Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, 6 o'clock. Go ahead and call this meeting to order. Uh, can we get a roll call? Sorry about that. Commissioner Global. Hi. Commissioner Jammu absent. Commissioner Morales.

Hi. Commissioner Perez present. Chairperson Condit here.

All right. Can you join me in the pledge of allegiance? All right, moving on to election of chairperson and vice chair uh chairperson. Is there anyone on the planning commission that would like to nominate uh for chair or vice chair? I know R.J.'s not here, but um we can go ahead and move forward with this if anybody has any uh nominations.

Uh I'll nominate you for chair. Okay. Any vice chair? Want to keep it the same or I think that sounds good. Okay. All right. So we will uh nominate myself and commissioner Jammu for vice chair. Get a first second. Okay, got a first and a second. Roll call.

Commissioner Global. Yes. Commissioner Morales. Yes.

Commissioner Perez. Hi. Chairperson Condit. Hi. All right, moving on to citizens communications. Uh, while the planning commission welcomes and encourages participation in planning commission meetings, adopted rules allow no more than 5 minutes for expression of non-aggenda items, matters under the jurisdiction of the series planning commission and not on the posted agenda may be addressed by the general public. However, California law prohibits the planning commission from taking action on any matter which is not on the posted agenda unless it is determined to be an emergency by the planning commission. Citizens are entitled to address the planning commission on any agenda item subject to the 5minute provision. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to um have public comment? See none. Any emails or anybody on Zoom? Uh, nobody on Zoom, but we do have one email.

And I'll read it into record.

Okay. Okay. Okay, this email is from Annie Montgomery. Please read my email message into the record during the consent calendar public comment portion of the February 2nd planning commission meeting. I would like to recommend that a revision be made to the draft minutes from the December 15th, 2025 planning commission meeting, agenda item three. In the adjournment section on page five, it indicates that the next scheduled city council meeting will be held on February 2nd, 2026. It should read the next scheduled planning commission meeting. See attached. Also, this correction will need to be made to the previously approved minutes from the planning commission meetings of August 18th, 2025, September 15, 2025, and November 17th, 2025. See attached. In the future, I suggest that the minutes be carefully proof read prior to including them in the agenda packets for consideration by the planning commission. Thank you for your attention to this matter. and Montgomery, former administrative secretary to the planning commission.

All right. And Fallon, that'll be reflected in the next uh consent calendar, right? Just as far as those corrections go.

Those corrections can just be made administratively. They don't need to come before uh the planning commission to have those corrections made. Okay, perfect. Ann's always looking out for us, so got to stay on top of it. All right. Any other uh public comments? No, that was it.

Okay. All right. We'll go ahead and close citizens communication. Moving on to conflict of interest. Is there anyone on the planning commission that would like to declare a conflict of interest on any item listed on the agenda? Seeing none, go ahead and move on. Consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendar are considered routine in nature and will be enacted by a single motion unless otherwise requested by an individual commissioner or the public for special consideration. Otherwise, the recommendation of staff will be accepted and acted upon by roll call vote. Is there anyone on the commission that would like a consent item pulled? See none. Anybody in the public? No. Um, and this does include the green sheet on the consent calendar. All right. Well, with that, I'll make a motion to approve items 1, two, and three on the consent calendar. Looking for a second.

I'll second. All right. Got a first and a second. Can we get a roll call? Commissioner Global. I. Commissioner Morales. Hi. Hi, Commissioner Perez. Hi, Chairperson Condit. Hi. All righty. Moving on to public hearings. Turn this over to the cit uh city attorney.

Good evening, commission. Congratulations to the new appointees. I'd first like to start by apologizing for uh our last planning commission meeting. We had a bit of a technical difficulty. Um so hopefully we'll get through it tonight here. I'll just wait for this presentation to pull up. Looks good there. Do you want me to ask you for next slide or what's the best? They're clear. Okay. All right. We can get started here. Um, so before you tonight is a consideration of a resolution that recommends the city account the city council adopt an ordinance relating to the city's zoning and that's required by state law for the planning commission to make that recommendation. So that's what we're here doing tonight. Next slide whenever you're ready. There you go. And you could go one more as well. Okay. So, um, like I said, this is part of the update to the city's cannabis, uh, regulations. And so, this is has sort of three steps to it, and we're we're at the bottom step right now. The other two haven't been completed. This is actually going to be the first thing that's getting through. Um, so this is adding the the cannabis conditional use permits. The other one is setting the the cannabis business tax rate, and the other one is is actually updating what is currently the pilot program. So these three are going to be uh all happening all together and they will be relying on one another. So some of the information you'll see in the ordinance tonight uh references that new chapter 5.22. So there may be some discrepancies in without having that

document but that's what's happening there. Next slide please. So currently the city uh uses the development agreements and the cannabis business permits for zoning of the cannabis businesses. There is not a requirement for conditional use permits which is kind of an abnormal thing. So uh the current zones in which cannabis businesses are located are in plan community 50 and industrial park which is basically light industrial. You can next slide please. And so the proposed cannabis business entitlements under these new regulations are going to include a cannabis conditional use permit to fill that void of not having a conditional use permit. The other two um entitlements are going to be uh the develop the development agreement which is basically a contract between the city and the the business operator and then a city business license which is ministerial. So but we're focusing just on the conditional use permit here tonight. Next slide please. So, uh, just an overview of what this ordinance does. Um, it's can be broken down into essentially four parts. The application process, the conditions of approval that you require on these permits, uh, how the city can revoke them, and uh, what zones they're going to be in. And so, the the zoning portion is going to be in different chapters of the uh, municipal code because those impact the different zonings related the zones related to the ordinance. Next slide, please. So, quick overview of the applications. Uh, it's it's going to use the same procedure as a conditional use permit. So, you guys are going to be the approval authority here. Um, but it is going to use the information coming from the cannabis business program. So, they're going to sort of take that information and provide it to you all with with any other additional information required for the zoning portion of things. Uh from the cannabis side, you're going to see those

background checks, indemnification agreements, and the fee agreements. Uh so the background checks give you a little bit more security on the application process. Uh th those will be just fingerprinting and submission to the police department. Next slide, please. So conditions of approval are really the meat of what you're doing here. And this is what you're going to be requiring uh the businesses and and how you're going to be restricting their operating. So these are the basic ones, right? Uh you got to maintain all your state and local licenses, comply with state law, and uh pay your your taxes. And so these might seem basic, but it's it's important to recite them so you have that ability to revoke those permits when something like this is violated. So, I know it might seem a little redundant, but these are foundational uh and and that's what we've been working on an eye towards is enforcement and really being able to uh bring enforcement actions in all situations uh because it can be pretty difficult if you have ambiguity in the code. Next slide, please. So, the more specific uh conditions of approval and the ones more pointed towards cannabis businesses um in their unique market of cannabis would be uh the ones listed here. And so what we've proposed is uh an applicant would submit sort of their operating plans with each one of these types um of business operations addressed and then from there the council can review those operational requirements impose them as conditions of approval and uh you know proceed from there. This you you might think, well, this is these are what conditional use per permits do anyway, so why are we codifying it? But it's import this is basically what you're saying that you want future planning commissions to check on when they're entitling cannabis businesses. So, these are things that you might discuss changing a bit. You

look in the code um that's was drafted and there's some detailed provisions. A lot of those are taken from state law. There's other ones that are less detailed. So, that's a decision that you guys can think about. Think about changing what you'd like to see. Like I said, it's nice to be brief and streamlined, but to have those extra things in the code really give you that flexibility when it comes to enforcement. Uh, next slide, please. So, speaking of enforcement, the main enforcement for these permits is is revocation, right? And when you revoke that permit, then the business has to stop operating. Um what we've done to kind of have one step before that or two steps before that are including administration administrative citations. So um violations of these conditional use permits will be subject to administrative citations with their own fee schedule. So you can issue like a $500 or $1,000 fine. Try to get compliance uh from the operator before shutting them down because that is a fairly drastic step. And finally, um, with our new development agreements, we've been, uh, implementing a suspension procedure, so you'll be able to suspend them before you revoke it. Uh, but generally that's what enforcement is going to look like. Uh, and then one more slide, please. Uh, and so these are going to be the proposed zones in which cannabis conditional use permits are permitted um by approval from the planning commission. uh these cover the existing zones and a few zones that uh staff thought would be would make sense for the use. So again, something that you guys might consider changing. And last slide, please. So this is just sort of an overview of what we did and uh things that you might think about changing or discussing um in your recommendation to the city council. So open for any questions.

Thank you guys. All righty. Thank you. Uh, any questions from the commission off the bat for city attorney? Julian, I I think I have a question for you on uh section D of this uh res uh resolution here. Uh planned community. Uh what does that look like? as far as the zoning goes.

So in our land use, we do have some developments that are specifically planned community. So very specific to development standards. So these areas would be specific to allowing cannabis to go into those areas. So we have some industrial areas that are PCED. We have commercial ECED. So they're very specific uh standards, development standards outside of our regular standards for development. And that was included because there's two current businesses in in in those right now. Right. Got it. So for consistency and for clarification, we have how many cannabis businesses? There's currently three operating.

Okay. And there's not a limit as far as how many can operate? Uh, no. That's being considered by the city council when they're implementing the business regulations. So,

okay. Well, I'll go ahead and open it up to the public. Uh, if there's any members of the public that would like to comment on this uh item. Good evening, commissioners. John Warren, city of Sirius. Um, thank you for allowing us uh the opportunity to speak this evening. This is a serious consideration. I know that the current uh cannabis is under a study program temporary for several years now. Um, I think it does need to have a sec secure set of rules. And I was curious about the answer with planned community. Are there any residential housing areas within a planned community zoning?

I Yes.

Okay. Then if that's the case, I would request that plan community not be a area where a marijuana dispensary business could establish itself. Um I think those types of businesses should be outside of residential areas away from schools and things like that, churches, uh where young people could gather. Um the gateway center which is a industrial highway um community zone area would be a place where you might find a business that uh doesn't mix with residential. Also um in the security conditions it says the surveillance recordings of uh everything that takes place in a cannibis business shall be maintained for a minimum of 90 days and I think that's too short a period of time. I would recommend that the length of retention on those be the same thing as the statute of limitations for any crime that those cameras could observe. uh penal code violations, health and safety code violations, municipal code violations, whatever the length of time it is for the uh a statute of limitations, whether it's 5 years or seven years that someone might want to come back and look at that information and see if that actually took place. I know it's a bit uh maybe a difficulty thing for the business itself to store something that long. But here again, uh if we're going to allow them to do business in our community, they need to follow the

rules. And if they're designed to see what happens in that business, the purpose of the camera is to make sure that crimes are not committed in that in that building or around that building. So these uh tapes and these recordings should be stored for at least the length of what the statute of limitations would be for any crime that they might observe. And other than that, I think uh uh it's something that is needed. I know the cannabis folks in this community owe the city uh well over a million dollars that hasn't been collected in the fees that they're supposed to be paying. and enforcement is difficult and so I think this is the type of thing that will strengthen that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Warren. Anybody else for public comment? Anybody on Zoom?

And nobody on Zoom wishes to speak. Okay, go ahead and close the public comment period. Bring it back to the commission for further questions. uh city attorney, just as far as the uh time length goes goes as for the security cameras, any thoughts on that? So, the 90 days is this uh state law minimum. Um you could extend it. Uh I don't I don't know as though we've seen a lot of enforcement actions using those cameras. So, I it seemed like the city law was reasonable, but it's your discretion.

Okay. And then as far as the zoning goes, um I did kind of have a similar thought as Mr. Warren. Uh and I understand the two two existing we have are already in that um zone. Um so, if we did change that, obviously the city council could overrule us. Um but how would that affect the current um businesses that are operating in that zone? They'd be prior non-conforming uses. I we wouldn't be able to have the grounds to revoke their permits. It would get they're kind of grandfathered in at that point. Correct.

Yeah. It it'll get a little sticky once you start to uh renegotiate the development agreements and the city will probably have to acquies to but there's their current zone. But yeah. Okay. Um, as for there's some state law um, requirements um, as terms to how close you can be to a residential building and I I believe it's 600 ft um, from the cannabis disensory to a house. It it may be more. There's also some there's also a thousand foot limit from schools and other places where children will congregate like playgrounds and things like that. Do you happen to know if the two existing uh, meet that requirement?

They do. Yeah, they're in industrial areas that that the the issue with the plan community is that there's a lot of appropriate areas and there's also some inappropriate areas. So, with the conditional use permit, this the planning commission will be able to site those and we'll be able to, you know, use its discretion in permitting it at a specific location within plan. Okay. Any other questions from commissioners? Go ahead and look for a motion to approve then. Motion to approve.

I You want to second it? B. You want to second the Okay. So, we got a first and a second. You want to repeat that? Just repeat your second. I second. Okay, we got a first and a second. Can we get a roll call? Commissioner Global. Hi, Commissioner Morales. Hi, Commissioner Perez.

I chairperson cond. Alrighty, moving on to unfinished business, none. New business, none matters initiated by the planning commission. None reports. Anybody got any new reports? Just want to welcome the two new uh planning commissioners. Uh looking forward to serving with you both. City attorney, thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you guys for having me. No technical issues tonight. All righty. We we'll go ahead and adjourn to our next uh planning commission meeting on February 17th at 6