Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I got it, I got it, I'm starting. That's six, I'm good. Ready to go. Good evening, I'd like to call to order the September 16th, 2026 planning commission meeting at this time. If everyone would please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Okay, if our commission clerk could call the roll, please.

Chair Story?

Here.

Vice Chair Gutierrez?

Here.

Commissioner S. Vander?

Present.

Commissioner Corral? Here. Commissioner Schneider? Here. Commissioner Thompson? Here. And Commissioner Avalos Villalobos? Present. Commissioner, you have a quorum.

Great, thank you so much. Right now, we're going to the next item on the agenda, which is oral communication from the audience on items that are not on the agenda. Do we have anybody that's requested to speak for items that aren't on the agenda this evening? No, sir. Very good, thank you so much. We'll move on to the minutes. We've received the minutes from our last meeting, September 2nd, 2026. If everyone's had an opportunity to read those, I'll entertain a motion to approve it. Move to approve. Second. Moved by Dale, seconded by Terry. Very good, okay. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, motion's approved. Let's move on to the public hearing portion and we'll be considering this evening general plan amendment number 2025-0002, specific plan amendment number 2025-0001 and environmental assessment review number 2025-0013. Jason, you have the presentation this evening? Great thank you.

The location is on the north side of South

Excuse me. I'm sorry It's north side of East Valley Boulevard Just east of South Riverside Avenue, it's three parcels 0 1 3 2 1 2 2 0 4 0 1 3 2 1 2 2 0 7 and 0 1 3 2 1 2 2 2 3 and those are the parcels outlined in red and The project request is to change for the general plan amendment is to change the a general commercial to with a specific plan overlay to business park with a specific plan overlay and the specific plan amendment request is to change from retail commercial to industrial park within the gateway specific plan Our applicant is Mr. Williamson, who is here this evening. The parcel size is approximately 3.83 acres. That's the total of all three parcels. Their addresses are 124, 132, and 136 East Valley Boulevard. The APNs, as I'd said, and the retail commercial zone of the Gateway specific plan with the general land use designation of general commercial with specific plan overlay. So for the general plan amendment, there where it says project site, it's currently general commercial with a specific plan overlay. And then to the right, the project site's in blue with the business park with specific plan overlay. And the darker purple is the city of Colton. They've had a project there with some industrial buildings having been built there. For the specific plan amendment, the current zoning is there in pink as retail commercial. And then with the proposed zoning, it would be industrial park. And that's depicted in the blue on the graph on the right side. And again, that purple is the city of Colton. The goals of the project is that these properties at 124 and 128 are designated for retail, but it feature industrial style buildings that are not conducive to traditional retail uses. This match between the existing building design and land use designation has contributed to high vacancy rates. The proposed designations would support uses better suited to the properties, including auto services, machine shops, contractor businesses, and retail. The project aims to attract new businesses and expand local employment opportunities. This project also supports the Rialto General Plan land use goals, strengthen and diversify the economic base and employment opportunities, and maintain a positive business climate. The larger parcel to the east is vacant. There are no structures there. This did go through CEQA review. The initial study was prepared by Michael Czarznicki. A mitigative negative declaration was prepared. The 30-day public review period was March 12th to April 10th, 2026. We did not receive any comments, and this project does not propose any new developments. The planning division recommendation would be to adopt the resolution recommending that the city council adopt the mitigated negative declaration under environmental assessment review 2025-0013 and adopt the resolutions recommending that the city council approve general plan amendment number 2025-0002 and specific plan amendment number 2025-0001. based upon the findings and subject to the conditions therein and That concludes my presentation if you have any questions Thank You Jason commission any questions for staff before we ask the applicant to come up any questions for staff Okay, thanks.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Let's hear from the applicant since he's out there We just wanted to come and sit silently and stuff. Come on up. So it's a

good evening so good evening planning commission my name is kevin kent i'm assisting with the property owner mr ron williamson we appreciate you guys taking the time to take a look at our project and what we're proposing here i'm sure maybe you guys been outside to the location itself, a little history of it. The project started in 69. They built a liquor store there. And then in 79, that same property owner went and developed the first portion of the row of those current industrial buildings and then built a second like in the early 80s. And so the property was I think the intention were to do a light industrial. and then when the specific plan came came along the gateway specific plan i think they just maybe determined that that would be like spot zoning there and so they just overlaid the whole area um but with with what was out there there's no windows to the buildings they have big 10 12 foot uh roll up doors and a door it just it's not like pulling up to a to a donut shop or anything and there's just there's no there's no visual to it and so the usage needs to needs to be something more in line with industrial or a business park and so that's why we're in front of you here today if you got any questions for us we'll try to answer them for you

That's why it's a good For you to give us the history and stuff like that because of what it's been there Scott doesn't have a real good window to Valley Boulevard either so for retail so Understood any any questions for the applicant?

Okay, thank you, thank you so much and everything

All right, this is the time and the place for the public hearing. I'll call the public hearing open at this point. Has anyone requested to speak on this item during the public hearing portion?

No, sir.

No, we haven't.

Move to close the public hearing.

Is there a second? Second. Okay, motion by Dale, seconded by Ray to close the public hearing. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Public hearing is closed. What's your pleasure, commission? Go ahead if we, someone can make a motion.

We adopt the resolution recommending that the city council adopt. adopt the mitigated negative decoration environmental asset review number 2025-0013 and adopt the resolution recommending the city council approve general plan amendment number 2025-0002 and pacific plan amendment

number two zero two five dash zero zero zero one based on the findings and subject to the conditions therein there's a second second okay second motion by dale's seconded by jerry uh this time any other comments if not let's do a roll call for the items chair story Aye.

Vice Chair Gutierrez? Aye. Commissioner S. Vander? Aye. Commissioner Corral? Aye. Commissioner Schneider? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. And Commissioner Avalos Villalobos? Aye.

All right. All approved. We move on to the council now and stuff. Congratulations. And the next time you'd be working with the council. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Have a good evening. All right. So we move on to action items. We don't have any at this time. So we'll move to our comments from our community development director.

Thank you, Chair Story. Just a reminder for the commission, we will have our meeting on October 7th, and that is the item that was continued from our previous meeting. So you'll be hearing that. Do we have anything else? Okay, could have another item. And then the second meeting in October to be determined. So we'll keep you posted on that. Probably by the 7th, we should know if we're gonna have that second meeting. And then just a reminder, we have Petapalooza coming up this weekend. We have the Mad Walk coming up first weekend in October. All of that information, if you need anything, is on the website or you can contact city clerk's office or staff and we'll be happy to

Connect you with whatever information you need other than that That concludes my comments this evening great any questions for the director Okay, if not, we'll move on to any Commission comments that portion of the agendas any comments or questions for our commissioners

Put it on my computer and opened it up. I noticed that it was like 45 pages long So I read it we sat down with a cup of coffee and a second cup of coffee and a third cup of coffee and I was really impressed with how in-depth it was and how much it covered beyond just changing his own or helping a an individual or a landowner or a property owner develop the property effectively that he has so i want to compliment staff on that and i reviewed the thing a second time and took about a half a day looking at it and i was very much impressed with it and it reflected a great deal of hard work and it was very well done thank you very much awesome thank you any other comments from the commission

So now I'll entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting.

So moved.

Moved by Dale. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Terry. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Okay, meeting adjourned.