Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the San Jose County Planning Commission meeting of June 4th, 2026. Welcome. I'd like to start off with a few reminders. Please silence your phones during the public hearing. We are happy to accept any comments on the projects, but we ask that you avoid repetition. During a long hearing, it's okay to simply say that you agree with the previous speaker rather than to repeat what's already been said. May we have a roll call, please?

I'm actually going to speak to the roll call. Since our last meeting and since the release of the agenda, we've had some changes on the planning commission. We have last Tuesday a new planning commissioner. Commissioner Henrich has been appointed, and Commissioner Morad has resigned. So for the roll call, let the record reflect that all appointed commissioners are present with the exception of Commissioner Callas and Commissioner Willerup, who are both absent this evening. Thank you.

Next, will you please rise and join me in the pledge? 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. Citizens Forum. The Citizens Forum is a time for the public to speak and issues that are not on tonight's agenda. However, the Commission cannot take action on these items. Is there anyone that would like to speak on any issue this evening that is not on tonight's agenda? Please step to the podium. State your name for the record, please.

Good evening, Chair, commissioners, staff, and community members. Milt Treeweiler. I'm a lifetime Stanislaus County resident. I want to talk about planning and goals tonight. What is the most important responsibility we have in our lives? Is it making money and having power, or is it taking care of our family, our children, and our descendants? It's taking care of our family, our children, and our descendants, and that's what planning is all about, and that's what planning commissions are all about, to plan good for our children and our descendants. They can't do it for themselves because either they're too young, our grandchildren are too young, or they haven't even been born yet, as far as our descendants are concerned. So we're the ones who have to take care of them, and that's our responsibility. Okay, I wanted to just bring to your attention what did the population of Stanislaus County do in 2025? Well, here's an article here from the newspaper. It actually went down 0.2%, not a lot, but Stanislaus County population dropped 0.2% last year. So that shows us that our population can go down. There's nothing wrong with that. It's perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned because we have the best farmland in the world right here in Stanislaus County. Does planning for the future mean just only the next four years or should we be planning for the next 25 years? We're gonna be facing many challenges over the next 25 years. I wanna talk about some of them. The first one is artificial intelligence. We're gonna plan for this because artificial intelligence and robots are gonna potentially reduce or increase unemployment to 20 to 40%. 20 to 40% of people unemployed during the Great Recession of 2009, the unemployment rate was 10% and you know how bad that was. Can you imagine what it's gonna be like at 20 and 40%? And just today, they announced what happened last month, the largest group of people that were unemployed this past month were AI people. They were in the AI. They lost their jobs because AI has taken their jobs. That's what I'm saying. They've lost their jobs. So it just happened this month. Um, And also Meta, they got rid of 8,000. They laid off 8,000. And when they unemployed people, they put them on severance. So in other words, they don't show up in the unemployment rolls right away because they're on severance. They get paid several months before they have to find another job. They have to move back home. They have to move in with other people, whatever the solution is. So it's something we have to be very careful about. Okay, number two is planet warming. And I say planet warming because I'm not gonna try to describe to you what's causing it. That's your responsibility to figure out what's causing it. We know it's happening. In 2023, it was the absolute Warmest year on our planet. This is a map It's hard for you to see but the red is the up in 2023, which is the last number here That was the hottest year on earth 2024 was even hotter than 2023 2025 was actually down, it went down just about to 2023. What's 2026 gonna do? We don't know, but most likely it's gonna go up. We've gotta be planning for this. We also have to be planning for world diseases. We had COVID. What did COVID do to us? You know what COVID did to us? It really destroyed us almost. We lost a million people here in the United States. We've gotta be planning for these things. There's also something else that's almost unspeakable, but I'm gonna bring it up, and that is, A war. I mean, what if we had a major war in this world? We know what's happened in the past with wars. It's craziness. I mean, it's never solved. Fighting has never solved anything. We have one war and we have another war and we have another war and it's not solving anything. You look at what's happening in the Middle East. It's being destroyed with, you know, the buildings are just being destroyed. Buildings that are three or four thousand years are being destroyed. It's a craziness. I just wanted to bring that to your attention. The reason I bring it to your attention is because the farmland in Stanislaus County is the best farmland on the earth. We know that because we have the water, we have the climate, and we have the soils. We have the soils. That's what makes it our soils are new soils. They're not old soils like you find up in foothills, or you find up in the mountains, or you find over here on the west side of the county. just down the center. And we also have Don Pedro Dam. Don Pedro Dam right now, as of today, was 95% of water capacity. 95% full. We've got enough water in there for another two years, even if we get no rain. because we're planning ahead. Other people can't do this, they don't have dams. I have relatives in Iowa, they have to depend on the rain. Okay, we've gotta plan well, we don't wanna build single family homes. I keep talking to developers when I come to meetings, I say, why are you building single family homes? They say, well, the Planning Commission only approves single family homes. I said, no, we can have two and three, R2 and R3 homes. You should just be passing R2 and R3 homes. That'll solve the problem with housing. In Modesto, when UOP did their study just a couple months back, they said that Modesto will only need 19,000 people between now and 2050. That's all they're gonna have, 19,000 more people. That's only 6,000 new homes. If you make those apartment homes, you'll save the farmland and you'll be taking care of your responsibility. Thank you very much. Yes, it's Milt, M-I-L-T, Treeweiler.

Thank you.

Thank you for your attention. I hope that you work hard to save our farmland and take care of our children and descendants.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else in the audience wishing to address the commission on items that do not appear on tonight's agenda? Yes, ma'am. Come to the podium, please. State your name for the record.

Good evening. My name is Eva Rojas. I'm a resident of Waverly Drive. I have lived in Modesto for 21 years and in my current residence for 18 years. I'm actually here to address you due to a cell tower that has been approved in our area on 1535 Ohio Avenue. We recently saw some construction and I was stopped by a few neighbors. They were concerned and they let me know what was happening. But I'm here to ask the commission, I understand that you have to follow a certain process in order to notify nearby neighbors. But the majority of the neighbors who gathered the other day unofficially did not receive any letters. So we were told that our time is up and that we need to seek litigation. That formal appeal, our window closed on March, I believe it was the 14th of 2025. but our accounting code says that all of our neighbors within a certain range should be notified and we were not notified. We didn't see a physical letter or a notice of any kind. We're currently blindsided. A closed appeal window cannot magically fix the fundamentally broken notification process. So because we weren't notified, We need to take the next step, which I understand would be filing a California Public Records Act request, demanding the county mail logs for this project. If we cannot prove that our neighborhood was legally notified, then this tower was approved under false pretenses and in direct violation of our due process rights. We are not asking you tonight to rule on health factors from the radiation that is emitted from these towers, as we know that is done under federal law, but we are asking you to stand up for government transparency and procedural fairness. We request that this commission urge the planning director to pause all building permits for this site until a full audit of the public notice log is completed, and we ask our district supervisor, Terry Withrow, to coordinate a formal community meeting to hear our voices so that we can finally be heard. Thank you for your time. Would you like me to tell you again what location I'm describing?

Your comments were noted. Okay. Because you're not on the agenda, we cannot really discuss it, but again, your comments were noted. Any other information that you would like for us to have, you can refer to our planning director. Okay.

Can I review my letter as well?

Yes, you can. Thank you. Any other member of the audience wishing to address the Commission on items that do not appear on tonight's agenda? Okay, seeing none, we will go ahead and We'll come back to our next item, which is item number four, our minutes. Are there any members of the commission that would like to review the minutes or have any questions? Hearing none, is there a motion for approval?

I will motion for approval of the minutes of May 7th, 2026. Thank you, is there a second? Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Great, motion passes. Thank you. Next on the agenda, any correspondence?

Yes, you have one item of correspondence, which is an email dated June 3rd, 2026 from Derek Monqueros regarding the non-consent item 7A, use permit application 2025-116, Margie Dorsett.

Thank you. Have the commissioners had an opportunity to review that correspondence? Great, hearing that, then we're gonna go ahead and move on to item six. Do any of the commissioners have any conflicts with any of the items on tonight's agenda? Seeing none, thank you. Item seven, public hearing. Our first, we have none, we have no consent items this evening. We have one non-consent item, and that's item A, which is a use permit application number PLN 2025-0116, Marci Dorsett. May we have a staff report, please?

Yes, good evening, Chair, Commissioners, members of the public. My name is Kristen Anaya. I'm a senior planner here to present use permit application number PLN 2025-0116, Marci Dorsett. This is a request to expand an existing almond hulling operation currently located on an 18-acre parcel to allow for the outdoor stockpiling of hulls and shells on an adjacent 67-acre parcel in the General Agriculture District. The project site is located at 11131 and 11137 John Fox Road between Swanson and Sperry Roads in the Houston-Waterford area. The site has a general plan designation of agriculture, and a zoning designation of General Agriculture, or A240. The site is surrounded by scattered single-family dwellings, ranchettes, and almond and walnut orchards in all directions, and TIDs, Ceres, Main Canal, Adare, and Tuolumne River, and the city of Waterford to the north. The existing almond huller operation was initially established in the 1960s as a permitted use, and in 2023, a use permit and parcel map were obtained to allow the hulling facility to expand and to separate the huller facility onto its own parcel. The resulting parcel configuration included two parcels, an 18-acre parcel, which is where the huller currently resides, and a 67-acre parcel, which is highlighted in yellow on the screen. The existing almond-holer operation is currently improved with the holer and accessory structures, a single family dwelling, and an accessory storage building. The parcel is served by its private septic system and well. The 67-acre parcel is currently planted in 51 acres of almond trees and has an irrigated pond and a nine acre area utilized for the stockpiling of holes and shells. Access for the existing operation and the proposed expansion area will be taken from John Fox Road via an existing asphalt driveway across the 18 acre parcel. And so the current request will allow for the expansion of the existing facility in three phases. Phase one will be to legalize the existing stockpiling of holes and shells on a nine acre portion of the project site, which is highlighted in yellow on this site plan. Phase two will include the removal of up to 19 acres of almond trees for additional stockpiling on the west portion of the project site, highlighted in purple. And phase three will include the removal of 19 acres of almond trees for additional stockpiling on the eastern portion of the project site, highlighted in green. The applicant anticipates implementation of phase two within two years of project approval and phase three within five years of project approval. The applicant also proposes to extend the holing operation by one month into December due to seasonal variations and to extend the hours of operation by two additional hours during the off season. The hours of operation will be seven days a week, 24 hours a day during harvest season from August through to December and Monday to Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the off-season. The applicant proposes an increase in four employees on a maximum shift for a total of 14 employees, three full-time and 11 part-time, an increase of two customer trips per day for a maximum of three customer trips per day, and five additional truck trips for a total of 30 truck trips performed by three drivers per day. The 2023 use permit allows for the processing of up to 14 million almond meat pounds. Under this request, the hauling operation will remain restricted to the processing of 14 million almond meat pounds. So two issues were identified during review of the project. The first is that the application was submitted in response to a code enforcement case being opened on the property following an anonymous complaint being received over the facility clearing nine acres of orchard and expanding their existing outdoor stockpile area without a use permit and over dust concerns resulting from the operations on that expanded storage area. You can see that area in red. The applicant has stated that they were unaware that there was a need to consult the county regarding the expansion and then submitted the application shortly thereafter. after being notified of the need for a use permit application. As part of the application, to address the desk concerns that were raised, the applicant is proposing to retain 10 rows of existing orchard trees along the Swanson Road and John Fox Road frontages as a physical buffer. The condition of approval number 10 allows for replacement of like-for-like screening, or equivalent screening, rather, in the event those trees are ever removed. A second issue identified during the project processing was regarding access. The applicant has raised concerns regarding condition of approval number 14, which requires an encroachment permit to be obtained for any driveway off of Swanson Road within six months of project approval. And so the applicant has clarified that although there are drive aisles on the periphery of the orchard perpendicular to Swanson Road, which are used to maneuver farm equipment within the parcel, there are no existing driveways providing direct vehicular access off of Swanson Road. And so based on this information, there's no action needed by the applicant, and this condition would be considered met without need for an encroachment permit. However, if the Planning Commission wishes, the condition could be stricken from the project outright. And then last, correspondence was submitted to staff this morning, signed from two separate property owners across Swanson Avenue, indicating their support for the project, provided the project description remains the same. General plan consistency was evaluated in processing this discretionary request and included evaluation of the land use and agricultural elements and with the agricultural buffer standard. And so the agricultural element encourages vertical integration of agriculture. By organizing uses requiring use permits into three tiers, Tier 1 includes agricultural-related commercial and industrial uses, such as net holing and shelling. And as a Tier 1 use, the project would not be subject to agricultural buffers unless the Planning Commission determines that it's a people-intensive use. The General Agriculture, or A2, zoning district ordinance also allows for Tier 1 uses with a use permit. It also requires that uses on land in the Williamson Act be consistent with the principles of compatibility. Staff's evaluation of the project found it to be in conformance with both the general plan and the zoning ordinance. Pursuant to CEQA, an initial study was circulated to interested parties and responsible agencies for review and comment, and no significant impacts were identified. A negative declaration has been prepared for approval and conditions of approval reflecting referral responses have been placed on the project. And so to conclude, staff recommends that the required findings can be met as listed in Exhibit A of the staff report and recommends that the Planning Commission approve use permit application number PLN 2025-0116, Murti Dorsett, subject to the conditions of approval as listed in Exhibit C of the staff report. And that concludes my presentation and staff's available for questions. Thank you.

Since this is a public hearing, any questions from staff before we open it to the public?

Okay.

Yeah. And the higher district permit.

10 row buffer. Uh, how that's about 80 feet give or take.

I don't have the exact dimensions of the width.

Each row is typically about 20 feet apart.

Okay, at this time, we're going to go ahead and open this item to the public.

Any member of the audience wishing to address the commission on this? Anyone in opposition of this item, please step forward and state your name for the record. Okay. At this time, any member wishing to address the Commission in favor of this item, please step to the podium. Okay. Seeing none, we're going to go ahead and close the public hearing at this time and bring it back to the Commission for further questions or direction.

I'd just make a comment that stockpiling is a very common practice in the hauling and shelling business. Hauling and shelling is totally 100% ag related and it's in an ag zone and it's vertically integrating in the ag economy and I will vote in favor of this.

Okay. Any other comments before we entertain a motion?

Yeah, I would have to agree with you. At the end of the day, either it's a stock polyyard that's used for a couple months or running through the water that can't handle the capacity, or it's corn ground or dairy or something else that's making the same amount of dust, same amount of noise. It's just seasonal.

Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Okay. Especially given that they have the buffer that they don't even need. according to the rules uh it seems awfully awfully terrible so i'd be in favor okay anybody would like to entertain a motion i will motion uh to approve use permit application pln 2025-0116

and that we're able to make the findings.

We have a motion, is there a second? I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Could we have a roll call please? Brachetto? Aye.

Heinrich?

Aye.

Campo? Aye. Shima?

Aye.

Huff?

Aye.

Zimster?

Aye.

Motion passes 6-0.

Thank you. Okay, next on our agenda, we have item eight, other matters.

We have none this evening.

Um, madam director, may we acknowledge, um, the service of, uh, uh, commissioner, former commissioner Morad, um, and, uh, publicly thank her for her service on the planning commission as you know, uh, she submitted her resignation. Just wanted to recognize that, uh, we appreciate her service.

Yes. You, you echo my sentiment. We definitely want to thank commissioner Morad. for all of the services she gave to the county, in particular in her last year with working with the truck parking on the ad hoc committee. She was very integral to that process, and so we wish her the best in her new endeavors. We're going to miss her, and we I'd like to welcome our new commissioner here this evening. If you would like, I can kind of give you a rundown of my director's report. Yes, please. Okay. So since the commission last met on May 19th, the Board of Supervisors conducted a public hearing and approved the Planning Commission's recommendation of approval for the rezone application for Modesto Toyota. This was the request to amend the zoning designation for a one-acre parcel to allow for the parking of vehicles. And then this last Tuesday, on June 2nd, they denied the appeal of the Planning Commission's denial of the use permit application for the Madrigal firewood cutting operation. So the Planning Commission's decision to deny the project stands. It is denied. On the horizon for June 18th, we have one use permit application in the Houston area that we'll be looking at. And on July 2nd, we have one use permit application in the Modesto area. And we will be continuing our efforts to see if we can get a joint workshop of the Planning Commission, the Nuisance Abatement Hearing Board, and the Building Codes Appeal Board all together to go over all of the building and property codes that relate to the county's abatement of of dangerous and nuisance buildings. So the email that you got with the survey link, it is not spam. We do want you to provide some dates to your availability. However, I am going to ask at this point that you hold off on conducting the survey because I think we're going to have to push the dates out. So I'll be sending a new email out. So that should be coming out hopefully tomorrow or early the next week. So that concludes my report.

Thank you very much. Any other matters that would concern the commission from any of the commissioners? Hearing none, then we're going to go ahead and adjourn. Thank you very much.