Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Just us. So do we, I'm working on it, but I said George is going to be there, so he's going to slow things down.

Because he has the record. George has the record.

I guess we still have to do the whole thing, huh? We do, all right. Yes.

Yes, yes.

Because all you have to do is read them. All right. We're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. George, will you lead us, please? 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. Roll call.

George Saljan.

Here.

Deborah Van Essen.

Present.

David Collins. Present. Stephen Berber. Jeff Bayou. Lori Bunnell.

Present. Just a side note, Steven Verver just moved in across the street from me. So I was going to go pick him up, but he's not here. All right. Right now we have public discussion time. This time is provided to the public to address the planning commission on items not on the agenda. State law prohibits the commission from taking any action on these items. Each person will be limited to no more than five minutes of discussion time. And the total time allotted for discussion shall not exceed 30 minutes. Would anybody like to talk to us about something not on the agenda? No? OK. All right. Well, let's have the approval of the minutes from our May 18 meeting. Anybody like to make a motion?

I'll move to approve the minutes from the meeting of May 18.

David Collins.

Yes.

George Saljan. Yes. Deborah Van Essen. Yes. Lori Bunnell. Yes. Minutes past 4-0.

All right. We have a public hearing at this time. It's a tentative subdivision map for the public hearing. I will announce it. Our staff will present a report. We'll open the public hearing. If you wish to testify, wait for the chairman to recognize you. And the order of testimony is the applicant, those in favor, those in opposition, and rebuttal. After all the testimony has been given, we will close the public hearing, and we will further discuss the item and make a motion. So Ken, the tentative subdivision map for the .

Thank you, Madam Chair, fellow commissioners. I did put a nice PowerPoint together tonight for all that's here. What's in front of you tonight is the Kaizen River Commercial Condominium Project. This does require approval of a tentative subdivision map. The parcel is located at 505 and 707 Boulevard. There's two parcels actually there. There's four buildings on it. There's two parcels, which encompasses 4.8 acres. What they're seeking to do is actually create 22 individual commercial condominium units. And there's no expansion proposed of the buildings that are currently there. Again, the existing development is comprised of four buildings on two lots. It's kind of a modern light industrial complex. There's existing parking, lighting, landscaping, utilities, and all that already out there. And again, no physical changes are being proposed except for interior demising and such to create the condo units. Kind of the ownership out there currently, it's all under one ownership, shared infrastructure. There's four buildings. The proposal is for 22, potentially 22 individual owners with commercial condominiums. Again, same building, same infrastructure. This will require the Commercial Owners Association, much like an HOA, but a Commercial Owners Association to be formed. ONE OF THE REASONS THERE'S A RECOMMENDATION FROM STAFF ON THIS IS THERE'S COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS TO THE PROJECT. BUSINESS OWNERSHIP OBVIOUSLY BUSINESSES CAN OWN RATHER THAN LEASING THEIR SPACE. WE DO HAVE QUITE A FEW PEOPLE THAT ARE SEEKING THAT TYPE OF OPPORTUNITY. REALLY CAN'T MAYBE PULL OFF DEVELOPING AN ENTIRE SITE BUT MAYBE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY NOW TO BUY THEIR OWN CONTAMINIUM UNIT. It encourages long-term private investment and also builds equity for local businesses. There are some economic development benefits as well, supports business retention and expansion, encourages reinvestment, obviously, in industrial property here in town and strengthens Ripon's economic base. It is an efficient use of existing development. Again, no new buildings are being created, no increase in development intensity in the area. And it's maximizing the existing infrastructure that's there. And then lastly, like a public benefit, the shared facilities remain protected, such as the common areas. There's some city oversight with the conditions of approval that are in the staff report with CC&Rs and the commercial association that will be formed. And just some long-term governance for the future owners having those CC&Rs in place and the commercial ASSOCIATION AS WELL. ONE QUESTION, WHY DO COMMERCIAL CONDOMINIANS REQUIRE SUCH CAREFUL REVIEW, BASICALLY, IS THERE'S SHARED PARKING, SHARED UTILITIES, FIRE ACCESS, DRAINAGE, MAINTENANCE, THESE ALL KIND OF LINE THEMSELVES UP FOR POTENTIAL FUTURE OWNERSHIP DISPUTES IF THEY'RE NOT LAID OUT RIGHT AND DEALT WITH IN THE RIGHT MANNER. Ensuring the long-term success of the project through conditions of approval. If you spend some time in the staff report, you'll see there's a pretty good host of conditions of approval there for the project. Creating reciprocal easements and agreements for parking, utilities, drainage, garbage, things like that. The city will be reviewing the CC&Rs for the project, so that would clearly define the ownership, maintenance responsibilities, and cost sharing for the project. Commercial Owners Association is basically setting up who's responsible for the long-term operation maintenance, having reserve funds in place to actually maintain lighting, landscaping, parking lot striping, and Things like that would have to be all part of the owner's association. And then city review and approval. The final map basically cannot be recorded until all these things are in place. So after the planning commission's recommendation this evening, it will go to city council. They will make a recommendation on the tentative subdivision map. But in between the tentative map and when they can record the final map, all these conditions have to be met. which also does include meeting building code for fire separation, demising walls, and such within the units. Again, without all the conditions that are here in the report, there's potential disputes, maintenance failures, blocked access, things that we don't want to be out trying to babysit and do. Also, we do want the maintenance of the facility to remain as it looks today. Obviously, a pretty nice development. And this will be done through the enforceable CC&Rs in the HOA or Commercial Owners Association. So basically the result would be same functioning development as you see out there with just long-term protections for the city. Department responsibilities, it will go through a lot of our departments here, planning, we'll look at CC&Rs, any future modifications that need to happen as far as interior, Engineering will look at all the easements and infrastructure in place. The building department will obviously look at the compliance with the California building code. Fire with emergency access, making sure there's no disturbance there. Police, obviously the same issues with security and addressing. And then obviously city attorney will be reviewing all the legal documents, setting this up. So kind of a team approach here, but very necessary. Again, these are all providing the long-term protections here. Again, the permanent access rights and stuff for the property. The approval process will go through three phases. I think I explained this a little earlier. The Planning Commission will make a recommendation. City Council will approve the tentative map. It's phase one. Phase two is all the implementation, making sure all the conditions of approval are met. BEFORE WE GET TO PHASE 3, WHICH IS IN CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL OF THE FINAL MAP, RECORDING ALL THE DOCUMENTS THAT WOULD BE NECESSARY WITH THE MAP, AND THEN AT THE END OF THAT, THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO OBVIOUSLY SELL OFF INDIVIDUAL UNITS OUT THERE. SO STAFF IS RECOMMENDING THAT THE PLANNING COMMISSION ADOPT THE FINDINGS AND RECOMMEND THAT THE CITY COUNCIL APPROVE THE TENTATIVE SUBDIVISION MAP SUBJECT TO THE CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL. for one additional condition of approval to be placed into the recommendation tonight, and that would be the addition of requiring the applicant to enter into a reimbursement agreement with the city of Ripon to cover staff time and for reviewing all the documents necessary so we don't go backwards on that. So that wraps up my presentation this evening. Obviously be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Did this complex come to the city, or is this something that the city encouraged the owner to do?

They actually came to us asking if they could do it, and so we stepped them through this process. We've done this one other time in town. It's not very common here in Ripon, but the Goodwin Business Park over on Goodwin Drive is actually a condominium unit, too.

And are all the units occupied right now?

Yes, they are. Okay.

Any other questions?

Ken, there's no usage changes.

The existing usages will... No, they're not anticipating any usage changes at this time. Obviously, that can always change with people buying units or moving out and new businesses opening. The way they're The way they're conduing those units up right now is kind of the current configuration they have, because there are several units out there that have three and four units put together, and that's how they're anticipating conduing the units up into the 22 that's being proposed.

Just out of curiosity, the ones that you mentioned, fire separation, is most of that already in place as individual units? Do we know, or is... Not that that's our business. Yeah, no. It has to be inspected.

We don't believe it is. Obviously, the building official, he's been here a long time and kind of remembers when that was built. He doesn't believe those were built appropriately for the separation that is now going to be required for ownership. That's why the condition of approval is in there. That's good. Obviously, they will have to hire kind of an engineer to come in and do an as-built survey of it to –

show that it is or isn't built that way okay several years ago there was concern about noise coming from the back of the building it required to do some soundproofing to try and protect the adjacent residential neighbors that were there before them this isn't going to alter anything now all the original project conditions remain in place we did have obviously you guys did raise those concerns when it was originally approved

We did have someone put an exhaust fan out the backside of it, and we did have to deal with that, so that's been removed, obviously, but those all remain in place.

Do you know if the commercial association will be professionally managed, or is the owner going to continue to manage that?

That's all stuff that we'll have to work through as we go through documentation. I'm not 100% certain.

Right, because my guess is the city doesn't want to police if somebody puts an exhaust fan or anything, right? No. Okay.

Any questions? Do you see any drawbacks?

No. As staff, if things are set up appropriately the right way, obviously we've got to do our homework on that. Like I said, we don't do a lot of these, so we will be working through that. This does provide a lot of opportunities for businesses. There's a lot of businesses that would like to own their space, but they don't have the financial wherewithal to develop an entire site, which could be pricey. So this does provide some opportunities for a small business to kind of get in the game on that extent with not having to lease the whole time. Great.

Any other questions? Seeing as how we have no audience, I'm going to close the public hearing, right?

Was it everyone?

I opened it right in the start. I said we're having a public hearing. Oh, I did. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I don't use that enough. Okay. So we've closed the public hearing. All right. Do we have any other discussion or a motion or where are we at? I think it'll be a positive for our city. Yeah. Pride of ownership.

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's positive. I agree with the concept. Small business owners, a lot of them would like to be able to own their spaces. It's a great idea. Increases the length of time they'll stay here. Builds equity for them for the future.

Yeah, as long as the CC&Rs are adhered to and managed well, I see no issues. So I'll make the motion that the Planning Commission adopts the findings. contained herein and recommends the City Council approve the tentative subdivision map S26 through 60, subject to the conditions of approval contained in this staff report.

Will you add the additional condition that Ken stated earlier?

And I'm adding Ken's forementioned condition.

To enter into a reimbursement. All right. I'll second. Okay, this passes four to zero. All right. Any reports?

I think I need to ask Michael, are we having a variance for the next month? Next month we do have a meeting. We will have one variance application for a parcel here in town that will be in front of you guys for review. And if all goes well, maybe a couple chapters from our development title. I'm kind of going through those now, trying to update and work through that. So a fun exercise to do, but necessary. A lot of times necessary to look at that every so often to make sure we're current. So This might be the couple items that you have for next month, so keep those on your calendar.

Any knowledge of the movement of homes and the new subdivision?

I don't have a lot of information from Lennar. I do know they've sold a few, but I'm not sure on the number. They have a different building plan than a lot of developers. They kind of go through and cycle through and build kind of all the houses and then obviously wait to sell them. So they're just going to blow through kind of that 88 homes as they can build them, not necessarily waiting on sales.

Dave, I have noticed a few price decreases on them.

Decreases, yeah. Any attorney reports? No. Commissioners? All right. The meeting is adjourned until August.