Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

to order for June 9th, 2026. Would you please rise and join me in 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.

Very good. Welcome everybody. Commissioner Becker chaired Becker's away. So I'm the chair for the day just so be nice Like the do the roll call now let the record reflect that that we have three commissioners present and mr. Becker is gone and I Look Commissioner Bogovich is not here, too. So we have three people here today So we do have a quorum and I think Laurie will be coming in maybe later Okay, I don't number Is the minutes approval of the minutes of the regular Planning Commission meeting of May 12th a motion would be in order It's been moved by Commissioner Aguilar I Can second the motion? Second by Commissioner Fitts, and we'll bring it to a vote. All in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? The motion carries three ayes. Item under C is written communications. Do we have any additional written communications, sir? No written communications this evening. Thank you, sir. Oral communications. Members of the public are invited to address the planning commission on any item not on the agenda. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the commission on any item that's not on the agenda? Seeing not, we'll close oral communications. Public hearings, number E. Any public hearings? None.

Nope.

Okay, good. Staff reports. Item F1. Finding that the 2026, 20... The 31 capital improvement plan is in conformance with the general plan.

And we'll have a presentation by the staff. Yes, thank you, Commissioner Fitts. Steven Turner, Community Development Director. Tonight's item is request from staff to the Planning Commission to review the 2026-2031 capital improvement plan and assess its conformance with the general plan. You'll notice on the agenda we have two items under staff reports item F1 and F2. We are going to be considering those separately. Those were broken out to accommodate a conflict of interest from a member of the Planning Commission who is not here this evening. Otherwise, we would have had just one item for the Commission's review, but since we had already published the agenda, We have two items tonight, so although they're very similar in nature, as will be explained by the Public Works Director, Howard Young, we will need to review those separately as presented on the agenda. With that, I'd like to introduce our Public Works Director, Howard Young, who will give the staff presentation this evening. Thank you.

Thank you, Planning Commissioners, Community Development Director Stephen Turner and Deputy Director Art Interviano. My name is Howard Yano. I'm the Public Works Director. Today we're requesting that the Planning Commission find that the 2026-2031 Capital Improvement Plan, which is attached, to be in conformance with the General Plan. OK, so we'll get started. Isn't that the? Sorry, I'm just having technical difficulties. Oh, here it goes. Okay, there it goes. Okay. Okay, so here we go. We're going to have a quick overview of the... of the agenda. We're gonna have an overview of the capital improvement program, which is also attached, the general plan conformance, and really next steps. So the first item is, what is a capital improvement plan? The capital improvement plan is a comprehensive and strategic plan that identifies and prioritizes schedules and determines funding for necessary project execution. The City of Newark's capital improvement plan, which is now a five-year, we went from a two-year to a five-year plan, that is updated on a rolling basis as part of the biennial budget process. Guidance preparing the CIP comes from the city's general plans, specific plans, master planning documents, the city's strategic priority areas, direction from city council, and community input. Once again, the document is attached. The highlights here are, once again, this is a work plan. It is not a wish list. It effectively utilizes the funding that we have programmed for the next five years. We have over 100 projects valued at over approximately $200 million. And once again, this is a living document. It is going to be revisited every year, annually. It is going to be approved concurrently with the budget, and what we're targeting right now is June 25th. So what is a capital improvement project? A CIP project is generally defined as necessary work or study associated with the improvement. This is such as construction, reconstruction, erection, alteration, renovation, demolition, and installation, or significant repair work involving a publicly owned, leased, or operated facility which holds a major value. exceeding $25,000 and has a useful life exceeding one year and that can be reasonably started or substantially completed within the CIP project timeframe and in this case five years and within funding and resource constraints and that includes staffing also. So how are projects funded? There are actually multiple different funding sources as listed here. We have capital funds. These are such as local sources such as General Fund, Measure GG, Measure LL, federal state and regional sources such as legislative appropriations debt financing we also have transportation funds now these are dedicated a lot of these are voter approved dedicated funds specifically for transportation projects these are such as measure bb from the alameda county vehicle registration fees When you pay for your registration in your vehicle, a portion of that comes to these projects. Highways Users Tax, SB1, the State Road and Maintenance and Rehabilitation Act. Then we have impact fees such as traffic impact fees and park impact fees to use to fund traffic improvements and park improvements. Other fees include utility fees such as cable franchise fees and community development fees. Okay, so what type of projects you know are there there are five different types of projects we have Infrastructure projects and these include essentially our annual projects in the city right away such as repairing streets sidewalk curb getter street lights and We have new equipment. A lot of that is purchase of new vehicles or significant technology or hardware. We have park projects which consist of renovation, replacement, or improvement of public parks that the city owns and maintains. We have studies that consist of large-scale planning and engineering efforts that directly or indirectly impact capital assets. Okay, so how are projects prioritized? So project prioritization is based on established standards established by the Government Finance Officers Association. Projects are prioritized and scored based on evaluating eight weighted criteria and these are shown here. And just quickly, they're public safety, infrastructure conditions, strategic alignment with council goals, service level impact, financial readiness, community benefit, environmental sustainability, and project readiness. Okay. I'm gonna just, I'm not gonna read through all of these, but these are the, you know, how does the CIP conform with which general plan goals? I'm just gonna highlight two right now. Goal T1, the plan, fund, design, construct and operate and maintain all transportation improvements to provide mobility for all users appropriate for function and context of each facility. Okay. The next one here is, you know, another highlight is Goal HW7, which is safe and secure neighborhoods and public places. So what are the next steps after review of the document? You know, the action we are requesting is by motion to find that the 2026-2031 CIP plan attached to be in conformance of the general plan. We plan on holding a public hearing at the June 25th city council meeting for adoption of the CIP plan. And I am, this concludes my presentation on this. I'm open for any questions.

Well, thank you very much for a comprehensive presentation there. Are there any questions of staff or comments? Question and comments.

It was really neat looking through the report. I don't recall reviewing a CIP that had the breakdown on a page by page basis to where it gave the description of the project, some renderings, and then the funding on a year by year basis. So I appreciated it, reading through everything, all the details and seeing how it ties into the general plan. question for you, and I don't mean to put you on the spot, but it's more out of curiosity, is you reviewed it with staff. Which project or projects were you most excited about in here? The park projects.

The park projects? Yeah, all the park projects. We did a parks master plan. It calls for, it prioritizes replacing of playground structures, some field work, bringing restrooms to them. I mean, to me, that's really extremely exciting to see our citizens benefit from those new playgrounds. In fact, we went out to bid and we got bids already and we're gonna start this summer on three of those projects. So we're just really excited about that.

I agree. I mean, that's the one item to where when we have public hearings to where it is unanimous that everybody cheers when we have a park project that gets funding. I think about like the dog park and just how well received that was in the community. So excellent feedback and thank you for the report.

Yeah, and it's really nice to see the timetables, too, when the improvements are due to be complete. I just had a couple of comments and questions. I'm all for the bike lanes and expanding them and that type of thing, but I think it comes to me a question. I almost had a couple of close calls where I'm driving along at night and people are in the bike lane wearing dark clothing, no reflective gear on. It can be a real big problem, and it seems like it's getting worse I don't know if we have a policy in the city to educate the bicycle safety maybe provide reflective clothing for people and ensure that they do it I don't think we can do any police enforcement maybe some signage or something along the bike lanes they're heavily just to let people know that it's hard to see them and also there's bicycle motorized bicycles in those lanes too which which creates a different problem, especially at night. And so I just, I don't know if that's part of this, but I just want to make that as a comment while we're talking about, you know, bicycle lanes.

Okay, understood. Thank you, noted.

Great, great. And are we replacing the fuel tanks at the new service, at the service center?

Yes, that is currently underway.

Oh, I guess they were taken out. Yeah, that's good. And the other thing, so there is a plan for a cultural arts center on the books to convert the civic center building, or not civic center, community center, to more of a performing arts center. Have they finalized any of that details yet, or that too far down the road?

But as far down the road right now, we are in the process of determining what is the correct programming for a community cultural arts center.

Right. Okay, that's good. And of course, my question, we don't have any specifically identified, I've got a real soft spot in my heart for the old library. We used to meet our Postmaster Club met there. Is there any plans immediately for that? What's the priority for the old library building here?

So the plan is to come out with a study to determine what to do with the buildings that we have, the unoccupied buildings that we have. And the library building is one of them that will be in the study.

Yeah. It's like the building master plan or something like that it's called. Yeah.

It's programmed somewhere. I can't remember where, but it is a study that will happen concerning vacant buildings. Okay, great.

Okay, that's the only question I have. Any comments or questions, sir?

No questions. No questions, okay. New, done? All done.

All right. Very good. Thank you for that great presentation. And we can go ahead and by motion to find that the capital improvement plan is in conformance with the general plan. We'll need a motion for that and a second. I'll make a motion. Aguilar for his motion. And Mr. Dillon, for the second, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries, three ayes. All right, we're on the same page. Now we have one more item here to take business. Item F2 is finding the Four Corners Area Plan and traffic signal interconnect projects within the 2026-2031 capital improvement plan to be in conformance with the general plan.

Okay, well, thank you. We are here. Again, my name is Howard Young. I'm the public works director. And I'm going to be introducing the two two projects to conform with the general plan. And they are So on the agenda is finding the four corners area plan and traffic signal interconnect projects within the 2026 and 2031 capital improvement plan to be in conformance with the general plan. So, okay. And so once again, we have the You know, how does this conform with the general plan goals? I'm not going to go through all of them, but there are two slides here with The goals that conforms with the CIP discussed And then we go to What are the next steps and the next steps are that you know that once again that actually we're requesting is to find that the four corners and Area Plan and Traffic Signal Interconnect projects within the 2026-2031 Capital Improvement Plan to be in conformance with the General Plan as described in the attachments. So I am here for any questions. And once again, this presentation was separated and redacted from the first presentation to address the potential conflicts.

Good. Great. Any questions or comments on this? Commissioner Dillon, no. I just wanted to say I like the idea of synchronizing a lot of traffic. If I had to say one complaint I get most is that where we don't have this light signal. You can go on Thornton Avenue and you stop and then you go again and you stop. It doesn't seem to be coordinated. So this will help that out, right? Certainly over in the Four Corners area where the shopping center is.

So the traffic signal interconnect goes from Highway 84 down Newark Boulevard to Thornton, then north on Thornton to Cherry, and then Cherry southbound. So it'll affect all those signals. So it essentially coordinates all of them.

That would be great.

That's good. I will make a comment just because it's also separated from the item F1. The Four Corners Area Plan is a special study that the Community Development Department is pursuing per the adopted housing element. In the housing element, the city committed to studying the Four Corners Area as a particular opportunity site for a different mix of uses including commercial residential and how it could relate to an upcoming new transit station at the Ardenwood Park and Ride Station. So you might recall that the city does have an area plan for Four Corners that was mainly kind of a design related plan. If you go out there you'll kind of notice at the Four Corners there's signage that is very similar at each corner and that was a component of the of the area plan. The update to the area plan will be a specific plan. We are just about ready to start or sign a contract with a consultant that will help kick off that plan with a very large community input process. So we'll get started on that project later this year, but we programmed that into the CIP booklet that you've been reviewing tonight.

Great, good. That concludes the staff presentation, I guess?

That concludes the staff presentation, thank you.

So then we have another motion. I'll make the motion to approve. I'll second. And Commissioner Aguilar will second it. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries, three ayes. Well, good. We did some good business here. All right. Item number G, Commission Matters. G1, any report on City Council action, sir?

No matters to report on or actions to report on from the Council of the City.

Okay, great. And then item number H is planning commissioner comments. Any planning commissioner comments today? Anything burning questions? Any comments you want to talk about?

None for me. None? Nothing, but I just remember a couple of years ago, New York City, they had a front of the tortilla factory. The traffic will be changed from there. No heavy traffic going. There's going to be a single lane. Yes for the old town project that's gonna it is going to change the lane configuration there Okay, because I was looking at there's so much heavy traffic, especially in the morning on Taunton and Because now they can take central all the way at the end So all the trucks the UPS and all the truck goes that side, but there's some trucks I've seen sometimes I go to work from there There's some trucks they want to stop by at the 7-Eleven and so the heavy traffic will be devoted, right?

Well, the lane configuration, I think it's one lane. So we are looking at a truck route study also. But there is also a way from Thornton to, is it, Enterprise Willow area, then on to Central. So there is a way.

Yeah, those tech buzzes are very busy on the enterprise there, between the mornings and the afternoons. It's quite congested. Okay, any other good questions? I don't have any additional comments. So, item number eight is complete. So, item number I is adjourned. This meeting is adjourned.