 Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and call to order tonight's meeting of the City of Santa Rosa Planning Commission and ask for roll call Please let the record reflect that all commissioners are present Great. Thank you We do not have any minutes tonight to approve so I'm gonna go ahead and move on to public comments Which is a time for any member of the public to address the commission on matters of interest to the commission that are not listed tonight as a public hearing on our agenda and You don't have to have filled out a card, but we got one from mr. Dewitt You have three minutes to make your comments, and I'm gonna go ahead and open public comments. Mr. Dewitt Hello, my name is Dwayne Dewitt. I'm from Roseland. Good New Year's to you I wanted to come and wish you well and ask you to also read a Close-to-home piece that was put in the press Democrat newspaper on Sunday By two women who live in Roseland Pointing out that city staff has not been tuned in to taking care of the planning designations from the general plan in regards to the amount of park space available for the 16,000 residents to live in the 1.2 square mile neighborhood of Roseland Essentially I've been coming here for 25 years Getting shined on like the big-school apple for the teacher Realizing that it's just theater for me to come and try to get you folks to listen to what the general plan says for us But now some people are saying you know because they annexed us into the city Well, hey half of Roseland was in the city for 50 years when they built highway 101 through here They annexed a large portion a portion of Roseland and the first and only park in Roseland was on Davis Street So I've been advocating for parks for 25 years We've gotten a small one over on West Avenue that the locals call Concrete Park because it's where the skateboarders go and get to play on all the concrete The city put down instead of saving nature for the kids of Roseland I'm here to ask you for an environmental impact report for the Roseland Creek Park It's 19 and a half acres that have been purchased with taxpayers money mostly from the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation District the city has it now. It's been deeded over to them Nine years have passed since the first six-acre property was purchased and nothing's been done Back in the day we pointed out that the city recreation and parks department manager was letting his buddies live in one of the houses a Three-bedroom house on six acres for a hundred dollars a three-bedroom house on 11 acres for 200 bucks And lo and behold they just boarded up the houses moved those folks out and didn't help us in any way So I'm asking for an environmental impact report because we know there's animals out there We know there's good stuff in nature, and that's why we've been trying to preserve it I'll bring a letter and put it in to the record and give it to the city attorney's office Because there's also California Tiger Salamander area So the city recreation and parks department just can't say oh, you know we think we'll do a negative Mitigated declaration and just walk away. No, we're not playing that game anymore. I'm here to tell you I'll be back. Thank you very much for the time looking forward to the next 25 years of advocating for Roseland Thank You mr. Dewitt Anyone else wishing to speak under public comments tonight? Not seeing anyone go to the microphone, so I'll go ahead and close the public comment period and Move on to planning commissioners report Which I'm gonna go ahead and begin tonight. We've got a little bit of ground to cover First of all, I want to welcome our new commissioner Jeff O'Crepkey to the planning commission and Would you like to say anything? Not much just that I'm excited to serve the city that I was born and raised in and Raising my family in Well, great. We're very happy to have you here. So welcome Okay, and I want to acknowledge former chair Who's drinking? Right, sorry Chair Edmondson is outgoing chair and just commend you for the excellent job that you've done for us in leadership this past year and Anything you'd like to say Thank you. I Appreciate the comments. It was a really interesting experience and appreciated every minute of it and would have been a hundred times harder if I hadn't had your example for Months beforehand and I just tried to copy you and all the times I would have done better It's because I should have copied you better So thank you very much. Well, thank you again. You know how I feel about you how much I respect you and Appreciate you so Anything else anybody like to say to mr. Edmondson now, we'll have an opportunity to say more later I also want to acknowledge that Our commissioner Kurt Groniga is outgoing I want to commend him for his hard work here We will have an opportunity when he comes to accept his Certificate to more formally commend him and say our goodbyes But he I think put in at least six years up here and and did a phenomenal job And we're gonna miss him some of this. I'm gonna save for later I do have a Waterways committee report tonight the waterways committee met on December 27th for a special meeting to hear two items the first item was In addition to the pro-two self storage buildings, which are close to the corner of mission and Highway 12 and what they were doing is adding to that existing storage facility On a adjacent piece of property to the rear adjacent to the creek For for that part of the project, but they are also building 30 units of apartments that will be facing Highway 12 So the issue in coming to the waterways committee was that it was adjacent to Santa Rosa Creek They are giving the 50 foot setback the design of the storage facility puts eyes on the creek by virtue of the administrative offices facing the creek and the the main issue that we were looking at was a Pedestrian connection potential pedestrian connection for the apartments to the creek which really Was determined not to be feasible for security reasons and a number of other reasons But I think it's going to be a good project and it's going to bring us more housing the other project that we looked at were Some improvements and replacements of existing buildings that are part of the women's recovery services Facility at Tupper and Henley on Matanzas Creek. And so those were both looked at I don't think either one of those come to us in any form So with that any other planning commissioners report by sure weeks I had the pleasure of attending the subdivision development advisory committee I guess I'm the new rep and thank you to the planning and engineering staff for showing me the ropes Yesterday we looked at two items. The first was the Panto Pantoio Lane and waiver of a parcel map and that Created 16 lots from eight existing lots them those With the 16 units our duet unit so that enables each of the units to be on their own lot And then the second one was the Hopper Avenue subdivision and that was to divide An existing developed lot into three parcels out on Hopper in their way Any other planning commissioner reports Okay, seeing none. We'll go ahead and move on to department reports For department report first. I'd like to welcome commissioner a crepe key Thanks for joining in our commission. We have a lot of work in store for 2019 and thanks for joining us And also I thank you out to commissioner Edmondson. We went through a lot this last year and thank you for your leadership and Taking the the gavel You certainly earned a lot of respect to be on the chair through last year's meetings And then also Looking into the future. We do have a Lot of work ahead of us this year We're looking at the updating of the downtown station area specific plan And the planning commission city council held their joint study session this last Tuesday So thank you for attending that providing staff some comments at the early stage of our process That's something we wanted to do differently than in other studies. And of course That up downtown update you'll have opportunities to observe and participate Through that process primarily through the hearing process for Preferred plan alternatives and whatnot and then also the General plan update is a process that we are undertaking this year and We had a kickoff study session with the city council on Tuesday just to Bring the council up to date on what it means to embark on a comprehensive general plan update so next steps with that will be to Define a scope a budget for that process. We know the scope and the timeline will be comprehensive city-wide and Will take three years at least But there it's not like the downtown station area update process, which will be six date months It's a longer broader conversation And again something that the commission will be a part of from the beginning so with that Okay With that we move on to statements of abstention by commissioners I'm going to abstain from item ten point three one of the parties in interest as a client of my law firm Okay, no other abstentions. Okay, great All right, we have no study session tonight or consent items so we're gonna go ahead and move on to our public hearings tonight and Beginning with ten point one, which the is the expanding routes dispensary medicinal and adult use cannabis retail and Delivery conditional use permit, which is an ex parte disclosure Commissioner call you anything to disclose I Visited the site and have nothing further to disclose I Also, I'll still visit the site and have nothing further to disclose. I visited the site and have nothing further to disclose Oops, I visited the site and have nothing to disclose. I Also visited the site and have no new information to disclose. I Have nothing to disclose. Okay. I also visited the site and have no new information to disclose So with that Andrew triple is the planner, but I believe Miss Hartman is gonna begin Okay, so we have three public hearings tonight This is the first of the three and just to give a little bit of background and I won't repeat this for all three So I'd like to do it the first item and in part is a just a quick recap as the planning Commission has been embarking on processing cannabis retail since Well, I think we had our first hearings back in October or just shortly after October And what preceded the the the hearings was a study session that we held with the planning Commission So I'm just gonna go over a couple of Elements of that study session as a refresher of kind of how we got here Why are we processing all these dispensary permits and how are we doing that? So as all of you know, we have a comprehensive cannabis ordinance. It went into effect in January of this year The city of Santa Rosa is somewhat unique in that we have allowed all of the elements That are associated with cannabis industry. We didn't just select dispensaries or we didn't just select manufacturing or cultivation We opened up to all of these and the approach that the city's policy was to the cannabis industry was to Establish a permissive path to compliance what we wanted to do is make sure that cannabis we recognize it was happening in our community We wanted it outside out of our residential We wanted commercial cannabis activities moved out of residential communities and into commercial industrial districts were We felt was a more appropriate connection with the land use and so that was sort of the impetus And it was over a two-year process the first year of which The city also unique for Santa Rosa's we were experimental We had interim measures that opened up the door to not retail but other industrial type of cannabis enterprises and sort of tested what it would be like to Essentially treat them the same as other industries. So manufacturers non cannabis manufacturers fairly being treated like Cannabis manufacturers and folding them this new industry into our established framework for land use and regulation and inspection So our website continues to be the catch-all. So everything we know about cannabis policy how we got here in terms of policy Access to the city's council cannabis subcommittee all of that can be handled through our SR city org slash cannabis website a lot of application tools a lot of FAQs and tools for our residents to understand what they can do on their properties and where the commercial enterprises are to take place For retail we allow two types of retail One is corresponding to state license type 10. These are storefronts. This is your typical dispensary operation as a storefronts open to the public There's another type and I this first item is is this type micro business It also includes retail, but it has other components under the same operator So it has cultivation and it can have a manufacturing or distribution and then it can but they don't all have retail But if it has retail, it's going to be Treated as retail with the city of Santa Rosa's policies. So This slide just shows that the top and I don't have a pointer, but the top Level there you can see that retail was allowed and What's that seven zoning districts in the city of Santa Rosa with a major use permit? So allowed in commercial districts and also in industrial districts where the other cannabis land uses were For the most part restricted to industrial districts alone the only exception being a testing laboratory and again The philosophy of where these landed is where generally a similar Retail Like off-sale alcohol or something you know similar retail Or similar manufacturing type of function or similar testing lab type of function wherever they landed in the city of Santa Rosa in terms of zoning We put the cannabis land uses there's layers of Protections in our city's ordinance For all cannabis businesses including retail and so as you can see here it requires dual licensing Requires a quite a bit of layering of inspections and other permits and some direct One of the things that came out is just to directly hit the issues at hand that are associated with cannabis and So this is what's different then we wanted to generally treat cannabis businesses the same as non-cannabis With some exceptions and these are the exceptions Security minimum standards odor control. You're not to smell it outside the building And that's a big standard a lot of cities don't have that standard arches very strict You're not to smell cannabis outside the building. So that's a lot harder actually then You know if you are making coffee or making beer we don't do that to them But it was a community value and it was placed in the code Lighting making sure that They don't have so much lighting to protect their own industry that they're spilling over and impacting their neighbors and addressing noise Particularly those uses that have a lot of mechanics and ventilation We talked about where they were landed one of the probably primary Discussion points throughout the couple years we developed the ordinance was setbacks and the commissioners Know all too well that the planning commission's recommendation particularly for setbacks to schools was Your recommendation was not taken up by the council I think the commission recommended a thousand feet to a K-12 school, but ultimately the council approved a 600 foot Minimum setback to a school And also what type of school it was discussed at length But ultimately it landed on the state's definition through the health and safety code of a K Can regard into 12 great advancement is to find more of a great advancement school So not like tutoring facilities and things like that But other uses were discussed but in the end again with the with the philosophy or the bent That kind of carried through the discussion is Let's not be overly zealous on treating them differently But be have some protectionary protective measures and so Through discussion that was the ultimate conclusion and then also not over over Concentration so not having them within 600 feet of each other So that not any one neighborhood or any one block would be overwhelmed by cannabis retail and other protective measures, but also again along the same lines of how We treat other industries is Major use permit for retail so that involves a neighborhood meeting. They have to have a neighborhood meeting if there's residential uses in the vicinity and They have to have a public hearing with the planning commission So we have the benefit of seven members to balance competing interests and looking for fit and compatibility and There are six findings that Andrew will go through and all the planners will have for use to remind you of The six findings that are necessary for a major use permit These aren't different findings for a major use permit for other things. These are the same six findings that any Use permit needs to make And there's always an appeal process so if the public or applicant feel like they are just as by with a commission's action then Either of those parties can appeal to the city council and again to get the benefit of the seven member decision So just wrapping up here just so you can see with the work that we have ahead of us But I have good news. We've worked through some So the commission has approved five of our 38 applications One is on appeal so it was not done yet in the terms of its process with the city Not all of these will go to hearing some have been withdrawn by the applicants they've moved on to other sites just with their own interest and others have gone through a competitive process because they did land Within 600 feet of each other and in fact our first item tonight. We'll go through what that process is like for those applicants We have about 20 public hearings to go just off of this list So that's why I think it's important to keep refreshed on kind of how we got here because one of the things We have noticed from a staff perspective is This is sometimes the how some residents are finding out about the ordinance and we as much Outreach as we've done we can't get to every person all the time. So we try to do our best to educate when we have an opportunity to engage and This is a terrible map, but it's showing you the blue is Schools that we have identified so there's some predictability. That's another thing We always try to combat so that people can kind of go into this eyes wide open You know what where would they fall and also we have mapped in in the green circles where the applications Landed you can see they're all over the city And where the existing ones are so we we need to update this But this is all on the website and so that just concludes my sort of refresher I'll pass it on to Andrew unless there's questions about just the lane the basis any Questions great. Thank you, mr. Triple. Good afternoon chair Cisco and members of the planning commission this afternoon's first Conditional use permit review is for the expanding routes dispensary located at 3499 industrial drive It's a conditional use permit application To allow retail dispensary and delivery use at this location And it would be part of a cannabis micro business comprised of cultivation Manufacturing and distribution uses in addition to the retail dispensary and delivery use The retail dispensary and delivery use would comprise about 15% of the square footage of the entire 930 or 9,035 square foot existing building at that location proposed hours of operation are 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Daily which are the maximum hours allowed by the current cannabis ordinance and The project would be conditioned to allow commercial deliveries to the business only during the hours of 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. Monday through Friday Project location is in Northwest Santa Rosa In the industrial area located up in the Northwest quadrant and it is central to generalized industrial development in that area the in terms of project history at about this time last year planning commission approved Major conditional use permit for cannabis cultivation manufacturing non volatile type 6 and distribution uses as part of the open application process Held in the spring of 2018 this application for retail dispensary and delivery was submitted on April 20th on May 31st The notice of complete application was issued on August 30th The cannabis subcommittee review was held because this was part of an over concentration identified where three applications were submitted within 600 feet of one another this project was Recommended by the subcommittee to move forward for planning Commission review And then on September 25th the notice of application was mailed I would point out here that a neighborhood meeting was not held Although a major conditional use permit is required That's a discretionary permit and a public hearing is required. There are no residential uses in the surrounding area Therefore did not meet the threshold for the required neighborhood meeting as for the cannabis micro business We can see here that previously approved is about 3,000 square feet of indoor cultivation With about 2,600 feet of distribution and then 1,700 square feet of non volatile Manufacturing with the addition of the retail dispensary and delivery they would qualify as a cannabis micro business under the state definition of Micro business and they would pursue a type 12 license from the state as a micro business operator With regard to the cannabis subcommittee review here, we see the initial submittal of three applications and We can see that While all three are considered we have three applications within 600 feet of one another however, we can point out here that if Application B was not to move forward for planning Commission review Then both a and c would be able to move forward because a and c together Would not be within 600 feet of one another so the the buffers that you see are 600 foot buffer essentially indicating that there's approximately 1200 feet between applications a and c So all three applications went through steps one through three and then in step four checking for potential Over-concentration the over-concentration was identified and they move forward to the the merit-based Ranking and selection process with review by the cannabis subcommittee We can see there just details on those steps that are unique to this application and others that were in over-concentration areas Here's a slide that was presented to the cannabis subcommittee for or as part of their review rather and It reflects the average scores of each of the applications Tonight's expanding routes application did receive the top score out of all three applications reviewed and it was The application that the subcommittee recommended move forward for review The end result was that application B was not recommended to move forward for review when application B did not move forward for review Then that meant that applications a and c both Could move forward so I believe in at the next public hearing you will find application C brought before you for consideration And here's I think perhaps a better illustration of what I just mentioned where we see that we have applications a b and c Application B is removed therefore a and c are not within 600 feet of one another therefore We don't have an over-concentration issue The general plan and zoning are consistent the project site is located in a light industry land use designation and a light industrial zoning district We can see further to the left across Piner Creek some areas of residential use but the the Surrounding use is both immediately surrounding as well as further out our light industrial or retail in nature Here's an aerial of the development where you can clearly see the industrial development in the immediate area as well as I'd like to identify the the street network which is supportive of pedestrian and Bicycle uses as well as we're within 800 feet of transit services on Cleveland Avenue and Hopper Avenue So the the location is well supported for all by all modes of transit Here's slide. I wanted to to reflect the distance from schools We can see here that this is from the potential dispensary locations map that Claire reviewed earlier And it does show that this is not within close proximity to any schools identified in the surrounding area in fact, it's about Close to 1,100 feet from the school identified further down to the south on airway drive So as for the site plan we can we can see the that the site has ample parking and it offers views of the building frontage from both Airways and and Industrial drives this is important the enhanced visibility of the building's frontage as well as access to the dispensary location Is important for it for enhanced security measures and as well as the neighborhood compatibility So we are exposing the use to the neighborhood Where it is is easily observed by anybody in the public right of way Additionally the site plan demonstrates that there's ample parking available the minimum parking required for all of the uses in the micro business use Is a minimum of 18 spaces and there are 25 spaces provided as well as four parking spaces that were required and then we see here the accessible walkways from the pedestrian right-of-way and Access from both Airways and industrial drive for for nice site circulation The building floor plan here shows the the various uses within the building We do have that the dispensary uses kind of front and center To the building's closest proximity to the intersection of industrial and airway drives With the manufacturing distribution and cultivation uses wrapped around it There is a a garage access available where Cannabis products can be brought into the building as well as loaded up to be taken out of the building That's an important security feature where you could drive a delivery vehicle into the building Secure secure the vehicle within the building load it up or unload it and then Safely exit the building. We do have I would like to point out in The lower left-hand corner. We do have employee access to the other uses within The project so that we have separate access for employees as well as then for the public who might be Utilizing the retail dispensary use Here's a close-up then of the that portion of the floor plan Relevant to the proposed retail dispensary use We can see here that the dispensary area is comprised of the The sales floor as well as the stock room in the office the stock room is interior to the building So that would be a more secure Location than if we were to have a stock room that may have windows or have an exterior wall I would like to point out that there is a hallway that provides access to the restroom facilities which would be utilized by all of the uses and That hallway is accessed from the distribution area as well as from the other Manufacturing and cultivation uses those doorways providing access are secured by commercial-grade locks as well as Access codes so we do have a dual entry process for security purposes And there then we also see the the entry location on the exterior of the building to the the retail dispensary use This is the existing elevation from the the airway drive perspective of the the property is currently landscape the applicant has indicated that they would improve the landscaping as far as replacement of diseased or Dead plant and and tree materials and then they would replace any landscaping disturbed as part of the accessibility Improvements, otherwise they are not proposing any significant landscape improvements This is the perspective looking east from industrial drive here. We can see that at when the when the project Building was originally developed It actually had two retail locations one on the west side of the building and then the other on the east side of the building because the entire project would be used for micro business and because there's no need for the Retail component on the west side of the building the applicant is proposing removing those doorways on the west side of the building and Closing that off that would enhance Overall security of the micro business use as well as to orient and direct attention to then the the dispensary And retail sales component of the project located on the eastern corner of the building Here are proposed elevations of minor improvements to the exterior The applicant will go into greater detail about those improvements to the exterior and we do see where they are securing those the glass front doors that glass curtain wall on the western side of the building and the project would Receive administrative or over-the-counter design review at the time of building permits the middle So the operational requirements for approval of the conditional use permit includes security measures odor control Minimum required parking and adequate circulation Lighting and compliance with the city's lighting ordinance As well as restricted hours of operation for the retail sales use Additionally as I previously mentioned there is a condition proposed to limit commercial deliveries to the site The required findings that planning commission must make to approve the project that the proposed use is allowed within the applicable zoning district and complies with all of the provisions of the are applicable provisions of the zoning code This use is allowed within the light industrial zoning district And we have demonstrated in staff report through planning review that it does comply with the prick applicable provisions And it is consistent with the general plan In that it is as it relates to supporting general plan goals and policies Related to industry economic vitality and the associated light industry general plan land use designation location size and operating characteristics are compatible with the existing uses in that The existing site did have a prior retail use at that location where the retail Dispensary use is proposed as well as the remainder of the site or the the building was used for the warehousing and Distribution types of uses that were previously approved by plan and commission We do have adequate parking and circulation Enhanced visibility from the public right-of-way access by pedestrian bicycle and transit modes The site is physically suitable in that For those reasons mentioned above And all necessary utilities are available and the granting then Move forward here granting the permit would not constitute a nuisance or be injurious or detrimental to public interest health safety convenience or welfare We do have a certified odor mitigation plan that was provided Demonstrating that odor would be mitigated to a level undetectable outside the building as well as a security plan That was provided that does comply with the security requirements included in the comprehensive cannabis ordinance The project has been reviewed in compliance with California environmental quality act and qualifies for a class 1 categorical exemption section 15 301 and that is located within an existing private structure There's a negligible expansion of an existing use that would not result in significant impacts It does qualify for class 3 Exemption pursuant to section 15 303 and that it involves a change of use cannabis use as a change of use With only minor exterior modifications to the structure and or site And it qualifies for class 32 categories Categorical exemption pursuant to section 15 332 as infill development The project was noticed we distributed notice of application as well as a notice of public hearing and no comments were received in response to either of those notices or Advertising in the press democrat or on-site signage And with that planning and economic development department is recommending that the planning commission approve the resolution for a conditional Use permit 18-073 to allow cannabis retail dispensary and delivery use at 3499 Industrial Drive and the applicant the applicant does have a presentation for you this evening. Thank you Any questions right now of staff Vice chair weeks Andrew is this the first micro business that we've seen? No, I actually our very first Application it was on the Empire Industrial Court. That was also a micro business It micro business is a state licensing term. I know we do reference it in our zoning code It essentially means there's an umbrella Operator and there's multiple land uses so that's we have already had one. Yes Any other good questions, I just have a clarification question the the use will be Taking deliveries in only from nine to five, but they can make deliveries out from nine to nine Am I reading that right? Correct. So commercial deliveries to the I guess the micro business generally would be restricted to from 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, but the the cannabis retail delivery component then would be able to make deliveries out of the retail use I guess From 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Daily, okay, great. Thank you. Sure Okay, so Looks like our applicant stands ready to give the presentation. Please do Thank you wait for it to get queued up. Good evening How's it going? I'm Joe Rockaway attorney for the applicant And mr. Babbit the president Expanding roots is seated down the black shirt next to his father-in-law Jay Who is the vice president of operations? They actually just Welcomeed I think a three-month-old daughter-slash granddaughter And this is an exciting opportunity for them to be able to move their lives forward and in many ways exemplifies I think what the values are that the city is looking for in bringing these businesses into Into the purview of the local regulated regime So as has been noted earlier There are the pre-existing uses which have already been approved by the city for cultivation manufacturing And distribution that happened a year ago tomorrow, so it's exciting to see this project evolve and Just in response to the common of a micro business One of the things I find really exciting about this particular project is just how efficient The the applicant is making the use of this for this property. It's a 9,000 square foot or so building And they have like a fully vertical supply chain to retail business Going inside that building. So and that's just really exciting and I think a good use of that space. That was previously a whole sale of furniture warehouse So as I noted earlier Grant Babbit seated here with his father-in-law Jay Hutchinson President vice president respectively Sarah Hutchison is home. I believe with her child. She is the vice president of finance and marketing And I'll go into more detail in a bid in terms of them and their background and what they're bringing to this particular project But this is the management team Grant Babbit has been in this industry for about a decade primarily as as a cultivator and has been expanding His footprint in this space to include all the various uses that you see before you His wife and the vice president of finance for the company Sarah is does have a business degree from NYU Stern School of Business And she is also going to be working. I think very closely with Jay on the manufacturing side Of this endeavor which is going to involve I think a lot of very craft Edible type products that are going to be produced in this facility Jay comes from a long history in the food industry. I believe he was previously at Polly's pies working through just like a very large almost industrial scale Food preparation business also you can see the Mimi's cafe And he's going to bring a lot of that expertise and know how into this process as they have their edible kitchen here in this facility and he has In that regard a lot of experience dealing with sort of like the just industrial pieces of this with health and fire and has mad dealing with FDA issues and USDA issues And I think that it's going to be a real value add to this project And to the public The location as has been previously noted is kind of up in this Industrial drive cluster where you see just a lot of cannabis uses there Somewhat adjacent to the coffee park area, but not immediately Adjacent there's no sensitive uses nearby But there is a lot of accessibility to public transit and there is a fair amount of pedestrian access for this particular site Exterior changes here are going to be pretty minimal. There's going to be Essentially some additional awnings that are going to go on the exterior of the building There's going to be the removal of that door that was mentioned earlier. Mr. Triple's Presentation and that's going to require some Repainting of the exterior of the building, but all in all very minimal. There's going to be some additional landscaping That's going to put in the drought tolerant water tolerant landscaping there and The the vertical is basically, you know as you see here Removing those doors on the west Leaving it just a very sort of clean facade on these elevations This you know, I see is being really re-captured the efficiency of this particular project You can see the area that's highlighted in that sort of reddish color being The portion of the premise that is subject to tonight's hearing and for your consideration and that's basically just Repurposing some space that was previously Subject to some of the other uses that were already approved By the city and what you can see is that you know, we have this this very efficient Sort of use of the the distribution component where the commercial deliveries are going to come in Be able to come inside the facility to facilitate that shipping and receiving functionality and then there's going to be this this kind of sequential process of Products going to come in there into the retail outlet from outside vendors, but also sort of organically if you will the expanding routes being able to produce through their cultivation operations Internally in that area that was sort of behind that westerly canopy area where there was that that door That's being removed the area behind that is going to be the primary cultivation area There's going to be another cultivation room as you can see just behind that There's a nursery area where they're going to do their own propagation And they had their own drawing area processing Manufacturing as was already approved and then that Commercial kitchen on the northwestern part of the building but all in all, you know very good use of space For the retail component you as you can see the customer entrance is going to be on the lower right Quadrant of that site plan where customers walk in and that's going to be the only public Accessible portion of this the rest of the facility that that you can see everything. That's in white is limited access area meaning only employees of the organization Government officials or people with a bona fide business purpose for being there are going to be Able to access the areas in white. So it's just that that area with that red red-ish coloration Subject to public accessibility and not even all of that you can see that back hallway Is I was not going to be so to put public accessibility That's just the portion that is the portion of the premise that is the retail portion Which is significant not just for the local permitting considerations But importantly for the Bureau of Cannabis Control and their licensing considerations as a micro business Neighborhood compatibility and facility details one of the things I think is obviously important to us Here is a water conservation And expanding roots is going to be utilizing a real state-of-the-art water recycling system to reduce water consumption They're approximately about 500 gallons per day Which is largely going to be recycled water that they're going to be using so it's going to be a very low Impact from an environmental standpoint. They're also going to have solar panels as well, which was noted in an earlier slide Uh Importantly as well mentioned previously is the odor mitigation This is a very sort of standardized method of odor mitigation that you see across the industry. I'm sure You have become familiarized with from the other hearings, which are these Cannes carbon filtration units that make the odor of marijuana completely undetectable outside of the building and this is a commensurate with requirements under the ordinance The interior changes are As was noted earlier in the site plan And essentially for purposes of this hearing now that we're adding a fourth use of the retail component to this Then it's essentially just repurposing some of the area that was previously dedicated for A different supply chain use and that's being accommodated by you know, just kind of moving some walls around to separate the rooms Uh, the retail space The is going to have a simple earthly clean and unpretentious design Which hopefully you will appreciate and hopefully you'll be able to come and visit them there and kind of see how nice it is inside And a lot of you know, the aesthetic that they're going to be looking for It would be kind of what you may expect from like kind of like a high-end Wine tasting realm where it's going to be, you know, very high-end very nice And I think very accommodating for the patrons that will visit the facility Of course, uh, you know compliance is important expanding roots has a culture of compliance in the organization Meaning that all of the local and state requirements as relates to age requirements limited access areas The visibility prohibitions outside the premise the daily limits of what people are able to purchase the facility strict adherence to california's track and trace system As well as requirements for delivery locations going only to privately owned physical addresses And not schools k through 12 are all things that will be Not just mandated under local and state law, but strictly adhered to by expanding routes The community benefits. I think there's there's a couple of things that are really worth highlighting One is that There is going to be a local hiring plan put in place Where that is going to be the workforce that is brought to bear in this facility are going to be people from our community And that expanding routes has committed to donating actually two percent of its quarterly profits to local charities In santa rosa and in the north bay area And that's I think a really important Component of the culture of the organization Beyond just the compliance. It's giving back to the community in the form of jobs and in the form of charitable donations There's also going to be an educational awareness program Where the applicant will be providing information education To local organizations and community groups to promote both the cannabis education and sensible Use of cannabis as people are sort of in a very general sense becoming used to this this new and legal substance that they're going to be utilizing There is a reduced pricing plan as another part of the community benefits There's going to be a two percent discount For those that are biking to the facility Seniors will receive a five percent discount if they're of the age of 60 and veterans will receive a five percent discount As was noted earlier with regards to staffing the Applicant will be recruiting from the santa rosa and county sonoma labor pool And these are going to be good jobs And by good jobs to quantify that what we're talking about is a $20 an hour type of jobs and these are the kinds of jobs that I think Are just really hard to come by in retail generally and something that expanding routes has committed to The estimation is that there's going to be 10 to 15 full-time employees And that's going to include a general manager an office manager And it looks like there's some variability as to The rest of the full-time and part-time employees that could could get up to a total of 23 if you add in the part-time employees Across all of the supply chain uses because keep in mind. This isn't just a person in a retail context This is a cultivator. This is someone working in a commercial kitchen This is someone working in shipping and receiving all of those people are going to be from our community and provided with good jobs And that is essentially this project in a nutshell Accordingly, we respectfully request that the Planning commission approves this use pursuant to staff recommendation Appreciate your time and consideration and i'm here to answer any questions you may have Any questions of the applicant right now Yeah, commissioner peterson You brought up the the jobs portion of it. Can you tell me a little bit about Sort of how you come up with the ratio of full-time to part-time positions? They look, you know About equal maybe a little bit more part-time I mean really at this point it is Prospective In the sense that it's going to be dependent upon the needs of the business As a business grows and and matures I think every new business Really has to bootstrap to an extent to get to a place of financial solvency There's you know a certain amount of runway that every business builds into their initial operations These are their their best Estimates for how they're going to be able to staff in the ratio of full-time to part-time And this is what their business plan what is in accordance with their business plan But there's some variability depending on what their needs ultimately are Thank you vice chair weeks Um, it was indicated that you didn't need a neighborhood meeting But can you tell me if you did any outreach to the businesses in the neighborhood? Well surprisingly well, maybe unsurprisingly many of the surrounding businesses are other cannabis industry businesses that have already been permitted By the city so there wasn't a A broad canvassing effort that you may see for other projects and perhaps other parts of the city Just because this is you know largely industrial Spaces that are surrounding the expanding routes facility So it was essentially just the requirements of notice that are placed upon the applicant by the city's ordinance And the responses that were received or in this case not received was commensurate with those notice requirements But there was not this broad canvassing effort that that one would expect in An area that's really adjacent to residential uses that we see from time to time You know a real neighborhood involvement in a particular project because of the proximity to To houses and that just isn't at play here Any other questions of the applicant right now? Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. This is a public hearing I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing. I don't have any cards However, you do not have to have filled one out And right now I'm not seeing anyone move to a microphone for the public hearing. So I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and Bring it back to commission any other questions of staff or the applicant before we move to discussion Okay, not seeing any Would somebody like to move the resolution for the purposes of discussion I'll move a resolution of the planning commission of the city of santa rosa Approving a conditional use permit for expanding routes dispensary a medical and adult use cannabis retail dispensary and delivery use In 1340 square foot of an existing building located at 3499 industrial drive apn 015-650-022 file number c up 18-073 and waive further reading second Okay, so the resolution was moved by commissioner duggin seconded by commissioner edmondson Mr. Edmondson, would you like to start? Thank you You know yet again, I don't have Well actually not yet again because I usually have a lot to say too much to say but Very clean application good location good projects. You've you've done a number of these. They've all been good So appreciate the the team's hard work and I support the project Commissioner duggin Yeah, I too am in support of the project. I can make all the findings that are required I like the community benefits the livable wage with local employees The control is the supply chain and the well thought out and whole process in the site plan and Um Something else I scribbled. I can't read that it's sort of like a wine tasting room with the winery right there And I think it's a good application commissioner call you I also can make all the required findings to support this project. I think Again, it's a great well put together application and I also echo my fellow commissioners I appreciate the local hiring aspect of it and the other kind of mom-and-pop business style Which is also vertically integrated, which is interesting and the community benefit side of it. Thank you right Vice chair wigs I'm also supportive of the application. It really was very well done and uh, maybe should be a model for others And I also appreciate the review of the merit-based System and that was very helpful and also the fact that you included that information in the packet I think really was Made it very easy to understand. So I'll be supporting the project commissioner peterson There's very little I can add to the comments my fellow commissioners have already made I think it's a good project. I think it's a very comprehensive application that covers all of the The areas that we typically have concerns about With that in mind, I'll be able to to make all necessary findings. I would like to express the hope that The jobs created are full-time eligible for benefits like paid time off things like that again with with these kind of Emerging industries. I don't think we want to replicate the mistakes of other industries that rely on Sort of insecure low-paid labor without any benefits Commissioner crepeki I can care with my fellow commissioners that I can make all the required findings to support this project Again clean application And I'm especially pleased with the donations discounts and the eco-friendly attitude you're bringing to your business Great and um I echo everything our commission has said a very clean application We always learn every time one of these comes in we get the opportunity to learn a little bit more about how this industry works And certainly your project narrative really helps with that. It's just really sort of cementing in place how how these things operate so I am also Able to make all the findings on this and with that The resolution was moved by commissioner duggin seconded by commissioner edmondson and your votes, please And that passes with seven eyes That concludes this item Thank you. Thank you Commissioners do we need to take a break we want to keep going Keep going got it. Okay So with that we're going to move on to item 10.2 Which is the 365 recreation club conditional use permit? It is an exparte disclosure commissioner call you anything to disclose I visited the site and have nothing further to disclose Mr. Duggan, I also visited visited the site and have nothing further to disclose Mr. Edmondson I visited the site and have nothing further to disclose Vice chair weeks I also visited the site and have nothing further to disclose Commissioner peterson. I visited the site and have nothing further to disclose And commissioner okraki. I have nothing to disclose And I also visited the site and have no other information to disclose And with that Don't believe mr. Hollister is here this evening. So mr. Rose will be giving the staff report Thank you chair cisco and members of the commission The item before you tonight is the 365 recreation club conditional use permit And i'm not able to toggle through the next slide Having some technical difficulties here. That's just for a moment Okay, now we're ready to go. So as I mentioned, this is the conditional use permit for 365 recreation club So this is for a retail dispense dispensary use This is not one of the competitive merit based projects Because this was not within an over concentration area. The state licensing type will be a type 10 The proposal is within an existing 3400 square foot commercial retail building The proposed use will be approximately 30 just over 3400 square feet The retail and support functions are 2600 square feet There is a 744 square foot storage area The proposed hours of operation are 9 to 9 p.m as required And then the inventory and deliveries will be conditioned It's a reduced hours of operation from 9 a.m to 6 p.m And there is no on-site consumption proposed with this project So the site is located just to the east of 101 This is coming in a little bit closer you can see it's just south of the Home Depot shopping center on the east side of mendicino avenue. Lomitas avenue runs behind the site And here is an current street view of the site. It's been used historically for retail purposes So with regard to background the application was submitted to the city in april of last year The neighborhood meeting was held in that month as well Neighbors in the vicinity did the vicinity did voice some concerns They indicated a desire for offense at the rear of the property Where the project meets lomitas avenue in july a notice of complete application was sent to the applicant And in july a notice of application was circulated staff did receive some public comments The county of sonoma in fact issued a comment letter as well as a nearby business owner So the site is designated retail and business services in the general plan as you can see in this graphic the block From shanae going up to where lomitas ties into mendicino is uniformly designated as retail and business services And then the corresponding zoning is general commercial cg and that is consistent with the general plan Here's a site plan as you can see there's a Single driveway. It's a two-lane driveway that takes access off of mendicino avenue And then the parking is located on the south side of the site And here's a floor plan showing the lobby bulk of the area is for the sales display area And then the accessory uses storage office break room towards the rear of the building So with regard to the Operational requirements the proposal does include a number of security measures those are indicated in your written staff report There is an odor control plan The project does satisfy the zoning code requirements for on-site parking As well as requirements for lighting as I mentioned nine to nine for the retail operation and then nine to six p.m for the delivery So i'm going to quickly walk through the required findings The project as I've mentioned it is consistent with the zoning code as well as the general plan The staff does find that it is compatible with existing and future land uses as I've mentioned this is in staff's opinion It's a continuation of a retail use at this site Further staff finds this proposal Physically suitable for the type density and intensity of the use And also it would not constitute a nuisance or nuisance or be injurious or detrimental to the public interest health safety convenience or welfare Lastly the project is Uh consistent with and complies with the california environmental quality act And i'm not able to toggle again So while we work through that i'm going to just continue going with the presentation The project as I mentioned has been reviewed pursuant to sequa qualifies for several exemptions So three categorical exemptions class one for existing facilities class three for conversion of small structures And then lastly class 32 and that's the infill exemption As I mentioned staff has received several public comments The county has indicated concerns with the location of the use relative to its governmental campus across the street Uh nearby business owner expressed concerns with the location of this proposal relative to a gun and ammunition store And then residential neighbors to the south have indicated concerns With this proposal Particularly as it relates to the rear of the site and its interface with the residential neighborhood As such those neighbors have indicated the construction of a fence at that rear property line So with that staff finds that the project complies with the The general plan in the zoning that the requisite findings can be made and is recommending that the planning commission approve the conditional use permit to allow Cannabis retail dispensary and delivery use at this site Staff would be happy to answer any questions. The applicant is also present to make a presentation as well okay and um, I'm assuming we can Resolve some of the questions that came through the public correspondence after the public hearing through working with staff That would be fine. Yes. Okay, great. Um any questions right now staff commissioner pierson Uh, just a quick question. Um, can you tell me about the signage rules for cannabis businesses in san rosa? There's several layers of signage rules for cannabis retail So we have a sign ordinance which applies to all commercial businesses So they would need a sign permit consistent with our what we call our sign code or that chapter in the In the zoning code Additional restrictions come through chapter 2046 in the code, which is the comprehensive cannabis ordinance There's a specific subsection in that um that further restrict signage for cannabis and I I don't have the language specifically But it probably references or relates to a state requirement for cannabis retail signage, which says you can't for example You can't advertise marijuana Or cannabis within a thousand feet of a school So it's our standard sign requirements with a few additions in relationship to local preference and state law Thank you Yeah, vice chair weeks um There's kind of a general question about uh receipt or The consistency of product delivery um, it seems Is there anything in the ordinance that? talks about that product delivery Not delivery to customers, but delivery product delivery to the dispensary Is only during certain timeframes because it seems to be different in the in different applications that we see Um, I'll have to look at the zoning code to see if there's anything specific I know with delivery they need to state that they're going to have delivery operations and then state the The extent and scope of that and how that the logistics of how that's going to work. That's in our our city zoning code But our city zoning code does not further restrict the hours of delivery, but we have seen a number of applicants come for with With more restrictive hours for delivery than they have for their storefront retail operations So maybe it's a business practice Also, it's been something that has come up in neighborhood meetings and that they've talked with neighbors about and folded into their proposals And just one thing to add to that in in the analyses that we've seen in several of the staff reports Both here this evening and then in prior hearings on different cannabis projects The hours have been Reduced as you've mentioned for the receipt of deliveries and oftentimes the The reasons cited have to do with noise In terms of reducing the overall noise of the delivery Perhaps trucks or services to the site and then there have also been some discussions of security in terms of having product delivered during the time When the security is present There may be additional rules, but in looking at those those are some of the reasons cited in in the various project descriptions that I had reviewed Any other questions of staff right now? Okay Is the applicant here wanting to make a presentation? Great. Thank you Thank you. My name is jordan raptus. I'll be giving presentation on our application for adult use campus retail store at 2750 Mendocino avenue So a little bit about us and our company Um, I'll be the if approved the manager of the site here at 2750. Mendocino avenue The owner and president is shon tam who is in the audience Um, we have two other retail cannabis dispensaries in washington state We started as a medicinal dispensary in 2012 and then we One of the first to actually transition to adult use retail in the state of washington One of the first wave of Licenses is given out so we opened and were able to do dual use adult and medicinal in june of 2015 So it'll be coming up on four years of serving adult use cannabis We also opened a second retail dispensary in eastern washington in early 2018 So that's just a little bit more background about our company So about our project here in santa rosa We will have a company-wide training for all employees on company guidelines and responsibilities for working in the company We want to make sure that all of our employees represent our company To the best ability and even represent santa rosa as well. We have a 20-page employee guidebook that we will give out and make sure that everyone is fully trained and Knows that the rules regulations for the state of california and santa rosa All the all the products that will be sourcing will be lab tested The Location we have chosen is able to utilize a vacant building to better serve the community I know in the past it's it's been a liquor store a tobacco store and now it's can hopefully be a cannabis store Um, so we feel like this is a good a good spot to help serve the community We also are going to offer subsidized rates for military veterans seniors and medical patients at our stores in washington state This usually varies between 20 to 25 percent We really want to make sure that the the people that the need medical products are able to get at an affordable price Some of the security at our location. We're going to have a continuous 24-hour camera operation Archive for six months We all have sufficient camera angles They'll allow facial recognition in case there is ever a break in or Anything that goes wrong at the site will be able to look back at the footage And be able to see exactly what happened We're also going to have a drop-down gate to secure the entrance and exit when not open. This will help deter any break-ins Um through our stores in washington state We have never had anyone attempt to break into our dispensary whereas a lot of the the neighboring stores have So we're proud that our security measures are usually Up to par We're also going to have a security guard at the entrance to check IDs as well as to deter any potential threats Uh, we're going to have a secure locked limited access area only accessible to employees and licensed officials That means that the the only people that are able to get in the back room where there's a safe or the product Are going to be the managers owners or any law law enforcement agencies if needed Our alarm system will be active 24 seven with panic buttons located throughout the store We'll have a secured safe involved for holding all cash on the premises And we'll have emergency procedures in place for all employees so that in the case of emergency They'll be all well informed and trained to do handle it accordingly I want to talk about the prevention of sales to a minor Um, we're going to have every individual's id checked twice when they enter the establishment Once on arrival by the security guard and the second time at checkout This ensures that just in case for whatever reason if someone's able to sneak through the security guard They still and enter the premises. They still won't be able to check out any of their product because of that second id check at the sales stem We're going to have id verification scanners for all vertical IDs This just ensures that in case anyone or 21 does try to get in and a quick check they might miss it Um, this way they have to actually scan the id to make sure that they're over 21 We also want to work with local police to help deter prevent minors from entering the premises So we'd like to have them look over a security plan and and hopefully give us any pointers or anything that they've seen in the area That will help us better our security and prevent anyone not allowed to be entering the premises We're going to have a state issued id book to help distinguish fake IDs Those will go into the employee training where our staff will be able to help proper Properly identify any fake IDs that people might be trying to use to enter the establishment The community impact here on Santa Rosa We're going to have a community relations contact That people will be able to contact in case of any problems associated with the business But also to help provide Community support as well I mean the owner Sean have already done some local outreach. We've Went door to door on the Midas avenue to kind of introduce ourselves to the surrounding neighborhood And ask if they have any issues with having a retail store or anything that any concerns And as mentioned earlier a lot of the neighbors had issues with the parking behind the store And we've we've offered to build a offense to help deter people from trying to park up there and enter our establishment We've also committed to not allowing any of our employees to park above The store so they will all have to use our parking lot We've also been in contact with redwood redwood empire food bank. We actually got to tour their facility and we hope to Make some community relations with them to help better support the community through food drives donations Volunteer work and we will also reach out to other non-profit organizations in the area as well Um As I just mentioned we want to look for to support and develop long-term relationships with veterans youth police public safety health and drug prevention education programs We want to be looked at as more as an asset to the community of santa rosa So that you guys you want to have us here and not not be a liability Um, we're gonna prioritize the hiring of local persons Provide an increase in employment opportunities for the community Um, so I'll be actually moving down from Seattle to help manage the store But I besides that we're gonna hopefully a hundred percent higher here in santa rosa um And as our business continues to grow hopefully we'll be able to promote individuals here to oversee and manage the dispensary Um as well so that just helps Provide more local support as we continue to expand into other cities Um, we also want a preference on sourcing products from local growers to help stimulate the any Cultivations that you might approve here in santa rosa So we like to have a local section in our store for locally grown products that will help also make an impact in the community And that's the presentation Any questions of the applicant right now? Yeah, commissioner peterson Can you tell me a little bit more about this community outreach person? Is this a dedicated position? Is this whoever the manager is that day and uh, sort of what Are there duties and what are their abilities to respond to community concerns? Yeah, we it will probably be the assistant manager's position to uh Be the community relations and it will be kind of yet on their their job duty to fulfill Any questions concerns anyone in the community local businesses or neighbors might have uh, and you um, and then also to kind of get in touch with like I mentioned the redwood empire food bank And kind of help any local promotions that we might do with them as well Thank you, and just just one more quick one on your project narrative Document on page seven you referenced a living wage. You've talked about local hiring What is the living wage? Can you put a number to it? Yeah, uh Starting wage usually, you know about 20 dollars an hour 15 and 20 depending on Full time part time. I actually started as a bud tender in the company back in june 2015 And I've been promoted all the way up to a manager and um, you know I've been able to do that because of the living wage and uh, just the way the company treats their employees Well, I think we started with eight People back in june 2015 and I think six of the eight are still at the company and we've continued to grow so we've In an industry that has a high turnover. We've been able to keep the same staff due to company policies and living wage Thank you Vice chair weeks I want to follow up on uh commissioner peterson's question about the jobs How many do you figure would be full time and how many part time? Do you have an idea? I figure we'll need at least 10 to start I would figure eight would be full time Maybe two to four part time depending on how the needs of the the business as it continues to grow Anyone doing your questions of the applicant? Yeah, commissioner dug in Yeah, I believe in your staff report you mentioned um lab testing and you also mentioned that in your presentation and um As I understand it Dispensaries mainly sell products that are made by others and they're they come to the location Pre-packaged and ready to sell and is it common that people will Will test that product as it comes in their store Oh, I so we figured that it will only be sourcing product that is lab tested. It's a it's a regulation as well But you're not going to be doing your own lab testing. No, no Okay, because that's what it says in the in the project description Okay, yeah, that was it was meant to be as the the product that we get would be lab tested So we'll be sourcing lab tested product. All right. Thank you number Okay, any other questions? Yes, commissioner Kripke In your project narrative, um You on page 14 you discuss large prominently placed signs. Can you describe? I think you go into a little bit more detail about that Well, we mostly it was going to be the the signage outside the store where it had the digital sigs Sign there we we were going to try and you know have our own 365 signage there And of course we'll have to comply with the the city and state regulations So we'll make sure that it does And then also on page 14 under your grand opening It says you will have a large event with live entertainment. Can you do you have any further detail on that? So we we scrap that idea after hearing back from the some the public So we we will not be having any live entertainment or a big grand opening Just to do to not deal with any of the noise complaints still like that. So we've scrapped that Thank you Any other questions of the applicant? Okay. Thank you This is a public hearing tonight. I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing I have one card so far from curing in peg if you'll go up to one of the microphones up there and Restate your name for the record case. I've mispronounced it and you have three minutes. Thank you Thank you, mr. Chair and members of the commission. My name is kirgan peg I My family owns the property at 29 49 lomedis avenue and 29 50 lomedis avenue 29 49 is a residence Very it's the closest residence to the the applicants project In addition, we have a vacant piece of land at 29 50 that we hope to develop in the near future Into affordable housing We are really appreciative of the applicant's Responsiveness to the request from from the neighbors along lomedis avenue about having a fence at the back of the property um similar to The fence that's on the adjacent car wash property, which does really help to prevent both employees and Customers from parking along lomedis avenue and in bringing in additional traffic to that dead end street We've continued to have problems with Car wash employees parking up there in large numbers That has been improving and we hope to continue to see that improvement we also have A lot of trash in the area and a lot of loitering at the end of that Kind of cul-de-sac So we're we're hoping to work with the applicant cooperatively to To prevent additional customer and employee traffic From coming down lomedis and using that as a parking area and from customers loitering or coming in the back way to you know Find it find it a shorter or or more convenient way to get to the the location. Thank you for your time Thank you Anyone else From the public wishing to speak on this item I am not seeing anyone else. So i'm gonna go ahead and close the the public hearing and um Give the applicant an opportunity to come back and maybe Give us some information about what kind of fencing you're going to be doing Yeah, we we're thinking of building a six foot open fence either chain linked or Kind of like what we have the rails here. So people be able to see through and be That's kind of with the idea of what the the fence will look like Mostly just to deter people from trying to get through and come to the to the store Okay, and and in what way are you going to Prevent your employees from parking on lomedis Yeah, so yeah, we will It will be a company policy not to park there Um, we will make sure you know if if they do and when we find out they will get written up In the when hired we'll definitely make sure to uh, that will be in the training program not to not to park on lomedis and to use The staff parking Okay, great. Thanks And then to go back to to staff to help us with some of the um Correspondents that we got from the public Probably miss crockers our best answer of some of those. Um You know You know we had a letter from uh, jill ravage That cited some issues if you could explain how this project relates to those issues Surely so as I mentioned in the presentation the project is consistent with the general plan It's also consistent with the zoning In addition this has been Used this site Mostly as a retail use The other items that are specific to this project is that it does include a security plan There's detail on the staff report about what that includes The parking is satisfied on site. There's actually a surplus of parking In addition the site is not in an over concentration area. So it satisfies the distance requirements to schools And then with those measures and the additional Conditions or measures that the applicant is willing to take staff finds that this project will be a suitable use for the site And it will not have a negative impact to the surrounding neighbors Okay, and then we did have um, I can an issue look like it could potentially be you know a legal challenge Regarding the gun and ammunition Shop nearby. Yes, and just to follow up also on what mr. Rose said To clarify the the letters from the county were We're suggesting that there should be a setback to the family justice center to the county government centers to the jails And I believe perhaps a few other uses were mentioned in there and to clarify There is no requirement at the state level or at the local level for any setbacks to those types of uses As miss hartman outlined at the beginning We do have the setbacks to schools for retail uses of 600 feet and there are no other setbacks that would be applicable Regarding the firearms we did receive a letter from I believe it was the owner of the gun shop that is nearby and I I'm not able to find He didn't cite any reasons as to why this use would not be compatible There there are some federal firearms rules That do state that you cannot there's an owner of the gun shop Cannot sell firearms or ammunitions to persons who use illegal drugs or are addicted to illegal drugs How they determine that is a little unclear to me, but um There is Substantial federal law to that effect. So that's the only thing I can find as to You know the relationships between guns and drugs and there are some pretty forceful letters From the u.s. Department of Justice stating that In no uncertain terms cannabis is still an illegal federal drug as we know so that that rule would apply to Cannabis As well some of the things cited in the letter apparently sometimes people might use their medical cards as a form of id That would be a way that the gun owner would know that they're not permitted to sell to that individual And I don't find anything else regarding setbacks and I believe that was all of the issues in the letter unless you had other questions Okay, and I just wanted to Point out that you know pertinent to uh, commissioner peterson's questions about signage that In our resolution there is the condition that sets forth the appropriate signage because I know the project narrative Was a little optimistic about how that might go so that has been covered and then um Generally, where would we put some condition about the fencing? and or There's an existing condition in there now that mr. Rose will pull up and and and that is correct just in terms of the signage Um, there can be no advertising or marketing of cannabis prod products within a thousand feet of a daycare Or school or youth center So any signage here on this property due to its proximity to the preschool could not Advertise cannabis or have anything that would be You know outwardly obvious to people that this was a cannabis use so there wouldn't be a cannabis leaf or anything else that would be Obvious so that is stated as indicated in the the staff report and the resolution And now mr. Rose probably has the fence condition Yes on page five of six of the draft resolution is condition ten It reads a six foot tall solid wood fence so it'll be constructed at the rear property line The fence must be constructed prior to the issuance of a certificate of the certificate of occupancy Uh, if the commission pleases that can be changed to include whatever type of fence The commission would like the applicants indicated an open metal fence and the open metal fence Are generally preferable for purposes of graffiti and invisibility and chain-link fences are just not Attractive so yes that would be the point of not of maybe looking past a wood fence and having it designed differently Correct. Okay All right, I wanted if I made sure um Another point of the letters was referenced The There was an existing project narrative that made references still even though the project had evolved the narrative was outdated and still had references to Events consumption So in your packet attachment for it has been updated and it does not have those references anymore Because those are not part of this project Right And that would be clear in our resolution that it's that was not Appropriate versus scope. May I ask a question? No, I'm done. You can On the fence question one of the public correspondence items mentioned That they would request that there there not be a gate or a locked gate because Having people pass through from Lomitas and they also mentioned that there were some professionally built stairs there Is there a reason to keep those open or do we know why they're there? I'm not familiar with the stairs if the commission chooses to condition the fence to not have a gate the commission can do so Regarding the stairs. I defer that to the applicant Thanks And would the applicant like to say something about the stairs? So it came to our attention. There's actually a dwelling unit on the second story of our store They will be vacated Before we open I think they built the stairs, but we can get rid of those. There's no need for the stairs The stairs Okay, any other questions while the applicant is up there Any other questions of staff no okay so With that would somebody like to move the resolution for purposes of discussion And in our discussion if we could indicate our preference As to condition number 10 on the fence We could even include that in moving the resolution to save ourselves the trouble of a friendly amendment If we're all in agreement that that should be changed So I'll move a resolution Yeah, exactly get one in I'll move a resolution of the planning commission of the city of san rosa approving a conditional use permit for 365 recreation club medical and adult use retail cannabis dispensary with delivery in 406 square feet of an existing 3454 square foot commercial retail building on on a 17 859 square foot parcel located at 2750 mendicino avenue assessors parcel number 180-0 040-003 file number c up 18-042 With condition 10 Modified to read At the beginning a six foot tall And delete The word solid wood and the remaining language the same and wait for the reading of the text Do I have a second? I second Okay So that was moved by commissioner edmundson seconded by commissioner pierce and and vice chair weeks. Would you like to start? Did you would you like to start? You don't have to I was flipping papers. Um, I uh Think this is a good project for that neighborhood And I think the security plan Is an improvement over what was there before because I'm sure they did not have security plans I appreciate that you've been responsive to the neighborhood concern. I think that that's going to go a long way For the community so I can make all the findings and I support the project And commissioner Peterson Well, uh, I also Support the project and we'll be able to make all necessary findings Along with that I do have some some thoughts To kind of address some of the public comment and the the feedback that the project has gotten I agree with Some of the the public comment that Having a business like this here With security will do A significant amount of difference in terms of Kind of cleaning up the area keeping things secure dealing with some of the Issues related to having an abandoned and Unfenced business right there. I think this is one of the instances where where cannabis can in fact enhance the security of an area We saw in some of the public comment concerns about is particularly from the county Concerns about substance abuse and I I would note that the wagon wheel is just a few hundred feet down the road, which I think is Maybe a poster child for substance abuse And I think again with these kinds of uses I think it's it's just It's going to be part of the fabric It already is part of the fabric of Sonoma County and I think Concerns about substance abuse Are unfounded at least when it comes to Comparison to alcohol And then my my final thought is you know, this is much like some of the other projects we have a A tough location in that it Is extremely hostile to pedestrians while there is public transit access The visiting this site will almost certainly involve The use of a car. There's no reason to Put that kind of blame on on the applicant This is a you know, a planning decision that goes back a long time and was true of the other businesses located there And while I think the goal of dispersing these kinds of businesses throughout the city is to Reduce the need to drive and the need to Are the risk of driving while intoxicated I think it's just Part of life in santa rosa is needing a car to get around So with that I'll turn it over to my fellow commissioners and again, I'm in support of the project Commissioner crepeki I'm going to be the new guy and say that I'm still undecided at this point. I could find most of the findings, but I'm not I'm still undecided and I would like to hear what the rest of my commissioners have to say That are more experienced I'm in support of the project. I agree with commissioner peterson's point about the Creation and maintenance of a facility like this enhancing neighborhood security It it seems to be the case that these Facilities are understood to be highly secure Surveillance is understood by the public in general to be present at places like this and To have activity is inherently more secure than to have the nooks and crannies where misbehavior can happen I don't believe that there are any safety risks that are That would prevent me from making any of the findings and The comments from the county notwithstanding, you know, they've got the sheriff's office a stone's throw away and I think that we Probably couldn't come up with too many other places that were as secure if we're if we're assuming that our public safety people are going to be Continuing to do a good job. So Otherwise, I think it's a routine project and a lot of unremarkable aspects to it and Can easily make the findings. So I support the project Commissioner dug in I actually have some concerns about this project in the 12 years I've been on the commission We've only had letters from the county In opposition to a project we've considered once before that I can remember So I take that seriously and But I also understand I do think having this building retentative and having the security plan and All of that that's going to go along with this proposal will be a good thing for this location And also having a fence to keep the people from parking or Accessing limitus is a good thing But I'm also concerned that the project narrative that has been revised extensively still has a bunch of Sloppy things in it and it's not been cleaned up and it makes me wonder how much care they'll take in day to day Activities because when we compare it to something that we've like the previous application Was super tight. They were super detailed and this doesn't have the same level of detail So that concerns me So I'm kind of on the fence on this one. I mean I can appreciate the the majority of the commission so far has voiced their approval of this, but I don't think I can support this application Who should call you? I also am having trouble with making all the required findings to Be in support of this project. I think The proximity to the family justice center is something that is incredibly concerning to me just knowing the population that they serve and I Am kind of quite on the fence of if I can support this project or not Okay Well, I feel I can make I can make the findings on this project I definitely agree. This is not the tightest application or project narrative that we've ever received You know with the back and forth and the changes I think where this project started even the title recreation clubs sort of suggested had a different model in mind than what ultimately we are approving With that being said though, I do think that that's what's been previously stated these These uses offer security to the area And It can be very very well run. Obviously, you know, we condition them heavily to make sure that they are I think The letters from the family justice center It's Like commissioner peterson said there's wagon will we're not going to prevent substance abuse or prevent anybody that goes to family justice center from acquiring medical or recreational Cannabis where does not so the placement? I don't think is really the issue for me And that a fact that it meets our zoning needs and our setbacks is you know, our policies is what i'm looking at here And again, it It's always easier to just approve these outright when we get a really really strong application and a really strong unchangeable project narrative So I think that's that's where Some of the misgivings are but for me I can make the findings and I will be voting for the project So commissioner olcrup, can you have anything else you want to say having heard? um It is tough to have to have letters from county staff To make a decision on something that it That is outdated You know, there was the presentation before that we had comments now it's That comment is outdated by the fact that it's been changed. We haven't don't have updated comments from them But I I do have to agree that it is not the the tightest of applications Even the ones that I've seen in the audience here before I took the chair up here So I do have my concerns much like my fellow commissioner on on the quality of it Okay and anything else you Want to say commissioner digner commissioner call you Just one thing on the the wagon wheel compares and I think I mean we have this opportunity to either approve or deny this particular project if the wagon wheel was in front of us Today we'd have that same opportunity. So that's just kind of where my head's at Okay, great Okay So With that we have the resolution moved by commissioner edmundson seconded by commissioner peterson and your votes, please Oops, do we need to read? Okay Here That was One's missing There we go Okay, so that passes with four eyes Wait, no, that's wrong. Yeah, I just I just realized I'm under uh curts You're under curts. Who's under peter. So you guys switch seats and the poll has not so do we know who voted? No No, okay. Maybe raise your hand Yeah, could you just raise your hands? Okay, so that passes with four eyes commissioner call you commissioner dug in and commissioner Okrepki voting. No, can you repeat that one more time for the record? Say what can you please repeat that one more time? Sure. I can That passed with four eyes commissioner call you commissioner dug in and commissioner okrepki voted. No Better Okay, so that concludes This item and why don't we take just a short break I can't tell you Okay, I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting back to order. We can Move on to our final item Which is item 10.3 sonoma gardens conditional use permit and it again is an exparte disclosure Commissioner call. Yeah, I visit the site and have nothing further to disclose I also visited the site and have nothing further to disclose And with that mr. Broad will be giving our staff presentation Thank you chair sisco This is an application by sonoma gardens for a conditional use permit for a conditional use permit And I also visited the site and have nothing further to disclose And with that mr. Broad will be giving our staff presentation Thank you chair sisco This is an application by sonoma gardens for a conditional use permit at 207 for armory drive And the application has been filed by the bork group conditional use permit 18-071 For the proposed sonoma gardens, which is a medical and adult use retail cannabis dispensary And this dispensary does not propose any retail delivery. There would only be on-site Sales of cannabis products The applicants additionally have requested a reduction in on-site parking as allowed under the zoning code To allow for the use of the existing on-site Five parking spaces for the parking for the proposed facility The facility is proposed in just over 2,300 square feet of existing retail space Which previously was used as a vape store The application proposes to use 1700 square feet of space for retail space with of that 1700 space 1700 square feet 776 being in reception 710 in retail And 214 square feet of point of sales counter area And the remaining 613 square feet would be allocated to office and other space The proposed cannabis dispensary would be open every day from 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Consistent with the city zoning code regulations As mentioned the dispensary is proposed at 2074 armory drive Which is um on armory Additionally just east of highway 101 south and north Here's a context map again, you can see the Freeway to the west of the project site It actually shows up. I think a little clearer in This map there are commercial uses Along armory drive which include the college of marin Two college of marin facilities on one on each side of the proposed facility one of them is the security police facility for the campus police for the college And just north of the proposed dispensary is a administrative building for college cleaning services And then you can see that to the property is within the general commercial zoning district which runs along armory drive And then east of these parcels on armory drive The zoning and the use shifts into single family Residential use which abuts the rear of property in this neighborhood and the r1 6 zoning designation the general plan for The properties fronting on armory drive Including the proposed canapit cannabis dispensary or retail and business services And then again as a consistent with the zoning To the east are is the residential zoning designation and you have residential uses In sort of that green color on the overhead The project history consists of an application for the use permit being filed in april of 2018 The property was found incomplete on may 31st There was a neighborhood meeting held on the application on june 20th and the following day the response to the incomplete letter was submitted to the city The application was deemed complete on july 2nd And a notice of application was mailed to the neighbors and interested parties on august 15th From the site plan, which is uh shown Imposed superimposed over an aerial photo You can see the total 46 26 4626 square foot Building it includes a laundromat tenant in the northern half of the building And the proposed cannabis dispensary Is in the southern half of the building the existing parking for both use Uses is the parking in front of the building which provides a total of 10 spaces Which are allocated Informally five for each of the uses This is the proposed floor plan for the 2613 square foot facility it essentially is a A reception area as you enter with the sales area Following that and in the back is an office and restroom and a security area a safe area This is an elevation of the front of the building as mentioned the previous use was the vapor boutique and the applicant is proposing to A modification in the front awning on the building And that's really the only exterior change and that would be something that would be looked at for Administrative design review as part of the building permit review There is one other change which is the applicant is proposing to of course change the signage for The use and this shows to propose the Sonoma garden sign Which would be consistent with city sign regulations The applicant submitted the necessary material for staff to review it for compliance with the city's cannabis Ordinance security measures such as 24 hour onsite guards An alarm system and electronic surveillance Are all part of the applicants security plan The applicant has submitted an odor control Plan which relies heavily or primarily on the use of a carbon Filtration system and as required by the city ordinance the plan was certified by a registered mechanical engineer As previously mentioned the proposed hours of operation for the facility are 9 a.m. To 9 p.m Daily and the applicant has voluntarily proposed to restrict weekday deliveries to the site Weekday commercial deliveries to the site to the hours of 9 a.m. To 5 p.m Additionally, the application proposes onsite consumption, but this would be limited only to employees of a cannabis facility who are additionally qualified patients And fall into both of those designations It would not be available to customers of the of the dispensary as previously mentioned the two existing tenant spaces are A total of 4626 square feet The city zoning regulations require one space for every 250 square feet So a total of 18 parking spaces Would be required Whereas the existing property parking law provides 10 spaces The applicant did have w trans do a focused traffic study On With an onsite parking analysis And a representative from w trans is here this afternoon tonight To discuss their conclusions The w trans study found that The amount of available onsite parking While it doesn't meet the city zoning code requirement it is enough to Um accommodate The peak demand based on ite parking estimates the city zoning ordinance allows for the planning commission to Approve a reduction in parking from the code required Amount if the planning commission makes the findings that special circumstances apply to the project Um This is less than the zoning requirement for a variance, which has some of the language same language in terms of special requirements This is this is not a variance. It's a different section of the city code, but it does Use the language of special circumstances staff believes that the Planning commission can find that there are special circumstances applicable to this property because of the nature of the neighborhood in which the streets about Armory street about highway 101 on the west side. And so essentially it's a single loaded Street um and only has commercial uses on one side of the street And therefore there is a lesser parking demand than there would be with commercial uses on both sides of the street Additionally double u-trans and its analysis found that there were adequate on-site parking spaces to accommodate The peak parking demand between the on-site And the off-site parking provided There was a neighborhood meeting held on the project on june 20th, which was not attended by any Members of the public there was one email submitted to staff related to the project In which the owner of a property to the east expressed concern about quote the use of product on-site and quote And also concerned about traffic and increased crime And as previously mentioned with respect to the consumption of on-site consumption The applicant in the application has restricted this to employees only who are patients Staff finds that the project is both a class one and a class three categorical exemption From sequa and additionally staff Finds that the project is a class third Class 32 Categorical exemption and that the necessary findings for a class 32 Exemption do apply Staff recommends that the planning commission Uh Support the conditional use permit and believes that The proposed six findings necessary for use permit approval can be made both the uh, the three related to zoning and general plan compliance As well as compatibility with existing and future land uses As well as the three requirements for it be physically suitable for the type and of intense type and intensity of use That it would not constitute a new sense And as mentioned it's compliant with sequa And additionally as I previously mentioned staff also believes the planning commission can make the necessary findings For the parking reduction And i'd be happy to answer any questions from planning commissioners Any questions of staff right now Commissioner peterson Uh, just to go back to the special circumstances Standard so less than a variance sort of Can you give us some sort of guidepost to what? Constitutes a special circumstance what this standard would be Well, I I can talk about, um Uh This one project in terms of staff Looked at it and there are there are a couple of characteristics of this neighborhood, which are Unusual in terms of the overall parking demand the project it's it's not it's a low-intensity commercial Neighborhood so you don't have Parking demand such that there's overflow parking on the street the project site is next to a facility That's the security for the college which has a Parking lot on the property to serve that use and additionally it's not a retail type use which is not drawing customers Into the area and as also mentioned there is a an office type college cleaning facility adjacent to the building and As we mentioned in the staff report additionally you have the highway on the West side of this facility and so obviously there's not a draw for commercial traffic From from traffic on the west side of armory drive in terms of how this has been applied to Prior projects. I would have to defer to other staff in terms of What types of findings? This or what type of other applications this might have been used for There's a provision in the zoning ordinance which probably the vape store allowed which allows Uses to go in based on a lesser reduction in existing parking So there's sort of three different tiers in terms of how parking can How a use can go into an existing building even though the current parking provided is not compliant with the zoning With the zoning calculation Well because mr. Broad keeps looking at me We didn't do an analysis of other sites So we're looking at this again use permits are always site specific project specific So we looked at this site and we looked at its unique circumstance We there's no need through the process to compare it with other sites or other proposals So and he has stated the findings that are also stated in the in the resolution that's before you and and reference in the staff report I certainly not one of my best questions and I appreciate the the effort and I I think it did Help illuminate sort of what we're looking at in terms of special circumstances. So thank you Any other questions of staff before we move on to the applicant. Yeah commissioner dangen It's kind of a follow-up to commissioner petersons But with the jc so close by and we know that the greater neighborhood gets a lot of the parking from the students at the junior college Are the are the onsite on street parking that is factored into the traffic study Is that controlled for like an hour maximum or some other way that it won't be taken up by junior college students I I know it was restricted Along the side street to it was either an hour or two hours. I don't recall Which one I can probably find it on my phone because I did take a picture of that I don't remember a long armory, but the w trans Representative might know the answer to that. All right. Thank you Okay Any other questions of staff right now Okay, is the applicant here? Yes. He is okay Okay Great. Good evening. Once again, uh, this is joe rogway here on behalf of sonoma gardens The applicant for the 2074 army drive facility This by way of of history, uh, the most recent prior use of this facility was the vapor of boutique as was Uh, demonstrate on the slide and prior to that it was the Black rose irish pub So one of the prior uses for this building Was uh, was a pub And I think that's relevant as you're thinking about just the historic use of the property and the proposed use of this property And the the two, you know being sort of commensurate with each other Starting at the sort of site management part of this The uh applicant and primary operator is mr. Brian bjork who's seated here in the audience Gentleman in the suit down to my left. He is The founder of the bjork group. Um, he already has obtained a conditional use permit for A separate supply chain facility on piner road For cultivation manufacturing and distribution So, uh, this is a process that he has gone through before albeit for a different facility and a different use Um, I believe that use permit was issued in february of 2018 Uh, mr. Bjork, um has more than 15 years of experience in the cannabis industry And uh has been operating a delivery service. He is a Current licensee from the the bcc and it's currently licensed to operate Out of the city of san rafael. Mr. Bjork is a born and raised lifelong north bay resident And is excited to be a business owner and operator here in sonoma county and in the city of santa rosa As is delineated on this slide It kind of goes through Some of his bona fides as relates to his currently existing california state delivery only retail license for the city of san rosa Excuse me the city of san rafael And he has been operating that facility. Uh, well subject to that license The other facility just for your application is located at 970 piner road c up 17 dash zero three two So in terms of the neighborhood compatibility This has has been noted earlier by mr. Broad. This is located essentially adjacent to highway 101 Near the in and out Off ramp to the freeway And his nearest neighbor is a dry cleaner And he as I mentioned earlier This prior use of the facility was the vapor boutique and before that Was the black rose irish pub there is accessibility to to bus stops and It has fairly easy access for pedestrians Who utilize that army road? It's kind of ingress negress between The sr. Jc campus as well as you know up to to in and out The interior design of the facility is what we like to call sonoma county modern It's it's going to be a nice second place There is Contemplated the use of materials like white oak in the ceiling A sort of blue burned and wood future wall with like these cool zinc wall planters are going to be there and sandblasted concrete And some black and steel wane scotting and as was depicted in one of the earlier slides I think just like a a real improvement to the aesthetic of that building. It's it's it's very visible It's a frontage on highway 101. So if you're driving north towards in and out You won't see that building the dry cleaner has like a giant kind of mannequin on the roof that you may be familiar with And so this is I think really going to be improvement For that building which has you know kind of had its ups and downs because of that that pub closed down a few years ago the prior business closed down and it's It's just been in a state of somewhat Disrepair and dilapidation So I think it'll be nice to revitalize that and something that we all get to see as we're driving up and down 101 And so It's going to be like a fairly open space meaning that as the customer walks in through the front door The entire retail space is going to be visible at least the area that is not subject to a limited access area Uh here are some of uh the The elevations as well as the way that the site internally is going to be depicted as well as just kind of just for your idea What the materials are going to look like they're being used so you can kind of see That zinc planner that is kind of in like the bottom center there You can see what the lettering is going to look like you can see what this sort of like Oakwood aesthetic is going to look like I think it's it's really going to improve that that little corner right there Uh So as I mentioned, uh, there are going to be these um exterior improvements um, and uh, essentially here, we're just kind of uh noting what types of materials are going to be used to kind of You know give you some further insight into to what the plans are And this is the slide just to to show you again what it's going to look like And then as we back up real quick, you can see uh Up to on the uh the top Left of that slide you can see what the lighting is going to look like so one of the things That I think is is always important It's a real consideration in terms of security is just having a well-lit exterior in the facility So um not having areas where you know people can can hide or sneak around or or do bad or weird things Um, it's going to be a well-lit uh facade a well-lit facility And I think that's going to improve not just the overall look and aesthetic, but also the security as well There is going to be a real partization of energy and water efficiency. Um, so Mr. Bjork is going to be implementing energy efficient lighting water conscious faucets Utilizing refurbished materials where possible And uh because we're just talking about a retail use there should be really Minimal water usage. It's not like some of the other uses that like cultivation for example They have much more involved water usage. This is a very minimal usage The materials um are are going to be obtained. Um, uh locally And going back to that kind of cinema county modern concept And just going through more sort of like recycled woods led lighting etc Important I think always is odor mitigation And as I'm sure you've seen a number of times and this and other presentations the Standard for this the gold standard I'd say are those canned carbon filtration units that just make the odor of marijuana undetectable Outside of the facility and there isn't going to be any on-site consumption there anyway So this isn't a retail facility not that's allowed under the city's ordinance But there isn't going to be any of those kind of Cheech and Chong moments where there's billows of smoke coming out It's going to be very clean Unobtrusive and there won't be any odor of marijuana There are all of the local and state requirements Where you know, we have our our age restrictions. We have our limited access areas We have the visibility Limitations we have the daily limits. We have strict adherence to track and trace compliance under state law Again community benefits central to this project as well charitable contributions and community support And so essentially the the things that are proposed here are patient education support for community charities affordable medicine access programs community engagement and environmental consciousness public safety and support For local commerce and local hiring And that just dovetails well into the staffing plan Where we're talking about Another business where we have a real living wage here in santa rosa, which is obviously so important to all of us $20 an hour And really that sort of creation of how the head of the household jobs It's looking like a eight full time and perhaps four part time employees And they're going to be working at shifts going from Ranging from 8 a.m. To 10 p.m There's going to be a weekly employee training sessions that are conducted Just to make sure that all the employees understand The the sop is the security requirements emergency procedures compliance requirements With state and local laws, etc I think the the primary focus at least the questions that that i've heard so far Obviously relates to the city park requirements And it looks like that The those considerations can be alleviated Given some of the the real specifics as it relates to this project as has been noted earlier This is a location that is On armory, which is essentially a frontage road for highway 101 Which essentially means the entire west side of armory is just the freeway barrier wall So there's no businesses there for which you would need to have additional on-street parking available Which means that essentially if there is A Full parking lot with the five spaces that would be utilized for Sonoma Gardens Then there should be ample Street parking and this goes to I think one of the questions from commissioner dug in Which is that essentially there is the peak hours for the for s r jc Which are in the a m hours and the anticipated peak hours for Sonoma gardens, which are in the p m hours So we see that as being entirely compatible use and that has been what the analysis is from W trans that it seems like parking Will not be scarce and We should be sufficient for for this particular use And you know this these parking requirements. I think it's worth noting Any retailer that goes into this building is going to have the same challenge and the same issue and so Sonoma gardens isn't going to be having any additional or More parking than any other retailer There would need And so This slide I think delves into Those peak parking demands that that I think the commission is paying attention to and as I mentioned jc's peak is in the a m And mr. Excuse me Sonoma gardens people be in the p.m So they should be complimentary and adequate And as a result we respectfully request that The commission makes all the findings and approves the issuance of the use permit for this facility And I am available to answer any questions you may have All right Any questions of mr. Rockway before we go to the public hearing. Yeah, commissioner peterson Where are employees parking? Employees will be parking offsite. They will not be a part of those five spaces Thank you Um with uh employee use on Premises what kind of safeguards do you have for when they're shifts up or anything like that? Oh, obviously no one will be able to uh to drive a vehicle under the influence And I think that that's really going to be a very sort of Mitigated occurrence if at all there there is an allowance under Both state and local law for that But just basic prudence is going to limit The sort of the use of employees and nobody Can tolerate any sort of intoxicated employees. I think that the allowance for that are for if there's any employees that have any Just almost existential medical needs that That requires that use but the anticipation is that that's going to be rarely used if ever Thank you Yeah, commissioner peterson That raises another question Um Just to to clarify and maybe this is a staff question as well on-site consumption For medically qualified employees is still limited by the smoking ordinance meaning no smoking no vaping this would just be topicals and Tinctures. Yes, exactly. That's exactly right Any other questions? And I just want to confirm there is a 24 hour security patrol that will be part of this application And that's a mandate of california state law. So there has to be 24 hour staff security at every retail facility in the state of california and that will be true here for Sonoma gardens as well Okay, great. Thank you Okay, so this is a public hearing tonight. I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing I don't have any cards on this item And I am not seeing anyone move to a microphone. So I'm going to go ahead and close public hearing Bring it back to the commission any other questions of The applicant yes, commissioner call you Just quick question. Um, how many employees do you're expecting to have On-site at one any at any one time? Uh, I believe that it is up to let me go back to site. I believe it is up to Eight full time and four part time At on site at once. No, that's it total. Yeah on site at once. Brian, how many will you have at any given time? About half that and where were you where are you suggesting that they're gonna park? They're gonna be parking. I believe off-site. Is it on the side road? Yeah, I'm sorry was that there's it's on this I believe on the side street is where they're going to be Parking Not in the parking lot. So it'll be either on armory or on the adjacent side street. Okay Okay Mr. Oggway, could you repeat what he said because it didn't go on the microphone? Yeah, and he's going to be offering a transit passes to his employees For a variety of reasons one is to ameliorate the the parking issue as well as just for The the basic value of having public transportation available to his employees and staff Okay, any other questions? Yes, come sure Yeah part education and part Nostalgia if I recall correctly next I can't bring up google's review right now But isn't there a detached sign from where the english rose was in front of this property? I don't know of you or staff can tell us what the rules are regarding signage that's detached and raised above Roof level if that's usually usable or what your plans are if it's not So my understanding the black rose pub sign I think is still up as we're state as we're here this evening We're we're not going to be using that as a part of our project The only signage would be the signage that is affixed to the the frontage of the building that says Sonoma Gardens And if I may follow up just from a city perspective in our regulations one thing I did notice is that they are proposing their identity sign They're what we call wall sign above the roof line So Typically roof lines are I'm sorry signs above parapets and roof lines are prohibited in the city. However If they wanted to pursue that type of sign There is a process called a sign variance There's findings that you have to make to to To have that granted. I think it's the zoning administrator acts on that But otherwise they they need to put the sign below the roof line and then the sign code is somewhat flexible in terms of They have an allotted square footage and they can sort of dis disperse their allotment As they see fit depending on the scale and scope and visibility of their site And just one one thing to add is it can't say cannabis there can't be any marijuana leaves Nothing that explicitly references the underlying use other than the name of the business Okay, any other questions of The applicant yeah, commissioner call you I have a question regarding the traffic study. Okay. We do that now. Yes, okay Um, I just wanted to Confirm that did this traffic study taking into account the spillover parking from the jc because I didn't Think I saw it in here Like specifically spillover on sorry on armory From the jc. I I believe it did but we also we have a camera and I hear from w. Trans who can I I think speak on that Hi camera and I w. Trans we prepared the traffic study for the subject project So as joe mentioned earlier the we actually prepared the parking analysis for the jc master plan update that occurred in 2016 And so we dug up some data on that and the junior college experiences its peak parking demand Between the hours of 10 and 11 and the am and then from there it kind of deteriorates throughout the day When the proposed project would actually experience its peak parking demand in the evening So for all intents and purposes the two uses are actually complimentary to each other And when the proposed project would need that street parking There it should be available Any other questions of the traffic people any other questions of mr. Rockway Or staff Okay, not seen any thanks Madam chair, I would like to make one clarification with regards to something that's new a new issue for planning commission reviewing dispensaries so if I could take the opportunity to clarify how this works for on-site consumption allowed by Um employees that are patients There is a section in the zoning code that speaks to this So this is separate and distinct from customer consumption, which that's not proposed here But they're in the zoning code It does allow for employees of a cannabis retail facility who are qualified patients They may consume medical cannabis or cannabis products on site within designated spaces not visible by members of the public And also provided that the consumption is in compliance with our smoking ordinance as well as state law And so this is uh written as a standard. So this is a Essentially a right so in this application they expressed it in their application But I I want the commissioners to be aware and the public to be aware that this is essentially a right that comes with a Retail dispensary and it is somewhat unique for Santa Rosa to offer that but we we did offer that in Our as far back as our 2005 dispensary ordinance And this was a point of discussion When we revisited our or when we revisited the issue And prepared our Santa Rosa Ordinance, um, it was something we we kept um because we frankly haven't had any issues with that And so it was added into our ordinance. There's other precautions and instructions through state law for Employee consumption the state does allow a city to allow that concession And separate and distinct from customer consumption and then in addition there's actually a very specific State law that says except for delivery employees, and I just think it's worth noting that There's an outright prohibition that delivery employees are not to they even if they have are qualified patients They are not allowed to consume on their On their duty Great, thanks for that any question. Yeah, commissioner call you I just remembered I had one question for staff and I just did The jc police department have any comment specifically about the location of this project being next door to them Um, the jc would have received notice of the project. We did not receive any comment From the college Thank you Any other questions Okay, so would somebody like to move the resolution for purposes of discussion I'll move a resolution of the planning commission of the city of santa rosa approving a conditional use permit For sonoma gardens a medical and adult use retail cannabis dispensary in a 2313 square foot tenant space in an existing 4600 26 foot square foot building and approving reduced on-site parking at 2074 armory drive apn 180-270-044 file number c up 18-071 and waive for the reading And we have a second I second So that was moved by commissioner dug in seconded by commissioner peterson mr. Collier. Why don't you start? Sure, I think the application was really well put together as usual and It's interesting though because I never would have expected myself to be So concerned about parking But I guess I am Um, just because when I went to the site it was like three o'clock and it was there was zero parking in front of In front of that like a lot of armory drive was just it was just crazy So and I know that you know from going to the jc myself It's just that that whole area gets inundated with parking and and I definitely from my You know anecdotal experience. I also agree like it's a lot in the morning But it's also a lot in the afternoon. And so that's kind of that's my only sticking point right now So I'm interested to hear what my fellow commissioner say commissioner Yeah, I um, I appreciate the typed Application and I can make all the findings necessary and I know from my own personal experience as a frequent visitor to the black rose that The use of that space After hours, you know in the evenings there was never A problem the parking lot is small, but you could always find parking within a short walk on the street So I think that that will probably be the case here. And so otherwise i'm in support of the project Okay, vice chair weeks Uh, I also will support the project As was previously stated once again the application is really good Um, I do like uh the fact that you are going to provide transit passes for the employees. Um, hopefully people will Take you up on that I think that's kind of a unique Addition so as I said, I'm supportive of the project commissioner Peterson I I echo my fellow commissioners. It's a very comprehensive application I particularly like the improvements that are being proposed. I think the building certainly could use them when it comes to the parking part of it, um, if I think the applicant's point about the prior use is as well taken by myself in that With the whether it's the black rose or the the vape store you're looking at places that Did allow on-site consumption by customers. Um, and presumably Had lower turnover in the in the parking In in this type of retail establishment I think, you know, my my guess at least is that Customers are not going to be Lingering for extended periods of time the way they would with the black rose And I think in light of commissioner duggins comments About about her experiences there. I think it makes it easier to find the For me at least the special circumstances necessary For the parking Variants but parking standard I think Sort of unlike other projects this this project is located also in a Near a neighborhood near the jc. I think it will In line with the purpose of dispersing these cannabis retail outlets throughout the city instead of concentrating them in one area Will allow people who are cannabis users in the jc neighborhood to maybe walk bike um Take the bus to this location and so I think For me, it's it's a good application and I can make all the necessary findings Commissioner crepeki Um, yeah, I I think um the traffic which does give me pause Uh, it would be the only thing that would ever cross my mind on this is you could use this as an advertisement because again I'm going to say it was a great application and a great presentation Um, like the rest of my commissioners did Um, and but I'm also not an engineer. So I can't refute somebody who went to school for this So, um, I'm I'm glad to hear about some of the safeguards the public transit Passes that will be used especially if there's employee use which there may or may not be but it's the right to do so I'm also confident in the ownership experience It's not something you're new to the industry and you're trying to you know make your name It's something you have experience in and it's going to be well run And I think it's going to benefit the community not just those who use The the the retail location, but those who go down the 101 seeing the storefront be revitalized and not What it looks like now. So all those things considered, uh, I think I can find the required findings to support this project Okay And I also can make the required findings and again appreciate mr. Rockways always brings a very tight application and um And it works well, so Um, I will definitely be voting in favor and can make the findings And christian call you to have anything else you'd like to say Yeah, I appreciate hearing from my fellow commissioners and I do understand from a business business owners perspective that Obviously you don't as a business owner You don't want to have a place that no one can ever find parking which will then hurt your business So I understand that and I also am not a subject matter expert in regards to the parking and traffic engineering So I appreciate having that study to look at and I will support the project Okay So with that the resolution was moved by commissioner dug in seconded by commissioner peterson and your votes, please I don't know why my green light didn't go on but I did vote yes So it passes with seven eyes Do we need to do it again? No, okay Okay, good It's dimming Okay, and that concludes this item and also concludes our meeting. I'll adjourn us to our january 24th meeting Thank you. Thank you