Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Yeah, there we go. Good evening. I'd like to call the meeting of the Planning Commission of August 5th, 2026 to order. If Commissioner Snyder could lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I'd appreciate it.

Everyone please stand. Ready to begin.

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.

Madam Clerk, if we could have the roll call, please.

Chair Story?

Here.

Vice Chair Gutierrez? Present. Commissioner Espander?

Present.

Commissioner Corral? Commissioner Schneider?

Here.

Commissioner Thompson? Present. Commissioner Avalos Villalobos? Here. Chair, you have a quorum.

Thank you very much. Moving on to the next item. Anybody who'd like to speak, oral communication from the audience on items that are not on the agenda. Do we have anybody that's requested to speak on items not on the agenda?

No, sir.

Very good, thank you. To move on to our Planning Commission minutes. Looking for motion and a second to approve the minutes from the July 1st, 2026 Planning Commission meeting. Move to approve.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, minutes from July 1st, 2026 meeting have been approved. Moving on to our public hearings, we're going to go ahead and move forward on this item, which is variance number 26001, conditional development permit number 260001, and precise plan of design number 26001. Jason, do you want to go ahead?

Good evening commissioners this projects are only project for this evening and It is a quick-quack car wash proposed in the northeast corner area of Baseline Road and Riverside Avenue. So variance 26-001, CDP, or Conditional Development Permit number 26-001, Precise Plan of Design number 26-0001, and Environmental Assessment Review 26-0001. So the applicant request is to approve variance number 26-001 to allow the front property line setback to be reduced from 50 feet to 5.75 feet. To approve conditional development permit number 26-0001 for the development and use of a car wash. to approve precise plan of design number 26-0001 for construction of a car wash. Defined the project is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act under environmental assessment review number 26-0001. Project location. the north side of East Baseline Road, approximately 250 feet east of North Riverside Avenue. It is where the current vacant Bank of America building is now, and that'll be demolished. It is a commercial shopping center, C-1A zone. It is in the North Rialto Center, which includes the Stater Brothers, Goodwill Store, Harbor Freight, and two other drive-throughs, Walgreens and Tamsburgers. The site will be approximately .99 acres. with a 3,593 square foot building area. So include a pay station, which Quack Quack refers to as a QB building, where the employees can interact with customers. There are overhead canopies, 18 vacuum stalls, one for ADA, and three employee parking stalls. One of those will be ADA. It includes drive-through lanes, a trash enclosure, landscaping, and that 5.75-foot setback from East Baseline Road. The primary building consists of the main drive-through car wash tunnel an electrical room and equipment room an employee restroom and an employee lounge The these are the elevations and That main tunnel building is approximately 22, a little more than 22 feet wide, a little more than 103 feet long, and 29 feet high at its highest point. The articulation and finishes include plaster finish, stone veneer, it is an earth tone colors with cornice roofline, and the varying roof heights. These are elevations of the station canopy, the vacuum canopy, and the QB station. It would be about 27% landscape coverage. There you can see landscaping along the northeast and south edges of the exterior perimeter, and there's also landscaping inside around the vacuum station areas. For its operations, it'll be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday. It'll employ approximately 15 people with two or three working each shift. The Quick Quack members, they pay a monthly fee. Employees can collect payments from non-members as they wash their car. Each vehicle is washed with approximately 22 gallons of fresh water and 50 gallons of recycled water. The recycled water is filtered in an osmosis system. Quick Quack uses biodegradable liquid soap products during the wash process. No chemicals, gasoline, diesel, or other petroleum products will be sold. And the vacuums in the interior there are self-service. The variance request. The variance is requested to reduce the minimum building setback required along Baseline Road from 50 feet, which is required to 5.75 feet. The existing bank building that's on the project site, its setback is currently three feet. from the ultimate right-of-way the proposed car wash building will be set back an additional two feet further than the existing bank building so that setback will actually increase Each development on the four corners at the intersection of Baseline and Riverside were granted variances to encroach within that 50 foot setback. The most recent one was in July 2013 when Tacos Gavilan was allowed a five foot setback. Strict compliance with the 50-foot setback would impact the existing parking lot and traffic circulation within the North Rialto Shopping Center. This would require major modifications to the center's layout to accommodate any development. The variance will also maintain consistency with the existing developments in the surrounding area and preserve the integrity and layout of the existing center. Armin Hovhannessian Transportation Consulting conducted a traffic impact study. It was to assess the potential impacts on nearby streets and intersections. The project will generate approximately 348 daily vehicle trips. 33 trips will be in the a.m. peak hour and 36 trips will be in the a.m. peak hour. The nearby intersections and roadway will continue to operate at their current level of service the parking analysis Based on the square footage of the QB building it would require one parking space However, quick quack will be fighting three parking spaces. One of which is a da a This project meets the exemption requirements of CEQA section 15303 for new construction or conversion of small structures. Class three allows for the exemption of a project consisting of the construction of commercial structures not exceeding 10,000 square feet and floor area. In summary, the project's consistent with the general plan, the commercial shopping center zone, and Rialto Municipal Code Chapter 1861 for design guidelines. The project is consistent with commercial uses and developments in the surrounding area. It is categorically exempt pursuant to CEQA Section 15303. We have prepared a notice of exemption to submit to the county. Public hearing notices were mailed, was posted, and published in the San Bernardino Sun newspaper. It's recommended that Planning Commission adopt exhibit H, exhibit I, and exhibit J, thereby approving variance number 26-0001, conditional development permit number 26-0001, and precise plan of design number 26-0001, based upon the findings and subject to the conditions therein. Also recommended to find the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to section 15303, new construction or conversion of small structures with environmental assessment review number 26-0001. And that concludes that part of the presentation. Do you have any questions?

Thank you, sir. Commission, have any questions for staff or the applicants here, too? We have a representative. Yes, yes. Very good. So if anyone has any questions specifically before we open the public hearing for the applicant or the staff member, please speak. Anyone got any?

I've got one of the owner.

Oh.

Oh.

Okay, let me have the applicant come up, and I'll ask a couple of questions real quick. Just because we have to ask you some questions, we can't let you get away without saying nothing. Understood. So first, this will be the, from my understanding, this will be, I'm aware of, this will be the fourth quick quack in Rialto, and who knows if there's any more in the hopper right now, I have no idea. What criteria do you guys use to spot these things in relationship to your existing quick quacks or other self-serve car washes, which there's a lot of here too?

Sure, what we're looking for is traffic, right? I mean, everyone with cars on it. And so what drives it is that as we are reviewing corridors, We're looking at where people are coming and where people are going on it. And because our model is a membership-based formula on it, we know that as we build more, it begins to relieve pressure at existing car wash, our quick wax. And what we find happening is that someone One location may not be convenient on the way to work or away from work. And so we build these in strategic locations. At some point, we feel that we control the market and then our customers are satisfied with going anywhere.

Well, this is a good location. I don't know any of the car washes on baseline. So, I mean, that does make it, that's a good one and stuff. Yeah, the second thing is, the one thing, this is just a comment, not a question, I appreciate Quick Quack when they open. They usually seek out some type of a non-profit or some type of thing when it opens to do that first day of fundraiser to be able to get money to that non-profit in that area to be able to do that. I know people, when you open them in San Bernardino or in Fontana, they do the same thing. So I really appreciate that, that you, before you even open, you're giving back to the community already. So we want to thank you for that when you do that.

That's an excitement time for us where we're able to be with the community and pick a community charity that is near and dear to their hearts.

Got it. Any other questions for either Jason or for the applicant? Go ahead.

Why is it taking so long to open the one on Foothill?

A lot of complications that we have in building it. Typically, we're at about 240 days to build our car wash. But from the time we identify a site and go through the permitting side or the entitlement side of it and to the cutting the ribbon, we're trying to cut it down. It's growing pains for us, but we're building a lot of these right now. And we're trying to do it as quickly as we can.

Okay. Any other questions for staff? I have a couple. Go ahead.

Last time, I was under the impression of, I forgot which one it was, but I had to recuse myself because I lived too close, and you and I spoke, and you were like, just to be safe, let's recuse. And I was under the impression if something was going to be close again, approximately to my home, you guys would let me know. However, this location is literally across the street from the same location that I had to recuse myself from. Should I recuse myself to be on the safe side?

I was not told hey you're too close to this proximity So we recluse yourself at this time and then we'll real join us after we're done with the public hearing if that's okay Determination got it. Okay. Thanks. I

all right thank you thank you so much anything else go ahead sorry my bad i'm sorry i have two questions yes uh but i'm not sure because this is bifurcated between the variance and the actual development permit process that we're having so if mike or whoever would tell me my questions are out should be waiting until later then i'll be glad to formulate them So my first question is, it states in here that you use an osmosis program or process for cleaning the water, am I correct? Yes. Okay. Is that a reverse osmosis? Yes. Okay. And when you do that, how often is the water in that sump actually... exchanged goes down the waste before new waters put in or is it a is it a process of you keep cleaning it until you don't need to deliver any water into the waste system

We have three holding tanks, 1,500 gallons, that are filtering the water, the sediment on the water, as it trickles down to it. And it's the last tank that we're using that's been cleaned through this process through our osmosis system. Any water that we don't consume is naturally going to be recirculated through the sewer system. But we've taken basically 4,500 gallons of water that we've filtered through our sediment tanks.

And what percentage goes into the wastewater system? Just ballpark, if you can.

How much, like a percentage, or how many gallons? Well, give me a percentage. You have 4,500 gallons. I would bet that you're 50%. I mean, I don't know that calculation on it, but if I'm using 75 gallons of water, 25... fresh and 50 gallons of my recycled water on it, I'm going to have that 25 gallons of water that is naturally going to go back into the system. And if I'm going to have 300 cars or 400 cars, it'd be that math formula.

Okay, and then through this RO system or this practice, the solids are sedimentary and they go to the bottom, am I correct? Yes, yes. Okay. And then we filter it and we suck it out. When that last tank exchanges and the water goes down into the sewer system, does it go from the bottom or the top?

It would have to be from the top.

It goes from the top.

Yeah.

So at some point, do you need to clean the sedimentary properties out of that last tank?

Eventually, but it's not going to be at the same rate as our first tank. OK, very good. All right, that's good.

Any other questions for the applicant or staff before we open the public hearing? If not, thank you. This is the time and the place for the public hearing for this particular item. Is anyone requested to speak on this item before us tonight?

No, sir.

Okay, very good. Commission, what's your pleasure?

Move to close the public hearing. Second.

There's a motion and second to close the public hearing. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Okay, moving on, what's your pleasure, Commission?

Move to adopt exhibit H, exhibit I, exhibit J, thereby approving variance number 26-0001, condition development permit number 26-0001, and precise plan or design number 26-0001. 01 based upon the findings and subjects of the conditions there and and to find the Project is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act preserves a section 1 5 3 0 3 new construction or conversion of small structures environmental asset review number 26 0 0 0 1

We have a second to the motion? We have a motion and a second. Clerk, if you could do a roll call for us please on this item.

Commissioner Avalos Villalobos recused herself. Commissioner Schneider? Aye. Vice Chair Gutierrez? Aye. Chair Story? Aye. Commissioner Esbander? Aye. Commissioner Thompson?

Aye. Okay. Motion carries. Congratulations, thank you so much. Looking forward to it. Okay, if we can get Commissioner to come on back in.

okay so moving on we don't have any action items that are listed in our agenda so if we could have comments from our community development director thank you chair um coming up on august 19th it would be our second meeting of the month but we do not have any items scheduled however we do have items for september 2nd so we will have the first meeting in september september Yep, first meeting. So 9-2, you'll have a meeting, but 8-19, we will cancel that meeting. Okay. Okay. Daniel, anything for the group? Okay. That concludes my comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Plain Commissioner comments? Any comments, folks?

Go ahead. The process that we perform here can sometimes get muddled in questions, at least in our minds or in my mind, a little bit muddled with response to how those questions are addressed and answered. And I had a question or concern regarding chemicals that are used in the automated color wash process. and that chemical is hydrofluoric acid. And I brought that to a representative in planning, and I want to compliment the staff over there by not only bringing it and looking at it and listening to what my concerns were, but to addressing it with other public safety agencies, and that included not only research in the office, but actually field work. And I think that's how the system really validates itself. I have a deep concern about the use of hydrofluoric acid. It's a killer. There's no question about it. And at one time it may have been prevalent in touchless car wash systems. However, I think that the the car wash industry itself the automated car wash industry has seen the liability and the concerns that the public has Environmental concerns with using that type of product and not only hydrofluoric acid but its derivatives also and that predicated my question to the applicant here regarding the removal of solids now that being said Car washes save water. Environmentally, they're a benefit to all of us in our community. Much more beneficial than us using a hose and washing the dirt off and letting it hit the street. At the same time, Like any industry, we have to not only regulate it, but we have to take a look at what it's doing and its impact upon the community. So I think in this instance, again, I want to congratulate and thank staff for their help in bringing that forward. It is of a deep concern to all of us. And at the same time, the cooperation they receive from the applicant and from our allied agencies inside the city and county. Just to give you anybody who wants to hear it, the National Institute of Health and the United States Environmental Protection Agency are working very strenuously to ban that product from public use. And I'd very much like to see our city follow in kind and enact some sort of ordinance or expand an ordinance you can't buy marijuana in in Rialto but right now somebody can use this product and its derivatives so that being said I very much appreciate what's been done but I think there's one more step that can be taken for that and I hope that That's about it, and welcome to Rialto and wash cars.

Very good. Thank you, Terry. Any other comments or questions from the commission? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

So moved. Is there a second? Second. Second. Very good. All right. Meeting's adjourned. Thank you so much.