Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, just in time. Okay, good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Planning Commission meeting of February 26th of 2026. At this time, I would ask the city clerk to please take roll.

Chair Hull?

Present.

Vice Chair Sanguinetti? Present. Commissioner Graves? Here. Commissioner Oaks? Here. Commissioner Crowder? Here. Commissioner Amin? Present. Commissioner Hernandez?

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. Okay, and I would ask Commissioner Amin to do the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

all right we'll move on to item number three that's adoption of the consent calendar we have one item on there that is the

October 9th of 2025 agenda and November 13th of 2025. I did happen to, I missed the meeting on the 9th, but I did go back and actually watch the video and read the agenda. So I can vote on that item. I think, do I have any other commissioners? Yes, Vice Chair.

I'd make a motion to approve them, both of them at the same time.

All right, do I have a second? I'll second. OK. Everybody vote, please.

I just need Commissioner Hernandez and Oaks, or are you abstaining?

Chair, if I may? Yes. Commissioner Oaks, you were not present. However, Commissioner Hernandez, you were present.

Yeah, you were present at both. Yes, you were present at both. So one more time. Yes. Excellent. Okay. Well, we'll move on to public comments at this time. This section of the agenda is reserved to public comment on anything within the jurisdiction of the commission. If any member of the public would like to speak on a civic agenda item, they may do so here or later when that item is called. Do we have any blue cards?

Mary Elizabeth?

Yes. Welcome.

Hi, Mary Elizabeth, Stockton resident. And I was really good and sent this out yesterday. So I don't know when you got it, but I did send out this letter yesterday. And so this is in regard to the public noticing. So the Delta Sierra group was mentioned as a example of additional stakeholders that were noticed. And so I wanted to make sure that I made the record clear clear on the years that went by where there had been constantly asking for public notification. And it was only after an attorney sent a letter TO THE CITY, WAS IT REVEALED THAT ONLY THE CITY ONLY SENDS WRITTEN NOTICES AND THEY HAD BEEN SENDING THEM TO AN ADDRESS, THE NATIONAL CR CLUB IN SAN FRANCISCO AND TO AN ADDRESS IN SACRAMENTO FOR THE MOTHER LODE CHAPTER THAT WAS NO LONGER ADDRESSED. I wanted to summarize that and I provided with the correspondence there links to the letters that were submitted where, you know, we ask for public notification. And so the last thing that I'd like to start here on is I printed out on page two the action 2.3. where it specifically asks the city to build strong ties with disadvantaged communities to ensure that local residents can make significant contributions to plural decisions through the following. And there's some actions there. And so when you're considering your modification, I'd like to have those that you can easily reference as ways to engage with the disadvantaged community. Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes public comment.

Oh, OK. Well, we'll move on to 5.1. However, that item has been pulled from the agenda tonight. So we're going to go ahead and move on from that item. We do happen to have new business. So that's item number six. This happens to be the appointment to fill in the vacancy on the planning commission ad hoc committee for the review of the pending draft development code. So do you have any comments on that, Mike?

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify, I may have mentioned it prior, but put it on the agenda because we lost Commissioner Mutzenberg. He was the third member on the ad hoc committee, and this was for the comprehensive code update that we'd been working on for a good few years, and we did take a chunk forward and we did rely on the ad hoc committee to provide feedback on that chunk of of the code. And I want to say chunk just because I don't want to call it a section. It was it was multiple parts of the code that we we did a review on and ultimately take the entire, you know, update to planning commission and then counsel for final approval. So we got that done. But we have a large amount still remaining. We want to make sure that we have the ad hoc set up, When we're ready, we're working with our consultant now as far as getting the format change, because that's the other part of this. We're doing an entirely new format, so it's taking just a lot of formatting time to restructure the code. So this, again, is to get that third ad hoc member, and then we'll be working on that probably in the near future as far as assembling the ad hoc committee.

Okay, just as a review, actually, I'm on that committee along with the Vice Chair. So that we're the two remaining members, we'd obviously need a third. So what I'd ask at this time is I get a nomination for someone that would like to join us.

Through the Chair, we have one public comment card for this item.

Oh, okay. Sure.

Mary Elizabeth?

Thank you, Mary Elizabeth. And so continuing the correspondence that I submitted, and it listed these topics and ways to engage so that local residents can significantly contribute to planning decisions. And so I'd just like to, the action to implement that was to develop working groups. where residents can work on things that are related to planning. And so there's no such working groups that have been created. And so when you're looking at this ad hoc group that's not open to the public, a narrower section of your population there will be looking at this important development code. away from the eyes and the learning of the people. And so I'd like to suggest that as you're developing your ad hoc committee, that you consider having some public workshops so that people can be informed. And if I recall correctly, the statement was made when those last development codes came before you all that not everyone had read them all. And the comment was that, you know, we can amend them later. And so what I'd like to suggest is that the more people know about the development code, the better the development code will be written. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Graves, your question or motion? Me. Oh, hello. What happened there? Well, that's my thing. Sorry about that. Vice Chair Sanguinetti.

My comment is, and maybe our secretary can help a little bit, but my recollection of this ad hoc committee is really because we have an existing code that was adopted years ago and been amended periodically in that. The purpose of this ad hoc committee was to help to finish out the parts that haven't been amended. The real reason behind it was, is to bring in alignment with our 2040 general plan that did have groups, group meetings, public meetings, and numerous times that they all met to go over the general plan. And what we're trying to do is keep our code in alignment with the general plan. And that's what this is, is a cleanup action.

Yeah, I'll weigh in since you brought it up. I 100% agree with you as far as that is the approach here with the code update. General plan consistency is what we've been calling it. It was a part of Shape Stockton. Shape Stockton was something you may have all heard and been to. A lot of workshops that we held throughout the entire city, north, south, east, west, and a lot of outreach was done to to for the general plan and then further for a lot of the shape Stockton efforts which was a housing action plan the housing housing element update. I mean there just was a lot of policy documents created during that process. So you are correct as far as the code is the final process culmination of of all the language and aligning with the general plan. And the housing element actually the housing element action policies as well are feeding into this in addition in state law.

In addition in that we also had series is one 2, 3, which were also went through public processes to address clean up to the general plan and actually I think we even had a 4th one.

Yeah, that was pretty extensive property property alignments with zoning and general plan designation.

That's right. And then we've subsequently we had our first part of it, which was of the code that we've already recommended to council and councils already adopted to amend the residential part of it because of some state laws that required things to be taken care of ASAP.

right uh well could we get a motion at this time then now that my now that is commissioner graves we seem to have you guys switched on my on my thing here but now i got it figured out i'll just make the changes there you go commissioner graves

um thank you mary elizabeth you said something that really stood out to me said community right um so i wanted to ask two of my colleagues up here when i think of stockton community um i think of these two individuals not saying i don't think of everybody else but i wanted to ask commissioner amy and crowder one of you guys be interested in this role um i don't want to nominate you if you're not but i would love to see great representation of people

Yes. Yes. Yes, it's during the day. Yes. I would like to. Yes, it's during the day. You don't want to come at midnight and meet with us all? Nine o'clock meeting. No, it's during the day.

I can give you a feeling for time, too.

I've already been studying the general plan, so I don't know where I'm at with it.

That sounds like a nomination to me. Can I get a second?

I would like to officially nominate Commissioner Amen. Excellent. I have a second.

I will second.

Excellent. Okay, everybody, please vote. All right. And it passes easily. Everybody voted yes. So that's fantastic. OK. Well, happy to have you aboard. So it'll be a good meeting for us. So we'll move on to unfinished business, which, as usual, we don't have any unfinished business. Vice chair might have some unfinished business, but we do not. OK. We'll move on to item 8.1, which is an informational presentation. And we're just talking about the general plan and the housing element and the annual progress reports.

Hello and welcome, sir, again. Floor is yours. Good afternoon, Chair Hull and members of the Planning Commission. My name is Anson LaHossett, Senior Planner for the Community Development Department, and I will be presenting Agenda Item 8.1, which is the 2025 Annual Progress Reports for the General Plan and Housing Element. Cities are required by law to have a general plan and a housing element. The general plan is the official long range policy document for the city of Stockton. General plans have elements that address land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, safety, and noise. The housing element is unique as it requires state approval. The current housing element was certified by the state and approved by city council in 2024. And this is the second year of the sixth housing cycle. The annual reports are also required by law. They are meant to track the progress of implementation of these plans. The reports are required to be presented in public hearing and must be submitted to the state by April 1st every year. The general plan was adopted in 2018. It includes policies and specific actions that various city departments are responsible for following, implementing, and enforcing throughout the 20 year timeframe. The housing element is a plan for meeting the housing needs of the community, including existing and future needs. A part of updating the housing element is to address the regional housing needs allocation, or RHNA, and within an eight year cycle defined by the state. The state provides regional areas with a total number of housing units that will be needed. The region, in this case, the San Joaquin Council of Governments, or SJCOG, then divides the units amongst jurisdictions. San Joaquin County's arena is 52,719 units that must be planned for, and Stockton's share of that is 12,673 units. In the housing element, the city included our strategy to meet this with the available land in the city, and the total capacity within the city is 22,999 units. The housing element has three main objectives, the existing and projected housing needs, creation of an inventory of available land to address the RHNA and track its progress annually, and analysis of housing development constraints in our community. Some 2025 accomplishments. Staff completed and there are more that are summarized in the staff report and annual reports. But the staff completed an update to the development code to streamline the review process for housing projects as described earlier by Vice Chair Sanguinetti. A downtown master plan envisioning document was begun. A NEW PARKS MASTER PLAN WAS ADOPTED. THE HOUSING ELEMENT PROGRAM 3 WAS IMPLEMENTED. A CONSOLIDATED PLAN WAS ADOPTED. OUTLINING HUD FUNDING. OUTREACH EVENTS WERE CONDUCTED TO SHARE THE HOMEOWNER REHABILITATION PROGRAM. In 2025, there were 716 total new housing units. 27 of those were extremely low income. 66 were very low income. And these were from one affordable housing project called La Pasadena that is from Visionary Home Builders. The image on the left is an example of what that will look like from Minor Avenue. If any of you have driven down, they have started construction, although it doesn't look just like that yet. 62 permits were accessory dwelling units. Many of the ADU permits use the city's pre-approved plans that are available to the public. THIS TABLE MAY HAVE SMALL FONT FROM WHERE YOU'RE SITTING, BUT THIS IS A TABLE THAT WILL BE SUBMITTED TO THE STATE AS PART OF THEIR FORM. IT CAN'T REALLY BE ADJUSTED ALL THAT MUCH. BUT IT SHOWS THE AMOUNT OF ANNUAL DWELLING UNIT PERMITS THAT HAVE BEEN ISSUED DURING THIS HOUSING CYCLE. OUTLINED IN RED ARE THE 2025 TOTALS. number of housing units required for Stockton are split into six income levels. So there are Acutely low, extremely low, very low, low, moderate, and above moderate. In San Joaquin County, the area median income for a family of four would be $104,600. And for clarification, a family of four would be considered acutely low if their annual income was up to $15,690 per year. EXTREMELY LOW IF UP TO $31,380. VERY LOW IF UP TO $52,300. LOW IF UP TO $83,680. MODERATE IF UP TO $125,520. AND ABOVE MODERATE IF IT IS OVER THAT AMOUNT. It breaks them into deed restricted and non-deed restricted. Deed restricted affordable housing projects are projects that have recorded an agreement on the deed of the property, which restricts residents to ensure affordability. Non-deed restricted are usually market rate. In 2025, there were building permits for 716 new housing units. Last year, there were 837 new units permitted. With seven years left in the housing cycle, an average of 1,653 new units would need to be built each year by the housing industry to meet the state's projected population growth and housing needs. Although current residential development is not on pace to meet state's goals, ongoing development activity continues to exceed the average from the past cycle where there were approximately 545 new units permitted each year. The city does not construct housing. The market drives development and at the city we do try to facilitate the development of housing. This is an informational item which does not require action by the commission. The next step for these reports are to be presented to the city council in March for consideration of acceptance. And they will be submitted to the state by April 1st. That completes staff's presentation. Are there any questions for staff?

Yeah. Yes, Mr. Crowder was first on the button. You were, sorry, I get you. I'll get the vice chair after, sorry. He was there first. Oh. A public comment first. I was going to take commissioner questions first and then public comment. Tell me to go ahead and do that. Go ahead.

Real quick, just for my own clarification, when we say available land use, are we also including all of our vacant buildings, or is that just empty buildable land? When you say that available for building for the housing, is that include all of these vacant buildings?

The RENA available, whether that went into the calculation?

Mm-hm.

I am not positive, to be honest with you right now. With the arena, it went over the vacant and underused land. Right. If you're asking are there more units that could be possibly available, that would be something that could be helpful. But I would have to take maybe a five minute break to look into the housing element to check if that would be helpful.

Now I'm just I was just curious because I know that you said that we don't miss we're not going to hit. You know the target. But and I know that technically the vacant lead buildings are owned, but they're just not usable. That's why I was curious if the numbers.

Do we have an answer?

He speaks Pandora E's really well.

I do sometimes. So the housing element does have opportunity sites, so it feels are underutilized properties, properties that aren't built to capacity. But as far as just vacant buildings, buildings that have units that aren't filled, that is not part of the calculation.

Well, like, we have those buildings that are just burnt, but nothing's done to them.

Right, so the ones that aren't, that don't have occupancy, those would be considered, like, opportunity sites or vacant properties. Opportunity, but not... Because there's nothing there that can be utilized in its current state. Gotcha. So those would be counted ones that can be utilized in their current state aren't necessarily counted. They're just they're available to rent and we don't have to have that in our data.

OK, that makes. Thank you.

OK, we'll go first. I'll go to the vice chair had a question first had his button. I turned it off and then we'll come back to Commissioner Oates. Sorry about that. No problem. Vice chair.

Just a couple questions and that the 22,000 available units. I think I asked this last time too. Where where are they coming from? Is there a map that shows what we use to count the 22,000 available units? We need 12,000 according to the state, what they called gave us. And that, that yet we use, we have 22,000 that we spell out that is available. So I'd like to know where they come from. What, what, what areas of town, where are they located and, um, how, how we determine that number? I think I know how you determine the number, but I want to know what projects that are on the books. that we're looking at as available land and what territory of land is used. We have a general plan that can actually encompass more units than the 22,000. If I recall what the document says and that, and if I recall correctly, some of the projects that are included, maybe projects that are unrealistic of ever even happening. And yet we're using those numbers.

To answer your question, thank you. That was a very good question of where exactly do all these units come from. The housing element does include a appendix which shows maps of the RHNA sites, the opportunity sites. We are currently working right now on putting a map online onto the city website which will show the arena opportunity sites the pipeline projects that some of the larger projects that you're describing i believe are the pipeline project so that's additional to the sites the properties smaller properties that have been listed in the housing element as arena site but there are some larger projects which have a lot of units included in those yeah

IS THERE A CHANCE TO GET A COPY OF THAT? I'D LIKE TO HAVE A COPY.

A PAPER COPY OF THE APPENDIX?

YEAH, THE APPENDIX OF WHAT WE'RE LOOKING TO BRING TO CITY COUNCIL.

I'M SURE WE CAN GET YOU A COPY OF THAT.

THE OTHER PART OF MY QUESTION IS TWO MORE PARTS REAL QUICK. OKAY. AND THAT IS, IN THAT 22,000 AND The map is very important to understand because we have a lot of disadvantage unincorporated area within our. Twenty forty general plan and I'd like to know did any of that get counted or not. Okay, are we just looking at projects that we have on the books and maybe some vacant places that are available to come up with our 22,000 yet like I said, there's a lot of land available in the GP that is is good and if we're looking for low income or. I don't like using those terms. If we're looking to build in some areas that have disadvantaged communities, duck areas, and that, are we using any of those areas for our calculation? Because, I mean, if we want to kind of balance out our housing, we need to look at some of the other areas that are more disadvantaged, and I don't know that we do in this.

I would like to just weigh in just to kind of frame the target that the state ultimately provides us, but we get it through the COG as far as the 12,000. So the 22,000, again, what the state wants us to provide for is opportunity to meet the target, right? The 12,000 and some change is that number. There's plenty of more opportunity that you could probably find out there, but that's not even necessary at this point in time. It's relying on Jeff Delta Cove becoming a part. I'm saying this because you're familiar with projects that are out there, but Crystal Bay out at West Lake, there's a lot of projects that have development agreements that protect their rights to develop these projects. So those are projects that we can rely on have been that big one in southeast stockton have been going around and around have been annexed into the city or in the control of the city and they have development agreements to develop so yes that's correct and you could go on and on and probably find even more but the state wants us to find as much opportunity as possible to accommodate whoever comes forth with housing so that's the end game here as far as we've got plenty of capacity in fact you've seen over the years with this that that we're we're not hitting it it really takes development right we need the developers to to come to city of stockton and start developing these types of housing units we haven't hit those kind of numbers in 20 years Right, right. I mean, the last time I recall any numbers that were significant was before the significant downturn of the economy and all the banks were giving loans that people really couldn't afford to do. So I just want to make sure that... That we understand that really it's just about the opportunity is is what we're trying to identify here. We're not going to hold back any development in. South Stockton, North Stockton, East Stockton, West Stockton are outside the boundaries of Stockton in the unincorporated area. If they're tying in to city limits. We're not going to hold those back by all means, you know, come in and and develop that housing. here at the city of Stockton. So that's the key thing is we don't want to have any, and I think the state's interested in making sure we don't have the hurdles, you know, in place that every, someone has to get through just to, to build the housing. We got to create streamlined processes. That's the whole intent here with this housing element.

And I have seen that. I have seen that map. Sorry to interrupt, Mike. We have seen that show that map before, since I've been on the commission of all the sanctuary, all the projects that are on there. So it might be helpful to, to see that maybe in the future, uh, commissioner Oaks.

Thank you. So I have questions about the housing element presentation that you just made and then I had some questions about the other update regarding the general plan. So in regards to the numbers you provided, 700, I don't have them in front of me. The chart was a little hard to read. Is that new units permitted or built?

Permitted. Permitted. There are.

Do you know either historically or how many of these units that you permit within a year get built within, pick a number, three years?

Do I have an estimate of how many get built? So with the state, we have a requirement to provide how many permits are issued. And then there is also requested more information of how many get their certificate of occupancy. So it does in the table include, and not in the presentation, but in the table as I believe in attachment B, a list of all of the permits from this year. And in that list, it does show how many of them have gotten finaled.

Thank you very much. You're welcome. I spent most of my time on the first document. And then when I got to the second document, I had an hour left before the meeting. And it required a higher level of my skills.

It's a big document.

So I had some questions in regards in regards to several of the items that I read about and specifically but I saw this in a couple of time places at LU 2.1 it and and and 2.2 a both of those referenced years that have passed as items that are to be done and I didn't know if that was a typo a lack of updating or that hadn't been done or had been done so it was lu 2.1 LU 2.1 references 2021 to 2023. And it says will be done. And then 2.2 a also references 2021 all the way up through 2025. And talks about future. It's a future tense.

Well, that's a good catch. I will make a note of that. In LU 2.2A, it is describing as past dates in a future tense, and that needs to be updated. Yeah, absolutely. I can amend that for the City Council and really appreciate you taking a thorough look at it.

Well, I took a thorough look about two-thirds of it. So I had... I'm new to the commission, you know. This is my third or fourth meeting, I can't recall. So if I'm taking too much time.

No, go ahead. You're welcome to.

But for example on, and you can just, this would be educational, 1.3a regarding wayfinding entrance in districts. This is sort of a general question I had where a lot of these items are ongoing. I will just tell you that I'm personally a big fan of districts and creating identity for neighborhoods in our community because I don't really know how to tell people where I live within Stockton and I have lots of people ask me about parts of Stockton and I don't know how to describe them and I think knowing what I know of other communities where I've lived, I think it gives people a sense of community. So when you say ongoing, about all of these things are ongoing, I mean, these are a lot of things, and a lot of them are really wonderful, but it's a lot. And so I'm just wondering, like, in the world of priorities, for example, wayfinding, entrance, and districts, where does that rank? I mean, are you just hoping that catch-as-catch can, or are these...

Mike, you want to jump in there, Mike, on that one?

Yeah, I can tell you- For all of us, I- Yeah, I can tell you as an example. So this involves, you can see the departments that are identified there for economic development, public works. These are items that as CIP type projects come along, these policies way into the process so in in the project themselves say for example maybe a public works project that's designing i want to say minor avenue or one of these precise road plans that just came before the planning commission not too long ago on market and uh... what was the other street market in maine In projects like those they can incorporate as far as wayfinding into the process so these policies way into the process. When projects are occurring so that's why things are ongoing it's not it's not any one particular project say that the city.

has decided this is what it is and it's going to happen in this manner so for example there's no master plan to identify neighborhoods and and brand them no um and that wouldn't even though that could be construed within that item yeah but but really this is really uh as proposals come before you keep it a priority bike lanes everything as far as just uh wayfinding is what it comes down to all right and then i had just two other in the interest of uh time i had a lot here because i think this is interesting and it's an important document they well obviously that's why we're here is to uh implement to do the best we can to implement the general plan. But if you could talk to me a little bit more about 2.5B two-way to one-way streets in the downtown area.

2.5 what?

2.5B, L-U, 2.5B, two-way to one-way of streets in the downtown area.

All right.

El Dorado Center, Park and Oak. Is that what you're referring to? Yes. Mike, do you want to?

Your question is? It says ongoing, now how does that, so what is the mechanism for that to be ongoing? I mean, we just sit here and think about this?

I know what you're saying as far as, and it says consideration of, but it doesn't mean, it's gonna take some study work as far as to be done to even evaluate that. As most know, those facilities being Eldorado and Center, those are primary streets that everyone's accustomed to, the one direction, each direction, but... right they just striped it obviously but yeah they did do some improvements yeah they did they did so at this point in time that's not necessarily the priority but for folks say trying to revitalize the downtown i'm just going to pick el dorado and and the other two streets that feed into this downtown there was thought that that one-way streets kind of create a lot of speed that comes through the corridor that people tend to just use those corridors to cruise through, where if you're creating a vibrant downtown, the thought is to try to make it more pedestrian and crossable streets. So I was part of a discussion sometime back in regards to the potential thought of El Dorado and Center going to two-way direction.

Well, I'll be, I'll be, you know, just to be clear, I have a bias for two way streets. I have a bias for walkable neighborhoods and I have a bias for implementing and achieving these laudable goals. So I was just asking about that.

Yeah. And I would say nothing's off the table at this point in time because what could come along again with more work with the downtown that that could be also, you know, strategies to include within that effort for the downtown.

Okay. Just two more. Sure. Thank you. One of them was 3.1 D regarded the Magnolia district and preservation of the homes and architecturally significant homes in that area. But one of the challenges for the Magnolia district is that it has a disproportionately high number of substandard housing, halfway houses, et cetera. And is there any work being done to address that? Because as you said, housing is the market It's really not a demand issue as much as an economic issue, which is it affordable? Does it make sense for the individual or a large developer, mid-sized developer, individual developer? So I'm just wondering if there's any action being taken or how that is to be made real. If you don't, it's okay. I'm just trying to. Which number was that? 3.1D regarding Magnolia District historic properties and preserving and encouraging preservation.

Three points, sorry. For some reason, I'm not hearing well.

3.1D. Got it. I probably am not speaking well.

No, it's probably me as far as just not able to hear in here.

You're getting old.

Please don't take that mic. I'll accept that. Too many rock concerts as well.

I will suggest to all of my commissioners that obviously you always have the opportunity even for more detail to reach out to Mike in his office, obviously to get more details on which is a very big document and obviously a lot of moving parts.

I do try to do that, but I'm asking these questions because I think that some of these things are fair and appropriate for the public to have aired aloud. Absolutely. That's why. So I'm not trying to put anybody on the spot because I'm mindful that I'm not trying to play gotcha. I'm just trying to learn, and I think I'm a relatively informed citizen, and I care about these issues, hence I'm here. So I'm just trying to... Just trying to get a sense.

Yeah, and I recall when we were doing the shape Stockton efforts, you know post general plan I do remember workshops kind of out in that area that That at least we're trying to get a feel, you know from the community as far as their feedbacks on that But I don't I don't recall right off anything really coming about as a result of that outreach I

Yeah, we met with Magnolia District last year in an outreach meeting. So it was like we have reached out with the property owners in that area.

Thank you. I understand that your task with implementing policy that we make recommendations to the people who are elected to make policy. I just am curious about that. And then I will just make one comment in regards generally to the bicycle initiatives in there that I think they are laudable goals. And somebody said to me the other day, as I'm trying to lose a few pounds, well, you should bike to the gym. And I said, I would like to live, so I won't. Because it's frankly dangerous on a lot of these streets. And I was disheartened as a citizen when the Weber Street project was done and the bike lane was put next to the traffic instead of between the parked cars and the sidewalk. and I would just encourage people to think about it's not just enough to have bike lanes, it's important to have other modes of transportation available that are not just available but safe. So that's my final comment.

Thank you. OK. I appreciate that. So do we have any other questions from the commissioners? If we don't, we'll go ahead and take public comment at this time.

Mary Elizabeth?

Mary Elizabeth?

I submitted a letter with the support of the Delta Sare group also on yesterday. And regarding the hazards, so I'm a registered environmental health specialist and so public safety is like a top concern. I appreciate that. I'd just like to read a little section that I submitted in correspondence February 12, 2026. Finally, the plan is intended to be an understandable and easily available to the public, in part because policies will be carried out only if they continue to merit

Community support.

So we're hearing some community support for some items that might not be of priority for staff. And so I'd just like to make sure that when we're talking about these working groups that were pledged in the general plan to involve people in planning decisions, that we consider that. SO IT'S REALLY LOUD. YOU CAN HEAR ME OKAY? YES. ALL RIGHT. OKAY. SO I'LL JUST GET MY VOICE. SO I LOOKED AT HAZARDS. AND SO WHAT YOU HAVE IN THAT 15-PAGE DOCUMENT THAT I PREPARED WAS I LOOKED AT WHAT WAS SUBMITTED IN WHAT THEY SAID THEY WERE GOING TO DO, THE STAFF, IN 2022. AGAIN, LAST YEAR. AND THEN WHAT THEY SAID THIS YEAR. SO I WAS COMPARING ALL OF THOSE THINGS. AND I FOUND A LOT OF ONGOING ALSO. AND COORDINATION. SO I WROTE COMMENTS ON ALL OF THOSE. BUT WHAT'S MORE IMPORTANT IS THE 34 ITEMS THAT WERE UPDATED IN 2024 THAT WERE NOT ANALYZED.

Thank you. Chair, if I could. Yeah. You want to respond to that?

Well, I would like to respond to at least the letter that was submitted. You bet. We are not aware of a communication being received. Typically, they go through the clerk's office. And I don't want to put the clerk's office on the spot. But I can tell you, I'm not aware. And I'm looking at staff over there not finding the communication. And we didn't receive that letter. So we'll work with Mary to have her send that communication to us. We'll be sure to distribute that out to all the commissioners So they are informed as well as far as on the letter.

Yeah, I appreciate yeah, we did not receive that letter. So thank you for that but But yeah, well, thank you No, I'm not I'm not saying I'm just want to clarify Mary didn't submit anything.

I'm just telling you that we came to this meeting Unaware that the letter was was sent in so

I could see that in your eyes.

OK. Yeah. We didn't get it, obviously, so we didn't see it. So I appreciate that. Yes, we have another blue card? Or is that it?

So that will be for 8.2 and 8.3.

OK. Well, we're going to move on to 8.2 then. That is the Planning Commission informational presentation on the Stockton Municipal Code section 16.80.30 public hearing notices. So a little update here, sir, I was told. We reached out to some more communities.

Yes.

Excellent.

All right. So good evening, Chair Hull and members of the commission. We're back. As mentioned, this is a follow-up for the last time. At the last meeting, we discussed public noticing requirements and practices when over state law and practices of nearby jurisdictions. At that time, the commission asked me to come back with information on cities of more similar size to our city, regardless of their proximity to the immediate area. Also at the meeting, the commission expressed interest in making the following changes to our noticing practices. They discussed, or you guys discussed, increasing the noticing radius to 500 feet, mailing occupants as well as the property owners, and prioritizing public or on-site posting over newspaper publication. So before I look at the new cities, I expanded the table to include more information that you guys were asking about. And so I've added population column and the other secondary notice column. So for a quick recap, 50% of those cities we looked at last time, notice the 300 feet, 50% do 500 feet or more in some instances. 80% mail to property owners, 20% mail to occupants as well as property owners. And in the new column, 60% publish in the paper only, 20% do either the paper or post on site, and then 20% do both the paper and post on site. As far as the new ones go, there we go. I added seven cities to our sample. Anaheim and Bakersfield are the two cities in the state above Stockton in population. Riverside and Irvine are the two cities below Stockton in population. As for the other three, the commissioner specifically mentioned Fresno, so I added that. And then I also added the two largest cities in the East Bay, Oakland and Fremont. Figured that was a pretty good mix. uh... so the trends are similar as far as majority minority practices go so the majority four out of seven mail to three hundred feet now three out of seven do five hundred feet or more four out of seven mail to or mail uh... notices to owners only three out of seven and occupants to that And four out of seven publish only in the newspaper. And three out of seven post on site, do the public posting option. Interestingly enough, between the last sample, the biggest difference I noticed between the two samples are locally no one does only public posting. They do newspaper and or newspaper or. And these ones, they either do newspaper or they do public posting. There's not a combo. So I found that interesting. But I just wanted to get you informed that the trends for the most part hold, although public posting does seem to be a little bit more popular in the higher population cities.

Excellent. Do we have any questions about that? If not, oh, yes, the vice chair.

I'm happy you did that, what you did. I've always felt that, you know, it's great to see what other communities do and other people do, but we are Stockton, and we should choose what's best for Stockton, not what everybody else does. And so it's good to weigh in on what other people do, get ideas from it, but whatever we come up with ought to fit what we are. Agree, and I just want to make sure we're clear on that because that's how I feel about Pretty much everything.

I don't really care what anybody else does I care about what's good for us Excellent, okay Any other questions if we don't have any other questions up we do mr. Crowder. I

Please remind me, what is EIR? My brain went completely blank. An EIR is an Environmental Impact Report. I knew that. I should know that.

That's the highest level of CEQA review.

There we go see I knew I knew that I was my brain went blank just to kind of weigh in my own because I do have a lot of personal feelings about this. I do I totally appreciate all the work that went into finding similar sized and I agree with commissioner. Vice chair. Yeah, that one over there. We need to do obviously what's best for us because we are unique individuals. We pride ourselves on being diverse, I think. I pride myself as being part of a diverse city. so I appreciate this and but I really I'm standing firm on the 500 in public posting and and Sending to occupants and owners. So that's my two cents.

Commissioner Oaks

Yeah, I wanted to just thank you all for for doing this extra work that we requested you said directed that wow, but thank you and I I do think that so often Stockton is thought of as backwards. So I think there's nothing wrong with us being at the forefront and going to public posting and dismissing newspapers given given the news desert in which we live and to the extent that if we're going to go to 500, that will be an additional cost. And if we can recoup some of that cost by eliminating the newspapers, I would be supportive of that. But I don't feel strongly about that one way or another. It's just an opinion. But I well, I feel strongly about public posting because I believe newspapers, it's meeting the requirement, but it's not meeting the spirit of really keeping people informed nowadays. Guess I go to Sam's cafe on Pacific and they do have the day-old newspaper there, which I do read But otherwise, I I don't after read a newspaper in a couple years.

I miss I miss the newspaper I Have a couple things to say, um First I want to say Thank you for doing this. I brought this forth. I think was September October and based off of a public that was here. And you guys know I drive out to things. And when you're asking me to vote on something from up here, it's very important to me. I'm not trying to, you guys did present to me that let us study the areas and let's just kind of see what everybody else was doing. You didn't tell me that you were gonna study areas so that we can copy somebody else. You wanted to bring us the information so that we appear on this dais can then make a decision what's going to be best for Stockton. So first off, I want to start off by saying that. That's how this started. I also want to say that I appreciate these numbers. It just kind of lets me know that I think we're heading in the right direction for our community. And any building we're talking about here today, we're talking about the general plan and all these businesses and homes and things that we want to build. And I think this is coming at a very important time to make sure that everybody is heard, not just from us, but the citizens of Stockton. That's the way that I view it. So I do appreciate your work. I appreciate you taking the time to do this. It just means a lot to me. You guys know how I feel about this stuff with housing and I hope that the, you know, we don't fill this room much and not like, you know, the Tuesday meetings, but I hope that people do watch the videos and that they see we are working for them and that we are listening to them. So this is what this was for, listening to the community. So I do thank staff very much for presenting this. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay.

Excellent. Thank you. I guess, well, Michael, the question would be, are you going to come back with maybe a proposal? Obviously, it has to go to council?

Yeah, well, I guess I wanted to clarify. Sure. Scott could, too. You know, last meeting, we did present this. And I think what we were looking for was some consensus, right? And that's what kind of led to, you know, we wish you'd take a look at some other similar-sized cities, come back, and see if anything changes, you know, from your guys' consensus. Because I felt like... uh we kind of give everyone the opportunity kind of not or whatever to see if there was consensus on the 500 foot i recall the owner occupant it seemed to me like that was the preference yeah can we go back to that posting uh posting uh at the site was it seemed to me that was the consensus versus the legal ad in the newspaper So that's all we were looking for. What we what we're going to do with this is ultimately put this into the code because the code dictates all these issues today. And so we put them in the code and. Put it out. Again, the code is for the public to participate in. The Planning Commission makes a recommendation to Council. Council ultimately approves. And so Council may be interested in this as well. I don't know, but they'll listen to what the Planning Commission has to say, because that's going to be part of the recommendation going forward, is whatever comes out of the Planning Commission.

Yeah. I think it sounds like we're starting to have a consensus. Yes, Commissioner Allman, you had a follow-up?

Also, too, I need to throw out there that I think I asked for $700. So I just threw a number out there. So I do appreciate you coming back. I don't even know where I got $700 from. It sounds good.

I don't know.

I didn't know business or anything else. Sometimes you have businesses, like a little bit of industrial, then you have houses over here, then it goes back to industrial. So I did say 700, so I can see maybe why you said, oh, well, maybe let's just go see what everybody else is doing a little bit before we just give her that 700. And also, too, I just want to remind, and hopefully I'll put this out there to remember, that I've been driving around. You guys know me. I do have a life, but when I'm driving around, I do kind of look at things. And I do see different size signage on some of the newer things that are coming out. I've seen some little ones, and I've seen some humongous ones. So I think that's something that we really need to be specific on, how large we want that signage. It needs to be visible to everyone that's at that red light or slowing down or whatever. It needs to be very visible, very big, and very bold.

Thank you. Yeah. What we intend to do with the code changes, if we're implementing public posting, it would have required dimensions, required print size, things of that nature. And we would most likely be requiring an applicant to provide those so that the city wouldn't be at expense.

Excellent. Vice Chair, ? Yeah.

Agree with the 500 feet and I don't really recall 700 feet He may have said they remember that we talked extensively and I thought 500 feet was a consensus and that I I support that to this day I also support the posting at the sites. I mean, some projects automatically do that anyway because it's an advertisement of what they're doing and it helps their whole project. I also think, though, that we talked about posting on our website, too, not just public posting on site. in that doing some public posting through our own website they have. We even discussed do we have a separate website that's related to this commission or something. I'm not sure I support that, but I think we already have a website City of Stockton website that it could be posted on and there could be a section in it that says public you know public comments are available for the following projects or something and that and will be heard and as an advertisement so when people look online it's there and that What I thought would be great in that would be is a nice ticker tape along the new city hall when people are driving on I-5. You can see that. You look at what New York City does and some of the other large cities, even San Francisco. like when the Giants made the World Series. I mean, there were buildings down there that had ticker tapes, basically, that supported it and colored it in orange. Well, we have a brand new city hall. We got two towers over there. You could have a ticker tape that runs around it that says when the hearing's going to be, and it involves this. I mean, that costs a lot of money. I understand that. But we got a lot of money in our savings account that we save for unfunded liabilities. Maybe we need to start using some of that for the betterment of the community, not for the betterment of unfunded liabilities.

OK.

I want that on the record.

It's on the record. OK. Anyone else? I think that's it. Is that any other questions? Yes? Oh, yes. I was going to go public comment next. So yes. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you, Commissioner. Good job. Excellent job, as always. Yes, Mary Elizabeth.

attend a meeting, I had another meeting, and so I was looking at the video after the fact, and early in the morning, and I said, oh, okay, I'm going to go watch that, and so it was the 12th, and so I watched it, and it became obvious to me that there was an oral presentation, but in fact, there was just a little bit, you can see just a little bit that there is a presentation there,

But there was no presentation posted.

So I submitted another cease and desist on that because after 24 hours, staff written material needs to be posted on the website. And I included the full section there for that. So just for the record on that, we've had two presentations that have not been available to the public in advance of this meeting. And so I think that practice is not conducive to public information. And I'd like to just iterate again. I appreciate the fact that using the website And we have, as Stockton, I've signed up for everything. I get the bids. You know, why can't I get a bids when there's a public hearing? Why can't I get an email that's sent to me that tells me that there's a public hearing? Why can't I get an email that says, oh, there's an environmental review, a negative declaration that's going to be going on out there? There at Van Buskirk, you know, when that project came up here, you know, there were people that spoke and wrote letters to the city because there wasn't really good outreach for those CEQA documents. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment?

No more for this item, but we do have one for 8.3.

Thank you. Well, I think we'll move on to item 8.3, if that's okay. That's the Planning Commission Informational Presentation on an Envision Stockton 2040 General Plan Action CH-3.2B. Hello, director is going to give this one. The big guns. Nice.

Yes. Good evening. Stephanie Ocasio, Director of Community Development. Just some background on this item. On December 4th, 2018, the general plan was adopted. The state law requires that a general plan contain a number of elements, including land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, parks, recreation, safety, noise, environmental justice, and if you're within the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, air quality as well. Our general plan is structured into four chapters, which is inclusive of all of those elements. And then we have the housing element that is adopted separately on eight-year cycles. The general plan is built around a series of goals, policies, and actions that describe what needs to be done to achieve the community's vision of the future. Each chapter, those four that I just mentioned, has a number of goals, policies, and actions within it to achieve that goal. we have a total of 228 distinct actions in the general plan and that's why it does take some time to implement those and we've talked about that in previous meetings during the february 12 20 26 meeting the planning commission directed staff to present an update regarding the specific action ch 3.2 b particularly the creation of a map identifying specific business types Verbatim, the action language is as follows. I can read it out loud, or I can pause and let you read. Want me to read it?

Sure. You don't want me to read it. Do you want me to read it?

Consider options and develop an ordinance to restrict many markets, gas stations, fast foods, restaurants, check cashing establishments, and tobacco stores in areas with high existing concentrations of similar establishments and continue to restrict over concentrations of liquor stores through the city's alcohol ordinance. To inform the development of this ordinance, create a map that identifies the locations of current establishments of these types and regularly maintain it so that it continues to aid in decision making about such uses. From that action, there are a number of deliverables that result. DEVELOP AN ORDINANCE TO RESTRICT SAID BUSINESS USES, CONTINUE TO RESTRICT THE OVERCONCENTRATION OF LIQUOR STORES THROUGH THE EXISTING ALCOHOL ORDINANCE AND CREATE A MAP THAT IDENTIFIES THE LOCATION OF THOSE BUSINESS TYPES. AS INDICATED HERE, THE DEVELOP ORDINANCE TO RESTRICT, WE HAVE AN HOUR GLASS KIND OF INDICATING THAT IT IS ONGOING AND PENDING WITH THE TOBACCO RETAIL LICENSE ALREADY BEING ADOPTED. The continuation of restricting over concentrations, that is achieved when alcohol use permits come through. We utilize the current language in the ordinance to regulate such uses. Further, the map that identifies the locations, a map of the tobacco stores has been created. So we have begun the implementation of this action. And this is kind of what I just said. So the first phase of the implementation occurred June 20th, 2023, with the adoption of the TRL ordinance. That ordinance was recently further refined by the council to improve oversight and clarify requirements. And a map was created as part of this overall ordinance development process. We plan to utilize that as our base map, and then we can add additional layers of data points to it. This is said map. It's hard to read on here, but the little red marks identify the tobacco retailers. In terms of further implementation for the action, it requires multi-departmental involvement. We need to include ASD because they oversee business licenses and revenue, the city attorney's office for development of policy and regulations, community development, GIS for the development of said maps with that data, police department to help us also gather data, and also potential external agency coordination with alcohol beverage control and Department of Public Health because there's also state laws involved and they have resources that we might be able to pull from for the creation of said maps. Further, the general plan action does not clearly define high existing concentration or over concentration. So policy work is necessary in order to create a definition for those things, because that's the threshold of what you are trying to regulate. So that will, we need to identify industry standards and best practices, and we need to ensure that we conform and are consistent with any state laws that are in place. Therefore, it's recommended that the Planning Commission receive this presentation from staff. I'm happy to receive feedback, input, and happy to answer any questions.

I think the Vice Chair Sanguinetti was up first.

I have a question, Madam Director. The tobacco issue that's being debated very strongly these days, I believe was originated because of the smoke shops. And that's what drove this to the point now where it's expanding to, looks like, based on those dots on that map, looks like anywhere that has tobacco-related products. Is that correct?

The most recent revisions to the ordinance created the different categories. So we have ancillary, smoke shop. So that will be anybody that's selling tobacco will have a category. Now, some of those retailers are exempt from having the tobacco retail license, but we now have a way to categorize them and those can be mapped. So yes, it started with the smoke shop discussion, but then grew.

Right, to where, I mean, that drove the moratorium on smoke shops. And now it's expanding to, you know, grocery store businesses and 7-Elevens, Arco, Quick Stops and everything. And then there's licensing that's being talked about for, I don't know if it's being, you said exemptions. I'm not that much familiar with it. But I'm concerned about what it's going to do to the businesses. Okay, and especially long term and that I understand the smoke shop issue drove the issue and I actually support what we've done with that from my perspective. However, when it affects local businesses that based on the little map that you had up there had a lot of dots on it. And that tells me it's a lot of businesses. And so the impact to those businesses, if it's not properly put together, and that could have a serious impact on local small businesses and local people that are from here that own those businesses and been longtime establishment. So I do have a concern with that regard about how that's being handled. And I don't, I don't, I think this item, I appreciate you bringing it to us, but that's an item that really we won't as a commission, I don't think have any say in other, unless it gets to the state where it becomes code, which I think then you do bring it to commission for recommendation to council.

If it's within Title 16, you're correct. So the current revisions were made to Title V under the licensing provisions of the city's municipal code, because that's where that lives. Because smoke shops, tobacco retailers, that's not a land use, that is a retail activity.

But it will become a land use if I'm understanding what's happening when there's requirements placed on them for licensing, and then we have to look at use permits for those type of facilities coming in the future.

So there are no use permit requirements for smoke shops. It is being handled through the licensing requirements of the tobacco retail license through ASD and PD.

I have no problem. We can get rid of smoke shops, in my opinion. I mean, they cause this problem.

Yes, if I may. Sorry.

And that, but I have a problem with small businesses, the grocery stores.

They're exempt. They don't have to go through.

What about your Arcos and your?

They're also under the, I want to say, general retailer, so they don't have the same requirements as smoke shops do.

Because in long... I mentioned in the beginning my concern that I'm looking at long-term. You have... your 7-Elevens, your Arcos, your grocery stores, and if too much regulation is placed upon them in that, then it degrades their value, especially long-term if the family wants to sell that franchise. If somebody owns a 7-Elevens franchise, and they go to sell it 20 years from now and these regulations are in place, it has an impact to their ability in the long term, same as the grocery stores or any of those other types of facilities. So I do have that concern. As far as the head shops, smoke shops, in my day, they were known as head shops. OK. And that's what the smoke shops do today is the same thing as the head shops did back in the 60s and 70s and that. And so I'm all for eliminating them.

At this point in time, it's not part of the development code, right? So it's not something that we're going to.

It's adopted in Title V of the city's municipal code. So it's already law. It recently went to council. Previously, it went to ledge committee. And those items that you spoke of were thoroughly discussed. The item before you today is just the request by planning commission as to what has been done to implement the general plan action, of which the tobacco is that first step towards all of the uses that were listed.

I think someday it could be challenged that it should be part of the development code too, which we don't know that that couldn't become a challenge, which is another expense to the city to defend that. we'll have to wait for that day potentially thank you director I don't think there's anything else or unless any questions for the director thank you thank you for letting us know what you're doing with that and I that I'm assuming that also applies to other things that the general plan as you said there's 228 items there's other items in there that require mapping and we've discussed and so it's a good good idea to just to know that you guys are working on these items but it all takes time and i appreciate that yes thank you thank you 227 more okay thank you appreciate it director and uh public comment please time for anyway i saw it we have blue card so yes go ahead mary elizabeth

Welcome again.

Hi, I'm Mary Elizabeth, and I have sad news that as part of all of those exemptions for those convenience stores which are very high in selling tobacco products to those that are under 21 years of age, we now have the ability to ministerially license smoking lounges. So you talk about head shops, then now we have smoking lounges in Stockton. So what I'd like to just clarify here, and I'd like to bring to the Planning Commission's attention, is the Title 16 alcohol ordinance. So the alcohol ordinance is part of Title 16, which is why you Get it also convenience stores are part of title 16 and they have to get a use permit So it may be one day some tobacco retailer might have to do that as well But for the alcohol it specifically states here existing alcohol establishments. And so what I've found in, you know, in my work in this area that specifically looking at the areas where we have over concentration, there's some hidden alcohol retailers. Because they got a land use, that land use permit carries with the property. And so if a particular business or occupant of a business is not utilizing that with an ABC license, it's still there. That they have the ability to go to ABC and get an alcohol license. And we've maybe never seen these places in five years, but now we have it.

Thank you. Any other public comment?

Julie Dunning. welcome hi thank you uh julie dunning community advocate i just have one question on the presentation i didn't hear any mention of cigar lounges or hookah lounges and that has come up recently in discussion at city council i'm concerned are the cigar lounges not going to sell cigars it's simply a place that you bring your own And if they are, are they required to have retail tobacco license? And I definitely think they should be included on that map as well. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Well, I think that is the end of that discussion, unless anyone has further comment on that one. Mike, did you have any comment on that? Okay. Oh, yes. Commissioner Crowder.

I was right can we get an answer to. Miss Dunning's question because that's a really good. Topic that I didn't even think of was our cigar lounges, you know, I do know that there is one in Lincoln center where they sell cigars and you can also smoke in there from not mistaken that County. Oh, is it?

Yeah, it's county.

Oh, well, see, I don't know that much. But I do know that hookah lounge was brought up, and those are concerns.

So I am weary of getting into that subject matter at this time because it's not an agendized item. Okay. And we don't have the proper team here to speak to that because that was an ordinance developed through ASD, PD, city attorney's office. and I don't want to misrepresent or misspeak on an item. So I can tell you that a lot of this information was discussed at Ledge Committee and at Council at the recent adoption of said ordinance, where I think the information was stated there. If anybody wants to access those, those are publicly posted. If additional information is desired, Would have to get back to you on that. It's just I'm not the lead on that so I don't want to misrepresent So they are but they are not represented on these maps So that map was identifying all the ones that were licensed because we you know, we can only pull What we were aware of so and we went above and beyond we tried we talked to the state We looked through business license revenue. We looked through all the land records and so that was WHAT WE IDENTIFIED AND THEN ANOTHER PURPOSE OF THIS MAP WAS WHEN WE WERE CONSIDERING THE SEPARATION FROM SENSITIVE USES, SCHOOLS, PARKS, ET CETERA, FINALLY WHAT WAS ADOPTED WAS 1,000 FEET, JUST SO YOU KNOW. THIS MAP WAS IDENTIFYING ALL THE PARCELS IN THE CITY THAT ARE INELIGIBLE TO HAVE TOBACCO BECAUSE OF THAT. What this is saying, it's hard to see, but the orange here is really the only areas, these little bits of orange, those are the only areas left in the city that can have a smoke shop. Then the ancillary ones also have I'm trying to think. Some of those are exempt from the locations like a grocery store, like a Walgreens. They're not going to make them not be able to open because they have a case with cigarettes. So they get treated differently as opposed to smoke shop, head shop, things of that nature. And that's why they created the four different types as part of the most recent ordinance revision. And that presentation is available online, the PowerPoint and everything.

So, okay. So I just want to make sure that I'm clear on my head. I'm sorry. This doesn't have cigar lounges on it. Okay, so the general plan doesn't mention anything about cigar lounges or hookah lounges, anything of that nature? What do you mean by the general plan?

Well, or sorry, three-point.

Policy. The policy, thank you. My bad. Miswording.

Action. Action.

So it talks about many markets, gas stations, fast food, check cashing, and tobacco stores.

Okay. So it doesn't involve any kind of lounges that have, okay.

Tobacco stores, meaning smoke shops? Is that what's defined as that? Or is that a grocery, any store that sells tobacco?

Without having those notes in front of me, I can't speak to the intent of what they meant at the time to back. But however, I can tell you these land uses are generally associated with negative impacts, particularly when they are in high concentrations. WITH THAT KNOWLEDGE, I WOULD ASSUME THAT THIS IS MORE ABOUT SHOPS THAT ARE FOCUSED MORE ON THE SMOKING PARAPHERNALIA, THE TOBACCO, THINGS OF THAT NATURE, NOT A WALGREENS THAT HAS A CASE, NOT A PHARMACY. I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT WAS FUNNY, PHARMACY SELLING CIGARETTES.

I DON'T THINK THEY DO ANYMORE.

THERE'S ONE CHAIN THAT STILL DOES.

7-ELEVENS.

EXACTLY. THE CITY COUNCIL DEEMED THOSE EXEMPT BECAUSE IT'S NOT THEIR PRIMARY

OR THE GROCERY STORE.

THERE IS LANGUAGE IN THE ORDINANCE THAT TALKS ABOUT PERCENTAGE OF FLOOR SPACE DEDICATED TO THE SALE OF TOBACCO. THAT'S WHAT MAKES THE DISTINCTION.

THANK YOU. APPRECIATE IT. OKAY. I THINK WE'LL MOVE ON. WE'LL POWER FORWARD TO Always my favorite time. Commissioner comments. Item number nine. Wait, did you have any reports, Mike?

I just want to mention one thing since it's approaching quickly as far as the academy. So everyone should be settled as far as getting their travel requests in. And I've spoken with a couple of you that were in the midst of trying to get the paperwork in. Yeah, we're go and we will be canceling the March 12th Planning Commission meeting because that falls right in line with the academy time frame. And I really do want to stress and you guys know this, that the academy is going to be really beneficial for you to to attend and and get perspectives, you know, even outside of perspectives here. So it's just a really good I mean, like training. And so I just want to put that out there that be be prepared. Make sure you got your work cleared for taking that time off. It's the 11th, 12th, and 13th, I believe, which is a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

It's a great venue. It's a great thing, good learning experience. I really enjoyed it.

Any questions on Adriana in our office? Guerrero has been the one communicating and getting the travels done. So any questions, don't hesitate to follow up with our staff.

Excellent. Thank you.

All right. Thanks.

Okay. We'll go ahead and get some comments for my fellow commissioners. If there are anybody that wants to, yes, commissioner, I'm in hit the button first.

Always. First, I want to thank my fellow commissioners for voting me in as ad hoc. I'm super excited. It's something I've already been trying to learn about, so I hope I'll be able to add something to that and learn more from you guys. One thing I wanted to say as well, going back a little bit to the... Notifying our public when things are happening. Someone said something here and it just sparked it after we had moved on. And I got something in the mail today which made me think of this. And it was something from the city of Stockton. It's just a regular envelope. It just had me and my husband's name on it. Yeah, I open everything, but that's because I open everything. But I can see where... or if it says occupant or whatever, they're just going to toss it. There has to be a way. But let me tell you what got my attention. The ones that had the big red and the ooh, wow, this other stuff, things that are on the actual envelope that got my attention. I said, OK, why couldn't we do something like that? I know we always talk about cost here and things costing money. I'll make the stamp. OK, it doesn't cost that much to make a stamp. I won't come and stamp the envelopes unless you really need help. if we can do something even in the wording that I don't know official city document or something like that something that will get someone's attention to not throw that away I think maybe we'd have a better chance of people opening those notices for them to attend the meetings in their areas. And it's something that I think can be put on the website, just telling the public that this is what we're about to implement. We're going to do this so that everybody can see what's coming to your house. So get ready, we're about to do this. And also when there is something important that is gonna go out, I don't really know if it does now on the website when these meetings are posted. I know it has to be, like you said, in the newspaper, it has to be on a sign. Maybe there is something where we can actually put it on the website as well. I think the more places we have notifications, things that are coming up, I think the more people that we can catch. And I'm not just talking about this, I'm talking about anything across the board that is going to affect somebody's way of life. Something that's gonna happen to them or happen in their community. I don't know what to call it, just public notifications, something that's gonna be eye-catching. Cuz I know with me, I'm not bipolar or anything like that, but it just catches my attention more than an envelope that comes in with just my name on it. I don't know, maybe in the past it's just been kind of purposely done. I will just send this out and I've heard a lot of developers come here and oh yeah, we sent notices out. There was one person at the meeting. There were two people at the meeting. We gotta do something to change that narrative this year, and that's something that I'm going to be on staff. Whatever we need to do, I'm willing to help with that, but it's something that we really need to kind of do to try to get notification out there for everything that we're doing here and across the board.

Thank you. Commissioner Crowder.

First, thank you staff and everything that you guys do because I couldn't do it all. Just the general plan alone, I know that I've been on the opposite side of this dais with that general plan. I think Mike and I have had many of interesting discussions. So first, I just want to say thank you guys for everything. And second, I really want to echo what Commissioner Amen has said and then also what Mary Elizabeth has talked about. And I know that I brought this up once before is. Notifying people through the Ask Stockton app is so key. I get bombarded with the bid flashes, and there's no reason why there shouldn't be something that says public notice. We should be bombarded with those as well. And I know that that requires a lot of that coding stuff that all the really super smart people do back there. My daughter can code, I cannot. So I just, I really, really support the Ask Stockton app and utilizing that. We want our residents to use it. We want them to be more comfortable with it. We want them to report things on it. Then we need to be able to report to them as well through it. So if that's at all ever a possibility, I would love that. Are you coming for me?

Sure. Please. I'm trying to wrap up our meeting, but yes, please comment.

I apologize. Is it against protocol for me to say something?

No, you can go ahead. You're the director. You're in charge.

You're the chair. Thank you. So staff has heard you loud and clear. There are things in the works, but I just can't announce anything until it's done. Okay. So just plant that seed. Put a pin in that.

Got it.

Thank you.

I love it. Thank you again for

all the work you do in putting up with all of our little quirks and idiosyncrasies that we have. Also, just thank you to all the commission because I know that this can get daunting, especially on this side because everything is different from this side than that side. If you've never spoke on that side, It's intimidating, so I also appreciate everybody, whether you're a presenter and staff or whether you're our community, I appreciate you all, because I know what it's like to stand on that side. I now know what it's like to sit on this side. And it's intimidating to be able to sit here and not be able to have a conversation back and forth with you guys, because I like to do that. But again, I just want to say thank you to everybody for everything.

Thank you. Any other comments? Or if we don't, I actually have one quick comment. I will say that I did, I do have my rotary pin on tonight. And so we did have the rotary read-in today. So this happens to be my breast cancer awareness rotary pin, which is my favorite because my mom and, and sister both had breast cancer. So just wanted to say that was great to read to third grade at Tully C. Knowles, I think is what I went to. So if you ever have a chance to do it next year, I'd say definitely do it. We go to every school in Stockton. Stockton Unified, Ling Unified, Lodi Unified. It's an amazing thing. Kindergarten through third grade. If you don't have a chance to do it, do it next year. It's fantastic. So I want to thank staff for everything you guys have done. It's always challenging to bring all this information to us. So we're always biting back on our questions. If we don't have any other remarks from the commission, I would say I could take a motion to disperse, to adjourn, if we're awake. Anybody? okay do i have a motion from uh commissioner oaks and do i have a second second second from the vice chair i like it okay vote please everybody you've been wanting to do that motion huh for a while i think we got adjourned