Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

He's like, yeah. Vacation, I think.

The time is now 734 on Wednesday, July 15th. And this meeting is now called to order. Please stand and follow commissioners to her in the present.

Thank you. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

Roll call, please.

Yes. Commissioner Austin? Here. Janicek? Here. Rose? Here. Scheffler? Here. Stahira?

Here.

Bashani?

Here.

Chair Brown? Present.

approval of the minute so the next item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from the regular meeting of june 10th 2026. you know what before we go into the approval why don't we uh move to do the reorganization i skipped that yeah that's okay no problem at all if you'd like i'd be happy to give the report please okay so um At this time, as you know, at the beginning of each fiscal year, the Planning Commission reorganizes by selecting a new chair and vice chair, and following tonight's election, the newly elected chair will preside over the remainder of the meeting. It has been the Commission's custom to appoint the current vice chair as chair, and then the selection of the vice chair position has a methodology, and that is that the vice chair's position is first offered to a first-term commissioner who's served at least one year on the commission, and the commissioner that meets that criteria is Commissioner Lyle Janicek. So he would be next in line to serve as the commission's vice chair. So with that, staff is recommending that Commissioner Rose be elected to the chair and that Commissioner Janicek be elected to vice chair for the 26-27 fiscal year. So that concludes my report and I'll turn it back to you.

Wonderful.

Should we, should I look for someone to make a motion or do we have discussion or it's, you can have discussion and then we'll need a motion in a second.

Okay.

So is there any discussion? No?

Wonderful.

I'll make a motion.

Okay.

I move to elect Commissioner Rose as chair and Commissioner Janicek as vice chair of the commission for year 2026-27 fiscal year. I'll second.

Wonderful. Roll call, please. Commissioner Austin? Yes. Janicek? Yes. Rose? Yes. Scheffler? Yes. Stahira? Yes. Mashani? Yes. Chair Brown?

Yes. All right. That is OK. We had a lot of meetings this afternoon, DRC, Art in Public Places, and Planning Commission tonight. So at this time, now that we've selected our new chair, we could just pass the gavel down to our newly appointed chair, Cheryl Rose. And I would like to thank Chair Brown. You've done a phenomenal job this past year. Thank you for leading us.

Thank you.

And then, yes, that definitely deserves a round of applause. And so at the next meeting, we'll change the seating and name places. So thank you very much. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

And so with that, we move on to the minutes. Are there any corrections to the minutes of June 10th? If not, I'll look for a motion and a second.

I'll move to adopt the minutes from the June 10th Planning Commission meeting. Second.

And we'll just do this by voice. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, minutes are approved. And next on the agenda, we have no public hearings tonight. I think that's a first. So we'll move right on to administrative reports.

And Chair, before we do that, we have the public input section. Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I do know that.

We have public input. And at this time, citizens who wish to speak on city business that's not on the agenda, that is within the purview of the Planning Commission, may approach the podium and speak. Please state your name for the record. Just so everyone is clear, we cannot vote or take any action on anything that brought to the Commission's attention at this time. Is there anyone in the public that cares to speak on anything? No. Okay. With that, then, we will move on to administrative reports. And we have one administrative report this evening, AR1, which is general plan conformity GPC2026-0001 regarding 347 North Highland Place. Yes.

Thank you very much, Chair.

We'll hear the staff report.

Yes, thank you very much. Good evening, Chair and members of the Planning Commission. This item before you is another consideration of a general plan conformity finding for the property located at 347 North Highland Place. This is coming before you as the City Council will be considering the letter of intent to purchase this property at next Tuesday's meeting. And prior to finalizing any purchase of private property, the City Council requires that the Planning Commission first make a general plan conformity finding. And this review process is really intended to ensure that any future acquisition of property conforms to the goals of the general plan. So the subject property, as you can see here, is located on the west side of Highland Place. It's located between West Hillcrest Boulevard and West Scenic Drive. The site totals about 7.8 acres in size. About 82% of the parcel is actually open space that's in its natural state. The property owners originally planned to propose a project at this site and recently the idea came up in the offer to the city to purchase it as open space and to incorporate it into the Hillside Wilderness Preserve. Here's a little bit of what the project looks like. This is the entrance to the property along Highland Place. It is served by a pre-existing private way that serves two other properties aside from this one. The project has a lot of steep slopes, general to the north and to the south, where there's ridge lines. A small amount of existing improvements to the property. The property is currently developed with a single family home that was developed sometime in 1920. Historic preservation had already determined that this home does not have any historic significance. Here you can see that the site has a lot of native coastal live oaks. There's also natural habitat that exists on this property. So the current general plan designation for this property is residential foothill and that allows residential development. Um, this site though is very unique. It's also located in the Madison specific plan. The Madison specific plan C modified was approved by the city council in 2000 and it was also went to voter approval. Um, and it allows development of one dwelling unit per 2.5 acres. If the city acquires the property, the city would change the land use designation to hillside wilderness preserve. Now, the intent with that general plan designation is really to preserve open space in its natural state and including any existing wildlife habitat. It still could be used for passive open space like trails, but residential development would be prohibited on the site. So California government requires, as I mentioned before, that any potential acquisition of real property first be submitted to the Planning Commission for a termination of its conformity to the general plan. This acquisition, the potential acquisition of the property is consistent with Land Use Element Goal 11, which calls for providing Monrovia's residents with a high-quality urban environment through the development of and conservation of resources such as land, water, minerals, and wildlife vegetation. The city's acquisition of the property would include changing the general plan land use designation to hillside wilderness preserve. The residential development on the site would be prohibited. Acquisition would definitely help conserve resources by expanding the hillside wilderness preserve. There in the preservation of open space in the city and the hillside with the wilderness hillside wilderness preserve land use designation will require the property to preserve be preserved as open space, which is consistent with the plan. So with that, staff is recommending that the Planning Commission find that the proposed acquisition of the real property located at 347 Highland Place is in conformity with the Monrovia General Plan. That concludes my staff report, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Do commissioners have any questions? Go ahead, Commissioner Stero.

Thanks, Chair, and thank you for the report. Question on the existing structures. What would the plan be for those if the city acquired this and transitioned it to a hillside wilderness preserve?

Yes. One of the pieces of the future potential property sale and agreement to purchase the property would include the demolition of that single family home, cleaning up the site, and basically returning the area to natural topography.

That was part of my question about follow-up. I did see in the picture some non-native shrubbery when the city acquires it and it goes through, would they be removing the non-native shrubs in there?

All of those details are still being processed, but they would be outlined in the purchase and sell agreement that ultimately would go to the city council for their review.

And the rest, it looked like on one side there was other hillside wilderness preserve zoned properties and on the other side it's the Madison specific plan?

That is correct. So that's a good point. To the north it does abut existing hillside wilderness preserve area. So it makes it even more sensible to adjoin it and add it to an existing designation.

Do we have any HWP designated parcels that are non-contiguous with other HWP areas?

Not that I'm aware of.

And can you just talk a little bit about the permanence of HWP? Could City Council come in and reclassify it back to a residential use through a very similar set of actions in the future? Or is there something different about HWP?

Well, the HWP designation is the land use designation that, if you were to think of it very simply, is returning development back to an area where no development is permitted. All other general plan designations allow development. So this designation is only for property that's been acquired by a public agency. or from a public trust it is in the the intent of it is not to develop it and to keep it as open space and it's in perpetuity there also is a plan that works alongside with the hillside wilderness preserve and that is the resource there's a resource management plan i think if i'm getting the the the name of the plan that um talks about the stewardship and provides additional goals on how to deal with hillside wilderness preserve and that goes hand in hand to enhance it in perpetuity for the residents thanks for the background any other questions none

Okay. With that, then I think I would like to have someone, um, promote the recommendation and we'll, do you have a chair before you do?

So you should see if there are any members of the public who speak to this item.

It's a little different. We're kind of high, kind of handling it like a public hearing. None. Okay. Seeing none, can I move to approve the recommendation, please?

I'll make a motion to find that the proposed acquisition of real property is in conformity with the general plan as presented in the staff report. I'll second.

Can we do a roll call vote for that, please?

Yes. Commissioner Austin? Yes. Janicek?

Yes.

Brown? Yes. Scheffler? Yes. Stahira? Yep. Bishani? Yes. Chair Rose?

Yes.

all right all right thank you very much um so the city council will likely be discussing this at their meeting next week all right now we move on to the community development director's report and we have

Commissioner assignments. Are you going to handle that, Sherry?

Yes. This is another exciting time every July here in the City of Monrovia on the Planning Commission. So in addition to the regular duties of the Planning Commission, there are two other city review bodies that commissioners serve on. The first is the Board of Appeals. The second is the Art and Public Places Committee. So, let's first talk about the Board of Appeals. The Monrovia Municipal Code provides that three members of the Planning Commission serve on the Board of Appeals. This board is important because it considers appeals of administrative decisions and determinations that are related to Title 15, that's for building and construction. The board meets once annually every year in August or as needed if they do need to consider any appeals that come before them. To date, the Board of Appeals has only met once every August. So, so far, it's very positive. Nice, easy tasks to complete. The applicable administrative code recommends that the majority of the board members for this board have technical knowledge and experience in areas such as building and construction, planning, architecture, fire science, engineering, and a related field. Commissioners Austin, Commissioner Scheffler, and Commissioner Austin have served on the Board of Appeals for, I believe, now the last three years. Staff still believes that they are fit and have the technical skills to continue serving. So with that, staff is recommending that we do continue their membership and serving in this capacity. And so if the commission concurs, no formal action is required before the Board of Appeals. Assignments, but it's up to the Commission to discuss amongst themselves.

I Guess the discussion would be are you all three still willing to serve?

Yes Does anyone else have a real desire to Actually head shaking okay

so uh we'll stay as is wonderful okay we'll make notes and um board members vishani and scheffler okay do you want to you would like a motion a motion for um Commissioners Austin for Shawnee and Scheffler to remain on the Board of Appeals If yeah, yeah in the past if you've remained we haven't required a motion But why don't we just do an emotion to make it official?

Okay, so there's no turning back I'll make that can I make the motion? I'll make the motion.

I'll second the motion Roll call vote

Commissioner Austin?

Yes.

Brown? Yes. Janicek? Yes. Scheffler? Yes. Stahira? Yes. Pashani? Yes. Chair Rose?

Yes. All right. Congratulations. Next up is the Art and Public Places Committee. So the commission must also designate each year one of its members to serve on the Art and Public Places Committee. The committee reviews public art and the use of public art funds in accordance with the Art in Public Places Ordinance. Its membership includes one representative of the Historic Preservation Commission, one representative of the Planning Commission, one representative of the Community Services Commission, and a member from the community at large that's selected by the mayor. We have had Commissioner Brown serve on the Art in Public Places for two years. If there's interest to have her continue, that is an option if she's willing and the Commission's in support of that. Otherwise, the Commission also has the opportunity to select a new member. So that is up for the Commission's discussion.

May I ask how frequently they meet?

We meet once a quarter.

Is Commissioner Brown willing to Remain in that position? Gladly. Is anyone else on the commission dying to be?

Gladly also serve on that.

Yeah, I was going to also say, I'm interested, but if she's happy to say, I'm not opposed to.

How do we handle this? Wow.

It's a first. It's a first. There's an opportunity every year. So that's... We could rotate it. Yeah. The commission, some commissioners, some commissions like the Community Services Commission have had one member serve for several years to provide continuity in the program. The Community Services Commission has had one member serve multiple years. The Historic Preservation Commission has also done so. But if there is interest and desire to share that role, then the commission can work together to decide what their feelings are. I mean, we can do eeny, meeny, miny, moe. From a staff support, it is nice to have continuity on the commission, learning art in public places. It's very different than planning. And so in my perspective, serving just one year doesn't give any member one full, a lot of experience to really understand the nuances of public art. A lot of what the Art in Public Places Committee does is they'll have art recommendations come before them, and they look at... There's always a call for artist. There's always, in that call for artist, the vision that artwork comes forth that they try to capture. The Art in Public Places looks at, does the art that comes before them meet the intent of that vision in the call for artist? sometimes there's a lot of discussion on fine-tuning things to maybe if it's a historical moment in the art to refine it so it's portrayed and then most of the our recommendations are for large art pieces go to the City Council for approval I'm happy to withdraw my interest in the Arts and Public Places Committee for continuity purposes

I don't want to steal the opportunity away from Commissioner Brown, but I feel like you have served for two years, correct? It would be nice to rotate it around amongst us, to those of us who are interested, is my feeling.

How do you feel about that?

I really like the committee. I'm not going to lie. As a Monrovia resident for over 20 years, like, I am so vested. So I'm going to leave it up to you all. Like, I truly, like, I enjoy it because it's, I know all of us, it's our community, but having children here, having, so, I mean, it's going to be hard. So I just, so, I mean, however we need to,

We've never had this come up before.

Let's think of it this way.

Given Commissioner Brown's passion, it would be fantastic to have her serve in the role.

We will keep you in mind for next year.

And maybe next year. After next year, yeah. Just to give other commissioners the opportunity. Definitely. I will have gotten... Art in Public Place is out of my system. It's a great thing that we have this policy.

A fair agreement.

Yeah, and the commission term is three years, so maybe the commission can consider the policy, right? That's a good way to look at it. Three years. The term. The term, yeah. And it is a nice opportunity to also definitely have other commissioners participate in.

I love that multiple of us are excited about being part of this. I think it says a lot about... As a commission and and how much we feel invested in Monrovia.

So yeah, I love my city Absolutely. Okay.

So with that then we would request a motion Yes, I request a motion to retain Commissioner Brown on the Arts and Public Places Board I'll move to keep Commissioner Brown in the Art and Public Places Committee second roll call

Commissioner Austin?

Yes.

Brown?

Yes.

Janicek?

Yes.

Scheffler? Yes. Stahira? Yes. Vashani? Yes. Chair Rose?

Yes.

Thank you. All right, congratulations. The only other update I have relating to development is that tomorrow the Planning Division staff will be releasing a initial study and mitigated negative declaration for public review. This is for the property that's located at 2601 South California Avenue in relation to a proposed warehouse development. Our team will make sure that the commission receives an email containing the links to the documents. And if there's interest to have hard copies of those documents, we will make those available for the commission. In addition to providing those links, our development spotlight page on the city's website will also contain all the information. Um, this project will eventually be going to the commission at a later date after all public comments have been received and addressed. Um, so we're looking probably sometime in September, uh, September, October, September, October for the commission's review of this project. So with that, that, uh, concludes my updates and I'm happy to answer any other questions the commission has.

Any more questions of Director Brumillo? No? Okay. Does any of the commissioners have any reports or announcements or anything that they want to have added to future agendas? Yes, Commissioner Austin.

I do. And this would be directed towards staff. It would be maybe a... brick and mortar or a special session or something that would be regarding the regional community wildfire prevention plan that the San Gabriel Cog just put out. I think it'd be kind of interesting to have some insight. We are in the warm weather months, but as we see Southern California, and specifically our area, it's year-round wildfire issues, and I thought maybe in the near future we could have that, and maybe, I don't know if it's appropriate or if it's that big of a deal, it would be with city council or something like that. It doesn't have to be, but I didn't want people making multiple presentations on my request.

That's something we can definitely look into. It would probably be a good idea for us to reach out to our fire chief and see if he's available. and see if he's available.

That would probably be under his preview. Preview, yeah. I mean, I didn't want to create extra work, but I thought it would be interesting since we do deal with. Tonight's topic was the wild land, and as we've seen, unfortunately, in the last 18 months, urban wildlife, our interface becomes city fires and things like that. And I just saw that that went out there and it's about a 200 page document. There's a lot of interesting stuff in there.

Right. We'll definitely share that, that with them. Thank you.

You'll be very happy with me now that I gave them a job.

Thank you. Anything else? Okay. Well, with that then at 8.05, I officially adjourn this month's planning commission. Thank you very much.