Okay, we will call the meeting to order.

Today is the June Ninth, twenty twenty sixth planning commission.

And uh Eric, would you please do a roll call and then follow that up with staff introductions and then allow online participants to call in?

Sure.

Um, I'll start with commissioners present.

Today we have Chair Silva.

Here.

Vice Chair Latasa.

Here.

Commissioner Blues?

Here.

Commissioner Freeman?

Here.

Commissioner Palmer?

Here.

Commissioner Pauli appears to be absent.

And Commissioner Stoker.

Here.

Okay.

Our staff members present today.

We have our community development director, Kim Cole.

We have our planning manager, Levi Hill.

We have our Principal Planner, Fernando Roveri, our principal planner, Christy Sabdo, and myself, recording secretary Erica Brera.

Information on participating in this meeting and providing public comment, including remotely by Zoom or telephone, is on this meeting's agenda, which is online at Monterey.gov forward slash agendas.

Remote commenters will be muted until it's their turn to speak, and a timer will be shown on the screen.

If you're connected on Zoom, the timer is accurate with no delay.

In the chamber, we recommend keeping phones and devices muted to prevent audio interference with the meeting.

Thank you for participating in your city government.

Thank you, Erica.

We will begin with the consent agenda.

Item number two.

And uh because this is on the consent agenda.

Is there anyone in chambers that would like to pull this?

Seeing nobody, anybody online, Erica?

There are no hands raised.

Thank you.

We'll uh bring this back.

Move for approval.

Second.

All right.

So we have an approval by Commissioner Stoker and a second by Commissioner Buluth.

Can we get a roll call, please?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Commissioner Palmer.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

And I'll just remind the public that that uh action is appealable to the city council within 10 days of this decision and forms available in the planning office or online.

Thank you, Levi.

All right.

We'll move to item number three, which is the approval of the minutes.

And anybody have comments.

Move for approval.

Second.

So we have a motion to approve the minutes by Commissioner Stoker.

And we have a second by Commissioner Palmer.

Can we get a roll call, please?

Sure.

Chair Silva.

Yes.

Vice Chair Latassa?

Yes.

Commissioner Bluth.

Yes.

Commissioner Freeman.

Uh abstain.

Okay.

Commissioner Palmer?

Yes.

And Commissioner Stoker.

You know, can I wasn't here, but I read through the minutes and watched the meeting.

Okay.

We can still vote.

Yeah.

Okay.

Then yes.

Yes.

Okay, great.

The minutes have been approved.

Thank you.

All right.

We'll turn our attention to general public comments.

Um, if there's anybody that would like to uh speak to the planning commission regarding a matter that is not on today's agenda, you may do so.

And seeing that uh we have nobody in chambers.

Are there anybody online, Erica?

There are no hands raised.

Very good.

We will close general public comments and turn our attention to Commissioner comments.

Is this a weird meeting?

It is a very bizarre, surreal meeting.

I must admit.

It's minor, but watching the city council and going to city council meetings.

Most things they don't do a roll call vote.

Only if it's going to be exciting.

We're doing roll call votes even for consent items.

Can't we just go?

Yeah.

But it's fun to do a roll call vote.

Everybody has a chance to say something.

Okay, you get your fund in different ways than I do.

Clearly.

I think it just comes down to the preference of the chair, ultimately.

Okay.

Okay, chair.

And um eventually you're gonna be able to do it your way.

All right, but I actually prefer doing roll call just because if there was a vote that was drowned out or more than one, we can at least get an accurate count.

All right, that's the way I do.

I do think it's fun.

That's the most important.

I think it's terrific, okay.

I do.

Any other commissioner comments?

All right.

Well, well.

This is a lively bunch.

We're so excited about the presentation.

Okay, let's to let's go to uh informational reports.

Levi, you're up.

Yes, thank you.

So uh as noted in the agenda packet, the next item is a presentation on the planning division's work program just to give the commission an update on what the division's working on and uh uh has been working on so far in this calendar year and what our uh work program holds in store for us for the remaining uh portion of the calendar year.

Uh and with that uh we'll get uh staff recommendations that the planning commission receive the presentation on the work program, take public comment, and then provide feedback.

Um the goal here is to eventually uh this will get uh presented in some form or fashion, whether it's with the citywide work program to the city council or whether it's part of the budget.

Uh, but at some point, um, so that's why we're soliciting your feedback.

Um, so to get us started, our community development director Kim Cole is gonna um say a few things just to kind of build a little bit on the context and legal framework that we're operating under currently in planning and land use in general.

So I'll hand it over to her before we get into the uh details of the planning work program.

Is this automatic?

Okay, it's automatically on now.

Um thank you, commissioners.

We wanted to just start off um by talking about how the landscape has changed for planning offices and for cities in our work program.

Um I think the commission is well aware of the significance um state legislate legislation has been passed in the last decade.

Um, just in 2025, we're looking at over 60 housing planning and land use related laws have been adopted.

And um from my perspective, it's really adjusted um land use standards, permitting procedures, and time frames.

And so everything that we did prior to two to three years ago is really changed because of state legislation, and it's really affecting um our ability to look at resource allocation and priorities.

And um, you know, part of what we're gonna present to you today is that changing landscape.

In the past, we used to have maybe a couple mandates, and now we have a very long list of mandates that we are as a city required to comply with.

Um I'm gonna briefly touch on the housing element, although we're gonna be discussing other mandates um this afternoon as well.

So in the past, um cities would adopt housing elements for an eight-year cycle, and in many ways there were programs in there, we would work on them.

Um, but there was no penalty, if you will per se, in terms of um our regulations and processing today.

Um we were able to achieve as a city a certified housing element, but we also have within that housing element 54 programs that we have to implement over an eight-year time frame.

And um today, if we don't meet those time frames, the state has the ability ultimately to decertify our housing element.

Um they've also created at the state level an enforcement arm.

Um so we now are um submitting things like our accessory dwelling unit ordinance to the state of California after we go through and approve it, and they provide comments on whether or not their opinion is as if it meets state law.

And that's just one example of sort of this changing landscape.

They're actually reviewing the ordinances we adopted in order to comply with our housing element.

Ultimately, you know, if cities um aren't able to keep up with these time frames.

They do have the right to decertify our housing element, and sort of the the elephant in the room with that decertification as builder's remedy, where we lose the ability to um on land use entitlements, and it becomes um it's not quite lose our ability for land use entitlements, but it's greatly reduced our ability to regulate housing and um what can be constructed in our community.

And so we can see right now that's happening in Monterey County.

But they have a whole handful of builder remedy projects, including a 14-story building being proposed, sort of on the uphill side of Highway One near Highway 68 and Highway 1 there in the county area.

So the repercussions are pretty significant if we don't follow through with our programs.

So I just wanted to share that with you that the landscape for planning offices has changed, and for cities, and that's part of what we're going to be presenting to you this afternoon.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Levi.

Um for decertifying our housing out.

Are there any mitigating effects taken to like water?

And they're going through that process for the doing whether we're meeting our milestones.

So we don't have to actually construct units.

What we have to do is provide adequate zoning.

So this is about the programs in your housing element.

So for example, um, you know, there's a whole list of them.

There's 54 programs.

Um Levi will share with you the percentage of completion that we've reached to date.

One of the programs you just recommended to council was changing the IR zoning, the reasonable accommodations you just recommended to city council for a pro a new process in city code.

We have about seven or eight other amendments that we're currently working on.

Kim, I have a question for you, and that is given the fact that the city is compelled by the state to have all these different programs in order to satisfy the housing element.

Does the state provide any financial resources to local agencies at all?

No, we're we fund those, those are general fund right now.

So either in terms of staff time or if we need to bring on a consultant to help us with a specific program.

That's quite a burden.

It is because it doesn't change our staffing levels, and the city right now, as you're well aware, has a deficit of around 10 million dollars structural deficit.

Um we I understand we have a balanced budget that'll be presented for next year, but moving forward, the city is going to have to look very closely at where it allocates resources, and so part of what we're gonna do is we will take the input, you know, sort of our work program that's legislative required legislatively required, your recommendations and and thoughts on the work program, and present those to the city manager.

So as the city manager presents the work program to the city council along with the budget, they're gonna have to make ultimately some hard decisions in the future.

And so, what happens in the event that there is lack of funding to implement some of these programs?

Like let's say sta at a staff level.

Let's say there's you know, there's a need for increased staff time, but there's no funding for that.

Yeah, these are our unfunded mandates, and we'll there is no relief.

And so the state then could just simply decertify.

If they go through a process, I mean they warn you, they send letters, and then ultimately there's various actions they can take.

They're taking some cities right now that refuse to adopt housing elements that aren't um doing what's prescribed.

They're taking those cities to court.

And so you may have heard about like Huntington Beach and some of the cities that were reluctant to move forward with some um specific housing element changes, and so um it's clear that the state law gives a lot of power now to the state of California's enforcement wing and requiring cities to comply.

Okay, thank you, Kim.

Yeah, and we'll turn it over to Levi.

Thank you, Kim.

So just a little bit of background on the planning division.

I'm sure some of this is probably pretty familiar information to this group, but we'll cover it for the benefit of the commission and the public.

Um the planning division is responsible for uh quite a broad range of duties and functions, and um and essentially that kind of typically falls into two different buckets, and that's either us providing um some level of support to an internal uh initiative or some other city department, uh, and we'll get into what that looks like here in a moment, or it falls into the other bucket, which is providing that public-facing customer support to our residents or residents or businesses.

Um, and so that's more in the turn in the way of permitting or just general information or facilitating uh development of property in the city.

So a little bit of background on the division staffing.

I'm sure you're mostly familiar with this, but we're uh comprised of uh myself, the planning manager, two principal planner positions, two senior associate planner positions, and two administrative support staff.

We do have one associate planner position that it has been budgeted for that's currently vacant, and we're uh in the midst of wrapping up a recruitment for that.

So we're hopeful that we'll have an additional um staff member take that position soon.

Could I ask just one question?

Sure.

In listening to Kim, it seems like with the state legislation, a larger bureaucracy has been created, and with the current staff who have to meet that need.

Is the new position in any danger of not being hired because the city has a 10 million dollar shortfall?

So currently that's a budgeted position.

So it does not appear to be at risk at this time, and uh and it's been worked into that um to that uh proposed budget that's moving forward.

I will say when we received our housing element approval two years ago, the council at that time actually funded two positions, an associate and an assistant planner.

Right now, the assistant planner position is frozen or on the list by city council that will not be filled.

Um so when we got when we received or approval with the 54 additional programs, we were we were at the time proposed to have two new staff members to help us through all of this, and now we're gonna get half of that right now.

Is the funded position is only the associate planner, and so just to put some faces to the names.

I think uh everyone, most everyone in our uh division has been before this commission, but in case they haven't, um, this is our our group here.

Um, they work very hard to complete our work program every day.

And uh and we're all sit over in the lower level of Colton Hall.

If you've never come by to visit us, please do.

So getting it, what's the dog's name?

Tessa Maya.

All right.

So uh to get into the functions and responsibilities specifically for the division.

Um, there's a few different, like I said earlier, there's a broad range of functions of our division and different responsibilities that have fall under our purview over the years and uh starting with our annual responsibilities.

Um, so a lot of this has to do with annual reporting and annual program maintenance.

And I'll just start.

If you see an asterisk uh beside any of these specific tasks, that means there's some kind of legal mandate or legal um uh responsibility that requires us to fulfill this task, either uh either fulfill it or fulfill it within a certain time frame.

Um so you'll see here all of our annual annual reporting responsibilities are required by law, and what those look like are our business improvement levy of assessments for our business improvement districts that happens annually.

Our general plan annual progress report that gets submitted to HCD every year in the spring of every year, and that's uh uh intended to track our progress in implementing the general plan and more specifically now the housing element.

So this is where we would uh submit to HCD all the units that have been uh produced in the city as well as our progress in implementing our housing programs that Kim mentioned earlier.

Um so this is one of the tools that HCD and the state uses to track our progress and kind of track uh where we are in that eight-year planning cycle and and implementing our housing element.

Uh slightly less, uh, and I'll just add that is actually a very labor-intensive report.

There's a uh we go through every single policy and program within the general plan and provide a status update on that.

And they've recently changed the parameters of that reporting uh to a very comprehensive and complex spreadsheet that they have completed that tracks uh multi-year uh stages of different development of individual sites.

So that's through entitlement, permitting, and construction, and then final inspection.

So year over year, our staff is responsible for tracking individual sites and those units as they get uh produced within the city.

So it takes a lot of time.

Uh a slightly less labor-intensive report that gets submitted to the state is the California Department of Finance housing survey.

So that's where we report to the Department of Finance, our production of housing units in the city.

And then, of course, we also have as a certified local government, we are required to submit our CLG report to the State Historic Preservation Office, and that documents our um the credentials of our historic preservation commission, their background, and then also what trainings they attended uh in that year.

And then we're also responsible for submitting our four-door compliance report where it tracks any development activity or violations that have been uh identified on our uh four-door property as a part of the base closure agreement.

So those are our annual reports uh onto our annual program maintenance.

These are things, these are programs that we implement year over year.

Uh so a big one is our Mills Act inspections, as you know, with a very uh a city with a lot of historic resources.

Uh, the city has over 62 properties that are under Mills Act contracts.

Uh, some of this commission are very familiar with that process.

Um, and we do they do require each contract requires an annual inspection each year uh to ensure that properties are uh undergoing the proper maintenance that's included in the maintenance plan, and that those activities included in that adopted maintenance plan are being carried out in accordance with the plan.

Also in uh annual programs that are implemented or so sidewalk vending.

If you were tracking that over the last year, our council adopted a new sidewalk vending ordinance within that includes a uh lottery system for our waterfront area.

We do currently we do those quarterly, so that's four uh drawings or four lotteries every year.

Um, and then we have about anywhere between 30 and 40 sidewalk vending applicants year over year, and each one of those permits has to be renewed annually, so that ends up being a lot of uh staff time and our administrative support.

Of the 30 or 40 applicants, how many licenses or certifications are issued?

Um, so that's that's actually how many vending permits we actually issue.

So most of most of our applicants that apply for bending permits do get issued permits.

If you're referring to the lottery, we actually have eight spaces that are available in the lottery.

So the sidewalk vending permit allows vendors to operate citywide.

You do have to be drawn in the lottery to have one of the eight spaces at the waterfront.

So moving on, um, some of our internal and public support responsibilities are shown in this slide.

So internally, the city provides all the CEQA determinations and any SEQA support for all of our city departments.

So any discretionary action that is taken on by the city is uh subject to CEQA and therefore requires some level of SQL determination to be made, and our division is responsible for evaluating those uh actions and then uh assigning some type of CEQA determination to that.

So uh that can include anything from uh things that are just typically exempt, like what you would see, all the way to projects that maybe require a more intense review, like an environmental impact report or something like that.

And so just to put a face on that, um, every city council report, um, one of our staff members typically prepares that CEQA section.

So, so you know, there's quite a few agenda items on every council meeting.

Yeah.

Also includes uh we provide and kind of wrapped up into that sequel support is things like the tree preservation ordinance and whenever um so our staff is actually tasked with implementing portions of that tree ordinance, whether whenever trees are being removed as parts of development.

Um so we're also involved in the drafting and the preparation of any updates to that ordinance, and then we also are tasked with overseeing the environmental review that's uh um assigned to things like that too.

So that's just an example of something that's being um taken for taken forward by our parks department, but also requires a lot of planning support and to ensure that all the legal requirements are satisfied.

Similarly, our sustainability division is uh is the project lead on our climate action plan that's required by the state of California, but it also requires an environmental impact report, and so there's a lot of um planning division time that's spent on that project as well.

And then of course, uh various projects to facilitate different city goals and objectives, like the Madison Street Midpin Housing Project.

Um city uh planning division is the product kind of internal project manager for that project as well on the city side.

Moving on to public support, so this is more of our outward face and public-facing responsibilities.

We obviously staff a full-time public counter.

Um, so that's um every day, all day.

Uh, we have a planner available to respond to in-person inquiries or just uh pre-submittal questions that applicants may have, or just general residents or business potential business owners that want to come and get an idea of what properties are zoned for, or have general questions.

We have a planner staffing that counter.

Uh that we also have staff available to provide that timely phone and email response.

We get a lot of inquiries via email these days to our general planning line.

So we have staff available to uh provide timely response to that, and then of course, we spend a lot of time uh in that pre-submittal conferencing and uh pre-submittal support to ensure that we get um you know more complete packages whenever our applications come in.

And obviously, a lot of our applicants like uh like to have that and really appreciate having that time to chat with the planner to get an understanding of what's going to be required of them before they pay an application fee or even move forward with a project that maybe is to help determine their feasibility, and that extends at every level.

So pretty much all of our staff at every level is participating in some degree in some pre-submittal conferencing all the way up from uh up to Kim here who meets with a lot of applicants as well.

So moving on to our current what we could uh define as current planning.

Um this kind of encompasses uh projects that are kind of um shovel ready or ready to go in some terms of ready for entitlements, and uh falls into our different planning permits, building permits, and then of course, our hearing tasks.

Uh so again, you'll see a lot of asterisks on these um these tasks here, and that's because a lot of these projects are subject to a state legislation known as the permit streamlining act, and what that requires is um strict review time frames of staff for submitted applications and requires that we respond to applications on uh in determining whether they are complete or require uh additional information within 30 days of submittal, and that's on the initial submittal and then any subsequent resubmittals as well.

Um, so a lot of this uh when when we talk about the volume of planning applications and permits that are coming in and how that places uh you know where we have to allocate our resources and priorities, a lot of it goes to things like this because there is a strict mandated time frame in which we are required to respond to applications.

So here you see here in our planning permits and entitlements.

Uh, we have architectural review permits, use permits, of course, the environmental documents that may be associated with any of these discretionary entitlements, and then we also have zoning and general plan amendments, sign permits, and then of course we have a host of other permits, but these are kind of our more common ones.

Uh this commission's familiar with seeing variances as well.

Um, so we do see uh a handful of those throughout the year as well.

Uh we also support our building permit plan check process and providing that zoning compliance review as well.

So that's done.

So every uh well, almost every uh building permit that goes through our building department gets assigned a planning and review.

So a planner is looking at that as well.

Um, and that's even included for projects that receive a planning entitlement or projects that don't receive planning entitlements and are just ministerial as well.

Um I'll note uh this includes a lot of uh applications for ADUs, which are a little bit more um you know complex for a project that's going straight to a ministerial approval through building permits, so that can be a pretty comprehensive and labor-intensive review uh for something that doesn't require a planning application, and then of course, any of our discretionary um permits that are required to go to a public hearing include our public our planning commission hearings, our historic preservation commission.

Of course, we also have our zoning administrator hearings and then city council as well.

Each one of these, any item that goes to any one of these uh hearing bodies requires uh legal noticing, uh an agenda report to be prepared, typically an approval document in the form of a resolution that also has to be prepared, and then um obviously the time and labor it takes into the public hearing itself.

Levi, can I ask a make a quick comment on the um building permit plan checks where it says zoning review?

You had mentioned previously under the planning permits and entitlements, um, a brief about the uh permit streamline act.

And a couple of years ago, the state had passed AB 2234, which is the post-entitlement streamline act, which essentially means that for a housing project, there are strict time limits for agency reviews, including such things as rezoning review.

So I'm sure that fits into the narrative that you're also describing here regarding the time limits.

Absolutely, and you you bring up an excellent point with all the new state laws that get passed through, and that Kim was mentioning and that you're you're mentioning as well.

Um, what it does is create a pretty complex environment that we're operating in where there's a lot of different review time frames for different projects depending on how it's submitted and what under what law it's being submitted under.

Um so you bring up an excellent point that adds to a little bit of the um complexity to the environment that we're operating in.

And the pressure that staff has to complete their tasks.

Absolutely, yeah.

And a lot of the state laws require that if if um you know any deficiencies that are not identified on that initial review cannot be um brought up in a subsequent review either.

So you speak of that pressure, it feels like you have to catch everything on that first go-round, which is our intention anyways, but it definitely adds that addition when you were constrain that time frame and reduce that the time some uh one has to do the review, but then you're also letting that person know that you only get one shot at it, is it is a lot.

You can't have two bytes out of the apple.

Correct.

So we'll move on.

Um so this just gives a little snapshot as of Friday where we're at in 2026, and this is just our top four application types kind of grouped out here.

As you see, the majority of what we take in and review is architectural review permits, and some of these are uh come before this commission.

Uh some of these are approved administratively and are obviously can be referred to this commission.

Um, and then of course, we see uh a handful of use permits, sign permits, and then of um a steady flow of sidewalk vending permits that are renewed throughout the year.

Um, so again, this doesn't show we probably have close to you know you know 20 different 20 additional application types that aren't shown on here, but these are definitely our most common and what we see the most of.

I think uh, and again, this is a snapshot of 2026 today.

I think when I checked in 2025, we hit just over 300 total for the calendar year.

So that's typically we get about 300 total different planning applications throughout the year.

And just adding on to that, so 300 planning applications.

Last year we had 2069 um permits issued through the building department.

So that's and that's pretty steady over the years in terms of our current planning and building workload.

Levi, another question on this chart, um architectural review permit, use permit, sign permit.

In some cases, in a lot of cases, um, that would be top subject to a discretionary uh review, but is there any discretionary review for sidewalk vending?

Sidewalk vending is a ministerially issued permit, so that is not subject, it's not discretionary, it's just simply if you have all the requirements on a complete application.

Um the permit is issued.

Wouldn't that be somewhat analogous to a use permit?

I mean, in the in a sense that there could be um vending of items that may be not appropriate.

So all so you would have to uh basically the sidewalk vending ordinance lays out essentially what prohibited items that vendors cannot sell, and then it kind of provides that framework.

I would say the difference in that in the use permit is the use permit has subjective findings that a commission would make in order to determine whether or not it's an appropriate use.

And it's important to point out state law changed, and that's why cities are now required to allow sidewalk vending and we're required to allow mobile food vending.

Um, and that's you know, that the change in state law several years ago is is what caused you know the city to have to review all these.

And does the sidewalk vending include uh food services?

And so they would have a vendor would have to get a permit from county health.

Great.

So moving on to some of our uh long-range or advanced planning initiatives the division is working on.

So um obviously for uh one of the primary um long range plans or the the primary long range plan that our our division is tasked with uh implementing is our general plan, and obviously we're tasked with also updating that plan over time as well.

Most recently in 2024, this commission was uh participated in the update to our general plan's uh land use safety circulation and housing elements.

Um and currently we are working on an update to our open space and conservation elements.

So these are the uh some required uh updates by law.

Um, also as a part of our long range uh and advanced planning uh initiatives, we have our coastal planning um projects.

I think uh most are familiar with our local coastal program uh uh goals and what we're working on now, and we intend on bringing that before the commission this year, those draft chapters.

Uh simultaneously, we're working on our sea level rise vulnerability assessment, or we're kind of uh bringing that concluding that uh phase of this project, and we'll be bringing that before the commission as well in the upcoming months.

And then phase two of that project uh is the adaptation plan.

So uh that first phase uh um addresses and identifies vulnerabilities to sea level rise and the adaptation plan or phase two would uh prescribe specific measures that would mitigate those uh those impacts from sea level rise.

And then in that third column, as Kim mentioned earlier, our housing element implementation, as she mentioned, we have 54 programs that were adopted as a part of our housing element, and we're uh making significant progress in implementing um those programs.

Uh, but uh and as Kim mentioned uh some reason uh recent um programs that went before this commission and just got adopted and went through second reading at council is our uh more or is our prohibition originally program language called for a moratorium on vehicle storage, but it ended up being uh prohibiting that use in our multifamily overlay, and then of course, program um 4i as well, which is our updates to our reasonable accommodation uh procedures.

Also shown on this column is the uh programs that we're working on currently that we intend to have completed by the end of this year.

So the programs 4D, 4E, 4F, and 4G and 4H.

These deal with residential uses and classifications of residential uses to bring us into consistency with state law that is required um uh that addresses those different residential uses, and then of course, program 6D that deals specifically with the replacement of uh affordable units with new projects, and I'll say in addition to these, what you'll see most likely before all of these is we are required to update our ADU ordinance, um, because there have been some new amendments passed and that has to be done now, as well as um some corrective actions on our rezonings we did um two years ago.

So that's part of that feedback loop that I was discussing.

So just to take a snapshot of our housing element implementation where we were in 2025 or at the end of 2025, and where we intend on being at the end of 2026.

Those are continuous programs that were adopted in our housing element.

They didn't appear in the that earlier column of annual reporting or annual program maintenance, but they do essentially have that same uh we requirement, and that they're adopted programs in our housing element.

And a lot of these are education or out public outreach uh initiatives that we're required to do year over year.

So you'll see that 19% will pretty much stay stay the same year over year until the end of our planning cycle because these are programs that are intended to continue on.

Um what you really hope to see uh year over year is to see um that that green shade grow and the white and purple shade reduce over year.

And as you see by the end of 2026, we expect to be 30% fully completed and with our 19% um continuous, and then hope to have about 28% of our other programs in progress.

So not shown in any of those columns or uh any of those groupings of tasks is uh the additional um objectives and goals that this commission has brought to our attention that um is of interest to them.

Um, those include updates to our recreation trail guidelines, um preparation of a garden road specific plan, uh, updating of the citywide planting list, and then of course, an update to our administrative approval list that would help streamline um the administrative approval process for the for the division as well.

Panting or planting.

Good.

Eric is dog, it's made it on here.

We know we know who did the slide.

This is a Tesla slide for sure.

I wanted to make a comment and an apology, really, for uh suggesting an updated planning list for the city.

I went and uh looked at our sister cities, Seaside, Pacific Grove, and Carmel by the Sea, and Seaside has a two-page planning list.

Uh Pacific Grove has an 84-page booklet uh with all kinds of recommendations and suggestions.

It's an online booklet and it's also in print.

And Carmel by the Sea actually has a dedicated forest and beach commission with a multimedia outreach for their forest master plan, and you would think, well, wow, what is Monterey doing?

You know, that they have this pitiful list on the downtown specific plan.

Well, it turns out that we have our own list, and I just didn't know that, and I didn't know that either.

And this is out of the park and rec department park operations, and we have a localized selection of plants and a guide and a list that can be obtained uh online.

So, you know, Justin's complaint was that he was limited to the plants that were on the specific plan in doing this uh big building uh project in the city parking lot.

And I don't know why he would be limited to that list when the city has its own park operations suggested plant list, and it's quite extensive.

And I so I'm not sure this really needs to be on this list of four items.

I think where it could it's still worth worth having on the list is to to address the conflict and that that list that you're referencing is maintained by our parks uh division, and whether I think what Commissioner Pauli was referring to is a list that's maintained in the planning document, which is the you know, whenever looking at planning entitlements, that's what uh is the regulating or legal document.

So it sounds like as you described, there's a list the city maintains that's preferred plantings, it's just simply getting that to be consistent with the land use documents and um within the specific plan and the zoning code, right?

So the point is you don't have to start from ground zero or add a new person.

Just aligning those lists.

It's just you know, cross-referencing it within the uh document that is binding to his project.

Absolutely.

Is the list that is from parks, is that for just city parks or is that for also public?

No, no, no, no.

It says suggested for any kind of building, and then there's a separate tree list as well.

Yeah, so at least I don't think so.

So yeah, um, and then of course, uh, as I mentioned, yeah, updating to the administrative approval list.

So that wraps us up here, and um, so our recommendation is that the planning commission receive a presentation on the planning uh work program, take the public comment, and provide any feedback that they deem appropriate.

And with that, we're happy to answer any questions.

You should make sure they line up before they speak.

Three minutes each.

Uh Levi, this was quite impressive.

I'm always just amazed by how much workload staff has, and especially given the fact that the state is just keep piling it on every year without much uh assistance from for resources.

So kudos to everybody here in this room and those not this room.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I have a few questions.

So the um my understanding is the builders' remedy conundrum is for jurisdictions like Monterey County that haven't kept up to date with state required um, you know, uh organization of all the these new laws.

So um are we vulnerable in any way to uh builders' remedy in the city or we're up to date, so we're we're okay.

I mean, we're we're up to date, we have a certified adopted housing element, we're still considered in a uh status of substantial compliance with housing element law.

Um I think what to say that we're not vulnerable at all would would be a misstatement.

Obviously, uh it's incumbent on the city and uh our staff to uh implement our housing element uh in a in a way that is consistent with our adopted housing element and the certified document.

Um so in that respect, I would say we're always vulnerable if if we you know take our foot off the gas there.

But I think our current our current status is that we are we are not vulnerable under subject to builders' remedy.

I would also know, you know, you're also we're vulnerable in the way of our neighboring communities as well, as we experience with the county um when they don't have a um certified housing element that they when you when you share a boundary with these jurisdictions that you you share some of those same vulnerabilities when it's in such close proximity, all right.

Yeah, I guess my point was when I made that comment, we currently have a certified housing element, but if we don't as Levi suggests continue to aggressively implement our housing element, and if we fall, you know, to a point where it's of concern with the state fall behind or not implementing our housing element, um, they have the legal option to decertify our housing element.

So it's very important that we continue to work towards implementation of our housing element.

And Kim, just to clarify, this has nothing to do with whether or not housing gets built, right?

It's being in compliance with all those programs and defining them.

Although what we've seen recently with that project on Fremont that we recently approved, is that it's sort of like the um even though it's not a builder's remedy, what we're seeing is some projects that come through basically with mandated approvals or that come before us where it's so that where you would just have a big rubber stamp.

That's correct.

That's kind of separate legislation um that that uh was included and passed uh by the state as well, separate from builders' remedy that uh restricts cities to only reviewing housing qualified housing developments to objective design standards, and so that's that's those are standards that don't require really any discretion or subjective analysis and determining whether or not that standard is met.

So that's uh also one of the goals of the city in a program in our housing element is citywide objective design standards to um uh provide that objectivity in our process, and then um create that predictability in what our development standards are for certain projects, but you're correct.

What the the result of that is is a a um uh a process that does not allow the city to deny projects on ground on subjective grounds.

Leave my can I get a better understanding of what you just mentioned?

So correct me if I'm wrong.

So the city is is in the process of um implementing or developing a set of zoning objective standards.

So the city has objective standards in different areas of the city and it will it takes different forms.

So that can be standards that are included in our zoning ordinance that are uh you know, uh uh clearly objective.

There's also our specific plan documents that include objective standards as well.

If you look through our specific plans, however, you'll also see there's a lot of things that are noted as guidelines or uh preferences, those are things that are not considered uh objective design standards because they don't provide that objectivity.

Um so when I mention our housing element has a program for the city to develop objective design standards, what I mean is a more comprehensive objective design standards for different development types that would kind of fill that gap, um, where uh previously um the city could rely on that subjective and uh evaluation of hearing bodies like this to determine whether or not those guidelines or standards are being met.

Um so uh the city wants to uh eventually bring forward um objective design standards for all development types that would cover the entire city so that um this this group doesn't have to make those subjective findings.

And would that be done in-house with staff, or would that be an RFP to a consultant?

So likely an RFP to a consultant for citywide to cover all development types.

There's the potential city staff could potentially in-house do maybe um some one-offs for specific development types, um, but generally to cover something as broad as um all development types, including commercial and and residential, it probably be an RFP and solicit uh guidance from uh design professionals.

Okay, look forward to that.

Yeah, and remind me where we are with the local coastal plan.

Absolutely.

So we're working on our draft uh LUP, so that's the land use plan component of our coastal plan, and we're wrapping up uh we essentially have all of our draft chapters um within staff that have been reviewed and are prepared.

So we're wrapping that up and intend on bringing that forward to the commission and the coastal commission for review this year, and then after that's completed, we'll move into our what's called the IP or the implementation plan, and that's really uh basically becomes the zoning code, so to speak, for the coastal zone and how we process coastal development permits.

Um, so that's that's making good progress.

We expect, like I said, to have the um land use plan before this commission in the next few months.

Something for the commission to think of that kind of um relates to all this conversation and work program and staffing is that um currently with the city not having a certified comprehensive certified local coastal plan.

Um we do not uh and we are are not responsible for issuing coastal development permits.

Those are currently issued by the coastal commission.

Once we have an adopted uh LCP, the city will take on that permit authority.

So that's an additional uh layer of permits that our staff will be uh tasked with uh you know taking in applications, reviewing, ensuring consistency with the coastal act and with our LCP, and then ultimately issuing those coastal development permits and then completing any um post-entitlement action and inspections that are associated with those as well.

Right.

When you do a um when you're an applicant in Monterey County coastal zone, they actually administer their own uh coastal permits.

And um, so they they are the ones I guess it's appealable to the coastal commission if somebody's mad, but um the uh county handles all the uh coastal permits, so that'll be the same in the city sometime.

That's correct.

Once it's adopted, that'll be another hundred or hundred plus permits that our division will be reviewing at the processing.

And permit housing development, no, a coastal permit.

Yeah.

Anything, you know.

We have a so the coastal zone is everything on the other side of what Del Mani Delmonio, yeah.

So if somebody has a house on that side of Del Mani, the beach side, they would need to get currently a permit from the coastal commission, depending on the extent of work they're doing.

Your house, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

So yeah, to answer your question, um, significant progress, and it'll will that LUP portion will definitely be before the commission in this this year and in the next couple of months.

But then what happens when it gets submitted to uh the coastal commission that sits on somebody's desk for nine months?

So we we've been meeting with the coastal commission staff and trying to kind of uh develop what the best way of submitting that in for their review to ensure that we get an efficient and timely review.

So we'll probably provide it in in blocks or in pieces.

Um and uh there is definitely that that um time frame that it takes them to review that and basically what they're what they're reviewing is the uh our plan with the consistency and making sure we check all the boxes with the coastal act and achieving those policies within the within the coastal act.

Um but you're correct, there is some level of waiting that's associated with submitting for the review.

There's the potential that we'll receive some some comments or or requested corrections that they that they want to have addressed in our plan before it's adopted.

Um so you are correct that there's a little bit of a process there, but we we have had a pretty open line of communication with the Coastal Commission staff in regards to that.

Um realistically, it's probably a year out before the city would have something that's that's not the time frame they've been uh communicating with us.

Um I think they've they've indicated uh you know roughly 30-day time frame from the time that we submit stuff to them to getting comments back.

So um I think you'll you'll definitely be seeing it within that process.

Uh but uh I think it's uh very likely uh we anticipate that we'll have an adopted LUP and certified LUP by the end of the year.

Oh, fantastic.

Um so on this list of things that we aren't doing.

Um these reports make it sound like you are pull up and you need an extra person just to meet the increased bureaucratic needs of liais with the state and state approvals.

So the two in items of most interest to the planning commission just from being here, is the update to the recreation trail guidelines and the preparation of the garden road specific plan.

What would need to happen for these to be addressed?

I mean, the short answer would be additional resources, whether that's in the form of um additional full-time staff, um, what wasn't shown or what it was uh not mentioned but was shown on that flow through the organizational chart.

We do have the city has had the benefit of having um professional service uh resources in the past, it has helped us augment our staffing levels as Kim mentioned.

The budget uh situation impacts what those resources look like from year to year, and all likelihood indicates that those will be reducing in the future.

Um, but uh but the short answer is to to you know, really to increase the bandwidth within uh the work program requires an increase in staffing.

Can I I mean I might have a slightly different perspective on that?

Um so the housing element has us preparing two specific plans, one for the school district um the highway 68 area plan, and it also has us preparing a specific plan for our four-doored properties.

Just to take one of those on when we get to that in this eight-year planning.

You know, we're in year what two or three right now.

Two and a half, two and a half of housing.

To actually get those two plans adopted by the end of the housing element period is gonna be really challenging once we get to that piece and throwing in a third specific plan.

You know, I'm just trying to think how many staff members we would need in order to do that, and consultant services.

I think that's really challenging.

Um, but I think this commission I know you feel strongly about these things, so I think you should put forth your recommendations and then there's gonna need to be you know sort of this rectification between the budget and the city council and our over like what do they expect us to complete um and I'll have one tangent and then I'll stop it was interesting to me that council um at their at a meeting recently was discussing governance and one of the things that they brought up in their discussion is now that they represent districts there are new work program items from their perspective to fulfill the um the objectives of their district and you know whatever that might be you hear different things from different council members and wanting execution on those items um that really don't fit very well into any of our current work plans and so the the city has to figure out that's why I think everyone needs to put in if you if you think one of these are very important or two of them and you want to represent that just be aware of the context of the overall planning program and it's going to be put into the bucket of also what the city council needs to complete for their district and um that was eye-opening for me a couple weeks ago when they had I was like oh that's what's happened you know they have districts now and that district has a specific objective so um just be aware of that greater context.

Um yeah so using garden road specific plan as an example how come the housing element requires specific plans for the forward property in highway 68 area.

Yeah so those require uh specific plans because they are lacking fully lacking the infrastructure components of infrastructure uh that's required to facilitate the housing and the density that's proposed uh garden road as as um in contrast already has streets already has that utility infrastructure that's present has uh legally existing lots some that are already developed um so didn't necessitate uh a specific plan to project those units there um whereas you know like you said the the um school district site and the forward side are are completely vacant and undeveloped properties could you um can you remind me where the what the boundaries are of the school district uh yeah roughly uh well it's a it's a 50 acre site that's um off of highway 68 it's not immediately adjacent to highway 68 um it is uh separated uh it's a landlock parcel just off of highway 68 past tarby flats okay and so um there is a risk that if these two specific plans are not completed within this cycle the state could potentially decertify housing element there is that risk these both these sites were uh included in the housing element as what will be called buffer sites so we have our arena which is our three thousand six hundred and fifty four units and then we're required to uh demonstrate our our planning and zoning that would accommodate those units uh due to what they call no net law no net loss uh laws we have to also provide a buffer um it that goes beyond that renew allocation in the event the properties develop with entities that are under what was projected we can maintain that we have the zoning capacity for that full 3,654 units are total um including our buffer sites I think we had close to 5,000 total units projected um so it's it's uh they are programs that were included in our housing action plan the HCD is expecting us to move forward with those specific plans um I think it's one of those things that will become more of a vulnerability as time goes and we're not necessarily producing I think it's probably unlikely it will produce our entire arena in the next you know six to seven years.

So all the all the more ness necessity to demonstrate that we still have that capacity in other sites.

And these specific plans would more than likely trigger a comprehensive EIR, especially for the Ford Ord side.

Definitely for the Ford side, and both of them.

And we impose um plans in the two MPUSD properties.

I'm sorry, what was that?

And we can like a we can create we're creating specific plans for a MPUSD property that's allowed it.

Are we doing that in tandem with their board and things like that?

Correct.

We would we would establish the zone.

What it does is it establishes those zoning parameters, use and development standards, and any infrastructure improvements that would be included in that plan.

Yes.

Any other questions?

Can take it out to public comment?

Sure.

There are no attendees online.

Oh.

Is there anybody hiding under the seats out there?

Yeah.

They're missing out.

I have this vision that those two doors are just gonna come open and there's going to be a flood of people coming in.

But apparently not.

All right.

No, it's it'll eventually happen once we do that.

Once the specific plans are before us.

Okay, well, everybody, thank you.

Um Levi, excellent presentation.

Thank you.

And again, I just um my admiration for all the work that everybody here does.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

All right, folks.

Did um the Fremont Avenue project get appealed?

On North Fremont?

It did not.

It did not.

Did not.

Wow.

No, but there's a surprise.

It doesn't surprise me.

It does didn't surprise you?

No.

No.

Okay.

I had a comment of um Bob had asked last meeting about that big parking lot.

Um Franklin Street.

And that's been just gated off.

And uh a friend of mine actually owns a parcel next to it, and it's uh owned by ATT.

And they uh because it used to be that big building across the street used to be the phone company where Gertrude and and Agnes would be dialing in your numbers and you know, it was full of all these people.

Gertrude and Agnes.

So they have they had this whole parking lot full of employees.

That they're just like three people in that whole big building there now with worrying um, you know, computers.

So it's it's a funny redundant parking lot that's just completely uh unused now.

It's a big piece of land.

Yeah.

One ringading.

Okay, I think that's it.

All right, that's a wrap.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you.