The Fresno Planning Commission met on September 3, 2026, at 5:34 PM to consider a workshop on required text amendments for the Sixth Cycle Housing Element and a conditional use permit for a smoke shop conversion. The meeting was called to order with roll call by Commissioners Dene, Janet, Lois, Denise, Bonna Alfred, Geraldine, and Jerry. The meeting adjourned at 6:12 PM.
You're good to go. Okay, 5 34, we'll call the meeting into order and we'll start out with our roll call. That's uh Dene, I'm here. Janet here, Lois, Denise here. Bonna Alfred here. And Geraldine here, Jerry, thank you. And then um motion to go to the approval of the agenda for letter A, August 12th, 2026 meeting. And motion to approve it. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Moving on to consent calendar for letter A, July 8 of 2026 meeting minutes. We need a motion to approve the minute. That's correct. Thank you. All in favor. Aye. Okay, and then we will be moving on. We'll skip number three since there's no continued matters and number four project review new matters is the workshop for the text of an application number P2602359 in regards to the sixth cycle housing element. That's good for that. Okay, is this on Stephen? Yeah, it doesn't necessarily project very much, so just kind of speaking. Okay, I will I will project. Good afternoon. I'm Sophia Pagalatis with the planning and development department, and I'm sitting here before you today in my new role as program administrator of the housing element. So these text amendments of the development code that we're bringing before you today are all required in our housing element. And to give you a refresher on the housing element, it is a chapter of the city's general plan. Um and it is a special chapter because it is subject to special state laws and timelines. So housing elements must be updated every eight years, and um our current housing element was um has the time frame of 2023 to 2031, and we call it a sixth cycle because housing elements are on cycles in California. So every jurisdiction in California, city or county is required to have a housing element, and this housing element contains housing production goals and also several action programs or action plans to help remove barriers to housing and encourage the development of housing for all um household income levels. So that's what it is in a nutshell. Um in our current housing element, there are 37 different programs in the action plan. And today we're um we're packaging there are several amendments to our zoning code that are called for in four of those programs. So that's the context for you, and um there was the context. Let's go to the next slide. Yes, sorry, no, that was me. Moving ahead, not looking at my slides. Um, so the first so I'm just going to describe the changes in terms of overall topic areas, and the first one is objective design standards. What do we mean by that? Well, um, it means standards that are quantifiable and where there's no subjectivity in applying them. And so the housing element and state law require us to amend our residential and mixed use development and facade design standards to ensure they are clear and objective. So I'm gonna give you an example, and there's one here on the slide. A non-objective example might be um new development should be designed to enhance pedestrians' experience as they walk along public streets. That would be subjective because what might be a pleasant subjective uh pleasant experience for for you, Mr. Triquio would not be one for you, Ms. Garza, for example. Um, but um, so what we're doing is trying to remove those kinds of subject um subjective requirements and replace them with quantifiable things, such as for new development along a new street, sidewalk should be no less than five feet wide. Now, hopefully there would be additional requirements that would make the experience more pedestrian friendly, but you get the idea.