Regular meeting for Thursday, May the 7th, 2026 at exactly 6 PM.

I will begin with the land acknowledgement.

We honor, respect, and acknowledge Elkgrove's first inhabitants, the Plains Miwok, who lived as sovereign caretakers of this land in these waterways since time immemorial.

We commemorate and advocate for their descendants, the Wilton Rancheria tribe, the only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento County who endure because of the bravery, resiliency, and determination of their ancestors, tribal members, and leaders.

Will you please take this moment to silence your electronic device?

This is.

Chair, I move to approve the agenda as presented.

Moved.

Second.

Seconded.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion is approved for the agenda this evening.

I will now move to the public comment opportunity.

Members of the audience may comment on any item not on the agenda that is of interest to the public and within the jurisdiction of the planning commission.

The planning commission cannot take action on non-agendized items raised under public comment until the matter has been specifically included on an agenda as an action item.

And Helica, do we have anyone signed to speak during the public session?

Okay.

I will declare the public comment open and opportunity open and closed.

All right.

Moving on to our consent calendar items.

The regular meeting minutes of January the 15th.

Do I have a motion to approve the minutes?

I will to approve the minutes as percent.

I have a motion.

Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed.

Motion passes for the reading.

I have one abstinence.

I'm sorry.

And one abstention.

30.

Motion passes 301.

All right.

Moving on to the public hearing items.

And Halica, will you please call item 5.1.

Old Town Courtyard PLNG 25-043.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair and members of the planning commission.

Joseph Dowgaman, associate planner with the community development department.

Uh item 5.1 is the old town courtyard project.

This project consists of a conditional use permit to utilize an existing 1,150 square foot building and adjacent courtyard and the commercial zone of the old town special planning area as an assembly use to host weddings, birthday parties, meetings, and other special events for up to 60 guests.

The project site consisted of approximately 0.2 acre parcel located in 9120 Elkgrove Boulevard near the intersection of Elkgrove Boulevard and Durst Street and the Old Town Special Planning Area.

The property is developed with two buildings and several small accessory structures.

The first building is a converted two-story, Italianates-style commercial building situated on the northern side of the property.

The current business is the homegrown incorporated microgreens and farmers market store.

The second building is the approximately 1,150 square foot building, single structure on the southern side of the property that was previously a garage.

It was converted.

Research on business and building records show that it was converted into a spa and salon around 2020.

There are no recent building permit records on file.

The property has or the structure has since been converted into the old town courtyard.

So in front of you are existing conditions of the site.

The image on the left is the two-story microgreens farmers market store.

The image in the center is the 1150 square foot Old Town Courtyard building.

And then the image on the right is the courtyard, the adjacent outdoor courtyard adjacent to the building.

Little bit of background history.

On October 25th, 2025, the code enforcement division received the complaint that the property has been hosting events and operating without a conditional use permit, a certificate of occupancy, and a business license.

The planning division did receive the CUP application on December 19th, 2025.

Purpose of a conditional use permit is for the individual review of uses, typically having unusual site development features or operating characteristics to ensure compatibility with the surrounding areas and uses.

There are two findings to support the conditional use permit.

Number one, the proposed use is consistent with the general plan and all applicable provisions.

And then number two, the establishment maintenance or operation of the use applied for will not under the circumstances of the particular case, such as the location, size, design, and operating characteristics, be detrimental to the health, safety, peace, morals, comfort, or general welfare of persons residing or working in the neighborhood of such use or the general welfare of the city.

So a little bit more about the operation.

The applicant is proposing to utilize the existing approximately 1150 square foot building and adjacent courtyard as the assemble use to host events, weddings, birthday parties, meetings, and other special events for up to 60 guests.

Access to the site will be provided through a future ADA compliant path of travel connecting from the right-of-way to the building and the courtyard entrance.

There are nearby parking facilities that are outlined in your staff report, that is available to meet the needs of guests and will not result in any unusual circumstances relating to traffic.

Regarding the operations, generally the events when they're scheduled, they will be take place from 11 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

There will be occasional events running from 5 p.m.

to 9 30 p.m.

As part of this, the applicant has is proposing limited amplified music and sound to be permitted when events are scheduled in the courtyard.

Taking this all into consideration, staff has proposed the following conditions of approval.

Starting off with condition number eight, the occupancy of 60 persons is contingent upon meeting all building and fire requirements.

Condition nine, applicant shall comply with the applicable noise requirements set forth in chapter 6.32.

Condition 10, any form of speaker amplification shall face away from any of the adjacent residential properties.

Condition number 11, certain enhancing equipments are going to be prohibited at all times.

And then just the for condition number 12.

Any conditional use permit uh could be subject to a revocation or modification.

Uh word work if causes is deemed necessary.

In terms of CEQA, the project is exempt from CEQA pursuance to say CICO guidelines section 15301 and 15303.

With that, staff is recommending approval of the project.

This concludes my presentation.

Us staff as well as uh representatives of the old town courtyard are here happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Any questions for our associate planner?

No, I just had some concerns, but during the staff meeting uh I asked about the code enforcement due to the history.

Uh but that was cleared and uh because of the small parking lot in the premises, uh the handicapped parking.

But my questions were answered by staff.

Excellent.

I had one question.

I in the report it mentioned that it the residence was used as a parsonage.

Um which church is nearby.

It was what was it just out of curiosity?

This is the Park Methodist church nearby.

Yeah.

Just just curious.

I I love the history of old town, and I was just curious if there was a church that had been nearby that had since been removed.

Um other questions.

Thank you, Joseph.

All right.

I will now Methodist, yes, it was Methodist.

It was, but not the Elk Rove United Methodist.

That's on the other side of the railroad tracks.

There was a Methodist church that was over in that area, and this was the parsonage for it.

Got it, and that church is now gone.

Yeah.

Got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Interesting point of history.

It's probably in the uh the Elk Grove history book.

All right.

I will now declare the public hearing open and invite the applicant to speak if they would like, and if they are here.

Good evening.

If you would say your name.

Uh, my name is Monica Tucker.

I am not the applicant, um, but I'm here filling in for her as she's out of the country.

Um, this is my first time doing something like this.

So do I just openly speak?

Okay.

I um Lynette Wall and I met her through yoga.

Um, she's very passionate about what she does.

Um, I have volunteered my time to work with her because she's just an amazing woman.

She's an amazing business owner, she um holds AA meetings there, she cares about the community.

She's I think born and raised there.

I also live in the community, and what she does for people, I've been there to volunteer my time for people who've had weddings and birthday parties, and it's a very small space.

So the intimate um connections and gatherings that are held there.

Um it's just great to see people that are able to have a place where they can make memories and spend time with their family and celebrations.

Um we've done yoga there as friends.

Um, she just is really um passionate about wellness and helping people and holding a space um for people to come together.

Um, I wish she could be here so you could see how passionate she is, but she left it to Weth uh to speak for her.

Um, but again, as a community member, I um when I first went to her place, I fell in love with it.

I fell in love with the area and I was like, this is amazing for Elk Grove.

I'm from the Bay Area, but that space itself just made me proud to be here in Elk Grove.

So that's all I'm gonna say.

Any questions for me?

Thank you.

You did a great job as for proxy.

Thank you.

All right, I will ask if there are any public speakers.

Nobody submitted their public speaking.

All right, then I will declare the public comment opportunity closed, and we will move to uh commission deliberation.

Any comments, Commissioner Poole or Sun?

No, I don't um all of my questions were answered with staff, so I don't have any other questions.

They're good like that.

Oscar?

All right.

My questions were all answered by staff as well.

Thank you, Joseph, for the report and the additional point of history.

Christopher, um, may I have a motion?

Chair, I move to adopt a resolution finding the project exempt from CEQA pursuant to state SQL guidelines, sections 15301 and 15303, and approving a conditional use permit for the old town courtyard project, PLNG 25-043, based on the findings and subject to the conditions of approval included in the draft resolution.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you, Monica.

And the old town courtyard.

Oh, and by the way, I I live in the neighborhood and I love seeing the little pop-ups on Sunday.

It's awesome to have that foot traffic and vibrant in Old Town.

Thank you.

All right.

Moving on to the climate compass.

Report to be given by Carrie Whitlock.

Item 5.2.

Sorry on Helica.

Did your part.

Good evening, Chair Commissioners Kerry Whitlock Long Range Planning.

So this evening I am presenting the Climate Compass for consideration.

I brought a draft of this document to planning commission last August, and we are ready with the finalized document for your consideration.

So the Climate Compass is a comprehensive update to the city's current climate action plan, which was adopted in 2019.

This new document provides a roadmap for the city to achieve state recommended targets for greenhouse gas emission reduction, similar to our 2019 CAP.

The Climate Compass goes farther as it addresses not just greenhouse gas emission reductions, but it also addresses climate adaptation.

So identifying actions and strategies to address climate change we're already seeing and expect to see in the future, and it supports the city's broader sustainability and resilience goals.

This CEQA streamlining provides efficiencies for new development applications and reduces the time and expense of preparing project specific GHG analysis.

The update to the CAP was undertaken to ensure continued alignment with state climate goals.

California has enacted a number of GHG emission reduction targets over the years, becoming more ambitious in more recent years.

The greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in our 2019 cap include those set by the state in 2005, which was an 85% reduction by 2050, and from Senate Bill 32 passed in 2016, which was a 40% reduction by 2030.

The climate compass aligns with more recent state actions, including Assembly Bill 1279, the Climate Crisis Act passed in 2022.

This legislation sets a target of carbon neutrality or net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

And so it accelerates both the amount of reductions and the target date from that earlier 80% by 2050.

The same year as AB 1279 passed, the California Air Resources Board adopted an updated scoping plan that lays out a path towards achieving that 2045 carbon neutrality goal.

And one of the items included in the scoping plan is an accelerated 2030 target, 48% reduction, in order to better align with that trajectory needed to reach that carbon neutrality goal by 2045.

So included in the climate Compass document are both uh community-wide greenhouse gas emissions.

Um those emissions generated from activities within Elk Rose boundaries, and it also includes local government operations emissions.

So those emissions generated by the operations and services of the city as an organization.

The document includes an emissions inventory, it includes forecasts of future emissions, it proposes strategies and actions to reduce those emissions, and then it also has a quantification of the reductions that would be attributable to those strategies.

So all of these are included for both our community-wide emissions and for local government operations.

The development of the climate compass has taken approximately three years, and it involved a lot of public outreach and engagement.

Involvement from residents and stakeholders was a critical component of the Climate Action Plan, the Climate Compass development, and city staff undertook over 60 in-person and virtual engagement opportunities to get feedback.

This outreach is foundational to support the ongoing implementation of the climate compass as resident involvement and resident behavior change is really key to the success of those greenhouse gas reduction efforts.

We did have a draft climate compass and a draft supplemental environmental impact report.

Both were available for public comment last summer, and as a result of that public comment that we received, and in addition to additional staff discussions, there were a number of revisions that we made to the document from last August.

This includes some changes to several actions, including related to building decarbonization.

We wanted to ensure we were compliant with new assembly bill 130 that came out last summer and was passed in June, and also related to electric vehicle charging to clarify some of the requirements related to EV infrastructure.

In addition to some changes to some of those actions, we included further information related to implementation considerations for all the actions, such as in chapter five to provide additional transparency and accountability.

The final community-wide strategies are shown here.

They're in six different focus areas.

The two focus areas which will have the largest impact in terms of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions are building and energy and transportation.

These two focus areas are going to account for approximately 99% of our emission reductions in 2030 and 90% in 2045.

And this focus is consistent with what's in our greenhouse gas inventory that showed that those two areas account for about 95% of our current emissions.

The other focus areas have smaller greenhouse gas reduction potential, but they help to provide a strong foundation for climate action and adaptation efforts.

They help increase resilience within the city and they emphasize meaningful community engagement and awareness.

So this as part of the climate compass, as I mentioned, we did a greenhouse gas emission forecasting that was completed all the way through 2050.

The graph here shows our per capita community-wide greenhouse gas emissions for Elk Grove and dark red.

You can see the historic trends for 2005-2013-2021.

The orange line is our per capita emissions if nothing were to change.

If there were no federal, state, local actions, you can see that the emissions pretty much plateau.

The green line shows projected greenhouse gas emissions with federal and state legislation, and then the blue line is the projected emissions with those local strategies and actions that are included in the climate compass.

And shown here as well, those red dots are the targets for 2030 and 2045.

And you can see that we would be able to meet both the 2030 and 2045 targets with the strategies and actions that are included in the climate compass document.

As mentioned, local government operations was also covered in this document.

So here the strategies and actions are grouped into just four focus areas, but again, as with community-wide sector, the focus areas for building and facilities and fleet and employee commute are going to have the largest impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from us as an organization.

The other two focus areas will help create a more resilient and sustainable organization.

And again, we also did a forecast for those local government operations.

And you can see again in orange is sort of if nothing were to be done, emissions for us as an organization would continue to increase.

With the green with state and federal requirements and legislation, there would be some long-term reduction.

But those red dots again show the targets for us as a city organization for 2030 and 2045, and the blue line does show that we would be able to reach those targets if we were to implement the actions and strategies in the climate compass for local government operations.

So as I mentioned as well, the climate compass is intended to be a CEQA qualified climate action plan.

This requires an environmental review, and in this case, a supplemental environmental impact report was prepared.

The 2019 climate action plan was programmatically evaluated as part of the General Plan update environmental impact report.

And so the supplemental EIR prepared for the climate compass is an amendment to that general plan update EIR.

And per state guidelines and SEIR need only contain information necessary to make that previous EIR adequate for the project.

So analyzing potential significant environmental impact results from the implementation of the climate compass.

So the SEIR evaluated just two environmental issue areas, energy and greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and then in addition, had some analysis of other CEQA mandated issue areas like cumulative impacts, alternatives analysis and such.

The SEIR identified that the climate compass would not result in any new significant impacts or substantially increase the severity of significant environmental impacts disclosed within the general plan EIR.

The process for preparing the SEIR started with a notice of preparation that was released to the public and state agencies on December 6, 2024.

The draft SEIR was then released for public review and comment in June 27th, 2025 and was available for a 49-day period.

And then comments received along with the responses are included in the final SCIR, which was in your packet and was released to the public on April 24th.

Staff are also recommending some text modifications to the general plan document to ensure consistency with the climate compass document.

So these include some edits to Chapter 7, which is community and resilient and resource protection, and to chapter 10, the implementation work program, and those modifications are included in your packet.

In addition to all of the fund climate compass actions this evening, we are also requesting some corrections to the implementation work program to restore two actions that were unintentionally removed from the December 2025 update to the general plan.

And both of these relate to housing programs and are content and are included in chapter 10, the implementation work program.

And again, these are also included in your PACEP.

So finally, staff recommends this evening that you adopt a resolution to the city council recommending they certify the supplemental EIR for the climate compass, adopt findings of fact, adopt the climate compass, approve the modifications to the general plan related to the climate compass, and approve the revisions to the general plan related to the housing element.

And with that, I am going to stop talking and I'm available for comment questions.

Thank you.

Any questions for Kerry?

I have a comment and I have a question.

Thank you for the slide that went into the detail about what it took to finalize the common climate plan.

I know in the staff meeting I had asked about the gap in time from when a law is passed and when we're updating our documents, and that really gave the explanation as to why it takes so long.

So thank you.

The question, and this is one, you know, if you don't have an answer, it's fine.

Um, have you been made aware or heard of anything at the federal level that might undo all of this work?

Um so there have been various different federal actions.

There have also been state lawsuits against a number of those federal actions, so it's very difficult to say which way things are going to play out at the moment.

Right now, we are still assuming many of those state actions are in place because we don't know that they're going to be different.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation, Carrie.

I had um a couple of questions.

Um in the area of resilience and adaptation, um, an area of interest is the urban heat island effect.

I noticed that quite a bit.

Um, oftentimes, if you go to one of the the retail centers, just the sheer amount of asphalt, you can see the mirage of of the heat.

Um, what are some of the things that we do with respect to minimizing the urban heat island effect?

So we have a number of actions included in the climate compass document, some of which we're already working on.

Um the city received a grant from Caltrans last year, and we are working on a heat resilient transportation system implementation plan.

So, really looking at our roadways, our parking lots, our trails, our sidewalks, our bus stops, and identifying strategies that the city can implement to help with cooling along all of those networks.

So that is one of the programs that is currently in process and should be the grant should be completed next June.

Um, so we will see that, and then it is an implementation plan, so we will start to actually put those into place.

Whether that's cooling, we have some cool pavements, cool roofs, cool walls, those can help.

Additional shading, tree canopy, or artificial shading, depending on where all of those different strategies can help.

Right.

The tree element, in my opinion, is key, as you know.

And there's a whole section on trees and nature-based solutions in the in the climate compass.

Excellent.

Excellent.

And then um, what is our uh timeline horizon for implementation of electric uh police vehicles, city trucks, other utility vehicles?

Do we have a timeline for that?

So we are currently working on that um there again in the climate compass.

There are um strategies and actions related to the local or local government operations, including um our our transitioning our fleet over to zero emission vehicles.

Um there is a pilot program and process related to our patrol vehicles and testing those out as EVs.

So it is something that's in the works.

I'm not sure there's a specific date we can say yet, and we when we're doing that, we are transitioning vehicles that are easiest to do as we speak.

We already have nine electric vehicles in the city fleet, and we're transitioning more each year.

Good.

I I thought I heard a significant percentage was buildings and then city vehicles contribute to our GHG calculations.

Yes, and uh goal was 45% reduction by 2030.

So we have four years, roughly, for implementation of some of those.

And when you see the capital improvement plan at your next meeting, you'll note there'll be a couple of projects listed there for this campus to receive additional charging infrastructure.

So we're doing these two things in parallel to help support the fleet conversion.

Excellent.

All right, thank you.

I don't believe there are any other questions.

Excellent presentation.

Thank you.

All right, I will now move to open the public hearing opportunity and ask and helica if we have anyone signed up to speak on this item.

We do.

Eugene Lee.

Mr.

Lee, please come on up.

Good evening.

Uh my name is Eugene Lee, and I represent the City of Elk Grove on the Sacramento Environmental Commission.

And I'm retired from the California Energy Commission and I proudly served as one of the city's climate ambassadors in the support of and development of this climate compass.

They've been a pleasure working to work with throughout this process.

The compass is an excellent name.

And it has received regional recognition from other local organizations.

If you didn't know this, but the the name is less meaningful and uh effective if we abandoned its directions and follow past conventional practices and return to our administrative muscle memory, so to speak.

And I've listened to community residents, and they are invested in Elk Grove.

And the future of it.

But this compass is not the only solution.

And but it is our local navigator.

It specifies really important climate actions and benchmarks.

If we're going to reach our climate destination, and we cannot manage what we do if we do not measure it.

And this compass will do that.

And so I urge your support for the climate compass, and if approved, I asked that you keep it on your decision making dashboard as I will and use it as our climate GPS and to keep our changing community a proud one for all its residents.

Thank you.

Any comments or feedback for Mr.

Lee?

Thank you.

I'm proud to say I was ahead of the curve on some of these items.

I had an EV before it was uh seven dollars a gallon, thankfully.

All right.

Um is there anyone else registered to speak?

All right.

Then I will declare the public comment opportunity closed and we will move to commission deliberation or action.

Any thoughts, comments?

Save the trees.

All right.

Um then I will move to adopt a resolution recommending that the city council certify the supplemental environmental impact report for the climate compass, adopt the climate compass, approve the textual modifications to the city's general plan related to the climate compass, and find no further environmental review is required under state sequel guidelines section 15183 for the general plan revisions related to the housing program and approve the general plan revisions related to the housing program.

Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

All in favor, aye.

Any opposed?

All right, 4-0.

Okay, moving on to item 6.1.

Anhelika.

Reorganization of the outgrove planning commission.

All right, so do I have a motion to nominate the name of Chair for Planning Commission for the balance of 2026?

Chair, I would like to nominate uh Commissioner Oscar O'Khan for the chair of the planning commission for 2026.

And I will second it.

All in favor, do you accept?

I think I am I supposed to ask Jonathan if they accept.

Yeah, I'm not sure it has a choice though.

You've already put it in.

Yeah, you're getting railroaded into this one, Oscar.

All right.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

And one abstention.

Absention.

Yeah.

All right.

So Oscar, congratulations.

This will be yours in 10 minutes.

All right.

Do I have an nomination for vice chair of the planning commission?

Tara, I nominate uh Commissioner Singh for vice chair.

And I will second it.

You accept?

I accept.

All right.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed and one abstention.

Congratulations, you're on deck.

And that is all for the reorganization.

Air Director, may we have your report, please?

Good evening, Commissioners, and congratulations to our new chair and vice chair.

Look forward to working with you over the coming months.

Um, so I don't have anything specifically to report tonight, but I'll run through the list that is on the days this evening while we have been on break as a commission.

Uh, or you have been on a break as a commission.

Um, certainly a lot of other things have been going on, both at staff level and with the city council and the zoning administrator.

I'll highlight a few things.

Uh, you may recall at the end of last year, you heard the Bartholomew Winery Amendment project.

The city council did ultimately approve that back at the end of January.

Um, a new public convenience and necessity approval for the SF supermarket project.

This is at the former big lots building on Elk Road Boulevard, was approved by the council last month.

The zoning administrators' approvals have included the seasonal tent for Pig Latin, so that that will now be a permitted structure, as well as the extension of the Creekside Estates and Pleasant Grove Estates uh maps.

Um, in terms of future matters, we do have a few more that are teeing up for your future agenda.

Um we did sign off earlier today on the packet for your meeting in two weeks' time, so you should be receiving that tomorrow.

Uh the items on the agenda there include the condition the design review approvals and old town major certificate of appropriateness for the economic development project known as the mural festival in old town or historic main streets that is uh scheduled to occur next month.

Um we also will have the Sheldon Road rezone and map project and the actually not say climate compass, this should say the uh capital improvement program.

Um that is uh now live actually up on the website, and the agenda pack will be available for the public tomorrow.

Um forthcoming matters we are tracking for June 4th for the Calvine Road map, attended parcel map and rezone project.

Uh zoning administrator does have one confirmed item for June 1st for the survey road warehouse.

This is a reapproval of a prior approval from a number of years ago on a small warehouse building on Survey Road, um, basically right near the knuckle near where uh the special waste collection center is and then nothing major coming up for uh matters for May 27th for the city council or June 10th at this point, although I think there is one item we're potentially tracking for one of those states.

We'll know more tomorrow.

Uh concludes my report.

Have it answer questions if you have them no questions for Christopher.

Christopher, somebody asked me um about the SF supermarket.

Is there any time frames for when that's gonna start?

I believe the building permit's been approved or will be soon.

I don't think they've started construction yet inside.

Um, given that it's existed in a couple different forms with some level of grocery store in it before.

Um it hopefully isn't too long to get it converted over a few months' time, I would expect, hopefully by the end of the year.

Okay, thank you.

Does that SF have any significance?

It's the brand name, just SF.

Yeah, I there may be some connection with San Francisco, but it's uh primarily a based market.

I think it's shun fat market.

Thank you.

Comes from the city.

All right, beautiful.

All right, if there are no other wait.

Um commission matters, any anything for us to discuss?

All right, then I will adjourn the meeting this 7th of May at 6 40 p.m.

Thank you, everybody.