Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. We'll go ahead and call order to our planning commission meeting on 05/12/2026. Mister commissioner Quell, if you can please lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

Thank you.

Miss Abdullah, if we can please get a roll call.

Commissioner Daley, Commissioner Lopez, Chair Sherick. Commissioner Quail. Vice Chair Ivan Garcia. Present. Commissioner Galande. Commissioner Pratt. Here. Commissioner Carlone. Commissioner Orlando Garcia.

Alright. I'll be reading over the public comment for items listed and not listed on the agenda. I don't have any public comment. Liz?

Hi. I'm sorry. I just wanna clarify. Since we don't have quorum, we won't be able to discuss any of the action items.

So it's the items one, two, and three.

Okay. So yes. And sorry. Correction there. Since we don't have quorum tonight, we're gonna skip our agenda items and jump in right into the nonpublic hearing items.

And we don't know if two commissioners are gonna join later. So Brenda, what was the result of your phone call? Okay. So that means, if you get to Caroloni or Garcia. Okay.

So we're not getting Ronika tonight. All right. I think we can proceed with items four and five, which means for items number one, two and three, you guys are here for items two and three. We have to continue those items. So we need to take an official motion of the planning commission to continue those items since we don't have quorum? Or how does that work?

We can continue the items. Since we don't have quorum, I don't know if we'd be able to vote on that. I don't think since we don't have quorum, we won't be able to do do any motions. So we're just gonna do the two nonpublic, the hearing items.

So we're we're gonna jump the public comments items one, two, and three, and then jump to the non public hearing items

Four five. Four and five.

Mhmm. Okay. So we'll jump into the non public hearing items. Item number four is discussion, the general plan update.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Well, it's definitely a pleasure to be here with you. And by the way, my name is Mark Hoffman. I'm the principal in charge of the general plan project. But it's definitely a pleasure to be here with you on this evening. I know that you've been waiting for quite a long time for the general plan as we have. And we're at the point now where we'd like to be able to present at least the highlights of the general plan and something that you can actually take a look at. You can use this PowerPoint to actually refer back to the general plan and look at different items and it'll help you guide you through.

But before I wanted to get started, also wanted to recognize and extend gratitude to city staff, members of the GPAC, the many stakeholders and residents who also volunteered their time and contributed to this project. Let's see. Our agenda this evening is fivefold. First is an introduction. Second is background information on the 2050 general plan.

The third will be the environmental clearance process, next steps, and finally questions and comments that you might have. So the general plan project, as you know, consists of actually three efforts that are related. The general plan update itself, the development code update, and finally the downtown specific plan. And this evening we're just going to be focusing on the general plan document itself. These plans were actually updated for several key reasons.

The 2005 general plan was actually quite outdated in terms of it was at least twenty years old. Quite a bit of recent legislation had passed. The local economy has changed as well as Secondly, the development code also needed modernizing. With any type of general plan update, it's important to make sure that the development code is modernized so it actually implements the new general plan policy. In addition, the development code needed modernization just because of all the state legislation that's been passed.

The housing legislation alone that's been passed is just incredibly complicated and detailed. And so there were definitely some things that needed to be updated. And then finally, the city has long desired to spur economic development and growth in the downtown centering on the Carousel Mall. That's why the downtown specific crafted to achieve that objective. So what has been the process so far?

We have the whole process consists of about six different phases. The first phase is an existing conditions and trends analysis and report. That was completed in 2021. Then there was a vision statement and the development of that. That occurred also in 2021 to 2022.

The downtown specific plan followed. Most of the work was completed within about a two year of time frame of 2022 to 2023. A little bit into '24, the general plan followed. Now we're currently working on the development code update finishing that off as well as going forward with public hearings, including public hearings eventually for adoption of the general plan. Now the outreach process for the general plan has been extensive and long.

It's been over five years in the making. And just to give you kind of a sense of the efforts that have been involved, there's been probably at least 50 or more meetings with the public, public venues where residents, stakeholders, GPAC members can talk formally and informally about the general plan, what their desires are for the future of the city, and how the general plan might assist in in really realizing those desires for the future. For example, on the workshops on land use and vision, there was over 12 different meetings. Actually it should be there should be four actually there was 14 meetings, two meetings in each of the wards. There were special topic meetings that were conducted, at least a dozen.

Numerous workshops, pop up events, and videos. One of the events you can see there in the sidebar of the PowerPoint. And there was also a community wide vision survey that was conducted. Over 1,500 comments were pulled from that one vision survey. In addition to just broad based community outreach, there's quite a bit of effort with the advisory committees.

And the General Plan Advisory Committee held 14 different meetings over course of several years, and they looked at all the documents and gave ideas and thoughts about each of the different elements and chapters of the General Plan. There was a separate appointed Downtown Advisory Committee that held eight different meetings also looking at that document and what the what the aspirations were for the downtown and how the specific plan could advance those aspirations. The housing element had its own special outreach that was held over several years, countless discussions and meetings with different stakeholders and groups in the city. And all of this is actually posted online at future SB 2,050 if you want to look at any of the results, any of the meetings, the agendas, it's all online. An important part of the general plan effort was really creating a new vision.

And I like to think of it as a new vision for a new era. And you know the question always comes up, why was it even drafted? Well you know priorities change. It's now 2025, 2026. It's much different than when the general plan was first the old general plan was being drafted which is back in the early 2000s.

Completely different time. And the thought with this vision is we wanted to make sure that it was relevant and it really reflected the desires of the community through 2050 and specifically post COVID, post bankruptcy and post redevelopment. Those are some of the key terms that really defined an earlier planning period, earlier types of constraints that you would have, and we're hoping that we have gotten past that and really turned the page, and I'm looking forward to 2050. So what are some of the vision themes? Well the vision is actually a very lengthy vision.

It's in the document. I haven't repeated it all here, but I did want to just pull out a couple phrases because I think the phrases speak to the vision. One is the rich heritage. And as you look through the general plan, I'm hoping that you look, for example, in the cultural resources element, just how much the heritage is of the city. It is incredible.

The history of one hundred and fifty years, or two hundred years almost, since the city's founding. Secondly was the spirit of collaboration. Third, natural and the scenic beauty of the city emphasized in the picture over there on the right, which I believe is the Belvedere neighborhood and the views above that. Equitable treatment of residents, businesses, and community groups. Diverse amenities, amenities, whether it's schools, public services, housing, or a healthy environment.

Strong neighborhoods. A commitment to the advancement of education and skills of all residents so they can actually achieve the dream economically that they wish to. A robust and resilient economy, plenty of transportation choices, and finally valuing the cultural and creative expressions of your residents and groups here in the city. So with that I would like to turn to the next portion which is the components of the general plan. And what I want to do is go through some of the elements or chapters of the general plan, give you kind of a sense of the structure.

And I'm not going to go over every single piece of information. There's 400 pages to look at. But I did want to give you just a high level overview of some of the things to look for. So the structure of the general plan has three kind of basic pieces. One is the introduction.

It's only one chapter of the general plan, but it just sets out the public outreach process, the purpose of the project vision, and other important information just to kind of get you grounded in what the general plan's all about. The second is the elements of the chapters of the general plan. And there are 12. There's a new environmental justice element, there's expanded elements for safety, expanded elements for open space conservation, parks and cultural resources, as well as other topics as well. And finally there's an implementation plan.

Nothing gets done without implementation, and the general plan includes, I put two twenty five, I think it's closer to two fifty programs for implementing the goals and policies of the general plan over the next twenty five years. Now the general plan is structured in two basic the elements are there's two basic types. There's one which are the mandated elements. These are the elements that are required to be included per state law. Land use in urban form, circulation and mobility, housing which is under a separate cover which was adopted back in 2024, open space conservation, public safety and noise.

Those are the mandated required elements. Now there are a number optional elements that are chapters that your general plan has. And the way state law is set up is that a city is free to choose optional elements for topics that are of importance the city. And there are six of them. Parks, recreation and trails, there's a very thorough update of that chapter. Public facilities and services. Economic development, there's a very significant update of the cultural resources chapter. Utilities infrastructure, and finally health and environmental justice. There's actually an optional element. You can do it by integrating that element throughout the general plan.

But in this case, it's a stand alone chapter of the general plan. So let's talk about land use in urban form. Now as you probably know, the land use element is it essentially establishes a plan for the type, the intensity or density, the location, and the quality of land uses in the city. And it includes at least these five components, which is a land use designations in the plan, which is residential, commercial, industrial, etcetera, and the plan itself or the map. It includes references to specific plans, overlays, and the map that's associated with that.

It has a build out for 2050, urban form, community design section, and then special, a special focused area section where there's 10 different focus areas with policies for each of those. Here's the map as has been drafted. And I'm sure you'll be getting very, very familiar with that, with this map and the new language and terminology for each of the districts. So some of the significant changes in the element. In the past the general plan had numerous, numerous land use districts to the point that it actually was getting somewhat confusing and overlapping.

And so an effort was made to consolidate the land use districts from 25 down to 12. This is a general plan, so we're trying to keep it general. We'll let the zoning do the work of the nitty gritty and divvying up things into specific zones. But in terms of general land use classifications it would be now 12. Before you had the foundation component, then you had the general plan land use designations, and then the implemented zones.

Now it's just going to be 12 consolidated land use districts. In addition, we added three new mixed use districts, and we'll get into that and the reason for that. Third, we realigned the strategy and focus areas and reduced them to 10. Now the focus areas and strategy areas, you used to have that in the old general plan if you recall, but they were called something different. There was redevelopment project areas. There were corridor plans. There were different strategy areas. Now we've kind of combined that, taken some out, retooled them. It's now down to 10. Fourthly, we added high level community design guidance.

There's no longer a community design element. It's now integrated as part of the land use chapter. And then finally there was also a focus on sustainable and resilient development. This is just a few. There's quite a bit more that's involved.

And so when you look at all of this and you look at the project impacts, this is more of an EIR topic, but over the next twenty five years we could expect up to 36,000 new homes, 64,000 residents, 61,000 or 60,500 jobs. And this is for the entire planning area. The city, the unincorporated areas, the islands, Muskoye, the whole area that comprises the city's incorporated area and its sphere of influence. Now getting to the nitty gritty here on the land use designation changes. As I mentioned earlier, the general plan does consolidate residential land use districts.

Now the densities have been raised in some of the categories, and the reason why they've been raised is that there are quite a few non conforming uses. And so what we try to do is create categories that capture some of those non conforming uses that allow people to continue to kind of reinvest and change and make changes to their property, but just kind of clean it up. Because many of the residential districts have changed significantly over time. In addition, what we did is we raised the densities for the medium and the high density class ifications specifically for the housing element. Now your housing element, the seventh cycle is going to be starting.

It's going to be starting probably in about a year and a half. And so we're trying to set the stage now to kind of position yourself to be able to respond to the new housing numbers without having to go through and do a full rezone and change the general plan. So in terms of the categories that you'll have now, it's residential estate. There's been no change in anything for that. There'll be residential low category.

That now comprises two of the original residential low categories that you had. You'll have a residential suburban category where the densities are higher than what it was in the past. It's 7.2 now dwelling units per acre versus 4.5. We combine the residential urban and medium density, and it's now just residential medium at 16 units per acre. And the residential medium high and high has been combined into just residential high.

We set it at 32 dwelling units per acre because that is that is designed specifically for state law and specifically for the housing requirements. Now you still have one zone out there that's special zone for the housing element that will extend till probably 2027. And that's just at the very highest category at 55 units per acre and above. That will probably eventually be taken out. And you'll just have a residential high classification.

Commercial districts. Same store. You had quite a few commercial districts. It's now reduced to three commercial districts. A commercial neighborhood, which is small time retail grocery store, corner store types of arrangements, to commercial corridor. Much of your commercial area right now is along your long corridors, whether it's Highland. And you've got a lot of long, very long commercial corridors. We're changing the designation, so now it's commercial corridor. There were five commercial general densities and classifications. Now it's just one.

And then a regional commercial. There were five regional commercial districts. Now there will just be one, but still have a tier of densities. Now we did add housing to each of those commercial districts. The reason being is that it's because of change in state law, which requires cities to allow housing on commercial sites, along commercial corridors.

But we kept the densities low and purposely low because we want to still incentivize commercial development along those areas, but we do have to allow for housing. So it's at 16 dwelling units per acre. And it's basically you're looking at townhomes townhome developments. Three new mixed use districts were also added: a mixed use neighborhood, mixed use corridor, and a mixed use center. And if you look back at the commercial districts, you have a commercial neighborhood, corridor, and regional commercial.

So we have somewhat of a similar parallel arrangement just for the mixed uses. The densities also standards are generally the same whether you're on the commercial corridor or However, the main difference is that the densities are much higher. Mixed use neighborhood goes up to 32 dwelling units per acre, up to 40 for mixed use corridors, and 60 for mixed use centers. And that's because you need the densities when you're going have a mixed use product to make it financially feasible and actually get the units built. So additional density for mixed uses, whether it's a vertical mixed use or whether it's a horizontal mixed use, in select areas of the city.

And the areas are predominantly along three or four major corridors. That's kind of where the mixed use is designed to occur. And it's I guess it's fortuitous to some extent. One of the things that we wanted to use in the last housing element is we wanted to get credit for some of the mixed use projects and the interest in mixed use in the city, but we weren't able to do that because there was not a history. And here you have, we already know now three or four products have been approved recently for small time mixed use.

And so there may be a market that's developing for this. And finally for industrial districts, the five industrial districts will be reduced to three. There's an Industrial Flex District now, which is a combination of your industrial office park and your light industrial. Now it's just called Industrial Flex. It can go both ways.

We have a general industrial district, which is largely unchanged, and an industrial extractive district for mineral production. It's completely changed as well. So really the only one that changed there was the Industrial Flex. And we added a little bit of FAR to include an incentive to put out offices that are attached to these industrial products. That's also good for sales tax as well if they happen to have a sales office.

So moving on to circulation and mobility. As you know, the circulation element is basically a plan for the safe and efficient movement of people and goods in a variety of different ways. And it typically includes the future roadway system, how vehicles circulate, and the level of service. There's always a section on active transportation, public transit, goods movement, which is trucking, rail, air, and some additional specialized topics. And some of the significant changes to the element are it expands and prioritizes pedestrian infrastructure citywide to promote walkability.

There's a definite you'll see it. There's a definite prioritization of getting more people out there walking and and being more active. Much like what your project's doing. I believe you have one up on Highland right now where you're looking at different types of options to get people active out there on the sidewalks and, and to make those street, make that street safe. Secondly, the circulation chapter, it expands the proposed bicycle route map by about 40 lane miles.

Third, it updates transit policies for bus, air and railways. And then finally, it focuses or refocuses truck routes in industrial areas in the Southern portion of San Bernardino. This is actually a very significant change. In your last general plan, trucking was allowed any place. And you had, you could take a truck any place, residential streets included.

There was obviously an extensive process to reduce the number of truck routes to those that are needed for industrial purposes and and deliveries to commercial, businesses, but limited to areas where the circulate where the trucks need to go, not necessarily everywhere in the city. The third chapter is economic development. And this is a plan for developing the local economy, equipping your workforce to be productive and competitive in the local economy, and generating revenues that can be reinvested into services for the community. And so typically we have policies to retain, attract, and expand business opportunities. There's also policies for activity centers, districts, and corridors.

So when you think back to when I mentioned the mixed use corridor, or the mixed use center, or know, other types of districts, that's what this is for. Policies for improving economic security and work force development, and also for the long term fiscal health and resilience of the city. So what are the significant changes to the element? And you'll see in this graph there's a map along the side. These are now the focus areas that were that we have economic development policies called for.

And just to remember, there's doesn't mean that the city is not looking at all of its areas for economic development. These are the ones that are just included particular moment. And also, just to also backtrack, you have additional specific plans that also have economic development efforts that are not necessarily shown on this map. So it's not necessarily exclusive. But what this map does is it deletes all the old redevelopment project areas that were phased out in 2013 and converts them to focus areas.

And it includes policy guidance for existing and emerging focus areas such as the auto center that wasn't particularly a focus in the last general plan. It will be in this one. The greater downtown, Hospitality Lane, and many other areas of the city as well. And then also finally we'll have some policies on fiscal resiliency and having stronger economic development program. Public facilities and services is the next chapter.

This was not changed as much. It's a plan for providing essential services that maintain and improve the quality of life. As recall, it includes education in libraries, healthcare facilities, community fire, police services, and environmental programs. The key change goes, it's really threefold. One is there's a, there are new policies on expanding and growing the local health professions and medical care sector.

We do think, and we've noticed that there's been quite a bit of movement in the medical sector, recently, and we'd like to see that continue. You've got, several hospitals. You've got clinics coming in the community. There's a lot of growth that can be seen in that area. There are also updated policies on environmental programs, whether it's urban forestry, new mandates for waste management, code enforcement, and finally some new policies on capital improvement planning.

Utilities and infrastructure. It's an element or chapter that you had in your last general plan. It's the plan, it's the city's long term strategy for developing, operating, and maintaining utility infrastructure and services. And it typically includes, this one does, wastewater, water resources, storm drain, energy resources, and telecommunications. Now this is obviously a a high level document.

You've got the city has to prepare a number of master plans beneath the general plan that are driving policy and capital improvements. So this element is designed just to hit the top and and provide an umbrella for those efforts. Some of the significant changes is that the former energy and water conservation element is pulled into this element now. It's no longer a separate element. And that's because energy and water conservation, it is now standard practice for utilities and infrastructure.

It's no longer something different. It's either integrated or it's not even active. So we pulled it all together because it's just more in line with what's currently happening on the ground. We also have new policies and stronger ones for water resilience and energy resilience. One of the most interesting things that we discovered, at least in doing this general plan, is the policies and all the projects that are dealing with renewable energy generation, whether it's solar, fuel cell, methane, and other types of alternative energy sources in the city, it's actually happening.

Now the Parks and Recreation and Trails chapter, that was always a chapter of the General Plan. And it's a long term strategy for developing, operating and managing your park and recreation facilities. It's not the same as the park and recreation master plan. This is a twenty five year plan. The park and rec master plan is a five year plan that looks more incremental developments to specific facilities.

The general plan looks at, will have a section on parks and open space, park and facility design, recreational programs, and bicycle and multi use trails. And some of the significant changes to this chapter include an equity analysis per recently passed Senate Bill fourteen twenty five that looks at the location and the accessibility of parks and recreational facilities by neighborhood. So you'll be able to go on there in that element and you'll be able to look at maps and see how accessible parks and senior centers and community centers are for different neighborhoods. There's also more park facility guidance and on expanding the number and size of park acreage in the community. We have a renewed section on recreational programs that's been expanded and also very strong policies for developing and expanding the system of multi use trails in the city.

Next chapter is open space and conservation. This chapter outlines the city's long term strategy for managing, protecting, and balancing the natural resources in the community. And this is probably one of the most significantly changed chapters of the general plan because of new legislation, SB fourteen twenty five, AB eighteen eighty nine, and all the new environmental mandates that have come out. And this, chapter looks at the natural features of the city, topography, waterways, etcetera, the biological resources, the water resources, your natural resources in terms of minerals, and air quality. So what are some of the changes to this chapter?

There's discussion of the city's natural setting, topography, waterways, habitats, sensitive species, and whatnot. Secondly, there's strong policy guidance on preserving open space, conserving habitat, and enhancing wildlife corridors and watershed management. Now we recognize that the city is not solely or even the lead agency in charge of achieving these objectives, but it's really working with your partners, your water agencies that are already undertaking this. And then finally, very strong policies for improving air quality via whether it's alternative fuels, green infrastructure, reduction of indirect source pollution, alternative transit, etcetera. So we're getting close to the end here.

The cultural resources chapter is next. And the purpose of this chapter is to recognize and firm and enhance the city's rich heritage and cultural resources. And the chapter includes four topics, historic resources, paleontological resources, archeological resources, and cultural resources. Significant change to this chapter include a recognition and a rich description of the city's history, historic structures and monuments, art, cultural landscapes, urban traces, oral history and culture. It's quite a bit in that paragraph.

But your prior general plan looked at only those structures that fit the state or federal classification for what's historic and worthy of preservation. But when you really look deeper at the city, there's quite a bit more. There's a history that comes with it. Many of your structures and streets all have names and histories to them that speak volumes to the history of the city, but really were not recognized in the prior general plan cultural. And actually the old title was archaeological and historic resources element.

Now it's broader, cultural resources. And so we do have strong policy guidance for establishing a cultural resources program As well as new policy guidelines for amplifying and growing the city's kind of burgeoning creative arts scene including performing arts, visual arts and other artistic expressions. And finally, health and environmental justice. This comes, on the heels of the adoption by the state legislature of Senate Bill 1,000 that requires environmental justice. And the purpose is to create and sustain a clean and healthful environment for residents for all neighborhoods.

And the topics that this chapter discusses includes reduction in exposure to pollution, adequate public facilities and services, diverse supply of affordable and and high quality housing, opportunities for healthy food, physical activity, and sustained community engagement and involvement. This element is entirely new. There's nothing like it that was in the earlier general plan. So some of the significant changes that you'll see in this element are things that are elevated. It elevates the importance of health and well-being of residents as a critical issue for residents.

And to some extent it mirrors what's been happening in your health care sector with hospitals, it's opening up new clinics, you know, just new organizations that promote health. And it also provides guidance for how to improve the health of the community, Expanding parks, bicycle routes and trails. Supporting and expanding healthcare. Expanding access to healthier foods. Reducing exposure to pollution.

And also equalizing access to your public facilities and your services. And then finally for public safety, it outlines the city's natural and human cost hazards and a plan for effective response. This element was also significantly up updated. There's been a lot of new legislation on wildfire, new legislation when it comes to evacuation emergency response, and other types of hazards. And so this was a very significant update.

But it includes a discussion and description of the natural hazards, fire, flood, weather related, human caused hazards, as well as emergency planning and evacuation and response. Some of the significant changes, very strong policies for wildfire threats that are required by the state. Right now the state, Cal Fire, is reviewing the city's new safety element for compliance. I think we're gonna get it in compliance. So that should be welcomed.

Also, responds to changes in the natural hazard patterns and updated guidance on emergency response. And finally, the last chapter of the general plan is the implementation. And under a separate cover, the 2050 general plan will have approximately two fifty programs. We know that many of them are already being worked on. They're state mandates.

But there are also some many new programs that should be pursued as funding is available and as staff resources are available to implement the general plan. Now implementation plan, it does not take the place of the five year capital improvement plan. That's still a separate capital improvement plan. And all of the master plans that you prepare, whether it's your water system master plan, whether it's drainage master plan, those have all their capital improvements as well. This is just kind of layered on top of that.

So now moving to the environmental clearance process. CEQA. The purpose of that is to disclose project impacts to the public and decision makers and identify ways to avoid reduce environmental impacts. The EIR will cover three documents. It will cover the general plan, the downtown specific plan, and the development code simultaneously. EIR topics will be the standard topics that you always see for all of your projects. This is the process. I'm not going to go through each of the details. I'm sure you're aware of all of these details. There are a number of steps that are involved.

It's all legislatively defined time frames that we're currently in the process of doing. And we're right now, we're preparing the final EIR. So we're midway through the process. And so how do we get to the finish line here? Well, tonight we have our study session. We're gonna have another study session in May before the city council. The public review general plan update will be posted again on the general plan website. Right now the version that's posted is as of December 2025. You'll see a new one being posted at the end of the month. Give a day or two.

It's going to be at the May. That will be the one that kind of commences the public review process. And at that same time, the environmental document will be released as well for public review. So whenever those two are going to go together, so if the environmental document takes another couple days, we'll make sure that it all goes together. The final EIR will be complete in 09/26/2026.

And then public hearings before the planning commission, you'll see this again. And city council will follow in October, November, however they however long they should last. And that concludes my presentation, and I'm open for any questions that you might have. Questions, comments, thoughts?

Mister Hoffman, thank you. Commissioner, Benjamin, you have questions? Sorry. Does

completion of the EIR also mean approval from the state? Does that mean it's just a finalized document? Yes. Okay.

Now we may receive comments from third parties. We probably will. But they're not going to it's not like the housing element or the safety element where it goes to a different agency and then they have to sign off on it.

You.

Mr. Chair, I have a question. Go ahead, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions actually. I've seen

quite a

few of these. I've been through a few of these. I've been around here a long time. What is this costing the city to prepare all this information? Is there a price on

it?

Yes, there is.

Commissioner Kuo, as you may recall, this whole process started back in, about 2022 or thereabouts when we received a $3,000,000, stipend from the state. Okay. It started with that, and then we had a couple of PLHA funds. And in total, I think, at this particular time, now don't get staggered by the price I'm going to give you, but just realize that it's the general plan, it's a zoning code, it's a zoning map, it's a downtown specific plan. So all these things are combined.

And right now, we're on the kind of a $4,500,000 range. How much? $4,500,000 Okay.

I didn't hear anything in the plan with reference to marketing our city. Is that supposed to be in this plan?

Yes. Now in each of the chapters of the general plan, there are and I'm trying to think of the sections that have marketing. In the economic development chapter, there's quite a bit of marketing about the city. Okay.

And who does this marketing? Is there a redevelopment agency?

No. It would come from it would come from city staff, you know, department that would be assigned to do that.

Okay. So that's called out in the plan and that will be implemented then?

Now what we can also do is we can also go back and take a look at the implementation plan which essentially are the programs, the to do list, and make sure that there is a strong focus on marketing, that's something that we can definitely can do. We do have it. We do have it in the general plan already, but it sounds like to me that you're looking for something very substantial.

Well, I think it's pretty obvious that we are lacking that in our community. And I think some sort of marketing element would be real beneficial. Thank you.

Mr. Hoffman, my questions are related to coordination among the general plan, the development code, and the downtown specific plan. When when are those plans or code or administrative codes, when are those gonna be released or updated? Or how how are we tracking amendments to these plans?

Well, the develop let's see. We'll start with the develop not the development code, the downtown specific plan. So that will be updated at the same time. It will go to public hearing at the same time as the EIR and the general plan. So once that EIR is released for public review, it'll come in a package and it will be the downtown specific plan, the general plan, and the EIR.

Now the development code is still getting worked out. It may not be. It's unclear whether we'll have that at the exact same time that the environmental EIR is released, but that will be coming shortly as well. The intent is when this finally goes to council, planning commission, city council in the public review stage, all three will be ready to go at that point. So so you so in terms of the time frame, I believe your public hearings are going to be in October and November. All the documents will be will be available at that time.

I guess my question is how are we coordinating and tracking amendments? The other question that I had is, is this general plan gonna have some sort of standards like max heights? Is that all gonna be updated specifically our downtown? Like, what's the maximum skyscraper height? How are we coordinating, again, all

general plan? Commissioner Garcia, if I may answer that question. Tracking updates to the general plan, that is something that we would do at a staff level. Now if your question is our last general plan update was 2005. If your question is how many updates have we had to that general plan up to now, we can provide you with that information.

So with this new general plan, we're starting kind of all over again, so which means any updates to this general plan, we don't anticipate having any anytime soon after the adoption because this is an exercise for which we should have been able to, kind of look at some of those problematic land uses and kind of incorporate them. But that doesn't prevent a third party for wanting to do something totally different And then they would apply for a general fund amendment and a zone change. And it's really up to staff and the Planning Commission to make a determination as to whether or not they want to entertain that. Under state law, we're allowed four amendments a year, but we can combine several amendments into one amendment, but we can't do more than four in each calendar year. So that answers the question.

Regarding the coordination between land use and the general plan, I just want to clarify what Mark mentioned earlier. We are currently working on a land use table as we speak because when so we are making sure that all the concerns, issues, kind of some of those ancillary land uses for which we don't have a category for or we don't have a process for, we're making sure that we're documenting them and we're making those updates and changes to the land use plan as well and also to the land use map. So by the time this goes to hearing, we would have the zoning code, which is a development code, which is the land use, which includes a land use table. We would have the land use map. We would have the general plan map, which you have just seen.

And we would have the downtown specific plan. So two documents have those standards you were talking about. The development code would have standards for height, setback, lot coverage, etcetera, etcetera, just like it is now. And then specifically, the downtown specific plan would have its own specific standards for, you know, lot coverage, setbacks, heights, and so on and so forth in the core downtown area. So that that's that's how these documents would be set up.

And just for clarification, so who who's taking the lead on each of these? Is this is that mister Mark Hoffman? Or I guess I I'm interested in what teams are working together to coordinate this.

Mister mister Hoffman and his firm are the consultants to the city on the process. Once the general plan updates and all the documents, is basically approved by hopefully by the end of this year, then, their function would be over unless there's things that were left behind that they need to kinda close the loop on. Then it becomes a document of the city, it becomes a document of the planning commission, and we take the document and we work with it going forward.

And then another thing that I had a question on is, are there any guidelines, procedures, standard operating procedures that are going to be part of this plan? And our plan's gonna be readily available. I know we've gone over the elements housing plan, the TOD, communication towers, and basically maps of all the environmental, truck routes we've we've spoken in the past about. So I'm I'm just curious to know, are those all gonna be somehow incorporated into these plans or readily available once they're approved, as final?

Commissioner Garcia I'm sorry. Vice Vice Chair Garcia, in each element of the general plan, let's take the circulation element, for example. So any kind of plans related to transportation, policies, goals, etcetera, etcetera, would be included in that circulation element. In a land use element, same thing, maps, zoning districts, land use tables, building standards, parking requirements would be included in the land use element. You take, air quality, same thing.

So anything related to each particular element of the general plan will have its individual maps and plans and standards and policies and goals. Now bear in mind that a general plan document is a master plan document. It is it sets the table. It provides guidelines. The zoning code, development standards, development code is the actual nuts and bolts of the land use, element of a general plan.

That is where all the nuances, building heights, policies, planning commission responsibilities and how you approve and disapprove projects, etcetera, etcetera, would be included in that, including your planning commission handbook. So that is how, this document is going to be set up.

Just my last question, unless commissioners have any other questions. Can you mister Hoffman, can you or her staff, can you guys elaborate on I know we went from four zoning, commercial zoning categories. What the advantage or disadvantage was from going from four commercial zones to just one. Can we talk more about that? Mark? Sure.

In talking with staff, what we found is that many of the different commercial districts, the uses were very similar. There wasn't a lot of, you know, a great level of differentiation between many of the commercial districts and so it called into the question why have CG1 and CG2 or when the permitted uses were fairly close. And so the thought was that rather than have a general plan land use designation for each individual nuanced change, just have a general commercial classification And then you still have so you can simplify that and then also simplify the zones. It doesn't mean that you're really discouraging commercial per se because commercial's gonna go where it's gonna go. And I I I don't think anybody wants to really impede that unless it's inconsistent with the surrounding territory.

But it just seemed as that because of the the allowed uses were so similar that it it didn't make sense to have as many categories and to keep it as as simple as possible.

My question is, is it October, November is the timeline for the city council finalizing? Once the new general plan begins implementation, will none of that implementation will be retroactive on any projects that pulled? Or will it be retroactive to projects that are currently in the permitting process?

So, if we have projects that are currently, that are current that we are currently working on that were submitted, under the old general plan for example. I think we're gonna continue to process those. One of the goals of this exercise is to try as much as possible to not make any of the existing land uses legal non conforming. We don't want to create additional problems than they currently are. So we've tried as much as possible to make sure that we're able to balance some of the existing land uses.

Now beginning this year, we have told applicants that we are anticipating adoption of a new general plan and a new zoning code and development projects going forward, even though we don't have the general plan adopted yet, that is those are the guidelines that we would have to follow so that we don't continue to foster submittal of applications under the old general plan. And quite frankly, you know, the twenty twenty two thousand and five plan and a 2050 plan, Most of the land uses, most of the assumptions are relatively the same, but there's a lot of updates to them. And so as we encounter any of any kind of problematic, oh, we've been doing this at this location for so many years, you're going to change the zoning, we look at those kinds of situations and see, do we want to retain the old zoning or do we want to provide a new classification to it or how do we want to proceed going forward? So that's how we've been able to manage that.

I have one more if you don't mind, Vice Chair. This is probably kind of a minor part of the general plan, but it just piqued my interest when we talked on when you spoke about conservation

Mhmm.

And, you know, us not being the lead agency. Am I correct to assume that the lead agency is just whoever owns the land? I mean, you know, if it's BLM land, would coordinate with BLM not to be in any violation. And all of that coordination would probably take place before it ever got to this body. Correct?

It's already probably occurring. Yes. So for example, there are quite a few water management projects that are occurring that are done through your regional water providers. They're done through, for example, all the work that's been done with the Sterling Natural Resource Center, moving the recycled water out to Highland where it goes into the drainage areas there because they're doing restoration work. It's not it's not per se under under you know, MWD might have some responsibility, know, San Bernardino Municipal Water District. Mhmm. But in terms of the planning permission here, probably not.

Probably not. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Mhmm.

Mister Goldman, please.

Sorry. Just one last question. I know you mentioned Cal State Fire is reviewing the fire hazardous Cal Fire. Or Cal Fire, I'm sorry. Can you give just more elaboration on when we can expect that or if you can just kind of summarize where they stand on the reviewer updates?

Sure. In terms of the CAL FIRE review, we received notification from them early this week. They're good with the element. They do want one change, and that's to have more support of some of the fire reduction policies that are in the foothills. Like they have you know policies for you know clearance and and you know fire like vegetation clearance types of policies. I believe that's that's their question. And so we have a policy that we included, and they said with that one policy that that could be included, they think it's gonna be approved. So so far so good.

Alright. Thank you. No no further questions? Alright. We'll go ahead and move on to item number five, which is the discussion of the Planning Commission Academy.

Okay. Hi everyone. I'm here today to help lead our to help lead our Planning Commission Academy. This is gonna be a short refresher on various topics that are relevant to your work as a Planning Commissioner. And rather than doing boring gold presentation, we're gonna do Jeopardy.

So each of you will be on your own team and we'll go through I'll read off the categories and then each of you will get opportunity to select a category at an amount. I'll read out the answer, you'll give me the question and you'll get the points. If you're not able to one second. If you're not able to answer the question, I'll give you thirty seconds and then I'll open it up to the other commissioners who can steal those points. Whoever has the most points at the end will win and you'll get the bragging rights for the rest of the year.

Absolutely. As you should. All right, so let's get started. Okay. So we will start with Vice Chair Garcia. Oh, me say it, the categories are public meetings, public participation, public integrity, planning and miscellaneous topics.

I'll go with public meetings 100. Okay.

This law requires that all meetings shall be open and public unless authorized otherwise. In the form of a question, please. That is incorrect. Yes. Correct. A 100 points for you, and I will try to keep track of the points as best I can.

Oh,

yes, please. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Alright.

So Prat gets to pick.

Yep. Commissioner Prat, you're next.

Public integrity for 100.

Alright. This form is required for from filers when assuming office and annually thereafter and upon leaving office.

What is form 700? Correct. And

I'll just give a little brief statement. So the forms 700 is just a statement of the economic interest that each elected official or public employee must complete. It just ensures transparency and accountability by giving the public the information regarding your financial financial interest to ensure that you're making proper, proper decisions. And it also helps remind you about the conflicts of interest. Next. Commissioner Quill.

I'll take miss Elaine's for 200.

Alright. The Planning Commission may initiate this type of hearing to reevaluate previously approved entitlements if all of the findings cannot be made anymore, typically because of unintended impacts to the community or noncompliance with conditions of approval?

Would it be a public meeting?

That is incorrect. Other commissioners?

Do we lose points if we guess wrong?

Not this time. No? The correct answer is what is a revocation hearing? Next one, Chair Garcia, Vice Chair Garcia.

I'll take Planning 100.

Alright. This specifies what kind of development should go where and details the standards that developments need to adhere by including density, heights, and parking.

Land use and zoning.

In the form of a question, please.

Which would be considered a land land use? What is? What is? What is? Sorry. Land use.

Continue. What is land use?

In planning?

You it the first time.

And zoning.

There we go. Correct answer is what is zoning? Alright. Commissioner Pratt. Public participation for 400. Alright. Filming or live streaming during a planning commission meeting is generally allowed by this law.

What is the Brown Act?

Correct. So as you know, the Brown Act does allow recording of meetings so long as it's not disruptive to the procedure of the meeting and there was a recent law that passed that actually updated this rule and allows you to record using your phone, camera, video. Prior to this law passing, you could only use audio visual recorders. A little update there. Alright. Commissioner Quill?

Public meeting for 200.

Any congregation of a majority of the members of a legislative body at the same time and location, including teleconference location as permitted by government code section five four nine five three to hear, discuss, deliberate, or take action on any item that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body. That's incorrect. That is also incorrect.

A meeting? What is a

meeting? Correct. Meetings are covered under the Brown Act and it's important to note just how broadly the meetings are defined and this is just to ensure that members and legislative bodies have their conversations in public and they're not done in secret.

I was just gonna say Brown Act again. Close.

Who was next? I just forgot. I think it's Vice Chair Garcia.

I'll do a public participation 100.

This item on the agenda provides the public the ability to address the Planning Commission on any matter within the subject matter subject matter jurisdiction of the commission. Correct. Commissioner Pratt?

Public meetings for 300. This

person may have an individual removed for disturbing a meeting of the body after being warned that their behavior is disruptive.

Who is the sergeant of arms?

Could you repeat that?

Who is the sergeant of arms? Who is the sergeant at arms?

I want to allow it, but technically that's incorrect answer. I'll accept that. The the specific response was who is the presiding member of the legislative body, but that would be the chair in this instance so that's correct. Commissioner Quill? Miscellaneous for 100.

Common blank include limited hours of operation, road improvements, soundproofing, additional landscaping and additional parking.

What is planning?

That is incorrect. Yes. What are ordinances? That is also incorrect.

Common law? I'm not sure.

So the correct answer is what are conditions of approval? All right. Vice Chair Garcia.

I'll take the planning 200.

For general plan adoption or amendments, the state planning and zoning law requires that the Planning Commission provide this. That is incorrect. That is also incorrect. Okay. The correct answer was what is a recommendation?

Chair Pratt I mean Commissioner Pratt.

Public integrity 300.

When an official's property boundary is within the radius of the property subject a decision, the official may not participate unless there is clear and convincing evidence that the decision will not have any measurable impact on the official's property.

Is there a question in it? I'm to see if

I This radius.

Say again?

When an official's property boundary is within this radius Got

it.

What is 500 yards? Very

close. Which is 500 feet. Correct. So this is actually part of the political reform act. If you're outside of the 500 foot mark, you should still consider some other factors to determine if you should recuse yourself.

This would include potential for development, potential for income production, and additional use of your property. If you're within the 500 foot, it's also recommended that you receive written advice from the FPPC to allow participation. There's also a catchall provision of the Political Reform act where if a reasonable a reasonably prudent person might believe that the decision, it has a foreseeable effect to to influence your property value that you should also recuse yourself. So just keep those in mind. Commissioner Quote.

Public integrity. This law prohibits a public official at any level of state or local government from making, participating in making or attempting to use the official's position to influence a governmental decision in which the official knows or has reason to know the official has a financial interest.

What is conflict of interest?

That's incorrect.

What

is FPPC? That's also incorrect. Closer. Yeah. You're getting close. Any other guesses?

Can I get a 150 points?

The correct answer is the political reform act. This also is known as prop nine. It's just a set of laws that govern ethics, campaign, finance, conflict of interest and fun fact, this actually was in addition to this was created in addition to the FPPC which was created right after Watergate. So both of these came as a reason of Water gate. So without that, we might not have this.

Which are related to conflicts and contracts specifically. And then you have the third bucket, which predates all the statutes, which is the common law, which is the law. And so you have what's called common law conflict of interest doctrine, which gets at predominantly the appearance of impropriety, the appearance of conflict of interest. So the pro tip for all of you is if you think you have a conflict, all these things are very, very fact intensive. Reach out to staff and release as early as possible.

This if you think you might have a conflict, because they're fast and sensitive. We can't give you good advice if you have some time to research it. And so review the agenda in advance, identify if you think you might have a conflict, and then reach out to them until they have some time to give you some good advice.

And if there's no time, probably just recuse that of safety rate?

As yeah. As a prophylactic, that's probably good. Mhmm.

I'll split that with you.

Just to interrupt, just to turn on your mics when providing your answers or speaking at all.

Sorry. Alright.

Next is vice chair Garcia.

I'll take public participation for 200.

This type of speech is not protected protected during during public public comment. Comment.

The non public hearing? Incorrect.

Yes. What is hate speech?

I will accept that. No? No. Come on, man. Incorrect. Go ahead and show the answer. The answer is what are threats of

person that Okay. So racist speech, xenophobic speech, sexist speech, white nationalist nationalist speech, all that is protected by the person. Where it becomes illegal is if it involves a threat. So it's a difference between saying, I don't like you because you're a black person versus I don't you like because you're a black person, and I'm gonna walk you out to your car and come back to see you again. The first one is protected by the first of matter. The second is not because it involves a threat.

I mean, threats are implied in hate speech, though, I think. Aren't they? The law does not recognize it that way.

So saying racist things is protected by the person. And if you cannot shut it down, you cannot reduce their demand, you cannot shut

Excuse me.

Alright. Commissioner Pratt, you're up.

Hold on. I'm dying. You're okay. How about public participation for 300?

This law effective 01/01/2026 and partially on 07/01/2026 requires eligible legislative bodies to provide two way teleconferencing, allow remote participation and potentially translate agendas.

I don't know.

Okay. Any other commissioners? No? So this one is what is SB seven zero seven? This just passed late twenty twenty five but it went into effect as of January 1 for most of the provisions.

This just corrected and revised various sections of the Brown Act but it also included these new regulations and rules regarding requiring two way audio visual or two way telephonic service. Now given that the commission does not qualify as a eligible legislative body, that particular provision would not apply to you. It would apply to the city council and to other larger special districts. Commissioner Quill?

Planning a for 300.

Development has secured all the needed local government approvals also known as entitlements.

What is planning approval?

That's incorrect. CUP? That's also incorrect. The correct answer is what is the building phase? So by this point, you've already gone through getting the permits, the allowances, you've done the budget, the financing, all the pre construction, and now you're at this point where you're finally getting to actually build. All right. Vice Chair Garcia.

I'll take Mr. Williams for 300.

Type of hearings focus on applying existing ordinances to particular facts such as zoning variances or license revocations requiring impartial decision making. Any other commissioners?

What is public hearing?

That's incorrect. Anyone else? The correct answer is, what is a quasi judicial hearing? This is different from a judicial hearing just because a judicial hearing would involve a court or a judge. What the commission does is the commission holds these quasi judicial hearings which involve both considering considering the existing laws and ordinances and regulations and applying them to a set of specific facts and then making a decision. So it's judicial in the fact that you're taking law and you're taking facts and you're looking at them and giving some sort of outcome which is similar to what a judge would do in court. But it's just quasi because we're not in a courtroom.

So what you normally have is you know, like when you when the general plan is gonna come to you, that's a legislative decision. You're looking at law opposed new law and amendment to the law. That's gonna affect everybody or a large group of people generally. Quasi judicial hearing, like, do remember the replication hearing that you guys did on the Motel six University? And that was a quasi judicial hearing.

We were looking at specific facts presented by staff coming from their investigation by going to the site, talking through their investigation, and then you were looking at the code and looking at what specific findings qualified to revoke that CUP holder's CUP and see if it matches up. Are there enough facts to meet one of these findings to revoke the CUP? So that's an example of a quadratic judicial review that you recently.

We'll go on to our next one. I think you're next. Yeah.

Public integrity 400.

There are instances where there is no conflict of interest violation under the political form act or of the government code section ten ninety, but still potentially a conflict under this other source of law? Not sure. Okay. Any other commissioners? No.

But close? Okay. The correct answer is what is the common law conflict of interest? So it was that third bucket that we talked about. These are gonna be based in court decisions from judges or appellate decisions.

Most commonly, there's gonna be a conflict that applies even if there's just the appearance of impropriety. It doesn't have to involve financial interests, it can involve personal matters or relationships. A recent example is that the Attorney General concluded adult child of a commissioner for instance could apply for a permit, but the commissioner should recuse themselves just because of the appearance of impropriety and that personal relationship. So even if you have nothing to do with their permit or their business or anything, just the fact that you're related to that person, you have a close relationship to that person, the common law would find there be a would find that there would be a conflict of interest there.

What if you have a relationship, to where you're, for instance, on a board with an individual or relate not related, but associated with an individual

Mhmm.

In some business, but you don't have business together. So I mean, if you know the person, is it common law? I mean, interest?

It's gonna it's gonna depend on on the appearance of impropriety. So if you have no relation to that person, you don't know them at all, you don't talk to them, they're literally just another person that's on the same board as you, that's probably less likely to be a conflict of interest as compared to this is someone that I'm friends with, we're on a board together, but I'm not involved in their business. That could still show an impropriety and present a potential conflict. Yeah. All right. Who's next? Commissioner Quill, I think you're next. Commissioner Quill, yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Planning for 400.

This kind of plan can be considered a super zoning ordinance that can dictate architectural styles, landscaping requirements, parking requirements, etcetera. We just talked about these. I know.

That's why it's driving me crazy. I'm

recap that.

Ivan's using Google. I'm

gonna have to skip on that one. I know that there's an answer because we just talked about it.

Any other commissioners? Incorrect. What else? The correct answer is Pacific plan?

Yes.

Yes. There we go.

Good job.

Snuck in there. All right. Vice Chair Garcia?

I'll take the miscellaneous 400.

AB 2,904 effective 01/01/2025 requires cities to provide at least this number of days notice on any zoning ordinance that affects the permitted uses of real property. This is an increase from the previous requirement of ten days. Sorry just to interrupt again. If I could just have you turn your mic on.

Is it a thirty day notice?

That's incorrect.

What is ninety days?

That's also incorrect.

What is sixty days?

That's also incorrect.

Forty five?

That's also incorrect. The correct answer is twenty days.

We almost got it.

So close. Commissioner oh, yeah. Commissioner Pratt?

Alright. I'm going for the daily double. Public meetings 500.

These type of conversations do not violate the Brown Act if done in person, by email, or by text message, but they may violate the Brown Act if done on social media.

I don't know.

Any other commissioners?

What is a public meeting? That's incorrect. Speaker? No.

Anyone else? The answer is what are one on one conversations? So the reason why these don't violate the Brown Act if they're done in person by email or by text is because it's literally just one on one. It's just you two individuals having a conversation. When you're on social media, the issue that arises is you don't know who else is involved in those conversations.

So for instance, if Commissioner A and Commissioner B are talking in a Facebook group about a topic that may be related to the commission and then Commissioner C and D are also in that same group talking about the same matter even though they're both having one on one conversations with each other that could constitute a serial meeting. So you want to be mindful especially on social media to avoid serial serial meetings.

Let me also add a little bit of color to that. So law says that they apply to pages that are open accessible to the public. So, basically, the thing about social media interaction, the whole world can see. So, Facebook, but on your public page, not a private message. Instagram on a post that everyone can see, not a direct message on Instagram.

The law says that if you make a Facebook post and either of you like it, comment on it, share it, that's a violation. Mhmm. Okay? But I wanna empower you with the knowledge that, say, the city has a Facebook account and they they let's say there's a, you know, a new park that maybe you did or some kind of new mural they put out in the park, you wanna share that to your to your Facebook. You can all of you can share that city Facebook to your own social media, and that would not violate one.

That's perfectly fine. Where the violation would be is, let's say, you reshared it from the city's Facebook page, and then you you to a friend and you saw it. And instead of you going back to the city's Facebook post and sharing that just like he did, you reshare his post. You reshare his post violates the law. But instead of that, go to the city's page and just like he did, reshare from the city's page. Okay? So that's one way you can get out information, and there's not gonna be

any value. What what if I took it from the city and I commented on it?

Would that still be That's fine. Okay. That's perfectly fine. The reason the reason that the legislature amended the law to regulate social media is because they wanted

to do two things. One, they wanted to encourage

the

more communication with their constituents outside of the meetings. So you make an oppose and saying, hey, the city just finished this mural project park. What do

you think? Comment below. Perfectly fine. That's what the law law intended. They wanted to encourage that kind of interaction. The second thing is they wanted to encourage participation by people that typically could not come to a meeting, like a young single mom who has to be with their kids at 6PM that year at the planning commission meeting, or like an elderly person who is homebound now. They can interact with their appointed and elected representatives on social media, not come to a meeting. And so those are the two reasons they amended that law.

Quill.

Okay. Let's try planning for 500.

In the context of a conditional use permit, this number of findings is needed this number of findings need to be affirmatively shown in the negative, meaning not met, in order to justify denying project?

Uh-oh. What is one?

Correct. 500 points for you.

I go for the big points. There you go. Standbagging us.

Alright. Vice chair Garcia?

I'll take Mr. Williams 500. Alright.

Deny this type of project, a local agency must adopt written findings based on substantial evidence that the project one, has specific adverse impact on public health or safety with no feasible method to mitigate it. Two, is contrary to state or federal law or three, for concessions does not actually reduce costs. That's incorrect. This is a type of project. Commercial project.

Incorrect.

A public project?

Also incorrect. So the correct answer is a density bonus law project. So these are under government code 65,915. These would allow developers to increase beyond what is included in the general plan, so like beyond 50% or more in exchange for including affordable or senior housing units. Essentially you get to exceed this density, but then you also get an incent, but then you have to have these affordable or senior units, but then you also get these incentives for doing so.

So it might be parking reductions or some other incentive. And it really And the incentives will depend on the amount of affordability Will depend on the affordability amount Will depend on how many affordable units you have. Alright. Commissioner Pratt.

Public meeting is for 400.

These type of meetings are prohibited under the Brown Act.

Meetings of more than two? That's that's hard to

That's incorrect. We kinda just recently talked about an example of them.

Social media meetings? How

recently? That's incorrect, but it was in relation to that item. Any other commissioners? No. That's also incorrect. You all are close.

What is a meeting more than one on one? Incorrect.

What is a special Private?

Special meeting?

That's incorrect.

What are private meetings?

Also incorrect.

Oh damn it.

So the correct answer is what is a serial meeting?

Oh, that's right.

So you were all so close. But a serial meeting is is a meeting that is not properly noticed or an unauthorized meeting. So this can happen on social media how Albert mentioned where people are commenting or reposting the same posts from each other. This can also happen in a way which they call a daisy chain. So let's say that Commissioner A talks with Commissioner B about what decision they want to make on an item that's coming up in a meeting.

And then Commissioner B talks to Commissioner C and has the same conversation and it just continues until you've had a majority of the commissioners discuss the same item. This can also happen in what they call a hub and spoke, which is where either one commissioner or even a staff member talks to each commissioner one on one and they share, okay, well I talked to commissioner a, b, and c and they're gonna do this. And you have one person that's in the center telling everybody what each other is gonna say. That would also count as a serial meeting. All of those are prohibited under the Brown Act.

No. I was just thinking out loud, just relaying of information like that.

Alright. Our last two. Commissioner Quill.

Public participation 500 law.

This type of behavior is allowed even if it offends as long as it does not prevent the legislative body from accomplishing its business in a reasonably efficient manner.

Is boisterous or what

That is incorrect.

Yes.

Going back to hate speech.

Closer, but also incorrect. Vice chair?

Would say stop talking, it's yelling.

It's also incorrect. The correct answer is First Amendment protected speech. Allowed to speak up and you're allowed to provide public comment just so long as it's not disruptive to the meeting. But this would also include someone wanting to bring a sign as long as their sign is not in violation of the city's sign regulations. For some cities, you can't have it on a stick or you can't have it on like a bulletin board, but if someone brought a piece of paper and had a sign on it, as long as they're not running through the meeting and being disruptive, that would be allowed under the First Amendment.

All right. Our last question. Public

integrity 500.

Speaker The Fair Political Practice Commission also known as the FPPC has set this amount as a gift limit for 2026.

Which is a

thousand? That's incorrect. Yes?

$5,900. What is 5,900?

You said 5,900? Yeah. That's also incorrect.

What is what is 500? That's also incorrect.

Which is 50?

That's also incorrect.

A million dollars.

The correct answer is what is $630?

They come up with that.

$630.

It's very specific, I know. But this is it's an increase from from prior years and this is just so the FPPC prohibits state and local officials from accepting gifts that total $6.30 or more in one year. So that's the $6.30 limit. Yes, or from one party. If you violate this, there is up to a $5,000 penalty so please be mindful of that.

To the person that accepts

the case. Yes. Okay. Are all our questions. Albert, who won? So

here are top three. Coming in third place, Commissioner Quill with 500 points. Nice. Okay. Congratulations. Thank you. Coming in second place, Vice Chair Ivan Garcia with 800 points. And our winner to be marketed Congratulations. Will be Commissioner Benjamin Bragg with 1,200 points. All Alright. Cool.

I'm gonna frame that next agenda, man. At least it's

quite cool. We have questions if you have. I just wanted to add two things. One, I heard a lot of public meeting and public hearing being told not from a public hearing. I want to explain that difference to you. You know, a public meeting is when a quorum of the body so the body is nine. Five of you are in uniform. So, like, even tonight, you didn't have technically a meeting under the ground. Mhmm. You need five quorum.

Can you count vacancies? So imagine out of the nine, four seats were vacant, and there were only five planning commissioners. You would still need five planning commissioners to show up to have a meeting because you count vacancies for the general form. So a public meeting is when you have five out of nine, and you have a notice meeting. There's an agenda that's been noticed, open to the public, etcetera and so forth.

What makes it a public hearing is the the additional notice that happens. So all public hearings happen at public meetings, but not all public meetings have public hearings. Public hearing is, let's say, it's a a land use decision, like, let's say, a conditional use permit for a car wash. Let's say. Okay?

The code requires that it be noticed to all property owners within a thousand feet of the proposed car wash. So that's what makes it a public hearing. And you have to go through special public hearing procedures here. And you have to have individual public comment. You can't just take general public comment the beginning of the meeting for that, like you could say for the consent calendar. You have to have specific take specific public comment for that public hearing. And, you know, typically, there'll be an applicant. You'll hear from the applicant. You'll hear from public comment. The applicant might have an opportunity an opportunity to rebut the public comment given.

So, those are some nuances for a public union that's different than just a public meeting. And the other thing is I don't want you to be discouraged, you know, if you felt like you got a lot of things wrong or you didn't know the answer to them. That's the point of this. Right? The point of this is to learn. We wouldn't be doing our job if we wanted this whole exercise that you know every answer. So we wanna try and teach you something. So I don't want you to be discouraged by that. I thought that'd be great. And if you have any general questions for Elise, please know if you have. Can I ask Same question as last time?

I'm sorry. These were different questions.

They're different. Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm.

I had the other one memorized.

Yes.

Commissioner Pratt.

Can an applicant request a continuance? Like say, if we just have quorum, if we have five,

but

there are our our commissioners absent, can they request to be heard by the entire body?

So if other so if you have a quorum but there's four commissioners missing, can can the applicant request a continuance until all the commissioners are there?

Yeah. Or better question, could we? Because I'm asking because we had a situation recently where where we had a whole different group of commissioners on a ratification than than we're there, you know, for the the the vote to deny a project. So, I mean, is it advisable for us if we're if we're barely at quorum to continue something until we're we're all here?

I'm I I would say you can have it during that meeting even though you don't have, you know, five people present. The issue is that the applicant has to have due process. You have to make sure that the applicant is informed of the public hearing, make sure that they know when it's going to happen so that they can attend and speak on their behalf. If you have it on the agenda for let's say today and then we only had five out of nine show up but we do have quorum and then you tell them okay we're actually gonna push it to another date, that could cause some issues there for the applicant.

But can can we be violated? I mean, I don't know. Mhmm. But would it could it be construed as a violation of their due process if five of us approved a process Mhmm. And then for ratification, nine of us denied that same project.

Well, so and I know what you're talking about from from our last two meetings. So the commission all had already approved an item. Right? So then when we come back that second time and and we're looking at the resolution, we're not changing the decision on the project. We're only saying whether or not we're gonna approve that resolution. So there's not an issue there regarding, okay, we approved it and now denying it. The matter has already been approved. You're denying the resolution and the findings that you had. So that won't change necessarily the decision regarding the item.

So if the resolution hadn't been approved, what would have happened then?

If resolution had not been approved?

Right. Would it revert back to the commission for another hearing, or would it go up to the council? How would that have gone?

If the resolution to ratify the commission's decision remind me, was the decision was the decision to recommend approval or denial? Was it It

was denial. Denial. The decision was to deny

but but the the ratifying the decision to deny. If the commission did not approve that resolution ratifying the denial, then you're leaving the city open up to liability because when you deny a project, denials have to be done in writing. They have to be by law. And I remember in this instance for this project, the applicant had already filed an appeal. They had already filed an appeal to City council.

And staff was not gonna process that appeal until the planning commission approved the resolution because that's what has the denial finding or find d. So that's the basis, you know, for for the denial in writing. You gotta give the applicant in writing. So if you hadn't approved it, then it would it would be some risk the city. They could go to court and say, hey. They denied our project, but they didn't deny it in writing. So, technically, our product is approved, and they actually would have a reasonable argument. So there would be an open liability if if the Planning Commission did not adopt a resolution to deny the project in writing.

That's I was asking because I was it seemed at first that that thing was gonna go the other direction that day. It didn't. Didn't. I I was surprised, but I I was wondering what the outcome of that would have been.

That's very So Albert, can you, opine on whether or not commissioners who did not participate in the earlier decision to deny can actually influence the outcome of the ratification, for example. So five commissioners heard it, they denied it. Now you have nine. Now can the four who did not participate in the original decision now influence the Planning Commission to change the original decision? I would I would think that only those who participated in the denial should be able to vote regarding the outcome of their application.

But in this particular case, we pulled the item off for discussion and all the other commissioners talked about it, but the decision still remained a denial of the application itself. So, would that be an instance where the out I would think that only those commissioners who, participated in the denial can actually change their votes and not the new commissioners who are not a part of the original hearing.

So I would treat it the same way that you treat a continued public hearing. The same way. So you say you had five people that had they heard the first public hearing, but then it was continued because that there was some additional question, and the staff and the applicant needed to do additional work on the project. So, let's continue to the next meeting. Then, at the next meeting, then resign. So the four people that were in that meeting, number one, can they participate in meeting? Number two is the same. I would agree exactly the same. Mhmm. Which is the answer is it depends on if the four new ones have reviewed the tape and the agenda package from the prior meeting.

If they have reviewed it and they're up to speed on what happened in that meeting, then they can participate. If they are not, if they did not watch the meeting, if they did not read the agenda packet from the last meeting, then I would have time that they cannot participate. And again, goes back to due process because the applicant has the right for the decision to be made by someone who has all the information, who's in article and biased, but the first part is that they have all the information. So if the four new ones are up to speed, they should not. Does that answer your question, David?

It does. But in this particular instance, we don't know if the other commissioners had actually viewed, the tape of the of the, of the denial. I'm gonna assume that they did.

What I recommend next

time is for staff to specifically ask them to specifically ask them to, did you review the tape from last meeting? Did you review the agenda packet? And if they say yes, then they can participate. And if no, they're not. And you can look to a link to kind of explain the legality of that. But I think, Gabriel, you should ask them that question.

Thank you. So to to on the contrary then, can the original four or five who participated in the denial change their vote at the ratification?

Remember, the vote is different. Okay. Vote in meeting number one was approved or denied a profit.

Was denial. I was only Two,

the vote is about something completely

different. Ratification.

Right. All all the vote is and meeting number two is, does this resolution accurately reflect the reasons project. And so, really, if you are being a principal planning commissioner, even if you have personal objections to the project, if the resolution accurately reflects why your colleagues at the last meeting voted to deny the project, then you should vote yes. Because you're not voting on whether you agree with the project, disagree with the project. You're voting on, does this document accurately reflect why the planning commission denied the project?

And, remember that the function of that document is the law requires you give the applicant something in writing explaining why their project was denied. So, that is a function. And, so, really, you gotta keep this you gotta keep the city's interest in front of mind when that kind of a thing happens. Because even though you might have a disagreement with the project, you're actually doing more harm to the city by kind of following your gut saying, I don't like this project, so I'm gonna vote no. Because if there's not enough votes there and the resolution is not approved, then again, you have this hanging liability that you created now for the city.

And you've allowed the applicant to have an argument to go to court and have a judge actually approve their project because you never denied it in writing. So if you keep that in mind.

I have a comment, maybe a question. What I've noticed a few times and for the couple of years that I've been on here, when the meeting is open and we approve minutes, there are people approving minutes that weren't at the previous meetings. Now, I think that can reflect the problem too, and the same relationships are voting on the revocation of a project or whatever, because they've actually voted it. I mean, actually voted in favor of the minutes, but they are not really familiar with the minutes. So, think that could be a real issue too sometimes.

That's that's a fair point. Yeah. The law says that where you have someone that did not participate in the prior meeting, and they're voting on minutes, or they're considering voting on minutes for that prior meeting. If their vote is required to actually approve the minutes, the law says they can vote. Okay?

If their vote would not be required to approve the minutes, then they should have stayed. And that's something that I think that staff needs to help you all out and keep a track of who attended the meeting and who didn't. Because, a lot of those things, Larry, can happen just inadvertently. You don't remember. Right? Right. And, so, I think you need staff's help to say, oh, actually, commission so and so, you know, you were not at that meeting. And, so, I think it it can resolve itself. You know, I I don't think it's a real big issue. Because, even the people who voted, it's not like a conflict of interest.

I don't know. It's just something that you weren't at the meeting. It's only really a legal issue if their their vote really matters to approve the minister. Most times, it doesn't. Mhmm. So most times, it's not a major issue, but it it is something that it should be, you know, accurate. That this should be accurate with their Google account.

One of the one of the well, the situation we had at the last meeting with reference to the McDonald's that was on baseline and Sierra Way. That applicant met all the met all the requirements and also staff recommendation was to approve the project. And I was a little confused. We had to come up with a finding to disapprove that. And so, once we complete that meeting and we disapproved it, the staff have to come up with findings to present to the applicant why it was disapproved?

I mean, if they want to appeal it, they can take it to the city council, but when they take it to the city council, they have to have something from staff or something from the planning commission saying why it was disapproved. Correct?

Yes. Commissioner Quell, if you remember, when we bring an item before you with a prescribed recommendation, let's say for approval, and you deny it, we usually ask you to provide the basis for your denial because that's going to formulate what we're going to put in a resolution for denying it. And it goes vice versa. If we bring a project for you for denial and you approve it, we're going to ask you to provide us with the basis for your approval. And that is why we usually bring the resolution back at the next meeting because now we have to go and formulate the findings to be contrary to the findings that we brought to the hearing itself.

If you recall in this particular case, we asked Commissioner Daley if he could provide some bullet points and he said all the things I've said earlier this evening. So we went back, we watched the tape and it basically kind of focused on the intent of what a TOD development project is. And that was good enough. And we only have to make one finding to the contrary, and that would basically allow for the project to be denied. So that's what happened. Alright.

Can we continue to the next item? It's a planning commission reports announcements. Mister Quell and mister I have no reports. I have no report. I just wanted to quickly go go over a rubric cutting we had at Reaga Terrace Park on Tuesday May at 4PM for park park improvements.

I also wanted to mention that we had the neighborhood speed hunt policy workshop for public safety. That was yesterday at 6PM. I wasn't able to attend but I thought that's a huge accolade to our community residents that are concerned about public safety. Economic development, it may not be for this meeting, but I just wanted to know how are businesses informed and notified about available grants? I have an account that we have about 13,000 plus businesses and I also would want to give an accolade to our economic business development for ribbon cuttings and businesses anniversaries.

I see those on social media. Huge kudos to our team there, our staff. And then as far as new business, League of California Cities, they emailed us a planners meeting agenda today. We're supposed to have our May 2026 planning commission, community development department business meeting tomorrow at 10:30AM for all the planning commissioners if they're available. Hopefully they can jump on that call to hear what's going on in the, planning and community development world.

And then the other thing that I wanted to mention is there's a webinar, it's called the 2026 bill briefing and this ties back into the League of California cities, and it's named what to expect in the second house. Last date to register if you, attended the planning conference, I think you can attend registration, register before six-two-twenty six. And that's all that I have. Director's report.

Vice Chair Garcia, members of the Planning Commission, I don't have any additional updates for you. I hope you enjoyed presentation on the General Plan update and also on the Jeopardy exercise. Hopefully, at the next Planning Commission hearing, we can have the items today that we could not deliberate upon at the next meeting. Thank you.

We'll go ahead and adjourn at we have eight 04. Thank you everyone.