Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I called to order this meeting of the Planning Commission for 05/06/2026 and I now ask for a moment of silence. Commissioner Smith, will you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? To the flag of The United States Of America Kayla, roll call.

Before I start their roll call for the meeting, I do want to announce that we have Valeria Renteria at the back of the council chambers for your Spanish translation if needed. Commissioner Smith.

Present.

View. Present.

Swigert. Present. Ochoa. Present. Greggins. Present. Chairperson Gonzales. Absent excused.

We have a call. We have, excuse me, we have a quorum. Kayla, will you now read the information on 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 back of the podium at the council chambers. 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 planningweb@cityofMerced.gov and should be limited to 300 words or less. Please specify which portion of the agenda you are commenting on. For example, oral communications 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. To view video or listen to the Planning Commission meeting live, go to the city's website www.cityofmerced.gov, Facebook Live, or Comcast Public Access Channel 96.

Members of the public who wish to speak on any matter not listed and 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 public comment period. Members of the public who wish to speak on this matter that is listed on the agenda will be called upon to speak during the discussion of that item. Kayla, do we have any request to speak?

Yes, we do. I do call Arturo Martinez Junior to the podium.

Members of the Planning Commission, my name is Arturo Martinez Jr. I wear many different hats in our community. But today I'm here on behalf of my hat as a resident of District 6. And today I wanna take time to just acknowledge what's going on in District 6, right? So I'm an Adder Walker and I walk through my district and other parts of Merced.

And while I'm glad there's development, we see development, I think it's like three or four different housing developers I see in the area building homes, we need homes, right? But when we think for the future, I know some right now, the planning commission in the city of Merced also looking for a thirty year plan is how are we gonna address the growing UC needs, the award express way and more other people come into the city and other jobs. I do not think that a lot of residents of Merced just want single family homes. We could do better with their land. We could do whether people are doing multifamily, rezoning or multi use rezoning, so be something that should be considered.

I know the Virginia Smith Trust Fund, unless they got changed, I

know when it got approved, it was single family homes next to a UC and it really brings to question what are

we doing with their land? I'm a big love of, I love ag and that's farmers and farm workers. And while we are annexing, I'm not anti annexation, right? We got to expand our city. We're going to end up with the suburbia, just a bunch of single family homes.

And then that means more traffic, more just people have to walk longer distances to either a bus stop or to buy their groceries or their food. And don't get me wrong, I do see that in Yosemite, there is some multi housing over there they built for the students. But what about for the other residents of Merced? And I guess my only ask if there's any of the pending commission is is you all take these things into consideration with the city of Merced for our next thirty years, is to think of what can be done to the zoning so that we can make best use of the land to do more dense housing, right? I like downtown.

I don't think we can do what we do in downtown, everywhere across the city. Could, that'd be amazing, right? But you have small business on the 1st Floor and then you have two or three or four floors of just housing, right? It's what can we do to best address it. So, I just wanted to bring that today to the Planning Commission. I'm not here to speak on any item on the agenda. I just wanted to address some concerns I've seen as a resident number said. Like, let's just make sure that we are taking into consideration other populations that may not be able to come here for different reasons. Thank you. That'd be it.

Thank you. Are there any other members of the public who like to speak on any item that's not listed on the agenda? Okay. Say none. Would the commission like to remove any items for separate considerations?

Do we have any request to speak form on any consent item? No. Do we have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

A motion to approve.

I'll second.

Commissioners, cast your votes. The motion has passed. Now we move on to E public hearings. Item E1, which is the conditional use permit for the site plan review for twenty five zero zero twenty and review permit twenty five zero zero one. You might have been environmental review twenty five zero zero four seven.

Are there any No, that's it.

Alright, good evening, chairperson and commissioner. My name is Jesse Lee, development services technician two. This application is for conditional use permit 25Dash0020 and site plan review 25Dash0015. Environmental review 207. Applied by property owner, Romero Ortuno.

The request involves two food truck and a drive thru for two tortilla trailers at 131 West Main Street. So this is the location map here. The property is zoned central commercial with a general plan designation of regional commercial. The subject site is surrounded by multifamily residential use to the North, retail to the South, and a mix of retails and restaurants to the West, retail and personal service to the East. So per MMC twenty point four four point zero two zero C seven, Establishment of multi food truck parking areas with a conditional use permit in any zoning district which permits food trucks parking area for multiple food trucks may be established.

The city may require permanent seating, shelters, refuse containers, and other amenities with the conditional use permit. A site plan review is required per MMC 20.1 dash one for a drive thru or drive up cells. The subject site is the old location of Saint Vincent de Paul. However, the building was burned down and demolished back in 2023, so currently right now it is vacant. The site plan shows the drive thru component on the east side of the subject site for two tortilla trailers and two food trucks to be parked on the Southwest side.

There will be an office and bathroom to the Northwest of the site. Bathrooms will be accessible to both employees and the general public. The applicant is proposing 14 parking spaces, which exceeds the number of required parking spaces. The current required is two parking spaces per food truck. Entrance will be available from West Main Street and exit back through West Main Street or the alleyway.

There will be six fixed picnic tables located in the southwest portion of the subject sites for customers. So some safety concerns and condition. Staff is including the following condition. Condition number eight, at least two trash receptacles shall be provided while food is being served. Condition number nine, prohibits temporary signs.

Condition number 14, notes that the city may revoke the CUP if a sexist service calls are made to the PD. Condition number 21, prohibits the sale of alcohol. Condition number 22, requires posting no littering signs. Operational conditions, condition number six requires compliance with Mercer County Environmental Health. Condition number 13 requires compliance with the city's water quality control division.

And then condition number 20 requires employees access to indoor restrooms. So currently in the city of Merced, there are eight approved location for multi food trucks and 26 approved fixed location for one food trucks in the city. If this conditional use permit gets approved, this will be the ninth approved location for multi food trucks. If you're looking at the mobile food vendor location map here, truck number 121323, 27, 28, and 31, Those are the ones that are nearby this location. Alright.

The proposed project qualifies for a class 32 categorical exemption pursuant to sequel guidelines section one five three three two, infill development projects. The proposed project is considered an infill project. The project location is within the city limits on a point four three acre subject surrounded by urban uses. The site can be served by all required utilities and public services, and the project site has no value as habitat for endangered, rare, or threatened species. No significant effects resulting from traffic noise, air quality, or water quality will result from the construction of this project.

The project is consistent with the City Of Merced's general plan and zoning regulation. So Planning Commission may approve, modify, or deny conditional use permit 20, site plan review 20, environmental review 25 dash zero zero four seven. Category exempt. Subject to 33 conditions of approval.

Commissioners, do you have any questions for the project manager? No? This is a public hearing at this time. We will open the public 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. Kayla. Do we have any?

So, the applicant does not want to speak.

Does not want to speak. No. Okay.

But, they're here and they can address any questions you guys may have.

Does the commission have any questions for the applicant? Skipping and skipping. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak in person or have sent emails or letters prior to the meeting?

No.

Then I'll bring it back to the commission for discussion. Any questions, comments, concerns? Commissioner Ochoa.

Nice. Thank you. I think it's a great project, Graceland, especially because it's very vacant and you can see it looks not that great. So, really excited for this project to come through. I think the tortilla trucks will be a very great addition to the city. I know they're very needed. I don't think there's any. So with that, I would like to make a motion to approve conditional use permit number 25Dash0020. Site plan review number 25Dash0015 and EnvironmentalReviewDash25 number 25Dash0047 subject to the 33 conditions of approval.

I second.

We have a first and a second. Commissioners, cast your votes. Motion passed. And that brings us to E2. E2 conditional use permit 201 environmental Review201.

All right. Good evening again. Jesse Lee, development services technician two. So this application is for conditional use permit twenty six-twenty one and environmental review twenty six-fifty one. This is submitted by property owner VNS Real Estate Investment LLC.

This request involves Hu Food Truck at 402 Mercy Avenue. The property is zoned office commercial with a general plan destination of commercial office. The subject site is surrounded by multifamily residential use to the North, retail to the South, and a mix of retail and restaurant to the West, retail and personal service to the East. Per MMC 20.44.020 C7, establishment of multi food truck parking areas with a conditional use permit in any zoning district which prevents food trucks, parking areas, or multi food trucks may be established. The city may require permanent seating, shelters, refuse container, and other amenities with its conditional use permit.

So this is a street view from Mercy Avenue. The subject site is surrounded by Mercy Hospital to Norworth, and then medical office to the South and West, and residential uses to the East. The applicant is proposing two food trucks within a developed parking lot of Merced Heart Associates. Here's the site plan. The food trucks will be located to the southeast portion of the subject site. There are existing parking spaces with the subject site, so no additional required parking. Operation hours are limited to Monday through Friday, eight to 5PM per the applicant's request. Staff did add

a

condition of approval to allow the development services director to approve extended hours, should the applicant request such a modification in the future. Employee restrooms facilities will be provided within the existing Merced Heart Associate building located to the west side of the site, which is the parcel adjacent to it. Some safety concern and condition staff is including are the following. So condition number eight talks about the trash. Condition number nine, perhaps temporary signs.

Condition number 10, limits the hours of operations. Condition number 14, notes that the city can revoke the CUP if excessive service call are made to PD. Condition number 21, perhaps the sale of alcohol. Condition number 22, requires posting no littering sign. Operational conditions.

Condition number six requires compliance with Merced County Environmental Health. Condition number 13 requires compliance with the city water control, city water's quality control division. And then condition number 20 requires employees access to indoor restroom, which they do have with the adjacent building. Again, back to the mobile food vendor location map. There are eight approved, now nine.

We just approved the other conditional use permit for that, so that'll be the ninth one. If this one's gonna be approved, it'll be the tenth multi food truck in the city of Merced. The project itself qualifies for the class 32 categorical exemption pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15,332. The proposed project is considered an infill project. So the Planning Commission may approve, modify, or deny conditional use permit twenty six-twenty one, environmental review 20 six-fifty one category exempt subject to 33 conditions of approval.

That concludes my presentation.

Thank you. Commissioners, do you have any questions? For the planner, no? Okay. This is a public hearing. At this time, we'll open up the public hearing for for the hearing for public comment. I invite the applicant to speak. The applicant will have a total of fifteen minutes rebuttal time including rebuttal time. If you wish to reserve time for rebuttal, please conclude your remarks to give yourself credit. Do we have the applicant?

The applicant is here. She doesn't want to speak but is open to answering any questions you guys may have.

Okay, chair or commission, do you have any questions of the applicant? No? There's no opposition?

No opposition. Okay.

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

No.

Then I'll bring it back to the commission for discussion. I do have one thing and we're looking at 10 multi food trucks. Well, I have no objection to the project itself and the one that we approved prior. We may want to consider looking at our overall ordinance to see if it fits because the concentration of some of these food truck ordinances that are under the current ordinance. If you look in the area prior to the one that we just approved prior to this one, in that corner, we have already approved one on sixteenth and H for a single truck, one on Main And 16th for a multi food truck, and now we're basically going catty corner from that for another multi food truck.

Now, while those haven't been implemented yet, they still are active sites, You know, so, part of the Planning Commission, we need to kind of look at that. So, if we could get some direction on what we can do for that, not knowing that this isn't in front of us right now under this, you know, item but.

Thank you for those comments, Mr. Chair. If I may, I suggest that we close out this item, and then since you flagged it as a concern, we can speak specifically to you do have some options. Sam and I would need direction from the Commission once I tell you what your options are or Sam tells you what your options are, what you want to pursue. But I would recommend that we close out this item and then we will have that broader discussion that you've raised.

Just to get direction to Sam and I very preliminarily because it's not agendized, so we would have to bring it back at the next council

Commissioners, do we have any other discussion on this item? Do we have a motion?

I can motion. Motion to approve conditional use permit number 201 and environmental review number twenty six dash fifty one category exemption subject to 33 conditions of approval.

Do we have a second?

I'll second that.

We have a motion and a second. Commissioners, cast your votes. And the motion has passed. Congratulations. And that brings us to item F1, report by planning manager for upcoming agendas. Remember this also where it falls into the direction?

It's okay.

You want to go or you want me to go?

Go ahead and go.

Thank you, Sam and Mr. Chair, members of the Commission. As was just briefly touched upon, you have in the past, as have members of the audience and the community, expressed just a broad concern about the methodology and the manner in which we're going about approving food trucks. We are tied to what our zoning code currently states. However, there is a provision in the government code that we will not consider tonight because it is not agendized.

But what I would suggest is if you want to take a hard look at this at your next Planning Commission meeting, staff will present to you for your consideration and discussion amongst the public in a commission meeting a moratorium on the existing zoning code ordinance for a set amount of time at which time if it is passed and you guys agree, no, I take that back. A resolution to planning to city council requesting that they pass the moratorium to pause the zoning code on the books and allow staff time to study, take into consideration potential changes to address some of the public health and safety concerns that are being raised by the concentration. But we that will have to be done at next commission's meeting. Your consideration and the actual moratorium has to occur at the city council.

That does make sense and and I would personally I would like to go that direction. Is there any discussion from the commission on that? Any different thoughts?

Are you concerned with just the amount or the I don't know, the rules and regulations on how we're putting up food trucks or just the amount we're approving?

One of course, the amount that we're approving in the concentration in certain locations around the city like the intersection of Main And H is going to be heavily if all approvals are implemented by the owners and who submitted their applications and got them approved that's going to be a big hub And is that the direction that we want to go with in regards to the city and the look and is that where the City Council wants to go with it as well? So let's take a look at it here as how it applies throughout the entire city, right? Because we're starting to hit different locations. We have the one on Olive And 59 on one side of 59 and if we get an application across the street, how are we going to handle that, you know, because they're coming to they seem to be coming more frequently and more often, so let's take a look at it, let's see where it goes. I'm not against the culture of the food trucks, I like the food trucks, but I want to make sure that we kind of have a good set plan on how it grows in the future.

I'm not really sure a moratorium is the right way to go. It may be the right way to go, but we have to have the time to hear the information, figure it out, and try to move forward in a good positive way. Also the more we open up, the more competition there is, which is a good thing and a bad thing. All together we got to take that into consideration in the overall growth of the city. Does that kind of answer your question?

Yeah. I think on the flip side of that, people are willing to pay money, pay their fees and whatnot. I mean, we allow for uses all the time. We for housing projects, you know, we approve them, and they don't necessarily get built. So it's kinda the same thing for the food trucks for me is we approve these projects, and they still don't get put there.

So Mhmm.

Think it's a give and take. But if it's something you want to look at, I very much agree that we can't have 30 food trucks on one street and that's kind of the way it's looking.

Yeah. And it may be the right way to go. It may not be the right. Until we actually discuss it and then actually look at it in full detail, we're kind of flying blind right now. So, a little bit more clarity, a little bit more sunlight on it would would help us out.

Yeah, if I may, right? So, the moratorium, yes, it would put a pause on on the food trucks that that are coming in. It wouldn't, you know, for a time for us to be able to really evaluate the ordinance as everybody's aware of the city of Merced is growing and changing very rapidly. And so I think the ordinance that was in place served the city well at the time. But as the city begins to evolve, we have to start looking into the future. So it would give us an opportunity to look at that ordinance and really thoughtfully put in a good process moving forward not for just the next one, two years but the next ten, fifteen years as we continue

to grow. Commissioner Sawyer.

I thought you forgot about me.

No, no. Gotcha.

I'm not opposed to the moratorium, but I think my question would be, is there a way to put a sunset on those that have not taken advantage of the approval? Because we have those corners that are already approved. There's nothing there. But do they have it for five years? Do they have it for I think we need to put a cap on that because, yes, you're approved.

But if you're not going to do anything for five years, that stops the tortilla truck from coming in because we already have one across the street. So if they're ready to move and across the street isn't, they shouldn't be faulted for that, which we didn't. Of course, they're approved. I'm just saying in the future, if we can kind of possibly put some more parameters around that so it's just not a free rein to come in five years and now I've got approval. I've got three trucks that I want to put out there.

And then they haven't we need to get people to not just sit on the project. That's what I'm saying. So if we can address that and then maybe slow down the amount because we do not want it to be food truck central, which I think that's where we're all doing it. I love me some food trucks. And then I do have a question since we're looking at the moratorium. If we could possibly who monitors? Because if they've got multiple food trucks, if they were only allowed to have four, well what if there's five on one day? Is somebody going to go by and say no? Again, there's still some out there that are not permitted that you can tell. We're trying to as a community, we're trying to prevent that from happening in the future.

But I just want to make sure that there's monitoring on that too.

Anyway, I'm done. Thank you.

So all these areas that have multi food trucks, they provide a number listed through their conditions of approval, right? So, when you

give those, when you issue out your conditions, you as the Planning Commission, right? You're telling them

you can only have four. So, if you do see five, then, the proper thing

to do would call code enforcement because those those conditions are enforceable.

This is all fabulous discussion but now I have to put my attorney hat on and say that this level of detail wasn't agendized, and so everything you guys have brought up, that will be the purpose of the next meeting. It is properly agendized, we will I encourage you to bring these questions and even more, and Sam and staff will be prepared to answer, and I will be here for legal guidance. I have answers, but I kind of don't want to give them yet because it wasn't agendized. So, it sounds like there's a desire to agendize this, if for no other reason than to continue this discussion and let the public know this is the topic of the discussion.

Thank you all. Any other comments? No? Okay. I believe this is now yours.

So, for the next planning commission hearing, we have a minor modification that will be coming up for the next PC hearing. I believe you guys were notified of the joint study session coming up on the May 26 and then the CFG will be coming out to the twenty seventh. I'll use this as an opportunity since there's some members in the audience as a plug. This is for the general plan amendment which helps the city grow for the next twenty, thirty years. Something I was speaking to when we were talking about the ordinance. Other than that, I don't have anything. Oh, on the twenty sixth, we will be having a new admin assistant. His name is Cameron and he'll be taking over Kayla's place. So, I will be having a new team member soon.

Nice. Thank you. And that brings us to item E three, Planning Commissioner's comments. Do any Planning Commissioners have anything to report? No? That takes us to item G, adjournment. Do we have a motion?

I make a motion to adjourn.

We have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

Commissioners, cast your vote. And the motion pass. Thank you everybody. Have a great night.