 Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and call to order tonight's meeting of the city of Santa Rosa Planning Commission and ask for a roll call, please Let the record reflect that all commissioners are present except Commissioner Duggan and Commissioner Edmondson Okay Tonight we have no minutes to approve so we're gonna go ahead and move on to public comments The public comments is a time for any member of the public to go to the microphone and speak to the Planning Commission On matters of interest to the Planning Commission that aren't listed tonight on on tonight's agenda So if you have something you want to speak on that isn't listed tonight as a public hearing This would be your opportunity to do that and I have one card so far I'm gonna go ahead and open the public comment period and call on Dwayne DeWitt My name is Dwayne DeWitt. I'm from Roseland And I wanted to talk with you about issues involving planning and how it's political And it's not doing as well as it should for Roseland Recently the City Council Reversed a long-standing policy in which development impact fees and park impact fees for the Southwest area Would be used to help Roseland to get the infrastructure and the parks that it needed Unfortunately, they made it city-wide now just as we're getting hundreds upon hundreds maybe thousands of new housing units built over there And so we're bearing this impact without being able to have the fee to help us It's really important because over a decade ago put together this map here called park equity map There's four maps here and a few folks would have set up an overhead here I could have shared them with you better, but it seems like you don't want as much public input as the past Anyway, what it points out is that our area which has the most children the most diversity and the most poverty Has the least amount of parks in the entire city and that has been known for decades and you kill you still keep Jamming us up in a way So I got to thinking as I looked at today's agenda, which is pretty much about dealing with marijuana That we should fall back to a saying some friends of mine had decades ago And that's that loadies should lead the way and if you let the loadies kind of decide on how we're gonna do things We'll get better service I mean this specifically in the sense that marijuana is going to be bringing in a lot of money And maybe that could help to alleviate the disparities and the inequities that are Endemic in our city. It's a benign neglect type of racism that keeps getting practiced and isn't going to change anytime soon Unless maybe you know, we are smoking the fatties for nature There's an idea And I know that people do like to go out in nature when they're medicating themselves And this could be a perfect win-win situation if you folks said, hey, let's work together on this I think the last few meetings I've been here has been all about Trying to help the folks that are going to be dealing with medical marijuana the dispensaries So i'm a respiratory therapist. I've been around to stuff for many many decades You can believe what you want to believe But I know that it'll be bringing in money and as they used to say where i'm from greed rules Money talks biggest money strongest voice So let's help them all make as much money as they want to and then put a little bit of it back over into roseland To help us with the things that we need that'd be really great And everybody could be mellow fellow about it too afterwards Last but not least I signed up to speak on 10.1. I want to make sure to get in there Thank you for your time Thank you, mr. DeWitt Anyone else wanting to speak under the public comments tonight? Okay, i'm not seeing anyone move to public comments. So i'm going to go ahead and close that And move on to planning commissioners report Any reports from planning commissioners tonight? Not tonight So move on to department reports I have no department report Okay Any statements of abstentions Okay We have no study session or consent items So i'm going to go ahead and move on to tonight's public hearings An item 10.1, which is the roseland village Subdivision and tentative subdivision map it has been continued to february 14th I will however Allow people if they're here tonight and want to speak on that tonight to speak Mr. DeWitt And I also have a number of cards here and I just want to make sure That you are wanting to speak on the roseland item and not Meaning the first cannabis item so Don winkel, pamela, stevens And patrick brady you're wanting to speak on the roseland item No, okay, so put you in the other pile Okay So with that i'm going to go ahead and open the hearing time for Mr. DeWitt to give his comments, which will make the record when we do hear the hear the item Thank you kindly my name is dewayne. DeWitt. I guess i'm the only rube from roseland here tonight, but I wanted to make sure that we Cautioned you folks on this idea of subdividing this land while it's still known to be contaminated One of the things that hasn't been cleared out there is the review for environmental clearance from the water board And from other agencies One of the hold-ups to this whole project in my decades has been that the leaking underground storage tanks and the Co-mingled plume as it's called with the dry cleaners that contaminated the area and the aquifer Have never been brought to bear for what's called Responsible party So if all of a sudden this land comes forward and someone says well, we're going to subdivide it And they're not going to say who's responsible For the contamination in the co-mingled plume, which has caused many people to have to give up their wells I remember that chair woman sisco and i met 18 years ago during these issues And they still have not been resolved Someone's just coming in from out of the area and saying hey, you know what we bought that land or they're in negotiations to buy it I said state we the taxpayers actually put up the money for it to be purchased by Sonoma county's community development commission At a redevelopment money. They didn't want to give back to the state So in a sense they actually have blighted our neighborhood for a decade They tore down our grocery store They tore down our recreation center and they just basically left it all laid out there saying well, we're going to get around to Put in some housing. Yeah, that's what you guys need You don't need that other stuff that communities have we're going to give you housing We got plenty of housing going in out there So i'm really concerned that this is what we used to call the fandango They're going to kind of come in and try to horn schwaugh us and say like hey, you know, we're doing it good. Just trust us Don't trust them. Please You need to have indemnification of the taxpayers that everything's cleared up that all responsible parties have been identified And that we won't be on the hook for any dough down the road While they're trying to make some other thing happen I'm really quite concerned also because they got 390 thousand dollars from the united states environmental protection agency To do what was called brownfield's analysis And it was essentially based on an idea of authentic community engagement At last week's meeting of the community development commission the current director said well, we deprioritized that Yeah, we changed it up. We took the money But now it's not so important And that's a full year after they got the dough They had just two small meetings and they're going forward with this without really involving our community I'm down here because I didn't even get to notice that it was being slowed up and counseled for another day So thank you very much for giving me the time to let you know some of the real news you can use If you'd like to come out and find out more about rosalind I'm always welcoming you folks to come and visit us and we can give you a walking tour So yeah, the real sights before the homeless camps came in. Thank you for your time Thank you, mr. Duet, and I do have another card on the rosalind item and that's robert nelson Good afternoon. Thank you My client owns rosalind village my client owns the half of rosalind village that's been paying taxes First in the county and now in the city. Can you please speak another microphone? Yeah, mr. Nelson, we can't hardly hear you and you do have just three minutes, so Okay, I can speak much louder. I try not okay. Thanks My client owns rosalind village my client owns that part of rosalind village That has been paying taxes Since the 1950s and it's continuously paid taxes My client sponsors leases Too many businesses that enrich the community and pay taxes employ people And what the mid pen people propose to do is Ignore what's a clear traffic pattern Inside rosalind village and to ignore the recorded easements that give my client access over There's a reciprocal access that was granted back when hue cotting and vego paulson started building there before The cotting parcel was sold to one family and then ultimately sold to the city to the community development commission of the county What I really encourage this commission To do is and we've given a presentation already to Many of the department heads Take a look at what's been proposed take a look at how It is going to prevent any traffic access Take a look at the high density housing with no development of roads sewers etc That are necessary to service this and say How can you possibly not provide for traffic flow And do what you propose to do they've never answered that question And that could be the reason that there's not a presentation by them today. Thank you very much. Thank you And Anyone else wanting to speak on the rosalind item That won't be coming on february 14th Okay, so i'm going to go ahead and close The hearing on that item and we're going to go ahead and move on to Our next public hearing before we do that though, there's a lot of you here I doubt that you have maybe attended a planning commission meeting in the past So I kind of want to give the lay of the land what's going to happen here When we will call the item and staff will come up and give a presentation To us that you'll be able to observe on the item Next the applicant has an opportunity to give their presentation on the item Following that We have the public hearing and that's that's handled Very specifically and i'm going to kind of tell you how we do it Uh, obviously you just saw me call names with the cards here We have a lot of cards tonight. Typically I give we have a three minute limit on Speaking because there's so many tonight. I'm going to reduce that to two minutes So be thinking about how to reduce your comments. I know it doesn't sound like enough, but it's plenty of time To to get in what you need to say Um, and I'll repeat this when the public hearing comes up so that we can You know, I'll follow the same kind of protocol here I want uh, all what I'll be doing is in threes. I'll be calling The name of the person speaking and the next two people that will be speaking if you can begin to queue up That helps us keep a good flow going Um, so that you know, we don't have to wait for somebody to come out of the audience Just kind of keeps things moving right along So i'm going to kind of keep doing that so listen for your name And be ready when when I call you to to speak Following the public hearing The applicant comes back up. I'm going to be recording all of us are going to be listening very carefully to your comments concerns Questions i'm going to be recording those as is uh applicant and staff So following the hearing once it's closed the applicant has an opportunity to come back up And to respond to the questions and concerns that uh, that were stated As does staff and then at that point, um, the commission will also be beginning to interact and ask questions of staff and the applicant and at and when we've Resolved all of the questions and feel prepared. We'll go ahead and move to Begin our discussion and to take a vote. So that's how it goes. That's sort of the the routine so that you know what to expect here So, okay And with that i'm going to go ahead And open oh not open, but uh call the the next item which is 10.2 a public hearing on fox den conditional use permit It is an ex parte disclosure and commissioner call you anything to disclose I had a brief phone call with the applicant Representative just asking if I had any further questions. I did not and I visited the site. I have nothing further to disclose Nice chair weeks I also visited the site and met with the applicant's representative and nothing further to disclose Mr. Peterson I also visited the site and met with the applicant's representative and have no new information to disclose Commissioner o'Carpkey I also visited the site and met with the applicant's representative and have nothing further to disclose And I also visited the site met with the applicant and the applicant's consultant and have no new information to disclose So excuse me. I have a cold tonight too So with that, um Emmanuel or Sue is our planning consultant and he'll be giving staff presentation Thank you, uh chair sisco members of the planning commission members of the public So this item is a request for a Retail cannabis dispensary on property located at 40 36 montgomery road Unit b which is at the back of the property Before I go into my formal presentation I just would like to call to the commission's attention and also let the members of the public that are in attendance know that we did distribute all of the Emails and letters that we received many of them came in today We did email most of those for those emails to the commission Some of them were submitted this afternoon You should have on the dais in front of you a copy of those printed copy of those emails In case you do not have an opportunity to look at them Earlier and then we also had some questions from members of the commission For five questions. We have answered staff has responded to those questions And we'll go through those in our presentation as well So I just wanted to point that out to the to the commission and to the members of the public We do have extra copies of Both the emails and letters we received and the staff response to the commission comments available on the back table at the back of the room So Just a real quick Overview of my presentation. I spend a few minutes talking about the cannabis ordinance And then I'll get to a description of the project a summary of public comments And an overview of the status of the environmental review for the project and staff's recommendation So The ordinance that was adopted by the city council A little over a year ago went into effect about last year around this time last year Ordinance 17-025 It repealed a previous Division of the of the code which Many of the speakers or many of the public comments we had Referred to the to the prior code and I believe that may have been a source of some confusion For members of the public, but this new ordinance Basically breaks down Between personal use and cannabis businesses. There are several categories of cannabis businesses Including retail dispensaries and delivery. And that is what is proposed And this subject application In this ordinance as I said went to effect actually January 19 of last year. So just about a year ago A cannabis Retail facility is one where cannabis products are offered for sale and may be delivered And it requires a state license. It's a type 10 license under state regulations There are specific requirements that apply to retail dispensaries They're allowed only in certain zoning districts of the community including the Neighborhood commercial district in which the subject property is located They're required to be set back 600 feet from schools. Those are k through 12 schools As defined in the state law That was not the case under the the prior ordinance that ordinance 17-25 repealed and I think that's where some of the confusion may have Come up They are not required not allowed to be within 600 feet of another dispensary They're subject to a conditional use permit, which is a public hearing Before the planning commission And the planning commission's decision may be appealed by either party or any aggrieved party to the city council Deliveries are allowed, but only from a storefront retail facility. This applicant does propose to include retail Delivery or delivery as part of their services Drive-throughs are not permitted The municipal code Limits the hours of operation between 9 a.m. And 9 p.m. And that is what the applicant is proposing There is a typo in the applicant's Narrative they they have hours that are outside those hours, but it is 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Is the maximum hours Allowed there are very specific provisions pertaining to security That are contained in the municipal code And on-site consumption is allowed If it's part of the request that is not what is being proposed here. So no on-site consumption is proposed with this application There are six criteria. These are qualitative discretionary standards That's the planning commission will decide whether or not the applicant has made us showing as to to whether they have complied with And showed that they comply with these standards And they require You know compatibility with the zoning code So there are the quantitative standards of the zoning code that they must demonstrate compliance with They must demonstrate compliance with the general plan Also must demonstrate compliance and compatibility with existing and future land uses That are in the vicinity of the project That's the site on which the Dispensaries proposed is suitable physically suitable for the the dispensary That to the proposed dispensary would not constitute a nuisance And is in compliance with the california environmental quality act So those are the the findings that are laid out and there's a draft resolution that is attached to the staff report And if the commission concurs with the staff's recommendation, you can adopt that resolution or modify it as you see fit Some specifics about this proposal It's approximately 1773 square feet About 920 square feet of that is for the retail component. They have a a lobby where basically A perspective or clients would check in and that's about 290 square feet and then the remaining 560 some square feet our support functions The application was submitted in april of 2018 We went through a completeness review process And had a neighborhood meeting At the neighborhood meeting we had a handful of residents show up and And then in june the applicant submitted Supplemental information we deemed the application complete in july And then in october of this year of last year the applicant Changed the operator As so full was the original operator proposed they change it to the current operator foxten And then 10 days ago we sent notice of this hearing to to the public This map shows the location of the Facility proposed facility. It's in the basically the northeast quadrant of the city It is On property that is designated commercial neighborhood commercial Surrounded by neighborhood commercial or general commercial land use designations And it's in the This says commercial office district. I believe it's actually it is in the commercial No, it's in the commercial neighborhood district. This is a typo It is the commercial neighborhood district not the commercial office district as this exhibit shows This is the site plan the facility is proposed in the rear Portion of the of the property And There are two buildings the front building is the trail house The back building the left side of the trail of that building is used by trail house The right side or the I guess that would be the west side is the proposed facility About two-thirds of it will be Used for parking they're proposing five parking spaces inside the facility plus two Open parking spaces This is a floor plan the left side is the five proposed parking spaces With the office and other Support areas behind the parking and then to the right of the parking is the dispensary sales floor area the lobby and a bathroom the There are 22 parking spaces required for the Existing and proposed use there are 22 parking spaces on the project site 14 Are or excuse me 15 are required for the trail house business And seven are required for the proposed dispensary Proposed hours of operation are compliant with those of the municipal code, which are 9 a.m. To 9 p.m Seven days a week both for the retail component and the delivery component At the neighborhood meeting and in subsequent emails and telephone conversations. We've had with the neighbors There seems to be got three general areas of concern One is proximity to the park howard memorial park the other is concerns with the existing trail house use on the property And concerns with conflicts between users of the trail house, which include children and minors and users of the of the dispensary and then the preschool there's a preschool that is behind the proposed dispensary The owner of that preschool is also expressed concern with the proposed use and the compatibility of the proposed dispensary and with the preschool operation The closest to school as defined by By the municipal code and in state law is over 1500 feet away So it is consistent with that requirement of the of the regulations This shows the the proposed an aerial photograph of the proposed site It is behind the trail house building The playground for the preschool is on the top side just up That'll be south of the proposed dispensary This is a street view of the of the facility the trail house is in the Front of this picture the proposed facility is in the back The existing roll-up door that you see in this photo would be widened And the area behind that door would be Opened to accommodate five parking spaces And the sales floor the dispensary would be to the left of that Staff has reviewed the project found to be in compliance with the california environmental quality act And consistent with several of the categorical exemptions as shown in the slide and on the staff report Staff recommends the commission consider the staff reports all the public testimony that you'll hear this evening and Prove the the project with the conditions of approval that are Attached to the resolution Concludes my staff report. However before we turn it over I would like to take the opportunity to go through some of the questions that members of the Commission had and our response There were a few policy questions And then there's a question regarding preschool It would be a kind of a tag team approach here I'll Answer one of them and then I'll turn it over to miss hartman to respond to the others The first question we had was whether Uh, the municipal code defines preschool and whether or not The kiwi preschool Falls in the classification is classified as a preschool in the municipal code In the response is yes preschool is included in the code definition. It's included as A child daycare center, which is a subcategory of daycare So if you go to the municipal code in the definition section Daycare is defined and then there's four or five subcategories Of a daycare and child a daycare center is one of those subcategories A child a daycare center Is a I will quote a commercial or non-profit child a daycare facility Designed and approved to accommodate 15 or more children Includes infant centers preschools sick child centers And school aged daycare facilities So the kiwi school as we understand it is Licensed as a combination center by the by the state Which is a daycare center and also licensed as a school aged child daycare center Both of those operations or Types of licenses fit in the city's definition of a child a care center or a preschool And as such As written the municipal code does not prohibit Dispensaries within 600 feet of a preschool or a child's daycare center And i'll turn it over to miss hartman to reply to the other Questions, thank you Okay, um another question And these aren't in any order But one of the commissioners had a question about setbacks to sensitive land uses Such as a preschool or daycare And if that was considered as part of the development Or in the development of the city's comprehensive cannabis policy And also why the ordinance as adopted in december 2017 did not require a setback between A cannabis retail dispensary and a preschool so as Some of the commissioners remember because you went through it with With the rest of the city and staff and the community For a two-year process beginning in january 2016 and running through December 2017 The city went through a policy Effort for to develop a comprehensive cannabis ordinance and the the initiative to embark on such a journey Was kick started by the city council identifying the need for a comprehensive cannabis ordinance that provided a permitted permissive path for compliance to bring cannabis out of the black market and into the legal regulated market in concert with state law changes at the time which was creating a Complex comprehensive legal framework to support cannabis as a legal industry in the state of california So going through that process as you can imagine and you probably remember setbacks to sensitive land uses was a common discussion point through that process and Viewpoints were heard by Various staff across our departments By the public by the council's cannabis policy subcommittee they met 20 times through that process Talking about various issues, but certainly setbacks the sensitive uses was part of that discussion The planning commission weighed in on the ordinance and the city council Ultimately considered all of the above and enacted the ordinance Part of that discussion included an interest in just learning. What are the options for setbacks? Number of feet number of types of sensitive uses including daycare. What are other jurisdictions doing? What's the county doing? What's other cities in the california doing? So all of that was discussed and when we were deliberating what to do In the end the city's ordinance as adopted Does include a 600 foot setback between a cannabis retail facility and a school And it was limited to the school as defined by the state health and safety code Which is does not include preschool or daycare or a youth center. It is a k-12 school That is instruction oriented And so and it also doesn't include colleges and things like that. So it's very specific But that was the end result of that deliberative process that the city went through Uh, and then another follow-up question to that was Why? Uh, and uh, I can't speculate because there were so many Participants in that process, you know, everyone's coming to it from Whatever angle they were coming at at that time and as they were growing through the process of education and Culturally we were evolving as a state and as a community around this issue of legalizing cannabis And how to make this a legal part of the community so I can't speculate on individual how but I can say that as an observer of the process the balancing act was between Finding a fit illegal path for where these commercial enterprises should go and that lending itself to Commercial zoning districts as opposed to our residential districts. So we lend ourselves to that have a transparent process So we lend ourselves to the conditional use permit process Which brings out all the noticing and the public hearing process that we are Doing together And now it allows the greatest analysis that we can offer for a land use permit And then balancing it with protections of community interests. So as Emanuel has mentioned While we treat it similar to other land uses by having them go through a traditional use permit process We do have very proactive specific operational standards that address odor For example, you shall not smell the odor of cannabis outside of a facility any cannabis facility So that's a hard line Very specific requirements as to security Surveillance visibility Locational criteria And also lighting and noise so that as they are addressing those issues They don't have other impacts that would otherwise impact neighbors whether they're on the same campus or In the vicinity. So that's the balancing act and the The safeguard if you will through this process is as Emanuel says is in addition to these specific standards that were set up Locational standards and operational standards You're going through the use permit process for each of these dispensaries. So they're site by site You're looking at a specific proposal landing on a specific site in a specific context You can condition a use permit as it relates so you can make these six findings that he's laid out So that's the way that that process developed and is now before you so there is a bit of discretion in this process Um, but that's the that's the path See there was one more question here. I want to cover There was another question That came in from a commissioner that asked about How is this ordinance in compliance with state law? Because as you might have read in some of the public comments They say it looks state law says it has to be 600 feet to daycare center youth center and the like How's the city doing only k-12 schools? So Uh, the state law is um complex. So I get that it's can be confusing um, and I get that other cities are defaulting to A state law that does reference 600 feet between cannabis businesses not just retail And schools that provide k-12 but also to daycare youth center and whatnot But it does say a very unique and special provision Which the city Invoked and that is that the city a city a local jurisdiction can specifically allow a different Radius or setback including no setbacks and so As mentioned we went through that deliberative process and weighed all our options and did that balancing act and landed where we landed as a city And so that that because it's uh We want That section that the state allows for a different setback is actually in our local code ordinance specifically So that it's very clear that It wasn't uh oversight. We deliberately chose to be different and invoke that that right And then lastly I can pass it back to emmanuel because uh, there was a question about the narrative I don't know when I summarize where we're at with that Yeah, so the applicant Changed operators midstream submitted a revised operation plan for the new operator But did not include some of the provisions that weren't intended To be included that were included with the original operator in their operations plan That is in the additional correspondence that was distributed to you this evening And again It lays out the proposed operations As as they're proposed some of them their hours of operation are inconsistent with the requirements of the code They would be required to comply with the The nine to nine p nine a.m. To nine p.m standard of the code Another item that came up one of the comments had to do with parking and The applicant did make a minor revision to the to the floor plan that they sent me this afternoon or this morning And let me go to that it shows I'm not sure how to get this to project Excellent, so the the spaces That were the parking spaces originally submitted were eight feet wide. They're required to be nine feet wide To accommodate that they removed the hallway And put swapped the location of the office in the vault So previously the office was where the vault is the vault is where the office is and there used to be a hallway Where parking stall number five is located? So they've widened all all the parking stalls. So they're all nine feet wide And technically it's a little less than 1773 square feet now as they removed the the hallway That is that was between stall five and the office in vault So that that addresses the one of the public comments regarding the the parking and And that concludes our presentation Okay, great And so commissioners i'm going to ask that we hold the rest of our questions until after the public hearing so that we can You know that our questions may be modified from what we hear from the public hearing So okay So is the applicant here, uh, right. Thanks Well, thank you commissioners, um, and thank you for your service and opportunity for us to come and present today Um, I want to just say that we fully Concur with the staff analysis and appreciate the many months of time energy and overall communication that staff has put into Helping us move through this process as you may recall that ordinance was approved about six weeks before our deadline to submit all these applications Was uh, it was established and so You normally we spend three to five months at a minimum developing a project. So staff's been very supportive in that I do want to apologize and take responsibility for the clunkiness in which the amendments to the operator occurred And caused the confusion around the hours of operation and the number of parking spots We have never intended it to be anything other than 9 a.m to 9 p.m And we do have seven parking spots the two surface lot spots in the five interior new spots that are being presented And that is consistent with our intent all the way along but the midstream amendment There was it we didn't get through every single Change in there that had been discussed with staff. So their analysis is accurate I I want to just address the broader policy aspects And then I do look forward to responding to questions from the commission and from the public At the conclusion of the public hearing We're currently discussing the furthest east dispensary proposal of the three remaining proposals for dispensaries east of san rosa avenue in mendicino line The one in oakmont was withdrawn after the application period This is a small-scale operation with a less than thousand feet for a retail floor And it's a perfect fit for what we intended with community With neighborhood commercial zoning something that's not designed to necessarily bring in out of town traffic But would definitely be able to serve serve the community And this is a very broad community that does need to have access to dispensaries So they do not have to drive all the way across town to the west side where the predominance of these applications Are being moved forward. We're not proposing on-site consumption. It is an option but from Our view of the project site and at this time it didn't seem like a good fit And that was a part of the considerations that came out of our neighborhood meeting and the discussions that went into that Into how we would address the neighborhood feedback that we originally received as a part of the public process that you set forth The brand and the business and the operator. It's coming in here. Fox den is associated with white fox medicinals This is a manufacturing pre Currently realization prop 215 brand that is focused on women's needs The white fox brand is women owned women operated And women run Through their entire staff bringing an important amount of diversity to an industry that is Unfortunately not as diverse as we would like to see it and an important focus to an area of our community where we believe that that type of Operator and brand would resonate well I also want to call it specifically general plan policy eva1 Which supports entrepreneurial businesses in our community under the economic vitality provision This is that exact type of entrepreneurial business Someone who has taken a risk in order to develop a business that will continue to thrive and hire in the santa rosa community Additionally, it's a local product line All white fox's products since legalization are now manufactured by canna craft a local santa Santa rosa manufacturer And that's specifically in line with evb4 which calls for increasing santa rosa to santa rosa business and business strategies We're going to be creating jobs not just in the retail marketplace with this proposal But also in the manufacturing sector, which we have been deliberately looking to support the resurgence of in santa rosa for many decades Lastly, I want to call out lul1 land use proposal That calls for commercial services that are easily accessible and satisfies the needs of people who live and work in santa rosa I can't think of any more important need for accessibility Than having this type of a service available in all the areas of our city This is the only active application going forward in this in this area of the city up until you reach Essentially what most people think of as the downtown area So I do believe that this is a small step for this type of service in the east side of santa rosa And that it meets the intent of neighborhood commercial and clearly supports the general plan policies That led to the adoption of the ordinance that you have that that we are being reviewed under Lastly, we took the neighborhood concerns very seriously in the neighborhood meeting One of the primary ones that we heard was parking There's a lot of long-term parking that occurs with the trail house use And as a part of that we sacrificed over half close to two-thirds of the square footage of the suite to develop five new parking spots In the interior lot that is a significant sacrifice of square footage for a retail project And I actually can't think of any similar conversion of usage space to parking That's come before this commission in recent years I would encourage you to recognize that we don't really want an automotive centric Community we do believe that the nearby public transit And bikeable nature of the community will hopefully include our customers coming to us Through those means as well But we did want to make sure that that was addressed because it was a clear part of the neighborhood and community process And we saw it as a need that needed to be responded to Additionally security Security and integration with the neighboring community We will be having surveillance cameras Including focused on the area of the building that faces the alleyway the alleyway was identified in our public In our neighborhood meeting as an area that had is an existing issue with transients And we believe that the security cameras as well as having our on-site security guard And community liaison focused on making sure that that area is patrolled and that there's no loitering or activities Whether that's from our customers or not will improve the existing conditions of that space And lastly while it wasn't identified by staff in the report. We did hear about a concern around advertising of products Most retail establishments cannabis or not don't actually rely on product advertising signs in their windows And we are not proposing will not have And are not allowed to have product advertising visible through signage and so That is clearly met both through regulations and through Our intent as a brand and operator Again, I thank the commission for your time will be available at the end of the public hearing to answer your questions And any questions from the community Okay, great. Thank you Okay So we're going to go ahead and move to the public hearing and i'm going to just kind of go through this again with you Um, what i'll do is i'll be calling your name. You can step to either one of the microphones at the top Please state your name for the record when you get there and I am going to limit you to two minutes There's a little Light bar up there that starts with green It goes to yellow as you start to run out of time and it will hit red Excuse me, and a buzzer goes off when the two minutes are up I'm gonna I'm a very strict timekeeper So i'm going to ask that you really be aware of that and respect that when the when the red light hits and the buzzer goes Off to please, you know to stop speaking You know, we want to hear everything that you have to say and if I have to interrupt you to get you to to move on We sort of lose your point. So if you're really careful, it helps the process work. Well, it's fair to everybody So again, so watch the light bar and If you Hear a speaker and you agree with what the speaker says We don't really allow applauding or booing or noise But if you want to raise your hand that you agree with that speaker We do see that in the audience and so You know, please feel free to do that to express your agreement with a speaker If a speaker makes the comments that you wanted to make and you don't feel like you Want to speak any longer? It's okay to To indicate that when I call your name that you you're comfortable not speaking So I think with that I've covered everything and we're gonna go ahead and start I will open the public hearing and begin With don winkel and if panelist Stevens and patrick brady will queue up Yes, we can thank you. I'm don winkel and i'm general counsel for Soco bikes which actually has three locations here in santa rosa North cow bike sparts sports sports the bike peddler and the trail house Now contrary to what a lot of people may believe Sales at the trail house is not dominated by alcohol. It's actually only about 20 percent The rest is made up by You know equipment and apparel and ascensions and food At any day at the trail house you will find runners tourists cyclists golfers softball players hikers It's that's not just the food and beer that brings the people in it's the the culture And it's the cyclist getting ready for rides in the parking lot. It's the kids. It's the families enjoying A meal on the on the deck Trail house has become the hub of santa rosa outdoor recreation It's not only a destination for locals. It's a travel destination and this is particularly important because Of its economic value the economic development board estimated that the 2017 economic impact of sports In Sonoma County was about 200 or excuse me 730 million dollars So turning the parking lot into a drive-through for a cannabis dispensary Will not help this will will actually preclude a lot of activities that normally occur at the trail house Which will disturb the vibe which will ultimately diminish it to appeal to locals and and tourists alike And because the trail house is economic Value this would be detrimental to the public interest now The trail house vibe is something that the applicant cannot create but dearly wants The applicant knows very well that the customers will choose its location over others because of its proximity to the trail house Clearly a scenario that allows for the purchase of consumption of cannabis products In alcohol and such close proximity Is detrimental to public interest and its safety and doesn't even meet the common sense factor to on a final point um Putting a a cannabis dispensary 550 feet away from howarth park which is a youth oriented Area with a known homeless population creates the nuisance and the applicant's security guard will not be able to mitigate that Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Winkle Next is pamela stevens again followed by patrick brady Okay, thank you. Good afternoon. My name is pamela stevens. I'm counsel for trail house and the elephant in the room issue in my mind is the fact that the kiwi preschool and daycare Shares a boundary line with the proposed project Now the staff report relies upon california health and safety code section 11362.768 to argue that the 600 foot setback does not apply to the kiwi preschool Since it is not a k through 12 school Now this law this particular code section is not relevant and it's inapplicable in this particular In this particular instance It relates to criminal penalties under the controlled substances act And we are not the issue here today is not involving criminal criminal penalties And respectfully the commissioners you do not have jurisdiction to act under this code section So the state law referred to by staff earlier is actually not on point and not relevant Not found anywhere in the staff report is the california law section that is relevant and on point And that is california business and professions code section division 10 section 26054 subsection b That deals with licensing requirements. That is what is applicable here. This is a licensing issue If a conditional use permit is granted. This is a licensing issue and this Code section of the california state law Specifically requires a 600 foot setback for a daycare center a daycare center like kiwi So for this reason the applicants request for a conditional use permit That would never result in a license that is compliant with california state law should be denied. Thank you Thank you. Ms. Stevens Next is patrick brady and then i'm going to be calling glenn font and merlin davis Hello, my name is patrick brady. I am a local business owner. I work in the bike industry and i'm a member of the bicycle media Uh, I live 200 meters from trail house and I see what the parking situation is there on a daily basis as it is It's difficult I have held two events two special events at trail house previously that required use of the parking lots I am holding an event there next month. I plan to hold one there in september Should foxtan go in I won't be able to hold any events there at all in the future to give you some perspective on what trail house represents to the bike industry The second largest bicycle company in the us specialized brought their entire sales force to santa rosa just to see trail house as A model for the future I'm not nimby. I'm very pro cannabis, but I think this is a really bad location for it. Thank you Thank you Next is glenn font again followed by merlin davis and he'll be followed by carlos pares Hello, my name is glenn phant I'm the owner of three santa rosa businesses nor cal bike sport the bike peddler and the trail house I've come today to speak out in opposition to the cannabis dispensary that's proposed for the warehouse behind the trail house My colleagues will echo my concerns about inadequate parking limited emergency vehicle access and drastically increased vehicle traffic I hope you are left with a firm understanding of the staggering Infeasibility of running a public public facing retail operation in a commercial warehouse hidden behind a thriving community centered business This community would be unduly affected by the vehicles and traffic created by a dispensary that brings hundreds more customers a day Aside from the physical limitations of our parking lot. This says nothing about our community's access to and the experience of the trail house It's difficult to enjoy our patio when you have a line of vehicles backing into and out of impossible access arrangements Vine for extremely limited parking Already on offer to trail house visitors Further the burden of controlled substance consumption can't fall on me As dispensary customers consume their cannabis and visit the trail house The combination of cannabis and alcohol on the same premises presents a huge problem to our staff Who now have to address two controlled substances one for which they're licensed and trained the other completely out of their control Who will address the safety and liability associated with this who will enforce california law in against consumption in public at our business There are no other permits in santa rosa proposed or approved for a dispensary with another business that serves alcohol The reasons for this are obvious So it should be equally obvious why you wouldn't hide a dispensary behind an establishment that serves alcohol Trail house is a hub for our community not a zoning test case This new enterprise's financial heft and sensational media should not override serious serious practical impacts to our areas resources and businesses I urge the planning commission to consider all the problems associated with this project And encourage the applicants to find a more suitable property in santa rosa. Thank you Merlin davis followed by carlos perez who will be followed by matt wolfinger Hello, my name is merlin davis This location is so physically unsuitable that the applicant is giving up well over half of their lease space Just to demonstrate that they still can't fit the required parking on site Why is the applicant attempting to force a retail business operation in a space that is clearly not suitable? Because the immediate proximity to trail house will overcome the nightmare parking traffic parking and traffic situation that they're This is a serious issue that was not addressed in the staff report pursuant to state law Tobacco and alcohol should not be made available on the same premises as cannabis The spirit of the california law supports the public policy position That cannabis and alcohol should not be made available together Although de-emphasized in the staff report trail house serves beer and wine Those offerings make up 20 of the royal revenue because of this and the immediate proximity between the two businesses In the proposed location trail house will become the de facto cannabis lounge With consumers viewing the location as a one-stop shop for both cannabis and alcohol The project site is zoned neighborhood commercial While the zoning allows for the category of cannabis retail the project plan and anticipated traffic Are not in compliance with the neighborhood and commercial zoning requirements The proposed use should not be and I quote of such scope and variety to attract substantial traffic volumes from outside the neighborhood As the most easterly proposed dispensary the applicant will be serving the entirety of bennett valley Kenwood and oakmont markets. This is a geographic area much bigger than the immediate neighborhood Consequently the traffic will be significantly greater than anticipated in the staff report The physical constraints to the proposed location Require traffic to flow in a u-shaped driveway around trail house having a second retail operation behind trail house Where there is insufficient parking will create a prohibited drive-through effect as cars queue for parking Additionally, this raises many safety concerns as the nature of the one-way lane Around the back of trail house building with two blind corners Creates a significant liability issue with the volume of adult youth and children cyclists that use the parking lot I feel compelled to raise these issues Since they were not addressed in the staff report and they have the potential of placing tremendous risk to the city of san rosa The proposed plan is misleading by omission. It's inadequate in detail and design and it's non-compliant For these reasons. I urge the planning commission to see these issues as a liability to the city And therefore deny the application for a conditional use permit Thank you. Mr. Davis Carlos Perez Followed by matt wolfinger who will be followed by I think it's ken noce Uh, good afternoon. My name is carlos pares I'm a local business owner and on the board of a nonprofit that serves at-risk youth My community really matters to me my community of san rosa And i'm upset that we need to have this conversation right now because I like to believe that common sense should be more prevalent in our society But it's not so we have to have these discussions and I hope that when it's done Our best interests are served as a community The factor of convenience in bad decision making is what I want to talk to you about today and how that might affect our community That's a variable that you are faced with here as a planning commission Which isn't written down in any of your ordinances or laws which were made to provide for public safety I'm not arguing for the law. I'm arguing for common sense and Which it hasn't been used to prevent us from getting to this point down the road in this application Because there's a briefcase of money sitting on the floor that's ready to be distributed to the people who are involved There aren't 38 applicants for cannabis dispensaries on this list because there's a sudden medical need for them They're on this list because there's a huge perceived revenue potential for the commercialization of a product Whose largest market serves adult recreation people who want to have every right to enjoy themselves But they need to do it responsibly and i'm not opposed to the cannabis industry for that purpose It's a brilliant business model to build a cannabis dispensary right next door to a tap room in lounge Why laws are in place to prevent that from happening in the same facility where cannabis is also sold But on a technicality. These are two distinctly different places That's very convenient for fox dens customers who are looking for an entertaining experience I know people in this very room are going to have a hard time making that decision Right no offense guys, but we're all part of this community And we like to enjoy these things, but they need to be done responsibly people are going to wander next door They're going to check out fox den before or after they've had a beer or two And now both businesses are at risk creating a scenario We should be fighting hard to avoid this conversation needs to change the way that we assess proximity in these applications Because the model of law that fox den can argue favors them Thank you for your time. Thank you Matt wolfinger followed by ken nosine who will be followed by levi limpimer My name is matt and I work for trail house This project remains out of compliance with the standards laid out by city code 2036 Which stipulates a parking space may be no less than nine feet wide or no less than 10 feet wide when adjacent to a wall Applicant proposes at least two parking space that remain out of compliance with these standards The project site plan shows eight parking spaces in the eastern parking bank and seven in the western parking bank The southernmost spots that are adjacent to the rear structure Do not meet city code and are less than 10 foot wide and overlap With points of egress from the warehouse for trail house and the applicant's parking garage This reduces parking on site from 22 to 20 and out of compliance trail house attempted to create parking in both of these spaces and was denied by the city due to the physical constraints of the Property and the ad a requirements for trail house to stable parking space The project plan falsely asserts re-striping the parking lot Would allow for the creation of these spaces and the staff report rubber stamps their claim without supporting evidence Additionally, it appears that the staff report that the city planner Wrongly assumes that the parking spaces at the premises can and will be used by the applicant This is not consistent with trail houses commercial lease agreement Which states except for the two contiguous parking spaces located on the southwest corner of the property And directly adjacent to the proposed retail site all parking spaces Located on the far west and far east side of the property are for the exclusive use of trail house customers and no others Further complicating the parking situation is the applicant's conditional use permit application Which declares a maximum of five employees per shift When fully staffed that leaves the applicant with two parking spaces Public parking near 40 36 Montgomery drive is highly competitive low in number And is compounded by the planning commission's own staffing study own traffic study that recommends eliminating one Possibly two of the spaces directly in front of trail house Substandard parking for this project the one-way nature of the proposed parking garage And the significant increase in the volume of traffic will change the u-shaped driveway Creating a drive-through as cars queue for parking spaces. I urge this commission to vote no on this conditional use permit Thank you. Mr. Wolff and your ken no scene Excuse me if i'm mispronouncing your name followed by thank you. Yeah, Levi le pimer and followed by Nathaniel raff. Thanks Hi, my name is ken noren I'm here to Oppose the dispensary. Um, I do not think it's a bad idea. I just think it's a horrible location I think i'm echoing Obvious points that have been made already so I don't want to be the dead horse in a sense I'm going to skip right to really my major concern and that is the family atmosphere that Trail house has fostered and created I don't think there's any other business in santa rosa that has created what they have created And I don't think we can jeopardize that Set that aside the proximity to a preschool is in my eyes unacceptable Doesn't mean that your business is bad. I think your business Is necessary on the east side of santa rosa. I just don't think it's necessary in that location. Thank you Thank you Levi le pimer followed by nathaniel raff who will be followed by shane bresnahan My name is Levi le pimer I'm an ex-professional cyclist that competed in the tour to france the tour of california and the olympic games In 2009 I founded levis grand fondo and the king ridge foundation Over the last 10 years we've been able to raise more than three million dollars for local organizations that serve at-risk youth and fire survivors The trail house and its owner glenn fant have been an extremely important partner in our fundraising efforts for example The trail house and its ecosystem enabled enormous support and fundraising for fire survivors Just one month after the fires we organized a fundraising ride With the world champion peter sigan at the trail house that raised 40 000 in one day We also donated 500 bikes out of the trail house to kids that lost theirs in the fire This was a critical lifeline for our community. I must stress how important this is I'm here to convey the impact those efforts had in our community What trail house has created for the people of san aroza? vastly exceeds that of a tap room or a bike shop The sigan fundraising ride Would have never been able to take place because we wouldn't have been able to expand the use permit to include the parking lot Which was required to accommodate 400 people at this property The existence of a dispensary will prohibit this kind of opportunity That needs to be considered and valued We never would have been able to give away 500 kids bikes in a setting with with a dispensary right there No way would we have brought children into that setting The future of this work and what we have planned in our community in this ecosystem Is engraved jeopardy with the approval of the of the development of fox den at this location I chose to move to san aroza 23 years ago Because it's a world-class destination for cycling I truly appreciate how amazing san aroza is And you've invested too much of yourself in it to see common sense thrown out the window in favor of financial success San aroza never needs to be in a hurry to be first Thank you, mr. Lee pimer. Thank you for everything you do for san aroza also Nathaniel raff followed by sheen resnayan and then followed by jeremiah commis on Thank you. My name is nathaniel raff. I'm an attorney And my children go to kiwi daycare I agree with the previous speaker who indicated that business and professions code section 26054 applies here That authorized localities To designate a different geographical radius from a daycare. It did not authorize localities to eliminate daycares from that radius So the Staff here has taken an overly technical view. They forgot that when we enacted proposition 64 And i'm going to cite it here section 2 a That it was enacted to protect children as the second cited reason it was enacted and We were told Before we voted for it That it would quote bar marijuana businesses from being located within 600 feet of schools and other areas where children congregate So when you read section 26054 in light of that legislative intent Staff has really neglected their duty To look at that and so Please don't approve this project. Thank you. Thank you Shane Breznan followed by Jeremiah commison followed by michelle mckinnon Hello, my name is shame brezion and i'm the manager of trailhouse sanarosa I also manage our warehouse that is located behind trailhouse and supplies the two other businesses in our company norcal bike sport and the bike peddler I have worked very hard to make trailhouse what it is today I Trailhouse was recently voted one of the top 10 bicycle shops in the world by cycling tips website gaining a worldwide audience Trailhouse has become a destination For those in the greater baria and beyond seeking to explore a city in annadale state park in two short years We've seen our popularity grow exponentially Trailhouse has become the gathering spot for runners hikers cyclists and families We have monday night bingo Susan and i trivia Wednesday trail runs in yoga and thursday kids mountain bike rides at the wolf pack Sound busy. We haven't even made it to the weekend yet We haven't even Excuse me the list of community-based events goes on trailhouse serves as a starting earning point for all of these We've created a culture of pride for the city of sanarosa and crown jewel annadale state park The reality of the situation is trailhouse has filled 40 36 montgomery drive to capacity with a thriving community-based business There is no room for another retail business at this address The site was never designed for multiple retail spaces. It is a commercial warehouse If you allow this to happen, it will have a negative effect on the positive business We have created and potentially turned trailhouse into de facto cannabis lounge We worked hard with the city of sanarosa two years ago to create a new concept and bicycle retail And we've received numerous awards for our efforts and our path thus far has been very positive I asked the planning commission to use common sense and vote this down when it comes to the drive through cannabis dispensary Proposed in a warehouse behind a thriving local business that brings pride to our community People buying cannabis products driving vehicles in an already crowded parking lot filled with cyclist runners kids and families bad idea There are better locations that will safely serve everyone in the community. Thank you. Thank you Jeremiah commisong followed by michelle mccanon and followed by i believe it's hurrah clifton pope Good evening. My name is Jeremiah commis in and i'm the executive director for a local nonprofit charged with serving children Specifically from marginalized populations. We've worked in partnership with the king ridge foundation And i'm also on a side note a 17 year veteran public educator I have nothing against the cannabis industry and I have every Support out there wanting to support the idea of legalization and allowing people to have medicine and the access to this However, as this person that is directly connected to the fires and that I lost my home with my children and my wife We lost what we had It was trailhouse that was our community hub It was trailhouse where my nonprofit that I helped run Went to to support the distribution of over 500 bikes to kids who had lost everything in the fire I looked those kids in the eyes I handed those bikes off to them with the support of the bike peddler NorCal bikesport and trail house because that's where they were housed in the storage warehouse in the back We came there and we rallied there and I have to be honest that it's in It's amazing when you look at a presentation by the applicant I take time to look at what's not being said I slow down. I have 47 seconds. It's a world of time Okay Everything that was presented There's one aspect that they did not shed light on and that is the fact that the major concern here is not only the community That comes into trailhouse, but it's the community of children literally on the fence line behind this proposed site Literally on the fence line I am charged my entire life with dedicating my time and effort to support kids And a technicality of k through 12 not including the kids at their most Developmental of age That's not the spirit of the law. You guys have that discretion to make a choice here Please honor the spirit of what the intent of that was. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Komason Thanks for not clapping just hands. Thank you. You guys are doing great Next is michelle mckinnon Followed by hiera clifton pope followed by travers. I think it's elsling, but we'll clear that up later My name is michelle mckinnon. I'm the director at kiwi preschool At kiwi we see many demographic changes in the last 29 years Before east west cafe was our neighbor to the east was clover restaurant They had friday night dances which brought in drugs and alcohol users Our monday mornings richel was to walk out on our playground Inside and out picking up drug and alcohol paraphernalia such as used needles Used condoms bongs shoes, etc On many occasions, we have had to have san rosa police clear out homeless and loiterers from our parking lot next to the playground Many of these individuals tried to communicate with our students With the anticipated traffic of 400 clients per day purchasing for the dispensary It's inevitable That these people will be using our parking lot as there's already insufficient parking for the trail house And many of their clients use our parking lot We have never had issues with trail house clients But we know that a dispensary Will attract a certain number of clients with vehicles and on foot Who will then loiter around our playground before they move on The serving of alcohol in a restaurant atmosphere such as our neighbors of mary's pisa Paradise restaurant in the trail house has never been an issue But we have grave concerns about his dispensary being on our property line and that heavy traffic it will green Our concerns are reasonable and justified due to the fact that all city and state legislation Specifically addresses a setback to schools. This in its shelf self shows the reality of children need to be protected from this type of business Thank you Next is here a clifton pope followed by travers. I think it's elsling followed by rosemary road Yes My name is huya and i'm the owner of kiwi preschool when prop 64 passed in california in 2016 legalizing recreational use of marijuana Many cities saw dollar signs Santa Rosa was no exception and immediate Immediately set about revising their city ordinances pertaining to cannabis dispensaries It does not take a rocket scientist to get why preschools and youth oriented facilities Was dropped from the previous santa rosa ordinance. This was to make it easier for dispensary owners to find locations for their business But although the recently revised santa rosa ordinance specifically refers as mr Ursu stated to the state health and safety code The state business and professions code clearly states that it needs to be a 600 foot setback for daycare centers or youth centers I ask you city planners. Why are you discriminating against children age one through six years old? Why did you label your notice of public hearing mailing to the community the trail heist To the community the trail house bike shop and foxtin dispensary were clearly labeled on that mailing Kiwi preschool was not that was an obvious omission by the city planners Why are you willing to consider zero clearance between the property of a cannabis dispensary and a daycare center Licensed by the state of california for 90 children and also licensed by the state of california As a combination center to teach school age children I have a copy of my license Which licenses us to teach school age children and last time I looked that was k through 12 We also we include k through second grade students in our summer program Okay, thank you miss pope appreciate your your comments Next is travers elsling Well, I think you're probably gonna have to re pronounce it sorry travers ebbling ebbling. Okay rosemary road is after you and then william spitt All right. Well, thanks for having this hearing today. Um, my name is travers ebbling. I'm a parent i'm a member of the santa rosa french american charter school foundation Frequent mountain bike rider and I also founded a kids mountain biking club called the wolf pack trail riders Mostly because it's a lot more fun to ride bikes with my kid and his friends than just my kid on his own What the wolf pack looks like is twice a month After school 10 to 20 kids aged from you know Six years old to 12 years old gather at the trail house That's quite a scene you guys have been there at the site Your mad parking is pretty rough now throw 10 or 12 10 or 20 kids on bikes in there Um, we're gonna have a lot of a competition for parking and safety with a with a retail business You know, we uh, we then explore howarth park spring lake anadel I've got kids going on 12 15-mile rides up to illsanjo many of those parents and some of those kids are here today And um, I just think that you have a you have some real Challenge here between these two types of businesses difficult decision for you guys to make on the one hand economic local incentives on the other hand a Community-based business that brings kids parents into some of our local treasures like howarth park anadel Um, it provides a place for people to connect be physical Have fun And it's just a you know the trail house is a real benefit to the community and it would I think it would be materially injured by The addition of a dispensary in their backyard. So that's all I have to say. Thank you Next is rosemary road followed by william speth followed by taylor greenliffe Hi, my name is rosemary roadie and I am I live in the neighborhood very close to this proposed property And it's all been said. I just am urging the planning commission to put youth first and before money. Thank you. Thank you Next is william speth followed by taylor greenleaf followed by dr. Gary blink Hi, my name is william a speeda And I own the property right next to the trail house 40 38 montgomery my Primary concern is parking. I think the planning or the Preliminary finding that there's 22 spots of parking is extremely generous I went there just before the meeting today and I counted 13 Not counting the handicap Spot, which isn't very often occupied I was concerned about people parking in my parking lot as well as the cleaners next to me After the neighborhood meeting I drove back in montgomery. This was back last june or whatever and there were Three people parked in my parking lot Two people parked in the cleaners parking lot There's just no way there's going to be enough parking and That's a real concern for me because i'm right next door so That's it. Thank you. Mr. Speeda Next is taylor greenleaf followed by dr. Gary blank followed by mike schwarz Thanks for hearing me. I Have a business here in the community community. I'm also On the board a nonprofit board for at-risk youth and i'm also a coach a mountain bike coach for Local high schools here as well as we have participants that are junior high and I think it comes down to us as a community and And what the trail house brings to that community and I know i'm echoing this of what others said but You know, I I really look to bring kids there And have them be a part of a community. That's I think Arms are open. It's a it's a time and I think that period of most kids life. It's a real development And I would be sorry to see a cannabis Dispensary go in when we're having kids come in there by themselves getting their bikes worked on buying all sorts of you know from bars to wheels and and Conversing with the locals there. It's a really fun spot and I I really hope There's so many opportunities for cannabis in this town. I believe I don't know I'm not against any of you there, but I really think we can make a big effort and and not have this in this location I I really want to Look at the values of what we have of those kids and and shepherd them along So I'm going to stop at that a lot of people want to go and But thanks for hearing me. Thank you, mr. Greenleaf Dr. Gary blank followed by mike shorts followed by dave townsen I am Dr. Gary blank and I have recommended and medical marijuana of the last 30 years to many of my patients However, if I was a parent It had a two or three year old And was considering a nursery school from my child or grandchild I would absolutely not consider Of this wonderful school because of its location There are many competitive and I think the concern is is how it's going to in fact this long-term business I don't think we want to set in place a new business to the detriment of another business Thank you Mike Schwartz followed by dave townsen followed by craig lawson My name is mike Schwartz. I'm the architect the design trail house I have some fairly unique familiarity with the specific site in a specific context um The design of trail house assumed that the adjacent uses and the warehouse space were going to be low intensity And that's really what fits With that model trail house currently experiences about 100 to 150 sales per day on the weekdays two to 300 sales per day on the weekends when you add to that 448 Trips per the traffic study, which is an increase from 31 For the new tenant area. That's a substantial impact on the vehicular flow through the site As was mentioned earlier, there's a single lane With counterclockwise circulation That minimally accommodates the vehicular traffic that's there now There's limited visibility and limited backup space for vehicular circulation The current backup aisles are already Smaller than what the standards require and they were the best that we could accommodate with the existing conditions and construction The proposed design does not address Site accessibility for for pedestrians from the street to the project area And providing that access would require a four foot wide Isle all the way through the site, which would reduce the backup width Um, so it's about close to 30 percent less than what's required by the standards Um, another thing that's not addressed is the elevation change to the floor level In the proposed area of work This could result in a larger ramp Which could further impact traffic flow on site Thank you. Thank you Next is Dave Townsend followed by Craig Lawson followed by Cassandra Hampel I'm Dave Townsend. I'm a physical therapy practice owner here in santa rosa and a board member of the king ridge foundation for at-risk youth and The my main thing is the the community that the trail house is built It's had a huge impact on my own personal health of being able to have a place to Launch bike rides and also for my family. I have three kids And it's just something that that we enjoy and the majority of the the people in this room are in support of growing the trail house and things like the trail house and It would it would frankly just be very sad to have any negative impact on something like the trail house that Will continue to grow if they're given a chance Thank you Next is Craig Lawson Followed by Cassandra Hampel followed by Jill Brogan. Well, let's hear it for the right side of the room I go no one's going over there. Okay Madam chair members of the planning commission Craig Lawson I've known scott bagel of the applicant for over 20 years. It's a pretty special guy Especially because he's my son-in-law But it was interesting when he went came to me about a year ago with the idea that he was Going to apply for a distribution facility And I said look If you're going to do that Make sure you check out the regulations and he did and he hired one of the best professionals nick to look at it with him He looked at the traffic They looked at all the regulations and the six bullet points which are on the The sequence that you have to go through in order to determine if something meets Uh, if it's compliant with what you're trying to achieve He spent a year on this And they've really advanced it quite a quite a ways and I would encourage you to consider This facility Because it is compliant It is legal And it is safe. Thank you very much Thank you, mr. Lawson Next is Cassandra Hampel followed by Jill Brogan Followed by river Pollock Hello Well, everybody has a lot of beautiful points and I just want to say thank you for laying out the The order of all the things that was really helpful In letting us know what the flow is. So my name is Cassandra I've been working with scarlet for about a year and It has been a wonderful opportunity to work with white fox medicinals and the fox den There's a lot of outreach into the community with local artists and allowing the creative and inspiring Part of our lives to be healed And I feel like that's really valuable. So I just want to say thank you And I do appreciate your genuine drive to focus on whole person healing Thank you so much. Thank you Jill Brogan Followed by river Pollock followed by Matthew Tucker Hi, yes, I'm Jill Brogan here I've conducted business with the white fox brands and I've always Known them to be respectful Very professional on time Very compliant detail oriented and overall great communicators and the pleasures to work with I support their application for this dispensary and I also Empathetic and understand the concerns of the community I also read the press democrat article that that had a lot of the same concerns Parking certainly yes, everyone has um, agree that that is horrific in santa rosa and whether this Permit approves or not parking is still going to be horrific in santa rosa. So that is certainly a conversation to have Whether or not this goes forward is how we scale the city to handle that Secondly, I would just like to look at the stereotype of what someone who consumes cannabis cbd hemp products Almost everything I've heard here today has been Somewhere along those lines of reefer madness of these kind of extreme Stereotypes about who consumes and what I know about the specific demographic of who enjoys Specifically with white fox here These are working professionals. These are stressed out mothers who Are choosing this as an alternative medicine to prescriptions so I Support everyone's opinion and I believe it's beautiful that we can have this outlet here, but I would just like to Make sure everyone is considering and being open-minded to the idea that This hoodlum this vagrant this We're going to all get super duper high and then go hang out and just pass out on the street that that is Very very very. I hate to say it close-minded. Thank you very much Okay, thank you Next is river poeg. I hope I'm pronouncing you right followed by matthew tucker followed by darron weimer Hello, I am river pog. Thank you for having us So I have worked for scarlet the owner of white fox medicinal for the last couple of years In that time I have witnessed scarlet actively building and supporting a community of female entrepreneurs and colleagues It has been very valuable and inspiring Witnessing how scarlet engages with her business and the community I have seen her act with honesty integrity and the intent to help bring people Bring healing to everyone she meets Additionally speaking to what was just said there seems to be an Assumption that customers of fox den will not be compatible with family values or family environment Which is an unfair unfounded and biased opinion Many customers are likely to be on honorable members of the community That should not be assumed to be dangerous or a threat to families or family values It appears that the assumed vision and environment of what the fox den will be and bring to the community is highly skewed And does not reflect the intended mission of the fox den which is only to bring healing to everyone I believe That fox den will strive to provide to provide a safe space that cultivates healing while supporting local companies and the community This project has the potential to be a very beneficial thing for the neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you Next is matthew tucker followed by darron weimer followed by john houston Hi, my name is matthew tucker. Um, thank you for letting me speak for a second um, I know scarlet as a good friend and a occasional contracted worker and I think she's a kind and loving and integral person and I believe her business would be carried out as such um I'm also here as a parent of a kiwi student And I just all I can say is that I have no concern that The fox den would be a threat To my child's safety or any of his friends That's it. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Tucker Next is darron weimer followed by john houston followed by ashley hall Hi, my name is darron weimer. Uh, I live in rink and valley and I work in a small office space Next door to the proposed cannabis dispensary located at four thousand Montgomery drive I do know and I have read the comments from the owner of that property was against the dispensary Mostly because of parking issues and I would echo those concerns as well There's at least 20 small businesses in that office complex parking is tight Davey tree is right there with many trucks that come in and need parking spaces as a Return from the end of the day I'm also a regular patron at trail house. I believe this proposed location Is just a terrible location with which we'll have significant negative impacts Primarily to trail house, but also to surrounding businesses I've researched the other locations of cannabis dispensaries in santa rosa I understand they want to get a location on the east side of town But this proposed location is so out of character with the other approved locations that i'm Wondering why the applicant would even choose this location Let alone invest time and money to get to this point Why is it out of character neighborhoods the park family businesses retail movie theaters frozen yogurt places trail house This just doesn't seem like a very good match in my opinion I do support the city of santa rosa's cannabis ordinance But I feel that the planners with all due respect have blinders on and are only checking yes boxes in order to recommend approval for this project Furthermore one of the slides up there said that it was suitable for the intensity of the site based on access I don't know how they came to that decision. I would have to fully disagree with that Although the location may barely meet these basic requirements in the language of the ordinance I very much does not meet the intent of the ordinance The planners Seem to not fully evaluate or appreciate the significant negative impacts to neighboring businesses, especially trail house Thank you. Thank you Next is john houston followed by ashlee hall followed by ellenor cunts Hi, my name is uh john houston I've worked with the women from white fox medicinals in the past and I uh I find them to be very um respectable people with uh integrity um I think uh trailhead has clearly worked hard to create a positive culture of contribution to the community What's not being acknowledged is that the cannabis community also creates a culture of contribution I think if you give the fox then a chance they will demonstrate that they can be a partner in that effort It's important that cannabis the cannabis community has convenient access to medicine So people don't have to drive across town That reduces traffic in santa rosa as a whole Um, I also have a three-year-old daughter. Um, she's not a student at The preschool next door, but I will say that um I would be comfortable with her going to that preschool um, I think that um I'm confident that they will have a secure operation and I've shopped at dispensaries and I can tell you that the people who you find there are very friendly and peaceful Thank you. Thank you Next is ashlee hall followed by ellenor cunts followed by it's just a last name mcdonald Hi, my name is ashlee First I wanted to thank you for having us. I just wanted to speak on behalf of scarlet's character co-owner Of the fox ten and my experience being employed by her at white fox medicinals Scarlet is an incredibly generous kind-hearted and health-positive woman She is someone that gives back three folds to her community employees and loved ones In my experience of working for her over the last few years. I have nothing but positive things to say She has been a huge support in all of her employees and clients lives and has always prioritized health and well-being above all I know with certainty that a business that scarlet and the white fox team represents Would never be a business that endangers the well-being and safety of children I would also like to reiterate that there will be no on-site consumption In fact, the thing I admire most about working at white fox medicinals is that the mission has always prioritized whole body health It's never been about getting a person high or messed up But rather it's always focused on the medicine and how to bring about healing in people's lives This is the type of environment. I feel the fox done would bring to the neighborhood One that is health positive Prioritizes the safety and well-being for all and gives back to the community. Thank you. Thank you Next is elinor coons followed by mcdonald followed by isabella decradico Hi, my name is dr. Elinor coons. I'm here to speak on behalf of white white fox medicinals and the fox den I am a santa rosa resident and a business owner in this community And i'm elated to have this particular opportunity to have a dispensary open so close to my home I often bike to trail house from my own home and feel like the synergy between the two businesses is being ignored As the health positive whole plant medicine point of view that is espoused by the organization that is proposing Putting themselves in this location is actually very much in synergy with the positive health forward point of view That is espoused by the biking community that santa rosa fosters I think it's also very important to note that this is a female run business that focuses on female products A community that's deeply underserved in the cannabis community This as a mother and as a Woman in the community is something that is deeply lacking and i'm exceptionally excited to have such A vibrant and dynamic group try to serve this community in this way. Thank you Thank you Next is mcdonald followed by isabella decradico followed by herb venom Madam chairman. I'm john mcdonald. I live about six blocks walking from this proposed Dope dispensary and I am against it. There's all kinds of reasons many have already been addressed I don't know if you planners happen to notice. There's a quite a large apartment building Well within 600 feet of the facility that's full of active kids There are homeless encampments across the street up on the hill where the villa restaurant is Uh, I think also that they're one of the planners mentioned that There has to be a clear view from the street of the entrance to this facility And and I may not have that 100 correct, but there is no clear view from the street to the entrance the trail house Establishment is in the front there the parking is terrible and The other thing is all these things that the people have mentioned about the state laws That this kiwi preschool is too close and should have been noticed Shame on the city Shame on the planners that they did not dig in deep enough that and hello I'm sorry, but would you drop your kids off at a place like that that is right next to a dope dispensary? I don't think so so Anyway, that's I would urge the planners to planning commission to either deny this application or at the very minimum Postponent until the planning department of the planners have dug in deeper To all of these laws and setbacks and things like that. Thank you. Thank you, mr. McDonald Next is Isabella DeCredeco followed by her benham followed by Sean Brennan Hi there. My name is Isabella DeCredeco and I also hear what the opposing side is saying I ask that everyone have an open mind again. I think there is a misconception around the cannabis industry Especially white fox. This is more than just your run-of-the-mill cannabis. This is something that blends medicinal medicine as well As a practicing clinical herbalist in the community and someone who lives with chronic pain Access to a place like white fox is very important to our community A lot of their products are just CBD. So there's no psychoactive properties in it. So therefore there's not going to be this conception again of A dope area or a place where there's this alleyway of people who are getting stoned There's herbs such as chamomile, which a lot of people have had chamomile tea. Those are really essential to our community having access like this In this area is important for our health and well-being. Thank you for listening. Thank you Next is herb menom followed by Sean Brennan followed by James Randolph Hello, thank you. I'm here to speak on behalf of white fox medicinal I just want to speak a little bit to my personal relationship with cannabis and what I've seen in my life I watched a dear friend die of stage 4 brain cancer glioblastoma about a decade ago Cannabis was the only thing that provided him relief in the last two years of his life to counter the effects of chemo and radiation I watched my grandfather die from cancer a couple years ago. I'm a proud world war two vet Also experiencing incredible relief from cannabis during his last days That was a benefit to to him and to everyone in our family to reduce his suffering Uh, my cousin is uh, epileptic and recently had a revolutionary brain implant At ucla but has also uh, been able to live her life again with the help of cannabis This is a healing plant and I think that there's something uh, disingenuous and even dangerous about How comfortable we've become with alcohol and just because it's it's such a socially acceptable drug We think it's safer to have a place serving alcohol next to a preschool than having a cannabis dispensary This is truly reefer madness level rhetoric And I think it could not be more inaccurate. Um, I'm not a parent myself But I would be incredibly concerned about sending my child To a preschool uh anywhere near somewhere selling alcohol The trail house is clearly a thriving beloved business. I think your business would improve with a cannabis clinic next to it I think that these are people who are professionals people with money They're going to bring a whole new economy to the community. Um, this this is also, uh, you know The fox den and the white fox dispensary Is a group of of women who are um, you know incredible They are healers they have been healers in this community and I cannot think of a better time in human history Than this that we should be supporting female-owned businesses such as this. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Ben Next is Sean Brennan followed by James Randolph followed by Joanna cedar Hi, I'm Sean Brennan I'm here speaking on behalf of myself and also my grandmother who are um, we're both customers and dear friends and uh support the white fox Mission which is really like the last two speakers have said whole Health whole body. This is these um these products are one of the few things Actually give my grandmother any sort of relief for her to have access is crucial Again, there's some sort of a misunderstanding of what the white fox is and the cannabis industry in general general Especially this demographic of what white fox is providing. This isn't some dab bar where people are taking five-foot bong rips These are a lot of the medicines have herbs medicinal mushrooms High levels of CBD. This isn't what you guys are thinking. It's just not It really does This specific demographic of white fox. I'm not talking about any other dispensaries. I'm talking about white fox Is the demographic that you guys are talking about Is uh exactly it fits perfect. So, um, I also want to speak towards, uh The shot what's happening with the preschool. I've been an early childhood education for 15 years I own two preschools that are still running today. It sounds like you guys have an issue with homeless people In the in the already so this is going to clean it up with this white fox is a With with the regulations in place. It's an actual It's it's good for the community and for you guys's uh neighborhood. Thank you Thank you, mr. Brennan. Next is james randolph Followed by joanna cedar followed by debora. This is tough one soup proké Okay Hi, my name is james randolph. I own two businesses here in santa rosa. I'm also uh A neighbor of the trail house and um my uh my i'm opposed to this that um There's already already a parking issue there and um, I enjoy taking my five-year-old son to the trail house and Going there for for lunch going there for dinner um Of my two businesses that I have in santa rosa one of them has uh A dispensary going next to it. I have no problem with that. I'm not opposed to the cannabis industry Uh, but I am opposed to it being so close to a preschool and I am opposed to it being near the trail house Thank you Next is joanna cedar followed by debora followed by nancy bernbaum Good evening. We're on the other side. Okay. My name is joanna cedar I have over two decades of experience in santa rosa city schools teaching social science and health education I'd like to thank you for hearing my comments and I'd like this to thank city staff for recommending approval of the fox den dispensary I've read all of the pre-meeting comments that were submitted and listened to all of the comments delivered here today thus far and many in opposition Of the dispensary seem to be predicated upon the erroneous assumption that having a cannabis dispensary as a neighbor Is somehow risky to children and that those who frequent cannabis dispensaries are somehow undesirable people Case in point. We call it a cannabis dispensary. We do not call it a dope dispensary The stigma and bias is frankly getting old but most importantly it's not rooted in any data It's residual residual prejudice from over 80 years of cannabis prohibition The mere presence of a cannabis dispensary does not have deleterious effects on youth and there is zero Evidence to suggest that it does the data show that dispensaries increase safety and security in communities and neighborhoods And increase property values I understand that this issue is emotional, but I caution this body against looking at the participation levels in this hearing And concluding that the data shows anything else The proprietors will be excellent neighborhood partners a dispensary is not incompatible with a bike shop or a restaurant Or a frozen yogurt shop or a park or any other permitted business. I urge you to approve their project. Thank you Thank you, miss cedar. Next is debora and followed by nancy burnbomb followed by christopher Thank you madam chair and uh, thank you planning commissions for all the hard work that you have done for the cannabis ordinance and continuing Regulations that are constantly being changed. I want to thank you for all your hard work My name is debora suprake. Um, I am a mother. I'm a grandmother I spent 20 years as an emt firefighter in sonoma county and emt also with the redwood empire life support and amr Sonoma life support I'm a ceo of green heart alternative health care, which is a cannabis delivery here in sonoma county I've been uh under the prop 215 compassionate care act for quite some time which is being phased out this month Which is very sad All of my products on my menu are organic handcrafted and made by women in the industry I've celebrated the women in the industry for quite some time now the majority of my patients consist of seniors Shut-ins people that are unable to get to the dispensaries to get their medicine People that are dying of AIDS and people that are suffering cancer I am pleased to see another female based dispensary here in sonoma county I take pride in educating women seniors aging grandparents on the use of cannabis products cbd such as white fox As an alternative medicine to the pharmaceutical drugs for pain management Thank you for your time. Thank you Next is nancy burnbomb followed by christopher Luleti followed by eric morse Hi there, and thank you for having all of us here. I appreciate all the hard work you guys are doing I'm a public relations consultant and a local publisher and executive director of Sonoma county's women's cannabis business development group a lot of the women here Have been involved with that group for a couple years now And our goal is to help women entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry and believe me they need all the help We can give them In all the efforts to Help us grow I'm really excited to be Aligned with and no Scarlet and white fox and I don't know if any of you know that these are products White fox mendicinals are available in places that aren't dispensaries you can get them right now at andy's produce So that's something I thought you should know I encourage the board to approve this application The comparing People who use dispensaries to someone who would hang out in and loiter and use Dispensary whatever they're getting there in the parking lot is like saying you're not going to give cvs A permit because people might take their prescriptions and use them in the parking lot as well Doesn't make much sense. So I approve you. I encourage you to approve this. Thank you Thank you Next is christopher boletti followed by eric morse followed by Bay jones Christopher boletti did he leave? Not seeing him. Okay So then we're going to go ahead and move to oh there. There you are. Okay great Hi, i'm john pittarelli. I guess the italian last name. Let me step up I'm also a resident of santa rosa And a business owner. I use white fox modicinals Three years ago. I had a back injury Um where I've have a fused back and I have eight screws and two rods in my back And I would like to say that uber is a blessing and I don't know why anyone else hasn't brought this up, but When you go to crowded areas where there's no parking. Why not uber? Or lift either one So I intend on going to this new dispensary when it opens. It's not far from my house I'll be ubering there. Thank you Thank you Next is eric morse followed by bay jones followed by kevin barrett Hi, my name is eric morse I'm a parent of a 17-year-old son who was raised very much a lot of his life in santa rosa and sabastopol I was also a full-time teacher social studies and english with santa rosa city schools for about six or eight years I was also a teacher at ronert park community school for a couple years that served at-risk youth kids who were in and out So of juvenile hall. So I do understand children I've been a little league soccer coach and baseball coach and children have always been a big part of my life And I understand child development I don't I just want to kind of speak off the cuff and say well first of all I've known scarlet for many years I know her to be very much a person full of integrity and Concern for her community and the well-being of the world And I know that she puts a vision for the betterment of community over making a buck all day every day and then I want to speak to The idea that others have spoken to already that A cannabis dispensary is somehow incompatible with family activities and biking and frozen yogurt and movies and restaurants And and I got to say that I've been going to dispensaries around the bay area since about 2005 2006 on a fairly regular basis And many of them are some of the Kindest gentlest places that you can go to in a neighborhood And I would absolutely send another child to of mine to a preschool that was next to a dispensary I I wouldn't send my child to a preschool that next was next to certain kinds of liquor stores or bars Now i'm not referring to the trail house at all I understand that to be a family oriented place that serves beer and wine to responsible adult users And that's the exactly the vibe that happens at a lot of dispensaries you you have Doctors and lawyers and judges. Those are the kind of people that Purchase nurses, you know cannabis at dispensaries and they are very much community-minded Responsible people people with integrity and people who very much care about children and a family vibe and that sort of thing. Thank you. Thank you Next is bay jones followed by kevin barrett Hi, i'm william speeda. I'd like to read a statement from dr. Bay jones. She was called away on an emergency with your permission Okay, so this is for bay jones correct. Okay So i'm just going to read what she wrote here. I'll end you at two minutes just like everybody else. Okay. All right Okay I'm a mom A neighbor with a four-minute bike ride to trail house who uses regularly the yogurt shop the pizza joint East west and the movie house and naturally the park and creek path nearby Horrible location with a preschool super tight parking. It's why my spouse and our six-year-old boy like to bike there My main concern is how many of these dispensaries are needed in a town of our size I know that as a breast cancer survivor I was able to obtain my medicines from the wall greens and ride aid locations nearby Why not locate near one of these locations so that it clearly aligns with other pharmacy locations in our town? Don't be fooled. My babies are in harm's way while riding their bikes to get yogurt a slice of pizza or a wonderful warm tea at trail house By this proposal, please help Keep safe my children and other 14 children we trick or treat with who live a stone's throw from the proposed location All right. Thank you Next is kevin barrett followed by jesus followed by it looks like selena ellen Hi, my name is kevin barrett. I am a resident over on 3530 montgomery drive right by our trail house You could hit it if you have a really good arm with the rock probably Just here to say I am a user of marijuana have had a medical marijuana card For a long time from due injuries and I do not Represent having a medical dispensary right next to my house There's one about $10 uber drive away Should really consider if you cannot afford an extra $10. Well, you're going to go buy there I would say that it's not represented in the community. There's no parking there outside of my house in front of it already Um, sometimes I have to go do u-turns for about another 10 minutes. Just find a spot to park Um, there's already medical places right nearby Don't think we need any more. We'd really appreciate your consideration. Thank you. Thank you Next is Jesus followed by selena ellen Hello, my name is Jesus. I am a farmer. I voted for medical marijuana Whatever however, I didn't vote for having dispensaries near our children and family areas Let me remind you of two incidents in near proximity of reef her madness Back in december 11 17. There were Five suspects. I believe that broke into a home in pedaluma looking looking for marijuana Those people were not from this area. They came from the east coast Those are the kinds of reef her madness that I am concerned about I'm concerned about safety And number one is safety. I could care less about parking But safety for our children is number one. It should be number one The other incident was march 12 18 If that oh, sorry, I got the dates wrong, but uh anyways The there was a dispensary in san francisco that was basically broken into and they took half a million dollars Whether they have the safety issues in place or they can accommodate those issues That's a whole different story. So again My issue is safety. I don't doubt that these people are, you know, fully professionals and totally, you know Participants in the community But safety is the key issue that I have. Thank you Thank you Last card I have is for salina allen Hi a little short okay Hi, my name is salina allen and um, I am a parent of a child that goes to kiwi preschool I have no problems with the marijuana industry. Um, I myself benefit from cbd oil from my chronic pain I appreciate that it's a female run enterprise. I really do but this is not the place for it My concern is with the safety as well. Um, as hezu said, um, I live next to spark That's another dispensary down on dutton road there. They were just broken into their windows were just smashed Um It's not the clientele that's going in there and buying it legally that i'm worried about It's the people around it that want the product that you guys are selling and i'm sorry preschool is not the place for that. Sorry Okay, thank you That was the last card I have. Um, is there anyone else wishing to speak on this matter if so go ahead and move to them Go ahead and move to the microphone and please state your name for the record My name is dr. Karen Bentley. I'm a resident and I would like to speak in favor of foxten There's something really obvious to me that I feel like needs to be stated Is that it's the responsibility of the preschool to keep kids safe on property no matter what is on the other side of that wall And you have a viable compliant female run entrepreneur based company serving professionals and the local community And a really unique and special way so I think If you're gonna talk about the safety of preschoolers, it's the responsibility of the adults to mind your children Because this is legal. It's compliant and you can't Keep someone out as long as you're in regulation The secondly is the idea of parking I think trailhouse is great. It's a great family community center. It really seems to me If parking is so tight because of their thriving community that they have outgrown their space And you can't keep out a viable compliant company out of unit b Because you're afraid of parking unit b exists and as long as it's compliant. It can be there Um, and lastly, I agree that there is a misconception with the cannabis industry that It's just a bunch of stoners. I have a phd in genetics. I use cannabis And I'm a highly successful person and vox done is exactly where I will go as a local resident to get my products Because I trust them. I think what they create is fantastic for my body And I'm not going to go get high and then go across to the trailhouse And then drink a bunch of beer, right? I mean the idea that Trailhouse is a place for kids is great But then they're also saying at the tap room and alcohol and cannabis don't mix Cannabis and kids don't mix well alcohol and kids you can also argue don't mix either, but it's responsibly used there There's nothing to say that there are not responsible cannabis users at fox 10 and I am personally one of them. Thank you Thank you Anyone else Wishing to speak. Okay. Yeah, good state your name for the record, please My name is anthony keaton I served in the army so I do know the use for medical marijuana. I have many friends who do use it Who did serve because they have ptsd? However, I've also seen it because I am a frequent user of the trail house that veterans use mountain biking as a way To deal with their emotions and deal with the ptsd. That's what I do I use mountain biking and I use the trail house. It's about community There's nothing wrong with the marijuana industry. It's legal. That's the situation we're dealt with but in this space This is a community that's well established and I believe that the dispensary is going to ruin that just because of What we currently have there is a great community and I'm sure you guys are all great I don't know you personally, but I'm assuming that based on what everyone's saying But the trail house is a community that we have kids We have the daycare right on the other side and we're now going to have a dispensary backed up to it Parking is also an issue not necessarily for me. I bike to the trail house and so does my family But to have that extra traffic most bike users We have to go in just like everyone else just like cars because that's what the vehicle code says So I have to go in through there and make that u-turn Through the parking lot and then park my bicycle I'm now going to have to contend with 400 cars in an entire day plus. Who knows how many more That's going to be an issue for me and my child because now I'm going to have to really watch out for my child Who's going to possibly get hit by a car not necessarily? Maybe it's not you guys. Maybe it's someone who's going to the trail house But this is important. The trail house is a community place We're well established in this area You hear from all the community members here that the trail house Is been a great place for them And I just feel at this point the dispensary is not a good location for them. They have another place that they can go And still serve the community that they're wanting to affect Thank you. Thank you Anyone else wishing to speak on this item? Yes, okay My name is Megan Hernandez and this is just a quick comment That I don't feel like I could let go it is the responsibility of the community in general to protect children It is not just the people within the walls of the preschool to protect those children I think that our community can always benefit from female run businesses and the amount of support That the foxen has us really touching. I think that that's lovely Being a community member that goes to the trail house it's just Hard to imagine that suiting everybody's needs especially a community like yours that comes in With so many people supporting it. It is just such a hard place But it is all of our responsibilities To protect the kids not Just the people on the inside. Thank you Thank you Anyone else wishing to speak Okay, I'm not seeing anyone move to the microphone. So I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing now And I want to thank all of you for speaking I want to thank all of you for being so orderly and following the rules makes everything much easier for us So really appreciate your participation and how you and how you participated So with that the applicant gets an opportunity to respond to what he has heard from the public Thank you, madam chair, and I just want to acknowledge and respect everyone who took their time tonight to come out to this meeting I Know that those of us that are in this chamber a little too often sometimes forget Just how difficult it is to take off work early and make it out here I took notes. I may have missed something So please commissioners do do prompt me if there is something that I missed it missed to make sure that we respond to everything First I just want to kind of walk back through some of the Process that we went through after the neighborhood meeting many of the concerns that came out today in the Also came out in our original neighborhood meeting and influenced the design And the decisions about who was going to be operating how the project was going to function One part of that process was that this suite Was under a lease with trail house For a first rate of refusal. So in may on may 7th 2018 Trail house actually entered into a lease signed by glenn who is speaking earlier Waving their first rate of refusal And specifically that lease identified the waive space would be utilized as a cannabis dispensary That was on may 7th 2018 Additionally within that requirement. We addressed the parking concerns that were brought up at the time and are known on the site This site has code parking. We're not asking for a reduction and we're not asking for variants But there were logistical considerations to consider in the operation of the Two entities being on the same property One of those was that we added five parking spots to make sure that we would have dedicated parking clearly signed for Fox den additionally as a part of that lease addendum the property owners have agreed to pay for improvements to the Parking lot that will clearly sign and identify trail houses code parking as a part of the site These aren't matters of planning consideration. Again, we weren't asking for a parking reduction or variance But they were important to the operational relationship between the two entities and we took action to Make sure that that was addressed and I have copies If anyone needs to read that lease addendum that trail house entered into Additionally I'm a father of a five-year-old who goes to Cesar Chavez language academy, but previously went to a preschool just down the street from here I'm very familiar with this neighborhood. I used to live right off of home. Um, I understand When something is happening that it can be difficult to Not know what it's going to be like because we don't have anything like this on this side of town yet It's a new use and we're and we're coming into neighborhood commercial Now I appreciate that trail has become a national and statewide location for folks to go to but looking at the zoning and the general plan designation for this parcel It's neighborhood commercial The fox den proposal is under a thousand square feet of retail space And that is a size and use With an anticipated clientele that is appropriate for the neighborhood commercial intent of serving the local community Not necessarily acting as a regional center and that meets with the general plan and the zoning code And it was a part of our considerations in looking at the scale and scope of the project We have no intention as fox den to oppose or prevent any onsite Events and there is no aspect of our project proposal that would prevent trail house from continuing community events That is ultimately a between trail house and the city when they go through a temporary use process and I you know This is on video fox den does not intend to oppose any trail house applications for For events they need to work those logistics out between You know the city and the fire department all the folks that get involved in those types of events I want to specifically address vehicles and traffic. We did do a trip generation memo on report on this that identified less than significant impact you know this Parking and traffic and just the entire way we think about it is really actively changing in the state of california as we move From looking at levels of service to trying to look at reducing vehicle miles traveled The key way you reduce vehicle miles traveled is by honoring the land use general plan designation that I referenced earlier LUL one providing a range of commercial services that are easily accessible To the needs of the people who live and work here Providing access in this area of town to this retail type Will serve to both fulfill that general plan policy as well as reduce our vmt because folks won't have to Drive to downtown or the west side They'll have access in their neighborhood commercial to this retail mix There was reference To our parking space size and our ada spots At this point we are confident and have provided through licensed professionals Floor and site plans that show that we can meet the requirements to provide at-code parking on the site of seven spots When we get into the building permit process There is a lot of back and forth that will occur and we have already started that with the chief building official who has reviewed some of those plans There is a dispute on our end as to whether or not we need an additional ada spot because the ratio in city code is 1 to 25 and we're at 22 spots So we're actually having two ada spots which could free up additional square footage But for your consideration tonight, that's a process that we have to go through with building before we get our building permits And that includes also our street access We do have to solve elevation issues and access for folks with disabilities With that said, this is a great spot for public transit access Santa Rosa serves this area with paratransit as well as city bus and as well as bike routes We anticipate that people will bike to both facilities And and handle the the issues there Staff parking came up. We aren't anticipating more than five Folks at any given time Yes, if you put five in there and you subtract it from seven, that's two leftovers The same thing with the trailhouse makes where you subtract one for one on their parking spots But we're going to provide incentives for our folks to use public transit We're going to provide for the operational considerations and making sure that our ad code parking Isn't eaten up just by employees We didn't put those types of considerations in here like we would if we were asking for a variance or a parking reduction Because we're not asking for a parking reduction or variance We have the code parking for this retail use as required by the city We also have a concern for our customers to be served And we'll take the actions necessary to make sure that they're able to use our spot The signage requirements for these parking spots again was a major consideration in the operational agreement between trailhouse and landlord in the Lisa Dundam Um On a side note, I know that there was reference to the fires Just as a point of personal privilege. I'd like to point out that the manufacturing partner For the white fox brand actually housed the american red cross headquarters In their facility for the responses This project has a clear community benefit plan that you've read about in your public in your packet and Public information that fits with the social responsibility ethos of white fox and fox den Specifically addressing early childhood education It is not a land use matter necessarily But it is A part of the ethos of a good community member, which the applicant Has clearly demonstrated tonight Sat and lastly there was a comment about the site Visibility from the public right-of-way while not this particular slide in our response to completeness We included a street shot from the public right-of-way sidewalk that would be Roughly akin to slightly more west from that fire hydrant that clearly shows where they intend to doorway An entry point is To the facility And and that code requirement is met and has been demonstrated in that Response that we did several months ago I believe I hid everything, but please Madam chair, let me know if there's anything else I need to address Just a couple other things there was a reference as to your business being a drive-through business If you could clarify that and then if you could talk about safety So there's no drive-through proposed There is It is not a there's no consumption or lounge aspect to this proposal So folks will come they will park they will enter the facility Purchase their products after meeting with professionals and then leave like a retail establishment And so We may have inadvertently used that term reference to the fact that we also provide delivery services So someone who comes can sign up for a recurring delivery once they know what they want And while it's anecdotal at this point We have been working on kind of studies to show that if you encourage people at the point of stale To sign up for delivery it reduces future trips because they're receiving a delivery instead of coming to The facility for that for that pickup as to the matter of safety We actually have a unique situation here and as the commission knows I do believe that retail outlets can be Can be done perfectly safely somewhere jewelry stores and banks without a sallyport But because of the unique nature of our parking garage when deliveries come to drop off or pick up Outside of business hours, they'll be able to actually go into the parking garage And the drop down door will be able to secure at that point of distribution Which is a unique feature of this site that that adds An above and beyond level of security from the regulations Lastly again our security guard, you know the the existing nature of the of the Area of the community will be protected here. We're going to have 360 Video cameras that will be able to identify nuisance behavior be able to be coordinated and provided to law enforcement if needed I believe some folks are familiar with the car accident that happened an adjacent Property in Katari next to mercy wellness where a car drove into another business They actually because of the video quality that's required of dispensaries were able to use mercy wellness's dispensary footage to actually find out what happened with that accident Additionally the onsite security guard will make sure that there are no transients syringes Needles or anything like that in the alleyway okay Don't go away because the commission will get a chance to ask you but just before we go to that any Anything I missed that the public brought up Is there anything I missed that the public brought up? Okay, we'll get our chance to grill him soon Okay, great. Okay, so I think that's good And then staff we're going to need to hear a little bit from you. I think in particular back to the topic of The business and professions code reference and how we may not be in compliance with state law if you could You know, you did a really a good recitation of how we arrived at the 600 foot setback Excluding preschools But maybe if you could speak to the concerns that were brought up to by the two attorneys about the business and professions code Hi, good evening. I'll take that one The speakers were referencing business and professions code 26054 b Excuse me, which is the section that was referenced by miss hartman and her opening remarks It does impose a 600 foot Setback or distance between cannabis and k through 12 schools as well as daycares and youth centers But this is it also has the discretionary element that miss hartman spoke to giving the discretion to the local agencies To select a different buffer including zero buffer our city ordinance 20-46040 b Specifically invokes the discretion granted by the business and professions code to select a different buffer This was the ordinance that was adopted by the city council After as miss hartman discussed good two years of Discussion and then just to remind the the commission and the public that as part of the process The planning commission does have to make the six findings that were put up and presented to you And that was something that was discussed and made You know a part of our ordinance process specifically for this type of use does require a conditional use permit so that the commission may Consider each of those findings and make a determination as to whether or not this project meets those findings Okay, great and then mr. Uso maybe you could speak a little bit as to how parking calculations were done for this site and also maybe speak to The intent of the cn zoning and how this project fits with that sure so The parking requirement for a cannabis retail is one space for every 250 square feet Based on the size of the facility that yields a requirement of seven parking spaces for the dispensary the same parking requirement applies for the trail house Except for the warehouse component, which has one space per 1000 square feet the Parking requirement for the trail house adds up to 14 spaces The plus the seven or excuse me 15 spaces plus the seven for The proposed dispensary adds up to 22 The applicant is adding five spaces to to the property to achieve the 22 parking spaces required And then in terms of the requirement or the intent of the neighborhood commercial zoning the intention is to have local serving uses Versus uses that have more of a regional Focus so you wouldn't have like a big box retail It'd be more smaller local serving businesses is the intent of the one of the intents of the neighborhood Commercial district Okay, great. Thanks for that all right commissioners We've got our applicant at the ready here questions of the applicant. Yeah vice chair weeks Actually, I have questions for both staff and the applicants. I'll start with the app Let's just do all the applicant first from everybody and then we'll go to staff The going back to the parking There was a comment made that Trail house had a lease agreement regarding the parking And then that's one question then the other question about the parking When I look at how it's designated there's two spots in the warehouse that's On the northern side Is that correct? Correct. And so for for the the project before you it's the five spots On the interior and the two spots immediately adjacent to the building on the southwest corner Um Yes southwest The the two spots that are located in the Eastern side of the warehouse Are a part of trail houses previously approved project They're up there. Thank you Emmanuel So they're not a part of the scope of our our proposal or under our control for their accessibility to customers or anything considerations like that we did Concur with some of the comments that came in on on some of the Square footages in the downtown commercial area of san rosa. You're allowed to have eight foot parking stalls Outside of that area the the commercial areas have to have nine foot, which is why we submitted the revised Site and floor plan to show that that's feasible Um, we also have an additional ada spot shown Because there is some disagreement over how many ada spots are necessary One to 25 is the ratio under the code. Uh, this has two to 22 As a proposal so there may be additional Space that is available as we move into that process with the building department The quest the question on the lease agreement I have it right here, which i'm i'm happy to pass out, but the lease agreement does exist The basic requirements of it Are that trail houses? Identified parking spots would be signed and marked for trail house customers only And would be designed for the more long-term nature of of their customers Whether they're going off for a bike ride or or staying in the cafe And then the seven spots that are the code requirement for our facility will be marked clearly For the fox den and it will be more for the short-term nature of the retail customer coming to To this type of retail use I have a couple more questions. Keep going. You're good on the Um You're going to have delivery so that the car vehicle that's going to be delivering needs to park somewhere And reading through the information provided and hearing other Applicants that have delivery service. It's usually the employee's own car That's used so You talked about having The employees take public transit, but Where I guess my my basic question is where the delivery vehicle is going to be parking So there's a few options and If you read the newspaper recently the delivery section of the state regs, which have changed twice since this application went in Our under contention and are probably subject to a lawsuit So the this answer is subject to the fact that the regs at the state level very much could change around this topic um, but The the options that have been looked at for handling Where the who the delivery vehicles are or either either the operator owning them having all of the gps and other security and safety requirements for the vehicles installed and upgraded or utilizing Portable devices that have been currently found to meet the regs Um Operationally we have not made the decision on how that will work, but we have identified that at least one spot in the facility will need to be identified for short term parking That the delivery vehicle could use except for when out on deliveries And then it would be available for our folks coming through you're allowed to carry 10 to 14 deliveries can be accommodated in any one Uh departure and so a delivery vehicle can be out and away from the space for an extended period of time Fulfilling those deliveries and reload is a relatively short process. Um, that would happen within the facility Unlike pizza delivery, we don't have to deliver it hot and fresh so Um the uh Um Normally we are provided with a copy of the odor mitigation plan and we did not receive that. Um You have one. Yeah, so andi suzo with tep Did submit a stamped and he's a mechanical engineer stamped odor mitigation letter for this project And You know, it is one no on-site consumption. So we're dealing with entirely packaged goods Ready for their location You know traditionally what we see come out of this in addition to staff training around how the vault and Other aspects are handled for when doors can be opened or closed to ensure that odor is mitigated There'll be negative pressurization in the vault Which will force the air from the area where there's a concentration of odor up through the carbon filters And and then the carbon filters are the standard odor mitigation that you've seen before you That allows for positive pressurization in the areas where you don't have a large concentration of Of cannabis odor Again as we move into the building permit phase that odor mitigation letter that was stamped by the mechanical engineer says that we're able to do it Our building permits then have to include the mechanical improvements that will do it once we know that we have the entitlement We'll pay for that plan set to be developed and then building will have to You know make sure that our mechanical engineers Specs meet the code and then As you know our conditions and our requirements under the code are no detectable odor outside of the premise And we will take Every effort to make sure that that happens As it would be a code violation that would be subject to action on One more question on the employees. Um, will they be Actually, it's a two-part question Will they be full-time or part-time and then you mentioned the security person And community liaison is that going to be one in the same or are you going to have a separate Identified person to interact with the community. So core security has been engaged for the for the kind of official presence of security, um, which which and they provide services to other cannabis businesses in the community and have a stellar track record of Of performance in that regard and so will rely on their professional services In how they Manage their employees on the site and make sure that they fulfill all of our commitments to you here today Um, the community liaison position and and community outreach will continue to be done You know all the way through with our community benefits plan Through the staff of fox den As to the specific ratio of full-time and part-time employees We're really too early on to to commit. We have a full build-out process and then we have to get an operation and Quite honestly a 900 square foot retail facility You know could there's multiple variations of how that could work It's a low impact demand for employees to provide Optimum services in such a small facility Thank you Any other questions of applicant right now? Yeah, commissioner peterson Uh, I've just got one Vice chair weeks ably asked most of the ones I was going to ask Are people are intoxicated people going to be allowed inside whether they're high or drunk if you show up You've had a couple beers at trail house or you smoke to joint in the parking lot. Are you going to be able to Get inside well first our our onsite security will Be a part of monitoring the parking lot and will help prevent any onsite consumption of beer or pot But no cannabis use and being Being under the influence or visibly intoxicated or actually having any I mean we're not just talking about alcohol and cannabis here People can be under the influence of viking and can be under the influence of other things that create an unsafe environment Any unsafe environment will be reported as any other business would do if someone entered in that type of estate The advantage here is that we will have trained security Folks that have gone through training on how to make sure that ID IDs are accurate and not fake and you know Kind of all of those types of how to handle that type of a situation But we're not proposing onsite consumption. So the It is difficult to fully answer the premise of the question because we're not proposing it Thank you Any other questions down here? Yeah commission call you Yeah Commissioner weeks also took a lot of my questions. So words. She's pretty good Um, I just have one question Can you talk a little bit about uh the pedestrian path of travel? What what that's expected to be especially if if I was looking at the The most recent parking plan submitted, uh, it seems like one of the ADA spots Is quite far away from the actual dispensary. So can you talk a little bit about that? And yeah, so the ADA spot that's on the northwestern corner Is is the one that's exist currently existing on that pedestrian path the second ADA spot that's proposed Is on the interior of the lot and that's the one that would be dedicated to trail house or to um, fox den There there's a specific path and we actually the very first meeting we had with the with the city and with the chief Building official and the senior planner on the project Was about the orientation and the the path of travel from the ADA spot and following their advice We located it on that north western corner of the interior lot In order to be able to provide a track path over to that doorway on the interior that you can see On the on the exhibit. So at no point does someone utilizing that parking spot have to go outside of the building In order to enter the retail premise And then on pedestrian there's an existing partial sidewalk along the west side of the the trail house unit and That is what we're currently looking at as what would be the logical path of travel for the for the pedestrian route handling the elevation and Kind of other grading issues that would need to be accomplished and we're prepared to work with the building department on that solution Okay, any other questions of the applicant right now, okay Thank you, mr. Caston Questions of staff Uh chair sisca, can I propose a five-minute break? Yes, you may Let's take a five-minute break. So we've been going on quite a long time. So Oh Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and call our meeting back to order so If you'll find a place to Be quiet and Let us continue So commissioners we're on questions of staff any questions of staff commission call you You're alone down there. I thought I'd start with you Sure. Um, so my First question is kind of around this The parking space the actual spacing of the parking spaces Can you talk because I'm still I have the old or the first rendition I believe of the parking plan Can you speak a little bit about that and the difference between downtown and what we're looking at here? Absolutely, let me see if I can bring the Mike will come to the help to the rescue here Okay So this is the the revised parking plan and if you have the the original one you can Compare and contrast them. So in the the first plan that they submitted The space is five four three and I believe two possibly we're only eight feet wide Parking spaces are allowed in the downtown but not in this location so to Make them nine feet wide and thank you to the Architect for trailhouse who pointed this out. We had a conversation the other day and he pointed that out to us The applicant Removed there was a hallway Between parking space number five and where the office and vault are That hallway has been removed and You now to get in the location of the office in the vault were transposed So now you have to go through the office to get to the vault And the spaces that were eight feet wide are now nine feet wide And in compliance with the minimum width requirement of the code My second question is are there specific Setbacks i'm assuming state law Around dispensaries through like abc through alcohol beverage control based on dispensary to Place that sells alcohol Is that known? Uh, well, I don't have specific statute sections, but it may not be on the same premise So this is uh A separate premise and trailhouse Thank you at it Down here. Yeah, how about you commissioner. I'll correct you Yeah, in The public correspondence there was an email exchange and then it was mentioned here again that kiwi was licensed for schooling For licensed for school-aged kids and then it kind of there was no definitive answer Can you go into that and if if or if that's a different kind of license or definition? It doesn't be the definition for the regulations Yes, so the the license that kiwi has falls under A daycare And when you look at the definition of daycare and this is in the email the correspondence that we provided So a daycare facility includes preschools in school-aged daycare facilities So there's a distinction between the distinction is between a school where instruction is provided versus a daycare where school-aged children Go for for basically for after-school care Not for instruction and that I think is the the distinction there Thank you commissioner peterson did you have any questions vice chair weeks To follow up on commissioner krepke's question One of the one of the people from kiwi said that they had a license for k through 12 Um I believe that's what somebody said Um, and wondered if that made any difference in This fact so the the license that they have and they provided us with a copy of that license They are licensed for what's uh called under state law a combination center A combination center is uh where they have a daycare center So that's traditional preschool or daycare and school-aged child daycare center So the school aged so they can have Children that are Not preschool age so above preschool age so school-aged children, but again it is after school care It is not a school Um a traditional you know in the traditional sense of the word So it'd be for basically for after-school care And that's what their their license is for so and that is different from a k through 12 school They they may have k through 12 students there, but again it is for after-school care not for school Okay Any other questions of staff? Any other questions of the applicant? Okay So let's bring it back to the commission for Discussion And would somebody like to move the resolution for just purposes of discussion I'll move the resolution of the planning commission of the city of santa rosa Approving a conditional use permit for fox 10 ink to operate a cannabis retail dispensary and delivery business Within an existing building located at 4036 dash b montgomery drive Assessors parcel number 013 dash 284 dash 012 file number c up 18 dash 076 and wait for the reading Well, do I have a second? second Okay, so that was moved by commissioner peterson seconded by vice chair weeks Commissioner calling would you like to start? Sure So Firstly, I want to hear what my fellow commissioners say kind of before I make up my final decision, but For me a big, you know The biggest thing would be the parking situation because I have also been to trial house many a time and It is difficult and so I'd be interested in kind of talking about potentially, you know, uh conditioning this In a I'm not entirely sure how that would work out, but Um, and then also Yeah, my main my main thing is about the parking, but so I'd like to hear what my fellow commissioners say Okay, vice chair weeks Well, I echo what commissioner callia said about the parking It does meet the park. It does meet the parking requirements. Um, they aren't asking for a parking reduction Uh, it is tight there when I've gone to trail house sometimes drive around until you find a spot or You go over by mary's which you shouldn't be doing probably but uh it Are charged as a planning commission is to implement plans In the ordinances and the policies of the city of san rosa and if this does meet those Um So there's lots of emotions regarding this And the proposal wasn't as complete as I would have liked and as we've seen before Um But regardless I'm gonna support the project commissioner peterson well, uh, I think this is A challenging project and it gets it. Um I think the the heart of the issues that the planning commission faces and that these types of land use is raised and You know when we're talking about something like this, I think what we're really talking about is Our sense of community and what we want that community to look like and I think we heard very powerfully from um, a lot of people that that trail house has and continues to be a very Important key part of the the santa rosa community and I think that we need to Take threats to that Seriously At the same time cannabis is also part of the community and has been for a long time And when we Look at things like the cannabis ordinance and the amount of work time You know meetings, you know public comments that we got That was the expression of Santa rosa's community as to how Cannabis should be regulated And Much like vice chair weeks. I'm looking at What the ordinance is as it is rather than What it maybe should have been or what it maybe could have been and So when I look at this project And I look at the concerns that the community has Particularly in regards to the proximity to the preschool Um, I mean the ordinance is what it is and and there is no setback In the local ordinance and In the opinion of city council, uh, that's perfectly compliant with the state law that is different I understand the concerns about Uh beyond the setback just the sort of the proximity of cannabis To children in a child care facility But the difficulty I have with that Was raised with some of the public comment, which is Any concern that can be raised about substance abuse or You know Vagrancy crime As it relates to alcohol is equally applicable to To cannabis is equally applicable to alcohol and I think we see that with You know bars and liquor stores so For me the issue is it really comes down to Is this Project Physically suitable is is the density type intensity of use Parking appropriate for this area and I think that From what I've heard From the applicant from staff and from public From the public I I think it is I think that You know the existing parking may be tight but The parking proposed by the the applicant is compliant and Um again, whether or not that's ideal whether or not It's it's perfect is a different question than whether or not it meets the standards That were tasked with Evaluating as it pertains to this specific project So I'm In favor of this project. I'll be able to make all necessary findings Um and I Would just express my hope that with A project like this should it it pass should the the count commission support this that that the security is effective at dealing with the existing issues With regard to Transients near the school And that there Is an improvement in the security of the area that Trailhouse will continue to be a hub for the community and that Fox's den will be able to integrate into the community and provide What I think we heard from the public is a another very valuable service and With that I will turn it to over to my fellow commissioners commissioner Kepke Yeah, I uh I echo my fellow commissioners thoughts on the difficulty in making a decision on this um You know, I do have two children under the age of four one in a preschool and um I understand that how definitions are made at the state and at the local level and um You know, they are what they are and it's We we're not a policy-making commission We are tasked with looking at a at an application and making the required findings not to say whether a policy is right or wrong and um Because of that I I echo my fellow commissioners um Thoughts when when it says When they say it fits The required I could that can make the required findings that they're there that parking and all these other um An environmental and so on findings are met and so um, it's because of that that uh, I will support this application Okay Um, it's okay if I go ahead or you want to go ahead now or okay? Um You know, I think it is Obviously an emotional issue and how our policies came to be I think we're really well Portrayed tonight and that It was a community effort They arrived at the policies that they that we arrived at through extensive outreach and community input And vetted through the boards vetted through public hearings. So the policies are what they are and the city council made Cannabis businesses And getting this off and rolling one of their first priorities and now we're just starting to see these come through And the the purpose was to make sure that they were Distributed throughout the city to make sure that people that would be utilizing that service Um had access, uh, hopefully without much use of a car. So I think the fact that this is another the Dispensary on the east side is is very important It is in a walkable area. It is in an area where there's public transit a lot of times we have questions about that how that's going to work So it's also I think going to beautify The exterior of the trail house And and make it much more safe in general the security that these Um Services provide is extensive and I think the the school can only benefit by The security there isn't any way a preschool child is going to be seeing the dispensary There's no glass on the rear Uh, there there's just no real exposure And there will be security around that protecting them from what and some of the letters had said were The issues of concern so I I'm very much Believe that that's going to be true I think it it meets the parking count the traffic analysis is supportive It's definitely a small site and a very busy business a trail house is a busy business and maybe Nobody could have predicted how much parking they may have really needed But the counts are the counts and they're met here So, um, I can make all of the findings and we'll be voting in favor of the project And commissioner call you Thank you. I appreciate hearing from my fellow commissioners. I completely agree and I know that we are a No, we're not a policy making body and our role is very Quantitative not qualitative in our findings that we need to make and I do agree that We do need to have and our dispensaries need to be spread out equitably in our community and not just be um Consolidated to the west side and so I and for me it's not an emotional argument It's really just about the parking and so I would appreciate if the applicant Instead of conditioning potentially conditioning the project to Requiring, you know employees to be parking off-site I would appreciate if the applicant put in a real effort to make sure that these parking spots are specifically for Clients and not necessarily just taken up by employees and then obviously as a as a business practice You obviously want your employee your clients to have a nice, you know experience in your location So I will also be supporting this project Okay, great Anything else anyone wants to say? Okay So that was moved by commissioner peterson seconded by commissioner weeks and your votes, please And that passes with five ayes commissioners dug in and edmundson being absent And that concludes this item okay So i'm going to let people exit because that can make a little bit of noise, but we're going to go ahead and Begin 10.3, which is a public hearing for the Bio bloom ventures conditional use permit on colgan avenue. It is an ex parte disclosure Let them finish Okay, we are moving on to 10.3, which is an ex parte disclosure commissioner call you anything to disclose I visit the site and have nothing further to disclose vice chair weeks I also visited the site and have nothing to disclose commissioner peterson I visited the site and have nothing further to disclose commissioner okraki I have nothing to disclose And I also visited the site and have new new information to disclose And with that we will get our staff report from Immanuel ursu Thank you chair cisco members of the planning commission members of the public who sat through that long first item This presentation will be a similar format to the prior item where I will Give a real brief overview of the cannabis ordinance discuss the project some of the public comment The sequo status and staff recommendation The application before you This item is for a micro business, which is a cannabis business with more than one component This one includes Cannabis retail With delivery cultivation Distribution and a level one manufacturing, which is the Utilizes a non volatile extraction process And that's a type six and a type 10 state license This project site is in the industrial light industrial zoning district and The Setback requirements apply to the retail component 600 feet from the nearest school And 600 feet from any other cannabis retail facility And conditional use permit is required. That's the hearing here this evening planning commission's decision is appealable to the city council Deliveries are proposed and Drive-through is not permitted hours of operation 9 a.m. To 9 p.m security requirements in place And on-site consumption is allowed for retail facilities. No on-site consumption is proposed with this application With regard to Some of the other uses proposed cultivation the code requirements Cultivation must be indoors And there are strict requirements with regard to the use of pesticides For the manufacturing process, as I mentioned, this is a non volatile process. So Non-toxic solvent-free Processes will be used in a closed loop system And there's a certification required on an annual basis They're required to have a food handlers permit and a permit from the county health department And there are several other requirements of the municipal code that apply This is just a quick overview of those With regard to the distribution there are again specific code requirements that apply to the distribution facilities And those are listed here on this slide just to highlight a couple of them The storage needs to be secure same with the waste Any waste products there needs to be a process to Separate and store and track The various batches that are produced and labeled for distribution There needs to be a way of tracking And tracing the the product as it goes out the door Conditional use permit has six findings that apply You need to find that it's Consistent with the provisions of the zoning code Consistent with the policies of the general plan Compatible with existing and future land uses The site is physically suitable for the use. It would not constitute a a nuisance and that it is in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act So these are all the Qualitative discretionary findings that the commission Needs to make in order to approve the application So to the specifics about the proposal The project is on a site that has two buildings. It's proposed in A vacant building that has had a history of light industrial uses The facility is Almost 5,000 square feet. It's 4970 square feet And it'll have the breakdown of the uses as shown on this slide 1677 square feet of sales floor area A 432 square foot cultivation room 658 for the manufacturing and 586 for distribution the balance of the space which is about 1500 square feet is for administrative offices in support administrative support functions A Application was submitted On april 20th of last year on june 4th. There was a neighborhood meeting On July 2nd the application was deemed complete and notice was mailed 10 days ago to surrounding property owners we did get comments and emails from A management firm that manages property in the in the area Indicating that they do not feel the notice requirements had been met Those notice requirements were met Notices required to be mailed 10 days before the hearing to Owners of record of property within a 300 foot radius of the project site Those notices were mailed 10 days prior to this meeting The Email we received did indicate that they did receive a notice On the 14th, I believe they said or excuse me the 16th So the notice was mailed on the on the 14th. They would have received it a couple of days later So we didn't meet the legal noticing requirements In addition a sign was posted on the property as required By the local regulations and published in the local newspaper Uh, this property is located in the southeast quadrant of the community on colgan avenue It is zoned light industrial there are light industrial uses on Both the east and the west so on either side of the property To the south behind the property is a commercial zone with a big box retailer And then across the street to the north is Our residential uses Zoning is consistent with the general plan Land use designations shown in this exhibit As I mentioned there are two existing buildings on the property The shaded building on this diagram is the building in which the Business is proposed And then the building in the top right hand portion of this exhibit Which would be the it's kind of the northwest corner of the property That's an existing garage door business that would continue to operate on the property Right now there really is no paved parking On the site the applicant is proposing to put in a parking lot total of 41 spaces Employee parking is at the back of the property. There would be a gate That would secure the access to the employee parking towards the back of the facility Where the parking space is at the front of the facility between the street and the facility Would be accessible and available to customers of both the garage door business and the proposed Business cannabis business The applicant also submitted a comprehensive landscape plan The There'll be a fence towards the front of the property about 16 or so feet from the street Sidewalk will be installed along the building for our property frontage Between the sidewalk and the fence there will be street trees will be put in shrubs and ground cover And then a pedestrian access gate Will be provided Along with a vehicular access gate between the pedestrian gate and the garage door business This is the proposed floor plan The public would only have access to the retail area The other areas of the building would only be accessible to employees of the of the business The security gate that I mentioned that provides access to the Parking at the rear lines up generally with about the front of the building so the top right Corner in this exhibit This is a table that shows the parking requirements 15 spaces are Required for the proposed business 35 spaces are required for the existing garage door business For a total of 50 spaces required on site The 41 spaces will be provided in the new parking lot and then there's a parking space available behind the existing garage door business that would make up the difference between the 41 spaces and the 50 spaces required proposed hours for the retail operation are consistent with the municipal code limitations on Dispensaries which is 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Monday Monday through Monday seven days a week And then the non-retail operations they're proposed between 8 a.m. And 10 p.m. However any shipments associated with the Non-retail operations would only occur during normal business hours so between about 9 a.m. And 5 p.m At the neighborhood meeting And input that we received both the phone calls I did receive two or three telephone calls from neighbors And then a few pieces of written correspondence There were concerns primarily with parking sounds like there's an existing parking shortage in the neighborhood I presume it's street parking that was being referred to their concerns with crime and odor as well This exhibit shows the closest school which is Due east well well over 600 feet approximately 1,500 feet from the proposed dispensary This aerial photograph shows the the property The cannabis business would be in the Building that is to the rear right. Let me see if I could get the Here we go This is where the building would be or the cannabis business would be in this building this Pole barn structure has I believe it if it's not already been removed will be removed Employee parking will be basically from about this point back In this area and behind the building The distribution area Would be in this location And then the retail would be up front in this area The parking Proposed would be in this area here the 40 or excuse me the space is available to the To the public that is using the business would be in this area And then there's additional parking for the garage door business located in this building which would be at the back in this area As I mentioned the project includes installation of a sidewalk along the project frontage A Fence that is basically I believe in line with the front of this existing building back in this area And then landscaping between the sidewalk and the the fence This is a view from the street Again, this is the building it's set back approximately 80 feet From the front property line The parking lot would be in this area Which would be landscaped would be a pedestrian gate Approximately here and then the vehicular gate would be in this area And then this area up front here would be landscaped and a sidewalk installed The garage door business is in this building here Part of our review we reviewed the project for consistency with sequa the california environmental quality act and find it to meet A few of the categorical exemptions as shown in this slide And with that staff concludes our presentation and recommends that the planning commissioner approve the project With the conditions of approval that are indicated in the draft resolution. Thank you Any questions of staff right now? okay so It's the applicant almost ready to make a presentation Oh, you need the clicker again Thank you so much Chair siscoe could I ask staff just a yes you may quick question I just want to clarify I think this came up in the the public correspondence But with regard to the notice the notice goes only to property owners correct So not the tenants of that property. That is correct. Yes. So notice goes to property owners A notice is posted on the project site A I think was a 32 square foot sign that's posted on the project site And notice is also Published in the local newspaper okay, and I can't recall for my site visit. Is the sign bilingual or is it just in english? I believe it. It's just english. Okay. Thank you Okay, mr. Robert. Yeah, thank you. Good evening. I do have a power point presentation so perhaps that can Get queued up Oh, great. Thank you So good evening. My name is Joe Rogway. I'm here on behalf of biobloom ventures, which is a micro business containing cultivation manufacturing distribution retail storefront end delivery Located at 252 colgan in santa rosa This is uh, I think it'd be a very clean project It's also going to significantly improve the project site as Was discussed and will be discussed further The applicant is a local family-owned company That has a history of operating a non-profit cannabis delivery service And providing medical cannabis to patients with the physician's recommendation this prior experience in the industry has provided the applicant with Expertise related to packaging Operational oversight product selection inventory management and control staffing Training and just generally being able to run a business of this type which makes them well suited to have this type of multi-use vertically integrated business With regards to neighborhood compatibility As was mentioned earlier, the subject property is on colgan avenue Between santa rosa avenue and petaluma hill road It's immediately abutted by light industrial zone parcels to the east and west To the south lies a retail and business service zone Which is the cost cope center? That i'm sure many of us are familiar with And the parcel cross from colgan avenue are zoned medium residential There is a Good nearby access to bus stops public transit pedestrian access One of the things i think is also notable about this project is with That portion of the frontage of the site i'm getting a sidewalk Which i think is going to be a real meaningful improvement there for familiar with the area There's no sidewalk. That's a safety concern. I think that the city will welcome having that particular improvement There is no proposed on-site consumption for this site As was mentioned earlier the near school is Foreign excess of the setback requirements. So that should be a non issue with regards to this particular project With regards to neighborhood compatibility There are going to be like really significant changes and improvements to the exterior of the building which i'll delve into in just a moment There's going to be the removal an existing pole barn, which is A dilapidated structure that really um, you know, it just needs to be removed frankly The uh, the african will be improved excuse me improving colgan avenue for the public benefit And that includes as i mentioned Paving the the property adding additional lighting within the parking lot Which i think is also going to go a long way in terms of public safety Adding new fence around the parcel Adding additional landscaping and doing other things like adding a curb and a gutter and street lighting along colgan avenue So from the city's perspective, there's going to be i think a real dramatic improvement for this site With the the proposed use from where it is now the exterior of the building Is i'm going to have a lot of improvements including metal coping trim wood siding stone veneer cement plaster finishes And painted metal canopy that will hang above the retail entrance. So it's going to look good And i think it'll be something that is just again a real dramatic improvement From the way it looks now, which is you know, what is contained within the red box on your screen. So as you can see it's You know currently an eyesore I would say that this is a really good example of blight In the neighborhood that is going to get cleaned up by bio bloom There is a really i think significant setback of the building from Colgan which just gives the applicant opportunity to make a lot of those improvements that i've been discussing Which is going to include all of those issues with curbs and sidewalks and landscaping Obviously from what you can see it's more than sufficient parking to meet the needs and what was described by staff This is The existing as you can see that the sort of photo of the existing storefront and then The lower image is the elevation of what it's going to look like After the improvements were made. So again, just a real dramatic improvement to be Just improved upon through this use the top image is the front exterior of the building where The customers will be entering through that door on the lower right And the lower image is the side elevation where you can see Item number 10. That's where the distribution facility is essentially the vehicles are going to come in and out But overall it's just going to be sort of comprehensively a better looking And better use of this property The landscaping are you know, it's going to be Water efficient landscaping in accordance with the city's water official landscaping policy And the planting is going to be drought tolerant native plants So it's going to be low water use. It's going to be beautified. And I think just again another example of the dramatic improvement This slide I think was already shown to the commission, but it's just worth showing again How different it's going to look from how it has been looking for the last several years So there's a lot of open sort of barren space pavement and dirt That's going to really change and have a lot of Mature landscaping. There's going to be a lot of paved areas that will be available for parking in addition to Including things like bike racks, which will hopefully Induce people or motivate people to ride their bikes Either to work or to ride their bikes to come and visit the retail outlet The interior changes are also going to be fairly significant as was mentioned earlier The only public publicly accessible portion of the site will be the retail area The rest of the facility will be a limited access area Which means that members of public won't be able to go there So there's going to be some interior demising walls that are going to have to go up to separate the premises And separate the publicly accessible places from the limited access areas And the sort of aesthetic for whatever it's worth is is going to be sort of that high-end wine tasting type of aesthetic that you know, we cherish so much here In Sonoma County, of course using sustainable environmentally friendly materials and Doing things like the the frosting And similar types of window treatments to just add some lighting But also have that opacity to make areas not visible that should not be visible Here is just another image For your review of the interior of the facility as you can see the area that's highlighted And that sort of salmon color Is going to be the only area that is Accessible to the public. So it's just the retail area about 1677 square feet and the restroom everything that Remains in white is going to be just the internal area For employees and other people that are Legally allowed to be in those areas This is a Larger view of the site and Where the building is in relation to The parking and other elements that have already been presented through staff's presentation And it's just I think a very well put together Use of the space and is going to be you know far superior to what has been there historically One of the issues that comes up frequently in these types of projects and was Subject to some of the comments that were received From neighbors relates to odor mitigation Of course, as you know, there cannot be any detectable odor of marijuana outside of the facility That will indeed be the case here Which will be essentially enforced through Very significant odor mitigation methods industry standard Standards such as the utilization of carbon filtration and can filters Which the images of which are delineated at the bottom of this slide Over rushing all this is obviously a layered regulatory analysis at both a local and state level Which correlates obviously to Age restrictions for who can be at the facility limited access areas as I was describing earlier No visibility outside of the premises the daily limits that are relevant under state law Track and trace compliance, which is obviously important to ensure that nothing is diverted outside the legal market And adherence to the rules and regulations as relates to delivery The community benefits In addition to the ones that I've already noted there's going to be Efficiencies built in for energy and efficiencies built in for water use both of which I think are important for any new project coming into the city And and I think this is another thing that is important for every business to to try to utilize and something that That is going to be important here Which is recruiting from a local talent pool And providing good jobs full-time jobs that have benefits and having those good full-time jobs with benefits Also pay living wage of $20 an hour So hopefully this will be sustainable not just from an environmental perspective, but also from a labor and employment perspective as well There is also You know the the desire to maintain local engagement After approval if it is approved While this business is operational And first having this facility Be everything that the site is not now Which is clean and maintained and welcoming and safe and well lit All those things are not currently the case and all those things will be the case if this project were to be approved There's also a real desire for the applicant to support various community programs Sports education art music youth activities and senior services are all very important for the applicant and things that They are looking to provide some benefit to you as they are moving forward through the operations of their business And this is going to be something that they look to expand Their role in the community and become more active as they get up and running And there's just a variety of things that they are proposing sponsorship of uniforms and equipment for youth-oriented sports teams sponsorship of leagues The provision of compassionate care medicine to eligible patients Who would otherwise not be able to afford medicine and who really need it And so that is essentially the project in a nutshell as you can see it's a very I think clean project And we respectfully request that You approve this project for conditional use permit and I am available to answer whatever questions you may have. Thank you Any questions of the applicant before we go to the public caring? Yes, commissioner peterson Just just a quick one Since you answered my usual questions about pay and benefits What if any neighborhood outreach did you do prior to this application? Essentially just what was required Under the ordinance so we had the neighborhood meeting. We had the relevant notices But there there wasn't very much interest when we had the neighborhood meeting One person showed up and at the conclusion of that meeting They actually stated that they were going to support the project. So we felt that there wasn't a real Need in in the neighborhood in the community to have further outreach based on the response that we got Thank you Anything else? Okay This is a public hearing tonight. I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing I don't have any cards on the item, but if there's anyone who wishes to speak you can go to a microphone up If if you'd like to comment or ask questions that would be great But would you please go up to a microphone and state your name for the record that way we can get it all down And you have three minutes so I found some discrepancies from what it's making you please state your name for the record. Could you give us your name, please? Okay Yeah, I found some discrepancies for what we Just saw and what was on the website santa rosa website in In an application because hours of operation it says from 8 a.m. To 10 p.m. And this is just it's a small street And across the street we have residential complexes and senior complexes So and it also says that during the early hours and Sometimes at night it will be really we're gonna make deliveries. So this is um, I don't see like It was in your presentation, right about night deliveries Just talk to us and then we'll get your question answered. Okay, great. Thanks. Yeah Also about about parking spaces We have a huge apartment complex which has only Inside the complex. It's only one parking spot per apartment, but Two two bedroom apartments usually have at least two cars and they have no space to to park in this area sometimes they Park along the Colgan street and if they and it says actually in your Uh paper work I'm gonna read it It should be noted that during the Site visit where it was numerous numerous vehicle parked along the project It is understood the street parking will be not permitted once frontage improvement are complete and I also have a questions regarding Deliveries Because permitted general light industrial Uh trips only 37, but we propose 471 trips It's 12 12.7 times more than is permitted for light industrial Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you Anyone else wishing to speak on this item? And if you'd give your name for the record, thanks. My name is van solkov Uh, I'm a local business owner. I run a tour company based in the city of sonoma We're really excited about this project because one of the things we're looking for in a dispensary partner is the kind of ambiance and vibe that Has been expressed in what we've heard here tonight in in what that Facility is going to be looking like and so if you can imagine that we've just visited a tasting room in the valley And now we've brought some folks into santa rosa to visit a dispensary and if we can continue that same Experiential vibe of the wine country feel To me that's a real plus Helps my business grow Helps me contribute more to the economy and helps Kind of bring this whole cannabis industry more and more out of the shadows. So i'm a big proponent of this particular project Uh, I think that it is in it makes a lot of sense for the location And and it would make a lot of sense for myself and the other tour companies that operate in the area Thank you. Thank you Okay, good evening. My name is julie roth and I have known One of the partners um in the proposed operations for Almost 20 years now They became my neighbors Um And from the minute they Moved into the neighborhood From san francisco. So they weren't local to begin with They got involved in Creating an association for our neighborhood to better our neighborhood Which nobody had before people who had lived there for years and years They opened the small business in the community hiring local Um teens To work in that business giving them their first jobs ever they also Supported community events through donations also actually Serving on the kenwin education foundation um Always community oriented everything that they ever worked on or with Benefitted our community in many many ways and now they have the opportunity here to you know to Help the city of san aroza and you know larger community As a whole and I know that they will follow through The programs that they suggested there as far as sports teams and Well, the list was very good But anyway, I just know that they are people who do what they say and they have from the moment they Moved into sinoma county have been Giving towards the community as a whole Great. Thank you Anyone else wishing to speak Okay, i'm not seeing anyone else rise. So i'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing And mr. Rogway, would you like to respond to some of the questions that were raised? Yeah, certainly. So the hours of operation are what are portrayed here on slide number 23 And these are derived from the project description. So Perhaps it could be just An interpretation discrepancy between the hours for The retail and delivery which is nine to nine and the non-retail operations Which is from eight to ten and delineated Right there as it relates to parking We're gonna have more than ample parking for for this for this business and for the for our use there I think the you know the street parking issue is I think a separate issue And we can't control the street parking. I think that there are already some restrictions on street parking in the area and we will not be Utilizing that for for this business. So The customers for bio bloom and its employees will not be parking on the street. I think the parking is prohibited So I don't know how else to interface with that other than to say This project will not be adversely impacting Parking for the residents because our parking the applicant's parking is all self contained on the premise As it relates to the trip generation, I would just defer to what is in our application materials and That is What it's going to look like for this particular use Okay, thank you Any other questions of applicant No, any questions of staff So Then would somebody Like to move a resolution for the purposes of discussion I moved the resolution of the planning commission of the city of santa rosa Improving a conditional use permit for bio bloom ventures to operate a cannabis micro business With adult and medicinal use retail dispensary and delivery cultivation Manufacturing and distribution within an existing building located at 252 colgan avenue assessors parcel number 044 dash 011 dash 052 file number c up 18 dash 072 and wave further reading Second So that was moved by commissioner peterson seconded by vice chair weeks Vice chair weeks. Would you like to start? Yeah, I'm sorry. You can't hear me I'm going to support this application or the project once again Mr. Rogoy, you have a very good and detailed application and any questions I had going in before I read it Were answered so I really appreciate that Um, and I agree with you that there will be Once it's done, there will be a vast improvement to that area. So I'm going to support the project. Thank you commissioner peterson Well, I echo my fellow commissioner and that I think this is a really great Detailed application that answers a lot of the the questions that typically arise While I I think we saw the value in having a very robust public comment And it would have been probably valuable for this project as well to hear from The tenants of the building across the street the notice procedure was In compliance with the the rules. So that's maybe a discussion for another day As it pertains to this particular project again, I think like vice chair weeks It's it will be a a big improvement to the area. I think the sidewalk Alone would be very valuable. There were plenty of people when I was there After dark walking around and I think the lighting the sidewalk and just sort of the general Visual improvements will be huge and I'm in support of this project. You can make all necessary findings Mr. O'Cropkey I agree on the thoroughness of the presentation It's nice to have a presentation for a cannabis business that has more than sufficient parking 16 extra spaces is is nice Also, I appreciate the family owned aspect of it their experience not only within The the cannabis business, but also within the community that they have And as my fellow commissioners said the improved street look From I'll use your word the blight that it is now Going above and beyond of just putting in parking spaces and then and sidewalks we're putting in landscaping To make it to beautify it that is a great thing and I also think it's awesome that there's It's located in an area where there's so much commercial activity as well some residential nearby So you can have people walking or people stopping by to grab something like running an errand as they go to Costco or wherever else they're going So because of that and because of the fact that I can make all the findings I'll be in support of this project Commissioner call you I also want to echo all my fellow commissioners. I can make all the appropriate findings necessary to support this project I'm kind of going through the same things that you know the Increasing the vitality of that area through this business and I appreciate the small business on her aspect of this proposal And I think it'll be a good addition to that to that community And I also support the project and can make all the findings and I think a very exciting aspect is the Infrastructure improvement. It's a very underserved area and anytime we can get a piece of Sidewalk put in that's great. It completely changes the how that area looks. It's really beautifying and So I really appreciate that and the landscaping all of that is really really nicely done So I am absolutely for it So with that that was moved by commissioner peterson seconded by vice chair weeks and your votes, please And that passes with by vise commissioners dug in and edmondson being absent And I believe that concludes that item. Thank you. Thank you So next we're going to go ahead and move on to item 10.4 Um Which I just lost on my computer Which is humanity wellness conditional use permit. It is an ex parte disclosure commissioner call. Yeah I visited the site and have nothing further to disclose For weeks I also visited the site and have nothing to disclose Mr. Peterson, I visited the site and have nothing further to disclose And commissioner. Oh, correct me. I have nothing to disclose. Okay, and with that Gary broad will be giving the staff presentation Thank you chair sisco and planning commissioners This is humanity wellness's conditional use permit application for 37 91 cleveland avenue The application's been filed to allow humanity of santa rosa to operate humanity wellness A proposed medical and adult use retail cannabis dispensary Which will include both delivery and on-site consumption The dispensary is proposed in 2000 square feet of retail space And the proposed hours of operation are as permitted under our ordinance from 9 a.m to 9 p.m daily This is the location map as you can see the project site is located at 37 91 cleveland avenue And here's an aerial You can see that this was part of the area that was affected by the tubs fire and Mountain mike pizza was located to the south of the site at 37 81 Other businesses in the area were also destroyed by the fire The property has Two new structures that were built on it. It has a building that houses el pollo loco And at 37 91 in the proposed the proposed cannabis dispensary Is two newly constructed and currently vacant 1000 square foot retail structures You can see that the zoning for the property and for in fact This whole block is general commercial Zoning the property It's really bounded by highway 101 and roadways on cleveland avenue on and hopper On both the east and the north side of the lot The general plan for the area also is retail and business services And again, the roadways are Located along the east and north side of the property The application was filed back in april of 2018 Because it's not within The required number of feet of any residential properties It was not required to have a neighborhood meeting on the application The application was deemed complete in july and there was notice of the application still mail to neighbors and to interested parties in august of 2018 This is the site plan as mentioned The building identified as not part of this application is the newly constructed el pollo loco Building there had previously been a restaurant on this site which Went before the planning commission A couple years ago to receive Approval for the drive-through for el pollo loco and it also went through design review for both the el pollo loco building and also for the What's identified as the subject property the 37 91 cleveland avenue Which was constructed as two 1 000 square foot tenant spaces and the applicant proposes to merge those Into a single 2 000 square foot space as part of this application You can see in the the floor plan that Each of the squares basically is one of the Um Has built 1 000 square foot retail spaces The floor plan combines those into a single 2 000 square foot proposed facility the lobby would be in the the Portion of the building on the left the applicant Would propose to remove one of the front doors since they would only have one front entrance into this space Additionally and and this is the as built the existing elevations For the building and you can see in the upper The south elevation that as built there are two front doors And so the applicant proposes to remove the front door In the right hand building and to replace that with just the glazing where there is a front door The the lower elevation You can see in the proposed elevation the applicants Considering removing the glazing For security and replacing that with just a solid wall And any of those exterior changes would be subject to design review following planning commission action on the cannabis use permit application The application had to comply with the standard cannabis ordinance requirements Uh, these included the submittal of a security plan And staff review of that plan and the applicant's plan included Standard components which we've seen in most security plans including provisions for surveillance for on-site alarms And for on-site security staff Uh, the application is required to comply with the city's requirements for odor mitigation And odor control and the applicant submitted a Verification from a registered engineer that the proposed carbon Carbon odor Control system is compliant with the city's cannabis ordinance The application does propose on-site consumption In the project description that the applicant had indicated that The consumption would include on-site vaping and because that's not allowed under our code I did follow up with them prior to the staff report being prepared to advise them that This would not be permitted under our code due to the city's smoking regulations and the applicant is aware of the fact that On-site vaping would not be required And they indicated in their email that they would only be using on-site consumption and the use of Let me get it right only consumption at a co edibles and topicals would be permitted So They they are not proposing as was originally indicated in their project plans project description the use of on-site vaping The proposed facility would be open from 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Daily We received a single response related to the proposal and This was in an email that referenced to cannabis proposed cannabis Dispensaries and in that email the writer Indicated quote shouldn't have a pot store in the freeway service area and quote As commissioners saw in the prior zoning Slide that whole portion of the city that whole neighborhood is designated as general commercial which with commission approve of a conditional use permit would allow for a dispensary facility the project was Reviewed for compliance with sequa and it was found to be categorically exempt as a class three Conversion of a small structure because the facility size at 2,000 square feet is below the 2,500 square foot threshold Additionally, the project meets the sequel requirements for class 32 categorical exemption Being compliant with all six of the required findings including the size the Um lack of environmental sensitivity to the site and the availability of all necessary urban services Additionally the project complies with the necessary six findings that the planning commission must make in approving a use permit The planning and economic development department recommends that the commission approve the resolution for c up 18-049 To approve a medical and adult use retail cannabis dispensary at 37 91 Cleveland Avenue And I'd be happy to answer any questions from the commission Any questions of staff right now? Okay, thank you, mr. Broad And is the applicant here wishing to present great Yes, and I had a power point presentation as well Okay All right. Uh, good evening commissioners and staff Thank you. It's been a long night. I know we're all eager to get home So hopefully this won't take up too much of your time. My name is Lauren Mendelsen I am here tonight on behalf of humanity wellness Which will hopefully soon be a medical and adult use cannabis retail facility here in the city of santa rosa I'm also a santa rosa resident. Um, just wanted to throw that out there. I'm a big fan of this city Um, really briefly to introduce the project's mission and vision the goal The overarching goals of this project are to create a safe and aesthetically appealing space Where both medicinal patients and adult use consumers can purchase high quality locally sourced cannabis products Um, additionally as was mentioned, uh, we wish to incorporate an on-site consumption area that'll comply with local and state Requirements and offer delivery based retail services for anyone who's not able to Travel themselves to the retail facility as was mentioned on-site consumption would be limited to the use of edibles and topicals Unless the city smoking ordinance is amended to allow for some other type of ingestion on the site And finally the goal of just contributing to santa rosa's economy and becoming a really important member of the community here Is one that we want to keep in mind and keep pursuing the management advisory team I'll introduce them briefly. We have domina killamen He has prior experience working in a cannabis retail environment as part of a proposition 215 collective in the central valley He currently helps manage a taekwondo school in galt He is very familiar with the cannabis industry and product trends and focus on quality assurance And he's a patient who has benefited from the medical aspects of cannabis Brad white has 45 years in the construction industry. He is president and ceo of american building concept ink He has over 38 years of experience operating a business and he has won accolades such as citizen of the year and outstanding business of the year We also have rodney hillamon who's here with us tonight with his daughter alexis He's the father of domina killamen who i mentioned earlier So you can see this is a family business Rodney also has experience operating a cannabis business in the central valley with his son at the collective that i mentioned Rodney is currently president and manager of robinson's taekwondo academy in galt So there's his business experience and he has also been a winner of business of the month Um for that taekwondo school. Um, and there is myself. I am the legal counsel for this project I'm an associate attorney at the law offices of omar figaroa and sabastopol I focus exclusively on cannabis licensing and compliance i'm also on the board of directors of the sonoma county growers alliance and i mentioned that i'm a resident of sanarosa Here we can see the project site As has already been discussed. This is in the northern end of the city In an area that was it hit very hard by the tubs fire right adjacent to the mountain mikes and the kmart that burned down This building was actually under construction when the fire hit and amazingly somehow was unscathed The zoning as mentioned is general commercial is surrounded by other commercial and industrial uses. There are no residential Areas nearby. There are no schools nearby. No parks. No daycares. No other sensitive receptors in the vicinity Here is another image just Indicating that so you can see how far the proposed dispensary, which is at the very northern end possibly the most northern one on this map How far that is from the residential uses and also how Close it is to highway 101 and other major roads and traffic arteries Here are some photos of the how the building currently looks right now on the outside It is a new building as was mentioned. It is still currently two separate suites that will be combined into one The exterior appearance of this building Matches that of the el pollo loco next door. They were built at the same time We don't want to change too much of the exterior. It's new. It looks nice and it matches what's already in the surroundings So we would just want to keep that Idea going so that it blends in well with the surrounding buildings and businesses With regards to traffic parking and circulation, which we've discussed a lot tonight A traffic study was completed by w-trans. It found no significant impacts There are multiple points of entry and exit into the parking area allowing for easy traffic circulation There will be bicycle and electric vehicle parking spaces included as part of the project The site is easily accessible from the 101 as well as the rest of the city There are many public transit stops nearby. It's also in a walkable area to other shops and services And there are 51 Parking spaces available on site and only 48 are needed. So again, there's more parking than is needed for that site Here is the site plan for the project It came to my attention earlier today that the site plans that were in your original packet Were not the most up-to-date version. So earlier tonight. You should have just received the updated plans And I also have some extra copies in the back for the public if anyone would like to get some copies of that But here again, this just shows how the Two existing buildings Suites rather will be combined into one to make way for the new dispensary It shows how you can access the parking area from both sides there on cleveland avenue And it also shows where the various different types of spaces will be And how this should not impact the drive-through area of the el poyo loco And Here with regards to safety and security. We had a security plan Created by bay alarm who would be providing security services for the property Earlier we mentioned that we're you know considering possibly Removing part of the glass walls for security purposes if that's uh, you know if we're able to do that Additionally, we've looked into Break-resistant 3m film that can be placed over the glass for added security So there are certainly options rather than just removing the glass entirely although that's also an option to just increase the security facility The glass will be covered in some sort of frosting material. So it will not be Transparent so you can't just be able to see inside The facility as as is required by state and local law. There will be commercial grade locks There will be fire alarms gurgling alarms surveillance cameras motion sensor lighting all as required There will be designated limited access areas And there will be an on-site security guard as required It currently there are Some members of the homeless community that have started living on the site because it's currently vacant So as as part of this project loitering and camping on the property would be prohibited And the current homeless population would be directed towards shelters and other services and by Taking this vacant spot and putting a business in it that has security patrols and cameras and things like that That would eliminate this problem. There wouldn't be any more People living outside the building The slide shows the proposed floor plan of the building We have already discussed about it. So I don't need to spend too much time But I do just want to note that there's a nice large retail slash waiting area The idea behind this is we wanted to create a very comfortable environment a very tasteful environment Where one can feel relaxed but also feel like you're in a you know, a high class Environment we are in wine country. We're trying to get quality products boutique But also comfortable was the idea that was behind this so not being in some cramped space Really having some room to spread out have some couches in there make it a comfortable place But at the same time there would be limits on how long someone can stay there You can't just come hang out there. So that would that would be enforced The elevations You have already seen and we've already discussed again Not too many changes to the exterior as it is a new building that already looks nice considering the arounding uses But perhaps Removing some of the glass certainly removing the second entrance door as that will not be needed anymore And there is the other side Some interior renderings just to give you an idea of what it might look like when it's finished Just the sense of the vibe that we were going for here with this You can see I have some additional photos there just ideas some concepts Neighborhood compatibility is very important in this process This is certainly compatible with the surrounding uses. This is a commercial business in a commercial area It is a standalone building. So you don't have any issues with shared walls with other businesses The security features that are going to be added will only improve and enhance the safety of the surrounding area As was noted this area of the city was damaged very heavily by the fires last year two years ago now year and a half And so there's a need of revitalization. And so this this project would help to revitalize that area There wasn't a neighborhood meeting because it was not required. There are no residences nearby There was outreach done to the neighboring businesses The owner of el pollo loco wrote a letter in support of this business and also been talking with some other neighboring businesses And as mentioned, there are no schools or other sensitive receptives nearby Here's the letter that I mentioned from the owner of el pollo loco the building directly adjacent on the same parcel stating that they are in favor of this proposal an odor control plan was provided by a licensed engineer And they are proposing that we use negative pressure and carbon filtration They say that is will be sufficient Especially considering the fact that there will not be any smoking or vaporizing on sites The only on site consumption again would be limited to edibles and topicals, which typically don't have that much of an odor Additionally, there will not be any packaging of cannabis on site Everything will arrive at the facility pre-packaged and ready to go So we do not anticipate their beat at that odors will be a problem However, there will be negative pressure and carbon filtration systems used as is industry standard As that is required in terms of involvement in the community Humanity wellness is committed to supporting local charities So we've already done outreach to the living room and social advocates of youth to non-profit organizations here in santa rosa that work with at-risk youth and their families and women Additionally, you know, we're committed to supporting food banks and fire relief organizations, especially being located in that part of the city We do plan to implement a local hiring preference, which i'll discuss in a minute And also to work with law enforcement to support community events and programs kind of bridging that gap. I think The years of prohibition has created a mindset of People in this community in the cannabis community might not always Trust the police or get along with them and that's not correct The law enforcement is there to protect and serve and help us and so creating events Where we can kind of join the community with law enforcement and find ways to work together while benefiting the larger community something that we'd really like to explore and Rodney does have past experience doing work like this in the central valley. He was involved in Helping to organize some national night out events over there Which have really benefited the community and he hopes to you know, we hope to continue doing something like that here in santa rosa In terms of our local hiring program Humanity wellness does wish to hire Whenever possible from santa rosa And that will be first where we'll try to hire from and then from greater sinoma county Community additionally to pay them a living wage. This is something that we know is very important to the city And it's also very important to the applicant Approximately, there'll be approximately eight employees to start Plans to grow the staff over time as things as the business grows And most if not all of these staff will be full time and eligible for benefits And the applicant may hire part-time staff as needed, but will not rely on part-time labor Again, that's something that is very important to the applicant The projected salary range just to be both realistic But also wanting to pay people well is roughly 15 to 30 dollars depending on experience and job function And in terms of discount programs Each week humanity wellness does plan to hold appreciation days when senior citizens and military veterans can receive discounts on their cannabis goods Of course, we also want to care for the environments and the project includes numerous green business practices such as Installing water saving faucets and toilets utilizing energy efficient light fixtures Installing electric vehicle and bike parking spots and implementing a recycling program And so in conclusion, uh, I just ask that you accept the staff recommendation and approve the humanity wellness dispensary project Thank you Happy to answer any questions Any questions of the applicant right now? Yeah, kind of sure peterson Um, I'm looking at you mentioned it, but I'm also it's also listed on page 20 22 of your project narrative Why is there a 15 minute limit for on-site consumption? Sure, so the idea behind that was the room that's going to be used as the on-site consumption room is is pretty small And we were concerned about it getting too busy in the room And there'd just be too many people wanting to use the room and it not being large enough So we figured by asking people to only spend 15 minutes in there Um, you know, not there's not going to be a timer at exactly 15 minutes But try to limit your time there to 15 minutes to allow someone else the chance to go in and utilize this space Just because it is a small room So a related follow-up question. So my concern is To show my hand in a location like this that While there are transit options is fairly hostile to pedestrians bicyclists and Realistically necessitates the use of a car You the again the project narrative mentions, you know, looking for the abc's signs of intoxication to gauge patient intoxication My concern is People come in consume and get the boot and then drive away Increasing the risk of intoxicated driving Can you it's not a very good question, but can you try and address that issue a little bit? Sure Well, that is certainly something that's going to be an issue with any facility that poses on-site consumption Whether or not they set a time limit on how long you can stay there To try to address this We in our in our narrative We do say that we will be Alerting people that if they plan to use the on-site consumption area that you plan alternate ways of getting home Do not consume and then drive home that will there be signs posted that say that people will be Alerted about that and we will be giving out, you know the number for taxi cab companies people will be encouraged to take Uber home after they've used the on-site consumption area So that is the best that is how we've addressed that at this point Thank you So in looking at your your plans it doesn't look like there's a sallyport on there for when Deliveries arrive. Can you go into some of the security measures as is reasonable? I don't tip all of your hand on how you're going to be secure, but uh, so When deliveries arrive how that is Unloaded Sure. So when the when a vehicle carrying deliveries arrives at the facility It will most likely based on the recommendations of the traffic study They will utilize the cleveland avenue To kind of park Temporarily and do the unloading process There will be cameras mounted on all corners of the building that are able to see entirely around the building So all of this will be monitored on camera. There is a back door to the facility that is a uh the staff the back entrance that goes to the storage area of the facility basically that is Only accessible to employees And that would be that secure entrance through the back would be where deliveries would be brought in And they would there would need to be an employee of the facility there to check the Delivery in and it would follow just the standard state procedures for Deliveries to the facility Did that answer your question i'm happy to elaborate So just to clarify they would park on cleveland avenue and then transport the goods to the back door um, so the The original They could park on cleveland avenue if that is required of them I believe that there was something in the traffic study that said that Delivery vehicles would have to use cleveland the cleveland avenue entrance But I I do want to note that the traffic study i'm just pulling it up here right now That was referring to delivery vehicles that I believe are much larger than the typical vehicle that will be delivering cannabis goods Cannabis distribution might be coming to this facility and perhaps a van Size vehicle not a not a very large truck So access uh in that sense I do think it would be feasible for a van to simply park In the parking lot at the closest spot to that back door and then have all of that Take place on camera with an employee present the security Person will be on site there watching this all happen as well. It will be on camera um, and That is how that would take place Any other questions of the applicant? Okay, great. Thank you very much So this is a public hearing tonight. I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing if there are any members of the public That wish to speak you can go to a microphone And I don't think there are any left So I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission Any other questions of staff or the applicant? Yeah, come sure. Okay. Yeah, and looking at the map on the applicant's presentation it's obviously not the greatest quality but in the the setbacks From the one from the applicant that was approved application that was approved at the airway location last week I mean it basically looks like a van diagram almost, but I'm sure there's It's because it's so small. Can you how are those more than 600 feet away from each other or? This was a non competitive application So when at first when all the applications first came in it was screened It was more than 600 feet from the closest other proposed facility Any other questions of staff or the applicant? Okay So would somebody like to move a resolution for the purposes of discussion? Okay, everybody loves this part of the job Um I can move a resolution of the planning commission of the city of santa rosa approving a conditional use permit for humanity wellness a medical and adult use retail cannabis dispensary with delivery and on site consumption In an existing 2000 square foot building at 3791 cleveland avenue Assessors personal number 148-041-028 found number 18-049 and way further reading of the task text And do I have a second? Second Okay Jumped out there commissioner callia seconded. So that was moved by vice chair weeks Seconded by commissioner callia mr. Calli. Why don't you start? Sure Um, I think this is I can make all the appropriate findings for this project. I think it was put uh put together quite well um, I really appreciate the community benefits aspect of this uh proposal and um And the local hiring plan specifically so it's very important. Thank you Vice chair weeks I'm also going to be supporting the proposal. Um, I think it was a really good application a lot of information Which is helpful to us And the fact that you are proposing Primarily have full-time employees with benefits. I think it's a real plus to the community. So thank you for that Commissioner Pearson Well, I think I think it's a great-looking building. I think it's a very comprehensive application Like commissioner weeks, I like hearing a you know local living wage With benefits not relying on part-time labor The the trouble I I have with this one and the trouble I had with the the last on-site consumption is is the location and I know That it's allowable I know that this is is compliant, but I really struggle with a location like This that again, I think you know necessarily requires the use of a car and in santa rosa Realistically means you're probably driving yourself. I think the applicants taken all all the Steps that are are reasonable and then there are bars around there. There are bars All throughout santa rosa that require driving. I think they're equally a bad idea I think on-site consumption is a perfectly good idea in the right location It's it's I'm I'm really having a tough time With that. I just I think that location Is just not not great when it comes to on-site consumption I'd like to hear from my fellow commissioners before I make a a final Commitment one way or the other Yeah, so as a former current As somebody who lived in coffee park I echo the concerns of my fellow commissioner. I look at the date of this traffic study and December 28th of 2018 is far different than october 9th 2017. So in that community is rebuilt when there's Uh, the businesses are rebuilt. It's going to be a On-site consumption is going to be a concern because traffic will inherently increase Also with the The uncertainty of how distribution will will work the unloading of product and for from deliveries Um, I'm very very familiar with this area and parking on Cleveland Avenue is not a wise idea just from a safety standpoint From passing cars and so I'm also having trouble with this as well I'd like to hear what the chair has to say before I make my final decision Well I definitely respect commissioner pierce's concern and and and how he you know, he he has put forth in projects in the past about The appropriate place for on-site consumption and walkability and transit and all Unfortunately, santa rosa doesn't really have that as well done as we would and we could end up precluding a lot of these uses If that's the criteria that we're going to apply so With that in mind, um You know and again, there are bars. I mean there there are people that are intoxicated I think we have to look at personal responsibility. I have to we have to look at how the applicant, you know Looks out for their clientele Is more in keeping with For me then in denying the use speak just because of the nature of santa rosa as it stands right now, so I believe I can make the findings For this as it stands with the on-site consumption I do get the delivery issue. I'm glad that you asked about that I definitely think cleveland is difficult but I also hear that's not going to we're not talking big trucks that are going to be coming along there and that You know the the security of What was told to me because I had an issue with one that didn't have sally board Was it's not that different than a jewelry store or you know or whatever? So there are ways that you can make a secure, you know entrance and exit with a delivery So I'm able to make the findings for this and I'll be voting for it Questioner Pearson you want to say anything else? Um I have Apologize for doing this so late in the game. Maybe a question for counsel About the dram shop act Whether it applies to say that what council? The dram shop act so for bars and liability For serving people Is it is it about the question if this if there's like city liability for no, no So the dram I've opened the can of worms. It's not determinative for my decision For what it's worth merely So bars are generally in california not liable for people driving drunk Is that true for cannabis has that been extended to your knowledge to my knowledge? It's correct that the laws And the applicant may know more but my understanding is the laws that apply to Consumption of alcohol apply equally to cannabis and similarly for DUI arrests and things such as that although I understand it's not as easy to give a test or something for a for a DUI But if there are signs of intoxication it would be the same Penalties if you will for driving under the influence of alcohol or cannabis Thank you. That's that's what I was looking for So so with that minor detour, I think that The chair and my fellow commissioners have made very important points about this And going back to the first item we had, you know, this Decision we make is based on The ordinance has written and the ordinance has written as much as I may not Like it does not limit On-site consumption to specific locations Um, so I think With that I'll be able to make all the necessary findings for this project Mr. O'Cropkey, uh, yeah, I think the chair's Education on or I guess metaphor similarly, whichever one it is Likening it to a jewelry store or something like that that that makes me a little bit more At ease about that portion. I'm still uneasy about the traffic portion Just because I know that area before and after the fire and However, as uh, commissioner Peterson said that shouldn't preclude me from From making all the findings. So I will likely I will be voting in the affirmative of this application Okay So with that we have the resolution moved by vice chair weeks seconded by commissioner calia and your votes, please And that passes with five eyes commissioners dug in and Edmondson being absent And I believe that concludes this item and concludes our meeting will adjourn to our february 14th valentine's day