 I just wanted to let you know that we are waiting for Commissioner Holton at this time. Okay. Great. Thank you. Ms. Montoya, do we want to go ahead and start since we do have a quorum? Yes. That's exactly what I was about to say. We do have a quorum, so staff is ready whenever you are. Okay. So with that, I will go ahead and call this meeting of the February 24th, 2022 meeting of the Planning Commission to Order. So, due to the provisions of the Governor's Executive Orders, N-25-20 and N-29-20, which has spent certain requirements of the Brown Act and the order of the Health Officer of the County of Sonoma to shelter in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the Planning Commissioners will be conducting today's meeting in a virtual setting using Zoom webinar. Commissioners and staff are participating from remote locations and are practicing appropriate social distancing. Members of the public may view and listen to the meeting as noted on the city's website and as noted also on the agenda. Members of the public wishing to speak during item number 4, public comment or during our public hearing item tonight will be able to do so by raising their hand and will be given the ability to address the commission. So with that, could you take roll? Commissioner Charles Carter? No, you're asking about it. Go ahead and say it. Oh, let the record reflect that all commissioners are present except Commissioner Okrepke and Commissioner Moulton. Thank you very much. And Commissioner Okrepke, it will be absent this whole meeting. So with that, we'll go to item three, public comments. I'll go ahead and open the public comment period for any item not included in the meeting's agenda. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please select the raise hand button. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. And each speaker will have three minutes. A countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and the viewers, and please make sure to unmute yourself when you're invited to do so. And your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown. Two weeks after public comment period, can we go back to item number two? We can finish numbers. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, yes, we will. Thank you for keeping me on my toes. I appreciate it. So are there any public comments? None at this time. OK, so with that, I will close the public comment. And then go back to item two, approval of minutes. We have one set of minutes from January 27th, 2022. Are there any changes, corrections to those minutes? OK, seeing none. I think those will stand as approved. So with that, I will get back on order and go on to planning commissioners report. And I'll read. I'll start off with our statement of purpose. The Planning Commission is charged with carrying out the California planning and zoning laws in the city of Santa Rosa. Duties include implementing of plans or NINSE's policies relating to land use matters, assisting in writing and implementing the general plan and area plans, holding public hearings and acting on proposed changes to the zoning code. Zoning map, general plan, ended of subdivision maps and undertaking special planning studies as needed. So we'll go ahead to 4.2, which is subdivision and waterway committee. Commissioner Carter, have you had a waterways committee? We did have a meeting this morning. And we had a single item which involved comments by the Waterways Advisory Committee on a proposal from the Hyatt to make some landscaping and fence changes at that site, which has a history, a long history in the design and utilization side. We provided comments that will be summarized by staff and passed on to the zoning administrator, who will make the final approval on the proposal. Thank you. And then I'll move on to 4.3, Commissioner Reports. I do want to mention that I'll be reappointing Commissioner Carter to the Waterways Advisory Committee for another term. And thank you very much for serving on that. Is there anybody, I would anybody else like to make any comments or no? I will also mention that we had a mayor's lunch. This was two weeks ago. And there was there was discussion actually about the Hyatt at that time, because I believe you had seen it at one time before. And then there was also discussion about from the water department about some of the issues that they're going to be bringing back to the council. And Commissioner Cisco, you were there as chair of the Charter Review. Do you have anything you want to add to that? No, as far as Charter Review, I'll be giving a report to council on May 1st, just giving them an update as to what we're doing and how we're doing. So that's it. Thank you. So we'll move on to item five, Department Reports. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you, Chair Weeks, members of the commission. And it's great to see everybody here today. Jessica Jones, Supervising Planner. I do have a few items for you guys today. A couple of exciting things for our department. The first is the council at their last meeting acted on a request to decouple the assistant city manager positions from two of our department's director positions. And that is for the Planning and Economic Development Director and the Transportation and Public Works Director positions. Previously, those positions were coupled with the assistant city manager position. So that assistant city manager was in essence doing two jobs being the assistant city manager, as well as being a department director. So the case was made an important one to decouple those positions. And so the council did approve that action. So we are very excited. I think both both departments are very excited, but I know that we are in public or in planning and economic development to have a dedicated director here in the very near future. So so that's some great news. We also have some exciting news that we will have. We've got currently three city planner positions that just opened up. So we are in recruitment right now. One of the positions is a permanent full time city planner position. And the city planner positions are entry level and it's for either a city planner position, which requires one year of experience and a degree in planning our related field and we all or it could be a city planner trainee, which would be somebody who doesn't necessarily have the one year of experience and or the degree, but would be getting that within the next year. So so as I mentioned, we've got three positions, one of which is permanent and full time. And the other two are limited term positions. One is a three year limited term position, which is backfilling one of our existing planners who will be working on the cannabis program. And then the other one is a two year limited term position. And that one is being funded out of the PG&E funds that the city received and it will be focused on housing development and streamlining of housing to get our housing projects through the process in a more expeditious manner. So we're super excited about about all three of those positions and that's a possibility that we could have more in the near future. So we're really excited about opening up these positions and we're really looking for a very diverse group of people to hopefully apply. So we're reaching out far and wide to get applicants for these positions and we are really, really hoping for folks that are bilingual. And so to help promote this, we held an informational meeting yesterday. It was a virtual meeting that was recorded and we provided information, just general information on the positions. We had a couple of our newer planners attend also to give a perspective of what it's like to be a new city planner here at the city of Santa Rosa and then some general information on how to go through the application process. And so that video has been posted to the position posting on our website. So it's available to anybody who wasn't able to watch or to attend that meeting. So we're very excited about that. And then just a couple additional items on the advanced planning side of our work. As I believe you all are aware, we are in the process of updating our general plan and the alternatives are now out for review. We will have six workshops coming up. It looks like they are all scheduled in March. Five of those will be in person at various locations throughout the city. And then we will have one virtual workshop, which is scheduled for Thursday, March 10th. So information and links to information about those workshops and the alternatives that are out for review are included on the general plan update website, which is www.SantaRosaForward.com. And then finally, last item is part of the general plan update. We are also updating our housing element as required by state law. And there will be a survey for the housing element update coming out on March 10th. And there will be a webinar associated with that as well. And the information on that survey and webinar should be posted to our website here very soon. And we will be sending out information and links to this to the commission directly in the next several days. So keep a lookout for that. And that is all I have. Great. Thank you. I have a question on the two-year limited term position around streamlining. Is that going to backfill for an existing position, for an existing plan, or is it going to be brand new, totally focused on streamlining? It is brand new, totally focused on streamlining. And, yeah, like I said, it was funded out of the PG&E funds that the city received with that emphasis on getting through some of the backlog that we have of housing projects. So, yes, it is a new limited term position. Thank you. Any questions of Ms. Jones? OK, thank you very much. Thank you. I also forgot to mention that the council, I believe right now, is still doing their goal setting session at what they started at 8.30 this morning. So more information, I'll provide more information. If there's any major changes that we need to be aware of at the next meeting. So with that, we'll go ahead and do item six, statement of abstentions. Are there any abstentions on the one item tonight? OK, seeing none. Item seven, consent items, we have none. So then we'll go ahead and move to our public hearing tonight. Item 8.1, it's a public hearing. U-M-M-A-2-L-L-C CEQA exempt. It's conditional use permit, location 3055 Wilgen Court, C-U-P-21-081. It is an ex parte disclosure. So I'll go ahead and start with Commissioner Carter. I have visited the site and have nothing further to disclose. Thank you, Mr. Siscoe. I have nothing to disclose. Thank you, Commissioner Duggan. I have nothing to disclose. You and Vice Chair Peterson. I visited the site and have nothing further to disclose. Thank you. And I also visited the site and have nothing further to disclose. So with that, Mr. Kali, you want to kick it off for us? Sure, the only item for tonight. OK, good afternoon and thank you, Chair Weeks, for the introduction. So I will start sharing my screen from the second page of the PowerPoint. You already mentioned the name and location of the project. So let me turn my camera off. And the second page, I will start from here. So OK, Miss Kali, we can only see. Oh, never mind. It's my fault, I think. Can everybody see it OK? OK, never mind. Sorry. OK, August. OK, sorry. OK, great. So the applicant is proposing to operate a commercial cannabis cultivation type two facility within an existing approximately 19,000 square foot industrial building hours of operation would be eight a.m. to five p.m. seven days a week. The image below here shows the building that is proposed to be used for this project and here is a neighborhood context map. The project site is located in the southwest quadrant. And the site is zoned light industrial consistent with the general plan land designation. And as you can see, it is located in an area primarily developed with industrial uses and many auto dealerships to the east, a brief summary of the project history. The application was submitted last year in September. A notice of application was also emailed to neighbors in September. And this application was deemed complete in October of 2021. Here is the site plan for the existing building and with the existing parking. So the minimum number of required parking spaces for the proposed use is 19 spaces. And this project is providing 34 parking spaces, including the ADA space. So it exceeds the required number of required parking spaces. And here is the floor plan for the proposed use. The floor plan shows the approximately 9000 square feet will be used exclusively for flower rooms. The Red Square, I'm trying to show it here. And the remaining 10,428 square feet would be consists of two drying rooms, trimming room and office and other rooms that are related to this proposed use. Exterior building improvements are limited to security, lighting and cameras. And the site improvements include ADA compliance, parking and path of travel and restricting the existing 34 parking spaces. So here are some general operational requirements. There are some general operational requirements for commercial cannabis facilities, including order mitigation plan, security plan and transportation and delivery plan. The applicant has provided a certified order mitigation plan that shows compliance with the city cannabis order standards. And the applicant has provided a detailed security plan that explains the operation of security cameras, alarm system and secure storage and also has explained that the transportation of cannabis would take place within an enclosed area inside of the building with a roll-up door and an on-site personnel would assist the delivery and shipments. Also, the project is subject to building and fire permits as described in building and fire code requirements for cannabis-related occupancies. The project has been noticed and sign has been posted on site and staff did receive one comment yesterday regarding the vision triangle for the project site. The tenant on the north side has expressed concerns about the existing landscaping located within the vision triangle along this property. I have responded to the applicant and the property owner and told them that the owner of this property needs to maintain the vision triangle and lower down the landscaping to three feet because no structure or fence or landscaping is allowed to be higher than three feet within the required vision triangle to make sure provide that site distance. So I have emailed the comments to the applicant and I also told this tenant about the requirement that the owner needs to meet for the vision triangle. And also the project has been reviewed in compliance with the Environmental Quality Act and staff has determined that the project qualifies for three categorical exemptions. And with that, the Planning and Economic Development Department recommends that the Planning Commission by resolution approve a conditional use permit to allow 19,428 square feet of commercial cannabis cultivation type 2A for the property located at 3055 Walden Court. That was my presentation. The applicant has a short PowerPoint presentation that I'm going to share it for you. If you don't have any questions, I will jump on the applicant's presentation. Thank you. Are there any questions of Ms. Shikali before we hear from the applicant? Okay, go ahead, Ms. Shikali. Okay, I will share the applicant's presentation. Elora is the one who's going to go over the presentation. Is she here? Elora, you should have a prompt allowing you to unmute. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yes, I am here and able to answer questions as well during our short presentation as well. So thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak on behalf of the applicant. My name is Elora Babini and I represent WeFinder LLC, who is the consultant for the applicant at 3055 Walden Court. Next slide, please. In response to the security measures in the general standards, the applicant wanted to highlight that we will have on-site security personnel, exterior lighting to the turf theft or diversion, which are downcast to the city standards, 24-hour video camera surveillance and alarm systems. The alarm systems will comply and be permitted by the Santa Rosa Police Department and on-site staff shall have their contact information, as well as the 24-hour contact for the project will be provided to the Santa Rosa Police Department. Secure loading bay as seen on the site plan will be for deliveries and on-site staff will assist with those deliveries. Next slide, please. For the odor control, as Ms. Trikali stated, they will implement and maintain building systems to effectively minimize transmission of odor between buildings and surrounding areas. The exhaust fan system will be installed with activated carbon fiber filters for odor control. The exhaust will be terminated at a minimum of the 10 feet from property lines and fresh air intakes into the building. The facility shall have no operable windows or be kept locked and sealed at all times. All doors shall be sealed with proper weather stripping, keeping circulating and filtered air inside the facility. In addition, the flowering rooms, as well as drying and processing will be kept out of neutralized air pressure and the hallways will be kept at a negative pressurized air, which will allow the odor to remain within those rooms. Again, my name is Elora Babini and I am part of Wayfinder as the project management team. And that is my contact information if anybody has any further questions for me. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak on behalf of this project. Thank you, Ms. Babini. Are any questions of the applicant before I open the public hearing? Okay, seeing no questions from the commission. And we'll go ahead and open the public hearing. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please select the raised hand button. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand and each speaker will have three minutes. Countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and the viewers. Please make sure to unmute yourself when you're asked to do so and your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown. Do we have any public speakers? I don't see anybody with their hands raised. Well, we don't see any raised hands. Oh, okay. So Chair Weeks, Commissioner Houlton is raising his hand. I'm gonna move that to the next slide. If you otherwise, we do not have any members of the public raise their hand. Okay, thank you. Then with that, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission. So, would somebody like to make a motion? And then we, thank you, Commissioner Deggan. I'd like to ask staff a question before I make a motion. Of course, yes. Sorry. From the Exhibit A attachment. Number one, under public street improvements, it sounds like any non-standard sidewalk sections that get replaced or repaired, is that the discretion of the property owner? Is that standard? I mean, the way it's written, it says it is recommended that any non-standard sidewalk sections and driveway be upgraded. So who gets to make the call whether the sidewalk needs to be improved at all? I believe that is one of the standards common that engineer puts on the Exhibit A. If there are like a sidewalks that needs to maintain the applicant, the property owner shall maintain them and bring them up to the standard. But that comment or condition is one of the general standard conditions that I believe we almost added to every project. Like if there's a broken or damaged sidewalk, you need to repair that. Right, but does the code enforcement, I guess, do they, or the inspector, would they enforce that if they come out and the property owner doesn't think there's a problem? Is it at their discretion or who makes that call? I'm just wondering, I've not noticed this condition before. Word in this way that it seems like it's at the discretion of the owner. Good question. But if there is a code enforcement case complaint, we will send someone to inspect it. Oh, just in case. Yeah, if I could, I'll just add my two cents for whatever it's worth. Yeah, I think money is correct. We did check with the engineering division and this is a standard condition that they sometimes add to projects. So I think, as the project is being constructed, certainly we will have inspectors out there and the city will require maintenance, repair, and replacement of any damaged sidewalk that's out there. If there's damage after construction, then likely that would come through either public works or code enforcement. Okay, all right, thank you. Are there any other questions of staff at this time or the applicant? Okay, so would somebody like to make a motion and start the resolution? Commissioner Duggan, thank you. I'll do that. I'll move a resolution of the planning commission of the city of Santa Rosa making findings and determinations and approving a conditional use permit for a 19,428 square foot commercial cannabis cultivation type A use within an existing building located at 3055 Wilgen Court, APN 043-220-004, file number CUP 21-081 and wait for the reading. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Okay, commissioner, is this for a second? So with that, we'll start off with commissioner Carter for comments. Yeah, this appears to be a unremarkable and pretty straightforward use permit application and I can make all of the necessary findings. Thank you, commissioner Cisco. I would echo commissioner Carter's comments. Perfect project, good application, good area for it to be. So with that, I'll be, I'm able to make all of the findings and we'll be voting yes. Thank you. Commissioner Duggan. I also can make all the required findings and I am in support of the project. Thank you and vice chair Peterson. I agree with my fellow commissioners and I would add maybe this possibly record setting meeting is a good indication that this industry is getting normalized in the area in line with the city council's goals and possibly in the future would not be a CUP process. But with that, I can make all the required findings and support the project. Thank you. And I also can make all the required findings and I think commissioner Carter said it very well and I echo him too and all my other fellow commissioners. So with that, the motion was made by commissioner Duggan seconded by commissioner Cisco. Can we go ahead and call the roll? Commissioner Charles Carter. Aye. Commissioner Cisco. Aye. Commissioner Duggan. Aye. Commissioner Peterson. Aye. And commissioner, our chair weeks. Aye. So with that, it passes five ayes with commissioner Okrepke and commissioner Holton absent and unless there's anything else from staff tonight. No. Okay. So with that, I adjourned this meeting and we'll see you all next month. Thank you.