Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'll move.

Commissioner Lopez?

Yes.

Commissioner Jimenez?

Yes.

Commissioner Menes?

Yes.

Vice Chair Shively?

Yes.

Chair Hammond?

Yes. We have a mover and a seconder on that one, right? I don't know who the second one is. Oh, minutes, minutes. Okay. Why am I showing on this camera? The person you least want to put on the camera should be.

With a vote five to zero, this motion is approved. Thank you.

Please. You don't want to scare people away from here, right?

Okay.

We have fun up here, guys. Don't be so serious out there, okay? Public hearing items, it's been requested that we move item 6A, plan development overlays and move that to item 6B and reverse that and use and reverse and put item 6B as item 6A. So that's just for the record and our IT people I think have been pre-informed on that one. So the general plan amendment will be item 6B is what we're gonna focus on at this time. General Plan Amendment 26-00001, a proposal to amend the safety element of the General Plan to incorporate by reference the FEMA-approved Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, LHMP, into the safety element, the applicant, City of Paris. Contract Planner, Rafael Garcia, Principal Planner. Requested action, adopt resolution number 26-11, recommending that the city council find the project exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuant to state secret guidelines section 15061 , which is common sense exemption, and approve general plan amendment number 26-00001, amending the safety element of the general plan to incorporate by reference the FEMA approved local hazard mitigation plan, based on the findings contained herein. And we obviously will have a presentation by the City of Paris. Mr. Rafael Garcia.

Good evening, honorable members of the Planning Commission. Once again, it's good to be here before you. As you indicated, we do have an item before you tonight for a general plan amendment. Before I get into the request, I'd just like to provide a little bit of background. On April 9th, 2024, City Council adopted the City of Paris Act local hazard mitigation plan to annex as part of the Riverside County operational area multi-jurisdictional local hazard mitigation plan. This plan identifies potential natural and human-caused hazards affecting the community, including flooding, wildfire, seismic events, severe weather, and infrastructure-related hazards, and establishes strategies to reduce the risk to life, property, and essential services. The amendment that's before you tonight is to incorporate the local hazard mitigation plan into the safety element of the general plan by reference as authorized by AB 2140. That's the only request that's before you tonight as part of this item. This action also allows the city to remain eligible for a potential state cost share assistance under the California Disaster Assistance Act in the event of a governor declared a disaster. This amendment is pretty straightforward. It's basically procedural in nature, and it's proposing a minor text change as part of chapter two, section E. As shown on the screen, the changes are highlighted in red, just for your reference. All we're really doing here before you tonight is to incorporate the local hazard mitigation plan into the safety element by reference as authorized by state law. So that's the only request that's before you tonight. Some pretty, as I said, procedural change. It's minor in nature and staff is recommending that the planning commission recommend that the city council find that the project is exempt pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15061B3 and approve the general plan amendment amending the general plan to incorporate by reference the FEMA approved local hazard mitigation plan. into the safety element based on the findings contained herein. And that concludes the presentation. Staff is available to answer any questions that the members of the public or members of the commission may have pertaining to this item. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much, sir.

At this time, well, obviously there's no other applicant in the city of Paris.

So at this time, do we have any discussion or questions for...

Okay.

I do have a quick one.

I understand it's procedural. What is the difference between keeping it the way it was and incorporating it within our general plan? What is the impacts of that?

Basically, it wasn't referenced previously to the satisfaction of the state law. So there was a new bill. And by doing this, there's basically some benefits in doing it. So what we're doing is, as you can see in the red changes, we're just mentioning that it's the 2024 local hazard mitigation plan. That's basically the nature of the change.

Okay. And if I can add to that, it makes the city eligible for grant opportunities in case of a disaster.

So if we didn't add that, we would not be eligible?

If we don't, yes.

If we don't, okay. It makes us ineligible. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much, sir. And this time we'll have open up public comment on this particular item, on this agenda item only. Anyone wishing to address the Planning Commission can come forward at this time to the podium and just state your name. We don't need any address, but just state your name, spell your last name for us, and then we'll proceed from there. So if anyone out there would like a public comment on this agenda item and this item only, you're welcome to come. We close the public comment portion, close the public hearing. And is there a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion.

Moved by Vice Chair Shiley.

I didn't see the second.

Oh, Commissioner Jimenez is the second.

Commissioner Lopez?

Yes.

Commissioner Jimenez? Yes. Commissioner Menes? Yes. Vice Chair Shively?

Yes.

Chair Hammond?

Yes.

Thank you. With five yes and zero no's, this motion is approved. Thank you.

Thank you very much. That was easy enough. We move now on to item, which was item 6A is now 6B, planned development overlay zone 26-00002, a city initiated request to apply a planned development overlay zone to 20.31 acres in the R10,000 zone to admit as a matter of right the continued operation of existing legal non-conforming manufacturing use, Central Wire, located at 2500 South A Street on the northwest corner of A Street and Watson Road. The applicant is the City of Paris. It's requested that they adopt Resolution 26-10, recommend that the City Council find the project exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act review pursuant to Section 15301, existing facilities. and Section 15061 , Common Sense Exception, and approving planned development overlay zone 26S00002 to apply PD zone to 20.31 acres in the R10,000 zone to admit as a matter of right the continued operation of existing manufacturing use. Based on the findings contained herein and subject to condition of approval, we've had submitted to us from Lupita Garcia, the Associate Planner, item 6A, it's a matter of public record, PDO 260002, revision to resolution number 26-10, section 4, and the planning division condition of approval number two. I'll let her discuss those changes, but just on the record that there has just been some revisions added to this. Gonna keep you if you have to do it too. So now for the city of Paris.

Good evening, Commissioners. Thank you, Chair Hammond, for the introduction. Before we begin, as Chair Hammond mentioned, I would like to highlight the memo before you regarding the revisions to Resolution No. 26-10, Section 4, to reference the recommended conditions of approval, as well as the Planning Division's Conditions of Approval No. 2, to include a higher level of approval pursuant to the Paris Municipal Code. To provide you with a little background information, the project is a city-initiated request directed by the city council at the November 18th, 2025 city council meeting to rezone the 20.31 acres developed with a manufacturing facility for Central Wire Inc., which has been in operation since 1966 and is currently zoned our 10,000 single-family residential. Central Wire is a global leader in the manufacturing, processing, and distribution of specialty wire and bar products, primarily for the aerospace industry. Records from the Building and Safety Division confirmed that the necessary building permits were obtained for the establishment of the business. The 1990 General Plan, adopted in 1967, designated the property as agricultural land use. The 2030 general plan adopted in 2005 designated the property as R10,000 single family residential land use. Application of the PDO would make the existing manufacturing facility a legally conforming use, whereas currently it is a legal nonconforming use. Additionally, the PDO would allow the manufacturing use the opportunity to make the necessary upgrades as legal non-conforming facilities are unable to upgrade. The 20.31 acre project site is located on the northwest corner of A Street and Watson Road. A 252 foot buffer to the north and a 463 foot buffer to the west separate the manufacturing facility from the residentially zoned properties. Surrounding uses include to the north, residential vacant land, to the east, industrial vacant land across A Street, to the south, residential vacant land across Watson Road, and to the west, residential vacant land. Here we have a photograph of the project site from A Street looking west. The Central Wire facility was constructed in 1966. At that time, there was no general plan or zoning designation. The farthest available general plan dates back to 1967, when the city adopted the 1990 general plan, which designated the property as agricultural land use. When the city adopted the 2005 general plan in 1990, the land use designation was changed from agricultural to our 10,000 single family residential. Here we have the existing and proposed zoning. The 20.31 acre site is again zoned R10,000 single family residential. The proposed PDO would formalize the existing legal non-conforming industrial use by making it a legal conforming use. The purpose of the PDO will allow the continued operation of the existing central wire manufacturing facility as a matter of right in the underlying R10,000 single family zone. No new development, building expansions, or ground disturbing activities are proposed as part of this request. The project is categorically exempt from review under CEQA pursuant to Section 15301, Existing Facilities and Section 15061, B3, Common Sense Exception of the CEQA Guidelines. No comments have been received by staff regarding the project. Staff recommends that the Planning Commission recommend to the City Council to adopt resolution number 2610, finding the project is categorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to section 15301 and section 15061 . An approval of the plan development overlay zone 26-00002 to apply a PDO zone to the 20.31 acres in the R10,000 zone to permit as a matter of right the continued operation and existing manufacturing used based on the findings contained in the resolution and subject to the conditions of approval. This concludes my presentation tonight. I am available for any questions that you may have. Thank you.

Thank you.

Very good.

Are there any questions for staff? Any discussion points concerning this one?

Thank you Lupita for the presentation. I just have a question in regards to the background. I just want to get more details on the background of the project. And I understand why they're doing the overlay, because it's been there since 1966. And if they want to do any upgrades, they need that, right? But right now, there's no plans for upgrades or any any plans for the development. I just want to know, is it common practice for the city to request overlay zones on properties that don't request any changes or any upgrades?

Well, the request came from the city council. They requested for this application before you tonight. So that's why we are here tonight.

Okay. Yeah. So they just kind of singled out this location and said that they need the overlay?

Correct. And you're correct. There's no proposal. All they want to do is just apply the PDO to make it a legal conforming use.

Okay.

All right. Thank you so much. Mm-hmm.

My neglect. I'm not sure if the applicant or the ones who own the property would like to have anything to say or a presentation at all.

If those are the ones that... Yeah, the representatives from Central Wire are here.

If you'd like to. It's my mistake for not doing it first. It's been a long time, guys. If you just state your full name and spell your last name for us.

Absolutely. Stefano Pellegrini. P-E-L-L-E-G-R-I-N-I. So good evening. Thank you for the time tonight. So Central Wire has been an established business since 1955. We are a Canadian company. currently owned by three families. The Paris Facade has been in business since 1966. Our predominant market is the aerospace industry. We are a leader for the raw materials that are used to make any sort of fasteners for aerospace applications so if you think about the airframe of an airplane when you see all the little bullet points that are on the wings for example those are all rivets that put the wings together. So we are one of the three suppliers in the United States for that kind of material. We make a lot of exotic grades for bolts that are predominantly used to assemble engines on an airplane. So we consider ourselves a critical support to the national security of this country. And so that's about Central Wire. I don't know if you may have any other questions. OK.

Thank you very much. And it's 60 years now, right?

Yes. Yes, we've been quite a long time.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I didn't say before I was born. I'm not going to lie and say that. I'm not going to lie and say that.

Yeah, before my time.

You might buy that one. I think so. Okay. Okay. Well, were there any other questions for staff or questions about this facility or PDO? Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.

I do have a question for our staff. Sorry. So I know there's no plans for upgrading or expanding, if they do choose to expand, what are the limitations? Because you shared the dimensions of how far away they are from the residential zones. Do they have room to expand without any issues? Or I don't know what the requirements are, because I know we have all these. Right.

So you're right. So at this time, there is no proposal for expansion is simply just to make this use a legal permitted use. At such time in the future, if they decide to expand, they would have to come back to the city and go through development plan review, at which time we'll look at and see what the appropriate zone and specifications on the development standards would be applicable to this use and come back to the planning commission.

Okay. Thank you. And my second question was, are there any negative impacts to what's already standing there? Because I know sometimes I know that they're not able to upgrade because it's nonconforming. Are there any negative implications where if this goes through, now they have to do all these upgrades or meet all these requirements with the rezone?

No.

Okay. Thank you.

To be clear, too, it's R10,000 that would not change. The underlying change. We want to make sure everyone understands that.

The R10,000 remains.

By some miracle that they decided they would move on, it would remain R10,000. I'm not saying you're going to after 60 years, but at least there would be still an option that would be there.

Correct.

Okay. Okay.

All right. I'm done.

Okay, thank you very much. Got off easy, Lupita, this time. Yeah, yeah. Just this once, just this once. Yeah, I mean, that's where I'm going. At this time, we have public comment. Anyone wishing to comment on this agenda item and this item only is perfectly asked to come to the podium, I say podium, and address the Planning Commission. You have three minutes. And we'll wait if there's anyone that would like to do this on this agenda item. Seeing none, we close the public hearing. And I don't know if there's any discussion.

Okay.

Oh, you're not pretty easy. Okay. We requested to adopt resolution 26-10. Recommending that the city council find the project exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. Review pursuant to section 15301, existing facilities. and Section 15061 , Common Sense Exception. An Improving Plan Development Overlay Zone 26-00002 to apply a PD zone to 20.31 acres in the R-10000 zone to permit as a matter of right the continued operation of an existing manufacturing use based on the findings contained in the hearing and subject to conditions of approval. There are no amendments and no changes.

The modifications mentioned by Lupita at the beginning of the presentation and changes to the resolution and the conditions of approval.

Yeah, it's all, I didn't want to read all the pages, but sufficient to say there was some revisions to item 2610, section four. I'm not going to read the whole thing. And the plan division condition approval number two for the record. Okay, we have a motion. Commissioner Lopez has made a motion and seconded by Commissioner Menendez.

Commissioner Lopez?

Yes.

Commissioner Jimenez? Yes. Commissioner Menes? Yes. Vice Chair Shiley?

Yes.

Chair Hammond?

Yes.

With the vote five to zero, this motion is approved.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Congratulations, 60 years. Wow, probably had about a thousand people here back then. 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. Please walk up to the podium and wait for the chairperson to recognize you. We do have blue slips, I believe we're filled out. Please speak clearly, give your name, spell your last name, and I stop there. Each speaker will be given three minutes to address the Planning Commission. You're welcome to come at this time and approach the Planning Commission on any item not on the agenda. I think we have some names, or at least one name on the blue sheet. Go right ahead.

Yes, we have Jose Solorio, Jr.,

That's my first time. Actually, what I have for first of all, good evening members of the planning commission. Today I'm presenting a vision transforming Paris into a destination city that attracts visitors, supports local business, creates jobs and gives residents more opportunities for recreation and entertainment. The first part of this vision is the restoration of the historic theater rather than allowing an important building to remain vacant. The theater will become a year-round community attraction featuring family, movie nights, classic film screenings, seasonal events, holiday programs, and special community gatherings. As our nation celebrates its 150th anniversary, restoring a historic landmark demonstrates our commitment to preserving the past while investing in the future. The second part of this vision is creating a unique entertainment district that would attract visitors from throughout Southern California. This could include family-friendly attractions such as go-kart world racing, organized car shows, automotive exhibitions, and a controlled performance performance testing facility where enthusiasts can safely enjoy their vehicles in a structured environment. Together, these attractions will help establish Paris as a premier destination for entertainment, motor sports, and community events. The proposal also encourages partnerships with private investors, sponsors, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses. These partnerships can generate new revenue streams while reducing financial burden on taxpayers. As more visitors come to Paris, local restaurants, shops, hotels, services, businesses will benefit from the increased customer traffic. New businesses will be encouraged to open, creating jobs and expanding economic opportunities for local residents. The long-term vision is a vibrant district where families can enjoy movie, entertainment, dining, shopping, community events, and recreational activities in one location. This proposal is about more than entertainment. It's about economic development, community pride, historic preservation, tourism, and creating opportunities for the future generations. I respectfully ask for your consideration and support as we explore ways to make this vision a reality for the city of Paris. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate it.

You're welcome. Do I go back? Yeah. Okay.

Anyone else? You don't have to be shy.

Okay.

We close the public comment portion. Thank you very much. Duly noted. We move on to item eight. Business item. Planning 101 workshop presented by Rafael Garcia, our principal planner.

Thank you. Once again, it's good to be here before you all. We do have a little bit of a unique item, Planning 101. Obviously, from time to time, staff provides a presentation just to provide additional insight to the Planning Commission and hopefully provide additional context, which will hopefully provide this commission, as well as the public, a better and more thorough understanding of what exactly planning involves. I know sometimes we get questions regarding planning is it party planning or is it you know what kind of what kind of planning is it right so when obviously what what we do here city or urban planning and in doing that we get we get the questions from time to time the public doesn't really understand it sometimes and so i didn't understand it when i was a kid you know growing up i remember the first time i my folks we went to city hall my father wanted to see some plans or something and the people were very helpful and i didn't know that planning existed so hopefully this will provide some insight with regards to the department as well as what we do on a day-to-day basis to give the public a better understanding of how city planning operates. The first thing in general is that planning is a process of guiding growth and development to try to achieve certain community goals that are deemed desirable by the community. Sometimes people say, well, is planning pro-development? Are you not pro-development? And what we typically try to do is we typically try to manage it in a hopefully appropriate and responsible fashion, accounting for all parties, and taking that into account so that we can hopefully allow development but in a responsible fashion while controlling for any impacts on obviously the residents and the members of the community. There's a wide variety of key objectives that we have here in the city of Paris including promoting orderly development, protecting the public health, safety and welfare, trying to find balance between economic growth and community character and to attempt to ensure that there's proper infrastructure and public services that can support that growth. Obviously, there's a wide variety of infrastructure that sometimes is needed in order to accommodate development. On a day-to-day, week-to-week basis, sometimes people want to come in with certain projects, but there's certain portions of the city that aren't fully developed or that can't accommodate certain types of development without certain infrastructure investments. And obviously, we're trying to preserve and protect the environment. Unlike a lot of the cities, for instance, in L.A. County, there's still some largely undeveloped portions of the city still That's obviously a very unique characteristic to have in a place like Southern California, and we want to make sure that we account for that whenever processing and reviewing a development application. So the first thing I wanted to discuss is the quasi-judicial role that the Planning Commission plays. The Planning Commission does act as a quasi-judicial role when it applies existing loss to a specific project. Um, the capacity of the commission, uh, is to remain strictly neutral and make decisions based solely on factual evidence presented during a public hearing, such as what we've had here tonight. And the purpose of that is to take in all the public testimony to take in the, uh, all of the information that's provided by staff. We typically provide what's referred to as a white report, simply not, not necessarily, um, being for or against the project, but simply providing the facts of the case. And that information, the purpose of it, is to provide the Planning Commission with the information needed in order to make the proper decision for approval or oftentimes also a recommendation that gets forwarded to the City Council depending on the type of application. This also requires that the Commission weigh evidence, hear testimony, and determine if the project meets certain legal standards. And that's typically through meeting the legal findings that are required on the wide variety of applications that the Planning Commission considers throughout the years. An example of a quasi-judicial action would be something like a conditional use permit, variance, development plan reviews, as well as subdivision maps, which involve the subdivision or the subdividing of land into smaller lots for development purposes. There's also other types of applications that involve legislative recommendations on behalf of the Planning Commission, where the Planning Commission reviews the application, but ultimately is not the ultimate approval authority. The Planning Commission makes a formal recommendation to the City Council, and that involves things like the general plan amendments, zoning code updates, zoning code text updates, as well as specific plans. Also, it's important to keep in mind that of California Assembly Bill 1234, which is a state law that mandates that regular public service training involving ethics for local government officials. The one thing to keep in mind about this, although there's a lot of elements to this law, is that the commissioners must prioritize the public good over personal gain in order to avoid conflicts of interest. So the commission isn't here with a perspective. They're just here to take in the facts of the case and make a decision that's in the best interest of the public. There's a wide variety of documents that we deal with and they can be very confusing because sometimes we call them something and you almost get into sort of this game of semantics. So I'm gonna kind of go a quick overview and I'll be describing some of these in detail later on in the presentation. The first one is obviously their state law. So the state law supersedes any local documents. Obviously, sometimes there's new bills that come in that get adopted that we're not necessarily, that the city doesn't necessarily have a provision, but it has to comply with. An example of that was a lot of the ADU regulations that came in. So when the ADU regulations started coming in, the city didn't necessarily have anything pertaining to that, but the city had to comply with it. and eventually adopted its own ordinance, but that's an example. There's also a general plan. The general plan is the overall comprehensive guiding document that provides goals and objectives for the future growth of the city. So what the city does is it analyzes what it would like to see in the next 20, 25, 30 years, and it implements certain goals, policies, and objectives to try to accomplish that. A lot of the other documents help to and help to apply that vision that's outlined ultimately in the general plan. So one of these documents involves specific plan. Specific plan is sort of, it's similar to a general plan, but it's obviously more specific. They oftentimes have a wide variety of development standards, and they're typically applied to a specific geographical area. As an example, downtown. And so we have a wide variety of specific plans throughout the city, including the downtown, Green Valley, Harvest Landing, May Ranch, Park West, as well as the Paris Valley Commerce Center specific plan. And all these specific plans have specific goals and objectives that are unique to that portion or that area of the city. And so they have their own development standards and their own land use objectives that sometimes are slightly different or deviate from the conventional zoning ordinance. The next document is the zoning code. So the zoning code is kind of the go-to development document that we really use on a day-to-day basis. So the zoning code helps to enforce or apply the original vision of the general plan. And it includes a wide variety of obviously zones, And then each zone has a corresponding set of development regulations that would apply to each of those underlying zones. And then we have other things, such as the Good Neighbor Guidelines. The Good Neighbor Guidelines are policies, and these are specialized sets of local guidelines designed to minimize the negative impacts of new property uses on the surrounding community. So obviously we have the Good Neighbor Guidelines associated with a lot of the industrial development. Industrial development sometimes is very unique in nature and unfortunately sometimes it's adjacent to residential and we want to make sure that whenever we have a project that's adjacent to residential that a lot of the things that are maybe not necessarily covered under the zoning code that are hopefully addressed through those guidelines so that we can accommodate development but accommodate it in a hopefully responsible fashion so as to reduce any impacts on any residents or members of the community. So as I indicated before, the general plan is the official long-term plan for the future development of the city. California law does require that every city adopt a general plan for long-term development. And we have a general plan, and each general plan throughout the state has a wide variety of chapters, and those chapters are referred to as elements. And there's certain elements that are required, and then there's certain elements that a city will adopt in order to account for any unique characteristics within that community. So an example of some of the elements that we have here in the city of Paris includes the land use, the circulation, housing, safety and environmental justice, healthy community, as well as the conservation, noise, and open space elements. And each of those elements acts almost as a chapter of the entire general plan and it has certain goals and objectives that are desired whenever we're reviewing future development. So a lot of times you'll see a development project come before you and then we have to make certain findings to show that the project that's coming before you is consistent with this underlying document. So as I indicated one of the other documents is a specific plan. So the specific plan is a detailed planning document that implements the vision of the general plan, but it implements it for a very defined geographical area. Oftentimes there's also a very unique set of development standards or land use regulations that are unique to that area. Again, downtown is a good example of something that typically downtown development is unique in nature, it's different, they allow higher story development, mixed use, uses that you wouldn't necessarily see in another portion of the city. But that would be appropriate given the form and the character of the surrounding neighborhood. But the purpose of the specific plans is to guide future growth and development, to also to establish a certain vision for that specific area or the neighborhood and to providing more detailed and appropriate set of development standards that are beyond simply what the zoning code incorporates. Now the zoning code is again the primary tool that planners have on a day-to-day basis to implement the vision of the general plan. It has a wide variety of standards including things like setbacks, height regulations, density requirements for things like residential, just a wide variety of requirements for development. Some of the common applications that have to comply with this obviously include things like conditional use permits, development plan reviews, variances, and subdivision maps. And just for the benefit of the members of the Commission as well as the public, a conditional use permit is an approval process, an application for uses that need some level of unique review to ensure that the that there's some level of land use compatibility between the proposed project and the surrounding neighborhood. And the purpose of this is to make sure that we can accommodate the development while hopefully accounting for any impacts to the surrounding neighborhood. The two big ones that kind of, you'll see on a day-to-day basis whenever you're reviewing an application or things like noise and traffic. A lot of people are usually impacted by that. So whenever something's coming into an area, we look at those things to make sure that the neighborhood's going to be able to accommodate the proposed development. A development plan review, similar to a condition of use permit, but specifically a development plan review, reviews the form and the specific development associated with the application. So an example of that would be somebody comes in with a, let's say a new restaurant, and let's say the new restaurant involves a new restaurant with an existing building, that would typically only require a use permit, if anything. However, if they're coming in with the new restaurant and they're proposing new development of a building, such as like what you guys saw a few months ago with the Dutch Brothers, new buildings, that's being proposed in order to accommodate that new project, then that would require a development plan review for the actual physical building. There's also things like variances. So variance is a unique application where there's an exception to the code. Somebody's requesting deviation from a zoning code standard due to a unique physical limitation associated with the property. So you may have an oddly shaped lot or a lot that's abnormally small or narrow that warrants some type of unique consideration on behalf of the Planning Commission. And so in those cases, you may be able to make certain findings to approve a standard that deviates from the conventional code requirements. There's also subdivision map. Typically the two common maps that Commission will see is a tentative parcel map, as well as a tentative track map. Typically the tentative track map specifically for residential, tentative parcel map can be applied to residential for subdivision of four or less, or commercial development. Now when it comes to residential zoning, we basically have three types of residential zoning, single family, multi-family, and mobile home, the mobile home zone, which is the R4 district. The single family varies from R6000 to R20000 and basically these are all the zones where single family residential development is allowed and where the size of the lot depends on the zone. So obviously the square footage of the lot would vary if it's in the R6000 the minimum lot area for the square footage of the lot would have to be a minimum of 6,000. If it was in the R20, they could go up to, they would have to be a minimum of 20,000 square feet. So the number that you see there corresponds with the square footage associated with the minimum lot size. There's also multifamily zones. Multifamily zones obviously are meant for higher density residential, things like apartments and other type of more moderate density development. And the MFR 14 allows a minimum of, Excuse me, a maximum of 14 units to the acre. The MFR 22 allows up to 22 units to the acre. And so that's for multifamily developments, which usually meant more for apartments or something that's higher density than residential. And then we have the R4 district, which is a zone for the mobile home parks that we have here throughout the city. Some examples on the left hand side, you have two images of two single family residences that are common, what we see here throughout the city. In the middle, you'll actually see a more attached kind of townhome condominium style development where you have attached kind of single family, but attached product. That's kind of what you'd see in the more kind of moderate densities. And then you have on the right hand side, apartment style buildings, which is more of a high density residential development, the two images on the right hand side. We also have non-residential zoning, which includes commercial, office, and industrial zones. The commercial includes the commercial neighborhood and the commercial community. The commercial neighborhood zone is something that's for limited scale commercial uses adjacent to residential areas, which serve the day to day shopping needs of the local residents. while the commercial community zone is more for retail and professional office, as well as service-oriented businesses, which serve the entire city. For the office zone, we have the PO zone, which is the professional office zoning district, and this is more, this is intended more for professional and administrative offices, generally located along main arterial roadways for convenient automobile access. And there's also the industrial zones, which we have the business park, the light industrial, as well as the general industrial. And the business park includes uses such as professional offices, some storage, light manufacturing, wholesaling, retail, auto dealerships, as well as service commercial activities. Light industrial includes things like manufacturing, research, warehouse and distribution, assembly of non-hazardous products and materials, and retail related to manufacturing. And then the general industrial zone is kind of the more intensive zoning classification, which allows manufacturing and non-manufacturing uses from warehouses and distribution facilities to industrial activities, as well as emergency shelters. And again, just images on the left-hand side you're seeing A COUPLE OF COMMERCIAL SHOPPING CENTERS AND THEN THE MIDDLE ROW SHOWS THE PROFESSIONAL OFFICE USES THAT TYPICALLY YOU WOULD SEE IN THE P.O. ZONE AND THEN ALONG THE RIGHT HAND SIDE THE TWO IMAGES REFLECT SOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT THAT WE TYPICALLY GET HERE THROUGHOUT THE CITY. CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT IS VERY INTERESTING. We usually, I think this is the one thing that causes the most confusion for a lot of people. A lot of the residents that come in really don't understand it. And I know that it's one of the items that for the average person who doesn't do this for a living, it can be very confusing. So obviously there's a wide variety of information here, but I'm going to try to explain it as simply as possible. So the environmental review that we do here in the city is based on the California Environmental Quality Act, which is state legislation that requires cities to undertake for specific projects. So the first thing to keep in mind is whenever a project comes into the city, we make a determination on whether it's a discretionary application or not. we do that by evaluating the proposal if it's a discretionary application such as a conditional use permit then at that point in time that those types of projects are subject to CEQA depending on whether on the nature of that it's possible that a project like that even though it's subject to CEQA it may be exempt depending on the nature of the proposal If it is exempt, typically it'll fit under one of two categories. It'll typically fit under a either categorical or a statutory exemption. It's important for us, but for the average person, what that means is that if the project meets certain requirements from the law, it's allowed to be exempted from any further environmental review process. If it does not fit under those categories, then at that point we have to do environmental review. And typically the environmental review process, once we make a determination that a project is not exempt, Number one, it is subject to CEQA. Number two, it doesn't qualify for one of the exemptions. The next step is to do what we refer to as an initial study. That initial study is a cursory review of the project from an environmental standpoint, and we review it for a wide variety of disciplines. And as part of that, what we're basically trying to do is we're trying to determine whether the project is going to create any significant impacts. If there are none, then the project qualifies for what's referred to as a negative declaration. The negative declaration is basically a document stating that we reviewed it and we made a determination that no significant impacts will occur. If there's a potential for impacts but they can be mitigated, then we would require a mitigated negative declaration. But basically that's it. That's a level of environmental review that allows you to mitigate projects so that you can still process it through an MND. If there's going to be significant impacts that cannot be mitigated to a level that is less than significant, and at that point you're looking at what's referred to as an EIR, an environmental impact report, which is a very thorough environmental review process. The purpose of that is not to discourage development or anything, but it's a process to provide information to the public. The purpose of it is to provide, again, a wide report to the public for review, where we outline all of the impacts that are associated with the project, so that the decision makers can make a determination on how they want to handle that, whether they want to move forward with the project or not. Oftentimes, this also involves the review and the subsequent reviews of a wide variety of technical studies, including air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, biological, cultural, hydrology, noise traffic, as well as VMT. So it's a very thorough process. It can take a long time, several months. It's just something to keep in mind as part of the environmental review process. And then one of the things that we wanted to kind of cover is kind of the process of how development gets reviewed. So typically, when somebody comes in over the counter, we'll provide some level of feedback, the use that they're proposing, whether the development is allowed or not, and what the main development regulations, the main development regulations that are going to impact the project. Once an applicant does kind of an initial review of whether their projects are going to be feasible, the first step is really what's referred to here as phase one, which is submitting of the development application. So somebody would come in, submit a formal application along with plans, pay the associated fees, And that first step would allow us to move forward to step two, which is staff review. We would review the project to make sure that they've submitted everything that's required. Oftentimes, they'll submit partial submittals. We'll say, hey, we'll provide a comment letter indicating you're missing some additional information. Please provide X, Y, and Z. and we'll also route it to outside agencies. So typically the city will review it and then we'll route to outside agencies such as EMWD or a lot of the utility providers. They'll provide comments and what we'll do is we'll prepare a package and we'll send it over to the applicant indicating either, hey, you have outstanding items or everything's good, we're ready to move forward. Once everything's ready to move forward and everything's been addressed, we move forward to step three which is scheduling for public hearing. And during the public hearing, the projects come obviously before the planning commission and sometimes even the city council for consideration. And as part of that, the planning commission either approves the application or makes a formal recommendation to the city council. And if need be, the project goes to council for consideration. After that, the last step is kind of the post-approval process, which is we issue the approval letter, we send it to the applicant, and the applicant is able to move forward with the next step in the process, which is actually getting formal building and grading permits from building and safety and engineering in order to begin the construction process. Obviously, there's a review process that goes along with that, but it allows them to move forward in the process in order to secure the building permits. And typically, by the time you see construction on the site, people think that that's the beginning, especially the residents that we get calls. That's typically the end of the process. By the time the construction starts, it almost means that the project is almost over, basically, a lot of the time, because there's such a, sometimes one, two, three years of planning that goes in before any construction on the site occurs. Now that I work and I do this, I sometimes look at construction and I go, oh, this thing's gonna be ready to go here in the next six months. So it's very interesting that the construction process usually occurs relatively quickly. I think we've seen it with something like the Target, which is nearing development. And we know, as the Planning Commission knows, there's a lot that goes into it in order to get to the project to the point where you can see it. But obviously it's a very, as a planner you take a tremendous amount of professional satisfaction from seeing a project, from shepherding through the process and getting it to sort of the finish line. That really concludes the presentation. I'll be happy to take any questions or commentary that the commission may have pertaining to this. One thing to keep in mind is that the decisions that we make today define the future of the city and beyond. We typically try to balance the needs of the community, obviously, whether it's development, residents, members of the business community, in order to have a good, sound, solid, balanced community. And planning is not just about buildings. It's about the people who live, work, and thrive within them. So obviously, we try to take all those elements into consideration. And obviously, the Planning Commission does as well. And that basically concludes my presentations. I'll be happy to respond to any questions that anyone may have pertaining to this item. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you.

Go for it. I have a few. I appreciate the presentation, Rafa. I have one question in the environmental review section. So it says that their projects can be exempt from CEQA, right? What classifies an exemption? Like what would qualify a project from exemption? And how does it go from categorical or statutory exemption?

Typically, the statutory are very specific types of projects. I can outline them for you. There's multiple classes. We really don't, even though you can use them, to be honest, professionally, I've probably used a handful of them. They're not as common. Categorical, we use them all day, every day. So I'll give you a simple one of a categorical exemption, a very specific one. If somebody wanted to come in, let's say, for an alcohol approval for us as part of a restaurant, And let's say that it's a new restaurant with a new alcohol license within an existing building. So it's an existing tenant space that is currently vacant and a new operator wants to go in there. And they want to go in there but they also want the, let's say the alcohol license. That would require an approval by the planning commission. So that application would come before you and on something like that, because it's an existing facility, that's probably one of the simplest exemptions that we can make. The exemption would be a class one and it's referred to as an existing facility. And what that says is that if it's an existing facility with minor remodel, you're allowed to move forward as an exemption. And there's a wide variety of them. There's, for instance, don't hold me to it because I can't memorize all of them, but there's like a class 15 that's an exemption for simple subdivision maps. There's also a class 11, not used often, but it's for like accessory structures. So my point is if it fits one of those categories, then it's allowed to move forward as an exemption. There's also the 332, or it's a Class 32 exemption, which is one of the more popular ones. That's an infill exemption. If you meet certain requirements, even though there may be new development, you're allowed to move forward with an exemption if you meet certain requirements with regards to the size of the lot and the amount of development. And you have to demonstrate that there's not going to be any impacts when it comes to things like infrastructure, utilities, traffic, and noise.

Got you. And the planner that's assigned to this project is the one that determines whether... Correct.

Okay. So typically, it's... To be honest, it can be very nerve-wracking. I've worked in plenty of cities where sometimes the planners, they get nervous because they have to make an exemption determination. And the concern is... What if I make the determination and what if somebody doesn't agree with it? So that's where experience and you relying on sort of your professional skillset and feeling comfortable with it. I've been called out, not necessarily in this city, but in other places in a public forum after making an exemption and people saying, we don't agree, we don't agree, lawyers showing up, everything. And so there's a lot of pressure with regards sometimes to making those exemption determinations, but you rely on your professional expertise. A lot of times there's no right or wrong. There's just perspective. And so some people believe that, hey, it doesn't meet the intent of the law. Some people may believe that it does or some people may believe that it doesn't. It really depends on who it's coming from. Obviously, sometimes there's people who are maybe they just don't want the development. I've had people who come in because they didn't like the neighbor and the neighbor's coming in with a project. He had a party last week, he didn't invite me. There's something, I've had that, where somebody came in to contest a project because he didn't like the neighbor. So sometimes we take ourselves out of that. Again, we try to make an informed decision based on the facts of the case. If it meets the intent, we'll be happy to make the exemption, and if it does not, we guide him through the process of going through the environmental review.

Awesome. All right, thank you so much.

Can I add a couple points to piggyback on what Rafael said, if that's okay? One distinction between categorical and statutory exemptions is categorical exemptions, which is like when you hear class one, class two, all the way through class 32, what Rafael was talking about, those are subject to exceptions. There are five different exceptions, including one is unusual circumstances that apply to all categorical exemptions. the categorical exemption criteria are listed in the CEQA guidelines. And if you meet the guidelines, the criteria in that particular guideline, like 15301, you are initially, you fall within the categorical exemption. But then if any of the exceptions apply, it removes that and kills the categorical exemption. as opposed to the statutory exemption is when another area of California law, some specific statute says this type of project or projects meeting these criteria is exempt. When it's a statutory exemption, it's very powerful because it's not subject to any exceptions, it's not subject to any appeal, anything like that, it's done. And additionally, I wanted to point out that although staff makes the initial call as to whether a project is exempt, or whether to go through the initial study and to prepare the CEQA document. Ultimately, if planning commission is the approval authority for the project, planning commission has the responsibility ultimately for determining the CEQA disposition as well. Similarly, if it's something that goes to city council, if it's a city council project, city council is the final say on the CEQA as well. So if staff initially determines a project qualifies for an exemption, and it's a project that's subject to Planning Commissioner City Council approval. When it gets to Planning Commissioner City Council, you don't just automatically say staff determine that and that's a done deal. That's their recommendation to you, but ultimately it's your call. The final say goes with the decision-making body on the project.

I can see Raphael is getting ready to do a presentation for League of Cities. You're saying zoning and planning is also for the building, but it's also for the built environment and culture of the city. Just a statement. Planning is not just for a building, but it's for the built environment and for the culture and environment of the city.

I think you should go to the California cities with this. This is something that is super detailed, very clear. I love the images go directly with what is there. I like the timelines. I'm very visual, so I really appreciate the images. So I really think this is something that you need to present. I think the only thing that I wanted to add, and I know you can't go into too much detail because then when you go on one Branch walk, you have to go on a million. But I did want to add that ad hoc is really also a very important piece. Like after we go through staff, there are times where staff recommends let's do ad hoc, or there's times where the developer says, can we go through ad hoc just to kind of get a little bit of feedback? So I think that is the, not because I'm in ad hoc, do I want to add that? I do think that's like a little component in there that, It has sometimes second or third layers of eyes. But I love the presentation.

I love the detail. The city ultimately is the last determination. So be determined. that this is the Mitigate Naked Declaration, or whatever it means. And we have Michael Brown, who's really good, too. But we go through all this process and all that, and the city makes the determination, not the state, we do. And I think they need to understand that the city's the last say, as they say.

All right. We would act as the lead agency, so we would be making the determination, typically staff. And then if there's any questions, we would be working, obviously, with the legal counsel. And then, obviously, as you indicated, the planning commission is just an extension of the city. You guys would make the final call on whether you agree with that or not.

I'm just clarifying things and not picking on Stan.

I think to clarify in regards to the decision-making authority, If a project only has, what Rafael was discussing, the differences between quasi-judicial actions and legislative actions, if the project only has quasi-judicial actions, such as a variance, conditional use permit, development plan review, that's going to be a planning commission. The planning commission is the primary decision-making body on behalf of the city. And so, therefore, the CEQA judgment would also be made by the planning commission in that case. Of course, when the planning commission is the approval authority, it can be appealed to the city council. But if there's no appeal, then it's a final decision of the Planning Commission. It's not a recommendation. If there's a legislative action involved, then all of the approvals are made under the Paris Municipal Code, are made to be city council being the primary decision-making body. And so at that point, Planning Commission would just be making a recommendation on everything to the council, and that would include the CEQA, and the council would be the final decision-maker on the CEQA as well as all of the... all of the entitlements, and then the legislative actions. And then, yeah, I mean, I guess the lead agency concept is something that Raphael touched on, and pretty much any time you see a project that's coming to the city for approval, the city is going to be the lead agency. But there is a term of art in CEQA of the lead agency, and that's going to determine, when you determine that the city is the lead agency, then that means the city is the one with the CEQA decision-making authority. But in some cases, there could be a project, for example, that crosses multiple jurisdictions. Maybe it's a pipeline or something that goes across And in that case, you'd have to figure out who the lead agency is. And even though the city may have, it may go in part through the city, the city may have some purview over it. They may not necessarily be the lead agency. But in all ordinary situations with these development projects that are located in the city, the city is the lead agency.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we understand. Help me. There was a term, and it's been many years, that was used in terms of denial of any sequent environmental impact. Was it material standing or just you'd have to have standing? Not just I disagree with the fact that it's CEQA and just because I disagree with it, you had to have, was the word standing or was it material standing? What was that term?

Well, there is a term in court, like if someone wants to file a lawsuit to challenge a certain decision, they would need to have standing to file the lawsuit. So yeah, there's a judicial term in that sense, which is basically a certain level of, being personally affected by the wrong that you're alleging. You're trying to say, oh, something was done wrong. Well, it was done wrong to me. So that's how I have standing, because it was done wrong to me. In some cases, if it's a wrong that was done to someone else, then I don't have standing to sue over that.

So that's the concept of standing, is that it has to be something that's... As it relates to EIRs or CEQAs, is that something that you'd have to have? Because most do not have personal standing.

No, I believe in the CEQA context, like if the city... approves a development project and makes a certain CEQA determination, say they determine that the project is exempt from CEQA. I think pretty much any member of the public would have standing to challenge that CEQA determination. So different laws, and I don't know exactly what it is for CEQA, but different laws will dictate different conclusions when it comes to standing. Like there's a concept of taxpayer standing. In some cases, you have to be a taxpayer into the government in order to challenge something that the government does. Different laws have different rules around standing. There are certain general concepts. But I think when it comes to approval of a development project and a CEQA determination that's made in connection with that, I think pretty much any member of the public or city resident could probably file a lawsuit to challenge that CEQA determination. And that's why you see environmental advocacy groups that come in And it's not their project, obviously, but they come in and they can challenge the CEQA determination.

Okay, so any member of the public, and that doesn't have to be a resident.

Generally, I don't think it would be limited to city residents, no. Okay, okay.

You get a lot of that, okay. And I promise I'll stop because I'm being really good today, believe it or not. We mentioned, yeah, I'm really being good today. Because I guess I got food to eat. The good neighbor policy, and I use the term good in quotes, right? Yeah, we talked about a good neighbor policy, but I think also it doesn't just apply to developers and developers, it talks about other cities. There's certain cities that we, I'm gonna mention Menifee, or some other cities where we have a good neighbor policy, But it's also be respecting their residents or whether it's Marietta or whatever adjoining cities. So we always hear the good neighbor policy, but it's also something directed at other cities as well, which is mentioned, you know, because we just say good neighbor policy. Yeah, but there's other cities, too. So we have Ethanack Road, you know, and they have residents there and we have industrial residents. you would want to make sure that they understand that they have the same, can come to the meetings, they can object to certain things. Even though they're not residents of the city of Paris, as part of the good neighbor policy, I would think we're just making sure that we're respecting the fact that we're having housing or they have industrial and we have residential. Wouldn't that be part of the consideration when you're talking about good neighbor policy?

I think there's a misunderstanding. The reference was to the good neighbor guidelines, which different cities adopted their own Good Neighbor Guidelines. The Good Neighbor Guidelines that we have here in the City of Paris, adopted by the City of Paris, pertain to the City of Paris. It would not be applicable to the City of Menifee or any other jurisdiction. And likewise, the Good Neighbor Guidelines adopted by other jurisdictions would not apply here to the City of Paris.

Okay, so when we were doing things in Menope, it was challenging us.

And the good neighbor guidelines pertain to industrial development. Yeah. And they're specific to the city of Paris.

The idea is we're requiring industrial developers to be good neighbors to come in. If they're building a warehouse project, they're going to respect their neighbors by having buffering between their site and the residences next door. They're going to have trees to buffer. They're going to have a green belt buffering, that kind of thing. It's intended to require, as recommended guidelines, to encourage industrial developers to be good neighbors to their neighbors. It's not about Paris being a good neighbor to its neighboring cities.

No, no. I mean, in terms of development like that, if you had industrial warehousing across the street residential, the city, Trumbull Road being one of those, we may have a policy, but we not respect that city. in terms of letting them know, and developers would say, okay, when they do SQL or something, we see people from MNIFI coming here, and I'm just mentioning MNIFI, they're the closest, and sitting in our meetings and saying, I don't object, I object, so why?

Because it's unallowed in the zone. Typically, we won't even, when I do this as a... Yes, it would be a separate application.

To add one more thing to that. I apologize for that.

But it's a mechanism and a tool that we have used over and over again, and it has been very effective.

Yeah, we just elevated the ad hoc committee. Come back down, come back down.

Let me write this out. But I do think it's great because I feel like we are the voice for the community. So it's not that we're, I don't feel like I'm the bad guy. I feel like I am the voice of reason sometimes. And I appreciate that. So I really like that our city uses ad hoc to. I did also want to add to that because the