City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Okay, I would like to call upon the meeting of the Planning Commission to order at 6 p.m. Planning Commission Secretary, may I have a roll call vote, please?

Certainly. Commissioner Sarno? Here. Commissioner Cervantes?

Here.

Commissioner Flores?

Present.

Vice Chair Ayala?

Here.

Chair Jimenez?

Here.

ALL PRESENT.

THANK YOU. I WOULD LIKE TO CALL UPON COMMISSIONER FLORES TO LEAD US IN THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE.

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Thank you, Commissioner Flores. This section is intended to allow all planning commissioners the opportunity to reveal any disclosure regarding site visits or ex parte communications about public hearings. Are there any ex parte communications?

None.

None. Okay, none. Moving on to both agenda and non-agenda items except public hearing items. At this time the general public may address the Planning Commission on both non-agenda and non-public hearing agenda items. Comments relating to the public hearing items will be heard during the public hearing. Please be aware that the maximum time allotted for members to speak shall not exceed three minutes per speaker. State law prohibits the Planning Commission from taking action or entertaining extended discussion on a topic not listed on the agenda. Please show courtesy to others and direct all your comments to the chairperson. Planning Commission Secretary, do we have any members of the public present or wishing to speak today?

None.

Okay, I will now close public comment and move on to the next item. Consent calendar. All matters listed under consent calendar are considered to be routine. Any consent item a planning commissioner wishes to discuss should be designated at this time. All other items may be approved in a single motion. For consent items number one and two, can I get a motion and a second, please? All motion.

All second.

We have a first and a second. Planning Commissioner Secretary, roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Sarno. All right. Commissioner Cervantes? Aye. Commissioner Flores? Aye. Vice Chair Ayala? Aye. Chair Jimenez?

Aye.

Passes 5-0.

So ordered. There's a 14-day appeal period for anyone wishing to appeal these matters. We will now begin with item number three on the agenda. At this time, I will open public hearing at 6.03 p.m. I now call upon Associate Planner Alejandro de Loera to introduce this item.

Alrighty, good evening commissioners. So today we'll be presenting on development plan approval case number 1019, conditional use permit case number 859, and zone variances case numbers 94 and 95. So a little bit of background on this site. So this property is located at 11701 Telegraph, and this is across the street directly north of City Hall. The land use designation here is mixed use, and the zoning is MUD, which is for mixed use design zone. So the D there is because it's in close proximity to City Hall, so there's just some additional considerations that we take because of that. And the applicant for this project is Core States, which is on behalf of Dutch Bros LLC. And the property size for this project is approximately three quarters of an acre. And the proposed building for this project is about 1,025 square feet, which is relatively small. And the existing use here is the former Wells Fargo building. So it's a commercial site, but it's currently vacant. So a little bit of background on Dutch Bros. So they were founded in 1992 by a pair of brothers, and they have grown to become one of the largest drive-thru beverage and coffee companies in the country. And the three main values that they promote are speed, quality, and service. And they specialize in these to-go beverage type of operations. So they don't really have anyone come into the building. All of their activities are either drive-through or through the walk-up window. They have coffees. They have energized energy types of drinks and a variety of different types of things that they release. But it's focused on beverage types of foods. So the request specifically for the DPA case number 1019, CUP case number 859, and zone variances 94 and 95 is to construct, operate, and maintain a new 1,025 square foot drive-through beverage establishment within the mixed-use design zone and to deviate from the MU zone design standards. So here's an overall site plan. And we'll get into more details here, but highlighting the orange portion towards the south of the site, that's going to be the building. And highlighting the red arrows here, these are going to be the two main access and exit points for the site. So there is a driveway that is a shared access along Telegraph, as well as one along Albertus. and highlighting some of the features here. So again, looking at the building, the DPA is specifically for the construction of this building. And it has a couple of additional building elements, particularly these two canopies that are highlighted in purple. So the one on the north side is gonna be where the walk-up window would be placed. And the one to the south is moving towards a telegraph road. That's gonna be over the drive-through window. So there would be a canopy over you picking up your order at the drive-thru, as well as a canopy over you as you're ordering and picking up your order from the lock-up window as well. The CUP is specifically because of the drive-thru use. So they are proposing a double lane drive-thru, which we see now is pretty standard for new drive-thru uses. And the queue can accommodate up to 23 vehicles. That's a pretty tight stack. So we'll look at that a little bit closer in a bit as well. And the additional entitlement that they're requiring here is for zone variance 94. And that's because of the setbacks. So the building setback along Telegraph is approximately 31 feet. But as you can see with the purple canopy, the canopy structure itself has set back approximately two and a half feet from Telegraph Road and along Albertus, it's a little over 78 feet setback and the variance here is because the required setback in the mixed use zone is between 5 and 15 feet along street frontages. So that would apply to both Telegraph and to Albertus. But looking at this next slide here, we'll see a little bit more of why they're requesting this. So the main reason is to accommodate the drive-through and for the landscape buffer. So as you can see here, along Albertus and along Telegraph, they are proposing a fair landscape buffer as well as a bypass lane for the drive-through and just generally accommodating the double lane drive-through. So that's the main reason that they're requesting these variances is to be able to, or that variance is to allow for that accommodation of the drive-through and those landscape buffers. You also see that there's some proposed hedging along the entirety of the drive-through, and that's meant to help screen the headlights to prevent that from going onto neighboring properties. And in addition to this, they are promoting some additional walkability and pedestrian access. So they are proposing to have pedestrian access from both Telegraph and from Albertus. And those are gonna be those routes highlighted in the red portion. And as for parking, they're actually over-parked per our code, so they're only required to have five parking spaces because they're a to-go operation, so they shouldn't have people lingering there inside of the building at all. But they are proposing to have 22 spaces. which is good because at their max for employees, they're expecting to have around five to eight employees. So this should be able to help accommodate people that do decide to drive here and to park their vehicles and order at the walk-up window instead of going through the drive-thru. As for the elevations, at its highest, which is the blue tower, the building would be 24 feet tall. The structure itself at the parapet is approximately 21 feet high. So this is pretty consistent with single story development. And the additional zone variance here, which is zone variance 95, is to deviate from the required glazing, transparency, and entrance requirements in the mixed use zone. And the main reason that those exist is to promote like store funds that have a lively window. So think like window shopping, right? So it's usually a window display that people are going to engage with. Right. But in this instance, because it's a drive through use and they're, um, they're not open to the public in this case, there wouldn't really be anything that's a particular activity to look at through those windows. So really here, what you would be looking at are like an office area, um, a coffee station, right? So in this instance, to still give consideration to the aesthetic quality of that, and particularly the glazing, the applicant is still providing spandrel glass, so it will still give the appearance of windows. They are providing a lot of other types of architectural features, like the window awnings, the canopies that we've mentioned, and just a variety of materials and colors to make sure that the project still feels like it is pedestrian-friendly. So here's a couple renderings. So this first one is looking northeast. So this is driving northbound on Telegraph Road. So you can see that longer canopy would be where the drive-through order pickup window would be. And then looking over towards the back, that's where the window pickup would be for the walk-up orders. And then here, this would be looking southeast. So this is coming down from Albertus. And here, this is where you'll see the rear walk-up window with the canopy. And like I mentioned, there is additional articulation here with the awnings that are over the windows and a couple of different textures on the pillars within the canopies and everything. So there are going to be a decent amount of elements that they've integrated here for the design as well. And looking a little closer at the queuing and traffic for the site. So a traffic and queuing analysis was reviewed and accepted by the city's traffic engineer. And within the report, even though physically the drive-through accommodates for 23 vehicles, the analysis was a little bit more conservative with that and said only 21 vehicles would fit there, assuming that the cars would leave a little bit of space between each other. So they did this analysis based off of looking at the recent and local Dutch Bros that have been approved in the area. So in particular, the one that had the highest AM peak, which in general is their highest traffic time, was the La Habra site. And that one had a peak of 20 vehicles. So the good news here is that that 20 vehicle peak for this facility would be able to be fully accommodated within this drive-thru. So this drive-thru queue is actually the largest of the five that were analyzed. So that's La Habra, La Mirada, Covina, and a couple of others. And the other important part is that the average AM peak for those facilities was 14 vehicles. So we do believe that as it stabilizes through its operations, this proposed queuing should be enough to accommodate those vehicles. And another thing to note here is that any of the spillover from the drive-through traffic is directed away from Telegraph Road. So as you can see with the cars that are in yellow and red, we are proposing to have those excess cars queue away from Telegraph to prevent any kind of additional queuing or stacking, especially during those peak hours. And as part of the traffic, they did also look at six intersections, and they analyzed those and anticipated that those would continue operating at an acceptable level of service, which is part of our traffic levels of significance that we analyze. Looking a little bit more at the queuing and traffic, so they're also taking some operational measures to ensure that they don't have any of this sort of spillover effect. So all of their orders are taken by employees with the handheld device. So as opposed to having a speaker box that you would have at a traditional drive-thru, they do have people coming up with their iPads and taking orders there. So that helps because you don't really have people getting stuck in between the box and then picking up their order. You can kind of walk and continue to take someone's order, right? In addition to that, during the opening period in particular, they do also have runners. So the runners, what they can do, and it's also common in Chick-fil-A's, they'll go pick up the order at the order window for that person and then take it to that person's car, which is also helpful at this facility because they do have that bypass lane as well. So hypothetically, someone that's a little bit further back could have their order handed to them, use the bypass lane, and then we can kind of keep the traffic moving in that instance. And they have some additional traffic control measures. Some of them include signage and trained employees that would be directing that traffic. So employees would utilize cones, signage, and other types of things. So for example, at the entrance of the drive-thru, they have signage that says that the drive-thru is full, so please park and then go use the walk-up window. So they have a couple of different measures out there, typically utilizing their plans to utilize here as well. And all of those would be required through a traffic management plan as well. So they do have a condition that requires that they submit and work with staff to develop a traffic management plan, which would include things like ensuring that someone's there when the queue does exceed what is available within the drive-through, additional signage. They work with third-party contractors during really peak times as well to make sure that they have potentially like security or like police enforcement as well too to ensure that traffic is moving appropriately. And another unique condition that we added here is condition number 46, which is that we're going to reanalyze at the 120 day mark after operation to look at the traffic management plan and kind of ask ourselves what's working, what's not working, and be able to give ourselves an opportunity to make some adjustments to make sure that they are operating at a level that is satisfactory. As for CEQA, the project is exempt under CEQA pursuant to section 15303, which is a class three exemption. And this is for new construction or conversion of small structures, specifically the clause in there that exempts a store, motel, office, restaurant, or similar structures that are not exceeding 2,500 square feet in floor area. So this facility is under that threshold. And the additional consideration there would be traffic. So CEQA does look at vehicle miles traveled. So they did submit a VMT screening analysis to the city as well. And they are classified under the locally serving retail projects that are under 50,000 square feet. So there was no further VMT analysis that was required for this one. As for the public hearing notice, we did mail out to property owners within 500 feet of the site, as well as posts throughout various city facilities. And that was on May 28th. And then we did also publish the hearing in the Los Cerritos community newspaper on May 29th. And to date, staff has not received any comments from the public regarding the project. Some final key considerations here, looking at the design and site enhancements. So the project would redevelop the currently vacant commercial facility, which is great because it's a prominent corner within the city. It'll bring a contemporary building, some upgraded landscaping, and some streetscape improvements as well. It's consistent with the mixed use general plan designation and we believe it's going to be complementary to the existing area and to the future development that we hope to see as well. As for the variance request, we do believe that the variance are related specifically to the mixed use zones setback and frontage standards that are just operationally difficult for drive-through uses to be able to accommodate to and to meet. So even though they're not meeting those, they are still maintaining the intent of the mixed use zone by providing those additional architectural enhancements and features and making sure that it is pedestrian-oriented as well. And lastly, they are going to have some efficient operations that would help mitigate the impact of the traffic and the queuing, so their dual drive-through, the bypass lane, as well as a traffic management plan we all believe would help to mitigate those impacts. And this slide just really quickly showing some of the important conditions that we've added. So we have added a lot of layers of protection for this facility. So we have a lot of conditions relating to traffic and queuing. We have additional conditions for safety and security plans for the site. There are additional requirements for the landscaping and streetscaping. And as I mentioned a little bit ago as well, we are also adding a requirement for an analysis of their queuing and traffic management plan after 120 days of opening, as well as standard with all conditional use permits. We're going to have a compliance review, a full one, after a year of operation. So all that being said, we do recommend that the Planning Commission determine that the project is categorically exempt under section 15303, which is the class three of the CEQA guidelines, that you approve DPA case number 1019, CUP case number 859, and zone variance case numbers 94 and 95, to be subject to the conditions of the resolution 322-2026, and that you adopt resolution number 322-2026. And with that said, we do have a representative for the applicant present as well, as well as the city's traffic engineer. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now move to commissioner questions or comments. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments for the staff?

I have a question. Okay. Can you go back to the plan, the detailed plan?

I hope I can, yeah. I'm sorry, did you want this one or the? Sure.

It doesn't look like there's a lot of space. I know we have, is it, meant not to have any seating or anything outside to uh get people not to to stay there or is it just like especially like when it's going to rain let's say when it's raining it doesn't look like there's going to be a lot of people that are going to be standing underneath that uh waiting for their coffees and stuff like that so that's why i was just thinking and then the second question is where you enter in um for the same purpose so like chick-fil-a does they have an awning where you're ordering, and then they have the awning where you're picking up the coffee. So if you have people that are outside, it might be a good thing to maybe put another awning when you're walking in, when you're going in, so then they don't have to sit underneath the sun and stuff like that. So just thought process.

I could quickly respond a little bit to the first part. Just generally their operation is to go, kind of keeping things moving. So yeah, they typically don't have any kind of like seating or street furniture or anything. And it's kind of related to the same, just to kind of keep the operation moving.

I don't have any questions, just a comment. I think it's very exciting to have this presented and to have a company like Dutch Bros looking to Santa Fe Springs as their place to do business.

I have a question regarding the parking. Sure. It's meant that the way they're going to do the drive-through, the original parking that's there right now, if you know the Wells Fargo building right now, they have parking along the side that goes in through Albertus. Is that the parking you're, they're gonna keep that parking? Or do they lose it because you have businesses across the way that have some parking and one of them is a deli?

similar so it's it's going to be a pretty similar portion for the north side that you're talking about closer to the deli so most of those would be similarly retained so those are going to be the ones at the top of the page they will be yeah so it will look a little bit different but most of those would be retained they'll be retained on the other side where it used to be the walk-up teller which is the entry off telegraph you could enter to go into the

Wells Fargo there, and they had parking on both sides. I see them getting rid of some parking, but the other parking will still be available across from that?

There's still a few, yeah. So there's a portion that's a shared portion of the lot. So they're retaining, so that's going to be on the right side of the page. So the ones where like the ATMs were, they're going to retain a couple of those for the mobile orders. And then on the backside of that, so to the right, if you were going to enter on Telegraph, so the ones on this southern portion of it don't belong to the property um but so those are not going to be touched at all um but the ones directly above those would be yeah they voted cta yeah great i'm looking forward to it on this plan the hash marks between the dual lanes is that where employees are going to be getting orders from is that like the

Are they just going to be walking through traffic, or is there designated areas where they would get orders?

They kind of move with the flow of the drive-through lane. So it's kind of similar to, especially like In-N-Outs have it a lot. Yeah, In-N-Out housing is fairly common. And the idea is that you're kind of moving with the traffic as it moves throughout.

So typically, the orders would probably be taken at the drive-through. If you're thinking what you said, 20 cars. about just about right to study. So most of the ordering would be taking as they're walking through the driveway, not necessarily on the street.

Yeah. And again, there's no speaker boxes on this one. So all the orders would be done on the handheld device.

Any other questions or comments?

Okay.

Do we have any questions or comments for the applicants? So when will this be open?

Good evening. My name is Michael Beck. I'm the project planner on this project, but the core states group are the planners and engineers of record on this project. Just before I answer your question, I just want to thank city staff on their availability and help on this process, and we are excited to get started here. I believe our tentative date is a construction start maybe in February and March, if all goes well. But as quickly as possible is really our goal.

But to answer one of the questions regarding the canopy window and the size,

Area is approximately 330 square feet, and it's mostly due to just a waiting area for customers to get their orders, which is approximately 30 to 45 seconds from order to that drink delivery. At least that's the goal, and that's essentially the average as well. But happy to answer any other questions.

Great. No other questions. Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now open public comments for this item. Planning Commission Secretary, did we receive any cards or written comments for this item?

None.

Okay, I will now close public comment for public hearing item number three. If there's no further commission questions, I will now close the public hearing at 6.27 p.m. May I have a motion to approve DPA case number 1019, CUP 859, zone variance 94 and zone variance 95, subject to the conditions of approval as contained within resolution number 322-2026 and adopt resolution number 322-2026, which incorporates the Planning Commission's findings and actions regarding this matter.

I'll make a motion. I'll second.

We have a first and a second. Planning Commission Secretary, please conduct a roll call vote.

Commissioner Sarnum.

Aye.

Commissioner Cervantes. Aye. Commissioner Flores. Aye. Vice Chair Ayala. Aye. Chair Jimenez.

Aye. Passes 5-0. So ordered. Thank you. There is a 14-day appeal period for anyone wishing to appeal this matter. Moving on to new business. PARKWAY TREE REMOVAL APPEAL DECISION. RESIDENT REQUEST FOR REMOVAL OF PARKWAY TREE AT 10812 FLALEN AVENUE. I WOULD LIKE TO CALL UPON PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR JAMES ENRIQUEZ TO PRESENT ITEM NUMBER FOUR.

GOOD EVENING, CHAIRPERSON AND COMMISSIONERS. PowerPoint. So the item before you is a appeal of a decision rendered by the myself, the public works director regarding the request for the city to remove a tree located at one Oh eight one 12 Fallon Avenue. Um, and that was a request from the resident of that address. In terms of process, on November 15th of 2025, parkway removal requests was received. The resident's reason for the tree removal at the time was the tree is invasive to the sidewalk and tree droppings are intrusive to the property and vehicles. On April 21st of 2026, the city denied the request for the tree removal. A couple days later, on April 24th, the resident submitted a tree removal appeal form to the Planning Commission. And this tree is actually an Australian willow and is a designated tree species approved for planting on that particular street for the city's Parkway Master Plan for trees. The criteria for tree removal, this is the test we do to see if it's a tree that should be removed by the city. And the first two tests are whether the tree is dead or dying and the answer is, as indicated, no on both of those. We check our in-house tree arborist checks for disease or insect infestation, and the answer is no for this tree. That's not the case. And then we'll elaborate on what the dangerous condition is, but the answer is no also on this tree. And whether it's damaged beyond restoration, the answer is also no. And whether it's damaging both above ground or below ground structures, and the answer is no. We have no indication that that's the case for this tree. and then whether it conforms to the master plan for tree planting. And as stated before, this tree is a species that conforms to that master plan. In terms of dangerous, the definition for that, there's a couple of tests to that. It's a tree whose limbs are growing into power lines which cannot reasonably be trimmed or are an immediate hazard. And the answer is no for this tree. A tree that is leaning to the point of being unstable in heavy wind, and the answer is also no. A tree that has experienced extensive root pruning, making it a hazard and unstable, the answer is no for this tree. A tree that is blocking any traffic control devices and simple trimming cannot remedy the visibility problem, the answer is also no. or a tree that presents a hazard to the general public or causes a liability to the city and the answer is also no. A little bit to elaborate on what damaging certain structures refers to and it's a tree that is causing damage to structures as follows, sidewalks, curves, drives, buildings and other structures such that the cost to repair the damage exceeds the appraised value of the tree. In this case, there is a little bit of sidewalk uplift that could and has been simply addressed with grinding, so that also fails the test in terms of a reason for removal. A little bit more information on the tree. You see a picture of the tree there at the subject address, and it was trimmed on a last trimmed in August of 2023. There currently is no evidence of any uplift to curb and or gutter. And as stated before, the minimal uplifting of the sidewalk has in the past been addressed by grinding. So the recommendation is for the commission to reaffirm the decision of the public works director to deny the request by the property owner to have the city removed, remove the parkway tree for the reason stated that it doesn't meet the criteria. And then I apologize, number two is the wording should say to the planning commission, determine if the property owner at 10812 Fallon Avenue

shall be granted a permit to remove the parkway tree at his or her own expense.

That concludes my report, and I'd be glad to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Enriquez. Do any commissioners have any questions on this public work staff, for the public work staff?

So, number two is to allow the property owner TO REMOVE IT AT THEIR EXPENSE AND REPLACE A TREE AT THEIR EXPENSE.

CORRECT. OUR POLICY THAT WE OPERATE UNDER IS ACTUALLY A POLICY FROM THE YEAR 2000. BUT IN TERMS OF APPEALS, I'LL READ FROM THE POLICY HERE. APPEALS OF THE DIRECTOR'S DECISION WILL BE HEARD BY THE PLANNING COMMISSION. In adjudicating appeals of the Director of Public Works tree removal decisions, the Planning Commission is authorized to either reverse the Director's decision, whereby the City would pay for the removal of the tree if funds are available, or if it is determined that non-removal places a burden on the property owner substantially greater than the benefit to the public, that the tree provides. The plan commission is authorized to grant a resident removal permit, which allows a resident to remove the tree in question at the resident's expense.

It also has to have a, the tree removal company would have to make sure that they have all the same guidelines as any other company insurance license and everything.

Absolutely. It's a permit. So there's, there's, uh, insurance requirements and, uh, and, uh, there's, there'd be a city inspector that would inspect the removal to make sure it's done with, without damage to the tree.

I have a question, the photo of the tree, the street,

What was the point?

So it doesn't look like there's many trees on that street. Is there a reason for that?

That I don't have an answer to. I'd have to.

I know you wouldn't. I'm just saying. But there's not. I mean, it doesn't even look like there is. It looks like that's the only parkway tree on the block. Oh, there's one there.

There's more there and there's more on the other side.

I have a question related to that too. Sorry, there'll be.

I'm so sorry. I'm the property owner of this home.

We'll call, no, I'll call you up after. We'll have some questions.

You'll have an opportunity.

Yeah. Director, I have a question. As far as our tree master plan, what percentage of our tree farm are we at? Are we at 50%, 75%, 100% of the state requirements? I don't have that data.

I could return with that.

Okay, yeah, just because we get these tree issues from time to time, and I just want to know, like Mr. Sarno said, I didn't see many trees, and I thought the same thing. Do we need to put more trees in?

The question also that I have is taking a look at this picture and taking a look at this tree. So this tree seems to be like a willow peppermint tree or something like that.

It's an Australian willow, I believe.

Looking at the other trees, it seems like they are different than this one tree. Is that correct? It doesn't seem like there's any other trees like this one on that block.

I believe there are some other Australian willows on that street, but they're not all Australian willows. There's a variety of trees there. I know the intention of the master plan is eventually to get to the point where we're more consistent with the trees that are planted in certain areas, but we don't go out and remove trees for the purpose of planting the master plan species.

Just to clarify, so one of the suggestions is that the property owner pay for the removal but also replace the tree?

The policy actually also requires that they replace the tree.

Okay. And the tree has to be approved on the Santa Fe Springs approved list?

Yes.

This willow tree, based off of the picture I see here, I don't see damage to the street, but this is a tree that has sap droppings, if I'm correct. Like the sticky sap? No, that's a pine tree. I'm almost positive a willow tree has sap droppings.

Relatively speaking, it's not a tree that we get a lot of complaints about in terms of sap droppings.

Any other questions for Mr. Enriquez? Okay, thank you. I WOULD LIKE TO CALL UPON THE APPLICANT IF YOU WISH TO SPEAK. PLEASE APPROACH THE PODIUM. PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME AND CITY OF RESIDENCE FOR THE RECORD AND ADDRESS TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION.

Good evening. My name is Leslie Castellanos. I am the property owner at 10812 Fleiland Avenue. I've been the property owner for 14 years. And really my reason for asking for this tree to be removed is I have a severely autistic son that has become fearful of it.

And if I can just show you a recent picture of what it looks like.

And the reason why he's fearful of it is because he has heavy sensory issues when it comes to touching his head, anything around his body. And so what happened was we were parked underneath it. It's this big now, by the way. And it does come out into the street. So some of these, ironically, unfortunately for us, yeah, thank you. For us, some of the droppings came down like a big chunk and it hit them in the head. And so now... Whenever he's walking out of our home, he's terrified. And so I'm sure nobody has a severely autistic son on this panel, but it's extremely difficult. This is now? This is now, yes.

What picture is that?

I don't know. It seemed cut off, by the way.

That don't look like that. Yeah, that doesn't look like that.

No, it doesn't.

It's been trimmed since 2023.

I took this picture yesterday, Sunday, because I wanted to show everybody the integrity of how it stands now. And really, my reasoning is that. It's not, you know, forget about the SAP. We don't have to park there. I have enough parking in my driveway where I can park two cars. It's really him and his just emotional distress when it comes to that tree. And so that's where I'm asking that you guys please reconsider. I'm not happy about it, but I will pay out of pocket if need be. I don't agree with having to plant something else. I think if I could leave it bare, because as you can see, there are a lot of housings in that neighborhood, and I've lived here for 14 years. that do not have that willow tree. I'm sorry, sir, but that is not the case. I wish I would have taken more pictures. I have them on my phone, and I can happily share them if you'd like to see them. But the trees that you see are extremely small. So I'm like, why is mine so large, and why is mine that species? When they came and knocked on my door less than a decade ago to ask me if they can replant this tree, because they took out another one and replanted this one, They said it was going to be a small species that wouldn't grow large, which I said, that's fine. I don't have a problem with that. I'm about trees. I love the natural environment. But now that this is causing distress to my household and it's become extremely large in comparison to all the other trees in my neighborhood, I'm really, really asking you to please reconsider the removal of this tree because it really does not fit within the neighborhood that I even live in. Thank you, Mr. Sarno. You brought to the attention you don't see any other trees like that.

There are no any other trees on Flallan Avenue that are that species.

And so if you could just please reconsider that. I did write a letter, which I'm a little disappointed because I wrote a letter to the, what is it, Publix work. I shared with them my son's psychological autism diagnosis. So the fact that it wasn't even considered or brought to your attention is really disheartening for me right now. But I just wanted to share that. So thank you.

Thank you. Are we able to see those pictures that you're speaking of on our phones?

Yeah, that's fine. And just for the record, the letter that you provided was an attachment in your staff report. So it was provided to the commissioner.

Yeah, it was. Do any commissioners have any questions for the applicant?

No. This is just a very touchy subject. I mean... ISABEL AND MYSELF HAVE GONE THROUGH THIS.

WE WENT TOE TO TOE.

WE WENT TOE TO TOE ON THIS KIND OF THE SAME EXACT THING.

WE DID HAVE STUCTURAL, WE HAD A LOT OF DAMAGE. THE PINE TREES DID CAUSE MAJOR DAMAGE TO OUR STREETS.

YOU'LL SEE IN LIKE MULTIPLE HOMES, WHICH I WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM, NOR WOULD MY SON.

but because... That's the ones right around the block. Those are on her street.

Those are the new ones, are the box-based brisbane trees that they're planting right now, that they've just planted.

I've seen them there for the past few years. They haven't grown. I just don't understand why mine has grown. It hasn't been a decade, so...

This is a box-based brine, which is totally different than your willow. Okay. So this one, you'll see them along the inlet, the one that separates Santa Fe... It separates Florence from the side. You'll see those right along those trees. In fact, we have one leaning very much to the left or to the right, but it's still holding.

We don't know how old the tree is, do you, James? I do not. It looks like it's a mature tree. It is. OK, thank you. Thank you. OK. For me, this is a touchy situation. By trade, I'm a tree hugger because it's my job. But as a resident, as an owner, and I've been in a lot of different situations with trees, with Isabelle and their street, there's never a great time to want to chop down a tree. It's a live organism that actually, you know, breathes air and it helps our environment, especially with the freeways and stuff like that. And each case, I think, should be taken under consideration case by case. What this opens up for us, does any other... going to turn around and say, well, you allowed her to do it, why can't I do it? And what circumstances are we going to say yes, no, or think about what we have to do? She has a very serious situation with her son, and no son with autism or anybody should live in fear of their own house either. So I think we have to be very cautious and think about exactly what we want to do.

And even with that, I would like just to know where we are with our tree farm, right? Because like I said, we get these requests for tree removal for various reasons. But like you said, we need trees in our neighborhood. And there is a tree master plan with an urban forest requirement, right?

Um, so we do have a inventory through our, um, tree, uh, trimming and maintenance contractor. Um, but to, to analyze that data, to come up with that report would take a little bit of, of work to get there. We haven't done that in a long time.

Yeah. And that's fine.

Could I suggest something? And I'm just not trying to, could we maybe, uh, continue this to, you know, another month is not gonna, CHANGE THE SITUATION, BUT I THINK IT WOULD BE NICE IF, YOU KNOW, WE DROVE THE AREA AND KIND OF LOOKED AT THE AREA OURSELVES INSTEAD OF, YOU KNOW, LOOKING AT, BECAUSE THIS TREE LOOKS TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN THE TREE SHE'S SAYING AS FAR AS THIS TREE WAS TRIMMED, BUT SHE'S SHOWING IT AS A FULL-BLOWN TREE. SO, AND JUST TO SEE THE OTHER TREES IN THE AREAS, MAYBE WE CAN CONTINUE IT AND WE CAN MAKE A BETTER DECISION AT THE NEXT MEETING JUST INSTEAD OF BEING hasty and just trying to do something just to do it. I don't know if that's...

I'll second that.

Yeah, I think that's great.

Great idea. How would we go about that?

Yeah, so the next step in your script here is to make a motion. So if you want to formally make the motion to continue...

So could I make the motion to continue this item to the next... July 13th.

July 13th is the next planning commission meeting.

And then we can get a better understanding of the situation.

I'll second that motion.

Okay, could I get a roll call vote, please?

Certainly. Oh, sorry.

If I may ask, is there any specific information that I could provide to you other than...

I think Commissioner Flores would like to see the tree farm to find out where we're at in our trees and to see what it is and then kind of just making sure that in that area what trees are there and stuff like that for our own sake. So we'll... I mean, we could take a personal ride. All of us can go. Maybe we just go together one day and we can just go drive it if that's okay.

I do have a question. Why would we not get this picture versus this picture for a presentation to decide on this?

There's a couple of different pictures that were provided on here that were taken recently. That one there.

WHEN DID YOU TAKE THIS, YESTERDAY?

YEAH, WHEN WAS YOUR PICTURE TAKEN?

I DIDN'T TAKE THAT PICTURE. MY TREE SUPERVISOR DID, SO I'D HAVE TO ASK HIM WHEN HE TOOK THAT.

WHEN WAS THIS PRESENTED? A MONTH AGO.

SO THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN LAST YEAR'S TREE.

LAST YEAR'S, AND THEN THAT'S THE REASON.

HASN'T BEEN CUT SINCE 23, IT SAID.

GOT IT. OKAY, THAT MAKES MORE SENSE. How often do these trees get trimmed?

We try to do them on a three-year cycle. It's probably due for a trimming.

Is that okay?

So there's a current motion to continue. Can I get a roll call, please?

Commissioner Sarno? Aye. Commissioner Cervantes? Aye. Commissioner Flores? Aye. Vice Chair Ayala? Aye. Chair Jimenez?

Aye.

All right, continue.

So ordered, we will continue this item on our July 13th agenda. Yeah, planning commission meeting. Thank you very much.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Enriquez. Appreciate it. Okay, moving on to staff communications on items of community interest. Does staff have any announcements?

Yes, thank you, Chair. In front of you at the dais is a friendly announcement and a reminder that there's a viewing for the World Cup match, Mexico versus South America, here at Town Center Plaza on Thursday, June 11th at 12 p.m. So you're all invited. Hope to see you there. Thank you.

Any other announcements?

No?

Okay, so Commissioner AB1234, Council Conference Reporting. Do any commissioners have something to report on?

None. None.

None. Okay, this meeting is now adjourned at 6.50 p.m. The next meeting of the Planning Commission is set for July 13, 2026 at 6 p.m. Thank you.