Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I will now call the regular Planning Commission meeting of Tuesday, December 16 to order. I will ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Good evening, Planning Commissioners. Chair Lightfoot?

Here.

Vice Chair Wilkinson?

Here.

Commissioner Bachus?

Here.

Commissioner Banta? Here. Commissioner Vermont? Here. Commissioner Dingmann?

Here.

Commissioner Hampton? Here. Chair, we have a call room.

Thank very much. If everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, I'll ask Commissioner Vargas to lead us in this meeting. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Commissioner Vargas. I'll now move to regular business, starting with communications. At this time, I'll ask Director Morris if there are any communications or announcements for this evening's meeting.

Thank you, Chair Lightfoot. We have no changes to the agenda. We've received one or two supplemental communications for the Independence and Vacaville project, and those will be discussed when that item is presented.

Great. Thank So we'll now move on to regular business, starting with communications. Oops, I'm sorry. We'll move on to approval of the evening's agenda. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda? Move. Second. I have a motion by Commissioner Beaumont and a second by Commissioner Vargas. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? None. Motion passes. Next, we'll move on to item number five, business from the floor. This portion of the agenda is available for the public to address the Planning Commission on an issue that's not on the agenda this evening.

There'll be a limit of three minutes per speaker. I welcome anybody who wishes to address the commission on an item that's not on the agenda to please approach the podium.

Yes, sir. Okay.

Hi. My name is Sean Pointer. I'm from the train gang community that lives over at the new development of Robert Ranch in Wildhawk Community. It's a pleasure to be here to update you on the project about the loud train that is affecting our community and the military personnel who are living there. First, I'd like to let you know that we are finally making some progress on correcting the issues that didn't happen when the first development started at Wild Hawk Community in Robert Ranch.

We found out the city had no recollection of records. Other developer letting us know about the loud train noise, but we want to move forward. We have been in touch with KB Homes management to let them know about these issues and the Ballard Sound Study company. On the agenda tonight, section eight, it mentions the land use of plan and development where the A and P children development is gonna be East of Leisure Town growth area and how the city is preparing an environmental impact report. This report will will include the train noise and how it's gonna affect the citizens who are moving there to live in this beautiful city we live in.

We have been in touch with personnel here at the planning department care team and in the city of Vacaville, and they have been very helpful and want to help us correct the issues of getting a quiet zone implemented along Fry Road. It is highly probable because it has been done in other cities that deals with loud train noises in their community. The city and us are keeping in touch with the county of implementing the procedure of putting in barriers, etcetera, to have the crossing at Fry Road as a quiet zone for the trains and the loud noise of all hours of day and night. We know that the option of a plan to get the quiet zone implemented, it must be in a budget proposal by the county. We are hopeful it will happen in the near future so they can move forward with enthusiasm to help City Of Vacaville and its citizens.

We want to let you know because some of the neighbors are having a hard time moving because of the loud train noise that they must disclose, and it is affecting our house values. More will follow. Thank you for your support, and happy holidays.

Thank you very much. Is there anybody else that would like to address the commission? Calendar? A motion. I have a motion from Commissioner Vargas and a second from Vice Chair Wilkerson.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. So next we'll move on to item 7A. This is our first public hearing of this evening, which is to receive a presentation on accessory dwelling units. This is the ADU ordinance. We'll first hear a presentation by staff, followed by commissioner questions, and then we'll open it up for public comment. May we please have staff's presentation?

Good evening, members of the planning commission and all those in attendance. In 2025, the state of California signed new legislation regarding accessory dwelling units. These are shown on the screen and include a b four sixty two, which modifies some permitting requirements in coastal zones and procedures for certificates of occupancy. A b one one five four allows property owners for j JADUs to reside off-site if the JADU has its own sanitation facilities. It also prohibits JADUs for short term rentals.

Lastly, SB nine and SB five forty three have some more significant updates. They provide some clarification on how livable space is defined and used for the calculation of certain standards and also clarify the number of ADUs that are allowed with various types of development. For example, two detached ADUs are allowed with a proposed multifamily dwelling. There was some confusion before when regulating these items, so the legislation makes these matters more clear and specific. The bills also exempt ADUs and JADUs under certain sizes from development impact fees and school impact fees.

And lastly, the bills add a new requirement to determine the incompleteness of an application or resubmittal within fifteen days. And And completeness is also required to be determined for appeals within sixty days. Given these updates to the state legislation, staff are seeking to implement a zoning text amendment to repeal and replace our accessory dwelling unit ordinance to incorporate language and requirements from the new state legislation. We are seeking to repeal and replace the existing ordinance rather than just amending the text so that we can also make some minor formatting and structural improvements to the ordinance. We're incorporating best practices from other jurisdictions that we've seen, including things like a definition section, defining terms related to the section, the organization of the approval process, adding reference to the city's preapproved ADU program, and adding information regarding impact fees and utility fees that may be required for ADUs.

To conclude, the proposed zoning text amendment twenty twenty five state legislation and incorporates user friendly formatting and organizational improvements. And the city's ADU ordinance must comply with state legislation or be deemed null and void. Staff recommend that the Planning Commission recommend two actions for the city council. The first, adopting a resolution reaffirming the Vacaville general plan final environmental impact report or FEIR for short and final supplemental EIR, and concluding that no subsequent EIR is required pursuant to section one five one six two of the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQUA guidelines for the accessory dwelling unit ordinance amendment. And second, to introduce an ordinance of the city council, the city of Vacaville, amending title 14 of the City Of Vacaville municipal code by repealing and replacing section 14.09.270.04zero accessory dwelling units.

The alternatives for the Planning Commission are staff's recommendation from the previous slide or to modify the resolution and amendments for the ADU ordinance or to recommend denial of the resolution and amendments for the ADU ordinance or to provide other direction to staff. Any questions or comments?

Commissioner Beaumont.

Thanks, Damir. Clarification to start with. On the second page of our handout, page eight listed, it says the ADUs, seven fifty square feet of interior livable We be that. 800 for no impact fees.

I can help with that, Damir. I think that's just a typo. If I had to guess, it's seven 50 is the correct number.

Is seven fifty the correct number? Okay. Good. Another question. Apparently, an existing single family home can have up to four ADUs in the is that correct?

Annie, do you have the legislation?

So it is some combination of attached, detached, JADU, So the state ADU handbook clarifies exactly what combinations are allowed. I think that is correct, though. You can have up to four depending on the combination of the attached.

And for existing multifamily you can have up to eight?

Yes, depending on square footage and where you're placing them.

So I guess my question is on page 38 back in the back there's these exceptions for parking. There's like six of them. And if you're close to a transportation hub or close to a drop off point, all the parking is deleted. How does that work? I mean, here you can have up to eight ADUs in existing multifamily with no parking, and it just doesn't make any sense to me.

Yeah, I hear you. Everything that we have put in the ordinance comes straight out of the state ADU requirements. So I think their determination was based on findings they were making at the state level. If you were close enough to a transit center or if you met these other requirements, that the parking was not necessary. So the problem is if we don't adopt ordinance that conforms exactly with the way the state law is written, the state has told us you can't regulate ADUs at the local level at all. So we're we're trying to walk that very fine line of incorporating the state mandates into our ordinance while also in the areas we preserving what local control we have over ADUs. It's just that it's very limited.

I know it just seems like a mess. Thank you. That's all.

Commissioner Dingmann,

thanks for the presentation. Appreciate it. Just a quick question on what kind of outreach are we doing for homeowners and for the community to help them know and understand the new rules? Is it just something we're going put on the website and push out? Or is there anything that we're doing as far as an outreach program for this?

At this stage for this ordinance update, we have not put any, outreach materials out as of yet, but we can certainly post that on the on the website for people to

know about.

Commissioner Banta.

Thank you. My question was going to be, I know a couple of years ago or a year ago, we talked we did do a lot of outreach on ADUs. And so what was the result of that? Was there an increase in the streamline process that was proposed? Was there what was the impact of that? And what is the typical size of the ADU applications as far as square footage that we are getting? And also, what is the data on if it's on a single family lot versus a multifamily lot? Who is utilizing ADUs?

We can get that data on where ADU proposals are being proposed and exact configurations that are occurring. We have seen an uptick in the number of weekly inquiries that we're getting. We have people come to the counter. We have the ADU handout and informational material ready for people access right there. And then we've also been updating our website ongoingly to be able to give people more information.

Thank you.

Do you have any other questions? I'll now open up to public comment. Anybody that wishes to speak on that end, please step forward. Seeing none, I'll close public comment. Any other questions or comments?

You wanna add in, adjust the the error on the page, would you like us to do that or no?

It's just a staff report.

Okay. Got it. Okay.

I have a motion from Commissioner Beaumont and a second from Vice Chair. Wilkerson. Could I please have a roll call vote?

Commissioner Vargas?

Yes.

Commissioner Banta? Yes. Commissioner Dingmann?

Yes.

Commissioner Hampton?

Yes.

Vice Chair Wilkinson? Yes. Chair Lightfoot?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank you very much. So next we'll move on to item 7B. This is a presentation on independence in Vacaville project. We'll first hear a presentation by staff, followed by commissioner questions. And then we'll ask the applicant if they'd like to address the commission to do so at that time. And then we will open up for public comment. And can we please have the staff report? So I'll get it in a second.

Good evening chair, members of the planning commission. This item before you tonight is the independence in Vacaville project. This is a request to construct two thirty two multifamily duplexes on a vacant 18.06 acre site located at the Southeast Corner of Vacavela Parkway and Allison Parkway. The map on the right shows you the location of it fronting along Vacavela Parkway and to the east of that location is the South Pouda and surrounding residential development to the North and to the West. This map shows the extent of the subject area as part of the project.

These next two images were provided by the city's media team. These are drone shot for the project site which shows this green area that you see on the map with a bunch of different trees, that's an existing drainage feature that will remain untouched. The bulk of the project is fallow grassland area. Here's another shot. You're looking to the Southeast of the project.

Some pertinent background associated with this project starts in June 2023 when the city adopted this twenty twenty three-thirty one housing element update. When that was approved we also had general plan map and zoning map changes where this site was changed from commercial office to residential high density. In August 2024 a preliminary application was submitted to the city in accordance with SB three thirty, the housing accountability act. And then the formal application for that was later submitted in July. Another activity that occurred with this project is when the city hosted a neighborhood meeting in August.

The project before the commission tonight involves a secret determination to reaffirm the previous environmental assessment, a tentative subdivision map, and a major designer view. The site is 18.06 acres. However, there's only 11.56 acres that are developable with residential development, which yields two thirty two. I say single family residential units. This is a multi family residential project that involves multiple units on the same piece of property.

But these individual units kind of act as single family homes, but they are attached to one another. Ultimately, yield a density of 20.1 units per acre. There's two acres that would be reserved for recreational amenities such as a clubhouse, wind pool, parks, and open space. The products include five models with floor plans ranging from eleven seventy six to eighteen twenty nine square feet with models that include one car and then other models that include two gar garages. Vehicle access will be provided off of Vaca Valley Parkway and the architecture reflects The existing general plan as I mentioned is residential high density.

The allowable density that could be constructed on the site is 20.1 to 30 units per acre. This project is coming in at the lower end of that range. The zoning district is residential high density, which is consistent with the city's general plan. This is a site map intended to depict the two entrances. Well, there's a primary entrance to the Northeast of this exhibit.

And then there's a secondary entrance off to the Northwest of this project. Primary access would be off of Vaca Valley Parkway with some frontage improvements as well as some median improvements that would be conducted along back of all the parkway. But in there you'll see the project would be providing a series of duplexes within the project site. Those are two units that are attached sharing a single wall. And then I as I mentioned before, there is that drainage feature that's located on the southwest corner of the project site that this would be abutting, but it would be refraining from making the impacts to that drainage feature.

These next series of pictures are intended to convey the architectural designs that are being proposed. This is an example of that Mediterranean style where they've got shutters, corbels that are coming from the roofline as well as some arches and decorative windows. Another exhibit with some very lush, mature landscaping that would probably be anticipated in the five to ten year range. Overview provided by the applicant that shows, again, those duplexes you can see in the middle of the screen, one of the units that has two garage doors. That would be one of those two garage units that would be connected by the same wall shared through the middle of it.

So this project was submitted in accordance with the housing accountability act. That's Senate Bill three thirty for the California state legislature. What that bill does is it limits the review authority for qualifying projects those are projects that. Involve residential development with multiple housing units and that are consistent with the city's objective design standards. Also limits the ability to deny or decrease density without specific findings related to health and safety.

The law also locks standards in effect at a time of the initial similarity preliminary application that was in 2024. It also shortens the review period for which determining compliance with California environmental quality act as well as how many public meetings can be occurring for the project of no more than five meetings. This meeting tonight would represent meeting number two. There are two entitlements before the commission tonight. And so The staff's job was to determine consistency and compliance with the municipal code as well as subdivision map act.

The tentative subdivision map is intended to create a condominium map for the project. Staff reviewed it and determined that it complies with the municipal code and the subdivision map act. It also meets the required findings which are attached to the staff report as exhibit A to the subject resolution. The project also includes a major design review because the applicant is proposing multiple residential units on a single lot. Staff review those the proposed design architecture site layout location where parking would be determined that it would comply with objectives design standards with the exception of one specific exception to the setback along back of all the parkway for the masonry wall.

We identify how the project meets all the required findings for that major design view which is identified again in exhibit A to the subject resolution. All project environmental analysis must be completed to determine compliance and performance with the California environmental quality act. In this case staff determined that section one five one eight three allows the city to reaffirm previous environmental assessments for the projects when those projects are with the activity of a previous scope of work that had been done for previous environmental impact report. When no new significant effects and no new mitigation measures have been introduced. When the previous statement of overriding considerations are still applicable to those projects and when previous mitigation measures are still applicable to the project and can be adopted for this project.

In this case, those previous environmental assessments consist of the 2015 general plan environmental impact report, the 2021 supplemental environmental impact report that was conducted for the transportation element of the general plan and to address vehicle miles traveled. And then most recently an addendum that was adopted for the 2023 housing element. Staff believes that all of those have been adequately cataloged any type of development that would occur at this project site including the change that occurred in 2023 from commercial office to residential high density. All the findings have been cataloged in a attachment to the staff report. It's a modified initial study.

It's a more detailed checklist that demonstrates how the project was previously considered by those previous analyses. Ultimately, we prepared findings that that no new document is required for circulation for this project. Staff did public outreach by starting a new project notice on August 11 which also advertised about a new neighborhood meeting. We held that neighborhood meeting on August 27 and received public comments. On December 5 we provided public notification to the public on this one, six hundred foot radius for all three of those.

A summary of the public involve concerns about multifamily housing, the amount of traffic that would be generated, the amount of noise and whether it would introduce safety concerns for existing residents in the surrounding neighborhood. There were also concerns about whether or not the additional children that would be added with the residential units would impact the existing schools. Staff's recommendation for the commission is based off of a conclusion. And what we found was that we can can support the project because it meets the required findings as conditioned, it complies with the general plan and zoning, it complies with the objective design standards, provides more housing, and it's also a well designed architectural provision included with the project. With that, our recommendation is that the planning commission will reaffirm the previous environmental analysis for this project and approve the tentative map and major design review for the independence and back of the project.

We do have staff available to help answer any questions. The applicant is here tonight. They've also had their own presentation. At the direction of the chair, I'm prepared to share that if you'd like to have that. Presentation.

Thank you very much. Before we proceed, is there any ex parte communication that anybody would like to disclose? Commission? Ex parte communication?

Meeting and I met with the developer.

Thank you, Commissioner Banta.

I also met with the developer and learned nothing.

Commissioner Dingmann. I met with the developer developer as well. So I too had a meeting with the developer. We went over the slides that were in the neighborhood meeting packet. And a couple of things that we discussed.

One was about the locating the entrances and the discussions that the applicant had with the city on defining which ones they mutually agreed upon. They also told me that some more about their parking enforcement requirements for parking in garages that they hold. But other than that, everything was in the packet this evening. Commissioner Vice Chair Wilkerson.

At a meeting with the applicant.

Commissioner Hampton.

Two quick questions, please. First of all, was there any consideration given to the aesthetics of the undeveloped property by the developer?

Is this a question for city staff?

Yeah.

So so is the the question about the existing aesthetics about the site?

Undeveloped area on the lot. It's not going to be developed.

To clarify, you talking about the entire site or a remnant piece of property that would not be developed?

Specifically the area that's not developed?

Yes. As part of the environmental analysis, there are requirements that staff has to determine whether or not the site itself holds any scenic vistas, whether it's located along any scenic highways, where there's any major outcroppings that are of significant importance. In this particular case, we didn't find any of that at the site.

Second, curious, what is the current, if you know this, occupancy rate in Vacaville for apartments?

I do not know that information.

Does anybody have any questions for staff? I plan on asking for the applicant's presentation. Yeah, if the applicant would like to There we go.

Good evening, chair Lightfoot, vice chair Wilkinson, and members of the commission. My name is Todd Chambers with Lewis, the Lewis Group of Companies representing the project this evening. Thank you, Albert, for the thoughtful presentation. I'd like to acknowledge staff. We've worked on the project for quite a while, starting back in probably, I'll say, June 2024.

And Director Morris and Albert have been great to work with Fire Marshal, Jill Childers, Brian Oxley, Chris Joya, Brent Beavers, Amir Rahani, Rick Navarro from Public Works, Justin Cole and Daniel DeCarlo from Utilities, the folks from Stantec who prepared the CEQUA document. You should be proud of your staff. Do great work. I'm excited to be here this evening to talk with you about our vision for the development of the rental community that we're proposing. And Albert provided a pretty good thorough review of things.

I have some slides that I presented, and I'll move through them quickly because he covered a number of things. But Lewis' this is this project will be part of Lewis' independence brand of rental communities. We're working on five similar projects here in Northern California. We just opened one in the city of Dixon that's now leasing. I know at least one commissioner and possibly two have gone by and seen that.

I know Albert went and saw it so you can get a feel if you want to go see one of our projects and what it looks like and how it lives and feels and the quality that Lewis puts into their communities. Next slide, please. So just a little bit of background about our company. We've been in Vacaville for quite some time. The company started in 1955 by the founders, Ralph and Goldie Lewis.

It's now run by the second and third generation family members. It's family owned and operated. We're in California, Nevada, mostly in the Inland Empire in Southern California. We're here in Sacramento, Solano County, heavy in Solano County, a little bit in the Bay Area. In Northern California and then in Reno and Las Vegas, we have offices that we do development there as well.

We focus mainly on master plan communities, in this case, rental communities and also retail centers. We have a rental community here in the city of Vacaville that's called the Sycamores we own and operate and a retail center that's called Regency Park Plaza. We're currently working on a few other things here with the city that we'll hopefully be able to do in the future. As represented on this slide, you can see that we own and operate about 13,000 rental units, 24,000,000 square feet of retail, office and industrial space. Our property management team is best in class.

Consistently win awards for how our property management folks operate our communities. And I note that all the employees that work all the folks that work at our communities are employees of the company. So I think that's a unique approach. We don't contract out our services. We're not in the business of entitling and getting approvals for a community like this. We build it, own and operate it, and we're going to hold it for a long time. So we're here to invest in Vacaville. If you go to the next slide. You've already seen pictures of where the site is. If you could keep going.

One more. I think this is a good one because it shows the street level. Albert described the drainage corridor that's at the lower picture here, and that's looking from Edentary towards the site. We opted to leave that in place and not impact that corridor. It provides a nice buffer to the existing residents as they come out from Edentary onto Allison Parkway.

If you look at the top photo, can see there's quite a bit of elevation on the property. There was filter that was provided by the existing subdivisions to the west when they were developed some years ago, placed on this site. We'll have to move some of that off of the property, but we'll push it back towards the back end when we grade it to level it off. And that's how we'll handle kind of the difference in grade as you look at it from Vaca Valley Parkway. If you can go to the next slide, please.

I think this is an important one. This is a slide out of the city's housing element that shows the inventory sites sixty and seventy, which make up these two parcels that we're here to talk about tonight. And in the city's housing element, it assumed four sixteen units on this property. And again, we're coming into the lower end of the density range with two thirty two units. So I think that's a more thoughtful approach to this site given the surrounding single family homes in the neighborhood and providing some diversity in this area of town and a unique product that we think will be successful here.

You can go to the next slide. Albert talked about this a little bit, but looking at our two entry points from Vaca Valley Parkway to the right is our main entry, the left being our secondary access. Again, we opted to keep all of our traffic on Vaca Valley Parkway, which is the busier roadway versus using Allison and seeing also the

city.

Of And a designed the community and kind of having a buffer around the outer edge, and and we include a trail system or a Paseo network for our residents that connects open spaces and some of our amenities. I'll talk a little about a little bit further in my conversation. If you could go to the next site, please. Parking is a very important component of Lewis' communities. In this case, the city required standard is four thirty three spaces, and we're including five forty two.

Parking is a very important component of communities for our company because the last thing we want is when residents come back to their community or they invite guests over that they don't have a place to park. All of our units have direct access garages or a designated parking space right next to the unit, and we provide ample parking for our guests. If you could go to the next slide. Operator kind of showed some of our slide. So of of community we operate we've we've in the seating area.

Go ahead to the next, please. This slide demonstrates a typical block of the duplexes. So you can see how they are parked from the entry area. And in the back, square feet approximately. And we do have about 145 square feet of outdoor living space for our residents.

It's different than, let's say, a typical three story walk up apartment community where you have balcony or a smaller outdoor space. So it really provides a more single family feel for our residents, and we think that's a more unique product here that doesn't exist in the city of Vacaville. Next slide, please. You can keep moving. These are just renderings of what our street scene looks like. Lots of lush landscaping. Again, the parking that we provide for residents with direct access garages. One more, please. This is an example of a single car garage for a smaller unit. They get an outdoor kind of partially covered space for their second car, and that's a two car garage to the left.

One more, please. You've already seen that one. Let's keep going. I think it's important to show off our amenities for our projects. We offer a community clubhouse and a commercial quality fitness center for our residents. We can move to the next one. These are pictures of existing communities that Lewis owns and operates. So this is a shot of our pool and spa with a large sun deck area. Next, please. This is examples of outdoor living spaces with our communities for barbecues and seating areas for our residents that we provide.

Next slide, please. Tot lot on the top, dog park. We have and we provide that opportunity for them. And I think that's the last one. So again, we think the design of our community is unique to anything that is here in the city.

And we are excited to have the opportunity to move forward with it. I want to thank city staff again for all their assistance in processing our application and being solutions oriented when it comes to finalizing our project conditions of approval. We had lots of meetings with them to talk through the language and the conditions so that we could that are feasible for us to live with and also get what the city needs in order to properly monitor and regulate the development as it moves forward. We agree with all the conditions of approval as stated in the staff report and appreciate the Commission's support and approval this evening. I appreciate the opportunity to speak and I'm happy to answer any questions you guys might have with me. So thank you very much.

Other I'll take questions for the applicant or staff. Vice Chair Wilkerson.

Yes. Thank you so much for the presentation from both of you. Albert, on slide six, why was there was a zoning change. Can you just go over that with us, please? It went from commercial to

Yes. So as part of the housing element, there there are eight year cycles for the housing element. So this most recent one where we were adopting one in June 2023, what state law dictated to cities is that if you had pieces of properties for the previous two cycles, previous years that you had identified that you didn't identify for housing but it's other commercial properties that have just sat vacant and no development has occurred. You now need to take those commercial properties and change them to allow for residential high density. And that main reason for doing that and dictating that to municipalities was because we're in a housing crisis. So we need to find different, more creative ways to be able to allow housing.

Okay. So that was a state law that came down, right? Yes, right?

Correct.

And then has there been any outreach to VUSD regarding the concerns that neighbors have talked about schools and impacts? Yes. Okay.

Yes. And they responded to us and indicated that their existing schools would be able to accommodate capacity of this particular project.

Okay. Thank you. And then a question for the city attorney. Normal standard question for me. If for some reason the commission denied and the city council denied this project, what would the cost be to the city regarding denying an SB three thirty?

Yeah. So project, as Albert mentioned, is subject to the Housing Accountability Act, which means that very specific findings have to be made to deny the project. If those findings cannot be made or if the court disagrees with the findings that are made, penalties can range from enforcement by the state attorney General, fines of $10,000 a month and up, and required approval of the project over the city's objections.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you.

Commissioner Vargas? Yes. A quick question on the neighborhood meeting on August 27. Do we have the number of individuals that were in attendance? Was this in person or virtual? It was a virtual meeting. It

was a virtual meeting and in our staff report we cited that we had approximately about 20 people

in How

do we get the word out for

the neighborhood meeting? Of curiosity.

Public notification. We send out notices to all properties within a 600 foot mile radius of the boundary of the project, not the center point of it. And that's based off of property owner information that's available from the assessor's office.

Thank you.

Commissioner Dingmann.

Great presentation both by the developer and by staff. Thank you very much. A couple of quick storage. There's not a lot of other full flow parking. It looks good. The numbers look good. The ratios that you have obviously are very well put together. But just the reality, how are you going to make that enforcement, especially if the garages don't have windows in them or anything else?

Yes. Thank you for the question, Commissioner Dingmann. So for the parking in the garages, we do have windows that allows our staff to monitor and make sure everyone is parking in the garage. They're required to do so as part of their lease agreement with us. So it can't be used. There is ample space for storage in garages and for bicycles, things like that. But you have to park your vehicles in the garage, we designate spaces for both the units and for guests. And when guests come in, they get a parking pass and have to to display that. We have our communities, in this particular case, we will probably have six to eight employees on They won't all be there on-site at the same time. It's maintenance people.

It's it's our community managers. It's leasing people. But we do we'll have a night services manager here who will there'll be someone on-site twenty four seven, and they police the property to make sure that are parking. And so if they're not complying, then they'll get noticed or towed.

Okay. Thanks very much. And another quick question, Have you determined the pricing price points for these units?

Yes. I would say that the rents will be what the market bears. But in this case, somewhere between 3,000 to $4,000 a month for depending on the size of the unit. Some of the units will be larger and have a downstairs bedroom and bath. So maybe accommodate a multigenerational family, so a little bit larger.

Smaller units will be less. I know that you're interested in that. I see, for example, when we talk to Travis Airman being some a potential renter for for us or folks in the biotech industry, you know, residents who who live in in Vacaville but maybe can't afford to purchase a single family home because the price of buying a home is pretty expensive. And I note that at least as a kind of a comparison for the Travis Airman and their, I guess, it would be their housing allocation. For an enlisted person, you're getting in the range of 2,500 to 3,300 a month in housing allocation.

So I would think that that would be ample for someone to live in our community, especially if you're an individual and maybe have a roommate or there's more for families in that instance. So I think we'll be able to provide a pretty wide range of opportunity for renters.

Yes, I

I I back And

bit on

the

get the quarter in able 19. Resonates. So thank you very much for that. Appreciate it. And then maybe for staff, thanks very much. Just want to know at what point for Vacaville Parkway, if there is pressure and stress on the traffic patterns from this development, would it trigger a new study by the city to make sure that like if do we need to put a stoplight in? Do we need to do something like that? Could you talk through that a little bit, Albert? I would

not be able to, but luckily for us, we have our city's traffic engineer that is with us tonight that I'd like to ask to come down and speak Thank to this

you.

Sorry to put you on the spot.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Rick Navarro. I'm the city's traffic engineer. To answer your question, for the traffic signal there at Vaca Valley and Allison, the project currently the current existing conditions plus the project won't warrant a traffic signal yet. But it is one of those intersections that we are continuing to monitor because in the cumulative it will require a traffic signal.

And every so often, maybe once a year, once every couple of years, we will update our traffic signal list, look at new volumes, look at new pedestrian accounts, look at new accident rates and determine whether or not an intersection will require a traffic schedule.

You talked about Allison and Vacavalley, but what about the access points because the way that the applicant had the designers, I think two exit points that are just on Vacavalley. They don't go to Allison. So that extra traffic probably won't go on to Allison to Vacavalley, right?

Right. So we did work with the developer on this. And what we to have bit of a of

Eastern most driveway, but the Western

most of driveway is right in, right out only. So and they don't have any left out. So when people exit the development, essentially it's going to be a right and then they would have to make U turns if they want to go to the west.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright. Commissioner Beaumont.

I need the traffic man back. Because I live over there. I have a rental house, and I go out, Allison, make a left turn, try to on back of Valley Parkway where people are doing fifty, sixty miles an hour, and it's a curve there. And so you can say you're clear and all of a sudden the car appears and you don't have enough time. And I know for the development there's a curve going the other way that makes it hard for them to get out without seeing the traffic that's coming.

And so instead of a traffic light, why not just a four way stop, just to stop the traffic from flowing through there? That's a much cheaper way to approach the problem, especially with the dump trucks that are coming through for Centennial Park and everything. So you have all that Allison traffic, plus the back of Valley Parkway is fast that to me just a four way stop is just a cheap way to do it. So

going back to the site distances issues, Again, from their entrances, we did work with a developer. We looked at the site distance issues, and they were the driveways were sited at locations where it. Think that's we're example of we're their development. The when we're talking about installing stop signs or four way stops or traffic signals, we have to go through what we call a signal or a traffic analysis that would either warrant a stoplight or or or a four way stop. We've gone through the analysis for traffic signal here and it doesn't warrant it.

And normally, the a four way stop is a precursor to a traffic signal. So if it doesn't meet the warrants for traffic signal, it won't meet warrants for a fully stop.

So to meet the warrants, does that mean you have to have an accident there where somebody died or Because something or that seems to be the only way you get one in the ways that I asked for stop signs at different areas. They say, well, there's no accident there, so therefore we're not going to do it.

Well, we follow the requirements of the California MUTCD. And so those are objective standards that we follow. And so we don't want to just install stop, you know, four way stops

32 units in a couple of years and you're going to have that requirement. And to me, it's just a precursor to keep it safe out there because it's not safe right now, really. When you have Crystal Springs coming across, they're making a left, I'm making a left off Allison and the traffic is going 60. It's very difficult sometimes to just even be safe to get on the back of Valley Parkway. That's just my experience.

Understood. And that's why we did work with the developer to make sure we did limit those lefts out of the development. That was

I understand that. Okay.

Thank you. Commissioner

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation for both of you, and I'll probably have a track for a question also. Was one of the was the one commissioner that was able to go out and view a similar property that the Lewis Management Company is doing in Dixon. It's their independence project in Dixon. And I was able to see what this site could potentially look like. Just to be clear, it's not an apartment complex. They are duplexes. And so they do have a very similar single family dwelling vibe and feel to them. They feel like a small home. And I really appreciate the thoughtfulness in potential stepping stone for renters from an apartment complex or a smaller unit to a little bit of a larger size rental unit to then potentially a homeownership.

It's a very big jump to go from renting to just homeownership. As we stated, it's expensive in this state. My question is also about the any way that we talk a lot about local control in the city. And is there any way that you can create a traffic ordinance that would state, like, if we do put in a development, we potentially would want to have a stoplight on incoming if there are units over a certain amount. Is there a process for that?

So to answer the question about the appearance of the aesthetics, I'll draw your attention to the exhibit along here. So what it's gonna look like, that was one of the things that staff was sensitive to because one of the existing conditions right now is this scenario right here where you have just a mound of dirt. And so we worked with the applicant to better understand what is their eventual goal. If you look on more detail in the plans with that's our job but we can convey that to the commission tonight is when you look at what the elevation points are along the curve and gutter back above the parkway for those proposed improvements. And what the wall would be in that first drive aisle of the adjoining lot.

It's really not very different in elevation type. It might be just maybe a couple of feet, maybe one and a half to two feet in elevation from where you might be on the sidewalk to where that's going to be. And that was important to us because we wanted to make sure that we weren't going to you know, anybody walking along that street wasn't going to just have a towering wall or towering elevation. So to clarify, that's the elevation difference that you're really looking at from the finish floor of where those units are gonna be to where that sidewalk is gonna be. The other important component for us that we thought about was what was the landscaping gonna look like along Because if you have pedestrians walking along that sidewalk and you have traffic speeding down, is there any protection afforded to them?

And what you'll see on the screen is there is a about six foot, six and a half foot landscape, median that's gonna be between where the curb is and where the sidewalk is, where we intend to work with applicant on the planting of very large trees that can provide shading. But really, the growth of those trunks can get large enough to where they can provide that, protection away from, those vehicles along there. In between where that sidewalk is going to be, there is another section of landscaping that you will see some smaller ornamental trees and landscaping and ultimately some evergreen climbing vines that would be up against that wall that would help provide more of a green wall along that frontage. Hopefully that clarifies the question. As the traffic engineers coming up to answer the question, I would say when we look at the evaluation of development projects like this and whether or not there's any room for latitude between what we think is the perceived effects in the environment versus what are the exact measurements, our job is to provide an independent perspective about what are the objective standards within the cities, what are the objective standards that the traffic engineering uses.

And so what state law has clearly said is that when you evaluate these projects, whatever laws or whatever standards you have on the books, that's what you have to go by for. You can't change the rules in the middle of the game. And the reason why that's important is because over the years, development has found it to be difficult to be able to build these types of housing because sometimes they feel like there's a moving target. And so state law kind of jumps in there and says, let's keep the standards, whatever it is at the time when they submit their preliminary application. And then that's what you use as a reference.

And so our traffic engineer will come back up to explain. But what they use as a reference point is a what's called the nexus it's a direct connection between. If you don't have enough traffic volume along those roadways. We're not talking about speed and how fast people drive you don't have enough traffic volume. That would warrant either the question for the traffic engineer.

No, I think that kind of answers my question. It was more along the lines of like we do have objective standards and design, right? So are there local objective standards that we could that our city could adopt that are in reference to like traffic design? So say a developer came in and said I do want to put a stoplight in, would we be able to say if the developer is willing to do that we would waive the state law objective standard because of our local standard?

I don't know how to answer that because we would we would still have to look at it because our our local standards do refer us back to the California MUTCD, which is the objective standard I referenced earlier. You know, sometimes we think a traffic signal or stop sign is a cure all for traffic issues. Sometimes we studies have found that's not the case. It actually makes things worse in certain cases. So we do look at things, you know, again, like Albert said, with objective standards so that we are consistent in our analysis.

And so when you're saying, hey, can we require developer? I would be hesitant to do that if it doesn't meet the requirements of the California MACCD.

Okay. And then I guess just a follow-up question is, is there a process because we hear a lot about traffic, right? And so is there a process to have a local ordinance that is more strict or stringent than a state ordinance or varies from the state to be proactive in nature? Like if we wanted a different one, are we allowed to do that as a city?

Right now, I know specifically, recently we just adopted or went through council to lower speed limits, you know, near schools from twenty five to fifteen when children are present. You know, we we did that. The CVC allowed us to do that, then we adopted that. But those are certain things that, yes, we do have to adopt those on a local level to be able to implement them. That's one thing I can think of. I can't think of others at this point.

Thank you.

Just to add a little more clarity in true lawyerly fashion, it kind of is it depends. There are areas of preemption in the vehicle code that would prevent us from specifically adopting certain regulations, but that doesn't mean that we can't work together with public works to see if there are areas where it might work for the city to adopt a local standard that is different than or more strict than what's in the vehicle code or federal standards, so we can maybe return to Planning Commission with an update on that.

Yeah, sure. I was just wondering what that process would look like for a community member that Yeah. It continues to be a topic.

Yeah, if there's something we can do, we can certainly look at that.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'll now open it up to public comment. Anybody wishing to speak on tonight's item, please approach the podium.

John Sizemore. I'm a homeowner just on the other side of Allison. So, first time coming to a meeting like this. Appreciate you guys very efficient and everything, so appreciate that. I had a couple questions. One well, one was a kind of a statement that they mentioned a 600 radius as far as, like, letting all the the residents know. It seems pretty small. I that's, mean, like, 200 yards. That's two football fields. I mean and I'm just right there on the side, so it just seemed like it's not, like, a very big as far as the community because it's gonna be a fairly big impact for all the neighborhoods that are around.

So I I just wanted to make that comment. Other comment as as far as this goes, obviously, as a as a homeowner, I'm just curious what the property values, like, it's gonna affect property values, having multifamily home put in or not. And I don't know if there's an answer to that. But, like, historically, has that affected, like, property values for for the other neighbors, especially if it's just such a small radius that's taken that into account?

So any anything you state up in your comments, we'll make sure that we address back

with staff

and have staff And

then the other question, if you can go back to the overall, the one that you had up with the duplex. Yes, that one right there. I was just curious, you mentioned the two access points on Vaca Valley Parkway, but I'm curious, are there any pedestrian entry points, or is that the only pedestrian points as well? And part of the question, I know on Allison, you mentioned there's, like, a berm higher level, so it's less access. But I'm just curious as far as like parking and stuff, if there is issues with parking, are there other access points where people will be able to park and then walk in?

Thank you. Do we have any other public comments?

I'm Steve Essert. I live in Laurelwood, which if you don't know, that's on the other side of Vaca Valley Parkway. It's probably in the similar neighborhood as councilman here. I have many of the same concerns that have been brought up and brought up in some of the literature that's already been developed over the course of the proposal for this property. As far as traffic goes, I could tell you from my personal traffic study every day going in and out of this neighborhood during peak traffic hours.

This stretch is treacherous at times already because people drive And And difference us. To the then, 20. That done first in the have backlog and stacking of vehicles that extends beyond the left turn lane into the traffic flow lane. That can cause issues there too. So I'm, as a resident there, concerned about the the level of traffic study that's been done so far.

The fact that I know there's a bit of lane widening and sidewalks associated with it. It it again, from my standpoint, I would question its adequacy. Just hearing some of this stuff for the first time, the notion of turning right and then having anyone that wants to go westbound having to do a u-turn, I can't see be that.

Able to

that. That. That. We're going And And Allison, there's already going a number of large projects for the roundabouts off of Vaca Valley Parkway. This is probably one of the worst you guys know as far as the city and traffic management.

There are lots of issues in this neighborhood. The intersection of Eubanks and Vacaville Parkway backs up significantly already. That particular intersection's not part of the roundabout plan that I'm aware of, and even though the roundabouts are hopefully gonna alleviate that. I'm running out of time. The parking is a whole other issue with respect to enforcing the parking and whether or not you're going to be able to monitor the off-site parking either across Allison or across Vacavalley Parkway.

How you're going to identify whether those are actual residential vehicles for those neighborhoods versus the multifamily housing. Ir

of

what to so,

you have there. Thank you very much.

Time I is up. Again, think, last comment. The 600 foot radius, if you draw a circle 600 feet around, most of it doesn't have housing. So you're not only hitting a small amount of the residents.

Thank you, sir.

Hi. My name is Sue Hendrickson, and I was at the last meeting on the twenty seventh. Our house backs up to Allison. We live on Cashel Circle. And I my thoughts resonate to this gentleman that was just spoke and to mister Beaumont to coming out of that, from Allison onto Vacaville.

It's crazy. And my main concern is also not only the traffic impact, but has anybody done a study on the traffic coming off of 505 on a three day weekend or just a Sunday, people see their navigation and say, oh, we're going to hop off Vaca Valley and go through town and not hit traffic on 80 and whatnot. And it backs up. That four way stop, like you spot spoke of on Eubanks is crazy. You come off at 05:00, 04:30. It's just backed up crazy. And to add 232 more units and not widening or what about

the

overpass on Vaca Valley? Has anybody oh, is this supposed to be widened at all? Has anybody done a study, or are we gonna are they gonna widen that for traffic coming from that area of a leisure town? These are just some of my main concerns and along with the the value of our home. We've been there twenty seven years, and I just see if that goes in. I'd rather see a clump of land, to be honest, an open clump of land. Keep the value up and just keep it more rural. So those are my thoughts. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Do we have any other public comments? Seeing none, I'm gonna one more. Go ahead. We were led to believe that there was gonna be some discussion on this lithium battery storage.

And it was supposed to be tonight and the information that we got that wondered how that issue is progressing. Yeah. So tonight on tonight's agenda, don't have sense first to we're we're get you in at the meeting or maybe take your information. Go ahead, Director Morse.

I can

provide a very brief response. So the commission held a study session about a draft ordinance at their last meeting, and the council held a study session on December 9, which was their last meeting. We'll be back at Planning Commission in January for the public hearing on the ordinance. So that would be the best time to come back, would be that third Tuesday in January.

Third Tuesday in January.

January, yes.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Do we have any other public comment?

Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment. We're going to does anybody have any questions from public comment that they'd like staff to address?

I have a question.

Sure. Vice Chair Wilburson?

I have a question for the applicant, start to finish, what's your timeline? Because it kind of goes to the traffic question that I have in my head.

I think if things go as planned this evening and we can get started on our improvement plans, civil infrastructure improvement plans, we could theoretically start grading maybe by August, maybe, and spend the next probably, I'll say, twelve months doing infrastructure improvements and then vertical construction is probably about our time frame. So maybe by 2027, we'd be in a position to start opening and leasing units to residents. Does that answer your question?

It does, yes. Thank you. And that goes to my point, Albert, on just thinking about the park and the traffic. The park progression is on a timeline as well of the improvement to Centennial. Is that correct? Or is that I mean, that's a couple of years out as well, right?

Correct. Yes.

And so I clearly, traffic's an issue. But I think in the future, we are going to have to have discussion about doing something at an intersection. We're going to have a park of that size, that's going to have baseball, soccer, MP room, BMX biking, and then adding more units there. So this may not be the right place for that. But I do think looking forward as we should be doing for stewards of the city, we should be thinking about that as that comes forward.

And that'd be one of the comments I think that I've taken away because I do live in the area as well of, k, this is not gonna impact us tomorrow. But in five years, when the park is thriving and we're having community events and they're having soccer tournaments, now we're adding 232 units, that intersection is gonna become directly impacted with that many people. So that's just something I wanna put on the record now that we should be thinking about. Thank you.

Something pertinent to this conversation, I think, would be to have the traffic engineer to shed a little light on the timing. There are interchange improvements that are being worked on for the Interstate 505 and back of other parkway. So it might be beneficial to kind of hear from the traffic engineer when what's the timeline look like for that because that's another public improvement that could potentially help.

So the 505 Vaca Valley project, that's under design right now, and it's going through Caltrans review. I think the our timeline is to advertise that late next year, and it would be in construction sometime in in '27. But like I mentioned, yearly on some of these intersections where we feel they're they're gonna eventually need a traffic signal, we will look at them and and update our analysis of them. And so to your point, yes, when something like Centennial happens, yes, we will look at that to make sure, okay, how does that impact that intersection? And if it then at that point meets warrants, then we will go ahead and design and install that signal.

Thank you

study presentation that could help inform the public on what are the metrics that are used to understand what would trigger that study, or what would trigger a light like a signal or a stop sign? Because I think maybe if we could somehow help our traffic engineers educate about what that process is, it might help some understanding.

Thank you. As the commission is aware, we haven't been doing a lot of informational presentations lately, mostly related to staff capacity. But if that is something that's of interest to the commission kind of as a whole, it's something I can discuss with our incoming public works director and try to work on getting an informational item to the commission.

Thank you very much. So one thing that I'd like to just make sure that I got right to is the pedestrian entry points. So to me, it looks like the only pedestrian entry points are going to be along Vaca Valley Parkway.

Yes, that's correct. So on the screen right here, hopefully this cursor is showing up online. But here's one of those examples of those pedestrian connections that are going to be along there.

And is there no parking allowed right now along that Vacaville Parkway? Is there intend to be parking allowed on Vacaville Parkway. I

don't know.

Currently right now I think it's just a shoulder.

Correct yeah there's not there's nothing near along that frontage right there.

So in the in with this plan is there there's not going to be parking lot on back of the parkway.

I don't know the answer to that question.

Sorry, I missed the question. The question of parking on Vaca Valley?

So talking about off-site parking for this project, will or cars are gonna be allowed to park on Vaca Valley Parkway? No. No. So there'll be no parking?

No parking on Vaca Valley. No. Okay.

And on that corner of Allison Parkway, I believe I believe I I believe there's no parking allowed there currently either.

I'm not sure on Allison. To the South of Vac Valley or

On Allison Parkway there. So taking a left off of Vac Valley onto Allison Parkway. On that left hand side, I don't believe there's I could be wrong.

Yeah. I'm not certain if there is or not.

Believe that to be true too.

Chair, I think that's something that helped staff during our evaluation. Consider this particular one because it has come up multiple times in previous applications that you might have some projects that are right there at the threshold of one parking space for each unit. Might have some that are taking advantage of state law. This case, part of the reason why staff felt comfortable with the proposal was because not only are they meeting the city standard, but they're providing over 109 additional parking spaces. And they have a separate parking program where they are to be monitoring.

That access helps us understand that it is not really foreseeable that you would find somebody parking across the street in Laurelwood trying to transverse going across Parkway just to get to the site. It's that I think that the applicant recognized that, which is why they provided a surplus of parking on their own project.

And if they did I mean, they technically if it was allowed, it could have been in their allowable stalls, correct, since it's on the property line. And so I would think that it would not be allowed to park there because then they could have technically allowed been parking spaces allowed in or allocated into their total number?

Correct. Yeah. In other development applications, you might see that there are proposals for parking to be satisfied by on street parking. That's not the case with this There wasn't any advertisement. They intend to satisfy all parking requirements from its own project boundaries.

Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Do we have any other commission? Chair Wilkerson.

Howard.

Going Browns Valley Parkway, is the walkway on the side going to be the same where you have the pedestrian walkway in the middle with mature trees and then the same thing and then the fence should be about that same height?

It will probably be a little bit better because if you look at the screen right there, that separated sidewalk I think is a little bit less than 6.5 feet, so it will be a little bit wider. Okay.

But it will match there?

Correct. Yes. Our job is to try to make that consistent theme along Vaca Valley.

Yes. And then any outreach to the I know there's another parcel up there. Any outreach to that other applicant on what their thoughts are? I know there's someone else. Any conversation with them on that?

I'm sorry. Which parcel are you

Where the where the trucks are parked.

To the east. To the east.

Yeah. To the east.

Yes. I have not we haven't spoken with that property owner in some time. We approached them to future.

We

future.

About

we're a a sense of electromagnetic frequency analysis. And so we just weren't able to come to an arrangement.

Thank you for that, Todd. I appreciate it.

Commissioner Beaumont.

Thank you. This really doesn't have anything to do with the project per se. I like the project and everything. But the way it was written up by staff at the end as conclusion where it says we must approve this project, I don't think that's appropriate because we're independent. We could find safety and health problems that we would vote no on. So to say we must, we might as well put it in the consent agenda. So that's just my opinion. I don't know if the other commissioners have any feelings on that, but that's just it kind of set me wrong way when I

said it must. Director Morris.

Thank you for sharing that perspective, Commissioner Beaumont. From staff's perspective, we want to be exceedingly clear that these projects that are going to both Planning Commission and in some cases council come with a lot of reduction in local discretion. In the case of this project, in the fullness of Albert's presentation, he shared that under the state laws, in order to deny the project, the commission would have to have a specific health and safety reason. And so if you did have that, and it had to be based on evidence that would support that finding, that's a basis for denying the project. In the case of this project, and we spent some considerable time with our traffic engineer and there's been a lot of work on this, staff does not see any health and safety issues that could be the hook for denying the project.

So that's why we had another project, a notable project where there seemed to be after the fact some confusion on the part of decision makers about whether or not there was local discretion. In that case, there wasn't. And ultimately, it resulted in a significant lawsuit and a significant settlement that the city had to pay. So that's why we're being very clear. It does on second thought, think it is a bit too direct. We could soften it a little bit, but our goal is to be clear.

Should be approved.

Should be. Okay.

Fair enough. We

will take that into account and we'll see what happens the next time we get one of these. Thank you for that.

If there's no other comments or questions, I'll entertain a motion.

So

I have a motion from Commissioner Banta and a second by Commissioner Dingmann. May I please have a roll call vote?

Yes. Commissioner Banta? Yes. Commissioner Beaumont?

Yes.

Commissioner Dingmann? Yes. Commissioner Hampton?

Yes.

Vice Chair Wilkerson?

Yes.

Chair Lightfoot?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank next we're going to move on to item impact report, and the notice of preparation of the scoping meeting. We'll first hear a presentation followed by commissioner questions, and then we'll open up for public comment. May we please have the staff's presentation?

Good evening, Chair, members of the planning commission. This item before you is a scoping meeting. It's for the East Of Leisure Town growth area specific plan and the city is in the process of working on preparing an environmental impact report. So a brief agenda about what's going occur tonight. Staff will provide some background.

We'll talk about the purpose of a scoping meeting and the proposed project, the notice of preparation that's already been issued by the city, the environmental impact report process, and the schedule with an opportunity for public to be involved and when that will occur. I'm Albert Enalt. I'm a project planner for the city on this project. We are also joined by the city's planning consultant, Kathy Pease, as well as Stantec representative Anna Radnich. And the three of us will be covering the presentation for tonight.

So I'll I'll cover this brief background and then I'll hand it off to Kathy Pease. So a little bit of background about this project. This all started back in April 2024 when the city council initiated a general plan amendment for three landowners. Those there's two growth areas primarily within the city that was advertised in 2015 when the city adopted its new general plan. One north one was in the Northeast growth area that you'll see on the map on the screen that's highlighted in gray and has bordered by yellow.

And then the other growth area was the East Of Leisure Town growth area. And over the years, other development has occurred within including the Brighton Landing specific plan. What's currently under construction is the Roberts Ranch specific plan. And then lastly, the last development that occurred was the farm at Alamo Creek and the fields at Alamo Creek. Those have yet to develop.

But they have approvals and elements to move forward. And so there's a roughly about 600 acres, 648 acres that are remaining. And so that's really what city council was directing staff to do was just start this process to amend the city's developer will refer to during the entire duration of the specific plan because this is really a multi year process. It's not just gonna end after one or two years. And so that's what occurred in April 2024.

Fast forward to June, as we were reviewing the land plans from the developer and working with the other city's other consultant, who's helping work with the specific plan, we ran into a couple different issues involving the proposed developments and the city's policies. And so we returned to city council to obtain some direction. City council provide some direction on parks, the affordability component of the project, well as alignments of Carroll Way. And then we were on our way to drafting up a more detailed draft land use plan. And that's what was going on between July and August of this year where we were preparing, refining a draft land use plan that could be circulated for release to the public at some point.

And at some point, we got comfortable with it, and, we wanted to go back and return to city council. And that's what we did on November 19, just last month. We returned to city council, provided an update about it, and then advertised, we're gonna be setting off this environmental impact report process with the release of what's called a notice of preparation. And so to go into what is the East Of Legion Town specific plan, we'd like to hand it off to the city's consultant, Kathy Pease.

Thank you, Albert. For some context, the specific plan is located influence and within the city's urban growth boundary. The sphere and the urban growth boundary established the city's interest that they would like to develop the area in the future. The entire area is thirteen seventeen acres. And as Albert mentioned, there have been several properties that have been annexed.

Next slide, please. There are three participating property owners. We have an area on the very north that we are referring to as North A, which is Rations Chen. Then right below it, an applicant is Donaldson Ramos, that property. And to the Far South is the A and P Children's Investment applicant.

So there are several entitlements that will be requested. Those include a general plan amendment, a pre zoning, a specific plan, tentative maps to subdivide the areas, development agreements, a water supply assessment, and annexation. This specific plan will accommodate a wide variety of land uses within the plan area, including approximately 4,200 residential units that are shown in the yellow and brown colors on this map. There'll be 13 acres of commercial that are shown in two locations along East of Leisure Town Road in the red. And there is an elementary school proposed that's shown in blue.

Approximately 19 acres would be provided for storm water detention, and 7.2 acres would provide for utilities such as water wells and sewer pump stations. This is the land use table, and it provides additional details such as the residential acreage broken down by density and other uses. I would like to note that there are also 42 acres that would provide an agricultural buffer on the east side of the property. So one of the important components of the entitlements is preparing specific plan. This would be a document that will identify land uses, development standards, transportation, circulation, including bicycle and pedestrian trails, parks and open space, how the project will be served by utilities and infrastructure, implementation strategies, and phasing.

A specific plan allows the city to comprehensively plan the entire area and implement the goals and policies of the city's general plan. Residential development consistent with a specific plan provides a more predictable and manageable environment for development, which can lead to a more efficient and effective use of resources and infrastructure. At this point, I'd like to turn the presentation over to Anna with Stantec to talk about the environmental review process.

Thank you, Kathy. Good evening. My name is Anna Radnich. I'm with Stantec, and we are preparing the environmental review on this project. The project is an EIR, so I'm going walk you through what is an EIR, what is CEQA, why are we here, what is an NOP, what is a scoping meeting.

CEQA is the California Environmental Quality Act. An EIR is a specific type of environmental review. And an EIR is being prepared for this project. It's intended to inform the public on potential environmental impacts of a project onto environment. Throughout an EIR, there's also mitigation measures that are identified to help reduce potential impacts.

The EIR and the environmental review is just one of the things that the commission and city council will ultimately consider when deciding on a project. The city is the lead. Stantec is preparing it as a neutral third party. Don't advocate for a project either way. Our job is to prepare a neutral document.

Tonight we're here at the scoping meeting. Notice of preparation is kind of the first kickoff, the invitation to the environmental review party for the public. Next slide, please. So currently we are in the NOP review period. The NOP was released on November 21, and we're taking public comment actually through a little extension of the time period period through January 2.

Typically it would be thirty days, given the holidays it's extended a little bit. And it's an opportunity for the public to provide comment that will then be captured environmental review document, so in the actual EIR itself. So tonight, the scoping meeting is an opportunity to receive public comment on opinions on what should be included or any concerns that should be addressed in the EIR. This is not a hearing where any action is being taken on the project. Next slide.

One sec, I'm not the most technological person here. The NOP was sent out to over 3,000 property owners around the boundary of the specific plan site. In addition, it's sent to trustee agencies and is posted on the city's website in addition to posting to the state clearinghouse as is required. For projects of regional significance, or that may affect state highways, at least one scoping meeting is required. And it provides an opportunity to receive public comment, as mentioned.

Next slide. So, in preparing an EIR of this magnitude, oftentimes the city will reach out to a consultant. So, as I mentioned, we're preparing environmental impact report. And as I'd also mentioned previously, we're not an advocate for a particular decision either way. The goals of the EIR are to assess the environmental impacts of a project onto the environment, identify mitigation measures.

Another way to potentially reduce potential impacts is through project alternatives. So throughout the environmental review process, we will do the analysis and then find project alternatives that could potentially reduce impacts as well. And again, the point of the EIR is to provide decision makers with the information to understand the environmental impacts of the project. Next slide. This slide outlines the steps in the EIR process.

We are currently between the circle and the rectangle. So if you go to the next slide, you can see we're actually in step number one. And the reason I refer to step number one is this is the first opportunity for the public to provide comment, and it's the first opportunity of three. There will be one also during circulation of the draft DIR, is required to be circulated for forty five days to the public. And then there'll be another opportunity when the project is being considered at planning commission and city council, when the final EIR has been prepared.

Next slide. The purpose of the EIR is fourfold, it's to inform, engage, disclose, and avoid or reduce potential impacts. So, inform decision makers in public about the proposed project's potential physical environmental effects, engage the public in the process, disclose potential impacts, and find ways to avoid and reduce potential impacts through feasible mitigations or alternatives. There are two different types of EIRs. There's both program level EIRs and project level EIRs.

This CEQA document will be a combined program project level CEQA analysis. Typically a program level EIR generally looks at the broad policy of a planning document and it provides flexibility for future entitlements, whereas a project level EIR generally focuses on specific project analysis and mitigation measures. This is just a graphic depicting project level EIRs, program level EIRs, just another way to look at it.

Way,

all 20 environmental resources are going to be reviewed in this project analysis. There are 22 up here because cumulative impacts and alternatives are also considered. So there's 22 on this slide. It's the 20 that are required under appendix G of the CEQA guidelines, and then as well as cumulative impacts and alternatives, which are also required to be reviewed. And kind of touch on project alternatives.

Project alternatives will be developed throughout the environmental process. They're not established in the beginning because alternatives are derived from project impacts and then there are ways to potentially reduce those project impacts further. So right now we do not know what the project alternatives will be with the exception of the no project alternative. So the sequel analysis will include a no project alternative, and under that alternative we'd analyze what would reasonably be expected to occur in the foreseeable future proposed area if the proposed project were not approved. And that also would be consistent with available infrastructure and services today.

So now, thank you, I'll turn it back to Kathy.

Great, thank you. So we are still in a time where there will be numerous opportunities for the public to participate in the project moving forward. The city will have community meetings, and I'll touch on that in a minute. The next one will be held in January. And the project will ultimately be brought back to the Planning Commission and the Parks Commission for a recommendation to the City Council.

The city will continue to post project information on its website as material becomes available, and folks will be encouraged to sign up for the project's mailing list. So as Albert had indicated, this is a multi year effort. We are at the start of the environmental review process, as Anna indicated, with the notice of preparation. And again, we're accepting comments on that document through January 2. We're having the scoping meeting tonight.

And we are planning our next community meeting on the draft land use plan that will be Thursday, 01/29/2026. It will likely be from six to eight, and more details will be coming out on the location very shortly. We do anticipate that the draft environmental impact report will be available in the summer. And as Anna indicated, it will be available to the public for a forty five day review period. What happens at the close of that review period, the city will take all comments that are submitted and prepare written responses to those comments, and those become part of the final EIR.

And then when we have that, we'll go into the public hearings on the project at the 2026 and early twenty twenty seven. So this slide shows the numerous ways to contact staff to provide comments, either email, mail, phone. The city's website is shown here, and there is a dedicated page just for this project. And again, there'll be opportunities to review the draft environmental impact report and attend the public hearings. So with that, we look forward to hearing any questions and hearing from the public on what areas to look at in the EIR. So that concludes our presentation. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Commissioner Beaumont.

Thank you very much for the presentation. I just have a stupid question maybe, but I only heard about one EIR and it seems like there's a pretty good distance between the north properties and the south properties. And there could be different environments involved. Is there two different EIRs that you're preparing? Or is that just one covering those three properties?

It's just one EIR, but they'll evaluate both sides.

So, okay. And they can do that one item?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Vargas? Yeah. So for the community meeting on the draft land use 01/29/2026, this is for public, correct? How do you plan to notify the public? And is it a 600 foot raise? And if so, can we extend beyond that?

Albert probably will go ahead. But for this meeting alone, we sent out 3,000 public hearing notices. State law actually requires only a 300 foot notice. So the city of Vacaville goes above and beyond. And I think on this, we went 1,000 feet. Yeah.

We went 1,000 feet. So the notification process, that'll be for the upcoming community meeting. We'll send out public notices to those 3,000 recipients. That goes 1,000 feet plus some beyond because when you draw 3,000 foot border, dissects through some properties and so on the western edge of our city, there's a bunch of homes. We we took the liberty of kind of increasing it to make sure we were inclusive. This meeting is gonna be also posted on the city's website. There'll be a a publication on social media so that way people are aware of it. And the format of it is gonna be more of a presentation to provide and announce. We're in the middle of the draft venues plan. We're working on specific plan chapters.

But really, to get down into the weeds with, the public, provide more of a workshop environment where they can cover a bunch of different topics like parks and open space, transportation, circulation, land use, and housing types.

I appreciate you going above and beyond. I appreciate presentation. Thank you.

Hold on.

Commissioner Banta.

Thank you. I really appreciate the thoroughness of the explanation of the EIR process for us and the public. I think it was very thorough, very clear where we're at and what to expect and how to be involved. I think that's super important. You did mention that there's a deadline to submit comment for is that just the NOP? Because then there is another meeting on January 29. So could you make public comment on the January 29 meeting that's still included? And then can people make comment on like a rolling basis the entire time? How does that work?

The answer is yes. The notice preparation is really above and beyond a notification for the project. It's something that's explicitly required. And so the notice of preparation is really just pinpointing exactly, hey, we're about to start this If you think that there's anything that we ought to include within this analysis, please let us know. We send it not only to those residents that were the within the project area, the 3,000 residents.

We're all also we're sending it to a lot of responsible agencies that could potentially be referring to this document for any other environmental permits that might be issued. So you're talking about the department of fish and wildlife, department of conservation, Solano County. A lot of different agencies are being involved. So this was a more of a pinpointed targeted notification for this analysis. Certainly, who's interested in this project can stay involved and talk about it. I see Anna Radnich has something to add to it.

Yeah. Thank you. And then in addition, I don't know if I mentioned it clearly, but any comments received during this time frame will be addressed in the draft EIR. And then any comments received during the comment period on the draft EIR will formally be addressed in the final EIR. But to Albert's point, we will address comments and then throughout the process.

Okay. Thank you. And then you mentioned that it's a joint program and project EIR. Is that done in conjunction, like, the same time, or are those done separately?

No. It's all one single document. So to the first commissioner's comment about how do you capture the different sections when they're so far away? Yes, we will be capturing them for portions that are non participating parcels. Those will be at the program level because there's nothing programmed there right now on a specific project development layout. Within our analysis, if it is just, say, North Area A versus North Area B and maybe there's a potential impact up there that doesn't exist in the southern portion. We'll also be calling out the analysis and the mitigation measures that are applicable for the different areas of the overall specific plan.

Awesome.

In the 22 categories, one of them mentioned is transportation, and we hear a lot about traffic. Is traffic transportation, or are those two different things?

Yes, it's the same.

It's under transportation. Could talk about traffic concerns. Okay. And then I know before we had talked, we had the city had put up plans signs on proposed projects. Is there an opportunity to put signs on these lots saying that there is an EIR being done? Just something to bring more awareness to what's going on?

That's not in our current notification policy, but thank you for suggesting that.

No worries. That's all I got. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Beaumont.

Yes. Sorry, I just have a question. It's not really an EIR question. It's for the city macro. Do you look at bringing in 4,200 homes with this project and 2,000 homes or such with GreenTree over the next, what, ten years maybe and see if we're ready to internally have all that development? And is the city prepared for that? I mean we do this development but are we prepared for having them together?

Sir, what you are describing there is a cumulative analysis that looks at the entirety of all these projects. So this is a fun topic because you can look at it from a very program level like the general plan did a whole EIR to look at the entire potential growth of the city. But then over the time you get new developments that come in. So in 2015 we didn't have GreenTree that came in but then they did their own environmental report. But then you get, you know, Robert Ranch comes in, the farm at Alamo Creek.

So this particular project, it'll look at what are the impacts that are being created when you introduce new land uses, but then it'll have a separate analysis called cumulative when you look at what this when you consider all those other developments and what other kind of impacts can be created from that. Are there other conditions that were looked at? Do you need to widen the roadway even more so when you factor in the entirety of it? And so that's something that will be covered by the EIR.

Okay, great. Thank you.

The other thing I wanted to add too is a specific plan typically builds out in a ten to twenty year time frame. So you're not looking at all the development over the next two years. It's going to happen in phases over time and that's part of the process as well.

One more that I think Commissioner Bravant you might have been touching on just slightly is the absorption rate of the residential units. Not only are we looking at the types of infrastructure that has to be installed in conjunction with a project of this scale, but with the introduction of those additional units, could the city absorb them? Could developers build them over a period of time? We did work on an absorption analysis part of this project, and we're also working with the developer team to see about our normal bread and butter is single family detached on large lots. So when they introduce a housing that Vacaville needs such as these smaller homes on smaller lots, how do those get absorbed in other jurisdictions and how can we anticipate they'll be absorbed over a period of time in the city of Akavon.

That will be something that will be forthcoming as part of the whole package of project information.

And

then lastly, in addition to document, an MSR is being prepared and municipal services review. And so if your question was also related to public services, utilities, and the expansion and the ability to for those services to take on this development, that's also being prepared concurrently.

Vice Chair Wilkerson?

Presentation. To Commissioner Beaumont's question, I see the applicant here and one of the property owners. Let's say I'm that guy. Let's say everything goes well. When are we looking at going vertical and having homes out, Todd or Rich? Or Albert, just any thoughts? Because this is a long drawn out process. And so we're talking a lot of housing and back. We have a lot of areas that sometimes we get beat up on. But I think it would be important to know the timeline that we're kind of talking about on this.

Thanks for the question, Commissioner Wilkerson. So we do have a bit of homework in front of us, obviously. I think if you look at our schedule that that we have agreed to with the city, we're spending 2026 getting through the EIR and planning process, probably bleeding into 2027. We'll be in the LAVCO process in 2027. So let's assume LAVCO approval happens and we're annexed into the city.

We'll spend the next year plus probably doing the initial backbone infrastructure improvement plans. If you see something happening out there by 2029, that's probably real. And I would say vertical construction, maybe 2030. I think that's achievable. It just there's a lot that could happen between now and then, but that's, I think, where we are today.

Okay. I appreciate that because, Albert, you mentioned in our first presentation today that we're in a housing crisis. Right? We we need homes. And so the process is the process, but we are in a housing crisis. And so but a lot of these developments that we have in the back of our market driven. There are approved projects on the books right now that aren't moving dirt. And so just to that point, it's a little frustrating to see the process be the process and the timeline, knowing that we're at least 1,500,000 units short in the state of California.

Thank you, Vice Chair Wilkerson. I'll now open it up for public comment. Anybody that would like to speak on the topic, please proceed.

I hear you're to me. I'm glad I attended tonight because I live over at Robert Ranch, Waldha, and one of the concerns was the train noise. And the reason I got on with the train gang because of the kids, how it's affecting their development, the train's going all all out all during the day and the night. And one of the things that I found out listening in here, if you could show that first presentation on the A and P Children's development, where it's located, there's a school there. That red line, is that the railroad tracks?

Okay. What do you plan to provide for a sound barrier or something like that? Because that train is gonna be going off at Fry Road. It's gonna affect that whole area. And the reason is I wanna bring this up because you're gonna have more complaints and so forth like that.

As we've been here before with the city council and we're working with the commissioner Morris of the things that didn't get done with the Wildhawk development. You might wanna consider that with how the train noise is gonna affect that. I mean, we were talking about sound wall and so forth like that, but you would have to have a very high sound wall. That's why we're trying to implement a quiet zone. The reason is it's going to affect the development of the children in our area. That's why I wanted to bring this up. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there any more public comment? I see none. I'll close public comment. Bring it back for commission deliberation or any questions?

So the one thing that I have to say is these are the most important meetings for publics to the public public to be a part of. We get it get involved in the beginning, not when it's the apartment stay on top of this and give as much feedback as they can.

This is a scoping meeting. It's only intended for us to collect comments. We've heard from the commission and the public. We will continue to collect comments until 01/02/2026, into the new year. We thank you for hosting this scoping meeting.

Thank you very much.

I ask one question real quick?

Yeah, I think so. We have a friend

who lives on Catiawa Road, whatever it is, that is away from being developed. Those basins that are there that are fronting that road, can they overflow in a large rainstorm into that area?

So that is one of the things that will have to be addressed as part of the EIR. The applicants are working on a storm water analysis to see when you introduce all this impervious surface, where does it go? How does it get held by those basins so those basins can be designed and sized properly so that way they don't overflow and flood onto the adjoining properties during certain rainstorms.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank

you.

So next, we're going to move on to item number nine, the director's report. And we'll hear from Director Morris.

Thank you, Chair Lightfoot and members of the commission. I'm happy to present the final director's monthly report of the year. Just a heads up, in the new year, Claudia Garcia, who is the Assistant Director of Community Development, will be sitting in this chair during the Planning Commission meetings and will be providing you with support. This is my last director's report for now, understanding that if she goes on vacation, I will be right back here in this seat and I will stay in touch as I'll probably be sitting out there for many of the meetings. Let's go to the next slide please.

We have a lot of updates. So on November 19, the City Council, as Albert mentioned earlier, considered received a project update for East Of Leisure Town. They also had a study session on the Markham Callan neighborhood plan. They considered the dog stop zoning text amendment and conditional use permit and approved it. And they also introduced the ordinance for building and fire code update, which will go into effect on January 1.

And then just earlier this month, the council considered formally considered and adopted the new community facilities district methodology and fiscal impact policy. Both those were adopted in the same evening. They also conducted a very lengthy battery energy storage system study session and my team is working very hard to respond to public comments and bring a revised ordinance to this commission in January. And then they also did a second reading for the dog stop. And then they were going to be considering the 2025 development impact fees update, but that item has been delayed and will now be presented to counsel on January 13 of the new year.

And then as for the Planning Commission, we have several items ahead of you at the next meeting, the State of January meeting. We have the Harvest Ridge subdivision, which is the general plan amendment and zoning map amendment, tentative map, an ALUC review for what was the Southtown Apartments project site or is the Southtown Apartments project site. We have an informational report about housing no net loss laws and how they could affect development in Vacaville. And then we will be bringing the revised draft of the battery storage ordinance of this commission. You will be making a formal recommendation on it following probably what will be a lengthy public hearing.

So have a dinner before the meeting, please. Pending items of note, we have other pending items, but we try to highlight the ones that we think you're likely to see in the near future. We have been actively working with the developers of the farm at Alamo Creek on specific plan and development agreement amendments, so I think that's going be coming your way in the 2026 definitely. You'll also receive the annual general plan report and housing progress report. And that's where there will be a lot of data specifically about ADU production, what types of ADUs, all kinds it's all things housing.

And we will put a really nice bow on it with a lot of information and a very comprehensive presentation. And then we're still working on the Weber Road development agreement amendment and at some point we'll be back to you with the Peabody Allison specific plan. Just some teasers for the new year. The building division, actually November was a slow month for us and it was a reduced revenue month and for whatever reason it is what it is. It's been a very strong calendar year for housing production, so apparently everyone decided to take a little chill in November.

This month we've had better numbers, better activity and that will be presented in January. If we go to the next slide, this reflects that with building permit issuance dropping a bit. Still not the lowest of the year, but definitely trending lower as we head into the holidays. Going on to the next slide, inspections have also dropped, but there's still really there's a lot of inspections for the month of November, which is typically a slower month. And then we'll go on to the building permitting in relation to solar permits, still trending very similarly.

And we'll see what next year holds for that. And then I will be giving the current planning report because Mr. Bevan is out tonight and Albert is just my slideshow person this evening. Thank you Albert for all your help. We received a new application in District 1 for another proposed digital billboard. This is the third proposed digital billboard in Vacaville that will be going through the development review process. We approved design review for the city residents out in the Cheyenne neighborhood. In District 2 there were no new applications. We approved new applications, same for District 3 and District 4. In District 5, we approved the Lower Lagoon Valley linear park modification.

This is sort of a value engineering effort to bring those park construction costs down so that project can build and they're very interested in building it soon. Then we as we received that actually I think that has been approved, sorry. And then there's a new food truck that was approved in District 5. District 6, we both received the Harvest Ridge subdivision during the last month and that's what's coming before the Planning Commission next month. We've been moving very quickly with that one to get it to you and the council.

The advanced planning monthly report, I touched on Peabody Allison. We're still working on that. The goal is to get that plan adopted in 2026. The Markham Kellen Neighborhood Plan, the council provided very favorable comments, so it goes back to them for formal adoption in January. We submitted for the pro housing designation on December 1, and we expect to receive initial feedback from HCD on February 1.

So if we get this designation, the cities qualify for a lot more grant funding for affordable housing projects and transportation projects. We are bringing the annual land use and development code up to council next month, and that will encompass the ADU stuff you all reviewed and approved tonight, and then also the package you saw at the last meeting. Then I guess lastly, we're doing a lot in advanced planning. The municipal services review is well underway. We anticipate a draft going to LAVCO in the first part of the new year, and then it will go through a public review process with LAVCO at public meetings that they will be conducting.

Of course, we'll also be bringing it to our city decision makers. Okay. Oh, there are more. Now this is why Albert's not giving this presentation. Now we are working on that best ordinance which we've touched approval of the CFD in fiscal was a huge accomplishment that all got done in December 9. You've heard about the East Of Leisure Town specific plan and then I think this truly is lastly. We've made a lot of progress on the Northeast growth area planning study. We've developed three land use alternatives. We're putting the finishing touches on them internally, and then those are going go into the public space for feedback including to the county. So we're ready to engage with our county partners in visions for this 1,400 acre growth area that could be a lot of jobs for Vacaville residents.

So go on Albert. Announcements, I made the major announcement that I will be replacing myself with my very very capable assistant director. Other staffing updates, you'll start seeing some new faces here. We've been very grateful to hire for every vacant planning position. So we've had two people start in the last couple weeks.

We have a new person starting in January and by then we'll be fully staffed. Lots of faces and we'll be really excited to introduce them to this commission. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions or comments from commissioners. Talented associate planner to go work where he lives in Fairfield. And then we lost two others who are also just actually superstars who win one case closer to her home, more pay, hard to blame her.

And in another case returning back to the exec company she departed to come work for Vacaville. So all of them unique circumstances, all of them very sad, but again we've been delighted to be able to hire I really am looking forward to meeting our new staff. These are some really so far promising talents. Commissioner Vargas, did that. I returned to my hometown. There are reasons why people want to work in their hometown, Commissioner Vargas.

A lawyer. I was a lawyer.

Commissioner Hampton.

Yeah, thank you, Director Morris, for the update. I appreciate it. Just a couple of quick questions. First of all, since I'm fairly new to the commission, the permitting in November, is that pretty typical as a lower end of the month and the lows this month, is that pretty consistent with what the historical lows have been in the city?

I have to look back at trend data and I will do that. But what I will say is it normally slows down with permits issued and inspection after like mid to late October in kind of a normal year when it rains. And so this year it hasn't we haven't had substantial rain, but it is trending with a slower activity over the holiday season. A lot of times we will either see a rush when there's a code update or it will just be more of a trickle. And so this year it's been a little bit more of a trickle.

And the second question is macro, micro economics, sort of get the concept on that regarding permitting and building in the national economy, etcetera. But really maybe brief and amazing, why do you feel the permitting is slowing down? Or what's your take on? Do you think it will increase first of the year? What are your takeaways?

Well, check-in with our building permit techs who are the ones applying fees to building permits for housing in particular that's gone through the review process and is ready to issue. We have a lot of homes that are ready to issue and we actually are actively working with builders who are promising to pick up those permits by the end of this calendar year. So I get like the almost daily vignettes from that team that we still have a lot of activity flowing through building. There are a lot of permits coming, but there are tremendous macro factors affecting land development everywhere not just in Vacaville notably increased cost of construction, increased interest rates, great uncertainty. I visited a meeting today with developers of Lower Lagoon Valley and they cited having tech workers who'd like to move to Vacaville, but they're concerned about their immigration, what's going happen with that.

So there's just a lot of uncertainty in the world right now. But if you look and compare our numbers, which we had a newspaper reporter who did to other cities in just the general Bay Area, we still have really strong housing production numbers happening in Vacaville. So that heartenes me. If people still want to build here, they are still building here and I'm predicting that they will continue to build here in the New Year.

Thank you. Thank

Thank you, Commissioner Hampton. Any other questions for Director Morris? Thank you, Director Morris. So next we'll move on to item 10, commissioner comments. So this is a portion of the agenda for the commissioners to inform each other of items potential interest or other commissioners such as interagency meetings announcements as appropriate. I'll start coming down the line. Commissioner Beaumont.

Just a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to Vacaville and hope you have a great holiday season. Thank you.

Commissioner Banta.

Yeah, I just want to announce that on this week, this Thursday, December 18 at 6PM is Vacaville Homeless Memorial Day. It'll be hosted at North Orchard Church on 301 North Orchard at 06:00 to honor. There's at least five unhealthy individuals that have passed away in the year of 2025 that are from here in Vacaville. And that number may be a little bit more. So everybody is invited and I would encourage anybody to come to honor them.

Thank you, Mr. Grinte. Mr. Neiman?

Yeah, I be a part of this community and want to say Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, especially to the staff. Thanks for all the work that you guys do. Thank you.

Commissioner Vargas. Three things, breakfast with Santa at Ulyta Center this Saturday. I don't know if anyone signed up. I think polar bear plunge on the twenty seventh. That's always a hoot. And then I gotta put in a plug for my my two nephews, one's a senior and a junior at Winters High School. I know it's not backable, but they won a state championship in football. So they played a team out of San Diego, so I thought that was pretty awesome. I told them I'd give them a plug. Vice Chair Wilkerson?

Yes, two quick things. One, on December 1 I attended the Festival of Trees Gala hosted by Opportunity House, and I just want to say the executive officer did a fantastic job with that, so great job actually on that. That was a well attended event, and you guys did a really good job of highlighting all that homeless all that opportunity house does and highlighting Paul Maguire, who's been a steward to this community over the last thirty five, forty years. And lastly, selfish plug as well, Vargas, I wanna wish my oldest Aria Elizabeth a happy seventh birthday today. Daddy loves you very much.

Commissioner Hampton.

Yes, I'd just like to echo Commissioner Dingmann's commentary. So wish you all a very merry Christmas and appreciate what you do.

Thank you very much. I think that ends our meeting. Good night.

About people from each department. Maybe we ask them what their department is doing and how they enjoy it.

I'm gonna show a little bit more of the experience at Summer at City Hall.

We put together this video that you're watching right now.

I'm interning for the fire department at Summer at City Hall. I actually heard about it from my college and career center counselor. Meeting new people and understanding what the code department does. I also have made other friends along the internship. They're pretty nice, and I feel like it's getting me more involved with people and getting me out of my comfort zone. I'm getting CPR certified. Talk to the chief of the fire department. It's pretty cool. I'm visiting fire stations and doing ride alongs. This makes me wanna be a firefighter. I'm I'm doing all kinds

of stuff. Today, I'll be sampling part of the creek water to make sure that the pH is okay. Just before, I was calibrating the pH machine. You calibrate it to make sure the pH meter works well so that it can measure the pH correctly of the creek water. We're making sure the water is clean for the environment.

I wanna become a lawyer, so that's why I'm here. So far, I've reviewed casework. I've learned how contracts are drafted, why they're drafted. I am excited for a mock trial. We're going down to the Solano Courthouse, and there's gonna be an actual judge, mock lawyers, mock witnesses, mock jury. So I will personally get to see what it's like to be a lawyer, what being a litigator is really about.

I love living in the city of Vacaville because the community is, like, all together.

I'm with Camp Adobe, and I really love it. It's an amazing time, an amazing experience, an opportunity.

At Camp Adobe, they have us chilling with the kids, just, filling around the area, teaching the kids how to do archery, archery, learn how to, like, better their swim, learning about nature.

Today is the aquatic center. Yes. Whenever they need help, we help them yeah. Just keep them entertained.

So most of my time here is spent shadowing. We saw a water dig. So that's them using high pressure water to dig through a road. We went to the Easterly water plant. We saw how the water gets cleaned over there. We had a mock city council meeting. We had six of us become council members and one mayor. I got to speak twice on fireworks and billboards, and there's so much going on in the city.

Community development is mostly concerned about the buildings and, permits around in Vacaville and, like, what it takes to build and create something. I went and visited a building being built, and we got to see all the inspecting that is inquired and involved in these houses that are currently being made. It's definitely opened my eyes to details that I wouldn't have noticed before this program.

I'm learning about payroll and the benefits and the steps of hiring new employees. I learned, like, new things, and it wasn't just, like, something that I'm not gonna use gonna be able to use in my future and, like, know about.

A lot of the people in the program, I actually go to school with, but I don't know them personally. And through this, I get to know them more personally. I work at Camp Kindness, and I supervise the kids. I'll play with them if they want me to play with them, and I just make sure that everything's going smoothly. And we also learn a lot about the city, and I think that's really important. I learned a lot of things that I did not know.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone in the future to go to the Summer at City Hall internship. It's an amazing opportunity.

Censorship.

It's been a lot of fun to learn about my community and help and help my community.

I'm so glad I did summer at City Hall.

I'm gonna remember this experience for the rest of my life.

Clean, safe, reliable transportation. City Coach, on the corner of stress free and convenience. Our city, your coach.

Following what we experienced last year with touch the sky statue in Andrews Park, and of course, the labyrinthine heart on Main Street, these murals are a great addition to make our downtown an even more attractive place for people to visit. It's the experience. Under the canopy of trees or music in our square, we look around and we sense the art.

Stage from Local Edition reached out to me and said, hey. The Brendan Theaters would like to do a mural project. They'll pay for it, but they'll only do it if the city will do an additional mural project downtown. So from my perspective, that was a challenge that was issued, and it was sort of a challenge that was accepted. When I talked to, mayor Carly and I talked to my staff, really, was like, how can we make this happen?

People drive into Vacaville. They wanna see something that captures what our community is all about. I get great positive feedback from people saying we need more of that. We love seeing murals downtown. We love seeing them. And how we continue to keep that momentum going is through the arts and culture master plan. That is a guiding document that we spent over a year building with the help of our community and through their input that will be the catalyst for the future of public art and what we bring to fruition in our community.

Everyone that walked by, I don't know why they're like, oh,

I love the horse.

I love this. And I'm like, I don't know why everyone loves the horses out here. And then come to find out the history of Vacaville and its roots and how it was formed and all that. I'm like, oh, wow. This makes total sense. You know

what mean?

I would love for any kid to see any of the works that we do and just get inspired from it because that's that's what got me hooked, you know, as a kid. If any younger person could get inspired by anything I do, then, man, I that's that's that's where it's at.

Summer at City Hall is made up of many students from many local high schools who come together to experience and learn what makes our city function through its many departments.

See how different things work, especially here at City Hall, and learn about what it takes to go to a job and work with other people.

How the city runs and what they do and what each department does is really interesting in learning how they all function and what everyone does here.

I am interning at the fire department at city hall.

I'm interning at community development.

I'm interning at the city attorney's office.

The human resources department.

The parks and rec.

The utilities department for water quality. Parks and recreation.

Utilities. The city manager's office.

Welcome to Sunrise City Hall twenty twenty five.

I heard about this program from my school counselor. She brought me in and thought it would be a really good experience for me. I've learned how to film. I've learned communication skills, and I've just learned basic office and life skills.

Working at the city manager's office really shows us how a city functions and how everything ties together. One thing I did while working at the city manager's office was working with the media team.

In the media team, we learned a lot of storytelling and visual storytelling, which has been very interesting and very fun to learn about.

I've been learning about filming and how to do interviews, communication.

So we went around the entire city hall, and we interviewed about 12 people from each department, and we asked them what their department is doing and how they enjoy it.

I'm gonna show a little bit more of the experience at Summer at City Hall.

We put together this video that you're watching right now.

I'm interning for the fire department at Summer at City Hall. I actually heard about it from my college and career center counselor. Meeting new people and understanding what the code department does. I also have made other friends along the internship. They're pretty nice, and I feel like it's getting me more involved with people and getting me out of my comfort zone. I'm getting CPR certified. Talk to the chief of the fire department. It's pretty cool. I'm visiting fire stations and doing ride alongs. This makes me wanna be a firefighter. I'm I'm doing

all kinds of stuff. Today, I'll be sampling part of the creek water to make sure that the pH is okay. Just before, I was calibrating the pH machine. You calibrate it to make sure the meter works well so that it can measure the pH correctly of the creek water. We're making sure the water is clean for the environment.

I wanna become a lawyer, so that's why I'm here. So far, I've reviewed case work. I've learned how contracts are drafted, why they're drafted. I am excited for a mock trial. We're going down to the Solano Courthouse, and there's gonna be an actual judge, mock lawyers, mock witnesses, mock jury. So I will personally get to see what it's like to be a lawyer, what being a litigator is really about.

I love living in the city of Vacaville because the community is, like, all together.

I'm with Camp Adobe, and I really love it. It's an amazing time, an amazing experience, an opportunity.

At Camp Adobe, they have us chilling with the kids, just filling around the area, teaching the kids how to do archery, learn how to, like, better their swim, learning about nature.

Today is the aquatic center. Yes. Whenever they need help, we help them yeah. Just keep them entertained.

So most of my time here is spent shadowing. We saw a water dig. So that's them using high pressure water to dig through a road. We went to the Easterly Water plant. We saw how the water gets cleaned over there. We had a mock city council meeting. We had six of us become council members and one mayor. I got to speak twice on fireworks and billboards, And there's so much going on in the city.

Community development is mostly concerned about the buildings and, permits around in Vacaville and, like, what it takes to build and create something. I went and visited a building being built, and we got to see all the inspecting that is inquired and involved in these houses that are currently being made. It's definitely opened my eyes to details that I wouldn't have noticed before this program. I'm learning about payroll and the benefits and the steps of hiring new employees. I learned, like, new things, and it wasn't just, like, something that I'm not gonna use. It's something

that I'm gonna be able to use in my future and, like, know about.

A lot of the people in the program, I actually go to school with, but I don't know them personally. And through this, I get to know them more personally. I work at camp kindness, and I supervise the kids. I'll play with them if they want me to play with them, and I just make sure that everything's going smoothly. And we also learn a lot about the city, and I think that's really important. I learned a lot of things that I did not know.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone in the future to go to the summer at city hall internship. It's an amazing opportunity. It's absolutely phenomenal. I love it.

I think it's really great experience, and you get to work on field, and it's really just an interesting viewpoint of the city that you don't usually see. It's fun, and it's interesting and new to learn new things.

I'm proud to have this internship.

It's been a lot of fun to learn about my community and help and help my

I'm so glad I did summer

at city hall. I'm gonna remember this experience for the rest of my life.

Clean, safe, reliable transportation. City Coach, on the corner of stress free and convenience. Our city, your coach.

I'm a backfire fighter.

My passion is to serve, and for the opportunity, my life to the I'm a

Vacaville firefighter. My professionalism will speak for itself. I'll remain loyal to

my community and the traditions of those who served before me.

I'm a Vacaville firefighter. My badge is my family crest. I will learn, train,

and prepare to ensure that we all go home.

I will not leave a brother or sister behind.

I'm a Vacaville firefighter. Through honesty, integrity, leadership, and loyalty.

I will ensure the advancement of the department and the community.

I will strive to leave both better when my duty is complete. I'm a Vacaville firefighter. I'm not here for me. I'm here for we.

And we are here for them.

You're in a team, share a common goal. And in this instance, being a fire department here in Vacaville, our common goal is to protect serve

the citizens of Vacaville. Being part of a team makes me feel great because no one gets left behind.

Everyone is there to, like, build each other up and make each other better.

This academy has gave me a sense of leadership, a sense of urgency, a sense of a calling.

I love the people here. I everybody I've met has been awesome.

They treat the people well, well respected. People wanna come to work. I've always seen the passion behind the work that people are doing here, I wanted to be a part of it.

I spent, you know, three months, almost four months here doing my internship with a crew of firefighters, and I just fell in love with it. So I knew from then on this is where I wanted to work.

Just the different challenge of how Vacaville runs things and does it, and I feel that this challenge would be able to help me become a great paramedic. My family's roots run really deep in this community,

but to take it one step further and do it in my backyard just made it that much more special.

Coming into this, a lot of us did not know anything about each other, and ultimately, it's led to this time and place. We're a close knit group of guys who are able to accomplish almost anything at hand right now.

It's been a compilation of everything. You know, just working out altogether as a crew every day, cold runs in the morning. All of us just sucking it up and getting straight to work. It's been an experience that I probably would never forget. You know? We've all had

to lean on each other. Not every day you get to wake up and go cut a hole on a roof or stretch a hose line. So If it

was tough, like, you know, you have eight other guys that are doing doing the same thing with you. So, I mean, it was kinda you could lean on them, and it ended up being alright.