Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Watch out.

Yes. How are you? It's kind of lucky. It's not going to be a real content. Not that we're very content at all, but

supposed to work together. Okay, it's six o'clock. Why don't we go ahead and get started? Um, welcome to the meeting and plan commission uh for April 15, 2025. And with that uh let's move to the flag salute which will be led by commissioner de Jesus to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. For the next item, we're lucky enough to be able to uh have the uh oath given to two new commissioners tonight. I'll turn that over to Miss Chow. Thank you, Chairman Graeme. If the two new commissioners could please follow me to the podium below. Thank you very much. Please raise your right hand and repeat

after me. I please state your name. I, Darcy Thompson, do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic. and and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic. that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties on which I am about to enter. Congratulations, Commissioner Thson. Thank you. Okay, raise your right hand and repeat after me, please. I, and please state your name. I, Maria Jal, do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Do you solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic and and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. that I would that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or

purpose of evasion. that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. Congratulations. [Applause] Chair Grim. Commissioner De Jesus here. Commissioner Hastings here. Commissioner Joliff here. Commissioner McCarthy absent. Commissioner Martin here. Commissioner Thompson here. And Student Commissioner Lieberman and Student Commissioner Basso. Thank you. Okay, next item in the agenda uh is approval of the minutes from the meeting of March 18th. Uh any changes or if not, could I get a motion, Commissioner Hastings? Uh I want to put on the record that I although I was not here for the last meeting, I did review the entire recorded version of the meeting and therefore I will be participating in the

vote for this the approval of these minutes. And I make a motion to approve these minutes of March 18th. Commissioner Martin, I'll second the motion. Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor. If you'd cast your votes, please. And then lock them in. And the item passes unanimously. And um Commissioner Thompson, did you abstain? Was I supposed I think so. Okay. You do it again. Everybody locked in. Very good. The motion passes uh 40 with two abstensions. Okay. Uh, any changes to the agenda tonight? Good evening, Chairman Green. No changes tonight. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is oral communication and this is an opportunity for the public to speak on matters that are not on the agenda and it's a time to come forward. uh if you want to speak uh at some point you will need to complete a speaker slip and hand it to our uh secretary when you come forward and uh when you do come to the microphone please state your name. So if anybody wishes to speak on matters not on the agenda please come forward now. Seeing none let's move down the agenda to our first item. um like to explain the process for those of you that are not familiar with the public

hearing process. The first item on our agenda is a public hearing. Um the way the process works is that first staff will give a presentation on the item. The applicant, if he so chooses or she so chooses, will give their presentation. The commission then may ask any questions of the staff or of the applicant. And at that point, we will then open the public hearing up for public testimony. Following public testimony, we will close the public hearing. After that, the speaker um excuse me, after that, the planning commission can question uh and discuss the item and um from that point, we'll take action with a motion. So, that's basically the process. So, the first item on our agenda tonight uh is a special use permit uh located at 1257 Activity Drive. And if we could get a staff report, appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chairman Grim and commissioners. Uh the applicant for this project is Zenergy Brands Corporation. The planning case number is P240014 and is a request for a special use permit for a cannabis distribution business at 1257 Activity Drive. Uh project summary here. The proposed use for cannabis distribution will utilize an existing light industrial building located within the Vista Business Park. No interior or exterior construction is proposed for this project. The proposed hours of operation for the distribution business would be limited from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and business operations are anticipated to require one to three staff members. The land use and zoning for the project site is it is designated as research light industrial in the Vista general plan. Uh it is zoned under the Vista business park specific plan is area B research light

industrial. Uh the slide on the left shows the particular building and a street view on the right. Uh it's part of a uh building cluster within a multi-building and intended complex. This site plan uh shows the existing building. It's uh just over 5,000 square feet in size. It's currently co-occupied by RKI Packaging, which imports and and does distribution of plastic bottles. And a prior special use permit was issued for this location and the energy corporation for cannabis manufacturing May 2nd, 2023. Uh this shows the interior floor plan which is made up of the manufacturing, secure shipping, packaging room, uh business offices, employee areas and secure storage areas. Uh the building all exits are locking and controlled and there is a security camera system in place that covers all of the entrance and exit exits to the building. For a cannabis distributor license, uh, it requires a type 11 license issued by the Department of Cannabis Control. Type 11 distributors can move cannabis and cannabis products between cultivation, manufacturing or distribution premises. They are allowed to move finished cannabis goods to retail premises and they can provide for storage services to other licenses. They can also arrange for testing of cannabis goods. Additional project details. The building has existing interior and exterior security measures installed, including a camera system to meet the requirements of the Department of Cannabis Control. The proposed distribution business would utilize one cargo van that would be parked on site and operated by the Zenergy Company owners or staff. The vehicle would access a rollup door at the rear of the building for loading purposes and

occasional indoor secured parking. There are nine parking stalls at the front of the building. Business operations would typically be conducted by three staff persons with no more than six persons anticipated at any time. Therefore, staff parking plus uh parking of the cargo van can be accommodated on site without impacting neighboring businesses. Under the city's code requirements, cannabis distribution requires a special use permit under chapter 598 of the Vista Municipal Code. uh section 59860 limits or caps the number of cannabis enterprise licenses that may be issued for cannabis distribution businesses at a maximum of two. Currently, there are no active uh other active cannabis businesses. So, if the planning commission grants the current request for a special use permit and the applicant implements the proposed activity, it will be the only active SUP for a type 11 cannabis distributor in the city and one one additional cannabis distributor could be allowed in the future. If the SUP is granted, the applicant must subsequently obtain a cannabis enterprise license from the the city and from the Department of Cannabis Control. Uh under environmental review, the project is exempt from SQUA as an existing facility. This exemption applies because the project uh involves the establishment of a new use with an existing light industrial building. It does not propose the use of volatile substances or highly hazardous materials. It would entail negligible or no expansion of the existing use of the property. Therefore, it would not result in any significant environmental impacts. Um, under public policy consideration, the cannabis distribution use would be compatible in scale and operational car characteristics with the sur surrounding industrial land uses and the project is subject to approval of a special use permit and conditions of approval that

are included to ensure compliance with the city's development code standards and that property security measure proper security measures are implemented by the project. Therefore, the use would be consistent with the general plan land use designation for research light industrial upon approval of a special use permit. It should be noted that the city received a letter of opposition from one of the neighboring property owners that cited concerns having to do with uh use of their or potential use of their parking spaces uh loitering uh by unauthorized persons on the property in addition to potential for odors existing due the operations. Uh that letter has been provided to the commission. Uh staff's recommendation is would be to adopt a resolution granting approval of special use permit for cannabis distributor at 1257 activity drive uh with exhibits A and B. That concludes our presentation. The applicant and his team is here to answer any questions about the detailed operations. Okay. Okay. If the applicant would like to come forward with their presentation, good evening. My name is Armen Kukian. I'm an operating partner of Zenergy Brands Corporation. This is one of my partners, Amy Mi Kit, and my other partner, Jaxter Isip. First of all, I would like to thank Mr. winners for his beautiful presentation. He hit everything dead on and I'd like to thank you all for for hearing us tonight. Thank you very much. Um, as far as addressing the issues that the the neighbors complained, we we are not planning on operating a B2C business. We will not be entertaining any customers on site. Everything that we do, all the sales will be email or telephonically conducted. So, so there's nobody's going

to be coming there other than us working there. Um, as far as people hanging around, loitering, that's not going to happen. We're not going to we don't anticipate it and we will not allow it. Um, there was another issue as far as smell. We we we know that in this business there's always smell. So, we've put in place filters that will prevent any type of smell. And we will we will regularly conduct uh our own analysis and if there is a problem we will rectify it right away. Even before a neighbor complaints but absolutely if a neighbor does complain we will take care of it right away. We will be good stewards of the property there. Um prop uh parking nine spots available to us. Um we anticipate not needing any more than that at any given time. There will be no more than six people, seven people there max, but that's not norm. Normally, there will be like three people there. So, three cars will be there plus our van, four vehicles. So, we don't anticipate any problems as far as that goes. Do you guys have any additional questions for us? Uh, Commissioner Martin, I have a question, please. So, how does your business work now and how will this change it? You're already doing the manufacturing, correct? Yes. And so, you're manufacturing without distribution right now. Correct. So, how does that work? We use other people's transportation license. Okay. Okay. So, this will allow you to distribute your own product to retailers, right? Yes, sir. Without retailing on site, we're we will not retail on site. Absolutely not. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Jalof. Yeah, I had I had a really similar question. Um, it looks like you've had

the manufacturing uh permit for almost two years, right? And No, ma'am. No, almost a year. Almost three years. And has anyone ever brought up smell to you before? No, ma'am. Okay. And so would the volume of product in your space um increase enough that it should be a an issue or or no? It's hard to predict. We don't we don't really know. But if it does happen, like I said before, we will there's filters that we could put in place. We've already put into I have pictures that I sent to Mr. Wyinners of the filters that we're using. But if it if the volume increases and the smell increases, we were going to self police. We'll take care of it ourselves. And if we have to, we'll put better filters in there. But as of right now, there's no smell problem. Okay. And um could you enlighten all of us on what are the requirements that you're required to follow by the California Bureau of Cannabis Control as far as the smell? as as far as the operation. That's a is that really broad? That's a broad Yes, ma'am. Um, so to add on to what Armen uh has stated, Commissioner uh Joliff Joliff Okay, so right now everything that we're doing on site, I know that it seems like, you know what, we've had the licensing for three years. What have we done? So, um, Jex is going to give us an overview of what we've done and where we are. Um, but I want to remind everybody that because we have a manufacturing license, we don't have any raw products like we don't actually have trim there. We don't have we haven't intake in any flower. So before um any excuse me, we also don't grow. So a lot of times the smell is from growing. We will not do

any cultivation. We don't have a license to it or we don't have the inclination. So before we can actually intake any of those raw products, we have to go into metric and it has to come from seed to sale. So as of right now, um we're only intaking oil and crude that has already been processed and we're doing the post-processing part of it. Um there is less smell than raw product because when you have raw product, that's where all the tarpen and the smell comes in. And yes, um, owning a owning a trimming company, I can tell you that when you are working with raw products, you can smell it right outside the gate, but we're not working with that type of material right now on site. U Jax, you want to give them a quick overview of what we've done? I think she already mentioned or both of them already mentioned, but uh, thank you so much for having us here. um part part of what we do on the manufacturing side is also fulfilling some some customer brands. So this means that we don't have to process it. If we have the oil then we can make cartridge, we can make uh edibles, we can make other products but there's no smell to that. So it's basically packaging and then the raw material but the finished um product already that we just have to infuse. Thank you. Commissioner De Jesus. Thank you. You mentioned that you receive orders via email and telephone. Is that from the retail outlets or the general public? Uh not general public, but the re uh dispensaries or what we call dispensaries are the retail outlets. uh we we usually would get an email from them or a phone call or you know sometimes we probably can meet up but that hasn't happened yet. So but mostly

uh most of the product uh requests that we have are via email because we have you know our license at DCC is is visible to the public. So every time a a dispensary or a different manufacturer distributor uh sees our name then they can inquire and ask us via email or phone call. And all of the product is delivered based on these orders. Nobody there are there any retail um dispensaries that come to your place of business to pick up their orders? Uh we don't allow uh any retailers or distributors to come to our be distributors. Uh the the distrib Yeah, it'll be distributors. Um it's either they have their own delivery system that they can pick up the products from us or you know we uh deliver it to them with this license we'll be able to but with this license. Yes. Correct. Thank you Commissioner Thompson. So besides the fact that the raw materials that you use don't really m make smell. You're you package it so everything's in airtight containers the majority of the time that you have it. Correct. California law has uh child resistant uh packaging requirements that we will, you know, we strictly follow. Okay. So, there would be less smell because everything's in the packaging. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Great. Thank you. And I had a question as well. um you're required uh under your conditions to have security on site. Uh how how would that work? Do you hire somebody specifically or do you train your employees that they become a security? Tell me how that works. Um, based on our plan that we submitted to the city, I believe it was, uh, when we first started, you know, acquiring our manufacturing license, we do have a security company that we're going to be outsourcing

um, to do all of our security while we're in operation. Um, right now we're doing a lot of R&D. We're trying to get set up. We're trying to make sure our machines are calibrated. And right now we're not fully operational, but when we are, yes, we are requiring that we outsource this security company to come in and we did um submit a security plan. Um so they will be there on site for all of our business hours. Okay. And um to add up to that, the employees will be trained as well for security any type of security issues that may arise. Very good. Thank you. uh before you step down uh does the uh student uh commissioners have any questions? Not at this time. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate your presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you all so much. I have um no speaker steps from the audience, but if you'd like to uh speak on this item, please come forward. Seeing no one, we'll bring it back for planning commission discussion or a motion. Uh, Commissioner De Jesus. First, I'd like to say it was a great presentation. And the second thing is that I find it's interesting that since cannabis has been legalized um that we're learning all these different facets of distribution, manufacturing, retail, um we hear so much about the taxes that are generated and given to the city with the sale of cannabis, but this is the first time I've heard about the distribution and and whatnot. Um, to that end, uh, I I think it's, uh, interesting that we have just one applicant or one person that wants to use this permit and we have room for two. Um, I fully support, uh, the

applicants uh, conver uh, contribution to the conversation. So, we're feeling fairly certain that they've met all of the uh, guidelines that the city's outlined for them. And um, to that end, I'd make a motion, but I know that another commissioner would like to speak. Comm, excuse me, Commissioner Thompson. I I had a question for the city. Um, it said in the request from the sheriff's department that they would have 24hour access to live feed into their business and view them. And I thought that was really interesting that they needed that like 24hour access to just view in whenever they wanted. Um, I was surprised by that and like I didn't know if any other businesses in Vista were required to provide that kind of like access to the sheriff to so I just wanted to clarify that if that was like a special thing just for this business and why they you know felt the need to have that kind of access and would that violate the rights of any of the employees that are working there to be like viewed like that without cons like knowing yet it is specific to this business type. Um it hasn't been applied to any other businesses. When these codes were implemented about 5 years back, uh it was one of the security concerns to monitor any activities particularly at the entrances and exits of the business. Any employees would be aware that there are cameras inside and outside of the facility. Um but it is specific to this business type. Okay. And then would they have to notify the owners if they're going to view in or can they just like look in there whenever they want? The applicant might have some additional information on how that process works. I don't have those details.

I am Amanda Guy, assistant city attorney. Just for clarification, are you referencing on page 13 of 24 in the agenda packet condition 16 under video surveillance? Um, no, 16 says they have to maintain the recorded video, but it says um at some point, let's see, that they can just live feed in. Um, and yeah, I'm just looking for where that 20 20. Thanks. It says the video surveillance system shall stream a live feed accessible to the sheriff's department via secure internet portal for remote access. So, it just it didn't clarify like it didn't it didn't say can this like is this going to kick in if there's a robbery and they have a reason to like spy in on them, you know? So, I don't know. It just made me worried like worried that that seems like a really liberal access to like allow law enforcement just to like look in at that business whenever they wanted. I would concur with Chris's point that the place so employees and the business owner are aware this condition. Also, the placement of these cameras would not be in areas that we would consider private for purposes of violation of privacy laws. Okay. So, it is a a condition that is highly specific to a cannabis type use where we have more security concerns, but the placement of the cameras and the knowledge of the employees and business owner would negate the issue of privacy concerns. Okay? Cuz there was a lot of

coverage of the video cameras inside the building. So, as long as the people's rights are being protected and they're not being like spied on whenever they want. It It did seem vague. So, I just wanted to clarify their rights are protected. Very good. I believe uh Commissioner De Jesus has a motion on the floor and I would like a second if I could get one. What was the motion? Oh, you have you haven't clarified. Okay. Commissioner uh De Jesus, my apologies. Let me get to that page. I was looking at the surveillance. Thank you. Uh I'm going to make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-P24-0014 granting a special use permit for cannabis distribution at 1257 Activity Drive. Thank you for the motion. Do we have a second? Commissioner Hastings. I'll second the motion. Very good. We have a motion and a second in favor of the project. Please cast your votes, please, and lock in. Did everybody lock in their votes? I may have had a finger slip. I'm not sure. All of a sudden, my name was requesting to speak instead of a Should we start again? Let me cancel that and start again. Go ahead. Okay. And lock in.

Ah, there it is. Unanimous vote of approval. Thank [Applause] you. Thanks, Chris. Next item in the agenda is an early design review uh for proposed tenative parcel map and condominium um located at on the east side of Ocean View Drive at 169 Ocean View Drive in Vista. And uh real uh briefly, I'd like to explain the process. Uh early design review gives the applicant a chance to come to the planning commission uh and get early comments before they uh put a lot of time and money into a project to kind of get a feel for how uh the planning commission and the city feels about a project. And uh with that, I'd like to turn it over to staff uh for their presentation. Thank you, chairman. Okay. Good evening, commissioners, staff, and members of the public. The item before you tonight is an early design review planning case P250032 for a multifamily residential project at located at 169 Ocean View Drive. The uh purpose of the early design review process is to provide an opportunity for the planning commission to review in the initial proposal and provide preliminary advisory comments to the project applicant. The proposal has not been routed or fully reviewed by all city staff. Is review only in terms of basic zoning compliance. Applicant will answer specific questions about the project design and the thought process behind the initial proposal. No formal vote or action is required on necessary for an EDR

item. Um some basic about the project scope. Uh the project is the preliminary proposal to develop a multifamily residential project consisting of six units on an approximately 2 acre site located at 619 Ocean View Drive. The site is currently developed with a single family residence with an attached twocar garage. Proposed site improvements include four three-story buildings with attached garages for each unit, a new driveway off Ocean View Drive that provides vehicular access to private attached garages, sidewalk, perimeter landscapings and residents common open space areas. This is the map of the uh project's location. The project is uh the project site is currently zoned downtown Vista specific plan historic downtown subd district. To the north and west of the site is downtown vista specific plan. To the east and south of the site is R1 zone and R1B zones. Here is an aerial view of the project site looking southwest. Here are some photos of the existing site. Um, these two photos are taken from Ocean View Drive. The bottom left photo is taken from um a private driveway of the adjacent property. And this uh the bottom right photo is taken from the existing residence looking to Ocean View Drive. surrounding land uses. Uh to the north is uh Ocean View Drive and Park Avenue's apartment. These apartments are not built yet. They have been approved

but um are currently in grading plan check. To the west is uh single family residences. Further west is a bank and in an event venue. To the uh to the east and south are single family residences. Some specifics about the proposed project. Uh the project proposed four detached residential buildings uh consisting of two one-bedroom, two twobedroom and two threebedroom units. Proposed density is 28 dwelling unit per acre. Zoning allows 40 dwelling unit per acre. Proposed height is three story and 33 feet high. Uh maximum uh high allow is 35 ft. Parking uh there are 13 parking spaces provided. 12.5 spaces are required per uh per downtown Vista specific plan. Open space uh 1,200 square foot of open space is required with a minimum of 33% as private open space for each unit. 3,628 ft of open space is provided consisting of 1,524t of common open space and 2,14 ft of private open space provided as balconies and roof deck areas. Here are the site plan of the proposed project. The projects propose a driveway from Ocean View Drive to provide vehicular access to six garages. There are also three surface parking spaces proposed. Building A and C consists of a three-bedroom unit for each building.

Building B and D consists of a two-bedroom unit and a one-bedroom unit for each building. This is the uh proposed landscape plan of the project. Uh there are two common open spaces uh proposed. Uh the front open space uh facing Ocean View Drive includes a um outdoor lounging, an outdoor dining table, and a barbecue counter. The back common open space in the back of the site um includes outdoor seating, outdoor dining table, a fountain, uh play area and an off leash dock area. This is the first floor plan of all units which show the driveway and parking garages. The one-bedroom units would have onecar garage. The twobedroom and threebedroom unit would have twocar garage. This is the second floor plan of all units which show the bedrooms and bathroom of all units. This is the third floor plan which showed the kitchen, living room, dining rooms and balconies for each unit. This is the roof plan. The two unit uh two-bedroom units in the building B and D in the back would have uh rooftop deck areas as a private open space. Um here is the inspirational bore for um the architectural design of the project. The design is inspired by retro hotels with flat roofs, vibrant colors, and large glass windows.

This is the perspective uh elevation looking northwest at the project from Ocean View Drive. The buildings would maintain an off-wh stuckco exterior finish colors such as dark red, yellow, orange, browns are also proposed. Uh architectural elevations of building A and B looking from the project driveway. Exterior enhancement include fiber cement sighting on the roof trim facads, garage doors, window and door framing, balcony flooring and columns. The balcony would include u metal railing and straight structures. Architectural elevations of building A and B looking east. Architectural elevations of building C and D looking west. And architecture elevations of building C and D looking from the project driveway. And that concludes staff presentation for this project. Uh staff requests that the planning commission provide comments to the applicant related to the proposed design of the project. No formal vote or action on this item. Thank you very much for your staff report. Did the applicant have any initial comments or just wanted planning commission? Very good. Okay, we turn it over to planning commission discussion and I think as the planning commission remembers and some of the new planning commissioners, we sort of have a um um a path to go through. We start out with uh comments on the site plan and grading and then we go into um parking and access and then floor plans and architecture elevations and landscape

and amenities and then just overall comments. Obviously, if you get going on one comment and you come into another area, it's it's really not that that important. So, why don't we start out with comments on site plan and grading if there are any seeing none, uh we'll move to the next category, which is um parking and access to the site. Commissioner Hastings, I'm not sure if this is exactly the right place for this, but in the um what was the decision to have covered parking and open air parking? Was it a a design issue or some kind of aesthetic thing or what? No, no. If you're going to speak, please come forward. Thank you. My name is Logan Anderson. I'm the architect on the project. Um, I'd say it's mostly due the the applicant owner developer wants to have garage parking for all the units or whatever and then the additional parking would be the uncovered exterior parking. So, it's only additional because I mean it's still required to have that many parking. Yeah, but it's but just from the from a standard use of a one-bedroom home, one one garage space, a two-bedroom home, two garage space, a three-bedroom home would only, you know, two spaces kind of make sense for that.

So, it's the per the parking ratio, I believe you get uh that's where those additional guest spaces come in. And that's for those we weren't going to do garages. Okay, thank you for that. Um, I think that you're going to end up those are not guest spaces. Those are residence spaces because nobody has one car anymore, right? Two people in a in a residence. Okay. Any other um comments under um this category? Uh if not, let's move on to uh floor plans and architectural in um elevations. Commissioner De Jesus, I have a question for Daisy. I don't know if you know this um or not, but the Park Avenue, is that Park Avenue across the street? those the future uh apartments across the street that builder is creating all this parking around it. Um does anybody know if that is permit parking for that or is that going to be open public parking around that development? Because I'm thinking the overflow from this property will definitely be using those parking spaces across the street um because it's just going to be a natural course of parking and take up some of that. Um, so this project has met the requirements of the zoning. So there's really nothing we can say about that, but it will impact that parking for that other project across the street. And I was just wondering if that is permit parking that that developer is creating at that other project. Commissioner Dejus, uh, I can address that. Uh, confirmed with staff, those are actually open public parking spaces.

Commissioner Martin. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, so, Mr. Anderson, it's a it's an interesting design. Uh, and I appreciate, you know, what you brought forward. I'm not totally convinced that a midcentury motel theme is really consistent and compatible with the rest of the neighborhood. Um, but I'll I'll stay open to it. I like the floor plans. I like the roof decks. Um, I think it's generally well thought out. Um, so to me, it really comes down to how is this thing skinned? You know, what what does it look like? Um, and the biggest problem that that I have is with the streetscape elevation, the front elevation of those two buildings. Um, so this building on the right, I realize you've got the uh common area directly in front of it. Um, so you know, maybe that works. The building on the left though from the street has that big L-shaped blank facade. Um, and what I wouldn't want to see, what I see sometimes is where just the use of bold colors kind of kind of substitutes for architectural materials or design. Um, and you've got some pretty bold colors here, but you've also got the materials as well. Um, I'm just kind of struggling a little bit, but especially with that front elevation. Okay. That's all I have for now. Commissioner Hastings, um I have some questions on this front elevation. When I look at it, this the the first living floor which has um a lot of glass,

right? And that's the bedrooms. Correct. Correct. So that they have more access to open views than the living rooms which are upstairs which are upstairs having in theory a better view. Do they have a better view? I was wondering about that. How like how high is that that Well, I don't think there's out over the the You're not seeing the ocean from anywhere here. But so so what's a better view? Yeah. Well, but but that just seemed like that's a lot of that's western facing too, right? It's a lot of sunshine in your bedroom. I like light. So I als I have another question about access internal access about um stairs and versus it's three floors to get up to the haul up your groceries right so is there any other thought about elevators or just they take up a lot of space I mean part of the concept here was in the quantity as you heard were under the dwelling units that we could create. But if you go to eight, you trigger accessibility requirements features within the structures. It opens up a whole new game. You start losing habitable square feet just to meet accessibility requirements. So, it's a tight site. The developer wanted to stick with the maximum amount of units that wouldn't trigger getting into having to require certain accessibility features which just enlarge every space incrementally and ultimately takes away from just usable space. Uh you bathrooms are bigger, kitchens are limited in how you

can design them. they don't become representative of a single family home that's just in a different shape or whatever. And so he wants to maintain kind of those features as opposed to what would more or less result in like a hotel feeling if you had to, you know, incorporate all the uh disa chapter 11 disabled access requirements. And I'd say in general to all of you that this is as mentioned because it's the EDR and we didn't you know there's a lot of development left to be done you know but we're and is I would agree I'm not in love with the elevations myself but they're not there yet and it's no sense in if we're too tall if we're too big if we're whatever the elevations don't matter. I do appreciate hearing your opinions on those though because that's, you know, good good information. Thanks. Okay. Um, I had a couple comments myself. Uh, one is I I pretty much agree with what Mr. Martin or Commissioner Martin said. I think when it comes to the theme, uh, you know, you hit the mid-century hotel theme pretty well. The problem is from somebody that lived back then is that it kind of appears inex inexpensive to me, but that may be resolved by what you just said in terms of you're not done. Yeah. But um so that was that was my main comment that maybe you can do something to kind of, you know, make it look a little more more expensive maybe. Um expensive probably a bad word, but at least maybe fit in more with the with the neighborhood. Um that was my comment and um if there were no others I'd like to ask the student commissioners if they had any comments on so

far. Very good. Okay, let's move to the next category which is landscape and amenities and commission if you had one for the last time that's fine. Commissioner Joliff um kind of echoing some of the comments that have already been made. I I would be very interested what the residents in the neighborhood think of the design and the colors. Um and maybe even just different a different color palette might help it fit it better. Um but also access. So, um if if they would like to consider adding something ADA, um Vista's talked a lot about people aging in place. And if everything is stairs, that's going to limit it to young people, young families. Um anyone can become disabled at any time. So, you could break your leg and have a lot of trouble with those stairs. Uh so just something to think about if maybe it's one unit uh maybe not all the units. Um but just something to think about. Thanks. Okay. Any further comments? If not, I just uh I had one additional comment and that is um I think the use is great uh for what you're trying to do in terms of bringing some density down into that area which helps feed the downtown area. So, you might let the owner know. That's appreciated. Okay. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Hastings, I'm a dog. I have a question about the dog. I like having the I was trying to figure out how much of that tell. It's not real big, but nothing on this on this property is real big or whatever. We did the landscape design

kind of came in late and that actually is by far the most developed design but simply because it was a easier pallet. Um and that was kind of thrown. We originally had a parking space back there, but due to the private street, we don't have access and, you know, to to try and bring something new to the neighborhood and ask for access was odds are are lower than you'd like on that or whatever. So we we kept everything there and then decided it was just going to be a grass area, but the landscape architect proposed the dog run or whatever and we thought, "Yeah, you know, so make it as big as you can, you know." You're welcome. Very good. If there's no more comments, um before we close, I just wanted to make sure that you have a pretty good feel for what the planning commission's comments are. And yeah, I do. I think um as a last statement from you know I too was hesitant to the 1950s motel is the developer kind of you know inspiration or whatever I'm working with his inspo boards. Uh, I kind of told him that the form and all that is, you know, it's challenging to make the features of what's synonymous with a 50s hotel work, especially if you don't just have a long side or balcony kind of leading you into it or whatever. But, you know, I think that at this stage of schematic design, uh, you know, that's TBD, but we're just kind of hoping to understand whether or not, you know, we it seems like we are in compliance with all the different zoning regulations with respect to size and respect to height and all that. And so, you know, a positive response to that allows us to then now

really hit uh the gas pedal on on refining this. So, that's the intent anyway. Okay. Very good. Well, thank you for your time, Chairman Grim. I'm sorry. Uh there may be folks in the audience that would like to speak, although there are no speaker slips that we received. I just wanted to give an opportunity or for you to be able to ask a question if anybody here would like to speak on this item. Yeah, please come forward. Thank you. So, my name is Anginette Williams. I live at 165 Ocean View Drive. This building is going to be proposed to completely encapsulate our home. We've been at 165 Ocean View Drive for the better part of 20 years. We have seen great development in the city of Vista. We love the work that's been being done downtown, but we also love our home and our privacy. What is proposed, I would ask that you please consider, is on two of an acre. I just put a window in my living room that's going to now face a concrete wall. There is no possible way that parking is not going to impact our culde-sac. Our culde-sac is five houses and half of this building right here is going to narrow in the space of our easement which is barely accessible by firetruck. Not to mention that the infrastructure of the culdesac of 165 is 75 years old, which the city of Vista comes out every month to maintain. Most of the plumbing and the piping in the entire culde-sac, including 169 Ocean View Drive, runs through each other's

properties, including the water, which comes up and above through my property to the neighbor above me. I think this is far too compact of a project. I am all for development and I'm a little disappointed that the owners of this property isn't here because I would like to take the commissioners and w introduce you to the people that bring up the trash cans currently at 169 Ocean View Drive which are all sitting in here so that the property at once on Ocean View Drive is clean. Thank you. Um, before you leave, have you had any discussions with the uh developer at all? No, nobody's asked us anything. And actually, I would love to know who the owners are because it's currently a VBO. This last week was absolute insanity with the people renting the property absolutely drunk and out of control. So, just a overall disappointment. We knew the owners before that. We knew the owners before that. Like I said, we've been here 20 years. Great. Thank you for your comments. I appreciate it. And you'll have obviously this is not the last Yeah. Thank you. Just as a reminder for everybody that's speaking tonight to please uh uh remember to fill out a speaker slip before you walk along. Thank you so much. Good evening. My name is Janine Far. I'm at 161 Ocean View Drive, one of the five in the culdesac. And I did have a question regarding um the plat line. There is some notes about a utility lines. Our utility lines run alongside

that alley and um kind of the uh it looks like an easement there. is that if from looking at the new ones, they're not there. Where what's going on with the utilities? Okay. Um did you have any more to speak on or is that your just now? And then my other concern is is there any easement on the change in the alley because of the concern of the fire trucks coming up to our residents. Those are the major concerns in addition to the height and the density. Thank you so much. Thank you. Not sure if staff at this point wanted to make a comment on that. I think at this point uh Chairman Graham uh just to as a reminder to the commission this is an early design review. There are a lot of topics on this particular project that we don't dive into details at this point such as utility easements. Uh that is something that as the project moves forward through a formal review cycle, it'll be distributed to all the disciplines that normally look at all these issues and at that point uh the staff will be able to uh better ascertain whether the issues that are concerning to the residents here tonight uh and have more clarity on those as it moves forward. Very good. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to speak, please come forward. Hi, council members. My name is Jennifer Perez. I live at 159 Ocean Drive. Um, I've lived there for 16 plus years. Sorry, can you hear me better? Thank you. Um, I'm also a small business owner in Vista. So, we're very established in the community. Um, my husband fam husband's family has lived in Vista since the 1970s, having moved from East LA for the quiet, familyoriented community the city is known for and still is to many of us.

I'm here tonight to share our concerns about this proposed development at 169. Um, if you refer to the images that this lovely uh PowerPoint had, you can see our driveway runs up like my neighbors have also said, very tightly impacted by this property. Um, so we understand that change is inevitable and like my neighbors, we do love the changes that have been made to downtown. Um, and we know that this house will be replaced. But I urge you to consider the context of this development. This area is part of Vista's historic downtown. Replacing a 1940s home with a modern, multi-level structure disrupts the character and the charm that makes this neighborhood so special. If we're going to build something new, it should reflect and respect the aesthetic of the area. What's happening here feels like another example of gentrification and pushing longtime residents like myself, my neighbors, and my friends away from the heart of Vista. Yes, our city needs more housing, but there are more suitable areas for developments like this. Places like Shadow Ridge area would never allow a four-b building, six-unit condo complex alongside single family homes. Why is our neighborhood treated a little bit differently like that? So, let's consider the bigger picture. With the church nearby being torn down and over 240 units being planned, we are faced with serious congestion and overdevelopment in a really dense part of the area once those apartments are built. Six more families packed into the small lot only adds to that problem. So, it's important to note that the the developer does not live in Vista. He lives in a city that's already been gentrified and I grew up in that city and I can tell you that firsthand how quickly a community can lose its identity and Vista's headed down that same path. We love our city and we want to preserve that small town feel and a

fourstory building on a tiny tiny lot is just it's too high, it's too big and it affects our safety like my neighbor said with the fire trucks and whatnot. Um but just the comfort of where we live, it's so quiet. It's beautiful. It's full of greenery. It's open space. And just all this compactness is just too much for our little area. So, thank you. Thank you for your time and your comments. Appreciate it. Commissioner De Jesus. Hearing the neighbors is it's always hard because we look at the property and the zoning. And if you Daisy, can you go back to the slide where it shows the zoning for the downtown specific plan? Uh you should that Yes. See the site there? When land is zoned a certain way and a developer comes along and puts forward plans that meet that zoning. And we don't like it because I mean you have great reasons up here. you you made great points. Um, and we say, "Well, that's I I empathize with you and therefore let's not allow it, but it's zoned for that." Then we take the risk that maybe the city gets sued because we had a zone that was meant to be used for development and we're not allowing that development. So, just to the end that because I support the motion, it's because it's part of the zoning. um the developers presented a project that is not asking for a variance. If there was a variance request, meaning an exception to the rule, it would be easier for me to say, you know, I don't agree with that because it's interfering with these folks that live right next door. And you are always the ones that are the most impacted. People that are next to zoning

like this suffer the consequences because the zoning is meant to allow for more density. And uh not to give a civics lesson, but cities are really being um the state is mandating that we increase density. This isn't something we just decide let's let's ruin the aesthetics of the historic downtown. The states mandated that we increase density. Staff goes to great measures to try to make sure we have that opportunity to meet these requirements. And in doing so, these sorts of projects come up. And just to that end, I I feel like you're owed an explanation of why we pass some of these things because they meet the requirements and staff has done an extensive deep dive into the zoning and we can't change zoning in the planning commission. Right? That's not that's not the purpose of the planning commission. So to that end, I just wanted to say that I I sympathize with you. I own two businesses here. I live in Vista and I enjoy some country fill over off Mar Vista and Phillips. So, I I hear what you're saying, but I I just thought that should be known that it it's not that developers are everybody's best friends. It's that that that's what the zoning allows and the project that's been presented meets those requirements. Amanda Guy, assistant city attorney, just for clarification, there won't be a motion on this particular item because it's just early design review. And and to Pat's earlier point, there's still a lot of staff review that has to be done to examine these things in detail. Very good. With that, uh we'll conclude that item and um I hope uh you can pass that information on to the developer. Okay, moving on to the next item uh which is election of uh a chair and a vice chair. Um I think as you guys remembered um a year ago I mentioned I only was wanted to serve one year and um our vice chair is no longer on the

commission. So it's uh open totally open for both the chair and vice chair and um Paty I don't know how you want to if there's a you have a method you want to do or should we just take nominations off the uh off the floor? Oh I'm exc sorry. Uh Commissioner Martin. Well, if Paty doesn't have some other methodology, I'd like to make a nomination. Yeah, I was just going to leave it to you to the commission to decide how you want to, you know, put any names on the floor for consideration and go from there. Commissioner Martin. Okay. So, um, some of you know and others don't that this is my second tour on the planning commission. And uh during my first time on the commission, I had an opportunity to be chair for several years and I found it to be quite a rewarding experience and always looking for, you know, somebody who's interested in in having that experience as well. And so with that in mind, I would like to nominate uh Commissioner De Jesus to be chair of the planning commission. Very good. Any other nominations? If not, um, please cast your votes. I'm sorry, Commissioner Hastings. Did you I was gonna I didn't know. Do you second nominations? If so, I would second it. Okay. No. Okay. Doesn't hurt to second it anyway. Okay. Everybody locked your votes. Okay. I'm not getting anything appearing on my screen. Not sure why. Uh let's do it again. Because you're not chair anymore.

Yeah. Taking me off. Okay. And lock in your votes, please. Outstanding. It's unanimous. Here we have a new chair. Great [Applause] choice. Uh, Commissioner De Jesus. I'd like to nominate um, Commissioner Martin to be the co-chair, Vice Chair. Sorry. Do I have a second? If not, I will second it and cast your votes, please. And also unanimous. Congratulations, Commissioner. [Applause] That was painless. Okay, that concludes um the regular part of the meeting. Uh are there any uh reports uh or comments from the planning commission? I have a question. So um I live close to Melrose and drive by the Black Bear Diner almost every day and I haven't seen anybody working there for weeks. Do you guys know what's what's going on with that? They're on the corner of Mr. the old Yeah. Good evening, Commission. Good evening, Chair De Jesus and Vice Chair Martin. Congratulations on a great job. You've all done amazing. And welcome to our two new

commissioners. Um Joe Vaka, community development director. And to answer your question, Vice Chair Martin, they've had an issue with uh replacement windows on the west side of the building. So, they've been in a holding pattern waiting for those to be delivered for an extended period of time. Okay. I was just hoping that you guys weren't holding up their inspections. No. No. I love Country Field. I'm dying to eat there. So, as soon as they open up, I'll be over there. While you were up there, Mr. Vaka, did you have any other um comments or No, just to thank you all for a great job and to welcome our new commissioners. Very good. Thank you. Other comments uh reports from the commission, student commissioners, um staff, just um reminder, I guess we will be having obviously a meeting in the near future. We're just not sure if it's going to be beginning of June. So, it looks like perhaps we may not have meetings in May. So, we'll see. Uh, but as soon as we know, we'll definitely notify the commission um and have premeings as required. So, very good. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Unless there's anything else, that concludes our meeting and we are now adjourned. Thank you very much.