Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I actually never did that. Yeah. Chair Bogus, we're ready for you. Okay. Good evening. I would like to call the city of Newark Planning Commission meeting of June 10th, 2025 to order. Would you please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance? [Music] 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. We'll start with item A on our agenda for roll call. Let the record reflect that all commissioners are present. And then we'll move on to item B, the approval of the minutes of the regular planning commission meeting of March 25th, 2025. May I have a motion for the approval of the minutes? I'll make the motion to approve. Second. A motion has been made by Commissioner Becker and seconded by Commissioner Fitz. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Let the record reflect that the motion carries. Five eyes. We'll move on to item C, written communication. Are there any written communications this evening? No written communications this evening. Okay. With no written communications, we will move on to item D, oral communications. This is the part of the meeting where members of the public are invited to address the planning commission on any item not listed on the agenda. Are there any members of the public who would want to

address the planning commission under oral communications? No. Okay, we'll move on to item E, public hearing and Ivonne. Good evening, chairperson and commissioners. Um, my name is Ivon Huen. I am the assistant planner with the community development department. This project is the fear overload haunted house event inside the New Park Mall at 2086 Newark Mall suite number 1149. The requested entitlement includes a conditional use permit. Uh, some of you may be familiar with this event. Um, the applicant did obtain planning commission approval of a conditional use permit for a similar event in on June 13, 2023 and August 14, 2024. Adequate security staffing was provided for both events to ensure a safe and successful event experience. For tonight's agenda, I will provide an overview of the project, discuss the conditional use permit, the California Environmental Act SEO exemption, staff recommendation, and go over any questions that you may have. The applicant for this project is Nathan Peleno from Fear Overload LLC. The event is located inside New Park Mall at 2086 New Park Mall suite number 1149. The property owner is New Park Mall LP and the requested entitlement includes a conditional use permit. The proposed haunted house event would operate on selected days for a total of 28 days

starting from September 20 through November 20 November 2nd, 2025. The hours of operation would vary by day with opening hours starting either from 5:30 p.m., 6:00 p.m., or 700 p.m. Closing hours would be either from 9:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m., or 12:00 a.m. The site is located 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. Um this event would occupy an existing 7,54 ft tenant space. The internal operation would consist of a walkthrough attraction that would be filled with unique Halloween related themes. Each walkthrough session would be about 12 minutes. Um the applicant anticipates about 900 customers on peak nights and 525 on non- peak nights. Staffing would consist of about 30 seasonal employees. On a given night, approximately 35 employees would be working. Additional security would also be provided depending on the event night. The number of security guards would vary with a minimum of five security guards on slow nights and 12 security guards on busy nights. Both the employees and security guards would be trained to act in response to an emergency and would ensure a safe and efficient operation. The New Park Mall currently has over 5,000 parking spaces. The parking area

in front of the former Sears building is typically underutilized. Customers would be encouraged to park along that area as shown in yellow between the 24-hour fitness and Sears. All in all, the mall would have a reasonable amount of parking available for the event. The applicant proposes um to utilize existing interior layout and floor plan. This interior layout and floor plan remains in place from the previous year and has not been altered or removed. Therefore, no new ex interior or exterior improvements are proposed as part of this project. In the zoning code, an event that exceeds three consecutive days um may be allowed with the approval of a conditional use permit so long as the event does not extend longer than 1 month, which staff has interpreted this to be up to a total of 30 days. Um 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 will comply with the zoning code and new park play specific plan in that it would be compatible with the characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood. um would not would not unreasonably affect adjacent properties or the surrounding neighborhood and would not impact the adjacent businesses inside the mall as most commercial retail businesses typically close at 8:00 p.m. Based on the 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 mentioned SQA guidelines in the staff report and on the slide. With that being said, the staff request 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. Thank you for that presentation, Ivon. Are there any questions from the commissioners on this item? Nope. All right. Would Thank you. Would the project applicant like to make a presentation? Uh, no. Okay. And you have you read the resolutions and did you agree to all the conditions? Yes. Thank you. Um, does the planning commissioners have any questions for the applicant? You you'd want to open the public hearing. Oh, yeah. and then allow anybody else to ask any questions. I didn't see it. Okay. Okay. So, I don't have that online. Sorry. So, would I just say it's open to the public? Public hearing. Open open to the public for any questions and fear overload. I think. Okay, then you got to close the hearing. So, I'll close the public hearing and but I still wanted to ask if the commissioners had any questions for the applicant. I just had I do have I do have a question. Maybe it's for staff also. Have we had any police problems? I know they've been operation for several years and I don't think there's been any police problems or disturbances and have we had any problems in that regard?

Uh I don't believe so. Not that staff is aware of. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Fitz. Any other commissioners? One more quick question on on that. Have we received any feedback from any of the tenants at the New Park Mall on the use in the past? Um, yes. Nothing nothing negative. We've received positive feedback from the tenants and neighboring spaces regarding like the restaurants um with additional foot traffic means more business for the restaurants. Fantastic. Thank you. Okay. I another qu I'm just uh how many people actually go through this haunted house in a given period of time for your duration just a ballpark figure? Yeah. So like on a busy night? Yeah. Uh like 900 people something like that. Wow. Each night. On like a busy night. Yep. Substantial. Great. Sounds like it's been a going concern. Yeah. That's all. Any other questions? Okay. Does any commissioner have comments regarding the project or would any commissioner like to make a motion for the commission's consideration? May I have a motion? No. But a simple question uh is how much security will be there? You say that there will be a security guards. Yes. Because it's the entrance is next to the 24hour, right? Correct. Yeah. So there'll be a lot of if 900 people there will be a big line there. Well, that's throughout the whole night and so if you could if you could come up to the to the microphone. Nobody can hear the audience. Um so we are open for many hours throughout a night up to

six or seven hours. And so we're we are cycling people through the whole night. Um and so yeah, it's not as crazy of a line as it sounds. That's it. Okay, number questions. Thank you. Thank you. I'll make the motion to approve the resolution. May I have a second? I'll second that motion. So, I have a motion by Commissioner Becker and a second by Commissioner Aguular. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. Okay. Let the record reflect that the motion carries. Five eyes. Good luck this year. Great indeed. Congratulations. Good luck. Thank you. Our next item is item F, staff reports. [Music] All right. Uh, good evening, uh, chairperson and planning commissioners. Um, my name is Joseph Batbbat. I'm the associate planner with the community development department. And the item I am presenting uh to you tonight is a uh two-year extension request of the approval of the best tenative map for the merger of the two existing lots for the 8-unit forale condominium residential development

comprise of four dwellings located at 36952 Malbury Street. Some of you may be familiar with this project um already. Um the applicants who are also the property owners of the pro of the project are Thurmal Pathy Balik Krishnan Rajish Rao Rama Prasad Samad Drula and Sigar Desh Pande. Uh the project was approved uh by the city council on June 22nd 2023 and will expire 2 years from the approval date which is on June 22nd 2025. So the project included uh design review for the construction of the 8-unit for sale condom condominium residential development and investing tenant map for the merger of the two existing lots for the development. Uh the approved site plan for the project is included in attachment two of the staff report and it's also on the screen as well. Um I'm also going to show the um colored renderings uh of the project and how it's uh designed. So the extension request of the besting tenment map is being presented to the planning commission tonight uh due to amendments to the subdivision ordinance in October 2023. The amendments included changes to the review authority uh for the time extension of the tenant maps to the planning commission and the amendments also changed the limit on extensions of approved tenant maps from up to six years to two years. As for the approval of the design review, it will automatically expire if it's not exercised or extended within uh two years of its approval. The extension request for the design review will be reviewed by the community development director for approval. So the applicant is requesting an extension uh due to financial constraints in the economy which delay the commencement of the construction

beyond the original anticipated schedule. Uh the applicant and property owners are committed to moving forward with the project. Uh so based on the information provided in the staff report and presented this evening, staff recommends that the planning commission approved by resolution a two-year extension of the approval of the vesting tenment map for the project. If the two-year extension is approved, um the new expiration date will be June 22nd, 2027. So, that concludes my presentation. I'm happy um to answer any questions you may have. We do have uh the property owners and the project architect um in attendance uh for the meeting and they could answer any questions as well. Thank you. Thank you, Joseph. Are there any questions from the commissioners for this item? Is there a new time frame for when construction I understand that there was um some financing difficulties. Is there a new time schedule? Will it be will construction start within this two-year period if the commission decides to extend this? Right. That that is the goal. We do have the architect here maybe narc. Yeah, thank you. Um, so we have been working uh on this project try to get the construction uh loans for the last 3 years. It started with 14% and slowly it's coming down to around 10 now. Um so we do we are working with a few uh loan providers and we are planning to move forward. Okay so it all looks good like it will definitely okay that's good to hear. Okay for the record can you state your name please? Uh Talpati Balaka Krishna one of the owner of the property. Thank you. Do any of the commissioners have questions for the architect? Yes. So

there has been no changes to the plan from when we originally approved it a couple of years ago. You're just moving forward with the ex same exact plan. Yeah, it's the same thing. Okay. Any other questions? I just want to make the question uh this is actually one of the property owners, not the architect. Oh, okay. I thought architect was here. Okay. Sorry, that's the architect. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Any more questions for the applicant or the architect? I have a question for staff. Um, more of a technical question. What is the what's the trigger for the the expiration of the map? So, for instance, if we extend tonight um does does the applicant at what point is the construction deemed to have started? So, for instance, if they start construction, demolition, moving dirt, Let's just call it June 1st of 2027. Are they in the clear then to proceed through the life of construction? How does that that timing work with the map extension? Yeah, that's a great question for the map extension. Um, do you want to try? Yeah. Um, so Art Tyiano, the deputy director for community development. So for just to kind of go back just a little bit so you understand kind of the whole process and timeline. It's the project has entitlements right now um that were approved by the planning commission. Um so they have two years to pull a permit and so the next step really is that they have to submit their construction drawings after this typically after planning commission um approves it. So during that process and they get these improvement plans um permitted then they have to pull a permit. Once you pull a permit you have to pull a permit and start construction. Okay. And then that's what kind of vests

you your use basically. So at that per at that time it's it's permanent. Understood. Very helpful. Thank you. Any further questions? I would assume that the applicant has agreed to the conditions of the this resolution. Uh they had before, but if we'd like to ask them again, you can do that. It's proper. Yes. I haven't come up in come up. Okay. The applicant, please come forward. I will break her in the right way. And have you read the resolution? And do you agree to all the conditions? Yes. Thank you. Are there any members of the public wishing to address the commission for this item? Oh, I'm sorry. You could. Sure. Thank you. No members. Okay. All right. There are no members of the public wishing to address this item. Does any commissioner have comments regarding the project or would any commissioner like to make a motion for the commission's consideration? May I have a We're going to leave her hanging. I'll make a motion. Going to make a motion and then can I have a second? Okay. So, I have a motion by Commissioner Aguular and a second by Commissioner Fitz. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I I Let the record reflect that the motion carries five eyes. We'll move forward to commission matters item. Commission matters item report on city council actions. Are there any reports this evening? Yes. Uh good evening. Stephen Turner uh director for the community development department. Um,

council has had u some ceremonial items of note, particularly with the May 23rd state of the city event uh that was held in front of city hall. Uh, we closed down Thornton Avenue. It was a great opportunity for the mayor to talk about what has happened over the past year and where the city of Newark is going over over the next few years. Um we were also with the closure of the street able to provide someformational uh fairs um booths from uh the city from nonprofit organizations. We also had food trucks and demonstrations from various departments. So it was a very good event um on that Friday before Memorial Day. Um earlier in the week on May 22nd, uh the police chief gave an overview of the police department in terms of crime statistics and the types of programs that they're working on as well. Uh so that's an update from uh from the council. Uh and no other items to report but I'll look over to uh deputy director. Just two two comments. Um one uh just to welcome our new assistant planner uh Devon Win uh to the team. Um and secondly that you will have a meeting on June 24th. We have a cup for a new 315,000t warehouse distribution center. um that um our associate planner Joseph is working on. So, two meetings in a row. Who knew? Thank you. That's all. Okay, we'll move on to item H, planning commission comments. Do commissioners have any comments to share? Well, none for me. Nothing this evening. Well, I'd like to congratulate on her first uh presentation. She did a really nice job. Welcome aboard the city of New York. Okay, if there's no other comments, we

will adjourn the meeting. The meeting is adjourned. The uh