Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. It is now 04:00. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Redlands Planning Commission meeting for 07/22/2025. We do have a quorum present. Are there any public comments on matters not on today's agenda? Seeing none, we will move on to item number two, presentations. We have none. Item number three, consent calendar, which is the meeting minutes of 04/22/2025, 05/27/2025, and 06/24/2025. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I'd actually like to request a revision to the June 24 minutes if possible. Okay. My comment it's related to the prologistix item and I think the commission gave some pretty thoughtful comments, closing deliberations and I think I'd like to see that reflected a little bit more clearly in the minutes, if we could.

Okay. Mr. DeSatin, would you like Ms. Eliot to email you or do you need to do it now or

Yeah. Why don't we pull those minutes off and we'll continue them. We'll put them on a future agenda. So just approve the other two tonight and we'll revise them and bring them back.

Mr. Renzi? Yeah, it also showed five zero and I clearly was a no vote on the prologis.

Noted. We'll fix that. Thank you.

Commissioner Stanson?

Oh,

okay. So we are pulling I'm sorry, June 24? Yes. Okay. So did you want to make a motion and amend that

sure so I'll move that we approve the minutes of the prior two meetings and then amend the minutes from the June 24

meeting second

Any other further discussion? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. We will move on to item number four, old business. We have none. Item number five, new business. 5a. Item 5a is a request for a determination of a general pan conformity for street vacation number one ninety seven, a proposal to vacate a portion of public right of way located adjacent to 1300 Prospect Drive at the intersection with Ramona Drive. Has any commissioner had any ex parte communications with the applicant on this item seeing none staff presentation by Jasmine Serrato miss Serrato

thank you chair members of the commission This is street vacation number 197, the general plan conformity. The applicant has filed an application to vacate an excess portion of public right of way, approximately 1,200 square feet in size, which is considered a public roadway that belongs to Ramona Drive. The subject portion of right of way is located at the Southeast portion of a property with an existing single family residence at 1300 Prospect Drive. While the area of land in question is public right away, approximately 530 square feet consists of a landscape planter which is maintained by the adjacent property owner and the remaining portion is paved with asphalt. The applicant is requesting the subject portion of Ramona Drive to improve the lot line configurations of 1300 Prospect Drive and to continue to maintain the landscaping portion as well.

This is a street view from 2012 which shows the landscape planter, which has a cut stone curb in relatively good condition and aligns and extends with the southern property line of 1300 Prospect Drive. Although this area is not listed as a priority area for preservation, all existing cut stone curbs and walls are required to be maintained by the adjacent property owner and good repair. If vacated, they will continue to do so. Pursuant to state law, the city may vacate a street, alley, or walkway upon finding supported by substantial evidence that the right of way is no longer needed for vehicular or pedestrian traffic and is unnecessary for present or prospective use. The subject portion of right of way exceeds the width requirements of the existing road and has not been maintained by the city within the past five years.

California government code section 65,402 a requires that prior to considering a vacation or abandonment of any public right away, the planning commission must review the proposal for conformity with the general plan. The 2035 general plan connected city chapter indicates Ramona Drive as local road on figure five dash five roadway classifications. This roadway has been constructed with 18 feet of paving within a 60 foot right of way. Based on the existing conditions and the adjoining land uses, the excess right of way is not necessary for public access. Adjacent owners would continue to have access via Prospect Drive for private use as listed within a recorded stipulation among property owners from 1999.

General plan action five a point three nine insurance road standards are tailored to actual conditions by allowing the city engineer to make necessary adjustments. The proposed street vacation will have no significant effects or potentially significant effects on the environment and qualifies for exemption from environmental review in accordance with section 15,061 b three of the California Act. Staff recommends that the Planning Commission find that street vacation number 197

is in conformity with the city's general plan and if deemed appropriate, the following motion is provided on screen and the applicant project representative is available as well. Thank you.

Are there any questions for staff at this time? Seeing none, is the applicant here to make a presentation or just in case we have questions? Questions? Okay. No PowerPoint? Okay. So this is not a public hearing, but does anyone have any remarks on this item? Seeing none, we will turn it over to the commissioners for deliberation. Oh. I do have speaker slips.

Oh, no. No. No. We're good. Okay. I will turn it over to the commissioners if anyone would like to make a motion or make any comments. Vice Translee.

I'll move that the Planning Commission adopt resolution number seventeen ten and determine that street vacation number 197 for a portion of Ramona Drive located Southwest of Prospect Drive is in conformity with the city's general plan. Second.

Okay. It has been moved by vice chair Inslee and seconded by commissioner Smith to approve resolution I lost it

seventeen

ten to determine the street vacation number one ninety seven would be in conformity with the city's general plan all in favor

aye

any opposed motion carries thank you item five b item five b is consideration of conditional use permit number one one nine nine a request to establish a new religious facility in an existing commercial building and construct site improvements located at 601 Lawton Street. I will now open the public hearing for this item. Has any commissioner had any ex parte communications with the applicant regarding this item? Vice Cherenczu?

Yeah, I spoke with the applicant a couple months ago through a mutual friend just regarding kind of the process of what this looks like, and that was the nature of the conversation.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Staff presentation by Jasmine Zerato.

Ms. Zerato. Welcome All again, right. So the applicant proposes to convert a vacant commercial building into a place of worship with related on-site improvements. The proposal includes interior tenant improvements, architectural modifications to the building facades and minor additions.

The project site is located at 601 Lawton Street North Of West Stewart Avenue. The subject site has a general plan land use designation of Transit Village, which is intended to support future transit oriented development. The establishment of a place of worship provides a local community service to residential neighborhoods without affecting the character of nearby residential neighborhoods. Therefore, the conversion of a commercial building into a place of worship and related site improvements is consistent with intent of the Transit Village land use destination. The project site is also located in the village general district of the Transit Village's specific plan.

Churches, places of worship and related accessory uses such as weddings and memorial services are permitted with the approval of a conditional use permit. Therefore, the conversion of the existing commercial building into a place of worship is consistent with the intent of the VG district. The site proposes a one way drive aisle to circulate the parking area which provides 29 parking spaces. The proposal also includes interior tenant improvements, architectural modifications to an existing 4,327 square foot building, a 132 square foot addition, replacement of an existing eight ninety seven square foot patio to the west of the building and a new three sixty two square foot patio to the east. The proposed ground floor plan incorporates a main meeting hall, a vestibule, electrical room, storage, fellowship hall, a cafe, restrooms, offices and two covered patio areas.

The mezzanine will solely consist of a media room and a storage area. Paradox Church proposes a variety of operational activities including church services, staff offices, member social events, midweek member events such as bible study, prayer meetings, and fellowship gatherings, as well as weddings and memorial services. As detailed in the staff report, these activities will occur at different times throughout different days of the week. However, a condition of approval has been added to the entitlement to limit the operation period from 7AM to 10PM due to the neighboring residential areas. Assembly Bill 2,097 prohibits public agencies from requiring parking for any development projects within a half mile of a public transit station.

This project is point 44 mile away. However, the applicant is proposing to provide 29 parking spaces which exceeds the number of spaces that would otherwise be required in the BG District based on their small assembly area which would only require 17 spaces. Of those 29, there is one that be compact and they are providing an additional 30 square feet of landscaping to meet the Redlands Municipal Code Standards. The project proposes a landscape area total of 6,751 square feet including a combination of landscape planners, lawn areas and walkways. A minimum of 7% is required for all parking lot areas and the applicant is providing a total landscaping of 27%.

The proposed landscaping plan will include new tree additions such as fig tree, brisbane box, mastic tree as well as other plant species that will enhance the visual appearance of the project site which currently has no plants. Here we see the proposed south and west elevations. The roofline varies between flat roofs and pitched elements and the building includes large windows and center door openings to maximize natural light and ventilation. The assembly area will incorporate a smooth stucco finish and the other areas will incorporate horizontal wood siding to allow for contrasting elements. Here we have the north and east elevations.

The proposal meets the building design standards of the transit villages specific plan by enhancing the public realm with active street facing patio space, landscape areas, and pedestrian walkways. Overall, the proposed contemporary architectural elements ensure compatibility with the surrounding development and supports pedestrian friendly improvements. Here is a glimpse of the proposed material board. Additionally, the following renderings have also been provided for a visual representation of the proposed project. This is the southeast elevation, the southwest elevation, and here we have the east and western elevations as well.

The proposed project meets the listed criteria to qualify for exemption from environmental review pursuant to section five three zero one for existing facilities of the CEQA guidelines. Staff recommends the Planning Commission adopt resolution number 1711 to approve conditional use permit number 1199 based on the analysis and findings in the staff report and subject to the attached conditions of approval if deemed appropriate staff has provided the following motion on screen thank you

thank you are there any questions for staff at this time? No? Seeing none, I think the applicant is here. Does anyone have any questions for the applicant?

I have one.

Oh, hang on one second. I'm sorry. I'm asking that. I will open it up for public comment in just a minute. Any questions for the applicant at this time? Okay. So, we will now open it up for public comment, and I am going to start with Jasmine I'm just going to say B and not butcher your last name. Welcome.

Thank you. My name is Jasmine Bilbao. I am the church life associate for Paradox Church representing the church staff. And we would like you all to approve this as we are one of three affirming churches in Redlands hoping to continue our ministry to the local communities where God leads us.

Thank you. Thank you. Ken Schofield?

Hello. My name is Ken Schofield, and I'm on the board of trustees, and I'm standing here in place of our pastor, Craig Craig Hadley, who made a family commitment about a year ago to go to a summer camp, and he is at summer camp. So, we chose to go ahead rather than delay the hearing any further because we believe we have the information to Jasmine. And, basically, we've been in existence almost ten years. We started by hobbling around, and we found this property a few years ago.

At the time, there was no requirement for a COP, but that changed since we've owned the property, and so that's what brought us to a COP process before you. And we just if you have any questions, well, we just ask you to consider that we're looking for getting our church home up and running. We're excited about the fact that we're able to reuse an existing building and not tear something down and rebuild. We're gonna be able to use all the walls that are there and rebuild inside. And that the parking actually has worked out in our favor even though we don't have to produce parking. It's actually turned out to be a pretty nice combination. And as Jasmine said, there are no plants. So we're we're looking to improve that with landscaping.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other public comments on this item? It doesn't matter. Welcome. Hello. Hi.

Good evening or yeah, good evening, commissioners and community members. My name is Corey Romo. I'm the program director for Family Service Association of Redlands. I'm speaking today on behalf of Kyra Stewart, who's our executive director. We're actually at 612 Lawton Street, which is right across from the building that Paradox owns.

And we'd like to offer our support for Paradox Church's proposed use of the property across from our campus as long standing partners, including their fundraising efforts, contributing financially, and their annual participation in our hunger walk and fall food drive, they've demonstrated consistent and meaningful investment in Redlands families. Their expansion plans reflect a shared commitment to improving the well-being of our community and we're confident that their presence will strengthen neighborhood collaboration and support. So we respectfully encourage the Planning Commission to approve their conditional use permit. Thank you.

Thank you. Sir? Welcome. Hello.

Thank you for having me here. My name is Sergio Remedios, and basically, I am a resident in Lawton Street. Well, welcome very much to Family Service Center and the church, which is awesome. But there's one request that I kinda have in mind and always kinda had in mind in the process as this neighborhood grows, there seems to be a lot of people that like to sleep overnight in the streets. Can we maybe think or talk about something about putting overnight parking with permits so we have a little bit under control.

So I in the sense a lot of homeless that live in the cars and also no cars. But this bring more people and more people and it becomes an issue. So I kinda spend a lot of my time picking up their trash, trying to keep it nice, but if there's no law and no control, it's gonna go at hand. Okay? Thank you.

Yes. So I just would like mister Zasatnik after the meeting, he can let you know who to contact for that is not something that is the Planning Commission Commission's purview, but there's definitely someone that you could get in contact with. And could you provide him with that at the end of the meeting?

Awesome.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Anyone else from the audience that would like to speak on this item? Oh, sorry, sir. Come on back up and reintroduce yourself and go right ahead.

Ken Schofield, just forgot that we do have support from our church congregation, and we just rather than have them all parade through here, we just would like them to stand so you can see that, we do have a strong supportive congregation in what we're doing.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. And thank you all for being here. We appreciate it. Okay. Seeing no other, comments from the audience, do we have any on Zoom? Did we receive any written comments?

Yes, we received a total of nine comments all in support of the project.

Thank you. Okay I will now close the public hearing for this item and turn it over to the commissioners for deliberations and if you could bring a motion back on the we'd appreciate it commissioners

Yeah. Chair Vice

Chair Inslee, sorry.

I would just say that in general, I I'm always a big fan of any adaptive reuse of existing buildings in this in the city and finding creative ways to reuse them is is top priority for me. And the fact that it's within the transit village specific plan and adopting some of those form based codes that we have approved and it looks quite beautiful. I'm very much in support of the project.

Thank you. Commissioner Stanson.

I agree. I think everything he said is spot on. I love the use. I love what you're doing with it and I wish you all a lot of luck.

Commissioner Gonzales.

If there's no other comments, I'd like to make a motion. Go

for it.

Okay. Can we put the motion back on the screen?

Our memories aren't that good. Sorry. Especially mine.

I move that the Planning Commission adopt resolution 1711 approving conditional use permit number 1199 based on the findings contained on the staff re in the staff report and subject to the attached conditions of approval.

I'll second. Oh, go ahead.

Oh, it's okay. You were first. It has been moved by commissioner and seconded by commissioner Smith to approve conditional use permit number 1199 for religious facility located at 601 Lawton Street. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations. Okay. Moving on to item number six, announcements and commissioner comments. Do we have any? Seeing none, Director Dostatnik, you're up. Director's update, item number seven.

Let's see. Nothing really to report on agendas. One item, the council did approve the climate action plan on July 1. We are planning to have a meeting, first meeting in August, August 12. And we actually have six items lined up for that meeting. So and then we won't have a meeting after that until mid September. So I'm hoping that we were planning on having a quorum for that meeting.

Does anyone know if it will be I know there was an email sent, but does anyone know if it will be out that day? I'm good. So am I? Perfect.

I'm good.

Be there.

That's all I have.

Okay, moving on to item number eight, adjournment. We will adjourn to the next regular meeting date of 09/09/2020

August 12.

August 12.

I think you guys are doing this to me on purpose. 08/12/2025.