[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to the city of Bakersville Planning Commission meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies the county of Kern and the City of Bakersfield you can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 700 p.m. and Sunday at 10:00 a.m. the agenda for this meeting can be downloaded at www. Bakersfield city. us priding over this evening's meeting chair Zack Bashir [Music] toos good evening it is my pleasure to call the order the February 15th 202 24 Planning Commission meeting Madame clerk would you please call the rooll chair Basher TSH here Vice chair ker here commissioner bid commissioner core commissioner Coman here commissioner Neil commissioner Strickland here Pledge of Allegiance please stand salute i al to the flag the United States of America to theic stands Nation God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you for attending tonight's Planning Commission meeting the commission provides an opportunity for public participation in the development process throughout the city of Bakersfield the Planning Commission considers a wide variety of projects including subdivision Maps zone changes General plan amendments and more when applications are received the city planning division analyzes the request planning staff will present the facts about the project along with the recommendations to the Planning Commission who will approve the item or make a recommendation as appropriate Madam clerk next item please agenda item 3A public statements does anyone in the audience wish to address the commission regarding items listed on tonight's agenda if you are here for non-consent public hearing item 6A now is not the time to speak you will be given an opportunity to speak at a later time non-agenda item 3B public statements does anyone in the audience wish to address the commission regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda if so please come forward and state your name seeing none Madam clerk next item please agenda item four consent calendar items all mat all matters listed under the consent items do not require a public hearing and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of said items unless staff or Commissioners request specific items to be discussed and or removed for separate action may I get a motion approving consent items 4 a please I'll make a motion MCE chair ker thank you I'll second second thank you commissioner Strickland please cast your boats motion passes with Commissioners bidd core and Neil absent thank you agenda item five consent public hearings now is the time for consent public hearing items if the item is not removed by commissioner staff or member of the public the commission will vote on all items in one motion without further comment if an item is removed it will be placed at the end of the non-consent public hearing items at this time I will open all of the consent public hearing items does any member of the public wish to remove a consent public hearing item does any commissioner or staff wish to remove a consent public hearing item at this time the consent public hearing items not removed are now closed may I get a motion to adopt saf's recommendation on the consent public hearing items not removed incorporating all staff memoranda and revised staff recommendations I'll make a motion to approve thank you Mr stricklin I'll second thank you commissioner Coman please cast your votes motion passes with Commissioners bidd core and Neil absent thank you madam clerk next item please agenda item six non-consent public hearing items before we begin I would like to explain how the hearing will be conducted staff will first give a report then those in favor of the project will be allowed to speak those in opposition to the project will be able to speak after all of those in favor have spoken each side will be given five minutes to provide rebuttal comments individual speakers may ask questions during their statements but the questions will will not be answered until the public hearing on the item is closed written comments may be given to the clerk who will provide copies to the commission please be respectful of others participating in the hearing by not repeating the remarks of the previous speakers and presenting any new comments or thoughts in a concise and clear way Mr Johnson would you please provide us with your staff report yes thank you we were going to have our development services director Christopher Bo speak on this matter and while he prepares the podium I'd note that there was a memorandum transmitting comments um from the Leadership Council uh other public comments and from the Home Builders Association of current County those are transmitted in a memo and it's also available at your Das and we have a full copy uh available should anybody need to review that thank you thank you chair Commissioners fortunate to have a quorum this evening um item 6A is a presentation on text amendments to the Bakerfield Municipal Code title 17 you could also perhaps call this presentation the long unwinding road to An approved housing element um and that would be just as applicable some of you have seen this before um some of the audience perhaps may have seen this presentation before I'll try and be as uh brief as I can let's begin okay why are we here here today why is an ordinance proposed to title 17 there's really three distinct reasons why we're here and why staff brought forward an ordinance um that addresses residential development standards within title 17 of the Bakersville Municipal Code first is to comply with State housing law um the second would be for housing element certification and the third would be to address city council referral to update the zoning ordinance in a way what you see tonight is a council sponsored ordinance vetted through the planning Planning and Development Committee let's look at this a little bit why State legislation well since the 2015 um fifth cycle was completed there's been a a small land Landslide of housing law that's come across um the the deis of Sacramento and um this is an example this is this is just the bills proposed in 2022 um from Sacramento and the these are the bills that ultimately were adopted that's a a long list of new law just in 2022 and um you would find that the other years in the last eight years are very similar in nature there is a lot of housing law Governor Nome would note that there is a housing crisis and um you can see the investment that the city has made in terms of our homelessness responses and that's um that's a typical of many municipalities throughout the state of California Housing law is meant to begin to address that the second reason is our Regional Housing needs allocation a part of the housing element um our residential Cal zoning was um identified by the state of California and our first conversations with hcd as our number one constraint to housing and um so it's a really a mandate to find to look at those constraints and identify ways to better streamline our zoning code that's a challenge um the city was assigned a a Reena number or a Regional Housing need allocation number of 37,4 461 total units I had the pleasure of speaking with um the director in McFarland today who was struggling M El to accommodate his 244 units but then he noted that he just approved a 49 lot subdivision which was 20% of his total Rena two months in you can see the difference the Stark difference in what many of the municipalities in the in the the county of Curr are having to deal with versus the city of Bakersfield City of Bakersfield's tasked with providing 65% of all housing in current County so I have an 8100 square mile County with 151 square mile city which will provide 65% of the countywide arena or 4783 units annually of that 2277 units a year must be low or very low income and 246 units per year which is a task in and of itself to build 246 market rate units per year are also assigned so 18,21 total for low and 19,250 uh market rate units um for moderate and above 76% of all low ver low and very low income units in the county overall are tasked to be created within this 100 51 square mile municipality that's not easy I think I've noted that before uh but I'll just note it again that's not easy the third reason Council referral from the dis council member Smith provided a referral that we complete the adoption of a comprehensive update to the residential zoning ordance sufficient to provide full compliance with stay law and that's in the council goals um as highlighted right here and from that from that there was a referral made from the dis to the planning and development committee staff subsequently um hired a subc consultant um mintier Harish as a subc consultant to rencon our housing element and general plan consultant to prepare that ordinance the consultant came to the Planning and Development Committee three times made presentations and took the direction of the planning and development committee on the various uh topics whether that be parking objective standards the various Zone districts and the like and in each case the the council committee provided direction as to what they desired and they did that be a vote ultimately after the third meeting they provided unanimous support for the draft ordinance and staff was tasked with bringing that ordinance ultimately to the Planning Commission you're looking at the final draft tonight and I I just want to say that even some of the comments that you've received um are are included within this draft ordinance as um because staff wants to make certain that we're looking at all law and being consistent with all law here and now so recommendation your recommendation tonight will be forwarded to the city council Council will provide an introduction and a second reading to that ordinance and it would become La the 31st day after that second reading after a 30 30-day waiting period I've noted in the past we have rezones coming your way they're contingent upon adoption of this ordinance we have annexations waiting in the queue at lafco they're contingent upon adop adoption of this ordinance we have because they are Zone consistent with this code noting that it's necessary for these types of zones to be in place for successful adoption of our housing element briefly the chapter 1710 is is inclusive to all residential zones today where from RS to RH all zones are all residential zones are in 1710 so they're Consolidated into one chapter there's a a real transition from lists long long pages of lists of uses and the like to utilization of tables um some of the zones noting that our current General plan is a shared General plan with the county and both the county and City are engaged in creating their own General plans many of the larger lot uh prefixes or suffixes to our zoning or zoning districts have been strick stricken from this ordinance the E estate zone is literally identical to the city's RS zone so um the E estate Zone will will be um discontinued there's new zones with for compliance with state law there's a removal of the residential parking requirements and there are objective development standards that are proposed so when we look at density um currently the zones don't have a floor so they all Nest together essentially what you do in R4 you you could do R1 in an R4 Zone because they're all nested together um that's one of the big reasons why the state said no good good we average 3.3 dwelling units an acre per hcd I didn't calculate that they know more about what we build today than we do and um and that's not right when you have zones that don't have any floors if there's an expectation we have a zone that we can build 70 something units in um but that just doesn't happen because we can also build 7even units in that same Zone with a 6,000 6,000 M 6,000 square foot size so the new ordinance provides for floors and ceilings throughout uh logically our one typical R1 Zone District allows for our current developers to still build at their at typical densities of between two and seven units R2 provides for a new type of housing a missing middle a small lot single family component um that we have great promise in in terms of we have subdivisions already taking advantage of that waiting for this ordinance to be adopted we have an R3 zones would be a typical apartment complex Zone R4 R4 is really where we start to see mandated Bridges and thresholds being met by the state state will not allow residential development um to count towards low-income housing unless it's at least 20 20 units per per acre and it won't allow very low income housing to be counted towards your Arena very low and extremely low numbers unless it's at least 30 dwelling units per acre hence new zones to meet those thresholds that are new state law that we we can then Implement through our housing element our six kind of a futuristic Zone where um we're going to have a high-speed rail station in the lifespan of this Zone and Transit oriented development may very well be a great idea around that that highspeed real estate ation um and we look forward to the future and what it brings and a residential holding Zone which basically requires holds that land for residential development at such time as development is proposed a general plan Amendment and a rezone to the desired densities is required I not the tabular nature of the the schedules I would note that very easy to find the uses relate them to the individual zones to the far our right hand side of the tables there is associated codes or references to other codes within title 17 that help the reader um gain additional in information or understanding as to the nature of that particular um determination within the code there's also there's also a description for each of those zones with a new purpose purpose statements that are absent from the current zoning allows for a prospective developer or just a homeowner to understand what the purpose and intent of that zone is that their home or potential home might be located in development standards are also put into tabular settings and they address density by Zone by by shrinking setbacks uh to provide for additional buildable area in previous zoning amendments we re we've we've uh no longer have a floor areir ratio and other setback uh restrictions that were considered to be restrictive to development at a higher density as well so um this ordinance finishes that work of the council to take away from the ordinance as it relates to being constraint to production there are two new mixed use zones and a mixed use zone is you could call it almost a bonus Zone because for C1 zones who wish to Annex into an mx1 Zone all of the use schedules associated with the C1 zone are still in place with the addition of the ability to place um residential within that zone at the same time so you can have a mixed use Dynamic mx1 for more of a neighborhood Hood mixed use MX2 for more Regional mixed use and um they rely upon the C1 and the C2 Zone districts so if you have a C1 Zone and you'd like to entertain residential you can Annex in you can rezone into the mx1 you still have the use use allowances of the C1 Zone but at the same time you can now add residential that comes at recommendation of of hcd to provide for more mixed use opportunities other than the CB and the CC Zone um here's here's what that largely looks like neighborhood mixed use C1 20 to 30 dwelling units at density thinking of those minimum thresholds to count them towards lower very low income and MX2 C2 Regional commercial use schedule with 30 to 50 dwelling units consistent with the very low income um the committee also directed the creation of development standards objective development standards for those who wish to entertain a streamlined development process and um at the direction of Planning Development Committee they are solely focused on site design and uh these new requirements for multi-unit residential development also have a pointbase system to provide amenity to bring Equity to all parts of the community so some additional revisions there's a new and updated definition section there are new tabular formatting as noted there's removal of parking requirements I'll speak to that there's 10 acre parcel size requirements for the implementation of a PD zone there's a removal of single unit housing as an allowable use in the CC Zone our our commercial center Zone um is really focused upon now and creating a higher density downtown downtown component although some CC zones are outside of the downtown core there's removal of residential uses in the C1 and C2 Zone and a switch towards consideration of the MX zones Consolidated accessory dwelling unit chapter refers to state law uh there are countless Adu laws that have been adopted over the lifespan of the fifth cycle and so consequently there's a reference to state law much like we refer to the density bonus law at the state it provides that we're not constantly trying to catch up to that um but we'll be also releasing a Adu handbook at development services that will help people uh maneuver through the the a proposal to build an Adu and there's removal of some specific zones I ask for Action tonight um the city is currently not in compliance with State housing law simple as that there's a fine line between being not in substantial compliance and being desertified I'm not sure where that line lies but we are not in compliance with State housing law as of 1230 as of 1231 of 2023 uh zoning ordinance update is a necessity a necessity for compliance and adoption noting hd's initial commentary as it relates to this ordinance state law is addressed in the ordinance Amendment before you tonight without it the housing element vacant sites reone relies upon it the housing element annexations which bring a significant portion of our vacant sits inside the city rely upon it the housing element itself relies upon it and adoption makes all the puzzle pieces fit in a pathway towards adoption of our housing element currently slated with a third read we're about to finish our second uh draft and we expect to adopt sometime before the end of the year after addressing one more round of hcd comments we're hopeful that um that's a realistic Target noting um the challenges of Arena so there's been um some degree of dialogue as it relates to parking I would note that um the state of California has already weighed in on a move towards shifting away from parking as a requirement to residential development AB 2097 provides no requirement for parking within a half mile of a a quality transit route quality transit route would have stops uh about every 15 minutes um so and we have two of those routes already within the city so you already have two lines of one mile wide that um the city could not provide for any requirement for parking within it AB 2244 also provides for no parking with housing that's on a on the site or shares a site with a religious institution we have lots of religious institutions that have excess lands and the state in an effort to encourage development of those lands for residential purposes um also requires and no parking be provided as a component of that uh my church has a nice football field um that's just perfect for that um I want to note that this proposed ordinance does not impede any developer from providing parking doesn't say you cannot provide parking there is no prohibition of in any way that would prohibit the provision of parking um two there's been some commentary that the city's efforts within this ordinance are slanted towards uh multif family production and higher density production that's not true either the the truth of the matter is the city is in the business of providing more housing all kinds of it in all kinds of places for all kinds of people to have access to reasonably priced housing if you looked at my my bacon sites inventory um and the challenges of Reena I've been here 5 years and the city has never come close to building 246 residential single family residential units a year it's not just a challenge to build affordable housing it's a challenge to build market rate housing at the same time last year I built 1234 units which is about half of what I need to build annually every year for eight years these not focused on higher density or multif family we're focused on providing a wide swath of housing opportunities that meet all the needs of the residents of the city there's also commentary about potential unintended consequences and although there isn't any examples of a potential unattended consequences I suppose we could Envision every every residential residential project in the city not having any parking and bringing the streets of Bakersville to a collapsing Halt and causing gridl throughout um I guess that might be a potential consequence but the realities are that before we had a zoning ordinance there was there wasn't any need to um legislate parking now mindful the city wasn't as big as it is today but there's a trust in the American way that um a free market Society I have a trust in my development Community to provide the parking that the market Des desires not every project needs two parking stalls for each residential unit some don't some can use shared parking but I can tell you one thing about a potential unintended consequences a failure to act is that we will not be able to complete the pathway towards an adopted housing element period we will just stop because we need this ordinance adopted in order to move forward with our vacant sites rezones both in the city and the annexations outside the city I'll close with never in my 25 years of doing this have I had developer opposition to not being regulated my wife told me that it must be the end of days because how could that possibly happen but here we have a comment letter from the HBA that says we need to be regulated I don't know how to respond to it other than I've asked the building industry three words since the day I got here that's just build houses I need them to build 246 market rate units every year and I need to build 2277 affordable units every year for the next eight years I think they can figure out how much parking each one of those units require I'll close by saying it's time to lead the state of California has already told you the pathway they're going towards towards taking constraints to housing production out of the picture it usually starts with a small law then it gets to a bigger one then then everything capitulates and that's the way it is I noted there's a fine line between certifi a certified housing own decertification and substantial non-compliance right now that law is one of those fuzzy places where we already have mandates that address significant or substantial non-compliance yet they're not saying you're decertified that's a good example of how state law is at that threshold but you have examples where parking is already not mandated in any way shape or farm when there when Transit is available it's time to lead there's no more time to follow it's time to lead with that said staff concludes the recommended ordinance amendments to title 17 of the Bakersville Municipal Code are appropriate and consistent with the Planning and Development Committee Direction therefore staff recommends your committee adopt resolution approving the text amendments to Bakersville Municipal Code title 17 and recommend the same to the city council that completes my presentation thank you thank you the public hearing is now open is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor of the project please step to the microphone identify yourself and then Pro seed Chris is a little taller than I am good evening chair and planning Commissioners my name is bla Neptune I'm with M and toosan Associates I'm here tonight to speak in favor of the proposed amendments to title 17 of the Bakersville Municipal Code specifically how it relates to residential zoning and development first of all I'd like to commend the city staff for their hard work and efforts throughout this process City staff is often overworked and underappreciated they are subject to difference as an opinions on many projects from Engineers Architects and planners like myself but at the end of the day we all work together for a common goal and that is smart growth for Bakersfield the proposed amendment will make this easier without having to use creative tools to accomplish the same goals I'm referring to lot sizes and setbacks I've been a Macintosh and Associates my entire career I started in 1991 I've designed over 200 subdivisions in Bakersfield I think my first tracks were uh 5290 in 7 Oaks and 5489 in brim Hall States both averaged about 12 to 18,000 ft Lots since then most of the tracks range in Lots from 6 to 8,000 square ft none smaller than 6,000 ft is that's what the ordinance allows 6,000 ft is the minimum lot size there was an amendment done several years ago to allow to R1 4.5 4500 squ foot Lots there was a couple projects that took advantage of that over the last 30 years construction cost index for the most part has stayed the same uh gone up slightly besides a spike in 2004 to 2008 with a housing bust and then it popped back down a lot of time and effort goes into the design and the construction of a subdivision to make it ready for a home builder to start when I'm done with the subdivision it looks bare you see streets sidewalks and and bare land a typical subdivision 6 to 8,000 foot Lots used to cost about 40 to $50,000 to get to where a home builder could build then Co happened according to report from the Associated Builder contractors resid residential construction cost of increased 40% since February of 2020 now those same lots are 70 to $80,000 a lot this is a huge impact on new home prices the only way to combat this increase is to spread the construction costs over more lots and the only way to do that is to make lots smaller before this new ordinance to accomplish this we'd have to rezone Lots into R3 and include a PUD overlay and request Zone modifications for setbacks and other things this new ordinance will give developers the ability to make small smaller lots and keep housing in Bakersfield affordable while I strongly support this there are a couple things I think we need to consider um I've talked to staff about the floors uh I'm in favor of the floors but I also think there's some some overlap that can be uh should be allowed uh for instance the R4 Zone that Mr Bole referred to has a floor of 20 a a lot of two-story walkup apartments in Bakersfield and there's plenty of them get to about 17 units per acre so there's got to be a little bit of flexibility that I you know I think we can consider and finally I think uh we need to look at uh more of the Public Works aspect of it I I got something to show here if I can can I turn this on so this is just a layout we did on a project in Southwest Bakersfield the the Lots on the South Side compared to the Lots on North Side look huge these Lots on the South Side I know this is a bad scale but these are 6,000 foot Lots that's currently the smallest lot you can have in Bakersfield the Lots in the north are what we're looking at more 3400 3500 foot Lots but the streets you can tell are disproportionate so we need to start looking at what we can do for the infrastructure in the roads and maybe make streets a little narrower uh right now Street widths are 60 ft rideways 40ft flow lines and I think there's um you know possibilities and potential to make these a little smaller and make it look a little bit more proportionate we showed this layout to uh staff uh couple uh we've been working of this and a certain councilman uh said this look like a bunch of barracks and we need to do something different we did and as Mr Bole recommended or or stated uh we have the first small lot subdivision in design and probably will go into Construction in this area looks a lot different than this in the next several months but anyway uh that concludes my statement or comment but thank you very much for your time thank you Mr is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor of the project please step to the microphone identify yourself and then proceed good evening chair and members of the commission I'm Dave dumah housi with the Home Builders Association of of Kern County and I don't dare get up up here and and opposed the project after Mr Bo's uh presentation U but uh out of 488 Pages we only had a serious concern with one page and that had to do with the parking um uh the the trend in multifam development uh today because of the very high construction cost uh and the overall shortage of housing has um uh resulted in more people per unit more occupants per unit and more vehicles uh per unit so we have no concern really with the R1 and R2 or even the R3 but when you get into higher density uh developments um if if the facility is underp parked it creates uh the potential for serious competition between residential uses and maybe adjoining commercial uses or even competition between the lower density projects and the uh the high density project uh most of our members uh in Bakersfield who are engaged primarily in the construction of market rate uh uh for sale housing uh uh and who also do some apartments uh would never develop a project that they thought was underp parked based on market demand and and market conditions uh however there is a potential with an increase in uh Zoning for uh uh higher density development for a particular developer to kind of impose uh uh parking constraints and parking issues on adjoining Properties or adjoining neighborhoods and that that was really the the nature of our expressing concern we did email to you and the staff uh uh memo dated February 14th and it did not recommend opposition or opposing adoption of the zoning ordinance however we thought that uh there are potential unintended consequences uh in various areas of town I'm not speaking of down Town that's a very unique uh setting but our our developers are engaged primarily in Green Field development uh in more of a Suburban setting and that's where we think the not having some minimum standard uh or uh available in the zoning uh could create some unintended consequences uh the state is is pushing very hard for all electric uh in new construction and starting in 2026 is really going to kick in January 2026 uh there's a real push on the California energy commission right now to uh mandate uh that 100% of uh rental housing have access to on-site charging and so that uh kind of complicates the the issue where if a project is relying on on street parking uh it becomes problematic complying with what we expect to be very stringent uh uh electric vehicle charg ing requirements in the future so I think all we're suggesting at this point is that uh I I think there uh could be unanticipated consequences uh uh to all of this and uh we would recommend that uh uh without a any lengthy delay in your adoption of the new ordinance and maybe have uh a workshop or two that would would focus on uh kind of Green Field development and uh the the issues that uh complete elimination of parking requirements why might uh uh cause in the future so that would be our request uh a brief delay uh for some further workshopping and thank you for the opportunity to comment and uh do compliment staff uh and and their Consultants on a very thorough revision to the zoning ordinance uh and like I said we only had concerns with one page out of uh over 400 thank you for your time thank you thank you is there anyone else that wishes to speak in favor of the pro the project please step to the microphone and identify yourself and then proceed yes uh Mr chairman members of the uh Planning Commission staff uh my name is Max Basera I'm principal of Pacific is 4 company uh I've been a professional planner uh here in Kern County for over 40 years back when Jack Hardesty was uh the planning director many moons ago uh we've been involved in a lot of uh development in fact a lot of the uh land divisions um W of Bakersville from um Coffee Road all the way out to Red uh Road and um all the way to seven standard um we've been planning in Kern County for over um 40 years uh not only in uh Kern County and uh but throughout the Central Valley um Mr Neptune had talked about the size of of uh the single family lots here in Bakersville that's been in place for for a long time but over the course of many decades um the um area that's needed for a lot of the subdivisions uh the sizing has started to to grow smaller the need has uh for it to be smaller is um has become more appropriate um I've also had the um the plure and the responsibility of being chairman for the krent County Housing Authority for the last 30 years I understand housing and it's important that the um city of Bakersville um I feel uh adopt uh what staff is is proposing these these changes are are really needed um they are appropriate um uh know that Mr uh Bole Mr Johnson and their staff have have really taken a hard look at what changes we have to make uh that we have to meet to meet that the state's uh Arena uh requirements and uh this allows Bakersville to take a more of a Forefront uh role uh to be um uh to be at at the uh beginning of what new housing especially residential housing should look like um so we can provide for the progress of our um our of our city in in the future so I would uh uh like to suggest that the Planning Commission please uh consider uh favorably the uh approval of the uh uh of all the staff work and and the changes to uh section uh title 7 uh 17 thank you thank you is there anyone else that wishes to speak in favor of the project please step up to the microphone and identify yourself and then proceed uh good evening staff and Planning Commission my name is Eric MOA principal with the mo partners and um I'm a a broker and investor myself I work with Mr bashera and Mr Neptune and you know we uh see throughout you know our day-to-day activities in and in the real estate sales of of residential property where you know parking you know in beg is known for the Texas of California right where you get more for your money compared to other Southern California cities so you know we we see the misuse of garages right that turn into man caves and storage rooms and and stuff like that so um you know we see that there's plenty of room for parking you know in in these residential homes you know um as far as the investor side you know we we we get stuck sometimes in projects where we're trying to carve and get creative to to meet the parking uh accounts and and it's at the end day it breaks up you know it messes up some deals right with the investors where they're not seeing the return because they have to eliminate certain square footage on their design right or their or their building to meet uh minimum parking standards so I'm here to uh you know support of uh moving forward with the changes as Mr Bole mentioned and I totally agree with Mr Neptune and Mr berera um I would like to see a progression here in our city as well and and and be involved with the state's uh Na demands so thank you guys very much thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor of the project seeing no one else is there anyone now who wishes to speak in opposition to the project please step to the microphone identify yourself and then proceed good evening staff and commission thanks for this meeting this evening I appreciate all your service all your hard work for our community we appreciate you dearly I just wanted to uh share a few of my thoughts regarding uh title 17 primarily in the uh I'm sorry sir to interrupt what was your name Rick catrell I'm a downtown business owner I apologize started rambling here um I just wanted to address uh some of the concerns uh that have been brought to my attention including myself regarding uh the 24th to 30th Street Corridor primarily F Street H and G um um there's a tremendous amount of medical services that are provided in those areas in conjunction with sanen Hospital uh that provide a lot of medical services for our community um I know that there's been some talk about some of the parking lots being converted maybe into uh housing or some other options but my my concern is is having those Services removed in those areas could create a real hardship for our community uh primarily mov moving uh these medical professionals into maybe the West part of the city west of 99 could create a an issue of cost could create an issue for some of our our needs for some of our community members who are on Social Security our vas our our people in low-income uh situations could create a problem for them not being able to afford uh increased uh medical costs so I just wanted to bring my concern to you guys regarding that the other issue that that I wanted to talk about was obviously there's been an address as far as um lowincome housing needs in our city um we have a lot of of open land in uh the California East Corridor Brundage East Corridor Martin Luther King Corridor for our lowincome housing needs and I think we maybe should explore those options a little bit greater um and also I wanted to address uh obviously we we we've been talking about own densities and we've been talking about uh some of those issues but in large metropolitan cities as we know a lot of these cities are building vertically and and maybe that might be something that we might want to explore as a city is to maybe see if we could start doing some more vertical building I know downtown some some people have been doing some of that work but that might help with some of the land constraints that we might have in the city and maybe that's something we should address the other thing is on the market rate housing I mean the the stock deal H Highway Corridor West has got a lot of open ground there might be some opportunities there for us to develop and to kind of meet those needs but you know when we think about developing we really need to think about the available land that we have but also how we can maximize that land and vertical building might be something we might want to consider in the city I mean we don't do a lot of it here but it might be something down the road that we might want to consider for affordability um you know for for land availability it might be something that we might want to consider um and again you know I'm not I'm not here to say I you know I don't approve of anything I'm just giving my comments and I really appreciate your guys help and and your hard work that you do for us thank you thank you Mr control is there anyone else who wishes to speak in opposition to the project please step to the microphone identify yourself and then proceed seeing no one else does any commissioner have any questions questions uh for the public on this item remember this is not a time to express any opinions on the matter it is only a time to ask questions Vice Shar care ker just a quick question um I see what um Public Works is not very well represented on the dis tonight but um Mr Neptune's question regarding um corresponding analysis of minimum Road widths particularly in res IAL Mr Johnson could you provide any information as far as how some of these new densities and new zones are making their way into City standards for details like roads sidewalks intersections well we have a circulation element which will be part of our general Plan update which is where a lot of this will be codified within uh in the meantime these some of these discussions can be one-on-one with the public works director and we can see what we can do there but again we're looking for this type of exact feedback when we get into our circulation element um revisions and amendments and then just for the the audience I know housing element is coming first what is the anticipated timeline for the circulation element update I don't have a timeline right now on the circulation element it'll be coming at our obviously our priority is the housing element to get that certified um we're also doing our land use Alternatives right now which um Mr catrell I was just looking if you go on to Bakersfield question well we did these are unrelated yeah um I just had a couple of questions to kind of fill in what was asked about Mr neptun had asked he's asked a couple of times on this discussion about floor flexibility for the zoning is that a hard-coded flexibility I think an example he had mentioned before was you know if he's one dwelling short of an R3 zone or an R4 density is that flexible or is it truly a a hard fixed floor you know we will work with Developers but I can say hcd has floor minimums or density minimums per acre that we want to follow so that way we can credit for different affordab affordability types of housing got it and and then just to confirm on the the timeline for this adoption if we make a decision today it goes to city council and two weeks for first reading two weeks after that for second reading and then 31 days later for adoption so we're about two months out is that right um tonight you will be making a recommendation to city council they will have the final decision right now that is tentatively scheduled first reading on February 29th second reading would be March 13th and it takes effect 30 days after and with um 31 days in March that would be April 12th of Friday when these ordinance revisions would go into effect got it February 28th excuse me got it and then I guess the last question was you know the discussion around if a state Bill comes out requiring electric parking and housing that would obviously be adopted within a future update right even though nothing like that exists technically today if that were a state requirement that you had to put in One charging station per house that'd be something we'd update to reflect eventually right yes um and I'll just quickly look at it our our parking standard as it's being proposed and recommended for revisions includes a statement that pursuant to government code section 658 63 02f and relevant sections of the California government code AS amended from time to time uh this reduction or I should say this elimination of parking minimums shall not reduce eliminate or preclude the enforcement of any requirement imposed on a new multif family residential to provide electric vehicle Supply equipment installed parking spaces or parking spaces that are accessible to persons with disabilities that would have otherwise applied to the development of this section in other words words um if state law comes and says you shall require it will be required uh right now if you're going to provide one parking space you will be required to provide the sufficient Ada and EV spaces also awesome thank you director Johnson commissioner Coman uh thank you chair barer Tash um I'm kind of just kind of going through here okay so uh there were some things that were raised by the Kern County policy Advocates from the Leadership Council for justice and accountability a long that's a long title but um and in the staff require staff response you proposed and I guess I'm addressing this to to Mr Johnson uh staff proposed additional amendments to title 17 have those uh been included in the in in the proposed uh ordinance change and have they been vetted by everybody that needs to vet it those excuse me those meetings that occurred with lcga and staff um those comments were residentially uh focused so it's part it would be considered part of what we're doing with this zoning ordinance update they are some of the changes that we're making are in compliance with state law a requirement of state law some of them are needed just for clarification purposes um and some of them would be to like one of the items was to add Farm labor housing in the agricultural Zone we already allow single family homes in the a zone so adding Farm labor housing to the agricultural zone is you know almost common sense um I would also note that as I Was preparing setting up here on the dis that we did receive another letter from the lcga I have not had the opportunity to review that letter um so their comments in that letter we will address with city council between now and city council okay thank you and um like the uh new MX Zone uh do you foresee that being used a lot or what is the anticipation for that zone well the anticipation for a mixed use Zone whether it's mx1 or MX2 would be to have a mix of commercial and residential um do we see do we we anticipate we at least want to provide the option for it you're doing a new zoning map is there any properties that are being zoned for that in this new map you will see that at the February 29th meeting yes there are also on the uh Mr Mr Bo's presentation he talks about uh the 10 acres for PD zone is that a minimum or what is that yes that would be to apply the PD zone um it would require a parcel or development of 10 acres or more so if we're changing the uh density uh generally the reason we do PDS is to get the higher density most of the time and so how does what how do those two work together so you're correct a lot of times we have PD zones either get higher density or more often than not it's to request a deviation from one of the development standards uh with our new zoning that we have in place some of the proposed changes will eliminate the need for PD plans to come in such as is uh Mr Neptune noted that he had a PD plan that was approved within the last 3 months uh some of those requests were for smaller Lots size red do setbacks all of which are now addressed uh and would be allowed by right so the need for a PD zone may not necessarily be required and then there's a uh a a note in there about the removal of a parking Zone what is a parking Zone and there are several areas within the city that have a P Parking Zone and one of them that everybody should probably be aware of is in front of Valley Plaza Mall and the reason for having that parking Zone there was to prevent any buildings from being constructed that would block the view of the mall that's why that one is there there's some parking zones along F Street behind some of the buildings there that are owned by parking associations uh and then T is just to provide additional parking and there some large Open Fields of parking that maybe should could be considered for even additional parking garages in the downtown F Street area so it's it's for parking only I I I don't remember from your from your spreadsheet but can those people that are in the parking business still operate in these other zones yes absolutely every those would be considered legal non-conforming so that P zone parking Zone would remain it's just that any if they wanted to develop it at a future time they would need to come in and do a Zone change so we're not removing the P Zone we're just basically preventing pzones in the future okay and to Mr Strickland's question he asked about the floors and I think that that's come up in some other dialogue uh uh before uh uh for some of the speakers for bla Neptune and and some other people I've talked to about this so the the floors are basically uh State mandated is what you're saying right or HC hcd mandated the hcd establishes minimum densities to be considered for low income and very low- income housing and and that being um if I'm not mistaken 20 dwelling units an acre is considered low income 30 dwelling units an acre is considered very low income hence we have those Zone districts with those floorers so um this is probably a question from Mr Bole but uh Mr Johnson you can answer it if you want I'm just trying to get my hand my my mind around this uh no parking requirement uh no no parking mandated it's it's expected that the developers are going to be responsible and they're going to provide some form of parking but let's just take a a typical uh uh you know 30 unit project and U there's no there's no parking requirement under the new ordinance and um currently there's uh two parking spaces per unit required a multi family with two bedroom or more in this case there would be none and let's just say let's say that the developer is reasonably responsible and goes well I can't build it without any parking but I'm going to build with one parking space per unit uh knowing that uh people have more vehicles per household than less um where do they expect the other 30 parking spaces to be if we're not going to provide any parking facilities for people and that would be up to the developer not really you're saying they don't have to provide parking so they're providing one per unit and uh so the other 30 people are going to have to park somewhere else and where's that going to be and that would be up for the developer thank you chair Johnson that's a good question Mr colan let's let's explore that okay if if in a free market Society a developer builds something 30 units and provides one parking stall per unit and I have four cars I'm probably not going to rent there that's the expectation when you allow the market to drive drive what a developer does or doesn't do and my experience um as a planner for 30 years or 25 years is that the the market the developer does a pretty good job being responsive to the market so as an example of that I'll use the the Greyhound bus station which didn't get redeveloped there's a the cost constraint there with the desire in terms of height and having to build a concrete platform um um but that but that developer uh looked at parking on that site which was going to be six floors six floors high and for some of the units um units that were interior to the site or on Lower floors only a single parking stall was provided in other cases for larger bedrooms um a prospective tenant would be allowed two parking stalls or additional stalls were allowed for individual people to um to specifically rent that stall as a part of their rental agreement in other words to monetize parking as a as a commodity in in a particular subdivision so I look at it in terms of the this step forward is to allow the market to determine how many stalls based on the product that's being offered if that developer only provides one parking stall yet targets an audience of prospective renters with only that that typically will have two cars they're going to have a an egregious vacancy rate and probably not want to do that again so when you're putting a millions of dollars into a development you want to make sure that it provides the minimum qual qualifications that you're building to so do we see do we see parking standards or do we see developments taking on situations where they're grossly underp parked we don't because there's a lot of money involved with the development of an apartment complex at the same time some of the arguments are that well we have people use their garages for for man caves and pool tables and the like and so consequently or you have three families living in a particular home and there's six cars there we don't see the the the market building additional stalls for those particular uses so there's a there's a common sense that comes into play here the developer shouldn't be required to build for the potential U misuse of a garage or the potential of Three Families occupying a single unit that's out of the realm of their conceptual understanding of how much parking would be required but a developer and I could speak to Mr Kar being one of those developers developer does measure very carefully the requirements that uh a particular project should satisfy in terms of providing for parking that said Mr Johnson used uh went in and looked at how many times someone asked for a parking reduction um because we do have zoning modifications that provide for reductions in parking over the last 20 years there were four requests for parking reduction in 20 years time because the developer understands what's required to have a successful project and part of that is provision of parking now over time if our city becomes more multimodal provides more more um high quality Transit corridors and and the need for a vehicle in the city of Bakersfield is somewhat mitigated then we may see the developer be reactive to that and provide less stalls over time but I just don't see that developer coming in and doing something that would make their project unviable like not placing any parking on a multif family lot does that answer your question thank you thank you I have no further questions is there anyone who wishes to provide a rebuttal on this item if so please be prepared to step to the podium each side will only have five minutes to speak so make sure your comments or make your comments succinctly without repeating the remarks of previous speakers to ensure that everyone wishing to provide rebuttal comment has a chance to do so uh we will have rebuttal for those in favor first anyone in opposition I will now close the public hearing on item and return to commission for comment and action you're gonna have to just Yeah by Sher thank you um uh it's exciting to see the progress made in moving towards an adoption of a revised Z zoning ordinance and um I um want to thank staff I want to thank all the uh community members that came to the various hearings the commission the council um looking at how we um adapt our standards and requirements to the needs of our community and the Mandate from our state um I I think generally I uh Mr Bole I appreciate your presentation I feel like uh a few more times I would be able to give your presentation so uh let's let's get this thing through um but I um I like some of the I like a lot of what it does I guess my my comment that would be more of a comment than a um is just your statement of leading and not following I I think that that um is a very proactive statement that changes maybe traditionally how we've looked at planning um one proposal within this this zoning modification that to me feels kind of a back step from that is taking residential out of a permitted use or out of a conditionally permitted use within a C1 and a C2 Zone I think um you could argue with this new ordinance it is more challenging for a developer of a commercial site to integrate housing than it would have been in our previous issue and if this was all began with a proactive policy to promote housing and housing creates ity I would just um I would just state that I think um preserving C1 and C2 by removing residential as an allowance feels like um taking an opportunity to create mixed in a mixed use model throughout our city and relegates it to a few zones which may appear in a few sites in the new zoning map otherwise require a developer to elect into it um um and I would just um I don't know if uh um Miss King I was just curious um if the comments made tonight are just coated in a comment format for the viewing of council or if we can add recommendations to as we move things along what's the best appropriate yes um commissioner ker you can definitely add recommendations um in addition to your recommendation of approval or denial whatever it may be and we can add those recommendations to the administrative report that goes to City Council in two weeks thank you so I mean I feel weird saying this without allowing the other Commissioners but I mean I am excited to move this along to council and again this is a legislative action so I look forward to the council our elected representatives um to make the final language and the final package of this with the note of a recommendation to to um explore language that allows residential to be a part of a commercial project within a C1 and C2 um without going through the zone change process I don't know if I can keep it vague because again this is more legislative than uh advisory but Mr Johnson I think my only follow up on that would be um exploring those options would mean without a zone change would mean either with a cup or without a cup is there a pre to throw to have discretion or to have no discretion um well and that would be a question for staff because I know part of um the mandates from hcd are to kind of remove discretionary review and streamline housing as a by right and so to me I I would lean on staff and our elected officials to um I think the conditional process works as we currently have it um um but I would ask your question with a question do you feel like the conditional use is a gives the city the review tools that it needs moving forward for residential in commercial if I had to answer right now I would say a cup does not because once you grant that cup and the residential is constructed on that commercial site to revoke a cup would not would not happen and so with that change because I I do think the language has changed a lot I mean I I would I would recommend um wording that allows a percentage of the project to be comprised of residential while keeping at least part of the site a commercial nature and character without having to go to that zone change I understand is that make sense yeah yes that would be my only comment otherwise thank you um again for the present presentation and I will U and I will make a motion to approve uh staff's recommendation and with that recommendation is that the right an additional recommendation additional recommendation regarding C1 and [Music] C2 commissioner sherland I just had a question to tie on to that uh how is that different than an mx1 MX2 Zone isn't that kind of the intention of those ises that allow for mixed use residential it does allow but um to to to change Zone you're required to go through a zone change and a Zone Amendment and so it's just a more arduous process I do I do think you know another Explorer is how how do we allow developers to move more freely between the mixed juice and the C1 and the C2 um it just comes back to me the concept of leading versus following is we have a a path to it but it's a more difficult path so if we already allow a simpler path taking that away feels going away from housing not towards housing yeah yeah and I I just wanted to thank all the staff and director Bo especially for all the work they've put into this um thanks for the comments and support and especially in opposition thanks for coming out Mr Katrell uh you know it's not always easy to talk in opposition when everyone else in here is probably super on board with this so hopefully you do reach out to director Johnson the city for what they were talking about I think that's super helpful um and I'm going to withhold a motion until director or commission chance uh thank you chair B Sher Tash um yeah I I want I want to reiterate the the appreciation for the for the whole project I mean this is a very very complicated thing and uh I like the way it's presented and you know the graphic format and it's a lot easier to read than the multiple other ordinances we had for the to deal with the same thing so i' like all that the simplification I know it was a hard uh project to get done in a short amount of time so I want to I want to thank you Mr Bole and your staff and the planning staff for for doing that um I am a little concerned about this rush to approve and uh you know we're it was said last time that uh that we heard this presentation and again tonight uh that you know we're not in compliance and you know if we don't approve it we'll be continue to be out of compliance and may uh see suffer some penalty um I'm a little concerned about have that being on that burden on us uh when you we didn't even hear this presentation until after after the first of the year so uh that that concerns me a lot and I know that we need to work together as a city to to catch up with some of the shortcomings from before but I I'm troubled by that somewhat um I am still hung up on this parking thing and uh uh Mr Bole gave an example of how uh a developer might solve the problem when I proposed a uh an example or a scenario but I I think that that's it doesn't really address how people behave and what what I'm concerned about is uh we have a residential development uh and then we have another lot next to it which is a 30 or 40 unit apartment building and if they have don't have adequate parking the people are going to park on the residential streets in the residential neighborhood and we're already already cutting back on parking in the residential neighborhood and so I I've heard this said before that that you know well the Market's going to take care of it well this assumes that developers will do uh more than what's expected and what's required and that is not generally our what we're seeing when the projects come to the pl to the complaining commission you and and some of the people that are here tonight you know they bring in projects that are the minimum just like this is the minimum that's required that's what we're doing uh we heard from Mr uh Mr Moore uh you know complaints about the misuse of the garages and then the developers looking at the return on investment and so they're looking to cut those spots and I get that but you can't assume that people aren't going to be there parking more Vehicles you know it's not one one vehicle per household anymore it's two three four vehicles per household and those Vehicles aren't going to disappear just because you'd like it to and so I I'm I'm still very concerned about that um I think it's irresponsible to have to get rid of uh all residential parking requirements that we don't have a comprehensive parking plan in the city of Bakersville we have no plan to build parking garages or convert you know some property for parking for uh we have none of that we don't have the the the uh the Mass Transit Transit infrastructure that that that you would need to have to do that and I know there's plans to get that kind of stuff but that's a 20 or 30 year plan so I'm a little concerned about that you know all the stuff that I read from the state that addesses addesses the parking issue and the you know they they talk about you know abolishing parking requirements whatever all referred Urban parking and uh you know Urban is a very small part of the city of Bakersville at this point and uh most of it suburban and so I'd like to see us have some if we want to single out some zones or uh you know uh set aside areas uh that uh that we can do that I I just struggle with that and and I don't know that I can support that with no parking requirement for all residential uh zones I think that you know you heard from the home bus Association of Kern County they express some interest I interest with some concerns although they're supportive of the project a as a whole I think they have some of the same concerns in our more Suburban areas you know so if we want to do something in the downtown uh uh that makes sense that's great but to uh to then transfer that out into the Suburban Suburbia uh I struggle with so I have some other issues but I won't get into all those because I think I'm just droning on now so um anyway back to thank you very much Mr Bole and your staff for the truly hard project and and and making it as clear as possible for us so thank you so anyway I wanted to say uh I don't know if we can uh if we can have some dialogue about the uh the parking issue and whether that's a concern to any other uh commissioners yeah personally for me I I don't have a hang up on it I I I I I agree I think in Suburban areas I don't see not building a two-car garage and you know even 6,000 foot Lots I I don't see that not happening downtown I think you probably would see some reduction in parking eventually but I do have at least a little faith that the developers would do something sensical and I also don't think it's going to be something so quickly that we don't have time to work on that development plan for parking and for um other options so I I personally don't have an issue with the parking standard as written I I was thinking the same thing and and I go back and forth a little bit too but I just think if a map set comes to the Planning Commission and they're looking to create this giant new uh residential parking or uh apartment situation in the middle of a neighborhood with no parking I would hope that the planning Commissioners would be able to look at that just like we are today today and say Hey you know this is probably going to muck up the neighborhood pretty bad because these people are all going to park in those those neighborhoods around um that or but I you know I yeah I don't yeah I I I think think my concern is we're not going to see those you know a lot of it's going to be permitted by use by right what I think this oh sorry I do think you know one statement when we talked about a couple weeks ago is Big Move like this takes it's it's in the details of whether it works or not and so for me I do think some of the questions you know is a city going to be more accountable to systemwide study of cars and movement in the city are we going to be able to analyze impacted neighborhoods versus non-impacted neighborhoods I mean to me I think um the city and the developer are Partners in working through what's best for the community so are we still going to be a resource for recommended practices even if we're not requ requiring you know just I think that to me it's just making sure that the city isn't we made the statement now we're done but if we're going to change the way we do things it needs to be it needs to be yeah fully vetted so does the circulation element cover parking is that one of the elements of the circulation element it doesn't necessarily cover parking it Rec it cover parking it's right correct and and I would urge developers um Commissioners any member of the public that has an interest in circulation throughout the city whether it's be be on arterial or collector or local or even private road that they get involved in that um we you know we've done a lot of Outreach with our general Plan update and to be honest some of the feedback we receive is not as much as you would expect from a city this size and so circulation is going to be a big part of this update and it's how the city grows and we will need involvement with the circulation element of the city whether that's reducing Road widths or whatnot looking for more comment or a second to Mr Ker's motion I will second Mr Ker's motion so what is Mr Ker's motion Mr Ker's motion is to approve the text amendments to Bakersfield Municipal Code title 17 as revised with recommend ation for options to allow residential in the C1 and C2 Zone and recommend the same to city council and within that report that we give to city council uh I will summarize um like the percentage we're talking about making it uh potentially different options whether it's by right if you have a certain percentage residential versus a certain percentage commercial I believe that's where you were going commissioner cater well yeah I think there yeah there's an objective way there's a discretionary review way so whatever staff feels is most appropriate moving forward and we will present that to city council but if I'm not mistaken that would be your recomend or your motion good job I think it it captures it well thank you Mr Johnson so now we'll vote motion pass classes with Commissioners Biddle core and Neil absent Madame clerk next item please agenda item seven reports so we have two reports to give tonight um our first one will be by our planning commissioner Larry Coleman on the league of California cities I believe you should have a handout of his slides also that you can follow along and take notes oh sir yeah okay so uh hello uh chair B Bach and Commissioners uh can you hear me on this microphone I can't hear myself so this working all right great thank you uh I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to the league of California cities uh I know that some of you are familiar with them some are you are not um so I I wanted to uh take a minute to uh just introduce League of cities what is League of cities about and League of California cities uh and uh and how it affects us as Planet Commissioners so um I just kind of wanted to provide an overview of the California City's structure uh the department structure on the role in California cities uh how uh we can be uh more engaged and how that relates to the to the planning department uh currently uh I serve on the planning and Community Development Department committee with the league of California cities I'm second vice president and I'm also uh the department rep uh for the community services policy committee and what that committee does is it makes recommendations uh to the league of California cities that eventually will uh transpire to legislative recommendations and those kind of things and what the leak supports and what it doesn't support uh the the mission of California California cities is to expand and protect local control for cities through education and advocacy to enhance quality of life for all Californians um this is kind of why California why Cal cities is important uh and then we're talk about why you should be involved um it's it's it's very important to bring all the communities together and share all the ideas that the various cities have and to have one voice in dealing with the state and other issues that come up in 2024 the uh Cal City's priorities are to protect and expand Investments to prevent and reduce homelessness uh you know we've all heard about budget cuts and so far we're most of that Homeless money is protected at least for this year and the Cal cities will a league of cities will continue to uh to Advocate on behalf of keeping that money flowing uh to keep the programs up that we've created over the last couple years uh to increase the supply and affordability of housing while retaining local decisionmaking you know Mr Bole showed you on this slide of all the different laws that were passed in one fiscal year and that legislature just keeps turnning them out and 20123 was probably just as bad as 2022 uh and so it's a constant battle to maintain our local decisionmaking uh rights and even when we talk to people in large cities they even say hey we want to be we want to decide for ourselves and they understand that what works in Bakersfield does work in their community and vice versa and so we want to try to uh protect local decision-making as much as possible also to improve Public Safety in California Community it's a big priority um you know we we're all faced with uh rampant crime and uh violence in our communities that we've never experienced before and so we want to continue to Advocate uh for uh additional protection and and money to solve some of these problems and to safeguard essential local revenues and support fiscal sustainability I can't say that word quickly but fiscal sustainability uh you know we've all seen it where the state comes around and uh uh tries to get money that we normally get for ourselves we all saw the Redevelopment agencies go away uh because we had figured out a way to fund a lot of our Redevelopment through future growth we would say uh we would be able to keep you know the uh property tax uh increase we'd be able to keep that and use that for future development well the state come in oh there's a big pot of money we'll take that away and so we're the league of California city has worked very hard to try to protect uh the individual cities and communities and keep keep our money where where we need it it's a little bit about the internal structure of California cities and I apologize that the slide is so small it looked real big on my screen in my office when I was doing this so it's been about 20 years since I had to do a PowerPoint presentation so I uh I had to relearn how to make some of these things so basically Cal cities has six internal departments uh legislative islative which is the biggest one administrative Services uh public affairs uh Communications education conferences and general counsel uh we're probably as Commissioners most familiar with the education and conferences in terms of our planning acmis that occur uh from time to time uh but there's about 60 Cal City staff and then there's countless other volunteers board members and and uh committee the uh this a little graphic I figured need to have a graph so that's what they told me so uh so anyway these committees all work together legislative has seven policy committees and I mentioned earlier that I serve on one of those which is community services which is uh you know police and fire and Aging Services and those kind of things there's other other uh other committees that address the entire Spectrum of things that the cities and the counties are concerned about uh there's one for the police and there's one for firefighters and there's several uh so the the one that mostly pertains to us is the planning and Community Development Department and the the planning and Community Development Department supports uh our the planners basically uh planning Commissioners and community development professionals or member cities um Department host business meetings so it's a way for them to share best practices uh we have webinars uh and monthly uh meetings that are open to anybody that's uh that's serves in a official capacity so you don't have to become a member of the league of cities to be able to do that you justed have to be say hey I'm a planning commissioner in b fille and you can sign up and and get on that uh and a lot happens in those uh you know it's mostly informative you get a legislative update uh what's going on currently what's the new bills coming up one of the big ones they're starting to talk about now is we went through the whole adus right well now they're looking at cdus commercial uh yeah commercial I don't know exactly how to say that yeah yeah thank you so there's no legislation yet but it's being talked about and so um so so we get to talk about these things before they become laws sometimes and you can kind of see them see them coming and and and respond to them uh one of the ones we talked about today was electric fence requirements didn't know there was a didn't know there was a requirement on it but apparently uh there is and uh they're trying to now uh say when and when we can't control the use of electric fences and primarily they want to be able to approve uh electric fenes around commercial industrial properties and and those kind of things it's being it's being promoted by the electric fence industry but but uh they're getting a little bit of traction from the state legislator uh to uh allow some of that by right and and take away some of the control of the city to say nah not in that application so but the point is is that when you're able to participate in these discussions early on it gives us a chance to know about them and it gives us to a chance to voice our concerns through the league of California cities but also gives you guys an opportunity to then go talk to your representatives about your concerns about those things some of the benefits that are available to you is a subscription to the Western cities magazine uh which is a newsletter uh put on by the California City's Advocate it's actually not a handout newsletter anymore it's an online deal uh uh access to the Cal City Department list serve and that's what I was talking about in terms of a basically a Bolton board where people can share best practices because a planning director from one Community might say hey we're uh going to be putting out an RFP for a specific thing and does anybody have an example of how that should work and so it allows them to to share best practices um and then you the opportunity to 10 exclusive Cal cities webinars and roundtables and uh one of the ones that we're going to be coming up with they are going to be coming up with in the next year is uh Council on Aging you know our population in California is Aging in a big hurry you know I'm right there with him but uh uh there's a lot of concerns about services and uh monies and those kind of things for aging so there's a lot of uh things to know about and learn this kind of a little road map to how you can get involved and I'm sorry again for the size of the slide I said it looked great on my on my monitor at the office but uh basically uh you can uh get involved at any level you want if you just want to attend uh monthly conference calls uh you know right up to participation in uh in uh policy committees uh up to serving on uh the various boards in the league of California cities uh I was supposed to add a link in here for the list serve and I I failed to do that but I'll go ahead and email you guys uh uh that link if you want to get on the list there some of you may already be on it but I'll send it to you anyway uh this is some ways that members can engage in the process you we talked about the round taes the webinar webinars and just general discussions it gives an opportunity for planning Commissioners and planning staff to be able to talk about various things in different communities and learn that you know we're all a lot the same and we're all a lot different so uh I found that to be very educational to me this is what you guys mostly know the league of cities for is the planning commissioner Academy and uh we have one coming up you should all have a package on your desk provided by Mr Johnson and his staff uh which is your reservation to your hotel and uh and a little bit of the agenda for what's going to be happening uh dates are March 6 to the eth and I think we just discussed earlier you can check in on the 5th and uh it's a if those of you haven't been before uh it's very very educational the first few years I was on the Planning Commission we didn't have that and we're like man I like and then all of a sudden we got measure in money and we were able to then start going to this and I was like my God this is what we needed because a lot of what goes on there really applies to you and I'm looking more more of you but I know you guys have been maybe been before but um but I I just kind of wanted to talk a little bit about what to expect at the planet Commissioners academy uh this year we're changing it up a little bit on the speaker last year we had berky Brown uh he's talking about as a keynote speaker he was talking about navigating change without losing focus and I think we came away with a sense that great presentation great speaker but didn't have much to do with what we're there for and so this year we uh we're inv inviting Sher Elise she's uh she called herself the America's Joy magnet she's a TV talk show host and motivational speaker and mostly she's going to talk about uh the joy in being wrong and embracing the power of A New Perspective and this is something that's important for for us because uh you know you saw right here in this pres we don't always get our way right and so we have to be able to uh you know communicate and we need have to be able to uh uh make our point and still uh conduct our business and let it go at the end um you know we we don't need to have ongoing uh uh feuds I I use this as example this happened at the city council uh a few years ago when we talked about the navigation Center the navigation Center on Brundage Lane was very controversial and there was a lot of back and forth and uh about as many people wanted it as didn't want it and the council really had a tough decision to make and some of the significant Council people they voted against that and the other ones voted for it and it passed by a narrow margin uh what I was impressed by by is although they were divided the very next issue on the agenda was financing money to fix the roads and do the improvements and everything else that was needed over there and that passed unanimously because they moved on from the dispute over whether we're doing it or not and then got together on let's okay we've improved that now we're going to move forward and I think that's the real important that that we need to be able to uh accept that maybe we weren't wrong but but uh maybe the group went the different way and so we think that she's going to be able to contribute a lot to that discussion I think she'll be very entertaining and then of course the key components of the uh planning commissioner Academy are all the classes that are available to us and again this year we'll have a squa basic class uh we have a program on managing public meetings in a contentious uh era uh we'll have a class on plan this is a planning commissioner Academy so it'll be nuts and bolts of planning right from the beginning and then uh some emerging issues and of course a network recept networking reception at the end um at some point I'm a moderator of one of these things I'm going to have to read the agenda because I I got to make sure I show up the right place I'm not known for moderation so so so uh that'll be interesting challenge for me and uh I'm sure miss King will be there to make sure I don't say anything inappropriate so uh so then uh the next day was a whole day of programs uh how is the streamlining of housing laws redefine the role of Planning Commission and I think that's we we all have the same question is all these State mandated laws what's the point of us right and so uh there'll be some more discuss discussion about that I think it's going to be worthwhile for everybody uh and then the relationships between Planning Commission city council and planning staff uh we don't really talk about that very often but what is that how is that Dynamic and how do we maintain it this this commission seems to get along pretty well with staff but I've worked with other communities where uh staff and commission don't always see eye to eye I actually had a I tell the story it's been a long enough AG go long enough ago that those people aren't still there but in a community in Northern California I we actually had a small little development of 30 or 40 uh single family lots and it was a difficult fit and they made us get rid of some and that kind of thing and and we just couldn't get past planning staff every time we PR to present some of the planning staff they'd have some obstacle that we we had to get hurly had to get over and and uh we uh eventually said okay this is our best plan submit it uh it'll either get denied or it'll get approved but this is the one we want to submit and they sub we they submitted it and went to the Planning Commission planning staff objected to it Planning Commission approved it anyway we're like Hey we're golden right well you know like our projects once the Planning Commission rules uh goes to city council for ratification and here pretty much is rubber stamp most of the time well there planning staff showed up and objected to the plan right and so we're like well you know who's driving the boat you know is it the commission or the staff or city council or what so anyway uh how how does how do the Commissioners and the councel and the staff work together uh to accomplish the things we're trying to do so I think that's worth talking about and of course an advanced program for unqua for the people that have have a little bit of exposure to it little planning commissioner Jeopardy which we had last year was a lot of fun it was done in a Jeopardy kind of format uh during the lunch hour it was it's really a fun thing to do a lot of little team building kind of thing and then uh again becoming an effective commissioner uh and then some other items regarding uh how to be a planet commissioner and so uh uh I just want to make a mention actually all the women Commissioners are absent so uh I was making an O I was making an observation about uh on the Friday that uh we have a legislative update which is very good because it goes through all the pending legislation and where they're at what stuff and that kind of thing but uh the closing remarks are going to be done by Anita Gutierrez from the City of Pomona she's uh she's she's the I'm sorry she's the uh VP she's the first VP of the Planning Development Department she's also the planning Community Development Department director of development services and acting city manager of Pomona and she's a PhD candidate like like much like our our uh former assistant Miss Gale uh so I was like that's just pretty Dynamic and she's a very good speaker too so that would be fun to hear from her so uh and then of course our training opportunities that we always have there's one at the beginning and one at the end um which is the uh the ethics uh and the harassment training uh the ethics is required uh every two years I'm sorry yeah every two years and so I'm going to have to do that this year because my two years are up so I'll be attending that one on the Wednesday morning and then there's also the harassment training uh available in in at the end of the program so that can that kind of just summarizes what's going on at the Academy and it just gave me an opportunity to come up and talk to you about the league of California cities and I was hope that you guys will take the opportunity to explore uh what the league of cities can do for you and uh what you can do for the league of cities so thank you very much do you have any questions for me okay thank you right thank you commissioner Coleman and I'd like to thank uh Miss cise for preparing those packets for you um if you just go through them if you have any questions be sure to reach out to myself or miss sise our next item that we have was a request from your commission for a presentation on the transformative climate communities or TCC Plan and there's no one better than Jason Kar our economic and Community Development manager to present that I would would also note that I believe one of his slides there'll be a picture of a great mixed use project the Baker Street Village I believe that's in there um that's a that's a great mixed use project that was approved um within this last year or so back in July yep yes absolutely Mr ker thank you well good evening Commissioners uh as uh director Johnson mentioned uh my name is Jason Kar I work in the economic and Community Development Department with the city of Bakersfield I'm glad to be back here I think I was back here before your commission about two years ago when we uh had early discussions about the affordable housing strategy and so uh always good when our department can come to uh develop Services who generally runs these these means around Design Concepts and talk about the work we do so uh as a referral to our department we're here to provide an update on the TCC program we were recently recommended for funding uh also known as Southeast strong so we'll talk about the name and some of the components of the work that we did there so as a background you may have heard this acronym if you followed some of the work we're doing what is does TCC stand for as director Johnson mentioned TCC is an acronym for transformative climate communities uh it is a program that is focused on community-led development that seeks to support communities in achieving environmental health and economic impacts with a Target on focusing their investments in some of the most disadvantaged parts of the State of California we'll talk about what that methodology means but in short it's basically a grant program similar to as commissioner colan talked earlier about the RDA days uh a way to really invest some significant funding in areas that are distressed and disadvantaged and so uh the model they use is to really focus on this community-led partnership driven model where where applicants partner with local residents Community entities cbos uh to kind of build this vision for what they want to see this community look like and then go after dollars to implement those programs uh the program has been around for about seven years now is passed under AB 2722 and has three different funding components so it really is a Continuum program you can get involved in uh first they fund planning grants so that is a a methodology for kind of starting the framework for going after TCC funding identifying Partners potential projects eligible uses uh who are some different programmatic pieces you can bring in to kind of bring this this cohesion the new model project development grants so there's a lot of upfront work to get these projects from concept to being ready for Grant application a lot of the work we do in our department is really going after the dollars for some of the policies that you all see here uh the affordable housing world that director Bo vment talked about earlier is very familiar to us on the capital side we work consistently with Stephen pels and the housing authority and other affordable housing developers to kind of bring those projects to fruition and then lastly the largest piece of of TCC implementation grants where you actually get Capital funding to actually build out some of these proposed projects for improvements in these communities um TCC has a framework that's generally revolves around pollution reduction strategies reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their Investments So within this list here you can see 11 different project strategies that they'll fund so uh just kind of going over a few highlights briefly the top item there uh which director Johnson mentioned about the senior center uh project we'll we'll we'll show you today um Equitable housing so focusing on affordable housing development in a sense commissioner com I know you have RDA experience Gap financing to help those projects um opportunities for Transit access and Mobility so bike lane pedestrian improvements also uh Mobility enhancements things like car share programs uh electrification of of local Fleet buses Urban Greening so looking at tree planting Community Gardens uh even down to newer things like Community micro grids where you help uh with energy resiliency for like community service facilities by doing um solar improvements behind the meter if you will um so there's a lot of different ways you can and fund really impacts in the community uh with these dollars so we uh in addition to that that there's this piece called transformative elements so you have your projects then you also have uh Community engagement investments in Workforce leverage funding uh this source does require a 50% match so if you're going for $35 million you need $17 half million to to leverage it um that's that's where a lot of the time actually takes to prepare one of these applications and then also things like um data collection collection how do you tell your story and the impact you've made then also how does it relate to uh greenhouse gas G emission reductions and climate adaptation so where did the city start and where where did we end up and how where are we going is kind of the question we want to talk about tonight so in 2019 as you mentioned earlier about the planning grant funding we received a planning Grant from TCC to begin this process of getting geared up ultimately for implementation funds in development we began with the area you see here the red outline uh under programmatic requirements you have to to identify a 5 square mile area as your investment um there's also census track requirements so again back to our conversation earlier about the policy of the program investing in the most disadvantaged impacted um census tracks in the state of California they use a tool called Ken viral screen which is this really complicated system that has 13 different metrics that they assign scores to based on like income level uh pollution burden Health outcomes and then all these sensus tracks are scored against each other and then signed a percentile of how like impacted they are on these metrics uh within TCC you have to focus on the top 75% of those tracks and so that's how these Maps kind of come together also things like having a Nexus to highspeed rail if you're a highspeed rail City uh is part of how you build out this planning Grant application so we started in 2019 you see the name revitalizing downtown Bakersfield uh there's some emphasis early on about looking at downtown Oldtown and starting to look in the Southeast um as we we went through this process that name started to devolve from 2019 to 2022 the name was building a better Baker Feld and this process from the Geto was really informed with residents involvement stakeholder engagement a lot of the comments we were hearing early on was about focusing in uh the most impacted census tracks for c bar a lot of the community members we heard from were really emphasizing the southeast and that was something we kept hearing kept hearing um this application was submitted you can see here on the left a map that kind of focused in downtown and started to go into Southeast where you see California and Chester kind of beginning with the concept of going again in round five for a a more focused map uh in in the Southeast um and then here were some of those initial projects uh that round was not funded by TCC and so we went you know round one did not succeed in 20122 got some comments back generally low GH scores um but a lot of it also around stakeholder engagement in process and how are you really building an image uh excuse me a a blueprint for Community transform transformative change uh and how are residents involved in this decision process and so uh that was kind of what we took back as a team we regeared up for round five and so that began back in January 2023 so about 13 months ago uh we reconvened about 34 different individuals consisting of nonprofits government Partners residents to kind of look at what we have done so so far in those last four years and evaluate preparing for round five in this upcoming application uh and from that we began hosting monthly steering committee so for those who can see that photo there may recognize that's the begar senior center on Fourth and P Street that became our meeting space for these these residents these nonprofits government officials to start really working around forming projects forming programs to go after these dollars this group again uh again meeting monthly near the end B monly they became the guiding process for our voting selection process for projects working on those Transformer elements they became the foundation of the stakeholder oversight group and then also were the ones who were instrumental in community engagement and beyond that process um through this process this has definitely been a process for the city uh we rebranded from building a better bigger so to Southeast strong uh the name of the application came from the residents that we engag and we said okay we're going to focus this effort in the Southeast uh what's the name that we should pick for this application uh Southeast strong was what came from the residents and it really became kind of a it really had a lot of impact um it really became something that we really gathered around uh and saw as instrumental for what we as a city were going to hope to achieve but what residents really felt these funds could do uh we came up with the acronym sustainable transformative resilient opportunity Network and growth so that was the strong that came with Southeast but then also really felt that this really inv embodied uh this community sense of resiliency despite some of the challenges that Southeast Baker sold has continued to focus to face over the years uh and so from there we took this work we've went on like a three or four month process beginning in March to to May uh we hosted five inperson meetings six online meetings went to 15 community events that included churches Festival meeting with Community groups uh hosted our own Festival we we in total went to about 28 different locations and most of those were places where people were already Gathering our goal with this program was to get into the fabric of the community and really hear from residents about what they thought were their priorities in these projects um so you we're going to f through some photos but you can see everything from your upper left screen that's a meeting we held at MLK Boulevard uh excuse me MK Park to to leafleting at food donations and giveaways to meetings at the senior center to uh presenting at churches on Sunday having both literally having voting opportunities outside of churches where pastors let us come in and talk to their their congregation uh the photo on the second to the the right is one of my favorites that's at uh Stern Park where they do Zumba Thursdays and Tuesdays in the park so after they did their Zumba routine uh we had our boards up and we got their votes and their input on community development but that was really the level of this this effort we wanted to go and and and you know while we always appreciate hearing from those who are really active in our processes we wanted to go to the fabric where people were in the community and get their Insight um and this is as I'm going to Echo commissioner Coleman's statement earlier this looked great on my computer earlier it's a little hard now as we look at it um but we came up with a list of 23 projects and asked people to give us their top six priorities there was a rank score and then you can see there those products that they voted on ultimately became what informed our application um earlier going from projects you can see this map here so if we flip back briefly um what I think this program had a great success in is earlier Applications had a a map that we drew as a city saying here's how we think you know this is our concept to begin with but when it came to application time you have that map kind of in your in your mind uh we we took What the residents voted on and basically redrew a map uh that really had some of those key components but then really shifted to incorporate other areas for example there was really a discussion about Southeast Baker sold also incorporating the areas along uh South Dr Mar King Boulevard so going out towards the capc friendship house so uh we stay within city limits for program guidelines and kind of the structure of the application but found a way to shift some of that that area from up North down to really get into these communities um we had to keep the finger at a highspeed rail as a statutory requirement for the city we are um and in this Focus what we found was uh that kind of Center area there that has a black hash around it was kind of like the core of the application uh going back to this the Cen viral screen scoring top 75% of census tracks we found that in this area six of the top six of the 10 census tracks from the top 95% in the state for impact uh and the core which is that little black hash area there's three sensus tracks in there and those are all in the 998th to 99th percentile and so this was a very impacted Community per Cirus screen and consistent with the the focus that the uh State of California wanted for these dollars so this map again harder to read but kind of shows you how you know the the numbers you see here and the dots represent project locations and ideas real big Synergy in Nexus around fourth and P Street where the senior center is also Investments going in towards Dr Mo King Park and Dr M King Boulevard uh and so this this program when it came down to it um took the program took the dollars and took the area and really focused in based on what we heard um from residents some of the concepts that you'll see in this application uh we looked at m park so there you you've all probably heard there's a massive um redesign going on right now and Investments uh campaign for rebuilding MLK Park uh we have a little bit of funding for the tree lining in that Corridor as part of TCC um but that's going to be our contribution to the right there there's safe routes to school improvements around five different School sites besti Owens uh McKinley uh Vista uh Lincoln and Emerson and so we have things like striping sidewalk gaps um out there what's going of highlight in that box is a hawk signal proposed out in front of um Emerson McKinley in that crossing their l park on the bottom left there as as director Johnson mentioned uh kind of the Pinnacle of transformation we are working with the housing authority and the biger shield Senior Center to rebuild the existing Senior Center at 534 Street which is a building that is probably well over 50 years old at this point and needs to be rebuilt um to rebuild a senior center on the bottom two floors and then do senior housing on top so really would be a community Center and focal point for the area and then looking at some of the corridor improvements so to the right there is a concept for uh redeveloping the the corridor along MLK Boulevard from California Avenue down to Brundage Lane so looking at things like like tree linecap treescaping uh sidewalk improvements Crossings and also looking at bike treatment facilities there where you see uh the bike lane near the street and then some hashing that kind of protect between cars and bicyclists um in total this is kind of our impact summary so TCC uh will fund uh in its current proposal we're looking at 52 uh new units of affordable housing those are all senior units senior units excuse me uh we are also going to be working with a group called miocar to launch a uh car share program which will have its first Hub at the senior center so the seniors will have access to a reduce fee or voucher fee program for uh car sharing we are looking to plant about 915 trees in the area about 1424 solar panels means installed through a a program that's being collaborated by with kccd Kent Comm College District grid Alternatives and cap K to do energy weatherization as well as solar installation for homeowners uh we're going to be looking at and putting two Community Gardens one in a property owned by Dr nor King Boulevard as well as one at the senior center site we're looking at approximately four miles of connected bikeways and sidewalk improvements between Chester War Street and and MLK Boulevard uh rebuilding the senior center and then also looking at developing some um vacant Lots in the area as commissioner Coman I think it was actually Mr catrell mentioned earlier about MLK and the vacant property that's something we're very interested into in seeing is that Redevelopment in those areas and there's a ton of infill lots habitat will be working with us to try and build some of those lots for home ownership opportunities uh in total Southeast strong program will have about 17 Partners which are coming from education to you know traditional affordable housing developers like the housing authority to Community Based organizations uh to groups who focus on solar installation we have a really broad network of partners that are going to be involved in this work and that's the thing that I think is most exciting but then also is a good model for how we can make some transformative impacts in these in these areas uh there are some of the the logos of our partners you can see current Housing Authority College District uh the Black Chamber gbla uh the senior center vccdc among others so as a result of this work we submitted back in August uh in December we were rewarded $22 million to implement the program our initial ask was 295 so we are right now working through a post awward consultation process to reduce some Scopes and also look for other sourcing to kind of Gap fill What's um what's you know could be pulled out for other resources but uh where we are today so we're in the middle of a six to n month process yes it takes that long to go through post of War consultation with this grant there's a lot in it um we'll have 5 years to implement these projects once we sign that Grant agreement so we're probably looking at the summer of 2024 we'll have till summer of 2029 to finish out these projects right now we're working to reduce our scope from $29.5 million to 22125 million um but also simultaneously uh with the backing of growth council with a consultant as well as our own Grant team taking some of those products that will be reduced or scaled out of TCC and then preparing them for a program called uh the community change grant program which the EPA is currently funding which is essentially a copycat in some way of TCC it was staff from SGC actually many who were involved in setting that program up we're now involved at Federal level and getting funding for this program um so we're looking at going after another 10 to20 million to Gap that but also add to the dollars that we received um and that application will be submitted in March so uh I think with that that concludes my presentation I'll just say on behalf of our team we're excited for this program we think it's a great model uh for the community level change that that we're looking to do in in ecd uh we think this is really the the collaboration the model that was built on the back of community engagement uh through our process I we think we talked to over a thousand people from planning process to now and that's not an exaggeration that we had 360 people vote on projects hundreds vote on the elements people go to our festivals our events part of the early planning process we think we've arrived at a at a really transformative model for investment but then also on our team side the really the social cohesion we have and the trust with some Community Partners uh was really key for getting these These funds secured and key for our work going forward so and with that I'll open for [Music] questions am I all right thank you Mr kater uh you're welcome Mr kater no I just wanted to say huge congratulations I think um the effort and what was achieved to me is beyond inspirational you know I I think um you said a very apt statement in that we typically encounter and engage with people that already feel engaged and already feel included in the process and to me um the disenfranchise nature of Southeast Bakersfield has been a sore spot in the city for a long time and to be able to build Community Partners provide real investment um real opportunity uh improvements as simple as safe Crossings to streets into new community centers um is just such an exciting thing to see happen in such a such a a strong community and so um I I know your department um didn't really exist as recent as was it Economic Development was only really in its fifth sixth year how many year not yeah so we were uh a subset of development services about three years ago I want to say we became our own department but I think you know I think it's such the the program the project the um consensus building to me is just such an encouragement in the The Importance in in advocating for ourselves investing in ourselves and um really finding ways thoughtful engaging ways to to bring our population um to be better represented in our in our city so thank you so much for your work and uh I'm just so excited to see um all the projects come to fruition thank you U two questions um do you put that map back up again with the projects on the map yeah yeah you had a you had project area and you had a gray line between it oh I got to put yeah I just had a a that yeah the last one it shows the project yeah so there's photos coming uh two there one yeah so you had uh you had the project line boundaries in red then you talked about the gray dotted line area can you can you explain that again yeah so so we early in the process we we um we we didn't have a boundary identified going to round five one of the lessons we learned was to let the projects just kind of draw where we're going to focus our projects but one thing we did kind of agree on when we started no matter what was that that about 2 and a half square m area was going to be like the core of the application um and so what that really became was just kind of a a core Focus point of however we end up drawing the five square miles you know finger this way um that way uh that core was going to be a big part of our application um and so if you look at the projects now the way the voting came down and the products are that that core box there I mean really it's it's so it's Chester Avenue over to the railroad tracks just east of MLK Boulevard um California Avenue down to Brundage so that's kind of the the area there um and I would say you know most if not all of the the like set funding projects are in that core uh there are some things like safe routes there's some stuff that's outside the area um and then also some of the solar programs are going to be through for residents throughout the area but that core which is also on Cirus screen some of the those disadvantaged sensus tracks in the state in the 998th 99th percenti uh that's where a significant number of our dollars are going to be invested into so it's more of a Target area than a than a limiting a limitation right correct it was in many ways I would say it was a agreed upon consensus kind of area that we wanted to at least have as a a major focus in the effort okay and just kind of there for highlighting like where the core of the impacts are going to be seen can you share a contact phone number so that we can call and uh talk to you about other projects maybe in that area sure sure I I can provide that to you okay okay thank you absolutely I can give you his a personal [Laughter] address anyway I wanted to thank you there was a long period of time where we didn't have any Economic Development going on after Governor Brown took away all the money uh it was just kind of left up in the air it was some uh some interested parties that were supposed to divy up the projects and I'm not exactly sure whatever became of that uh but uh I'm really glad to see uh the economic development department back uh with new projects and new resources to get those projects done and so uh you know thank you for your work on that because it's very Echo commissioner cater that one area that you got in the little gray box area is really underserved uh you know the north of California Avenue is a little better but that area south of California Avenue down about BR Lane yeah so I'm glad to see you guys focusing on that so thank you very much thank you I have no further question thank you so much thank you Adam clerk next item please agenda item 8 Communications does staff have communication items yes so jumping ahead and kind of staying on this topic with commissioner Coleman is the March 7th meeting regular scheduled meeting will be cancelled um for attendance to the planning Commissioners academy uh staff attending you have the two gentlemen in the back they'll be attending with you and with that I did send out an email last week we will have a special meeting on February 29th um we will be considering some some projects on that that uh we would request uh your attendance um and again some of these may be controversial from the past uh so if you have questions as you're reading through the information um please let me know does that mean that you're not going by pointing out this to no actually I'll be driving them okay just wanted to make sure Madam clerk next item please agenda item nine commission comments Madam clerk next item please agenda item 10 adjournment this meeting is adjourned at 7:45 p.m. February the 15th in the year of [Music] 2024 [Music] he [Music] [Music] come