Good evening.

Welcome to the April 16th, 2026 City of Napa regular meeting for the Planning Commission.

I would like to call this meeting to order and ask Myra to conduct a roll call.

Commissioner Ebach present.

Commissioner Masaro.

Here.

Commissioner Shotwell.

Present.

Vice Chair Myers.

Present.

And Chair Owen.

Present.

We will now rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation undervisible liberty and justice for all.

The Planning Commission conducts all meetings in accordance with the Ralph M.

Brown Act and pursuant to the city's rules of order for Planning Commission meetings.

Staff, are there any changes to this evening's agenda or any supplemental reports?

No updates.

Commissioners, are there any proposed changes to this evening's agenda?

All right, public comment.

Public comment provides an opportunity for members of the public to directly address the planning commission on items of interest not otherwise noted on the agenda.

Each speaker's comments will be limited to three minutes and will comply with the rules of order for planning commission meetings.

Do we have any members of the public who wish to provide public comments on non-agenda items?

Consent calendar.

These routine items may be approved by a single vote.

However, any member of the public or commissioner may remove an item for consideration during the public hearing portion of the agenda.

This evening we are reviewing the Planning Commission regular meeting minutes for March 19th, 2026.

Is there a motion to approve the meeting minutes for March 19th, 2026 Planning Commission regular meeting?

So moved.

And a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion passes.

Consent hearings.

These are items that are required to be noticed as a public hearing, but the city is not aware of any interest from the members of the public to comment on the items.

However, any members of the public or commissioner may remove an item from the consent hearing calendar, and the item will be considered during the public hearing portion of the agenda.

Tonight we have item 6A, El Rancho Grande, liquor service use permit at 891 Silverado Trail.

Is there a request from a commissioner or member of the public to pull this item from the consent hearing?

Is there a motion to approve the consent hearing as submitted?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Public hearings and appeals.

These are items that are formally presented to the planning commission and provide an opportunity for members of the public to comment.

Applicants or appellants are allowed 10 minutes to present testimony at the beginning of the public hearing.

And if needed, five minutes to present rebuttal at the end of the public hearing.

All other speakers will be limited to three minutes.

Tonight we have the following item.

Item 7A, Phoenix Ultra Lounge Use Permit at 1000 Main Street Suite 20.

We may start with Commissioner Disclosures.

No disclosures.

No disclosures.

I met with staff.

No disclosures.

I'm familiar with the space and I met with staff as well.

All right, thank you.

And we will now hear a report from staff.

Thank you.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Members of the public staff.

My name is Bond Mendez, Associate Planner, and I'm presenting the use permit for the Phoenix Lounge for the use permit for Phoenix Lounge.

Quick project overview.

Project is located at the north corner of Main Street and First Street.

The project is located within the downtown core commercial general plan designation and the downtown core commercial zoning designation.

The site is bound by other existing retail commercial and food and beverage establishments.

Oh, also uh the building itself that the suite is located in is a multi-tenant multi-story building.

And we'll get into where it's located within the building when we get to the floor plan.

For the description, as noted, the the applicant is requesting the use of a cocktail lounge, which by definition in the zoning code is a commercial establishment where the principal use is on-site sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages, which includes taverns and some similar uses.

And for that, a use permit is required by the planning commission to be approved.

Specifically, the applicant is requesting a type 47 on-site license from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

This would allow them to serve beer, wine, and spirits.

With the hours of operation, they're proposing Sunday through Thursday opening at 4 p.m.

closing at 12 a.m.

And then Friday and Saturday opening at 4 p.m.

closing at 2 a.m.

This is the ground floor plan of the building.

There are four tenant spaces on the ground floor as well as uh a lobby space into the building and a staircase that leads up to the upper floors.

Uh so the suite itself fronts off of First Street.

Uh the other uh entrance off of Main Street is occupied by uh Palisades and then the two tenants on on the back uh front the or face the the rear of the building.

This is the floor plan for the use.

So coming off of first street, which is on the right hand side of the image here, there would be two entrances into the building.

Uh once you enter into the suite, there's a floor area with built-in perimeter seating along the south, an office space for a manager and staff.

Uh moving up, we have the bar area on the left-hand side.

Continuing up is where the restrooms would be.

And then uh meaning back around to the entrance, there's additional built-in seating.

Uh the central area of the suite where it says open area is where the applicant would have non-fixed seating.

So they would have tables and chairs that could be manipulated and configured in different settings.

Uh, not to say that it would be empty.

It would just have non-permanent seating in that area.

They could always change it later, but for now, this is what they're proposing.

The applicant has identified uh safety and security measures, which includes having a manager on site at all times.

There would also be security guards, both stationed at uh locations at the door and then monitoring throughout the site or throughout the tenant space.

And they would also um be doing ID checks, managing occupancy levels, preventing loitering and de-escalating any conflicts.

Staff is required to uh provide justification for the listed findings as you have seen in the staff report and the resolution.

Um these are the findings that are needed to approve the use permit tonight.

A staff has determined the project is exempt from CEQA pursuant to section 15301 of the CQA guidelines, which exempts operation of existing public or private structures, uh which this is an existing structure with the tenant spaces going into the with the tenant going into the existing tenant space with uh tenant improvements in the future.

Staff's recommendation is to uh have the planning commission adopt a resolution, approving the use permit to allow a cocktail lounge at 1000 Main Street, suite 120, and to determine that the actions authorized by this resolution are exempt from CEQA.

Uh that concludes my presentation.

I'm available for questions, so the applicant is also in the audience for any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bond.

Does any commissioner have any questions for staff at this time?

No.

All right, we will now hear from the applicant.

Do they want to speak?

Do you know, Bond?

Do they have a presentation?

Uh not a not an actual PowerPoint presentation, but um I don't know if you want to speak or not.

Good evening, Commissioners.

We're just all very excited for this project.

Thanks for meeting with us tonight.

Um working years on it.

We're trying to bring uh something really upscale to Napa to similar to the rooftop.

Um want to uh cater to the tourist and the locals and just you know be a part of Napa.

We signed a 12-year lease, so we're hoping to stay here and be part of Napa for a long time.

So thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you.

Any commissioners have any questions for the applicant?

You know, I have a question that's really not within our purview.

I'm just curious.

Um, in terms of I understand there because I I studied the plans and even spoke with staff.

There's not a kitchen proposed, um, but there are potential like snack options that will be offered just simply because if it's a cocktail lounge, I would just hope that there's food, some type of food or snack available.

So if you could perhaps just speak to that.

So in the well, the storage area is now.

We we were originally trying to get a site 48 license, but there's none available in Napa.

So we uh transferred to a 47 and we uh emailed Bond and let her know that where the storage area is now.

Um we're gonna be put in the kitchen in there and we're gonna have uh you know TAPAs.

Um it's gonna be uh more of an upscale small small appetizers to accommodate the the cocktails.

So fabulous.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Does anybody else have any questions for the applicant?

No.

All right, I'm gonna open up public comment.

Staff, do we have any public comment cards?

I received none.

Okay.

All right.

Seeing as there are no more requests to speak.

Is there a motion to close public comment?

Motion to close.

Second.

Second.

All in favor?

Public comment is closed.

Are there requests for staff or the applicant to respond to anything else?

No.

All right, I'll bring it back to the commission.

Do we have any any other deliberating points we want to do?

All right.

All right.

All those in favor?

Do you have a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Um I'll make the motion.

That um the planning commission adopt a resolution approving a use permit to allow a cocktail lounge at 1000 Main Street, suite 120.

APN 00317202.

And determining that the actions authorized by this resolution are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act CEQA.

Second.

All those in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes.

We're excited.

Cheers.

Good luck.

We'll come cheers you in person.

All right.

Administrative reports.

Administrative report items include reports and recommendations from city staff that do not require a public hearing prior to action by the commission.

The commission may take action if the agenda description provides for it.

Only the planning commission may authorize public input for these items.

Is within the discretion of the chair and commission to allow public testimony.

And tonight we have items 8A and 8B, quarterly development reports from quarter four, 2025 and quarter one, 2026.

And we will now hear a report from staff.

I'm getting used to this new system, so one moment.

Thank you.

Good evening, Planning Commission and those in attendance.

Tonight, I'll be giving a brief presentation on the quarterly development report for the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.

So just to refresh you on what the quarterly development report is.

It's a courtesy report that planning staff provides to you each quarter to provide an overview of the planning applications that we're currently processing, as well as any residential building permits that have been issued.

So I'd like to make that distinction that it is by issuance.

So for quarter the fourth quarter of 2025, that would be from October 1st to December 31st.

And for the first quarter of this year, that would be from January 1st to March 31st.

So in the I I did provide as part of the agenda, there was a report detailing the specific applications and which category they fell into.

So for the fourth quarter, um it was just you know a continuation of some of the previous projects being approved.

Um, you know, we had kind of a slowdown in the in the end of the year.

We had some use permit projects that came you know before you as well as some smaller scale residential projects, as well as a lot of residential projects that really didn't result in any units, whether that be a historic home being renovated or um you know a remodel with no additional units being added.

So this table summarizes the projects that we received in the fourth quarter of 2025 versus the years past and residential permits received.

So there was a little bit of a downward trend, but still steady.

I think that some of the larger numbers came from perhaps some of the subdivision projects that had many permits that were were issued all at one time.

And to provide you with an overview of 2026, the actual memorandum, which breaks down the projects has changed a little bit since um the previous format.

So I updated the format of this memorandum to provide more of a description of what each project is.

Um, you know, even the ones that don't include residential units, just for clarity of why they're not adding to our housing stock, um, as well as the description of some of the use permits, which uh most of them uh if not all have gone to you for review, but there are certain use permits that remain at a staff level in industrial areas, so that's why you may see some that are in that non-residential category, which you haven't personally you know reviewed.

So that's why you may see some that are in that non-residential category, which you haven't personally, you know, reviewed.

But as an overview, residential permits issued in the first quarter are quite high.

A lot of these are from Napa Pipe, a couple from another smaller subdivision, but uh it's steady.

And then as for ADUs, it is a bit lower in the beginning of this year.

Uh but as I mentioned earlier, this is based on issuance.

So we'll likely see more ADUs receiving their final occupancy.

And so that's what we'll be able to report on in our housing element report.

And we'll see more numbers there.

Um but as for that, that that is an overview of the quarterly development report.

You know, we're always committed to giving more transparency to the commission and the public about what we've got on our desks.

So if you have any questions regarding the memorandum or the table, just please let me know.

I'm here to answer anything.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Does any commissioner have any questions?

I do.

Uh so how are we doing with um our housing element in relation how this how does this correlate to that?

And um and then I have another, I have one other quick question.

Yeah, so we just gave our housing element annual report this past February, just a couple of months ago.

Um so we are making steady progress.

I think that there are some larger projects that are in the pipeline either as pre-applications or you know, just receiving inquiries about some properties that can accommodate a lot of units, where we'll probably see some more progress towards arena numbers.

Um but uh you know, we're we're making progress towards our housing element goals in in several different ways by creating units and also by working towards some of our housing programs that are more um qualitative.

Great.

Yeah.

The second and last question is you may not know the answer to this, Angela, but do you know how um the homes at Napa Pipe are sell?

And I know it's no longer called Napa Pipe, it's the River Sound.

Yeah how uh how are those uh selling?

We don't have that data on on how the sales are going.

We know that they're being, you know, they're building out um for certain maybe somebody else has more of an update.

Looks like Molly's running up to the podium here.

I just hi, Molly Radigan, community resources and development director.

I actually just asked this question of Catellis.

Um and I don't know if it's on writer's report today, but sneak peek Catellus is transferring, they're gonna transfer the property and the ownership to a different um organization, I think in the next couple of days.

Um but they have sold all of the built lots and they are working on selling some of the dirt lots and starting the building as is the it doesn't mean that the sales necessarily close, but they have deposits and things on them.

So it sounds like these sales have improved.

Um I happen to go on their website, they are offering some pretty incredible um interest rates uh through their project.

So if someone's interested, you should check it out.

Thank you, Molly.

That was it.

Thanks.

Any other additional questions?

All right.

Well, seeing that there's no formal action required, we can move into just comments.

Thank you so much, Angela.

We can just move into the comments that portion of the evening.

Does anybody have any comments they want to share?

No.

Okay.

We welcome any.

And if you want, I can go into some some staff updates.

Sure.

Let's hear have quite a few.

I do appreciate um Commissioner Shotwell and Masaro attending Housing 101 that uh generation housing coordinated today with um Redwood Credit Union providing kind of a theoretical overview of um improving housing conditions within Napa County.

Um there were there was a good group of people um both in commission, city council, um, Napa County Board of Supervisors and from other jurisdictions.

So found that very helpful and insightful.

Um we do have an application, we received an application ministerial project for Jamboree again to revise their project at 515 Silver Auto Trail.

So our associate planner Bon Mendez is actually working on that one right now.

Um and more updates to come as that one progresses.

Um we had talked about in the last planning commission was the updates to the California Green Building Code for um bicycle parking requirements for multifamily.

And in discussions with um Trevor in our building division, there have been some updates as far as both short and long-term bicycle parking requirements for multifamily.

I will always add the caveat that it really depends on what the code is in the effect in effect at the time they submit plans for building permits.

So although that that is an added um requirement.

Not to say that you know, with a comprehensive zoning ordinance update, we'll be looking into those things as well.

But those code requirements are always subject to change on a cycle, so it really depends.

And at the time they submit plans, that requirement could actually be increased.

Um at the staff level in the middle of May.

So we'll we'll be able to publish that and share it with um both the public planning commission and just the community at some point thereafter.

Um as far as looking into our forecast, there are a couple of projects on the horizon that will require both CHC and Planning Commission consideration.

So ultimately up through City Council.

So just stay tuned with the planning agenda forecast as far as those items.

Um appreciate the participation in the joint session between both Planning Commission and City Council.

I think from a staff perspective, it was really helpful understanding kind of the the opinions that both the planning commission and city council had on the direction of downtown.

So that was I felt was very productive.

Um as far as the planning forecast, we we have some items that are coming up on the horizon as far as um May into June and July.

So just pay attention to that forecast.

And if you have any timing conflicts, feel free to to update staff on that.

And to to wrap it up, actually Angie had a few updates to provide.

Yes, I do have a quick update.

I've been volunteering at the animal shelter.

And writer gave me the opportunity to share with everybody listening at home and also with all of you folks that the the adoption fees are waived until this Sunday.

So an example of some of the very sweet babies.

I know all of their names, so if you like one, just let me know.

And then also some very sweet pups.

There is a variety of dogs, very nice dogs that are are looking for a home and bunnies.

I just didn't have another slide to put them on.

But yes, um eight to eight to four forty-five and closed for the lunch hour.

But I'll be there on Sunday walking a dog.

So if you see me there, say hello.

And then one more thing that I think um actually might be in of interest to you is uh planning staff has been working with Napa County staff for an ADU meeting here in the council chambers on the 30th.

And that would be to give residents some more information on the on the county's ADU loan program and also just about the general permitting process for ADUs.

Um so here we'll be happy to see you there if you are able to attend.

Um but otherwise we'll have to update you in the next planning commission meeting following that.

Is that April 30th?

April 30th, and I believe it's six to seven thirty.

But I I'll I'll make sure to get those details and and forward them over to you.

And I think we'll probably we're we're um getting some materials together from the county and maybe we'll be able to advertise it through this the city newsletter.

We'll talk more internally about that.

Great.

Thank you.

Yeah, of course.

Does the uh counties program differ than the cities?

Is it substantially different or um it's so the city's junior unit initiative program is limited to conversion and junior ADU units, so but you know, junior ADUs being within the existing primary dwelling unit or proposed dwelling unit, capped at 500 square feet.

Um their loan terms are for five years and it's renewable every five years.

Um sorry, city is 20.

20 years for a deed restriction.

And the county is for any type of ADU unit, five-year deed restriction, and then after those five years it can be renewed.

Um it does differ.

And the county's program is more wide in the terms of the units that it can be applied to, but I always tell folks that they're now competing with everybody in Napa County.

So that that is the caveat.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Thank you.

So those are d both detached and non-conversion, effectively like new units.

The counties program would be, yes.

The city's program would be limited to the conversion and the junior units.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, no problem.

And my daughter and I will keep our eye out for you at the shelter as we're both registered.

Oh, okay.

Yes, yeah.

You said cats.

Yeah, you should have a lot of things.

Yeah, she's male for the dogs, but we do cats and bunnies.

Oh, I'm always there for the cats.

So that's perfect.

Thank you, Angela.

All right, is that it?

Okay, well, the next regular scheduled meeting for the planning commission of the city of Napa is May 7th, 2026.

We are adjourned.