for [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] on [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening I just want to make a quick announcement we are waiting for a fourth commissioner to show up so that we can have quorum to begin the hearing we are in text communication at the moment should start shortly thank [Music] you [Music] [Music] welcome to the city of Bakersfield 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.b Bakersfield city. us PRD over this evening's meeting Vice chair Daniel CER good evening good evening it is my pleasure to call the order the 2020 February 29th 2024 special Planning Commission meeting Madame clerk would would you please call the role chair Basher TSH Vice chair ker here commissioner bidd here commissioner core commissioner Coman here commissioner Neil commissioner Strickland here Madame clerk next item please Pledge of Allegiance please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag the United States ofer and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy andice thank you for attending tonight's Planning Commission meeting this 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 much more when the applications are received the city planning division analyzes the request planning staff will present the facts about the project along with their recommendation to the Planning Commission who will approve an 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 uh please note if you're here for item 6A or 6B now is not the time to speak you will be given an opportunity to speak at a later time hello my name is Sandra Placencia and I am a current policy Advocate with Leadership Council um so uh thank you so much for the opportunity to comment um Leadership Council Works alongside communities most impacted um by housing needs right um and I'm here to comment on the most recent APR um annual progress report um I believe it's 7A um just wanted to highlight that the city of Bakersville failed to meet their um Regional Housing needs allocation so the arena for the fifth cycle for the housing element um I wanted to highlight the huge disparities between very lwi income permits and moderate and above moderate permits issued by the city there were 959 low income and very low-income housing permits given in the 8-year cycle and 16,42 3 moderate above or above moderate meaning that we are closer to building um moderate or above moderate in comparison to very low income but that is causing a huge issue right um so we definitely encourage the city to address this in the next cycle right as we are moving towards the sixth one and working on it um the city should include programs and policies that will ensure that affordable housing is actually being developed and created and built within the city of of Bakersfield and we suggest that the city follow hcd guidance um to fully analyze um sustainability of identified sites and accommodate for low income and very low income and the um extremely low income um and we also encourage the city to analyze impacts on cost Supply housing affordability um timing approval and certain and ability to achieve maximum densities um and also we look at the permit times which is kind of a constraint to housing as well um so we just strongly urge the city to meet their six cycle arena for affordable housing um through an inclusionary zoning ordinance right um this will ensure that the city affirmatively furthers fair housing which is the city's Duty um and because inclusionary zoning seems to be kind of a Hot Topic um we would really like to sit down alongside with community members to talk about inclusionary zoning and what we envision it to look like in the city um and possibly for the city to look into an in luy as well right um that would f more money into the affordable housing trust fund and give more funding overall for affordable housing developments in case developers don't want um to follow inclusionary zoning um and then the last thing I wanted to to mention as well is that programs must be um clear precise and have metrics goals and deadlines um we looking at how far um or how well the fifth cycle programs did I think it was clear that the majority of them were still ongoing and in Pro in process um because there was no actual metrics or deadlines included to begin with right so we definitely ensure that the city make sure that the next housing element the six cycle has clear and precise deadlines to ensure that affordable housing is built throughout the city thank you so much and then I brought letters that I will give to off thank you uh please feel free to provide the clerk with letters and um they'll be distributed to Commissioners are there any other uh speakers wishing to address items on tonight's public State tonight's agenda thank you seeing none um 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 was [Music] there um seeing no members of the audience wishing to uh provide public statements on non-agenda items um Madam clerk next item please agenda item four consent calendar items please note all matters listed under the consent items do not require a public hearing and will be enacted by a single motion there will be no separate discussion of said items unless staff or commissioner requests specific items be discussed and or remove for separate action may I get a motion to adopt um consent item 4 a I'll make a motion commissioner Strickland may I have a second I'll second that commissioner Biddle Commissioners please cast your votes sorry do I need to point out that I watched the YouTube video since I was absent from that meeting as long as you as long as you reviewed the agenda minutes beforehand you can vote thank you motion passes with chair Basher Taj and Commissioners core and Neil absent thank you Madame clerk next item please agenda item five there are no consent public hearing items thank you Madame clerk next item please agenda item six non-consent public hearing items oh now is sorry I'm not used to being the uh one that drives the meeting my apologies um now is the time for non-consent public hearing items before we begin I'd like to explain how the hearing will be conducted staff will first begin uh will'll give a report then those in favor of the project will be given an opportunity 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 a five minute time to provide re battal comments please note this is a 5 minute total time for all speakers so be succinct and be respectful of others that may wish wish to participate in the process individual speakers may ask questions during their statements but the questions will not be answered until the public hearing on that item is closed if preferred written comments may be provided to the clerk who will provide copies to the commission please be respectful of others participating in the hearing and please refrain from repeating the remarks of previous speakers and presenting any new comments or thoughts in a concise and clear way Mr Johnson will you please provide your staff report on item 6A yes thank you Vice chair ker Commissioners members of the audience thank you for attending tonight's meeting item 6A is a request for conditional use permit to convert a hotel into a multif family dwelling complex is located at 2700 White Lane which is on the northeast corner of White Lane in Highway 99 and the property is zoned C2 Regional commercial Mr Johnson yes on the agenda 6A is um city of Bakersfield zone change and 6B is conditional use permit is if it not on yours think that's convenient okay yeah I they're switched on my um agenda which I don't even is that on the script or is that on the agenda it's on the uh computerized agenda if it pleases the commission I'll continue with item 6B I think that's I just want to make sure that it's clear which goes into the record as which item so we don't cross our than it was our intent to have the conditional use permit read first um because and I am okay with that I just want to make sure that um we're we're clear on which uh yes than which item is being discussed in the proper recommendation is incorporated so 6B so we're calling conditional use 6B right is that sure and if it's okay we'll take 6B out of order and hear that first this conditional use permit I think that's that works for can we can we just double check and see how it's how it's on the U notice right right yeah we just pause for a moment just to make sure we consist mine has the agenda that I downloaded online has 6A as the conditional use permit yes and that's what I remember in researching it just our computers are showing the opposite so I guess the agenda it's a glitch a glitch computers don't have those what are you talking about yeah all right so so we will follow the um how it was notorized or noticed and 6A will be the conditional use permit 6A will be the conditional use permit that I am presenting right now thank you for the clarification and my apologies for the delay thank you yep so I will continue again talking about some of the adjacent properties to 2700 White Lane to the north you have um vacant undeveloped land on both sides to the east also is vacant undeveloped land and then to the South and West you have White Lane and Highway 99 State Route 99 looking at development that's beyond those adjacent properties you have a self storage multifam um to the north followed by single family to the east you have multif family some restaurants and gas station and then across White Lane you g you have some gas stations some restaurants and that's followed by a motel and additional single family homes in the form of mobile homes this site contains four main structures that was constructed in 1965 it has a fifth structure smaller structure but that's just a mechanical room the building or the um Hotel consists of 151 dwelling units ranging inside from 262 to 292 Square ft some of the amenities that will be provided are community space cooking facilities with a food bank laundry facilities Game Room swimming pool and spa if this conditional use permit is approved the applicant is proposing additional Landscaping along the frontage and to provide just a little bit of background and taken from the staff report this was initially submitted as a general plan Amendment and zone change it was considered on July 20th 2023 uh at that meeting we did have um multiple individuals from the single family neighborhood to the north come out and raise concerns uh to allow additional time to address some of those concerns it was continued to August 3rd 2023 at which time it was referred back to staff so the project could be further evaluated the staff report notes that there was a recent code enforcement action on February 6th of this year uh everything was abated and that is now clear subsequent to the August 3rd meeting when it was referred back there were two neighborhood Outreach that was held on November 11th of last year and February 21st which is last Wednesday um staff was not in attendance so I will rely on the applicant and members or residents who may be in the audience to speak on the outcome of those meetings we did receive no comments in opposition and we did receive two comments late one was from calr and these were transmitted in a memorandum one was from calr talking about a drive approach on the adjacent property which is not part of this project site and then we received um some letter in support from Reed lovan if I said his name correctly I um and again that was a letter in support in order to approve a conditional use permit there's two findings that must be made the first that the proposed use is deemed essential or desirable to the public convenience or welfare and that the proposed use is in harmony with the various elements and objectives of the general plan staff reports staff report provides some of that information for your commission to consider and if those findings can be made you can add conditions of approval and what I would ask is once the discussion turns to conditions of approval I have another slide that will talk a little bit more about what can and cannot be imposed as conditions the commission has several options considering this conditional use permit the first is to approve as requested and that includes staff's recommended conditions of approval that are attachment a to the resolution if during deliberations and public comments there's conditions that need to be modified you can approve the conditional use permit with modified conditions if there are questions that need to be answered that are unavailable at this time and staff um can answer those within a specific time this project can be continued to a date certain if it's going to take staff longer and that time is unknown this project could be referred back to staff at which time it would be read vertis for a new public hearing or if those findings cannot be made uh the conditional use permit could be denied at this time staff is requesting that you accept public comment and deliberate and then render a decision on this conditional use permit that completes my presentation thank you Mr Johnson the public hearing is now open is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed good evening Commissioners my name is Gregory Frank uh I am the applicant and the architect for the blanco project uh thank you Mr Johnson for a great presentation and summary of our our project um as you stated we are here today regarding a pro proposed conversion of an existing Hotel into a studio apartment complex our proposal seeks a conditional use permit to convert the 151 Hotel a room Hotel into studio apartments these Studio units are proposed without kitchens and will be permitted as a congregate residents uh per the California building code once the conditional use permit is approved uh we will work closely with the building department to change the use designation uh and implement the condition of approval our hope is to ensure that the transition to a residential complex is smooth and seamless our goal is to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where residents can Thrive a lot has changed since we began working on this project almost two years ago the last time we were at Planning Commission our request was for a zone change uh from a C2 Regional commercial Zone to R4 high density multiple family dwelling Zone to our fault we did not engage the community to gather their comments this was not intentional but purely an oversight as we were focused on changing the zone to what we had perceived to be a less restrictive zoning after the last Planning Commission meeting we received recommendations from the development services Director City attorney city council members and City staff that they a conditional use permit uh may prove to be a better path than the zone change and general plan Amendment after a careful consideration we pulled the zone change application and submitted an application for the conditional use permit since the last Planning Commission meeting was held in August we've held two formal community outreach meetings with the neighbors and our team we've also had the chance to better develop our operations statement good neighbor policy and a code of conduct policy the code of conduct policy is now an addendum to all new leases Church Without Walls has organized community events for the residents and neighbors uh lots of wraparound services for residents have been added and we will continue to work with great organizations such as the open door Network flood Ministries capk and cl Clinica Sierra V just a just to name a few we fully understand that change can sometimes evoke concerns especially among neighbors rest assured we are committed to engaging with the community throughout this process listening to their feedback and addressing any legitimate concerns that may arrive arise we want to be part of this community and help make this a better place an example of this would be our engagement with the neighborhood watch program uh it is vital that we help make sure that this neighborhood is is safe and clean speaking of crime uh the University of California Irvine and this this was sent out in the memo today uh published a study in 2022 that showed that affordable housing does not increase crime in neighborhoods it actually raises the property values in some areas uh we'd love to see this trend continue in this neighborhood we have representatives from building ownership property management and security team here to expand on some of these issues and um that we've presented to staff and also answer any of your questions uh thank you for your time this evening uh I'm I welcome any questions or feedback you may have especially regarding the change of use the building permit uh process and any of the related required uh improvements from the conditions of approval thank you very much thank you are there any additional speakers wishing to speak in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed hello uh my name is Daniel SED I'm part of the ownership of the the blanco 2700 White Lane um we are putting there a a low-income housing for 151 units currently if I remember correctly there are about 150 residents in the the place right now um through our different projects that we are doing including in Bakersfield on Rio Mirada we are seeing huge transformation of the people that are coming in in our tenants in our properties we see them integrating back into society being productive members getting jobs we see people that are um that have been homeless for ages and are coming in having a house having a home and then from there continuing on to other houses and jobs and even college graduates that are doing it through through this process uh we collaborate with a lot of community organizations that are coming and helping us with services in the properties and I really believe that we are added value to the overall community and I think that uh we are trying at least to help and I think that we are helping thank you thank you are there any other speakers in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed good evening my name is Reed Loven I'm one of the co-founders of the security company that works at the blanco uh the security company is BL Solutions I am a retired sergeant from the Kern County Sheriff's Office the co-founder uh Richard Garrett is a retired lieutenant from the Kern County Sheriff's Office uh a brief background is that our motivation in entering the private sector was to do exactly this help the community help the citizens of our community uh leaon or work better with law enforcement um to be honest the in our initial motivation was not to work in the low-income housing space But as we met and uh the Clem and Company property management and the uh Investment Group represented by Daniel tonight we learned that there was a distinct need to assist projects like this in becoming better parts of the community now from our law enforcement background we can speak on uh the types of Security Services provided uh the techniques used to ensure the safety and security and quality life of the residents of those communities you guys have seen the letter that I uh wrote in support uh of this project which cites uh even the own Kern County Housing Authority uh some difficulties that governments have had with producing the required number of housing units but then also the assimilation of these types of populations within the community I certainly am happy to answer any of those technical questions I don't want to bore you but I can tell you that uh what we see here is a team and that's really the important thing to notice we have local government that is concerned your own mission statement is concerned about providing quality of life and the opportunity uh for the the residents the citizens of Bakersfield uh the housing developers Daniel are concerned with giving people an opportunity to become more productive members of society and that step up and that's through much more than just an apartment or a front door that's by engaging these other community organizations like capk like Kent Health Systems like Clinic a sier Vista and providing the wraparound Services needed to support those people as they continue to seek personal growth part of that is also Security Services a very small piece of that but that's working with the community that surrounds the projects like the blanco well we have well clemmer and company has already started a commu u Neighborhood Watch program with uh BPD and met and they are taking steps to expand that from my understanding the local neighborhood uh has also taken the same steps so we have two committed groups of people people that are really looking for a way to align you know one I was having a conversation with somebody recently regarding this project and they said this is not a question of whether or not this project is needed it's a question of whether or not we can get it right as a team so as speaking for BL Solutions as speaking part of this team that exists right now we are committed we are committed to working with the community we are working committed to working with the property developers the proper property management and the tenants so that we can make Baker's feel better for all of us thank you thank you are there any additional speakers wishing to speak in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed good evening my name is Tanya Holt and I'm from Church Without Walls during 2023 the annual pit count of those experiencing homelessness was 1,948 people um and within the Bakersfield City Limit it was 815 people and it's expected to go up even more this year as we await for those um totals to come in for last year the blanco plays a huge needed role in helping to bring this number down at a time where there are hardly any available openings for housing um and rent has skyrocketed and continues to Skyrocket by not approving this location most of these residents will return right back out to the streets undoing what many have worked hard to help alleviate um I've personally witnessed the managers of the blanco build Partnerships with nonprofit organizations in an effort to have those organizations bring Services directly to the residents offering daily living skills encouragement hope referrals in order to progress past the ingrained um homeless state of mind and behaviors that that sometimes come with that um Church Without Walls is one of these organizations and we have partnered with the blanco for over a year going out to the blanco quarterly where we are able to continue to bring hope and encouragement and referrals for a transformed life and some of these residents we used to serve at our site um while they were living on the streets and some that we see out at the blanco at our outreaches actually come from the neighborhood because they hear the music they hear the laughter and they know that uh they are also welcome to join in what's going on there when we go out there um so for those that don't approve this project respectfully my question to ponder for you is would you like to be a part of helping to alleviate the amount of homelessness in our city or would you like to be part of contributing to the rising number of homelessness in our city and respectfully thank you so much for listening thank you are there any other speakers wishing to speak in favor so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed my name is Paul Lee and um thanks to Theo I have a job there and I'm a resident I have a home I'm not in my car and these are my co-workers that live there with me I'm Branch I'm a resident as well and work there and working hard as a team to get it all together and try to do the best we can can you speak into the microphone please I'm Martha Martinez I also live there and have a job there with them too and I'm the one that graduated college right there and the being right there in the being right there in the living there with my kids and it's pretty it's gotten us pretty he's got me pretty far from where I was at from the beginning and I really thanked him for that thank you are there any additional speakers in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed uh Mr chairman members of the commission I'm Michael turnip SE I represent the current County taxpayers assion this Association uh your decision tonight is critical to the city's ability to address low-income housing goals going forward the city has spent millions of dollars investing in projects at the Kern County Housing Authority the last two projects of the current County Housing Authority were $500,000 a unit and and $425,000 a unit this privately funded project the blanco will be less than 4% of that the city cannot afford to build enough low-income housing using their current model of the krent County Housing Authority to meet low-income housing goals the city must encourage private sector investment tonight you will be sending a message on the future of low-income housing in the city of Bakersfield the city must have private investment if they expect to meet their low-income housing goals I'd like to thank you for your time and consideration and I hope you support the project thank you are there any additional speakers in favor of the project oh seeing no additional speakers in favor um is there anyone in the audience wishing to speak in opposition to the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed all right I'll I'll kick off the party how about that um my name is Kevin Lively uh any other info you need uh just your public comments thank you great cool so uh last week as they mentioned they hosted a community discussion at the crest restaurant it wasn't a formal event like this it was very casual uh conversations one-on-one two tables it it was it was nice and plight uh their message was very clear as they're presenting again tonight uh that they're doing everything out of the kindness of their heart and they're doing it privately as that guy just said um because of the cost and inefficiency of city and state governments they were very big on pushing how much better and more efficient they are um they cited examples of the projects uh that balloon in cost all around California and they brought up the new mini houses and uh the little duplexes and they the way they describing them I was expecting like a bunch of tough sheds in a field but they're beautiful they're fantastic anyone who is staying there is going to have so much pride to live in something that has a full kitchenet a living space a bedroom and a bathroom uh as opposed to a hotel uh it just seems like a better opportunity uh for anybody to get a fresh start when you have all the tools available to you um they also explained that they were initially LED down the wrong path uh based on the city attorney's advice uh I don't know who that is if it's one person if it's a whole department or anything like that um but they were they're very adamant that they were given bad advice which is odd because if I had a big Investment Company I would have my own legal team look into it and as we all know the the way this whole project started was not really on the up and up so it they explained to us that the uh another fact that came up in past meetings was the blanco being a top 10 uh police dispatch Place uh and Reed uh said that is actually a good thing uh because it means the residents are confident in calling for help uh didn't touch upon the fact that there's still a need to call um in the top 10 for one property in a whole city is still pretty significant I don't know if we've heard any updated numbers on the the police ditch Pats calls uh for the blanco but something uh to look into uh the they acknowledge the increased number of unhoused individuals in the surrounding area uh up and down our streets every morning it's like a parade of uh shopping carts people laying on the ground uh but they're also very quick to remind us that those aren't residents uh so they're therefore the city's jurisdiction so again they're not doing any wrong uh so with that they did propos one uh Reed mentioned building a community center adjacent to the to the blanco that would have um medical clinics uh a food bank what else did I have in there um uh food distribution Mental Health Services job services and stuff uh he called it a community center I proposed uh ource Center because the community center to me has a gym and a library and a place for me to take a pottery class um so upon hearing about this uh the other gentleman the first one who spoke countered and said oh no we're targeting that that land to lease out to a fast food restaurant so there's discrepancies in the stories coming through if anybody you know in the next part of this meeting can clarify that um but those are two majorly different things especially if you plan on building a resource center community center that is going to offer you know Mental Health Services uh uh food banks and all that stuff it seems like it' become more of a central Hub to attract more people into our community who don't necessarily uh live there so my neighbors uh will I'm sure they're going to hop on this microphone right after me they're going to talk about how the neighborhood has been affected since the founding of the blanco um but I just have one little anecdote uh you know we've never been a big trick-or treat Community or neighborhood which SS I love Halloween man if I could decorate and pass out king-sized candy bars to the kids every year that that'd be awesome um but this this year we actually only had like two groups of kids uh we did have more trick-or treaters they were all adults older than me with no kids I don't feel safe handing out candy anymore because of what has come to our community um it stinks cuz my girls didn't they don't like candy they don't trig or- treat but they love handing out candy well can't do that anymore because some strange adults are are going to come looking for some candy bars it's just it's it's bizarre uh the blanco team did ask me how I can how they can earn my trust and I was frank with them I I I said they opened and they continue to operate this Housing Development as a hotel but they're not they're not collecting the transient attacks and again they started everything wrong right off the bat and I asked them and I'm going to ask you guys how is this different than a driver getting pulled over being found without a license or registration and then just struggling going okay I guess I'll figure it out now it it's you're getting caught after the fact it seemed like their business plan was to ask for forgiveness rather than permission and as somebody who from the young age got like the fear God instilled with them don't break any rules don't break any laws it's just super frustrating to see people with money just get away with stuff like this um I mean it's not I isolated to to them it's a it's a national issue but um despite the field grid story again my trust in them is low they're saying they're doing this all have the goodness out of their hearts but uh I'm I'm skeptical you know let me put on my my greedy capitalist millionaire top hat for a second and just take a look at how I'm viewing their business plan uh I'm rich I live down south I can buy an old hotel flip it for minimal cost it's not in my community so it doesn't affect me at all and then there's already a built-in Market of people being handed vouchers to use there's no competition in the area so I wouldn't have to do anything like invest in landscaping or security or improvements to the property because there's always going to be a demand as long as people have vouchers people need a super low-income housing there's no reason why a typical investor would invest that's why you don't see like the dollar store get remodeled you have a demographic trffic you know who your audience is and you build to it uh so as I said during the previous meetings this is obviously an issue that needs fixing there's so many people down on their luck but there's a right way to tackle a problem and there's a wrong way as I said this is clearly started the wrong way can they course correct I super hope so because as the other people just said it's a catch 22 right they kind of have us to throats saying hey if you don't approve this you're evil because now 150 people are going to be put out onto the streets granted it's a problem I created but now it's up to you to figure it out so that is my main issue for them to overcome to earn my trust and I'm sure some of my neighbors would agree with me and I I thank my neighbors for stepping up from the very first meeting uh because it seemed like they were coming in and to to paraphrase old man Jenkins who owns the Haunted Amusement Park they would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling neighbors thank you thank you are there any additional speakers wishing to speak in opposition to the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed my name is Thomas Estrada excuse me uh homeowner in the area uh tonight I've been at all the meetings but tonight I heard the term of U studio apartments uh and I believe I heard without kitchenet or whatever uh and I would just like more clarification on on that question how many uh there's 51 units how many people would be uh living in the studio apartments and at the last meeting with the U group uh they also talked about improvements in the area and maybe somebody could follow up on what improvements uh would actually be uh done or in the works to being finished and that's all I have thank you um if I could ask the City attorney the most appropriate time to answer questions would be during The Question period is that correct that is correct okay thank you we address those during The Question are there any other speakers in opposition to the project so please step to microphone identify yourself and proceed my name is di Deon and I'm not necessar I'm not against it but I do want to clarify something Mr Frank had made a comment about or shared about um it was a Irvine's study I'm not sure where who who paid for this study but all I know is I've lived there for over 45 years and the last year and a half every week I get somebody wants to buy our home and they're realators they're quoting 1975 when the home was built the house next to me was born in was built in ' 68 it actually was the model home for the whole um proper proper and it's getting they're asking for 1968 prices it does affect the bottom dollar we have generational homes that we've invested in not necessarily in the bank but you know in these properties they are going down so it does affect a property I totally support what they're doing but the just hearing about the studio apartments now that's the first time that we heard about that we don't want to to know how many people are going to be in there we were also told at the last meeting that they were going to build um basically help for these people to be there Clinic of seresta is on Wilson Road a huge one that they could go to but if you're going to have another another entity there for them to um go to to get help we have all kinds of low-income housing that doesn't they don't require that extra help maybe having it right there is going to bring a whole lot more people there we already have a problem we already also have uh the Motel 6 is just change their name to Motel 6 extended care or extended stay and we're finding out they're staying there for free and we're we actually have another problem there and then there's also Motel 6 behind Denny's as well so it's not the people that are in the hotel that we're having problems with it's the people that they're bringing with them and I don't even think they're bringing it with them necessarily but we've got a huge problem and you can see because we're at the top 10 and we were not at the top 10 of the police department showing up there but like I said I support it we just need to again like the the senior the uh security guard said we need to work together and we're trying we we do have our community our our uh what do you call it neighborhood watch going we're working with them we drive around literally I don't have a lot of time but I every night I go around and we drive around just to help make everything safe but things happen between 3 and six o'clock in the morning we can stay up only so long but thank you and God bless everyone thank you are there any additional speakers wishing to speak in opposition to the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed seeing no additional speakers in opposition um does any commissioner have any questions for the public or staff on this item please remember this is not the time to express opinion just ask questions commissioner Coleman uh thank you uh Vice chair ker um I think I want to get right to that question that's on the uh was presented how many people per room are going to be allowed to stay in each room it is uh two people per unit and these would be uh uh with be will be doubled up or would just be if you had C couples you know like so I guess my question is if you have individuals are they going to be room with other people that are individuals or how do that work no it's just uh it's if if there is an individual that's the individual that rents the unit if he has a a mate somebody with him a partner then they'll be there together if not that's just is okay the young lady behind you wanted to chim chime in so let's let her talk hi my name is Tasha Ross I'm the property supervisor and to answer that so we do up to two adults maximum per unit we do get a lot of voucher programs a lot of them are for one person or that will include a spouse if they do have a spouse they're allowed those too but a lot of the vouchers that we do receive only allow one person in the unit it and that's on the voucher side and on their lease as well and so are are you uh obligated to take anybody with a voucher that comes room no we still do a full uh like background we do run their credit we do look at certain things a little more lenient if they do receive a voucher but we still do our standard background okay thank you for answering that question I appreciate it um the other thing that uh I I are the are these transitional housing are these people just going to stay for a short period of time or how long are these people going to stay in your Studios as long as they want this is a permanent housing we have people uh similar to that in our other project that have been there for over a year people that have been here for a long period of times as well and hopefully they will stay or if they decid that they outgrew the place and they want to move somewhere else which we had as well that happens also so there's no program in place to bring people in and then get them into other housing not that um no okay and my last question has to do with a comment that was made about a community center we're not considering any kind this is Mr Johnson we're not considering any kind of community Center is part of this conditional use perment are we no you're not okay other than if they have an in interior if they wanted to set aside something interior yeah we're only dealing with the services that they're going to provide we're not talking about any kind of community center that's going to have other stuff going on okay thank you I have no further questions thank you commissioner Coleman commissioner Strickland thank you cheer uh I have a couple of questions I want to hit a couple that I think were from public so I guess the first question is probably for the architect um you would say that there's no kitchens but there are kitchen Nets right and I've got other questions for the applicant so you guys might want to just sit closer maybe thank you for the question um yes you're you're correct currently there are no kitchens in these rooms um these are traditional hotel rooms mhm they do have a microwave and a refrigerator U more of an apartment style refrigerator um they're going to be you know 8 to 10 cubic feet so not a not a standard size refrigerator but not a mini fridge either um we will have the ability to uh to place like a a hot plate in the rooms but as far as a full kitchenette with an actual oven and a range um that will not be provided at at this time it's it is a there's a potential that we could add them at a later date to clarify the am I wrong in the site plan shows that the small and large Studios will have a kitchen out with a 1200 watt and a 1500 watt burner isn't that on the site plan it it may have been earlier and if if that we did remove those from from the plan so if that if that did come across in the plan set um I guess I didn't know if there was an updated plan set so that may be on me yeah the the intent currently is is to just build these out as as sleeping rooms um without kitchens and primary reason is once we start developing kitchens in the building um we're going to be required to upgrade the electrical service to the building which is going to take you know anywhere from a year to to a year and a half to do and and will end up costing half a million dollars okay sorry hang on one second let me just make sure and I guess question for staff is that is that your understanding on the latest map set then yes I see it says new cooktop ramble wood 110 volt 2700 watt radiant burner yeah and that's in the agenda for this so we we can move past that for now yeah um thank you yeah and I think that was it that's probably going to be well so going off of the site plan is the painting on the outside of the building already done yes so the outside work of the map set what work has already been completed the work that's been completed is uh we put a new roof on the building um we've added fire sprinklers uh to the building the exterior has been painted um we have a perimeter fence up um on the north side of the property mhm and that's I believe it for for now so Landscaping still left to do things like that right so the oh oh the the Landscaping um will be a condition of this approval uh we have a landscape Concept in place the full working drawings haven't been done um and that will be permitted after uh this approval okay thank you and I think that's it for at least the the site plans uh for staff kind of going off of public comments uh do we have the updated dispatch numbers I know that they're referring to theil July 20th Planning Commission I think that changed after but do we know what that is we do not have those current numbers thank you and then another question for staff um going off with this zoning request because I think the applicant stated that there are 150 people living here that I think are under lease now but the ability to lease people in a hotel is contingent on the approval of tonight right so te they can't offer leases in a hotel zoning currently correct that would be correct yes so this they are operating in violation and that is a Code Enforcement violation waiting to be cleared one way or another and then the it came up in the either the 20th or the August 3rd Planning Commission meeting do we know if they've caught up their transient tax that they had stopped paying we did put in a request of the finance department to get the updated information um I do know they went approximately at least one year from August 2022 to August 2023 without paying um the finance department did not get back to us in time for this meeting and then following that question was the in staff's understanding was the request for a zoning change now SL conditional use permit was that set separate than informing the owner that they were out of compliance and paying their tax or was that after I'm sorry commissioner stri would you repeat that to clarify they stopped paying Transit tax at the hotel yes then the city reached out that they weren't paying tax then the application change was requested no it was it was part of the transit occupant occupancy tax not being paid which which initiated the original General plan Amendment zone change application got it but not the other way around it wasn't a general plan and then we found out they weren't paying it was did the city did the city reach out to the owner to say we're missing the transient tax and that's when they said something to the line of we're not no I do not believe that's correct no I I don't believe the city reached out to them okay thank you just trying to understand some of the questions that were asked and then I think I had some questions I had emailed that I wanted to go over so we've answered that sorry little little messed up that one's answered now I think if if you have any other questions I think most of M are answered but I may have missed one I may come back in understood thank you um I have a couple questions the um one uh first and foremost uh a speaker in opposition had requested some information about the profile of the um community and what was being proposed I don't know uh Pally the project architect would probably be the best can you clarify um for the for speaker um the breakdown of unit type um and the allocation of unit size and then I believe the other question was regarding extent of improvements Miss King was that right okay I actually don't have the the numbers of the small Suites vers or small Studios versus the the large Studios um that that was probably included in the staff report the only difference there is is um I think it's 20 to 30 square fet and the main difference was that originally when the hotel was built essentially one half of of the building is a little bit deeper uh to make way for rooms that had two double beds where the other rooms uh were just a king-size bed thank you um but it would be correct and 100% Studio appartment 100% thank you and then um just for so that everyone in the audience uh is clear on planned improvements can you describe basically the the improvements plan for the facility both items that have been completed and that will be completed sure um so projects to be completed um sanitation is actually requiring us to add uh four trash enclosures um so we have those planned on site uh full landscaping around the property um we will have to uh restripe a lot of the parking um which we're going to make way for some accessibility improvements for handicap parking and access to the the right of way um then oh uh Public Works is also requiring a new street light um to be added um which we we obviously are in favor of um we we'd love the city to pay for it but uh but we're in favor of it because obviously more light in the neighborhoods is going to create a safer environment great thank you and then um thank you um second question regards the community meetings we were given little information about what occurred what happened um from the applicant if you could just provide a brief summary of findings of what the interaction with the community yeah over um and I and I apologize we we should have put something in writing and got it to uh the planning commissioners um our our meetings were uh notified by um our property management company they walked the neighborhood and handed out as many Flyers as as we could we wanted to get as many of the the neighbors U to these meetings as possible um they were rather informal um we really wanted to find out what their concerns were we've discussed crime homelessness uh litter throughout the neighborhood um and really our what what our intent here is is to listen and try and figure out ways that that we could fix all of those items we know it's not going to be 100% but we wanted to do our best um the meeting the week before last um actually I I really enjoyed the meeting I I saw a lot of the Neighbors come together connect with old stories exchange phone numbers and I'm sure email addresses um I I I hope I hope they had um as good of an experience meeting uh or reconnecting with some of their neighbors um but in a quick snapshot that's that's essentially what happened and then just a succinct question from the meeting were there any outcomes as far as um an opportunity where the Blanco and the community came together on possibly um you has it informed any has it informed any action on your plan to move forward with the project um did we there anything we've added I think that so our last meeting um uh the week before last um really was to present some of the policies that we are presenting here today um know we want to be as as transparent as we can and um so we're we're trying to show that we are putting you know these code of conduct policies in place and wanted to explain to the neighbors that you know now that these will be a condition of this approval um where they may be tied to the lease you know we want to explain to everyone that there are some ramifications for some of these rules getting broken um not anyone who receives a lease to live in this place can stay forever you break the rules and there are serious consequences we've had uh people within the last few months that have been evicted from the facility and so we we discussed some of those items great thank you and then my last question uh might be for the architect might be more for management uh and operations looking at your operational statement um there appears to be a list of um Services provided to um to Residents within the community um the language is a little bit well the language uh expresses wanting to provide these is there there a commitment from the blanco to provide those services and are there set intervals that those things are that those opportunities uh listed here job opportunities medical service assistance Pet Care clothing basic needs Family Care self-care referrals are those things that um that are an established practice or a would would be nice to do me have uh I'll Daniel speak to that thank you yes thank you um all those things are already being in place and already provided there is no uh there is no law that makes us okay you have to do this and this we're we're just landlords yes okay and as landlords there is certain responsibilities that we have and certain that we don't all these things we're doing as amenities to our people but we have a vision and what we want to see is we want to see all the help that these people get in order to continue and Thrive so we have them and we will have more okay um and then a question then is as an applicant would you be agreeable to include these Services as a condition of the approval of the project well I think it's going to be odd that you're going to put it as a condition for the project and I think it's a very dangerous precedence for something like that but I can tell you we've started to do those things as you've heard from Church Without Walls yes before any application was done okay this is not something that we are saying that we are doing to look nice this is what we are doing in the other property that we have in Bakersville we're already done with all the permitting and everything mhm all these things are there and just growing okay so it is there it's all for our benefit this is what we want to do but you wouldn't like to not see it as part of the conditions of approval for the project I don't want um how well I have to be very open as as as you saw probably throughout these things we are not very smooth not this big conglomerate that people think that we are we are basically three main partners that just decided to do something about a situation okay so we are not very versed in this we are not uh legally inclined we are not we don't have all these things but what we have learned is the minute that something is put there as a name that's it now you are with cuffs and you cannot move from this and now you have this gillotin over your head that is like if you don't now you're going to get and that's make us very weary okay uh so that's where the fear comes from other than that I can tell you without this my own personal guarantee is that yes this is going to happen because there is no other plan other than to do this and uh I and we are working to do more projects like that and that is the line of what we're going to do and we hope to be able to be successful in other places it's a lot easier than it is here just to to let you know know um so we've already are up and running in other areas that we started way after this and this is this is our mission this is where we're going so I don't see it changing okay so as an as an applicant you would not want to see these added to the condition of approval that was the question sorry we're in an awkward I can't say what I think I can only ask questions so the answer would be no right it's something that I will tell you know I need to to talk to an attorney to see is this something that is dangerous or not I don't know okay I I don't know I mean if if if that's what here is the thing today we'll make the decision if this project continues or not this is the situation that we're in when we were here back in September and we were going for the zone change and I was asked why and I said it's because of financing we could not get financing because we don't have the C now we are at a point that we're paying 115% per uh per year okay we are at about $120,000 per month because we couldn't get financing today is the term by Monday we were already the bank is not willing to extend this if you guys are not deciding to do this which is okay and that's your prerogative just so you know that project is done and over with we are losing this building to the bank they already informed us that Monday they are sending us default notice of default and that is done so this is where we are at we are drowning here we are not a a uh nonprofit organization but we are operating with no profit so I I don't think this is understood by the city with everything that is going on and all the red tape and all the thing that all the grinding that we're going through but this is the situation it's it's it's like take it or leave it this is what it is I I do have to kind of interject I'm sorry I was engaged in what you're were saying this is a question answer I think that would be a perfect rebuttal comment okay we're getting into um yes that's correct we're getting into um time that is not answering questions so thank you uh I appreciate it can can I add one comment about the services um sure this as an answer to a question yes yes so we did look at um classifying this as a supportive services facility um we understand that we are providing Services um but the you know the long-term goal here would be to get everybody back on their feet and and hopefully remove those services so I think that's why at this time we don't really want the services tied directly to the cup the project thank you you're welcome yes um are there any other commissioner questions commissioner Biddle oh oh you go first and then uh commissioner C yes commissioner B okay first I think it's for staff and I don't know if I can ask that do we know what the housing vouchers for a room this size are through the housing the Housing Authority is that public information or is that something that's kept private we're GNA have a representative from ecd come forward thank you hi I'm paig Maller I'm an economic and Community Development planner 2 um with the city of Bakersfield and I work specifically in affordable housing um the housing Authority issues vouchers the maximum that um the uh tenant would have to pay is 30% of their income so that can range the tenant will pay anywhere from nothing to um $1,000 depending on household size income and so forth so that's it varies um but you could probably find that information from the housing authority and then for the applicant um I've heard different things I heard studio apartment at first and I heard sleeping rooms and then I heard landlords so now I'm a little bit confused are these going to be available for rent to the public so how does this work excuse me um so yes we actually do have some tenants that are in there that are private pay so they receive a just over what they pay for their rent and like Social Security or anything like that so we're able to offer than that they don't have any utility charges or anything if they cable Wi-Fi what have you but we do have some that are private pay you do okay and then I also heard for the first time about the property across the street are we is that already purchased is that just something that's a vision for the future what was that brought up to the community meeting um it's actually the property to the east um we're we're currently in the process of a lot line adjustment moving the property line from uh right next to the the drop off area the covered dropof area we're moving it to the east um and so that that dirt lot there um is the one in question I think that's all for my questions thank you commissioner B commissioner Strickland thank you I this is probably for property management um I sent an email out kind of asking what services and what organizations locally that uh the blanco works with and and I received back a list of of um organizations and it it kind of goes into Vice chair Ker's question are are they currently working with the I I get let me read them out just so it's on the record um the open door network uh flood cap K aging and adult Services City serve Goods Samaritan Hospital Kent Regional Around the Clock Stewarts Garden Pathways Church Without Walls cvaf current health systems and Clinic of Sierra Vista is the blano currently working with all of those organizations or is that planned working with we actually already do work with them so we accept V uh if it's a voucher program through open door or flood sometimes it's a full voucher sometimes it's deposit assistance or just to get somebody into housing and then they're to jump back on that question they're able to pay the rent but they can't come up with the deposit we're also working with um let's see so say Clinic of CR Vista through Kern Health Systems they've reached out because they do know that we have some tenants that may not have a vehicle may not have all the things that they need to receive medical care so they've asked if they can bring a mobile unit and bring their doctors and come see some of those so a couple of these are in the works but the majority we already work with yes thank you Mr Ross and oh there was a question and I just lost it that's embarrassing oh I just wanted to confirm that the organization's private it's not support service it's not transitional these are optional things that the corco is doing but they could also stop doing that as well correct yes got it thank you that that was it thank you uh commissioner bid sorry last one is there a for security um is there a way for the community to be able to reach the security there with you guys or is there like a hotline phone number or anything like that or do they just call the blanco thank you for that question commissioner Biddle uh that's probably the most common question I get uh at all of the community meetings that have been held uh any conversations that I've had and the folks over here that are notd in their heads will corroborate that I provide them um with our supervisor phone number I've even provided my own cell phone number to them so that in the event the community needs assistance with navigating the law enforcement system please understand that there is a limitation on the authority to act by a security company however because of my vast law enforcement experience I certainly can be helpful in liasing between law enforcement services and the folks that are in need you all right um with that um we will now provide a rebuttal period this uh time provides an opportunity for 5 minute total speaking time for those in favor and those in opposition to the project uh with this I'll say is there anyone who wishes to provide a rebuttal on this item if so be please prepare to step to the the podium uh please not each side will only have 5 minute total time so make your comments sync without repeating remarks of previous speakers to make sure that everyone that would like to can provide comments um I also note that since we last heard from the opposition we will begin with a five minute rebuttal for those in favor of the project so with the with that are there any speakers who wish to provide rebuttal comments in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed thank you um I just want to state that um there's still a lot of work to be done here right once we do receive approval on this conditional use permit uh we still have a lot of planning to do there's a lot of building permits that we need to apply for um and so there there still is going to be a substantial amount of work to be done a lot of capital to be spent on this this project so we're we're not done by any means I think this project is only going to get better as as it goes can you please state your name for the record oh yes Gregory Frank thank you thank you are the any other speakers uh in favor Tanya Holt um I I heard some people uh talk about crime and how uh there's an increase of crime in that area since um possibly the blanco started um but I just wanted to bring it to attention that crime is is kind of going up all over the place um that it it's a it's a common thing that's that's happening in a in a lot of places um and so I just wanted to share that thank you are there any other speakers in favor that would like to provide rebuttal comments so please step the microphone identify yourself and proceed my name is Tasha Ross um I just wanted to touch Bas somebody had mentioned something about the crime rates again in the neighborhood because of the new tenants there um while we were meeting with the police department for the neighborhood watch meeting that we would like to engage with um they let us know that there have only been in this calendar year of course we're only to March um four calls which is very low for that area for the entire year so far um and one of those we actually called them out ourselves for help with an eviction so just just a little update thank you are there any additional speakers in favor providing rebell comments seeing no additional speakers in favor um we will now close the rebuttal comment for those in favor open up 5 minute total time for speakers in opposition to the project to provide rebal comments um if if you'd like to provide for Bal comments please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed uh my name is Thomas Estrada and I'm not sure if this is the right time um I would just like more information on the studio in the the numbers per room whether it's two adults or a single mother with two children would be allowed or not allowed just a question Miss King can you advise on the best time to answer questions that would be um after the rebuttal we after rebutt okay thank you yep are there any other speakers in opposition hello again uh yeah just to kind of rebuttal the uh the guy from the the current County taxpayers Association uh mixed with what the blanco staff said I kind of just want this stated for the record for projects moving forward and that is yes they could go in there and and add a full kitchen they I mean heck they could go in there and they can demo a wall and turn two two hotel rooms into a little nice little one-bedroom apartment but as they stay that cost money um and so when you see like those little duplexes open up as the new housing that the city opened up yes they cost more but you get what you pay for so if you're if you're seriously investing into these people this is feels more like a Band-Aid than an actual home um so anything worth doing is worth doing right and just to kind of re reiterate to what um um the the owner said they really like if if you're really staring at the bank and the decision comes down today they really do have a spy of throat on what the the moral thing to do is and I just it's not our fault we didn't buy this hotel we didn't proceed illegally we did not to get the permits we didn't part of me wants to know is there if somebody were to Rally the the the residents of the blanco could they seek legal action against them for them having a lease for a building that's not even supposed to be an apartment that seems like a whole separate legal issue this is a huge mess and again it's not any of my neighbor's fault we had somebody come in from out of town with they could have the best intentions in the world but the way they went about it can damage any help that the city is going to try to provide to the unhoused for the foreseeable future just by trying to circumvent the rules and it's it's just we're between a rock and a hard place and whatever you guys feel is the best thing moving forward not just for the people who live there but for all the other people who are still at the Bakers withi homeless shelter like what can we do as a community to make this right and do it the right way and give them the respect and dignity they deserve thank you thank you there any additional speakers in opposition uh we do have two minutes remaining seeing no additional speakers in opposition I will now close the public hearing on this item oh we should uh if we're going to answer the question now would be the time to do it is that correct yes we can do it now okay um and I believe uh if a management from the blanco would mind um answer answering um the rebuttal question regarding I believe it was for the housing so in regard to the tenants again we go back to the voucher and how many people are on that voucher if it's private pay it's no more than two um yes we that does not include children so that is any adult over 18 um we do accept children but if it's multiple people that we of course aren't going to put you know a large family in a one bedroom Studio you should say um we have other properties I work for our main office with clber and Company we do have other properties a lot of times the workers or anything through whatever service provider they're with will ask us for one bedroom two-bedroom something larger but for this property it's two adults and we do have children thank you did that thank you okay um now having that question answer I will close the public hearing on this item and return to the commission for comment and action uh commissioner Coleman uh thank you Vice chair ker um well I want to say that um I I appreciate the Outreach to the community I think that the the tone has changed since we first heard this uh project in junee or July of 2023 and so I I commend you for reaching out to the community and and making some effort to uh uh consider their issues um I also enjoy I also appreciate hearing from not only the neighbors but also from some of your residents that actually live in the apartments uh uh Studios whatever you you want to call them um I I think that was very helpful to hear both from the neighbors and in the neighborhood and the uh and the uh residents that live in it um you know I think that uh on that subject of the Outreach you know we we really do encourage to per to uh reach out to the community and address their concerns however we don't require consensus uh we require you to go out and talk to the to the people and attempt to uh mitigate uh their concerns um you know as far as housing's concerned we need all kinds of housing in the community and this is one of the options uh I had an opportunity to go over and see a project that is very much like this in passive roblas and uh it's a a very clean and very well-run Community it's not owned by this particular group but it is run by a community group in that Community um we have one another community in our town we have one uh off of uh uh I guess it's Airport Drive Buck owens's area there um that's uh working very well [Music] um so I think it's important to say that these are one of the kinds of projects that we do need to have uh but I think that we're trying to figure out how to get this right you know we approved the one that we did approve off of Buck Owens a couple years ago it was uh one of it was the first one we had heard um and maybe we I don't know if we did good or not it seems to be working but I think we're learning as as we go how do we meet this particular need um from a project standpoint the conditional use permit is really I think the way that planners wanted to see these kind of projects come to us because it really does give the city and the Planning Commission the most amount of control over how that project operates uh not only tomorrow if we approve it but also into the future uh because we still have that conditional use permit it's conditional you only get to you you only to do that if you continue to meet the conditions that were included in the conditional use permit so uh I I appreciate that uh that uh that we moved now from the zone change to the conditional use permit um I appreciate hearing from Mr Loven Loven um uh I think that's a really good start U that we have somebody with your uh background your part your partner's background uh that's able to maybe bridge that gap between private security and and still have the relationships with command at BPD and others uh so I I do appreciate that uh I actually went out to this project myself at 3:30 in the morning I just happened to be coming back from a project in LA and I said I'm going to go buy this project and I'm going to see how it looks and uh I was actually uh impressed uh with the amount of lighting that's out there and I know that we're going to be doing some more there we're going to be doing some more Landscaping some fences and all that and there are there are transients in the neighborhood I I I can't deny that but there's transients in my neighborhood so uh I I didn't see anything that to me that was uh particularly offensive I think that if the security continues to work on uh being visible uh it's going to help a lot with not only your project but the surrounding neighborhoods and I know that you can't go out and Patrol uh the neighborhoods but I think just the uh the visibility of uh of security type people is going to help with that uh we can't speak tonight about problems with the with the motel six lacrosse the street and other things but we'll be happy to talk to that project developer at some point too so uh for for for me uh we def desperately need this kind of Housing and so I support it uh but I will also support uh any uh conditioner conditions that the uh other Commissioners might feel are necessary I did want to ask uh um the uh planning director to put up the uh the findings requirement that we have as page four of your uh of your of your statement yeah and so those are the uh the only way we can grant a conditional use permit is if the proposed project is deemed essential or desirable to the public convenience or welfare and I don't think we can deny that this is essential and it is desirable for the public convenience U of of the unhoused and that the proposed use is in harmony with various elements and objectives of the general en plan and I think that our number one in our general plan is housing and so um I feel that those thresholds have been met and so I would support uh uh and make any uh motion at that at the appropriate time to uh approve this project I have no further statement thank you commissioner Coleman uh commissioner Strickland thank you to agree with commissioner Coman I yeah we we see a lot of Market or above market rate housing in apartments we don't see a lot of um lower income and at need and vulnerable housing so I I think in that regard this is a great project I have concerns and reservations about the project itself um I I'm concerned about leasing before proper approvals I'm concerned that it it does feel like this isn't a request to the Planning Commission for a project approval it is asking the Planning Commission to be responsible for the eviction of vulnerable people or approve a project that we may have concerns on especially tonight with um Mr D's comments that if we don't approve tonight you know this is bankrupt and how I I don't think that should be our responsibility because it came in after sure we moved in 150 people or they shouldn't be allowed yet um I think church with walls it was a great quote you know would you like to be part of helping the homeless or causing the problem and that's that shouldn't be the question asked of us today and that's that's a problem I have with it um I think Vice chair Kar had a great request to make a conditional use that so so the project is great to me if it is as it's written in the operating statement and and the cup doesn't do anything to make sure that that's how it's always going to be it doesn't make sure that the Howard Johnson motel now the blanco will always provide vulnerable people support systems giving them a non-transitional they don't have to get out in a certain amount of time it gives them the opportunity to get on their feet and have someone they're proud of those are great I love that I would support the blanco for that I don't see anything that tells me that that'll be the case and I'm I'm really concerned that if we wanted to extend this we can't right they're going to go bankrupt and you know I would I would ask the city or maybe even the City attorney who's responsible for rehoming 150 vulnerable families or persons if we don't approve this yes commissioner Strickland wouldn't it be the city's responsibility it would be the developer the city I'm sorry it would not be the city's responsibility right and if the if the applicant is tonight or else I anyway I think I'm yammering on the same point I'll support or any motion that comes up I'll support but I'm really concerned that we're not we're not talking about a cup like should be in front of the Planning Commission we're talking about um the rehoming or eviction of 150 people who are already vulnerable so I I'll yield the floor if I if I could just add to that um there there is Safeguard in place um I believe if I'm not mistaken it was initiated because the county was under a scenario where certain people had to be evicted and not necessarily because of approval but maybe it was because of um an infestation or whatnot so there is a joint County City plan for primarily for hotels that if they have to get evicted or whatnot that that this group looks to other available spaces where people can be placed sorry I yielded but I'd like to retake the floor right but that's taking 1 spots that 150 people waiting for homes right now won't get that would be correct it doesn't keep them where they're at now it puts them in something that's already hopefully you're marked for others to get them off the streets that is correct so just again to reham the point is you know it's a it's a precarious position we're in because we're not talking zoning anymore so now I yield the floor for good all right I won't hold you to it if you want to speak again but uh commissioner Biddle I think I kind of mirror Mr Strickland's comments I was happy with the way that Daniel was talking about putting those conditions conditions to ensure to the surrounding community that what is in that operation statement is going to be what's there 10 years from now that's the point of a conditional use permit is to make sure that the community feels comfortable with what's coming into their area I would much prefer to see the you know permanent Supportive Housing units go into these type of of um size units we wouldn't approve this if it was a new build without a kitchen without all of the amenities that make it a home um I I wish we could know more about this communal kitchen that was going in to see you know how it's going to run but it's make or break at this point and and I I didn't like that either I didn't like coming here and making me feel as if my decision tonight is based off of having 150 people hit the streets I um I sit on the board for flood Ministries so I do know how bad we need those housing vouchers right now but that doesn't mean that we pass things through just for the sake of passing it through because we need it so I'm curious to hear what else Mr Kar has to say tonight too thank you um so I would say first off I think housing can look like many different things I think um or a community for too long that has had a singular vision of what housing looks like and I think the need to provide options for people that are at all different spectrums of need um and and so generally the concept of taking underutilized transi transient housing and provid providing Housing Solutions for those for our community members that are the most vulnerable I am supportive and I think it is a great project I think this um to me um Mr Frank I think you mentioned that the project maybe got off on the right the wrong foot and I would completely agree with you I think um on paper on the application this is exactly in my view what we should be pursuing as a community where are where are easily available housing units that we can turn into getting our fellow community memb members off the streets and into more permanent Solutions the problem that arose with this project is the roll out did not engage the neighborhood the roll out did not engage the proper channels of the city staff and so to me the difference of tonight versus I mean we're basically be being given the same project with completely different approval methods which came from pretty much every repres represent ative from every Department within our city which is not something that happens very often on our commission and so to me um and I'll get some my questions to the applicant you know a lot of that centers on accountability and trust and I think that this was a project where the trust was not established early on and we as a commission uh are looking for ways to um now that the conditional use has been identified as the mechanism to approve this the site are the appropriate trust mechanisms in place and um I bring I I would applaud staff I think the Good Neighbor policy um staff worked to provide language within the conditional use that I think reflects very adequately how the Good Neighbor policy is actually now a condition of the project accountability for I remember the first meeting um residents would say I would come to the blanco there was nobody to talk to me I had no it was basically a project that we have no interaction with tonight at least I feel confident that's not the case the community has spoken with the blanco the blanco has spoken with the community they've even enjoyed each other's company there's work to do there's Partnerships and Community initiatives like a neighborhood watch that are still being formed but if you look at the conditions of approval staff has included elements that are in the document of a good policy neighbor into the conditions of approval for this project I'm also glad to hear a city that's chronically underlit that a light is required in front of the project I think that will be a great asset to the neighborhood I think there's a few other locations uh pretty much anywhere in town where we could use another light or two um so with regards to my question regarding the um Good Neighbor policy um I asked the applicant because this is a um we are an advisory body that looks at zone changes General plan amendments subdivision maps and much more the much more is limited to the purview of Planning and Development within our city creating hours of operation creating lighting creating security those are conditions that we can readily quantify and put on a project um the the issue I have given the history of this site is a operational statement that speaks about wanting to be a certain thing but not committing to be that thing is unfortunately not something that our commission has the purview to review it is not our um it is not our purview to say you have to provide Supportive Housing you have to provide job fairs you have to provide a food bank that is not our purview I would imagine the voucher system probably has some accountability there's other mechanisms to work within the affordable housing framework we do not have that Authority my question to the applicant was just if these are things that you are committed to do a good statement of trust to the neighborhood is to say we will commit to do those things and that is why my question was purely elective it was not I don't I don't as a commissioner feel like I don't have the purview to put that condition on the project so it was and I don't know if Miss king would yes that is correct I saw a lot of head nodding from the I usually feel good when it's this and not that so yeah I just kept going but so it was merely an invitation for transparency for accountability for metrics that um start to build the trust bridge between the neighborhood and the blanco because there are there are indications tonight that were very different than a year ago that maybe the foundational stones are starting to be built on a bridge I don't think the bridge is built I don't think that uh anyone is holding hands and singing Kumbaya in a circle but I think you know for I I start to see that things have been made to bring that project together so that my comments were purely an opportunity to invite you to provide account accountability for those Services I think um so that was just I I I do not have the authority to condition you for those things and uh Miss King is glad that I didn't recommend that we do uh and so with that I mean I think the um I think the um to members of the of the public neighbors that came I would make sure that you read the conditions of what um The Blanco is being held accountable um they do exceed the conditions that are our standard boilerplate um property line setback curb and gutter uh they get into management hours they get into timeliness of requests they get into um enforcement when graffiti trash elements of the blanco may be fallen to disrepair so there there are account accountability mechanisms in place in this conditional use permit and because that is the purview of what we look at as a commission um I think that this model of providing housing to the most vulnerable speaking to um is it Miss Vasquez is it no I'm so sorry oh sorry the uh the speaker uh in support of the housing or public comments on the housing I think it was identified that very lowincome housing is and is where we as a city could do much better than we have and so looking at models finding Partnerships that start to build trust with where they're placed um to me is definitely a move that we as a city should be moving and so the goal tonight is to really through the recommendation of the Council of various departments in our city I think the the need for accountability through the use of a conditional use permit to build that trust um I would be um I think commissioner Coleman you made the initial motion but I would also um gladly second the motion unless actually commissioner would like to second the motion before before that he has a slide he wanted us to look at is there Slide the slide is just on conditions if you were looking to add conditions and and I'm just going to forward to that real quick and while you read this uh I did have the opportunity to speak with the fire department um regrettably they could not be here tonight but they would they did note that spr sprinklers were installed in this building uh and they were finalized by the fire department and they were installed in such a manner that does allow these small kitchen Nets in each room they also applied for fire alarms and water flow monitoring those plans were approved by the fire department in 2022 but there has been no call out for an inspection so I would request that um we add a condition which would be condition 3c4 which states within 30 days of project approval the project proponent shall request a final inspection for the fire alarms and water flow monitoring and that is that out of a abundance of safety for the residents when you say safety and fire department I feel again um so would we just invite commissioner Coleman to revise his motion does that work Miss king or should we so the motion and I can come back to this the motion would be to adopt resolution and suggested findings approving conditional use permit number 23642 with the listed conditions of approval as modified and that would be the inclusion of condition 3c4 can we go back to that last uh slide that you had uh because you um you talk about uh possible conditions include restrictions on hours of operation providing onsite security I thought that that was part of the conditional use permit as we're it was talked about in the uh so I'm I'm sorry could your question is well you're saying that could be a possible addition but I thought those were included in the conditional use permit that we were so what what you're seeing here is just just a generalized um working with the city attorney's office just a generalized um okay aspect when when you're when you're discussing conditions of of approval that could be applied to a project does include uh restrictions on hours operation and security requirements or does not this this does not include a security requirement no okay commissioner come would you like to provide thoughts and comments I see a lot of people want to jump in here so maybe we should have some more dialogue before we make a make a motion here I have nowhere to be please uh commissioner Coman please proceed I was suggesting that we have more raed my hand so yeah we have technology I don't yeah Strickland I just want to a little bit of dialogue on it do we like this project approval because it supports lowincome and vulnerable person do we like it because because of the operational statement is that is that what our approval would be based on so if we if we made a motion to approve it's because it provides to the vulnerable it's because it does Supportive Services to cap K through Garden Pathways is that no it would be because you you find that it meets the findings under our mun code it's a desirable can can we go back to that slide there's SL four y those are the two things right there right and I I guess I was asking the commission if you got the same type of effort if you got a application where they were already renting above Market apartments right and it was just an out of town or out of state developer already doing that would we approve it tonight based on that if if so then then that's fine I I'm just asking is there an element to this that because of the services they are reporting to provide longterm does that make it more amable to approve tonight if you don't mind I think this might be a question for the City attorney as planning commissioners our role is obviously to to be here to listen to the public but when it comes to our decision are we allowed to have emotions that play into that or does it have to be strictly off of what's put before us well I mean you definitely are taking into consideration the totality of the circumstances but you still have to make the findings based on what the mun code requires so is a proposed use deemed essential or desirable to the public convenience or welfare and is it in harmony with the elements of objectives of the general plan thank I think to respond to commissioner Strickland that was part of my question about the Good Neighbor policy because technically it's not part of the conditional use so from my perspective we are looking at an application independent of a Good Neighbor policy because there's nothing holding them to the Good Neighbor Pol or I'm sorry the Good Neighbor policy is part my apologies there's the operational statement is not anywhere translated into the cup so that from my perspective and this is basically we're making a determination independent of that operational statement because there is nothing guaranteeing or codifying that this will be how they continue to operate does that help yeah and I think I got a little confused with the conditions and I'm sorry to drag on this but so security can't be something that we have in the conditions that that can't be something that's required be it can be yes it's not we have and can we just to clarify I know this came up at the last um meeting the current hours of operation of security on site mhm yes uh whoever is the best representative from the blanco thank you thank you again for asking the question it's important information for people to know uh I would like to make a distinction of of physical security versus Security Services uh and sir I would just want to clarify that the hearing already closed so just if you can just answer the question that they're asking you could you repeat the question um could could you clarify the hours of on-site security and what service what Security Services exist uh on an all on call basis yes from on-site security there are security guards present armed security guards present from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. 7 days a week there is also on call Security Services provided from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. where we work in concert with the property management company to assist anything that they may need during that time so a total of 19 hours a day and lastly can you confirm um that there is a property manager on site during the hour of eight to five seven days a week or five days a week five days a week thank you okay commissioner Strickland I see a um request I'm never saying I yield the floor again because I'm taking Itor keep going yeah just to confirm in the discussion on the August 3r Planning Commission meeting that's the security now and this may be for the applicant that was the security then also sir it was it was not well articulated then because they asked the time that a security guard was present if I I'm asking a question sorry let me let me ask the question first um at the time in that meeting the applicant had stated that that was not long-term feasible there wasn't budget to long-term have Security on site things like that so I want to make sure that we're not confused between what they're doing today and what they're doing permanently so is that a condition of long term that there'll be 800 to 6:00 p.m. security I said it backward I'm not that smart 8:00 pm to 6:00 AM security is that is that the long-term plan or is that just now it is uh currently the case we hope that we can bring the place to a point where we would not require that as it is the place is improving as you've heard since the beginning of 2024 the police said that there were only four calls for this property um so hopefully we will not need to do that this is extremely taxing so it is not something that we can sustain forever and ever we wouldn't love it more than anything else but it's not something that we'll be able to sustain sure thank you can [Music] sorry I want to make sure I if I give him the chance to talk is that a problem well the hearing already closed so we really are limited to just question and it answered the question I asked yeah it's to answer the question that you asked about the long-term versus okay okay yes okay we are also working with uh some Avenues with nonprofit grants in order to somehow help with the security so there will be security and if that will be the case then that will be sure the long term thank you so if I could jump in here is there a way that we can structure condition here that uh that you know requires security without defining what that is so that the city can monitor that and you know work with the developer as time goes on I I don't know how to I don't want to condition him to have you know four armed guards for however long I I I guess I didn't want to get into that because I understand the developers concern about the ongoing cost over time but uh is there a way that we can have a security condition in in there that gives the city some you know way to go back to the developer and say hey you're not meeting your obligation commissioner Coleman the condition would have to be specific enough that we can actually enforce you can say no it's okay that's correct we we do right now have a condition that says a property manager shall be on site between the hours 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 P p.m. Monday through Friday but again that was part of of their Good Good Neighbor policy um which which is why it was incorporated in policies we figured could be conditions of approval and almost like Vice chair ker said I mean a statement is just a statement not necessarily enforceable is there representative from BPD in the audience P chance probably not right other than uh you ready I um so I was just curious about um again building trust building transparency you know a metric to establish the need because I I hear resounding um that some of the issues that may be orbiting around the blanco are not residents but they are people visiting residents and to me the presence of an overnight security is very effective to that end because they are monitoring who is coming and going from the site independent of residents that live there um and so I mean it's no longer on the top 10 was there was like a flashy term BPD dropped last time like top 10 of but I just be curious if there's a mechanism for monitoring [Music] um like monitoring um instances or you know if there's some Metric that can be used to say I I think that some of the reasons the neighbors are more agreeable and they're not total agreement but they're more agreeable now is that things have improved there and that was largely because they've had security there and so without including the security as a condition then there's no gu guarantee that you know come tomorrow he doesn't lay off all the security people and so I don't know how to you know have a condition that gives them a little bit of wiggle room but requires them to continue some kind of [Music] security I mean it may take a minute to craft a condition but and and I'll just throw this out there for your deliberation is that if if if applicants can pull the number of police calls to the site monthly and if that drops below a certain threshold that your commission sets maybe you can say no um security or secur is optional um but but again I don't have what that threshold would be uh I'm assuming that a member of the public could get the number of calls out easily um but that is something that's cannot be conditioned to staff to to to obtain those calls monthly for monitoring can I ask so in a condition of approval um if a condition is ever challenged by an applicant in the future is that is there a process that doesn't involve coming through a public hearing again in the future you're saying so not necessarily right now so right now the remedy would be to appeal to City Council in the future although we do not have a modification of a zoning or modification of a conditional use permit we do not have that in our zoning ordinance right now but what they could do is um potentially come back with like an expansion of a legal non-conforming use because uh if this conditional use permit is approved in another couple months it will not be an option to apply for conditional use permit so then this would be a legal non-conforming use they could potentially come back for an expansion of a legal non-conforming use to amend conditions at that time okay but basically a new conditional use permit but we' just call it a expansion of legal non-forming use because I know there's language and other conditional uses I've seen where there it's sort of re-examined at a at an interval maybe a year six months to determine work you know and because to me I I think the security does feel like it's been a benefit to the neighborhood to the project and um but then understanding that um the hesitancy for conditions that will live on forever um but just finding the right metric and who is the right person to say we agree this site is no longer you know that this condition can be way we do have an option although it again it kind of imposes more work on staff for compliance review of a condition of condition of approval meaning that we would report back to the Planning Commission at a date that your commission sets with an update towards um compliance with those conditions or anything other than than uh than you may want at that time to evaluate that conditional use permit and usually that's done as a report uh not necessarily um a public hearing it's it's a public hearing but it's not notified to the public that we're reporting back so it would not be posted for residents to be like is there because to me the the that there could be we could do it through the public hearing process and put it on the public hearing agenda um but again that is at City cost um just so you know that you would be imposing a cost on the city well I didn't suggest the condition so I will let commissioner Coman uh get back into the conversation all right let's try to move this thing along so um I would like to make a can you put up what you thought was the original uh uh approval okay so I would like to make a motion that we approve the resolution def finding approval conditional use permit and the listed conditions of approval with a added condition that uh the added condition that there be some security I I can't think of another way to say it there's some security uh available U uh 24-hour basis and I I I whether that's just their regular staff person or whether it's armed security I don't think I want to get into that but uh that they need to make some effort to provide uh security and accountability on a 24-hour basis that is a little subjective uh available could mean just on call and we're fine with that can you help help me be more specific more objective um commissioner Coleman if you say available it makes it sound like they're there like 247 if you say on call it means that they only get called if they're needed so which one are you leaning towards I am leaning towards them being there okay that we need to have somebody now let me ask you a question because this is uh I I don't I don't remember the one we approved in town here whether we conditioned that in such a way I'm not familiar of conditioning a conditional use permit to require security yeah I'm I'm I'm low to uh require you know the extra cost uh and posos that on the developer but I struggle because the reason we're here tonight and the conditions are improv there is because that security has been offered has been available during this period of time so I think I'm going to re I'm going to propose that we have a condition that requires them to have a security presence 24 hours a day would you be acceptable to the security that they have now based on their hours for a period of 6 months and then we return in six months um again with a report just to see how it goes and then yes and then my and again my initial thought is to have have the security required for 6 months and we can report back and if you decide that you want to continue that then we would have to set that for a public hearing if we're going to modify conditions at that point in time but if we're just going to report back then we can just report back as a under reports where it's not yeah I think personally I would be agreeable to that you know if we see that you know the crime rate in that area has dropped and we haven't had a lot of calls in at that property or in the general vicinity I would I would be all for dropping it because I really don't want to put a big financial burden on the developer I I think I appreciate that he's brought this project uh you know to us that we have an opportunity to provide this this kind of housing so can you uh structure that in such a way that it doesn't put too much more of a burden on it but we'll be S looking at this again in six months is that going to be like in six months we'll uh we'll say okay another six months or are we going to make some resolution at that time to change that or what do you imagine that being I imagine that being if you want to require it for 6 months so so the the on-site security would be required for 6 months we would then report back but at 6 months the applicant could cease their security and if you wanted to extend that we would have to reset that for a public hearing to modify conditions or add conditions so so initially it would be for a period of 6 months we would report back and then you could determine if you want to continue security after that but again if you're going to if you're going to continue security it would require a public hearing can I ask a question of the of the um applicants just the anticipated timeline to um I do some your project has been in limbo for a period of time now um if tonight's conditional use is approved what's the anticipated timeline to get the blanco up and running as your team envisions [Music] it thank you um it's our intent to activate this conditional use permit as as soon as possible um we've already produced um as built plans and and know how to handle the change of use um so as soon as this is finalize that's going to be one of our first steps so would you anticipate like a six-month turnaround or a oneyear turnaround we um it would be it would be within six months okay my thought is commissioner Coleman you're making the motion because it's a but my thought is the thank you that was my question yeah is [Music] um the security has provided what I think is kind of starting to connect neighborhood concerns with the project and we're still in this transition period and we'll still be in a transition period till the project is able to complete itself because it hasn't been able to complete itself and so to me I would suggest for consideration that security as currently provided extends itself into kind of let's call it six months after the project opens as planned and then the blanco has an opportunity to show itself as it will be as a neighbor and a completed project um to me that provides an opportunity to kind of get through this transition period this team can act as they put their best effort forward to show how they intend to be a good neighbor and that would be to me a good time to make the a determination I think I agree with that so can you uh Mr Johnson uh summarize that condition and does that is that objective enough for you I I'm I'm looking right now if you could um give me your your point one more time so you're you're looking for on-site security 24 hours a day we're looking for on-site security well or as current as currently as it Curr as it currently is that's the way it's been presented to us tonight and and I think that it was a a staff person from 8 to six and then I'm sorry a staff person from 8 in the morning till 5:00 p.m. and then there's armed security from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. right is that correct Mr Lan yes sir okay so um so as it is been presented tonight until 6 months after the project is fully completed is that so that's after everything's done all the conditions have been met yeah yeah that that would be my motion is that is that adequate to the City attorney so let let me read it and we'll make sure that uh the City attorney is fine and this covers what you're looking for so we would have a condition that says the project proponent shall provide on-site security from 8:00 pm. to 6:00 a.m. for a period of 6 months after final certificate of occupancy which certificate of occupancy wouldn't be issued until all the conditions are complied with and then we would have another condition that would say this item shall be brought back to the regular scheduled Planning Commission meeting I'm sorry do we did we want to bring this back for a report or would be just satisfied with the six months after think we want to be able to hear it again and we're trying to think about I'm trying to think about you know if we're not you know the planning commissioner 6 months from 6 months from when that project finishes uh that that it makes some sense to them so it would need to come back in some form that you could report on you know where we started where we are and how it's going and so you would like that report again I will say six months after the final certificate of occupancy yes yeah so that could be understand that could be 18 months from now it could be 3 years from now if it takes them that long to get everything done have another condition that says this item shall be brought back to the regular scheduled Planning Commission meeting 6 months after final certificate of occupancy or as soon thereafter as a staff communication item if compliance with the conditions of approval are in dispute the matter could subsequently be scheduled for a Planning Commission review on the regular agenda at which time the Planning Commission may take whatever action related to the project if any it deems warranted including adoption of new or modified or modification of existing conditions of approval or initiate revocation of project approval just again just noting that if if that does occur that is a potential cost that the city will do um because we will have to notify the neighborhood with signs on site one question I would have is I think to the best of what's able that we are reviewing this one condition and the expiration of the condition not reopening for except to me that's that's that last language was a little bit intimidating like I I don't think that we want to present the the opportunity that we're going to try to recondition the project okay so we'll just say this item shall be brought back to the regular scheduled Planning Commission meeting 6 months after final certificate of occupancy or soon thereafter as a staff communication item that yeah I think that that's what I I think that's as good as we can ask for um you know I a developer left the room uh but I'll say to the the property management person that uh it's really not Our intention to put any undue financial burden on the developer but uh I go back to that conditions have improved so much there in the last year because of that security and uh this is not the time to stop it so uh that would be my motion as uh Mr Johnson prepared it does everybody understand the motion we do have a request to speak from commissioner Strickland I did have a question on the map set if we approve it on this motion is it on the map set they submitted for certificate of completion because the map set still shows the kitchen at the architect saying that's not a thing what do we approve which mapet are we approving on Mr Johnson can you clarify um the plans submitted tonight should the plans deviate through the process what constitutes a because the project I think Mr Frank spoke to it the project is not ready to go there are other steps in the process so can you clarify what we're looking at tonight and what the applicant was would be held to I think that's Mr commission yeah generally speaking conditional use permits are brought forward with plans that are how to be constructed um if you want to allow some some leeway for for modifications to those floor plans um that would be at your discretion or a discretion you would allow me to make and I would propose that we allow the uh the the planning director to have discretion on that uh we we understand I think in theory what we're trying to achieve there and if it's just a matter of you know changing the configurations of the rooms so I think that's well within the the uh the the the knowledge base that the director brings to the table so I I think he should have the discretion it shouldn't have to come back to us um I I I think that we have cond we F plenty of conditions in here to be sure that we're getting the kind of housing that we want and whether it has a you know this kind of refrigerator or that kind of stove um I think think that's something that the director should have some Authority on yep and then the sprinklers if that's if you want to add that to the aren't the sprinklers part of the condition yes that that was in included so we'll have three conditions that we're adding okay three three can we re those this will review all the conditions then I will so we'll have the on-site security we'll have the report back and then we will have um for the fire suppression sprinklers fire alarm and water low okay so that's my motion I think as good good as it's going to get tonight and we have two more items to do yet so so uh that would be my motion uh and I would look to for somebody to second that I'll second the motion okay Commissioners please cast your votes motion passes with chair Basher Tosh and Commissioners core and Neil absent we for thank you um may I recommend that we take a 10-minute breather just uh yes it's 7:50 yes thank you we'll reconvene at 8 o' thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] PE [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] um I think if we could all take our seats um The Time Is Now 8:01 and we're going to move to um reopen the agenda with item Six B Mr Johnson would you please provide us your staff report and uh if I could ask the neighbors that are talking in the back if you could make your way into the lobby thank you Mr Johnson so thank you we were pleased to have our development services director Christopher Bo will present this item thank you planning director Johnson it's actually a pleasure to be here at 8:01 thought I might be a little earlier I want to take the opportunity to thank all of the citizens who are still here um that shows true commitment to our housing efforts moving forward without further Ado um the second item on tonight's public hearing agenda is six cycle housing element Regional Housing needs assessment vacant sites rezoning that's a mouthful why are we here uh to provide the required inventory of housing sites appropriately zoned to comply with a Regional Housing needs assessment for the six cyal housing element the six cyal housing element um is and the Reena process is one that is born out of Sacramento and Sacramento releases a countywide number uh Target number for the county overall ultimately the current Council of governments is responsible to take that number and distribute it uh across um the various municipalities within um within the county in this case Kern County um our 2023 to 2031 Reena allocations by income category per that uh current Cog report um asks the city or directs the city to provide for 37,461 units and those units are broken across four income categories essentially the lower income categories um the city is asked to create 18,21 units and for higher income 19,250 units when you look at that as an overall percentage of the county within the County's Arena um the city's asked to create 76% or provide 76% of the County's overall um Arena totals um for low and very low income and for our moderate and above moderate the city is tasked with providing for 57% of all um market rate housing you look at that as a distribution across the board you'll see that it's about 5050 51 to 49% very low or low income being 49% of that total and moderate and above moderate being um 51% of that total you look at other municipalities I think the city is definitely challenged and is carrying quite the load 65 % of the county overall and the table there which looks at all the cities I uh I'm not picking on anyone but uh for County totals uh it's 73% market rate and 27% um for uh low and very low uh there are other municipalities within within Kern County that have been blessed similarly even less than 27% of their overall Arena um being assigned to them so when we look at a rezoning the idea is to translate the Reena into zoning and so when you look at these various categories for very low income the city has created an R5 and an R six and an MX2 Zone because we haven't really really had a zoning designation that would require no less than 30 dwelling units an acre but in order for land to be qualified as very low income per per the um hcd standards it needs to be at least 30 dwelling units an acre or more hence for R5 um that's 30 dwelling units to 50 and for R six 50 and above our MX2 requires a mixed use component that um comes in at 30 dwelling units or more an acre for the lowincome that aligns with our mx1 and our R4 where there must be at least 20 dwelling units an acre to qualify as a lowincome property within our vacant s sites inventory similarly for our market rate you could say that R2 and R3 are your uh moderate income um properties and that can fluctuate a little bit depending on the overall density of those projects and your R1 and and rs are your typically moderate market rate properties so in looking at looking at your vacant tis inventory rezone it starts with Arena but the arena is translated through zoning now the city uh in our fifth cycle provided something like 261 per of Reena because we essentially added every vacant parcel in the city and so the city's ability to carry over some of those Parcels at this point eight years after construction um eight years through Construction in our fifth cycle you can see that um these properties here they're carryover vacant sites that are appropriately Zone to meet the needs of those varying varying um income categories noting that we didn't have an R4 that provided for that minimum density and we didn't have an R5 that there either as well so if you take the those Parcels do not require any any rezoning whatsoever they're carried over into our bacon sight's inventory there are also new proposed rezone sites and the city's done gone through some degree of effort in looking to collaborate with our property owners within the city um I as a rule to staff um would never include a parcel that didn't have owner desire to be in the vacant sites inventory so been a tremendous amount of work that's gone into crafting this particular list um so that's all of the rezone properties that are proposed how did we do that well we did that through a series of Outreach letters the no less than four Communications have gone to every single parel that was proposed to be on our list started back in January I think the 16th I'm not wearing my glasses nor would they do me any good at this point in juncture January 26 the follow-up letter that included um included a frequently asked questions and a description of the various zoning designations and included a consent to rezone form in it as well an additional follow-up letter in February and early February and then our last communication some people did return that consent to annexation form we appreciated that and the other graphic there shows the descriptions of the various zones that a perspective reone property owner could discern what that meant to his property his or her property as they were being considered for a reone now not everybody desired to be in the vacant s inventory and so um Parcels removed there were 35 Parcels removed that in in total lost 145.5 s Acres with a projected unit loss remembering that the Reena must provide 37,461 units of about 29 2945 Parcels I would also remind you too that you're not looking at the annexations that you recently pre- zoned because they're pre- zoned but they're not in the city yet our work is done lafco would have to approve those annexations and those are looking to be scheduled for a lafco hearing in the near future but those are also those prezone Parcels in many cases are also included within the vacant s sites inventory I want to take a moment to thank the planning division staff for their hard work on this matter Mr Fernandez I think his phone never stopped ringing for the last month or so as he answered questions to concern citizens Mr Nino the advanced planning principal planner who guided this process as well as Mr Lewis Ramirez who has been instrumental um in looking at our next next um hearing item the report on our APR um great efforts and I just want to lift them up oh and I I should also introduce Mr Bell as well who's been instrumental in that work work I go on and thank Anna too but everybody knows you have to thank Anna so um so back back to seriousness what does that mean to us what you're looking at tonight are 21 Parcels which Encompass 1,291 acres of land with the potential to provide for 18,000 881 units towards that 37,000 plus goal is it all of the part all of those properties we need no we would have hoped that every parcel would have embraced the idea that that's not the case staff's already working on a second rezone that will come back to you in order to fully satisfy the 37,461 and to provide the desired buffer that hcd requests which would be somewhere between 15 and 25% that's our Target when we went into this effort we had about an 18% buffer I think that Buffer's been exhausted by the parcels that have been removed but we'd like to think that everyone in audience tonight noting they've been had outreach are there in support of the rezones that are before you today so 2 Parcels 1,291 Acres 1881 potential units if you put the existing inventory along with the the proposed rezones the map starts to fill out next time we see each other as long as our annexations go smoothly you'll see the annexation Pieces come together as well and we'll be looking at that last piece trying to fill in that Gap and build our build our Reserve back up that said did I ever say that b is for brevity that said staff recommends that the Planning Commission adopt a resolution approving the change in zoning classifications from the various zones noted here in and rezone those to the mx1 MX2 R2 R3 R4 R4 HD for Hillside and R5 or more restrictive classifications and recommend same to the city council that completes my presentation I'd be happy to ask any questions you might have thank you the public hearing on this item is now open is there anyone in the audience wishing to speak in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify your myself and proceed yes uh good evening Mr chairman members of the bille pl uh Planning Commission uh staff and audience uh my name is Max Basera I'm principal of Pacific is sp company and also principal and uh the mo Partners uh I I've been a planner for over 40 years uh in Kern County um I've also had uh the uh pleasure and the honor to to serve as uh the chairman of the current County Housing Authority for the last uh 30 years um you know as I continue to to to plan and and be be a part of of uh the growth and progress of KR County and the City of Bakersville uh it's so uh apparent that um while the state is is is um um you requiring uh so many units uh to be placed here in in the city of Bakersville uh we need to follow good planning practices and and uh uh locate um higher densities uh uh housing uh along our major corridors make sure that they have access to uh to Parks uh as well as uh educational uh facilities um I I've had the um uh the ability to to work with planning staff on some of the projects that that uh and some of the sites that we control along major uh corridors and um I think staff has done an outstanding job in uh trying to site the best location uh for uh these higher density uh Parcels for housing and uh even the the MX2 and mx1 uh areas so that um Transit can can utilize uh uh these uh the these areas and and um it it it makes uh good sense so um uh at least uh for my perspective I think that uh I really feel that that uh uh your planning staff has done a great job and I too uh would like uh uh to Advocate uh that your commission uh take a look at uh the staff's report and the areas where they have um uh requested that we make some changes in the zoning classifications uh then please uh approve this uh uh staff report by by staff that would be my uh my comments thank you thank you is there anyone else in the audience wishing to speak in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed good evening uh staff and uh commissioner Vice chair uh my name is Eric MOA I'm the principal of the more Partners I'm partners with uh Mr Max bacera um I've been in real estate sales for the last 18 years and a partner with Mr berser for the last four uh being involved in the city's growth you know uh planning developing projects both in uh you know residential multifam and uh commercial um so on behalf of a few my clients that received few of these letters uh from from staff um yeah they couldn't make it tonight and if they were here they probably probably would have left a earlier um they they all shared that you know they were um very excited to see that the city was you know interested in in revaluating the uh you know zone of their properties I just because of the uh lack of interest in their current properties now they felt that the MX uh Zone would bring value to their site and would bring possible new development into these neighborhoods so tonight I'm here to support uh Mr Bo's U proposition here to reone these uh Zone owner Z zone changes to the MX uh uh zoning and also the higher density zones thank you very much thank you are there any other members of the audience wishing to speak in favor of the project seeing no additional speakers in favor um I will now invite any members of the audience wishing to speak in opposition to the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed uh Jess Frederick I'm with wzi I also represent uh the parking lot six Association so I'll be brief uh first of all you know this is bit of a challenge forgive me uh first of all you know uh we don't want to derail the good work that's been done uh just to fix otherwise avoidable process flaws so I'm hope hoping we can resolve this issue and put everything back on track as far as what we perceive has proceeded as of U the most recent action U just in general our first inkling uh regarding this resoning activity came by the pruner notice concerning the proposed change in zoning to alter our Common parking lot from parking to mixed use and as we pointed out to the staff we have certain uh constraints as to what we can do with our parking lot uh in our founding documents so we sought advice uh from business partners and Commercial development um contacts only to find that such an action on our parking lot could actually cause a devaluation of our commercial property and may actually pull a trigger on uh Covenant on loan documents so we're very uh sensitive to that and I would hope that that would always be a consider a and we asked that our parking lot be removed from consideration and thankfully the staff was very gracious they uh did it and um we uh I like to extend my thanks to all for that um the the use of high density residential is our issue at hand not so much because of the way it's been shown in the map but because during the course of the recent Planning Commission meeting uh there was a statement made regarding zoning all commercial into a mixed use environment and it just threw up a red flag as uh we were scrambling to try and wrap our head around the entire matter and suddenly this started looking like it was going to be an overlay done Citywide and and that's why I'm here that's why I'm here and I I think to some degree having seen the proceeding the previous proceeding it certainly is within the conditional use process as an instrument to convert otherwise commercial property into a mixed use environment with proper mitigations that's what the conditions are for so as I said we've been scrambling and we've sought a lot of uh advice and um uh and then we were reading through the Planning Commission proceedings and found this reference to just putting everything under a commercial overlay and that um really caused some concern I'm not going to spend a lot of time going through my notes uh I've already submitted written comments uh on behalf of the uh parking lot Association you should have received them I think we submitted them yesterday so um rather than waste a lot of everybody's time here this evening we all want to go home sometime uh this uh we're going to ask respectfully one for the clarification I think that the clarification of the proposed resoning as it relates to the commercial o potential overlay or if it's not even an issue so be it you know I've seen the map and I'm assuming that all of the um Planning Commission actions are really and the city council actions are related directly to those properties those APN numbers that are identified on the maps uh but we are we are still concerned in in terms of Westchester as I started looking through this Westchester is a particularly exposed community in all of this planning and I would hope that they get certain consideration with regard to environmental justice issues themselves because as highspeed rail starts to build out and soon it will be there coupled with this transient high density housing it could be very very unfortunate for the people there and I think that they deserve some consideration and um and you know aside from my own commercial interest and I'm here on behalf of my company the parking lot Association and the other parking lot Association who also asked me to have encouraged me to step right into this um is that you give some consideration to the Westchester um Community we respectfully ask for the clarifications of the proposed zoning and a little more time to address the community impacts I know you guys are under the gun and I appreciate it but you know it's sort of uh you know with when it's with Bakersfield and you tell us that it's because Sacramento tells us to do something they're they're not exactly the best source of instruction as to how to perform so um our formal comp uh comments have been submitted in writing and we respectfully reserve the uh right to expand our formal comments this is going to be a proor statement uh as additional information concerning the action under squa uh becomes available and we continue to uh first exhaust our administrative remedy and hopefully you know that'll be the end of it in the clarifications and uh thank you thank you are there any other uh members of the audience wishing to speak in opposition to the project if so please step the microphone identify yourself and proceed seeing no additional speakers uh in opposition um are there any planning commissioner questions for staff or um members of the public commissioner Coleman uh thank you Vice chair kater I appreciate it um so uh I'm looking for this is for staff I'm looking for the letter that the uh parking law association says that they is that in the staff report it was in a memorandum that was um prepared today there was two memorandums provided I see the Zimmer Melton one is that the one yes that is the one okay all right okay so can you uh can you clarify that we've taken their law out of this zoning change that that law um was proposed for MX2 I believe and it was removed yes okay and then the other matter that he's asking for is uh clarification on how we Zone mx1 bmx1 Zone uh provides for residential by right um it also provides for the complete use schedule of the C1 zone so all uh all applicable the use schedule for the C1 zone is also applied to the mx1 requires a 20 to 30 dwelling units per acre density if someone entertained going with mixed use there's nothing that prevents him from using it nothing whatsoever okay so um question this is goes back to the root of the you know why we're here and uh the arena numbers that we're chasing can you talk a little bit about how the state if you know how they come up with that K County should bu or Bakersville should build 37,000 Lots in the next few years is there a method to that or is it you know roulette wheel and uh and the lobby of the assembly office or how how is that how how do I wish to reply HD provides um to Cog a base number with which each County must meet that number of dwelling units um Cog then provides for a formula that formula ultimately must be approved by hcd the graphic I put up was the um was the hcd letter as well as the Reena formulation that was prepared by Kern cooch um it it's no no secret that there is a housing shortage in the state of California and hcd is charged with um being responsive to that shortage and um those numbers are distributed to each of the individual counties in in the state and then subsequently the the various um councils of government then distribute them to the various um municipalities and unincorporated areas of um their respective regions and that's how this process works then that number is is released by Cog and and each of those municipalities is tasked with preparing uh vacant sites inventory as part of their housing element which meets or exceeds typically exceeds the number of units that are assigned to it um is Bakersfield asked to carry a Lion Share especially of affordable housing in in in this six cycle I I I would say absolutely yes I think the numbers demonstrate that by the same token um there is as much of a need for market rate housing I I've mentioned in the past that I think the last time I was with you um that we built 1234 single family residential homes last year and we will need to average 246 over the next eight years so whereas there is a major focus on on a higher density product the zoning ordinance that you've you've adopted and forwarded to the city council and the preponderance of that which was approved last night it it doesn't look to focus on on providing for higher densities of housing it looks to provide for a broad swath of opportunities to build residential at multiple different differing densities some of those densities are very purposeful in that the state requires that 20 to 30 and that 30 and above designation to meet the low and very low and so City's ordinance is very purposeful in meeting that that guideline so um but all in all the city's task with building a lot of Housing and we're not NE necessarily focused on a density versus lower higher density versus lower density we're focused on producing housing that's why we also introduced the the mixed use zones to provide for by r opportunities and streamlined processes per the desires of of HD and quite frankly per the desires of our development Community um nothing like by right streamlined processes to help facilitate greater development within the city something the development Community has asked for for a long long time and so consequently this ordinance looks to not only provide for w wide swath of housing opportunities but it also looks to provide for ample opportunities for the develop Community to be responsive to the need to to build 37,461 units for me it's not productive for me to say these are impossible numbers um what's productive for me is to say I'm going to find a way for the development Community to build it noting that the city doesn't build a single unit um and that ordinance is that ordinance was purposeful in its intent to provide for those opportunities and I want to thank the property owners who embraced the idea of providing a wider range of densities within the city's 151 square miles I Champion them embracing those these revised zones and um and willingly coming into the vacant sites inventory at the same time I would note that not one single property owner who doesn't wish to be in it is incorporated into this rezone not one iota I also add there was a note that um we need more time I've been at this for since two 2022 okay as I noted last night in city council we've been without a housing element now for 60 days essentially decertified and I think the reason why we haven't been challenged by hcd with a a letter advising us of that fact is because we are working hard hard to get a certified housing element to them and to take pauses is not conducive to getting this process across the Finish Line without any penalty from hcd I want to if you're watching I want to thank you for your patience as we worked hard to bring to you a housing element that provides for housing in of all types in all areas of the city or all income groups thank you for your patience if you have any other questions I know I could elaborate well I I I miss Neil is not here tonight and I I know that uh the low income and the very low income is very dear to her and it's important to all of us I think and so the question becomes we're going to add another 18,000 uh Lots in this rezone deal and there's no guarantee that any of those are going to get built out in a within the time so what can we do what is planned for us to do maybe you got a couple developers back there what is it going to take to get some of that stuff built you know as I was uh listening to um Mr Basera I I made a mistake in um this presentation or even in the APR presentation that will follow because um the more partners are are already taking advantage of this this zoning ordinance and will'll be presenting to staff density of an R4 nature um 40 acres of it um we have other lots that are we have other small lot single family that would qualify for R2 that's in final map stage the development community be responsive because the city now doesn't require puds and Zoning mods and all those things that used to be required um to build at a higher density and um I'm I'm pleased to say that at least some of the development Community sees an opportunity to provide for a wide range of housing to the residents of the city of Bakersfield so that every person can entertain home own home ownership and and build personal wealth and that's something that's dear to my heart as well so um I think you might be surprised at the resilience of the development Community as it's responsive to the zoning ordinance that you you approved and forwarded a recommendation of approval to council um who took action last night okay well thanks you for sharing that uh we look forward to seeing some more housing being built so the next time I come and see you I I'd like to think I'll be bringing live applications to you just to give you a a taste of what's to come okay thank you sir I have no further questions questions thank you Mr Coleman uh or commissioner Coleman uh commissioner Strickland sorry if I mentioned parking or you just going to walk out was it have you heard all you want about parking this week no I I've I've heard wonderful constructive comments as it relates to the city's proposal to remove parking regulations and I'm excited to bring a workshop to the city council you you may or may not know that Council um took an action to remove that parking component from the ordinance but mov the remainder of the ordinance forward noting our need to bring a certifiable housing element to hcd and um I'm anxious to continue that dialogue with decision makers moving forward I I meant because I don't think we've ever talked where I didn't bring up parking um I had a question and it's on here somewhere are you trying to press my buttons commissioner Strickland I didn't realize it was that serious uh I left my boxing gloves back at my office true story it it's in here somewhere and I can't find the number it was2 Acres that opted out and 792 Acres that are in scope is that is that number right um let's get absolutely right there is a,2 called 1,3 Acres that um are encompassed Within part 211 Parcels that provide a potential of uh and that's at the minimum density that's typically what the realistic capacity of each parcel is in your vacant sight's inventory as part of your housing element so at the minimum density and so that's 18,8 181 units and we lost 35 Parcels encompassing 145.5 s including a parking parking uh lot okay thanks yeah I just couldn't remember the numbers I couldn't find it on my sheet so thank you to put it into context if you're looking at 2945 lost units that's essentially uh 100 acres of R5 zoning it will be a tall challenge but staff will continue to to collaborate with property owners in the community and we will get there F I'm sorry sorry I didn't but I no worries um my my question is uh actually for the speaker in opposition you had a number of questions were they all answered During the period or is there a question you'd like clarified yes please but please note this is a time for questions so if you could just just clarify any questions you have for question yeah the the issue I have has more to do with whether or not MX or mixed use is compatible with uh commercial it's whether or not the overlay was done without study or consideration just as an accommodation to expedite some action where it affects 151 square miles of Baker field sorry this is question so it's got to be very question well that that is the question that I was asking is this an overlay of the entire commercial C1 and C2 and I will zoning is a conversion question mark and I will um I will uh thank you for clarifying that question and I will turn to Mr Bor with a for clarification and my understanding of the question is is the overlay to the city yes no it is a freestand both the mx1 and the MX2 are freestanding zones and to date they're only been applied to property owners who so desire to engage in a mixed use Zone um the C1 Zone and the C2 Zone um do not provide for residential um but their use schedules have been applied to the MX zones such that for individuals who would desire to have um a mixed use setting they could rezone their properties into the MX zones but it is not a city-wide application so an MX Zone a commercial property would go through an MX process to become part of that Z reone process to become part of that for C1 and C2 noting that we already have Provisions for um housing in our CB and our CC CC yes okay thank you did that answer thank you I just want to make sure your questions are answered um I had a just a couple of questions um about methodology and how the map like how sites were determined so I don't know if uh staff or Mr boy you're the best to uh um I I probably am the best to discuss anything associated with the bacon sides inventory although my crack planning team led by the polished planning director Paul Johnson uh would probably stand up to me just as a so to incorporate a parcel into the vacant s sites inventory is not like it was in 2015 M uh it can only for high density properties they can only be between 1/2 and 10 acres um they must be um close to or reasonably foreseeable to have access to utility over the eight-year span of the um of the housing element itself they must provide for a minimum of the zoning of the densities that I provided for so and um along with that there's a more broader brush of requirements attached to state law as it relates to affirmatively furthering Fair housing and no net loss and those other dynamics that have been introduced by the legislature over the last seven years so when you look at the zoning map and especially those rezone areas I cherish the the zones those Parcels that have volunteered um in in all quadrants of the city there isn't any one real um highly selected um area that is essentially being f a focal point of placing housing in and I guess and I guess that that is kind of more I should have finished my question before I said housing and then let you tell me I appreciate all of my question is there and I'm trying to say the question without saying a thought but the the map we're seeing displays two strategies well the map yeah the map I'm seeing one that clusters mixed use sites in theory to activate a mixed use neighborhood another that are kind of drops of drops in a bucket if you will of traditional zoning and denser sites do do you see the city at maybe in the next round do you see one pattern versus the other emerging as the city moves forward and provide its density and housing I'm going to continue the strategies that we've employed because it from my perspective it it's not good govern to um simply apply a z District to an individual's property without their consent and so um when you look at our Outreach um over time um that's been our our primary approach um as it relates to the Cottonwood Corridor that's most obvious um that that those Property Owners came to us with a desire and there's a there's a vision for the future of C of the of the South MLK Cottonwood Corridor that includes uh a Rejuvenation of that area and um wrapped around the deloro high school and future commercial that's proposed at the intersection of Cottonwood and white and so the city wants to partner with with with those property owners and providing the correct Zoning for that that Vision to continue to move forward in a positive way um yes uh yes Vice chair we do have a vision for a mixed densities neighborhoods you might recall last year's annual progress report where we looked at um Harland Ranch and I colored the map with all the different densities that were within that that 400 acres and there was no less than eight different product types being represented we see that as um a viable approach to providing housing for all all folks in terms of filling in the blanks on this map we're going to continue to look for properties want to partner in all quadrants in order to make certain that we've done everything we can to firmly further fair housing throughout the community and um and uh hopefully capitalize on opportunities to partner with deel with developers and property owners in um in finishing the job of having a a suitable vacant s sites inventory and is this this work being is there any work being done in conjunction with um affordable housing developers or affordable housing um providers if you will um I I would say this that um I do know that the affordable housing community is aware of our vacant sites inventory and has been has been in contact with certain Property Owners about the availability of their lands those are private private property owner business decisions um I believe that at least in one instance um that there was a favorable outcome there where we might see the additional affordable housing being brought to the community by one of our existing um low-income Builders and does the city have metrics to see how in use the site the site the vacant site inventory is like number of hits number of connection is there any because it exists for developers to right as it's a resource that was created at the beginning of the process in that it's it's not really finalized it hasn't really been out on the street we've had one one brush where we provided opportunities for comment um to hcd then subsequently that's come back to us and um there's still a lot of work to be done with the vacant sights inventory just in identifying the realistic capacities remember that we started this process with relying upon the the general plan land use designation so um that included designations that would provide for us as much as 72.6 units but more often than not was built at four or five dwelling units an acre one of the reasons why hcd said your zoning your zoning ordinances a constraint to housing production and so we need now that this ordinance is one step away with a second read from um memorializing these D Zone districts our consultant will be tasked with going back into the vacant side cemeter addressing the minimum maximum um tables and identifying the more suitable uh realistic capacity and then running those totals so and all of that is happening in the here and now and will be done before we we we get a certified housing element thank you just just a bit of work a little bit still to go okay right um I don't see any additional commissioner questions and so Now's the Time for rebuttal I will note it appears that the speaker in opposition has left the hearing is the and so I will as we heard from the opposition um Miss King so we would hear from those in favor favor and then we'll okay yes um so now is the time for rebuttal comments uh please remember this is a 5 minute total time um for all speakers so please make your uh comments succinct and provide an opportunity for everyone to speak um so with that we will start with those we last heard from those in opposition so we will begin rebuttal with those in support and put 5 minutes um on the clock um so at this time I will invite any speakers that would like to provide rebuttal comments in support Miss king um seeing no speakers in support um I will now open to those in opposition that's correct okay so if we could put five minutes for those in opposition and I will welcome any speakers in opposition to item 6B seeing no speakers in opposition I will now close uh the hearing and return to the commission for comment and action commissioner bidd for the sake of time I'd like to make a motion to approve consent C or non-consent uh public heing 6B thank you may I have a second I'll second commissioner Coman Commissioners please cast your votes motion passes with chair Basher Tosh and Commissioners core and Neil absent thank you Madame clerk next item please agenda item seven reports yes thank you um as I Was preparing this slideshow for the housing element annual progress report Mr Bole came into my office flipped a coin I won next thing you know we're playing best out of three best out of five best out of seven until he won and gets to present so lucky him my only hope is that he can retire in the next year so next year I can present the APR Mr B we'll uh keep our fingers scross Mr well thank you director Johnson I know the check will clear it's like the fourth time I've been able to bring an annual housing element report and I've liked this first screen from the D very first time I saw it it's courtesy of Miss Cecilia grigo now with the um economic Community Development Department so this is a bit of an abbreviated um annual housing progress report in no small small sum because of how the numbers have been impacted by recent histories and we'll talk about that a little but we'll look at the fifth cycle conclusions the F fifth cycle is essentially ended and we'll we'll kick off the six cycle and look at progress there and then we'll look at some housing project updates uh first uh the 2023 annual results last year we produced a total of 1577 um residential units of that 258 were low um that was about 177% we had affordability within 17% of our overall housing mix with 83% being above market now in my research for this um presentation I found that Within hcds directions as are related to the six cycle there was an opportunity to roll um the last six months of um of 2023 from June from July 1 essentially to December 31st in a one time and you can only use it one time into the the six cycle and I think this is largely uh in a way a bonus in terms of pipeline projects so if you had pipeline projects that got through before for the the housing element kicked in on on jul January 1 you could still count those units and the city city in in good Prudence has decided to uh move those into the last six months into our six cycle the instructions are really kind of vague in terms of whether I can use them all within the fifth cycle and then take the second half of of 2023 and put it into the six cycle so for this purpose I'm using half of those numbers from 20 well the numbers from from um the second half of the Year from July 1 to December 31st I've cycled those out of our overall numbers for 2023 for the sake of the fifth cycle totals noting that I did show that there's our overall annual progress the 1577 so if we looked at our F cycle totals with that in mind you'll see that we produced 792 low-income units over uh 8e span and that was only 5% 5.1% of our total goal of 9,146 note that your new goal will be to produce 11,000 plus units of very low income units in the next eight years um very low units were produced at a rate of 20 32 for the for the um period and that was a shortfall as well in terms of market rate units we we did pretty good we produced 76% of our goal for a total of 16561 total housing usit units or 45.9% of the fifth cycle goal we look at the overall totals 5.8 for very low 4% for low so on and so forth we look at say a comparative as to production versus our goals we needed to average 1592 units per year for market rate and we averaged 1342 units that that speaks to our need to even produce more market rate units our total housing production averaged 270 units a year noting we had a great year in 2020 2021 I believe where we produced over 2 200 units total for the year and we're the number one producer of housing in the state I believe we can do that every year um year in and year out so but we averaged 22070 for 45.6% of our Target we needed to average 4,537 units annually over the fifth cycle term the sixth cycle has just begun I noted I shifted the the last 6 months of 2023 into that six cycle I'm allowed to do so so I've produced a total of 820 units with 653 market rate and 1667 low-income units note there's that 11,129 units that are required to be produced in the next8 year for very low income that's 76% of an 8100 square mile County in 151 square miles um we will do that I'm I challenged my development Community to bring those housing those that housing into this community for low income we are we're we're challenge to build well we've we can take 167 off the list we're left with 6915 medium or moderate pardon me 5377 units um and above moderate 13,930 units of which we have a head of 650 three units I note too that we identified about 3700 units that were in process of VAR various stages and um those have been credited to us um and those can can help us get across the Finish Line in terms of our Reena let's look at some completed projects I would note that there's not a lot of units this year and you saw slowdown of units last year and that's really a byproduct of of covid affordable housing doesn't just come out of the ground in a year it takes a good three to four years to assemble all the varying funding sources and then compete for some of the city's Gap financing through our affordable housing trust fund to ultimately assemble all the buckets of money necessary to build it and when you go through a period where everybody shelters in place those types of activities are suspended and so consequently it you're seeing that now that lag coming into the market right now but nonetheless we do have some projects that are have been completed Sagewood apart Sagewood Apartments 72 units including farmer layer housing at Berkshire and Stein that was a grand opening a couple months ago and just last week or the start of this week uh time bleeds together in the development Services Department um there were 40 units of uh six Street six Street apartments 40 units of one-bedrooms that went through Grand Opening um I was not able to attend the grand opening um but I would have liked to under construction right now is the Renaissance at Baker that's 84 units of affordable housing and City Sur project is nearing completion that which provides for 127 units of affordable housing the these units here we will be able to count in our first full year of our of our vacant sites inventory so um we're we're excited about at least having some of these units coming to bear um and but at the same time we're anxious to see more of these units to be these projects to be stood up and pushed across the finish line by our economic Community Development Department that completes my abbreviated annual progress report report for calendar year 2023 I'd be happy to any questions you have thank you Mr Bo is this is this the newest um R six zone right here the uh just kidding no that's grounded and boundless stolen from their website okay got it hash r24 um any request to speak let's see uh Commission Mr Strickland just the shifting numbers from the final 6 months of the previous Arena to the next 6 months does that deficit from the fifth cycle and add to the sixth cycle or is it double counted not necessarily what you've seen in the eight years of the fifth cycle is a a real shift in housing policy and housing law where um and I I don't know how how to put it in any other way there just wasn't a lot of accountability within the requirements that came out of a housing element in 2015 hence the city added virtually every vacant site because um you know whether they were built or weren't built didn't really matter so today eight years later there's extensive um laws on the books in California that provide for accountability um as it relates to your housing element your goals and policies and programs within your housing element and delivery of those things as well as um satisfaction of your vacant sites inventory and so um it's a very different climate today one where um you can be significantly penalized by hcd for failure to bring about this development so um we we take the vacant s sites inventory and all of the housing element for that matter very seriously I guess specifically the young lady who was here earlier I'm not going to mess her name up but she was speaking towards the fifth Cycle's lack of low and very low compared to moderate in the numbers they're looking at that 5% of the target goal is that 5% after we've taken a portion of that and moved it to this cycle or is that how does that 500 and something that you just showed if you can go back a couple slides sure you showed the six month shift of the last six months of 2023 that go into this cycle there's the last 6 months of 2023 right I think that's the produ during those six months what what's the carryover you were speaking on a couple slides before so originally yep originally we did 1577 units now some of those occurred in the first 6 months of 2023 those are accounted for um right there in year nine the 757 units I think it's I wanted just to lie and take at least one number off or add one number to 666 but there it is um so but that's that's from that's the last section of the um the fifth cycle now but by the same token within our annual report we reported the full Year's numbers to hcd okay but when I look at starting to report next year and that's the first full year of the six cycle I took advantage of the opportunity to shift the last six months and that's a one-time shot because I'm aiming to win okay but it shifts to this cycle so it's it's accounting for this year or this this six element that's that's that's that's the mystery of the instructions from hcd I'm I'm airing on the side of caution for all I know it says you can only do it one time so does that mean I can count count the whole year for the end of the fifth cycle and I can only one time take the last six months and move it I'm not sure I looked for clarification within their their multi-page document and could not find that so ultimately I provided you two variables one where all of the all of 2023 development is incorporated into our annual progress report which Mr Ramirez completed and then moving forward into the six cycle um um we their instructions allow us to move the last six months into that that six cycle so I I took advantage of their their graciousness most of the time hcd has a stick this time it's a carrot right got it that that was it thank you commissioner Coleman uh thank you chair uh Vice chair keer uh I'll keep my comment short uh or questions comment short first of all uh Mr Bo thank you very much for your presentation uh you've always done an excellent job of explaining this to where uh the common person can understand it so thank you very much for your hard work on it um you know I'm looking at the city serve project specifically and uh you know I had an opportunity to go over there and and meet with the Builder and tour the project during construction and they're going to be wrapping up here Pro sometime mid year probably um but then it was you I put some nice thing about it on my Facebook and I got bombarded with an asay say oh it's 232,000 $232,000 a unit to build and uh you know my point was that it's transitional housing so it's not just that you know they're going to be able to accommodate 127 people they're going to be able to accommodate 127 people it's going to turn over you know into perpetuity so we're going to be thousands of people so the question really is can we count it more than once if it's transitional housing is there some Metric to to you know because it is used over and over for more people coming off the streets or whatever going into more permanent hous there's some Metric that allows us to somehow treat that better than other things the short answer is absolutely that project is developed through hcd funding through their home key program and that will be deed restricted a low and very low-income housing and um and we thank the state for their um gracious Grant to City serve to provide for those additional units thank you I'm sorry I have no further questions no thank you for your comments um Mr Bo thank you for your presentation um I have to admit it was weird to hear your presentation during a public hearing I'm not used to that so I apologize if the rebuttal was a little bit awkward used to the the comment and file um I did have a question something that on about the arena numbers that have been just on my mind a lot is unincorporated karna has a very low threshold relative to the city of Bakersfield but am I correct in that the unincorporated parts of Kern County that are adjacent to Bakersfield fall into that category and not Metro [Music] Bakersfield um all of the unincorporated areas of Kern County including those unincorporated areas within our sphere um are part of the available lands for the county of Kern to address their their their uh vacant sites inventory yes and there's no um acknowledgement of a weird like you know given rural numbers but being more or less its population base fused to ours just seems like something that maybe seems like an oversimplification of a metro area versus very strange uh boundary lines first I would state that I want to be a good partner with the county yep um and um I I I the County's Arena had been um something in the neighborhood of 21 22,000 and there was a 57% reduction into their less than 10,000 number um would I be would I to be honest it's frustrating when um the area that the city must build into um has has bacon sight inventory that's dedicated to satisfying the County's um Arena it's it's difficult now it potentially more difficult in the future as those Parcels are built out and the city must build either through or around them um but that's that's a problem for every municipality and every fear of influence in the state of California and um I I don't I don't know how to solve it um you i' I'd love to see the Kern County and the City come together and and divise strategies where the city would have uh better opportunities to protect its Sphere for its future development noting the amount of development that the state challenges us to produce um and I think with our General plan goals and policies in our land use element we'll speak to those types of goals within a section that addresses annexations and and our sphere of influence um it' be it' be even more productive if the county um came to the table and we did that collaboratively as opposed to unilaterally thank you yeah thank you for uh clarifying that a little bit Yeah I appreciate your presentation um I don't well actually there are no additional commissioner speakers I closed that tab on accident um so I will just receive and file receive and file thank you unless we can do without cor we don't need a vote good just receive file well then gladly receive and file and thank you for the update um next Madam clerk next item please agenda item8 Communications there I appreciate uh the commissioner for this special meeting um there was a few things we needed to get done so thank you very much and also thank you for my staff for all the support on this special meeting uh next week we will be at the planning Commissioners Academy if you have any questions or issues I believe you all have them my cell phone you can contact me uh other than that we will see you next Tuesday Wednesday time frame thank you looking forward to it uh Madame clerk next item please oh yes next item please Madam clerk next item please agenda item nine commission comments are there any commissioner comments commissioner Coman uh uh this is for the City attorney can you clarify this is the first time we've ever had a quorum problem uh because usually everybody shows up uh the way I've handled this in other places that you only need a quorum to start the meeting is that the same for this meeting or does it the Quorum need to stay through the entire so commissioner Coman we do need the com the quorum to vote on any on all items but because this was only a receive of file and it wasn't an action item we're okay to not actually vote on the receiving file so then the Quorum needs to stay as long as we have AC items correct all right thank you for clarifying that for me and thank you for the question commissioner Strickland I had two quick comments promise uh one I wanted to thank commissioner Coman for helping navigate the agenda item 6A and crafting that um I learned a lot off of that so thank you and then the other comment I wanted to make is maybe maybe a recommendation that we get recycling cans in here is that is that who can I make that request to I I'll take that request you sure yes okay as long as it doesn't pain you I know recycling is not got it thank you that's it I enthusiastically agree thank you um Madame clerk next item please agenda item 10 adjournment this meeting is adjourned at 911 have a great [Music] [Music] evening [Music] [Music] he [Music]