Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. Calling to order regular planning commission meeting today, Tuesday, October 21st at 6 PM. Can we have roll call, please? Chair Tidy Zamora, here. Vice Chair Michael Sid Alterman here. Commissioner John Dyn here. Commissioner Joan Stewart, Commissioner Natasa Baja here, and Ben Rubin is absent or alternate. And in the audience, we have Armando Rodriguez, the other alternate.

Excellent. Our conflict of interest statement. Any planning commission member or staff who has a direct conflict of interest on any scheduled agenda item to be considered to declare it declare their conflict at this time. Okay. Seeing none, we'll move on. At this time, members of the public may comment on any item not appearing on the agenda and within the subject matter jurisdiction of the planning commission. Individual comments will be limited to a maximum of 3 minutes and time cannot be yielded to another person. Under state law, matters presenting during the public comment period cannot be discussed or acted upon. For record purposes, state your name and city of residents. Please make your comments directly to the planning commission members. Public comment period is open. Do we have any public comments on any item not appearing on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll close the public comment period. Move on to the consent calendar. All items listed on the consent calendar are to be acted upon by a single action of the planning commission board unless requested by an individual planning commission member or member of the public for special consideration. Otherwise, the recommendation of staff will be accepted and acted upon by motion of the planning commission board. Item 2.1 is posting of the agenda. The agenda for October 21st, 2025 planning commission meeting was posted on the city community center bulletin board, city hall north and south bulletin boards post office city website emailed to the library on October 17, 2025. Item 2.2, approval of October 21, 2025 agenda. This provides an opportunity for the planning commission or staff to recommend that an item be placed on the agenda for discussion or to adjust the proposed agenda to allow an item to be taken out of order. In item 2.3, approval of August 19, 2025 planning commission meeting minutes having been read by the individual commissioners and stands approved as submitted. I'll entertain a motion to accept the consent calendar.

Move for approval of item 2.1 2.2 2.3. I will second. Okay, we have a first and a second. Any discussion? Okay, we'll move on to a vote. Oh, yeah. Roll call. So, Chair Zamora, yes. Vice Chair Alterman, yes. Commissioner Dinan, yes. Commissioner Stewart, yes. Commissioner Boso, yes. Passes 50.

Moving on to the planning commission public hearings. Uh, the public notice for items 3.1 and 3.2 were published on October 8th, 2025 in the Riverbank News. First item up is item 3.1, architectural and site plan review application number 08-2025, department file number 25-0031, uh, Watermill Express, resolution 2025-015, request to remove and replace the existing water filtration station. Have a presentation.

Okay. Good evening. Theresa McDonald, senior planner, here to present an architecture site plan review for the Watermill Express. So, this is a request for an architecture and site plan review or ASPR to replace an existing water vending kiosk with a new kiosk with a new design. It will also have the ability to now dispense ice. So, this is the project site at 3239 Sierra Street. It's located between Second and Third Street. It's an improved with the water vending kiosk and paved parking lot. This site has access to Sierra Street via an existing driveway and to both Stannis Loss and Second Street via existing alleys adjacent to the project site. This site is surrounded by a mixture of residential and commercial uses in all directions. The project site has designated as mixed use in the general plan which accommodates retail uses, offices, personal and commercial services and other similar uses. It supports policies land 3.5 and 4.3 of the general plan which encourage development in the downtown area and locallyowned businesses that wish to expand. The project site is located within the downtown specific plan area and is zoned mixeduse neighborhood which allows general commercial uses. The DTSP requires an ASPR for the construction and reconstruction of buildings and related facilities. And in order to approve an ASPR, the planning commission shall make the required findings as listed in the staff report. Staff believes that the request is consistent with the general plan and zoning. Here you'll see a rendering of the proposed elevations for the replacement unit. The project has determined to be exempt from further review under California

Environmental Quality Act per categorical exemption 15302s replacement or reconstruction. To conclude, staff recommends the planning commission approve the project adopting resolution 2025015 approving the architecture insight plan review application number 082025. If the planning commission approves the project, the resolution provides an overview of the findings and actions required for project approval. That concludes my presentation. I'm available to answer any questions. Thank you. Okay, we'll open up for public comments or any public comments regarding item 3.1 of the agenda.

Seeing none, we'll close the public comment period. Um, I'll entertain a motion to approve item 3.1. Move to approve item 3.1 as stated. I'll second. We have a first and a second. Any comment by the commission? All right. Ready for roll call. Um, Chair Zamora, yes. Vice Chair Alterman, yes. Commissioner Dyn, yes. Commissioner Stewart and Commissioner Boso, yes. To approve 50.

Moving on to item 3.2, which is a conditional use permit application number 05-2025 and architectural and site plan review application number 07-2025. Department file number 25-0026, the 108 Sports Lounge, Resolution 2025-016 and 2025-07. It's a request to expand an existing sports bar and modify previously approved use permit conditions that restricted business hours and prohibited dancing and live loud music.

Hey, thank you. Good evening. Theresa McDonald, senior planner, here to present a conditional use permit and architecture and site plan review request for the 108 sports lounge. So to provide some background, the city code requires a conditional use permit or CUP for the sale of alcoholic beverages. Accordingly, CUP05206 was approved in 2006 to permit the sale of alcoholic beverages at 3119 Street. The CUP was approved for a portion of the building and it limited the hours of operation to Sunday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 10:00 a.m. to midnight and I'm sorry, Fridays and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to midnight and prohibited dancing, live or allowed music. So, this current request is for a conditional use permit to allow the bar to utilize the entire building, to amend the hours of operation to Monday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. and to remove the restrictions on live music and dancing. An architecture and site plan review or ASPR is included in the project as required by the downtown specific plan for the existing paint colors, signage, and covered patio. Here you can see the project site is located at 3119 Aerson Street between 1st and 2nd Street. It's improved with the 7,200T building with 430 ft covered patio and paved parking lot with 23 spaces. It has access onto Aches Street via an existing driveway and onto First and Second Street via an existing alley located at the rear of the site and is surrounded by residential uses to the north across the alley, commercial and residential uses to the east, commercial and residential uses to the south across Aches Street and commercial uses to the west. Three primary issues were identified as part of the review of the project, including tenant improvements completed to the additional bar area without a

building permit, the need for additional parking, and general concerns from surrounding landowners. Regarding the tenant improvement, a building permit for the additional bar space will be required, and it may not be utilized until a certificate of occupancy is issued. While the parking lot exceeds the requirement of two spaces per 10,000 square feet in accordance with the downtown specific plan, there have been concerns raised regarding the ability to accommodate peak demand. The applicant provided a parking plan detailing how additional parking needs will be addressed, which may be found as an attachment to the staff report. One letter was received from a surrounding landowner with concerns regarding noise. conditions of approval have been placed on the project to address noise impacts after the publishing of an agenda. One additional letter from a surrounding landowner was received which you have been re uh provided. I believe the sheriff provided a referral response stating that there have been nine calls for service in the past two years consisting of seven arguments, one physical altercation, one petty theft, and they have not received any noise complaints and have no concerns with the request. Additional letters of support for the project have been received from assembly members Heath Flora and Juan Alanis and supervisor Buck Condid. The project site is designated as mixeduse in the general plan which accommodates retail uses, offices, personal and commercial services and other similar uses. The project supports policies land 3.5 and 4.3 of the general plan which encourages development in the downtown area and encourages locallyowned businesses that wish to expand. The project site is located within the city's downtown specific plan area and is owned Highway Boulevard. Eating and drinking establishment serving alcohol are permitted with a use permit. And in order to approve a use permit to serve alcoholic beverages, the planning

commission is required to make the CUP findings and performance standards listed in the staff report. The DTSP requires an ASPR for the construction and reconstruction of buildings and related facilities. And in in order to approve an ASPR, the planning commission shall make the requirement and findings as listed in the staff report. Staff believes the use is consistent with the general plan and zoning. Here you can see the uh elevations of the existing exterior including the paint colors, signage and covered patio. No changes to the exterior are being proposed at this time. The project has been determined to be exempt from further review under the California Environmental Quality Act per category exemption 15301 which is for existing facilities. To conclude, staff recommends the planning commission approve the project adopting resolution number 2025016, approving conditional use permit application number 052025 and resolution number 2025017 approving architecture insight plan review application number 072025. If the planning commission approves the project, the resolutions provide an overview of the findings and actions required for project approval. That concludes my presentation and I as well as the applicant trans representative and a representative from the sheriff's department are available to answer any questions. Thank you. Okay, we'll open up for public comments regarding item 3.2 on the agenda. Do we have any public comments? Okay, seeing no public comments, we'll close the public comment period. I did have a question. I was curious to know if the live music was going to be limited to the interior of the building or if it could be anywhere on the premises.

It is limited to the interior unless they do want some special event. Then it would require a noise permit which would require a discretionary review by the director. Okay. Is that correct, Josh? Okay. Any other comments by any of the other commissioners, questions?

Yeah. When I I first read this, I was really impressed. My first concern was the parking, but then I went through all the attachments and those questions were pretty much answered. My concern is about the noise. If we do modify the the existing conditions and we receive a lot of complaints from the neighbors, um exactly what would be the next step on that? So, if there's a verified noise complaint received and there are um basically definitions as to what qualifies as a verified complaint, then we have the discretion to request that the applicant complete a noise study. So they would have to hire someone certified who can complete that and then recommend mitigation measures in order to bring the noise back down to the allowable levels under the ordinance. Whether that's um you know putting in ex you know double doors or another layer of doors or modifying hours of operation that type of thing. Commissioner Stewart, I just wanted to add one thing because the if if there is a lot of issues with noise, the commission does have the ability to bring the use permit back to this um body and you know we could revoke the permit, add additional conditions. Um but but our initial attempt at controlling any noise issues that could pop up or like Teresa mentioned that condition would um require the applicant, you know, if there is verified complaints to hire, you know, an acoustic specialist that could recommend potential ways to limit the um noise from escaping the building or the property itself. And then one other thing is the the music is turned off at midnight or or 1:00 a.m. I was a little lost on that.

I believe it's 1:00 a.m. 1:00 a.m. Thank you. You do have a comment on Zoom. Okay, let's take the public comment on Zoom. Go ahead on Zoom number ending in 3108.

Yeah. Um I submit submitted I have questions in writing but I have questions. Um they have two permits for catering and for this event. um when did they or did they even come before this the planning commission to approve those two permits because they're not on this uh item tonight to those two two permits to be approved. That's one question. The second one is I understand there is a conditional thing on the uh the event one that they can't hold the vents on the property with the bar. Um, I don't know how that works. I don't know what they consider events, but having loud live music outdoors, there's no way they're going to be able to to do anything about that. It's going to be loud and it's going to be live. Now, they sent out their little 300 feet notice this. And Topeka, which is right in the bullseye, it only got one side of it. the other side of the street. It never got noticed. Even with all these impacts, we never got noticed or anything. We got left out. Remember, you've got Antigo down there that's got I think a 250 capacity, the guy that has the Masonic Lodge across the street there on Santa Fe. And second, he he's got what did he do? You give him almost 400 last time. I think he's asking for 500 now. And they're all using on street parking. They're all using the shared parking thing. That's almost a thousand. You don't have enough room for them in the residents, too. It's just way too many. And you're and once you do these that they're going to keep coming and they're all going to want to do the same thing. This shared parking thing comes with an in lease fee. So, isn't this kind of

like the city selling the parking spaces to these these ones like this one tonight? So they can get a little bit money back, but they're selling our residential spaces. Downtown Pacific plan doesn't allow it. It allows on on street parking only certain areas downtown like the core and uh where they the mixed use area. It does not allow it in the downtown neighborhood area. And yet they're going to sell our spaces and we didn't get noticed. I think that that this is very unfair because they're leaving us out and yet they're they're telling not giving us any any say so in this the noise the traffic and to coin a phrase from the uh river crossroads west out there about think it's very unsafe for our children to have these people coming out of the bars and coming down in our residential neighborhoods to try and find their cars and drive and they're going to be mourning and afternoon and night. I think there needs to be tighter controls on it. I think you need to notify everybody that's going to be impacted by this and there definitely needs to be some kind of of of a study or something done on the impact of this on street sharing these parking spaces offsite like this. Nobody's looking at any of this. But I would like to know why these other two permits are not on this item tonight. When did the planning commission approve them? And if not, why haven't they approved them before they're being allowed to do all this events and stuff? And I'll leave the rest of it for my my written comments. Thank you.

Does staff have any comments on the permit issue? Yeah, let me first I just want to address the parking issue that was brought up um because that was something that staff was concerned about as we processed this application and mainly if you're familiar with the area. So just north of um this location is High Street which is mainly a residential street and then to the south of Achinson you have Topeka. So to kind of um limit the potential issues that could happen um where a patron parks in a residential area um we we added condition number eight. And so what condition number eight basically says is that um the operator of the bars to encourage both staff and patrons to park um and either in the the parking lot itself or if there's a bigger event utilize the city parking lot on third in Achinson. Um and that if it does become an issue where there's parking similar to the noise condition that we do have the ability to bring it back and either require something like um further scrutiny of parking, valet parking, you know, there there's multiple options we could use to kind of address this if it does become an issue in the future. Um in terms of the alcohol license, I believe uh the caller was correct. the the current status of the bar does have three types of alcohol license. I don't know if Teresa, could you kind of summarize those for us?

Yes. So, it's one license number um but they just have different types under that number. One of them is the generic on-site one for a bar. I believe it's type 48. One of them is for a caterer's permit, which would allow them to basically like for a off-site event like a wedding or something, they could be the caterer for the alcohol. And then they do have I don't remember the number, but it's an event permit where up to four times a year they could have some special event like St. St. Patrick's Day, let's say they wanted to have a beer garden in the parking lot, that type of thing. Um, so those are different types that are listed under their existing ABC license. Does that make sense?

Okay. Uh, any further public comments regarding item 3.2? Okay, we'll close public comment again. Um, any more comments by by the commissioners?

Yes. Uh they just put this in historical context. Years and years ago, Riverbank from what I've heard from people that were on a city council was a town that rocked and rolled a lot. Chuck Barry, Buck Owens, and it was big revolution and dancing was forbidden, live music. And what this is doing is putting all of that back in to Riverbank. I'm fine with that, but just so the commissioners know the background on this. I thought you would be interested.

Okay. Any other comments?

Um I I had a question. Um I know that there there's a uh two questions actually. on the tenant improvements for the expanded area, excuse me, is obviously normal building permits are required for them and to meet building standards, etc. Are there any requirements for any upgrades and I don't know if any are necessary, but are there any requirements for the existing portion or is the idea that that's going to remain largely just operational as they work on the other half and then at one point they'll do the switch over where they open it up to the whole thing? Yeah, my my understanding is that there there will need to be just just because the nature of the building, it's a over 7,000 square ft. So, my understanding is that as part of the improvements to kind of build out the remaining space, there may be some elements like additional exit doors needed. Um, I believe fire sprinklers has come up just for a safety thing.

Yeah, I saw something. Um, so there's like little things like that that once you get into a certain size building, this being, you know, over 7,000 square ft, it's going to trigger those requirements. So there, from memory though, I think the exit door was like the biggest one to the existing space. That would have to change,

right? Okay. Uh the only other question that I had is um there has been some talk of you know they could do outside events or like you know like beer garden like you mentioned or if there was a special event for you know something going on where they would have uh utilizing the parking lot and that um how does the permitting go on that? Is that discretionary staff level permitting? Does that have to come before us or I'm just curious of how you know like a noise permit and other or other live events outside would would go.

So those are typically h handled at the um staff level. It's a discretionary permit per se, but it is handled at the staff level. Now the the commission you you do have the option of placing a condition on this permit like that if you felt it's appropriate. So um that is entirely up to this committee. All I got. Thank you. Any other comments? Any other commissioners? No. Okay. Then, uh, I would seek a motion to approve item 3.2 on the agenda. All moved. Have a first. Can we get a second? I'll second. Okay, we'll move on to a vote. Roll call. Chair Zamora,

yes. Vice Chair Alterman, yes. Commissioner Dyn, yes. Commissioner Stewart and Commissioner Boso. Yes, it's approved. 50. Okay, moving on to planning commission comments. Any commissioners have any comments to make?

Um, this is about the construction for the tractor supply. I I I'm so excited about this project and I was so in favor of it. What I did not realize was how big and ugly huge cement cinder walls were going to be as I look out my window. So, I'm I'm sure that they have uh planned to do magic with the landscaping. So, I just need some reassurance on that. Yeah, that's correct, Jonah. I believe they'll be doing some color treatments. Really what you're seeing right now is kind of the raw Yeah.

structure as it's getting built. But um there there is some enhancements that will take place before it's finished, including the landscaping. I'd be happy to share that with you. Um I could email you some some You think it's going to be enough to disguise all of that? Well, I mean, you still have the um the bulk of a building there, right? But I I believe the color and the landscaping should should kind of make it blend in a little bit better. Thank you. Any other comments?

Uh, yeah, I just have my usual thing. Um, as you all know, the North County Corridor construction is in full swing. Roseall Avenue is closed as I have spoken with some of the people at the county. Um, and some of the construction supervisors, that plan is that Roselle will be closed for a year. So, that traffic disruption is going to be going on for a while. So I I guess my whole thing is just, you know, be mindful when you're over in that part of town because there's people there's added traffic load now on Clarabel because of that and you know so maybe plan a little extra time to get around doing that. Um but also if you catch me I try to keep up with what's going on with that where they are in the progress. I know a little bit about the phasing in the plan. So if you ever catch me and have questions let me know. I'll be happy to either answer them with what I know or direct them to who could answer them for you. So,

okay. Thank you. Any other commissioner comments? Okay. County referrals, any correspondence or information we need to know from that standpoint? Uh, none. Okay. Then we move on to staff comments.

Yeah, I have just a couple of comments I wanted to share with the commission. Kind of an update. If you remember, um, this commission sat as the appeals board. I think it was last month or so, um, and heard a firework appeal. So, this this past week, city council heard they appealed your decision to the city council. So, the city council heard that case um and ultimately upheld the the violation. So, finally, a little bit of a conclusion to that matter. Um, a few other things I want to mention. Um, next month I I will be planning at the planning commission meeting to hold um kind of two brief presentations just for information for the commission and for our residents as well. Um the first one is just going to be kind of a status of the Crossroads West Shopping Center. Um there's a lot of kind of things going on out there, exciting stuff and I just wanted to share that with everyone. Um the the other thing I wanted to do is hold a housing element update meeting. Uh not a meeting per se, I should say a presentation just to kind of give you and the residents um as well an update of where we're at. Um, and basically where we're at is we're on the second re uh second draft that the state reviewed. The state provided comments. Um, and from those comments, we're kind of addressing each of those. We've got into a little bit of a rough spot trying to meet all the requirements that the state is is forcing on us. So, I just wanted to give kind of a brief overview next month and um hopefully as we kind of get to the conclusion of this. Um, also wanted to share some of the implementation measures that are going to be built into the housing element, stuff that we as the staff at the city will have to conduct as part of our housing element. Um, so that again, that will be next month at our planning commission meeting. And then finally, I just wanted to mention the Riverwalk project still kind of working its way through um our review. We're currently

working on um with the applicant on a development agreement and I I would expect once that development agreement's done, we we'll probably see a public hearing um shortly after. So again, I I'll provide another update next month, but that's kind of where Riverwalk is at the moment. And that's all I had to share. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you very much. It is 6:30. This meeting is adjourned. Our next regular planning commission meeting will be November 18th. There we go.