Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

all right good evening welcome to the planning commission meeting of monday september 14th 2026. i now call the meeting to order uh tonight commissioner rojas will be leading us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands

under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Turan, will you please do the voice roll call?

OKAY. WE HAVE NO ANNOUNCEMENTS OR PRESENTATIONS THIS EVENING WHICH TAKES US TO PUBLIC COMMENTS. THESE ARE FOR PUBLIC COMMENTS WILL BE HEARD ON ITEMS THAT ARE NOT LISTED ON THE AGENDA BUT ARE WITHIN OUR JURISDICTION. IF YOU'D LIKE TO SPEAK PLEASE COME TO EITHER PODIUM AND IF YOU'RE PARTICIPATING BY ZOOM USE THE RAISE HAND OPTION OR IF YOU'RE PARTICIPATING BY PHONE PLEASE PRESS STAR 9. ANYBODY IN CHAMBERS WISH TO SPEAK? WE'RE VERY TOP HEAVY ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE CHAMBERS TODAY. OKAY. LAST CHANCE. ALL RIGHT. MR. RON, DO WE HAVE ANYBODY ON ZOOM OR PHONE?

OKAY. I WILL CLOSE PUBLIC COMMENTS. THAT TAKES US TO PLANNING COMMISSIONER COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS. LET'S START TO MY RIGHT, COMMISSIONER ROJAS.

Yes, Barktoberfest is coming up on October 17th, which falls on a weekend. It'll be 11 to 2 at T. Winkle Park. I volunteered at this event last year, and it's a lot of fun. People come dressed in costumes with their dogs, and they do a parade. And there's also a Costa Mesa PD canine demonstration, which is very interesting. And there's adoptions and a mobile vaccine clinic as well. So I highly recommend that.

Yes, I'm catching up on the city of Costa Mesa's Instagram. So many great activities, as Commissioner Klipek shared. One of the ones that I'm looking forward to is the September 19 Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. It's going to kick off at 10 a.m. with some Pilates. So come and join us. Enjoy some great food, some great performances and the diverse cultures that are here in our city.

right commissioner dixon it's a pretty full agenda so hold off tonight okay thank you commissioner martinez of course that won't stop me um yes so uh there's a council meeting tomorrow a lot of different planning commission items on there they have a bind they have actually two binders ours is this thick and both of theirs are that thick so if you're interested in attending their meeting that is tomorrow 6 p.m Commissioner Andrade mentioned the Saturday Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at Lyons Park. While you're there, you can also visit ArtVenture at the Norma Herzog Community Center. The

OKAY. NOTHING FROM ME THIS EVENING. THAT TAKES US TO OUR CONSENT CALENDAR. WE HAVE ONE ITEM ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR TONIGHT, THE AUGUST 10, 2026 UNOFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES. ALL MATTERS UNDER THE CONSENT CALENDAR ARE CONSIDERED TO BE ROUTINE AND WILL BE ACTED ON IN ONE MOTION UNLESS THE ITEM HAS BEEN PULLED. MS. TRAN, HAS ANYBODY ASKED THE ITEM TO BE PULLED?

OKAY. WE HAVE A MOTION BY COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ, SECOND BY COMMISSIONER DIXON. LET'S CALL FOR THE QUESTION.

WE HAVE THREE PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS TONIGHT. MR. RON, WILL YOU PLEASE READ THE TITLE FOR PUBLIC HEARING ITEM

Commissioner, do we have any ex parte communications to report? All right. Okay. All right. I will turn it over to Mr. Villalobos.

OK. Thank you very much, Mr. Villalobos. Commissioners, any questions of staff? Commissioner Martinez.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll start with the conditions of approval. Actually, my only questions are on the conditions of approval. So starting with handwritten page 58. Handwritten, whatever. Condition of approval number five. is on the windows for the climbing wall area. And it says that they shall be tinted or obscures to minimize light pollution. However, we also have them doing a lighting plan and photometric study in condition of approval number 13. So why have them do tinted or obscured windows if we don't yet know what the light pollution impacts would be?

So but we don't know what the light pollution impact will be? Not currently, no. OK. So maybe that's a conditional condition. OK. Conditions 8 and 11 are on landscaping. And they both say that the landscape plans will meet the requirements of our municipal code. However, this is a legal non-conforming site. So I wanted to first check that they're not going to meet the code once they're done with the project. So should these conditions meet the requirements of these code sections, or IS THAT PROPERLY WORDED?

That is the code, right? That's the code section that says that you can go further in conformance with to get to what our code says. But in our conditions, it says that they have to meet it.

Thank you. And condition of approval number 16 starts by saying, show method of screening for all ground-mounted equipment.

I'm assuming that it should read something like the plans should show the method of screening for all ground-mounted equipment. I'm assuming that's just something left off of a copy-paste, but I would be willing to be corrected.

It was great to have a comparison of Mercado next to what this project will be and also the property that were approved not too long ago in the same mall. So I'm going with this is clearly going to bring a nice increase of traffic and movement to this area. Are there opportunities to kind of meet forecasting that need and meeting accessibility to improve the walkability in that area, because that intersection is heavily trafficked, to work with city staff or public works to make a, I don't know what the proper name is, but an X intersection where folks can go four ways. Do you know what I mean

So is that something we can incorporate in in the approval process just again kind of maximizing opportunity here because again we have such a now we're going to have such a diverse that this is going to feel like a downtown right. We got a you can go food shopping you can get a cell phone you can go climb a wall.

Right. Any other questions. Commissioner Andrade, are you done? Okay, Vice Chair Zick.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Villalobos, for your report. Could you refresh my memory as to the rationale for staff's recommendation for the 40-foot high height to accommodate the climbing wall? What's the rationale for recommending approval of that?

Is that a subjective determination or do you have some guideline of distance or sight line that you use for that?

So if they needed more than 40 feet, your view would probably be that that would be okay?

Okay. And then on the criteria for the 50-feet storefront facade, the indication is that the project must demonstrate a special circumstance applicable to the property. And you're, if I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying that special circumstance is the fact that the building is 530 feet away from Harbor. Is that what I'm understanding you to say? Correct. Okay. So could you go to slide two of your presentation? Thank you. I'm gonna ask you a couple hypotheticals, so those are a little harder, maybe a little less fair to ask you, but if you could help me with the understanding. If we

Actually the climbing wall itself would not necessitate a variance under the new code But the facade but the facade still would okay and the indication on page five and you referenced it in the staff report or the presentation Was that there are other properties in the vicinity? That apparently go at least 250 feet which properties were those specifically and

So both Northgate and Home Depot have signage or a facade that goes up at least 50 feet?

I have not reviewed the conditional use permit public hearings for either of those projects to determine the rationale for an approval for variances for them. What I do know, and you can help enlighten me about this, is that those approvals don't set a precedent for other properties, that this kind of a variance is a determination unique to the property. So the mere fact that these other properties north of Wilson have this variance in and of itself would not justify a variance here. Would you agree with that statement?

THAT'S A GOOD ANSWER. I LIKE THAT ANSWER. YEAH, I'LL JUST LEAVE IT AT THAT. THANK YOU.

ANY FINAL QUESTIONS OF STAFF, COMMISSIONER ANDRADE?

FINAL QUESTION. I APPRECIATE THE LANDSCAPING DETAIL. I KNOW COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ COVERED SOME OF THAT. Safe to assume these are all natives that are going along Wilson. I was curious if at all in the application I know in the in the report you know we get some pictures of what it currently what the College Avenue looks like currently and I guess what's going to be changed there but I don't see any landscaping recommendations for the side along College Avenue. Any thoughts, feedback? Because right now it's just a very sad and bare. I used to live along Avocado Street. So yeah, it would be real

YEAH BECAUSE IF WE'RE LOOKING AT THE MODELS AND I THINK THIS IS THE SIDE THAT IT WOULD BE I THINK IT'S PAGE 80 OF THE of the models that we're getting. Again, even right now, that wall at home is just a bare gray wall. Maybe it's an entrance for storage or for large items or whatever. And there's very few trees along that area or landscaping, if at all. So yeah, we definitely would love an opportunity to discuss maybe with the applicant to consider additional landscaping along College Avenue. Thank you.

Thank you. ALL RIGHT. IF THERE'S NO FURTHER QUESTIONS OF STAFF, I'LL OPEN PUBLIC HEARING AND ASK THE APPLICANT OR THE APPLICANT'S REPRESENTATIVE TO COME TO THE PODIUM. LET ME GET YOUR MIC SET UP. AND IF YOU COULD STATE YOUR NAME FOR THE RECORD AND I HAVE TWO QUESTIONS. FIRST, HAVE YOU READ THE STAFF REPORT AND CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL AND SECONDLY, DO YOU AGREE TO THOSE?

Thank you. Commissioners, any questions of the applicants? Vice Chair Zick.

Thank you. I've got a couple. Don, thank you for being here and for standing in for others in your team. You mentioned community being one of the pillars. I've got a question about that. But first of all, is the Dick's store in Hindson Beach a house of sport or a Dick's sporting good?

Relative to the priority you put on that community pillar, does it make a difference?

Can you explain a little bit about what kind of community interaction or benefit that Huntington Beach store has done with that local Huntington Beach community?

I thought that might be the case, okay. I'm gonna ask you another question that I know you won't have the answer to, but I have to ask it anyway. I think you're familiar, if you read the staff report, that the city cannot require you to provide a minimum amount of parking, seems to be adequate parking, but you realize we can't require you to provide a minimum amount of parking because of AB 2097. My question for you is, of all the customers you expect to visit that location, what percentage of those customers would you expect would show up on bus?

Okay. Any other questions of Mr. Alexander? Commissioner Andrade.

Looks like a really exciting opportunity for our city. So thank you for considering and doing business in Costa Mesa. So as you heard me earlier asking about, I mean, you're the architect, so tell me about your beautification plans along College Avenue.

Is that what you're... Screen some of the building, add again beautification to this part of the neighborhood would be wonderful. Maybe there are some existing trees, but I know there's a clause in here that you may remove some trees for X, Y reason. Can you expand additional landscaping? I mean, again, as I mentioned, I would actually advocate for an X cross street right on Wilson and Harbor because, again, it's so heavily trafficked on foot. I mean, this is my neighborhood. I'm like walking distance here. it would definitely create a welcome opportunity for neighbors to just walk right over.

Yeah, yeah. Definitely. So it's a great opportunity to also work on your backside, okay, on College Avenue. Wonderful. Thank you.

All right, Mr. Alexander, I'll give you an opportunity. Oh, sorry, Commissioner Martinez.

Yes. I just wanted to ask about windows, since you're the architect. Obscured or tinted windows for the climbing wall area? I noticed on your climbing wall slide, it looked pretty transparent. You could see in from the outside. You could see out from the inside. Is that also the intent of... this one that you'd be able to see in and out and how would tinted or obscured windows affect the vision?

All right. Mr. Alexander, I'll give you an opportunity to speak after public comment if you'd like to respond to any questions or concerns.

As I noted, the – I meant after we hear from the public. Oh, sorry. You'll have an opportunity. Okay. Thank you. I'll now open public comments. If anyone would like to speak on this item, please come to either podium. And if you're joining by Zoom, use the raise hand option, or by phone, please press star nine. All right, you have the floor.

All right, Ms. Duran, do we have anybody on Zoom or by phone?

I'm going to close public comments. Commissioners, any further questions of staff?

Yeah, really quick. I don't know if stated if I've missed this in the report, but in the presentation you talked about CLOSE TO 2,000 HIRES, IS THAT CORRECT? OR THE NUMBER OF HIRES IN THE SLIDE. OR MAYBE THAT WAS THE APPLICANT'S PRESENTATION. OKAY. BUT WE DON'T HAVE ANY INSIGHT OF HIRING LOCAL, ALL THAT GOOD STUFF AS PART OF THE APPLICATION. OKAY. SO THAT'S A QUESTION FOR THE APPLICANT.

MR. ALEXANDER, IF YOU WOULD MIND COMING BACK UP TO THE PODIUM.

CAN WE GO BACK A COUPLE OF SLIDES? THERE WE GO. I THINK, YEAH, RIGHT THERE. OKAY, TWO TIMES, OKAY. So yeah, my question is opportunities. How are we, what is the hiring strategy plan to hopefully provide some employment to local co-submissions? I can see a lot of our maybe college youth, high school youth that is ready to get excited on a first retail opportunity.

right thank you very much mr alexander all right if there's no more questions i'm going to close the item and commissioner dixon would like to make a motion i would i move that the planning commission find that the project is categorically exempt from the provisions of the california environmental quality act pursuant to sequoia guidelines section 15301 and that we approve variance pva pvar-26-0001 BASED ON THE FINDINGS OF FACT AND SUBJECT TO THE CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL.

OKAY. A MOTION BY COMMISSIONER DIXON AND A SECOND BY COMMISSIONER ANDRADE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOUR MOTION?

YES. I DIDN'T HAVE ANY QUESTIONS BECAUSE I'M VERY, VERY, VERY FAMILIAR WITH DIX WITH TWO KIDS IN SPORTS RIGHT NOW AND WE LOVE We absolutely focus on buying things at local smaller shops in Costa Mesa, but sometimes that's just not possible. We've got Ketchum Tackle here, which is great. We've got a lot of great other shoe stores and athletic stores. But sometimes there's things that just that Dick's has. And Dick's has got an incredible track record of merchandising and keeping up on their facilities. And I've never been into a DIX in any location in the United States. And I've gone to multipl

I would ask wholly support the motion. I would just ask the maker of the motion instead of a possibly explore College Avenue beautification encourage it. Highly encourage it. Again just putting on a marketing hat for a second right there. I'm sure you guys walked the neighborhood that is full of That's your clientele right there on the backside of College Avenue that could be easily attracted to your business. And again, it would allow a great opportunity to lean into the city of the arts, Tree City, which we are. So again, I would highly encourage collaborating with the city staff on improvin

And I think you just did as a second of the motion. I WOULD OCCUR OBVIOUSLY IT IS A PRETTY ROUGH LOOKING HEDGE. ANYTHING ANYBODY CAN DO WOULD BE GREAT. THAT'S MY MOTION. OKAY.

COMMISSIONER, ANY OTHER COMMENTS? COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ.

WILL THE MAKER OF THE MOTION CONSIDER FOR CONDITION OF APPROVAL NUMBER 5 ON PAGE 58 Beginning that condition with the clause, unless the lighting plan and photometric study submitted pursuant to condition of approval 13 shows it's unneeded, comma.

And I think that my main concern is that having been on climbing walls of different facilities, the glare is really dangerous. And so I'd want to make sure that the applicant has the ability to... And they do the... They do under 13. Yeah. All right. Did staff get that amendment? Did you... Do we need to restate it?

Unless the lighting plan and photometric study submitted pursuant to condition of approval 13 shows it's unneeded, comma.

Thank you. And that's still providing discretion and allowing them to have it if they need it. But not binding them to tent. Having to tent. That's correct. Great. And is this?

Yep. Does the second accept that change as well? Yes. Okay.

And then for 16, beginning that condition with the plans shall show the method of screening.

Yeah. I mean this right now is a vacant or soon to be vacant business which we're now allowing a business to open up here. So I'm excited for that. It's in my district so that's really cool that we're getting new jobs, we're getting new retail. So I'm happy to support it. Thank you.

Thank you. Vice Chair Zick. Thank you. I'm in enthusiastic support of this motion and of Dick's House of Sports coming to Costa Mesa. I had that feeling from the get-go. I'm concerned that we take a little bit of a twisted, tortured way to justify what it is that you're asking for. And I think there's a much more straightforward, non-precedent linking way to do it. And that's not your problem. I think... I think when we want something, we twist ourselves into a pretzel to accommodate it, and when we don't, we just tell you no. Can't be done. The rules say no. Forget that you're 530 feet away f

All right, if there are no more comments, let's call for the question.

All right, that decision is final unless appealed to the city council within seven days. All right, let's give staff a moment. Get ready for item number two. And in the meantime, Mr. Rand, will you please read the title for public hearing, item number two?

Okay. First, any ex parte communications to report?

YEAH, I DID A LITTLE BIT OF RESEARCH ON THIS SPORT. THAT'S ABOUT IT.

OKAY. ALL RIGHT. MR. GARCIA, THE FLOOR IS YOURS.

Thank you very much, Mr. Garcia. Commissioners, any questions of staff? Vice Chair Zick.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Garcia. With this property being zoned C2 general business, if instead of this application, we had a auto repair business that wanted to set up shop there, would they be allowed to do that by right?

PRESUMABLY AN AUTO REPAIR SHOP WOULD BUILD A BUILDING THAT WOULD BE MY ASSUMPTION IN MY QUESTION.

IF THE BUILDING WAS WITHIN 200 FEET OF RESIDENTIAL.

And would that be the same case if a business came in and wanted to have a construction equipment rental business? No real building involved, maybe a building up close to Harbor Boulevard where they keep equipment, keys, or paperwork. Would that be allowed, that kind of business, buy right?

Yeah, we'd have to check for the other follow up question to both of those hypothetical uses. What would be the maximum noise level that we would allow them to operate at? Would it be 55 DB?

Okay, and then I only have one other question, I think, at this point, and I may repose the question to the noise consultant who apparently is here, but I'll ask you first I Read the information the staff report about the noise and it sounded like the rationale of the justification was that the The sound levels were within acceptable were were acceptably were within acceptable range. Am I correct about that?

Okay, so the idea of requiring that courts four and five cannot operate earlier than 9 a.m. or past 8 p.m. is based on what?

The rationale is proximity or the rationale is sound? What is the rationale for saying those two courts can't be used earlier than 9 a.m. or past 8 p.m.? What is the rationale?

So the applicant may be totally okay with that. But you're saying we studied it, there's not a problem, but there might be a problem. And so... We're going to say you can't use those courts outside of those hours. Applicants, OK, problem solved. We move on. Is that the situation?

Okay. Now, within the city, when there are projects that are buildings that are being constructed, we have requirements, don't we, regarding the early start time of construction that generates noise for surrounding areas? Isn't that start time 7 a.m.?

Right any other questions Commissioner Dixon.

Back to the that noise and that sort of issue with these properties on harbor. So we're going to have this is part of a former overlay. But it was it was a residential ownership I believe that because I don't I just can't I'm not don't have a map in front of you that shows that but. The ones that are next door, the residential that's next door, that's a live work, right? That was approved as a live work?

Okay, okay, I just wasn't clear on exactly. So on these, if we're gonna have a miscues, we're gonna be mixing in residential. with other uses all the time. So just as part of the entitlement process, no matter what the application is, if there's within 200 feet, if there's residential, it'll be a hearing.

Residentially zoned properties. But an overlay where it was a former we're still talking about the base zoning, right? So if it's like for areas where there's live work, right? If the base original zoning was an R2, but then they decided to apply an over live work, that's still the base zoning is what would be determinative.

All right. Thank you. All right. Commissioner Martinez.

Thank you. I want to go on to the path of travel from the sidewalk. Just based on the plans, like I just see striping going from the sidewalk up to the entrance. Do we know if it's just going to be like painted stripes like what is presented on the plans? Is it going to be a curb up elevated from the parking lot? What is the exact plan for a path of travel from sidewalk to the entrance?

I'm talking about from the sidewalk to the handicap parking space to the entrance so your question is how is it drawn my question is how will it be built Is it going to be stripes on an asphalt parking lot? Is it going to be a curb?

So from the sidewalk, it would be painted along that edge.

Does that help? Yes. And then for grading, I'm looking at a page that I think is talking about grading. I see the path of travel has a 1.9% grade horizontally across it. I want to make sure that that's okay.

Okay. Any other questions? Okay. I will open the public hearing and ask the applicant or applicant's representative to come to the podium. And if you wouldn't mind, state your name for the record, and then have you read the staff report and conditions of approval, and do you agree to those?

Okay, well, the floor is yours for presentation.

Thank you very much, and thank you very much. I just had a quick question. In the illustration that you showed in your presentation, the site was aligned the other way.

But my point is that why didn't you orient it with the parking in the back and the courts in the front when you might alleviate some of the noise problems or the issues with the conflict of residence.

Great. And then the other question I had is that I'm very familiar with paddle tennis. This is a little different because it goes off the walls. Correct. So you've got semi... You've got the barriers, so they're only in the middle? Is there where it's open for sound to go through, but otherwise it's glass on the corners? Or polyplastic or something?

Thank you. I think my first question, I have a question for you, but I think my first question involves getting a response from staff. If this project is approved with a condition that says courts four and five cannot be used earlier than nine or after eight, And if based on the question that Commissioner Dixon asked, the applicant goes back and he goes, you know, maybe if I flip my courts and I put that parking lot in the back, I could operate all five. Would that require a... new public hearing or could they simply resubmit that as a plan to you that would then allow you to remove that condi

So it'd be a fairly simple process for them to go through to do that. Okay. So, um, My question is about the sound study. And the staff report indicates that you were the one that had to hire the sound consultant, MD Acoustics, is that correct? Correct. Okay. And I'm assuming because you hired them, MD Acoustics understands the difference between paddle tennis and pickleball in terms of the noise that kind of activity would generate?

yes they are experts on this and they consult in for many different cities on this that's all i wanted to know thank you any other questions of the applicants yeah commissioner andrade um thank you so much again for choosing uh costa mesa for this innovative sport um and exciting to see that we're going to be one of the few cities along the coast after LA. Tell me a little bit about, I really love that, I think it was the last slide you were talking, you mentioned public benefit activity, how you engage with youth programs and the nonprofit. Maybe give us a picture. What does that look like in

Great, great. Great to hear. We have many great youth organizations here in the area. I'm sure you guys have done your research, but it would be fantastic to have them engage in this opportunity because, yeah, I really love the idea of finding creative ways to engage youth with other activities, this very innovative activity. Yeah.

All right. If there's no more questions, I'll give you an opportunity at the end of public comment if you want to respond. Thank you. Okay. I'll now open public comments. If anybody in the public would like to come speak on this item, please come to either podium. Don't all rush at once. Okay. Ms. Turan, do we have anybody on Zoom or by phone? Okay. I'm going to close public comments. Commissioners, do we have any further questions? Commissioner Martinez.

Yeah. One of the original questions I had written down but did not ask was, what do we mean by tournament in condition of approval number six? Since I'm assuming that is not a word that is defined in our zoning code. So I guess first, I'll give you the opportunity to answer what do we mean by tournament. And second, I'll ask for staff's opinion of the proposal of the applicant on simply requiring them to comply with the special event permit requirements of our zoning code.

And why not just cover it under the special event permit requirements?

SIMILAR BUT RELATED. DIFFERENT BUT RELATED. THE BACK GATE. IS THAT OPEN? IS THAT CLOSED?

So along the lines of the noise issue, and I'm very sensitive to the requirement for that. a great way to look at these things. But did you do any sort of analysis of the other sort of tennis courts in the city or things like that? Not just the tennis center, but the apartment complex I'm temporarily living in has a lot of tennis courts. And I think they go till 10. I'm not exactly sure. I know the pool does. But so I'm just curious because and those are not going to have the same sort of controls or or noise barriers that this seems to have designed into the mix. So I'm just curious how we've

Yeah. Park right next to our complex. It's dark. So OK. Thank you.

All right. I have one technical question, and I didn't quite realize this until the staff's presentation. So there's two separate parcels here, right? But we have one full development that straddles both. Why don't we have a condition of approval requiring a lot tie?

Right. And I can appreciate that. And I'm not in the habit of adding conditions of approval, but I would say for the city's own protection of the integrity of the CUP, it may be necessary. I don't know if we'll have support for that. I may bring it up, but go ahead, Ms. Carone.

Right. Understood. Okay. Any other questions? Vice Chair Zik?

Yeah. I'll torture this a little bit more. Just as Commissioner, go ahead.

Okay. Just as Commissioner Martinez was asking for you to describe or define a tournament, at the time he was doing that I thought, okay, so now tell me what a special event is. And I think in your answer you basically did that by talking about the numbers of people that would not normally be there if there was some kind of event, greater number of people. I'm leading to a question. I'm not there yet. And then I thought, well, OK, if there's more people than normal, what's the big deal? They're hanging around. They parked in the parking lot. And then I thought, well, if there's a whole bunch,

Okay. And then if they were to have a special event, anticipated a bunch of additional people and knew the most practical way to accommodate them would be to open up the back gate to allow people to come in that way as well as the front parking lot. You wouldn't be opposed to them doing that, correct?

Okay. If there are no more questions from the dais, Mr. Blank, if you'd like to come back up and speak. No obligation, but if there's anything you want to respond to.

Any last questions? Okay. I think we're good. All right. I will close the item. Do we have a motion? Commissioner Dixon.

and rearranged, sorry. So I will move that the Planning Commission find that the project is category exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act for CEQA guidelines section 15332, and that we approve conditional use permit 25-0021 based on the findings of fact and subject conditions of approval with the following amendments. For condition of approval number 12, that we utilize the amendment proposed by the applicant. So it'll be the one court and the 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. And that we'll replace that condition of approval number 12 with the one that was in that present de

More than the standard capacity of the courts or if there's like anticipated spectators or a gathering.

I would like to keep it in a special event permit round.

happening on site so the the court capacity is going to be 40 like eight times five courts is going to be 40 special events is 50 so either one okay so your proposed amendment was just to replace this the capacity is four per court per four per court 20 20. so yes bad math all right let's put in a definition for

Would the maker yield for a moment? Yes. So on the screen is in green the proposed language for condition number six, that the operation shall comply with the conditions and requirements of the applicable special event permit for the City of Costa Mesa when they expect more than 50 participants. Right. I suggest that to you as a way to describe conditional approval number six. All right. Thank you for the interruption.

I will go with Vice Chair Zick's description of conditional approval number six. And then there was conditional approval number nine, was that?

And then I understand where he's coming from, but I don't, you had mentioned court lighting. Lighting shall comply, so I think that condition number nine, as staff intended, is only intended for court lighting, correct? Not security lighting, not walkway lighting, not parking lot, okay. Correct. So I think we can leave condition approval number nine alone. So those are my proposed amendments, and that's my motion.

Sloppy, I apologize, but I wanted to get that all in.

That's okay. Second by Commissioner Martinez. Would you like to speak to your motion?

Yeah, I think this is a great... more physical activity, more outdoor, more sports, more opportunities for youth to get involved in a different kind of sport. We have the tennis center, but it's over on the other side of town. I live on the west side. My son used to have to try to get over there all the time when he wanted to go to the skate park, but if you wanted to do tennis and stuff like that as well, this is much closer to the west side, and I think any opportunity is great. I hope you do have a mechanism or a system in place with local schools or local youth groups where you can offer d

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll start with the general abroad of seeing this application, I wonder, if we had to have seen this application as the Planning Commission. Like we have our noise ordinance, we have these other things that control. I wonder if this had to have risen to this level. Otherwise, I do think, It's a good application. It promotes, as Commissioner Dixon said, physical activity. Great. We get some more open space out on the west side of Costa Mesa. To answer Vice Chair Zick's point about buses, it is literally right next to a bus stop. So anyone who is taking the 55 or the 43 can

WE'RE GOING TO LEAVE THAT ALONE. THAT WAS APPLYING TO COURT LIGHTING AND NOT THE SECURITY REQUEST.

YEAH. AGAIN, EXCITING OPPORTUNITY COMING TO OUR CITY, ENGAGING IN NEW SPORTS AND ACTIVITIES. AGAIN, I'LL JUST REITERATE AND COMMISSIONER DICKSON'S COMMENTS AND MY COMMENTS EARLIER REGARDING ENGAGING SCHOOLS, NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS AT $120 PER HOUR PER GAME IS PRETTY UP THERE FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY WHERE YOU WILL BE. SO CREATING THOSE ACCESSIBLE OPPORTUNITIES WOULD BE AMAZING. SO I REALLY LOOK FORWARD TO THAT.

SURE PEOPLE COULD TAKE THE BUS THERE. I NEVER SAID THEY COULDN'T. whether they will or not. I'm enthusiastically in support of your plan, your business plan, and this particular use. I'm glad we were able to accommodate your concerns about the several conditions of approval. It seems fairly simple. What isn't so simple, and we're going to be paying a lot of attention to this, and it's not specific to you, in the future, We talked about the adjacency to residential uses. We got one public commenter who was an adjacent residential user, I guess, that was concerned about noise. You know, when we

Okay. I will be supporting the motion and I think like you've heard from most people, I'm very enthusiastic about what I think is obviously a very new use and I appreciate you coming to Costa Mesa for this. I think we are beginning to see a lot more new development that is quite frankly just unique. I mean the Dick's House of Sport, is an unusual offering. I'm really excited about making sure we get sales tax revenue here in Costa Mesa from that use. But what I do appreciate, and I think this is where we are, where it's different for us is that we are attracting kind of the third places um tha

All right, that decision also is final, unless appealed to city council within seven days. I can tell from my colleagues that we need a little bit of a break. So let's come back at, let's say 8.05, 10 minutes. ARE YOU SURE? OKAY. WE ARE BACK ON THE RECORD. I WAS SKIPPING AHEAD TO OLD BUSINESS HERE. OKAY. MR. TRAN, CAN YOU PLEASE READ THE TITLE FOR PUBLIC HEARING ITEM NUMBER 3?

All right, Ms. Halligan, help us understand all the light reading we had this weekend.

All right, thank you very much. Questions, commissioners? Commissioner Dixon.

I just have a quick one just to make sure I understand everything correctly. So anything that was in a former urban plan that's not a housing element opportunity or inventory site, Mood's going to apply to that and these multifamily residential and mixed use objective design standards will apply as well? Or the base zoning?

That's what I understood. So that's during the presentation, I thought we were saying the urban plans would that the citywide multifamily residential and mixed use to the executive are going to that citywide. So even if it's base zoning, those urban plans are now going to be moved as far as those objective design standards.

Okay. So essentially we're losing anything that was unique to the urban plans as far as design standards or any of that stuff. That's all gone because it's going to be this one size fits all. Well, no, it is.

Right. But there was a tremendous amount of effort that went into how they looked. And I watched every single one of those meetings. I specifically remember at that point, I think it was, I don't remember if she was a planning commissioner or a council member, Foley holding up the thing and saying, is it going to look like this? And assured that it would. So these things are important. We just completely revamped a lot of these standards. Three days to review them. And now we're going to be applying those to urban plans area as well. So I just want to make sure that we're, you know, that was o

Any other questions of staff? Commissioner Martinez.

I mean, if Commissioner Andrade would like to go first, because I have quite the list.

Yeah, I mean, I think, again, amazing job team, I think. It was quite a journey, again, just going through all the material. Congratulations on having the well-deserved recognition on, I really loved how the award was described, opportunity and empowerment, the tech-driven aspect on how you guys all approached the community input and outreach. Congratulations, because I know that that's a key, I hear that so often with neighbors on, Not knowing what's going on, but clearly you all went above and beyond to make sure, to the point where you got awarded for it. So thank you for all that great wor

FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE THESE ARE NON-SUSTAINABLE RECOMMENDATIONS?

OKAY. GREAT. YEAH, AND OTHER THAN THAT, AGAIN, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR GREAT WORK. ALSO ON THE DEW DECK TEAM AND THE TEAM THAT WORKED WITH THE EIR AND GETTING US BACK ON TRACK WITH HCD. SO REALLY APPRECIATE THAT. GETTING US OUT OF HOT WATERS.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have questions from page 261 to 1,017. So let's go through this. 261 is the staff report area on the ALIC. I wanted to know if we have a map of which properties we excluded based on the ALIC feedback.

Okay. I will go on while that's being pulled up. Page 314, I'm in zoning code definitions for zoning district overlay.

BECAUSE I THINK THE WAY I READ IT WAS THAT THAT SECOND CLAUSE IS WHAT'S UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED BUT NOT WHEN A PROPERTY OWNER CHOOSES TO EXERCISE THE PROVISIONS. BECAUSE THE WAY I READ IT WAS THIS IS LIKE BASICALLY ABOUT HOUSING ELEMENT SITES.

OK. I think that's fine. Page 352, density bonus law. How much of this is repeating our, oh, wait, hold on, ALIC map.

Great. So it looks like it's just that tail end of Bristol Street. Cool. Thank you. Density bonus law. How much of it is what state law says? And how much did we add in for Costa Mesa specific stuff?

Cool, thank you. Is there any reason that it's just the lower income, moderate income, and senior units that are included, even though state density bonus law says student housing, disabled veteran housing, the other categories? Is there a reason we only call out those two categories?

I mean, just like in the purpose section, like at the top, and also there's in page 355, 1A, calls out affordable units and or senior housing. And it won't go on to say student housing, disabled veterans housing. I think foster children housing is one of them.

Okay. Page 353. at the bottom in B2 and at the next page on B3, it says, except where mixed use zoning is proposed. Um, so I know this, this doesn't, you know, it applies everywhere cause it's density bonus, but, but what do we mean by zoning is proposed?

So what happens for a project where mixed use zoning is already allowed like it does that theoretically mean it's also proposed because it's already allowed or does this section not apply because it's already allowed?

Gotcha okay. Cool. 356, page 356, section 4A. The affordable housing agreement and or senior housing agreement shall in a form approved by the city attorney. Is this supposed to be shall be in a form or is it supposed to copy the language in? the next page where it says Shall enter into a restrictive covenant with the city running with the land in a form approved by the city attorney Yeah, thanks for highlighting that I think that's a typo and we can update that prior to City Council Okay, I will Mark this here. OK. Page 373. Ah, yes. Fun one. So this establishes the various permitted uses in

Just so you can get to it quicker. All right. While you do that, I will go on to page 376 and ask about our public commenter and master plans and such. So. ARE YOU GOOD?

I WILL HAVE COMMENTS LATER. COOL. PAGE 376 THEN. Master plans. First I want to just ask, are all alternative development standards in master plans? Will some be in specific plans or some other kind of plan?

If a specific plan is adopted and not a master plan as this section says does that override the mood

Yeah, I guess I'm just trying to figure out if this should include specific plans as well. Because this says, you know, these are the development standards for mood projects unless there are alternative ones in a master plan. So should it also include specific plans?

THANK YOU. THEN LET ME ASK ABOUT PLAN DEVELOPMENT ZONES. ARE ALL MASTER PLANS ONLY IN PLAN DEVELOPMENT ZONES?

Okay. Cool. I will max that out. Okay. Page 378. Storage standards. Back to our public commenter.

Can I jump in before you get to that one? Go ahead. Thank you. So looking at page 376, that first section under applicability. So it seems to suggest that there's, I hate to use the word supremacy, but that there is for the mood standards. AND IN FACT THAT SECOND SENTENCE SAYS DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS ARTICLE SHALL SUPERCEDE AND PREVAIL OVER ANY CONFLICTING PROVISIONS OF THE UNDERLYING BASE ZONE AND ALL OTHER APPLICABLE ZONING PROVISIONS SUCH AS OTHER OVERLAY SPECIFIC PLANS AND THEN HERE COMES THE NEBULOUS CATCH-ALL UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SO AGAIN WHAT IS THAT UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED MEAN? yeah i

All right. Thank you. Okay. Sorry, commissioner Martinez.

Oh, thank you. I did not include that second sentence in my questions. STORAGE STANDARDS ON 378. FIRST OF ALL I GUESS JUST ESTABLISH WHY DO WE HAVE THESE?

OK. OK. 379. At the bottom of the table, the general site improvement standards. Is it possible that there will be conflict between the mood and the requirements the general site improvement standard section of our code?

I THINK THIS ONE MIGHT BE ON-SITE IMPROVEMENTS. I DON'T KNOW. I THINK I TOOK A LOOK AT IT. I THINK IT MIGHT HAVE INCLUDED TRASH ENCLOSURES AND SUCH.

ALL RIGHT. WELL, WHILE YOU BRING THAT UP, WHY DO WE SAY THE MORE RESTRICTIVE PROCESS SHALL APPLY?

OKAY. WE'LL HAVE COMMENTS LATER. Yeah. Also, I think responding to one of the public comment EDITS WAS WHY USE THE TERM LOWER INCOME HOUSING ELEMENT SITES? I KNOW WE'RE BACK IN HOUSING ELEMENT STUFF BUT WHY USE THAT TERM?

I CAN UNDERSTAND THE STATE'S PERSPECTIVE ON THAT BUT IF WE WERE TO MODIFY THAT TO JUST SAY HOUSING ELEMENT SITES WOULD THAT BY DEFINITION COVER LOW INCOME HOUSING ELEMENT SITES?

OKAY. LET'S TAKE THAT TO THE NEXT STEP. DOES THAT MEAN THE OVERLAY ITSELF IS JUST A MINISTERIAL REVIEW?

Okay, but that would mean at some point future housing cycles we'd have to come through and add a new narrative specifically for non-low income housing element sites.

Commissioner Martinez will have comments on that.

Yes, indeed, I will. Let me follow up on the chair. With the Redondo Beach decision, does that apply only to lower income housing element sites, or does it apply to all housing element sites?

So the Redondo Beach case only applies to lower income housing element sites.

Okay. Let me just put this a different way. Because right now we say we want to future proof this for in the future. Maybe we won't have a development that is a lower income housing element site. Right? So it's possible that that does not exist. What I'm trying to figure out, because in Section E11, it says that the supersession of the overlay only applies to projects on lower income housing element sites. So is that what the Redondo Beach case says? Or does it apply to the supercession part of the of the Redondo Beach case? Does that apply to all housing element sites only lower income?

Yeah, thank you. Okay. Got it. All right. Back to asking questions about the public comments. If you REVIEWED. I THINK THIS WAS PROBABLY THE SPREADSHEET ONE. THESE ARE PROBABLY MORE TECHNICAL IN NATURE. BUT PAGE 528 IS IN THE LAND USE ELEMENT. AND IT'S THE VERY FIRST WORDS ARE SAKIOKA LOT 2 AND AREA 8 ON THE NEXT LINE. THE PUBLIC COMMENT SAYS THIS SHOULD BE SAKIOKA LOT 1 AND AREA Is what's presented here correct or is what the public comments are presented correct?

I mean, just just because it it might have been in there for 10 years does not mean, you know, we should we shouldn't fix it if it's wrong.

Yeah, like the next one is like on page 538, public commenter mentions that figure, that whole page essentially should not exist, figure LU6. And then the reference to it on a subsequent page.

Okay, still with the public commenter 633 on the noise element. Do we have noise standards that are different from the typical noise standards when any property is adjacent to a freeway?

OK. OK. Cool. Let's skip 400 pages. 1,017.

I know last time I had notes and I was vague and I do apologize for that. Um, but were there any amendments to the objective design standards following my feedback from the study session? And if so, what were they?

Got it. Nothing in the facade section where I was most vague.

Also responding to the public commenter. And I think first I'll actually start with the more general, like what authority do we as a planning commission have on editing text in the EIR? I'm assuming not much, but if you could

Okay. Did you see the proposal on EV standards? Yes. And is that... Right.

Thank you. Those are my questions. Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions of staff? Okay, I'll save my, well, I'll ask a few. And this is just kind of broad level at this point. We've got thousands of pages of revised text, narrative, diagrams, photographs. Has this been tested in any way? In other words, have we run through a hypothetical development project and said, On this site, let's just call a low income housing element site. And given what we have here, this is the project that we would come up with.

Okay but I think my real question is have you taken a hypothetical development proposal and run it through this?

Great. Okay. Okay. That's all I have for now. Any other questions? Quick follow up. Sure. Go ahead, Commissioner.

Just a quick follow up to that. one of the things we've always had is the flexibility with variances and other things like that for these unique situations, because we've always seemed to have a really unique situation. So we're not losing that flexibility, right?

WE'RE NEVER GOING TO GET ONE SIZE FITS ALL. I'M CONCERNED WE'RE TRYING TO DO THAT. I KNOW WE NEED OBJECTIVE DESIGN STANDARDS BUT ONE SIDE NEVER FITS ALL. WE'VE GOT A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THAT. THANK YOU.

Yeah, one quick question since we're talking about objective design standards. Is this opportunity to include, you know, ensuring that some of this development is, what is it, LEED certified or are incorporating, you know, I don't know, clean energy opportunities like solar, right? It's super popular nowadays.

All right. I want to thank everybody for their patience. I'm going to open the public hearing item now. If you'd like to speak, please come to either podium. And if you're participating by zoom, use the raise hand option or by phone star nine.

THANK YOU. ANYONE ELSE IN CHAMBERS WISH TO SPEAK? MS. DURAND, DO WE HAVE ANYBODY ON PHONE OR ZOOM?

Okay. I will close public comment. Commissioners, any further questions? None, okay. I'll close the item and ask if anyone wants to make a motion.

I move that the Planning Commission adopt the staff recommendation with the following amendments. Okay. On page 310, change the definition of row house to see townhouse since they're the same. On page 352, continue the list in 13152.1. so that it says and very low-income households senior citizens and other groups to reflect other groups that density bonus law applies to and do similar on pages 355 and 1a and 356 and 4a by saying in housing for other groups on page 354 at the very bottom where it says fee in subparagraph seven, move that up to be a three since that should apply for application

That's it? All right, I'll second that motion. No, public comment is over. All right. Go ahead, Mr. Mayor. Miss McDonald, please. Miss McDonald, Miss McDonald, please. The commission is entitled at this point to make recommendations. That's what's being offered. We will deliberate and debate All right, we're not gonna have a dialogue right now. All right, would you like to speak to your motion?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll say, first of all, overall, and before I get into some of the proposed amendments, that I'd like to very much thank staff for all of their work that they have put in to the Neighborhoods Where We All Belong program. This is an excellent job on all your parts. The award is very well earned. So thank you for everything that you've done for this project. So quite a few of these proposed amendments are responsive to the public comment letter that have been submitted, mainly going from more stringent to the objective design standards. And that is intended to be more allow

I second the motion largely because I agree that these are very reasonable and practical adjustments. And I echo my fellow commissioners comments and praise for staff. This is a huge effort. And I mean, there's a lot of time spent not just by staff, but by commission and trying to really dig in and understand this. And this is not easy stuff. I mean, this is mostly my day job, and it still makes my head hurt. I WANT TO ADDRESS THE QUESTION OR PLEA FROM THE PUBLIC AND JUST TO SIMPLY SAY THIS IS THE SAME PUBLIC HEARING PROCESS THAT WE CONDUCT ALL THE TIME. AND AS COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ NOTED OUR

AND THE OBLIGATORY SUBSTITUTE MOTION THAT WE CONTINUE THIS TO THE NEXT MEETING SO WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT COMMISSIONER MARTINEZ SAID IN FULL AND WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY AS A COMMISSION TO ACTUALLY REVIEW THESE DOCUMENTS AND GO THROUGH THEM. I GOT THIS THURSDAY AND I DO THIS FOR A LIVING AND I'VE BEEN READING IT FURIOUSLY. I don't know where the P is. This cake is not baked and it's clear from the motion that was made and the second and the discussion that we are not ready to recommend anything. I know we probably will. I hope I get a second, but my motion is to continue this t

Substitute motion by Commissioner Dixon, second by Vice Chair Zick. Do you want to speak to your second?

Yeah. I think what Commissioner Dixon is proposing is a minimum of what my level of interest is continuing this to the next meeting to me is insufficient in terms of what's needed for true public engagement THE SUGGESTION FROM MS. MCDONALD THAT WHAT WE ADVANCE ARE THE LEGALLY REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF THIS THOUSAND, ACTUALLY 1100 PAGE DOCUMENT, THAT WE ADVANCE THE LEGALLY REQUIRED PORTIONS OF THAT. THE THINGS THAT WE THINK STAND BETWEEN US AND HCD CERTIFICATION AND THE REST OF IT we keep working on. We got five people, well, we have more than five people here. We have three public speakers, Cynthia

All right, Director Tai, question. Our next Planning Commission meeting is September 28th, correct? And what do we have on that agenda that's critical?

And then when was this expected to go to Council, and is there a schedule or deadline?

October 6th, it's supposed to go to Council? Correct. Okay, is there some deadline associated with that? AT THE ELECTION. OKAY.

Okay. Commissioners have any other comments? Okay.

Do you want to speak to the substitute or wait until that vote happens?

Well, if you want to speak, I thought you spoke to the substitute.

I did really quickly, but I just wanted to reiterate, and I'm not trying to just throw a wrench in the works because everybody knows there's some things I'm not happy about in this, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. But we get an extraordinarily detailed letter from one of the largest parcels in the subject area yesterday. And, you know, I really strongly think that I understand the pressures staff has been under. I understand the pressures we are under as far as timing goes. But that is, I hate to keep saying this because it sounds so trite, but the whole reason we're here is the p

I think we need to acknowledge that Costa Mesa, like lots of cities across Orange County, has a tale of two cities, right? Where folks are at a certain income level that have the capacity to have bought into their home decades ago and now reap the benefits. On my side of the neighborhood, in District 4, District 5, along the west side, we're renting apartments that are under code. Where communities, families are barely making ends meet, are worried that they just got to notice that renovations are happening in their unit with an increase of rent. So that is who this is built for. So maybe it's

All right. Thank you, Commissioner Andrade. Before we take a vote on the substitute motion, I'll just simply say I supported the original motion because I agree with the makers points and adjustments and I believe that that's the right direction we should be heading in obviously I support that motion. However I am appreciative of the fact that this is a lot of information to digest in a short period of time. And so I am willing to change my perspective and allow for a continuance, or at least vote in support of a continuance. But my expectation is very much that when we come back in two weeks,

Okay. I should say we can continue it to a date certain, correct? We don't need to reopen the public hearing? Okay. So that'll be September 28th.

Should we ask the other commissioners to submit any questions or comments they have directly to Director Tire or to the entire commission beforehand just so we can kind WHATEVER IS NOT VIOLATING THE BROWN ACT.

EVERYBODY IS ENTITLED TO SUBMIT WHATEVER THEY WANT TO STAFF.

IF ANYBODY WANTS TO PROVIDE MORE COMMENTS IN THE FRONT END SO WE CAN.

RIGHT. MY SUGGESTION IS THE BEST PRACTICE THOUGH IS THAT WE DO THE PUBLIC'S BUSINESS IN PUBLIC.

ABSOLUTELY. I JUST MEANT AS FAR AS IF WE HAD QUESTIONS THAT WE GIVE STAFF TIME TO PREPARE. SUBMIT THOSE PRIOR TO THE MEETING. OR AT THE MEETING. Economize.

All right. We have no old business or new business tonight that takes us to departmental reports. Public services report. Mr. Yang.

Okay, thank you. Congratulations, Paul. Director Tai, Community Development Services Report.

Okay. And, Mr. Preziosi, anything from the City Attorney?