 Okay, I'm going to go ahead and call to order tonight's meeting of the city of Santa Rosa Planning Commission and ask for roll call Please let the record reflect that all commissioners are present except Commissioner Peterson Okay, with that we'll move on to the approval of our August 22nd draft minutes any comments or corrections on those Okay, not seeing any of those will stand as printed Next we'll move on to public comments Which is a time for any member of the public to address the Commission on matters of interest to the Commission that aren't listed tonight as a Public hearing I'm going to go ahead and open public comments I don't have any cards, but you don't need to have filled out a card if you want to speak just move up to one of the Microphones I am not seeing anyone do that You're not about to do that, right? Oh, I do have a card. Okay This is for 10.1. So this is Just for public comments on items that aren't on our agenda tonight as a public hearing So I don't see anyone coming to the podium. So I'm going to go ahead and close public comments and Move on to planning commissioners report Any reports tonight from planning commissioners? Okay moving right along move on to department reports No department reports Chairs, let's go if I may just briefly I just wanted to announce to the planning Commission that this will be my last planning Commission meeting with Santa Rosa, I Will be leaving the city on September 27th. I have taken a position With the town of Windsor as the community development director So I just wanted to say thank you for all the years of working with each of you It's been a pleasure and wish you luck in the future Well, I for one am happy for you and sad for us. So congratulations and we're gonna miss you really really miss you So anybody else want to say anything to Jessica? Yeah vice-chair weeks. Thank you, Jessica for all the information You've provided over the years. I've been on the Commission and Our losses Windsor's gain and I know you're gonna do great up there But boy, are we gonna miss you? Thanks Anyone else? Yeah, Commissioner Diane? Thanks for all the all the hard work over the years and all your wonderful presentations on all your staff reports and whenever you were presenting. I knew we were in good hands because you knew all your facts and figures and were thorough and professional and Windsor's gonna gonna do great with you Okay, well thanks for Filling us in Before you're gone. It's always good to know before you people leave All right with that we'll move on to statements of abstention by commissioners abstentions tonight. I Will be abstaining from item 10.1 as I am on the board of the nonprofit. That's directly across the street from that project Okay, I'll also be abstaining from item 10.1 as I have a financial and appearance of bias conflict Okay, with that. We have no study session tonight. We do have a consent agenda and so I will call the consent agenda. It's item 9.1 this guy in farm unit 3 extension extension request and Mr. Rose you will be giving that item Reading the item for us. Yeah, I'll just read it into the record. Yes Item 9.1 sky farm unit 3 extension extension request 3875 and 3925 st. Andrews Drive file numbers EXT 18-0048 and EXT 17-0055 Okay Any questions from the commissioners on the consent item? Okay, great. That's good We have no speaker cards that I know of wanting to speak on that item Let me just check real quick and I don't so Would somebody like to? Move the Approval of the consent agenda Do we move the resolution? You just have to move the he read the resolution. So this is our new method 9.1 Of the consent agenda for approval Okay, and I think we need to comment that we're waiving for the reading of the text on behalf of mr. Rose Okay, actually one clarification. I read the agenda Heading, so there's a resolution. Yeah, there's a few different words. So I'm going to just you read the resolution Resolution of the planning commission of the city of Santa Rosa granting a one-year extension of time for the sky farm unit 3 tentative map located at 3875 and 3925 st. Andrews Drive Assessors parcel numbers 173-760-062 173-760-038 file number EXT 17-055 So there's a second Resolution of the planning commission of the city of Santa Rosa granting a one-year extension of time for the sky farm unit 3 Tentative map located at 3875 and 3925 st. Andrews Drive Assessors parcel numbers 173-760-062 173-760-038 file number EXT 18-0049 And that's it. That's it. Okay so with that you want to Restate your motion. I move that we adopt the resolutions the first and the second and Wait for the reading. Okay, and do I have a second on that? Seconded, okay, so the consent agenda was Moved by commissioner Duggan seconded by vice-chair weeks and your votes, please And that passes with six eyes commissioner Peterson being absent Okay, so With that we're going to move on to our public hearings for tonight beginning with item number 10.1 Which is the green pen dispensary conditional use permit? Commissioners Kahlia and Ocrepki are leaving the Dias It is an exparte disclosure Commissioner Carter any exparte. I have visited the site when it was before us previously I have nothing else to disclose I visited the site I met with the member of the neighborhood at his behest I viewed the Video from last time since I was not here at the last meeting, okay And vice-chair weeks I also visited the site and met with that two of the neighbors Nothing new to report and I also have Visited the site had conversations with the applicants representative and Met with one of the neighbors and I have no no new information to disclose on this So with that we'll move on to the staff presentation by Adam Ross Thank You chair Cisco members of the Commission. I'm Adam Ross City planner for this project. It is the green pen dispensary conditional use permit member CUP 18-080 located at 353 College Avenue a little bit before I go into it I Just wanted to again give a cannabis overview of the Cannabis ordinance overview I should say so personal use you're allowed six plans per residence Commercial cannabis businesses include one such as this which is medical and adult use retail with delivery Cultivation manufacturing level one and two one is volatile one is non-volatile Testing laboratory distribution again retail dispensary and delivery Microbusiness and special events. It was effective January 19th 2018 Cannabis retail means a facility where medical or adult use cannabis or Adult use cannabis products are offered either individually or in any combination For retail sale including an establishment that delivers cannabis or cannabis products as part of a retail storefront Also known as a dispensary and it's a state license type 10 It's allowed in commercial zoning districts and industrial zoning districts So this one is general commercial which is cg You have setbacks to sensitive receptors which are schools k through 12 of 600 feet Over concentration meaning you couldn't have two dispensaries permitted dispensaries within 600 feet of each other Part of the conditional use permit process includes a neighborhood meeting And then a public hearing such as this And then it should whatever decision that be Be appealed it would be appealed to city council Deliveries are allowed with a retail facility with a storefront There are no drive-throughs permitted Regular permitted hours of operation or 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Security entry must be visible from the street secured products entry and cash On-site consumption Is allowed with the use permit although this one is not proposing on-site consumption The required findings are the same as a normal conditional use permit where this one complies with all applicable provisions of the zoning code It's consistent with the general plan Compatible with the existing and future land uses in the vicinity It's physically Physically suitable for the type density and intensity of use It would not constitute a nuisance or be an injurious or detrimental to public health Interest health safety convenience welfare And it would be in compliance with the californ environmental quality act So that was just a little bit of background to For a refresh Again, this is cp18-080 green pen dispensary green pen llc They are a retail front for medical and adult use with delivery The use permit also includes Reduced on-site parking to allow six existing parking spaces for the retail business The total score footage is 20 2943 Square foot of the building 1772 square feet of retail space 338 of storage and the remainder for office employee administration and the delivery operations Propose hours of operation are within what is allowed by code 9 a.m. To 9 p.m It's in the northeast quadrant of the city. So east of highway 101 North of highway 12 There's a project location The ridgeway historic neighborhood Association is to the north The zoning for this project is general commercial historic combining district The general plan land use designation is retail and business services Bit of the project history The application was filed April 20th of 2018 The neighborhood meeting was held april 16th before that submittal A Staff issues there's the staff the project was reviewed and Application was deemed complete The planning a previous planning commission meeting was held on march 14th of this year 2019 there were several items that the commission wanted to Be addressed one being on-site circulation the the impact of the of the delivery services for the site and as far as trip goes and the operational of it and the impact to the Offsite employee parking and how that they're crossing college avenue from mendicino would impact Traffic to the area on june 18th Staff received all of that additional information And and moved forward with the public hearing process Here's the site plan You have entrance off of glenn street Here's college avenue the existing sidewalk There's currently an illegal structure awning here that would be removed to allow the ADA Compliance space and all additional spaces will be city required nine by 19 Here's the floor plan. So the entrance Here's the parking area the entrance would be here wait Waiting area before entering the retail space Everything is Secured you would have to show You'd have to show proper ID Documentation to be let into the site by security and then again at the counter There is a covered bicycle parking proposed 12 spaces here And this is secured access the break room office and vault Would not be accessible by any retail customers Is the front elevation I believe the This just shows a change in color To the site but no additional exterior modifications are proposed Here's the and here's the Building frontage as it looks from the Eastern side of glenn street on college avenue The building itself is built roughly 1962 Where parking requirements may have been different at the time Since then it's the building itself is legal non conforming Because it would be Very difficult It wouldn't meet current design standards as far as parking goes But uses since then have been in there However the Legal use legal non conforming use for the parking Is expired or they lost that with since the property was vacant for over six months Here's an aerial To show the reference this is roughly 1963 to show the How the site has really not changed much Since then And here it is. I believe this is a 2018 aerial So parking on the right this image you see it was Adobe and associates supplied by the applicant did a feasibility study to ensure that the Current sizing at least with the existing parking that they can have on site Will comply with current standards as far as size go And including the ADA space and the required five-foot walk walk ADA path of travel from the parking space And so this shows that it can be it can and will be compliant should approval be granted Overall the building is 2943 square feet and for cannabis retail it requires 200 for every 250 square foot Um one parking space is required so that breaks down to 12 parking spaces for the site Total existing is six that would remain the same That would be there's An illegal fence in the parking area. There is An illegal awning here the awning would be removed and the fence would be removed to maintain those six spaces So you're left with a 50 percent reduction Zoning code section 20-36.040 c2 Says when a building's use changes to a new use without enlarging the site No additional parking is required except to comply with current ADA standards that would apply if it was Retentating within that six month time frame. So that doesn't apply This is kind of a just a step-by-step process of how the parking was reviewed. I should I should have started with that um zoning code section 20-36.050 c1a Allows by right a parking reduction of up to 10 spaces or 25 percent when retenanting an older building and site with the new use Um, so they're over the 25 percent throughout 50 percent So with that it has to be included in a the conditional use permit application So again, this allows the review authority being the planning commission to grant that 50 on-site parking reduction With the findings of due to special circumstances associated with the operation of the use at its location The proposal will generate a parking demand different from the standard specified in table 3-4 And the number of parking spaces approved will be sufficient for its safe convenient and efficient operation of the use So i'm just going to list a few items that could go here by right where we wouldn't have a use permit application For this site if these were the tenants going in where parking were that first Where the new use that no parking adjustments would have to be made if it's a by-right use However, ADA standards would still have to be um would still have to be complied with as in the Entrance and access for ADA spaces. So a pharmacy Is similar one space for 250 square feet. These may be different intense uses with the same parking requirement They may be more intense with the same parking requirement, but these ones. I just wanted to highlight that they would not be Require a use permit to go To be allowed Use at this site An office business service is one per 250 square feet office professionals one per 250 square feet general retail That's a pretty broad Category one space for 250 square feet Furniture furnishings appliance equipment store is one space per 300 square foot of indoor space Plus one for each 1,000 square foot of outdoor space These ones may be a little bit more intense So restaurant coffee shop cafe with counter ordering is one space for 75 square feet Um a restaurant with table service is one per three dining seats. That also includes uh on-site alcohol sales A tasting room would be one per 250 square feet Personal services two spaces per customer chair or one space per 250 square feet, whichever is greater so That exercise was to show the types of uses that would go in that would not even be That that first Clause and the zoning code would allow them to go in by right and they those may be more intense or not and not require any sort of uh Parking analysis or or trip generation study So the applicants proposing six parking spaces on site one of them being a da Employee parking passes would be provided for all employees at the location The city parking garage is approximately 1230 feet away a Roughly seven minute walk using the safest walking route up Healdsburg avenue and crossing college avenue and proceeding to the project 12 covered bicycle parking spaces on our onsite approve our proposed Uh, there's sidewalk infrastructure and public transit surrounding the site There's an on-street loading space, which is a 24 limit with 24 minute limit Which is available for the applicant but not specific To the applicant Here's an image of the current Or the most recent image taken. Here's that awning that would go away. Here's the fencing that would go away Here's the front loading 24 minute again not specifically Provided for the applicant but they can utilize that And I believe that would be on a first come first serve base basis Some of the public comments from the neighborhood meeting As well as those from the previous planning commission meeting Are uh, we're about neighborhood compatibility Entrance to the site loitering increased crime proximity to schools odors noise traffic parking And there was a An opposition letter from county probation that was asked for which has been provided since then And and also a request for a peer review of the trip generation and parking study So some of those responses are um, I just want to back up really quick about the entrance is uh Some of the neighborhood has voiced their concerns over the the main entrance being in the back Instead of off of college And so if you look at the site plan Use this so the entrance would be back here. There is an entrance here but in order to In order to Use utilize that entrance at ADA upgrades would have to be made which would One put a financial burden on the applicant to being that It would require some Fasad improvements in the front that would trigger landmark alterations for the site and interior modifications And staff also looked at the difference between the entrance in the back As opposed to the front And found that that they still comply with code with the entrance in the back where it's visible from the street Even though it is off glen which is a concern from the neighborhood, but it still complies with code So the site is in a commercial corridor on college avenue The general plan land use designation is retail business service A lot of the uses are retail uses on college avenue It complies with general general plan policies eva 5 evd the location of the entrance complies with zoning code And that the site need only be visible from public right-of-way The project includes a security plan with security guard and nightly patrols Not just during business Open hours to the public Zoning code section 2046.080 d2 requires a 600 foot setback from schools and the closest school is approximately 1,125 feet away And a certified odor mitigation plan was provided Which includes administrative and engineering controls So for reference here the every orange dot is a school nearby I believe this is a charter school private school Continue I believe it's the term and correct me if I'm wrong if I'm politically incorrect But a continuation school and Santa Rosa high school and I believe another charter school And then as it relates to the project location There's no on-site consumption proposed with this project Proposed deliveries to the dispensaries limited to 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Daily distributed delivery is Conditioned to be 6 a.m. To 10 p.m. Daily all other FedEx office supplies and no early are no earlier than 8 a.m. Daily The applicant team has hired a neighborhood liaison in response to the neighborhood concerns And a trip generation and parking study by w. Trans dated september 6 2018 with addendums on march 7 2019 and may 16 2019 concludes that the parking supply provides provides Provided is sufficient for the use as proposed And in that's in the may 16 2019 addendum which was one of the requests from the planning commission to be looked into more was the the The delivery as it relates to the trips being the proposed The trips analyzed the potential trips I should say And that resulted in 20 fewer p.m. Peak hour trips than what it rates compare So here's a Quick image of the what was shown. So this p.m. Peak hour trips Is 44 with based on a a site observation from an existing dispensary in the city of santa rosa with Delivery services they anticipated that it would reduce this number by 20 p.m. Peak hour trips The reason why this is zero is that it's they cannot open until morning p.m. Am peak hour trips So again the trip hours were taken from other dispensaries in santa rosa with delivery So they calculated at 14.79 trips per 1000 square feet, which is 32 less than the It rates of 21.83 trips per 1000 square feet And it resulted in trip rates of 24 p.m. Peak hour trips for this for the for the project another one was a Some public comment was raised about the probation office Saying this this business would not this business could affect their Their Could affect Their ability to obtain grants for their operations And so that was included in the attachments With this project with this public hearing notice it wasn't received by staff until after the The last Public hearing was held So that's why it wasn't provided beforehand or during because staff didn't have that but since then we have provided that and While it does it is from a Sonoma county probation chief probation officer Their opposition for the project that it does not state anything about Not being able to obtain grants for their for their organization There is an additional request Made from a member of the public requesting a peer review of the trip generation parking study to Be paid for by the applicant staff's response to that is You know the project per staff's recommendation qualifies for a class 1 3 and 32 Exemption from sequa And a trip generation and parking study prepared by w trans Is w trans is a qualified and experienced traffic consulting firm And a peer review is not recorded as part of a sequa exemption process And the city only need only rely on one traffic report Two members of the public claim that staff this was provided to you In a late correspondence And so I just I added this in so that it would be part of the public record Two members of the public claim that the applicant staff removed trash and debris from a homeless encampment From the site and illegally dumped the items in the alley Three short videos were supplied as as evidence staff reviewed the videos and um The applicant claimed that their staff did not dump the trash and that debris in the alley and the individuals from the video work were um evicted Squatters from that location Um, and I have those videos if you would like to see them project qualifies for a class 1 categorical exemption Uh, as an it's because it's an existing private structure involving negligible negligible expansion of use A sequel class 3 categorical exemption As it involves a change of use where only minor modifications are made to the exterior of the structure And a class 32 infill development as it's consistent with the general plan and zoning It's less than five acres within the city limits. There's no habitat for Endangered rare threatened species. It can be served by all necessary utilities and public services and no foreseeable significant Adverse impacts to traffic noise air quality or water quality Are shown So with that The planning and economic development department recommends that the planning commission approve resolution CUP 18-080 to allow medical and adult use retail Cannabis cannabis dispensary at 353 college avenue in santa rosa As well as approve or reduce on-site parking Of six spaces under zoning code section 20-36.05 C1 b with the condition that parking passes to city garage number one be supplied to employees Of the business in 12 covered bicycle parking spaces be provided And i'm here to answer any questions and the applicant staff is here as well okay Mr. Ross, I know that most of us had trouble Accessing those videos, so I think to be fair to us and to the public and the viewing public if you wouldn't mind Showing those if you can so here is The people Being viewed in the video There's two more that i'll pull up. Okay. Thank you And those are the videos provided. Okay, great. Thank you Um commissioners unless we have any just clarifying questions I'm going to ask so we hold our questions still after we get the questions from the public. Okay Um the applicant like to make a presentation Thank you members of the commission um For just to reiterate what we said at the last hearing we concur with staff's analysis In representation of the facts we've gone through quite a few efforts in the last Several months in order to address questions from the commission I had with me dailene whitlock who is With w trans as a principal engineer Who i'm after i do my presentation and asked to overview the additional analysis we did for sidewalk traffic delays as well as Traffic and parking issues requested by the commission Additionally with us is joanna cedar She is the community liaison manager that we have employed to oversee the development of the community liaison program In order to show exactly how that type of program Can help with neighborhood relations The part of the bringing joanna on was that we also held a additional community meeting on monday There have been concerns brought up at the last planning commission meeting at the scope of the notice for the neighborhood meeting went to property owners And business owners but did not go to the actual residents that were neighboring the product property So using a different distribution list We went door to door and invited members of the community To attend the community meeting to be able to ask us one-to-one questions Is more of an open house and be able to Directly interact with us and meet joanna cedar I'm going to specifically address the transient Video and actually I should say that We affirmatively know that that individual in those videos is not employed were related to Our operation in any way shape or form I can't actually attest to whether or not they are transient or not We did bring up an issue with the property owner of transient encampments and garbage on the property prior to the community meeting but we don't have occupancy of Of the property and are seeking to fully execute our lease after approvals however Our community liaisons contact information was handed out at that particular meeting and the concerns around this trash was actually brought to her attention on tuesday morning After the after that community meeting. I think this is a good example of how this program will be intended to Roll out upon being contacted even before city staff had contacted me Joanna was able to work with staff within the applicant organization not the property owner and People went out from our organization and cleaned up the site and the neighboring alleyways of any trash. I drove by there Yesterday to confirm that the work had been done And it looked spotless So I Regardless of our current responsibility for the property or not We did take responsibility for this situation And I think that that is a good example of how we intend any issues in the future to be addressed With a standing community liaison that the neighborhood can have contact information for a relationship with and be able to contact As issues arise if they do I also want to emphasize the aspect of that program that we talked a lot about in the first hearing Which is that we're not just taking responsibility for our property In collaboration with the city. We've also agreed to have Our security guard patrol that neighboring alleyway in order to address the existing loitering and transient Issues that were identified in our original neighborhood meeting and either encourage people to move along or contact the police If there's any illegal behavior happening in those alleyways In reference to the parking and traffic conditions the change that's before you from the last meeting Is that instead of specifying six parking spots, which was the number necessary to meet the code parking We want to make it clear that our intent is that every employee of the operation Will have a parking spot at the city parking garage if they choose to drive Additionally our intent is that every employee who chooses to use transit or chooses to bike to work as we're providing 12 covered biking spots on the property will be provided with free transit passes in order to alleviate any concerns about utilizing Bicycles in order to commute to work Because of weather or other obligations. So we We asked for We have offered and are willing to accept both of those as conditions of approval as they're a part of our operating plan And we believe that they're important for the use of this property One comment on the entrance to the site That mr. Ross brought up the other aspect for putting the site on the back where it is that is the Door and entrance way that was used by the previous tenant and is the most convenient location for the ADA parking spot So it's not just about the improvements on the front facade on college that would be required to make To make the property ADA compliant, which are significant and require grading and a bunch of Additional issues because of the stoop, but it's also about making the establishment accessible in the Best way for anyone who comes who needs that type of an accommodation By placing the front door right next to the ADA spot, which would not happen on the front On the college frontage side Because those parking spots on that street are not there's street parking spots not ADA spots so with that i want to see the rest of my time to Dailene Whitlock and to just talk about w trains's work to Confirm the reduction in traffic from the delivery service Good afternoon chair sisco and members of the planning commission. My name is dailene whitlock I'm a principal of w trans here in santa rosa and we've been providing services to green pen throughout this process to help them determine what could be done to Offset the fact that the site has six parking spaces and the code requires 12 Spaces and the city would not get the ADA spaces and the other upgrades that they're making to the parking lot to make it more accessible There are also these other uses would also be able to come in at a higher trip to the park And What the dispensary is especially given that they're proposing A delivery service which can take a number of customers Trips off-site all-in-one delivery truck So we've looked at all of these things and one of the things that the city gets because this is a c up process Is an app for the delivery service So we've looked at all of these things and one of the things that the city gets because this is a c up process This is an applicant that is willing to Take into to transportation demand management program and do things like the off-site parking for their employees In the garage which I happen to park in every day. There's lots of parking there And also providing an abundance of bike parking spaces so that people can arrive Via bicycle and have a nice safe place to park The other thing is that in response to The project we looked not only at standard it rates but we actually performed trip generation studies here in Santa Rosa to find out What does it look like in Santa Rosa for the Dispensaries that already exist here how many trips are they generating and We found that that rate was lower than the it rate There are probably a couple of things going on the rates were predominantly collected based on data collected in Colorado during the first year or two of dispensaries being in place when they're only a handful So that's what we wanted to go you went to one of those handful Our expectation is that over time the number of trips that will be generated in any single dispensary will reduce as more of them are spread around the city so that people don't have to go Out of their quadrant to reach a Dispensary they can they can shop closer to home And that's part of what this does is by providing another site that's closer to a residential neighborhood that for the people who live there they can bike there With that if there are any questions, I'd be happy to answer them Okay, any quick questions of this with locker do you want to wait till after the public hearing? Okay, we'll probably have you back up after we hear from the public And that concludes our presentation. We are available for questions and will be available for questions after the hearing as well Okay, great. Thank you Okay, we're going to move to The time for the public hearing some of you have been here before some not so I'm just kind of explained to you how this goes I Will be Calling your name and calling the name of the next person to speak so that you can begin to queue up to the two microphones up there So that we don't have a lag time of waiting for somebody to stand up and walk up there I'm trying to keep the names At the forefront so you know when your turn is coming You have three minutes to speak I'm a very strict timekeeper so you'll see there's a light bar up there You'll see the green light go on You begin making your comments as it gets closer to the three-minute deadline It'll move to yellow and then it'll move to red and a buzzer will go off And I'm going to completely ask you to stop at that point I don't like to have to speak over you but to be fair to everybody You know get it in in the three minutes. It's it's completely possible to do that and do it well At the close of the public hearing That that ends your time to speak so what happens then is we Bring it back. We have the applicant come back. I'm keeping track of your questions your concerns and making sure that at the end of the public hearing the applicant and and their team have an opportunity to address whatever questions or concerns that you have as Well as staff so the applicant will speak first we'll go through those questions that are pertinent to them then I'll move to staff and Complete whatever answers may need to come from staff Your time to speak is has ended so please don't if you have another question occurs to you no call outs Don't interrupt our process. I think if you listen you and we begin to ask our questions you your Secondary question may get answered from our our pursuit of answers. So please don't interrupt the process by calling out Please don't cheer or boo if you don't like what you hear but give us an opportunity We're managing a lot of information up here and we can do it best if we follow this process If you Hear a speaker say something that you agree with again, you can raise your hand So inaudible Demonstrations of approval or you can put a thumbs down of disapproval, but keep it inaudible, please So with that I'm going to open the public hearing And our first speaker is Steve Kavali followed by Catherine Hodges Yes, my name is Steve Kavali. I've lived in the Richway neighborhood for 38 years live on Denton Way I come in and out of Glen Street several times a day Wednesday I Entered Glen Street, and I got Literally landlocked there were 10 cars coming toward me at 315 10 cars coming toward me, and I had already entered the street There was no place for me to go I managed to duck into a vacant right side parking lot Where I waited for about five to six minutes Where I had one car break and I ducked out of that parking place and made it down two more parking places Again had to pull over because there is no room for two cars to pass. It is just impossible. The street is so narrow There were several times I was honestly afraid that the side of my truck was going to get Scratched by the oncoming traffic that was very determined not to give up Their right to exit on Glen. They were coming from the schools You know I I just want to mention I don't know how in the world people are going to back out of that dispensary during rush hour times It's it would not only be dangerous To back out but nearly impossible and I would reference your 2018 aerial photograph that you put up There were two cars parked in that 2018 right across from the 24-minute loading zone if you have a car in that loading zone and you have two cars parked on the other side The most you can get through there is one car. That is it in one direction and I have asked the planning Commission and I would suggest again that if you can defer this Agenda a little longer, please some of you go down during rush hour during the 2 30 to 4 o'clock Time and just take a look and if not just go down and take a video of what's happening down there and bring it back And share it with your peers because I cannot imagine 44 more additional trips during rush hour The whole neighborhood is just grieved over this traffic study that doesn't really Realistically address the situation that we live with every day. Thank you so much Thank you. Mr. Cavalli Catherine Hodges is going to be followed by Tamara Stanley Hello, my name is Catherine Hodges. I am a fairly new addition to the Ridgeway district and I reside Two doors down from the proposed dispensary at 1117 Glen Street Our family is supportive of a business occupying the vacant space and we are pleased at some of the Proposed security and employee parking measures and bike measures that have been proposed I did have the opportunity to meet with the partners of green pen the other evening And I did also have the opportunity to meet with the neighborhood as well And I told both groups our biggest concern at this time are the Parking issues the traffic and its impact on the neighborhood particularly since Glen Street is a thoroughfare In addition to that Morgan Street, which runs parallel is also I mean thoroughfare from the JC area So That is our biggest concern. I know that there are pains being taken to address these but The reality is a difficult one. So we are Happy to have someone occupy the space but we are concerned about those things. Thank you for your time. Thank you Next is Tamara Stanley followed by Brian much Hi, good afternoon commissioners. I'm Tamara Stanley. I Work with the vista academy at the center for social and environmental stewardship at 401 college avenue And our entrance is actually on glenn avenue directly across the street from the project Thank you for allowing me to share some points that I hope you take into consideration when making your decision regarding the green green pen project Again directly across from our entrance green pen is planning on having an armed guard This is directly across the street from the facility treating youth with trauma and behavioral issues And I find that to be inappropriate Probation youth and their parents often have strong substance abuse issues Having this exposure as they enter our program across the street causes an immediate risk on a daily basis Vista academy is in the business of setting our participant our participants up for success If the probation youth we serve have even one puff of marijuana, they will go to juvenile hall Health and human services and probation have expressed their concern as as you've heard earlier And it is possible that our youth programs may not receive future funding putting our programs at risk of closure As someone who works across the street from this potential project I want to share that traffic is absolutely a concern as parking and traffic are already terrible throughout the day Especially in the afternoon as school is letting out I have no doubt that you will take these items in consideration When making this important decision. Thank you for your service Thank you brian much followed by ken basic Good afternoon planning commissioners. My name is brian much. I live at 245 korea street I almost standing here before you today as the chair of the ridgeway neighborhood association Pleasure to meet to joanna and wish we would have had the opportunity or joanna wish we'd add the opportunity to meet earlier My name bryan last name mch at gmail.com Do hope we can connect The neighborhood association's been involved since the neighborhood meeting in 2018 We've stayed steadfast at some of our concerns about the project To be clear, however, the neighborhood wants this building occupied We've never had a problem with a homeless concan't meant at that building in the past Yes, there's traffic on our alleyways, but we live in an urban neighborhood. We're used to that our neighborhood is between the gospel mission down on Downtown kind of redwood squaring and the armory. We're used to that thoroughfare. We're used to an urban neighborhood We're used to traffic adding 544 the net value more trips per day at that location in our mind challenges the ability of the planning commission To meet the findings necessary to approve this project. I bring your attention to findings d&e. I believe in your packets These seem to be high hurdles. I do ask you to carefully consider Your findings as you move forward and remember that the neighborhood supports development. We want this occupied. We embrace Our partners we work with the businesses throughout our community We live here all the time. We don't go back to another house We don't have the opportunity of keep on driving when the site looks a little sketchy That's where we walk our dogs. That's where we walk our kids To be honest It's also where we have to bike down the street and walk down the street and go places And so at the end of the day, we really challenge the assertion that you can have your findings to approve this project and See the rest of my time to these comments. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Munch Ken Pasek followed by matt shields Good afternoon. My name is Ken Pasek and I live on glenn street We also own rental property around the corner on career street Our neighborhood has asked green pen to repaint the building A more palatable color from the current three-tone green than it is The response was that it's an historic building in an historic neighborhood and of course, we know that that is untrue You can't paint the building if you want to um I have a picture we've all seen the picture Of the building painted painted a tasteful beige with black trim And so we know that we'd like the building painted that to its original color I was going to talk about the homeless encampment that's been in the parking lot for the last three months But since we've already addressed that I will move on About five years ago. I put in a new driveway and my rental property around the corner I put in new curbs. I put in new sidewalks I even replaced a gutter section in the street I had to pay the city money by getting a permit to do that I'm concerned now That green pens clients will be using my driveway to turn around in because when they drive down the short street So there's no parking in the parking lot. I'll be pulling u-turns in the middle of the street Or when they see my driveway they'll be turning around constantly I oppose this project because I didn't put this new driveway in for this business And it's it's impeding on private property rights. So I want you to consider what that's done to our neighborhood and into me Thank you. Thank you Matt shields followed by john phillips Hello, my name is matt shields and I live at four three seven koreo street My concern is the parking issue and traffic On one corner where I live as far as koreo and menacino avenue. I have a bar That place generates a lot of um people a lot of patrons that are trying to park on korea street So that takes up korea street as far as that goes Then we have glenn street glenn street is very narrow and I do I don't find that I can really go up and down that street With another car coming along opposite of me The parking is very difficult. It seems to be impacting the entire neighborhood. I've lived there for five years I've seen the parking get worse and worse over time I'm very concerned that nothing's going to be done in regard to the parking issues that we have And they're just continuing to get worse So once again, it's parking. I'm not really adverse to a business being there although It'd be similar to having other businesses where you have a variety of Patrons where you have a lot of people coming and going Yes, there's going to be a delivery service But pot dispensaries are getting very popular from what I'm saying And I don't have anything against pot dispensaries, but I do have a problem with the amount of people that are becoming and going The other issue that I see is is that on glenn and college During the short time that I've lived over there just taking walks. I've seen a couple of handfuls of accidents I'm a retired ICU nurse. I've seen way too many people get hurt I've taken care of way too many people that have been hurt in traffic accidents I've been almost hit on glenn street when I've been trying to go down the street And I'm finding that I just am concerned that we're not giving enough merit to the problem with the parking It seems to be that a lot of people are taking issue with the dispensary itself I don't have a problem with the business being there Um, but for me living where I live, I can't even find a parking space A lot of the time I have to park a couple of blocks away It once you eliminate glenn street and you eliminate morgan street as far as on korea For me to go up to medicino. I can't make a left up there very easily at all So then I have to go back towards the center was a high school the other way Granted it's I'm just speaking of an inconvenience But it seems that it would be nice if the planning commission would take into account Us homeowners that are there people that are renters is there as well to My assumption is is that the store is going to generate a lot of tax revenue I'm just hoping that you all will just take it into account what we're talking about as far as parking Thank you for your time and thanks for your consideration Thank you. Mr. Shields John Phillips followed by Dennis Hunter Hi, I'm John Phillips. I live at 228 Benton street And I'm also the co-chair of the ridgeway historic neighborhood association um, I want to be clear that I don't Or I should say I don't dispute dispensaries being put in sanarosa And I'm also pro business in terms of opening a business in our neighborhood As a former bay area planning commissioner I reviewed this project like I would have if I was sitting in your seat trying to make the finding that granting the permit would not constitute a nuisance or be injurious or detrimental to the public interest And especially finding d in your staff report I reviewed the revised traffic study from the applicant and really to call it a study is a little misleading It's not completely accurate Let's be clear what the applicant is paid for and provided to the city as a projection of the number of trips That may be generated if this business does what other businesses of this type generates Given the amount of square feet of the business the number of employees And projected number of customers The only thing that's changed with this revised projection from our last meeting is an increase in the number of trips Thanks to the addition of the trips generated by the business delivery service The proposed location of this business is already a failure in terms of parking and traffic volume Traffic on college is already congested Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. To 7 p.m Where delivery trucks like FedEx and ups are forced to park either on the sidewalk or double park when they make their deliveries Traffic and parking on glenn street is already problematic given how narrow the street is and the volume of cars going to and from the two high schools In fact available free parking is already non-existent on the street If there had been a real study all of this would have also been taken into account The fact that other retail businesses have struggled in this location due to these conditions should be a clear indicator that more traffic and parking problems Thanks to more projected trips won't lead to a better outcome for the business or for all of us as neighbors If you approve this project what you're now asking us to do is live with the consequences of what will become an even greater traffic and parking burden The applicant's traffic projection is already predicting one customer About every two minutes and while they are open for business Given that a transaction will take longer than two minutes the size of the location and conservatively by the customer's own projections 20 to 50 customers at a time at this site and with just five regular parking spaces and 180 a space Where will the applicant's customers park when the parking lot is full? And what has the applicant said in terms of what that parking congestion relief will be? Is there an expectation will that be in our neighborhood? And i'm also kind of curious how many customers are they able to accommodate in their waiting room And we'll be people standing around milling around in the back waiting to get in when they're trying to meet this customer volume I really appreciate your consideration. Thank you very much Thank you Dennis hunter followed by uh, joanna cedar. Yeah, thank you for the opportunity to address the commission I just wanted to really talk about what we've done and we've really tried to bend over backwards to Accommodate a lot of the the issues that we're talking about with parking with with using public parking and having the bike racks and and just There's so many other uses that could come in here and don't have to Have those accommodations and so i'm and then I'm just think that we really got to think about What this is going to do and how much better it's going to be by having A business like ours in here that's actually willing to make the commitment To really work with the with the neighborhood and actually really try to do the very best we can to actually Limit how much parking is used and by If you have another business in there the employees are going to be parking up and down your street And they're not going to be have this requirement that we're welcoming and so And I just want to also talk about us as operators We in 2017 A dispenser that we have up in at the solar living center up in hoplin was voted number one dispensary in california I have another business here in santa rosa I welcome all of you to come over and look at how we operate that business and how we keep it up and and really What kind of stewards we are to our community even around our other businesses and so when we're making this We're really committing to having a community liaison like joanna to really hear your issues And it is a good example of just what happened the other day was We heard had phone calls to joanna that All that stuff that the transient moved it right into the alley So we went over and and and took care of that and I think we want to do that going forward We have no interest in having upset neighbors We want to be a good neighbor to you and run a great business and with with the mind of trying to limit how much Parking or how much how much traffic in parking we have there So we're really going to push a lot as much as we can and to do as delivering to our our clients as well but You know the reason that you're seeing so many there's going to be a lot more dispensaries in santa rosa They just approved and I know more than 20 I think and so when they're talking about these traffic counts They're doing it when there was only a handful of dispensaries and that traffic going to those dispensaries is going to Be a lot lower when you have more dispensaries for people to go. This is about being more convenient so that we can service those neighborhoods Your neighborhood as well. You have people that have the right to to actually have A store near them and not have to travel across town to go get their products So just want to say we're really committed to the things that we've laid out here and we look forward to being a good neighbor to you guys Thank you Joanna cedar followed by Judy Good evening. My name is Joanna cedar I first want to introduce myself to the members of the community that are here tonight and to give you an email address And a phone number with which you can get in touch with me at any time My phone number is seven zero seven eight six one zero two eight nine And the email address is green pen liaison at gmail.com And Which brings me to why i'm here and I am the community liaison that's hired for this project And my main goal is to be as responsive as possible to the needs of the community Although I don't live in that community. I do have deep roots there I worked as a teacher at santa rosa high school for 17 years and I do acutely understand parking issues I remember actually having to leave my class a minute early to get a jump on the car the parking in order to pick up my My daughter so I do understand my hope is that That this project will display the best of our abilities as a community In terms of using the resources that we have available to us The operator is serious about reducing the traffic impacts has contracted Our plans to contract spaces for employees But also this this project is located very close to public transit And that makes the property very accessible for walking and the bike spaces as well will be useful Additionally, I'd like to talk a little bit specifically about those youth that are on probation that might be walking by the facility And might know what's in the facility Statistics from colorado and washington because they've been tracking these numbers longer than we have show that the more Regulated cannabis exists in a community the less access and the less desire for access of the youth No Social service organization has ever lost funding from any grant Based on the proximity to a legal business. I understand the fear and I understand the stigma But trying to sanitize A young person's environment does not actually give them the tools To react to stressors to react to new community conditions And I'd rather see an open discussion About these issues with the probation department with youth with youth and and with the local schools So they can understand what is actually in the dispensary why it is regulated how that benefits our community as a whole So please get in touch with me If you have any questions, I'm available to you. I will find you whatever information that you need And thank you very much. Thank you, miss cedar Next is judy depanow Followed by mark parry Hello, my name is judy depanaw and I live at 246 benton street. So i'm a couple of blocks away from the proposed dispensary I second and Third I I want to emphasize the existing traffic dilemmas because It's very common When school ends in session For the intersections at the roundabouts on glenn and morgan Where I live To be blocked. So the intersections are you often blocked for For a good chunk of time Especially when school lets out also there is a lot of traffic On college and I want to second the comments about the difficulty Of getting in and getting out of benton street morgan street glenn street And the congestion on college Is is difficult and there are lots of accidents So I want to emphasize that it's fine to have a business in that location. I appreciate efforts made To address the concerns of the community, but I am strongly In opposition because of the traffic impacts especially on an already severely impacted neighborhood Thank you. Great. Thank you Mark Perry followed by brian Hamishki Hi, I'm mark Perry. I live at 419 benton Santa Rosa has many Sites with sufficient on-site parking Not requiring employees to cross busy streets to get there, but this is not one of those sites There are sites with easy public access. I saw one on cleveland that was available now Very easy to get in lots of parking. This is not that site There are sites available in santa rosa that can readily be adapted for accessibility On the main door on the street, but this is not that site. It cannot be readily made to be happened I'm an architect. I don't know how you're going to get a handicap ramp on a public sidewalk. It doesn't work Um, they're just way way way too many obvious Clear failures for this site to meet what's being required of it. I think they should be looking elsewhere I don't think we should even be here standing talking about it at this point. It should have been not denied initially Thank you Thank you brian mishki followed by chris grable Uh, good afternoon. Thank you for your time My name is brian mishki and I live at 1235 glenn street. It's about a block from the proposed site I think of the proposed site as a dave's bike sport I don't know if you guys have been around the neighborhood long enough, but that was uh, Anyway, it was the premier bike shop in in santa rosa in the north bay. So it's great. You guys are putting in um, or you're talking about putting in bike location here so Every day I see Scores of high school students walking down glenn street To go to the high school City bus nine e drops them off from the corner of college and glenn street They walk across the street at the crosswalk there And directly across the street from the proposed dispensary site This is in the morning and it's also in the afternoon So I I see this every day and the kids the They're kids right they're teenagers right my kid goes to santa rosa high school um His peers are going to see The dispensary site every day as they walk back and forth And I bring that up because i'm also a safe routes to school coordinator a champion I've been a champion at the uh santa rosa charter school for the arts for about eight years um Last fall I had the opportunity to go to a uh, it was an engineering evaluation at santa rosa high school And it was presented by w trans The same group that's done the traffic parking study for this proposed site In that meeting w trans had neglected to identify that bus stop as a Way that students get to campus I brought that up. It's in there. Uh, their meeting memorandum, which I have a copy of if you want to see it Um, so I don't I don't know. I mean, I think w trans Probably could could look at this uh site again and And maybe do some further study or someone else can thank you for your time. Thank you Last card chris scrabble Good evening chair and commissioners um I don't live in the immediate vicinity. I live about a half mile away From the proposed site, but I did want to tell a little story as as someone who does not frequent dispensaries I visited a dispensary in my neighborhood on on tutton recently and I cannot exaggerate this It almost brought me to tears and I did not expect it to do this and I had no idea what I was walking into but The diversity of people of income levels of backgrounds That that dispensary served both for recreation and medication. It was was unbelievable to me the level of professionalism the The diversity of age and background of the people who worked there and and I just started asking them about their wages their benefits Oh, like three people rode their bike there. It was I just wanted to know more about about that dispensary model Especially given that this seems to be Such a burgeoning industry that will be the future, you know, whether we like it or not I I like it um from what I've seen and One thing that that also just personally for me Just really hit home in terms of career opportunities and development people talk a lot about how it affects youth negatively when they're growing up and I agree, um, you know, maybe it's not great to get high every day when you're 16 But guess what? It's a really a lot of really great uses for that product um after you are an adult and That that seems to be the way the growth is going I think this this uh specific Project and these partners if you're going to work with anybody to try to minimize these issues of trafficking parking It would be these these folks they will I just they seem really interested in working with the neighborhood um, and I know how reasonable uh, Joanne can be she was actually my high school history teacher and uh Did not know that we're be here today. Um But she taught me to really think critically about this and think about how we Have bias and have really attributed a lot of stigma to this industry And what I'll close with is that two of the folks at the dispensary that I visited um, we're we're Trans young people and as a proud stepfather of a trans son. I often worry about what industry Is going to accept my kid what industry is going to give them a pathway to like growth and meaning and And really have a healthy work environment because it's such a vulnerable population For so many reasons and that was what brought me to tears with it the two kids Well, not kids. I think of them as kids, but they're you know in the 20s were professional They were excited to be there. They're being paid. Well, and they had a future in this community living here and you know Being happy and feeling valued and that was just another thing that I don't think we often think about is that future Of the industry and who it serves and who works there? And and that real broad benefit. So thank you. Thank you, mr. Grable I don't have any other cards on this item, but you don't have to have filled out a card if there's anyone Okay, mr. Dipple And if you wouldn't mind by starting by announcing your name, that would be great My name is Hans Dipple. I live at 336 dentin way About two blocks from the proposed site It seems pretty clear with everybody talking If this was such a great project, why is there so much opposition and so little support? And I think you when you see the pictures that are on here, they are not representative. I've met with four of planning commissioners When you go and actually see the parking there and where people can park It's it's not the same that you see on the picture. You cannot back out of there. You cannot turn around So it's going to just create a huge problem The applicant mentions that you guys have approved several dispensaries in the past How many of those were across the street from an at-risk youth center? none The applicant also says That there's a great outreach. Well, if it's such a great outreach Why is there only a community community liaison now when this has been going on for months? The meeting that they had on Monday did not go out to all the neighbors I don't know of one neighbor that actually got an invite to that meeting so And addressing the video The applicant well in the in the report it says that the applicant said that it wasn't their staff Yet the applicant here today said we don't know who that was. We can't identify that We don't know if it was home as a person or not Not really not real generous in that and I guess I have to ask why What a homeless person take all their possessions and trash it when that's all they that they own They wouldn't do that, but they cleaned it up because they were doing a meeting right then So there's just nothing positive about this what I'd like to see is for For the planning commission to work with us the neighbors Find out what a good fit is and let us be part of the process Because we don't want to just come here and say there's a problem. You guys fix it We want to help you we want if we're not part of the solution. We're part of the problem We want to be part of the solution. So let us help you do that And I think things would go a lot smoother Thank you Thank you Anyone else wishing to speak on this item? Okay, I am not seeing anyone step forward. So I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing And Mr. Kaston is queuing up to respond to issues Yeah, thank you chair sisco and um as always I think I got the notes down and will respond Respond to them, but please correct me if I missed anything Or if if there's additional questions or clarification I can provide To start I want to Emphasize that the the traffic impacts and parking impacts Especially the parking impacts are fundamentally the same to many other uses that could go in here by right Including alcohol serving Impacts the difference between A proposal along those lines or someone could go in by right In this process is that we're able to present commitments to you the commission in the city That can then be used to hold us accountable to them in the future Namely our parking commitments the ability to ensure that we're using our city parking garages for the use that we've desired them to be used and while this is Not in the downtown station area plan. It is literally across the street from it We have long sought as a city to ensure that we had People parking and parking garages and then going to places of employment And we're able to commit to you to use it use those facilities in the way that they were intended I also want to emphasize that the 44 parking spot That were identified in the report was before the addition of the delivery service and when we're talking about trip generations We're also talking by current bypass traffic. So people that are currently using college to say go down to Dutton to access the dispensary on the west side of town, which is currently the closest Facility so it doesn't mean that those are all new trips on college In fact, many of the people that may use the dispensary are currently traveling there What we're identifying is the potential trips that may use this dispensary We also want to heavily encourage people to use the delivery service So that once someone has visited the facility, they don't have to return. They know what they want and they can conveniently use it That's why we did an actual study and had dailene and the w-trans crew actually look at the use of A delivery Offering dispensary in Santa Rosa to give you real numbers that weren't just it rates As that as those numbers come from mostly out of state I want to directly address the the presumption that they're being armed guard we we have never proposed an armed guard Armed firearms are not permitted on cannabis dispensaries. So that is Not a not an option or allowed under state regulations What we have suggested is that our security personnel who'll be working for the community liaison Will patrol the alleyway and additionally clear transient and loiterers out of the alleyway Or contact the police in the event of there being an actual issue We don't anticipate those issues necessarily being associated with our operation But we've heard a lot about existing impacts and we view this as an opportunity to improve the neighborhood In a way that addresses what we've heard at the neighborhood meetings in other locations. We've never sought to change people's opinions through the addition of these Features to this project proposal what we've sought is to respond to the needs and the potential Impacts either existing or not that exist in the neighborhood in order to make this project The best project and the best business that could go into this location Regardless of whether it is cannabis or not as to the pedestrian experience. We have an art wall Display proposal along college avenue. We propose this in order to encourage the pedestrian use of the street by not just Block blacking out the windows or or some other type of visual blockade but to provide a visually appealing Um Screen so that no cannabis products Would be viewable from the public right of way which is a requirement of the code Well, also enhancing the neighborhood through an art installation that that could encourage pedestrian orientation For the area I completely agree with the current conditions of the parking there are currently illegal modifications that are prohibiting Full access of the ada spot and that's why we're proposing to Restore the building to its historic nature It is a historic contributing building in an historic district. Um, and that's also why we have proposed changing the pink color though that it's not in your purview We we showed one potential round of pink colors, but we are open to whatever color of the building the neighborhood Has and would be particularly interested in the historic research That that can be provided on that. Um, all that can be communicated through joanna Um, I know it's not a a part of your purview today What color of the building is but I do want to say that we recognize that very early on As as one of the the downsides of the existing building and you know, should we be Approved and be able to execute our lease and be able to occupy We look forward to changing that regardless of of of the city's capacity to require us to Um The reason for bringing on the community liaison now is that we had proposed it as a part of our project We usually don't staff You wouldn't normally staff a business until the business has been approved to operate So the community liaison program is designed for once operate. We go into operation to be able to address the concerns we made the commitment to hire the community liaison manager position in order to be able to Um Get a head start on that process So this this was an advanced commitment of something we had already said in our application proposal And we believe that uh, it's an important feature Of almost every dispensary in the city and We hope that this week while it was an unfortunate event that resulted in in the need to use use it Shows the speedyness that such a program can have to address community issues And and just to respond directly to mr. Dippel's Statement about me being unclear. I am very clear that that person is not related to our team I don't know who they are so I can't speak to their current housing Situation or status and that was my sole Clarification is that is a presumption of mine from the video that we all saw I but we have no relationship With with that individual to be able to confirm or make any characterizations as to their social economic status Um I believe that I have Covered all the issues that I identified madam chair But if you have any additional ones I missed I'd be happy to respond and also offer to bring daling witlock up to Expand on any of the traffic or parking Statements that I've made should you desire it? Yeah, I'm gonna probably want this daylock to do that one thing that I think you need to answer for us though is um From mr. Phillips. Do you have any idea of kind of what the customer accommodation will be in the waiting area? Like if there's a lot of people at once or I mean, how might that Work operationally? I mean the waiting area in I would imagine that we'll have five or six available seats and elements like that in most dispensaries you don't have That much of a queue up they you come in you check in and you move directly into it. So There there are existing dispensaries that I encourage people to visit to to see how that goes You'll have at least one of them up a little later tonight That that is currently operating and seeking to to add delivery to hopefully reduce traffic as well Emerald farms up in hopland is a superb example of how these types of operations work as well. So You rarely get a large queue up folks are checked in there's seating for for about a half a dozen folks And then they're able to go into the retail environment The average Time on the high end is around 10 to 15 minutes For a retail visit. There's no consumption proposed as a part of this As a part of this proposal. So there's no lounge A new customer a brand new customer may take more time if they're asking and seeking Information about the product and learning But that averages out from the folks who come in know exactly what they want And leave or use the delivery service because they know exactly what they want and they have it delivered to them Okay, great And then I think for for miss woodlock if you can Maybe reiterate what some of what you spoke to about parking issues That would be attended to this building in any event And maybe help describe How visitors will be be able to back out of That parking lot if you can kind of demonstrate that Okay, again dailene woodlock with w-trans As far as as noted by adam ross and his presentation Given the zoning of this building there are a lot of permitted uses that would not require any Kind of action on your part that need the same amount of parking Some of those might have a higher demand. For instance, if you have Some sort of a service building You could have like a nail salon that would go in there And they could have in that much space 10 or 12 stations, which means 10 or 12 customers 10 or 12 employees That's a whole lot more parking than six spaces and they would not require any kind of a permit If it's if it fits within that category so the fact that that they're you know that this applicant is Committing to a transportation demand management program where and they're going to have transit passes they're going to have bicycle parking They're going to require their park their employees not to drive to work So, uh, if you know if all that within all those things they will not Have they will will have enough parking on site for their customers While any other business that goes in there under a currently permitted use would not have those sorts of requirements They would be able to overflow into the street and there would be not a thing That could technically be done about it unless they were parking illegally The same thing kind of goes for the traffic impacts That uh regardless of whether College avenue has too much traffic on it today or not It's neither here nor there to this project That site is entitled to be it's a built environment. It's entitled to be occupied Everybody wants it to be occupied if you brought another use in and it generated as much traffic as this one It would have the same impact But it still is such a it's a fairly nominal number of trips And you know has been stated one of the things to note and I I think one of the gentlemen address this is it's Very often these types of trips, especially during the peak hours Are made by somebody who's on their way down college avenue anyway So they just stop while they're driving by Pick up their product and head on home So they're not creating additional trips even though we counted them all as trips And I want to make sure it's understood when it says 44 trips for instance those are one-way trips. That's 22 cars not 44 cars So that's that's an item that a lot of times people Don't pick up on the fact that it's not nearly as much traffic as it sounds like when you figure they have to come in and go Back out so but if they're on their way home on for instance the west side of the city from downtown Stop in pick up their product and head on home They haven't really added any traffic to the street that would not have been there anyway But we've counted it all as if it's brand new Okay, and then Oh parking you asked me about the parking lot So the the parking lot would operate essentially like a private driveway They would have the customers would in fact have to back out into the street for the most part um, there's not really enough space for them to turn around from the East west parking spaces they can back out of the spaces that are on the south side of the parking lot So those pointing up and down on this diagram There isn't a room for them from any of those spaces to back back up towards the parking lots on the west side of the lot But the but the ones on the west side of the lot Those drivers would need to back out into glenn street just as they would from any house along the street That's how you get out of your driveway Okay and then There was a reference to Whether or not you looked at like delivery services in your traffic analysis like FedEx Types of deliveries in your counts So in our counts we did not But typically those deliveries are not made during peak hours Which is what we were looking at is the 4 to 6 p.m And and well normally the morning peak is 7 to 9 a.m But because of the fact that they wouldn't be open till 9 a.m The only trips that occur in the morning would in fact probably be deliveries, but The volume of traffic is so low in the morning That it's it's less than basically anything else that could go in there including the prayer use But there might be some deliveries again those types of vehicles FedEx it's not this is not the only place it's going it's just making a stop On its way down the street. So they really don't create new trips on the system They just create new trips sometimes at the driveway Okay, and then when the parking lot is full Where do you anticipate relief? So depending on the time of day if someone comes during I would probably I'm sure he's going to suggest that nobody tried to get there between 2 30 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon Just because of all the students leaving school and I've been around the the junior college when they let out High school so I understand what the neighbors are talking about But you know the parking demand is highest in a residential neighborhood in the evening on weekends when people are home But the evening actually tends to be higher on the weekends people go shopping. They go Do recreational activities whatever so the the highest demand is typically from about seven or eight o'clock in the evening until Early in the morning when they start leaving for work Um These are the hours when in general the store would be closed When their parking demand would would peak would probably be right around commute time If people are stopping in on their way home And at that point in the day if the parking lot were full They're probably would be parking on the adjacent street and it is perfectly legal for them to park there Some folks may choose to park on the college avenue front. It's just because like I said, they're driving west anyway And if they find a parking place they'll pull over and park in it. So They're not actually we're not actually anticipating that the parking lot would be overflowing just because You know as was just discussed earlier between the fact that people don't spend very long in the site Once they figure out what they want they can use the delivery service and and we did actually Do a survey of one site that has a delivery service at this point There are a nominal number of places where we can gather data But as they go online, we're trying to get more so we can expand on our database But the delivery service Would reduce the amount of traffic that the site Generates from what we are projecting Based on the current rates Okay, I think that's Most of what we Want from the public from you, but don't go away We'll probably have our own set of questions here pretty soon, but I do have a couple for staff And that is Well, it's acknowledged. There's a there's a traffic problem in a parking problem in the neighborhood And it exists now independent of this business or any business going in there What what recourse does this neighborhood have to to help themselves with that problem? Yeah One thing that I can tell you is that the neighborhood could enter into an agreement with the city to require permit parking A little bit about it is it's 60 of the neighborhood for each each block has to agree to it for every block that would want to participate in it It has to be occupant signed so it couldn't be an absentee owner It would have to be whoever's living there as a household So far the fee is $20 per car per year and you just call the The city parking department and to get that going it They're more than happy to help and that that's one way to alleviate some of the concern for parking in the neighborhood and I think that can also Help alleviate the If there's any school parking that that are parking over there if any additional not associated with this business Park in the neighborhood To the to the dismay of the of the neighborhood that that can definitely help with that And that's something that the neighborhood association could take up and and work with and we have other historic neighborhoods that have taken that Yeah action like st. Rose and yes and and my conversation with the parking department Included that this particular neighborhood because of their close proximity to the high school and the junior college would be Would would be More than They'd accept it a lot faster than other neighborhoods higher priority or they recognize that there would definitely be an issue correct, okay And then just specific To mr. Pasek's new driveway what recourse would he have to prevent Anybody from using his driveway as a turnaround You know, I don't I don't know that answer Um, if you give me a minute, maybe I can convene and maybe come up with one, but I don't I don't know of one Okay Yeah, I don't know if there is one but other than putting your cone out or something but just so that he You know has some information about What he me or I don't know if anyone's doing that now but you know, so Okay, cheers. Yes Sorry to interrupt staff did when you are ready after you've gone through these questions wanted to request a short recess to confer about some of the traffic and parking Comments and questions that have come up And and so we can help provide Hopefully some more answers and that could be one of the one of the questions that we discussed and hopefully we can provide an answer for you Okay, I think we would welcome that so And you want us to do that now before we do our questions If you want to finish going through the questions that you have now And then when when you're done with that that we can take a quick recess. Yeah, I'm just trying to complete what What I heard from the public Which I think I have so We yeah, go ahead While you do that I see mr. Sprinkel is here and would he be able to provide any kind of information about crashes from on traffic coming from glenn street From college avenue to glenn street making that left turn or anything in that intersection and about crash statistics Looks like that is something that he can respond to so we can Get together and come up with some of these answers to your questions And we will have mr. Sprinkel come down and respond to that as well. Thank you Anything other specific? Commissioner car before they take a couple of clarifying questions for staff not related to traffic surprisingly Um Am I clear that this project would not go to the design review board or the hrc? So the images we saw today is how it would be built our will it have further design review should it be approved So the city doesn't regulate paint color and what the applicant the rendering showed was was just paint So no no it wouldn't if it was just paint i'm going to be the Cultural heritage board for a landmark alteration But if no if it's just a retenanting and and painting it would not constitute a Major landmark alteration permit and it would require a landmark alteration permit because it's more than 50 years old or because it's a contributing element or Potentially because it's over 50 years old but as far as being a neighborhood contributor. Yes Oh, and I believe the staff report said immediately to the north of the project is a legal non-conforming residential use Uh, it has a sign as if it's a commercial use. It shows as commercial on the land use map. Can you clarify that for me? um, I The so legal non-conforming would mean that the the house was built legally on a small lot It back when a subs on a substandard lot size as compared to now so that would make it um Legal non-conforming with current standards. Um, and can you repeat the second part of that question again? Well, my question is really is it a residential use or not? There's a sign on it that makes it appear as it's if it's a commercial use So my understanding is the house just north of the property. Yes, I believe that's a residential use. Thank you anything Yeah, vice chair weeks She'll have a couple questions for both excuse me staff and the applicant. So let me ask staff the questions first So Listening to the neighbors. It's obvious that there's been a problem for some time with the traffic and the parking And you talked about what they could do with the parking Division have they ever done that? Have they ever approached the parking division to ask them for a um To enter into a parking district like st. Rose and cherry street Not to my knowledge, but I don't know so they may have I can't speak for them Okay, and then uh, the second question. Let me see my notes. Um Did you receive any comments by police or fire when this was referred out? I had no comments from police or fire Reviewed the project and would condition it Accordingly. Okay. Thank you Mr. Caston, I have a couple questions. Um, can you Talk about the type of the vehicles that would be used for delivery so The there's two types of vehicles There's what we call distribution vehicles which are coming from the distributor to the retail outlet with the cannabis products Those are typically a like forward transit or roughly the size of an ambulance vehicle With the with the tall stand-up capacity So one of the things that we heard early on was that the previous use Being a hydroponic store while headless traffic trips had very large delivery vehicles Delivering the the soil and in elements like that We are Delivery vehicles that we're receiving the distribution Products from are substantially smaller than than the previous impact that was experienced by the neighborhood The delivery vehicles going outbound to the neighbor or sorry to the customers Are are typically sedans or similar vehicles oftentimes pre-uses are utilized and There it's no different than a pizza delivery Um sized vehicle And to note specifically on that question We support fully the condition that our delivery vehicles will not go through the neighborhood If they will immediately proceed to college And that will be a part of any disciplinary procedures as well as the parking Requirements and not being allowed to park in the neighborhood will be a part of our employee disciplinary procedures And the community liaison will be the available contact So regardless of whether or not the city has a system in place We're committing here within this conditional use permit on the record to this community liaison process So if any of our employees Violate the delivery vehicle path of travel or violate the parking requirements There is an individual assigned to receive those complaints It'll be a part of a disciplinary procedure and fundamentally You know since it's a part of this record and this use permit should that Issue occur and we're not addressing it Our permit is at risk from our understanding of this process So we're fully committed to making this interact in This work for the neighbors in a way that no other business Would be required to do without a conditional use permit process like this thank you the question about the Jobs mr. Gravel talked about jobs at another dispensary. Can you talk a little bit about Are they going to be full-time part-time? What's salary ranges? Yes as with any operation you're looking at A range of options full-time and part-time employment opportunities You're looking at salary ranges that start at $18 an hour with benefits And Can scale up from there based on the current market Right now. I'll be honest with you You really can't find a whole lot of folks at $18 an hour So many dispensary employees make well over $20 an hour, especially as they advance through their training and knowledge Of of the products are able to better serve the customers So there's a really good career track available within the cannabis industry Additionally, you know, you heard from Dennis Hunter in the public comments While not directly affiliated With with any other manufacturers because of how these operations work Fundamentally this dispensary will be delivering santa rosa manufactured cannabis goods from our large manufacturing Industry that is burgeoning within santa rosa and enable santa rosans to buy what we produce So you're not just supporting the retail jobs with this You're also supporting that local vertical in the creation That's contemplated in the economic vitality section of the general plan when we talk about supporting santa rosa to santa rosa business commerce commerce as one of those key policy provisions, I believe it's evv before I decided it a few times so You know the the job opportunities are not just the sales and retail jobs But the full manufacturing chain and supply chain from this industry And one final question there was a comment by a member of the public that they didn't get notice about the meeting And I wondered if you could talk about How the noticing went out and the So there were there were two types of meetings held with the community for this project. The first one was the neighborhood Meeting that is facilitated by the city That one my understanding of the noticing of the requirements at the time is that I went to property owners and business owners within a certain radius that the staff would be better suited to To define we received feedback at the last planning commission meeting that that wasn't adequate because it didn't include all of the residents That would be neighbors of the project. So we went door to door separate from the city process to invite people to the community meeting that had not been Included in the in this in the city's mailing and actually connect with our direct neighbors and residents who are currently experiencing that You heard from one of them tonight and I greatly appreciate her comments And attending both community meeting here and totally respect her concerns that we are hoping to address So the noticing's were two different universes and ours was intended to address the concerns that were addressed about those people that were not noticed as a part of the city's process And how wide was the radius of your notice? It was a two-block radius in all directions. So I think we ended up hitting some like 150 Residences and businesses and a few minor apartments And I believe our northern neighbors actually has both a business and a B&B element there. So we we dropped at both doors to make sure that if we weren't quite sure whether it was residential or business either So but they did attend the community meeting. So we know they got they got the notice Any other questions of the applicant? Okay, so I think what we'll do is we'll go ahead and take A break while staff confers with the applicant and miss Whitlock and Start back up again. I don't know if it's 10 minutes 15 minutes. Do you have any kind of idea? But I didn't hear that 10 Okay, so we're gonna would take a break for about 15 minutes Okay, we'll go ahead and call the meeting back to order and see what staff has for us Thank you, chair sisco. Um, so based on a lot of the commentary We've heard tonight from the neighbors and from the applicants as well as Over the course of the review of this project And in our discussion with the applicant the applicant is interested in proposing some on-site operational changes that would result in changes to the draft resolution before you tonight before We get into those we staff and go through those. I think it would be In the interest of everybody to hear from the applicant and the applicants traffic engineer what those changes would be and how they affect the The the considerations on site Okay All right. Thank you again chair sisco and members of the planning commission In order to ensure and answer some of the logistical and kind of future Future looking questions about this We're seeking to not be tied to one specific parking garage For off-site solutions and enable us to avail ourselves or whatever the most environmentally friendly options may be whether that could be van pool that could be improvements on the Mendocino Transportation corridor for transit use and and just some of the things that aren't being anticipated So as as such we're requesting That we would be that we would be conditioned and required to have all employees not park on site We intend to implement that by prohibiting All employees from parking on neighborhood streets both in the ridgeway and st. Rose neighborhood We are committing today to support any parking district request with any terms for our limitations on parking that the neighbors would propose and will sign any necessary documents to Be one of the 60 percent of the neighborhood that would support that proposal We're going to be signing all of our parking spots as tow away 30 minute maximum locations to ensure turnover in the parking while still providing time so that people don't park in the neighborhood streets as customers Um And we believe that these changes instead of identifying a specific parking spot will enable us to adjust to whatever Whatever the future holds as far as conditions the continued development of the station area plan And all the things are happening in a fairly dynamic area of the city I'd like to ask daily and witlock from w trans To express how these changes Um Will fit with our current parking reduction Good evening. Again daily and witlock with w trans So the intent of these changes to the operational policy would be to require that all the staff arrive either by transit by bus or by walking Um, so no one would be driving directly to the site and parking that frees up all of the employee parking and moves it home or wherever they move it to but Um the project application indicates that there would be six employees at the peak Peak period and so by taking those six employee the demand that those six employees would have for six parking places And eliminating that demand it reduces the demand from the 12 spaces to six spaces Which makes the on-site parking supply adequate to serve all of the customer needs so I think with that unless there are questions from Um to either of us we would turn it back to staff Any questions right now with the applicant okay great so So with those proposed changes the resolution before you would have some Amendments that would be required. So if the commission pleases I can read into the record those changes That would be great There are a few so bear with me. Okay, so the first one will be starting on page two of seven And this is under section b. It's the third paragraph And it is the first sentence and the sentence Towards the end says and safe on-site circulation And then the remainder of that section and employee parking located in city parking garage number one would be stricken And everything else will remain as you'll see as I go through this It's mainly references to the parking garage will be taken out of this document And then the conditions added in that the applicant just indicated As we go down to subsection d the first bullet point Due to special circumstances associated with the operation of the use at its location comma And we're proposing to add in which prohibits employee parking on-site In the same bullet the last Sentence the last reference to with six off-site parking spaces for employees in city garage number one that would be stricken The following Paragraph or excuse me. Yes the following paragraph would be stricken except for A bear with me one moment So the that entire paragraph Paragraph two under the bullet point First bullet point indeed would be stricken Except the one sentence within that paragraph that says it's about midway through the project site is close to downtown Santa Rosa with parking facilities and is within walking distance to bus stops within santa rosa's 15 minute headway corridors So now we get into the conditions You jumped page six of seven And i'm going to ask our assistant city attorney to read this since she wrote it and I can't read it We were going to delete condition 13 and replace it with Employees shall not be permitted to park on-site And then we were going to add a condition 14 f To state applicant shall install on-site signage limiting customer parking to 30 minutes And that's it So with these changes, we would be as bill stated eliminating the references to the parking garage And providing therein There are the justifications for the parking reduction. So the parking Reduction on-site to six spaces and the justifications therein are All of those listed proximity to downtown etc transit and that as part of the project description Which is included in the materials the applicant is prohibiting any employees from parking on-site. So all of the parking demand studies that are included in the traffic modeling Are looking at the number of people coming to the site the customers So it's all accurate information and with the elimination of the employees there the parking demand Reduction takes us down to the six and how the applicant chooses to Implement that as mr. Kesson noted Will be up to them as to what our best practices Although we did feel that the two conditions that we added Even though part of the project description already says They can't be permitted to park on-site. We wanted to put that in there to clearly state that condition In addition to the limit of 30 minute parking Okay, great Um before we move to discussion commissioner dug in did you have a question from for mr. Sprinkle? Yeah, if there was any kind of accident information about glennon college Yes, thank you rob sprinkle city center as a traffic engineer Prior to coming to the meeting today to look up the collisions at that intersection over the past five years And what we have documented is that there are eight collisions that happened at that location The majority of them were rear-end collisions in the eastbound and westbound direction on college Which is related to the congestion is on collagen and attention There was one southbound related collision Exiting glenn with turning right and there was one southbound collision exiting glenn turning left And so that's a quick summary of the collisions that were documented over the the past five years and and trying to remember what unit we usually get things in like the Accident rate at different Intersections when you give us this information How does how does it compare at this intersection? Is that a high number for five years or for the amount of vehicles that go through that intersection? Eight collisions over five years is not a high number Is not a high number. Thank you any other questions of staff Any other questions of our applicant? Okay So let's Take it back for our discussion and would somebody like to move a resolution for the purposes of discussion noting that we're including everything that mr. Rose Inserted into the record everybody jump at once I'll move a resolution of the planning commission of the city of santa rosa Approving a conditional use permit for green pen llc a medical and adult use retail cannabis dispensary with delivery in a 2943 square foot building and approving reduced onsite parking at 353 college avenue apn 180-750-046 file number c up 18-080 with the amendments as read by mr. Rose and wave for the reading Second Okay, so that was moved by commissioner dug in seconded by vice chair weeks Vice chair weeks. Would you like to start? Sure Well, this has been quite the discussion I do appreciate the neighbors coming out And I would encourage you to pursue the parking district I think that could help with some of your issues I also appreciate the applicants willingness to make changes To help address some of these issues and I am going to be supporting the project commissioner dug in Well, this is a hard one This is nothing against the applicant. We've approved a lot of dispensaries and you obviously have a professional detailed plan But and I think the main problem in this neighborhood is traffic It's not the parking is a problem I can't imagine anybody backing out of that parking lots into glenn street at A busy time I personally have seen at least two accidents at glenn and college. I've come on to them and it was people turning left from an From just the middle lane on to glenn and colliding with somebody else and I think there's pressure When people are trying to do that maneuver to vacate that spot They take the corner fast They don't look up glenn street to see who might be there in the way and then they have to jam on their brakes And I've seen that happen repeatedly um And I know that this neighborhood gets there Totally impacted by all the schools and all the school traffic um And with that said, I know I mean I I remember dave's bike sport. I used to be a patron there um And I can imagine other businesses going in here not having such a demand a small office with a few employees Could take their time coming in and out and it wouldn't be something that would be um You know an attractive nuisance you most of these trips will be passed by people will be driving by Oh, there's a the new dispensary. I'll just pull over and you know circle the neighborhood till I find a spot and go on in um And I think that's going to add a lot of traffic. So I'm personally on the fence about this one So I'd like to hear what everybody else has to say commissioner carter Um as commissioner duggan said this is really a tough one First of all, I want to commend staff on putting together a very thorough staff report and being uh patient in processing this project and accepting the community input I actually think It's not possible for me to make the The finding d. I don't find the site to be um Of a configuration and a location that makes it suitable for the use that's being proposed I know there are worse uses that could go in by right But because our ordinance requires conditional use permits we are supposed to exercise some discretion in uh considering Uh these kinds of permits I I know that a lot of uh cannabis operations have been approved. It's been a of a business benefit to the city and they have been excellent neighbors and um operators of their business, but I find this site Problematic to the point that I don't think I can make all the required findings. Thank you well What I see when I look at this project is that you know, first of all, I look at the fact that um Uh Supporting the cannabis industry getting it up and running is a tier two Goal of our city council. So it's an important goal And and I look at this site and it is part of Historic preservation site That's Something that's important to us to preserve these buildings. It also creates challenges and problems in terms of how the zoning code Updates may change parking requirements And what I hear for this particular site is Whatever goes in here is going to have some kind of issue with parking That that's just a given and because this is coming in as a conditional use permit. Yeah, it is to is to um Um Allow us to exercise discretion, but it's also about conditioning the property Well, which if another business comes in by right, we won't have that opportunity and the and the neighbors won't have the opportunity to um To gain from a condition that could would protect them in the way that this particular use permit does particularly the way the applicant is Moving forward with agreeing to put their employees not parking in The Neighborhood at all being willing to have a community liaison that makes sure that that happens None of that will happen With a by right use which could be less intense, but it could be way more intense as well So I think we really have to be thinking about what is what's the use before us? What are the conditions that we can Employ that are going to protect the neighborhood You know I've heard issues about The door being on glen again there Because it's a historic preservation it would be Well practically impossible to do the ADA requirements and to utilize that front door Um, so again any business that comes in there is going to be accessing probably through that that rear door And that that in that parking lot So I just see Such a benefit for the fact that this particular business coming through with a conditional use permit With the level of security that occurs with these businesses the fact that they're going to be nightly patrols in an area That is really impacted by homeless encampments your neighborhood Is suffering with that and have an active business a well secured and a well patrolled business Is only a benefit to to the neighborhood It's just really difficult for me to To not see the benefit here, you know meeting the council goals Approving a business that has these sort of severe conditions That the fact that there's a community liaison that can work with an existing neighborhood group They don't have to form a group. They've got one and then they have this liaison and other Other uses that we've approved that have required community liaisons that has worked so well There's been very very few problems. I don't think this business wants to create any problems I think they they want to exist part of the Council goals in citing these is to make sure that they're cited throughout the city They are a neighborhood serving use There will be it's walkable from your neighborhood for those that that want to Utilize that service. There's transit available. So I think the the level of traffic Could be considerably lightened by virtue of deliveries by virtue of its walkability by virtue of its close. It's proximity to transit So obviously I am completely in favor of approving this conditional use permit for all of those reasons And so I know that you're on the fence if Anything else you'd like to say Well just that I mean the city does have a goal of Approving things in the cannabis industry and we have done that But we don't have to do that We don't have to approve every single thing that comes by just because it's one of the city goals If it's not a good fit and when something has to have all these Different conditions that are unusual and not on every other project because of the problem with the location That makes me think it's not a good fit So i'm not in favor of this project at this location. Okay, I get that and and I would just add that There's nothing that's going to be a good fit there There will always need to be a parking reduction Whether it's a business that comes in that requires a conditional use permit There will never be The ability to cite this without some sort of Compromise to our our parking Or not and then there's no ability to condition it in a way to protect the neighborhood But there are uses that might not generate the same amount of Customer traffic there are Uses that are not retail that wouldn't have the same amount of traffic There are but there's no guarantee that they're going to want to cite themselves there So okay All right, um any other comments Yes, commissioner carter I really appreciate all of that you've said and and I certainly recognize the city's desire to get A good business in there as I do as a neighborhood resident I think we're just still unclear As to how the parking is going to work effectively and what effect it might have on On problematic intersections. I know the project doesn't rise to a level where we have to do Intersection operations studies, but we know these intersections operate badly and I can in good conscience Approve a project that could exacerbate operational difficulties in these locations And I definitely yeah, and I definitely appreciate that the differences In opinion, obviously we have them and so Okay So We know where this is going to go That was uh, the resolution was moved by commissioner dug in seconded by vice chair weeks your votes, please And that fails by virtue of uh, no votes by commissioners dug in and carter Um, yes votes by myself and vice chair weeks commissioners call you Uh abstaining and commissioner peterson being absent and commissioner olcrapki abstaining Just chair sysco. Yes The uh votes on the screen. We're not We're not correct Quite incorrect The planning commission is currently not using that voting system. That's something that happened Oh, I didn't even know we were using a screen for our votes. Okay, we are not So it's two eyes my Two yeses myself vice chair weeks Two nose commissioner dug in and commissioner carter, which means that it fails And um abstentions by commissioner olcrapki commissioner call you and an absence by commissioner peterson Does that help? Okay It's correct in the record What's that? I said the vote's correct in the record Okay, great And so with that that um concludes this item and we've got more to come I don't know. I don't think so Do do you think we should maybe I should ask her she's red looks ready to go Let's just I don't know that this is going to take a long time Okay, are we ready? Okay We're gonna go ahead and move on to oh wait. We have to wait for commissioners to come back We're almost ready Okay, so with that we'll go ahead Go ahead and move on to 10.2 the objective design standards for streamlined and ministerial residential developments rezoning Text amendment citywide and that is not an expartee disclosure and Amy Nicholson senior planner will do the presentation Good evening chair sisco and members of the commission the item before you is a zoning code text amendment establishing objective design standards for streamlined and ministerial residential development projects pursuant to recent state legislation As you know the city has an existing policy document which covers residential and non-residential design known as the design guidelines The guidelines are written In a subjective manner and allow for discretion and flexibility And therefore they cannot be enforced through state mandated ministerial processes Which requires the use of objective standards only The goal with the zoning code text amendment Is to codify objective design standards to address not only neighborhood compatibility But to ensure attractive residential development citywide While complying with new state legislation Jurisdictions across the state are experiencing housing shortages and high housing costs as we all know and in an effort to address this issue A number of housing bills have been adopted These bills require a streamlined and ministerial process For specified residential developments and i'll discuss those two bills in just a moment But they are known as senate bill 35 and assembly bill 21 62 And just to make sure we're all on the same page the term streamlined refers to Projects being processed within an expedited or specified timeframe And ministerial means no use of discretion or judgment when evaluating a project Which is atypical planning entitlements are typically discretionary So california senate bill 35 known as sp35 became law in january of 2018 It was part of a comprehensive package to address the housing shortage And it does require a streamlined ministerial approval process for specified residential projects sp35 is only Applicable to jurisdictions that have not made sufficient progress toward their regional housing needs And and so santa rosa has not met its regional housing needs and therefore needs to comply with this law Any eligible project Cannot be subject to discretionary review, which means Uh, it cannot be subject to a conditional use permit or any of the city's design oriented entitlements, which include design review landmark alteration or hillside development permits Because these projects are not subject to discretionary review They are not considered a project under the california environmental quality act and therefore that environmental review is not required For a project to benefit from sp35 processing it must meet a number of requirements Which are simplified on the slide here But projects must be primarily residential and include at least two units These are multifamily units and they must meet specified levels of affordability The project site needs to meet the definition of infill Pursuant to the legislation and cannot Have any of the specified environmental issues of which there are many listed in the bill Further any construction worker Who is a part of the the project Must be paid prevailing wage and the project needs to comply with any of the city's objective standards In the municipal code other policy documents or the general plan and zoning code California assembly bill 2162 became law one year later in january of 2019 It addresses the need for supportive and emergency housing And requires a streamlined ministerial approval process for supportive housing Again, just like sp35 Eligible projects cannot be subject to discretionary review are not subject to sequa and require specified timeframes for processing For a project to benefit uh for processing under ab2162 It must meet a number of requirements including affordability restrictions for 55 years That all units are dedicated to lower income households and receive public funding That a specified number of those low income units are designated as supportive housing That non-residential floor areas are used for onsite support services And that units within the development include at least one bathroom and kitchen or cooking facility The proposed design standards which are Included in the text amendment before you are sourced from the city's design guidelines They have been modified or eliminated based on the need to remain objective Which is a challenge when you're looking at guidelines And in many cases they were modified or eliminated to Keep projects feasible and not constraining them to to such a large extent that they wouldn't be possible So as such there's been several iterations that have gone through staff review Board review and also public comment There are six areas proposed in the new zoning code chapter They include neighborhood compatibility building design Massing and architecture outdoor and open space site design and accessory elements Going to just briefly touch on these six sections. So the neighborhood compatibility section relates to a multifamily development being well integrated into a single family neighborhood The building design section relates to materials and details including that affordable units Are the same as the Marker rate units within the same development proposed standards relating to massing and architecture relate to architectural features building recesses and entries Common and open space design standards relate to both private and common open space requirements Just a special note that the downtown stationery specific plan is not included in these open Space requirements and that was based on feedback received from the boards and also public comment Site design standards relate to the location of parking areas and screening And also just the visibility of common pathways and amenities throughout the development And finally the proposed design standards related to accessory elements focus on screening fencing and refuse containers As you know, the city has a number of objective standards that are already in the zoning code or are within other parts of the the city code They include development standards by zoning district So development standards are setbacks maximum height lock coverage The zoning code also includes Standards for landscaping like the one tree per five parking space requirement Or the the requirement that setbacks are maintained with landscaping The city also has the water efficient landscape ordinance Which requires low water plants and native plants and so that's another way to impact landscape design The zoning code includes a section on outdoor lighting which requires down shielded lights and The requirement for no light trespass onto a budding properties The zoning code also includes a number of objective standards related to parking There are specific measurements and designed parking design standards included As a special note the number of parking spaces that are included in the zoning code are superseded by or trumped by the state legislation Senate bill 35 has Reduced parking or no parking requirements for sites within half a mile of a transit stop And has a reduced parking requirement outside of the transit stop radius and then assembly bill 21 62 has just a reduced parking requirement for Sites within that transit transit vicinity so There are parking space requirements, but if there's ever a complex state legislation with trump In addition, there are hillside development standards within the zoning code that require a more restrictive setback Creekside development standards, which require a more restrictive setback a budding waterways And the city has a number of public improvement standards for street sidewalks and bike lanes In june of this year We released an online survey regarding the proposed design standards That survey included a number of standards that are no longer on the resolution before you because of Feasibility and also discussions with our two boards We have included a complete copy of the community survey as an attachment to your staff report So i'll briefly summarize What the comments received from that survey? In just a moment So the survey was distributed by way of the community advisory board and also the planning and economic development department email distribution list Which includes about 15 000 email addresses and The includes not only builders, but non-profit organizations governmental organizations and other interested parties We also posted the website and survey links to the city's various social media accounts and created a flyer which were distributed Also the online survey was created in both english and spanish as a special note So the survey again included a number of the proposed design standards and asked participants to rank them in order of preference by each topical area There was general consensus in favor of proposed design standards Including limiting the height of new buildings Which was actually removed after That the survey went out and i'm happy to talk about why in uh in a moment Uh there was general consensus in favor of the inclusion of single family design elements in single family neighborhoods Also that affordable units looked the same as market rate units that a variety of architectural features be incorporated into each project And the requirement for common open space There was also an opportunity for participants to add any other Suggestion as we left that open and there were some common themes participants expressed the importance of water efficient landscaping and landscaping generally to make projects attractive And as i mentioned just a moment ago these Landscape standards do currently exist in city policy and so that's why they're not fleshed out in this chapter There were also comments about the need for Compatible or earth tone neighborhood colors. This is a very challenging Comment to turn into an objective standard as you can probably imagine There's also a requirement or a preference for high quality materials And the need for additional parking the design review board and cultural heritage board received a presentation with a number of The proposed standards before you this was the same set of standards that went out by way of the community survey A majority of the board members expressed their concerns regarding a ministerial design review process and understood the difficulty associated with objective design standards related to architecture There were some specific comments that were incorporated into the objective standards Including utilizing caution about constraining development, especially within our downtown And as a result the requirements for private and common open space were eliminated just within the downtown area And some additional flexibility was added into the standard regarding parking location citywide In addition there was a suggestion that Requiring on-site amenities to be located To the center or rear of the site Could could deactivate the streets street space and thus that standard was removed And then finally there was a concern that a requirement for inset windows would Prohibit An affordable type of window that's commonly used for multifamily housing and thus the standard was removed So the proposed amendments before you are exempt from The requirements of the california environmental quality act pursuant to sequel guideline section 15061 b3 And that these amendments do not have the potential to cause a significant effect on the environment That these amendments will preserve and enhance aesthetic resources and each of the proposed amendments is necessary to conform to To state law and finally that any conceivable impact of the proposed amendment would be speculative in the absence of specific development proposals And although the project is related to design standards Which would typically be under the purview of the city's design review board The location of the standards within the city's zoning code make the planning commission the appropriate recommendation authority to the city council So with that the planning and economic development department recommends that the planning commission recommend approval Of the proposed zoning code text amendment to the city council And i'm happy to answer any questions Questions for miss nicklson Your questions Okay So This is a public hearing so i'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing and Don't have any cards on this item, but if there's anyone wishing to speak on it Not seeing anyone go to a microphone, so i'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing And bring it back to the commission Any any other questions Just so it's clear, you know, we're not debating the senate bills we're just looking at Establishing the objective design guidelines, which Our design professionals have already vetted and put in place for us. So we're basically Looking at their recommendation So with that, um, would somebody like to move a resolution for purposes of discussion I'll move a resolution of the planning commission of the city of san aroza recommending to the city council approval of a zoning code text amendment to add city code chapter 20-39 To create objective design standards for specified residential housing developments File number r ez 19-019 and waive for the reading And do I have a second second? Okay, so that was moved by commissioner degin seconded by vice chair weeks commissioner degin you want to start? um like to commend staff on your hard work and trying to Create these objective standards from from our design guidelines, and I actually read both laws and they were super interesting and Not as hard as I feared that they would be to read and understand So good job, and I'm all in favor great Commissioner call you I'm also in favor of uh these design guidelines. I think it's important to have to give potential developers a clear understanding of what they need to do in order to Utilize these two different laws, and I think it's great. Thank you commissioner carter My only comment is I am supportive of staff's recommendation. Thank you Vice chair weeks I don't have any comments other than i'm in favor of this Commissioner crepeki I have no comments other than i'm in favor of it And I also am in favor of that So with that we have the resolution moved by commissioner degin seconded by vice chair weeks and your votes, please And that passes with six eyes commissioner peterson being absent to have change places here as we move on to item 10.3, which is responsible patient care incorporated dba spark cannabis retail It is an exparte disclosure commissioner carter anything to disclose on 10.3 Commissioner call you I also don't have anything to disclose Mr. Degin, I visited the site and have no new information Vice chair weeks I also visited the site and have nothing to disclose Commissioner crepeki I have nothing to disclose And I also visited the site and have no new information to disclose And with that Andrew triple is our city planner will be giving Our staff presentation Great. Thank you chair sisco. Good evening members of the planning commission There's a project before you this evening For consideration as a major conditional use permit for responsible patient care ink doing business as spark I'll be referring to them as spark throughout the rest of the presentation This is for cannabis retail Rather expansion of cannabis retail dispensary use and addition of a delivery use at 10 61 north dot an avenue Currently that's approximately 3,300 square feet in an existing commercial building And that square footage consists of An existing cannabis Retail dispensary manufacturing distribution operations That are actually one of the two legacy operations That has existed in the city since 2011 So the project is located at 10 61 north dot an avenue as we can see here It kind of bridges an area between Some medium density residential use to the south and then a more broad area Of commercial retail and service uses with some light industrial To the west the north and the east The project site here is rather elongated To the north and wrapping around the project site to the west We do have those commercial and light industrial uses and then coming around on the southern border Of or boundary of the parcel is the medium density residential I would like to note here that there is a privacy fence That ranges between six and eight feet that runs the extent of the southern boundary This this site here doesn't do As great of a job as showing Some recent improvements to the site that were constructed in 2017 and subsequent to that At that point in time Spark Modified the exterior of the building did some exterior alterations added some new signage new landscaping Accessibility improvements and expanded the parking lot back to about midpoint of the parcel So perhaps we can see better here the the detail of that expansion The result is that there is a fence with a gate across the remainder of the lot that's reserved for employee use And then access to the rear of the building via this drive Um And then from this perspective we see the area for Customer parking immediately off of north dotten avenue So as I said spark was one of the legacy Cannabis dispensaries that was permitted to operate in 2011 and has been in operation continuously since that period of time When they were permitted to operate state law did allow a cannabis dispensary to have a multitude of cannabis uses manufacturing distribution and I believe even cultivation as well So in fact, it was what today we would refer to as a micro business Spark operated in that model until this point in time and it's been a a business decision Of theirs to then divest themselves of those manufacturing and distribution activities to other locations in santa rosa and the bay area So for that reason They are proposing to expand the retail dispensary use ad delivery use and their retail dispensary use would include The display and sale of cannabis paraphernalia That's a point that I brought up in a late correspondence item today where we modified the resolution to include that language Pursuing to our current zoning code So in 2017 With the with the advent of the city's comprehensive cannabis ordinance that would allow Cannabis retail dispensary use a zoning clearance was issued to spark To to declare them as an operator in good standing That then allowed them to move forward as what it would be a legal non conforming use Non conforming because they lack a required conditional use permit for the use In september of 2018 we held a pre application neighborhood meeting To discuss the expansion of the retail use that's before you today There were no attendees at that neighborhood meeting And and really no reason it wasn't anything in particular that might have happened to preclude attendance Just no one showed up at that meeting And so they're moving forward to this year on april 15th. They they submitted their project applications May 15th the notice of complete application was issued and on august 29th Then the public hearing notice was distributed So here we can see the general plan They are located within a retail and business services land use designation Immediately adjacent to that medium Residential land use designation and and low density residential further to the southwest And here we see that they are within a general commercial zoning district adjacent to the r2 I do just would like to point out that to the east across north dotten avenue. We do have the transit village Zoning districts that would foresee a conversion of the light industrial uses currently existing there Ideally into mixed use with higher density residential over the period of time the project Was subject to environmental review under the california quality act and we found the following exemptions Class one exemption and that it is an existing structure with a negligible expansion proposed that will not result in significant impacts A class three Exemption for a change of use requiring only minor exterior modifications a class 32 Exemption for an infill development consistent with the general plan and zoning and then pursuant to section 15 300.2 There are no exceptions to the exemptions that would apply So here we have some perspectives of the existing conditions and proposed improvements Because the exterior alterations were completed in 2017 2018 time frame There's very little to be proposed to the exterior of the building the applicant has indicated and I believe it reflects on the current Site plan that is before you as an attachment that they They do believe they want to propose moving the entry point to midway down the building So it's more centered on the building and not so Immediately in the forefront that's primarily not not really for security purposes But because it facilitates then the interior redesign as they convert to a A retail operation in its entirety The the modification to the the door entry system and the movement of that could be Receive administrative design review at the time that a building permit is submitted So at this point in time there are no Additional discretionary permits required for this project And then down below we have a couple of images of the interior of the building Showing kind of the design ethos that the the applicant has in mind for The expansion And here we have the existing conditions site plan It does identify 32 vehicle parking spaces For the expansion 13 would be required for approximately 3300 square feet of retail space And then One vehicle one bicycle parking space would be required The applicant has indicated that they will be installing a four bicycle rack towards the front of the building In this area off of the sidewalk Operational characteristics that would be comprised of as i've mentioned about 3300 square feet 1900 square feet of that would be retail sales floor With approximately 380 square feet for secure storage The remainder of the space would consist of office space non-cannabis stock room To differentiate that from the secure storage restrooms and for both for Employees and customers and then employee break room and other employee areas The proposal to operate the retail dispensary and delivery Use would be from 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. p.m. Daily which is consistent with the zoning code for each of those uses And then commercial deliveries to the facility would be limited to the hours of 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Daily to reflect its adjacency to that residential land use to the south The applicant did submit a security plan and certified odor mitigation plan Those were provided to you as attachments those plans were reviewed They do comply with the current zoning code and staff found them acceptable One perhaps operational characteristic just to point out again that they the proposal is to include The display and sell sale Of cannabis paraphernalia, which is an ongoing activity that they currently Are entitled to through their non-conforming use No public comments were received as of the data preparation of this presentation, and I've not received Any public comments at this time as well The applicant is here to provide a presentation perhaps to go into more details as to the proposed expansion operationally and design-wise However, it is recommended by planning an economic development department that the planning commission Approve a conditional use permit to allow the expansion of an existing medicinal and adult use cannabis retail dispensary and to add cannabis delivery in a 3,300 square feet of an existing commercial building located at 1061 north dotten avenue I'm available to answer any questions. Thank you Any questions of staff Not seeing any Okay, would the applicant like to give a presentation? All right, thank you. Good evening, and thanks for being here. I mean underdubs kramer director of licensing You might have to either I don't know if that one goes up, but you might have to lean further down into the microphone All right. How's that? Can maybe can you hear me? Yeah, okay. Great. There's a button next to if you want to move the whole kiosk up Yeah, you're tall. So Yeah, it's on the side I didn't know this went up and uh, thank you. Okay, great Be much more comfortable that way Thank you so much Hi, good evening, and thanks for your patience tonight. Um, my name is andre dobbs kramer. I'm the licensing and compliance director for spark I appreciate you guys being here to this evening and considering this proposal As you heard from the excellent staff report the proposal before you today is to remodel our existing facility To improve and expand the sales floor and to add delivery Before jumping into the details, I just want to give you some brief background on spark and who we are That's it. I'll try and keep it brief Spark opened our first dispensary in sabastopol in 2007 under the peace and medicine brand and followed with this dot and avenue dispensary in 2011 We launched our first san francisco dispensary on mission street in 2010 And we have since added two more stores in san francisco as well as an estate farm in glenn ellen Between sonoma county and san francisco We currently operate a total of five retail facilities as well as manufacturing distribution and cultivation operations With our broad experience across multiple Jurisdictions and operations spark has emerged as a leader in the local marketplace Winning numerous awards for customer service and facility design among other things Most recently we were awarded best cannabis delivery service by the bohemian for 2019 the service. We hope to extend to santa rosa We were also a resource for our local policy makers having engaged with santa rosa's cannabis subcommittee during the comprehensive ordinance process As well as being involved in similar developments in san francisco sabastopol Sonoma county and elsewhere Since opening in 2011 our center as a location has gone through a number of changes Including a previous interior remodel and a recent exterior upgrade, which you can see here This dot location previously served as a hub of operations For our company with retail sales as well as supporting manufacturing and distribution operations under the old collective model And I apologize my diagram here is sideways, but you can see they're all crammed in there With the passage of proposition 64 and malcursa and the subsequent regulations issued by the bureau of cannabis control cdph and cdfa We chose to separate out the manufacturing and distribution activities and ultimately move them to a new separate location Here you can see the floor plan that was approved and yeah quite cramped in there before with three activities Here we have our new gleaming shiny new facility for manufacturing and distribution Uh, we're which we moved our operations to in 2019 This is over on corporate center parkway in santa rosa This facility was built with the new regulations in mind and is slated for further expansion as we continue to grow here in santa rosa Here you can see our new proposed floor plan for the dot and avenue remodel Which is the next step in the reorganization of our sonoma county operations Moving forward our new santa rosa manufacturing and distribution facility and our farm in glenn ellen will serve as the hubs Of activity for spark allowing us to provide an enhanced retail and educational experience at our dotin location As part of this c up we are also proposing the addition of a delivery service Which we already provide from our sabastable location as well as throughout san francisco As an experience delivery operator We have a highly trained team of security staff dispatchers and drivers And are ready to expand this service to more of the county than we're currently able to serve from sabastable Additionally the the advent of delivery in santa rosa at our facility will mean an increase in tax base for the city Here we've got some renderings. Um, this one is the proposed exterior As we as mr. Triple mentioned we'll be relocating the door to the center of the building Um We'll also be enlarging the entryway and relocating it to To bring in more natural light and make sort of a more open and welcoming feel to this environment Rather than just that abrupt front door that we currently have This rendering shows the inside of the proposed entryway and on the left here you have a quick pickup window Which we're hoping to add in order to allow our patrons to choose the method that really fits them We have some folks who come in and want a really in-depth educational experience and some people just want to get in and out So we're hoping that with this remodel we're going to be able to better meet the needs of our community by having various different Sort of service methods for them Here we have another slide of that interior and over on the right here You can see one of our proposed educational areas Where customers can sit down and really meet one on one with our team members and learn more about cannabis And how it fits their lifestyle without a queue of people lined up behind them pressuring them Um, I think this will really enhance the the uh educational aspect of our services As more and more of our community begins to incorporate cannabis into their lives It's important that we have multiple ways to serve them and really educate them about what's going on With the added educational areas pickup windows and delivery services Each member will be able to choose the method that best suits them in our Santa Rosa location And we'll be able to better serve the community Without a major impact here. Thank you for your time and consideration Thank you Any questions? Yeah, vice chair weeks Can you tell me what your time frame is if this is approved tonight? Uh time frame for for the remodel. Yeah Yeah, we launch into it just as soon as possible We've been working with the building department already to discuss pre-application Meetings and we've gotten building permit drawings underway That said it's it's very difficult to predict In the cannabis industry and in any New construction project how long all the phases will take But our intention is to move forward with this as quickly as we can I wish I could give you a date, but I don't want to say something that's going to be wildly wrong Any other Questions of the applicant. I'm sorry May I make a note one aspect that's proposed to Commence sooner than the others is the delivery service because it's a low impact The construction will take a little bit longer Great. Thanks So this is a public hearing tonight I'm going to open the public hearing chair sisco if I might I need to revise my comments regarding public comments And we did I did receive late correspondence earlier this week. I shared it with planning commissioners as a late correspondence item And that was an email from a person who who citizen who may be nearby property owner, but certainly travels via north dotten avenue quite frequently And the person commented that she does not oppose the project But that She did identify vehicular movements into and out of the project site as a nuisance for drivers traveling south on North dotten avenue. So passing by the project site headed south. I relayed her comments to the city traffic Engineers and both Rob sprinkle and Nancy Adams visited the site made some observations confirm that there is adequate site distance and That given the the site's distance from the intersection of college and Avenue that there is the opportunity for gaps to emerge Within traffic heading south to allow for appropriate ingress and egress from the site Um So from their perspective, there were no improvements that could be required per city regulations I would also like to note that the exhibit a before you this evening does include a condition To improve driveway aprons and sidewalks if required and that would be based I believe upon the value of the overall improvements To the project site and then also to maintain a clear vehicular site distance By trimming back vegetation and such the applicant has indicated that there are going to be relandscaping their area of Kind of that landscape buffer berm to the south of the project site to ensure that it is does provide clear site distances The only other suggestion that we had for commissioners is to consider requiring that a center line Be installed on the on the driveway into the project site So the drivers could clearly understand that that is a two-way drive and To then stay in their respective lanes as they enter and exit the project site Okay, thanks for that. Mr. Triple and if we were to consider that and apply that where would that go We can we can add it as a condition of approval on the resolution on the resolution and then you did give us an updated resolution and I haven't read it yet, but it does include the The ability for them to sell accessory items that's in there somewhere and then we might might be adding this center line thing Okay, great Okay, so with that I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing And if any members of the public wish to speak on this item I don't have any cards, but feel free to step to a microphone And I am not seeing anyone move so i'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and um Bring it back to the commission for discussion. Would somebody like to move the updated resolution for discussion? I'll move the resolution of the planning commission of the city of santa rosa approving a conditional use permit for responsible patient care Incorporated dba spark Expansion of a commercial cannabis retail dispensary use in 3,300 square feet of an existing building Including display and sale of cannabis related paraphernalia in addition of commercial cannabis delivery use Located at 1061 north thutton avenue apn 010-441-012 file number c up 19-034 and wait for the reading And commissioners somebody second Does that include the center line requirement? Well, that's nothing that would be the question so We could go ahead and say that that's included now I can't imagine any of us would object to it. And so where would that be placed just so we keep the record clear We would place it as it would end up under planning division item number 11 Okay And just for clarification Condition 10 is blank on the resolution So what is currently condition 11 under engineering division would become 10 and so this would be a new number 11 under the planning division section Okay, so consider that resolution moved with all of those Items in that yeah with with a new item 11 as described by staff and wait for the reading great second Okay, so That was moved by commissioner decan seconded by commissioner ocrepti And commissioner ocrepti you want to start on this one? Yeah, I live right or I don't live I work right on the corner from this And drive by it quite frequently and Considering that There was a comment about the traffic and issues I've never seen that At that particular area And I fully in support of this application, especially since it's been a long-standing well run establishment in this in the city Okay Commissioner weeks I'm also going to be supportive of the application and I think adding The delivery is a smart move Commissioner dougan I can make all the required findings. I think it's an attractive well-run operation and I'm happy that they want to continue So I'm in support of the project Mr. Coyer I also will be supporting the project I can make all the required findings to support it and I appreciate them being A good member of the city for so long And commissioner carter I can also make the necessary findings and I think my fellow commissioners have pretty much covered the reasons why thank you Okay And I also can make the required findings and I think it's a fine establishment as it is it looks like it will be Quite nice when it's finished and I definitely appreciate the delivery service So with that it was moved by commissioner dougan seconded by commissioner okrepke and your votes, please And that passes with six eyes commissioner peterson being absent Thank you commissioners. Yeah, thank you So next The faces remain the same so we'll move on to item 10.4 phenotopia cannabis retail dispensary and delivery Conditions permit it is an exparte disclosure commissioner carter anything to disclose I have visited the site and I have nothing further to disclose Mr. Coyer I visited the site and have met with the applicant team and I have no new information to disclose Commissioner dougan I visited the site and met with the applicant's Representative and have no new information to disclose nice chair weeks I also visited the site and met A couple months ago with the applicant's representative and nothing to disclose and commissioner okrepke I've met with the applicant's representative and have nothing further to disclose And I also visited the site and met with the applicant's representative and have no new information to disclose with that Andrew Tribble will make this staff presentation. Thank you Chair Cisco and members of the Planning Commission for your final cannabis retail dispensary application for review this evening. This is the phenotopia cannabis retail dispensary and delivery application at 443.in Avenue unit 11 and the proposal is a conditional use permit to allow medicinal and adult use cannabis retail dispensary and delivery use in 2,172 square feet of an existing 26,288 square foot community shopping center. The community shopping center is located on the northeast corner of Dutton Avenue and Sebastopol Road and the specific project site is centrally located at the bend of the existing retail building which is generally to the rear of the site. We do have some additional parking behind the retail building. There's I think about 20 spaces back there and then of course we have the Joe Rodata Trail that runs immediately to the north of the building providing great bicycle and vehicular access to the project site. I'll go ahead and note out on this slide here that there is no fence between the Joe Rodata Trail and this the retail shopping center at this point in time. When we look then here at the different perspective of the project site we would see the main entry does face the shopping center parking lot. There is on the rear of the site another entry point that is a solid corridor. There are no windows in the rear of the building and the applicant does have proposed sort of an interior foyer that would be secure as well. So for employees who might be parking behind the building and entering from the rear of the building they would enter in through the exterior door into a secured foyer and then be able to enter into the retail dispensary area. We do have majority of the parking located on the front of the site and although this is a separate out parcel it does share parking with the shopping center site. So a bit of project history. Phenotopia submitted their application in the first round of cannabis retail dispensary applications that were taken in April of 2018. On May 31st as part of the group of completeness reviews that planning staff accomplished they were issued a notice of incomplete application. They responded to that notice of incomplete application and on July 2nd then where she'd notice of complete application. There was an over concentration issue there with another proposed dispensary on Sevastopol Avenue and so those projects were then taken before the cannabis subcommittee for review as part of the articulated process for over concentrations in that round one submittal process. On November 14th the cannabis subcommittee voided the phenotopia application and gave the opportunity to the other project on Sevastopol Road to move forward for planning review and phenotopia appealed that decision to City Council and so on November 26th they filed an appeal to City Council. They're moving forward into this year on March 26th the City Council granted the appeal and that allowed phenotopia then to move forward as the preferred application for that over concentration area and so this application then entered planning review on March 26th. I would just like to note that at the Council hearing both applicants brought supporters to the hearing but the fact that phenotopia had received the highest marks out of any application reviewed by planning staff during the round one submittal played an important factor in City Council deciding to grant the appeal to phenotopia. So the general plan land use designation is retail and business services and we can see here that it is surrounded by other retail and business services land use designations. It's generally a mix of retail services restaurants banks auto services and such on this pretty heavily traveled and utilized commercial corridor of Sevastopol Road and then the zoning is general commercial and cannabis retail dispensary and delivery uses are allowed in general commercial zoning district with an approved major conditional use permit. So project was subject to environmental review and it was determined that it does qualify for the following exemptions under the California Environmental Quality Act a class 1 exemption because it is an existing structure and the proposed use would result in negligible expansion that will not result in any significant impacts a class 3 exemption for a change of use requiring only minor exterior modifications a class 32 exemption for infill development consistent with the general plan and zoning and then finally section 15300.2 is applicable and that no exceptions to the exemption supply. So we can see here in the this upper left-hand image is the former LA style which is the the retail suite or bay which phenotopia is proposing its use and it does have limited parking directly in front but there is sufficient parking in the parking lot adjacent to it and then lower here we see an image of the interior of the building which is the rear wall solid rear wall with the the only access via the solid core door in addition to the interior for your that the applicant is proposing there would be security cameras on the exterior of the door overlooking both the door in the rear parking lot and then a image proposed rendering of the interior which the applicant I'm sure will go into greater detail. So parking was evaluated was determined that there are 134 vehicle parking spaces available the required parking for this use based upon the square footage would be nine parking spaces this is a shared shared parking facility for the shopping center use we did not one of the analysis does count the parking spaces that were on this parcel I think when we combine them together we're at about 154 spaces if I'm not mistaken additionally one bicycle parking space would be required by the zoning code for the proposed use of the applicant working with the property owner will be installing at least seven bicycle parking spaces not directly not necessarily in front of the use itself but throughout the shopping center to provide service to the entire shopping center as well in terms of operational characteristics we do have approximately 2,200 gross square feet of that about 1,100 square feet of it would be dedicated to retail sales floor with 162 square feet for secure storage the remainder of the space would be utilized for office stock room non-cannibus unsecured stock room restrooms for both customers and employees and then employee areas as well they are proposing the use of both the retail operation and the delivery use from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily we're not conditioning commercial vehicle delivery because this is in a commercial area and so there be no impacts on residential uses nearby there are no unresolved issues remaining on this project and for this project no comments have been received as of this time for this reason when planning and economic development is recommending the planning commission approve a conditional use permit to allow medical and adult use cannabis retail dispensary and delivery uses in 2,172 square feet of an existing 26,288 square foot community shopping center at 443 dot avenue and the applicant does have a presentation and I'm available to answer any questions thank you any questions of staff right now no okay with the applicant look there you are okay can you hear me first of all I want to say thank you for letting me know that this raises up because I'm tall person as well and I did not know that before so my name is Blair you I just wanted to say thank you to chair Cisco and all the commissioners for having us here this evening I'm an attorney at Rockaway law group that has an office here in the city in my office actually represents phenotopia and obviously as you know phenotopia is seeking a cannabis retail and delivery CUP at 443 Dutton Avenue in Suite 11 in the existing Dutton Plaza so I do have a pretty detailed presentation but I'm gonna try to go through extremely quickly so if I don't touch on something that you see on a slide and you have questions about it later I'll be happy to answer those but in the interest of time I'm gonna go through it pretty quickly is it okay to try to click through Andrew right go ahead and try all right there we go so the first thing I wanted to touch on is talk about the site management and then add the team that applicant has put together so the founder and CEO of phenotopia is Patrick Fahey he he's not only kind of a family man and a longtime resident of Santa Rosa but he also has over 20 years experience in the cannabis industry Patrick began working with small cannabis cultivators in 1996 and worked hard to kind of work through and become an innovator in that space working with large-scale cannabis cultivators by both designing the facilities and managing them and additionally he spent five years buying as a buying and supply chain consultant for numerous compliant so our front dispensary so he's very excited for the opportunity to start his own business here kind of in his hometown to supplement his experience Patrick has brought on to the team Johnny Nolan and 421 group who are going to be working with phenotopia to assist with the creation and implementation of operations and hiring procedures and then he's also hired my law from Rockaway law group to assist with legal matters such as compliance permitting licensing and then any type of documentary needs one of the things we wanted to touch on is kind of the organizational chart so we can talk about hiring and employees in a few minutes so the first way is to look at kind of the executive team at the top and then as you see they kind of come down through the different levels and at the bottom of the slide we have kind of our entry-level positions that we'll be hiring for as soon as we kind of get closer to operations each role as designated has a designated job description that was in the application packet an applicant is excited to start building out that team with members of the local community the Rosalind community when we talk about kind of our hiring process and employment there are a few things that we want to really call out to your attention so the first being phenotopia is local recruiting focus their diverse workforce goals employee wages and benefits and then employee training phenotopia is endeavoring to be a neighborhood business and therefore it will be directing its recruiting efforts towards the Rosalind community as much as it possibly can this will start with staff level post positions being posted on very commonly visited websites and such as Craigslist and indeed possibly next door these are all websites that are readily available to community members and don't require memberships to be able to see job postings but for those in the community that either don't have access to computers or maybe don't use computers will also be doing job postings around the local community so that a wide kind of swatch of community members can know about these job postings the goal overall goal is to give back to the community by creating jobs for local community members so we're going to be working as hard as we can to make sure multiple members and a variety of different members of the community have access to getting jobs at phenotopia and because of the diverse makeup of the community that the facility will exist in applicants goal is to hire customer facing personnel that have language skills so that our staff can communicate with the diverse community that's likely going to come into the dispensary and in addition to hiring bilingual and possibly multi-lingual staff members phenotopia also plans to conduct hiring in line with California's banned the box movement also known as the Fair Chance Act so if you have more questions about that later I'd be happy to discuss what that is the third point is one that I've heard questions for other applicants throughout the evening so I figured I'd touch on it here so when it comes to wages and benefits entry level staff members at phenotopia will have a starting hourly wage of $15 per hour with upward mobility for things like experience or performance and then also industry standards so as one of the presenters kind of noted the the wage and across kind of the board and dispensaries has kind of been going up and up and what what employees are expecting and what kind of talented people you can get in so those all of those things will be kind of evaluated on a reoccurring basis to make sure that the employees of phenotopia not only have a good work life but also a good home life and can you know have a living wage like the city's goal is applicant entire excuse me applicant anticipates hiring entry level customer service specialists inventory clerks and security specialists at the rate that I just discussed and like I said there will be upward adjustments available in terms of benefits the applicant is going to offer a competitive benefit package to all employees so that you know employees don't have to worry about things like health care our dental care vision those things will be provided in a package to all employees it's applicant goal applicants goal to provide employees with living wages and competitive benefits so that like I said they can thrive both at work and at home and the last point is training so in order to ensure phenotopias employees are not only well-rounded and learning skills necessary to help run a compliant safe and successful business all employees are going to be required to go through some stringent training processes and mandatory training module topics will include things like legal and regulatory basics for the cannabis industry confidentiality and customer privacy emergency procedures diversion prevention and general retail sales training items so one of the important things that we wanted to talk about is neighborhood compatibility the location of the subject property falls in suite 11 of the Dutton Plaza at the intersection of Denton and Sebastopol Road and we wanted to note that the facility supports the commercial revitalization aspects of the Roseland redevelopment plan which can be found in section 10.5 of the general plan as well as the city's intent to promote retail along regional and arterial corridors the hours will be 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. 7 days a week and we have a ton of public access and transportation options for people that want to come to the site so as was noted earlier the Joe Godot a trail runs behind the premises but there's also a ton of bus stops that are within feet of the location so as on the slide routes 2 and 12 of the Santa Rosa bus and route 22 of the Sonoma County transit stop are there so these are just some maps that will go through quickly and this one's a little bit difficult to see but it goes along with one of the maps that Mr. Triple showed it's just the site map showing the trail running behind the facility and then the intersections around it this is another diagram of the site plan so showing the suite 11 kind of at that rear right corner with the parking and showing that it set back from public paths of travel and then this third one is more towards public transit and alternative travel options so showing the trail behind the facility and then if you can see there's black dots kind of surrounded by dotted lines I guess each of those black dots is a bus stop so there are from my being able to count up here at least six within the vicinity that makes it walkable because this is going to be a re-tenanting it's not a new build most of the changes to the facility will be happening on the interior so I'll go into those a little bit more but in terms of the exterior the only changes that the applicants proposing at this point are putting up a phenotopia sign which you'll see on another slide and then adding some natural window coding to the outside windows so that the project can be compliant with local and state regulations about people not being able to see in and see the sale of cannabis or see cannabis you know where it's stored and then interior details will be talked about a little bit and landscaping is we would like to update kind of the parking island that's right in front of the store with drought resistant plants but we'll be working with ownership of the plaza to see if that's something that they're okay with so this is an example of what the phenotopia exterior will look like with the kind of art deco sign it'll be backlit in a light color so it won't kind of draw your eye from the from the road any more than any of the other signs also showing kind of the coating on those windows and what we hope that kind of front landscaping area will look like and then this is the interior information so this is kind of where the meat of the changes are going to be this is the floor plan which kind of shows at the bottom of the screen that when customers walk in they'll be met by kind of a security barrier where that's all we'll check IDs make sure that everyone's old enough to be coming in there and make sure if they're a medical patient they have a valid recommendation and once they get clear they can go be shown through to the retail floor and they may have also get access to the customer bathroom but from there everything beyond that retail floor in that bathroom is closed to the public so it's what we call limited access and you will have to have some sort of access control whether that's a key or a code to get through to those back rooms so we one of the things to note is that there's a secured storage area in that rear kind of limited access area which we're going to use to keep most of the product and any what cannabis waste or money that's brought on site so that the minimum amount of cannabis will as possible actually housed on the retail floor so that's an extra safety precaution so that if there is any type of emergency situation the majority of the product is actually not available to people on the retail floor and then that last the last little area the inventory control room is what Mr. Triple was talking about that is kind of a safety vestibule area it's kind of if you think of it as a double lock room so one of the training mechanisms for safety will be that if we are receiving deliveries in through that back door from a distributor or if delivery drivers are leaving to you know go to their vehicles out that back door it'll be a double lock system so if you come in from the back door that first door has to close and lock behind you before the interior door is opened and same thing you know the interior door has to be locked before you leave out that back way the only real thing that's going to be in that room is security screens so that anybody that is leaving the premises can see what is happening outside in that parking lot area before they actually exit and then for it was we'll talk about a little bit about the delivery kind of procedures whenever any delivery drivers are going out to their vehicle or if any distribution vehicle is dropping off product there will be a security staff member viewing the entire process from inside so that if there is any type of concern or issue they can be aware of that and assist so this is the interior aesthetic that's planned on site so applicant will utilize a simple clean and modern design scheme the idea is to keep everything sleek and light and bright without making it kind of sterile so that it's still a great environment for people to come in and enjoy one of the big things that phenotopia is focused on and I think was pretty apparent in the application packet is being a locally and state compliant business there are a bunch of different things on the slide that are kind of go into detail on but the ones that I'll just pull out for everybody are the age requirements so as I talked about before the the business will ensure that only people that are 21 years of age or 18 years or older with medical recommendation are allowed on site you know there's going to be limited access areas track and trace will be a huge component of this business to ensure that all product is tracked according to the state regulations and then also delivery locations will only be delivering to privately owned physical addresses in fully enclosed vehicles and what goes hand in hand with compliance safety and security so there are a number of different things that phenotopia is going to do including having hired crime alert security to write their security procedures and plans but some of the ones we wanted to call out where things like the badge requirement this is so that everybody knows who is actually working for the for phenotopia whether it's on the retail floor or out at deliveries every employee that's on shift will have an identification card in compliance with the state regulations that has their photo their name an ID number and then the licensee information as well another one is the security personnel so state law requires that all storefront retailers have searched trained and licensed security personnel on site so phenotopia will have that during business hours as required by state as required by state regulations but they will also kind of go a step further and have security staff members that work there that are trained for security purposes specifically that will assist with any plaza needs that includes and cleaning up any refuge that's found or if there are you know any type of transient people that may be in that area assisting them to get more to a better area for them to be and then also assisting any other plaza members with the similar type things then also having a comprehensive surveillance system and electronic security system and if you have questions about those I'm more than happy to go into details about kind of the details of those in terms of operations so the applicant will be seeking a type 10 license from the Bureau of Cannabis control which allows for storefront retail and delivery and when it comes to the actual storefront operations we just kind of pinpointed some of the things from the application that we thought you might want to talk about or know about first of all foremost the ID check at the security station is a big one security and safety is of primary importance here and I think it should be with all cannabis retailers so we wanted to call that out having minimum product kept in the secure storage on the floor but having most of it being kind of in that back quote-unquote vault room that no loitering or remaining on the premises once purchases are made will be allowed purchase products will be placed in exit packaging no consumption will be on site and there will be no customer access past the retail floor when it comes to delivery the applicant decided to include delivery in the application after really looking into the benefits of delivery and I think those are pretty commonly known but just making sure that people that are necessary can't necessarily come into the dispensary are immobile or unable to travel for one reason or another have the ability to access tested state safe and compliant products rather than continuing to kind of buy from the illegal market and feed into the illegal market which is you know as we know in California big problems still to this day and so it's applicant's goal to kind of assist in the Bureau of Cannabis controls new program that's aimed at cutting down at the illegal market and then the basics of the delivery operation are that orders will come in either be a phone or be a website the website hasn't been created yet but assuming that we get your approval here tonight one will be in the works and that delivery drivers will prepare delivery orders and management will check those orders to ensure they're compliant and that all necessary documentation is in the driver's possession before they leave the premises the delivery driver will exit through that back kind of vestibule area that I talked about that secure area and someone will be you know on the inside looking at the screens ensuring that that's kind of happening in a safe manner because the security cameras will be out there and the lighting will also be there as well so to be a very well a visible environment delivery drivers will check customer IDs once they arrive and any other documentation that's needed before the delivery takes place obtain all the necessary documentation including delivery receipts come back to the licensed premises and work with management to make sure that's all tracked and then the last one we wanted to touch on and we'll go quickly through this is that even before applicant had you know submitted their application one of the huge things that they focused on was community outreach and because the Roseland community is such a tight-knit community phenotopia really wanted to know what it could bring to the Roseland community and what things it could do to assist the community before opening its business and while operating so three of the things that they did is that they did bilingual canvassing before they even knew that they were going to be involved in any type of competitive process and there was a canvassing report that was submitted with the application materials then the second thing they did is that they held an open house on site before the actual regional submission of their application and then the third thing is they had a pre-hearing community event before the city council meeting this is just a slide to show kind of information about the canvassing date so they did canvas nine days between February and March 2018 they hit 57 locations during that time and found general great support for the product for the project and then this slide is just to show that the outreach was bilingual in nature so they did a lot of flyers for their open house and also you know when they are actually canvassing the neighborhood utilize bilingual canvassers to have those communications to ensure that everything was really understood in the neighborhood and so as you can see they they did a good job of kind of putting putting their efforts to make sure that real members of the community will listen to and then the last slide that we have is just about the community benefits of the project so I'll go quickly through these they're going to have locally sourced talent as I described during the hiring process and they're going to do everything that they can to source their products from other local operators as well so they're really supporting the mission of supporting Santa Rosa and Sonoma County businesses and the second is the community giving plan the applicant has already started giving to community groups like the Esperanza and the Boys and Girls Club so they're going to continue those and as new community groups are identified by local community members because that's where they found that these two groups were very important to the local community they'll expand their giving procedures they're also going to do environmentally friendly and sustainable business practices so making sure that they can serve energy and water and also make it a goal to get sustainable packaging from their either the manufacturers or the cultivators that they work with through distribution businesses and then the last one is the they're thinking about the possibility of having an alternative transportation discount program so that people that can show that they got there either by bike or taking a bus or some other way have have a discount available to them and to show that they're kind of supporting you know the environment so this is you know the extent of the presentation phenotopy is extremely excited and so we just thank you for your time and I'm here to answer any questions that you have. Any questions of the applicant? Yes. Since all the deliveries are going out the back and Joe Rudota trails right there what is is there a fence there is there extra security on that side? Sure so there is no fence the current property doesn't have any fencing but what the applicant is going to implement is they will have cameras that go back there they will have additional security lighting and then in that kind of vestibule space they will have the screens available so whenever any you know because all deliveries that are coming to the premises are going to be scheduled and they'll be at varied time so it's not like they're very predictable but when they are expecting a delivery they will have a member of the security staff that goes and kind of oversees that process so that there's additional personnel available to assist with that make it quick to get into the inside but also I think the important thing to do is that there will be a check of the premises before any deliveries are allowed to unload or any delivery drivers go out so if they see a situation where you know there is possibly you know a person out there that they're not sure exactly what their intentions are that situation will be cleared before any type of product is moved outside or into the building any other yeah commissioner car sort of a follow-on to commissioner okra priest do you know how those spaces at the rear are typically used except for delivery to phenotopia sure so to my knowledge and I haven't spent a lot of time on site to be honest but to my knowledge the majority of those spaces are used for employee parking I don't think it's cut off so that you know customers can't use that space but I think for the most part those spaces typically remain empty unless it's for employee parking back there any other questions okay thank you thank you may have you back up here after the public hearing no problem okay this is a public hearing tonight I have three cards on that just give you a few basic instructions when I call your name go to one of the microphones up at the top there you'd restate your name for the record as you begin that's always helpful I'm a strict timekeeper you're going to have three minutes please watch the light bar that's up there it'll go from green as you get closer to the end of three minutes it'll go to yellow and then to red and just really terminate your your comments so that I don't have to interrupt you or talk over you so with that I'm going to open the public hearing and the first speaker is Johnny Nolan and Johnny Nolan is going to be followed by Josh and oh greetings thank you commission for hearing us today my name is Johnny Nolan I'm the intended chief operating officer at launch for phenotopia and I would like to read a letter today from my dear friend and colleague Susan Cooper the executive director of community action partnership of Sonoma County who unfortunately couldn't be here tonight because caps is hosting a major fundraising event dear commission I would like to offer my support for phenotopias application in Roseland they are a model organization and we are so grateful that they have been giving donations to programs like the Esperanza even before they are operational my hope is that with time this business will flourish in our local community and that will allow them to continue giving not just financial contributions but their time and energy to the programs that make Roseland so great again thank you for attention to this matter and your consideration sincerely Susan Cooper executive director of cap Sonoma I'm also glad to answer any questions about operations I have 10 years of operational leadership experience for my time at peace of medicine in spark and I very much look forward to opening this operation great thank you for your comments Josh and Nong and Josh is going to be followed by Felix Figueroa good evening thank you for allowing me to speak tonight so I run I actually grew up in the Roseland District community I'm 31 years old I've been there I've been there since I've been little my parents um my mother was a teacher at Roseland Elementary School so when Patrick came to us we run a non-profit with the Corby Action Olive Committee and so this year we've this is the 17th year that we did our backpack giveaway drive and a camp out for the children so he has asked he helped me out this year to donate backpacks for the children of the Roseland community and so I just wanted to give him my support and thank him for what he's been doing with me and the community of Roseland and that he is a very supportive individual and he will be great doing what he does here in the Roseland community and for all the other people who do not know him he's a great man and then hopefully this and for Thanksgiving we're going to be doing a turkey drive so hopefully he's involved with that but he is a great individual and he has helped so thank you guys thank you Josh thanks for all you do for our neighborhood also Felix Figueroa can you hear me all right my name is Felix Figueroa I'm a former Roseland resident I've known Patrick for for over seven years and what's always stood out about Patrick is his honesty and his integrity my wife and I met each other in Roseland and lived here for years and we really care about its success and we figure Roseland really needs Funitopia and Patrick and the whole organization and I really would appreciate it you guys would approve it and thanks for your time thank you that's all the cards that I have on this item you don't have to have filled out a card if you'd like to speak and I'm not seeing anyone else rise to speak so I'm going to go ahead and close public hearing bring it back to the commission question any other questions of the applicant any other questions of staff okay so and I don't think we have any corrections to this resolution correct we're good as it stands the only thing is to adjust the date of the exhibit a to september 9th 2019 great so somebody like to move that resolution without adjustment and where do we make that adjustment is it it's in condition nine okay all right I'll move a resolution of the planning commission of the city of Santa Rosa approving a conditional use permit for Funitopia dispensary a commercial cannabis retail dispensary and delivery use in 2172 square feet of an existing building located at 443.nav unit 11 apn 125-111-039 file number c up 18-057 with the correction to item number nine the exhibit a date to september 9th 2019 and wait for the reading second okay so that was moved by commissioner dug in a seconded by commissioner call you should call you would you like to start sure I think this is this presentation was put very well together I appreciate all of the community support the community engagement that has happened and the underlying community support and the ongoing community support is incredibly important and I will be supporting I can make all the required findings and I will be supporting this project commissioner Carter I will certainly be able to make all the required findings on this application and in support of the project and the good they've done and will continue to do in the community commissioner dug in I can also make all the required findings and in support of the project and have nothing else to add that's your weeks I also can make all the findings and don't need to say anything else so I'll be supporting the project and commissioner Krapke I will say I do like the chair will giving the community support engagement the local higher aspect as well as the idea that we will be approving the highest rate of all the applicants I think that's a good step and I can make all the required findings will be in support of the apkan and I also can make all of the required findings always a very tight application from your firm and be happy to welcome phenotopia to spasitville road and roseland and my area so so with that um commissioner dug and moved the resolution it was seconded by commissioner kaya and your votes please and that passes with six eyes commissioner peterson being absent and I believe that concludes our business for this evening and we'll adjourn to our september 26 meeting