Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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[clears throat]

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like that. Fire That's right. I don't see it.

[laughter]

I would like to call the meeting of the planning commission to order at 6:04 p.m. M. Uh, can we start off with roll call? Planning Commissioner Secretary, may we have roll call, please? Certainly. Commissioner Flores, present. Commissioner Cervantes, present. Commissioner Ayala, present. Vice Chair Jimenez, here. Chair Sarna, here. All present. Next, uh, I would like to call upon uh, Commissioner Ayola to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please rise. Right now your heart ready. Begin.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Next, exparte communications. Uh this section is intended to allow all officials the opportunity to reveal any disclosures regarding site visits or exparte communications about the public hearing. Are there any exparte communications? None. None. None. None.

And I have none. Move on. Uh public comments on non-aggenda and non-public hearing items. At this time, the general public may address the planning commission on both non-aggenda and non-public hearing items. Comments relating to public hearing items will be heard during the public hearing. Please be aware that the maximum time allowed for members to the public to speak shall not exceed 3 minutes per speaker. State law prohibits the planning commission from taking action on entering extending discussions on topics not listed on the agenda. Please show the courtesy to others and direct all your comments to the chairperson. Planning Commission Secretary, do we have any members of the public wish present that wish to speak?

None. All right. Uh, I will now close public comments and move on to the next item. Elections for planning commissions, chairperson, and vice chairperson. I would like to call upon planning commissioner, secretary to please proceed with elections of the commission officers for 2026.

Thank you. Before we proceed with nominations, I would like to call upon community development director Quan Wyn to provide background and staff recommendation meeting commissioners. Um so similar to what we do every year, we do have uh you basically reorganize the planning commission. Um basically elect a new chair and a new vice chair. Um uh the way council currently does this is basically based on tenure. This recently occurred at the council level. Uh staff is recommending that you essentially follow suit and and elect a chair as well as a vice chair based on the tenure of the uh commission um as it stands. Um, and once uh the chair has filled their one-year term, um, that chairperson will then go to the back of the line. Um, as it stands, um, should you, uh, decide to follow staff's recommendation to follow city council, um, the, uh, chairperson, uh, based on tenure would be Gabriel Himenez, followed by the vice chair, uh, based on tenure would be David Ayala. Uh and then behind uh David and Gabriel uh in the order uh based on tenure would be Joseph Flores, Isabelle Cervantes, and then Jay Sarno as the current chair going to the back of the line.

Uh David, you were just president, weren't you? Were you here before, Joe? Okay. So that that's staff's recommendation. At this time, I'll open it back up to Esmeralda to um I guess conduct the reorg. Thank you. So I would like to declare the office of the chairperson vacant. Nominations are now open. Do any of the commissioners have any nominations? I go I agree with the uh director's assessment. So nominate Gabriel

Commissioner Himenez. So, we have a nomination from Jo um Joseph Flores to nominate Gabriel Jimenez. Gabriel, do you accept the nomination? Yes. Are there any other nominations? If no further nominations, I will now close the nominations for chairperson. Do we have a motion for the nomination of Gabriel Jimenez? Motion. And do we have a second? I'll second.

I will now take the roll call. Um, so for the motion of Gabriel Jimenez, Commissioner Ayala, sorry about that. Commissioner Cervantes. I, Commissioner Flores. I, Commissioner Jimenez. Hi, Commissioner Sarno. Hi. All righty. Congratulations. Give one a minute. I gota get out. Well, I got booted. Before we do that, well, let's uh decide on the vice chair. So, I would like to declare the office of the vice chairperson vacant. Nominations are now open. Do any of the commissioners have any nominations?

I nominate Commissioner Ayala. I second. I have a nomination and Commissioner Ayala, do you accept the nomination? I accept. No further nominations. I will now close the nominations for vice chairperson. Do we have a motion? I'll move. I'll second. Then I'll just do roll call for this. Commissioner Ayella. I. Commissioner Cervantes. I Commissioner Flores I Commissioner Jimenez I Vice Chair Sarno or Commissioner Sarno, sorry about that.

I I already got booted. Why even Congratulations Commissioner Ayalia? Oh, actually everybody's supposed to move. Yes. So you want Are we're going to do it? So Isabelle within I have new signs. Isabelle, you should come here because it goes that's how the pecking order will go there. D. Uh yeah. So you you sit over here. You sit right here. Come over here. Jay, you sit over here. No.

I sit right here. Don't you sit here? Okay. And then whose water is this? No, it go like this. Look. So the next person in line that moves to VP would be who? Joe. This is this is according to um council. So you would move that. I thought I thought was supposed to go farther. So the next person according to councel like one, two, three, four. He doesn't like you. [laughter]

Whose water is Whose water is this? Is this your water? Yeah, that's Jason.

Oh, it would be He wanted to be next. Okay.

Come on. Continue. Go. Okay. Great. Consent. The rules to this place. [laughter] 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, is there a motion and a second for approval of these consent items? A motion. I'll second.

Okay. Could I get a roll call vote, please? Certainly, Commissioner Sarno. Hi, Commissioner Cervantes. Hi. Commissioner Jimenez. Hi. Oh, sorry about that. Commissioner Flores. Hi. Um, Vice Chair Ayala. Hi. And then Chair Jimenez. Hi.

Passes 5 Z. Sorry about that. So ordered. There's a 14-day appeal period for anyone wishing to appeal these matters. Moving on to public hearing. We will now begin with item number three on the agenda. At this time, I will open the public hearing at 6:15. I now call upon associate planner Alejandro Deera to introduce this item. Congratulations chair and chair vice chair and thank you commissioners. So today I will be presenting on DPA development plan approval case number 1014. So starting off with the location of the site. This is located at 9005 Sorenson Avenue. The land use designation is industrial. The zoning is for M2 heavy manufacturing. The applicant is Zbeck Realy and as you can see from the aerial here the existing use is currently vacant. So this request would be for development plan approval case number 1014 and it is to construct a new 85,950 square ft concrete tiltup industrial building. There are no other existing or proposed entitlements for the site. A little bit of background and the existing site conditions. So the site is just one parcel that's approximately 4.28 parcels. It is undei undeveloped as you can see from the streets view here. Um and it was formerly a site for organic and inorganic chemical uh repacking and because of that there is a history of some soil and groundwater contamination but that has since been brought to a level of remediation uh that is suitable for commercial and industrial developments. and they've done that through uh the state's develop uh DTSC through the department of toxic substances and controls.

So a little bit about the site plan and its features. So the footprint of the building is 82,950 square ft and that does also on top of that within the second story would be a 3,000 foot office mezzanine. There are proposed to be nine dock high doors at the rear of the building. They are proposing to have 128 parking spaces uh which satisfies the requirement of 128. They are proposing to have an abundance of landscaping um at 13,417 square ft of which only 8,439 are required. You can see a lot of it is sort of geared towards uh the front setback along Sorenson uh as well as the northern property line which abuts the railroad. And finally they are providing uh a large front yard setback of over 91 ft uh of which only 42 is required. A little bit more on the site plan specifically for its access and circulation. They are proposing to have two different driveways. So the one on the north would be a 40 foot driveway and that one would be primarily for truck access and then the one on the south side would be at 26 feet wide and that would be more for passenger vehicle access, employee access. Next for the dock doors, as I mentioned, these are going to be at the rear of the building which is ideal because that would have a natural screening with the building itself and would be having those faced away from Sorenson Avenue and away from public view generally. There's also a proposal for an 8 foot high rod iron gate which is approximately 223 feet into the property. Uh which is important because it does allow for up to three trucks to queue on the site um without having that spill over into the the street and that's with the gate closed. They would

have some more availability for queuing with that gate open as well. And lastly, they do have a 26- foot wide uh fire lane access. And that's just to make sure that our fire department's able to get their truck in there and make sure they can access uh the portions of the site that they need to. As for the floor plan, um so the gross building area here is uh 85,950 square ft. Of that, 79,850 would be dedicated to warehouse space, and that's on the first floor. There'd be an additional 3,000 square feet on the first floor that would be dedicated for office space and directly above that would be another 3,000 square foot office mezzanine on the second floor. There's no user at this time. Uh so it is a speculative build u but it is intended mainly for a single tenant warehouse distribution type of use. Here's some of the elevations. So this is the north elevation and the west elevation. So the north side would be you coming down from Sorenson. Uh and the west elevation is going to be the rear portion of the property. So this is where we have our dock doors. And then for the south and east elevations uh focusing in on the east elevation that is the side facing Sorenson. So that's where we see uh the office space on the right. Uh and you can see they have a couple of different uh modern industrial elements. Uh they have the pop of color. They have some uh popins and pop outs. Uh they have some additional score lines uh along the elevation as well just to bring some visual relief there as well too. So there's no expansive walls without any kind of design. They each have um some additional articulation to break up the massing. Here's one of the renderings and this is facing um the the main office area. So as I mentioned earlier, you can kind of see that uh they do have a lot of the landscaping kind of geared up towards the front. So there's going to be a variety of plants and trees that are

going to be over on this side. This is where the truck access would be as well. So this is the north portion of the property. And then on the south side, this is uh the general smaller passenger vehicle access. Um again, we're anticipating um good amount of landscaping on this side. And you can see some of the additional window treatment and other elements that they have for the property here too. As for the environmental review and SQUA, uh we're proposing that the project be exempt uh from SQA under section 15332, which is the class 32 infill exemption. That's because it meets the main requirements of the exemption, which is that it be consistent with the general plan and zoning. that the site be no larger than five acres, that it has no sensitive habitats, that it would not result in a significant effect to traffic, noise, air quality, or water quality, and that it can be adequately served by all utilities and public services. The project site is also not on the Cortezy list, and we do have a traffic memo um from their consultant that was reviewed by our city traffic's engineering team that confirmed that they do not need any additional traffic or VMT analysis for this project. We did do a public hearing notice here and that was on January 15th. We did post at the city hall, city library, and town center kiosk as well as mail it out to the property owners within 500 ft of the property boundaries. On January 16th, we did also publish it in the Los Cerrito's community newspaper and now we have not received any comments. So, kind of wrapping up some of the key considerations here. Um, this would be the development of a vacant site, right? So, we would be going from a currently vacant parcel to a newer attractive industrial building that can now uh bring in a new uh user into the city. It is fully compliant with the zoning code. Uh so, they're not asking for any deviations or exemptions as part of this development. So, they do meet our parking, landscaping, setback, and other

access requirements. We do believe that this has good sight suitability given the industrial context of the surrounding site. It is also in the M2 zone and is approximately 1500 feet away from the nearest residential properties. And finally, it is architecturally compatible. So, the contemporary building does have a lot of modern industrial finishes that we are seeing um with new industrial buildings and it's complimentary to the existing context as well. So finally, staff does recommend that the commission approve and adopt the proposed environmental document, which would be the notice of exemption under SQL guidelines section 15332, which is for infill developments to approve DPA case number 1014 subject to the conditions as stated within the resolution, and to adopt resolution number 312-2026, which incorporates the planning commission's findings and actions regarding this matter. Thank you. And the applicant is here if you have any additional questions as well. Thank you, Alejandro. We will now move to commissioner questions or comments. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments for the staff?

None. Great. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments for the applicant? I just have one question. I know that um you stated that there's currently no tenant, right? Um but are there any potential tenants that you guys have in mind or that have approached you? Just to get an idea as to who we might have coming to the city.

Hi, uh my name is Daniel Ricks. I'm with Zbec Realy um the development manager for this project. We do not have any uh specific tenants that we're dealing with at this time. We have had some interest. Um once we get the slab in place, then we'll really go out to the market and really see um what uh what we can pull, you know. Um as far as our usual tenants, we have, you know, properties all over Southern California as well as um San Jose, uh Seattle, Dallas, and along the East Coast as well. Some of our big tenants include Amazon, Volvo, uh Pods. Um we try to go for the, you know, the higher credit tenants, the big box, uh tenants, but for this size, it probably be something smaller. Hopefully some manufacturing um versus a but it could be like a third party logistics company as well. So those are kind of the the main tenants that we we deal with. Okay,

any other questions? No. Okay, since there's no other questions, we will now open public comments for this item. Planning Commission Secretary, did we receive any speaking cards or written comments for this item? None.

Okay. If there's no objection by members of the commission, I will close public comment hearing number three. If there are no further uh commission questions or comments, I will now close the public hearing at 626. May I have a motion and approve for DPA case number 1014 and adopt resolution number 312205 which incorporates the planning commission's findings and actions regarding this matter. All motion motion

moved by Commissioner or Vice Chair Ayala and second by Commissioner Sarno. Planning Commission Secretary, could I get a roll call vote, please? Certainly. Commissioner Sarno, I. Commissioner Cervantes, I. Commissioner Flores, I. Vice Chair Ayala, I. Chair Jimenez, I.

Passes 5. So ordered. There's a 14-day appeal period for anyone wishing to appeal this matter. Thank you. Moving on to presentations. Zoning code education series zones. I would like to call upon assistant director of community development Vince Velasco to present item number four. Thank you, chair. If you recall from last month's meeting, uh we do want to um provide this education as it relates to the zoning code update. So, this series, the zoning code education series is to allow, you know, additional context throughout this zoning code update process. Uh if you recall last month we talked about the difference between zoning and the general plan and so this month's topics is on zones or formerly known as uh zoning districts. So just a brief history of what u zoning is. Uh so in the early 1900s um you saw a lot of manufacturing and uh industrial uses near uh residential neighborhoods and so you had a lot of crowding, noise, pollution. Um again, homes were next to factories and so cities needed new rules. By 1916, zoning was established. Uh New York City was the first in the United States to create uh zoning laws, rules for building heights, and uses. By 1950s, there was expansion of zonings where you saw zoning spread out through throughout the United States um which separated homes, shops, industries, etc. And then that leads us to um the late 1900s to today uh where you see zoning evolving. You have more mixed use areas

focused on walkability and um and walkable communities. So what is a zone? A zone is a rule for an area that uh says what types of buildings and activities are allowed in there. So why why do cities use zones? It helps keep homes, shops, factories uh in appropriate places, reduces conflicts between different activities, supports public safety and quality of life, and guides growth uh for the future. So, Zones are typically shown on the zoning map. Again, the zoning map is not part of the zoning code update, but the city is divided into different colored areas. Each color represents a different set of rules and the map shows which zone applies to each property. Here are some common types of those zones as you're familiar with. Residential for places to live, commercial for the shops, offices, and restaurants. Industrial uh for factories and warehouses. And of course, mixed use for that mixture of homes, shops, and offices. what you'll see included into each zone. And here's an example of the R1 single family residential. You'll have a purpose. What is the purpose of that R1 zone, the permitted uses that are allowed by right, accessory uses, conditional uses, and then you have property development standards, lot area, density, building height, setbacks, lot coverage, fencing requirements, parking, landscaping, and signage. and maybe a future series uh topic can be a more indepth dive into what you'll see into um the zoning. Here's a little chart of what zones control and also what they don't. So,

what do uh zones control, the types of buildings allowed, how big the buildings can be, and where buildings can be placed on a lot. for what zones cannot control is who owns the property, property values, and the day-to-day behaviors. So, I know this has been a feedback provided to us several times, which is how zoning affects you. It can affect how or what can be built next door to you, uh how your neighborhood may change over time, what you may uh what you can build or add to your property. I think this is a good example of this picture in the f in the presentation is a good example of how zoning changes over time and affects the neighborhood. Right? The photo in black and white could have been built established in the 1950s. The zoning at the time could have regulated that to a single story or to a height only dictating a single story. Whereas now you see in current times a two-story house maybe the zoning has changed to allow a second story or a greater height in that area. So what the public reviews during a zoning code update uh can include zoning names and descriptions, types of buildings and activities that are allowed, building size and placement rules, how zones work together across the city, and clarity and fairness of those rules. But what the public is not reviewing is specific development proposals or design details for a single project. And this concludes the presentation. Just as a reminder, uh we have public workshop number three on Wednesday, March 18th in the city library at 6:00 p.m. We'll definitely give you more um information regarding that and uh update you and remind you as we get closer to that date. Are there any questions on

this presentation? have one. Can you go back to the where zoning doesn't affect the cost or the the properties, but it does affect if we change the zone, it could affect the properties that are there now. Correct. I don't have the legal I think there's a distinction between control and effect, right? The city doesn't control the fair market value, but to your point or I think you mentioned effect, the zoning could affect how the the property is priced.

We have to be very affect businesses that are already there by changing it. Yes, it's it's a possibility, but the but the city doesn't control that. It can affect it but the city doesn't have control other the the new zone that we put there will change or the effect of the price based on the zone change.

Right. Right. And to your point to be mindful of that is something I'm sure the city is aware of but um technically the city doesn't Yeah. because it says property value and it I think it does play a role in in property value because we've heard it when we did the general plan that by changing the the zones we're going to affect the value of their properties that are already there. Yeah, that's all. Okay, city attorney. Um yeah, I think that's a great comment. Um we can certainly be mindful of the comment and I think we need to be also [clears throat] mindful. That's why I'm that's why I'm saying it because when we what we're approving.

Yes. What we approve h does have an effect on somebody else too. It's not just the person that we see in front of us but the overall area. So that's what that's all I was trying to do. Yeah. No, understood. I think again I think there's a a legal um right verbiage terminology of of how it can indirectly affect but as the city attorney was stating is is not a direct control of the the value. And so as we go through and we educate the public, we'll certainly be mindful of this comment how we um you know indirectly I think that's the perfect word for it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Any other questions from commissioners?

You know what? Now that you brought that up, I mean, yeah, because it limits [clears throat] what you can do. Like right, we had some cases recently where they were allowed to do X, Y, and Z. And with the new zone, they were limited. You guys were going to use it under discretion, but day-to-day behavior, it also impacts that like zoning does shape day-to-day behavior at certain areas. Just to make a point of we do got to be mindful of historical use of properties now that we reszoned everything that we do got to be extremely mindful of people's livelihoods and and and what's available to them to use their property. That's it. Yeah. Thank you. And my button's broken by the way. [laughter]

Any other questions? Fix it. No, no, no. Having no further questions, I would like to thank assistant director of community development Vince Velasco for the training. Thank you, Vince. Staff communications on items of community interest. Does staff have any announcements? Um, not necessarily an announcement. Um, but I'm not No, staff. Oh, sorry. Sorry. [laughter] staff. Sorry, sorry.

I have a quick announcement or just kind of uh to give you a precursor of something that we're working on that we'll be presenting to you in the next planning commission meeting um throughout the city with entitled projects, projects or sites that have we'll just call it a need for ongoing remediation of contamination issues or whatnot. Um there seems to be a growing issue of maintenance and making sure that those properties are wellmaintained. Um you know, we're along with the city attorney's office studying that matter and seeing if there's a way to kind of make sure there's a temporary tenant in there to kind of help minimize the potential of um homeless encampments. um just overgrown or unmaintained properties. Um, so we're we're we're looking into that and and we hope to be complete by the next meeting to have something before you to kind of come up with a solution as an interim use for those properties that are either in that are entitled and or um have contamination or environmental issues that still need to be uh completed before development occurs. And so we're looking into that and we hope to have that ready for the next meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other announcements? No. Okay. Now, do any commissioners have something to report on? I just want to say congratulations chairmen I vice chair men and your uh new position. Thank you. Forward to working with you.

Thank you. Thank you. Um, I did want to uh bring something up and typically we have someone here from like public safety or whatnot. Um, but I don't know if the city's aware of this um chronic masturbator that has been at the parks uh and has um been basically uh uh you know there's been multiple calls uh to the police um but nothing has been done.

Um multiple parks. Yeah, multiple parks. Um, I believe that Parks and Rex is keeping track of how many times the police have been called out. Um, he has been arrested and then released. Um, but it's it's it's, you know, it's it's happening. It's out there. Um, I guess for me the question would be and and like I said, typically we have someone here is um, if this person has been, you know, caught on multiple occasions, why is he being released so often, especially into the parks with those children? Um, so uh, you know, maybe that's something that we can follow up on. Um but I believe there's been at least at a minimum anywhere between seven calls. Um yeah, he has been uh arrested and released. So

is I think it's important to know especially when it's happening, you know, with kids.

Anything else to report on? No, I would just like to uh thank Commissioner Sarno on a great year of uh being the chair. He did a great job. And uh I want to thank my fellow commissioners on uh voting for me for this seat. And also congratulate Vice Chair Yella.

And happy new year to everybody. It's good to see everyone back. Glad we made it safe. So that being said, I would like to adjourn this meeting at 6:40. The next meeting of the planning commission is set for February 18, 2026 at 6 p.m.