Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

What item? C4. C4.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Board of Supervisors of Stanislaus County. I call this meeting to order. The date is June 2nd. The time is 9.02 a.m. I'm going to ask everyone to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and then remain standing for an invocation from Pastor Mark Krieger from Modesto Covenant Church.

and indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let's bow together in prayer.

Lord God, as we gather today, we pause to recognize your presence. You are with us. And in humility, we recognize our need for you. God, you are our help in ages past and our hope for years to come. Lord God, as citizens, we recognize that you've placed before us governing authorities, and we pray for our county, for our county workers and officials. And Lord, today we pray especially for the supervisors today. Just as you have called them into this season in these positions of influence, we pray that you would enable them to accomplish the task before them. We ask, Lord, that you would graciously give them wisdom as they make decisions. Lord, give them a sense of the needs of the people of our county. Give them a thirst for what is right and just. Lord, also give them the ability to work together. God, there's so much that can divide us. Help them to find harmony, even when there is honest disagreement. And Lord, for each of them, we pray for personal peace and joy in their lives. And today, Lord, on this primary elections day, we also thank you for all who are willing to serve in leadership. And we pray that you would guide our election process today. God, give us your peace, your hope, and your future. And Lord, we pray for the agenda set before this body today. Lord, give them your direction as to what would most benefit those who live and work in our wonderful county. And we pray all of this in your most blessed name. Amen.

Thank you very much, Pastor. Well, welcome everyone on election day. I hope everyone had the opportunity to vote. If you haven't voted, don't trust the post office today. Deliver it to one of the drop boxes or one of the vote centers because it has to be postmarked. Okay, we're going to move on to item three, public comment period. It's an opportunity for anyone to speak on anything that is not on today's posted agenda. We've had some technical difficulties on our five minutes because we have to limit comments to five minutes. It might not be working, so we're going to keep time right up here on the front, and I'll try and give you like a 15-second reminder. Maybe I'll do this or something when you're almost done with your time. So I do have one speaker card from Brian Evatt. Good morning.

Anyway, what I want to talk to you is a way to save families' homes. And the assessor should be doing this. When a person dies, we put in an obituary the person dies. At that time, the assessor should turn around and he should send the letters to the family, right? Notifying them that they have to turn around and either live in the house or not. Otherwise, it will compound. and there'll be an interest or taxes that'll be compounding and the rate will be reassessed. This is why we're creating homeless here in this community, is because they're losing their houses their families have built. In the same way we want to save the farm people and have their farms, we want to save each individual house if we can and keep that family in that house. We don't need to keep on generating and reassessing. We need to notify them because they have three years, basically. One year they got to get moved in. And it's the assessor's job to notify these families. Now, it's a simple thing that the assessor could do is send a letter out to the family. so they could get the same, because if they just wind up in probate thinking that's what we do, those taxes don't stop, the reassessment doesn't stop, and we have never even communicated with the rest of the family, so they wind up losing these homes. Then they wind up on the streets, they do the drugs, and then here we are. We're giving away free Narcan. We're giving her free fentanyl testing so they don't overdose themselves. And if they do, we'll bring them back and we'll do the same thing. Instead of wasting our money in these little sleeper units that are costing us $170 a square foot per month, we need to start putting that money towards the families and keeping them in their homes. one way or the other. And that's the job of the assessor to notify these families. And if we don't do this, we just got an assessor that's just playing the games to get these families homes. And I don't think we need to be doing this. And you guys should really look close into this and make the assessor do his job and stay in touch with these families so they don't lose their homes and that we don't create more homeless here. You know, that's our job. And that's not because we care. And that's what we need to start doing is care more, not just care and dump all our money into health and safety, because we're teaching them and teaching our kids to turn around, lose everything and teaching our kids to be dumber. So that way they can just take their homes, sell those homes and turn it back into health and safety for the drug addicts and everything. I don't know, but you guys need to turn around and tell your assessor to do his job. Notify these families before that, because we're only 20 years apart from being senior citizens. One generation dies, the next generation is a senior citizen. That's the ones that you're supposed to protect. We're all senior citizens here. We're the next generation. Do we want to lose this stuff for our kids and put them on the street, make them become drug addicts, then give them free Narcan to stay alive? I don't think so. I think you guys can realize this. It's a pretty simple situation, but we gotta make the people that work for us do their jobs, protect our families that are here, protect their homes for the next generation to come. Don't just turn around and financially kick them out because you created a new assessment on those people. They went from $175,000, which is cheap for our county, all right? But then they get reassessed at $500,000. What's the next generation after that? Mill two? What are your kids going to need? Just $1,000 to pay property tax to keep those houses? Is that right? It's not right. You know? I'd like to say that I just want you guys to kind of look into that and get the assessor to do his job and save these families their homes. I don't know. I think it's a very important thing because otherwise we'll just create more and more homeless and more people on drugs. And those homeless don't want to be anything because they wind up staying around the houses that they could have lived in. They stay in those neighborhoods that they could have lived in. They don't want to go to one of your sleeper units. Because they still feel that's at home even though they don't have the home anymore. We created them. Let's stop creating the homeless. Let's give them a home which their family worked for generations and their grandparents and their grandparents' parents. Don't steal that away from them. That's all I got to say. Make it simple. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

Anyone else for a public comment?

Okay.

Seeing none, we're going to close the public comment period. We're going to move on to the consent calendar before the board takes action on the consent calendar. Does anyone in the audience wish to provide any public comment on any matter on the consent calendar? I do have one card from Kevin McLarty who wants to ask a question on C4.

YES, GOOD MORNING, SUPERVISORS. C4 SPARKED MY CURIOSITY BECAUSE I AM CURIOUS AS TO WHY A PRIVATE CAR DEALERSHIP HAS TO ASK THE COUNTY PERMISSION TO PURCHASE ELECTRIC CARS. SO MAYBE SOMEONE COULD EXPLAIN THAT TO ME. THANK YOU.

Good morning, Dave Lehmans, Nassau County Public Works Director. Winner's Chevrolet has the state contract, and so the state negotiates prices and we can piggyback on the state, and so it winds up being good pricing for us. We're not going to beat a state procurement, and so that's what we're asking for. Basically, buy from Winner's, who has the state contract for Chevy Silverados, EV. Got it. Okay, thank you.

Very good. I think that's the only comment card. Anyone else want to comment on anything that's on consent from the audience? Okay, we're pulling items C3 and C5, so I will entertain a motion. Everything minus C3, C5. Motion to approve.

Second.

We have a first and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Fuck. Okay. C3. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Um. Very excited to see the MOU moving forward with the county as well as the city of Patterson for Old Las Palmas Road. I know myself and Mr. Lehman and the mayor of Patterson, Michael Clizell, met out there probably a year and a half ago on the Old Las Palmas. It's been a road of frequent traffic from trucks as well as just regular neighborhood residential traffic. And it's a road that's been kind of beaten up quite a bit. But I do appreciate the responsiveness on this, Mr. Lehman, and thank you for your attention. Very excited about this MOU in partnership with the city of Patterson. If you would like to just further expound upon that, it'd be great of what we can expect. I know we're looking at some work out there in 2027 of July. Right.

Thank you.

Morning, Chair.

Dave Lehman, Nassau County Public Works Director and Board and CEO Hayes and Mr. Bowes. Good morning. Yeah, we're excited about this project too. We love partnering with our other sister agencies in the county and this is a great opportunity to do so. My staff spends a lot of time making sure that when we're going to go do work, we reach out to whoever we're next to and make sure that they can participate. That way everybody gets the efficiencies of of sharing resources. And so you get better prices that way. And 2027, it should be done next summer. And I know the neighborhood will be happy. Everybody will be happy out there.

Absolutely. So thank you again. We appreciate your attention. Of course.

Welcome. Of course.

Is that a motion? Yeah, move to approve. Move to approve C-3. Is there a motion? Second. And a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 5-0 on to C-5.

Thank you, Chairman. Also, Mr. Lehman, I know there's a lot of construction work going on throughout our districts in Stanislaus County. I just wanted to kind of get a little progress update from you for the public, just for the general knowledge, as well as an update on the Crow's Landing Naval Air Base and all the work going on out there.

We're busy little bees at Public Works this summer. Park lawn's nearly done. I know that's in your district and right across the street. Been hard to get my staff in and out of Morgan Road for the last week. We've been doing trenching and paving on Morgan and curb gutter and sidewalk. But everybody's been patient in the neighborhood. Bret Hart, same thing. We're making good progress out there. Park Lawn will be done in a couple months. We'll be in and out of there, and that'll be nice. And so the rest of the districts, Colorado Rouse is going fine. Kenwood Stars, a one-season project, will be good there. We're feeling pretty good. Crow's Landing Industrial Business Park. We'll be fine. We're going to spend the ARPA money up front. And even if we have to rush things just a tad, get the contractor making sure they can spend all the ARPA. We got money for the wells, separate pot, and then we have the general fund assignment. So we'll be good. So we'll be able to spend our ARPA. And we're working on graphs and a spreadsheet to show that very thing. So when we get it, we'll share it.

Okay, and then the air base?

Oh, yeah, the air base. That's what I was just talking about. So we're ordering equipment, a lot of this stuff. It could go as late as 28, ordering steel tanks, pumps, all the electronic equipment to run the system. And these are long lead time items. And so it takes 12 months to get some of these specialty items. And so we'll make sure we spend the ARPA hook or crook. We got it.

Awesome. Well, keep up the good work, David. Thank you and your entire department for all your due diligence on it.

Thank you for letting us highlight ourselves. Absolutely. So the ARPA money has to be spent before the end of this year. Correct. And final invoices by the end of March.

Yep.

We got this. We're all over it.

It's funny because we always come up short on money, so I would hope that we would be able to spend it. All right. Thank you. So I will entertain a motion.

That would be approved.

C-5. A motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Thank you very much, Dave. All right, we're going to move on to item five, which is public hearing, approval to consider adoption of the fire protection development fees for the Burbank Paradise Fire Department district pursuant. Title 24 of the Stanislaus County Code. Eric Ignacio and Jeffrey Small will be presenting.

Good morning, Chair Keyes, board members, CEO Hayes and County Council Bowes, Erica Inacio, Deputy Executive Officer, and I'm introducing today Jeffrey Small, who is a consultant with Capital Public Finance Group, who assisted the Burbank Paradise Fire Protection District with the process to update their development impact fees study and is presenting during this public hearing item. The item requests your consideration and approval of the proposed fire protection development fees for the Burbank Paradise Fire Protection District pursuant to Title 24 of the Stanislaus County Code. Jeffrey, if you want to get us started.

Well, thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm here with Assistant Chief Chris Bernardi. I'm sure many of you know him personally. I'm going to give you a very short presentation and provide an opportunity to answer any questions regarding our request that you approve the development impact fees for the Burbank Paradise District. First and foremost, thank you so much to Erica County staff the public facilities fee committee. Pleasure to work with the team. They've been extremely supportive of the district. We were also fortunate to work in a collaborative manner with the Building Industry Association, hear them, get an understanding of what's important to them, and take that information and implement it back into the district's fee program. First and foremost, maybe more for the public than for you, but when new development comes in, there's an impact on existing local agencies such as the fire district. Property tax money comes in. That property tax money goes to pay for operations. What we're asking you today for is to approve a development impact fee that pays for capital projects due to growth caused by new development. The reason why we're here is because as a special district, the district is not able to impose that fee directly. It must go through the County Board of Supervisors. So the impact fee study, brief methodology. We've talked about this before, but let me just give you the repeat of how that methodology works. What we do is we take all the existing assets of the district, we take their future capital needs, we spread them over the existing households and plus the new square footage that's gonna come in. And so we show you the math on the next few slides just to hit the top line numbers. District's assets are about 4.6 million. There are some equipment needs consisting of apparatus and equipment refurbishment of 1 million. We also look at square footage, as I discussed. Currently, there's about 2,462,000 square feet of structures within the district. The district is not anticipating very much growth. I mean, it's pretty modest there over the next eight years, 11,000 square feet. But we do have a total square foot, and what we're gonna do is we're gonna divide the value of existing and future assets over the current and anticipated square footage, which we see on this slide, and that comes to $2.30 plus an administrative fee for $2.35. In assessing the fee, it's very important to work with the building industry association. We want to make sure that not only our objectives are met, but we're also in alignment with our other partners and BIA is one of them. When we first looked at the study, the district did not have a capital improvement plan. They have since created one. It's in the report. We've worked with the district closely to have a very intense 19-page comprehensive administrative reporting book, which will include a one-year, it does include a one-year and a five-year annual reporting so that the district is aware of what their obligations are under the Mitigation Fee Act. These are just statutory obligations. There's nothing optional or volunteer about it. We're just sticking with what the law is requiring. And we did agree to enact a fee of 81 cents per square foot. Again, that is a reflection of the BIA, we want their support and we would like to enact this fee. So one of the items that occurred after the district approved their resolution of 81 cents was simply an acknowledgement by the district that they won't do any future increases without a new public hearing and a formal nexus study update. And that's what the law is, but we wanted to honor that statement. It doesn't change the study or anything about it. In fact, I see this as a good opportunity for that collaboration to build those relationships. So when there is a question, we know one another and we can work our way through it. So with that, Chief Bernardi and myself, we're happy to answer any questions you might have.

Okay. Any questions, Assistant Chief? Seeing none, we will now open the public hearing, if that's okay. All right. We're going to open the public hearing, acknowledge that we don't have any written comments. Does anyone in the audience wish to provide public comment on this item? Step forward. I have a question. Come up to the, come up to the, Brian, come on up to the mic. Address it to us and then we'll have an answer.

How many homes are, we got the square footage, but how many homes are actually?

So this is new construction. The field will be laid on new construction. So it's a matter of they're anticipating what the potential is for the future when they do the study. It's not based, they're not going to assess something that's already built.

Okay, how many homes are they planning to build?

Well, it would be any construction, but I can... Just basically it's a square footage breakdown. Of anything that would be built, they're anticipating to be built.

I'll have them come up and answer that when... Yeah, because of the cost, if you started thinking about the cost, what they're stating, and you're thinking, well, only one home out of 5,000 burn a year. So how much money are we going to place in that and And one home, that's 2,000 times 5,000. So the square footage is 2,000.

Yeah. This is for new development to pay their fair share because all the old houses and construction paid for what they currently have. And if there's an expansion of a need for resources, they're going to pay their way. Anyone else for a comment before I ask them to come forward on this issue? Okay. You can come up and talk about it.

Well, thank you very much. Appreciate the question and the comments regarding affordability for housing. Again, we're not anticipating much development in Burbank Paradise. It could be one home per year. The average square feet is about 1,400 square feet. This is not a moneymaker in any way, but it's our obligation to make sure that we have an impact fee in place. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Seeing no one else, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back to the board for any dialogue, thoughts.

I'll make the motion, but just one further thought. It's not just about fires, houses burning. It's about EMS services. The fire trucks always get there before the ambulances get there, much before the ambulances get there, and those seconds save lives. So I'll make a motion to approve all staff recommendations.

Any other comments? I want to say something because I've never been out to... Burbank's fire department and I had the opportunity to go out. I think Buck and I went out there recently and they have a real gem in the community. It's off of Beverly if you ever get a chance to go by. It's next to the Powell building and they have a little complex with a park and they're doing great things out there. This was one of the things that they had told us about and I think again even if it's a small amount of revenue the department can use it and it's a real gem there for the community. So we have a first and a second motion and second all those in favor say aye aye opposed Motion carries 5-0. Thank you assistant chief Bernardi for coming in Now we're going to move on to our second public hearing. It's a public hearing to consider the appeal of the Planning Commission's denial of the use permit application PLN 2025-0049, Madrigal, a request to permit an existing firewood cutting operation on a 4.52 acre parcel. It's General Plan Ag A240 zoning, located at 1201 Pauline Avenue. Thank you.

Good morning Chairman Keyes.

Good morning Angela.

Mr. Hayes, Mr. Bose, members of the board, I'm Angela Freitas, the Director of Planning Community Development. With me to present this item is Marcus Roddix.

Hi, yeah, Marcus Roddix, Assistant Planner. Good morning everyone. I'm here today to present the appeal of the Planning Commission's denial of use permit application number PLN 2025-0049, Madrigal. This is a request to permit an existing firewood cutting operation on a 4.52 acre parcel in the general agriculture A240 zoning district. And I previously had a public hearing on April 16th, 2026, which was, and the project was denied by the planning commission on six, one vote as it required findings could not be made. Project site is located at 1201 Pauline Avenue between California Avenue and Mays Boulevard in the Modesto area. The site has a general plan designation of agriculture and the zoning designation of general agriculture A240. The project site is surrounded by irrigated cropland and scattered single family dwellings in all directions. Paradise Elementary School directly to the west adjoining the property site and State Route 132 to the north. The parcel is currently developed with an existing single family dwelling, a detached garage, barn, and residential swimming pool. The remainder of the parcel is vacant and has not been farmed for several years. Bathrooms within the existing dwelling will be available for those working on site as part of the operation. And firewood cutting takes place in a roughly 1.5 acre dirt field on the southern end of the parcel, highlighted in blue on this slide. This area is currently enclosed with corral fencing and is directly adjoining Paradise Elementary School to the west, and it's located, again, southern end of the parcel along California Avenue. No construction is currently proposed as part of the request. Firewood cutting is proposed to occur intermittently seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. with up to a maximum of five employees on site. Current employees are family members of the property owner. Wood sourced from Orchard and Stanislaus and neighboring counties is brought on site once a week via a personal pickup truck for cutting. Access is proposed to be taken off county maintained Pauline and California avenues with vehicles typically entering from Pauline and exiting from California. As part of the processing of this application, several issues were considered. The subject application was originally submitted to correct the code enforcement violation, case number CE220518, for the operation of a firewood cutting business and private event venue without securing the necessary land use entitlements first. A total amount of $2,300 in citation fees were owed to the county. As of April 27th, 2026, all outstanding fees have been paid. And the project site was also subject to two building code violations for unpermitted construction. Building permit application number BLD 2021-2558 was submitted in 2021 and issued in December 2022 to correct one of the violations. And then this permit was later finaled on April 29th, 2026 after the initial public hearing for the project, which again was the 16th. As of today, the project site has no open complaints related to building code violations on site. CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL WERE ALSO ADDED TO THE PROJECT TO ADDRESS CONCERNS RAISED BY PUBLIC AGENCIES REVIEWING THE PROJECT AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS DURING PROCESSING OF THE PROJECT, WHICH PRIMARILY CENTERED ON THE MAXIMUM HEIGHT OF FIREWOOD PILES ON SITE, THE MINIMUM OF PART SETBACK FROM FIREWOOD PILES TO THE PROPERTY LINES, THE POTENTIAL FOR SPREAD OF AGRICULTURAL PESTS WITH THE WOOD BEING TRANSPORTED FROM OFF-SITE ORCHARDS TO THE PROJECT SITE, AND SCREENING OF THE ON-SITE FIREWOOD CUTTING ACTIVITIES FROM VIEW OF THE ADJACENT PARADISE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO THE WEST. The next few slides are site visit photographs. I had gone to the site back on April 8th in the morning, just took a few pictures just for more up-to-date pictures of it. This is a view specifically of the project site from the California Avenue right-of-way. Multiple piles of wood approximately three feet or less in height were observed at that time. With one pile in the front there on the right side, that was approximately five feet in height. And piles were generally about five feet from property line, that was the approximate setback. Then this is another more zoomed in view from the California Avenue right of way, that was the more five foot tall pile that I had observed. And then again, another view of the project site, this time from Pauline Avenue, so you can see it in the background, the school site, Paradise Elementary. Subsequent to the publishing of the Planning Commission staff report, planning staff prepared an amendment to the Planning Commission, including revised language for a condition of approval related to screening and comments received from the applicant's representative. The condition of approval number eight, it was originally added in response to a concern raised regarding visibility of the operation from the adjacent school site, and it was not intended to require screening from the public right-of-way, which includes both Pauline and California Avenues, and that was reflected in the original language for the condition. So as such, Staff is recommending condition of approval number eight be revised with new wording reflecting required screening solely from view of the adjacent school property to the west. And then an email correspondence received. The applicant's representative stated to staff that the applicant will not be storing wood on the property. However, the project description and recommended conditions approval set limits on the area and maximum height at which firewood may be stored, but they do not restrict the storage of cut firewood on the property. The applicants represented also requested that reference to the property being used as private event venue be removed as the site has been used for three to four family gatherings over the years, but not as a full private event venue. As of the time of the staff report and the memo were written, the Department of Environmental Resources Code Enforcement Division still had an open case on the property for operation of a non-permitted event venue, which is why that was included in the staff report project description. For any project, general plan and zoning ordinance consistency must be evaluated when processing discretionary projects, including the project site's general plan land use as a nation of agriculture and consistency with the land use element of the general plan. Unless the Board of Supervisors determines otherwise, low people intensive tier one and tier two uses, which do not serve the general public, are not subject to agricultural buffers. Based on the requested use consisting of five or fewer people involved in the operation on site and no customers or other members of the public expected to visit the site, staff believes the project can be considered low people intensive. Pursuant to the California Environmental Equality Act, an initial study was circulated to interest parties and responsible agencies for review and comment. A negative declaration has been prepared for approval and conditions approval reflecting referral responses on the project have been placed. on the project. Again, the project was originally considered by the Planning Commission at a public hearing on April 16, 2026. 10 individuals spoke in opposition to the project. General expression concerns related to unsightliness of the operation resulting from the storage of cut firewood, pallets, and porta-potties on site. excessive noise from the use of equipment such as generators, chainsaws, mechanical wood splitters, increase in the presence of pests in the surrounding areas such as rodents and fleas, traffic impacts and damage to nearby roadways caused by semi-trucks accessing the site to pick up and drop off wood, and potential disruptions and hazards to students at the adjacent Paradise Elementary School. A detailed summary of the concerns shared from those who spoke in opposition is found in pages four through six of the board report. And then the applicant, Anna Maria Madrigal, spoke in favor of the project, stating that the firewood cutting operation on site was a hobby conducted by elderly family members and not a business. She further stated that the project site was a small family-run operation without public access to the site or any on-site firewood sales. And she expressed her willingness to bring the project site into full compliance with the applicable county ordinances. And again, a summary of Ms. Madrigal's comments and responses to the questions that the Planning Commission asked during the public hearing. Those can be found on pages six through eight of the board report. During the public hearing, the commissioners asked clarifying questions related to how and from where firewood is transported when entering and leaving the site, including whether wood is transported via personal pickup, as described in the project description, or a semi-truck, which was brought up by some of the people speaking that night, tools used to cut the firewood on site, whether they were manual or power tools, and the hours of operation for the site, as well as days of operation, whether the project applicant or anyone else involved in the firewood cutting lived on site at the project site, and the applicant's amenability to potential modifications to the project, such as the addition of a sound wall between the school and the project site, or reduced operating hours, among other things. Following the closing of the public hearing, the commissioners engaged in further discussion on the project. Commissioners discussed potentially continuing the project to learn more about what happens to cut firewood once it leaves the site or potentially outright denying the project due to concerns regarding outstanding code enforcement citations and complaints from neighbors. Ultimately, Commissioner Kalas made a motion to deny the project, stating that property owners do not get to do exactly what they want to do with their property just because property is owned general agriculture or because they considered the desired land use a hobby rather than a business on site. And after that, on a 6-1 vote, the Planning Commission denied the use permit for the proposed project because, again, they were unable to make the findings required for approval. Following project approval, an appeal of the Planning Commission's denial was submitted by the applicant Anna Marie Madrigal on April 27, 2026. The appeal letter identified the following reasons for the appeal. A lack of substantial evidence supporting the denial of the project. The project's consistency with CEQA requirements, including preparation of a negative declaration for the project. the project's low impact nature due to its small number of employees and lack of public access to the facility, and the applicant's intention and commitment to bring the site into compliance with applicable county codes and ordinances, as well as the applicant's rights to procedural requirements and due process. In accordance with county code, a public hearing for an appeal is required to be scheduled for the next available Board of Supervisors meeting or considered not later than 45 days from the date on which the appeal was filed, unless both the county and the applicant agree to a later date. The public hearing for this appeal was initially scheduled for the May 19th, 2026 Board of Supervisors meeting, but a continuance to the next available date was requested and approved to allow for the publishing of a public hearing notice meeting, 10-day noticing requirements. Two individuals spoke in opposition to the project at that public hearing, expressing concerns related, again, to the excessive noise, unsightliness of the project site, presence of rodents in and around the project site, and the use of a semi-truck to transport wood to and from the site, rather than the pickup truck reflecting the project's disruption, as well as potential safety concerns regarding students at Paradise Elementary. At the public hearing or at the meeting, staff clarified that the item being considered at that time was just for the continuance to the next available meeting for the public hearing and not to fully consider the potential approval or denial of the appeal. And that's why we're here today. So the Board of Supervisors today has the option to deny the appeal, upholding Planning Commission's original denial, in accordance with county code, an application for the same request would not be allowed to be resubmitted for a period of one year from the date the order of denial becomes final, except on grounds of new evidence or proof of changed conditions found to be valid by the Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors who ever issued the order of denial. or the board may grant the appeal in favor of the applicant and approve the project subject to the findings and actions identified in the staff recommendation section of the board report, including the findings in exhibit A of the planning commission staff report from April 16, 2026 regarding environmental determination, use permit findings, and project approval. The project would also be subject to the conditions of approval in exhibit C of the Planning Commission staff report with the revision of condition of approval number 8 as outlined previously and outlined in the April 16, 2026 memo prepared for the Planning Commission. And condition of approval number one for the project requires the use to be conducted as described in the application supporting information. The project description again captured and the environmental review for the project identifies only the use of manual firewood cutting tools on site and a personal pickup used to transport wood to and from the site. Information presented during the Planning Commission public hearing indicates that power tools are used to cut wood on site and the semi truck is actually used to transport the wood to and from. That concludes my presentation. Staff will now be available for any questions. Okay.

Are there any questions of staff?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A little confused on the truck traffic. So pickups are not being used. It's actually tractor-trailer rigs and how many trips are made during the day.

The project description for the project, again, mentioned it was a personal pickup truck taking it to and from with generally one trip per day maximum. But information presented at the public hearing and in Planning Commission correspondence received prior to that public hearing but after the initial publishing of the staff report indicated it's actually a semi-truck on site that transports them to and from. I wouldn't know the exact trip numbers for that. Yeah. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, somewhat. Thank you.

Any other questions of staff? Okay. So we're going to go on to the public, and I am looking at the owner of the properties, not the applicant, but the owner of the properties, Miguel Madrigal. And for full disclosure, Miguel Madrigal used to, I think, 2012, I think was the last time we had peaches. He was a contractor that we had utilized. And I believe it's the same Miguel Madrigal based on the applicant. And so I know that's not a conflict from 2012, but I just want to acknowledge that that is the case.

I should also acknowledge that my fiance is the second cousin first removed to the applicant. There's no conflict there.

Okay. So with that, I'm going to first give the applicant the opportunity before I open up the rest of the public hearing and Anne Marie Madrigal, and then I'll give you a shot at the end to close also. Good morning.

Well, good morning. County supervisors. I had commissioners last time. My name is Ana Maria Madrigal. Thank you for taking the time this morning to speak with us. So a couple of things. I heard the revision of the project, and there's a few things that are incorrect facts that are being shared from the last meeting, and they still are incorrect on today's presentation. One of where it describes that there was an outstanding balance of over 2000 as of April 16th of our meeting that there was an outstanding balance of code enforcement dues that were unpaid uh... that is incorrect because right after the commissioners meeting i went to the uh... code enforcement department and also to the status of county tax collections department recovery department and here's the report you guys want to see i'm sure you guys have access and record of it but although citations were paid as of july twenty ninth twenty twenty five there was one only one citation that was left And that was paid right after the meeting that we had, the commissioner's meeting. So that information is incorrect. Do you want a copy of it?

Yeah, give it to the clerk.

Second of all, they also mentioned that we had outstanding permits that were unfinished or unsigned. and all of those have been signed off. As a matter of fact, we had the appointment before the commissioners date with inspector. Unfortunately, that appointment did not happen for whatever reasons. I'm not going to go into the details. Long story short, it has been signed off. I have a copy of it. You guys have records. Do you want a copy? Kathy, can you give them the copy of the signed off citations for the building permits? So everything has been cleared and removed. So there's no red flags on the property whatsoever. Everything has been addressed and taken care of. Also, it has in the report, they say that all the citations were given for an event center and there has never been an event center how that information got to the report, where it came from. I looked back through the citations, and the citations are being given for nuisance and woodcutting. I didn't see any event center citations. And it is my right to have an event for my family at my property. So that's in the Constitution, correct me if I'm wrong, but I had four events at my property. Those were my family events, of which one of the events in particular, I had already, at that time was a four year old, and of course my son went to sleep early, so it was around 10, 30, 11, I went home to my house, which I live in Ceres, and I received a door knock at around 11.30 from a sheriff giving me a citation for an event that was happening at 1201 Pauline of my family. How? Why? I don't know. That makes no sense. Was it because the property, the property was, you guys stated under Miguel Madrigal, that's my father. Why would the officer of a sheriff come to my house to give me a citation for an event that's happening at my father's legally property?

Yep. Keep going. I can't answer that.

So, I mean, this to me just seems I had an appointment with supervisor, Mr. Withrow. Thank you for taking the time. Because I've been doing everything that I've been told to do to do things right and make things right for the property. And I continue getting into roadblocks and getting denied and getting... citations and continue getting expenses unnecessarily. I was told in, I received the first citation in 2-21-2024 from Mary Ann, from the code enforcement, and I contacted the code enforcement to understand what was happening. Code enforcement then explained to me that all I needed, I explained to them what we were doing, and they explained I had to get a home hobby permit from the county. I came to the county in March to get that permit, filled out the application, submitted it. I didn't get a response till a month later, and received another violation in the meantime. How does that happen? We contacted code enforcement. They said once I submit the application, citations would stop. They did not stop. They continued. I contacted code enforcement again, and I said, what is going on? I did what you told me. I submitted the application. I haven't heard a response. I know it's a process. Nothing happened. I'm talking of March 2024 now. Here comes April, another citation. Then I had to meet with one of your supervisors. I requested to meet with somebody to fix this. How do we fix this? Nothing, I received another citation in May, then finally got an appointment with a supervisor. In the meantime, I'm letting code enforcement know we're in the process, I'm following what you told me, but I still haven't heard back. They explained to me that we shouldn't get more citations while we're in the process trying to fix this, as long as it is communicated to them. That didn't happen. June, another citation. Come October, another citation. Come January, another citation. Come February, another citation. So how do we fix this? If I'm asking for policy, procedure, what is it gonna take to fix this? And I continue doing what I'm told, but it continues to create expenses and no solutions. So today I come before you with an appeal. That's another one. I submitted, I asked Marcus, okay, I'm going to appeal this. That's another thing. He said it takes 10 days after the meeting. I received, here's the letter, stamped April 21st, telling me that I had 10 days from the date of the meeting. How do you explain April 16th is the commissioner's meeting? I get a letter dated April 20th and stamped April 21st giving me 10 days from April 16th. So how do we fix this? I am asking for your help to fix this. The facts are incorrect on the project that have been given. You mentioned about the semi-truck or the truck or the pickup. It was never a pickup truck. It's impossible to carry firewood in a pickup truck. It's heavy. So that is incorrect also. We explained that on the last meeting. We also explained it via email about the event center also, that it was being categorized incorrectly. That's still being brought up. That is incorrect. It's a semi-truck, of course. It's firewood. And it's taken out once a week, not every day. So I'm here to ask that you reconsider my appeal and approve My permit. Questions?

Any questions of Anna Marie? No questions. Thank you.

Thank you.

So I would ask staff on the if someone is in process, do we continue to cite them if they're in process of corrective action?

I'm going to let Lane answer that question.

Good morning.

Good morning. Yeah, the normal plan is until they get the plans submitted and actually approved, we want to move forward and try to get the process to be stopped and then have the process be done. So in other words, we were telling them that they have to stop work then try to get approvals from planning department before they could do any of these actions. The work continued and we were getting any time any contact back from planning saying the process was already approved for any kind of use permit or a home occupants.

And so is that when someone submits a plan though if they submit the plan and they have to do a zoning change or some obligation. Is that good enough to stop the process or does it continue until it's been to the Planning Commission?

We normally, both cases, it depends on what the case would turn out to be. In this situation, since it was an actual business, it was being conducted on a property that needed to have a lot of approvals, we asked for it to be stopped. The complaints kept on coming in, so we have to address that to be stopped and then go to the planning commission if that had to go that far. At that point, we didn't know what action was going to be. If it was going to be a home occupation permit, if it was going to be a hobby being conducted, or if it was actually going to be a use change for the property. We didn't know what was happening.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. When did the operations actually start out there?

Just approximately. Approximately in 22. We originally went out there for a party that was being conducted out there. It was a family gathering, so we kept it on there. The neighbors called. They had a lot of complaints about the party that went out late at night. And then eventually we got a phone call saying that there's now a business being conducted out there.

In 22, sometime in 22. Yes, I'm at 22, yeah. Perfect. Thanks, Lee.

Thank you. All right. So I forgot to acknowledge that someone had dropped off a petition, so we do have some written comments from people that are not here today. And, Anna Marie, did you get a copy of the petition? Here, we'll take that copy down. We'll share. All right. Now I'm going to open up the public comment period for anyone. I do have Stuart Barnum did put in a card. You don't have to put in a card, but you can. Good morning. Good morning.

So I have some pictures that speak to the veracity of the comments of the petitioner that I'd like to show you people. I don't know if it's here.

You're going to hand them over here to the clerk and then we'll circulate them. Thank you.

The first picture that you'll see in the middle there shows a uniformed security guard at one of their parties. that's supposed to be a family party. I don't know if anybody here has ever hired a uniformed security guard. The guy was working the gate collecting money for all the cars that were coming in. You'll see on the second photo, Those are the cars filling up the entire acreage that now operates their wood operation for their family party. Over 50 cars easily. Live mariachi band on all these parties. These parties also were serving alcohol. She told my wife she's a tequila salesman or salesperson. and they line the front of the shoulder of their whole property with tequila plants, agave plants, which I think goes right in accordance with these events that they're holding. And to remind you guys, last time I had a person come up to me on my property, I live right across the street, and he asked me if my property was the event center, because he had a wedding to do. So she's using that property as a profit center is what's going on there. Now the third picture you'll see is a commercial tipper truck delivering the wood. That's not an uncle's small pickup. That's a commercial tipper truck tipping the wood, mark number three. On the photo marked number four, that's a full-blown 20-wheel semi-truck on their property with a sleeper compartment. Now that concerns me because last time she said she didn't know where the wood was going. She didn't know where the wood was going. Isn't that convenient? Could be going to Mexico. They have semi-trucks with sleeper compartments. On the fifth picture, number five, that's a different semi-truck with a sleeper compartment. And you'll see in front of that semi-truck there's 37 empty pallets ready to be filled with wood after they break it down. On the photo marked number six, That's wood coming from their operation that goes halfway into the street on California, creating a road safety hazard for any two-wheel vehicle, a real hazard, any motorcycle coming down there. Number seven and eight of the photos are damage done to the shoulders of my property and along our property by their semi-trucks. You can see they're gouging huge, tracks in the grass running along my shoulder. I have to mow that grass with my John Deere. And when that dirt gets hard, I can't get my deck to mow that stuff. I have to do it by hand. So what I'm looking at here is a large scale, under the table, non-tax paying wood operation. And they're saying it's a hobby. Now they're asking for 14 hours a day, seven days a week to do their hobby. And there's residents surrounding this, which would give us not a break ever. Now, let's talk about this hobby. They got a tipper truck, semi-trucks, semi-truck drivers, forklift, bulldozer, multiple port-a-potties, shrink wrap, empty pallets, tarps, and they say they've already been fined over $2,000, and they say they're willing to build a fence in between them and the school, which will cost another few thousand dollars. Does this sound like a hobby? This doesn't sound like a hobby to me. This sounds like a lot of money going into a large-scale wood operation is what it sounds like to me. They weren't being forthright about where the wood's going because they haven't been paying taxes on the money they're generating from this operation. So in conclusion, They haven't been forthright about the events that have been going on there, which have all gone to 2 o'clock in the morning. They're trying to mislead the commission about the nature of this wood operation. There's no way this is a hobby, and the requested hours are unreasonable. That's why I'm asking for this permit to be denied. Any questions from you, fellas?

Any questions? Thank you for your comments. Anyone else? Step forward.

Good morning, Supervisors. My name's Kevin Wise. I'm a board member of the Paradise Elementary School for the past 16 years. I'll reiterate some of the concerns that have already been brought forward. First and foremost, since this business or hobby has come into existence, At the school, we've experienced a few issues, and we do have some concerns. First and foremost, and it was mentioned in the report with rodents, we had a small rodent problem. Now we have a large rodent problem. So that's definitely substantiated. Also, with the noise, we do have noise. We have complaints from the students and from the teachers. And we do have special needs kids that these noises do affect. So we do have noise issues at the school. Traffic is an issue. You know, we are in an ag area. We do have trucks coming in for the farming operations. But being so close to the school, we're very concerned with the semi trucks pulling in and out as the kids are coming to and from school. And finally, another concern that we have is the fire danger. As you've seen in those pictures, you have large or high dry grass with large piles of wood, both the wood before it is split and after it is split. And after it is split, as you know, it becomes even more volatile. Almost an acre of wood, whether it's three, four, five feet tall, it's a large fire hazard to the school and the adjacent homes. And the nearest water supply that we have, we have a small water supply at the school. It's not much. We do have seasonal canals that do have a water supply. And the nearest fire hydrant is over two miles away on Paradise Road. Thank you.

Thank you, Kevin. Anyone else? I see. Ron, you go after.

Good morning, Board of Supervisors. Good morning. My name is Sheila Mello, and my husband and I built our house in 1976. So we've lived on Pauline Avenue for 50 years and raised our family. We have wonderful neighbors and a close community, some are second and third generation. I'm here to represent our neighbors and our community today. A lot of them couldn't come today because they're at work, but we do have a three-page petition that they all signed. to tell you that we do not want a commercial firewood business in our neighborhood. There are chainsaws, wood splitters going from early morning to evening, which is almost impossible to open our windows or have family or friends entertained in our backyard due to the noise. Piles of the wood are over one plus acres of land and brush piles containing rodents of all some sort. Semi trucks coming in and out to the property to pick up the firewood. That's been shrink-wrapped, every one of them. It's not like they're piling it in. It's going somewhere for commercial use, I'm sure. Our elementary school, which is Paradise Elementary, which is right next door, as you've heard, which is a really dangerous area for our children, teachers, and parents, and also our community. The noise level from all that's going on has led the teachers to close their classroom doors, not to have distraction for the students while teaching. The property has bright orange portable potties in view, which we have to look at every day. It's been very disrespectful to our neighborhood and also an embarrassment and disgrace to our community. This is not the property or the right environment to have a commercial firewood business in our neighborhood and community. I'm sure this is something you all would not like to see or look at on a day-to-day basis from your home. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to us on this matter that concerns us, that we all definitely oppose this firewood business permit. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Ron?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Ron McMurtry here. There's a lot of details to this case, obviously. And my concern as a private teacher is that the unfortunate location of the land being right next door to Paradise Elementary. When I used to teach in Stockton, one of the issues one of my fellow teachers said is, why do the people who do the landscaping have to run their things when we're in class? You know, grass is getting kicked up and it's noisy. And, you know, whatever the unions that represent those folks, you know, they get to work in the daytime. And so it's like,

You know, kids deserve, you know, a quiet, healthy place.

So my concerns are with the students and the teachers. One was already mentioned about the noise. And one of my questions is about the metrics. Do we know how much noise it is? You know, have we measured this? And then my second thing that hasn't come up is dust. If we are using chainsaws, the dust, this is a breathing issue probably above and beyond. I mean, I don't know. I want to hear about the metrics above and beyond the normal agricultural hazards. Thank you.

Thank you, Ron. Anyone else?

Hi, my name is Sam Ward, and I live down the street from this place. I was watching them bring the wood in and whatnot, everything, and I'm thinking, you know, what is going on with this? But just the fact that you've got kids going to and from school, and you've got cars coming in all the time, dropping them off and different things at different times of the day, it's just crazy. I can't even imagine that going in down there. I mean... You know, somebody doesn't, it should just be a miracle if somebody doesn't get hurt through this whole thing, and then the dust, just that they stir up and whatnot is, I can't, you know, I know everybody's said a few things, I couldn't hear them real well, but even the fire hazard, you know, I could see that real easy, you know. But trucks going in and out, and just her saying that it was a mom and pop thing, you know, with her two uncles cutting wood, is like ridiculous. If you could see some of the pictures, it was ridiculous. It was quite different. Anyway, thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Okay, this is the last shot. Yeah, and so I'll give you the last.

Good morning, Chairman, members of the board. My name is Jerry Heemstra. I live right across the street from Sam, who just spoke. Yeah, dust. This gentleman, Ron, I don't know him, but that was one of the concerns I had. This is a constant dust-producing operation. As you can see by the pictures there, there's people there, have their private property. There's two pools over there. So you can about imagine what's going on across the street with the dust blowing. The other concern I have is when she spoke, she said, yes, they have bigger trailers coming in. It's not a pickup. In fact, it is a 53-foot long trailer. So it's not a small operation by no means. That's something to be considered. So I'm here more for my neighbors who live close by on just the opposite corner, that southeast corner over there is where the mallows live. And they're in direct prevailing wind, downwind from this so-called operation. The first I've... come up on new owners of this site was a party. Well, not a party. Yeah, a party. Well, what comes with a party is noise. Okay. I don't have, I don't not, I'm not objected to a party. I've had them, have had them sometime in the past, but it's the noise. The noise level is just atrocious. Supposedly that's not going to be a problem anymore, according to the applicant, but I have no, you know, no ideas what could happen. She may have a right to have a family party. It's the noise level that is just, it just creates a corrosive environment for the community. And that's why some of us are here today. And like other speakers have said, more would be here today, but it's nine o'clock in the morning on a weekday, people work. Fortunately, I'm retired and I can speak to you. So I wanna thank you for your time. And I encourage, you to vote no on this project. Thank you.

Thank you. No one else from the back? All right. Anna-Marie?

Thank you again. So I hear several different things and the information that is being shared again today is different than last meeting. You had gentlemen, Kevin Wise from the Board of Supervisors of the school stating that the noise level is a problem. In the commissioner's meeting, there was another gentleman from the same board, I assume, for the school, and he stated the noise level was not a problem. He did not get complaints. So what changed between April 16th and today? It's the same board, it's the same school, and as a matter of fact, all the wood has been removed, so there's zero noise. So it can be that there's noise between April 16th and today, because there's nothing happening on the property. Second of all, I hear the gentleman from the code enforcement stating that in some cases, and it's handled differently in different cases, Isn't the policy or the system the same for everybody? Because that didn't sound like that based on his explanation of when do you continue to get citations. Because at his code enforcement department, I have personally went three times, spoke to three different people, and three different people have stated, when you submit the application, you are showing compliance that you are fixing the issue, and citations will stop. Three different people in that department have said the same thing. And the gentleman that just spoke earlier said, sometimes it depends on the situation. What depends? It should be the same for all. And the gentleman over here that just spoke and shared some pictures with you, I'm glad he shared pictures. Because every time we have a barbecue, a family gathering, my nieces and nephews and little kids, speaking about uncomfortable, going into the pool and barbecuing, he's taking pictures of us.

Well done. Hey, hey, thank you very much. It's her time. Continue on.

So he goes out there and takes pictures of my nieces and nephews going into the pool. That is not very comfortable. Last time he was here, he shared a pile of pictures this big. So it seems like he's very attentive to everything that we're doing at our property. That's very uncomfortable, yes. So I don't want to cause any uncomfortableness to everybody, but they're causing it to us and my family. So we pay taxes, we pay our property taxes, we have a business in the standardized county and we pay a lot of taxes. We provide a lot of jobs. So all I'm asking is that we stick to what is procedure, policy and law and make it equal for everyone. That's all I'm asking, that we are fair and that we abide by the law and go through what has to be done legally, not by emotion, that we decide on this permit approval based on what is right and not what emotion comes into play. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. Did you already speak? Now we're going to allow the applicant to speak beginning and end.

Just want to clarify on the citation process that was going on. So March of 2025 was the last citation that we issued. So it's been over a year for this process to go. We haven't had any citations since March of 2025. So we've handled everything from we do on our standpoint. We handle everyone the same. Everyone gets treated the same. It's up to the planning department to decide on where the process goes, where the application starts. But we haven't issued a citation for over a year. Yeah.

If I could just clarify, the application was received in June, mid-June, and it did sit immediately. It went on hold, and then there was no activity. We didn't get it off hold until November of 2025. Okay.

Thank you for the clarification. All right. I'm going to bring it back to the board for comments, thoughts.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I've listened to both sides and read the agenda item, I believe this to be a commercial operation. This is not a hobby. And all the issues that come with wood piles, wood cutting operations, The rodents, truck traffic, I'm going to have to support the denial from the Planning Commission. I don't see that there's a way to get around and to mitigate some of the issues. I don't believe it's a good spot right next to the school. I think that's pretty much common sense. So I'm not going to support this.

So it's always interesting when I talk to people about the job of being a supervisor and most of the stuff that's on our agenda, the preponderance of the evidence leads you to a conclusion. where we all agree most of the time, it's generally in land use decisions. These are typically the most difficult for us because you decide what appears to be a commercial business, what's not, location, impact, property rights versus neighbor's rights. What I found most of the time is that probably a lot of these things Potentially could have been avoided if you had a discussion with all of the surrounding neighbors and tried to figure out what not only what the commercial business needs or Hobby businesses, but what what the neighbors need and It's very hard very difficult to put the genie back in the box what I've seen many times once the The issue everyone becomes hypersensitive to everything whether it's a truck trip whether it's dust And unfortunately, this is located next to a school, and even if you planted grapes there or almonds there, you still would have restrictions based on hours or when you could do your commercial. Even though it's not commercial, you would do your ag spraying, disking, and other things to not impact the school and the neighbors. And so this is a tough one, but I think, again, I would agree with my colleague's comments that this is probably something I can't support going forward. I will vote to uphold the Planning Commission's denial.

I forgot that Anne Marie actually was a client of mine, jeez, 20 years ago maybe. I can't remember, but a very long time ago. So I just want to make sure I disclose that. So this is, as Vito said, and Buck, these are very difficult ones that we have to deal with here. My problem with this from the get-go is just the disregard of our process from back in 22 when these operations are started and there's no permit obtained. And we see this constantly throughout the county. We'll see... individuals that will just avoid the whole process and disregard that there are these laws and rules and regulations that we have and then and just go ahead and start and they'll go until they're caught and Then once they're caught then then the process starts and it's it's it's kind of asking for forgiveness As compared to asking for permission, which is how the process is supposed to work to begin with so this goes back to 2022 when this operation started and And the fines started to happen, rightfully so, as people complained, and it was an unpermitted operation. And then the fines have been paid now, and then the process of trying to get the permit has moved forward. But that's very frustrating just to begin with, with that. The next thing as I look at this is just the... You know, I've had clients before that have wood, these woodcutting businesses, sell firewood. And they are located in agricultural areas, zoned agriculture. But they're usually very large. All of them that I've had are always very large parcels. They're out in the middle of nowhere where these things happen, as compared to being in a spot where you have multiple just small ranchettes. And just in that location, it just... Right, it is ag, it's related to ag, that's fine, but it just can't function within areas that have multiple small house, small ranchettes in those areas. These operations belong further out in the agriculture zones, and all the ones that I've been involved with always have been out there. The school, of course, we can't be next to the school, and I saw in reading through this, the comments from the planning commission meeting, I saw at one point a commissioner asked about limiting the hours of operation, which I think Vito was making reference to. And that was a no-go. I think Ann Maria said that's a no-go, that we can't limit our hours of operation. But our agriculture industry has unbelievable limits on their hours of operation within certain areas of schools, whether it's spraying, disking, whatever. And so those are requirements on ag, but not something that CED could work here. So anyway, just all these things together just make this just not work for this neighborhood. It would drastically change this neighborhood, change it for the school to have this operation, this commercial operation going on next to it. And that's just not right. These people purchase these lands. Grow their grow up with their kids there build their lives there and then we can't that's what the whole purpose of these zoning Ordinances are for is to make sure things like this can't happen come in and just disrupt something that everybody Thought this is what I had when I bought this piece of land and then have it all change overnight So so I can't support this today And I will support the denial

Well, thank you for the comments from my colleagues. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the time. I don't want to regurgitate everything that my colleagues have said, but as someone that is a big believer in property rights, I do understand the points that you made about having your property and you should have some discretion on what you're able to do at that property, but not at the expense of people that reside nearby. I think it affects their lifestyle, their property to enjoy their properties or their right to enjoy their properties as well and then the nearby school is a huge issue for me just because of the fact that there's children there and afternoon activities as I can see on the map here that there's you know fields and things and if a commercial level even if you might not agree and you're saying it's hobby but in all instances and the pictures provided looks like it's full-scale commercial I'm going to have to side with the Planning Commission's approval to deny this application or deny this permit. Is that a motion? Make that a motion.

That's an appropriate motion. That's an appropriate motion. To deny the appeal would be an appropriate motion.

Okay, and I will second that.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Thank you very much to staff. Appreciate it. We have no discussion items today. Correspondents, acknowledge receipt of correspondence and refer as recommended on the agenda. Any Board of Supervisors reports?

Supervisor Buchan and I got the opportunity to represent the county at the CSAC, which is I was going to call it County Supervisor.

It's the Ledge Conference? Yeah, the Ledge Conference.

California State Association of Counties. Yep, Association of Counties. I was going to say of California. We got to partake in a lot of different discussions pertaining to things happening in different counties that also affect us. So both of us got that opportunity to present about two weeks ago.

You're correct. Big topics, big discussions. The center of it was focused around H.R. 1 and how that's affecting other counties as well as our own county. So a lot of good discussions happening.

Did you lead the discussion at your committee?

I did not this time. Okay. I was termed out of GFA since I've been chair for two consecutive years. Okay. But did partake in the conversation. Ann Correll is now the chair, and she did a great job.

Very good.

Terry?

Just real quick, we had a groundbreaking ceremony out at Riverdale Park, which was very inspiring, something we've been waiting for for a long time. I know Dave and everybody have left here, but I want to thank Public Works for that. It was great for the people of Riverdale Park. If you've ever been out there before, Well, you guys have. We all have been out there when we did our road trip for our Board of Supervisors meeting out there. And so just going to be such a great improvement. I can't wait for it all to be completed. I just want to thank staff and everybody who made this happen and look forward to going out there and watching the progress happen. So thank you all.

So that was originally your idea, to go out and do a traveling show and visit locations?

It was a joint effort of all of us. It was fun to get out of here, right, and get out there and have our meetings outside. It wasn't fun for staff, I know, putting the thing together, but it was great to do that.

Thank you. You know, I will give a little update about the ARPA project at Topeka Innate. It's all done. We just haven't had the ribbon cutting yet, but it looks great. Absolutely changed the neighborhood. First one completed. Yep. Thank you.

All right. We're going to move on to legislative fiscal management report.

Yes. Good morning, everyone. I do want to acknowledge that We did send a letter of support on behalf of the Board of Supervisors for Assembly Bill 2705, which establishes consumer protection standards for third party services that assist individuals in recovery and access proceeds from tax defaulted property sales. So this measure does align with our legislative platform that supports transparency, accountability, and protections for our local residents. I also want to acknowledge the trip to the legislative conference with CSAC that Supervisor Grewal mentioned. Really appreciate the board members taking time to go to Sacramento and advocate on behalf of Stanislaus County. We have more advocacy planned next week. Chair Chiesa and Vice Chair Withrow will join staff in traveling to Washington, D.C. for the county's annual federal advocacy trip. Spend a couple of days in D.C. We have meetings scheduled with members of our congressional delegation, federal agencies, and some of our national partners that will advance our legislative priorities and advocate for some of the important issues that we hear from our local residents around the economy and quality of life. So look forward to those meetings and appreciate the time spent advocating Tomorrow at 9 a.m., we will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Hills Ferry Road Bridge Replacement Project that restores a critical link between I-5 and 99 connecting Patterson and Los Banos. And then finally, as mentioned by our chair earlier, today is Election Day, so please get out there and vote. And if you need any information on voting here in Stanislaus County, please visit stanvote.gov. Thank you.

Thank you very much, and shout-out to Deputy Torres. Thank you again for keeping us safe. There's nothing else, oh, we do have a closed session. Sorry.

Yes, we have closed session this morning. It's existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9, subdivision D1. One case, county of Stanislaus versus Yahya Ahmed Qasim Shahibi et al., Stanislaus County Superior Court, and the case number is CB22005038. Is that appropriate for public comment? Any public comment?

Seeing none, we will adjourn to closed session.