Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being patient with us. I call to order the meeting of the Planning Commission for 01/21/2026. I now ask for a moment of silence. Commissioner Ochoa, would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? We now move on to item B.

Kayla, roll call.

Commissioner Smith. View.

Present.

Swigert, absent excused. Ochoa. Present. Greggins. Present. And Chairperson Gonzalez.

Present. We have a quorum. Kayla will now read information about how the public may participate in the meeting.

Members of the audience who wish to address the Planning Commission are requested to complete a speaker card available at the podium at the back of the council chamber. Please submit the completed card to the clerk before the item is called, preferably before the meeting begins. I would like to briefly go over the process of submitting comments to the Planning Commission. Please submit your public comment to the Planning Commission electronically no later than 1PM on the day of the meeting. Comments received before the deadline will be sent to the Planning Commission and will be part of the record and mentioned as part of the public comment portion of the agenda.

Material may be emailed to planningwebcityofmerced dot gov and should be limited to 300 words or less. Please specify which portion of the agenda you are commenting on. For example, oral communication or item number. Your comments will be presented to the Planning Commission at the appropriate time. Any correspondence received after 1PM will be distributed to the Planning Commission and retained for the official record. TV video or listen to the Planning Commission meeting live, go to the city's website, www.cityofbursed.gov, Facebook Live, or Comcast Public Access Channel ninety six.

Thank you, Kayla. We now move on to item C, public comment. Members of the public who wish to speak on any matter not listed on the agenda may speak during this portion of the meeting and will be allotted three minutes. State law prohibits the Planning Commission from acting at this meeting on any matter raised during the public comment period. Members of the public who wish to speak on a matter that is listed on the agenda will be called upon to speak during discussion of that item. Kayla, do we have any request to speak? No. Thank you. We now move on to item D which is consent calendar including meeting minutes. Would the commission like to remove any items for separate consideration?

Done.

Do we have any requests to speak forms for any of the consent items?

No, we do not.

No. I'll be able to approve items on a vote.

Motion to approve. Second.

I have a motion to approve consent calendar by Commissioner Ochoa, second by Commissioner Gregens. We now move it to a vote. And it has passed unanimously. Thank you for that. Let me clear this. There we go. Thank you. We now move on to item E, public hearings. Item E1.

Investing tentative subdivision map number 20 five-eight, large plot map for Virginia Smith Trust specific plan phase one and environmental review number 20 five-twenty nine initiated by the applicant Board of Education of the County of Merced trustee property owner. This application involves a request to subdivide approximately six fifty four acres into 53 lots with a designated remainder of approximately two eighty five acres. The subject site is generally located on the East Side of Lake Road, approximately 5,000 feet north of East Yosemite Avenue with a general plan designation of Virginia Smith Trust specific plan and a zoning classification of plan development number 80. This is a public hearing.

Senior planner, so the item before you is for the VST specific plan, so Virginia Smith Trust. As you recall, at our last meeting in December, we held a workshop. The workshop focused on BST. We kind of went over just some of the depth and the breadth of history behind this project site. We talked about its mission, its objectives, its prior entitlements and also entitlements needed moving forward.

And so, all that legwork was really in preparation for today. So today you have six VST items on the agenda. Each of the six items will have its own public hearing. Each of the six items will have its own resolution and will require independent action from the Planning Commission. So, without further ado, we'll go ahead and jump right into it.

VST, the subject size shown here on the city scale context map is shown on the top right, the northeast portion of the city where the yellow star is located. So it's located just south of the university. Everything within the dashed white lines is within city limits. So as you can see here, even though the site is essentially pretty far away from what's called the primary city limits, it actually was annexed in 2024 via a road strip annexation that connects this site all the way out to G Street via Cardella Road. So, here is a closer look at the VST subject site.

So, pretty big project site, six fifty five acres, everything outlined in turquoise. So, the project site's located on the East Side Of Lake Road between Bellevue Road and Yosemite Avenue. Surrounding uses to the south, east and west county jurisdictions, so you have a variety of agricultural uses and large lots. And then to the north is the East Merced campus boundary. So we went over this at the last meeting which was a workshop for VST.

As you can see here, there's quite a bit of history starting from the top. VST was established in 1975. Over the years in the 80s and 90s, it was used to attract UC Merced to work with the UC regents to select to select Merced as its tenth campus. In 2024, the BST was annexed into the city. So there's been a lot of legwork over about almost fifty years.

And most recently, over the last ten years, there's been a lot of resources and time devoted into getting the Cyanics, getting the specific plan adopted, getting development agreement approved, getting the environmental studies done, all really to make future approvals a lot easier. So now that all of that legwork has done, it makes future approvals easier. You can tear off of the previous environmental studies and so forth. So really at this stage, it's and looking at maps, it's really looking for consistency with the specific plan, consistency with the development agreement. There's really not a lot of discretion or agency to make changes at this point since that has already been established.

And so, today, we know we're starting off with a large lot map and then moving forward with five small lot maps. The difference between the two is that a large lot map, it breaks up this very large area into more manageable portions. So the 655 acres would get would get divided into 54 acres, 54 lots and and the small lots would be essentially the next level of subdivision and it would allow those large areas to then get further subdivided to the level of subdividing the lot for a single family home. So this slide here shows the BST specific plan in its entirety. The portion on the right or the east that's outlined in red is part of phase two.

So there's two phases for VST development. There's phase one, phase two. So everything outside of that red area, red boundary going west out to Lake Road, that's part of phase one. So phase one has five sub phases which will correspond with the five small lot maps that you'll be looking at today. So as you can see here, that includes phase one a and one b shown on the left or the western portion of the project area.

And then phase one c and one d which are to the right of that or to the east of it. And then phase one e, which is to the east of that. In terms of land use and how it's balanced out through the entire specific plan, residential uses are just about approximately 400 acres. Commercial uses, about 45 acres. Open spaces and parks, about 115 acres.

Schools, about 20 acres. And then the rest, 80 acres, is dedicated to infrastructure, roads, and things of that nature. So phase, as I mentioned earlier, phase one is really consist of five sub phases as shown here on this map. So as you'll see as we go through the maps, BST will include a town center. This shows a land use plan.

Everything in red would be commercial. In orange is multi family and in yellow is residential. Again, quite a bit of parks shown on the left hand side and the bottom bottom left and then on the right shows the school facility and on the bottom right is the police fire station. So again, the large lot map subdivides the 600 plus acres into 53 lots plus the remainder lot, which would be for phase two. And so, the large lot map that's going first for action is this map right here.

And essentially, it would just establish the framework for further subdividing and shows the where the road dedications would take place. Backbone infrastructure. Again, we're kind of working off of a lot of work that has already been done. And so, things like infrastructure are derived from the specific plan and the development agreement. So the circulation or traffic improvements as shown here, that's taken from those two items from the specific plan and the development agreement.

And as you can see on the right hand side, there's five columns. One a, one b, one c, one d, and one e. And what that indicates is wherever you see an x, it shows which phase is responsible for certain infrastructures. So for example, at the top, phase one b is responsible for the construction of Lake Road from Cardella to Virginia Smith. And so it's all sort of been determined and it's all gonna be correlated to specific phasings.

This slide here at the top shows again backbone infrastructure as it corresponds to certain phases. At the top, on the left is sewer infrastructure. The bottom is is water infrastructure. So shows when certain things are due depending on the phase. So things like lift stations, gravity lines, main lines, wells, and things of that nature.

And this slide here shows storm drain, so certain storm drain infrastructure, so that includes things like basins and storm drain lines. So again, the specific plan sets the framework for infrastructure so this taken directly from the development agreement and specific plan. It shows water lines where they're gonna be located. There's different sizes of water lines, 16 inch lines, 12 inch lines, 10 inch lines and all of that has already been planned out. All of that has already been vetted through our public works department and our engineering department.

Parks and open space, This again derived from the specific plan development agreement. Everywhere in green would be a park. There's approximately 39 pocket parks, two community parks, and one large regional sports complex. So for this specific item, the large slot map and really for all the other items, we we did the public hearing notice. We sent a mail out to property owners within 300 feet of the site.

We did that three weeks prior to this meeting and staff did not receive any comments up to this date. Conditions, just to kind of touch on a few conditions. Condition number 21 states that the large lot map which again establishes a framework for dividing this area into large chunks would need to be recorded before any of these small lots can be recorded. So a few the next step for getting this large map, you know, assuming it gets approved by the Planning Commission would be going to City Council to get the lots finalized and recorded at the county. So the applicant can't record the small lots until the large lot map is recorded.

Condition 24 essentially allows the relocation of a water well that was originally planned for phase one a. That would be relocated to Phase 1 E within Lot 48 and that's through discussions that were had between the applicant and our public works center and engineering department. Condition 13, staff is recommending there was an administrative error, some correction that needed to be done. Condition 13 is in regards to a lot that is being dedicated for police and fire station. Lot Number 8, The city is requesting one acre.

The intention is really to request approximately one acre. We didn't really wanna have set that in stone just because it can because we're thinking the actual amount will be between point nine and point nine seven acres is what we'll need. And we we ran the proposed acreage through our fire department as well for their feedback. So we'd like that to be modified to approximately approximately one acre as we think it'll probably be slightly less than an acre that we'll need for the police and fire station. So that concludes the presentation for the large lot map.

After opening and closing the public hearing, the Planning Commission could take action on the environmental review. For this map, the environmental review twenty five dash twenty nine staff is recommending a sequel section fifteen thousand one sixty two, which is essentially reusing an existing environmental study that was done for the annexation of the site. Staff is also recommending that if you were to approve the map number 25 Dash zero zero eight that you do so subject to the 23 conditions in draft resolution. And that you also modify condition number 13, as I mentioned earlier, to make that acreage for the police and fire station approximately one acre so it's not necessarily sentenced though. So with that being said, that concludes the presentation.

I'm available for any questions you may have. The applicant and their team are available here as well.

Thank you, Francisco. Commissioners, are there any questions for the project planner at this time? Commissioner Ochoa?

Thank you for your presentation. Was very thorough and really excited about this project. I I did wanna see there was something mentioned about connecting to Campus Parkway. Is that gonna extend out or be connected to the existing road?

So the developer is responsible for their portion. So their their portion is whatever goes through the project site. Mhmm. I know that Campus Campus Parkway is an expressway. It's actually considered a regional project that's being facilitated facilitated by MCAG. They've gotten pretty far. There's been several phases. The next phase would be to go from its current terminus out at Yosemite out to the project site. And so a lot of that is depending on on funding that MCAG can collect to get that portion. And then the segment that goes through the project site would be the applicant would be responsible for that.

And so it would essentially terminate there. I think it might even go slightly north beyond that out to the university.

Okay. Thank you. Okay.

Are there any other questions from the Planning Commission for our planner? No? Hearing and seeing none. This is a public hearing, and at this time, we'll open the hearing for public comment. I invite the applicant to speak. The applicant will have a total of fifteen minutes, including rebuttal time. If you wish to reserve time for rebuttal, please conclude your remarks to give yourself time. First, I'd just like to say thank you so much for coming back. I know that we're really familiar with this project. You did a really good job the last time around on the project, you were extremely thorough. So thank you.

Thank you, chair and commission. My name is Steven Peck with Peck Planning and Development. I've been the project manager and project planner for the project for, I think, about six years now. With me tonight is Doctor. Steve Tejin, who's been with the project even much longer than that. First, I want to thank staff for their work on this. This is not a run of the mill project. This is a big deal, not just in terms of community importance, but it's geographically a big project. Thanks go out to previous planners, including city manager Scott McCutney, because he did much of the work on this as well as previous planners. And then to Francisco and Sam, they just sort of pulled it all together.

So we're very complimentary of them. As was mentioned, the maps for you tonight implement the specific plan development agreement, EIR, other policies. As was indicated, the infrastructure piece of this, which is normally the most problematic for subdivision, that piece got figured out years ago. We've made a couple tweaks to the fire station site and to the water well site in response to the staff's comments. We're agreeable to those.

But again, this is simply implementing actions that have already been approved by the city council. Second, we wanted to respond to a public comment that was made about affordable housing and some other issues at our information setting. I did want to say that there are written responses to each of those in the record during the entitlement. I think there was a reference to affordable housing. This particular project provides more affordable housing than the city standard policy.

That was appropriate for the location and the students that are gonna be out there. But just wanted to make sure that there was a record of that. Third, we wanted to acknowledge there had been a few changes, including the increase in the fire station site. We actually were able to sort of tweak that so the fire chief could lay out the project as best for the city. I think the way the map came out, it was actually about point nine three acres.

Any wider would take another couple residential lots, but we can fit everything that's needed in that point nine three acres. So we support the revision to approximately one acre just so that we know that it isn't one point zero zero acre. It's almost that. The relocation of the water well was something that came up kind of late in the game, but we understand the reason. We have a major irrigation well that's pretty close to where the water well was planned.

And the public works and city engineer were concerned that we'd be basically drawing on the same portion of the aquifer. So we've moved the water well adjacent to the canal farthest away as we can within this phase, but it would still connect in in phase one. The requirement that the city provided to us is that we wanted the water well online in phase one, And so that can still be accommodated. Our studies indicated that the water well isn't needed until probably halfway through phase one of the project for the school site that's going out there. But I think what the city wants is some redundancy because what serves this area is the UC Merced well.

And so if that ever needed to go down, there would be one in the immediate vicinity. Another change that's being made that's going to be part of the development agreement amendment is that part of our share was to connect to provide a 16 inches waterline from Cardella up to Bellevue. The city is working on a piece where they're going to connect a 16 inches waterline from Bellevue down to Yosemite, basically creating a big loop, which provides additional redundancy that's needed. So we're in support of the conditions of approval, not only on this map, the large lot map, but also on the small lot map. So I'll be making just this one presentation for you tonight in the interest of time.

We ask the planning commission to approve the item presented. And as clarified by the city staff, I want to go on record of supporting the small lot maps as well. Be pleased to answer any questions. I'll reserve the balance of my time for any rebuttals or any questions that the commission may have.

Thank you, Mr. Peck. Commissioners, are there any questions for the applicant? No? Hearing Thank you.

We now move on to opposition. Is there any opposition, Kayla? No. No? Do we have any of the members of the public who wish to speak in person have sent emails or letters prior to the meeting?

No, we do not. No?

Is there anybody in the public now that would like to comment? No. Hearing and seeing none, at this time, we're going close the public comment and bring it back to the commission for discussion. Commissioners, are there any comments internally here you'd like to discuss? No?

No? No comments? I would accept the motion.

I'll make a motion to approve the environmental review 20 Five-two in the tentative subdivision map 20 Five-eight with the 23 conditions of approval with the modifications of condition number 13 as indicated by staff during their presentation.

And I'll second that. So I have a motion by Commissioner Gregens. We have a second by Chairman Gonzales. We now move it to a vote. And we have five votes. So everybody here votes in favor. Thank you, folks. Now clear this. Five for approval. We now move on to item e two, Francisco.

Vesting tentative subdivision map number 25Dash0007 for Virginia Smith Trust phase one a, and environmental review number 25Dash0033 initiated by the applicant, Board of Education of the County of Merced, trustee, property owner. This application involves a request to subdivide approximately 78.1 acres into one sixty hundred seven lots. The subject site is generally located on the East Side of Lake Road, approximately 5,000 feet north of East Yosemite Avenue within plan development number 80, the general plan designation of Virginia Smith Trust specific plan. This is a public hearing.

Okay, Commission. Francisco again, Senior Planner. As Kayla mentioned, phase one a is a small lot map. So essentially, the next level of subdivision kind of getting a little bit more granular. So focuses on just the portion of the project site.

So focuses on the Northwest portion of EST. So it's everything that's bounded within the white dashed area. In terms of land use, on the western portion, the parcels in white, those are residential parcels. They're larger parcels, about 25 12,500 square feet. That road that's shaped like an s, that's Campus Parkway which essentially goes diagonally through the project site and transitions from four lanes down to two lanes within this area.

On the northern portion where you see the orange, that's for high density residential. The other parcels shown in yellow and green, those are low density residential parcels. In red is a that's commercial, so that's essentially a neighborhood commercial component within the project site. And then, to the right or to the east of that, you see a small blue building and that would be, again, the city facility. It would be a fire, mainly fire stationpolice station.

The police station would mostly be used for administrative purposes. So staff, again, looks for consistency with the land use. So this map here is the subdivision map that you'll be looking at that would subdivide the land and it would subdivide about 78.1 acres to 167 lots. So again, this is for phase one a. This slide here essentially illustrates the backbone infrastructure that would be required with phase one a.

So the blue lines would be water lines and then the purple lines would be sewer lines. So you see along the northern and along the eastern boundaries would be sewer and water utilities. Along Campus Parkway, the original plan is to put utilities along Campus Parkway or within it, currently working with staff, possibly changing that to have it going across Campus Parkway as opposed to going through it. North and south of Campus Parkway are two storm drain basins. And then on the eastern side, the very furthest eastern boundary of this map would be water well location along Golden Bobcat Avenue.

So one thing that's unique to this project that you'll kind of see it sprinkled throughout the entire specific plan is what's called cluster units. Cluster units is a housing stock or housing type that's not very common, Merced. I don't know if we have any examples but there's many examples throughout larger, more urban cities in the Bay Area and Southern California. Essentially, concept is to have two lots facing the public street and then having a shared driveway that would provide access to lots behind it and these will come in packs of four packs of six or eight lots and each lot would have own garage and its own private yard. And this is something that was reviewed and by our fire department and they're comfortable with this housing type.

Public comments, just like with the large lot map, we sent out a public hearing notice to property owners within 300 feet of the site three weeks prior to today's meeting. We also published in the newspaper. Staff did not receive any comments for this map prior to today's meeting. Conditions, condition number 26. Again, Campus Parkway goes through through the subject site so condition number 26 would require a block wall along Campus Parkway.

Block wall would be seven feet tall and it would only be required on portions that are adjacent to two residential zones. Condition number 29 essentially requires the applicant to dedicate all necessary right of way for this map that's required. So that would be not just for roads and sidewalks, but also for easements, and that would need to be done at the final map stage. Just like the other map, staff is recommending some adjustments to the language to a few conditions just to add further clarity. And so, condition number eight is in regards to when the community facility district formation is required.

That community facility district would be required prior to final map approval. Incorrectly, it was originally written as it needs to be initiated but it actually needs to be completed prior to the final map being approved by the city council. Condition number 18 is in regards to residential lots along arterial and collector roads. Arterial and collector roads are some of the major roads. Think of Olive Avenue, M Street, R Street and so forth.

So it's not good practice to have a lot of driveways along those roads because it can back up traffic. So there is a condition that doesn't allow residential driveways along arterial and collector roads as condition number 18. However, we did want to clarify that it's not allowed for single family homes, but it would be allowed if it's a multi family housing development within a R3 or R4 land use designation. So what's highlighted are the changes that would be that are recommended by staff for condition eight and condition 18. For condition number 38, again, just like the large lot map, staff is recommending that for the police and fire station that instead of just being exactly one acre, staff is recommending approximately one acre of dedication for that police and fire station.

So that concludes the presentation. After opening and closing the public hearing, the commission may take action. For environmental review 25 dash zero three three, staff is recommending using the CECO section fifteen thousand one sixty two, again, reusing the existing environment study that was done to get this area annexed into the city. And for the commission were to approve the map, map number 20 five-seven, staff recommends that it be subject to the 40 conditions of approval in the resolution with modifications to condition number eight, eighteen, and 31 as just indicated in the presentation. Being said, I'm available for any questions you may have.

Thank you, Francisco. Commissioners, are there any questions for the project planner? No questions? I just had a quick question just again I know that we had the applicant up so all conditions are been reviewed on this particular draft for Yes. Thank so much.

They've reviewed by the applicant as well.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Again, we're just gonna go down the steps through this. This is a public hearing at this time. We'll open the public to public comment. Open the hearing to public comment. I invite the applicant to speak. The applicant will have total fifteen minutes including rebuttal time. If you wish to reserve time for rebuttal, please conclude your remarks to give yourself time. Applicant doesn't wish to speak at this time. We now move on to opposition. Kayla, is there any opposition on this?

No, there is not.

Alright. Thank you so much. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak in person, have sent emails or letters prior to this meeting? No. Nope. And is there anybody in the public who would like to speak on this particular item?

Chair, if I can make a clarification. Yes. I know that on the right here on the conditions of approval, it says item 31. I believe Francisco meant item 38, if that's correct. If you could bring that up.

Condition 38. Just Yes.

For clarification. Gotcha. So for the public and also for the folks watching, the difference from what was presented in our slideshow was 31 when it should be in fact 38 condition 38. My apologies. Thank you, Francisco. And back to the public hearing. Again, is there anybody in the public who wish to speak on this item? Hearing and seeing none. At this time, we're going to close the public comment and bring it back to the commission for discussion. Commissioners, any internal discussion that we need to have on this item? Hearing and seeing none.

I'll make a motion to improve environmental review number twenty five dash zero zero three three and tentative subdivision map number 25 Dash 007 subject to 40 conditions of approval with modifications to conditions number eight, eighteen, and 38 as indicated by staff during the presentation.

And I will second that motion. So we have a motion by commissioner Ochoa, second by chairman Gonzales. We now move it to a vote. And we have five approvals. Thank you for that. So clear. We now move on to item E three.

Vesting tentative subdivision map number 25 Dash 0009, Virginia Smith Trust phase one b, and environmental review number 25Dash0034 initiated by applicant, board of education of the County of Merced, trustee, property owner. This application involves a request to subdivide approximately 78.1 acres into 167 lots. The subject site is generally located on the East Side Of Lake Road, approximately 5,000 feet north of East Yosemite Avenue within plan development number 80 with a general plan designation of Virginia Smith Trust specific plan. This is a public hearing.

K. Good evening, everybody. I'm Matt Livingston, the assistant planner, and this is phase one b, which is tentative map 25 dash 0009. So here is the land use for this phase. As you can see, it's the area that is surrounded by the white dash line.

This phase is predominantly residential. It has varying densities of residential and also has some open space and some parks throughout the phase. Here is the tentative map itself. So as you can see, Campus Parkway runs through near the center from north to south of this phase, and then Golden Bobcat Avenue also runs north to south. It's on the eastern portion of the phase.

And this one is 328 total lots. So here is the circulation improvements for the entire first phase of the project. The blue stars indicate the the improvements that will be done with this phase, and this is regarding circulation. So the same thing for this. This is regarding the sewage improvements.

This is the water improvements, and this is the storm drain improvements. So here's another look at the tentative map with the some of the sewer and storm drain infrastructure as well as the water infrastructure. So as you can see, the blue lines indicate where the water infrastructure would be, and then the green is the sewage, and there's also a storm drain basin near the northeast portion of this phase. So as Francisco stated in the last phase, we are requesting the same modification to these two conditions. So changing the term initiated to completed, then adding the exception for multifamily housing developments within R 3 and R 4 for driveways off of arterials and collectors.

So after the public hearing, the Planning Commission may approve, disapprove, or modify environmental review twenty five dash zero zero three four, which is SQL one five one six two, which is reusing the previous environmental study, and tentative subdivision map number 25 Dash 0009, subject to the 39 conditions of approval with modifications to condition eight and eighteen, which were indicated. And there's the modifications again.

Alright. Are there any questions for our planner on circulation? No? Hearing and seeing none. We are moving along. Again, this is a public hearing, and at this time, I'll open the hearing for public comment. I invite the applicant to speak. The applicant will have a total of fifteen minutes including rebuttal time. If you wish to reserve time for rebuttal, please conclude your remarks and give yourself time. We know the applicant will not be speaking here. Is there any opposition, Kayla, on this item? No. No. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak in person, have sent emails, or letters prior to this meeting? No.

No. Is there anybody in the public who wish to speak on this item? Hearing and seeing none at this time, we will close the public comment and bring it back to the commission for discussion. I request a motion to approve environmental review 25 dash zero zero three, sequel section one five one six two. We use existing environmental study and also the tentative subdivision map number twenty five dash zero zero nine, subject to 39 conditions of approval with modifications to condition eight and condition 18 as indicated by staff during the presentation.

I'll second.

We have a motion to approve by Chairman Gonzales, a second by Commissioner Gregens. We now move it to a vote, which we have five votes, approving. Thank you, folks. That was a three, right? And I'll move on to item e four.

Investing tentative subdivision map number 25Dash0010, Virginia Smith Trust phase 1C, and environmental review number 20Five-thirty5 initiated by the applicant, Board of Education of the County of Merced, trustee property owner. This application involves a request to subdivide approximately 75.57 acres into 66 lots. The subject site is generally located on the East Side Of Lake Road, approximately 5,000 feet north of East Yosemite Avenue within plan development number 80 with the general plan designation of Virginia Smith Trust specific plan. This is a public hearing.

Good evening, Commission. Again, Francisco Mendoza, senior planner. I am actually filling in for our associate planner, Valeria Rentaria, who wasn't able to make it today. But this is the map that she's been working on. Again, phase one c. Phase one c would be essentially the central northern portion of the VST specific plan. As you can see here, you have this major road that's running essentially through the middle of phase one c. It's a vertical road. This will essentially be like the downtown or main street of the entire VST project site. We're focusing in that area wherever you see red.

That's either commercial or office commercial type of land uses. And then kind of radiating out to the west and to the east, the left and the right. It's just a whole variety of residential uses. So for the most part, you're looking at some of the higher densities, R3s, R4s. And then the southern portion has those cluster units that I mentioned earlier, which are pockets of single family homes that come in packs of six.

So this is the map that is provided for phase 1c. So Phase 1 C is about just a little under 76 acres. And with this map, that area would be subdivided to approximately 66 slots. Public comments, just like the other items for BST, staff did a mail out for the with the public hearing notice for property owners within 300 feet of the site and also posted the notice on the in the newspaper and staff did not receive any comments for this item. Conditions of approval, just to touch on a couple.

Condition number 14 essentially requires the developer to comply with the development design standards that are outlined in the specific plan. Condition number 28 requires the applicant to dedicate all necessary right away and easements needed for this map. And that would need to be done at the final map stage. And just like the other maps, staff is recommending some adjustments. So that includes adjusting condition number eight to require that the CFD formation be completed before final map approval instead of being initiated.

And then also an adjustment to condition number 18, which would allow driveways off of collector streets or arterial streets if it's a multifamily housing development. So it essentially would allow it anywhere except for multi family housing development within the R3 and R4 land use designations. So that concludes our presentation for this phase, for phase 1C. After opening and closing the public hearing, the Planning Commission may approve, disapprove, or modify tentative subdivision map number 25 Dash 10. There's 39 conditions in the draft resolution.

And again, the staff is recommending modifications to conditions number eight and eighteen. And for the environments review four twenty five dash zero zero three five, staff is recommending adoption of CECO section fifteen thousand one and sixty two, which would be reusing the existing environmental study that was done for the annexation of this project site. So with that, I'll go back to the adjusted conditions. If there's any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them.

Thank you, Francisco. Commissioners, there any questions for the project planner? Hearing and seeing none. At this oh, this is a public hearing. And at this time, we'll open to public comment. I invite the applicant to speak. The applicant will have a total of fifteen minutes, including rebuttal time. If you wish to reserve time for rebuttal, please conclude your remarks to give yourself time. Understand that. Is there any opposition on this, Kayla? No. No? No opposition. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak in person, have sent emails or letters prior to this meeting on this item? No.

No. Is there anybody in the public who would wish to speak on this particular item? Hearing and seeing none at this time, we close public comment and bring it back to the commission for discussion. Commissioners, any internal discussion on this particular item? No. Commissioner Greggins?

With no discussion, I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the environmental review 20 5 Dash 003, the tentative subdivision map 250010 subject to the conditions of approval with the modifications to conditions eight and eight eight and eighteen as indicated by staff in their presentation. Second.

Real quick, gentlemen. It's environmental review 25 dash 0035. No. Commissioner Greggins, just wanted to make sure we

We can amend that. Okay.

Thank you. So we have a motion to approve by commissioner Greggins. We have a second by commissioner Vu. We now move it to a vote. And we have approval at five votes. Now my understanding, as we move to item e five, we have some comments by our planner or sorry.

Yes. For this item, for phase one d, there's actually was a little bit of issues processing. There was administrative error error with the map that was included. So staff is recommending, as shown here on this slide, that this particular map that be continued to the planning commission meeting of 02/04/2026.

Are there any questions? Can we open up for questions or Yeah.

Yeah. Yes. Okay.

So now we'll just make the motion. Right?

Do we make a motion to continue?

Or Okay.

Yeah. So we we have to move this on. So we have to have a motion to to continue, VST m Dash25Dash0011 to the public commissioner meeting of 02/04/2026. We have to take a motion for it to go through for us to move it to our next meeting. So I'll make a motion to approve to in moving it to continuation to our PC meeting on 02/04/2026.

Second. K.

We have a motion to move the meeting, VST. Oops. Go back to there. To continue. And we now move it to a vote. Oh, is there any before we move it to a vote, is there any comments? Everybody's in favor of moving it to February 4. Thank you. So it has passed. So it will conclude item E525-seventeen, February 4. Thank you. Thank you. So we now move on to item e six.

Vesting tentative subdivision map number 25 Dash 0012 for Virginia Smith Trust phase one e and environmental review number 25Dash0037 initiated by the applicant, Board of Education of the County of Merced, trustee, property owner. This application involves a request to subdivide approximately 89.58 acres into 300 lots. The subject site is generally located on the East Side of Lake Road, approximately 5,000 feet north of East Yosemite Avenue within plan development number 80 with a general plan designation of Virginia Smith Trust specific plan. This is a public hearing.

Okay. Good evening, everybody. Again, I'm Matt Livingston, assistant planner. This is phase one e, tentative map 25 dash 0012. So here is the land use map for this phase.

Again, it's the area surrounded by the white dash lines. This phase has a lot of residential as well as a school on the southwest portion of the site. Directly to the east of the school is a large regional sports complex park. There's also another park in this phase that runs along the north edge kinda down towards the bottom right portion. And there's also some open space in the top right.

So again, like earlier, this the areas with the stars indicate which improvements are gonna be done with this phase. So this is for the circulation. This is for the sewer. This is for the water, and that is for the storm drain. Here is the tentative map.

This specific phase is 300 total lots. And as you can see, the larger lot kind of near the bottom left is where the school would be. So as you can see on the bottom, running east to west, there would be gravity sewer and water main running from Kibbe Road to the eastern boundary of phase one. And there's also a, excuse me, a canal that runs along the north edge and kinda creates a border for this phase. So again, we are requesting the same modifications to the two same conditions as the other phases.

So condition eight switching out initiated to completed, then condition 18 adding in the exception for multifamily housing developments within the r three and r four land use designations. So after discussion, the Planning Commission may approve, disapprove, or modify environmental review 25 dash 37, which is CEQA section one five one six two and tentative subdivision map 25 Dash 12 subject to the 41 conditions of approval with modifications to condition eight and eighteen as indicated. And I'm here if you guys have any questions, and here is the the modification again.

Thank you, Matt. Commissioner Ochoa?

Yeah. My question was about the school. Do you know if it's gonna be high school, middle school, elementary school?

My understanding now is is k through eight. And

then the other school as well. I meant to ask another subdivision map.

So we have two schools going in? Right? Yep. Two. Okay.

So in negotiation with both school districts, remember this property is bisected by school district boundaries. The eastern half is Weaver. The western half is Merced City. Meeting with the district superintendents, they both want schools in this property.

Of course, they do.

So we had MCOE had purchased the property to reserve it as a school, the the k eight first. That's in the Weaver boundary. MCOE had also purchased property to have a one of our charter schools on the property up on the northern boundary on Myers Gate Road. We have agreed with Merced City to sell them that property to build a school there that will serve Merced City kids. They didn't wanna give up their part.

We we went through a process where we tried to have them consolidate into one district. Neither district wanted to give up their property. And so the solution is, well, they get to both build schools there because the closest school for either district is many miles away. And we want schools to be a centerpiece of this as a community where parents can have their children walk to school. So thanks for letting me interrupt.

Thank you. Thank you for outlining that. Are there any other questions for the project planner? No. Thank you so much, Matt, for your time. Hearing and seeing none, this is a public hearing. At this time, we'll open for public comment. I invite the applicant to speak. The applicant will have a total of fifteen minutes including rebuttal time. If you wish to reserve time for rebuttal, please conclude your remarks to give yourself time. Kayla, is there any opposition on this item?

No. There is not. No?

Do we have any of the members of the public who wish to speak in person, have sent emails or letters prior to this meeting?

No. No.

Is there anybody in the public who wish to speak on this item? Hearing and seeing none at this time, we close the public comment and bring it back to the commission for discussion. And I make a motion to approve environmental review 25 dash zero zero three seven, sequel section one five one six two, reuse existing environmental study, and tentative subdivision map 25 dash zero zero one two subject to 41 conditions of approval with modifications to conditions eight and eighteen as indicated by staff during the presentation.

I'll second it. And we

have a second by commissioner Vu. So we have a motion to approve by chairman Gonzales and a motion second by commissioner Vu. We now move it to a vote tally. And we have five approvals on item e six. And that concludes all of our items. We now move on to item f, which is business.

Let's see.

I would like to thank Francisco for the Francisco Mendoza show tonight. He did a wonderful job in presenting and moving the items right along, and and as well, thank you, Matt. So, yes, February 4, we will be having an item, for planning commission. Something to remind everybody is we will be having a workshop January 28 in the Samuel Pipes downstairs between two and eight for the general plan update. So, to the crowd that's out there, I would welcome you guys to come. It's a really good and important part of the process for the city, Merced's development, and I would love to make sure that, the commissioners come as well. That's it.

And we now move on to item g, which is adjournment. But I will need a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

I have a motion to adjourn by Commissioner Gregens and a second by Commissioner Inchoa. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. And we are concluded. Thank you so much guys for your time.