Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I would like to call the meeting of the Planning Commission to order at 06:01PM. Planning Commission Secretary, may we have a roll call, please?

Certainly. Commissioner Flores? Commissioner Cervantes? Here. Commissioner Ayala?

Here.

Vice Chair Jimenez?

Here.

Chair Sarno?

Here. We have a quorum.

All right. I would like to call upon Gabel to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Please stand.

Please rise.

Put your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Munoz.

For the record, I'd like to show that Commissioner Flores is here.

Should we make him do the Pledge of Allegiance by himself?

All

right, I'll move on to Ex Parte Communications. This section is intended to allow all officials the opportunity to reveal disclosures regarding site visits or ex parte communications about public hearings. Are there any ex parte communications? None.

None.

None.

And I have none. Next, public comments on non agenda, non public hearing agenda 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 public hearing items will be heard during the public hearing. Please be aware that the maximum time allocated for the members of the public to speak shall not exceed three minutes per speaker.

State law prohibits the Planning Commission to take action on entering extended discussion on a topic 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 present that wish to speak today?

None.

Okay. I will now close public comments, move on to the next item. Consent calendar. All matters listed under the consent calendar are considered to be routine. Any consent items 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, two, and three, is there a motion and a second for the approval of these consent items? I'll move. Second. We have a motion and a second. Planning Commission Secretary, roll call please.

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

So ordered. There is a fourteen day appeal period for anyone wishing to appeal these matters. We will now begin with item number four on the agenda. At this time, I will open up public hearing at 06:04PM. I now call upon assistant planner, Alejandro de Lora, to introduce this item.

Good evening, Commissioners. So I will be presenting on the amendment to alcohol sales conditional use permit, Case No. 56. So this site is located at 13203 Telegraph Road and it has a land use designation of commercial. And it's on a site that's approximately 0.38 acres and it does have a c four community commercial zoning.

And the applicant for this request is Bruce Evans, and that's gonna be on behalf of the seven eleven. So a little bit of background regarding previous entitlements for this site. On it looks like this is on a timer, so sorry if I'm jumping on this. Okay. So for this site, there was a entitlement approved originally for alcohol sales conditional use permit case number 56 and this was in 2012.

It was first approved or recommended for approval by the Planning Commission and then approved by the city council. And the seven eleven has been the operator of this site utilizing the ASCUP since it was granted in 2012. Here are a couple images of the site. So the one on the left is gonna be a view from Telegraph Road, and then the one on the right is going to be from the corner of Telegraph And Painter. A little bit of background on the business itself.

The seven Eleven is a nationwide convenience store and they have been operating at this location since 2012. And they do strive to be a one stop shop model, so they do have a variety of different types of basic goods, household goods, and of course, addition to their food and beverage items. And they do again have an existing alcohol beverages and control license, and that is for a type 20 off sale specifically for the sale of beer and wine. This specific request is going to be replacing their existing type 20 license, and they're able to do this pursuant to the zoning code which does allow for them to file for an alcohol sales conditional use permit for this type of change. And they would be trying to upgrade to a type 21 off sale license, which would allow them to have the addition of distilled spirits and liquor.

And the sale of distilled spirits that they're proposing to add would be limited in size and it would be approximately five by five area and it would have been a locked cabinet behind the sales counter that would only be accessible to the store employees. And here's a bit of the floor plan on that one. So the orange box is going to be the location for that. So this would be again behind the POS, behind the counter system, so it'd only be accessible to the employee that's running the counter. So again this request would allow them to maintain their existing operations.

So they are currently operating at twenty four hours a day or twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. And this does, however limit their alcohol sales from 6AM to 2AM the following day. And this is part of their existing conditions and is maintained in this request as well. It is also important to note that ABC will still also be required to approve the request. So should the planning commission move forward with this, they would still need to receive that type 21 permit from ABC.

And we did confirm with ABC as well that they would not need a finding of public convenience or necessity. So there is not one being made for this item today. For CEQA, we do believe that the project is exempt from CEQA through the existing facilities class one pursuant to section one five three zero one of the CEQUA guidelines. The project does involve the continued operation of the existing convenience store, and the only change would be that they would be adding that distilled spirits, so they would be maintaining their existing operations. And the item was noticed through public hearing, and that was both through the newspaper as well as the property owner mailing within 500 feet as well as posted through various city locations.

And to date, staff has not received any comments regarding the item. And a couple of key considerations to consider is that the applicant does have their existing ABC license. This would only be replacing that type 20 only beer and wine alcohol sales to add distilled spirits with the type 21. They have demonstrated continued compliance on the site. So it has this item has been brought back to the planning commission for their original ASCUP, twice, once in 2016 and another time in 2022.

And in both of those reports, staff did, did indicate that they were showing strict compliance with their existing conditions. So they've been a good partner with the city. And there are conditions, that have been applied previously and that are gonna continue to be applied for this amendment that would mitigate potential impacts, which would include things like loitering, operations, and any other, security issues. So with that, staff does recommend that the planning commission find that the project is categorically exempt under section one five three zero one existing facilities of the CEQA guidelines, as well as approve the amendment to ASCUP case number 56 subject to the conditions of approval that are stated within resolution two eighty six dash two zero two five and as well adopt resolution number two eighty six dash two two five. And with that, that concludes my presentation.

The applicant is also here if the commissioners have any questions. Thank you.

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

You said that they've been compliant with their their current alcohol license?

Correct.

Has there been any like other alcohol related things, maybe people outside causing disturbance or anything like that of record that's just excessive or?

So specifically alcohol related no. In the previous reports and through the calls for service that have been at the site or in proximity to the site it has been determined that it's not alcohol related.

Okay. Thank you. I have two questions. One piggyback. We do know that this is a high area for homelessness. Have we thought about any because they are open twenty four hours and they will serve alcohol, is there anything in place for repetitive customers that come in, you know, three or four times during the day or maybe more than once that are gonna maybe become a nuisance to the to the area and stuff? And second, do we have a policy on how close to a school, how close is the seven Eleven to the school that's behind it?

Yeah. So for the first question, a couple of items. So they we do have an additional condition as part of this amendment that would require the applicant to submit a new security plan with our police services department. So that security plan would include protocols for things like potential repeat people within the same day, excessive loitering, things like that. So that is part of the conditions for this specific amendment.

And in addition to that, there are general requirements from ABC that are also listed within the conditions of approval that are specific to habitual drinkers. So there is also conditions within that that we have. And they as the operators would be required to abide by those or else they'd be risking potentially losing their ABC license from their controls. And then for the second part, you mentioned for the schools. Right?

So the proximity. So there's two separate items. So if it's a new license, it's not a limitation in terms of an automatic denial. It's more of a notification to the schools when it's initially proposed. Since this is an existing license, the schools were also noticed if they wanted to have any kind of rebuttal to it. We did not receive any comments for that. So there's no specific limitation to answer your question.

There's no there's no footage. There's no 500 feet?

So it's not automatic. So it's more so for noticing. So they would they are I I believe the search area is expanded for schools, so there's more notice for them. It's also all sensitive receptors. So that includes, like, churches and stuff like that too. So they were also noticed within that buffer area and had the opportunity to comment. But no, it doesn't like automatically prohibit them from having the sales.

I I got something. Do most of the seven eleven sell distilled alcohol in their

Yeah. And the applicant might be able to share a little bit more with this, but this is a general trend with the seven elevens. They are moving towards having distilled alcoholism.

And what kind of, are they doing a full line of everything?

It doesn't specify or there's no limitations specifically on the type that they would it would be based off of their consumer base. Again, think they might be able to share a little bit more if they have specific intention of what they want to have. But but it would be limited to that area that we talked about and showed in the presentation.

Okay. So the area can't grow, I'm sorry. So the area can't grow, so it's gonna be that area?

So it is indicated within the amendment. So if they do expand the area, they would technically be amending the CUP, so they would have to come back to be able to expand.

Are

there any regulations that require whoever's operating the seven eleven that they deny service if they see that the person is already intoxicated?

I would have to double check the specifics with ABC, but ABC does have, California resource codes that are specific to things like, if you notice someone that is, already intoxicated that you're not supposed to serve them. There's also another one for habitual drinkers. There's another one for people that are already showing signs of being intoxicated. So there are California resource requirements within their ABC license that do require them to have that. And staff does receive levels of training for situations like that, and they are supposed to respond accordingly, again, to maintain their ABC license for that.

Are these regulations default? They're automatically added for their license or do we have to request that they be added?

Yeah, so they're automatic with an ABC license and we do have some specifically listed within our conditions as well.

Yes. For

the annual review, what office does it? Or do you does the planning commission do it? Does public safety do it? Who who does the annual review for, like, calls of service and alcohol related incidents?

So so calls of service would go to PSC. So depending on what the if it's emergency, right, then it would go to Widyard PD. If it's non emergency and more related to the the CUP itself, then it would go to our code enforcement. But in terms of the reviews, the review periods, those involve our code enforcement officers going out there and doing an inspection based off of the conditions. And then we come back here to the planning commission and give you all a rundown of that, And then you all can make a determination to accept that compliance review or follow-up.

Thank you, sir. Next, does any member of the commission have any questions or comments for the applicant? No? I just have not a question, but a comment. I actually frequented a lot.

My office is actually right around the block. I do wanna send kudos to you guys because I know you guys have been trying to clean up the area as far as with homelessness, and it's it's very hard to do. But you guys are doing a good job, and you're actually maintaining a better quality of life for the businesses around there to go in without getting harassed and stuff like that. So I just hope that this doesn't encourage more homeless people to to come and, sit in front of their or behind to do their things and ruin a good business. So thank you guys for the hard work that you guys are trying to do to clean up and stuff like that.

So thank you guys. Next, we will now open up public comments for this item. Planning Commission Secretary, did we receive any speaking cards or written comments for this item?

No cards were received. No comments either.

Okay. Do I have to read the please state your name? No. If there's no parent. Okay.

So if there's no objective by members of the commission, I will close public comment for public hearing item number four. If there's no further commissioner questions or comments, I will now close the public hearing at 06:18 p. M. May I have a motion to approve the request of amendment to ASUP case number 56 and adopt resolution two eighty six dash two zero two five, which incorporate the Planning Commissioner's findings and actions regarding this matter.

I'll move. Item number four.

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

Commissioner Flores? Aye. Commissioner Cervantes? Aye. Commissioner Ayala?

Aye.

Vice Chair Jimenez? Aye. Chair Sardino? Aye. Passes forward.

So ordered. There is a fourteen day appeal period for anyone wishing to appeal this matter. Congratulations. We will now begin this item number five on the agenda. Staff is recommending continuance to the July 14 meeting. Senior planner, Vince Velasco, can you please give us an update as to the reason for the continuance?

Yes. Thank you. Good evening, Planning Commission. This item is revocation of a batch of use permits, including conditional use permits, alcohol sales conditional use permits, and these businesses are no longer operating. Staff has confirmed that.

Sorry. My apologies. I've confused the two continuance items. This is actually an existing drive thru facility that is adding on to their existing business. However, we discovered that they never obtained a conditional use permit when they began operating. So this is kind of to bring them into full compliance. However, we are still finalizing the conditions of approval and want to provide the applicant with enough time to review them before the hearing. So we're asking for continuance until July.

All right. So there will be no public hearing. Still a public hearing? So the public hearing is now open at 06:20 p. M. If anyone wishes to speak to the continuance only, please approach the podium. Anybody? No? Is there a motion to continue this item to 07/14/2025, Planning Commission meeting? Could I have a first?

I'll have

a first. And a second? I'll second. Planning Commission Secretary, roll call please.

Commissioner Flores?

Aye.

Commissioner Cervantes? Aye. Commissioner Ayala?

Aye.

Vice Chair Meneth? Aye. Chair Starno?

Aye. This item has been continued to the July 14 Planning Commission meeting. Do I have to close public hearing?

No. You do?

I do?

No, you don't. I would

like to close public hearing at 06:22PM. Item number six on the agenda. Staff recommendation of a to a what?

Susie, for the continuance, wouldn't we keep the public hearing open to the next meeting?

Disregard me closing the public meeting.

Right. Continue to July 14. Okay.

Next, staff is recommending continuance to the July 14 meeting. Senior planner Vince Velasco, can you please give us an update to the reason of the continuance?

Yes. As I was stating earlier on the other item I misconfused this one for, this is a bulk batch of use permits that we are planning to revoke. As you may or may not know, the use permits run with the land, and so the city has to enact a revocation process for those to be discontinued. Again, these are permits that are or uses that are no longer operating. However, we, you know, just need a little bit more time to run these reports by our city attorney's office and we'll bring this back before you in July.

Sounds good. Public hearing is now open at 06:24PM. If anyone wishes to speak to the continuance only, please approach the podium. Nobody wishing to speak. Is there a motion to continue this item to 07/14/2025, Planning Commission meeting? Could I have a first?

I'll move for continuance.

A second? I'll second. I have a first and a second. Planning Commission Secretary, roll call vote please.

Commissioner Flores. Aye. Commissioner Cervantes. Aye. Commissioner Ayala.

Aye.

Vice Chair Jimenez? Aye. Chair Sarno?

Aye. This item has been continued to 07/14/2025, Planning Commission meeting. Chair Sarno, staff communications on items of community interest. Does any staff have any announcements?

Yes. Thank you, Chair. If you haven't received it already, we do have a flyer for you in regards to our zoning code update workshop number one. So we invite you to come out tomorrow night, June 10 at Town Center Hall at 6PM. We're going to kick off our zoning code update process. If you're not aware, the ZOTI code hasn't been updated since its original adoption. We've just kind of Band Aid approached it throughout the years. So we'd love to get your opinion your buy in, your feedback on how we can improve and modernize the zoning code. Thank you.

Sounds good. Thank you. Commissioners AB1234, Council Conference Reporting. Does any commissioners have something to report on? No? Alright. This meeting is adjourned at 06:25PM. The next meeting of the Planning Commission is set for 07/14/2025 at 6PM. Have a good week. Summer's here. Happy Father's Day to all of Happy Father's Day. Yes.

Father's Day, guys. Father's Day.

See, wait a minute.

What what the what

There's no comments. Excuse me. Wait a minute.

Sorry.