It rained last night.

It was very eerily similar.

Planning commission studies session to order.

Roll call, please.

Commissioner Scandura.

Commissioner Ray.

Here.

Vice Chair Grant.

Here.

Chair Garcia.

Here.

Commissioner Kalmick.

Here.

Commissioner Perkins.

Here.

Commissioner Landick.

We have a quorum.

Okay.

So moved.

Second.

Okay, all you have that all those in favor?

Oh, sorry.

I guess we're gonna do that on a computer, huh?

Seven eyes, motion carries.

Okay, I believe our public comment period is next.

Do we have any public comments?

We do not have anyone signed up under public comments.

All right.

Uh then we'll move on to uh project review uh 19-920.

Zoning text amendment number 1900-002, hunting the music zoning and subdivision ordinance update.

Chairman.

What I need to speak.

You do what would you like to say?

I need to recuse myself from the first actually the two items on the uh study session agenda as I have a uh business interest and my office is within 500 feet of the two areas being discussed.

Well then that means that probably applies to me too.

Maybe is this in the Huntington Beach.

It's downtown.

Oh, then that doesn't.

Okay.

Okay, let's proceed.

So we will ask Nicole O'Bay, associate planner to give the staff report this evening.

Thank you, Jane.

Good evening, Chair Garcia and Commissioners.

The item we will discuss tonight is ZTA number 1900, ZSO maintenance phase two.

The goal of the study session is to take questions from the planning commissioners that staff may answer in the public hearing staff report.

The ZTA is the second phase of the overall ZSO maintenance.

You may recall last year staff brought the first phase of ZSO maintenance, which included reorganization of some entitlements, clarified some typos, provided a general update for current market and business conditions since the last comprehensive code update was in 1994.

The overall goal is to continuously update the code, likely on a yearly basis, to ensure that the code is clear and responsive to market needs.

An overall look at the changes include updating the vehicle storage use classification and the related requirements in commercial and industrial districts, clarifying requirements for parking structures and codifying some design guidelines for them, modifying requirements for residential infill, clarifying requirements for moving and relocating structures, and deleting a reference to a section of the municipal code that does not exist anymore.

So we'll start with chapter 203 definitions, which includes a few updates.

So if you own a home and want to reconfigure the whole first floor, which is current currently very common to create an open floor plan.

So you get plans drawn, you come to the permit counter, and you need to revise your plans already to show where your neighbor's windows are located.

Then you're also required to send a certified letter to your neighbor stating that you've submitted the plans and they have a 10-day period to view them at City Hall, which does delay your remodel.

The most common comment that we receive is that it's a single story home, which is separated by a six-foot high fence, so they would never even see their neighbor because they're separated by this fence, even if their windows did align because there's a solid wooden fence, block wall, vinyl, something separating them already.

So even if their windows did line up, they would never, they would never know, never see them because there's a visual obstruction.

That said, the notification also sent to the neighbor creates a false expectation that they'll have the ability to either provide significant input on their neighbor's project, provide input on the redesign, redesign of the project, and what staff experiences is that it pits the neighbor, neighbors against neighbor quite often, leaving staff in the middle, mediating these two neighbors to create find some solution to satisfy both parties when typically the project will technically comply with the code requirement, but one of the neighbors is still unsatisfied.

So that said, the new definition of privacy design standards will create applicability of privacy review.

And it also rebrands, if you will, the definition itself, because infill lot development doesn't really describe what the review is, which is privacy design, privacy standards, alignment of windows is for privacy reasons.

So that's why it's renamed to residential privacy design standards to more accurately reflect what the review is for.

So the new privacy design standards will apply to any single family dwelling or vacant lot intended for single family development or any existing single family residence that adds new floor area above the first floor.