we're telling you if you if you live in Southwest Fresno, you would understand that, but you don't. You live across town and it doesn't matter to you, not yet, but it will.

Do we have any other unscheduled oral communications? Please state your name, address and you have three minutes.

Yeah. I I wanna, you know, second everything that she says. There's a lot of people that are in the city and the community that come to all these meetings, and it's very frustrating. You guys don't make us feel like we are even apart because, know, thank you guys for looking at us because city council doesn't do that. But I really want people to not just hear us, but listen to us, hear what we're saying.

Like, the words do matter. People are put in that position up there on the diocese because they're trusting people to make the decisions, and at least, you know, ask more questions, know, show us that you actually care. I mean, people come on, look what time it is. You know, I spent all day in a mud field trying to protect 20 people from being arrested because they have no other place to go. And here I am at night because I care about my community, I care about what's being brought into the community, and I care about the property that is just being utilized, that's gonna be capitalized on later.

$900 sounds good to me, that sounds great, even today, but 1,500, 1,800, I'm sorry, she's absolutely right. There's a lot of elderly and they wanna stay in their district and they have every right to just like that other lady does, but I mean, I think she should know that everybody on fixed income, I mean, that's way out of the price range. So creating more homelessness because the cost of rent, which might be good for you, sir, because I don't know where you live, but it's definitely not close to that area, 1,500 is a lot. Maybe not for you, I don't know what you guys make in your job, but here in Fresno, the minimum wage isn't that big and a lot of people are on fixed income because they are retired and disabled and stuff, so I think you guys should really be paying more attention to the people that come up here, and thank you for asking the questions, that was great to hear you guys ask questions even after we came up here, so I appreciate that, but we really want you guys to listen to us and have more meetings, like where's the traffic study, where's the CEQA, where's all this stuff that people are requesting when it goes into building stuff like that.

A simple presentation to the community seems like this is already in the bag, they're already gonna do it, we just have to pass through the district, then and we have to pass through the planning committee, and then we gotta pass through the city council. It's like the cat's in the bag, let us know, because then we'd rather be sitting at home watching TV or something instead of sitting here, coming down here, driving down here, but you guys are still charging for parking, so come on, it's unfair that we come down here if you guys are just gonna let us talk for three minutes and not really listen to what we're saying and at least take the time instead of just passing everything. It sounded like you guys already had it passed, really, cause you voted so quick, it was like it was passed before you guys even thought about it. That's scary. I thought these meetings were for us to come and speak up and ask questions, and at least have you guys interested into learning a little bit more.

Maybe you know more about the project than we do. You know? Maybe that's why you guys don't have questions. Maybe you know? I'm just saying.

Alright. Do we have any other individuals who would like to speak? Please state your name, address, and you have three minutes, miss.

My name is Bobby, and I live in Southwest Fresno. And I am in I am in opposition. Excuse my voice. But I just wanna say the lady that was in reference to this v three, your ID 26Dash16 3. She mentioned that she had spoken to a lady.

The lady that was mentioned, she's on this on the Southwest Pacific project, the steering committee. And the thing is that, like it's been stated, we do not have community meetings. There are no community inputs, but the cost of living is extremely difficult. Our community is a multi multiracial committee community, but the people that are living over there are quite elderly. You got people who have retired, people who are about to retire, and they are and they are gonna be on fixed incomes.

But the thing is that, again, when you make a statement and that you are saying, yeah, that's good, that's a good price and this type of thing, but just like Brene mentioned, the cost of living, and when you're on a fixed income, is set. When, there are raises and things, there are no raises on their checks. Everything stays the same. The cost of living is, quite ridiculous, but they are constantly taking money out of our community. Federal dollars do come in, but it's not allocated back into our community.

It's put into their special budgets and things, and the money do not go into West Fresno. It goes into what they call citywide, and it goes all over the city. But we are the cash cow. We are the cash cow that brings money into Fresno, but West Fresno has been denied. It's a sad thing, but karma is good.

Because when you mess with people that are struggling, you also have to make an an an understanding that there's a consequences. When you make a commitment, when you say that you will be fair and judge righteously for the people, you have to understand because when you say in god, we trust.

Thank you. Do we have any other individuals who'd like to speak? Can I please state your name and address? You have three minutes.

I was just gonna say, I guess, is that when you guys make decisions, like, if this were, maybe people get comfortable because this really isn't your money. Like, if you were making decisions and you were going to get sued personally, you would do your due diligence and read more about what you are doing, trust me, because if it meant that you would be taken away from your family or your kids or your grandkids, you could be sued and because you guys are very comfortable behind this thinking, oh, okay, the city gets sued. Right? You want but it's okay for the city to get sued because obviously, the city's been in litigation quite some time because of bad decisions made from people standing up there also. So if you were to get sued individually, trust me, you would be reading this a lot more.

So don't think you can make decisions.

Excuse me. I take offense

at that.

You should.

Because I do read Yeah. Should. Kalandra.

That's alright.

We'll get out

of your feelings. I we take offense too.

No. Go ahead. Go ahead and keep what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and log in

have what I'm saying,

though. Okay.

So Alright.

Thank you. Alright. Any other unscheduled oral communications? Alright. I see 9 is 06:38. Have a wonderful evening. Meeting is adjourned.