Dr.

And the HUI, you know, they call it great book with our light friend Bob Yaling.

Yes.

I'd like to call the Planning Commission meeting to order.

Welcome to the August 5th uh 2025 Huntington Beach Planning Commission meeting.

While Planning Commission welcomes public involvement and free speech, it rejects rejects comments from anyone that are uh discriminatory, defamatory, or otherwise not protected speech.

These comments will not inform nor be considered by the planning commission, and they may cause the chair to interrupt the speaker.

Such comments will not be uh consented or otherwise adopted by the planning commission in its discussion and findings for any matter tonight.

Thank you.

All right, Pledge of Allegiance.

Uh, would like to call uh Commissioner Goldberg to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

The new guy.

Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to republic for which it stands one nation under the indivisible with the liberty of the crawl.

May we have a roll call, please?

Commissioner McKickie.

Here, Commissioner Pellman.

Here?

Vice Chair Bush.

Here.

Chair Thenis.

Here.

Commissioner Babanau.

Present.

Commissioner Palmer.

Commissioner Goldberg.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Okay.

Now is the time for public comments for items that are not on the agenda this evening.

Do we have any public comments for items not on the agenda?

We do not appear to have any uh public comments for items that are not on the agenda.

Alrighty then.

Uh next on the agenda is a public hearing for the appeal of zoning administration administrators' approval of conditional use permit twenty-five hyphen zero zero seven.

Planning commissioners, please state your disclosures regarding this item, and we'll start on my right.

Uh Brett Bush and Councilwoman Vandermark.

You spoke with them?

Yes.

I spoke with city staff, including um city attorney and um Jennifer Villa uh Nueva or Villa Senor, um, uh Mr.

Paul, who's the measure L person, and um let's see, uh and Chris Cole, and uh Councilmember McKeon and myself.

Obviously, that was one meeting, and then I spoke at the zoning administration meeting, so there, and then I spoke at the DR.

Well, I didn't speak officially at the DRB, but I did talk to some people there that were on the DRB.

Um, and then the only other person I talked with, Commissioner Palmer, and um Commissioner Thinnis, Chair, and um, and also council member um Williams, and that would be it.

Thank you.

I I know I have mine's much shorter.

Uh I talked to Dominic McGee and Councilman Chad Williams, and uh I spoke to uh Commissioner Pellman, Commissioner Babineau, uh Mayor Burns, and um Council uh no Mayor Pro Tem McKinnon and staff.

I spoke with Chair Thenis and Councilman uh Butch Twining.

Palmer.

I spoke with uh Commissioner Commissioner Pellman, uh Council Members Casey McKeon, Chad Williams, and Don Kennedy, and uh Parks and Community Services Commissioner, uh Jean Gene Paris.

I spoke with a uh Vice Mayor uh McKeon and I don't even remember who else I spoke with, but I did speak with one other.

I might have spoken to nope, that was it.

I think that's the only okay.

All right, uh staff.

May we please have a staff report on this item?

Yes, associate Planner Marco Cuevas will be giving the presentation.

Uh yes, uh good afternoon, Chair Thenus and Planning Commissioners.

Um the item before you is the appeal of the zoning administrators' approval of condition use permit number 25-007.

It's a Huntington Beach sports complex located at 18260 Golden West Street the request service and consumption of beer and wine that's an ABC type 41 license within a proposed approximately 5200 square foot outdoor dining area for an eating and drinking establishment with full table service at the Huntington Beach sports complex.

The subject site has a general plan designation of OSP which is open space park and is zoned OSPR which is open space parks and recreation subdistrict.

The site is located on the east side of Golden West Street between Talbot Avenue and Ellis Avenue with uh the outdoor dining patio facing existing baseball fields two and three with the closest residences located over fifty feet to the south here on the slide you could see the um aerial map showing the subject site along Golden West and the um the this is a close up of the actual um eating and drinking establishment that's within uh that park area there so as part of the site plan the site plan is for this location is on Golden West and it's approximately uh 5200 square feet um which includes an enclosed patio area with table service and includes a 48 inch high barrier fencing with restrooms accessible from outside of the dining area um so here at this on this slide you can see um the extent of the um outdoor dining area with um the perimeter fencing and um the barriers that are placed in there as well um for the uh 42 inch high uh fencing um the zoning administrator approved uh CUP 25-007 with conditions at the meeting on July 16th 2025 and was able to make certain findings those include um police department conditions regulating alcohol sales and service uh the condition for full table service in which guests will be served food and beverage at their tables and that alcohol is ancillary to eating and drinking establishment as far as the site and layout um the fencing um is conditioned to prevent passing of alcoholic beverages through the barrier and that the plan is revised to provide restroom access to the public subsequently an appeal was filed by Commissioner Pellman on July 23rd 2025 and the concerns cited uh for the appeal were that the new plans were received on the hearing date that's the zoning administered hearing date and that uh the public um the public questions were not uh addressed to the appellant's satisfaction uh on this slide we show the um site plan comparison so the image the slide image to the left shows the plan that um was initially um um um submitted um in um april 10th 2025 and the plan to the right is the revised plan that was shown at the zoning administrator hearing um as you could see what the areas that are clouded in the the red there in this area there um those show the revisions um which were recommended by the design review board um and which we include that the fence barrier um be included that would prevent uh unintentional entry into the patio dining area and allow for independent access to the restrooms and so once again the areas that are clouded here in the red these two sections are the areas that were revised um on the plan to comply with uh those recommendations um this next slide shows the renderings um of the proposed outdoor dining area which represent the general look and feel of the proposed outdoor dining outdoor patio area and the corresponding um improvements so um should the planning commission approve the proposed project?

Um it may do so based on suggested findings and conditions of approval uh that the project complies with the general plan and zoning ordinance, that it provides an enhanced amenity within the Huntington Beach Sports Complex, that the use is ancillary to existing eating and drinking establishment and um the Huntington Beach Sports Complex, and that the conditions of approval have been incorporated to ensure safe um ensure safe service of beer and wine and compliance with all applicable laws and uh regulations.

So uh that concludes my presentation.

I'm happy to answer any question and we'll point out that the applicant is uh in the audience as well.

Uh commissioners do we have the use?

Commissioners, do we have any questions for staff?

I'd like to start on my right.

Do you have anything?

No.

All right, I'll do it.

Okay.

That's okay.

Yep.

Okay.

Commissioner Pellman, go ahead.

Um, okay.

First of all, could you back go back to the renderings and the site plan?

Okay, so um it doesn't really show the taught playground.

Where is it?

Let's see.

So the so I remember the the taut lots or the what I should say.

The playground area was to the I believe it's to the left of this.

Go to your vicinity, man.

You go here at the vicinity.

I think it shows them in the vicinity.

There we go.

So uh on this location, yeah.

So uh you would see that the lot would be, let me if I can get the cursor there.

It would be this, this area here, just immediately to the I'm gonna say to the left of the um establishment, which would be this area here on the close-up image.

And could you describe the barrier there and was it child-friendly and all that stuff uh for safety purposes?

Uh so the proposed barrier would be uh 40 inch tall.

Um, it's a basic rod iron fence with um railings in between.

It's kind of like air aircraft wire railing that is spaced um close enough together to prevent um drinks from being passed um through the the fence itself.

So um is it safe for children?

Can they climb over it?

Um that was my concern presented at the um the zoning administration meeting.

Um I guess there's a potential for our kids to climb over it, but um I guess we would rely on staffed um running the um the business to um put preventative measures in place, signs and so forth, so that um you know children would be discouraged from climbing uh uh, you know, basically the railing on that fence.

I have two, um I have eight grandchildren, two of them are toddlers, and I guarantee you with what you described, they would be climbing on it, putting their arms through it, all of that.

And that was a concern that I understood that was going to be addressed before this meeting.

At least that was my understanding.

Maybe I was wrong.

But Commissioner Pellman, yes, this is Jill.

Um we did check with the building official and building staff, and their safety cons uh issue from a building code perspective.

So, with regards to that question, we checked just from a building code perspective, and they did not see the proposed material as an issue.

Okay.

I'm done then, yep.

I just have one question.

This is um within the confines of the park, right?

That is correct.

Okay, thank you.

Are there other establishments in the park that we serve alcohol?

Um, not at this location, no.

Anywhere in Central Park?

There might be I think a restaurant that uh has alcohol.

I think that initiated the text amendment that led to the provisions that were that were uh applying.

Yeah, so serving alcohol in this zoning area is allowed as long as you follow the zoning requirement for uh table service.

Correct.

Yeah, CEP is required for for alcohol use and it requires full table service.

Okay.

I'd like to address that.

My understanding is measure C, which is uh section 612, basically uh had an exception uh for entities that were built in Central Park prior to uh 1990.

I think it might have been like January 1st, 1989, and I believe Kathy Mays was there, and one of the stipulations is that you have to have the full service dine-in there before you get the uh CUP.

And so that provision that you're describing with Kathy Mays uh in 2018, there was a letter by uh Fred Wilson, who was the city manager at the time, and he basically put that stipulation into place in a code, and so that's what I believe you're referring to, in my opinion.

Uh Commissioner Pellman, uh speaking on Section 612.

Uh the C Attorney Office does do an analysis for almost every product comes through.

We have done for this one.

I don't think it even gets to the exception that you're speaking about about the existing use.

Um Measure C is designed to uh come into effect when something is sold lease exchange or disposed of.

That's not the case here.

Um all that's being done here is is a permitting process for alcohol.

Measure C doesn't really consider the specific use that closely.

Um and then beyond that, I haven't seen evidence that the building is going beyond the existing footprint of the current building, and in that case, it wouldn't activate measure C either.

In my opinion, there was an attorney opinion in 1998 that would refute your opinion, so I respectfully disagree.

That is fine.

Um section 309, the city attorney powers of the current city attorney.

Um shall have the power to provide advice related to compliance city charter.

So is the current city attorney's office who I have reviewed all the hundreds of measure C opinions we've written and written 16 of them myself.

We think that this does not activate the measure C requirements for a vote.

Okay, any other commissioners have questions?

Yes, um a couple questions.

I'm actually painfully familiar with a similar request about 20 years ago when I was um active in another city close by.

So the ABC is already signed off on this.

Is that correct?

Can you repeat that question?

The ABC.

They they've got they've complied with ABC requirements.

Um ABC has not signed off on this requirement yet.

So what they need is an approval by the planning commission.

Well, yes, the planning commission, and then from there um they will uh review this item as well.

Okay, and the police department have they come in and said anything about this particular they have reviewed this project and their recommendations uh have been incorporated in the conditions of approval for this item.

Okay.

Commissioner Babino.

I thought I heard that the barrier was 48 inches, and then I thought I just heard 40 inches.

So can I get a clarification?

So the barrier is supposed to be 48 inches tall.

Okay, and what is the distance to the kitty park?

I guess for lack of a better term.

How far away is that in feet or it's uh let's see.

I didn't do a direct measurement.

Um I would say about maybe about two about 150 to 200 feet away.

Okay.

Nothing further from me.

Commissioner Palmer?

Uh yes, go ahead.

No, I'm sorry, you have to answer.

It's on, right?

Yeah.

Uh yes, I would agree with um Commissioner Pellman.

I does not look to me like this is fully vetted, um, even though our legal department says it seems to be, but everything I read specifically called out to only establishments, and the requirement was they had to have been in existence at the time of the application, and so they had already be full service.

So it's there's a little bit of uh uh gray area there.

Uh the lease also uh is only for concession stands.

So I don't know about the lease itself.

Someone else might want to look into that.

I again to me it's there's a little gray area there.

Uh there was an awful lot of consternation with Measure C.

So I don't know that there's enough in these documents to really make me comfortable that we have vetted this fully through.

However, um I understand that it's popular with some people, so I've reviewed it fully.

One of the questions I have, was there any stipulation for hours of operation uh for serving alcohol itself?

Because to me that would kind of make or break it, and my recommendation would be 4 to 10 p.m.

the way they do at Lake Forest, I'm sorry, at Norco uh Silver Lakes Sport Complex, where they have service all day for food, but for alcohol, it's 4 to 10 p.m.

So if you could comment on that, and I'm currently reviewing the uh conditions of approval.

I know that we have um hours that are stated for um when alcohol beverages are not supposed to be um served, um, and um where it states condition number 26 no dining or consumption of alcoholic beverages shall be permitted in the outdoor patio dining areas between the hours of 10 p.m.

and 7 a.m.

7 a.m.

is a little early to start serving alcohol in my opinion.

Understood it's probably a little early for most people, yes it is.

But um, yeah, that is um that was a police department recommendation.

Okay.

Just to chime in, since I've attended, I don't know how many of these fields that are privately ran uh all over the entire state, actually.

Most of them allow alcohol sales before 4 p.m.

I this one you're referring to may in fact have that 4 p.m.

But again, my kids grew up playing baseball and softball, and I was at all those parks, and they served alcohol pretty much you know on the Saturdays and Sundays, you know, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock or whatever.

So I have contacted seven parks, and of those, you're correct.

Um, five of them do serve uh alcohol, but only four of them serve uh during midday hours, and it was just a stipulation that I thought would help alleviate the concerns that some of us have for alcohol consumption during a long day of tournament games.

If we could just keep our questions to staff for right now, then we'll deliberate about it.

Sorry, if I if I could add to the questions about um the hours of the hours, so the um the operator does have certain hours of operation that they go by.

Um I believe this location um on Golden West, their hours are um 4 p.m.

to 9 p.m.

Um generally um and I'm reading here.

Let's see.

It also depends on the day and of course events, but um so they can vary as far as hours are concerned.

Um Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.

due to 10 p.m.

and uh Sundays 8 a.m.

to 10 p.m.'s uh 8 p.m.

So but the um the applicant can confirm their hours as well for this location.

I have a commissioner Pellman question.

Um more of a comment.

I want to back up to the tot lot uh playground.

It's not 150 feet.

I would say from the front of where the windows are, it's maybe 20 feet, and the perimeter barrier on the one side um is to prevent the kids from going into where they're serving alcohol.

So that is um, and it's an estimation 15 to 20 feet, but um, so it's not a hundred and fifty feet, the tot lot.

So just for clarification.

Any other questions?

We have a chance after we hear from the public, yep.

Okay, with uh no further questions.

We will now uh open the hearing for uh public comments.

Okay, uh we currently have 13 people signed to speak up again.

If you are planning on speaking on the item and you've not filled out a public speaker form, please do so and bring it to me.

Um most everyone signed up for the sports complex, so I will be calling them for both items.

Um please come down, line up at each podium.

Um, Hank Madonna, Rick Brown, Dan Hay, Ed Laird, Dion Cronkite, Gene Gooden, Diana Phillips, Patricia Pappas, Eric Stein, Eva, Nancy Bucos.

And apologies if I mispronounced anyone's name.

Thank you.

Just to be clear, um, we are taking public comments for both items 2507 and 2514 at the same time.

Basically the same.

Can we do that?

It would because of the way that it was agendized, we are doing two separate items, so they will come back if they want to speak again for the second item.

Okay, sorry about that.

Hello, my name's Hank.

Uh, long time resident here.

Children grew up here in Huntington Beach, and this is just the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time.

You know, all the emotions of the kids playing all day, and adding alcohol to it.

Um, there's gonna be a possibility of some parent getting arrested, and all the people, all the children watching this, and uh the effect that that's gonna have on people.

Who's gonna monitor how many beers you give an eight-hour day?

All these things are just really we can't find anything better to make a profit in the complex, anything better than have they didn't even do their homework, they don't even know how far the kids are playing from that's just absurd.

Please do your homework completely for some of the parents.

My kids are grown up, but a whole bunch of this community, a whole bunch of my friends' kids are playing softball, are playing soccer on these fields, and it's just ridiculous.

So please, we trust in you, you guys do a great job in this city.

Please really think of this really heavily for the children, the ones that have a safe place to go, because maybe there's too much drinking at homes to start with.

That's all I have, and thank you for letting me talk.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, uh, commissioners.

Uh, first off, I want to share my opposition to the proposal allowing the sale of alcohol in the Honey Bee Sports Complex.

Can you please state your name?

What's that?

Can you please state your name?

Oh, sorry, Rick Brown.

This facility is a crown jewel of Huntington Beach, welcoming over one million visitors annually, and the vast majority of whom are children, their young athletes, families, and community uh and um community spectators, sorry.

The proposed introduction of alcohol uh sales at this family centered venue raises serious concerns related to public safety, youth development, traffic management, and overall uh character of our community.

I have the following concerns.

First off, family friendly environment.

The sports complex is one of the few remaining public spaces in Huntington where families can enjoy sports, recreation, and community events in a safe and sober environment.

Introducing alcohol into this space compromise the very values that have made it so successful from a sportsmanship, youth development, health, and community unity perspective.

As far as uh public safety and liability, alcohol consumption, even when regulated, can escalate tensions in competitive sports environments, especially among spec spectators, and oftentimes you'll see uh fathers upset about the calls the umpires make or kids playing too raw if they get elbows or knees.

That's problems.

This increases the risk of alterations and also impairs judgment DUIs and medical emergencies, all of which place a heavier burden on public safety personnel, staff, and city resources.

As far as traffic and parking uh is concerned, the sports complex already experiences significant traffic and congestion during the major events.

The introduction of alcohol could lead to impaired drivers leaving the venue, increasing the risk of traffic accidents on city streets and residential areas adjacent to the complex.

As far as setting precedents, uh approval of the alcohol uh sales at the sports complex would set a dangerous precedence that could be cited by other residential and recreational youth focused facilities seeking similar permissions.

This incremental shift would slowly erode the protection to keep our family values safe, accessible, and focused on healthy community first values.

Lastly, the Huntington Beach Sports Complex is just not just not a venue, it's a community asset.

It represents the values we uphold as far as wellness, youth uh achievement, and family togetherness.

Allowing alcohol sales at this location is incompatible with those values and unnecessary for continued success of the complex.

I respectfully urge the planning commission to reject any proposal that permits the sale of alcohol at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex and instead recommit to the policies that prioritize family safety and responsible community development.

Thank you for your time and your dedication for preserving the spirit of Huntington Beach.

As a reminder, please state your name prior to your to speaking.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, I'm Billy Maddox, a volunteer in Huntington Beach for over 40 years as an official baseball and soccer, and I've watched and had altercations, just as this gentleman just got through saying with a dad whose son was called out who got angry, and um actually had to be removed from the field.

It's happened several times.

We've had to shut down games, we've had to turn kids away.

There's so many places to go drink.

You can drink at home, you can drink at any bar.

There's no reason to open this sports venue where we're trying to teach the children the benefit of life.

You know, be prepared for the play.

Know what you're gonna do when it happens, execute it.

If you fail, it's okay.

But your dad in the audience thinks you're gonna get signed to the professional league tomorrow, he's gonna have an issue with it.

A lot of the dads we asked to stay out into the left field so that they don't disrupt the rest of the crowd.

Okay, as an official, I'm here to tell you that we put up with this.

We deal with this all the time on a non-alcoholic basis with the sober people.

So there's no reason to bring alcohol here.

If I could think of a good reason, maybe, but there's so many other places that this can happen.

Everybody gets together at Eda Joe's afterwards and has a beer.

Why do we need to do it at the field?

Okay, um, it's not a good thing.

There's nothing that alcohol cannot make worse.

Not one thing.

I've seen it wrecked so many lives.

And why introduce the children to that when they're trying their best, they're giving all of their effort, they've practiced so hard, they've had all the gear, they've worked their tail off, the soccer, the baseball, the men's softball, even worse.

When those guys they think they're professionals and and they argue about a call at first base.

Okay.

So now give them a beer.

I just think it's a bad idea.

Let's keep Huntington Beach going in the direction it's going.

I love the way you guys have been doing things.

I love the way Huntington Beach has been a leader in strong conservative values, and I think that this is a place to draw the line.

We just don't need it.

If we needed it, that'd be different.

Thank you for your time.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

My name is Ed Laird.

Um, I'm a former planning commissioner when this town was called Gospel Swamps.

Uh not really, but that's how far I go back.

Um, first of all, uh I'm here to tonight to oppose uh alcohol in the sports complex, and I'd like to thank Tracy Pellman for bringing this forward and appealing it.

I think that uh she caught a big mistake.

I think that more homework should have been done before this uh uh went through as it did.

Uh I think Measure C and Measure L have uh standing here, and I think the intent of those both would uh circumvent any legal situation that you might be able to twist it today.

So I have uh been in Huntington Beach for 60 years, and I think that um I kind of lost my place here.

Uh I think that we should uh not have alcohol in uh the sports complex.

Um I'm not a teetotaler or anything like that, but I think that it's uh uh it's for our youth, and it was intended for our youth when it became the uh sports complex.

And when we first put the sports complex uh in, um the staff they went ahead and issued a contract to a company on online that didn't exist, and we lost a million one in that.

Uh you can look that up and and see that where we lost money when we first started out because they didn't do their homework, and I don't think they've done their homework here.

Um another friend of mine here tonight that was going to speak is Kevin Elliott, who owns Code 4 here in town and he owns the air show.

And um Kevin uh is more articulate than I am, and I'd like to read his remarks because he's homesick with the virus with his family, his whole family's sick.

So if I could read this is from Kevin Elliott, he's much more articulate than I am.

Uh, do we really need to serve alcohol in the youth sports complex?

That's a question.

If the purpose here is to allow alcohol consumption during future concert events at the complex, a temporary license can be obtained as with other annual events such as the U.S.

Open and the Air Show and et cetera.

Uh the HP council spent sp significant time in treasure arguing for measures A and B just recently, and we needed to let our kids be kids.

Normalizing uh alcohol consumption around impressionable youth creates the impression uh inappropriate atmosphere.

One that uh Kevin does not believe that we should uh that we stood for in our city in 1996.

The people voted the measure L and approved a youth sports complex with a snack bar, not a sports bar.

If planning commission is disagrees and thinks, oops, my time's up.

I'm sorry, but Kevin is opposed to it also.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Yes, Patricia Pappas, um, over 45-year residence and uh honorable um planning commissioners.

I'm here to speak to you about the 1909 craft beer and concession proposal at the HB Sports Complex.

I was reviewing the uh complex's website, and we're already advertising that already come and grab an ice cold local brew, craft beer and concession.

So we're already advertising that it's up and running.

I thought that was interesting.

And I'm here to talk to you about two issues.

I was looking at our municipal code, being a teacher.

I do a lot of a lot of research, and uh I don't know if this applies, but it says in the um municipal code, the city code 13-48-um alcoholic beverages, no person shall within the boundaries of any public park within the city consume any alcoholic beverage of any kind whatsoever except when attending a function operating under an alcohol permit issued in accordance with chapter 9.84 of this code.

So I'm thinking, well, maybe that is like taste where they would have alcohol.

I don't know, but it says no person, and then I'm looking at um, I'm looking at the charter, and I'm looking at six 12 uh public utilities and parks and beaches, and it talks about to have things built, or I don't know if this is going to be sold or leased or exchanged or otherwise transferred.

I don't know who's gonna own this.

If the city gonna own this, I have no idea.

But you need the majority of the council to approve it, and you need an affirmative vote by the electors.

So it needs to go to an election.

And um so there will be some costs there.

And then I was looking at another document.

I looked at a lot of documents.

Um Measure C says, and this is the ballot measure L, and it says this amendment also updates measure C so that we can continue to improve our parks and beaches with minor updates, including adding upgrading restrooms without a costly um citywide vote to do so.

It's so to me, it says we need a citywide vote to do this.

So I don't know.

But thank you.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Next next speaker, please.

Yes, my name is Jim Easton.

I've lived in this city for over 30 years.

This is very personal to me.

In 2011, I was almost killed by a drunk driver on a motorcycle.

I was on the motorcycle.

I got hit by a drunk driver.

He was a marine.

He was 18 years old.

It wasn't in the city here, but the point is that drinking is very personal.

I have not drank at all since that incident.

And I also have family members that are on this department in the police department that are working in the DUI area, so I very family connected with this.

Anybody that's lived in this city for a while knows that Huntington Beach has a reputation throughout the state of being people, too many people drinking and mixing children with drinking.

I always thought that we as the adults are supposed to be the role models for our kids.

So being a good role model is not drinking at their sports games, anything they're doing, we're gonna put drinking on the playgrounds, the little parks around the city.

This is crazy to mix alcohol.

Nothing good comes from drinking alcohol and being around children.

In fact, recently I live across the street from Seacliff, just down the street here, and there's been a problem for the last several years with drunk high school kids coming out in the after the football games.

So drinking and youth is already a problem.

So we as parents need to be better examples and show our kids that that's not the way to go.

So I encourage an absolute no on this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next next speaker, please.

My name is Jeannie Gooden, and I'm here this evening to um uh to tell you that I'm a recipient of an alcoholic father who was unable to take care of his actions while in the family and also in the public.

So I'm here to encourage you to oppose the alcohol consumption at the Huntington Beach Sports uh complex, youth sports complex, that is situated on Golden West Boulevard.

Presently, it has a family-friendly environment where children are pleasant, and I like that this atmosphere will continue.

This is a fair, they're a fairly large and consistent literature that's available that illustrates the detrimental use of liquor in public on children.

The American Addiction Centers report that alcohol misuse can destroy family relationships and drive a wedge between its members, not to mention the non-protection of children present, and these can also cause fights and otherwise impair the health and happiness of people.

So please vote to protect our children and others that are involved, uh, and vote against this Huntington Beach uh commission vote for uh for the sports complex.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello.

My name is Diana Phillips.

I am a 21-year resident of Huntington Beach.

Um, when I heard that you wanted to sell alcohol, you know, close to where the kids are playing.

The impact of children seeing their parents drunk under the influence, acting irresponsible.

The problem with alcohol and parents is that they're not the same person, and they react to like they said, uh, people making calls, and then they start fights.

And these kids, in seeing their parents, blow a gasket with another person, or um, have some kind of fight that it's gonna impact their brains forever in their lifetime.

You know, just one little fight.

What we're doing is we are promoting alcohol.

We are telling, I mean, I know that Huntington Beach is number one in DUIRS in the state.

Um, but we don't want to teach our children to become alcoholics.

We don't want the parent with the hangover saying, oh God, here we go.

Here's another beer, and then how who who's gonna say, you know, you can't have two, three, four?

Who's you know, these children, you know, walking around just walking around the area, you know, people, you know, parents are gonna be under the influence and get to accidentally hit somebody.

You're asking for liability that's just beyond recognition.

I mean, this is just the craziest idea.

I mean, we're trying to make a family-friendly world.

We're not trying to make money, we're trying to raise children that will become good human beings.

We don't want to raise alcoholics, it's just I mean, what what do we want to sell marijuana dubies or something like that too?

I mean, seriously, that's legal.

You can do that.

This is just we we need to be adults here.

We need to take the idea, we are adults.

You know, we shouldn't allow this at a youth sports complex.

It's just wrong.

It's just wrong on all levels, doesn't matter.

You know, we don't want our children to be brought up that way.

We don't want them to have the repercussions of the dad blowing, you know, getting into a fight with somebody else over a call.

So, you know, it just the repercussions to just the child is unbearable, and we have to think about these things.

We haven't thought of it all through.

We're just thinking about the almighty dollar, but it's no, we wanna have a good, happy, uh family-friendly environment.

We don't want to have you know kids being hit by parents under the influence.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, I'm Dion Cronkite, longtime residents of Huntington Beach.

And when I saw Huntington Beach Sports Complex, I thought, how wonderful families and children can get together, and then I see the snack bar now wants to start serving beer and wine, and I think even USC don't doesn't sell alcohol in the stands anymore because it's just too problematic.

Um, the Sports Center is an area that's uh designed for family growth.

Um they're not gonna get it if if a child is watching even an older brother possibly drinking while he's eating a hot dog at the snack bar, he's gonna think that's okay.

Then he sees his coach having some beers and some wine, and and uh you can't just you know, have children go into that with all of the distractions that they have nowadays anyway.

I think it's smoke friendly and alcohol friendly should be a sports con uh sports uh complex.

Uh this is a a chance for Huntington Beach to find a place that's safe for our children to play, their families can be involved, the uh school can be involved, they can, you know, just have a meeting place, they can have a snack bar with good food and uh soft drinks.

That's a little sugary, but still they can go work it off at the complex.

So I think no no alcohol.

We have enough restaurants that serve alcohol in that area if they want to go after they pick their kids up, have a meal with their kids and have their alcohol there and go home.

But I wouldn't uh bet that families that have kids at the complex and are drinking and eating, would go home just when they're ready to because the alcohol would be there, and that's what would kind of encourage everyone to stay.

So then the snack bar becomes a restaurant.

Suppose the restaurant wants to um doesn't make it with the food that it has and to get the food a little bit higher so we get a little bit more customers in.

Is it gonna be open to the public that they can come anytime during that period of uh wine and and drinking that they can come and eat and watch kids play?

So I say no.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Please line up at each podium and remember to state your name prior to speaking.

Thank you.

Eva from Huntington Beach.

Uh I used to work for UCLA police department, occupational health and safety education, the whole hospital for health and safety.

Um, I had two licenses in my life.

Uh optical license and traveling not the republic.

Um alcohol is a problem.

If you want to make problem, it's all gonna be problems.

So nothing but problems.

Even the COVID times, the only thing is open is bars, money, money, money.

It's you know, we have to follow the law.

Don't drink and drive.

I tell everybody, don't drink and drive.

You have to follow the law, and we have to teach the children to follow the law, not to break the law.

And that's dangerous for them to be there watching you.

Even if you don't tell them anything, they're watching you.

We need to protect the future of our government of our nation, and those are our children.

Need to protect them, don't drink and drive.

It's not worth it.

It's not worth drink and go to sleep.

That's it.

Just before you go to bed, and God bless you all.

We pray for our nation and protection over all of you in Jesus' name.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

My name's Eric Stein, uh 40-year resident.

Yeah, I'm 40.

Um, okay, Ed said something here.

Uh, impressionable youth.

That really stuck out to me.

Um, when I was a kid, my family drank, um, birthdays, holidays, sporting events.

It was it was a big part of our life, and um it became a big part of my life.

Let's just say that.

It has uh it has been the source of the most pain and suffering in my life, and I mean I have I have friends and family that have drank themselves to death.

Okay, so what I would what I want to impress here is that the kids don't need more.

We got plenty of places we can go have a drink, right?

Plenty, the kids don't need any more.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Um good evening.

My name's Nancy Bucos, I'm a 48-year resident of Huntington Beach, and um I'm a former president of the South Huntington Beach Girls Fast Pitch Softball League, um, about 10 years ago.

Uh, but we did have over 500 kids when I was there, and I can tell you right now, in the words of our current president, I'll see if I can do him justice.

This is gonna be a disaster, a big disaster.

Make no mistake, alcohol with eight and under parents, alcohol with anybody, any coach, anyone who has a problem with alcohol, it's going to be abused.

You could tell me that we can monitor it, but I'm gonna say how, because we can't even monitor two-hour parking at some of the places that, like my Edison Community Center where we're at, and we fight all the all day long because we have parking infractions, and we can't get police to monitor that.

So guys, this is a no-brainer.

I I didn't plan on coming tonight, but it came to my attention earlier today.

And you know, I've watched countless kids as my kids grew up going through all the schools in the school district.

How many kids die from alcohol?

Alcohol is bad.

We should not be sending a mixed message to anyone that playing on the playground.

Um mom and dad are gonna sit over here and have a beer and watch you through the through the through the fence.

Guys, this is an easy one.

All you gotta do is remember that our job is to do what's best for the community, and your job is to uphold the law and to listen to the constituents that you know we're all in this together.

We have to be smart and we have to make common sense decisions, and the almighty dollar does not have to come before our kids.

So I urge you to say no to this and let's leave the bars on Main Street.

There's a plenty of them five minutes down the road.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Uh, hello.

First, I'd like to thank Tracy for bringing this to our attention here and uh keeping it on the radar.

My name is Dan Hay.

I am the president and the CEO of the Huntington Beach based Premier Girls Fast Pitch Inc.

On Sunday, we just concluded the 17-day PGF national championships, which generate over 130 million in economic impact to Orange County and Huntington Beach.

We had over 620 teams competing in a top-level female youth fast-pitched softball tournament, ranging ages are 10 and under through 18 and under.

These teams arrived here from every corner of the United States and have been roaming Main Street, Huntington Beach for the last 17 days, uh eating in our restaurants and and spending money.

And we televised these championship games on ESPN.

I also hold eight other fast pitch event events at this complex during the course of the year, and I have held events on just about every complex in Orange County, Inland Empire, and Northern San Diego over the last 25 years.

I'm also, by the way, the head coach at Marina High School Softball.

We just won a CIF championship.

I had to get that in there.

Yay.

I am here to express my great concern over the serving of alcohol at the Honey to Beach Sports Complex when passing Measure C and Measure L many years ago.

There was never any intention of turning the sports complex into an alcoholic sports bar.

Alcohol has no place around young competitive children, parents, umpires, and guests.

Parents get too competitive and then get stupid, to be quite frank about it.

I've seen it time and time again over the years.

It's a bad look when parents and coaches can't control their emotions around kids during and after games, but then you're gonna throw alcohol into the mix.

Are you kidding me?

This is just flat out lack of common sense, a bad decision.

On top of that, these parents, coaches, and guests are now getting into their cars after drinking at the fields and driving their children back home to all parts of Southern California.

I don't think we want that kind of blood on our hands as a community or as a city if someone in is injured in a car accident do the alcohol due to the alcohol being served at the complex.

This is no different than giving liquor permits to establishments located next to elementary schools.

In this case, people would be consuming alcohol within 50 to 60 feet of the children's playground and adjacent to our youth athletic fields.

The complex was never designed nor voted into law to hold live nation concerts or any other types of concerts on the premises.

It was built and approved by our citizens to hold sporting events and to serve our community.

Our citizens approve Measure C with the intention to provide sports recreation, not intoxication.

Please vote no and stop this nonsense for the sake of our young athletes and their families.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Alright, next speaker.

Hi, I'm Dave Chenault.

I do have a presentation I wanted to give quickly.

And I also wanted to say while it's come up, I wanted to thank Marco, he's been very helpful.

And I wanted to thank Commissioner Pellman for bringing this up and calling as something that needs a closer look.

So they're gonna bring this up.

But the basic idea is this you guys have a vote in front of you, and a lot of people tonight have called for you not to approve this at all.

This presentation is gonna take a slightly different approach that if you did approve it, I'd like to see you add additional conditions to the cup.

So if you just scroll forward, if you I don't know how you do this, but if you could just scroll it somehow.

There you go.

So I'm here because if you just do this, I'm very concerned about the liability to the city.

So if this goes bad, if this goes off the rails, the person they're gonna look for is the deepest pockets, us, the taxpayers.

So there's only two ways to deal with this.

You can either mitigate it or you can eliminate it.

These guys have been asking you not to allow this, but if you did allow it, a strong cup with strong enforcement is the way to help mitigate that.

So if you look at the lease concessions, this is what the city gets from these leases.

We get two thousand a month or eight percent of the gross sales the first year and down the line.

These are the revenues that we've received the beginning of this year from the one concession that's open without any alcohol.

Okay, so we're averaging about 36 to 42,000 a month in the one concession that's open that has no alcohol, and the city's receiving 2800 to 3300 a month.

Next slide.

So just real quick, if you just keep going because I'm on limited time.

I'm asking for seven different uh new conditions.

The first one is there is a lot of gray around what is a full service restaurant.

When this was asked during the cup hearing, no one could define it.

So I'd like you guys to add a definition in the cup provisions that says what is full service.

I think that's reasonable.

The second is I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but there is no security right now at this at the sports complex, period.

There was Huntington Beach Central Park Rangers, but that was privately funded, and that group's no longer with us.

So there is no security.

Now that the guys at the concession have committed to adding security.

I'd like to see concession at each of these concessions to have a security guard that's got a uniform.

I'd like to see two in the complex that are out there looking for infractions and keeping things sane.

I'd like to have the barriers be solid.

I don't want to have kids climbing on these because when there's no restaurant open, the kids will be on these wires.

And this is a security uh issue for the city and a risk to the kids.

The enforcement is a big issue right now.

We're gonna talk about that in a minute.

But the only way to enforce this cup is to make a complaint to the code enforcement team.

The code enforcement team works very hard, they have five people on their staff.

There's presently a thousand open code enforcement infractions in the city.

A thousand.

I'll give you two more minutes, please.

Continue.

I'd like to have them do consumption at the table so when they order, they can't walk around the restaurant.

It's a bar.

That's not what this is.

This is a full service restaurant.

I've never been to a full service restaurant where I order a meal, order a drink, and start walking around the restaurant.

Right now, the drinking fountains are broken.

Three of the eight work.

One of the drinking fountains on the golden west side is inside the area they're gonna wall off.

I'd like to have them add in drinking fountains for the kids and fix the ones that are broken.

And last, I'd like to have an access quarter added to these concessions.

Right now, the way it's laid out, the kids have to walk through the full service restaurant to get to these uh self-service windows.

So, just really quickly, I've just got very short time.

I just want you to scroll up, please uh to the next slide, other way.

Yeah.

So I just want to next slide, please.

So these are the kind of things I'd like to see them.

There's a definition here, and it's not gonna be owner's security, it's more to keep order and to keep make sure that they're meeting the cup provisions.

Next slide.

So, this is what we said at the cup hearing.

This was said by the gentleman that's in charge of the beverage services there, and I'm paraphrasing.

I listened to the recording, so if this is slightly off, I apologize.

But he says they definitely plan on having actual security there on top of having our staff certified.

We will make sure we have security on staff monitoring exits and entrances to make sure people aren't taking stuff off site.

And you cannot consume alcohol outside the perimeter.

That being said, most places that are beer and wine full service restaurants do not have dedicated security, but we are willing to do this as a sign of good faith.

So they've committed to do it.

Put it in the cup.

Real quick, I have about 30 seconds.

Just keep scrolling, please.

That's why I get to the last one.

Keep going, keep going.

Right there.

So code enforcement, this is the only way to enforce it.

980 active cases with five code staff.

They have staff out on medical leave.

Do you we have a thousand open cases right now?

That's the only way to enforce this.

How are we going to enforce this?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do we have any more speakers?

We have no one signed, no one else signed up to speak.

Okay.

And planning.

Chair, I'm sorry.

One second.

You said the owner was in is was here.

Is the owner here?

The I'm sorry, the applicant.

Is he here?

Before we close the hearing, would we can we do we want to hear from I'd want to hear I want to hear from the uh from the applicant, quite frankly.

Because I just heard these suggested uh proposals.

I'd like to hear his thoughts on it and what's going on.

Well, I thought during the uh deliberation, we would include the applicant and and then ask questions of the staff.

We would, you know, fine.

Even the appellant, I think during during discussion.

I'd kind of like to hear it if I would.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, I'm not sure what he's got to say.

I just was asking.

Is our uh Lee Lisi here with the can you make a presentation, please?

Or the applicant.

Applicant is present.

Yes, uh, good evening, planning commission.

Uh Jerry Marchbank, I'm one of the partners with the Huntington Beach Sports Complex or HBSC Partners.

We operate the Huntington Beach Sports Complex.

Uh we have been operating the facility for the last several years.

Uh we're really proud of the fact that uh we're booked 50.

We've really done a lot of work.

We've made a lot of capital improvements, we've done a lot of work to improve the facility.

One of the common things that we hear from folks visiting is uh why aren't you serving alcohol like the other parks that that were mentioned earlier?

Is that gonna happen?

So, this is one of the things that uh, you know, feedback from from our community, the folks that use the use the facility is exactly that.

Um so as we were talking about sort of the next evolution of this park with food and beverage.

We've taken over the food and beverage component uh of the of the facility, and we've really improved the food offerings, and we're now doing this as sort of the next evolution of the park.

Um a few things that I wanted to mention.

One is we are absolutely wanting to do this responsibly.

We're not trying to look we don't want drink drinking, doesn't equal drunk, doesn't equal alcoholics, doesn't equal hitting kids.

Those are you know, we don't want any of that stuff.

What we are interested in is finding a responsible way to give our customers what they want, which is which is the ability to have an enclosed patio like you have down at the beach, or maybe to have a beverage while their kids are playing, like over at Chuck E.

Cheese, or maybe like they're doing at any of these other sports complex, the Mecca of youth sports is Cooperstown, New York.

They serve alcohol.

What the what we're not talking about we don't want, we're not interested.

So as we've gone through this design review process and made changes to the design to tighten up the cabling, we've uh uh security came up.

So we talked about talked it over with PD, and PD said no, you don't have to have security, and we said, Well, we want to have security anyways.

Uh so as we've gone through this process of developing this project, it's only been with the idea of creating a project that is safe that allows us to do this responsibly and allows us to avoid uh a lot of these issues that have been brought up tonight.

So, uh, with that said, with me is is Louie Palmer and he's our director of food and beverage.

He certainly knows, and he's been in the restaurant industry for decades, 20 something years.

Uh opened a number of restaurants uh uh across across the county, and uh and he can certainly speak to the specifics of restaurant operations and how we control alcohol uh consumption with with training of staff with uh all of those types of things, security and and all of those specific measures if you have questions specifically about that.

Okay, well, it we will come back to you, so don't go far.

We'll we have questions for you, I'm sure during our deliberation.

So now I can say there are no more speakers.

No, okay.

There are no more speakers, we're gonna now close the public hearing.

And commissioners, now we will deliberate this item and uh we'll start on my right.

Well, I do want to make one more disclosure.

A very prominent person I spoke to about a facet of this, and that was my mom today on the way home from work.

I call her every day, and uh she was just getting into bed, and I said to her, if alcohol was taken out of the equation of our lives, especially me growing up.

How do you think our lives would have been different, knowing that I was coming gonna come in here today?

And she said that she believes that 90% of the trauma that was inflicted would have dissipated, would have been gone.

That's one thing.

So I have already got a bias against drink around kids.

Now, I used to coach sports and referee, and the parents like to live vicariously through the kids most of the time.

I think we'll all understand that.

And I've had some pretty shocking incidents whereby those guys have got to be pulled out.

If you add drinking to that, I think we have a problem.

So I was appointed here by councilwoman Vandermark, and the reason why I began to follow her and to support her, was her staunch advocate.

Uh she was a staunch advocate for children, yeah, and uh minimizing damage to children.

So I start this off with a bias, and I'll admit that, but I think I have a problem with alcohol being served in close proximity to kids in a sports environment that's supposed to be wholesome.

Now, we can put as many stipulations together as possible, and we can have you know the cops out there, but it doesn't really diminish the fact that people will be overserved, people will be afflicted, you know.

Now I I own a small security company, very small security company, and over the past 14 years we've done many threat assessments, civilian threat assessments, and when we're doing these assessments, the alcoholics in the families usually get the most scrutiny.

Understand?

So one last thing, I know I'm going on about this, but um, but my family was afflicted by many kinds of um, let's see, uh substance use disorders, opioids, benzodiazepine, and alcohol.

Alcohol was by far the most dangerous, you know.

So I do go into this with a bias, and I don't believe that children's sports and alcohol of any business being side by side.

That's my opinion on this.

Thank you.

Commissioner Pellman.

Wait, it's joking here.

Um, I think I've already said my my piece about this, and um, and I remember listening to you at the zoning administrator meeting.

So anyway, thank you.

Commissioner McGee.

It's gonna be a minute.

Um, I asked staff.

I have to apologize because I'm still a grom here uh trying to figure out the technology.

I wasn't able to get all the things I wanted on a thumb drive to present tonight.

But that being said, if we could pull up that section 612 that um I believe we've been talking talked about about a couple times, and that would be in the charter, by the way, the city of Huntington Beach Charter.

It was formally known as uh Measure C.

So if you're confused, measure C and Charter uh section 612 are one and the same.

And I just wanted to bring the language up if I could.

If not, I can read it into the record if that would help.

So I'm gonna read it into the record.

Uh 612 A and B is really the it says the no public, no public or park or beach, or portion thereof now or hereafter owned or operated by the city shall be sold, leased, exchanged, or otherwise transferred or disposed of unless authorized by alternative votes of at least a majority of the total membership of the city council and by the affirmative vote of at least a majority of the electors voting on such proposition at a general or special election at which such proposition is submitted.

So that's an A, and then B goes on to say that if it's a project over 161,000, that it too should go by the majority of council and a majority vote uh by the uh people of Huntington Beach, the citizens.

So I heard that we have a legal rendering here that uh it doesn't apply in this particular case.

It it's pretty clear in 612, it stipulates it very clearly.

Um, and not only that, but there's another section.

I mean, measure L was the implementation uh or development of the actual um what they used to call a mushroom farm and uh landfill that it made the made the uh fields to begin with, so that was measure L.

Then we got measure C with the 612, and then there's another section I'd like to read.

Um, and this is from May of 2018, and it's it's again this is all City of Huntington Beach information, and it's ZTA number 18-001, and I'm just gonna read a portion of it.

It says 18-001 includes a provision which limits the service of alcohol only to restaurants with full table service located within Central Park or in a public private golf courses, which neither of these are not.

Says there are two locations in Central Park that are eligible to apply for the conditional use permit as a result of this ZTA-18-001.

And that's Kathy Mays Lakeview Cafe and Park Bench Cafe.

And then it goes on to state here.

It says there are several other types of establishments that do not qualify to apply for a CUP, such as a snack stand, walk-up counters, concession stands, or other similar operations typically found in this in the sports complex, community parks, little league baseball fields, Friday Night Lights, Flag Football, Frisbee Golf, or the library.

These types of services do not meet the prerequisite of a being a restaurant with full table service, which precludes them from applying for a CUP.

So when I read this, I understand the legal rendering, but it sounds like we went down the wrong road initially to begin with.

To me, it sounds like this should have gone to council and this should have gone uh to a vote.

I can't vote for this for that legal reason, regardless of the legal rendering.

It it's I feel like I'm safeguarding what's pretty clear uh in the law, and beyond that, just going to a personal level, having been a high school football official for 31 years and doing pop warner football for 20 years, having been a baseball coach at Huntington Valley Little League on the board and travel ball down in San Clemente, like one of these places that has an alcohol uh feature, if that's what you want to call it, every single time, without exception, that I've had an issue.

It's always been centered around alcohol, and when I was unaware of what situation I was coming into, and then when I got up on the situation, because I'm always in a position of leadership for whatever reason, it's always alcohol, and so I can't imagine for the life of me why revenue would displace everything everybody said in here tonight.

Why would revenue be more important than your child at any time?

So it's a little infuriating from that point.

No takes away my condoning behavior that harms more than the person drinking.

Uh again, these these things are not sold at school function.

How is it different in this public property?

How is it any different with children there?

This is the time when the public-private relationship needs to be led by the public.

That would be us.

No revenue is worth the potential risk of injury or possible death.

Guys, you see death around us all the time on these streets.

Without alcohol, people drive crazy, now throw alcohol in there.

Now all of these people coming into our city that aren't familiar with our, you know, most of these people are coming from out of the city, put our citizens at risk at all times.

Whenever you, it's bad enough when they don't know where they're going, and and you guys know we're in a tourist destination.

How many times do we have to slow down for people that don't know where they're going?

Now add alcohol.

It says, you know, it's bad form.

There's no way to limit the damage to citizen visitors.

There's no way to monitor this.

Commissioner Babbitt.

Commissioner Bavano.

Okay, so I'll start with the fact that my son started playing baseball at four, and I coached him in T-ball all the way through majors at Huntington Valley Little League.

I was on the board there.

He went on to play um for Huntington Beach High School, and he also went on to play college baseball.

None of those places sold alcohol.

But every parent that wanted to drink brought their own.

So if we think we're gonna stop drinking by not selling it, we're we're I mean, we're kidding ourselves.

I mean, we always knew who was drinking because they weren't in the bleachers, they were sitting, you know, out with their red solo cups in the outfield, right?

And I'm I mean, literally for 18 years I watched this go on, okay.

I'm clean and sober for 28 years, so I have a different perspective, right?

Those aren't the people that I chose to hang out with.

Alcohol did affect my life, and I get, you know, some of the concerns, right?

That were mentioned.

When we went to play tournaments like big league dreams, they serve alcohol.

The Great Park serves alcohol.

Huntington Beach High School plays games at the Great Park and they serve alcohol.

So I think again, we're kidding ourselves thinking by us not serving it or selling it, that we're gonna eliminate all the problems.

I just don't think that that's reality, right?

The parents are gonna bring their ice chests and they're gonna drink, okay.

Um I do like the fact that there's table service, right?

So there's not a window where you can go up, you get, you know, two or three beers, and then you go back to the stands, right?

You have to sit there and eat.

You have to have a meal in an enclosed area where you know you can't leave with the drink, right?

So I I kind of liken it to, I don't know, this might be a bad example, but if you go to Longboards, right, you can sit outside on Main Street and you can drink, but you can't leave the premises to go, you know, to take that alcohol with you.

So it's you know, I think it's the the use is limited a little bit that way.

Um I guess that's probably all for me.

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Palmer.

Okay, so I don't know how many of you have heard the term Sempergumby, but that would describe my opinion of this uh project.

I initially felt that it was a ridiculous proposition uh to serve alcohol anywhere near a sports field uh that had a lot of youth activity.

However, I did a lot of research.

I contacted seven different facilities.

Um I did not contact San Clemente, I think uh was mentioned, but uh I also speaking of contacting a family member, I spoke to my sister who is uh both a professor of law and a judge ad lightum.

And I would have to really say that the city attorney is the sole attorney for the city and its point officials.

Please do not um publicly state a meeting that you're getting legal advice.

I'm not getting legal advice.

You didn't let me finish.

I just happen to be saying that.

Okay, she's a mom, and she and she is the athletic advisor to the University of Wisconsin uh women's uh hockey league.

They do have in Madison, Wisconsin, a youth hockey and soccer uh facility, and so I asked her opinion, and she said that initially they worried about it, but they decided that they would serve beer in the afternoons, I think after three, and that went very, very well.

There have not been incidents, and that uh it's brought in revenue and made more people come.

Now they're considering serving whiskey at okay, they they have a local distillery, so it people come there, it would promote that, but only at special times.

So, you know, one Friday night a month from seven to eight or something, they would have a tasting.

All I'm saying is that what I've learned is that there are a lot of ways to look at this.

I could not approve this the way it is now because I think we've overlooked a lot of things, but talking about the conditions that uh one of the speakers brought up, and then my personal um opinion that we need to limit the hours of service, uh, might make it something to consider.

So my feeling is it needs to go back to council, and I would probably abstain on a vote on this.

Thank you.

Commissioner Goldberg.

Well, listening to uh fellow commissioner Babano, I I feel like we led dual lives as far as our kids and going to all those different tournaments, and I was president of my little league and went to the all those parks that we're talking about for travel ball, went to Cooperstown, New York, and we came in second and did all that good stuff, and my son played for San Jose State uh division.

So I've been around it a long time, plus I was a parks commissioner for 10 years, so we're very familiar with the parks and the sanctity of the parks.

Just like Commissioner Babano mentioned, you know, we can go ahead and vote this down and tell these these good gentlemen here that are trying to do a responsible way of allowing them to service all these people coming into town that they can't do that.

Um that's not gonna stop the alcohol from being consumed.

It's not gonna stop um a lot of these issues that were brought up that were very emotional, and I appreciate all that.

Um I'm not a um I still I still drink, so I I'm not as quite a negative on alcohol, um, but uh I understand that there's lots of people that have issues with it, and it causes a lot of um heartache for a lot of families, so I don't want to sound you know uh on uh unapologetic for those uh terrible situations for them.

But anyway, so in my opinion personally, I just feel as though uh beer and wine, we're not talking full bar, uh they're trying to service the people that are coming in.

I remember when the city of Long Beach had a 35-year lease for a big league dreams field, they were gonna be the first one before Europa, and then the citizens came out in mass and said no alcohol, and so that project left the city of Long Beach uh 20 years ago.

So, and that meant that all the Long Beach families that have baseball history were all driving out to Europa, uh Riverside, uh you name it, but nowhere near California.

I'm not no nowhere near Southern California here, that we love on the beach, and uh so that's that's what ends up happening, and they revenue went to those cities for hotel rooms and and other food, other meals and everything else.

So, anyway, with that said, um the stipulations they brought up, I don't know which ones you got you said you would be willing to um have security even though it wasn't required, and you mentioned some other things you'd be willing to do.

I don't know if there's enough people in this um on this commission, regardless of what what um uh provisions you're willing to do.

But if without them being in writing, it doesn't matter.

So if you say you're gonna do something, if we don't put it into the actual deal, it's it doesn't matter because that's it's not enforceable.

So I don't know if it's worth the taking the time to ask them specifically, but I think at least uh we get one last chance for these gentlemen to tell us what they're willing to do to help mitigate our minds and allow something like this to be approved.

That that would be my suggestion.

Yeah, uh thank you.

Um I'm in the same opinion.

I think people are gonna drink regardless.

Um, and during the design review committee meeting, um you did uh offer that you were gonna provide security, and I thought that you know the people who are drinking alcohol at the games, you know, on the near the field, that that will now give you an opportunity to say, Look, you you've got to drink in the bar.

You can't drink out on the field.

Your security guard can help enforce keeping those parents, and there are just a few, I get it, that Dr.

Jekyll, Mr.

Hyde drinker that you really just don't want around.

Um I think if we had a security guard that would help enforce those rules, call the police if they disagree, and and keep it to one place where a professional server is making sure that they're not getting intoxicated.

I think that to me would actually help the problem.

I think it wouldn't hurt it.

I realize that drinking around children's a problem.

There people are just gonna do it, and if we have a system in place that helps prevent that, I think that's what we can do if we do it right.

But the conditions of approval don't include um enough provisions, and so uh Mr.

Um Chenal, um, well, he wanted full service.

I I don't know how much more detail we need on that, but um if we could add to the to the approval a motion with um a stronger definition of full service.

I mean, it seemed to me like the biggest cost issue here was the security guard, but you already promised that in the design review committee meeting, and if we could just cut and paste that list of proposed conditions, then I think I would be okay with it.

If you would agree to those conditions, we can Mr.

Chenault if you can help us bring up your your presentation with the conditions.

I do have it too.

So can you go back to my and the conditions are on about the second or third slide, so just keep on going.

Yeah, this one.

So is it okay if I speak?

Yeah, go ahead.

Okay, so the full service, and I these guys are, I think they're willing to be reasonable, and I think it would be helpful in the cup.

If you guys would define what full service means so that we all agree on that, because that's an area of fuzz.

I know I remember you said that it's kind of ever changing, and it would be helpful just to say from your perspective, what is that, so that when the public is there, they would know what that was.

The second one is the security, and I think that you've already committed to this, and I think that that was a that was fair on their part.

They said they want to have a security person at each of the concessions to make sure that the um people that are there are gonna be conforming to the right, but I'd ask that you guys add a couple people out into the fields because in the fields you guys know there's people out there drinking, and so if you could have people in the fields to say, hey, listen, appreciate you guys being here.

Would love to have you consume at our establishment.

And we just walk through it, and then I'll sit down.

But then the other thing is on the barriers, initially you guys had solid barriers, treks siding, and I thought that was a better idea simply because the second one, which we haven't gotten to yet, is literally like five feet from that tot, right?

And a lot of people I've seen come in the mornings before you guys would be open, they come out weekdays with their kids, and I'm just very concerned that the kids would get into those aircraft cables and get into situations that would be less than safe for them.

The enforcement is something I don't think we can solve today.

I think that uh code guys do the best they can, they've got a limited staff, and I think it's something that's a more long-term problem that you guys need to think about.

Like if they say all this and they're gonna do all this, this is great, but if you can't enforce it, it doesn't mean anything.

So we have to come up with a way to take them to task if they're not living up to their side of it.

I'm not saying they're not going to, but I'm just saying that right now with a thousand open code violations and less you know, five staff, that's tough.

One thing that I am very concerned about, and this came up at the cup hearing, is that the concept they have is that a person could order with a QR code at the table, they could order alcohol and food, and then they could get up from their table and walk around the restaurant, and I have a tough time with that because what I see in my mind is the Star Wars bar between games, where you have people that will adhere to the requirement that I've got to order at my table, but then they pack them in, and we've got basically a bar scene, even though they're a full service restaurant.

If you don't have to consume it at the table, I'm concerned that you're gonna have people that sit down or go to the tabletop bars, order and then pack together, and they're packing in people with lots more people drinking.

This, in my opinion, the only reason they're letting people walk around is to shove more people in and make more money.

I'm not a fan of that.

If they're gonna have this, I think they should be sitting down because it's a full service restaurant.

I've never been to a full service restaurant that I walk around eating and drinking, and they just fix the fill stations, and the only other thing I'd ask you guys to do, and I think this is reasonable.

You guys want to have that?

We're gonna have a walk up window for the kids.

And I know like my kid played, I was a player agent for Huntington Beach Girls Softball as well.

I dealt with all this stuff, but after the games, the kids all congregate, right?

They finish their game, and then they go up to snack bar and they have red vines and big chew and they all get together and they have a good time, right?

And right now, the way it's set up, they have to walk through the restaurant to get to that window.

And so I just would ask you guys if you could just make like and your design make a way that they could, you know, go under those um the awnings that you guys have set up, the big entranceway, and just give them a pathway to that window that they don't have to go through your restaurant, so they could get their big chew and then get to get it and then they'll go back out to the fields and see the grass.

Um, chairman, it's this time is really for you guys to ask specific questions, not sorry.

We're getting a little too much into the weed.

I think one in five, I think five defines one.

So if if we could just add language that says consumption at table, is a definition of full service.

Chair, we chair, if I mean uh draw attention, we do have a condition, five and four related to service at a table and or the bar top for alcoholic beverages it's already been um identified as a condition of approval so I I think with regards to the service it's been addressed.

It includes consumption shall be ordered and delivered to guests by service yeah it doesn't say consumed at the table no so would you like to I guess add the word the word consumption to those conditions.

And consumption at the table could I add something yeah um I I think there's a a picture being painted that this is going to be some type of party bar um just just to paint the picture also I think everybody said their credentials I too am actually a current little league president in Huntington Beach.

I have young children I have an older child I've been in youth sports for almost 20 years as well.

So I too am very concerned about the youth in our community.

That being said everybody that is going to be patronizing this establishment is going to be bringing their children here and I don't think that they're going to be here where we're going to be trying to pack them in and make this a bar establishment they're not going to be there trying to party and meet and mingle they're going to be there trying to get a bite to eat and possibly a beer or a glass of wine to unwind have a bite to eat and go back to their game and I think that's pretty much going to be the rigmarole of our of our day-to-day operations um trying to tell people that they have to sit here I'm gonna again have to jump in and say this is really for answering specific questions everyone had their chance to give out their best presentation best foot forward okay but I'm just trying to get to the point of trying to say when people are going to consume and where they're gonna consume it's really hard to define I'd like to make a motion okay we've had enough discussion on it let's go and go to a motion like that followed okay seems a little bit like to make a motion to deny the request to approve the CUPs for items 25-633 and 25-64 634 I'll second that and then we're gonna have to have an alternate motion I believe we got a vote on this one do we vote first yeah okay you need to vote first and can I ask for a clarification that if we end up with a 3 3 tie on an abst abstination is that the word if they abstain then the zoning administrators determination would carry is that true yeah that decision would stand it would be um no action taken tonight would be the technical term yeah okay thank you so your your motion is to deny it as presented correct well yeah correct and I guess I'm with that okay can we have a vote yes your iPad should work if not please let me know my upside down uh commissioner okay all right we have four ayes two no's commissioner the unis and goldberg voting no uh commissioner palmer abstaining motion carries okay the the planning commission's action on this item is final unless an appeal is filed to calendar days an appeal must include the reasons for the appeal any required fee and shall be filed with the city clerk's office within 10 calendar days so that's not how I intended to vote yeah hold on sorry what's wrong?

His intention was not to vote yes oh okay.

That's why it took me so long to read it.

Because I was confused as to which way.

Okay, so you would wish to change your vote to uh nay?

Correct.

Okay.

So then we have a 3-3, the zoning administrator action stance.

Okay, and and this isn't the final.

We can do another motion, I believe, right?

That's correct.

Okay.

So we still have to I I need I need some answers, right?

So before we do this.

Um you agree to security?

Yes.

Okay, we agree to security.

Um solid barriers instead of the aircraft cable.

So on that one, we we could do solid barriers.

I guess the reason we went originally from solid barriers to aircraft cable was because of the property.

It'd be gym something that people can etch and and you have graffiti, and all of your okay, so we went to the cabling.

Okay, and then add the con the full service, add to the definition that would be uh consumption at the table.

Okay, go ahead.

Good.

It wasn't included in the speaker's uh comments, but my one stipulation was to look at limiting the hours at least noon on.

I I haven't heard any discussion of that, and that might yeah, would you agree to limit the hours of operation from noon till 10 p.m.?

Yeah, noon fine.

Okay.

Fine.

Okay.

We got that hours of operation for alcohol consumption noon to to 12 or 10 pm.

Just till 10 on 10 and 8, 8 on Sundays.

8 p.m.

on Sundays?

Typically stop by 9 is the latest we're ever open.

Typically, yeah, we could just say uh alcohol service will commence no earlier than noon and terminate by their closing hour.

No later than 10.

Yeah, PD recommended 10 o'clock.

Yeah, no later than 10 o'clock, but at the at the conclusion of the the last game.

And point of order, because I've dealt with the ABC, which is an agency you never want to deal with directly, but uh they're gonna they're gonna make sure they're gonna there's because they serve it's uh it's a license that allows them to sell beer and out uh beer and wine, but food has to be served in numbers.

It has to go with the the hours of operation as far as food goes.

That's just how the ABC works.

So, yeah, and and food service shall always be maintained during the uh the hours of operation.

That's in there currently okay, and then uh repair the broken fountains in the uh park.

So I yeah, absolutely.

If we haven't put in a work order already, we we will uh we do have drinking fountains throughout the park.

I don't know that that would be I mean that's that's kind of a more complex.

I wouldn't do that.

Chair chair, because the request is primarily for the particular concession or the eating and drinking establishment to extend past that, there isn't really a nexus to do the improvements in the park, but I think as the operator of the park, that would be their responsibility to maintain to maintain, not for this particular operation.

Yeah, okay.

Can I ask a question?

Yeah, Commissioner Bebanum.

So I like the idea of the kids not having to go through the restaurant.

Is it feasible to put like an outside window to get the hot dogs and uh red vines for the kids?

Or do they have to go to the you know through the restaurant?

I not it's not not there wouldn't be really be a way to add a window.

There's four windows currently, yeah.

Well well, what we wanted what we wanted to add, and this is part of the facility.

The kids were using the sink, um that's attached.

We want to have an operation sink outside the opening.

There currently is.

Well, you'll have to build one now.

Because you now you've closed it off.

Oh, there's currently two, one on either side of the building.

Okay, ensure there's a working sink just directly.

That's correct.

On each building, there are two sinks.

One of them will be within their enclosed patio area, and the other one is directly across on the other side of the building.

Okay.

And there are functional drinking fountains inside and outside the service area.

And then that's another problem.

Okay.

And then um, orient the tables should be oriented to provide a clear straight path to the to the children's walk-up window.

Uh yeah, yes.

We could use delineators, uh, you know, some sort of delineator, you know, cabling system to route uh lines so that they're not having to stand in line in the seating area.

Is that sufficient?

Yeah, that's what we're talking about.

Yeah, because you you're gonna basically be in the dining area when the kids are using the the walk up window.

We'll use delineators to to provide a clear path from the entrance to the walk up window.

Would you like to re me to restate my motions so we can go back through this?

No, no, wait.

No, no, thanks.

Aren't you making aren't you making a motion?

Now I'm gonna make a new one.

Would you make okay?

Are you okay with these revisions to the conditions?

Yeah, we'll give it another try.

Okay.

Um, so I'd like to make a motion to approve.

Um with conditions, right?

Yeah, to to approve uh 2500 seven with revisions uh and uh revisions to the conditions of approval that we just stated.

And I will second that motion.

Oh, yeah, but I think that's okay.

Okay, so this is to that was a second.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay, maybe we have a vote.

Okay, I'm sorry.

It does so this is to approve with the conditions applied.

Yeah, this is to approve.

Wait, so it's already been what happened.

It already happened, I guess there's a three three three thread of intercension, it's already approved.

But now what we're doing is we're adding additional requirements so that since it is approved, they need to do this to keep it approved.

That's what the vote would be.

Well, it was a no action on the first vote.

The motion on the table is to recommend approval with modified conditions as suggested by Chair Thenis, okay.

Which includes security, making a solid barrier, consumption at the tables for alcohol, um, limiting the hours to commence at noon, and delineators to the walk-up window.

That's that's correct.

Now what happens if it's tide vote and it's attention, and then it would result in the same no action if it is a tie vote.

Let's give it a world.

Can we have a vote, please?

Should have come up.

Please let me know if it didn't.

Commissioner Palmer.

Okay, we have four eyes, three no's uh Vice Chair Bush, Commissioners McGee and Palman Voting.

No motion carries.

Thank you.

The planning commission section on this item is finalized.

The fee and should be filed with the city clerk's office.

We do have one more item.

The second item is on Talbert.

Oh, I'm talking about this one.

Okay.

Uh next on the agenda is a public hearing on the appeal of zoning administrators' approval of conditional use permit twenty five zero one four.

That's the facility on Talbert.

Uh planning commissioners.

Please state your uh disclosures regarding this item.

We'll start on my right.

It should all be the same.

No.

Actually, uh I did have one that the councilwoman von der Mark.

Mine are the same as the prior.

No discussion.

I had the same disclosures.

Same disclosures.

Same disclosures.

And same disclosures as well.

Okay, and just to clarify for the public record, the same disclosures or the same disclosures for 25007.

Here we go again.

Staff may we have a staff report.

Yes, associate player Marco Cuevas will be giving the presentation once again.

Yes, thank you.

So yes, this item is to appeal to zoning administrators' approval of conditioning is permit 25-014.

This is a second location and located at 7300 Talbert Street.

Sorry.

So this request is to permit uh the sale of service and conception of beer and wine, uh ABC type 41 license with the provide uh proposed approximately 5200 square foot outdoor dining area for an eating and drinking establishment with full table service at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex.

Uh the project location has uh uh general plan designation of OSP Open Space Park in the zoned OSPR, open space park parks and recreation.

Uh the site is located south of Talbert Avenue facing the existing service parking lot with the closest residences located over 2,000 feet to the northwest and southwest.

Uh the image on the slide here shows uh aerial image on the right shows the location of where this um where this eating and drinking establishment is here on Talbot Street.

Um the image to your left shows more of a close-up of the location of the actual eating and drinking establishment um site.

So as I mentioned earlier, the site plan is approximately uh 5200 square foot, and it includes the closed patio area with table service.

Um it is um to provide a 40 inch high barrier fencing, and the restrooms would be accessible from the outside of the dining area.

So as part of our analysis, the zoning administrator approved uh conditioning as permit 25-14 with conditions at the meeting on July 16th, 2025, and was able to make certain um certain findings of which um which those include the police department conditions regulating alcohol sales and service, full table service, guests will be served food and beverage at their tables, and um alcohol is ancillary to eating and drinking establishment.

Um the site layout and design, the fencing is uh conditioned to prevent passing of alcoholic beverages through the barrier, and the plan is revised to provide restroom access to the public.

Subsequently, subsequently, this um an appeal was filed by the by Commissioner uh Pellman on July 23rd, 2025.

Uh, citing concerns that um the plans that were presented were new plans and were received on the hearing dates, and that the public um questions were not um up to the appellants' satisfaction.

So this is a um a site plan comparison.

The um the plan to your left shows the previous um site plan that was submitted.

The uh plan to the right shows the um areas where um the barrier was um create where the fencing was added and a barrier created.

You'll see that though those at the clouded areas there.

So provides more of a secure um dining uh patio environment and also allows for um outside access to the um to the restrooms.

Uh this image is uh renderings of the proposed um outdoor dining patio establishment and uh it gives you a general look and feel of what the um what the outdoor dining patio area would look like.

So, um, should the planning commission approve the proposed project?

It may do so based on the suggestions uh suggested findings and conditions of approval, and that is that the project complies with the general plan and zoning ordinance that it provides an enhanced amenity with the honey within the Huntington Beach Sports Complex, that the use is answered to ancillary to existing eating and jerking establishments and um and the Huntington Beach Sports Complex, and that the conditions of approval have been incorporated to ensure safe service of beer and wine and compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

So with that, that concludes my presentation.

I'll be happy to answer any questions and once again uh show that the uh the applicant is um in the audience as well to answer questions, okay.

Questions for staff.

Yep.

Starting on my right.

I guess make them.

I'd like to make a motion.

We still need to open the public hearing at least.

We have to have a deliberation.

It just feels like deja vu, that's all.

It is nothing's gonna change.

Okay, no, no questions for staff, levity here with the with chair.

I also do want to recognize that we do have Lieutenant Sean White and civilian investigator Vicki Adams from the police department during our public hearing.

Thank you for being here.

Yeah, okay.

Uh, with no further questions, we will now.

Oh, we do have a question.

I have a question.

I'm sorry, okay.

Commissioner, so can we assume that as we proceed with this, the same conditions would apply?

Or we yeah, our motion would be when we do make a motion, we will have the same.

Can I uh can I ask a question?

We've we uh threw around a provision of having security there.

Obviously, this is going to be proprietary security, and it's not gonna be under PPO.

So the standards probably going to be a little lower.

Um are we gonna have a police presence when alcohol is being served here?

You know, can I ask another one?

Can I follow up on his question also?

But isn't it my understanding that when there are large crowds when they know they're having the big tournaments, they do let you know PD know that they're having large crowds so they're aware to be.

I think you're here to talk right now.

Well, is that isn't that why we have Officer White here?

Um, as far as uh the sports complex goes, there's no officers that are assigned to that park.

Um when there are large events, yes, they do request extra patrol checks by the officers that patrol that area.

Um so if this uh passes and uh we we don't have any intention to assign officers to the park just because alcohol is being sold there and served there, but again, we do um maintain a presence uh through routine patrol of the of the park uh in the surrounding areas as well.

Yeah, and and so if a security uh guard um had a problem with uh one of the uh uh participants not obeying the rules to get rid of the alcohol, they would just call the police department and you would respond to that, wouldn't you?

Yes, that's correct.

Okay.

Any other questions for staff?

Okay, we will uh with no further questions.

We'll now open the public hearing.

Do we have any speakers?

So everyone sign up for both sports complex are items.

I'm gonna call uh all the speakers.

If you would like to speak still, please come down.

Hank Madonna, Rick Brown, Dan Hay, Ed Laird, Dion Cronkite, Jeannie Goodwin, Billy Maddox, Dave Chenault, Diana Phillips, Patricia Pappas, Eric Stein, Eva, and Nancy Bukos.

Please list your name before you speak.

My name is Dave Chenault, and I just wanted two points.

One is the can the cup that was approved by the zoning admin, we're just adding additional conditions, right?

So this hearing is a new hearing, in essence, but I just want to be sure that when you guys did this motion, that it's gonna be all provisions that were previously approved, in addition to the ones you did, right?

Just tonight.

Just be very clear on that.

The second one is that the police are here, and I'm so glad you are.

Thank you.

Um, there's two things I wanted to kind of understand more.

One of the provisions is there's no outside advertisement allowed of the alcohol consumption at these, right?

And the police have let these guys uh exist around that provision because their name includes the name craft beer.

So I just want that to be very clear that even though the cup provision says, you know, there's no external advertising of beer and that kind of a thing, wine, alcohol.

Their name says beer, so they have it on the outside of the building.

But the police were okay with that, and I just wanted that up to go on the record that they knew about that, they okayed it.

Um, and then the the very last thing is that one little twist on this is that when there's alcohol consumption and there's a violation like this.

I've had experience with this, living on Metal Ark, and when you see incidents like that, and I'd like to have you guys query the police a little bit.

Is that a misdemeanor?

Is that a felony?

And if it's a misdemeanor, does that mean that the police have to witness it to make any kind of action to enforce if people are drinking out there, right?

Do you guys have to see it to enforce it?

And if if that's if that's the case, I'd like to have you guys ask them that.

Because if it's a security guard and he just says stop drinking and they don't drink, and they come, if they don't see him drinking, what's the action they could take?

I'm not sure.

Thank you.

I can address that.

Um, yes, it is a misdemeanor, it's a municipal code violation.

If we do not witness it as law enforcement, we can have the uh private party sign a private person's arrest.

Um I just I figured I'd put it on the record uh regarding that facility, the sports complex itself.

Um I have statistics here since I can go as far back as you need, but since uh the beginning of 2024, January 2024 till today's date, we've had um 57 calls for service there, and zero have been alcohol related.

We've had um a majority of the calls there are either transient related or uh 911 calls, traffic collisions, uh things of that sort.

So I made sure before we approved this, uh, on from the police standpoint that we didn't have an existing problem that we were contributing to.

Okay, can I ask uh so you didn't have any alcohol?

Guys, um Lieutenant White, I know you love public speaking, but please wait till after public comments to for uh you guys ask questions of them specifically.

I we still have public comments going on.

Let's get through the public comments.

It's getting late, it's getting functional.

Is it my turn to jump in?

Next speaker, please.

Sorry.

My name is Dan Haig, and I just wanted to come up and clarify a few things.

I honestly believe that the rationale by some of our planning commissioner folks sitting here behind the table that people bring alcohol in anyway, so it's okay to do this because I'm past president of many leagues just like you are.

I had four kids that attended Huntington Beach High School, all my relatives are coaches and teachers here in Huntington Beach.

Uh I was a former vice president of Fountain Valley Little League and vice president of junior miss softball.

We've all, if we've lived in this town is like we all have for myself 65 years, um we've done it all, especially if we've got a lot of kids that play sports.

Um, but so I I don't buy that rationale as a reason to approve this.

My customer base, the 50,000 people I just brought into this town over the last 17 days, did not one of them request to me to say they're looking for alcohol in Huntington Beach at the sports complex.

There is no clientele on the youth side of things that want alcohol being served while their kids are playing sports.

Now, I don't care how many adult events uh the owners want to hold there, and how many uh activities outside sports that adults come to that they want to serve alcohol to?

I'm I'm what I'm I'm not trying to keep the put them out of business, but my pro my issue is youth sports.

A 12-year-old girl or a 12-year-old boy has no business watching two parents or a parent and a coach get in a fist fight out on a field because they went to the little Gardadale area that you see here in the sports complex and they down six beers real fast because they were upset with the coach uh uh that making a play or didn't play their kids and then goes back to field three and decides to get an argument with the coach or wait for the umpire to come off the field to beat the hell out of him.

It happens.

Don't tell me it doesn't.

I've seen it, everyone here has seen it.

So and so anyway, that's that's the extent of my comments.

I just wanted to clarify a few things that this for me has to do with youth, and I don't like seeing alcohol being served around my young ladies when they're out at the sports complex or in Fountain Valley or at the Great Park.

And by the way, Chris Lama used to be the head of community services here.

He's now over in Irvine.

I texted him while we were up there.

They don't serve alcohol at the Great Park, they've got one uh venue at the amphitheater live area that serves alcohol, but not in any of the other areas there, unless you're in probably one of those private suites up there in that baseball facility.

Uh I've been in there before.

I was there when they they opened up that uh complex.

I spoke on the field on behalf of softball, and I didn't see alcohol being served.

Chris didn't say it was being served in the complex.

So if if they are doing it, I I I correct myself.

But I just texted him.

Well, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Do we have any more speakers?

We have no one ready to speak.

Okay.

Uh we will uh with no further speakers, we will go ahead and uh close the public hearing.

Uh commissioners, now we will uh deliberate this item or I'd like to um just call for the motion.

We're gonna go ahead and cut to the chase like we did the last time and just ask that we approve uh this uh request with all the stipulations that were discussed in the last um motion that we made for the other um location.

That would be 2507, the conditions that we added to the proposed conditions of approval, and I'll second that motion.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

You can get sick of the units.

So sorry.

Uh maybe we have a vote.

Should be up.

Are we allowed to speak before we do this?

Or are we not gonna do that part?

Since I'm going down with the ship here, and I didn't and I didn't get my motion in.

I just don't understand why we're doing this on the back of children.

I I don't understand you guys' rationale uh to go along to get along is is foolhardy.

We're opening up Pandora's box and we have statistics that the police have presented, and now we're gonna we're gonna be on the clock.

And uh I just can't imagine telling your child that watch me drink, watch me do it well.

That's what you're doing.

And you know, I I think we're gonna pay for it.

We're in the public, we're representing the city, we're representing the youth, we're representing the future.

And if this is the best we can do, we're in struggle, we're gonna struggle.

They can go anywhere else they want to after the after their games, they can go downtown, they can have their alcohol there, they can go anywhere they want, they can go to 7-Eleven.

They can you said they can bring it with them, but for us to condone it, I think it's a very bad look, and it's a black mark, and that's just my opinion.

And one more thing from me.

My dad was a bus driver and drove 21 years that bus drunk.

Every day he drove drunk with your rationale.

If they served uh beer and wine on the bus, he's gonna do it anyway, you know.

I would say we we keep this away from the kids all together.

There's no reason why we should have beer wine um intermingled with kids' sports.

I've seen so many incidents with coaches with referees being threatened by sober uh parents when you inject drink into it.

And also there's one other thing, and that's the DUI um rationale here.

How many people bring their kids with a ride share to their sporting events and stuck all their kids in a ride share's car?

They don't.

They bring their own SUVs or trucks, right?

And then they drink on that road on Golden West.

Man, that's people drive up and down there like maniacs, it's like a freeway.

So I would say, even for the police to be here saying, well, with stipulations, we'll allow it.

It's kind of asinine, really.

And I'm just saying, if there's one DUI fatality on Golden West after we allow this, then it's it's on our heads.

That's all.

Well, I I see it differently.

I I see that it is a controlled environment.

I see it's an opportunity for us to do a better job to um control the alcohol consumption.

This this is secure with the addition of a security guard, um, helping police the people who do drink in the park or in the at the games.

I I believe it's a we we've with the additional conditions and the agreements, we've created a much better controlled environment that I hope helps control that behavior.

That I think you know, I I I play golf, and and every once in a while, after golf, um, you know, my buddy golf for some reason people like to drink, and I never used to do it, and I and I every once in a while I'll go, okay, and then I've got a breathalyzer, every everybody should have a breathalyzer.

I think they should come with cars.

And I'm out there with these junior golfers on the driving range, it's smoking hot, and I go, you know, you guys have to be here, but you know what?

I'm I can't drive because I didn't pass my breathalyzer test.

So I'm gonna hit balls with you guys for a while.

And I think you know, just saying cut it off, keep hide hide it from people.

It's it's an unrealistic expectation, but but to do it responsibly and teach children how to drink responsibly, I think is better than saying, you know, cold turkey, no.

I I that's how I feel.

I oh, go ahead.

Um, I have a we all received, I believe, a letter from a resident, um, since she's lived in Huntington Beach since 1978, and her comments were in roughly the past week, July 7th through August 4th, 2025, the Huntington Beach Police Department made 38 alcohol arrests related arrests, and 13 people were from Huntington Beach were Huntington Beach residents, and 28 were from other cities.

In July 2025, Huntington Beach had two DUI fatalities.

The consumption of alcohol and sports leads to compromised motor skills, decreased coordination, delayed reaction, diminished judgment, impaired balance, and also increasing an athlete's risk for injury.

Um she does not support um alcohol consumption in this venue.

And I the other reason why I'm opposed to this is that I don't think we should experiment on our kids, and I view this as an experiment.

I do not believe it, you know, if I I can't have it on my conscience that if there's one fatality or one really bad incident, then it's it's gonna be really bad.

Not only for how we vote on this, but also um on the taxpayers, the residents, and that's who we represent.

We represent, we're supposed to make the best decision we can, the safest decision we can, and um, and responsibly, and that's all I have to say, Commissioner Palmer.

So, you said you don't think we should have an experiment, but again, I'm gumby on this.

Um of the things that I had thought about was doing a pilot and saying, Well, if we're going to do this, which there's some reason to do it, um, maybe we do it for six months and then do an assessment.

But we have two locations.

I don't know how much strain it would put on the owners, developers to open the one location and monitor that very, very carefully, and leave the other one as is.

So we've already passed the one, so I'm thinking that maybe we just passed the one.

So it was kind of brought up, right?

That we don't have to have alcohol here because we can go to Main Street, or we can go, you know, here or there, the pizza place, or all of that, right?

So do you guys really think that they're gonna take the kids home?

And then the parents are gonna go back and drink, or the kids gonna join them, you know, at the pizza place, a first-class pizza, or you know, all of that.

I mean, these are these are end up being social gatherings with the parents and the coaches and the you know, the kids are off doing their thing, but I mean, to think that this is gonna make anything any worse from the kids being around the alcohol, I just I don't see it.

I really don't see it.

Well, I wouldn't want that either, but what I would say is I'm not gonna condone it, and I'm not gonna condone it with a vote here.

So I wouldn't condone those kids going to a pizza place and the parents getting how much there with them, but I'm definitely not gonna condone it when I have a say in it.

That makes it we're we're representing, we're representing the city.

I think the city's best is not with this, but I would like to thank Tracy Pellman for appealing this.

I just want to make that a point.

I'll second that.

You guys are welcome.

And by the way, just to put it out there in full disclosure, I also appealed this to the state ABC board because I was concerned that this board that the city would not do the right thing, and at least there'd be another avenue.

So thank you.

So I'm gonna one of the less popular people this evening, which is not the first time behind this diet, as well.

So it's okay.

I am getting used to it, exactly.

But I will appeal, I will try to appeal to um my commissioner to my right here.

We did approve the first location.

This is it's the same basic, I mean it's just a different site, and I think putting undue I think that I think the operators have given everything they possibly can to give us a a good conscience to vote in favor of this, and I would hope that you would allow the second location because to to put them in hinder them on one and not the other business wise, I think is just uh anyway.

I I just I I hope that uh I I hope that the vote will go accordingly because we did approve the other one with conditions that I feel very strongly that uh will help mitigate a lot of the concerns expressed this evening.

Um I have another comment.

The state uh ABC board basically has a um, I guess a code um that basically says that there should shall be in in a in a in a setting like this, there shall be no alcohol uh permits permitted next to playgrounds, taught playgrounds, and there's a use shelter over by this one off of Talbot.

There's also a library there, and um, so I just thought I would make you aware because I don't think anybody thought to look at the state.

Thank you.

To make me feel better, can I make a substitute motion?

We had to vote on this one first.

Yeah, we have to we already have a motion on the table.

Just check.

Ask it for a friend.

Yeah, I agree.

I think we should vote in favor of the same way because I don't think it would be economically feasible for them to operate one restaurant and still provide reasonable amount of security.

It would give us a much clearer picture of how it works, though, before we put alcohol at both ends.

It's so vague though.

I mean, first of all, how many security guards are you gonna have?

Are they gonna be on a PPO or is it gonna be a propriety guard cards?

I mean it it's so arbitrary.

That's why it's a conditional use permit.

You know, if it can be revoked.

Can I ask the city attorney a question?

Am I allowed to make a substitute motion?

I'm gonna ask him.

You're not the lawyer.

There's we're the motion is on the floor to vote, but say it is approved.

You can make add additional conditions.

You can make a motion, add additional conditions, things like that.

You can keep making motions till midnight.

Thank you.

Okay, any other questions, comments?

Thank you.

May we have a vote, please?

On the screen, okay.

We have three ayes, three nays, and one abstention.

Bush, Commissioner McGee, and Commissioner Pellman voting nay.

Commissioner Palmer, abstaining.

Motion fails.

Do you want to stipulations on that motion?

We already did.

Nothing.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Um, okay.

Uh is there uh any anything on the consent calendar?

Okay, I'll make my substitute.

I'll make my substitute motion since it got it was basically a push.

I would like to deny the uh let me see.

I want to deny item 25-634.

I'd like to demo deny it.

I'll second.

So it knows a yes and yes above.

Okay, so I sent so you're denying it, so uh okay.

I'm making a substitute since we're 3-3, I think.

Okay, fine.

Okay.

May I ask just um to because a denial also needs to come with at least one finding.

Um I guess I'll just summarize some of the information that was provided um contrary to recommending approval.

Are you telling me you're asking me?

You have to make a finding for denial, meaning reasons why you're recommending denial.

Right.

It's really the same as the last time.

I don't believe that the it's being interpreted properly out of 612, chart the charter 612.

I think this should have gone to the city council uh instead of through us.

Okay, thank you.

We can go ahead and oh I'm sorry, my melon's been twisted here.

So yes and denial.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

It is we're not used to staying up this later.

We have three ayes, three nays, and one abstention.

Chair Athenis, Commissioner Babanau, and Commissioner Goldberg voting nay.

Abstaining motion fails.

Okay, I feel better now.

Okay, and all that I can for the city of Huntington Beach.

So just to confirm with the failed motions, the ZA's approval will stand.

You can to add conditions back if you'd like.

That's correct.

Yeah, it's gonna get approved.

It's already approved.

Approved without the modified conditions because that motion fails.

So you've taken away, you guys have taken away the motion.

You took away the conditions.

We gotta we gotta vote to okay.

So I'd like to make a motion.

And I'm sorry, we're making a motion.

Yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead.

You go ahead.

No, you so wait, wait.

Let me let me explain what we just did, because it's already been approved through the zoning administrator and the and the design review board.

Well, before you do though, we just approved we let it go without the conditions.

So if we vote, we at least get the conditions.

Before you do that, I would like to make a condition on the last vote before you do this next vote.

And my condition would be that there be no uh alcohol during youth sports.

That would be my condition.

No, you made a motion, no, that would we would have no.

You made your motion, then we we'd vote on that, and then if you want to make a second motion to add that, that would be the proper procedure.

Okay, all right.

So would we have to vote on that?

Can we make can we make a motion?

Is there a motion?

We gotta get a motion on the floor here.

Yeah, somebody make a mo.

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to approve with the conditions.

I will second the that motion.

That is the conditions that were listed for the previous item that were approved.

Correct.

Right.

The same condition.

So there's uh continuity between the two different facilities, I guess, if you will.

And please, point of order.

If we don't vote yes on this, they're gonna have the ability to sell alcohol, but don't do that.

And I'm not voting for this no matter what.

So you might say, all right, it's my fault, but I'm not gonna vote for this at all.

It sounds like a discotheck might go into that one, but I'm just letting you know it's okay.

So it's on your head be it.

If you want this, you can have it, but I'm not voting for it.

I second the motion.

Okay.

Can we have a vote, please on our third try?

Yes.

We're gonna try again.

Yes, so yes is approving with the conditions with the stipulations.

So that would be no, it's a it's a strip form.

Okay, we have four eyes, three nays.

Uh Vice Chair Bush, Commissioner, Mr.

Pellman, voting no, motion passes.

Finally, the planning commission's action on this item is final unless an appeal is filed to the city council within 10 calendar days, and appeal must include the reasons for the appeal, any required fee.

And it shall be filed with the city clerk's office within 10 calendar days.

Uh there's no consent calendar items, uh, no non-public hearing items.

And uh next on the agenda, our planning items staff, can we have a report?

We we anticipate canceling the um August 12th Plan Commission meeting.

Okay, is that it?

All right, uh before we close for the evening.

Planning commissioners, do you have any comments to provide?

We'll start on my right.

Wait, say that again.

No, I've said all I want to say.

Thank you.

Done.

I do have a question.

Last meeting.

Isn't that good?

This would be a legal question.

Uh one of the commissioners brought up the fact that the zoning code was a guideline.

Could you expound on that?

If you guys have questions on your duties and things like that, I'd really prefer to give those outside of open meeting.

Um, if you would like to, it I think you're referring to the definition question you had last week.

Um, it was I don't remember exactly what your question was, but yeah, the zoning code definitions unless otherwise stated, which there are other definitions in the general plan and also in the code would apply, but unless you're giving me a specific section to compare it to, I can't give you any guarantee of that.

In general, yeah, the zoning code applies, and you guys are here selected to give your expertise on zoning and building codes and things like that.

So the question the question specifically was it a guideline or is it a law?

My understanding is that the zoning and the municipal code is is uh is a law.

If you are infraction, you can receive a violation.

So what I'm trying to do is clarify for the benefit of all of us that it's not a guideline and that it is a law.

It's a law, and like the laws of the United States, there are levels to that, and the charter is number one, missed code, zoning code, all that.

Um yeah, it's a law, definitely.

Thank you.

Wait a minute.

As the commissioner, that uh I believe I made that statement.

Was it you?

I think two of us have made that statement.

Um my indication was not that it the code wasn't a law, but it can be used as a guideline, in essence, that every project doesn't have to push the uh greatest extent of the code.

That was my position.

Thank you.

Any more comments?

Okay.

Well, that's the uh last item on the agenda.

We're hereby adjourned to our next planning commission, which may be canceled, which is supposed to be August 12th, 2025.

Meeting adjourned.