 Okay, it's 7 p.m. So we get started. Are we live? Yes, we're live. All right, we'll take it live. All right, good evening, everyone, and welcome to the June 3rd Capital Planning Commission meeting. In accordance with the Santa Cruz County Health Order, this meeting is not physically open to the public, but commissioners and staff are meeting via Zoom and there's several ways that the public can participate. So if we could have the screen up there, you can call in by phone and enter the webinar ID number. You can dial 9 and raise your hand and wait to be unmuted. You can also do it via email and write to us. And there's many ways that you can participate in the public comments. So with that, we'll begin the meeting with the roll call, please. Sure. Commissioner Christiansen? Here. Here. Commissioner Westman? Here. Commissioner Wilk? Here. Chair Booth? Here. Thank you. Now, if everyone will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of the United States of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one name under God, liberty indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Our first item on the agenda tonight is oral communications. Are there any additions or deletions to the agenda, Katie? There are no additions or deletions to the agenda. I don't, Matt, can you verify, have we received any additional public comment or Sean? I don't believe we have received any public comment. I have not received any comment. Okay, then we'll move on to public comments. This is a time when members of the public can address any issue that's not on the agenda tonight, any concerns you have in the city, or whatever you want to address us about. So we'll give a few seconds here for anyone to weigh in if they have any comments to make. Not seeing any hands raised. I'm checking the... Okay, we'll move on then. Commission comments. Any commissioners have any comments at this time? Very none. We'll move to staff comments. Katie, any comments? Yeah, I have just a couple of comments for you. The Coastal Commission is scheduled to certify our zoning code on June 10th. So we do have a couple of applications which are on hold right now because new applicants want to utilize some of the new regulations within the new code. And so June 10th is the day it's supposed to be certified so next week. So that's exciting. And then the second update I had for you was just a response to a question that came up at our last meeting regarding generators and whether or not the city has any standards for generators. And basically generators would have to comply with setback standards because they would be a permanent structure in the side yard or rear yard could not be in the front yard. And it all depends on the width of the lot what the setback would be. And then also for noise we have a different section of code that's not the zoning code but section 9.12.010 regarding noise. And basically it says any like irritating noises should not be made by a person or firm or corporation between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. within 200 feet of a residence any day. So then also our decibel limits are outlined in our general plan. So I wanted to bring this up and ask the planning commission if they're interested in adding regulations regarding generators to our zoning code and if so we can put that either we can we can put it on a future hearing soon or we could table it for when we do our next zoning code updates. Thank you Katie. What's the pleasure of the commission? Well I think I'm the one who brought it up. This is commissioner Westman. As far as I'm concerned you answered my question and we could look at it when you do the next zoning code update. Okay thank you. Okay thank you Susan. Was someone about to make a comment? I did fail to mention that you can watch the meeting tonight on the city's website and our technician tonight is Kingston Rivera. Thank you Kingston for doing that. Okay that brings us to our consent calendar. The first item tonight on our consent calendar is 723 El Salsa Drive which is a fence along the block primarily for people safety. Any comments or questions on this? A motion? I'll make a motion to approve the fence. I will second it. This is commissioner Newman. Okay we have a motion by commissioner Westman second by commissioner Newman. May the roll call please Edna. Yes. Commissioner Christiansen? Aye. Commissioner Newman? Yes. Commissioner Westman? Yes. Commissioner Wilk? Yes. And Cheruth? Yes so the item carries unanimously. And that takes us to public hearings. We just have one public hearing tonight. And this is at 1650 First Avenue, the Chevron station on the corner of the city. And this is at 1650 First and Capitola Road. They are requesting a conditional use permit to allow retail sales of not just beer and wine but to include distilled spirits for off-site consumption. So we have a staff report. Thank you. Good evening planning commissioners. Cheruth. Tonight before you as mentioned the applicant is requesting a conditional use permit for distilled spirits for Chevron gas station located at 1650 First Avenue. 1650 First Avenue is located on the southwest corner, southeast corner, excuse me, of the 41st Avenue and Capitola Road intersection adjacent to the Wind and Sea Commercial Center. The 31,000 square foot lot is in the center of capitals main commercial corridor. And 2004 the planning commission approved a conditional permit amendment to reconstruct the gas station and mini-mart that you see today. The CUP maintained the existing use for retail sale of beer and wine approved by the planning commission originally in 1988. The applicant is proposing the addition of hard alcohol sales which requires an amendment to the CUP. This is the existing and proposed site plan. The applicant is not proposing any changes to the layout at the size of the mini store or the exterior appearance. The previously approved CUP allows for 24-hour operations for both the gas station and mini-mart. Currently the store operates from 6 a.m. until midnight. Should the mini-mart extend their operating hours they would still be limited by their ABC license not to sell alcohol later than 2 a.m. Condition number four includes the previously approved language regarding hours of operation. The business currently possesses a type 20 off-sale beer and wine license from the department of alcohol beverage control or ABC. With planning commission approval of the CUP amendment the applicant could obtain a type 21 off-sale general license in lieu of their existing license. As highlighted in blue the applicant is proposing to keep the still spirits behind the cashier station and out of customer reach. The proposed plans are consistent with the requirements of a type 21 license from the ABC. Chief of Police Terry McManus reviewed the application conducted a site visit and made findings that support the approval of the CUP amendment. Chief McManus provided a letter of necessity and convenience for the project which is an ABC requirement with the understanding that the planning commission approves the project based on the conditions of approval and findings. Before we open it to the public are there any questions for staff from the commission? I had a question. Commissioner Newman. I had a question. Commissioner Newman. I had a question. I had a question. Commissioner Newman. I had a question. I had a question. Commissioner Newman. This might be better directed to the applicant if they are here. But this kind of caught me by surprise because I've never seen a convenience store in a gas station selling full alcohol. I looked at the Chevron extra mile store project description and it says there are 297 extra mile stores in California and approximately 123 of those stores sell beer and wine. So I was curious are we breaking new ground here? I'm not saying we shouldn't but it's just new to me to see full alcoholic beverage sales in a gas station. If my memory serves me correct years ago it was always the policy not to allow hard liquor to be sold at these kinds of locations. I'm thinking statewide even. Maybe this is the trend. I don't know. I've never seen it. I believe Sean did some research on this and discovered that the 76 station up by the 41st and Highway 1 intersection there also has a license that allows them to serve hard alcohol as well. So it seems that the precedent has been set. That's correct. I did do some looking into this when the application came in and we did discover that the 76 station currently possesses a type 21 license which is the license that would be applied for if you approve this project. When was that granted Sean? I'm not sure if I have that information. Any other questions for staff? Hearing none then we'll open the public portion. So for members of the public this is your time to respond to this. Once again if we could have a screen that shows how to respond to the particular item on the agenda. So we'll wait a few minutes and see if anybody has any comments to make. It appears Andrew Woltmer is available to speak. Or has his hand raised to speak. Sean I cannot open up. Can you adjust that for us? Yeah. Can you hear me? Yes go ahead Andrew. Yes I'm sorry I actually have a request for the previous topic to see the fence layout not on this topic. You don't have to go back to it now but I'd like to see how what is the fence that was approved that 723 else also. It's a metal fence with parallel metal posts a little over I believe it's a little over four feet tall and it will run for that area behind the home along the bluff. Okay it's on the bluff side of the property. Not on the else side? No on the bluff side. It's on the other side of the fence. It's on the other side of the fence. Replace an existing deteriorated fence. Okay thank you I live at 710 also so let's just curious. All right that's my only question. Thank you. Okay thank you. Okay back to our public here. Are there any people on there? Matt or Susan that would like to comment? I actually do see the applicant has their hand raised. Steve Rawlings go ahead. Okay can you hear me okay? Yes. Hey good evening. My name is Steve Rawlings and I'm a consultant to the Chevron Corporation. I wanted to just make a couple of comments here and obviously make myself available for any questions. There are some other representatives from Chevron Corporation on the line as well and they're available obviously for questions as well. First of all we do concur with the staff recommendation and the findings and we do for the record agree to all of the conditions of approval as presented to you this evening. A couple of points that I'd like just a couple things I'd like to highlight is number one this is actually a Chevron corporate owned store and obviously we all know that Chevron is one of the largest corporations in the world and they have quite a few policies and procedures in place. They spend a lot of money on training their employees. They are very compliance oriented just due to the nature of their business in general. So they've proven to be a really good operator. They maintain very good stores. Their employees are very well trained and so that we have not in any of the locations that we do sell any kind of alcohol we've not been a public safety or nuisance issue because Chevron takes their business extremely seriously and spends a lot of money on the training and policies and procedures and implementation. In terms of just overall market and this goes to the addressing of distilled spirits at gas stations there is a trend to more smaller format markets to be able to offer a much more complete line. A lot of it is mostly driven by customer demand. Customers are always looking for some type of convenience in terms of being able to buy products in one location. Many folks appreciate the fact that they can go into a smaller format market make their purchases very very quickly whereas if you go into a traditional grocery store you're there a lot longer and this is request is really being driven to add convenience to our existing customers. Also part of the trend with distilled spirits is also some of the pre-made products that are available now and those have gained a lot of popularity. We don't dedicate a tremendous amount of space to the display. We put it in the back and again the emphasis is that it's just for some convenience to some of those customers that are looking to make that particular purchase. With that we were obviously happy to know that the police chief didn't see any big issues with this. We've never inventoried any type of like mini the airline size bottles that's certainly not in our business model at all. There are other Chevron locations that do sell distilled spirits so in our project narrative we probably should have changed the wording to alcohol but we do have quite a number of stores that are in the business of selling some type of alcoholic beverage so we share that to demonstrate that we think we've been a really good corporate citizen in all of our locations and we don't believe that we'd be a problem here in Capitola. So anyway with that, thank you for your time and your consideration on this and we're obviously more than happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you Mr. Rawlings. Are there any questions for Mr. Rawlings from the commission? Doesn't sound like it. Okay thank you Mr. Rawlings. We have any questions? We'll let you know. Okay so let's bring it back. Any further questions for the staff at this time before we open it to the public hearing? Okay we'll open the public hearing and well I think maybe we've already done that. We'll open it now and wait a few minutes for any public comments. Commissioners I have a follow-up on that question that was asked about permitting for the other license. I do see that the type 21 was issued in 2001 by the ABC. I don't have a Capitola approval date and it could have been sometime earlier because that 2001 day is based on the last time a license was issued it could have been earlier depending on changes in ownership. Okay thank you Chef. No problem. Are we getting any members of the public wanting to speak on this item? I don't see any emails and there are no one is requesting to speak on Zoom. Okay then we'll close the public portion we'll bring it back to the commission for discussion. Who would like to lead off? I'm prepared to move approval. Okay Mr. Newman is that a motion? Yes. Okay do we have a second? With the conditions as specified. Okay Commissioner Christensen I believe gave the second. Is that correct? Yes that is correct. Okay thank you. Okay well if there's no further discussion may we have the roll call please Edna? No no no excuse me can we have a discussion on this issue? Okay Mr. Wilk go ahead. So I don't really object to this I just wanted to point out that I did raise the question about the mini bottles and just out of curiosity why those are a problem and I actually talked to a manager who manages several liquor stores or alcohol stores in the San Francisco Bay area and he confirmed that the notion of the mini bottles is a problem because what it's they're purchased by people who want an immediate hit and it tends to be they tend to be consumed they'll buy one or two bottles and consume them nearby on the premises or just off the premises and it tends to attract people who are who may then be up to some mischief so so just wanted to confirm that the police the police chiefs are a recommendation against the mini bottle sale was in fact confirmed by independent sources. Thank you Mr. Wilkes. Any other comments before we call for the question? If not, Edna will we have the roll call please? Sure Commissioner Christianson? Yes. Commissioner Newman? Yes. Commissioner Westman? Yes. Commissioner Wilk? Yes. And Chair Root? Yes. Okay the motion carries and Mr. Rawlings you'll now have spirits in that store. Okay that brings us to item five our director's report tonight. Are there any additional comments Katie? There are. So tonight I wanted to inform you over the past probably year and a half we've had inquiries from 720 Hill Street that's the quality in on like I said 720 Hill Street and they've asked a lot of questions about hotel expansion. Recently they provided us with a deposit in order to hire a team for their Sequa analysis, the environmental analysis and they brought in a pre-liminary plan which we gave them some feedback on regarding what else is necessary in order to get a complete application in. So at this point tomorrow we're going to publish an RFP for an environmental analysis and I just wanted to let you know that we're expecting a full application in the coming weeks. We in meeting with them the last meeting we had we suggested a conceptual review for the design not to get into all the specifics of you know circulation and traffic but really to focus on the design and get early feedback from the Planning Commission and City Council and they were welcome to that idea so I think in August at our August meeting we'll probably have a conceptual review and the idea there is that the quality in will still have the quality in look and feel and remain a quality in and they would develop the other part of the parcel that's closer to Sushi Garden as a boutique hotel so it has a totally different look much more modern and so we thought it would be good to bring that in early for Planning Commission feedback so you can expect that. The other news that I have is Matt has been working on the ADU prototypes and at our last meeting with the City Council they authorized a contract for a local architect work bench and they're also working with a planning group to bring forth public information on our ADU policy and update get more information out to the public in an easier format to follow on the ADU's as well as to produce four prototype designs so Matt's having the meeting like the internal staff meeting kick off next Monday with the contractor and then plans to bring this to the Planning Commission for an update at the next meeting at our last meeting I told you I was hoping to have an IHO update to you this evening that's the inclusionary housing ordinance we've slowed that down the contractor is working on our Nexus study which is tied to the fees that won't be ready till the end of summer so I'll be bringing you an IHO update but it's it's been stalled so I'll that will not be at the next hearing and speaking of one last thing is sign compliance the Planning Commission several months back asked us to make comments of the proliferation of signs throughout Capitola and the issues there tomorrow Planner Sasanto will be visiting businesses we've got a letter drafted with the news that on June 15th the governor is the roadmap to recovery and the different levels will be removed at the state level so occupancy will return to most of the businesses what we're anticipating so we've drafted a letter stating what a tough year it has been and the fact that we've been very flexible with the signs due to the tough year and having to message get the message out to many of their clients but we're asking that on June 15th businesses come into compliance with our sign code and he'll be handing individual businesses the letter and there's a little checkbox section to where he can note if there's a banner that should be removed and so we're taking a big leap forward tomorrow and we're hoping by the next by June 15th you see a substantial change out there and our next meeting is actually July 15th due to summer schedule so that's all my updates for this evening, thank you but Katie do you have a list of businesses, specific businesses that are being addressed you know Sean's going to go through our commercial areas and spend the whole day tomorrow just addressing them individually and explaining our goal of compliance okay thank you okay commission communications any commissioner have any communications? I had one quick one commissioner Newman so last meeting we dealt with the issue of the Monterey Pine on Capitol Avenue which is no longer with us and there was a response after the hearing from the person who appealed who brought up an issue I had made a comment that I didn't think that we could impose conditions in connection with reviewing the appeal and he took issue with that and after thinking about it a lot I agree with them it wouldn't have changed the motion or the results in any way but I just wanted to put that on the record that I think he's probably correct that we could impose conditions when we hear an appeal of a tree decision yeah thank you Mr. Newman I think that's correct any other comments? I have one Katie this is a question for you when we discuss the wharf widening one of the issues that I raised was the appearance of the prefab bathroom and staff is going to look at into it to see if there's anything other than that fiberglass box that appeared in the illustrations so have we made any progress on that? I'll check in with public works and bring that to our next meeting and if there's information readily available I can also email it out to the group okay thank you any other comments? Last chance we'll adjourn to our July meeting thank you everyone good night good night good night goodbye