Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the January 20th, 2026 meeting of the Pacifica Planning Commission. This meeting is called to order. May I have a roll call, please?

Commissioner Berman is absent. Commissioner Devine is absent. Commissioner Ferguson is absent. Commissioner Godwin?

Present.

Chair Hauser? Present. Commissioner Redfield?

Present.

Commissioner Davis? Present.

Commissioner Godwin, can you lead us in this to the plan? Before we get into administrative business and our agenda, any member of the public wishing to make public comment on any item should complete a speaker card. I bring it to the front and hand it to staff. On the card, please indicate the agenda item number on which you wish to comment or oral communications for items not on the agenda or consent calendar for the consent calendar. Members of the public may also participate in the meeting via Zoom or by the dial-in option that hopefully we can pull up onto the screen. To raise your hand when the public comment opportunity presents itself, please rest your Please press star 5 to raise your hand if dialing in by phone or the raised hand function in Zoom. Public meetings are a limited public forum, meaning that there are rules for commenting at these meetings. Comments on non-agendized items must address matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city, and comments on agendized items must relate to that specific item. If comments do not fall into one of these categories, the city will provide you with a second warning to stay within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city or on topic, If the warning is not followed, the chair will direct the city clerk to cut off the microphone and throughout this warning system, I will seek the assistance of the assistant city attorney in identifying comments not related to the agenda item or not within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city. All right. So that brings us into administrative business. I would like to make a change to the agenda since we have a new face and move staff communications to the front of the agenda after administrative business, but before oral communications. Does that work for everyone? All right, may I have a motion, please?

Motion to change the agenda as suggested by Chair Hauser.

Second.

All right, let's vote, please.

Do we want to try that again? I think four out of four. And then maybe we can just move the two nameplates up a little bit.

Davis and Godwin go up one.

Yes. That motion was made by Commissioner Davis and second by Commissioner Redfield. And that motion passed unanimously. Okay.

I was like, I'm too shocked.

I'll get started while we're fixing that.

Perfect. Except, except, Director Updegrave, I think I need to do approval of, I think I need to finish the administrative business because I moved it after that and before World Communications. You're correct. I apologize. So we have minutes for December 15th. Does anyone have comments on the minutes? Can we make a motion?

Just saw one quick correction on packet page three under item. This is approval of draft commission minutes of meeting held on September 15th. It should be December 15th. That's it.

Okay. With that correction, I will make a motion to approve the minutes of December 15th. Is there a second?

Second that.

All right. Let's go. That motion was made by Chair Hauser and seconded by Commissioner Redfield, and that motion passed unanimously. All right.

So that then brings us on to staff communications. Director Updegrave.

I'm sorry, there's, it seems to be a couple of missing things. We have new staff making the agenda and there were some bumps, but we do have designations for liaison for city council. Sure. So I apologize that those aren't written here. First we have the Bayview Calera project was appealed. And that appeal is going to city council on February 9th. And so we need a liaison for that city council hearing.

Okay. Let me just see. I think I can liaison February 9th if it's a regularly agendized hearing. then I will be the liaison on that.

And just as a reminder, the city council meetings now start at 6 p.m. Oh, yeah.

Okay. I'm really glad you reminded me. Thank you. Okay what's the next?

And then the second is the 650 Cape Breton was scheduled to go to council in January and Commissioner Davis was the designated liaison. That got moved to February 23rd and I have spoken with Commissioner Davis who said she's still available but I thought we should just confirm since there was a date change. I'm still available.

Fabulous. Two for two. Thank you, guys.

Appreciate it. Thank you. All right.

Staff communications?

Great. Thank you, Chair Hauser. Good evening. Samantha Updegrave, Community Development Director. And it is my pleasure to introduce you tonight to our new Deputy Director, Michael Christensen, who's sitting here beside me. I'll let him give a brief introduction. But he started with us just last week. So I think this is day six. And really excited to have him here. He's already hit the ground running. And he will also be attending Planning Commission meetings. Fantastic. Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioners.

As Samantha said, my name is Michael Christensen, the new Deputy Director of Community Development. Coming from 10 years with San Francisco and before that a few years with the city of Hayward, kind of over the course of my career, I've really always been a generalist and really kind of bounced around with whatever problem needed to be solved or hot issue was going on. I've processed some kind of larger waterfront projects in San Francisco down to a lot of business permitting, led a team in the city that really did specialize in business permitting and helping businesses open, did a lot of housing projects from small, missing middle projects up to large state density bonus projects and led a lot of technology initiatives for the city. I'm really excited to work here with Pacifica. I was really excited to get another opportunity to work with Samantha. We did overlap a little bit with San Francisco and so, you know, getting to work with her again was part of why I was drawn to the job. As well as, you know, I just really love Pacific. It's a very special place. And it's been great, you know, getting to know the planning team. Got a really great staff here and, you know, really looking forward to many later evenings here with you talking about projects. So, you know, I'm always available if you ever have questions or if there's anything I can assist with, please reach out.

We really appreciate that. We will not. Over promise and under deliver on the late nights.

Okay. Were there other staff communications? Yes, I have two more. So, I did want to announce that Commissioner Devine has resigned from the Planning Commission for personal reasons, effective January 15th. Very sad to see her go. I've really enjoyed working with her. So, but just wanted to let you all know. And so, that does create a partial term vacancy. So, that will, we're actually posting commission and committee vacancies, I think, later this week. So, her position will be available in the recruitment.

Well, she will absolutely be missed because Daniela was fantastic. So, we wish her the best.

And one more, last one. The League of California Cities is running a Planning Commissioners Academy in Anaheim later in the spring, March 11th through March 13th. And so that's designed for new and seasoned planning commissioners alike. The Planning Commissioner Academy expands an individual's knowledge on a wide range of topics relevant to their role within their city. and fosters relationships and communication with peers. The conference provides information about roles and responsibilities of the planning commissioner, offers a basic legal and practical framework, and delves into emerging issues of importance for planning commissioners today. I will go ahead and forward this to you if you didn't receive it from the League of California Cities. And if you are interested in going, let me know and we can talk more about the details. And that concludes staff communications.

Thank you. And that brings us to oral communications, which is the portion of the agenda available to the public to address the commission on any issue within our subject matter jurisdiction, but that's not on the agenda. The time allotted for speakers is three minutes, but I do not have any speaker cards. So if anyone has something for oral communications, and if not, are there any folks on the phone?

Okay.

Then I will close oral communications And bring it over to our consent calendar The consent calendar is one item tonight, but I believe there's some nuance with state law So I will be taking public comment on the consent calendar as a whole, but I would remind the Commission just as our previous project where there was a state law governed by LOT SPLIT IN THE COASTAL ZONE. THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT WE CAN PULL FROM THE AGENDA. AND ASSISTANT CITY ATTORNEY, CAN YOU?

YOU CANNOT PULL IT FROM THE AGENDA.

NO PUBLIC HEARING. OKAY. AND SINCE IT IS THE CONSENT CALENDAR, I ALSO BELIEVE THAT THERE IS NO STAFF REPORT? NO. PERFECT. THERE IS NO PRESENTATION. OKAY. Similar to oral communications, folks wishing to speak can either bring up a yellow speaker card for the consent calendar. I do not have any up here. If you are at home, you can press the raise hand function in Zoom or dial star 5. Is there anyone with a raised hand? Sorry, does anyone wish to speak? Okay. Then I will close public comment on the consent calendar and ask for a motion to approve the consent calendar.

I move we approve the consent calendar as written.

I'll second.

Okay. Please vote.

That motion was made by Commissioner Godwin and second by Commissioner Davis, and that motion passes unanimously. Okay.

And that takes us to Commission Communications, if there are any. Seeing none, I think that takes us to adjournment, and I would love to adjourn in honor of Commissioner Devine. So with that, if someone would make a motion for adjournment.

I'll make a motion for adjournment in honor of Commissioner Devine.

Second that emphatically.

All right. Please vote.

That motion was made by Commissioner Davis, second by Commissioner Redfield. That motion passes unanimously with an adjournment at 7.16 p.m.

This might be our record. Thank you, everybody. Don't get used to it, Mike.