Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We'll call this March 5th meeting of the Stanislaus County Planning Commission to order. I'll let the record reflect that Commissioners Campo, Zabala, and Zipser are absent. And now, if you'd join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, All right, first up we have just a reminder that we'll have a citizens forum here. Is there anyone wishing to speak on matters not on tonight's agenda? Hearing none, we'll move on. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the February 19th Commission meeting.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Thank you, Commissioner. Do I have a second?

I will second that.

All those in favor of approving the minutes as presented, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, nay. And any abstentions? Motion carries. Director Freitas, do we have any correspondence this evening?

Yes, you have one item of correspondence that was placed before you that was too late for the agenda. It is with regards to item 7A, the appeal of staff's denial of the staff approval application for the Towers LLC. And it was received March 5th today by email from Denise Horta.

Got it. Thank you. Commissioners, would you like a minute to review this? Everybody okay? All right. We'll move on. Any commissioners that wish to declare a conflict of interest this evening? Seeing none, we'll move on. We'll open the public hearing. Our consent items, the appeal of staff denial of staff approval application number PLN 2025-0126, the Towers LLC. I see that the appellant has requested a continuance. I would entertain a motion to approve.

Mr. Chairman, if I may make a point of order. Yep. This is actually that item is on the consent calendar. Unless you were intending to pull it or another commissioner or member of the public chose to pull it. It is under public hearing, but both items are under consent. Got it. They can handle as per usual unless anyone chooses to pull it.

Got it. Are there any commissioners that wish to pull item A, appeal of staff denial of staff approval application number PLN 2025-0126 from the consent calendar? Hearing none, we'll move on. Item B, parcel map application PLN 2025-0082, Peterson. Are there any commissioners wishing to pull this item from the consent calendar? Hearing none. Council might need to ask for a point of clarification here. So we'll ask for a vote on the consent calendar. Is that correct?

Yeah, correct. No one, no commissioner, no one from the public has asked to pull an item. So you handle these together as consent as per usual.

Okay. With that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar as presented.

I make a move to approve the consent calendar as mentioned.

Thank you, Lars. May I have a second? I will second that. Thank you, Commissioner Percutti. All right. All those in favor of approving the consent calendar, should we have a roll call? May I have a roll call?

Commissioner Burketto?

Aye.

Commissioner Callas?

Aye.

Commissioner Chima?

Aye.

Commissioner Huff?

Aye.

Commissioner Murad? Aye. And Commissioner Willard?

Aye.

Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you. All right, with that, any other matters before the commission this evening?

Is that for the public?

I'm sorry?

Is that for the public?

Are you wishing to speak on an item that was on the agenda? Yes.

Am I in the right place?

You are in the right place. You're late.

Yeah, the items that were on the agendas, consent items, the continuance of the Tower LLC project and the Peterson projects have already been voted on, so they have been continued. The Towers project has been continued to May 7th, and the Peterson project has been approved.

Okay. Which item were you wishing to speak on?

That's what I came... Can I still speak? Mr. Chairman, why don't we start with first having our first microphone.

Yeah, please come forward, state your name. At the chair's discretion, you're welcome to have a couple of minutes to...

I apologize for my tardiness. Thank you.

My name is Denise Wertha. I'm a concerned citizen of Newman, resident of Newman.

And it was brought to our attention, our community's attention, about the cell phone tower being installed. And I just wanted, I did submit, I apologize, the 11th hour additional information kind of It's a lot of information to absorb. But I just wanted to submit an additional source to consider, Environmental Health Trust, the documents I've submitted to the department. Environmental Health Trust is an organization that has a current lawsuit with the FCC because the FCC has been with the Supreme Court order to update their 1996 radio frequency safety data, and they have not complied. It's something current, and it just brings something I'd like to bring to your awareness for consideration. And they have an open letter to the Supreme Court for FCC to please comply because they're in noncompliance with this court order. And I did submit the documents for you folks to please take a look at if you can. And also regarding Newman, there's many evidence on their website. I've supplied a lot of links that affect our agriculture, which affects our local economy. It also affects many different areas. I know there's controversy about cancer and such and all that, but there's non-cancer things too. So it affects children. It affects our bees. We need our bees for agriculture, our orchards. We have companies that are international. For example, I don't represent them, but Jasper and Stewart Company, Orchard Almond Company, and Newman, they're international. And that's a big economy for us. And the bees are important. And so it affects our economy. And there's residents talking about, why are the bees dying? Why do I see bees on the ground? And so please take a look at this information. And that's all I can do is just submit additional information that I'm sure you have a plethora of information from these huge companies to consider. But that's my little piece. And I just want to thank you for your time.

You're Denise Cortez, is that correct?

Denise, H-U-E-R-T-A.

And you sent an email earlier this evening.

I apologize for the 11th hour.

That's not a problem. I just wanted to verify that was you. That's me. The commissioners have it. And we talked about that right before you got here. It's been distributed to the commissioners, and they received it, and they saw it in addition to your comments. Thank you. And as Director Freitas said, this matter should continue until May 7th.

The other thing I'm concerned about, and I want to bring to your attention, I think Julia Chang, she's on her way too, unfortunately. She's a little bit late also. There's a 150-day shot clock. I don't know if it is a proposed or if it's a definitive new FCC rule. I know it was a new rule proposed. that if a new cell tower application is not approved or reviewed and determined by 150 days, it's an automatic default yes. And so I'm concerned with it dragging on to the 11th hour because I know they want 60 days. And so if you can kindly take a look at that and how that would impact our community.

The FCC shot clock is 150 days for new cell towers, and that 150th day would be May 11th for this application.

And the continuance is until May 7th? We're close. Yeah. Anything else? That's all I have to share.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

All right. Thank you, Ms. Warren. I appreciate that. Director Kratis, your report?

Yes. Since the Planning Commission last met, the Board of Supervisors has not taken any action on any Planning Commission-related items. Your next meeting will be April 16th. It does not look like we will have a second meeting in March. You will have two use permit applications, one in the Houston area and one in the Modesto area, and one use permit and a lot line adjustment application in the Modesto area. There will also be a general plan consistency review that was requested by the county's general services agency for the Grayson Well site project. For May 7th, we have one parcel map and a variance in the Oakdale area, one variance lot line adjustment in the Waterford area, and the appeal that got continued this evening. And that concludes my report.

Got it. Thank you. I have no additional matters.

I'm sorry, if I could just make one point of clarification. I apologize.

Can I confirm who first and second in approval of the minutes?

I did. And I second.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right. I have no additional matters this evening. So with that, the commission is adjourned.