Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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where you are sir good evening uh welcome to the city of te Planning Commission regular meeting meeting agenda for Wednesday member 5th 2025 City Hall Council chamber 209 East Kern Street ta California 93268 City of Taff Planning Commission meetings are being held in person with full capacity seating and are live streamed at https colon www.youtube.com sluser slcity of Taft public comment can be made in person and can be received per the following written comments may be dropped off at the Dropbox in front of City Hall comments may be emailed to the city clerk at city of clerk at city of clerk City ofa.org uh made by phone to the city clerk's office at 661 7631 1222 public comments not made in person will be accepted up until 1 hour before the meeting and any comments received will be read into the record okay and um got the Pledge of Allegiance and I think I need to ask you this time to do it that'll be followed by the invocation salute pledge I PL Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all um today's invocation will be by Pastor Bella black thank you heavenly father I want to thank you for each man and woman on the staff Planning Commission I pray wisdom as an

Advisory Board to the city council reviewing and recommend giving recommendation and decisions on land use zoning development project and other aspects of the city's physical development and I pray blessings on them as they work together for the good of the city with the resources and talents father that you have provided them and I pray that you will accomplish All For Your Glory for the city of tath through this team in Jesus name amen amen and thank you okay and no request for public comment so we will move from um item one to item two the minutes of the previous meeting January 8 2025 special excuse oh roll call my head oh you threw that at me and I just went right to it every time I do that okay chairman Livingston present Vice chair shz here commissioner dowen here commissioner Johnson here commissioner Orin is absent okay sorry about overrunning your job there okay so now we can go to the minutes I'll motion to approve second okay uh vote please commissioner commissioner D yes commissioner Johnson yes Vice chairman shz yes chairman Livingston yes thank you okay that passes with 40 and one absence uh we are now moving on to item three which is a public heuring the California Department of Housing and Community Development hcd annual progress reporting for 2024 and I will turn that

over to our planning director uh thank you chairman Livingston um it's that time of year again um when we report to the state Housing and Community Development Office uh of it's the progress report for a housing element but mainly of the number of structures we've permitted and final uh for housing how we do this here I'm going to go over that a little in technical terms and then I'll simplify it when we when I go over the different tables that they have us fill out to submit to them so California government code section 65400 requires each governing body um to prepare an annual progress report on the status of progress and implementing the jurisdiction's housing element of the general plan using forms and definitions adopted by um hcd um housing element reports are due for each calendar year on the following April 1st and must be sent to hcd and the governor's office of planning and research and we have to have these public hearings as well before Planning Commission city council um the required reporting is entered into an Excel spreadsheet provided by hcd which allows staff to enter and edit year-to-year housing data on the 24 calendar year is the first year of the current housing element cycle of 2023 to 2031 the attached uh annual element progress report identifies a housing activity data for um the prior year in 2024 we completed issued or completed five building permits um it's actually Four I miscounted there but or I'll explain um first was uh a permit that actually dates back to 2022 so it's been on three consecutive reports um of a uh office building on Kern street that was converted back into a single family dwelling um and added an Adu onto that building so it's listed twice on one of

the tables uh because that's the only way to account for both the single family and the Adu unit the way they form at the table um but that was all I believe under one permit but it's uh two different uh units being counted uh second was just an Adu also on Kern Street and then um a standalone single family home in the southern part of town on 8th Street and then um the last one which is two different permits as well a fire damaged home was uh so far gone that they need to do the full Demolition and theyve submitted subsequently submitted plans for a new home which I believe we just permitted but it's going to be on next year's report um so um uh we also uh those units are listed on table B in the attached report sorry for the small font the table or the overall table would be a 3 foot wide piece of paper so it's over four three or four pages I believe um um attached here and then um table D lists the uh um programs but they're from the old housing element as we're close to adopting the new element with the new program so um you'll see the same programs that we had established prior um between 2015 and 2023 and I still reported out how we've currently followed those programs so uh next year we'll have a similar look but I know four or five times the amount of programs to start reporting out a lot of those uh code changes that we've been going over are going to be a lot of those um accomplishing a lot of those programs and getting our um zoning ordinance more compliant with the state housing law um and as I mentioned if you go a couple pages into the tables when

you start seeing the headers um that are blue orange yellow green and then blue again that's the three pages to cover the one table and it's quite small but hopefully you're able to uh zoom in somehow on the electronic copy U or use your phone for um in person but um the Orange is if it was like an entitled project and then yellow is the permitting and then green is when the project was finaled and you under the green you'll see a green series of bars in one row and that's because that's the uh um latest home replacing the fire damaged home that is not yet complete but hopefully will be complete this year and then under the blue the one unique one was that fire damaged home um indicating the demolition uh luckily or unfortunately we've had number of fire damaged homes in the past year or so but luckily all but this one were able to go through some repair process so we've been working with each of those homeowners I think we had three or four in the last 12 months or so um those all need to be indicated here because it's no loss or gain in either direction so we don't indicate those on this table and then you can read through the programs but a lot of the programs we had on the prior run had its own series of uh ordinance amendments and we accomplished those early and then the rest was more uh reporting on if we had any more first-time home buyers rehab or um uh we tried to limit how many demolitions we had we were really busy in the 201s if you will um but they did slow a bit um we'll call it in the 2020s if you will or postco um and then uh I think that was pretty much it and we we just since uh Sandy Creek Estates has stopped their construction we haven't had a new

Builder to kind of replace so there's a program related to that housing track and then our multif family sites in the downtown area where we have the plan in place now we just need a builder that can um put something there both for market rate and affordable housing so um that's a quick summary on this um we do need to um open the public hearing um I did not receive any outside um comments or comments prior to today to add to the discussion um and then we do need a motion even though there isn't a resolution in the packet it's somewhat like a receive and file or than this it's recommended um uh to the city council to essentially receive and file and then uh transmit it to the state for their for our reporting for the 2024 year and I plan to have this before the um council at the 1st March meeting and that concludes my presentation okay well um so you'll need a motion to present the progress reporting um as motion to recomend city council to accept the annual progress report and then the I can make that motion okay I can second it so I need to read this don't I correct number two item two yes okay I make a motion to recommend the city council accept the annual housing element progress report for the 2024 calendar year and find that the project is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality act squa as set forth in section 15061 B3 of the SQL guidelines and we have that second against okay we have a well first of all we have to open a public hearing and then we'll close it because there's no comments here today so that is done we will now have a vote or any

questions oh any you guys got any questions yeah I'm sorry I'm question trying to rush it along here nine no no no I I think for the most part we've gone over this information since while we're going over the new um housing housing element technical numerical table summarizing the year yeah so we've already seen a lot of this anyway so I don't and we'll get the new updates a year from now that are meeting in February will go over 2025 yeah and hopefully we have a little more building activity going on um by the time we get there okay well in that case we'll call for a vote commissioner dowen yes commissioner Johnson yes Vice chairman shirs yes chairman Livingston yes okay we are now going to be moving on to item four the planning director report uh the only thing I'll report on is uh last week we had or the currentc held the first in a while uh West Kern Economic Development Alliance meeting um at Taff College um it's more of a networking group if you will um there really isn't a staffing and uh uh an agenda or um a or staff that would handle some economic development efforts or roles it's it it had we had the government agency or step back for a second the West Kern Alliance is everything valley floor and west side because East Kern right now is I'm not sure if it captures Tachi or not but it's mostly the um high desert areas of mahve rosan uh uh Boron bridess Cal City um and uh uh so they have that there and I think the county also has uh Economic Development people were just focused in that area as well um both B B out of

Bakersfield and whatever Regional Offices they have up there um so for the West Side you had um all the city Representatives we had supervisor couch supervisor Parlier um ta College was there um Taff City School District was there um chamber director um who else uh Les Clark with the wreck so you had all these different entities a lot of the Westside businesses so the oil and gas folks cement um I know I'm leaving folks out but we had a good 40 plus people in the room um so we're kind of more sharing who we are what our role is to get to know one another even though a lot of people did know each other in the room um but also what was like a current effort going on so uh it was good to hear from everybody uh I I made our uh request for help with housing I got some ears so I I'll I'll uh um utilize that but um the the subsequent meetings are going to be every other month so the odd months um last the last Wednesday of the month at different cities and I believe next meeting in March will be uh shaer or Wasco I can't remember which um so it'll probably subsequent meting will probably be a little bit hyperfocused to the sub region if you will over the West Side um so it'll probably be heavy sha was scope folks maybe some from uh deleno and um McFarland McFarland was at this meeting as well so we'll see where it goes from here and how it uh starts maybe uh narrowing focus on maybe wherever the meeting's at okay but uh everybody showed up for this one and we'll see how the subsequent ones are and what kind of direction we get with it uh but hopefully you know sharing what's going on in each of our jurisdictions so the jurisdictions hopefully can benefit from

it so um chapters just going gang busters I think the advertising already went out there for uh the next projects for wonderful out there they're doing both more industrial and residential now or wow Community Building type stuff um so that'll probably be a big focus in two months when more of the details of those projects come out but um hopefully it helps them helps us um even Bakersville even though you know they're the the big city in our area um so that was a really good event and I'll keep reporting back on subsequent meetings uh I'll make sure to attend the last Wednesdays are usually available for me to uh attend those that aren't too much of a drive away from here so um that's big there and then I'll leave it at that okay we don't have our City attorney today and he provided no report to me so I expected that his report would have been no report so we're now at the commissioner comments any comments from the Commissioners today well yes I do I want to say thank the city of ta the the the most part this code enforcement they came by and they did a wonderful job cleaning up 211 Center Street so that was I we did not know that your crackheads had broken in and was bypassed electrical panels and and was was stockpiling piles and piles refuge and they were nice enough to go in there clean it all out with a tractor hauled it all off and sealed it ball back up so uh thank you for the city of tap thank you for the code enforcement uh for all your hard and and work there city city staff also so thank you again chairman Livingston can I add something just as a reminder uh utilize the report of concern um button that is on the homepage of the city we uh website it goes to our police chief it

goes to our Co enforcement officer so that is a direct way you can still call through through the regular phone lines but catching somebody late at night dumping uh in an empty building cuz we're going from colder wetter weather right we're going to have this for the next month or so and then it's going to warm up quick so they want to get outside as well so any kind of camping out indoors or Outdoors utilize and that's the most discreet you don't want to share your name option you know CU some people want to help but they also don't want to be the name on the report if if you will and report a concern through the website is the most most discreet way to do that and it's also the way to get the greatest attention because you don't need to call three or four people correct city manager it does a three four person dispersement based on the category there's like a drop- down category thing of uh whatever the concern may be so it it gets straight to us great to know and usually receives fairly quick response times as far as I can tell I've used it a couple of times for pothole kind of things pretty good seems to be a good uh website and the county has similar in uh current health and it's I know Craig's working with the county you know cuz we're all one here uh but we're kind of limited on what we could do but the county is working with Craig quite a bit lately and that's going to be a great thing for our town I've noticed a lot of work down on Rails of trails are really cleaning up the uh oil Derek down there and the uh yeah uh the pumping unit and the display area yeah and I know they're putting in a lot of work to start getting ready for old Dorado so we really appreciate it I'm on the board and uh we're working with them and they this town has really open arms for old Dorado and they they do everything they can to make it a good

time which Speaking of which it's 246 days away wow FYI is going to come quick uh there'll be some events coming up uh that will be helping with and sponsoring and we'll keep everybody aware but uh it's coming up so be ready and the email or other means of communication if people want to be a vendor participate all that that's all active and live right yeah uh like Facebook you can go on older a days and um next week I'll come back with the official email if anyone wants that and info on it yeah but yeah anyone that wants to which we have people in charge of vendors and and all that so we can help them get in touch with whoever they need to um yeah be a lot of stuff going on um as a uh kind of response to that last night uh Dave nor the the mayor um commented that he and um Craig I think the uh building inspector or the um code enforcement code enforcement um they not only did a tour of Taft but because again we're really one city they took them to all of the county portions of the City of Taft as well so you know Victory square and up South Taft and that's that's gotten a little rough driveway and yeah it has and I don't know I mean I have to say this but when I was growing up here Victory Square was not a safe place I don't know that it's particularly uh it's gotten the roads got worse yes so anyways they went around and they made sure that our our our supervisor new supervisor who's probably going to take a while to just get his feet under him um got a tour of the whole city got to see things where

there work needs to be done um I think they they had a list of things when they left that they were going to need to work on um those might remember when um Dave couch had Mark salvagio he would send emails to just about everybody at the County harassing them to get stuff done and I have a suspicion that this might come to be the same method that the the new supervisor might use asking staff okay what's happening over there because that's the only way you get work done out here especially so I I think it was a a positive move to get him out here as quickly as possible after the election and his being sworn in um do you have anything you want to well I just ran some errands the other morning and I live on the 100 block of Center and came came back and the city um maintenance Crews were out there patching the holes and they were right in front of my house so naturally I parked across the street but they were just so nice and did such a great job and it's just nice to see them out like you said yeah really really working and very pleasant guys working hard yeah okay okay um we are now to that portion of the meeting where you guys appoint me to go to the I do that second we go to a vote or I should just say that in the in the agenda right and then um we just need a motion for adjournment a motion second all those in favor I I all those opposed eyes carry here thank you for