Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. Thanks for your patience. I will call the January 22nd, 2026 planning commission meeting to order. Uh will everyone everyone please rise and will Commissioner Elmore please lead us in the pledge of allegiance

of the United States of America. Thank you. Uh staff, roll call, please. All commissioners are present with the exception of Commissioner Rosine, who is excused this evening.

All right. Um public comments. This is the time we take public comments on items that are not on the agenda that are generally generally within the purview of the planning commission. If you wish to speak, please keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. Are there any public comments on non-aggenda items? Seeing none, um, moving on to the next item, requests for continuences. Staff, are there any requests for continuences? There are none. All right. Um, item number one, the minutes of the November 20th, 2025 planning commission hearing.

Would anyone from the audience like to comment on the minutes from the 20 November 20th, 2025 meeting? Seeing none, thank you. Uh, call I'll make a motion to approve the minutes with Mr. Moher's edits. I'll second. Call for a vote. I'm sorry, who was a second?

Commissioner Langford. Thank you. Motion carries unanimously. Okay, moving on to the next item. Uh, item number two, uh, Christy A. Dumont Trust Encroachment. It's PA 20225-0228. Site location is 520 Pointia Avenue, units A, B, and C. Um, okay guys, would any commissioners like to uh like a staff presentation on this item? Not necessary for me. Everyone comfortable with the package?

Yep, I'm fine. Okay. Um, any questions for staff on anything? Mr. Langford, you're okay. Okay. Um, this is not a public hearing, but would anyone from the audience like to comment on this item tonight? Okay. [snorts] Um, staff, any any comments? I think we're okay. [laughter] Okay. I will bring this back to commission. Um, call for a motion or second. I'm happy to make a motion to approve as drafted.

I second [clears throat] for a vote. The motion carries unanimously. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Okay. Item number three, uh, El Cholo outdoor dining patio expansion, PA 2025-0042. Site location is 3520 East Coast Highway, 3536 East Coast Highway, 410 Narcissus Avenue and 409 Orchid Avenue. Uh, staff, please proceed.

Good evening, commissioners. Daniel Copshaver, assistant planner. Uh so this project is for a patio expansion of the existing Elchola restaurant and for the authorization of one additional off-site parking lot and a 17 space parking waiver. Vicinity map shows the Elchola restaurant and the three adjacent off-site parking lots. Uh offsite offsite lot one um is the newly leased lot submitted by the applicant. Offsite lot two and three are tied to the existing use permit. Off-site lot 3 is only available to the restaurant after 5:00 p.m. Some surrounding land uses are residential to the north, um public facilities, a post office to the east on Orchid, and then corridor commercial uh along Coast Highway where there is restaurants, personal services, nail salon. [snorts] Um and that is the immediate vicinity. project location. We have the picture of the facade showing the existing permitted outdoor patio on the right side and then on the left side is the temporarily permitted outdoor patio. This is permitted during COVID and has been extended since then. It's part of their current operation and was in operation when they did their parking survey that was submitted to justify the parking waiver. Some key changes as a result of the project. Uh no change to the gross floor area of the building. Um, the outdoor patio would be expanded from 734 square ft to 179 ft. The seating count would go to 283 seats. Um, there was a typo in the staff report. Uh, the table in the staff report said uh 328 seats. That was incorrect. The correct number is 283. No change to the analysis. Um, just amending that typo. Um the applicant um is voluntarily removing uh late hours live entertainment and dancing from their use permit. Um no change to the ABC license, which is type 47. And then the offsite parking lots that would be

tied to the restaurant um as part of this approval are listed below. So the floor plan shows the existing 735 foot outdoor patio. Uh the interior public area, no change here. The back of house area, it is 2,696 ft. That includes the upstairs area, which is office and storage. Um that does count towards their parking requirement. Um but is not open to customers and they would need an amendment to their use permit for it to be open to customers. And then the proposed uh outdoor new outdoor patio expansion, 974 square ft and allows for 65 seats. So, with 66 spaces required and 49 provided at all times, there's a 17 space waiver requested. Um, 62 spaces are available after 5:00 p.m. when the 3536 Coast Highway lot becomes available to the restaurant. So, the applicant submitted uh two parking surveys. They did counts on a Saturday and on a Wednesday. Um the peak customer occupancy times are between 12 and 2 p.m. So they did counts at 30 minute intervals during that window of time. Um there was on average 14 spaces available in their two lots available to them on Saturday and then on average there were eight spaces available to them on Wednesday between that time. Um, the worst case scenario was at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday when there were eight spaces available at the Narcissus lot and four spaces available at the Orchid lot. Uh, so some key findings are that this is an appropriate land use for the commercial corridor zoning. The land use isn't changing really. They're reducing um some of their more sensitive operational characteristics such as the late hours, live entertainment, and dancing. And the waiver of parking is supported by the data uh submitted.

Police department has reviewed the application and project and um has provided conditions of approval incorporated in the resolution. Some notable conditions are that the restaurant would now close at 11 p.m. Live entertainment and dancing are prohibited. Uh the parking agreement uh would need to be recorded um showing uh permanent availability of the off-side lots. And uh if they were to no longer be available, then they would have a window of time to either provide substitute parking, apply for a new parking waiver, or reduce their operations or reduce their parking requirement. Um and condition approval number 29 is just that their ABC license is limited to the type 47 that they currently have. So we recommend uh conducting the hearing and finding the project exempt from SQ1 or class one existing facilities and staff's recommending approval. I'm available for any questions and we have a representative of the applicant, Scott Leila, uh available as well. Thanks.

Thank you very much. It's a nice report. Um commissioners, any questions for staff? Um any commissioners, please report any exparte communication? None. None. None. None. None. None. Okay. Okay, I'll open the public hearing. Does the applicant want to make presentation or comment?

Just to introduce myself, Scott Laid Law, I'm the um original architect for the restaurant um and have uh been involved in all the other approvals to date and uh have um gone through the staff report, which as you noted is incredibly thorough. um we've spent a year on it and um uh also reviewed the conditions and we have no issue with those conditions. So I'm available for questions if you have any. Thank you. I have a quick question. Uh one question here, sir. Scott, quick question. Um are you hired by the uh restaurant or the building owner? The applicant is the restaurant or the building owner? The applicant is is Ron Salsbury and El Cholo. That's the operator.

The operator, correct? Okay. And has the building owner approved this application as well? Yes, the building owner is Walter Boyce and he has approved the and he's approved all the conditions of approval as well. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Does anyone from the audience want to comment on this item? I see none. [laughter] Um, okay. Staff, any comments for the record? Okay. All right. All right, I'll close public hearing, bring it to commission for discussion and action or call for a motion. Commissioners, any comments? No comments. Um, I think it's high totally appropriate. Um, we've seen how it's it's worked uh even through the COVID and our CO stuff and um I'm in support. So, I'll make a motion to approve.

Yeah. Uh I'll I'll I'll second the motion. I'm in agreement. I feel like these we've made other approvals [clears throat] with outdoor patios. Not that it's it's open to anybody, but this is well done. It's consistent with what we've had. We haven't seen any issues. The parking uh study seems to be benign to me. So, I'm I'm in approval. And that's my second. The motion carries unanimously.

Congratulations. Okay. Next item. Uh item number four, motion for reconsideration. Are there any motions for reconsideration? See none. Um item number five, report for by community development director or request for matters which planning commission member would like placed on a future agenda. Um

director Maria. [laughter] Yes, Chair Harris and members commission. Um, I have a few updates. So, on the your slide above, you'll see I have some exciting update regarding our general plan update efforts. So, yesterday evening, our general plan advisory committee and our general plan update steering committee voted to move our draft general plan update forward and out of their committees. Um, actually Scott laid law is one of our members of the the GPAC and as well as Mr. Moer. Uh, it's a major milestone. uh and it couldn't be accomplished without all the volunteering of our committee members. They all represent various aspects of our community and we really want to make sure this was a residentled general plan effort and so it's very instrumental. Um since the formation of the committee in 2022, they've collectively met a total of 57 times.

Uh in addition, they've formed a number of subcommittees to review the various elements and they've met an additional 47 times. So a lot of time and effort. Uh I just want to commend our planning manager Ben Zadiva. He was instrumental in managing these efforts. Uh but next steps involved is reviewing the various drafts with the various city boards and committees. Uh and that includes coming back for planning commission review in April. Uh and then city council consideration hopefully in May. So um huge milestone. And then couple updates regarding uh the last planning commission meeting. We had the Acacia Atrium Medical Office condominium project that was denied by the planning commission at the November 20th hearing. Uh the applicant did appeal that decision and so staff's working on preparing that for city council review soon. And then lastly for the next planning commission meeting on February 5th, we have the Dover Residences uh which is a 33 unit for sale town home project that's utilizing the new housing overlay. And uh that concludes my updates.

Thank you. And um commend you and and Ben. And I know leading the charge on the not that easy. So really appreciate the effort. Uh 57 meetings. Um okay. Does anyone I don't see anyone from the audience. So not worried about public comment on that one. Um item number six, the request for cons excused absences. I will I would like to request to be I'm going to be absent the 19th of February. Any other excused absences? Anyone here? Good. Okay. Okay.