Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

December 10th meeting of the Rancho Cordova Planning Commission to order. And if I can get the clerk to make the announcement on the video recording. And I'm just going to call on you to make all the announcements.

Call roll first and then I will do the video announcement.

All right.

Commissioner Debra Pauly.

Present.

Commissioner Hewitt.

Here.

Vice Chair Malden. Here. Commissioner Remond. Here. Commissioner Stoss. Here. Commissioner Stevenson.

Here.

Chair Frechette.

Here.

Tonight's meeting will be recorded via Zoom and can be viewed on the city's website within 48 hours of adjournment of this meeting.

Okay. And with that, this is going to be my last time as chair of the planning commission. So I am going to go ahead and lead the pledge because I'm kind of a stickler for the proper etiquette on that. I'm going to demonstrate that tonight. So ladies and gentlemen, would you please join me in the pledge of allegiance? Salute. Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag. of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All righty. I guess we have a couple of presentations. I'm supposed to make those?

So it is just recognition of you, Chair Frechette, your birthday.

I wasn't going to mention me.

16th, as well as Commissioner Raymond on December 17th.

So, but Commissioner Raymond, we'd like to wish you a very happy birthday.

Thank you. And right back at you with your very happy birthday. Okay.

little uncomfortable calling attention to myself. So we'll see how about that. With that, we're going to move on to public comment.

I will go ahead and read that. Members of the public wishing to address the Planning Commission for any matter not on the agenda may do so at this time by completing and submitting a speaker card to the Planning Commission clerk. For items on the agenda, speakers will be called by the chair at the point on the agenda when the item will be heard. Speakers are encouraged to keep comments to three minutes or less and to state name and community of residence. Under the provisions of the California Government Code, the Planning Commission is prohibited from discussing or taking immediate action on any item not on the agenda unless it can be demonstrated to be of an emergency nature or the need to take immediate action arose after the posting of the agenda.

Okay. And with that, do we have any public comment?

We do not have any speaker cards for our general public comment period.

All righty. Very good. Then moving on to, I guess I need to close the public comment period, moving on to the consent calendar.

Would you like me to read that?

Yes, please.

Consent calendar items consist of matters deemed routine and non-controversial by staff. Unless a member of the planning commission wishes to pull an item for individual consideration, all items will be approved by one motion.

Alrighty, are there any commissioners that want to pull anything? And Arlene, this is, I don't have my packet in front of me. Rio Del Oro is on the- That would be on the consent public hearing. That's the next one, Chair. Okay, thank you. Okay, with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar.

First, we need to check for public comment.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Which I have no speaker cards for this.

Thank you. Close the public comment period. I can't wait to be done with this job. And with that, I will entertain a motion. I'll second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Commissioner Deborah Pauley?

Yes.

Commissioner Huynh?

Aye.

Vice Chair Molden? Yes. Commissioner Raymond? Aye. Commissioner Stoss? Aye. Commissioner Stevenson?

Aye.

And Chair Frechette?

Aye.

Motion passes with a 7-0 vote.

Okay. Now we go to the consent public hearing. And I guess.

I can read that interest in it. Consent public hearing items consists of matters deemed routine and non-controversial by staff. Unless a member of the planning commission wishes to pull an item for individual consideration, all items will be approved by one motion.

All right. Is there anybody who wishes to pull an item? I am going to pull the Rio Del Oro.

So, Chair, what we can do is we can go ahead and take 6.1 under the consent public hearing and vote on that one. And then we can take 6.2 separately after you pull it.

Very good.

We need to make sure to open the public hearing as well.

Yeah. So open the public hearing. And do we have any speaker cards for that?

I have no speaker cards for our consent public hearing items.

All righty. With that, I'm going to close the public. Yeah, I still close the public hearing now. And I will entertain a motion for 6.1. I'll move it.

Second? Second.

And can we clarify the motion?

Do we need to? OK. I move to approve the recommendation that City Council adopted the ordinance approving the second amendment to the development agreement and resolution approving the amendment to the conditions of approval between the City of Rancho Cordova and Lowell Brothers LLC relative to the Douglas 103 project.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Are we good to go, Palmer? Yes. Thank you. Kelly, if you would please.

Yes. Commissioner Debra Polly?

Yes.

Commissioner Huynh?

Aye.

Vice Chair Molden? Yes. Commissioner Raymond? Aye. Commissioner Stoss? Aye. Commissioner Stevenson?

Aye.

Chair Frechette?

Aye.

Motion passes with a 7-0 vote.

All righty. Moving on to 6.2 then. Arlene, how do we handle this?

You can call for, I think you're the one who wanted to bring it up. And if you want to, Chance Finley-Ross has a presentation if you'd like him to give it. But if you just want to give a direct comment or questions to the applicant, the applicant is also here from Elliott Homes.

Okay. I think I'll just, Chance, I don't think we need to have you go through that whole presentation again. I do want to make a comment, and I wouldn't mind addressing the representative from Elliott on that. The reason I am pulling this is because we are approving something that allows for 18-foot driveways. And I understand that that is what is specified and that is allowed in the subdivision under the current planning. But I have serious concerns, as I have voiced them in the past, that when we're making driveways that short, we are building communities that don't become walkable because vehicles start blocking sidewalks. I have serious concerns that we are building communities that will not age well when we have sidewalks that short. Arguably, this is a housing product, and Elliott builds an excellent housing product, but this is a housing product that is intended for a socially economic group that tends to have a lot of tradespeople in it, and those people tend to drive large pickup trucks or service vans, and they will not fit in an 18-foot driveway, leaving them nowhere to park other than on the street or into their driveway, butting out into the pedestrian walkways. And I just fear that if we continue down that path, we're building a community that 50 years from now, people are going to say, what was that planning commission thinking when they approved this? And I understand that Elliot is doing what has been pre-approved, but it doesn't mean you have to do that. And I am not comfortable approving something with an 18-foot driveway. I'll leave it at that. Anybody else have a comment?

Chair, did you want the applicant to respond?

If the applicant would like to respond, I'd be more than happy to give you time to respond to that.

Hello, everyone.

Appreciate it, Mr. Chairman. I'm Tom Gimette. I'm the Director of Construction for Elliott Homes and appreciate the comment, for sure. That's something that it is in the standards, you're right, that it is 18 feet. And that does give us some flexibility on difficult lots. That's the only reason that it's in there. Typically, that's something at Elliott Homes that's not our standard either, that we like to always go to 20 feet. That's our intention here. But what it does is it gives us flexibility when you look down that street alignment. if you have a difficult lot. And again, I don't expect that on this project. These are large lots, 75 by 110, that we shouldn't have an issue like that on this one, but it does give us flexibility if we in fact have a difficult lot and we want to stagger our homes, which is what we do consistently. You know how we build. You know, we don't want to look down a streetscape and have every house starting at 20 feet or 18 feet, anything. We want to have a stagger. We want to have that streetscape look nice and presentable to the people who are living there. So it gives us that flexibility if we have a difficult lot where we have to do that. Don't anticipate it here. And again, it's our intent is to always try to be at 20 feet. So I appreciate your comment, but that's the only reason that is designed that way. And I believe was approved that way.

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. With that, there's no further comments or questions from the commission. I guess we will entertain a motion to approve 6.2.

I'll make a motion to approve 6.2.

Okay. And do I have a second?

I'll second.

All righty. Kelly.

Commissioner Debra Polly.

Yes.

Commissioner Huynh.

Nay.

Vice Chair Molden. Yes. Commissioner Raymond. Aye. Commissioner Stoss. Aye. Commissioner Stevenson.

Aye.

And Chair Frechette. No. Motion passes with a 5-2 vote.

All righty. Thank you. Moving on to seven, public hearing items. I believe there are no public hearing items.

Correct.

And I don't need to open for that. So moving on to number eight, commission comments, ideas, and questions. Do any of the commissioners have anything you wish to share, ask, or comment on?

I'll go. As this being my first year on the Planning Commission, I just want to say thank you to my fellow commissioners for a lot of the support and help, especially to Arlene. I feel like I have learned a lot this year and Lee, I think you've been a great, you know, as much as you always are very self-deprecating, I think you've been a great chair for us, and I'm very grateful, and I've learned a lot, and you've kept it very entertaining as well, so thank you for that, but I just, more than anything, this year for me has been a lot of growth, and I'm just very grateful to have people beside me who not only want to help me grow, but also for us to be stronger together, so thank you, and I'm just really excited for the Just ending this year on a good note.

Yeah, Chair Frechette, you set such a high bar for everything that you do. So I appreciate that. I also want to acknowledge the tree lighting event and what a wonderful job everyone did at that event. Particularly the firework show was just, like I said, magical. It was just magical. So kudos to the Cordova Community Council and you for your work on that. And I want to remind everyone that the PAL holiday run is Saturday. So come out and freeze with the rest of us. And a shout out to the city staff, too, for the year and the work that you put in. We just appreciate you so much for what you do.

Thanks. Well, 2025 has been quite a year. A lot of great things going on in our city, and we expect to see that continue into 2026. I'm very excited about that. what has happened and what's to come. And to all my fellow commissioners, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to sit up here with all of you, and particularly you, Lee. I got a chance to get to know you quite a bit during our little construction thing out at the mineshaft, and that was really quite a pleasure. I learned a lot from you. And thank you for that. I've really, I'm really excited about 2026 and the things to come to our city.

Yeah, as everybody said, it's an excitement year coming up 2026. I see Rancho Cordova growing fast, and a lot of work for planning commission coming up. I see a lot of work. And I enjoy all working with you guys. All the seniors of Rancho Cordova and learning the history of Rancho Cordova past couple of years. So thank you very much.

Happy holidays.

Yes, thank you, Chairman, Vice Chair, Commissioners. It's been a great year. I've learned a lot. Very proud to represent our city and keep doing good works that we're doing out in the community. So looking forward to 2026 and the new year.

I guess I'm going to keep it a little businessy. I'm excited for our general plan update. And I think that's going to be the opportunity we have to change things like 18 feet driveways and improvements to public works. So I'm excited about that because that doesn't happen very often. So it's every 20 years. So we have a lot of public here tonight, which is unusual. So make sure your voices are heard. Go to the farmer's market. There's always somebody there. Make sure you get your voice out there. That's how we all got here. That's how we make changes. So I'm super excited about that. I love where our community is going and growing. I thought it was interesting this week on the news they were talking about AI technology coming into it. And the biggest hub is out by Washington, D.C., somewhere in Virginia. And I was excited to know that Rancho is going to have a lot of AI, too, and we're going to grow and prosper. They didn't mention that on the news, but it's kind of cool that we're growing that way. And I am just happy with the improvements that Ellie and I have seen in our neighborhood in the older part of Rancho this year. And we can't wait to keep making Rancho grow and improve and wish a very happy new year. And thank you, Lee, for your job, because I know personally it's not easy. I was happy to hand the realm to you and now off to Tegan. So thank you and Merry Christmas, everybody.

And I'll wrap it up with some comments. First off, um, I feel very blessed that we live in a wonderful home over in Stone Creek, an Elliott home that we moved into in July. I think we moved in in July of 2003. I mean, we were in the first section that opened. And it has been a really great neighborhood. It has aged well. And Elliott does do a a great product. But as most of my fellow commissioners also know that this year I've been harping every time The plan comes up with driveways that are below 20 feet. I say something about it because I am very worried. We have an awesome responsibility here to be asking ourselves every time we approve something or disapprove something, what would this look like? What will it look like in the year 2075? And so I feel that it's important to... speak up when you don't like something even though if it's coming from somebody from a builder that you actually really like but um and i will continue to do that uh now i have confidence that the rest of my planning commissioners will do the same think the same i'm actually very very proud to be on this commission with this group of people um i can tell the public that Every single member that sits up here behind the desk truly has the best interest of Rancho Cordova, its community, its citizens, and its businesses at heart. And I'm very proud to be a part of a commission that actually takes their business seriously, doesn't interject politics into that because we're not supposed to be a political body. We're supposed to be a working body. So it's really great. And throughout the year, a couple times, I have let staff know when I'm not happy with things, but I've also tried to let staff know when I am happy. We have a wonderful staff. They support us just superbly. And once again, for the citizens out there, you should know that you're living in a city where you have a city staff that truly cares about the citizens and about the community that they serve and they do their utmost to do the best that they can for the community. And once again, it's a pleasure to work, serve on a commission like this with a city staff that truly has the best interests of the entire city at heart. And I can't say that enough, that I'm very appreciative of our staff. They are all superb, they're excellent. And when you run into them on the street, thank them because they deserve that. They do really good work. With that, Tegan, I am so for you. As most of you know, I'm involved in a lot of things in the community, but my favorite place to be is kind of to be behind the scenes. And I am so looking forward to not having to sit here in the chair, chairman's chair. Next year, I'm sure you will do a fabulous job at it. I look forward to you sitting here and not me. With that, Arlene, would you like to wrap this up?

Sure. Thank you so much, Chair. Appreciate all the kind words that you always give to staff. And we really look forward to supporting the Planning Commission at every meeting and throughout the year. Just a couple of things to remind everyone and even the public who are here today. Just a couple of holiday things going on tomorrow is the Lincoln Village Holiday Parade. If you're interested in that, the PAL holiday run is happening on Saturday morning. And also just an FYI to everyone, city will be closed from December 22nd to December 26th. So if you are needing to do something at the city, I would try to do it as soon as possible because we will be closed during the week of Christmas. And with that, I just want to let everybody know that I hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and have a good break with your families. And I hope it's a good kind of winter time just to rest and be with each other. So thank you.

All right. With that, I will wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and joyous holiday season. And I'm calling this meeting of the Rancho Cordova Planning Commission to a close.