Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

recording in progress. Commissioner Baker, we're ready for you. Thank you. The meeting in the New York Newark Planning Commission meeting will come to order. Will you please all rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. Let the record show that all members of the planning commission are in attendance this evening. Brings us item B, minutes. And this is B1, approval of minutes of the regular planning commission meeting of March 10th, 2026. Motion to approve. Can I get a second? I'll second it. Okay. Commissioner uh Fitz makes the motion. Commissioner Boasich uh seconds. All those in favor say I or raise your hand. I. Anybody opposed? Okay. Motion passes. Five eyes. Brings us item C on the agenda, which is written communications. Do we have any written communications this evening?

No, we have no written communications. Thank you very much. Next item on the agenda is item D, oral communications. This is giving anybody in our vast audience an opportunity to speak on anything that's not on tonight's agenda. And just please note for the record that state law prohibits the commission from acting on any items that have not been agendaized. Do we have anybody that wants to address the commission this evening? If you do, you can come up to the podium. Okay. Seeing not take us to item E on the agenda, which is public hearings. Item E1 is a hearing to consider DR 2024-009. This is a resolution approving a design review and vesting tenative track map for a 7-unit town home development and associated on-site improvements. This is located at 37503 and 37511 Cherry Street. The APN numbers are 092-0075-004-2 and 092-005-005-002. Now, currently the subject site is zoned RM, which is residential medium density with a general plan designation of medium density residential. The project is exempt from further environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines. So, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to staff for the staff report.

Good evening, chairman, members of the commission. Brandon Ducas, a contract senior planner with the presentation this evening. Once we get the PowerPoint up, we'll be ready to go. So, the project before you is known as the Cherry Street Town Homes. This is for design review 20 uh 2024-009. So, just a brief overap of the agenda for this evening. We'll be going over the project overview, the requested entitlements which include the design review and the vesting tenative map. We'll also cover the um California Environmental Quality Act. Um prior to staff's recommendation, we will also discuss the desk item that was set on the DIS for you this evening and the minor adjustments to the project from that. So the applicant is my tongue of the Bay Area project Pros. Again, the project is located at 3 uh7503 and 37501 Cherry Street. This is again for the design review and vesting tenative map for the development of a 7-unit residential development which is comprised of the seven attached town homes as well as on-site improvements. The project is generally located at uh near the corner of Central and Cherry Street. Uh just kind of up Cherry Street um before you get to Clark. Right behind the site is um the SFPU uh Hitachi water supply line as well as a um a mini storage site. Most of the uses on that side of the street are multifamily residential similar to this project. And across on the other side of Cherry Street uh exists many single family homes. The project again is uh zoned RM which is residential medium density and has the general plan designation of medium

density residential which is intended for uh densities of 14 to 30 dwelling units per acre. The site approximately as proposed is about 19 dwelling units per acre. So they are in compliance with the density requirements for the site. So, the brief site plan. So, Cherry Street is going to be on the right side of this um image. And so, we'll have the town homes kind of on the northern side of the property along with this private alleyway. And to the southern side of the property, you'll have a trash enclosure, a common open space area with some bench seating, uh a walking path, and um the trees. And then you also have guest parking. Towards the front, you'll notice that there are bicycle parking. Um, so that will be the short-term bicycle racks and then there is a long-term uh bike storage uh locker towards the back of the property uh near kind of the rear walkway and pathway. So there are a different unit mix. So unit there's unit one will be its own floor plan. Unit 7 will be its own floor plan and then units 2 through six are mirror images of each other. So it's the same floor plan just repeated and those are for the center units. So starting with unit one, you know, on the ground floor, as with all the units, you have the two-car garage along with a study room and bathroom with hallway and some storage and the main entry porch. Unit one's entry porch does face towards Cherry Street, keeping with the residential kind of style of that area, having the one unit face the primary um thorough fair. For units 2 through six, you have that continued kind of study room, bathroom on the ground floor with a garage. Then

up on the second floor, you'll have continuation of the kitchen and dining kind of open with a separate living room. All the units do have a balcony on this floor. Um, most of the balconies face towards the north of the property onto kind of the the little walkway in front of the units and onto kind of the neighboring lot where there's parking. Um, units uh one, its patio does face out towards Cherry Street. There are also small balconies on level three for units 2 through six kind of off the um secondary bedroom there. It is just a small generally 44 ft balcony um just adding some additional space there. And the top level does have two bedrooms along with two bathrooms. And then unit 7 follows much like the others where it has, you know, the study room and garage on the ground floor. It does have a balcony on the um second story that is looking again towards the rear similar to units 2 through six. And then on the top floor, you have the master bedroom uh and a bathroom and then also the uh secondary bedroom and bathroom. In regards to the elevation, the uh design of the building is kind of a modern contemporary style that features clean lines. The primary exterior materials are stucco both in white and gray along with a brick veneer and kind of a dark gray roofing. The modern style is further reinforced through its use of the variations in the roof elevations. It's kind of you have the gabled at the two ends, the flat kind of in the middle units with also kind of stepping the different levels of that just to make um the elevations more interesting but also break up the massing using kind of the insets as well and step backs.

So the uh image to the top left is going to be kind of your view from Cherry Street kind of looking towards the north of the project. And then we have the uh top right is actually if you're towards the rear of the site looking at kind of the edge there. So those are where the primary entrances to the units are. The uh bottom left is head on to that elevation. So that is the elevation that the neighboring multifamily residential will look onto. And then uh the bottom right is an image kind of Cherry Street but on the opposite side looking towards the project. Oops. Maybe. There we go. So, again, the colors and materials, uh, they're utilizing white stucco, gray stucco, a brick veneer, uh, stone tile. The stone tile is predominantly on the site wall as well as the trash enclosure kind of connecting the site together. And then they're using kind of this dark gray roofing material. The doors, the primary entrance doors are kind of a cream beige color which helps kind of complement with the stone color that they had chosen. for open space. They are meeting the requirements of providing uh open space not only through the use of the private balconies for all the units but also this common open space area that has that kind of walking pathway bench and some trees just for a nice outdoor experience for the residences. For the landscaping they provide a um a a good landscaping mix. So there is a total of nine trees. So that is now 10 with the uh addition of the one additional tree there highlighted in yellow that will be planted as part of this project adding a lot of um canopy canopy cover to the site. Additionally, most of the landscaping is kind of on the rear and the front of the

site along with that kind of southern edge. There will be some landscaping more climbing vines along that northern edge of the site. Um, but that area is constrained due to the walkway. So that they can make sure it's wide enough that it's comfortable to walk across to each unit. For the lighting plan, there is the use of lighting throughout the site and it was not a typo. It is a halft tall ballard that is being used on the site. Um, so this is really just along kind of that side pathway and towards the rear. Um, leading to each of the entrances, but also kind of looping back around to the private alley towards the rear. There are 16 ft uh, pole lights. These are kind of more street light design to help light the private alleyway and the parking spaces. Uh, there's also the addition of 6ft tall ballards. Those are primarily at the front and the uh parking. And then there are four that are located in the rear near the trash enclosure and the uh bicycle long-term parking. And then there also all all the house numbers will be illuminated with a sign at each of the porches so you know which unit you are going to. So the proposed lighting has been evaluated against the requirements in the municipal code and is in compliance. This includes with providing the required lighting of uh 0.25 or sorry 2.5 foot candles during the hours of darkness in the private alleyways and then also a one foot candle um sorry I'm reading my notes and I got myself confused. Sorry, one foot candle on the parking and then 2.5 um for some of the other areas. it does

comply with those requirements. So for the vesting tenative map, this is to um combine the existing two lots and then subdivide it into seven residential town home lots and two common lots. So the seven town home lots would be labeled 1 through 7 and they range in size for from 823 square ft to 920 square feet. And then the two common space parts are approximately 4,278 and 6,000. The lot A, one of the common space parcel is the alleyway. Um, so they're just separating the alleyway from their common open space and landscaping um so that they are differentiated. So for the housing uh affordable housing impact fee, this project was deemed complete prior to the effective date of our new inclusionary um housing ordinance. So the applicant is only required to pay the housing impact fees established in our master fee schedule. These fees are calculated based off of the first thousand square ft. They uh the first thousand is um charged at $2446 per square foot and then any square footage over a,000 is charged at $9.80. So depending on the unit size, the fees do vary slightly. Um and you can see it here in this table. Payment of these fees generally occur at building permit issuance. However, there is a recent state law change that the developer may uh request to pay the fees at occupancy. So, they could delay those fees to be paid um at once they're done and completed with the unit. for the squa exemption. This project is um considered uh categorically exempt due to 15332 which is known as the infill exemption. As this project is

consistent with the general plan and zoning codes, it is located on a site that is no more than 5 acres. There is no value for an endangered or rear rare or threatened species and would not um result in significant in uh impacts to traffic, noise, air or water quality and all the utilities are on site to be served. So for the desk item, uh staff has been working with the applicant and there are some minor modifications. First one is um the applicant uh we worked with the applicant to provide that additional tree along Cherry Street that was shown in the pres presentation. Additionally, we updated condition number 39 just to add a little more clarity to the requirement to underground the joint utility pole uh especially since there is a street light on that pole and public works would like us to continue to have a street light in that location. So, it's just clarifying that they'll remove the pole and the street light does need to go back in that location. So staff recommends that the planning commission consider the following action which is to adopt the draft resolution approving the design review investing tenative map uh for the project uh based on the findings provided in attachment one with the modified conditions of approval per the desk item and staff is available for any questions at this point.

Well, thank you Mr. Ducas. Very thorough uh uh presentation on the project. Thank you. Um, so first of all, before we open the public hearing, I'm going to ask my colleagues, does anybody have any questions for staff at this point? Commissioner Agular, I have one question for now regarding the uh affordable housing in Lou fees. I appreciated the breakdown of it and understanding that the developer will pay those either at building permit or potentially occupancy.

What happens? So, as the city receives those fees, where do they go? How are they used in the future? Yep. Yes, thank you, uh, Commissioner Aguilar. Uh, it's a good question. So, uh, the cities, um, are put into the housing fund and they're used in a variety of ways. Um, um, as part of the city's affordable housing work plan that was, um, approved by the city council going back a few years. Um, um, a few different ways that could be used is through a NOA. Um, we use those funds um, as part of a way to incentivize, um, a developer. sometimes nonprofit developer uh to build a project in town. We have example of the Saha project that is here on Thornton. Um the city allocated $12 million to that project which is approximately a I think $55 million project. Um and that's a way to get affordable units that way and that's a 100% affordable project. Another way is um more recently there's emergency rental assistance program. It's part of the tenant protections ordinance that was approved more recently. Um so that will go into effect as soon as the um program is fully developed. Um another way is uh the first-time home buyer program. Um that's something that the contract for that program is been um issued and our housing policy program manager Michael Kulum is working on that and expects to bring that program to city council um I believe next end of next month. Um and of course we'll share that with the planning commission also. So that's some of the ways that we use the funds uh from the housing fund.

Sure. So effectively they're pulled in placed in a bucket and there's various options in which they can be used for the community. Yes. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Oh no. Okay. I do have two questions uh real quick. Are these for sale units? Yes, that is correct. These will be for sale units.

Okay. And the four guest parking spaces, you know, parking is always an issue. Um are they uh reservable or restricted? Meaning um whichever one of the uh uh tenants puts their car in that spot, they can just leave it there uh indefinitely. So uh we have not worked with the applicant on that. However, often times in HOAs like this, they'll generally part of your CCNRs will say you can only park in guest parking for 24 hours and they kind of require that turnover. Um, but we uh I would default to the applicant to see how they're planning on handling that through their CCNRs.

Sure. And we can ask we can ask them that when we open up the public hearing. So anyway, thank you very much. Uh, any other questions? Okay. At this time, I'm going to go ahead and open up the public hearing and allow anyone in the audience who wishes to speak on the item to do so. And it's just traditional, we ask the applicant to step forward first.

Thank you, chairman, and thank you members of the committee. Um if you can state your name uh for the record please. Sure. U my name is Girhar Dapalapuri and I'm the owner of the the site. When we bought the land from the previous owner it was originally approved for four single family homes. However, by the time we were ready to break the ground the permit expired. So we started a pro uh process. We were told to meet the minimum density requirements, we were proposing the seven uh town homes and um and we're requesting the approval for for the design review. Uh regarding the guest parking permits, yeah, we're planning to um consider that uh as part of the CCNRs.

Okay. So, you will address it at that point. Yes. To make it fair for everybody in the development. Great. Okay. Okay. Well, I do have a question for you which we typically ask the applicant. Have you read the resolution and the conditions of approval? And do you agree to them all? Yes, sir. Including the um revisions that were given to the commission tonight? Yes, sir. Great. Thank you. That's the right answer. Thank you for the time. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Do we have anybody else in the audience that wishes to speak on this item? Yes, Commissioner Becker. We have u uh um attendees who would like to speak on the item. Great. Please come forward. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Tina Takayyama. I'm Mike Takyama. And um we live on Market Avenue, which is directly across from where these are going to be. So, our our concerns are basically uh traffic and parking. Um, for the parking side, parking is already an issue on our street because we have like multi-generational families living on that street and there's really nowhere to park. I mean, people are fighting for parking every day, every So, our concern is that

and so, um, just looking at the plans, there it looks like they're going to have two bedrooms and mostly like people nowadays, the way they the economy is and prices of homes and rent and everything, I would assume that some of them may be uh two adults, couples or something to afford a place. And so that means there's two parking I noticed on the garage, which is fine, but there may be two more park cars for each unit that are I don't know where they're going to park. And then we already have an issue already as far as the parking goes. And so that's one of the concerns is some Oh, plus the added traffic. Well, then that's a different man.

Okay. So that's the parking thing. Basically, there's no there's already no parking. And if there get if there's extra cars in those units that get pushed out into the streets, then it could be obviously I don't know where they're going to park, but it's already an issue right there on Cherry and down our street on Market. And then uh that's kind of that part of it. And then as far as the traffic, um people I don't know if you noticed that the way the streets are there in that corner to avoid the stoplight, they already like speed down that street. Market is a thoroughare too.

So they go through that inter from Cherry to central. So, and either way from Central to Cherry, either direction, but they speed through like sometimes how many cars look like they're going like 50 mph down the residential there. And so, and there's a lot of cars that do that like drive through that street. And so, I guess our concern is that they're going to have more traffic and more cars. And then, um, also, can I see something? Okay. Yeah. We've also had three cars parked down on the street hit

by speeding cars. Two were totaled and was one was fixable, but it's a safety issue for us. And um yeah, and we were kind of wondering too uh where that location for the driveway for that build would be in relation to the intersection into the to our street, I guess, to market it. Like are they going to be able to turn left into that section? I mean into the from central. Yeah. will once they turn right off the cherry cherry right

and the homes are on the left. Are they going to be able to turn left in there? I'm just curious. Well, we're going to have uh each one of your questions answered. Um maybe not necessarily your to your complete satisfaction, but we'll at least answer all of them. Okay. Are those the three? So, I've got your concern about traffic, of course, parking, and then this last one is you have a question regarding the entry into the development and the access to that. Yeah. Okay. Is that it? Yeah. I mean, is the is the driveway going to be straight from our from market? It's going to be like straight in front.

I'm going to have staff bring that uh slide back up from the presentation and they'll be able to Mr. Ducas will be able to answer that question. And I if I'm I think there was four parking for guests. Yes. Okay. Yep. All right. And so yeah, this parking issue is Well, that's going to be it's already it's an issue already, but on our street particularly because there's multi-generational families, a lot of adults living there. So there's Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's basically it. Well, thank you. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and address that. Um, do we have to stay here again? No, you can go back to Thank you very much for coming, too. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Um, does anybody else have any uh questions they'd like to address to the commission this evening? Okay. I'm going to go ahead and before we close the public hearing, I'll have staff address those issues so we can get those on the record. So, first question is of course a an issue that um happens in all communities and that's traffic. Um I understand there's uh some speeding that's going on. There's some cut through traffic. So perhaps we can address that one first before we uh move on to the parking issue. Yes. Um, in terms of the traffic, the the number of units provided is seven units. Um, so there's it's it's going to have what we call basically like a dimminimous impact. It's it's going to be very little impact to what's existing out there in terms of the um ongoing speeding. I think that's something that we would not really address with this development, but that we would u discuss with our public works department in terms of now that we're, you know, aware of it um potentially what kind of strategies can we use out there to slow it down, whether it's putting the uh speedometer um mechanism that's they they don't remember the name of it, but um but I know they put it out there to kind of show people speeds and that usually helps for a short time. uh but it's something that we can uh work with our uh public works department in terms of um how we can probably address that in the long long term.

Okay. Yeah. So essentially in my experience has been um that traffic that's speeding is not the traffic that's the individuals that are living in that development. It's people that are trying to cut through, save a few minutes, try to avoid a signal light and so forth. Uh that's something that of course uh public works can look at that and see if there's something that could be done to slow the traffic down on that street.

Um also there can be some additional enforcement. You folks are in luck. We have two of our uh members of our police department, our chief and our one of the captains that are in the audience now and I'm sure they heard exactly what you said about that street. So enforcement can can help. Obviously, it's never a solution to the problem because you can only enforce you can't put a police officer out there every day, 7 days a week, but you certainly can do some things to perhaps mitigate the speed on that street. Yes. And I'd be glad to talk to the residents afterwards to kind of get kind of their their feedback on on what's been going on specifically out there.

Okay, great. And then parking, of course, the development shows that there's two parking spots per unit. U there's they'd be able to pull their cars in the garage. Um, it's always a concern. I know the commission that typically any project that comes before us, parking is an issue. We know that in a number of cases, the state in order to um uh to make it easier for folks to build housing, have consistently reduced parking requirements and so forth. So, I'm sure we're going to probably hear a little bit of that from you, Mr. Ducas, but if you can address that concern as well. Yeah. And related to the parking, they actually meet our code minimums. Uh because they have the two garage and then it's a half a space basically guest space per unit. They have four. So they are actually meeting our base requirements for parking for this site, you know, and they can, you know, generally, you know, I know it's hard. A lot of people may use the garage, sometimes they don't use their garage, but we can't really that's hard for staff to enforce. Uh but it does meet our parking minimums for the site and especially with the inclusion of the bicycle parking and both long-term and short term.

CCNRs could be a mechanism for requiring parking in individuals garages or not. Possibly, however, uh since they're town homes, they could convert them to ADUs and we can't stop them. Okay. So, it it would kind of be a mute point. Yes, we could put it in there, but it would not be necessarily enforceable the entire time for all situations.

Okay. And just to add to that, in the past, we have had that as a as a condition of projects that the HOA enforced that they use the garage for vehicle parking um mainly. Um but yeah, now with like Lucas said, um you know, with today's ADU laws, they can convert that and that's that's that's state law. Okay. So essentially what I'm hearing is that

u they meet our current requirement. Uh there's not even a reduction in the parking. Of course that would have been asked for by the commission and that was not. So they meet our minimum requirements. Um it's unfortunate. It's just it's the sign of the times. People have more cars, more multi-generational families living in these developments, these houses because frankly the cost of housing is high. Um, and so people have more cars, uh, more parking, and you're always vying with your neighbors for parking. So I'm not sure that's one that we could solve with this development. Um, the last question is, and I think this was an important one, is the access uh points. So can you address that, Mr. Ducas?

Yeah, so I wanted to pull this exhibit up that kind of shows pretty clearly where the access is. So there's the existing median um, on Cherry Street as you kind of approach that intersection. So the driveway is kind of part of that intersection. However, we have been working with public works. Um they are only going to be right in right out. So they would not be able to cut if they're going kind of north on Cherry in this image. They would not be able to cut into the project across the two lanes of traffic. Yeah. So making that left. Um will that necessarily stop people? It's going to be signed for it, but it won't necessarily stop people. Um but we have you know been working very closely with public works to address it because they have the same concerns um which also kind of relates to the trash pickup um kind of discussion. So the trash is going to have to be staged on Cherry Street similar to some of the other units because public works did not want the trash trucks backing out onto Cherry Street as the site is so small. I cannot fit a normal turnaround. So, they did not want, you know, the trash truck to have to go head first in and then try to back out on Cherry Street because that would just make it even more dangerous situation.

Yeah, understood. Um, just a quick question. So, if the trash has to be out on the street, could it be like if there's a car parked, can the trash be here or does it have to be to the curb? So, we are working with public works. It is going to be signed during trash pickup. no parking in that location to facilitate the bins that they're going to have out there. Um and then outside of the trash days, it would be able to be used for parking. Okay. Which would is going to present an additional challenge to the neighbors in that area as well. Yes. On garbage day. So, you got to pay attention to what garbage day is for that area. Yes.

Okay. Um any other questions? There was nobody else that had any questions from the audience. Any additional questions from the commission before I close the public hearing? Dylan, can I ask one? Of course. Commissioner Dylan. Mr. Brenton, it was really nice uh those looks like nice in the pictures, but I was looking at the north side of those units. This is a balcony, right? That is correct. And uh what is the next door? It's a single family home or it's apartments? It is another apartment complex. And uh is it there any privacy or because of

so the there are usually standards in our code um when it's from a multif family to a single family but those do not necessarily apply to multif family to multifamily. We have worked with the applicant. You know, they they've tried to do what they can to kind of make it a little more private, but in these type of developments, they are going to be overlooking. Um, luckily, it's not necessarily balcony to balcony directly. There is pathways and kind of landscaping and walkway on both properties, separating it back a little bit. That will help a little bit with the privacy.

Will that show in that aerial view you had of the project? here. This is probably going to be the best way to look at it. So, this is kind of the shared line. So, these buildings here are set further back. As you can see, it's mostly their parking. They will be a little close over here where, you know, kind of the unit 7, unit 6,7. Um, you know, they their balcony may look onto kind of this entryway into that unit. Um but for the most part they are going to be kind of visually separated. It definitely this picture definitely demonstrates the parking. Oh yeah, absolutely. Which again I think you see in a number of neighborhoods as well now.

Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? No. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and I'm going to go ahead and bring it back to the commission. Um, if there are no other questions regarding this, um, staff has recommended approval of the project. So, at this point, I'm going to entertain a motion to adopt the resolution approving the design review and the vesting tenative track map for the project as presented by staff, which would also include the two revisions uh, that were presented by staff as well. Commissioner Dylan, are you making the motion? to approve the resolution. Okay. Commissioner Dylan, do I have a second?

I'll second. Commissioner Fitz seconds that. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I or raising your hand. I I. Anybody opposed? I'm opposed. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Okay. Um, the motion passes. Four eyes, one nay. Okay. Thank you. Good luck on the project. and we really do hope that you can work with staff to address some of these issues as best as possible. Thank you very much. May make a comment. Commissioner Aguular wants to make a comment as well.

Uh Mr. and Mrs. Takanyama, thank you for coming and addressing the planning commission tonight. Um your concerns were heard loud and clear and I think you brought up some very valid points as it relates to traffic calming. Um, and some things for us to consider as well. You know, looking at the the aerial and that center median, maybe there's a way to extend that to help with some traffic calming to keep cars from coming across the road. So, these are excellent points for us to hear. Uh, so, thank you for coming. Thank you for your time. Yes. Consideration that maybe some speed bumps. I mean,

that's something staff can look at. There are specific requirements for speed bumps in this community. Um, it's been a while since I've looked uh at those requirements, but there's a number of things that have to occur and staff can look at that. Sometimes if the especially if it's an arterial, it's automatically excluded from speed bumps just because of the uh speed of the traffic uh the base speed of the traffic on those arterials. Uh so that may be a non-starter, but certainly staff can uh could talk to you and let you know what those requirements are. Okay. Well, thank you for hearing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we do have a second public hearing and that would be item E2 and this is a hearing to consider U-2026-001. This is a resolution approving a conditional use permit for a temporary special event by Butler Amusement Carnival at the New Park Mall located at 1100 New Park Mall. The APN number is 90111-19. The subject site is currently zoned RC, which is regional commercial with a new park uh place specific plan overlay district. It has a general plan land use designation of regional commercial. So, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to staff to start with the staff report. Uh, good evening, chairperson and commissioners. This project is the Butler Amusements Carnival event at 1100 New Park Mall. At the applicant's request, the planning commission considered the project on March 10th, 2026, and voted to continue the item to today's meeting, March 24th, to allow additional time to finalize the proposed event dates. The requested entitlements include a conditional use permit. For tonight's agenda, I will provide an overview of the project, discuss the conditional use permit, the California Environmental Quality Act exemption, staff recommendation, and go over any questions. The applicant is Butler Amusements, Inc., And the event is located at 1100 New Park Mall in the southwest parking lot in front of the vacant Sears building at New Park Mall. Um the property owner is New Park Mall LP. The

requested entitlement includes a conditional use permit and the event would operate on selected days for a total of 10 days from October 16th through October 25th, 2026. The hours of operation would vary by day with opening hours um being from either 5:00 p.m. or 12:00 p.m. and the event will end each night at 10:00 p.m. The site is zoned RC regional commercial with a new park place specific plan overlay district and has a general plan designation of regional commercial. The site consists of New Park Mall, which holds a variety of commercial uses. The event would include 12 rides, eight games, and two food trucks, and an on-site carnival office. In addition, six bunk houses would be placed on site to accommodate carnival employees during the duration of the event. The event is open to the public and not ticketed. However, participation in carnival rides and games would require the purchase of tickets on at on-site kiosk. Approximately 200 to 400 attendees would be anticipated per day. Staffing would consist of approximately 45 employees, including carnival and game supervisors, as well as administrative staff inside the on-site carnival office. Forest security officers would be present during all hours of operation. All employees would be equipped with radios to ensure communication during the event, including in the event of an emergency. In terms of parking, New Park Mall currently has over 5,000 parking spaces. The parking area in front of the former Sears building is typically underutilized, and customers would be

encouraged to park along the area shown in blue between 24-hour fitness and Sears. All in all, the mall would have a reasonable amount of parking available for the event. In the zoning code, an event that exceeds three consecutive days may be allowed with the approval of a conditional use permit so long as the event does not extend longer than one month and that the event does not impact neighboring uses or otherwise create significant impacts. The planning commission shall approve or conditionally approve the conditional use permit request based on the required findings. Overall, the project would comply with the zoning code and the new park place specific plan in that it's compatible with the characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood. Um, it would not unreasonably affect adjacent properties or the surrounding neighborhood and it would not impact the adjacent businesses inside the mall as most commercial retail businesses typically close at 8:00 p.m. And based on staff's analysis, the conditional use permit findings for the project can be made in the affirmative. The project is categorically exempt from SQA pursuant to the uh mentioned SQA guidelines in the staff report and on this side slide. With that said, staff requests the planning commission to adopt the draft resolution approving the conditional use permit for the project based on the findings provided in the draft resolution. And that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to help answer any questions. Uh, thank you.

Thank you. Do any of the commissioners have any questions for staff at this point? Commissioner Bokeasich? Um, I don't know the farmers market schedule, but is like is it only part of the year that the farmers market is there or would this be during the same time as the farmers market? Uh, we can look into that. I didn't know that the farmers market was in that specific area, but I haven't gone recently. But, um, typically they're on Sundays. Okay. Last I recalled. All right. I think it's over by Macy's or the farmers market. Yeah, I know. They used to be over there by J Penny, but then they moved

because they All right. Cuz the last time I saw them, they were kind of near that area, but maybe they've moved. I'm going to speculate that the mall um would not double book something if they if that farmers market and I believe the last time I attended it, it is a little further down than it was originally. It used to be in that parking lot. Okay. Any other questions? Yes. Uh we I think we've had them here before. There hasn't been any problems, police problems in the past with this operation. We we've had other events here. I think this is the first time that Butler Carnival is going to be here at similar events though,

but very similar events. Yes. And uh No. And typically um we have conditions in place that um allow enough security and um kind of clean up effort afterwards and we haven't really had an issue. Good. Not that we're aware of. Commissioner Agular, have we received any feedback from any of the tenants at the mall regarding the parking situation or the hours of operation?

Um, well, we did uh publish a public hearing notice in the newspaper as well as mail it all to all the property owners within a 500t radius. But as far as staff is aware, the city has not received any feedback or concerns from tenants, nearby tenants or property owners or members of the public regarding uh the proposed event and parking. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Well, I I do have a couple of questions um to uh Commissioner Fitz's comment about uh similar um uh events that have occurred over there. We've had like one or two day festivals that have occurred over there. We've also had circuses that have come in that staff has approved. Um the concern always with a carnival is with security and public safety right now and and I'll let staff correct me. We have one carnival per year and it's during Newark days.

Um it's a very large event. there is a very heavy public safety presence in preparing for that carnival and during the duration of that carnival. Um and so anytime I I I see something that's going to be operating for 10 days, it concerns me. Um so um I assume that this has been discussed with the police department. Uh it has. Um I won't speak for them. um if they want to come up and kind of um share with us kind of the their expectations of you know based on the condition of approval. Um yes, I appreciate that.

Good evening, commissioner, chairperson, commission members. I'm Captain Jolie MSAS and I reviewed the um plan for or the um request for the conditional use permit for Butler Carnival. Um and taking into consideration we have other carnivals uh uh once a year generally here in Newark. Um we wanted to make sure that there was consistency with the expectations of many of the conditions that we put in place for uh Butler Carnival. um if you haven't had a chance to look at the condition um that that we've added some additional from uh in addition to some of the other events that are held at New Park Mall uh like the circus and like the um other food truck events and and whatnot. Um the expectations are uh much higher and more in line with uh carnival conditions to include um uh metal detectors to include um a a heightened level of uh security personnel. And then additionally, we've um required that all security staff members have um crowd management, crowd dispersal evacuation training uh requirements. um that um will come into play with the expected 200 to 400 person uh occupancy at this event.

Okay. So, I have a follow-up question to that. I know during Newark days, the carnival there is a significant police presence. You'll have um undercover uh uh officers there plus, you know, uh uniformed officers there and there is a there's a presence there and they're there typically all of the operating hours. Do you anticipate for this? I know there's four security officers, the metal detectors, um the training that's required. Do you anticipate the police department providing um any additional security for this carnival during the 10 days? The only expectation we have at this time is to provide extra patrol and it will be put on the board like any other event that's held at the mall. Um that officers will be given notice ahead of time with um the expectation of periodic patrols.

Okay, great. Thank you, Captainas. Okay, at this point I'm going to go ahead and open up the public hearing and allow anybody in the audience to step forward and speak on this item if you care to. Now, um I didn't notice if there's an applicant out in the audience. Um yes, I believe the applicant is attending the meeting via Zoom. Oh, great. Then I can ask the question. Um, I can ask the applicant, first of all, maybe we can have the applicant introduce themselves. Yes. Good evening. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes.

Good evening. Uh, yes. My name is Mark Whitney and I'm here as a representative of Butler Amusements. Um, I work for a company called KA Works and we handle the uh the booking and the relationship between amusement operators and mall and property ownership groups around the country. um and can touch on a couple of things that you had uh had mentioned and uh we made sure that the space that'll be utilized for this event has no impact on any existing um activities or anything that runs there at the property including the farmers market. So there will be no impact on that. Um and we had to receive uh approval from all tenants of the property to be able to move forward with this event. So I'm more than happy to touch on any questions that you guys may have um on Butler's behalf. Well, I think we've asked our questions. Does the commission have any questions for the applicant at this point?

Well, I do have one, and that is um have you, Mr. Whitney, read the resolution, and do you agree to all of the conditions of approval? Yes, sir, we do. Okay. All right. Well, if we have nobody else that wishes to address the commission and I have no more commission questions, I'm going to ahead and close the public hearing at this point and bring it back to the commission. And I'm going to ask for a motion to adopt the resolution approving the conditional use permit. This would be to allow the temporary special event as it was presented by staff. Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion.

Commissioner Boasich makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Okay. Commissioner Aguular makes the second. All those in favor signify by saying I or raising your hand. I. Anybody opposed? Okay, the motion passes. Five eyes. Thank you, Mr. Whitney. Thank you.

Okay, that is our last last public hearing this evening. That brings us to item F, which is staff reports. And it does not look like we have any staff reports agendaized this evening. That brings us to item G, which is commission matters. That's first item is G1, which is a report on city council actions. Do we have any report this evening, Mr. Interiano? We have no report on city council actions this evening. Okay, brings us to item H, planning commission comments. Do any of our commissioners have any additional comments? I'll start with Commissioner Fitz. Nothing this evening. Commissioner Bokeasich. Nope. Nothing. Commissioner Aguular. Nothing this evening.

And finally, and last but certainly not least, Commissioner Dylan. Thank you. Okay. I have nothing as well. Brings us to the final item on the agenda, which is adjournment. And we are adjourned. Very good.