[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to the city of Bakersville Planning Commission meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies the county of Kern and the City of Bakersfield you can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 700 p.m. and Sunday at 10:00 a.m. the agenda for this meeting can be downloaded at www. Bakersfield city. us priding over this evening's meeting chair Daniel CER good evening it is my pleasure to call the order the January 16th 2025 Planning Commission meeting Madame clerk would you please call the role chair CER here Vice chair Strickland here commissioner brand Oliver here commissioner bidle here commissioner core here commissioner Martin here commissioner Neil Madam clerk next item please Pledge of Allegiance please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you all 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 division considers a wide variety of projects including subdivision Maps zone changes General plan amendments and much more when applications are received the the city planning division analyzes the request planning planning uh staff will present the facts about the project along with their recommendation to the commission who will approve an item or make a recommendation as appropriate Madam clerk next item please public statements uh please note uh public statements are now received at different times depending on the item I will call on Madam clerk to call for public statements at the appropriate time so please listen carefully for the correct time to speak non-agenda item 3A public statements does anyone in the audience wish to address the commission regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda if so please come forward and state your name L Coman I'm the councilman for Bakersfield City ward five um I thought you I knew you guys thought you were done with me but but I'm back uh I wanted to come and uh and congratulate the two new appointees uh Miss Oliver had a great time getting to know you and I know you're going to do a great job and Mr Martin uh you're a great great man and I'm sure you'll do wonderful this is a real important assignment and this commission works very very well and so you're the eyes and the ears and the voice of the city council and so I'm very very happy with this group and I really wish you all the best uh best of luck so thank you very much thank you councilman Coleman are there any other uh public comments on non-agenda items please state your name and proceed uh good evening chair and uh planning Commissioners I'm dve domowy with the Home Builders Association of Kern County want to welcome the new Commissioners uh you're serving in interesting times uh with the disastrous fires in Southern California uh we could have impacts on real estate and housing throughout the state of California I recently had a an invitation from Jenny buers in your Economic Development organization to have more frequent meetings regarding housing issues and how to in you know stimulate housing production as well as affordability also talk to uh Gary Howen about the same uh thing with uh permanent streamlining so again welcome to the new Commissioners have a good year thank you are there any other public speakers on non-agenda items seeing no additional speakers um agenda item 3B public statements does anyone wish to address the commission regarding items listed on tonight's agenda please note that if you can speak please note if you that while you can speak on items 5A through 5f now you will be given an opportunity to speak when those are called at a later time seeing no speakers Madam clerk next item please agenda item four consent calendar items please note all matters 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 set items unless staff or commissioner request specific items be discussed and or removed for separate action so with that may I get a motion approving consent item 4 a I'll make a motion commissioner Biddle may I have a a second I'll second commissioner my apologies commissioner Martin I should have practiced before uh commissioner Martin Commissioners please cast your votes motion passes with commissioner Brent Oliver abstaining and commissioner Neil absent thank you Madame clerk next item please agenda item five consent public hearing items please note now is the time for consent public hearing items please if the item is not removed by a commissioner staff or member of the public the commission will vot the commission will vote on all items in a single motion without further comment if an item is removed it will be placed at the end of the non-consent public hearing items so at this time I'd like to open all of the consent public hearing items does any member of the public wish to remove a consent public hearing item seeing no uh requests from the public does any Commission or staff wish to remove a consent public hearing item seeing no Commissioners or staff uh requesting removal of uh a consent public hearing item at this time the consent public hearing items are now closed may I get a motion to adopt staff's recommendation on consent public hearing items 5A through 5f incorporating all staff memorandum and revised staff recommend commendations I'll make the motion commissioner core do I have a second I'll second commissioner Biddle Commissioners please cast your votes motion passes to approve items 5 a through 5f with commissioner Neil absent thank you madam clerk next item please agenda item six non-consent public hearing items now is the time for consent public hearing non-consent public hearing items before we begin I would like to explain how the hearing will be conducted staff will first give a report then those in favor of the project will be allowed to speak those in opposition to the project will be able to speak after all of those in favor have spoken each side will be provided will be given a 5minute Time total time to provide rebuttal comments individual speakers may ask questions during their statements but the questions will not be answered until the public hearing on the item is closed if preferred written comments may be given to the clerk who will provide copies to the commission please remember to be respectful of others participating in the hearing by not repeating the remarks of previous speakers and presenting any new comments or thoughts in a concise and clear way missing would you please provide us your staff report good evening extension of time for besting tenative track map 7397 is located generally South of Highway 178 West of commanche Drive in Northeast Bakersfield the applicant is requesting a three-year extension of time for this tentative track map that allows 83 single family residential lots and a drainage sump on 19.98 Acres due to to the economic Market challenges um the developer has faced with chain supply chain issues U project material expenses and high interest loans the developer cannot proceed with the next steps of the development and is requesting additional time the subdivision map act and local ordinance allows extensions of time approval to be approved by your commission for up to an additional six years historically it's City policy to to approve extensions um of time in two three-year increments and this request tonight is the first request of those six years two letters of opposition or comments have been submitted uh to the staff and they are summarized the comments and responses are summarized in your staff report staff notes that the questions submitted were addressed during the initial consideration of this tenative track map in 2021 however for informational purposes we have provided those summaries and responses staff recommends approval of the extension of time for three years to to expire December 15 2027 with no changes to the previously approved conditions of approval thank you thank you missing the public hearing is now open is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed my name is Chris I own attractive land above the proposed project um I have several concerns about the way the project is being developed um I would note this is uh speakers in favor of the project do you wish to speak I'm not against it okay okay uh please uh and please proceed okay the first first consideration I have is that there was grading done in the distant past on this project which leaves a very Steep Hill between my land above it and the project below it to the north of uh of of my land the hill is so steep that when I try to walk up the hill or climb up the hill or down the hill I slip and slide the the land is steep enough that a good rainstorm would at least erode the land without some protection of the underlying dirt and as uh events have shown in Los Angeles these these rare events are be beginning to become much more problem and need to be dealt with in the planning of a project like this with potential problems of this nature uh I think that a the least that could be done would be a massive retaining wall uh with uh steel rods uh forced into the dirt uh to retain the the concrete retaining wall or what whatever walls put up there uh to keep it from falling over if that land should slide there are going to be PE people down below me that are have potential of injury or even death as what happened a long time ago over in the Santa Barbara area along Highway 101 when when several people were were killed when the land above them slid down on top of them uh if if uh if it doesn't slide and you get erosion going to end up with dirt running down into the people's property below me and they're not going to be happy about this and they're and some and you the the city is going to end up being sued uh or a inadequate uh planning of this uh project second concern I have is that my land which is to the south of this project uh is zoned for large animals or livestock in the morning the wind blows uh from the southeast to the Northwest blowing over uh all the lands above this project uh down over this project and you have the resultant uh dissemination of odors from livestock onto to city property I'm sure there's going to be people that are uh very upset with this and will end up uh in a legal situation with the city because of this the very least that could be done to um to mediate this would be to have the owners of the final tracks of land sign a disclosure statement seeing they're aware of this problem if if it's not done you're going to end up with lawsuits I'm going to end up with lawsuits uh the third consideration I have is this land is right at the junction of the urban grassland interface on good rain years quite a bit of grassland uh grows out there and uh fire is a consideration fire the wind blows from the southeast in the morning so any fire startings below the project to the South South will over will go through my land and also go through their land if it's if the fire starts to the north it's going to go through their land and may not go through my land because of the the hill or a retaining wall That's put up the last consideration is water uh water out there is a real problem water comes from the kar River I've been around this this uh City long enough that I've seen years where the curent liver river is virtually empty of water and the the water treatment plant they have out out there would run dry very quickly pumping water from the city Wells up to that area it would be a very exp expensive um uh Endeavor and uh for that reason I I think that the people who are who are on a marginal basis financially up in the area would would have a hard time uh maintaining their property and or even paying their bills uh I think the city needs to consider about this water problem because it's going to be a real problem in the future for us and that's all all I have to say I thank you for listening to me and uh if you have any questions uh I would be open to trying to answer them now uh all of you should have had a copy given to you of my letter that I sent that I that I sent in on Monday do we have that okay have any questions you um we typically ask questions after we allow all speakers to speak so okay thank you just yeah stay in front if we have any questions thank you and thank you for your comments um are there any other speakers who wish to speak in favor of the project if so please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed my name is Marv Davidson I'm a neighbor of Chris Smiles and uh have the property directly to the east of his property and so we border along the south side of vtm 7397 that slope that he talked about I think you'd have to go up it on all fours I mean you'd have to climb up it using your hands you wouldn't be just slipping and sliding it's really Steep and it's quite a lengthy slope and so one of the points that I would like to make is that there should be a retaining wall there that's been brought up before it needs to be a substantial retaining wall to manage the slope there and the extent of of exposure to to possible erosion and slide activity and in that same vein the property uh this is kind of outside your purview I believe the property has not been maintained and I would ask that if the owner is here or whoever is in charge of managing that property that they manage the weeds and Tumble weeds uh that are there because the exposure to fire is substantial I went along the outside of my property and did a lot of weed eating I've sprayed to kill the weeds on that North Edge so that it doesn't burn up into my fence line and into my property that that uh that needs to be taken care of the um matter of of water pressure was on my letter um and maybe not as explicitly as it should have been but uh the water lines in that area are serviced by a 12in line along the south side of highway 178 that comes from the original ulis Terminus over by real bravo Golf Course and we participated in a bond issue to put that L line in we have in the Palm Mutual water district and I say we because I'm the president of that water board the um a a 6-inch line coming off of that line that Services all of the residents in that District many of those residences are at a higher altitude and I I'm about I would say Midway in altitude based on the general layout of the land and the residences I have around 35 to 40 pounds of water pressure consistently which is not bad we get along with that but those at a higher altitude have less and I'm concerned that if we put in 83 homes and they're coming off of that 12in line I know cow water's given a will serve letter and uh I guess my concern is that we keep the water pressure that we have because we operate with water pressure from Cal Waters system only two of those homes on the upper side of Cliff Avenue it be the south side of Cliff Avenue have uh pressure systems to augment their household pressure so that's a concern that I wanted to raise and it's not explicitly on my on my letter I mentioned Street Lighting on the letter there needs to be shrouds or lower the area I'm concerned about livestock odors I had horses we had at one time five horses we had several cattle I don't do that any longer I'm a little too old for all of that but we still have a Corral that's 60 ft by 120 ft and we keep horses there occasionally and there could be other animals in that area from the homes all of the homes are rs zoned on both the west side of this parcel and the Lots on the South Side so they vary I think they vary from one acre to to up to 5 Acres like Chris has five and uh I think that's really what I have't had in mind to express to you and we'll see if there's any questions at the end and we're not opposed to the development then I didn't come up here with that in mind we just want to have a good quality neighborhood thank you thank you are there any other speakers wishing to speak in favor of the project um hi please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed hello my name is arel sorto and I I am sorry I do not understand really am aware of how a public hearing works so I am a little late but it was in regards to agenda item 5e and I actually oppos the idea like I said I am sorry I do not know how this works so I know I'm late but I just did want to express my concerns regarding that we are actually I'm sorry I'm sorry we so unfortunately the hearing's already was opened and closed on that item the um we're now on item 6A and so this public this particular aspect of the public hearing is pertaining to item 6A U Miss King I don't know if you'd be if you could quickly talk to you after the meeting and give me information thank you thank you sorry thank you um so regarding item 6A is there are there any other speakers wishing to speak in favor seeing no additional speakers in favor um are there any speakers wishing to speak in opposition to the project seeing no speakers in opposition to item 6A um does any commissioner have any questions for the public or staff on this item remember this is not the time to express any opinions on the matter only the time to ask [Music] questions yeah we are um dealing with a technology update so as you can imagine less than seamless implementation um Commissioners if you'd like to um speak if you just oh I do have a yeah commissioner core followed by um commissioner Martin okay I was just testing but I do have a question for the is the owner present or um any owner rep present okay hi I'm Cindy parm representing the uh developer uh he was a able to make it he is in Los Angeles and uh it was he's unable to make it this evening okay um the only question I had um has there been any Improvement madees to the property or has this slot has been untouched it's been untouched okay and then uh about the uh neighbors concern regarding the erosion that is happening um uh do you guys have any plans in future or do you have any timeline on when you're planning on starting the project uh no timeline on the on starting the project but uh we are aware of the the slope that's there and we did address that question when it came and uh we also agreed that there needs to be a uh retaining wall that will be built there um would you be able to provide uh the the time um how long will it take for you guys to construct the wall or no that would that would be during um you know whoever develops it and so there's no timeline right now okay thank you thank you commissioner core uh commissioner Martin yeah I actually uh commissioner core asked my question I wanted to to ask about the retaining wall and if you guys were were were willing and open to to that so you've you've answered that for me and perhaps and this is a question I guess through staff can can we as a commission ask that um during extensions Etc that a a uh drawing of of a retainer wall be be brought before for this commission before any further action or or building is is done so uh commissioner Martin um since there's been no substantial changes to the map that was approved um we cannot add any more conditions um today you're you're not reconsidering the findings for the map you're just extending the time and the lifetime the life of the map so everything that was already decided when the map was approved is what stands and moves forward with the extension of time got it okay thank you thank you for the clarification and and design standards at design design standards are if you have anything over 2 feet that you have to start looking at retaining walls so that's part of the design standards for the city thank you thank you commissioner Martin commissioner Strickland yeah just I had two quick questions the first one was for the public that spoke in favor I saw staff had responded to both letters with comments were you both provided those responses the the the staff uh provided responses to both letters um the dated December 20th and DEC January 6th did you receive response received an email with responses from Office okay commissioner strigin maybe if he wants to take the the mic resp thank can can we make sure we provide because we've got responses in the staff report do we have a copy of the staff report we could provide so they have the responses within that uh we can provide them a copy of the staff report um we did notify them that the documents are available sure um we can't make them read them sure yeah I just want to make sure that they have the response just making sure that we close the loop at least on their concerns because this in the staff report be try commissioner thank you appreciate that um and then the other question I had may be outside the perview but is this the same owner from the original track map in 2005 is this because it I I see it was a track map it expired and now it's a new track map and now we're extending again is this for the 19 years is this the same owner I I don't think it is I wasn't a part of the 2005 so I don't think I don't know for sure but I don't think it was okay open into question I guess all right thank you thank you commissioner Strickland we are having issues with the request to speak so I don't know if commissioner b or commissioner Brandt Oliver oh oh you don't you don't have to asked questions I just wouldn't know if you wanted to okay then um I think oh commiss okay I know if does I know that financially right now it's really hard to build are you guys conditioning this to sell it are you planning to develop this yourself no I think the developer is planning on selling that's what I figured okay thank you oh and I just saw your request to speak so thank you for that just in time um technology just just go back to the hand raising system yeah um all right U I believe those are the commissioner uh com questions and since all comments received were in favor of the project we will will foro the rebuttal period And I will now close the hearing and return the item to the commission for comment and action please use your request to speak buttons again and let's keep going uh okay um commissioner Brandt Oliver the hearing's already been closed and the opportunity was when you spoke in favor yes um yes commissioner BR Oliver I just wanted to say that um I am appreciating that the staff already looked into all these things and I appreciate that the staff comment returned their comments and um I'm also appreciative of the people that live next to it and I really think that we can trust our city to do the right thing and and I think that they've taken care of all those um um considerations in this and I'm in favor of the extension thank you so that we have a motion in support we also have a few speaker or speaker comments so I'll let everyone um have the opportunity to speak and then we have a motion that do we get a second before we move on or do we wait till we have all comments did commissioner Oliver make a motion oh you didn't really make a motion you just expressed that that's perfect oh no that's fine sorry we're coming off a fairly extensive uh holiday break and so I'm getting back into the swing of things uh thank you commissioner BR Oliver uh commissioner Biddle I'm kind of sad commissioner Neil isn't here for another um uh extension of time because sheia says it so much more eloquently than I do but it's very frustrating to see these projects get extended time and time again especially when it switches hands with different owners so I do know that I'd ask City staff to definitely check into code enforcement making sure that we don't have fire hazards around that area because there's some beautiful homes and we'd like to see the development out there but we've got to wait for the right developer to be able to purchase that and build something nice so the only thing I do ask is if City staff can take a look at at what's going on out there and make sure that we're maintaining those properties as we wait for the right buyer to get here I don't know if we have more comments but I will make a motion to approve this project thank you so we do have a motion um so I welcome any comments or a second um I'll second all right commissioner Martin then Commissioners let's please cast our votes motion passes with commissioner Neil absent thank you Madame clerk next item please agenda item seven Communications does staff have any Communications I'd like to give a quick response to commissioner biddle's request for code enforcement action our code enforcement uh division runs on complaint basis so if you do see some property that needs maintenance it's very easy to request a service request to have code enforcement um inquire or investigate and that is on the city web website I would also now like to welcome two new planning Commissioners um uh Allison brand Oliver and Matthew Martin welcome and please uh do not hesitate to call staff if you have any questions um I do appreciate the commission's patience with me tonight as I have filled in for director Johnson and there will be a Planning Commission meeting on February 6th and we will see you then thank you thank you madam clerk next item please Madame clerk sorry I was switching from it takes a while on this system no worries okay it appropriate dramatic pause yeah agenda item 8 commission comments um does any commissioner have any comments commissioner Strickland is not allowed to comment tonight but otherwise um but commissioner Strickland please proceed I also wanted to welcome new Commissioners hopefully uh you find it as easy to get up to speed as I did 13 14 months ago um I do say lean on staff they're very helpful for onboarding ramping up any questions you have and then thank you Miss ing I think great job I I didn't need patience at all I thought it was seamless I for a minute there I thought Paul was still here so all right so that's it thank you thank you commissioner cin I guess I was um as chair I'd also like to welcome um commissioner brtt Oliver and commissioner Martin commissioner Martin I really apologize for the pause in your name um there was one line that changed in my script and it threw me off the whole night um but just really welcome to the commission um it was not intentional that you would end up at the furthest um outer um seating arrangement but uh we welcome your perspective we welcome the opportunity to um work together and uh thank you for being here your service oh commissioner Martin yeah I just wanted to thank you so much for the welcome and um I'm looking forward to to working on the commission and working with uh with the community and the business you know the business Community as well as with staff as we continue to make Bakersfield an even better place to live and and do business for those that are here and do business currently and for those that aren't here but um you know are looking to do business here in the future so thank you so much Mr chairman and staff and um I appreciate it thanks for the warm welcome thank you um I see no other commissioner comments I'll do a quick glance and everyone's head is nodding in agreement that the the time is closed on commissioner comments so Madam clerk next item please agenda item adjournment this meeting is adjourned at 6:05 have a great evening [Music] [Music]