Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

IT.

Good evening. Happy New Year. Welcome to the City of Paris Planning Commission meeting. Can you believe it? January 7, 2026. Got to make sure I say six. I'm going to start this off with our roll call by our Secretary.

Commissioner Jimenez?

Here.

Commissioner Jimenez?

Here.

Commissioner Lopez?

Here.

Vice Chair Shively? Here. Chair Hammond?

Here. Move on to Item 3, Pledge of Allegiance, led by Commissioner Jimenez. ITEM 4 IS PRESENTATIONS. WE HAVE NONE. WE MOVE ON TO ITEM 5, CONSENT CALENDAR, WHICH THERE ARE TWO PARTS. WOULD ANY COMMISSIONER NEED TO PULL ANY OF THESE ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION? I WOULD LIKE TO. OKAY. 5B? YES. OKAY. THANK YOU. OKAY. SO WE'LL MOVE ON ONE BY ONE AND GO THROUGH THE PROCESS. ITEM 5A, APPROVAL OF PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, DECEMBER 17, 2025, MEETING. Were there any corrections, deletions, or additions?

Nope.

Okay. It was very thoroughly done, I have to say. Okay. No corrections.

I'll make a motion for approval of the consent calendar. Item 65A. Okay. Okay.

We don't need, do we need public comment at each one or just one?

There should be a public comment period prior to the consent calendar, for the consent calendar.

So for item A and item B, we?

We can have a general public comment period before we consider item 5A. Okay. For anything on the consent calendar.

Okay.

Is there public comment at this time on the consent calendar items? We close the public comment portion and come back to the commission. We have a motion in mind by Vice Chairman Shively and second.

Just to clarify. 5A. Yeah, to move approval of the consent calendar minus 5B because 5B was pulled, so it's essentially 5A.

5A, right. Oh, seconded by Commissioner Lopez.

Commissioner Jimenez. Yes. Commissioner Menes abstain. Commissioner Lopez?

Yes.

Vice Chair Shively?

Yes.

Chair Hammond?

Yes.

With a vote of four to one abstain, this motion is approved. Somebody didn't? It's supposed to be four.

We didn't have a push. Yeah, we didn't.

Thank you.

Madam Secretary, did you get that for the record, that it was four yes votes and one abstention?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Technical difficulties at the start of the year already. Jeez. Okay. We move on to item 5B. Well, you know, 5B. I'm going to read this for the record. And it's been requested that this item be pulled, so we're going to read this for the record and we'll go through the process. Okay. Clarification of records of planning commission approval on December 3, 2025 for specific plan amendment 22-05280, financing tentative parcel map 22-05279, TPM 38576, and 24-05150, TPM 38985. Conditional use permits 22-05295 and 24-0515. and 24-05142 and development plan reviews 22-00028 and 23-00021. Proposed to consider the following entitlements to facilitate construction of Paris Gateway Commercial Center in two phases on 20.28 acres located on the north side of the remote expressway between I-215 freeway and Webster Avenue within the commercial zone of the Paris Valley Commerce Center specific plan. One specific plan amendment to rezone 6.84 acres of the overall 20.28 acre project site from commercial to business professional office zone. Facilitate the construction of a self storage facility with a conditional use permit. The financing tenant parcel map 38576 to subdivide two existing parcels into four parcels. We use the word phase one again. Phase one and financing tentative map 38985 to subdivide one existing parcel into four parcels for phase two. We're going to have to extract those. Conditioner use permits to allow a self-storage facility, six drive-thru restaurants, fast food restaurants, two vehicle fuel stations and the off sale of beer and wine type 20 alcohol license at the Maverick convenience store in conjunction with a determination of public convenience of necessity and development plan review reviews for the reviews of the site plan and building elevations for the proposed commercial project consisting of a 157,928 square foot self-storage facility, two commercial buildings totaling 12,000 square feet, six drive-thru fast food restaurants totaling 18,400 square feet, two convenience stores totaling 10,039 square feet, two vehicle fuel stations, and a 5,425 square foot self-automated car wash. Okay. Requested action, we adopt Final Resolution 25-24, recommend that the City's Council certify the final environmental impact report, adopt the mitigation and monitoring and reporting program, findings of fact and statement of overriding considerations, and approve SBA 22-05280. Financing Maps, TPM 22-05279, TPM 385786, and TPM 24-05150, TPM 38985. CUP 22-05295 for the self-storage facility, CUP 24-05141 for three drive-thru restaurants, CUP 24-05142 for the off-site sale of beer and wine, the type 20 alcohol license, at the Maverick convenience store in conjunction with a determination of public convenience or necessity. DPI is 22-00028 and 23-00021 for the review of the site plan and building elevations to facilitate construction of the Paris Gateway Commercial Center consisting of a self-storage facility, a Maverick-branded fuel station and convenience store, three retail buildings, and three drive-thru restaurants located on 20.28 acres based on the findings contained in the resolution and subject to the conditions of approval. Okay.

Mr. Chair, as a matter of record, we received a letter regarding this project. That was my next thing. And it will be included as part of the record. Thank you. Thank you.

You beat me to it. Yes. In a letter dated January 7, 2026, comment that is pertaining to Getz Rowe. I'm sorry, wrong one. If they can make a mistake, I can make a mistake.

Ah, here it is.

I identify a comment letter pertaining to the Paris Gateway, and it's attached for consideration and comment January 6th, 2026 from Marwan Al-Abbasi regarding concerns about traffic impacts not being addressed in the condition of approval and informing the Planning Commission of a Caltrans streamlining process to help facilitate developments within the Caltrans right-of-way. So for the record, we have this letter that was submitted to us.

And Mr. Chair, I just wanted to point out that there's a typo in the memorandum. It says item 5A. It should be referring to item 5B.

Item 5B. Thank you.

I think I got that right now, right?

Okay. At this time, was there... Not a public hearing item, so just go ahead with the vote or discussion. So there were no... You pulled it for a reason, right? Okay. Okay.

I just wanted to clarify that. When we read through it, it has the corrections we had made. It's just listed in the agenda item as it was the first time, but those changes will be included. I just wanted to make sure that that was recorded.

That is correct, yes.

Okay, thank you. So there is no further motion or further discussion other than correcting those items if there was a mistake.

We would just need a motion to adopt the resolution that's presented.

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Any other comments?

Okay, thank you very much. At this time, who would like to entertain a motion?

Commissioner Jimenez?

Has there been a motion yet? So someone's free to make a motion. I'll make a motion. And to clarify the motions to approve the resolution number 25-24?

Yeah, we're just waiting on the... Commissioner Lopez made the motion.

Okay, so we need a second. Do we have a second? Okay, so motion by Commissioner Lopez with a second by Commissioner Menes.

Okay, now it shows. Yeah, now it's seconded by Commissioner Menes. We'll get there.

Commissioner Jimenez? Yes. Commissioner Menes? Yes. Commissioner Lopez?

Yes.

Vice Chair Shively?

Yes.

Chair Hammond?

Yes.

With a vote 5-0, this motion is approved.

Thank you very much. And we move on to the public hearing. A, item 6A, Conditional Use Permit 24-05060 and Development Plan Review 24-00001. A proposal to consider the following entitlements to facilitate a commercial development project on a triangular-shaped 10.64-acre site surrounded by Case Road, Goetz Road, and Ellis Avenue in the Employment Plaza designation of the Paris Downtown Pacific Plan. One is conditional use permit to allow a 130,672-square-foot self-storage facility, a 5,974-square-foot convenience store beyond Food Mart, with a drive through an auxiliary vehicle fueling station and a 1,667-quare-foot automated car wash and development plan review with a review of the site plan and building elevations for commercial development. THE REQUESTED ACTION IS ADOPT RESOLUTION 26-01, ADOPTING MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECLARATION NUMBER 24-07 AND THE MITIGATION MONITORING AND REPORTING PROGRAM AND APPROVED CONDITIONAL USE PAYMENT 24-05060 AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN REVIEW 24-00001 to facilitate the construction of a 130,672-square-foot self-storage facility, a 5,974-square-foot convenience store beyond Food Mart, with a drive-thru and auxiliary vehicle fueling station, and a 1,667-square-foot automated car wash based on the findings and subject to the conditions of approval. Was there any ex parte communication and how committee meetings or drive-by site visits?

I've had an ad hoc meeting for this project as well as driven by the site several times.

I also attended ad hoc for this item.

I drive by the site almost daily. I drive by the site regularly.

Yeah, definitely regularly drive by the site. Okay. At this time, YOU WANT TO HAVE THE STAFF REPORT OR YOU WANT ME TO DO THE PRESENTATIONS OF THE LETTERS AT THIS TIME?

OKAY.

WE HAVE RECEIVED TWO LETTERS, ONE DATED DECEMBER 31, 2025, AND JANUARY 7, 2026. NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING TO ADOPT related to this project, and they were from the Division of Aeronautics, which is a part of the California State Transportation Agency, Caltrans. The second, dated January 7, 2026, was from the Division of Aeronautics, concerning this particular project, and giving our commission just a few minutes to look through it, and then I'll make a recommendation.

Oh, excuse me.

Oh, yeah, I got that.

Second letter. Oh, you have it? Mm-hmm. Do you want me to say it?

Okay. Also received, it's from Riverside County. I should probably introduce that letter as well. Not letter, but statement. Riverside County Airport Land Use Commission, number 59, Airport Land Use Commission. Prior to the issuance of a grading permit, the applicant shall comply with the RCA-LUC conditions of approval and any conditions as may be required by the Federal Aviation Administration Obstruction Evaluation Service. So I'm just putting that in for the record if you don't have it. So that's in addition to the other two items. At this time, Should we have the staff report or just move on to this? The recommendation. Okay. At this time, it is hereby recommended and I'm proposing this to the commission that we can have a continuance on this item off calendar based upon the letters and the need for the city to address these letters and consultation with the appropriate parties so not to a date calendar one but to a off calendar for the future and that is my recommendation because this is very needs more in depth you see the data that is the 31st in January 7th so we need time to discuss go through all the mechanisms that deal with this so I'm putting it to you as a chairman I'm bringing it to you that we can make a motion to do that

WE CAN STILL HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT, THOUGH, BEFORE THAT. YEAH.

NOW, PUBLIC COMMENT, OBVIOUSLY WE'RE GOING TO HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT ON THIS ITEM. THAT'S JUST A RECOMMENDATION. THE RECOMMENDATION IS THAT, BUT WE WANT TO HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT, SO WE OPEN IT UP FOR PUBLIC COMMENT AT THIS TIME.

WHEN YOU HEAR THE STAFF REPORT AS WELL, YOU CAN.

YEAH. WHICHEVER YOU WANT TO DO FIRST. STAFF REPORT, PRESENTATION.

Staff is ready to do a presentation.

Okay. I'm reading all the letters for you so you don't have to re-read. Basically going to go through the process.

Yes, thank you. I actually have the slide up on my end, but can we get it up on the monitors as well? Thank you. So this is the case it gets, Beyond Mart and self-storage project. Thanks for reading that introduction into the public hearing record, Chair Hammond. My name is Matthew Evans. I'm the project planner for this project. Can't seem to, let's see if I can get this. Yeah, it's not working. My apologies. We're having a little bit more technical difficulties. There we go. So here we have the location aerial map. The project is located east of Goetz Road between Case Road and Ellis Avenue. Again, this is a triangular-shaped piece of property, as you can see here. Surrounding uses to the north, we have vacant and industrial. To the south, we have the Paris Valley Airport, as well as vacant land. To the east, we have vacant land and industrial. And to the west, we have the Hunt Club Apartments. So here, we have some site photos. This is looking north at Case Road at Ellis Avenue. This is a southwest view, Case Road at Goetz Road. This is that intersection on the north end. This is Case Road and Ellis Avenue looking north. And then we have a northeast view as well at Getz Road at Ellis Avenue. Oh, we have one more slide here. So this is at the intersection of G Street and Case Road looking west. So as far as the zoning map is concerned, this is in the downtown Paris area. specific plan. It's in the employment plaza transect is what this will refer to in the specific plan. Surrounding zones to the north we have downtown specific plan employment plaza. To the east we have that same zone designation. To the west we have downtown specific plan neighborhood and to the south we have light industrial and public. So this is the Paris Valley Airport map. Airport zone, the project is located within the B1, C, and D zones of the Paris Valley ALUP. The B1 zone is subject to density limitations that restrict occupancy to no more than 40 persons per acre. Zones C and D are subject to density limitations that restrict occupancy to no more than 50 to 450 people per acre. This is also why this type of use is being considered at this location rather than what you would typically find in that employment plaza transect because, you know, that employment plaza transect is meant for a higher density office use project, commercial or industrial, with lots of employment. But unfortunately, due to the limitations of the zoning at the airport land use map, they're subject to those density restrictions. The downtown specific plan has been found consistent with the Paris Valley ALUP, and ALUC did review the project and found it to be conditionally consistent with the Paris Valley ALUCP, subject to meeting FAA requirements. So here you have the overall site plan. As you can see, it's 10.64 acres. Within that, located at that northeast corner, you have a 5,974 square foot Beyond Food Mart building. And back of that, directly to the south, you have a 1,667 square foot automated car wash building. And then further to the south, rounding out the remainder of the property, you have seven self-storage facility buildings. with a total of 138,672 square feet. So here you have the access plan to the site. The site is surrounded again by Case, Goetz, and Ellis Avenue. You have one existing signalized intersection at Case Road and Goetz Road. You actually have another signalized intersection here at G Street, but it's not an intersection. It just kind of dead ends at the property. You have two additional signalized intersections that are proposed, one at Ellis and Goetz, and one at Case and Goetz. You have one driveway with right in, right out, and left access, and as we go through the site planning, we'll get in more into that. And then three limited access driveways that are right in, right out only. Here you have a wall and fence plan. Adjacent to Case Road, Ellis Avenue, and Getz, where there are no buildings, you have a six-foot-tall block wall around the self-storage facility. And then at those entrances, the driveway entrances, you have a six-foot-tall tube steel fencing with a little bit of tube steel fencing between, I believe it's buildings five and six. So we'll go in-depth site plan for the Beyond Food Mart first. Again, this is a 5,974 square foot Beyond Mart. It has a drive-through that can facilitate 14 vehicles. This is a drive-through only. There is no indoor seating or dining, and that's per ALUC. Density restrictions. A 1,667 square foot automated car wash with five vacuum parking spaces. A 5,013 square foot fuel island canopy, which has eight fueling islands, 16 dispensers. A 966 square foot diesel fuel island canopy. It has two fueling islands with four dispensers. Total of 34 parking spaces. You have 21 regular, seven EV, one EV, ADA van accessible. and three ADA spaces, as well as a trash enclosure that is 10 foot tall and is a block material to more match the adjacent self-storage facility with that metal roofing. And then onto the self-storage facility site plan. You have seven buildings in total, totaling 130,672 square feet You have two and a half, two-story buildings. I'll get into that a little bit later. Building one, you essentially have that caretaker unit above the building. You have eight parking spaces, including three ADA and two EV charging spaces, 45 RV parking for RV storage. Another trash enclosure, also 10 foot tall, with decorative block structure with metal roof. main entrances at Ellis Avenue with secondary RV and fire access at Getz Road. And those are those arrows you see. And as you can see, it does have a left turn M from Ellis into the site as well, as you can see with that curved arrow off to the south there, off to the southwest. Here is the conceptual landscape plan. We have 79,538 square feet. of landscaping, which is approximately 21.5% of the total site. I should note, and it is noted in the staff report, that there is no landscaping minimum in the downtown Paris specific plan. Within the landscape plan, you have 158 trees, approximately 60 street trees, and as conditioned, 30% of all trees will be 36 inch box. And all entrance trees at the driveways will also be 36-inch box. So here are the renderings for the Beyond Food Mart. As you can see, we have similar treatment of that wood tile on the building as well as the fuel island canopy to match the building. These are some more of the renderings. So here you have the elevation. Your tallest elevation here is actually a decorative element on the building. It's 38 feet. The remainder of the building is approximately 25 to 30 feet at its highest point with the parapet and 30 feet around the edges. This also has a portico share over the drive-through to provide visual screening for that drive-through window. This is the rear elevations. As you can see, there is trellis mounted, wall-mounted trellis on the back to kind of break up the massing of that wall and to provide some visual interest as you're going through the drive-through. And then the car wash building as well, directly in back. So here you have the renderings for the self-storage facility. This is the entrance. This is off of Ellis Avenue. It's a north view. And there's, as you can see, there's three renderings. It shows that two-story structure for the caretaker unit. And these are the remaining renderings for the self-storage facility. These are the exterior walls of the site facing the caretaker. Both Case, Goetz, and Ellis. So any buildings that are adjacent to the site will have similar treatment to this, as you see here. And we'll kind of go through that a little bit as we go through the elevations as well. So this is the elevation for that first building with the caretaker dwelling. And then all the rest of these are essentially elevations. The street-facing elevations, as you can see here, they have those decorative elements. The pop-outs on the wall, the smooth stucco with that aluminum wood siding as well. So again, these are all the exterior elevations. All the interior elevations are a little bit more plain, but those you can't see from the street. And this is the two-story elevation, so you kind of get an idea of that two-story building. This is the rendering of the wall. This perspective is taken at Ellis Avenue and Goetz Road. And then you have some building elevations for walls and fences. As you can see, there's very little tube steel fencing here. It's mostly at those driveway entrances. The rest of the site is surrounded by that six-foot-tall decorative block wall. It does have pilasters as well, as you can kind of see here that are Noted on the plans, and I believe those are 50 feet on center And you have trash enclosure detail Both trash enclosures have the same architecture. It's a block material decorative block with a metal roofing material on top So environmental determination a mitigated negative declaration was prepared for the project and The MND was prepared in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The MND concludes that all impacts have been reduced to less than significant or have been reduced to below the significance level with the implementation of the mitigation measures. As we discussed, we did receive a letter on the 31st and another one today. You're in possession of those letters. RECOMMENDATION, STAFF'S RECOMMENDATION IS TO ADOPT RESOLUTION 2601, ADOPTING THE MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECLARATION NUMBER 2407, AS WELL AS THE MITIGATION MONITORING REPORT PROGRAM, AND APPROVING THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT 24-05060 AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN REVIEW 24-0001, BASED ON THE FINDINGS CONTAINED WITHIN THE RESOLUTION AND SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL. And that concludes staff's presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. And at this time, we will have, if the applicant would like to give presentation.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. My name is Marwan Alabasi. I'm the applicant. This project has been going on for about three years, so it's not something we just came up with a week. We had entertained just about every use, from a warehouse to apartments to houses, and we have gone to ALOC, if any of you are familiar with ALOC or attended meeting, they really go into great detail of analyzing projects. We even went to the latest one last September, I believe it was, and they had us redesign the entire site. And that's after we met with the ad hoc, and I think we had a good, pleasant meeting, and we accommodated the recommendations. ALOC made us redesign the site because they had very stringent regulations. They assumed in the gas station that every pump has two sides. Everyone has a car with five to seven passengers, and every register has 50 passengers in line. And with all that assumption, if there was to ever be an unfortunate crash, it's within the guidelines of what's allowed with the FAA. So going back and forth with ILAC, they gave us approval, pending the approval of FAA, of course, due to the shutdown of the government that got held up. There's a condition for the project that calls for getting approval from FAA, which we will still get. Now, going to the project itself, we feel this is the best use for the land. We got blindsided by this letter we got on the 31st and the one we got today. Part of the situation with the airport, and we've been in contact with the owner of the airport, we've been in contact with the community, and we happen to be the public work contractor for Ellis Project. And when I'm done, maybe Brad could elaborate on that. We went ahead and took a jump start, worked with IDI, who's the developer who's paying for that project, and we started the dedication process. Because the new project on Ellis without my dedication will not go through. You don't have enough land to widen the road. You cannot cut the tree. You cannot build the curb. You cannot underground or relocate the poles. There was a council meeting in December, I believe it was. And council was very frustrated with Ellis being closed. I'm the one who closed it. Unfortunately, it's not my control. It was supposed to be closed for three or four months. It's been closed for about 16 months. If this project doesn't move with approval of the dedication, it's another year to two years because Edison and RCTC and everybody fighting over the undergrounding the poles, they need the dedication that I will be providing. My dedication, my project will help everybody, including the airport. Right now, and I'm sure Pat will speak to it, we cannot cut the trees, which is, that's where the lanes will go. We have to cut the trees. We have to relocate and underground the poles. We cannot relocate the poles without additional land. When we are done with the project for IDI, and if this project is approved, you will have only one building standing which is partially in the landing zone of the runway, 24 foot high. Right now, and Corinne has some exhibits if we may pass it, right now we have power poles that are 45 feet high. There's a tag on them. And there is trees that are about 65 foot high. So any aircraft running now is in jeopardy of hitting the poles and the trees before they touch the building. The letter we got on the 31st of December has a manual reference. We have included that for your information. It calls for mainly that there shall be no physical obstruction of the runway path, and it's called it zone one, within 200 feet of the landing strip. We have an exhibit showing you that the first page, if you could see the dark side of the runway, that's where the tires hit of the runway. And it has a 50 to one slope. That's when the aircraft clears the trees. It takes 50 to one, so that's 2,000, I believe 250 feet. So with the 2,250 feet plus another 100 feet to my building, that's well beyond the 200 feet required in the manual, or FAA manual. If you look at the second page, You will see the runway, which is where the arrow. We are from the edge of pavement, not where the landing is, which is even pushing it. From the edge of pavement to the building, we have 211 feet. So all the obstacles are closer than 211 feet. The trees are 50 feet away. And they're using the runway since 1962. The power poles, I don't know when they were installed, but they've been there for several years. All these are gonna go away, so we are moving further and going lower. And the last one here, we show you cross section where the building is 24 feet high, where the power poles are, and where the tree, and you could see the distance, the 154 plus the 57. So I believe with this demonstration, we met the guidelines for zone one of the FAA regulation that we are more than 200 feet, the closest obstruction. There was a comment on the letter we just got a few minutes ago from Patricia. There's a comment that Caltrans, which I did not know Caltrans has jurisdiction over Case Road or my property, Caltrans may have jurisdiction over the airport if there's such a permit, which I just learned about it today. So they could regulate the airport to put those air dissipators, they could regulate whatever they want to regulate, but they have no jurisdiction over the city street or my property. But they're referring to, they don't recommend a fueling station in the landing path. Whoever wrote that letter is not familiar with the manual because we are in Zone 2. And it's very clearly stated. And if you look, Corinne, we have a handout on Zone 1 and 2. Zone 2 is saying no above-ground fueling station is allowed. Above ground. Our gas station has an underground, and I built several of them, and I'll be in front of you for that. We put them underground. They're 10 feet below, and they have 14 inches reinforced concrete on top of it. So even, God forbid, an aircraft... was to land, an airplane to land on that and crash, it will not penetrate to the tanks. And the dispensers have a breakaway. I don't know if you've ever seen an interview where cars hit those dispensers, they're sheared off immediately, and there's no fuel. So the idea of no fueling stations allowed per this Caltrans letter, which is very vague. He's not referencing any manuals. We reference manuals. We went to the letter on December 31st, and we went through the manual. We shared it with your staff. And we showed them we are not in violation. And that's what ALOC is for, by the way. We went to ALOC. ALOC dissected every single item. They made us eliminate a restaurant. We had a restaurant. And they said, no, that puts us over on the number of people allowed per acre. So we redesigned the whole site to meet ALOC. But I did not know that we had to go get Caltrans approval. This was not introduced to us by staff, because I'm sure staff will attest to that. They didn't even know. So this coming here for just a wide letter from a Caltrans planner, assistant planner in the 31st and now some division saying we don't recommend it. I hope you do not take that seriously. And I hope you rely on the ALAC approval and on the approval we will receive from FAA. That concludes my presentation. If anybody has any questions, I'll be happy to answer. Thank you.

Thank you very much, sir. I'm letting staff read whatever they do. So we wanna open it for public comment, so we have, okay. I don't know if you had any comments from staff. Okay, we open it up for public comment at this time. Just for the record.

We do have Pat Constaner.

Thank you, Mr. Hammond. Commissioners, I greatly appreciate what you guys do. Staff, I don't actually disagree with anything Marwan said, but Caltrans Aeronautic is our governing body, my governing body, maybe not the city's and maybe not Marwan's. They see a safety issue of some sort there. Honestly, it's above my pay grade. Marwan does a lot for the city. He's actually paved our runway. So I consider him a friend. I supported one of his projects in this very room not too long ago and ended up getting shut down, I believe, the one off Ramon Expressway. But Caltrans Aeronautic is the governing body for the airport. They control the airport permit. and the safety thereof. Every year we have an annual inspection. They come out, they make me cut trees, they look at the trees at the end of the runway. We've actually trimmed them right to the wire level, as Marwan spoke to. We've trimmed them on our own accord for, well, this year is 50 years of family business, and the permit for the airport's been active since 1962. So that's when Caltrans Aeronautic first issued the permit for the Paris Valley Airport. We are open to the public, as you well know. We're proud to be open to the public. And I honestly don't know how the gas station portion will affect the permit. God forbid an airplane hit it. As Marwan said, it's hopefully bulletproof and nothing comes of it other than an unfortunate person or people on the ground or in the airplane. My main concern tonight, honestly, I was planning on coming to this meeting before I got notified of this letter from Caltrans Aeronautics. They notified me this afternoon. They said they were having a meeting about it. And I go, well, I honestly didn't know what the major issue was. And it was the gas station, the refueling facility. Anyway, my concern was the expansion of Ellis Road. You know, it's been a dirt road, unused trash dump for many, many years. And I honestly, I look forward to the cleanup and the development of the roadway. My biggest concern, and I think you've probably seen it and heard it before, is it ends up being right on the very edge of the runway. At that point, you can have traffic, you can have a vehicle drive off the edge of the road and go right down the runway if it's not secured properly, or a blast fence for the airplanes. When they turn around, we turn around right at that end. And the gas station is about 750 feet from the end of pavement at the runway. So all that whole roadway needs to be protected from airplanes so the public walking down the street or driving in a car is protected as well because I don't want to see somebody get hurt. And that's the last thing we want. We're all about the public safety, whether it be in the air or on the ground. and I'm not anti-development. I don't want to be the no guy. I just don't want to be that guy. Every time I come here in front of you people, I shouldn't say you people, in front of this commission, I don't want to be I don't want to be the person that's, oh, no, no, no, anything near the airport. Because, honestly, it doesn't help my property value any if we run everything into the ground and don't let anything around there. And it's not good for the community. And I was, you know, pretty much born and raised in this town. And I care for Paris.

Thank you very much, sir.

So, anyway, that's my two cents. So, Caltrans Aeronautics, they're my governing body when it comes to the permit and the airport.

Thank you very much, sir. We appreciate it. Any other public comment?

Well, obviously not.

Public comment, sir?

Yeah, clarify a couple points, please, if there's no other comments.

If there's no other public comments, there can be a rebuttal, too. Yeah, that's a public comment. It would be limited to rebuttal, though.

Rebuttal was next. I didn't see any of the public. Yeah, I didn't see them either. I apologize. They're ghost public. Okay.

Again, everybody I talked to in this city is not familiar with Caltrans having jurisdiction over my project. I am not aware of, but if they have jurisdiction over airport, that's above my pay scale. I wasn't asked by the city to get a permit from Caltrans. The gas station, as I demonstrated earlier, is outside the landing zone. If somebody is going to crash into that gas station, they already missed the runway. We are 500 feet away from the runway path. So the gas station is a regular building. Airlock looked at the building material. They're going to restrict us in what we can build with and what we cannot. But if somebody's in that path, they're already done. They're already going to crash into something. There's going to be more building next to the runway eventually. So I think we have probably the best use for it. I hope the city doesn't have a position that we cannot build period on it because storage is the least use. I mean, the numbers are like 8 to 10 per day. There's hardly anybody there. And nobody wants to see unfortunate airplanes crashes, but if they're going to crash, there's nothing softer than just a small building that's much lower than with the obstacles there. So I hope that gives you more information. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir.

We're not going to have discussion because we brought a motion, so we'll close the public hearing portion. And we have a motion, well, I didn't make a motion, but a recommendation for your vote that we would continue this item for the discussion. There's a very serious letter that came for giving the city an opportunity to discuss whatever, off-calendar and a future date that would be determined, but it would be off calendar.

And it would be a motion?

Yeah, yeah. I just want to let you know it's off calendar, so we don't have a specific date.

So a motion to continue that. Are you making the motion? I don't know if I should make the motion. I think you said it was. Entertaining the motion. You want me to make it?

I'll make the motion. Geez. Chairman, I would make the motion that we move this calendar item, this item off calendar to a future date that's not currently designated, but it would be an off calendar item. And that's all we can do. We don't have a particular date.

I will go ahead and second that.

It was seconded by Vice Chair Jim Chivney.

Commissioner Jimenez? Yes. Commissioner Jimenez?

Yes.

Commissioner Lopez?

Yes.

Vice Chair Shively?

Yes.

Chair Hammond?

Yes.

With the vote 5-0, this motion is approved. Thank you very much. To be continued off calendar.

Thank you. At this time, we move on to item seven, public comments. Anyone who wishes to address the planning commission regarding items not on the agenda may do so at this time. You can all come running at once. SEEING NONE, WE CLOSE THE PUBLIC COMMENT AND MOVE ON TO BUSINESS ITEMS. SEEING NO ITEMS, WE MOVE ON TO ITEM 9, COMMISSION UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS.

I'LL START OFF. I just want to say it's good to be back after a long holiday break. I just hope that everybody had a good holiday. They got to spend time with their families. They had a safe New Year. And yeah, that's pretty much it. Just happy to be back and looking forward to what 2026 brings for us.

I want to echo the Happy New Year's sentiment. I hope everybody's having a good return to normal life after the holidays. I know that I'm struggling with it. And so is the technology today. So I just want to wish everybody a nice, happy, safe beginning of 2026. And that's all I have for today.

echo what my fellow commissioners have said. Happy New Year's to everyone. Hoping everybody's having a great kickoff to the new year and that this new year brings everybody amazing things. Looking forward to what we are gonna do as a commission this year. I feel like every year we get more knowledgeable, a little bit more detailed, so I'm looking forward to all the things we will do. Wishing all the students going back to school, most of them are going back to school on Monday, A good and happy return back to school. Your teachers have missed you. We've all missed you. Wishing everybody a good send off to the school year when we return again. And just want to say that driving through our city with the beginning of the year, I'm still, you know, Ramona is a lot, but I am hopeful that once it is all done it's going to be amazing so I think that's what's getting me through the traffic jams is knowing that there is going to be an a great outcome in the end so every time I go by I'm not going to focus on the today I'm going to focus on what the outcome will be

Yeah, I'd definitely like to thank everybody for their warm wishes, and I also wish everybody a happy new year. I hope everything was well and everybody was safe, and family was good to see, and everybody got what they wanted. But I also want to say that on the 16th, we do have a grand opening ceremony, which... Got a question for the wellness center, not wellness center, the skills center. But I'd like to know, once we do that, is it actually officially going to be open, or is it just a grand opening and sit and wait?

Thank you very much. You did pretty good tonight. Happy New Year once again to everyone, even those watching. Seeing these faces again, seeing my face again, which you probably don't want to. But we're happy to start the new year. We had quite a year last year. We left the year with a last meeting with a bang. I know I'm still getting emails. But we've seen some great progress in the city. I think this is a great commission. Very detailed commission. I would say probably the only one to state this detail. I don't think there's any that's more detailed than we are. And I've seen a lot of them. But I'm just happy to work with the people that I do have, work with the staff we do have. And I appreciate Ms. Sylvia over there. She does so much. You didn't pay me enough the last time. No, she does a great job. All the staff does a great job. It's great meeting with you guys. I look forward to this year and probably going to be some challenges, but who cares? We'll meet the challenge because we have great people up here. Really appreciate the ad hoc too. Those that have been involved in ad hoc, it's a great job. Continue to be tough. Don't back down. And it's for your city. It's for the benefit of the city. And we want to, you know, the city's raised the bar and they have to understand we've raised the bar. So nothing is as it was, you know. Hopefully we get some things done in the city, especially the Rite Aid building, which I have a problem with. But hopefully they'll get that done because that's a major thing. But we're going to see some projects, I'm sure, with Ramona Expressway, whatever project goes down south there, and the harvest thing. So as these things start coming to play, we've seen things we haven't seen 20 years ago. It would never happen 20 years ago. I'm going to tell you right now. We're seeing things now. But that's life. That's changes. So with that, and not to mention, I'm eventually going to have a meeting with Patricia concerning my favorite subject, right? Land use and zoning. So I'll just come to the room and we'll start talking. So you don't want that. So that's the only thing I would say. But anyway, thank you guys for your great year we did have. And we appreciate it. And those IT staff back there, she's giving me that look again. No, no, but we appreciate them and do a good job. So I leave it with now the director of our planning commission. AND UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS, HOPEFULLY GOOD ONES.

THANK YOU, MR. CHAIR. SO NICE TO BE BACK. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE. WE DO HAVE THE GRAND OPENING COMING UP ON JANUARY 16TH. WE'RE LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT. AND WE WILL FIND OUT ON THAT DAY, YOU KNOW, IF IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE A SLOW OPENING OR WHAT THE PLANS ARE FOR THE SKILLS CENTER. And you know, Mr. Chairman, I have an open door policy. You're always welcome to come to my office anytime you need assistance. I don't have any announcements to make. And for the January 21st meeting, we don't have any items. So that meeting will be canceled. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And I think that's it. Unless you guys have anything else you want to add? Or you want to stay until 10? It's okay then. Didn't think so. Okay. At this time, we move to adjournment. Happy New Year, everyone out there. Happy New Year to the staff.

I think he's, yeah, he's about to go.

And hopefully we'll get started right. May be February, but at least we'll get started. Thank you very much. And adjournment can be anybody, as you know. Good night.