Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone and welcome to the city of Oxnar Planning Commission for Thursday, October se 16, 2025. The meeting will come to order at 6 p.m. The public may view the meeting from home on the city's website, Spectrum Channel 10, Frontier Channel 35, or on the city's YouTube website. To participate in the meeting, the public may provide comments to the planning commission via email at planningoxern.org no later than 5 pm on the day of the meeting or through the city's website or call the planning division office. Additionally, those wishing to speak can dial the phone number listed at the bottom of the screen. Follow the instructions to access the meeting and press star 9 to raise your hand indicating your intention to speak on the agenda item being discussed. Madam Secretary, can we please have the roll call? Chair Arjo,

present. Vice Chair Dr. Stewart, present. Commissioner Dr. Lopez, present. Commissioner Barca, present. Commissioner Nash, present. Commissioner Schuli, present. We have a quorum. Thank you, Madam Secretary. We will now move on to the pledge of allegiance. Miss Peltier, will you kindly lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Miss Peltier. The next agenda item is see public comments on items not on the agenda. At this time, a person may address the planning commission on matters within the jurisdiction of the planning commission, including information consent items and any time not appearing on the agenda. The planning commission cannot take action on any item presented during public comments. The uh that is not on the agenda and such item may only be referred to the commission secretary. Persons wishing to speak on public hearing items should do so at the time of the public hearing. Madam Secretary, are there any public comments for items not on the agenda?

No, chair. Thank you. Next is the consent agenda and with none listed, we'll move on to exparte declarations for public hearing items. Please state any exparte declaration. So I'll move across the dis. Commissioner Nash. None. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Dr. Lopez. None. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Vice Chair, Dr. Stewart. None. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Commissioner Schuli. None. Thank you. Thank you. And Commissioner Barcenna? None. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. And none for myself. Moving on to section F, public hearing agenda item F1, project name, food share of Ventura County, city staff, Daniel Hulk, associate planner, planning and zoning permit number 24-540-02, plan development permit and 24-310-03 lot line adjustment property located at 1425 Mariner Drive and 1100 East Woolly Road. Food Share of Ventura County is requesting to develop a new approximately 85,845 square foot two-story warehousing facility for food receiving, storage, and distribution. The lot line adjustment would modify the existing lot line between the two parcels followed by Tanner Shelton of Sandbell on behalf of Property Only Fruit Share Incorporated of Oxnard, California. Per measure M, a staff presentation has been pre-recorded and the link has been posted to YouTube, too. The staff wish to give some introductory remarks at this time. Yes, Mr. Chair, I have uh there's one error in the staff report I'd like to clarify real quick. Um on page six, there is table four for zoning consistency. and both under the sideyard setback and rear yard setback row. Um the peak height is at 48t 9 in. It should be 49 ft and 9 in consistent with the max building height row above. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Hook and Duly noted. Next, we'll have the applicant present at this time. Um, if they are here, and if so, you have 15 minutes to use as you see fit, and you can begin. Thank you. Uh, good evening, uh, commissioners. My name is Tanner Shelton, senior planner with Sandbell. Um, I'm honored to be here this evening representing Food Share Ventura County

on this action. Uh, we have a PowerPoint that will get queued up here for you. So, thanks. Food Share of Ventura County is proposing to develop an approximately 85,848 square foot two-story warehouse facility for food receiving, storage, and distribution at 1425 Mariner Drive. The site is a vacant lot in the existing Channel Islands Business Center. In addition to the warehouse, the proposed project will contain administrative and warehouse offices, volunteer areas, meeting rooms, support spaces, and a commercial production kitchen to prepare pre-made fe pre-made meals for off-site distribution. It is very important to note that no members of the public will be permitted to pick up or receive food at the proposed project site. All food distribution to the public occurs at off-site designated distribution sites operated with partner agencies. As detailed in the city staff report, the proposed project is in conformance with all applicable limited manufacturing plan development zoning standards. Additionally, the project is consistent with the city's 2030 general plan uh directly implementing or supporting policies SC 5.5, CD1.2, 2, CD51, and 52 among others. For these reasons, uh, we request that your commission move to approve city staff's recommendation this evening, uh, to grant the requested PD and lot line adjustment. I'd like to introduce Monica White, president and CEO of Food Share, Ventura County, to discuss the really amazing and impactful work that Food Share does in our community and how this new facility is going to help implement that and their vision moving forward. So, Monica, take it away.

Thank you. Thank you, Tanner. And good evening, uh, commissioners. Um, my name is Monica White. I'm the president and CEO of Food Share Ventura County, and we are honored to be here tonight to be able to share about our a very exciting project because this is something that is very big for food share. This is going to be a gamecher for our organization as well as for the community. So, food share, go right into it. Food Share is the food bank for Ventura County, meaning that we are working with 200 different nonprofits throughout Ventura County who are getting food from us at no cost. Those are food pantries and we are serving about 253,000 people on an annual basis. That is through that network of all those pantry partners. The need has continued to grow. It h it hit a high point at COVID and has never really gone back down. And so that Oh, sorry. Um, so what we're what how food share actually works is we get our food from a variety of different sources. We purchase food. We collect from all the retail establishments throughout Ventura County. We do food drives. We get food from the government. They send us commodities and we also glean. We go to people's backyards and we also work with all of our farmers. All of that comes into food share and then goes out through all of those nonprofit partners. That could be a church, could be an after-school program, it could be a closed site such as Rescue Mission or a women's shelter. Um, it could be the congregate meal site, or it could be the big distribution that we hold every single Wednesday at College Park. We started this in 2020, and we are still continuing to this day. Nearly a thousand cars come through every single week. It's quite an amazing um uh distribution, but it continues to grow. And that is why we are building that we're um embarking on this big project. Um 20 million pounds of food goes in and

out of food share on an annual basis. When you put that into meals, it equals almost 17 million meals. If we were to go to the store, if we were go to Vans and we were to buy all of that 20 million pounds of food, it would cost nearly $60 million. Our annual budget is only $9 million. So, we get a lot of food that is donated from all of those different sources. We have about 300 different locations throughout Ventura County um that we are working with and distributing food. So, Food Share has been in Oxnard at our location on South Bank for the last 40 years. You can see the picture there from 1985 with our founders when they opened up. Uh they distributed 35,000 pounds of food. Today, we do that in three hours. So the need has grown and our capacity has grown as well. But the bad news is is that we have absolutely reached capacity. We have no way to be able to go any further in the facilities that we have. We are in three warehouses, one right across the street from each other and then we leased another 10,000 square feet. This is a little hard to see, but the new building we have been very intentional about what we need to build in order to be able to feed our future. We have built this building 85,000 square feet approximately to be able to source 40 million pounds of food. So we're looking to be able to double the amount of food that we can distribute to our neighbors in need. And then we're we look to be able to reach that number in about the year 2040. So the building will accommodate us for at least the next 15 years. And then there's always room for expansion. So College Park, we talked about this. I just wanted to be able to show you a picture. If you have not seen this distribution, um people line up almost for hours ahead of time to be able to get a box of groceries and to be able to get a box of produce. 75

volunteers every single week are down there to be able to help us distribute this food. The most impactful thing is when we open the trunk to be able to put the box of food in and you see the muddy boots in the back, we know that these are farm workers, these are working families, these are seniors. Um, those are the people who we are feeding every single day. It's another picture of the long lines of cars that line up every single week. We also feed our seniors. We have a government program called the commodity supplemental food program. We call it senior kits. U 3,500 boxes every single week. We are distributing to our seniors. A senior is over 60, lives in Ventura County, and is under the federal poverty level for Ventura County. We are also serving our farm workers. Uh we have farmworker boxes that we have purchased food that is specific for our farm workers. They want certain types of food that we may not get from the government. We may not get from um from people's backyards or the far for Portoini. Um, so we are purchasing masa, oil, hominany, fido, rice, beans, and we're putting together these farmworker boxes and we're bringing them directly to the fields to be able to feed those in need. And as you can imagine, at this time, this is more appreciated than ever. We are also feeding our unhoused. We have these bags, we call them kitchen free because they don't require a kitchen. Everything in here does not require to be heated or it doesn't need a stove. it doesn't need a refrigerator. We even put utensils and wet naps in there to be able to give these to our um the the unhoused. We have done almost or distributed nearly 50,000 of these bags since we started this in COVID. The reason we put them in bags is because when our unhoused show up on a bike or they're walking, they don't necessarily have the ability to get a big huge box and take that home. And what they were doing is they were taking out the items that they could use and leaving the

rest. And so that's why we build these boxes or sorry these bags specifically for our unhoused. It's important that we do our programs specific for each of these demographics and our volunteers. We have 44 employees. Um many of our employees are here today um along with some of our board members. 4,400 volunteers on an annual basis. They provide over 45,000 hours of service. We could not do what we do without our volunteers. So, one of the things that we're looking for to build in our new facility is to be able to accommodate large amounts of groups that come in. I'll give you an example. Last um Monday, Premier America came in, trade desk has come in, Amgen has come in, Patagonia, the county of Ventura, the city of Oxnard. They come in with very large groups because they want to do a team building. They want to do a giveback day. So, they come in and they power through. They build boxes. they um have a lunch and they feel really good about that they are helping their community. We want to be able to serve even more of those groups. So the building that we are building and today we actually we have Julie Jackson from Jackson Lyles Architecture is up there on the screen um that she has helped to design this building. Um one of the things that we are happy about is there are two driveways going into this project. Today we have one driveway where semi-tractor trailer 53 ft trucks are sharing the same lane as Priuses, pickups, and our volunteers. So being able to have two separate driveways where our big trucks can go in one and our volunteers and our visitors and our staff can go into the other and having plenty of parking. Right now when people come to volunteer, they're parking way, way, way, way down the street. Um being able to have them right there in front will be great. So, we have built an excess number of parking spots just for that reason. Shipping and receiving, we have one ingground loading dock currently. It's

in the back. We have to do a lot of our USDA shipments, offloading them by hand with a ramp, with a pallet jack. Having six bays directly attached to the building, we're going to be able to get that food in right away. We're going to be able to get it right into the cooler and freezer. That's going to be three times the size of what we have today. This is our volunteer center. Right now, we have our three different warehouses where our volunteers go to um to go to volunteer. All of the volunteers will be in one area. And we made sure that there's a window right when you walk into the lobby that you're going to be able to see right out into the warehouse where all that magic happens and where our volunteers are giving back and our agency area. So, those 200 agencies that we work with, they are coming and they are not shopping. They're getting the food from us. They're picking out what they need based on how many people they have and um and what kind of food that they need for their clients. They are going to have their own area where they're going to be able to pick out their food, their own cooler, their own freezer, and no longer have to share the same space as our as our warehouse team who was in there with a forklift. It's going to be so much safer and much much more effective. And a community room. It was very important for us to be able to have a space if somebody wants to come in and do those big group activities or if the county of Ventura wants to hold another town hall or a state of the city or state of the county in our facility. We now will have room for training. We will have room to be able to have classroom style. We can have events. Um being able to have just more space was very important. And going right off the community room will be an outdoor amenity. We're in beautiful Southern California. We wanted to make sure we were taking advantage of our gorgeous weather of Oxnard, California. So, um, and then it's right next to the staff break room, so when it's not being used by, um, a city or a an event that our staff will be able to take advantage of

it, too. This is just an overview of the top layer or the bottom layer of the facility. One thing that we did not show in here on the renderings is a commercial kitchen. It was important for us to do this because as we have toured 25 other food banks in designing this facility, we found that the food banks that have a commercial kitchen were able to do so much more with the food that is donated. They take that food in and they can make meals and they can get those out to the people as they're waiting in line. So it just important to note though, they will not be served there at the facility. All of this is to go out to those pantry partners. We're more like the free Costco as we like to call ourselves. They come in, they get the food, and then they're distributing it at their location. And then we are going to have solar panels. Having um that electricity paid for by the sun was very important to us. Um and it's just another um uh version of the of the overhead shot. That green to the side is not a soccer field, but it is the water retention basin. And that is the end of um my part of this. Is there any questions? Is that the right time? Am I supposed to ask that? Okay.

No, it's okay. It can be part of your presentation. And um thank you Mr. Shelton, Miss Miss White. I appreciate it. Um right now we're going to head into um questions of the commission of either applicant or staff. Um if that was the end of your presentation, I'll give you Okay. Thank you very much. Um we'll go to commission please. Um if there are any questions of applicants and or the staff, vice chair, Dr. Stewart.

Uh yes, I see, you know, I was looking through the packet and I see that it talked about sensitive areas and I'm assuming that there are none uh within even a mile of the location of this new facility. Is that correct? And while someone's getting here, um, if commission members have questions, if you could just indicate who you're directing it to, um, that'd be great. Thank you. Was that directed at applicant? Sure. Okay. Uh, yeah. No, we're we're unaware of any, uh, sensitive areas within the project site. Obviously, it's an infill location surrounded by already built up industrial land uses. So, yes. Okay. I have another question. Okay. Uh, I'm thinking about noise. Do we do anything on the weekends?

Uh, no. We are not. Uh, obviously there's regular operations that occur on on the weekends. I'll turn it over to Monica who can talk a little bit more about how the facility is being used. Okay. Um, but nothing outside of regular business hours or anything of that nature. Okay. Very good question. Our regular business hours are Monday through Friday. Um, most of the pantries can come in, they can get their food, and they are doing distributions on the weekend, but the majority of the operations is Monday through Friday. Regular business hours, too.

Okay. Thank you. And then we talked about bin washing. Uh where does that wastewater go to? Is that the retention basin or Yeah, I'm going to bring up our project civil engineer, Kinsey Hensley, who will uh talk about the storm water and where that uh bin wash goes to. So, good evening. Um the wash water with the bins is actually hooked up to the sewer system. So it goes into a um septic tank or a settling tank and then it goes um to a grease interceptor and then it gets exited out through the sewer lateral. So it doesn't get connected to the storm drain or any surface basins.

All right. Thank you. And then I was just noticing that uh we talk about uh the EVs. Is that and I guess that's for staff. Is that a new requirement for new buildings that we have those charging stations or is that unique to this facility? Um, in regards to the EVs, there is a state code that mandates them in in some situations. Um, I don't know the the ins and outs of that as it's more regulated by the building department and engineering um during the plan check. Okay. I just so I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of this in the future then

of EVs. Yes. The charging station. Yeah. Okay. Um have a question. I noticed that in the report we talked about uh notifying the businesses within 300 ft

which is not a big area. Um and so I'm just always concerned that everybody that uh is in the area is aware. And I know there are no residential, so we wouldn't have uh that meeting, but there's, you know, other businesses around. Um, and maybe they're here to speak tonight. I don't know. But I just always, you know, I see the newspaper. I see the sign went up. And where is the sign anyway on the property? Is it facing Pacific so that people coming down can see it or where was it placed? So because of the size of the property, uh we actually did assign both on Woolly and as well of the corner of uh Voyager and Mariner there.

All right, great. Thank you. And that's all I have for Oh, I have one more. Um might be for the applicant. So we're taking the administrative function and we're moving it from South Bank to the new facility and that will not exist anymore at South Bank. It'll just be an operational warehouse or correct. Our plan is to be able to sell both of our buildings that we are in now once we are going to be all under one roof. Oh, okay. And the lease facility will go away as well. All right. That's the name of our campaign. All under one roof. All one roof. Fantastic. Thank you so much. And that's the questions I had. Thank you, Vice Chair. Dr. Sur Commissioner Nash.

Thank you, Chair. Um, first question is for is for staff and I did not see any indication but the project will not be using recycled or great great water as far as as far as I could tell. Uh, we have no indication from the applicant what the water source is.

Okay. Thank you. And I guess the um these other questions I can ask the uh the engineer. Um Commissioner Stewart addressed the EV charging stations. Um something I'm in favor of obviously. The uh will the solar component be sufficient to power 100% of the facility? Who who whoever wants to answer that? Yeah. Uh Julie, our architect's online, she might have the most knowledge of that. Uh Julie, do you have anything you'd like to add? Hi. Hi.

Good evening. Um we are uh currently exploring the solar capacity uh by code. We're required to meet a solar minimum which will not power 100% of the facility. We are wanting to uh maximize the solar to the extent possible. that's still being evaluated. Um due to the large scale refrigeration and freezers, it's unlikely that we would be able to provide enough solar to so to power 100% of the building. But uh food share does want to maximize the solar in order to have as much of the facility as possible that's affordable for them to be um powered by the solar panels and that's still being explored.

Thank you. And I I noticed um on the on the uh mock-ups that all the solar is all on the roof. You don't have any canopy solar o over the parking. We actually um were considering having a solar canopy in the parking lot and I'm not sure if it's in the materials that you have. The uh client has decided not to install the solar canopy at the parking area because of the um expense. So the solar will all be on the roof. Okay. Thanks. Now, another component that I love about this project is you mentioned that you were going to have um a mini orchard. Is that could could you touch upon that a little bit?

We are um going to be improving the landscaping along Woolly. Um the orchard is something that I think is uh being considered at what point in time that would be implemented. Um whether that's a first in thing or that's something food share does down the road. Um but we will be land like providing landscaping new and nice landscaping along Woolly. Um, I think the project team is still we're still working out some budget factors whether the orchard happens day one or that's something food share does down the road. It is a it is something that they would like to have. We're just trying to make sure we can fit all of the have to haves into the project and that's one of the things that we're evaluating right now.

Right. because we always approve and a landscaping a standard for the projects that come before us and and if there can be any sort of collaboration between food share and other businesses where we can uh more fully develop this idea. I I I think it's wonderful because in Oxnard we can grow anything and that food should be uh should go to our should go to the the neediest population. It just depends upon water, land and and the and the manpower, women power to har to glean and harvest those crops. But you know that's that's an idea that we can explore more fully later. So, I I I do appreciate it at least it being mentioned in this project and that's all my questions for right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Nash. Any others from the commission at this time? I have a a few questions. Um I'll start with uh a couple for Miss White and then I'll move on to a little bit more of the technical to Mr. Shelton. Um, Miss White, um, what are the largest groups that you connect or work with, um, with food share? Um, you mentioned that you work with a great variety of groups. Um, if you could just mention the largest that you do, um, work with in Ventura County.

Well, I I would love to start with community action partners in in Oxnard and um, Susie Lopez Garcia is here tonight to be able to do a public comment as well. Um, Spirit of Santa Paula, uh, Project Understanding in Ventura, the River Haven, pretty much anybody who is distributing food to those in need are getting it from us. Um, there's, uh, uh, Mana in Kho Valley, pretty much um, all the way from Ohhigh, Help of Oigh to, uh, Agora is they're they're there. Thank you very much. Um

uh this could go to either Miss White or Miss Shelton. Um uh I see that um the entire acreage of the two parcels is 11 plus. Um is there a reason um why you didn't use all of the 11 plus acres? Yeah, that's a great question and I'll I'll take a stab at it and then uh my colleagues from food share here can add that it's it's effectively a byproduct if there there were two lots there that existed already and what we're using is what food share currently needs now. Um this is the facility that as Monica was saying is is right size for the present and then also right size for some future expansion. So frankly we just didn't need that additional space. Um I don't believe there's any there's no solidified plans at this moment for what will happen with that future land uh uh at this time.

Thank you. Um and you can follow up to Mr. Sheldon and then my follow up to Miss White is um you did mention that there is room for expansion. Uh when and what do you see that to be? Um because from what I saw it's just correct me if I'm wrong. Is it just the parking that's abuing the vacant land or is it the building that's um adjacent to the vacant land?

Uh the the vacant lot is next to the parking lot. Yes. And then on the other side is the water retention. It's this would be um in a very very future generation long after I'm gone. Um that that they could come and perhaps just u you know dis um uh explore that should that ever need. But at this time that 2 acres, the reason that we kept it at the two acres and working with our commercial real estate broker is they told us two acres is a good number that should the board ever decide that they wanted to sell it um if they we we needed the cash, we needed any other reason that um that was an opportunity for us. So um and if you might not have seen this, but there was as as Tanner was saying two different acres. We bought them in two different times. We bought the first parcel thinking that that would be good. We really wanted those two driveways. And so when our fundraising started and we actually were doing quite well, the board decided, you know what, let's do this. Um, invested in the second piece of property knowing that we would take just a portion of that and then still keep that other two acres separate.

Thank you very much for that. Um, the remainder of my questions for the time being are just in related to or relation to parking. So, I'll direct them first to Mr. Shelton and you can delegate um as needed. Um I'm I remember I was reading that um you know most of the time when we look uh at how much parking there's going to be um there was a statement somewhere in the our agenda packet that said that um that the parking was over the limit for required um parking spaces. Um, usually developers ask us for more parking. Um, and you put it there. Um, is there a reason for having more parking than the minimum?

Yeah. So, so you know, parking is obviously generated by Oxnard Municipal Code. There's ratios based upon square footage. When we were designing this facility, the thought was we wanted to make sure we had a little bit of buffer parking to allow for additional uh you know um int not intensification of uses at the site but you know when there are events where there are a lot of volunteers at the facility if you have a large corporate group coming in for example that we could comfortably park everyone in the facility and not burden street parking in the neighborhood. So that was important to us. Um and this is a unique land use because of that volunteer component that's coming in here. Uh it's not like an eight to five you have x number of employees and that's the number of employees you have. Food share has this really unique model as Monica was mentioning where they've only got 44 staff and really the heart of this operation is the volunteers that come and package food. So we wanted to just rightsize the parking and so because of that we do have more than what your code prescribes.

Thank you. Um I'm going to follow up to Mr. Hul. Um, is the parking that's available on the street, um, I assume there's no restrictions on it other than probably no overnight parking or no longer than 3 days if you know. I don't have that information, but I could get that to you if you need that.

Okay, thank you. Um, going back to the parking, um, I I don't know the right word, but it's, uh, going to a little, let's just say surprise. Um, because I was looking at and one of my questions before coming into the meeting was that there will be solar shade structures covering 84 of the 178 proposed parking stalls. Um, but when the presentation was made, um, and I know it was already alluded to in regards to the cost that it would be on the roof. Um, I do want answers to the question of other than the cost, what do you see as the applicant, any strong differences? Um, why other than the costs, what were the reasons or if it was just a cost? And then back to staff. Uh, should this significantly change our determination for the for the project or the permits? Thank you, Mr. Shelton.

Yeah, I'll take a first stab at that and uh then uh Julie uh our designer or architect can can speak further to this. Um the the thought process being in addition to to the cost is when we were looking at this, obviously Food Share is is a nonprofit organization. So if we felt we could comfortably accommodate the solar the facility needed on the roof, there wasn't really the need to do the additional carport because at the end of the day as a nonprofit organization, every dollar we fund raise, every dollar food share fundraises uh is critical and has to be applied very prudently. Um in terms of actual design, I I can't speak any to that. So I'll defer to Julie if there's any specific design reasons why those were eliminated. Obviously, just as a planning professional, something we run into with these solar car ports in general is when they're in a parking lot, it's like things in parking lots like light post and whatnot. Obviously, while these would be secured in planter islands, they do present limitations on landscaping in the parking area because you have the car ports. Um, and then also potential vehicle conflicts. So, Julie, I don't know if you have anything to add about specifically why the car the solar carports were removed from a design standpoint. I I can put it in context from a um allocation of resources standpoint which is that the car ports without the solar even without the PV and the PV infrastructure that would go on top of there were between$1 and a half and $2 million and um it's it was it's very impactful on the budget. um food sharers, you know, thinks of things and how many meals that would provide or h how many other things that could provide for the project. And so, um from a design standpoint, it's le it's less impactful to not have the carports. It's less of an obstruction on the site. Um so that was a a decision that the um client

client made in order to allocate resources towards the parts of the project that would have the greatest impact on their mission. Okay.

Uh thank you. Before I go to staff, um when was this decision made in regards to moving the the solar panels to the roof? And then I'll go back to staff. Yeah, I can speak to that briefly and then defer to Julie for a little bit more detail, but you know, Food Share is um very actively seeking funding for this project from federal sources and other sources in addition to the fundraising. So, a unique thing about this project is while we've moved through the entitlement process, our design team has actively been working on construction drawings and building drawings to a detailed level, far further than most applicants would be at this point. So we've had kind of this really unique parallel track process going where we have moved into some of that more um construction drawing level of detail where we start to look at things like this and evaluate cost and stuff like that. So because of that that's the reason why this has occurred at this point before because we're we're running these kind of parallel processes here. Uh Julie I don't know if you have anything to add uh regarding uh the specific timing on that but that's the high level overview. Yeah, I just want to clarify one thing. We didn't move the solar panels from the solar canopy to the roof. We always had the primary building code required or main building solar PV on the roof. The solar canopies was supplemental to that. So, taking away the solar canopies wouldn't impact what we're doing what we were doing on the roof anyway.

Uh, thank you for that clarification. That was actually very helpful to me. Um, and then to staff, I just want to make sure that we're okay um that this doesn't significantly change our determination um that this needs to go to a rehearing because of that change, especially since it was just stated that it was I think the word was supplementary. Um, but I don't want to put words in her mouth and I'd like a definitive answer from staff, please.

Yes. So uh based on the removal of the car solar car ports, it would not change our recommendation in any way. The only thing about the project that that would change is there because of the solar car ports, there was no landscape finger in the middle. Um and so with the removal of those, a couple parking spaces would be uh filled in by a landscape uh finger to meet code. Thank you very much, Mr. Hulk. Um Mr. Mr. Tanner or Mr. Shelton, Miss White and Miss Hensley, I want to say or what was your what was that? Jackson,

sorry, Miss Jackson. Thank you all very much for um my many questions in regards to the parking. Um I'll look to the commission again for another round of questions. Vice Dr. Stewart, uh just a quick question. You have the community room. What is the capacity of that room? I think Julie will be best uh positioned to respond to that. Julie, do you have an approximate capacity on that room? Um I don't off the top of my head and I can I can pull up my drawings really quick. Um I think from a seated capacity we have like a classroom style a capacity of around 140 people

in that room.

That's good. I mean, just kind of an I just wanted a rough order of magnitude. And then I saw something and I was looking for it while we were going through the last set of questions and I couldn't find where I found it, but there's a resolution 39 with the Channel Islands Business Park. What is that? Uh, Vice Chair Stewart, there um, in that area there is an established uh, not it's not quite a specific plan, but it it's an established business park. Um, and with that there is an associated resolution with conditions to maintain some uniformity of that area and this parcel is part of that business park. Um therefore it's subject to the resolution and that condition that you have um brought up is just maintaining that with clarity.

Great. Thank you. That's all the additional questions I had. Thank you vice chair Dr. Stewart. If there are no other questions for the commission at this time we'll move on to public comment. Um before I go to submitted public comment um madam secretary are there any online right now? No chair.

Okay. Thank you very much. Um I'll go through the submitted uh speaker cards um as they were given to me. Um I'll list the three names that I have and if there are any others that wish to speak um please turn in the speaker card. Um uh first will be Mr. Drew West and then Miss Susanna Lopez Garcia and then Miss Diane McKay. Um so Mr. Drew West, you have three minutes.

Good evening. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Drew West. I'm the board chair of Food Share of Ventura County. I come to this project not only as a community volunteer, but as a a business person who solved complex business and operational problems for my entire career. The the project in front of us has two inherent problems associated with it. One is one in four residents in V Ventura County are food insecure. The second issue is that the current capacity of our facilities is is not capable of keeping up with the demand currently uh serving those constituents. Um we're also unable to take donated food that's available to our county and make sure that it gets into the hands of those who need it within our our community. So, so basically the project's the solution to these problems. It's a modern and efficient facility. It ensures that every pound does make it into the hands of those who need it. And it's a smart, scalable, and sustainable project that exactly the kind of an infrastructure investment that our community deserves. On behalf of the the board of food share and the 250,000 citizens that we serve every year, I urge your support. together we can build uh a problem or build a solution to this problem and a stronger more resilient Ventura County. So thank you for your time. Thank you Mr. West. Next we have Miss Susanna Lopez Garcia followed by Miss Diane McKay. Miss Lopez Garcia. Uh good evening commissioners. My name is Susie Lopez Garcia. I'm the executive director for Community Action of Ventur County. We are a nonprofit here in the county.

I apologize. I'm going to pause, restart your time. Madam Secretary, can we get her at three? Thank you very much. Uh please restart. Apologize. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Susie Lopez Garcia. I'm the executive director for Community Action of Ventura County. Uh we are a nonprofit. Uh our main office is located here in Oxnard, but we do serve all of Ventura County. Uh we provide a lot of different services. uh utility payment assistance, weatherization, we have homeless services, we have workshops around financial mental wellness, we have weatherization as well. Um and the other program, one of our biggest programs, actually our biggest one, um the one that grew the most after COVID has been our food program. So, we are a long-standing partner with food share. Uh we receive a lot of their food that comes through us for distribution. Um, we see approximately 350 uh households every other Thursday come through our Oxnard site uh for a drive-through distribution. Um, each year we have received more than 600,000 pounds of nutritious food and fresh produce directly from Food Share at no cost. In 2024, we were able to serve over 6,900 families um that year. Um, by approving this project, you're enabling Food Share to expand its capacity, which means that partners like CABC can serve even more families in need. This project isn't just about a new building. It strengthens the entire local network of nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and community partners working to ensure that no one in Ventura County goes hungry. On behalf of Community Action of Ventura County, I respectfully urge you to support your support of this project. together we can continue to feed our neighbors and build a healthier more resilient Oxnard. And also seeing um in addition just seeing the room the community room um I think would be a great asset also in that area of Oxnard having that space um to bring community together. Um I also sit um in planning uh health and human services day for the

Oxnard leadership group through the chamber. And so every year I do look at food share to use their space to bring in that cohort for them to see the facility to understand how the food moves. Uh they go through a packing um time where they also see how the food is packed. But we also bring other community members and other topics and speakers into that space for them to to learn um and discuss in that space. So seeing all that put together um I think would be a great asset for the community. So thank you. Thank you Miss Lopez Garcia. Our final speaker is Miss Diane McKay. Um before you begin I have you as E1 but I assume you really meant for F1. I did mean F1. Okay.

Thank you very much. Uh you may begin when ready. Thank you

Dr. Lopez. I've had kind of a long day today. Um good evening. Thank you for allowing me to share my support. My name is Diane McCay and I'm the owner of Mustang Marketing here in Ventura County. I've had the pleasure of working alongside Food Share for many, many years. I've also served for 12 years on the community college district until 2022. And since 2023, I've served on the behavioral health advisory board for the county. And in these positions, I see that the needs of our community, um, this diverse and wonderful community, it just continues to grow. The proposal in front of you for a new food share strengthens the entire food distribution network, enabling the community, both citizens and businesses alike, to thrive. Food share isn't just feeding people. It is strengthening our community. When families have access to nutritious food, they're healthier, more productive, better able to contribute to our local economy. This benefits businesses, schools, and neighborhoods alike. Food secure communities. They support a thriving economy, stronger families, and a reliable workforce and a more vibrant city. Food chair is asking today to let them prepare for the needs of Oxnard residents and all of our county. By having a facility that will meet the needs efficiently and effectively in just one place and under one roof. Only by expanding their facilities will food share be able to meet the expanding needs. And much time and consideration have been put into the design of this building. I can attribute to that um from food specially prepared and packed for the unhoused as you saw meals for families. Food share works tirelessly to meet the needs. They provide foods by the truckloads to our colleges to the basic need centers to safe passage to Ottoante's um program that to give away. We just did our safe passage food giveaway last Saturday. Um, I just if you've never been on a tour, that's where you see the real magic of having to make these three buildings

come together and do all of this work. Um, if you were to prove what's before you tonight, they will more efficiently and effectively serve all of our neighbors and friends in need of this support. We all wish we didn't need it this service, but the fact is we do in this lush city where we grow so much food. We still need this and the need is continuing to grow. That's why I think it's imperative that this extra space for growth is allowed for. I hope we don't need it. I hope we can build a park next to it, but I'm not sure that's really a reality. Um so anyway, improving um improving this project means investing in a stronger, more resilient Oxnard where local businesses, communities, organizations, and residents can all thrive together. On behalf of the business community, the nonprofit community, a resident of Ventura County, and a proud supporter of food share, I urge you to approve this project before you tonight. Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you very much, Miss McCay. Um, I'll do one last round. Uh, if anyone wishes to speak on public for public comment on this agenda item F1, I'm looking to Madam Secretary if there's anyone online and anyone in the room. None. Chair. Thank you. And I see none here. Um, before we go before we uh officially uh close this public hearing, um, does the applicant either Mr. Sheldon or Miss White like to respond to any of the public comments made? No further comments. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, are there any closing remarks from staff? I have nothing at this time, Chair. Thank you.

Thank you. The public hearing is now closed. We will now move on to deliberation commission. Commissioner Nash. Thank you, Chair. Um, can I can I ask the architect one further question? Without objection, you can ask a question.

Thank you. The our our first public speaker um used a great word and I'd like you to address it a little bit and that is scalability. Um I'm not speculating on future need, but can the facility handle more than the 250,000 people that's currently serving without, you know, expanding the physical structure? Um the building has quite a bit of capacity built in. Monica White mentioned that this facility is designed for 15 years of projected growth. So we have anticipated additional space needed from for everything from um the storage of ambient refrigerated and frozen goods to um staff growth to what the volunteer support that's going to be needed. So within the facility there is uh quite a bit of room to grow for food shares anticipated needs.

Okay, great. Thank you. That that Um, would you like to move into deliberation or you're good for now? Well, I can I can I can offer some comments. Okay. And this is the time. Thank you very much.

Thank you, cheer. So, it's it's it's rare when I um read about a project and I don't have any negative questions or feelings about it. I think that this is just a fantastic partnership that we have with food share within within Ventura County and I think that they've uh have attempted to incorporate a lot of forwardthinking ideas into this project. So again, with with uh the indulgence of my of my uh my fellow commissioners, I'd like to go go over a list of reasons why I would support this. And that's they're all from the from the staff report. Um first, this planned development permit request is of similar nature to the previous industrial developments already entitled. No environmental no environmentally sensitive areas are are on or adjacent to the property. The project includes 180 parking spaces, a 16 door trash uh trash enclosure, an additional enclosure for bin washing and bin storage, outdoor patio amenity for staff, and uh uh a lot of landscaping throughout the site. The 2030 general plan identifies land use for the subject property to be industrial limited uh which would be a suitable zone for this project. The parking lot totals uh 178 vehicle vehicular parking stalls which is well over the required 148 stalls. Over 124,000 square feet of landscaped area is is proposed which is great. Great. I mean this is this is an industrial area. So that's I I feel above and beyond the the call of duty and the project uh the proposed project

will not create significant noise impact. So um having said that I am more than happy to to to support the staff's recommendation and and the uh and this project. Thank you. Thank you Commissioner Nash. Vice Chair Dr. Seart. Yes. I just wanted to say I too can support this project. I think that food insecurity is still critical in this county and food share is taking a step to increase their capacity so that they can meet those needs. And Miss McCay, I'm not going to repeat all of that she said, but she said it excellently. So, she covered the reasons why we need this. So, I can support this and if time I'll make the motion if needed.

Thank you, Vice Chair, Dr. Stewart. Any others from the commission on deliberation? Commissioner Dr. I

think just to build an echo on my uh colleagues uh comments thus far, Miss White, you began your uh comments this evening by saying how happy you were to be here with us. But I think the uh feeling is uh you know more than mutual and indeed uh ours uh just being able to see uh the presentation and be reminded of uh the extraordinary work that you your team uh your board uh the thousands of volunteers not only uh from here Oxner but across Ventura County um you know just to be able to uh accommodate your growth your projected growth uh to move you closer to I'll say uh the heart of Oxnard more central to Oxnard uh in a location that will give you access in many different directions, not just uh you know the 101, but um you know just uh five points uh central to Camrio and other uh directions of the county. So um the way I kind of see it and take everything in as well as uh the staff report that uh was put together and presented to us this evening, I see this as a win-win win-win win across the board. And so, uh, like my colleagues, just, uh, grateful, uh, and, uh, we'll be, uh, ready to support, uh, after our colleagues are done with their remarks. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Dr. Lopez. Any others from the commission? Commissioner Schuli.

Uh, thank you, Chair. Um, some of you know I I work at Oxnard College, which is adjacent to College Park, which of course is a, as you mentioned, a major hub for food shares operations. and I am reminded regularly and and seeing that long queue of cars um how impactful your services are uh for our community and throughout the county. So, um and I I wanted to say I really appreciate the turnout and and support of this um proposal today as well. We don't often see that. Um so, uh like my colleagues, um it's a privilege to be able to uh consider and support this uh proposal. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Shulke. Um, I'll look to Commissioner Barcenna. You don't have to. Um, and then I'll finish with my own comments and we can do a second round if we want uh before any motion. Um, so I'd just like to say for myself that um, uh, just on just the whole hearing, um, I appreciate as chair and I'm sure as we did as commission um, that we got more color and context um, from the project description um, with your full presentation um, just a whole round of history um, of the project itself and of the organization and what it can do um, and their impacts thereof. Um uh at least for me just on the purely objective and technical side um this was probably one of the best round of answers to some of the questions that I had. Um it alleviated a lot of my concerns before coming into meeting anything that came out of the presentation. Um and so I greatly appreciate that. Um for me I do like how there is a 2acre vacant lot. Um uh I was concerned that it was just in general that it might get a little bit impacted um with parking. Um I know that developers don't usually want to do that. Obviously this is not the same thing. There's not going to be housing here and so you're able to do that and um uh I feel like it'll be better even though it wasn't put into numbers that you're going to be all under one roof. Um just in terms of I just think administratively I feel vehicular um and just uh I just see um no negatives to all uh being under one roof just in regards to that. Um and so I appreciate what the group is going to do in the future and their impact on the city and on the county at large and I look forward to supporting um staff's recommendation um when it's put forward to the commission. Thank you. Um, I'll look to the commission. Um, if there's no other comments, uh, a motion is in

order. Vice chair Dr. Stewart. Oh, I was going to move the recommended action. Okay. It is moved by Vice Dr. Stewart to find a project exempt from environmental review pursuant to SQA guideline section 2180.69 69 statutory exemption and adopt resolution 2025X approving planning and zoning permit number 24-540-02 plan development permit and 24-310 J3 lot line adjustment subject to certain financings and conditions. Is there a second? I second the motion. Seconded by Commissioner Barcenna. Is there any other is there any deliberation on the motion before us? Seeing and hearing none. Madam Secretary, can we have the roll call, please?

Vice Chair Dr. Stewart, yes. Commissioner Barcenna, yes. Commissioner Dr. Lopez, yes. Commissioner Nash, I. Commissioner Schuli, I. Chair Arjo, I. This motion passes.

Thank you very much. And congratulations to the group. Appreciate it. Thanks. Um, we'll take a slight pause um just for our esteemed group to exit while I get myself ready. Um, Commissioner I mean um Madam Secretary, can I have uh is the remote there? Okay. Um, not quite to my presentation yet. We'll first go to G study sessions reports. And with none listed, we'll move our business to community development staff updates. And before that happens, I'd like to thank staff for switching around H and I as requested um to conform more to the bylaws that were um recently amended. So, Miss Peltier.

Yes, thank you, Chair. Um the only announcement staff has is that we will have planning commission on November 6th. Um we will be taking a look at the accessory dwelling unit ordinance along with um some other zone text amendments. Okay. Thank you for that. Um if I can follow up, is that a stud study session? I assume the ADUs or the is that going to be um actual public hearing? It'll be a public hearing item. Okay, gotcha. Thank you very much.

Um are there any questions of Miss Peltier? Um, and I'm not sure, were you able to introduce yourself the last time you were here? And if not, if I could just get a 30 seconds. If not for them, then just for me then, please. Sure. My name is Jamie Peltier. I'm the planning supervisor. I started here in the city um almost a year ago in January. Um, I come from a long list of other jurisdictions. My most previous um was city of Ventura. So happy to be here in Oxnard and um serving you guys tonight.

Well, appreciate that. Thank you, Miss Piltier. Um moving um you know, Mr. Zerosa, do you have anything? We haven't seen. Okay, appreciate that. Thank you very much. Moving on to planning commission business. Um section I um as I uh stated to the commission um that I plan to use the remainder of these meetings um just to give a brief preview or overview on something in regards to the process or parliamentary procedure. And today um we're going to review the common motions that are most applicable to the processing of planning commission business. Um, as the presentation gets on there, Diego, thank you very much. Appreciate that, Diego. Thank you, Christian or Madam Secretary for um, forwarding my presentation. So, um I'm not even going to try to get it under five minutes, but I promise it's actually going to be shorter than the last time. So, at least that you have to look forward to. So, um so, uh all the motions I just want to preview that we're going to go overview on this, it has been done or at least once in the last 5 years. So, um uh Commissioner Dr. Lopez has seen it in some way or fashion. Um but for most of you, you may not have seen every single one. So um again why do we use Robert's rules? Um legally in Oxnard U Measure M was passed in 2020 which required the usage of Robert's rules or as you see on the book Robert's rules of order newly revised 12th edition. Procedurally it's a framework for a group to consider and decide on action to be taken. And in a nutshell, it gives certain rights to each individual, but not unilateral power, allowing the majority to decide

on actions without running rough shot over anyone else, and still allowing a minority to have their voice heard without being an immovable obstacle. And it's flexible enough to allow the body to act quickly with more than a majority, but allows a minority or individual to suggest alternative actions. So with a main motion, an agenda item, at least in Oxnard, how we do it on planning commission, an agenda item and description is read. There are questions by the body, then public comment, and then some initial discussion leading into a motion. A motion is a clearly described proposal for the group to do something. Um, most likely we use staff's recommendation, but we can have our own, and you've seen that done um on many occasions before. A second must be made that shows that at least two members want the proposal considered, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they agree with it, just that they want to discuss it. The chair states the question to let everyone in the group know that what is exactly being proposed is in order and is clearly phrased. Deliberation commences starting with the maker of the motion and after debate ends, the chair puts the question to the commission or the body and then the voting occurs and the result is announced. After a motion is made um with the pictures that you see here um I consider it a mix of all the above pictures. Um you have one person speaking at a time. You may have opposing sides um and not necessarily just two and you have a mix of ideas from everyone. Um each of these have been done once um on the commission. Um, Commissioner Nash was actually for committee of the whole. He um, basically he was chair of just forming a motion um, on one of the items that we had during planning commission. Um, quasi committee of the whole, the

chair just remains and these different um, committees um, allow the commission to work on a more informal um, level. So quasi committee of the whole that was done once by me when we were trying to pick a date. Um that happened late last year that moved on to this year. And then for informal consideration um we did that in our subcommittee on the bylaws amendment. So that was done with um previous chair Chavez and Commissioner Connley in regards to that. That just allowed us to be a little bit more flexible in how we spoke with each other. In regards to amendment, um you've seen this a few times. Um if you don't agree with the motion being proposed, you can always change the motion somehow. Amendments should say exactly where in the main motion the change is to be made and precisely what words to use. A vote on an amendment only decides whether the body should consider the main motion with the amendment, not the amended motion itself. For example, you may like the amendment and will only vote for the main motion if it is amendment. or you may not like the amendment and then you would only vote for the main motion only if it isn't amended. However, you can vote on both of these um separately um and in your own judgment and how you see fit. Let's see. In regards to a division of question, we've only had this once on the planning commission. Um I still remember that Commissioner Travis wanted to vote. As you saw, we'll use the example of this public hearing item. There are actually two recommendations to find the project exempt from environmental review and then the other to adopt a resolution. And so I remember that he wanted to vote on both of those in a different way. And so he requested a division of a question. Um and he voted differently on each one. Um and so that is an option for us in the future if you like to use

that. Um in general both of them have to pass for whatever legally needs to happen. Um but there is the option for you to um vote separately on them um if it uh looks logical. Oops, wrong one. Um for the previous question, um both Commissioner Dr. Lopez and myself have used this before. Um, if you think that there is enough debate after a motion has been done, um, anyone can move to the previous question or to close a question or to call the vote. Um, in more layman's terms, um, there needs to be a second and then if twothirds of the members decide that debate is done, um, then, uh, we vote on it with a two-thirds vote and we go directly into a vote on what we moved the previous question or close the question. And these are motions that give a lot of powers to the members um who are not the chair. Um if and you can do this at basically any time interrupting a speaker or even myself. Um so if you have a question about parliamentary procedure uh the right form is um parliamentary inquiry chair. Um, but you can usually just ask it a question. Um, and I've processed it as such. And I'm supposed to tell you and advise you how a motion is likely to get your requested action, but it doesn't mean you have to follow me. Um, in regard to a point of order, um, you think that the chair has made a mistake. Um, and so you make the point. Um, I say, "Please state your point." And I rule it as your point is well taken or not well taken. and then we go from there. Um, and then for requests for information, um, if you have a question of someone that needs a little bit more um, prompt information, you can do a point of information or

request for information and the chair will direct it to whoever can answer it best um, if they see um, see fit to do so. And then for adjourning, when the meeting has completed, the chair says, "Is there any further business?" And if there's no further business, the meeting is adjourned. Um, the reason I'm a little bit more specific than this than maybe other chairs is because there are a lot of items that could or should be done before an adjournment. Um, it's not likely in this commission. I I could see it happen with at least how one of our bylaws are fashioned. Um, but I just wanted to give you that option because once an adjournment happens, um, it legally closes and we can't just open it or else we have to go through the whole, um, noticing and everything like that. And so I just wanted to say that Robert Strolls is, at least in my opinion, it's a great way to get something done. It's not meant to be an obstacle. It's meant to as a tool to get the organization, which we all love, um, to get to the best decision for everyone. So, I appreciate everyone's patience with me on regards to this and I'll look if there's any questions before going into adjournment. Thank you very much. Um, since there is no further business, the meeting will be adjourned. If there's no objection,

oh, Commissioner Nash,

thank you. And I I want to begin by saying I'm I'm extremely fortunate to be in this position where I'm able to uh donate my uh stipend and I made the donation to the Carmen Ramirez Memorial Scholarship Fund. This isn't a grandstand so much as to bring awareness that there are many many many worthy nonprofits in Oxnard and Ventura County. And if you know if I can get one person to maybe write out a check or make a donation five 10 what how however much then you know I've done you know I've done something good. So I just wanted to I just wanted to bring that up and and I I I hope people open their hearts and their wallets to to support our nonprofits. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Nash. Um, and it was my mistake I didn't go to the rest of the commission if they have any business or information that they'd like to report. Seeing none and seeing no further business, the meeting will be adjourned if there is no objection. The meeting is adjourned at 7:10 p.m. Thank you all and good night.