Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

The meeting now come to order. Today is May Monday, May 25th. Monday, May, May 5th, 2025. And this is the regular meeting of the planning commission. Planning Commission. All right. Then we're going to move to the next agenda item, pledge of allegiance. Uh when everybody please uh rise for the pledge of allegiance and Commissioner Maderas, could you lead please? 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 and liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Commissioner Madas for leading that. Uh so we will move to the next agenda item. Roll call. Will the secretary please call the role? Yeah. Thank you chair. Commissioner BC Sansbury present. Commissioner Meros present. Vice Chair Taylor present. Commissioner Douglas present. And for the record Commissioner Balena Standifer and Blind are absent. We have a quorum. Great. Thank you. All right. So, we're going to move to the next agenda item is consent calendar and approval of the agenda. Uh, approval of the agenda of the agenda. Uh, with the chair, well, we'll enter a motion to approve the agenda as present. Through the chair, we can make one motion to approve both the minutes in the agenda. We don't have to do two separate ones. Okay, perfect. All right. So, I'll start it over. Uh, can we get a motion to approve the agenda and uh of the col I mean the consent calendar? Um, I move to approve the agenda for this evening, April 21st, 2025, as well as the regular meeting minutes from April 7th, 2025. I'll second

I need one more vote. for the results um through the chair. Since one of the commissioners abstained on the vote tonight, the motion actually was not carried and denied. So we can either amend the motion um redo the vote again and everyone um takes revotes again or we can bring it back for the next meeting. I was thinking if someone was not at one meeting but we had four all four present for one of the two meetings for the minutes you might be able to approve one set of minutes. Okay. So who whoever knows which meeting that was that had so There are two meeting minutes that you're approving, April 7 and April 21. So if someone was someone is here that was not at one of the other meetings, they can't approve the minutes for that meeting because they weren't there and they can't they were already approved. God, I remember that we didn't. they were. So, Cesar is correcting me that they were April 7th's minutes were approved. I had a memory that they weren't and when you said that they weren't, that jived with my memory, but apparently they were approved. Okay. Question. Because on the agenda it

says um where the heck was that? Oh, I think I was reading the prior meeting minutes. Silly me. Okay. Can we do that again? Okay. I move to approve uh this evening's agenda May 5th, 2025 as well as um the meeting minutes from April 21st, 2025 regular meeting. I'll second So the MO so yeah you can tell they have to I need one more vote. Okay. So there's three eyes and one abstension. The motion was not carried. So, we would need to take a a revote and just approve the agenda and then we can continue the minutes for the next meeting. Okay. I move to approve the agenda for this evening's meeting, May 5th, 2025, regular meeting. I'll second that right. But I need one more vote. I need one more

vote. We have four eyes and the motion carries. Okay. So, we'll move to the next agenda item. Uh report of the city council leaison. Uh we have Councilman Matle. Thank you for joining us. Good evening, commissioners and staff. Um thank you for being here. Um just a a a technical point if if you may not have been at a meeting but you saw watched the video of the meeting that would avoid you from having to abstain from that meeting. So just for food for thought for the future and um on for tonight's agenda I just want to point out and and emphasize the important work that you guys do. Um the items on today's agenda may not be as sexy as working on on voting on a project and having those discussions, but the items on the um capital improvement plan, similar to like our housing element, are just as important, if not as if not more important because those are those are items that come in front of us as the um city council that we we value your input of of asking those tough questions. And uh for those that that may not be their cup of tea or or kind of up their uh pipeline for their uh professional or personal background or knowledge, um please reach out to staff to get more educator, go through trainings for um capital improvements projects or the housing element. So they're always open and and available to to be able to help guide you and give you information and and some experience from what you um from what you may not have gained in your own personal or professional careers and stuff. though. Um, and I'd like to introduce a special guest I have with me tonight is um speaking just kind of reiterating the the um our goal as council of of moving economic development forward. Um, and then this is where I've mentioned in the past of

having a two-prong approach of having planning and economic development, both these commissions coming together at some point. So, I have our special guest, Council Member Matias, who represents District 1, but is also the council Leon liaison for the economic development. And so, he and I have been talking about collaborating on getting this um um this this collaboration together of the both commissions and to help us um from a council standpoint to get both of your input. Um, for example, a couple of months ago, you guys approved a um a variance on a on a um uh on a zoning property that was for residential, but you guys um um approved it for light commercial um at some point. The one over by Glen Cove. So those are the type of things where we can where between the planning commission and the economic development maybe you can identify other areas around the city that might have that similar one to where the econom economic development may identify certain spots that you you can ident cross reference from a zoning standpoint and a and a land use standpoint of what may make sense for the future. So those those are for foods for thought and I would like to introduce um council member Matias and kind of share his vision from the economic development and planning commission um kind of collaboration. [Music] Thank you council member and um pardon the appearance. This is a last minute call and uh from my colleague and um and I appreciated the invitation just to come in and share some information on what I could see as a possible fruitful partnership between the two commissions. Um the economic development commission just recently approved their work plan. Uh it's focused um around four key pillars. one um artificial in intelligence and leveraging uh the innovation that comes from it to

implement some uh solutions in our city. Two, uh business uh recruitment uh and um and attraction and really uh developing some sound programming to ensure that we're attracting the the right type of business, which is an area where I feel like there could be some partnership with your commission. And then three, public safety, which is something we're talking about day in and day out. Uh and um as they developed their work plan, one of the things that they uh thought about was ensuring that the programming that they were um developing, implementing over a 2-year period was in alignment with the general plan. As you guys have seen in the Valo Sun and in many other um publications, we've had some issues with some of our existing businesses not being able to expand, not being able to leverage the space. uh that they could potentially get be getting into. And so one of the things that I've called for at the council level that I hope my colleague and um and council member Palmare can join me in on is actually at the council level having an ad hoc committee that looks at the Sonoma Boulevard corridor going into American Canyon so that we can look at what updates have to be made to our um zoning code, right? and by extension how we can sort of create value uh to ensure that we're attracting the right type of business to that corridor. And and part of the rationale behind that is if you look at crime, if you look at um you know housing development, if you look at all of these other challenges that our city's experiencing, there is tremendous opportunity for us to pay attention to that corridor in particular. and having the two commissions come together to evaluate how we go about doing so can potentially get us to a place where at the council level we can have a discussion and hopefully put some investment in the next couple years to move that work forward. And so I'm going to be uh you know relaying any questions or any feedback you share with me from this session today with the economic

development commission. And I'm hoping in the next couple of months we as a joint body can come together to really brainstorm how we in a meaningful way uh and for the first time in a long time uh activate uh some of our corridors to really bring some investment into our community. So that's all I got. Uh, I'm happy to answer any questions or take any feedback with me back to the Economic Development Commission. Just one one small thing. I I know there's a lot of development as you probably already know. Um, Councilman Matulac, uh, on the north end of Sonoma Boulevard, we have, you know, large housing or apartment development going in. Um, what else? There's like two other things that are going in. We have a proposed U Chick-fil-A and a proposed let's say hotel that's yes hotel going to be going in that little strip that strip to that specific Sonoma Boulevard plant. So those are the type of things. I didn't know if he knew about that yet or not but um and I thought there were three things going on up by Vtown Farms. There three three large projects going on. There's a couple of housing potential housing areas um possibilities there, but they're still in the in the at least one is in the early stages right now, but then once again, you guys already approve or are aware of the Chick-fil-A that's that's been presented in front of you along with a potential hotel that's in the works of coming in front of you in in sometime in the near future. Right. So, look forward to it. Yes. and and speaking to um council member Bautiases of of his um creation of a potential ad hoc thing. That that was one of the things that this body had brought up the idea of of an ad hoc from a from the planning commission with a potential ad hoc from the economic development to start that uh collaboration conversation

between that. I think we'd have to go through staff to make sure with we're within the Brown Act and within committees and commissions and boards to be able to establish an ad ad hoc because this is the first time of establishing a potential ad hoc between two different commissions. So that's something I think we'd have to work through the logistical to make to make sure we're going about it in the right way. But this this is part of once again the the advanced collaboration, the conversations that we are having at the council level to to utilize our commissions um and the voice that you have and and the expertise that you have both at the comm at the planning commission and at the economic development commission level uh to see if we can forge together and move move a lot of the goals that we have at the council level and start it off at these um commission levels um and move a lot of the stuff forward in in a more expeditious way. So once again, any any other questions or comments? We are both here um and avoid you for having to go to city council to ask these same questions. Thanks for being here, J.R. you're always uh very uh accessible. Um uh to Council Member um Matias, thank you so much for you know being that bridge that we uh never really seen before and it's widely re receptive and and received and we appreciate that and I love to see the collaboration um between you both because there is a whole lot of work to get done and you know sometimes you know we can kind of move a little on the slower side and so I think that we'll be able to get a lot of the goals accomplished um and I just look forward to seeing you guys uh for eight years. Thank you. Yes, and thank you for coming in today and I appreciate that and hearing that is I believe is inspiring just for this

the city of Valleo collaboration um taking different ideas from different perspective and analyzing it from several different lenses and try to figure out an opportunity uh to move the city forward and what works out in the best interest of the community. So working in different domain spaces where you may not have preview into uh the other uh domain area where economic development or planning but being able to see how they actually come together by collaborating I think served as a great opportunity and I'm glad that as you've been coming in uh every week and I mean every few weeks meeting expressing that and you're coming in and talking about that I think that will be a path forward. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm curious to see what that road map will look like to get to that point. So, thank you for sharing this. Yeah, and we've um we've had a pretty interesting 100 days just in terms of the volume of work we've moved forward as a body. Um but what I can tell you is even having done all that work, we need all the help and all the partnership we can get. I kid you not. Um cuz the the way I I um sort of um messaged it to uh another community group that I met with um last week was you know I can tell you from my personal belief I'm trying to get eight years of work done in four years. That's the speed at which I um I believe every commission and our council and our staff should be moving in. We've got a lot of work to do. we're very behind relative to the other cities in terms of what needs to be happening in our community um it being safe, us being able to attract the right businesses. And so um we're going to need your help to be able to make that happen. And I look forward to us having us uh have a meeting in the next couple months together and then having that be the launch point uh for uh few fruitful initiatives um between our uh entities. So, I'll be sure to report back after I meet with uh the Economic Development Commission in two

Wednesdays from now. You guys are more than welcome to join um that meeting, too. And then we'll come back uh and um and take it from there. All right. Thank you. And part of my um special request to have Council Member Matias here is you guys have been hearing me at Nauseium talking about this collaboration we're talking about. So, this is this is part of showing this is more than just lip service. Um this is part of the action that this uh particular council has been moving forward and trending towards and just want to make sure that the the this council and the general uh public are aware that that we we may talk a lot but we're actually putting into action a lot of the things that we're we're trying some some of these outside the box thinking ideas that we're we're looking to do. So so thank you for for listening and we look forward to this Oh go ahead. Yeah. So through the chair, I just want to say that um when I when I first got uh brought on to the commission, I or I wanted to I said I wanted to bring some energy to to the town, that kind of thing. But then when I got here, I I found that there were the Brown Act and other restrictions and processes that just seem to sort of thwart your ability to bring energy. So, I see this as an opportunity for us to sort of collaborate and maybe actually be able to bring some energy to the town. After all, a drive through Walnut Creek or over in, you know, any city around here and and then you come back here and you wonder, well, what's missing, you know? I mean, it's Valo. We've we've got the straight. We've got all these wonderful places and things, but there's there's something that's holding us back. And I think if we if we could reach out and get more development and that kind of thing, I'm I'm well for it. And uh spending a little extra time, why not? You know, let's do it. We're looking to get Thanks for coming, too. Yeah. And we're looking to get over that that proverbial um hump of having the

potential and actually putting it into place. Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. All right. So, we will move to the next agenda item. Uh it's the community forum. Uh uh we this is for anyone who wishes to address the commission on any matter for which another opportunity to speak is not provided on the agenda and which is within the jurisdiction of the of the commission to resolve. Uh each speaker has up to two minutes and we can oh excuse me up to three minutes uh for this forum. Thank you chair. Uh currently we do have one member of the public signed up online with no members of the public signed up in audience. If you would like to hear them we can uh hear them right now. Yes. Uh Paulus, go ahead and unmute yourself. You have the floor. Um, council members and staff, uh, my name is Paul Ty. I live at, uh, 151 Hill Drive, excuse me, commission members and staff. I live at 151 Hill Drive and I serve on the executive committee of the Sierra Club Solano Group, which has over a 100 members in Valo. Thank you for this opportunity to share my concerns about Valleo's housing crisis. In December, the city council adopted a housing element which contains your recommendations for two important items to come before the council this year for uh consideration as ordinances. a robust package of renter protections and an inclusionary zoning ordinance to set aside a percentage of of affordable units in each new

development over a certain size. Your concerns reflect the fact that these actions are overdue to begin addressing Valleo's housing crisis. Every month that goes by, more people are pushed out of their homes onto the street and more people can't afford to buy in Valleo while uh some property owners raise the rents. You moved up the timeline so that both of these important measures can come before the city council for adoption this year and the council has agreed. I see from Mr. Orosco's report this evening that Mr. Roas has been tasked to begin work on inclusionary zoning on September 12th. Uh if I read this correctly, this is cause for concern because the housing element schedules that ordinance to come before the council for on the third quarter of this year. Uh the third quarter is July, August, and September. Will there be time for the council to consider an ordinance between the 12th of September and the end of September? The housing element calls for two renter protection items, rent stabilization and just cause for eviction to be ready for consideration by the city council in September. Uh maybe I missed that, but I don't see that item on Mr. Orosco's report. Uh, the city manager has stated that the planning department is staffed up, but I see that Mr. Rojos has been assigned 15 items in attachment B uh, in his report. That's quite a bit for one person to do, and I'm sure he could use some help. I urge you to work closely with staff on

these two urgently needed matters. Thank you for considering my views. And that does it for these speakers that have signed up for the community forum. Chair definitely want to add thank you for sharing uh the public comments. uh we encourage the com I mean the public to bring any concerns or any issues or anything they would like the planning commission to understand for uh to make everything aware for within within our community. So thank you for presenting and sharing. Uh with that being said we'll move to the next agenda item uh which the public hearing. So item 7 A is adopt a resolution finding the proposed capital improvement plan to be in conformance with the city of Valo general plan 20 240. Uh do we have a presentation available for the boards? C can I um just interpose really quickly through the chair? Yes. there the resolution is is correct um itself but we are re reviewing the ensuing 2025 2026 CIP not the 2024 2025 CIP because that's this year so you guys are reviewing the 2025 2026 fiscal year's CIP against the general plan for conformity just wanted to make that clear And so there's a typo in the project description which is repeated. It's at the bottom of uh the paragraph here and on page one of the staff report. It it's the way it's laid out on the computer that this someone did one part

and someone else did another part and there wasn't a cohesive review. So it's our fault. Okay. through the chair. So yes, through the chair, the attachment number three um also states fiscal year 2425. So I I don't think we'll be able to use this even if it does even if it is a typo because now I don't know what I'm looking at unfortunately. That should be 2025 2026. Yeah. No, we need to have that corrected before I move on that one. Yeah. Mark can maybe address that. This came from public works. I presume. Does this come from public works or planning? Yeah. Through through the chair just for clarification from uh the attorney. Where was it on page one? I'm sorry. I couldn't find it. Oh, I'm sorry. It's um so on the agenda itself. Oh, 78. It's at the bottom of that paragraph. Oh, okay. I see. And then, thank you. Okay. So, for clarification, what we're reviewing here is city council will conduct a public hearing and make a determination as to final adoption of the revised uh physical year for 2024, 2025. It should be 2025 2026 through the chair. Can we make an amendment to the agenda so that we're approving the correct year on that or how do we do that? We'll correct it. I think you've already approved the agenda, but we'll make that correction. Okay. And then the resolution is correct. So when you adopt the resolution but we will also make the um

when you make the resolution you can make the corrections to the attachment three. So catch we are to assume the uh attachment is for 2526. Correct. Great. The the government code section 65401 requires the planning commission to review the ensuing fiscal year's CIP for conformance with the general plan. And so you're not reviewing individual projects except for conformity with the general plan. And conformity means that they further the goals of the general plan and they do not thwart any of the goals of the general plan. So there might be something that's neutral. So that wouldn't you don't have to meet every goal. You just can't thwart any of the goals and you have to be furthering some of the goals or be neutral. Great. Thank you for the clarification. I'm sorry. I'm very unclear. Sorry. Sorry. Attachment number three. Yes. Are these goals 2526 or what we looking at? They're projects that are Let me look at it myself. As through the chair, it states that they're all new. So these are projects that would are planned for 2025 2026. Correct. The projects are new. Great. Thank you for the clarification. Do I need to repeat the agenda item 7A or we can proceed? No. Great. Thank you. All right. So, I guess we can get we can

start with the presentation. Thank you. Evening planning commission. Uh Mark Hrech. I'm the transportation program superintendent. Uh here from public works. We're here to talk about the fiscal year 2526 capital improvement program and general plan consistency. uh fiscal year 2526 CIP overview or establishes the current year capital improvement budget or provides a guide for prioritization of projects to accomplish community goals over the next five years. And then we're dealing with general plan conformance requirement which is state law government code section 65103C and 65401. um CIP prioritization criteria for this year. Um improving the public rideaway conditions and reduce liability, preservation of existing assets, improve services to the public, compliance with regulatory requirements and mandates, and support general plan priorities. Next, we have six new projects that are being added to the CIP. These include streets paving 2025 measure P project MP25205, streets paving 2026 measure P project, the MP2026. There's a fifth street bike and pedestrian safety grant project, public works 9714 project. Road edgeline project, public works 9715. And then a joint city and county sidewalk project, uh, public works 9716. and then the grind and paving project PWC 1117. Little bit of details about each of these. There's three of these projects that are all paving projects. These are the three new projects invest in restoring Valo's roadways. These include the streets paving 2025 and the 2026 projects funded with measure P funding and the grind and overlay

project. All of these are straight just repaving Vallejo's road roadways. So they include include surface seals and our pavement rehabilitation treatments to existing roadways, restriping, curb ramp compliance uh when required. So if the if what's going down on the roadway is anything beyond a slurry seal, it's going to trigger ADA compliance of the curb ramps and those will be included in the projects. We have the Fifth Street ped and bike safety grant project. This was initiated as a participatory budgeting project with $300,000 awarded by the council, improved by the council public works. We've uh applied to STA and are supplementing this budget with a $50,000 TFCA grant and that's what's actually going into the CIP. Um this project will install traffic calming measures, pedestrian and cycling safety measures such as bullouts, traffic circles, striping, and signage all within the existing rideway. This is fifth street between uh Solano and Seoia. We have the road edge line project. Uh so this is outside white edge line striping on collector streets in Valleo. So this is a safety project to help uh motorists identify and stay in their lane and avoid sideswipe accidents. This project was funded with a uh highway safety improvement program grant uh and it'll be implemented in concert with our other projects. So when we do the paving projects on those streets, we'll do the striping. We have a on call striping uh program also and we can add this to that. This won't have its own standalone. We won't do an RFP or um bids on this project. We'll incorporate it into other projects to get it implemented. We have the joint city county sidewalk project. So this is filling in gaps in the sidewalk ne network. We have locations in Valleo that don't have sidewalks along the property frontages.

Solano County is implementing complete street improvements along Benicia Road and has identified several nearby locations in Balo that lack sidewalks. These include a little segment of beach. There's one over on um Salano Avenue and uh Monterey. There's a section on Benicia Road outside of the county down by the um the cemetery towards Rollingwood. Um county's offered to do the engineering and the bidding and the construction management and lead all those and we're looking to join them and and provide funding and get these additional sidewalk uh gap closures done um in Valleo. Again, this will be funded with gas tax revenue. Uh environmental review. This is a uh kind of administerial action tonight. We're not actually approving the projects themselves, right? So, uh secret review will be conducted with the individual projects at the time of project approval from the council. [Music] Um next slide. So, we're recommending planning commission adopt the resolution finding the proposed fiscal year 2526 CIP exempt from SQUA per section 15378B4 and in conformance with the city of Valo general plan 20 240. And I'm happy to answer questions. Great. Thank you for the presentation. So, we're going to open up for the commissioners that have any questions while they're so fresh in their mind and we can go next to the public comments. Do we have any public input on this first? Oh yeah. Should we do that first? Okay. Sounds good. Can we open up for public comments uh for three minutes each? Thank you. Thank you, chair. We do have some members of the public online, but none of them have raised their hand. Uh I did start a two-minute timer uh on the top left corner of your screens uh for interested parties to sign up to speak on this item. Uh in the meantime, feel free to carry on with the discussion.

And at the conclusion of that time, if anyone signs up to speak, I will let you know. Great. Thank you. Commissioners have any questions regarding the presentation? Uh, I do. Yes. So, through the chair, uh, thank you for your presentation and information. Uh, but more specifically, I was wondering as we drive around through our town, as you probably know, on Sonoma Boulevard, Redwood, and a whole bunch of other, you know, Springs Road, other I mean, in the information I see, I you can't really tell what, how, and where. So, can you let us know what majors or affairs you're going to work on uh as a part of this or am I on the wrong page or I mean because it's really hurting our town. Sonoma Boulevard in the you know in the condition that it is is is sure you know I don't have to. So few things in there. Sonoma Boulevard isn't ours. It's CALR's. Oh okay. Um so that's State Route 29. Um, CALR does have a project in the works right now to repave, put a road diet, bike lanes, rollouts, street furniture, um, some street trees, um, coming to Sonoma Boulevard uh, this summer, fall start, going to take about two years to get done. I'm anticipating they're going to give a presentation to council June July time frame. So, if you're interested in that street, that information is coming to council. Um, overall, the city's roadway network is we have the worst streets in the Bay Area. Um, we're pavement condition index 43 at this point. Um, it represents underinvestment in maintaining the roads over a long period of time, decades really. Um, measure P was passed. Uh there is

additional a big part of approving measure P was to invest in the roads and to improve roadway conditions in Malleo. Council has allocated monies twice now. Um, previous year implemented a $2 million slurry seal project oriented at uh residential streets and now has allocated $10 million for this summer fall to do two packages of uh paving projects. There's a $3 million uh cape seal project coming again oriented towards primarily residential streets and then a $7 million grind and overlay project coming that's oriented towards more major streets like collectors and the arterials you were mentioning. Um, you'll be surprised how uh expensive paving is and um how I don't want to say little that $10 million buys you, but it's like three miles of collectors and arterials and maybe seven to eight miles of cape seal. We're going to have to see how the bids come in obviously to see how much we get. Um, but those projects, council allocated money to that and those projects are funded. They're in design. We're trying to get out to bid right now and get those in to construction this summer in this in the fall. Um that's MP 2025. Those street lists were provided to council when they allocated those monies. I don't have them again here tonight. Um the 2026 project is going to uh measure P committee um in the next couple of weeks and then we'll go to council after that. Um the street list for that we don't have. We're in the middle of doing a 10-year plan for paving for Vallejo that was funded with measure P money. Um I have a draft of

that and I'm trying to get through just enough to have the 2026 list as soon as possible, but we don't have it. That information comes out of a uh an effort that goes into data goes into this database called Street Saver that is a program provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. all of our information about our roadways, all the um inspections of the roadway, all the maintenance activities that have ever gone in there uh are in that program and then you run queries and it starts spitting you out data about how to invest your dollars in your roadway network. So, we use that information plus our on call consultants and we're coming up with a 10-year plan uh of paving streets. So, I don't have the 2026 list for you. I don't have it for anybody yet. Um but it's coming. Thank you for the information. Yes. Um, can you tell me through the chair um, how many miles of roads does have? It's kind of a trick question. It's measured in a couple different ways. We have 320 miles centerline miles of roadways and roughly 730 lane miles of roadways. So two-lane street has a mile of two-lane street is two lane miles, but one center lane mile kind of definition. Yeah. Thank you. Um do you know roughly how much Valo gets for gas taxes every year? It's a bit over $6 million. It comes in two um flavors, HUDA and RMR. Um, yeah. So, I want to say the actual total estimate is about 6.3 this year. Um, but we don't know whether we're going to get all that money until it shows up. It's an estimate. And what times of the year are those released? Do you remember? Are they released to the

city? The payments come in throughout the year as the state collects it, but the actual estimate comes in um before the start of the fiscal year. It's like it exists already. like it comes um March time frame. Okay. I want to say okay fiscal next following fiscal year. Okay. The state's on our same fiscal year. Okay. So this CIP uh conformance excuse me conformance matrix. I'm assuming we had one last year. You ask had one last year. Uh yes. Projects. Yeah. How many of those projects um were pushed into this year roughly? I don't have that answer. I mean um are there a lot CIP? Are you asking because the CIP covers a lot more than transportation items? Mostly transportation items. I think all transportation items this year, but the CIP itself covers buildings and all kinds of things that I don't. Okay, I understand that. Um, I'm just, you know, I'm trying to to get a feel of what is on your plate and what is falling from last year or even previous years into this year. Um, so that's I mean that's a big question for me. Um, how are these uh projects normally tracked throughout the year or years? As far as st as far as yeah where we're at in the process with each of these pro each of these projects, most of them have most of them have deadlines associated with funding and um a lot of a lot of these projects that have grants

behind them have deadlines that are associated with those grants. And so those those deadlines get tracked and we try to make sure that we're never falling a foul of our grant obligations. you don't want to uh upset agencies that provide you with money. Understood. Won't get it again. Okay. Um so that's certainly uh something that we track. And then there are priorities certainly set by council. um example being these measure P funded paving projects which um you know we're trying to commit to an annual cyclic doing it every year designing the next year planning out the next year and really setting up that CIP pipeline to be delivering those projects every summer um can't afford to miss a paving summer going forward so um agreed. Yeah. Um I'm not sure if that answers your question. No, you did. You did. Um I'm just wondering because it seems like with Well, I don't know how many um of your projects are not funded by a grant that um I I just don't want them to fall off the list, if you know what I mean. Yeah. So, um I don't know. I'm I'm going to pose something to this this uh commission that we get some sort of um whether it's quarterly uh bianually update on the projects to see where we're at. Okay. Do I have any any agreement there or agree? I'll second that. I I think I mean if we're approving this you know this matrix this um just part of of the plan of the city's taking care the city taking care of its

buildings its roads um you know safety issues things like that um and as well as the condition of our roads which is a huge safety thing um I think that us as a commission needs to keep better track of where things are in these li you know on these lists. That's just my input um through the chair. Um I just want to add that the I'll connect with public works later on in a different date just to see what their availability would be just so that the commission is aware the the public works department is currently going through staff changes. So, they're going to be short staff for for a bit until they get these uh key essential positions filled. So, we can definitely start that conversation, but depending on their availability is when we can come back and provide an update. Okay. I appreciate that. Believe that's all I have for now. Thank you. Hi. Thank you so much for your presentation. Uh is there an idea on exactly how much we're looking at in totality uh for all the projects? I remember hearing a number of 34 million at one point and I'm wondering is that are we close to that or did you say 34 million? Uhhuh. Um certainly the projects that are on here are not adding $34 million. um to the capital improvement program. Um so I'm not sure where the number came from. It could be the total CIP number. Well, I'm just saying as far as Are you only focusing on the street repavement or slurry seals for this capital improvement project? Not in totality. Is that what I'm hearing? The only projects being added to the CIP by

public works this year are these six projects that are in fact all associated with streets or the public right away. Okay. Sorry about that. I misunderstood. And that's the 10 million that over time you said that that was the cost of it for the whole for all of the projects. 10 million. No, the first the first project on this list is a $10 million project. The second one's a $12 million project. And those are this summer's this summer's paving project and next summer's braing project. The other ones are much smaller. The um one of them's 350,000. Edge line is 350,000. Um the city county sidewalk project is a couple a year project. Um 250 to $500,000 a year. And I think the grind and paving project is small. It's 200 I think it's $200,000. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Um through the chair. Um so I appreciate the work you've done on all that, but you uh the main street which is Sonoma Boulevard you said is the states, right? Yeah, that's State Route 29. How how does that work? And how is it that it is in the condition that it is in if I mean how can we pressure the state to to do the same thing that they do in Walnut Creek or you know or some of these other places? Why why how why um I'm not you know you know I'm just saying overall what can we do something Dale? Yeah. It's been in the in the works for many years. I've been here a little over four years and it was already in the works before I got here. Um, CALR has the same problems other people do with staffing and being able to deliver on their projects. Um, this

project got transferred between multiple project managers who I talked to a bit and then they had to new people basically pick it up and and move it along. Um it ended up being kind of a rush project at the end because that their grants were going to expire on this project and that wasn't acceptable to anybody. Um they are going to be investing north of $30 million in Sonoma Boulevard starting you know July August and running all the way across the city from um the Carinz Bridge all the way to Mini Drive. So yeah but what is Napa doing? Because as you you know when you're in Napa, right? I'm not picking on you. I'm I'm picking on the the thing, you know, it's it's so d it's derelict, you know, the street and we really really really have to I mean that's why people don't I mean we're talking about economic development, all that sort of stuff, but infrastructure is is is a big thing for people to want to come and be here. And so whatever I mean is there something that we can do to help or planning or how I mean um that that's the thing with kind of what we're doing here is there's no buttons to push. There's just we talk a lot and I really I really wish that we could we could figure out how to help you. I'm not picking on you. I know what you're probably going through. But, you know, anything that we could do or or the planning commission can do to make Valleo better because over the last 10 years, we this it's it's going to hell in a hand basket. You know what I mean? It really is. And then we've got to we've got to figure out something. I mean, that's why I'm kind of sitting here hoping that somehow someway and I'm sure my other uh people are are too, you know, it's like otherwise we're just pushing paper around and and for the lack lack of a better we're talking you know what until we really make things change and that's what I'm I'm hoping

that's why we I wanted to see you and hear what what you thought about where our progress and all because it's just it's really a shame you know it is it's it's it's a shame you you know, I mean, for whatever, we could talk about short staff shortages and all these different things, but we've got to we got to show something to these people, you know. Yeah, I'm not picking on you. I'm just No, I'm good. I just um it's somewhat of a political question, right? I mean, in terms of talking to the council and talking to our elected uh representatives in Sacramento to talk about Valo and have Valo get prioritized by state agencies, right? Um, so yeah, we've been waiting on that project. We need to buy somebody some new suits and send them up there. Huh. I would have expected that project to be done by now when I first heard about it when I got here. So, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, thank you to Thank you very much. I appreciate your time, your effort. Yeah. Yeah. Any commissioners have any other questions or concerns? And do we have any? No speakers at this time. Okay, great. Thank Thank you for the presentation. And I want to thank the commissioners for driving a discussion to open this up for different ideas and even action items moving forward to uh where we can have some oversight on or some understanding of how we're measuring projects. And so I'm assuming your department will work with uh the planning commission, see what works, which makes sense uh considering cities do have constraints. So I figure I'm sure that we'll figure out the best approach moving forward. So again, thank you for giving us for the presentation and uh sharing action items how to move forward uh in terms of providing us a list at some point that makes sense with both departments. So thank you. Uh so we're going to move to um a

motion uh if you want a motion or that did it correctly or what we need a motion. Yes. Uh the motion to adopt this uh agenda item. 7 A. I'll make a motion to approve agenda item 7A. Uh the resolution finding the proposed capital improvement plan to be in conformance with the city of Lao general plan. You got it. Okay, I'll second. She didn't want to. I need one more vote. We We have four eyes and the motion carries. Right. Great. So, we're going to move on to uh the next agenda item uh 7B variance and sign permit. Uh so, we can uh staff if you will be able to give us a presentation for the project. You Okay. Uh good evening. Thank you. And I apologize for my voice. If you can just bear with me and try to get through it best I can. I'm Robbie Thcker, principal planner uh with the planning division. Uh this item before you is a request for a variance and sign permit for the Walmart neighborhood market. Uh tonight we're asking the commission to take action on the requested variance and sign permit. Um once again, this item is subject to the Lavine Act. Um, all parties, participants, and the

representatives must disclose on the record um of the proceeding any contribution more than $250 made to city officers such as the mayor, council members uh within 12 months prior to the date of the proceeding. City officers are prohibited from accepting, soliciting, or directing a contribution of more than $250 from a party, participant, or the representatives during a proceeding and for 12 months following the date of final decision. Uh, next slide, please. Uh, the project's located at the corner of Sonoma Boulevard and Sereno Drive. Uh, it's currently zoned central corridor commercial and is 5.2 acres in size. Uh, site is developed with a Walmart neighborhood market building and there are four points of ingress and egress including two driveways on Soma and two on Sereno. Uh, it is surrounded by commercial development on all sides. Uh next, just a little more background on this. Uh this building is 57,000 square ft tenant space. Uh was originally constructed and was occupied by the MVIN retail store. Um in 2013, Walmart did take over the tenant space and is currently operating. Uh next slide. Uh just a little bit of information on the permitting history with the signage on the building. Um, in 2013, the original signage was approved, which included the main Walmart, uh, neighborhood market sign and a pharmacy sign, but then in 2018, uh, Walmart went ahead and got approval for the, um, additional pickup sign and logo, and that was subsequently installed. Uh, and then in 2021, the city did adopt the current zoning code, which included a change in the development standards for signs. In 2024, the applicant submitted plans to update and replace the existing signs uh with new ones and add also a

new directional sign onto a parking lot light standard. Uh next slide, please. So, originally uh the reason why we're here today is the applicant submitted a sign permit application to planning in October of last year. Uh staff reviewed those plans and determined that the proposed signs um were out of compliance with the zoning code, the current zoning code. Staff then advised the applicant of their options um to get the signs approved, which uh included reducing the total square footage of the signs to comply with the standard. They could apply for an exception permit to grant an additional 25% of sign area. Or the third option would be to apply for the variance to allow the signs as they were proposed. And the applicant subsequently did apply for the variance on February 11. Uh next slide. Oh, I'm actually I'm going to skip this one because I'm going to cover it in a subsequent slide. Thank you. Um so here's the site plan showing where the signage proposed signage would be installed. would be along the main primary facade of the building, which is the north side of the building. Um, they would be in roughly the same locations as they were before, just kind of swapped around. Um, and then the, uh, sign P there on the site plan in the parking lot is where that, uh, directional sign would be installed. Uh, next slide, please. Okay. U,, this one shows the proposed updated sign schedule for the project and, um, shows each of the signs that are proposed. Uh that includes four new channel letter signs to replace the existing ones as well as the directional sign that I had mentioned. Um the total square footage proposed for these signs is 28.85 square ft. Uh next slide please. In terms of conformance with the zoning code, uh the project was reviewed

for consistency with all applicable standards. Um, the proposed signs would be securely affixed to the existing masonry with all wiring hidden from public view. The proposed signs would not be located within the public rideway. And further, new signs would be inscale and compatible with the existing building and would not cover any distinctive architectural features. Um, however, the issue is the project is inconsistent with regard to the maximum sign area allowed for signs. As proposed, the three building mounted signs, which include a total of 28.85 square feet, exceed the allowed maximum of 100 square ft for all building mounted signs. Uh, next slide, please. The project was also reviewed for um consistency with the general plan. The current designation is business limited residential, which is intended primarily for commercial and employment uses. The existing use of the site as a retail store provides employment, tax revenue, and retail goods and is consistent with the this designation. Uh the project supports several general plan policies as shown on this slide. Um these policies are directed at supporting development that is attractive and compatible with surrounding uses supporting employment and tax generating uses in the city as well as uh business retention in the city. Overall, staff finds that the variance and signed permit support these policy findings. Uh, next slide please. Um, this slide kind of gives a visual representation of what is proposed with the variance as and also um in con it shows comparisonwise with signage that would be at the 100 uh square foot max. As you can see from the visual, the code compliance signage is uh relatively out of scale with the building and is too small and is difficult to read, especially when considering the setback distance of the

building from Sonoma Boulevard and Seno Drive. Um, also note that the existing signage shown at the bottom of the screen is larger than what is currently proposed. Next slide, please. So, uh, findings for variance and sign permits. Uh, in order to prove the project, the planning commission must make the required findings for a variance and sign permit. Uh, staff's analysis, uh, has found that all the required findings could be made for the project. The current regulations limit the total building sign area to 100 square ft. The applicant has demonstrated that strict application of the 100 foot maximum standard would result in building signage that's out of scale with the building and would be too difficult to uh read from Sonoma or Sereno Drive. Uh the proposed signs are in scale with the building frontage and would be legible from the adjacent streets. Staff's analysis finds that the hardship exists for the property due to the size and configuration of the existing building on the parcel with application of the current development standards would be um difficult to make feasible. The building is set back a significant distance from Soma and Sereno Drive requiring building signage larger than 100 square feet to maintain adequate visibility. The project is consistent with the general plan and would not constitute a special privilege as the applicant is proposing to reduce the overall square footage of the signs on the building from what is currently there. Um, next slide please. Uh, in terms of SQA, the project is exempt uh, pursuant to section 15311A accessory structures on premises signs, the project is exempt from uh, further environmental review. Next slide, please. Uh, project was noticed pursuant to VMC section 1660208 and a 14day notice of this

hearing was published in the Times Herald mailed to all active neighborhood groups and all property owners within 500 ft of the property. Um, next slide, please. Staff does recommend that the planning commission find the project exempt from SQA and adopt a resolution to approve the variance and sign permit request based on the findings and conditions of approval contained in the staff report. And that would complete my presentation. I'm available for questions. I'm not sure if the applicant is attending. Um I don't know if they're online possibly. All right. Thank you for the pre presentation. Uh, and at this moment, we're going to open it up for a public comments uh through the chair. Manny's hosting another meeting in the room. So, that's what you just heard. So, great. Great. Thank you. Uh, in the meantime, while we're waiting for any comments uh from the public, do any of the commissioners have any questions or any concerns? Yeah. Is the applicant um tied into this meeting at all? Manny. Uh no speakers. Oh, one speaker. Yes. Oh, the applicant. Um Ryan. Yes, he is on. Go ahead and speak. I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hi, commissioners. My name is Ronnie Bar. I'm representing the sign the service company on this Walmart signage project and I'm here for any questions you may have. Um, uh, this is for

staff. I just I just asked if he was here if he wanted to present anything himself. Um was there a fee charge for this variance uh to the applicant? Yes. Uh the applicant did have to pay fees for the application. Okay. Just one more comment through the chair. after having to go go through this process myself with a business that I was uh um involved with. It's it's quite a crazy procedure and um we had to dr jump through a lot of hoops. So I I have absolutely no problems with this kind of variance for signage. As long as as they paid, I'm fine with it. Well, through the chair actually, uh the Walmart store there is in kind of a kind of a weird place and it it really does need more signage so that you can actually uh see it. Otherwise, you just go on down the American Canyon and not realize that it's there. So, I think it's a good idea. I would not object to uh what they are doing. It It looks tasteful and you know, it's Walmart. Yeah. Put a big sign out there. It makes money. I don't have any questions. So, do we have any comments um from the public? None at this time, chair. Okay, great. Thank you. I guess we can open up for a motion. 94. So, I'd like to make a motion that we adopt a resolution approving variance uh PLN25-000026 uh and sign permit

SP24-0011 as conditioned and finding the project exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act, SQUA, pursuant to SQA guidelines section 153. 311 brackets a accessory structures on premises signs and I will second that motion. We have four eyes and the motion carries. Great. Again, thank you for your presentation. Uh we will move to the next agenda item, written communications. Uh do we have any communications report? Um from Secretary St. Thank you, Chair. Um we did receive one written communication from the public which was from Paul Diaz, the gentleman that presented during the public uh commenting period uh where he did mention the whole inclusionary zoning ordinance and also about the renter package. Um, a copy was provided. Um, this email was sent directly to Commissioner Taylor and was provided to us and we provided a copy for the public out in the table in the back and also for the commissioners. I'll provide you a copy and then we will get this uh posted on our website as well. Great. Thank you. Right. And we can move to the next uh agenda item uh report of the presiding officers and members. Um we have a secretary report uh from excuse me from the city attorney. on the secretary report. Yeah. Uh thank you chair. Just do want to write remind the members of the planning commission about their cyber security that is uh cyber security training that is due on May 9th. Uh was assigned by our IT department and the reminder has been sent to all the commissioner city issued

emails. So please take care of that cyber security training. Um do want to remind the commissioners about the up andcoming training that will be held at the Solano Transportation Authority building in Sissum uh city on May 19th. So, if any of the planning commissioners interested in signing up, um it's going to be a planning commissioner 101 to kind of give an overview of what it is to be a planning commissioner and also the they will provide lunch um at the location and then the afternoon will be kind of case studies about affordable housing projects that um what it takes to build a housing affordable housing project and any real life development that has to actually happen. So, if any of you planning commissioners are interested in going, please sign up. I believe the online registration was sent out to all the planning commissioners uh city issued emails. Um that same day we do have a regular scheduled planning commission meeting. So if you're planning on going to the training, it's going to be a long day of planning commission, but we do have an item for May 19th, which is the Fair View at Northgate or the Costco project. There is a tenative map um to the request to subdivide um a parcel into three parcels. And then that same evening, the Maryland company is going to give a presentation on the development agreement update for both calendar years 2023 and 2024 where they just provided an overview of what they have accomplished for those calendar years. Um at the last planning commission meeting, planning and development services director Paul did mention the below land use entitlements or the value list. Um those have been posted to our city's website and was also an attachment to the secretar's report. Um the value list essentially gives an overview of which projects the planning division is currently working on to all current development projects. The list does include projects that were previously approved by both the director and the planning commission. Um and does provide projects um that we're currently

working on and some projects that are in the pipeline that we are anticipating to be submitted in the near future. Um the second of the value list is the long range uh list and that kind of gives a list of like long range efforts that the planning division is currently working on or led by the second planning manager Hector Rojos. Um so there is um a list there of kind of like where uh certain steps are at for those like the specific plan updates um with like the accessory dwelling unit uh ordinance update. So that kind of gives an overview of what projects he's currently working on. Um so that concludes my secretar's report. So all that excuse through the chair. All of that is on planning's website. Yes, that's correct. Okay. You ever send out a a notification to us to just say, "Hey guys, take a look at this." Um I can definitely send an email out to the plan commissioners to kind of give you directly the hyperlink to where the value lists are located. Yeah. Thank you. And then also um just so that the planning commissioners are aware, we do have um pages set up on the planning divisions for like kind of larger projects. Okay. So it kind of gives an overview of what the project is, the staff contact and also the different stages of where the project is. So currently like on the list we have the Vista Cove which is the 51 unit subdivision in Glen Cove. We have the DXD self- storage project that's currently being uh reviewed for completeness by planning staff on Lewis Brown. Uh we have the uh project for a quick serve um car wash on Sonoma Boulevard um next to Highway 37 which is north of the what used to be Denny's. Um we're currently uh reviewing that for completeness and I believe there's also um the key be rolling with subdivision project information and all like all the

updates of where the projects are as well. So we're slowly but surely building that platform as well. So there's updates of where different of these especially these larger projects are currently at. And of course, um, that's where we will, uh, post any of like the sequent documents for public review, any notices so that the public is aware and can comment on that information as well. And I can include that link as well when I send an email out to everyone. Any commissioners have any questions or any comments? Or if not, we can go to uh the secretary, I mean the city attorney's report. Good evening. I have nothing to report. Thank you. Right. Sounds good. Thank you. All right. Uh report for the chairperson uh or members of the commission at this moment. I don't have anything to report on commissioner. All right. So we don't have anything to report. Uh and we do not have an ad hoc subcommittee. Uh so we can move to our next agenda item which is other if there's any other items or anything you want to bring up in this section here. It's not. I guess we can move to the uh final stage of our our meeting is uh adjournment. Oh yeah.