Planning Commission Meeting: Palomino Place Project & 2025 Officer Elections - January 22, 2025
Planning Commission Meeting: Palomino Place Project & 2025 Officer Elections - January 22, 2025\n\nThe Davis Planning Commission met on January 22, 2025, at 7:00 PM in Community Chambers. The meeting included the election of 2025 officers and a public hearing for the Palomino Place project, a major infill housing development. The commission certified the project's environmental impact report and approved the vesting tentative subdivision map and affordable housing plan with amendments, including an increase in affordable units and a developer contribution for down payment assistance.\n\n### Consent Calendar\n- Approved minutes from five prior meetings (July 10, August 28, September 11, September 25, and October 9, 2024) with a correction: references to "closing a public hearing" were changed to "closing public comment."\n\n### Public Comments & Testimony\n- Several residents spoke during the public hearing:\n - Marjorie Longo expressed concerns about stormwater drainage into Channel A, noting lack of city inspection and easement.\n - John Johnston, a former Natural Resources Commission member, raised climate action plan concerns, stating the project's per capita VMT would increase by nearly 10% above city average, and urged higher density to reduce VMT.\n - Jim Hogi, president of Berry Athletic Foundation, spoke in support of the pentathlon center.\n - Caden, a UC Davis student, spoke on behalf of a civil engineering student who expressed concerns about car dependency and peripheral development.\n - Albert Lynn and other Caravaggio Drive neighbors expressed support for the project following a settlement with the developer that included a 15-foot land dedication for a tree buffer.\n\n### Discussion Items\n- Palomino Place Project (Planning Application #22-45): Proposed up to 139 single-family lots, a 45-unit affordable apartment site, and a potential pentathlon training facility on a 25.8-acre site north of Covell Boulevard and Monarch Lane. Staff presented project adjustments including 188 total units (143 market-rate, 45 affordable minimum), a 15-foot buffer for neighbors, and off-site improvements. The project was processed under builder's remedy, SB 330, density bonus law, and a settlement agreement.\n- Environmental Review: Nick Papani from RAND Planning presented the subsequent EIR, comparing impacts to the approved 2009 Wild Horse Ranch EIR. The final EIR included responses to public comments, a master response on VMT, and minor revisions. Adding 13 additional units was deemed not to affect the analysis.\n- Applicant Presentation: Matt Keisling highlighted the project's diversity of housing types, proximity to amenities, and sustainability commitments. The applicant agreed to increase affordable units from 33 to 50 minimum and to contribute $80,000 for down payment assistance for cottage units.\n- Commission Deliberations: Commissioners discussed traffic concerns at Covell and Monarch (mitigated with signalization and turn pockets), the viability of the pentathlon center, and affordable housing details. A motion to eliminate the pentathlon center failed for lack of a second.\n\n### Key Outcomes\n- CEQA Certification: The commission certified the Subsequent Environmental Impact Report, adopted findings of fact and a statement of overriding considerations, and approved the mitigation monitoring program.\n- Vesting Tentative Subdivision Map: Approved with conditions, including the four additional ranch house lots and the nine townhome lots as default if the pentathlon is not built.\n- Affordable Housing Plan: Approved with a minimum of 50 affordable units (up from 33, and above the city's 27.45-unit requirement), constituting 24% of total units.\n- Down Payment Assistance: The developer will contribute $80,000 to the city for down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers of the cottage units (income 80-120% AMI), or implement independently if the city program is not operational.\n- Density Bonus Concession: The affordable housing developer is entitled to request one concession or incentive under state density bonus law.\n- Chair and Vice Chair Elections: Michelle Weiss was elected Chair and Alan Bennett Vice Chair for 2025, both unanimously.\n- Future Meetings: The next meeting on February 12, 2025, will include a public comment session on the Village Farms Draft EIR.
Meeting Transcript
Thank you. Last time you left to remind me. So it is 7 p.m. We are calling to order the meeting of the January 22, 2025. Planning commission. And don't need to take roll. Let the uh record reflect that everybody is here. May I have a motion to approve the agenda. So move. I'm going to declare it approved by acclamation unless anybody objects. It's time for brief announcements from staff commissioners and liaisons, since I will start first with our council member. Thank you, Chair Rowe. And I don't have any announcements, but happy new year, everyone, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you. Any comments from staff. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Happy New Year, everyone. And I just want to say thank you to Chair Rowe. A little early, but this is his last partial meeting. So thank you for all of your service. A couple of project updates just to share with you. Although on the first two, we don't have anything new to report. That's on 500 G Street and 240 G Street. They're moving along, but don't have anything new since October. If you've driven by, it's starting to look like something, like really look like something. And probably one of the latest fun details is that there are murals commissioned and they're in progress to being approved. So that'll be that'll be fun when those are going in. For Village Farms Davis, as you all probably are aware, the draft environmental impact report is out for the 45-day public review period, which ends on Tuesday, February 25th. No action will be taken by this body. The PC is simply receiving uh public comments on the adequacy of the EIR, and I'll have a little more on the long range calendar at the end of the meeting. And then our other big project Shriners is um working on their project description and the um admin draft EIR will be proceeding in the next few months, and we're looking for the public release of the draft EIR to be coming later this year, along with the 45-day public review period. So that's a quick snapshot of what's going on with us, and that's all I have for now. We'll do some calendaring at the end of the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Any commissioners have any announcements? Well, I have two. Um first of all, this box of Cs is sitting up here, and I'm circulating it around, is my way of saying thank you to everybody who's uh been supportive of me for the last three years during the time as chair. And uh there's still a lot there. So please and and I've already told the staff that what you guys don't eat is gonna go back to the office with the staff. So they don't look too disappointed about that though. Um different announcement. Uh last Tuesday, I guess it was January 14th. Uh Vice Chair Weiss and I attended the uh village forums public meeting at Patwin School, and we found it very interesting, uh very educational, very nice um arrangement they had with a lot of easels, and and when you walked in, they had somebody from their team that would greet you at the door and then took you around each easel and kind of explained you know the project. And I think we we both um learned a lot. I think it's a good outreach effort. I don't know if any other commissioners had a chance to attend any of the five meetings, but uh if they have any more meetings coming up in the future, public meetings, I would certainly encourage everybody in the public and and on the commission to attend. Um with that, it's item number four, time to appoint uh chair and vice chair for this year. The way it's sort of worked in the past is um we call for a motion to uh elect a new chair and a second, and then typically we vote right away because there's no one else who's chiming in saying I want to be nominated too, but we'll see how that goes. So I'm gonna exercise my prerogative as chair to nominate vice chair Michelle Weiss is the chair for 2025.
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