Music

Good evening.

You're supposed to say good.

You have stuff in the script.

But I'll start.

Good evening.

Welcome to the Thursday October 10, 2024, 5.30pm planning and

Design Commission meeting.

Sweden is now called to order.

Will the clerk please call roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you chair.

Members, if you could please unmute your microphones.

Commissioner Jean.

Yeah.

Commissioner Chase.

Yeah.

Commissioner Lomas.

Yeah.

Commissioner Buckley.

Is absent.

Commissioner Caden.

Yeah.

Commissioner Hernandez.

Yeah.

Commissioner Mosseus Reed.

Is absent.

Commissioner Young.

Yeah.

Commissioner Blunt.

Is absent.

Commissioner Reschke.

Yeah.

Commissioner Thompson.

Yeah.

And chair Wallace.

Here.

Thank you.

We have quorum.

All right.

I'd like to remind the public in chambers.

If you would like to speak on an agenda item, please turn in a speaker slip

when the item begins.

You will have three minutes to speak once you are called on.

After the first speaker, we will no longer accept slips for that item.

We'll now proceed with today's agenda.

Please rise for the opening the acknowledgments and honor of the Sacramento's

interdictionist peoples and tribal lands.

To the original people of this land, the Nisanan people, the southern Maidu,

Valley and Plains, Mewok, Patwin Wintin peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancharia,

Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today

on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice

of the acknowledgment and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples, history,

contributions, and lives.

Thank you.

Please remain standing for the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic,

which stands one nation under God, indivisible liberty and justice for all.

All right.

For service is the director's report.

Steve Schell.

Thank you, Chair.

On Tuesday this week, at City Council, the Council approved amendments to the Greenbrier Projects

Development Agreement.

This is related to assuring the construction of the Shore Vista Way Overcrossing over Highway 99.

Some of you might remember it as more as the Meister Way Overcrossing.

But the commission had recommended approval of this item to Council on September 12th.

And the second item I have tonight is that our next meeting on October 24th,

the city clerk will join us for a Brown Act training session.

So hopefully you'll all be able to make it and we'll see you there.

That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Stacia.

All right.

Next item is the consent calendar.

Do commissioners have any disclosures or recusals related to the consent calendar or anything they want to pull off?

Motion to approve.

I'm going to motion.

A commissioner chase.

A second.

Second.

Motion in a second.

Can we have a roll call, please?

Actually, Chair, before we do that, we did have one public comment just come in for the consent calendar.

For item number one on the consent calendar, I have Bill Farrell.

Did you intend to speak on the consent calendar?

Was there a different item?

I'm sorry.

Number two.

Pardon?

Was it for item two?

Did you mean it for item two?

Correct.

Okay.

We'll be right there.

Excellent.

Excellent. So I have a motion by Commissioner Hernandez and a second by Commissioner Chase.

I'll now do the roll call vote.

Commissioner Jean.

I.

Commissioner Chase.

I.

Commissioner Lamas.

I.

Commissioner Buckley is absent.

Commissioner Caden.

I.

Commissioner Hernandez.

I.

Vice Chair Young.

I abstain.

Commissioner Maussius Reed is absent.

Commissioner Blunt is absent.

Commissioner Reschke.

Hi.

Commissioner Thompson.

Abstain.

One moment.

That is seven votes.

The motion does pass.

Hi.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

All good.

We're rusty.

Thank you.

Okay.

Moving on to item number two.

This is applicant appeal for 860 Ardenway Conditional Use Permit, Major Modification.

C23-078.

Commissioners.

Are there any disclosures or recusals for this item?

I.

Commissioner Jean.

Hi.

I received an email from the applicant consistent with the staff report.

Commissioner Chase.

Similarly, I also received an email consistent with the staff report from the applicant.

Okay.

Commissioner Lamas.

I also received an email from the applicant consistent with the staff report.

There you go.

Me too.

Commissioner Hernandez.

Same for me.

Thank you.

Commissioner Caden.

Same for me.

Thank you.

Commissioner Thompson.

Thank you.

Commissioner Reschke.

Awesome.

Great.

Okay.

And now we have a presentation from Jose.

Good evening, commissioners.

Chair Walsh.

My name is Jose.

I'm the associate planner with the community development department.

This item is Z23-078, which is an applicant appeal of the zoning administrators' decision to deny the request to modify the conditional use permit for the existing gas station at 860 Ardenway.

The applicant seeks to change the ABC license type from a type 20 license, which allows for the sale of beer and wine to a type 21 license, which allows the sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits off our offside consumption.

In April of 2024, the zoning administrator denied the request, consistent with staff's recommendation, and the applicant subsequently filed an appeal.

On August 8th, 2024, the planning and design commission heard the item, and after some discussion voted to continue the item to the September 12 PDC hearing.

The commission's August discussion centered around the staff's interpretation of the policies in the environmental justice or EJ element of the 2040 general plan.

Questions related to the over concentration of alcohol sales, questions related to the police department review of the PCN, and the purpose and intent of classifying certain uses as non-conforming.

Although this hearing was initially scheduled for September 12, the applicant requested an automatic, constituents to opt to a intent.

As a reminder, during the August 8th hearing, the commission opened and closed public comment, and it is not required to reopen public comment today, but it is in your discretion to allow it if you so choose.

The project site is located at 860 Ardenway in North Sacramento, in addition to being located immediately adjacent to the Royal Oak's Light Rail station,

within a half mile of the project site, there are two mixed income housing developments, including one immediately adjacent to the site.

There are three parks, three schools, two child care centers, including one directly across the street, five faith congregations, and several residential neighborhoods.

There are also five type 20 and three type 21 ABC licenses.

There are total of eight findings of fact that are required to be made for an alcohol CUP to be approved.

On screen are the four findings required for all CUP modifications and the four findings required for alcohol sales CUPs.

For all CUPs, the decision makers must find that the proposed use is consistent with the general plan, consistent with zoning and other development standards,

suited on a situated on a suitable parcel and served by utilities and not detrimental to public health and safety of the surrounding area.

For alcohol related CUPs, decision makers must ensure that the proposed alcohol sales will not adversely affect the surrounding neighborhood, but it will not result in undue concentration of these establishments, will not enlarge a blighted area and will not be contrary to any redevelopment efforts.

Using the Healthy Places Index, Cal Envirus Screen and the Vision Zero Action Plan guidance from other publicly available guidelines and studies and with consideration of public testimony, including a signed petition with approximately 220 signatures opposing the project and a letter of opposition from the twin rivers unified school district.

Staff was unable to make two of the four standard CUP findings and unable to make three of the four alcohol sales CUP findings.

In some, staff was unable to make five of the eight findings, specifically staff found that the use is inconsistent with the general plan and other applicable plans and that the use will have detrimental effects to the surrounding area.

Regarding consistency with the general plan and other applicable plans, the 2040 general plans EJ element discourages new alcohol permits near food deserts, schools and pedestrian priority areas.

Despite the existing beer and wine sales at the site, staff considers this a new permit as the applicant must obtain provision from the local jurisdiction and from the California ABC to sell liquor.

There are many sensitive uses in the area, as mentioned earlier.

The area has a history of being disadvantaged and is identified so per Cal Envirus Screen and there are a number of policy documents available going back three decades with the goal of making this area more transit supportive, including the Vision Zero Action Plan.

Which identifies both Ardenway and Royal Oak Strife as being part of the high injury network.

Regarding the effects to public health, safety, convenience or welfare of the surrounding neighborhood and the creation of a nuisance, alcohol sales have secondary offside effects such as camping, loitering and littering.

These effects do not stop at the property line. California ABC states that communities with a high concentration of alcohol outlets experience a greater number of alcohol related problems.

Ardenway is a top 10 pedestrian priority corridor. Additionally, the Vision Zero Plan identifies areas near transit stations as being more likely to have vehicle and pedestrian cyclist collisions.

Accidents within 200 feet of transit station account for 54% of crashes, where a pedestrian is killed or seriously injured.

Allowing this use arguably extends the viability of the non-conforming gas station and is therefore detrimental to the goals of the Vision Zero Plan and the associated Safe Routes to School Program.

Of the four required findings of fact for alcohol sales, CUP staff was unable to make three. Specifically, the proposed sales will result in undue concentration.

The proposed sales will enlarge or encourage the development of a skid row or blighted area and the proposed sales will be contrary to or adversely affect any program of redevelopment or neighborhood concentration.

Conservation, sorry. Regarding undue concentration, there are eight businesses within a half mile of the subject's site selling alcohol, not including the project site.

Regarding the enlargement or encouragement of a blighted area, royal oaks station experiences, littering, loitering and camping and these are often secondary effects of alcohol sales.

Regarding redevelopment and neighborhood conservation, there has been significant investment of public and private dollars in this area, including streetscape improvements along Del Paso Boulevard, grant monies for façade upgrades to businesses, and infrastructure improvements from programs like Green Means Go.

In addition to the two privately developed mixed income affordable housing projects and other nearby notable private development.

These investments and other policy efforts are used to support the economic and revitalization efforts in this area.

So if the commission decides to approve the CUP modification tonight and grant the appeal, then the commission will need to provide staff with supporting facts for these five findings.

For the reasons stated above, staff continues to recommend denial of the applicants appeal for this modification. Thank you. That concludes my presentation staff, including police department staff are here to answer any questions. The appellan is here as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Jose. I believe in my discretion, I am able to reopen public comments since there are folks here who've come to give their testimony.

My name is David Morris. I've been a long time friend of the applicant and his family and they're very tight net and every operation that he's been involved with, he's improved the neighborhood of every place that he's done business.

Sometimes I get lost in the mix and his management and business management skills have been extraordinary. Great family and just want to say that. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is David Griffey followed by Larry Craig Arriba.

Hello, my name is David Griffey. I've known Mr. Singh for over 24 years and I do frequent some of his businesses and I can test to that he's always time vast improvements to all the buildings he's done in the neighborhood and Hansen in the neighborhood.

I frequent Wood Lake area a lot to buy alcohol down that way and would like to be able to purchase distilled spirits in that area without having to travel outside that area and I don't just don't see where that would actually increase vacancy or loitering by giving him the ability to do that.

I just want to say that. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Larry followed by Bill Farrell.

Good evening. Good evening. How y'all doing? Good, good. Larry is, you know, I'm one of the founders of brother brother. I'm wearing this is called rebranding you.

I'm doing a lot of work throughout district two not just Delta lights or something. I'm down there about the board.

But I just want to say that the things that do a lot for the, you know, for the community are not just finding bacon empty corrupted buildings and bringing them up to stand and making it a business.

A good business. I go about the gas station quite a bit to Chevron and it's one of the cleanest and the empties of all of them in that area I would say.

So I just say I hope it does. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Our final speaker this for on this item is Bill Farrell.

Hello commission. My name is Bill Farrell. I stayed out of this issue for a while and I got a notice from the neighborhood association today. And so I thought I would come in and give my two cents.

I've been active in the wood like in North Sacramento for 38 years.

I ran that North Sacramento Journal newspaper was the economic revitalization coordinator on Del Paso Boulevard for seven years when it actually had businesses.

And so in a license, I'll call a beverage control license owner for 47 or eight years. And I know the difficult situation that small businesses have now.

And when the applicant that that gas station was vacant for quite a few years and being next to light rail, some people would think that would be an incentive to business or it would help you.

But it's actually not a good location. We have five of the most underutilized light rail stations in the whole system.

I refer to them as loot rail. There's no immediate benefit we get from it. The applicant has been working diligently the entire time to rid the plague of what goes on at that at that station.

And if it wasn't for him, it would be real bad. My wife and I complained to our teeth for years. And it's his diligence that's making the difference in that corner.

But to get back to small businesses that we are in a food desert. We are in it's just a very difficult part of town to live in.

And so when we have a good operator, we have plenty of bad liquor license owners that when I was the revitalization coordinator on Del Paso, we had 23 or 27. It was a big number.

Now we're down to just a handful. And the few that we have are the ones that residents of North Sacramento should be addressing.

They're liquor stores that have been there for a long time that are just incredibly bad players. And so what I fear is that we have a good player that's trying to shift with the dynamics of the economy to keep it ongoing business going.

He saw sponsors softballed up little league teams and football teams and he's really active. And the fear is that the challenges of operating a small business overcome by just being stagnant because you have to be quick on your feet to have a small business to change.

Thank you for your comments. Your time is complete. Thank you.

I have no more speaker slips on this item.

Thank you, Claire. Okay.

Are there any questions for staff from the commission or discussion?

Nice to hear you on.

Yeah, I think I was hoping to ask is the captain for city of Sacramento present for some additional questions?

I'm not exactly the least on a dog more in place of captain Chandler. He's unavailable tonight.

Okay. Great. Thank you. I think we're hoping to just at least I am just hoping to get a just a better idea of sort of conditions in that immediate area.

If you can maybe give us a little bit more of a report of just are we seeing kind of incidents of drunk driving?

Are we seeing incidents of loitering with folks who are drunk and just kind of just commenting on what the general safety of that area as relates to some of the comments and concerns by the community?

Thank you for your question. And first I want to start by saying I really appreciate the commission's time on this matter and it is very important for our north Sacramento area and our community.

I do have a report that I think will help answer your question. I have, you know, I can start at the top and list certain type classes of calls we respond to in that area and this report was pulled from a thousand feet radius.

So for example, 167 disturbance types calls and now also I also want to preface with this information that this is not directly related to 860 yard and this is just that general area.

So I think that's what is germane to your question. Sir is you wanted to know kind of a general sense of that area.

So this is not specifically to that address, but it could be in that general facility.

Again, traffic stops you mentioned like maybe a DUI or what not maybe it would be incorporated that there was generally 104 traffic stops within a thousand feet and then other calls from suspicious subjects or circumstances, 53 calls like domestic violence calls.

There were 32 in within and I'm sorry the inclusive dates that these calls that I'm referencing are from July 2nd, 2023 to July to August 1st of 2024.

So a year's time. Sorry, I didn't clarify that.

Other calls were like misdemeanor assaults and progress. There's approximately 14 in that time span and then like a vandalism which would be a general nuisance to that area, you know, call type call to the residents.

There was approximately 10 vandalism reports. So that's a snapshot of what we see in that area and I hope that answers your question.

I think that was helpful. Does anyone have any follow-up questions? I did have one more just as far as general homelessness in that area.

Can you maybe speak to that as far as loitering in that area?

I don't have a specific data with the number of unhoused that might live in that specific area, but it is an area Sacramento that there are unhoused individuals that frequent that facility.

Thank you.

I have a question for you from commissioner and this.

Thank you, chair. Thank you for being here and for providing local context for a look back of one year in that particular area.

You know, you mentioned 160 disturbances, 32 domestic violence, 10 vandalism calls.

So of these calls, can you tell us a little bit more number one about, you know, what happened and how many of them were truly like, I don't know if there was just a call and then somebody was arrested.

Maybe the severity if you can provide context there as well as these numbers. Some of them sound like a lot. Some of them sound like a little.

If you were to look at a similar region elsewhere, how does this compare? I just want to understand like, what are we looking at and how in the broader context for the city?

Is this really, really bad situational awareness with these crimes that you're listing or is it, you know, where on the spectrum does it fall?

I appreciate that clarification and I don't have any, this is the metadata. I don't have any specific stril down as far as the results with with respect to this and then the juxtaposition between other areas of the city.

You know, if I were to opine on and this is just a decent amount of calls. This definitely isn't relative to other areas of the city. I don't have that comparison.

This, you know, these are as our officers respond. There's, it's a busy, busy area of our city for our officers to handle 911 calls in this specific vicinity.

If you're clear, thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Okay. Any other discussion questions for this question for the police? Okay. Okay. So I think that's no further questions for now.

And then move on to Commissioner Zon. Thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you, Chair. My question is for staff. I just wanted to clarify or if you could clarify one of the reasons that the applicant has cited in providing type 21 alcohol sales is to help fund the installation of EV charging stations and in the staff report.

It says that that would actually further entrench the site's nonconforming use. So can you explain what that means? Like does that mean that if in the future they were to apply to install EV charging stations.

Those will not be supported by staff or what does that mean?

So the gas definition in the city code also includes not just gasoline. It's any type of fuel which would include electric vehicle charging. So adding electric vehicle charges to to this site would be expanding the nonconformity and nonconforming uses are allowed to expand but they would require a CV.

And not to say that you have to make that decision today but would that be something that would be likely supported or unsupported by staff should that come to.

I can't say that I can speak to that now. It would really depend on the context at the time when it comes in.

Okay. Thank you. That's all. Thanks.

Thank you, Commissioner Zon. Vice Chair, yeah.

So follow a question on the aspect of a legally nonconforming use. So it sounds to me.

Does a legally nonconforming use automatically not compatible with the general plan?

I would say so once the decision making body passes didn't the new regulations, the existing businesses then become nonconforming.

Okay. And so then the but yet at the same time planning staff will entertain changes to the legal nonconforming use but it is the changes that is subject to the scrutiny as to whether or not that will be accepted.

Okay. And I think and the reason why I'm kind of going through this exercise right is is I think we're trying to think through kind of how to go about whether or not we agree or if we don't agree have another kind of solution here and I think the challenge is that this is a legally nonconforming use.

So I think the thing proposed here is a CUP for the addition of additional alcohol sales. So I don't know what the square footage I think I saw a schematic of I think 64 square feet of beer wine and a beer and then 11 square feet of wine and then the proposal is to add approximately 64 square feet of

the alcohol, you know, subject to the 21 license. Is that correct?

So the 2017 modification that planning staff added the conditions to the permit beer and wine coolers. They are allowed seven wine shelf storage. They're allowed eight square feet and as you're

there are requesting 64 square feet of liquor of shelving for liquor and there seems to be some discrepancy with what was provided in the schematic versus what's actually at the store. So we don't have a clear idea of how many coolers are actually in use and how much shelf space is actually being used for beer and wine at this time.

So someone's coming up. Is that the owner? Oh, to clarify.

Thank you.

We have six beer and wine.

Fair lot seven.

I have six.

Oh, could you speak into the mic please? I'm sorry.

We have, we're allowed to have seven and we currently have six beer and wine cooler doors. Just to clarify that he didn't know what we had.

So what's being proposed is a cabinet behind the register and that's about approximately 64 square feet and that is, is that correct?

It would be.

Yeah, I don't know off the top of my head. I'm really about measurements, but probably approximately there's just some additional space and is the cabinet covered.

So we can have it be covered right now. We would have to build it.

Okay. Okay.

So, so I think kind of the discussion that I'm just trying to frame for the group at least from my perspective is, you know, our.

This is a legally nonconforming use. The question is, can are we comfortable approving additional square footage for increased alcohol sales for this community?

We've had a handful of folks who are saying, no, they're not comfortable with the increased alcohol sales planning staff has also commented that increased alcohol sales is not something that they are recommending.

And we've had a handful of community members who are also supportive of this understanding that they, they want to see your business viable.

And, and so I think I'm just trying to do my best to kind of summarize the issues.

I think the tension for us as planning commissioners, right? We are, I think it's great that you are doing so much for the community.

And you have proven yourself to be an operator who cares about the surrounding neighborhood and doing all you can to mitigate whatever type of impacts may, may be happening in that area.

And we're also bound to kind of follow these conditions of approval that have been laid out by the planning staff.

And so I think for me that that's the tension that I'm trying to resolve. And so one of the questions I had, and again, this is a possible solution.

And I just don't know if this is something you're amenable to.

Would you be amenable to limiting the amount of overall square footage spaced to what you have now, but be able to sell 21 license alcohol.

So if for example, you know, there's 65 square foot total space in that area that's presently being utilized, but you in turn are comfortable with saying, you know what, I'll take, I'll subtract some of the space for beer.

And then I'll take some of that space for the 21 license to me in my mind that would just be a net neutral.

There's no addition of additional alcohol sales space. And I think to me, I guess in my mind, I don't really see a change so to speak in kind of the operating elements of that space.

But I'd love to hear from you. Yeah, that's something that we're okay with.

Any conditions that need to be met to make this thing pass, we're willing to entertain.

And that sounds like one that seems pretty fair overall. Just limiting. Okay.

All right, with that out yield, see if anyone else has any comments before I make any proposals.

Thank you. I sure am. Commissioner Ryszki.

I also have a question for the applicant, which is, do you have any policies for your employees, such as like using discretion, like do they have discretion when not to sell alcohol to someone like is there a policy that if someone's visibly intoxicated or has keys in their hand that they're not to sell to them and how often does that happen?

I mean, if someone is, we have the right to a few service to anyone we want. If someone's a trouble maker, we usually just refuse service and we stop serving them in general.

If they just constantly have issues, if they are going to throw up drunk, that's more than likely going to cause issues and we can we wouldn't serve them. Yeah.

Thank you. How often it happens?

Okay.

For example, last time I went to one of my station and I saw one of my customers asking other customers to go by alcohol and I stopped talking to him.

I said, what's going on? He said, your employees don't sell me.

So when I went to my manager, ask him what happened. He said, I could see he was not.

So I can confidently say that my employees are following the regulations, you know, if they don't feel comfortable, they refuse.

So I asked him to leave, don't ask other customer to ask alcohol. So that, yes, my managers are capable to stop saying, no, we can't sell it to you.

You have to drink, go home, go to sleep. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Caden.

Thank you and appreciate the comments from Vice Chair Young. I think he sort of mailed what I'm feeling on this and I guess just to lay out the way I'm thinking about it, you know, the use is already there, right?

And I think to me that's important. I understand it's a new CUP. I understand it's a new license, but to me the store being there does change how I'm thinking about this a little bit.

It is a fairly small site. You know, it's not realistically a site to me that would be redeveloped anytime soon, especially given the size and given the use and the environmental remediation that I think would be necessary at a gas station.

As I understand it, it's not really contributing to it being a skid row or blighted area, which was, I know, one of the things we needed to say and in fact, based on public comment, the applicant has done a fairly successful job. It sounds like of cleaning the site up.

So I guess I'm not convinced that a small expansion of alcohol sales or just a changing even of the alcohol sales would be like detrimental to the public health and safety.

And I think to me, denying this permit feels a little unnecessarily punitive, I guess, to what seems like a great member of the community. So I'd be inclined to support the proposal that Vice Chair Young just laid out.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Nandis.

Thank you, Chair. I want to thank the commissioners for the thoughtful questions and discussions. Vice Chair for laying out sort of the assembly of where we are and the appellants and the business owners who are here today clearly really care about this issue.

I appreciate your openness and willingness to discuss it and be open to conditional conditions. So my question is a follow-up question for staff. If we can get your reaction to what we was laid out by the Vice Chair and by the appellants to limit the square feet.

Yes, thank you. We would want to have a further discussion with the applicant to understand the total shelf space devoted into these coolers. The cooler condition is a bit ambiguous because coolers can vary in size.

We would want to understand that a little bit more. Go out to the site, you know, measure how many shelves they have within each of these coolers. And then we could translate that into like an actual square footage of shelf space to make sure that we're not exceeding the total amount of what's currently there and what you're having been discussing as part of these proposed conditions.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

So I would like to follow up for that. Is that something that we could direct you to do like if we deny the staff recommendation and bring back the conditions we could include that in this? Or should we continue how should we approach that?

Part of your motion. We first we would need findings for the five that we were unable to make. Second, you can include the discussion relative to the conditions and direct staff to kind of unravel this and we would bring back what that looks like and that recommendation back to you.

Thank you. All right. Commissioner Lomas.

Thank you, Chair. And we're in Commissioner comments, right?

Just in this one.

I just want to thank everyone for their participation in this item. I know it's not an easy discussion. There's a lot of factors that we're all trying to weigh and making a decision here.

And so I do want to be responsive to some of the letters that were included in this app report. There was a letter several letters, but one of them included about I think 200 signatures of community members in opposition of the proposal to expand the alcohol sales.

And I know one of the big thoughts that are going through my mind is this kind of threshold to pass with adversely affecting the peace and general welfare of the surrounding neighborhood.

We heard from the police department that there are these calls that have been documented are a lot, right? They're not minimal.

And that it keeps the areas fairly busy with officers responding to calls in this area. So I'm trying to be responsive to that and acknowledge it and acknowledge that there is still some concerns that I'm having in terms of this area and increasing another layer of alcohol consumption.

And I'm trying to be responsive to the public transit stop and the public spaces nearby. And so I'm balancing that with the support that we've heard from the applicant or the appellant about being a good operator and involvement in the community.

And so it makes it difficult because I get a sense that there is good faith effort to be an integral part of the community to support other businesses and other efforts in the community for the betterment of the area.

So the decision we make now will supersede this one operator and will be in effect in perpetuity. I think I don't know, it is forever. But for a long time. Right. And so with that, I still personally remain a little hesitant to entertain the approval of expanding the type of alcohol sales in this area.

Thank you. I yield my time.

Commissioner Lamas. Commissioner Chase.

Thank you, Chair. Kind of billion, I think some of the comments of my commission, Lamas.

That's where a lot of my concern lies. What's great today may not be great tomorrow. And once we've approved this, you know, it's there. So I think we need to separate the character of the current owner and the entitlement that we are being asked for tonight.

That said, though, there are, you know, I'm looking at have gone through the staff report of the there are four conditions that we must meet to, you know, to approve this to allow it to pass.

There are two that I do have an issue with and I think I could not support one is that the proposed alcoholic beverage sales will not result in an undue concentration of establishments dispensing alcoholic beverages.

I think we have seen from maps that in effect would it's been documented by staff and by the maps for proposed and living there. We do have enough.

I'm putting the applicant aside as a person who probably has great moral standards, but the next person may not.

The other issue that I have a concern with is the item D and I forget what page I'm on here in the staff reports, how to kick online.

The proposed alcoholic beverage sales will not be contrary to or adversely affect any program of redevelopment or neighborhood conservation.

I'm reminding that this area is in line for neighborhood development action team study similar to what was done at Stockton Boulevard looking at the future development, which this city, you know, this area really needs that attention.

Looking at development of how it can be improved. We've heard some of the issues of the district, but the end at here I think it's going to be looking at Arden Del Paso, Mary'sville, ways to improve it.

And is this use going to in any way have a negative effect on that study? Don't know, but I can't say that it would definitely have a positive effect.

So for that, I'm concerned about it getting in the way, if you will, of moving forward with what we want to see happening here.

I'm also concerned that it's a potential extension of a nonconforming use, which we always know it's difficult to get rid of nonconforming uses.

And then finally, and again, I say this as a resident of the area. And as the former WD State Architect for California, I was involved in the overseeing the design and construction of public schools throughout the state.

One of the programs that was developed, and I think it was referenced in the police in the staff report, is a program called Safe Root to Schools.

So that kids throughout everywhere have a good Safe Root to get to schools. I've walked that route for the kids who are currently living in the, that they're really, really nicely done affordable housing project next to immediately east of this site, who are going to be getting to most likely wood like elementary school, which was south and around the corner.

They have got to go through a very, very tight area between telephone poles and arrow sidewalks. It is not in any way what I would consider a safe route to school as it is to add potentially more traffic.

And we don't know if it would or not, but to add the increase from the type 20 to the tech 21 license possibly adding more traffic exacerbating the issue of the Safe Roots to school.

Again, my comments are all I need to indicate they have absolutely nothing to do with the applicant here in terms of what they're offering.

They have everything to do with the potential use though that is being used, used as for for this land that we carry it. So with that, I would, yeah, probably are more comments to come, but I would make a motion to support the staff report to deny the applicant.

So we have a motion.

There's a motion. Yes. Thank you, Chair.

We have. Thank you. Commissioner Chase and Commissioner Zhang.

Thank you, Chair. So Commissioner Chase just mentioned it, but one of the notes that I took down here is, you know, my concern continues to be with the over concentration.

I think that that to me is kind of glaring when we saw the map that there's eight other.

There's eight other.

There's eight other establishments in the area that provide type 21 and type 20 alcohol sales.

The other thing too is regarding the square footage.

I think the concern from most of the speakers who are opposed to approving the CUP is not so much the square footage, but is the type of alcohol that's going to be sold.

So from that perspective, I think that, you know, changing up the square footage to how much is allocated towards the lower alcohol content to higher alcohol content.

I think it's not going to be the answer for the folks in the neighborhood who are going to be impacted by by the CUP.

Why the CUP approval. So I think with that, I would like to second Commissioner Chase's motion.

Thank you.

The motion is second. Thank you, Commissioner Zhang.

Commissioner Thompson.

Thank you.

So as I'm going through this and listening to the comments from such a fantastic group of commissioners, this is a tough one.

Thank you for summing it all up.

And I think the biggest piece that I keep struggling with is that it's already a non-conforming use, the basis of the business is.

And then we have this alcohol permit that's already been approved and is going.

And now the ask is to take something that's already existing and up at a level.

So as I look through the conditions of approval that do need to be proven, I'm really struggling with how they come into effect without this already being there.

And I'm just stating that it contributes to detrimental public health safety and welfare.

It's already there. And I don't see any separation and finding of how there's an additional level of spirits that makes that worse in our code that that brings us to attention.

So how can we state that it's going to be more so when it's already there is the part where I'm overall struggling with.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Thompson.

Without alternatives, do you want to speak the public you can come speak?

I wanted to say a few things.

So there were eight licenses in that area and I think they stay with the building or the land.

So two of the locations are closed and one of them is a ride aid that did have a type 21.

It's now a furniture store. I don't think they're going to be selling anymore.

And then across the street from that is a wall grain set of type 20 that's also closed now and is opening tomorrow as a dollar general.

I did talk to them. They said they have no plans of alcohol. Obviously that could change.

But those are two things to take into consideration. Two of the eight are now gone.

And as far as I can tell, aren't going to come back. But yeah, I just want to throw that out there.

There's a concentration thing is a hard thing because how do I know what's over concentrated?

There's no clear line.

And then I wanted to do some more points, but I've forgotten now because you guys too many of them at the same time.

Yeah, I think that's all for now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Pleasure, young.

Just to follow up question from the planning staff after those comments.

So he said two of those spaces are no longer operating.

So, but the CUP for the 21 license still remains or alcoholic license still remains on that land use correct?

Or do they need to reapply if they are going to if a new operator is going to come in?

So a couple of comments on that. If you're building exceeds 15,000 square feet in gross floor area, you are not required to get ACUP.

So that's typically the case with drug stores like Walgreens and Rite Aid.

And also I think we identified some of these alcohol licenses in the area were established prior to the CUP requirement from the city.

So they have what we refer to as a deemed CUP.

But what we identified on the map is what are the ABC records that we have the ABC data.

Okay, so were those two spaces included in the ABC data?

Yes.

Okay.

That would not change your that would not change your analysis correct because it still runs with the land.

Correct. Yes.

I think we've had a pretty good level of conversation here.

I want to really quickly acknowledge that I appreciate that you guys are a good operator and not a lot of folks in the community have stepped up on your behalf.

I also noticed that this seems to be a conflict between neighborhood associations and that there's slightly different opinions depending on the neighborhood and that might have something to do with who's impacted and who isn't.

But I'm not sure.

But I would like with that to call the vote.

I'm here. Commissioner's if you please unmute your microphones.

Commissioner Zhang.

I.

Commissioner Chase.

I.

Commissioner Lomas.

I.

Commissioner Buckley is absence.

Commissioner Caden.

No.

Commissioner Hernandez.

Commissioner Maussee's read is absence.

Commissioner Young.

No.

I'm muted myself. No.

Sorry.

Commissioner Bluntz is absence.

Commissioner Rechke.

No.

Commissioner Thompson.

No.

Commissioner Lee.

Commissioner Lee.

And chair Wallace.

No.

The motion fails.

We can do a new proposal.

Oh.

I see.

So.

My recommendation is to take away.

Yeah.

What we need is so.

Yeah.

So the proposal needs to include all of the alternative findings of fact.

And the recommendation for conditions.

Right.

Okay.

I'll try my best.

Because I think that's.

So I think the proposal is to.

To approve the CUP with a condition of approval that.

No.

That there is a zero net gain.

In beer wine alcohol sales period.

However, staff chooses to determine.

What that is.

Therefore, the operating characteristics being.

Presented for this legally nonconforming use.

R is a net zero.

Is how I'm logically putting everything together in my mind.

And so therefore.

Part A. I would.

I think.

I think I need to provide a policy as far as it's consistent with the general plan.

Is that correct?

Because it's already a legally nonconforming use.

So I, that part I'm struggling with.

Yes.

Typically in part of our review of general plan consistency.

We look at the goals and policies as direction.

Okay.

So.

I would look at.

E one point eight.

City should endeavor to maintain an economic development strategic plan to guide.

City strategic economic development initiatives periodically reviewing and updating it to keep current with market conditions and economic trends.

I would also cite.

E one point seven.

The city should endeavor to position itself as a destination for business actively promoting Sacramento assets and collaborating with the.

The city.

And other local and regional business and employment groups.

So I think I think my logic here is really.

I think the challenge here right is the general plan is really designed for us to be thinking forward.

And trying to do our best to envision the type of spaces that we want to see happen.

And I think the challenge is here we have city council back in 2012, I believe.

Past this space is a legally nonconforming use or granted.

Back in back in the day.

I'm not even going to like give a year.

So it's granted it.

And so we have an operator here who's providing some form of economic development to the neighborhood.

There's there's groceries. There's other elements to this land use space besides just alcohol.

And so.

So in my mind, I'm just trying to say let's continue as a city to support.

Good economic development operators.

I'll be it. It's a small business. I get it.

But at the same time.

So let's say as a city, we're saying that we want to continue to support our small businesses.

Now when it comes to the alcohol licenses, I going to your other findings of fact.

Sorry, let me get back to it.

The proposed use and its operating characteristics are consistent with the applicable standards, requirements, zoning district, and all the other.

So let's say that given the fact that this is a net zero gain in alcoholic sales space, this is consistent because we are not asking for any kind of change in in the operating use.

Number at C, letter C, situated in a parcel that is physically suitable in terms of location.

I think that speaks for itself. That's good. We good there.

As far as the operating characteristics again, this is a net zero change to the space as far as alcohol sales are concerned.

And so the operating characteristics are not adding more detriment to the public health safety and convenience welfare of the persons.

I would just add that part of the challenge when I was reading the staff report is that the the blighted conditions, the crime or whatnot, I mean they exist.

I had a very difficult time accepting the fact that the alcohol sales from that store are providing cause.

Are they also providing more conditions for blight in that neighborhood?

Again, I, you know, the 64 square feet additional space that just challenged me, I guess, to be able to accept that assertion.

That said, I also want to commend staff for, you know, these are the types of conditions when we're thinking about land use that we're really trying to protect our communities.

So I appreciate, you know, kind of setting the board, right, for us to be thinking about this.

That said, I'm going back to my net zero argument for D.

So then we have to go to the sub point A, A, B and C, right, the second, Salvo.

I'll correct this specific findings related to alcohol sales.

All right.

The proposed alcohol will not adversely affect the piece or general welfare, the surrounding neighborhood.

Again, I would assert that that is the case because work, it's net zero.

B proposed alcoholic beverage sales will not result in undue concentration of establishments.

Again, this is net zero. This was already an existing use.

Thank you, applicant. I guess we're saying that there are two less operating beverage alcoholic beverage spaces in the area.

Is that good enough for me? Assertion?

Sure. Okay. It's your finding.

This is why I'm trying to be as logical as possible, right?

So C proposed alcoholic beverages will not enlarge or encourage the development of a skid row or bledded area.

Again, net zero.

We're not encouraging any more development of skid row or bledded area.

And then D proposed alcoholic beverages sales will not be contrary to or adversely affect any program or redevelopment association.

Again, net zero.

I think that the fact that there is a non-conforming use already there, to me when I think about redevelopment of a site, that unto itself is not a deterrent to redevelopment.

So if I want to redevelop the area, I just got to buy the site and repurpose it.

So I think having an additional alcohol sales or the ability to sell hard liquor, if I'm wanting to redevelop an area, that's not going to deter me from buying that site.

So is that sufficient?

That is sufficient for me. Thank you, Vice Chair.

All right, thank you. So that's my proposal. Is that my motion? That's my motion.

Thank you. That's my motion.

All right. Clarification, second discussion.

Motion Hernandez.

All right. It was second from Commissioner Hernandez. Any discussion?

Okay. Please take the vote.

Thank you, Chair. Members, if you could please unmute your microphones. Commissioner Zhang.

The tough one. I think, you know, like my commission, fellow commissioners were saying we want to support small business, but at the same time, I keep thinking back to the general plan and the goals of the general plan and the concerns of the citizens who are in district two who have been vocal both online and in person.

And I have to take all that into consideration. So for me, this is going to be a no.

Commissioner Chase. No.

Commissioner Lomas. No.

Commissioner Buckley is absent. Commissioner Caden.

Aye.

Commissioner Hernandez.

Aye.

Commissioner Mossius Reed is absent. Commissioner Young.

Chair Blunt is absent. Commissioner Rechky.

Aye.

Commissioner Thompson.

Just want to comment real quick.

I completely agree with you, Commissioner Zhang. Following the 2040 plan is our guideline to make this city more amazing.

But I think the other piece that makes that 2040 plan important and what this commission does important is that there are cases that need to be looked at specifically.

What is the guide, but we do also get the opportunity to look at individual circumstances like this one that have layers of complexity that are happened long before this awesome plan came about, where we get to still help guide it towards better without having to be rigidly attached to it.

Thank you.

And chair Wallace.

Aye.

Motion fails.

Commissioner Hernandez.

Thank you, chair. So seeing as we're at an impasse, what is the appropriate next step do we need a motion to continue for a date certain?

You might move to continue it to a date certain when you might have more commissioners present who could be able to pass a motion.

That's what I would recommend at this point.

Follow up question to staff. What are the next dates for the most appropriate next dates for consideration?

October 27th and November 24th and November 14th, I think are the next two dates.

So if your motion is to continue the item for further discussion, then the next date would be fine.

If you're directing staff to bring back anything that will take more substantial time to put together, then I would recommend the 14th of November.

So I'll make a motion to continue the item to November 14th to allow staff time to work with the appellants and iron out some of the conditions.

Did you want us to bring bring conditions related to some.

I think it's appropriate to maybe just at least research it.

I think it's appropriate to figure out kind of the space and whatnot.

The square footage.

Yeah, the square footage.

When we are ready, we can provide more specificity on the motion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Rezky.

I don't know if this is relevant, but the report on page 28 has the square footage and the percentage of.

I'll go for the actor.

Okay.

Yeah, that's what I was looking at.

I will second.

Commissioners.

Hernandez is motion.

Let me take the vote.

Thank you chair.

Mr. Zhang.

Hi.

Commissioner Chase.

So could you repeat the motion?

The motion is to continue the item to November 14th.

And when staff brings it back, we will have firmer idea of what the numbers look like in terms of square footage of.

Shelf space that's devoted to alcohol sales.

Thank you.

I.

Commissioner Lomas.

I.

Commissioner Buckley's absence.

Commissioner Caden.

I.

Commissioner Hernandez.

I.

Commissioner Young.

I.

Commissioner Blunt's absence.

Commissioner Rezky.

I.

Commissioner Thompson.

And chair Wallace.

Hi.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Thanks, folks.

Looking on to item number three.

Is there any disclosures or recusals for this item?

Stockton Boulevard plan hearing draft in EIR.

Seeing none.

Presentation.

I'll set. Okay. Good evening. I am Alexiordell associate planner with the community development

department's long range planning team. Tonight I will provide an overview of the stocked

and Boulevard Plan and it's accompanying EIR or environmental impact report with a recommendation

that you pass a motion to forward a recommendation to city council to adopt the stocked and boulevard

plan, certify its EIR and approve its water supply assessment report.

On May 9th staff presented to the planning and design commission an update on the stocked

and boulevard plan and its two main components. The specific plan which supports streamlined

infill development especially for housing along the 4.5 mile stocked and boulevard corridor

and the neighborhood action plan which centers on identifying and addressing community priorities

and the 23 diverse neighborhoods surrounding and including stocked and boulevard. We highlighted

the planning process which was driven by significant community engagement and shared

how the anti displacement values which are shown here and community priorities became

the foundation of the plan. Last May we were gathering feedback on the public review draft

and we emphasized the importance of reflecting community voice throughout. Since then very

few changes have been made to the plan but are between the public review draft and the hearing

draft that you're seeing tonight. It's important to note that the community priorities remain the same

and guide the plan's policies and actions. We received a range of comments on the public

or on the hearing draft most of which were general and does not result in substantial changes.

The plan was updated to include historical context about indigenous peoples' enforced

displacement and there were specific details like incorrect street names and policy clarifications

that were corrected. Additionally as I mentioned the community priorities are the same from

the previous draft but additional ongoing efforts that the city is currently addressing

were added particularly in environmental and cultural areas. Most other comments were handled

by referring to existing policies in the 2040 general plan or other adopted plans again without

making major changes to the stocked and boulevard plan. Accompaning the plan is its EIR technical

report that analyzes the potential environmental impacts associated with the plan's implementation.

The report also identifies ways to address or minimize significant impacts and this process began

in 2021 and last spring when staff presented to the commission the draft EIR was still being prepared.

The plan EIR relies on the 2040 general plan master EIR and therefore it could not be completed

until the 2040 general plan and its EIR was adopted this past spring. This summer the stocked

boulevard plan draft EIR was finished and circulated for public review in that 45 day public review

period extended from June 21 to August 7 and during that period written comments from six public

agencies were provided to the city again which represented only minor clarifications and considerations.

These comments were reviewed by staff who provided responses and revisions to the EIR which are

detailed in the final EIR. While many impacts are found to be less than significant

either with or without mitigation measures there remains some significant impacts which are

unavoidable despite mitigation measures. Mitigation measures have been developed for each of these to

reduce the impacts as possible though as I mentioned these impacts remain significant and unavoidable.

There are 13 significant unavoidable impacts across five topics including air quality cultural

resources, noise and vibration, transportation and circulation and tribal cultural resources

shown here color coded.

As mentioned the project has eliminated or substantially lessened all significant and potentially

significant effects of the specific plan on the environment where feasible. The benefits of

the stocked boulevard plan outweigh the risks as the plan provides a comprehensive guide for

infill development and redevelopment along stocked boulevard establishing goals policies and actions

that support inclusive community revitalization and the plan aligns with the city's vision of

promoting diverse housing options, economic opportunities, cultural expression and a healthy

environment while encouraging growth on underutilized land.

Tonight staff seeks the planning and design commissions recommendation to city council

to adopt the stocked boulevard plan again certifies EIR and accompanying water supply assessment report

which is a required component of the specific plan to identify water supply demand for development projects.

The plan represents years of collaboration between the city and the community and presents

a path forward that balances development with equity and sustainability. Following tonight's meeting

the plan and EIR will be presented to city council for final adoption and certification which

is scheduled for October 22nd and after adoption we will implement the plan including releasing

the stocked boulevard pilot grant and track progress on the identified actions.

Similar to what we have done for the Forward Together Action Plan we will be offering $700,000

in pilot grants to support community led implementation of the plan. We are learning from the forward

together plan and will be adjusting the program for the stocked boulevard plan grants.

And we currently have a pilot survey out to build awareness of the upcoming grant funding

opportunity and to seek feedback on how the program should be designed and we are encouraging

people right now to take that survey and pass it on to others and so we don't have specifics at

this time but we do have Michele DeVilla a senior project manager here with us tonight from the

office of innovation and economic development who is available to answer questions.

So that concludes staff's presentation. I thank you all for your time and staff is available for

any questions. Thanks Alexi. I have a question. It's from Michele.

I take about public comment on this one. Let's just do public comment first because there's not

very many. Thank you chair. I have one speaker slip for public comments on this item. Mr. Dan Allison.

Good evening commissioners. Dan Allison resident of district four. This is my first end time

in person attendance that I planning is design commission that I've watched a few times online.

The stocked boulevard plan refers the mobility issues, mobility and transportation issues to the

stocked boulevard corridor transportation plan. The problem is is the last time that was updated was

2021 is a draft and it's expected to receive major revisions because the city in SACRT is committed

to making it closer to a true bus rapid transit corridor which was not the original plan.

And so I'm a little uncomfortable about referring to a plan that we don't know when it's going

to be finished. We don't know what it's going to be look look like but everything in the stocked

and boulevard plan kind of depends on the road on the transportation that's available there.

I realize not everything can wait until everything's finished but I just am saying it makes me

uncomfortable. The plan mentions an EIFD for the part of the plan area that's not part of Aguys Square

but it is very vague about that. Will it be established or not? It sort of seems to say probably

but it doesn't say yes and then if it is established how would it be used? There is a 20% set

aside for housing for any EIFD and there's detail about how it could fund water infrastructure

and there's mention of it funding transportation infrastructure related to transit and active

transportation but again it's very fuzzy. So I just want to ask is there more detail about whether

there will be any EIFD and if so what it might actually be used for? That's my comments thank you.

Chair I have no additional comments on this item. Thank you clerk.

Mackell would you? I had just a couple of questions first of all congrats you guys and so excited

to see this moving along. Friends and mine have been working adjacent to this and on this for years.

So kudos to everyone involved. My questions are what are you learning from forward together and also

how is the community ambassadors sort of programmed for hearing into this? Oh that's a good question

on the community ambassadors are you saying specifically for the stockable of our grants for

the implementation of the plan or just how's the ambassador program going? How's it going?

And then how's it influencing how you might modify the grant program and then also how's the

forward together influencing that conversation? Modifying the grant program the survey as Alexi

mentioned is still out right now so we're just collecting data and feedback on that and I'll get

back to sort of some of the lessons learned we look from forward together to influence stock

able of our high-level on community ambassador program we are going to go out for a 2025 recruitment

so I will say it's positive that's round three if I'm not I'll go ahead. So I actually went to

the community ambassadors last night and presented to them about this stockable of our plan including

about the pilot grant and asked for them to not only look at it themselves but get it out to

their communities. The the community ambassador program actually is a direct outcome from the

Stockton Boulevard plan because our aim was to make sure that this was an equitable inclusive

project that was really community centered and we have a lot of different languages and cultures

along the Boulevard some of the the prime ones are Hmong Vietnamese Cantonese Mandarin Spanish

and then the African-American community and so our pilot of the community ambassador program in 2022

was specifically to include six folks from the neighborhood that were well-known and could stand

in for their communities and be trusted individuals that folks could approach and so that program

has then grown to a citywide program but it has its roots in supporting the planning effort here

and so we continue to work with them to get information out to the community and to also use them as

sounding ward for things that they feel like their community needs to know so we continue to work

with them we probably will hear more through the survey because they are sending it out to folks that

they know and you know I think we're it's still unknown what those specific outcomes will be

because I just shared it last night but they work and they're very well known in the community so

hopefully I think one thing Michele can speak to that he did and forward together that I think

our community ambassadors can tie in as he met a lot of folks in the community and we can use those

circumstances to direct people towards his work an addition we are meeting on next Thursday the

17th this is advertisement for anyone that is interested every third Thursday though this will

be the last of this year because the holidays we are community engagement arm of the neighborhood

development action team host a city connect and every month it is themed and this theme this month

is Stockton Boulevard and the Stockton Boulevard Plan and so we are inviting everyone that is in

the neighborhood or you know is interested to come out have free snacks on the city we don't pay

for alcohol but we do generally have you know some things to drink there and some things to eat

and then you know talk to the city staff about that so it's that long sandwiches on Stockton Boulevard

so just wanted to put that plug in and then back to you. Thanks Elizabeth just on forward together

some highlights we are still in the review process of the grants so shortly after it being the

plan being adopted by council took some time to then put the grant program out there and then we had

a time window to apply which ended up being about three months so right now where we are in both

the action grant phase and the collaborative impact grant phase because if you remember they were

divided into sort of two categories we're still reviewing those grant applications and hopefully

we'll have an announcement on the action grants in the next week or so the collaborative grants

anticipate those announcements coming early November we did receive 26 action grants greater than

$440,000 in requests and 16 collaborative impact grants greater than $4.4 million in requests

which is just is tough because we only had $700,000 as a pool of grant funding so obviously a lot

of demand and need out there it's going to be competitive and really tough but we're just going

through that process right now I'll say a lot of this successes were on the outreach the structure

of the grant especially the action grant seemed easily accessible I was out there with colleagues

and staff twice during the week for the entire grant period offering office hours collaborated with

a lot of the local partners to get it out on their newsletters and outreach provided opportunities

for multilingual and just I think the what we did without reach on forward together including

social media posts and whatnot we can replicate and do in stocked and boulevard to get the word out

one thing with stocked and boulevard given sort of we're finally here and getting to the adoption

of the plan hopefully soon we'll really want to drum up a lot of energy and excitement for the

grants coming so more to say a little bit on the on the timeline for that in just a minute

what we did learn is that especially for the collaborative impact grants those partnerships to

form to really be stewards of this planning partnership with the city take time and so we originally

had put out I think it was like a two-month period for the collaborative the partnership grants

to come together we ended up extending that I think just longer than three months and that was

from like active feedback and hearing through the office hours through engagement that like

hey the partners that are really going after this that are really trying to understand what the

city needs here and and respond to that and just need more time so we we remember we adapted to

that we kept the action grants on the same timeline that we originally had put out there

and we were already oversubscribed even with closing that one at the same time of the forward

together pilot grant related to the action plan we also had worked with the council office

two in their federal arpa designation for a facade round three fund so it was just I think a good

coordination and not confusion for the community to see you know all this funding go out there

under sort of the one brand of forward together really clearly delineated depending on if you were

a storefront that needed a facade improvement or looking to you know debutifications or a capacity

building in your community so I think that was one thing that worked out as well one lesson learned

chair I think this would be interesting to hear your perspective too but was the tie two arts

and culture as you know and that was able to put a $500,000 pot of fund toward the grant but we did

get our partners in the office of arts and culture and CCS to add 200k to really enhance hearing what

the arts and culture and creative economies wanted to propose and we did get some of those proposals

I can't talk too much about them but I think for Stockton Boulevard we really want to make sure it's

tied to a specific elements in the creative edge plan I'm not the best person to talk about that but

definitely we're working with our partners in office of arts and culture and most of surround etc to

really call out in this Stockton Boulevard grant with what they see in the neighborhood action plan

component of it what are the things that support the creative edge plan and how do we sort of tease

those out a little bit more for the applicant so that was another thing that we're thinking about as

we design the Stockton Boulevard grants but I think we the structure unless we hear something different

in the survey we may still go with because it provides immediate need for the action side of

things with that lower dollar amount and lower barrier for application and getting the funding

and then the larger sort of partnership building side of stewarding the plan long term.

Thank you. I really appreciate the effort to sort of do this all over under one umbrella one of

the challenges when you're doing work in communities like you get like one thing done and then

everyone goes there's this backlog of a million other things that we'd like to see done and so

sort of like this holistic and concentrated effort on one area and like bringing all of the community

partners along and ambassadors they think it's really I don't think we've done it this way before

and I think it's going to be more effective and then all of the various departments kind of trying

to do their own thing so I just wanted to I knew you would have lots to say about that and I'm

impressed so thank you and I don't have any additional questions so I will hand it off to

Commissioner Hernandez. Thank you.

For congratulations for getting to this point and really appreciate all the work that you all

have done. Last time this was before us I had a few questions about transportation and RT and

I appreciate you including a link to the corridor plan. Just to kind of help paint a picture for me

would you mind at a high level discussing you know how would you describe the transportation,

the state of transportation on this corridor today what the corridor plan envisions and how this

the Stockton Boulevard plan fits into all that in terms of the ideal what we want to see in terms

of transit along Stockton Boulevard. Yeah well the Stockton Boulevard corridor plan was something that

started actually before the specific plan so I believe in 2019 they started looking at how do we

make this more of a complete street a safe place for pedestrians bicycles and you know provide

for additional movement for transit and at the time our old general plan had a policy of balancing

various transportation types pedestrians bikes cars etc. In our new general plan really focuses

on prioritizing transit pedestrians bikes over auto so at the time that the Public Works Department

put together the plan it had to look at balancing those and so what was brought to council in 2021

was a look at how do we create space for bikes and buses and in some areas where we didn't have

as much right away um combine those into bus bike lanes so I think that there's a lot of great work

that went into um thinking through every single block and every single segment that has a lot of

value so if we were today to build out what was planned in 2021 it is still a really really good plan

however since then our partners in SAC County and SAC RT were able to partner with us and look at

the route 51 as a whole and say can we do bus rapid transit so this is not just stockable

guard but it expands beyond stockable guard to look at Broadway and where 51 goes into downtown

and I was able to be a fly on the wall for the recent discussion of the the consultants so I'm happy

to report that there is some you know negotiation underway with a preferred consultant and so hopefully

we should be able to hear that publicly once the contract has been approved and it is brought to

council until that time I can't talk about it publicly but I think that we're very close to moving

forward with that and the other thing that's really exciting about the funding that they received

with this grant is that it brings them to I think the 35% engineering drawings so where the plan

in 2021 really was a concept plan it did not get into you know curved occur how do we you know

look at the arch of the road or where are certain things it really was about plan and policy and

where do we generally need lighting where do we generally need to have some landscaping etc the

next level will really get into the specifics and so there will be a lot of engagement over that

to say how do we fit in bus rapid transit and acknowledge that we might be reducing the capacity for

auto vehicles so I think there's a lot of exciting things before us at the same time the 2021 plan

I think the estimate was 89 million as we know over the last several years costs have just expanded

exponentially it's just been crazy so I know that it's over 100 million now to build out this plan

so I think what we're seeing is there are some key improvements that they're making I believe

at T and 34th Street and I don't know all the details of all the improvements but they've been

looking at you know some improvements you know that they can make now and then they will be looking

at it over time you know I think having a comprehensive city county partnership is really great

because as we know many of us know we've got this weird city county thing going on all along the way

around down Stockton Boulevard so it really is key to have the county involved they also are looking

at their plans for the area that is completely within the unincorporated area which when I was

starting the Stockton Boulevard plan you know five years ago now they had had something in our

our regional plan with Sae Cog to actually expand Stockton Boulevard outside of the city limits

and they're now looking at you know really what's often called a road diet but you know trying to

make it more pedestrian bicycle friendly now and so we've really gotten a lot of cohesion and coordination

with our partner and that just is amazing and then of course SACRT the Route 51 is the highest

used of the whole region and so just looking at how do we improve it how do we continue to move it

forward is just really exciting so I have a lot of hope for the future it will take time because

unfortunately you know we do it takes time to go through the planning and get into the engineering

and then it takes time to start winning all those dollars to make things build out.

Thank you for for that overview it's very helpful to hear and understand I'm also very optimistic

about it I do think that as much investment as we can making transit is going to be what brings

life to all of the investment that we want to make and that we envision on Stockton Boulevard so I

really really believe that the more we can do and push the envelope and get those that started

and bring people and more people to walk up and down and shop there and part you know do the

things that they do there I you know I personally I walk my dog along 21st street that's part of our

our walk and or 21st Avenue Las Upedo just right on the corner with Stockton Boulevard that's

where I like to go shopping too and I like to vote in person and I go to Colonial Heights Library

to take my my ballot so for me this area I just get really excited about it and the future for it

and I can't press enough put enough emphasis on on how important the transportation and transit is

is for me and the mobility concepts around here so again just kudos and thank you all so much

for getting us to this place thank you chair thank you commissioner Nandis

vice chair young great I just wanted to follow up on on the

the gentleman's comments on enhancing for structure financing districts could you maybe

speak to where where we're at as far as and then what's the process for actually

making that Stockton Boulevard corridor and EIFD well so I'll go back a little bit into Aggie Square

so when we negotiated around Aggie Square with Wexford we gave them a certain amount of money

for infrastructure improvements and then put EIFD one into place and during that negotiation

we got $400,000 towards the study and approval of a new EIFD for other parts of Stockton Boulevard so

over the last several years we've been doing a lot of work to investigate what is the potential

because what EIFDs are based off of is the tax increment so we look at what do we receive now

in taxes and then what do we expect to see in the future and so one of the findings that they

did initially is that in our city only portion of the tax and our city only portion of the development

it was pretty low in terms of future tax so some negotiations were opened up with the county

to say would you be willing to contribute your portion of the tax and would you be willing to look

at your portion of the corridor so because of that there's a lot of different discussions going

on about what does that look like and now once again we have another partner so I think that

unfortunately I can't talk to specifics because I think there's so much discussion between the two

jurisdictions about what is possible what funding is out there what would they want to spend it on

together and so what we did in the EIR is just really cover generally the broad types of infrastructure

that could be covered with an EIFD and unfortunately the discussion of the EIFD will have to continue and

not be wrapped up in tonight's you know recommendation could you compare for us

the what the limitations are in terms of coverage of space versus the old redevelopment model right

redevelopment areas use the same kind of financing model and so what are the the new constraints

that you're under yeah well EIFD's approximate what we used to allow which by the way was actually

first done in Sacramento when we were redeveloping our west end that's when tax increment what

became a thing so we were the first in the country to actually use tax increment but under redevelopment

we had a much larger portion of the tax that was able to be returned back into the area and under

the EIFD there's a lot more restrictions on the types of things that can be funded it is very

focused on infrastructure but there are certain things like child hair that could be paid for through

this and then there's just so much smaller of a portion so in the old redevelopment days it was

a portion of all of the taxes so the county tax would have been included in that and there's a lot

of different things that I don't have all the details for but now that we're looking at EIFD's there's

a lot lower increment that we can as a city you know make that bond for the future improvements in

borough against thank you thank you Christian commissioner Kaden yeah thank you and I actually

had EIFD comments too but uh or questions so I guess just to follow up on that because I mean that

was a really helpful background but and I understand you can't speak to the details of an ongoing

negotiation if it's that but um can you shed any light on what the area could be of a larger EIFD

like for example is it intended to reflect the boundaries of the specific plan in the city the

specific plan in the city plus what the counties stock and boulevard specific plan is doing

there been any thought to that yet there's been a lot of discussion um I am not intimately involved

in those discussions but I believe that it includes the area within the specific plan and

potentially some areas outside of the specific plan in the county okay yeah that's that's helpful to

understand um well I guess I just wanted to say you know a great job and you know this has been a

a long effort I understand and I think the distinction between the transportation and this

side of the plan has been kind of confusing and hard to mold together so I think you've done a

commendable job on that and I think you know again just speaking back to some comments and the

last meeting that I made I think it's really important what we're doing to continue to cover more of

the city with specific plans I think it's a very underrated strategy that the city is taking to

actually really streamline and incentivize um you know the types of uses and developments that we

want to see through the general plan so I just want to commend the city on that strategy and

encourage us to continue to do that moving forward and I guess just to lift up dance comments I think

a lot of um the success of the land use changes that we're trying to see with this plan are contingent

on the transportation investments that are called for in the quarter plan and so you know I

the demand is certainly there from Aggie Square but I think you know um enhancing that demand and

ensuring that that demand is not resulting in people um living in in uh fairly unsafe let's be

honest a fairly unsafe pedestrian bicycle environment right now um is not an outcome that we want

right and so I think I would just continue to make sure that we really focus in on that quarter

plan I think it's really exciting and shouldn't be discounted how big of a deal the bus rapid transit

component is I mean this is a you know something that of course the rest of the state is doing

quite a bit of but this would be the first um bus rapid transit route in the entire region and so um

yeah it's something to be proud of and I think it's something you know obviously that's going to take

a lot of funding but I think it's a huge priority for this plan ensure that we we get the BRT

and that we're able to um continue to fund safety improvements um to make sure that this isn't a

death trap so thank you very much thank you Commissioner Katie Commissioner Lamas

thank you chair um how to question about this um enhancement infrastructure district

um what happens if it doesn't get funded what is how will that funding or that gap be filled what is

implicated implement implement how would it impact um other efforts within this specific plan

for for future development wonder if you can clarify that a little bit so the enhanced infrastructure

financing district is one tool in the toolbox like I said it's not as effective as redevelopment

used to be and everything that it is is about borrowing against future potential so it's a tool

to bond against we have other tools um for bonding we have other tools for finding funding frankly we

rely a lot on federal funding especially when it comes to transportation what we're seeing

out of the EIFD would not even come close to paying for this whole quarter to be made into

a pedestrian bicycle friendly area so we have seen with Franklin Boulevard that we've been chasing

transformative climate communities grants and other grants just it requires millions of

millions of dollars and that's not what we would see out of the tax money specifically on that

quarter that we could bond against so it was not a keystone in making future improvements

is just one tool in our toolbox to make some um motions forward um but yeah I think that as we

move forward and have this plan in place have the future um updated transportation plan and the

engineering drawings then we can go start to seek that funding I mean the federal government is

the key funder for a lot of this and so what is exciting about the grant that we received I believe

it was through say cog um with Sakhar T the county and the city is that it funds the um

national environmental protection act review so CalTrans is our federal um I can't think of the

technical term for it but it's they are the recipient and then distributor of federal funds

and so then we have to comply with um NEPA in order to receive those funds so this um grant puts

us in really good position to be able to then chase after those funds and get them um so I think

you know I've been really impressed with our transportation planning and transportation

engineering staff and it's right now with our engineering staff in public works and they're really

committed this is something that they're really um you know fine as important and we now have this

wonderful partnership where it means I think that it sets us up well for being a recipient of grants

when you have three different partners seeking funding together and being able to say we have

done a great job at engagement so we've done multiple rounds of engagement obviously there was a lot

done in the 2019 through 2021 period and there will be more now that we are looking at bus

rapid transit so I think we're doing as much as we can to set ourselves up for success um but the

EIFD just a very very small part of that perfect thank you for that clarification that was helpful

um and I would just like to commend the staff for all the work um that you've done to put this

together and all the outreach that's been conducted um it looks like an exciting initiative and so

looking forward to it coming to fruition thank you I yield my time thank you uh commissioner chase

thank you chair um these discussions of the you know bus rapid transit and the development of

stockable it reminds me of and some people here maybe familiar with a film that was made many years

ago called Kurtiba a convenient truth and it was a credible movie I'd try to find it's probably

15 to 20 years old now it was a documentary uh small relatively small Kurtiba's a city in

southern Brazil and it was played with all kinds of problems transportation flood control housing

affordability uh just everything and surprisingly enough not not to brag but the the mayor I believe

was an architect at the time and there were other engineers and architects on the staff there

and they just became they came so creative uh they needed transportation they could not afford

you know heavy rail or even light rail through there and they developed an incredible the BRT

system throughout the city and it's just phenomenal phenomenal moving a phenomenal success story

for there I've seen some analogies here that uh be worth trying to refine that again I'm sure

it's available somewhere out there everything is in the internet but that great film but yeah

and again great great great work here uh looking looking forward to seeing this move forward thank you

thank you commissioner chase commissioner Katie thank you I just forgot to make a motion just wanted to

move the item thank you all right a motion from commissioner Katie second from

commissioner Hernandez can we take the vote please thank you chair commissioners if you could

please unmute your microphones commissioner Zhang I commissioner chase I commissioner Lamas I

commissioner Buckley is absent commissioner Caden I commissioner Hernandez I vice chair young I

commissioner Blunt is absence commissioner Reschke I commissioner Thompson I commissioner Kendra

Maasius Reed is also absence and chair Wallace I thank you the motion passes

last item discussion calendar um progress update on housing element implementation on

program age 19 affordable housing and infill development education campaign oh

Greta good evening chair Wallace and commissioners good to see you all um I am Greta

Sue some associate planner in our long-range planning division um and tonight I will be

presenting an update on our recent efforts to conduct an educational campaign um about

affordable housing and infill development okay so as you know the city has an adopted

housing element which is part of our general plan and it serves as our eight year housing strategy

to meet our housing needs from the year 2021 to 2029 and the housing element includes many

goals policies and programs that are aimed at supporting our housing needs across all income levels

particularly for our lowest income individuals and families one of the programs that was adopted

as part of our housing element is housing element program age 19 affordable housing and infill

development educational campaign this program was developed to increase community support for

affordable and infill housing development in our city specifically the program committed the city

developing an educational campaign that could include social media content about housing needs

challenges new developments and available resources information available on the city's website

and outreach to local journey journalists media outlets and community organizations

late this summer oh I don't know why it looks weird on there um but late this summer the city

launched our campaign on this coined the Sacramento for all um educational campaign and the goal

of this as the program committed us to is to bolster community support for affordable and infill

housing but also to give community members the tools that they need to get involved in this topic

locally the campaign is taking two main forms first is the development of an educational website

and second is a series of educational workshops the website was built for people to learn all

about housing development in their community topics include a detailed description of Sacramento's

housing history and how past policies have shaped how and where community members live today

the city's housing strategy housing development roles the difference between market rate and

affordable housing benefits of infill and affordable housing missing middle housing in 80 use and we

also have a series of videos showcasing community community perspective and personal stories on the

topics of affordable and infill housing the second part of our campaign as mentioned are our Sacramento

for all educational workshops we're currently conducting eight citywide workshops one per city council

district to get the word out about our campaign and kickstart people's journeys in learning more

and engaging in the topic of housing development we're providing translation and inter-prication

services upon request as well as dinner and the workshop showcases recent housing developments

in their respective districts and includes interactive exercises that were developed by our

recently departed resident artist Angie Aing who recently presented to this commission about her

work this past September listed here are the dates and locations of our workshops while we have

completed four workshops this far we're looking forward to continuing our remaining workshops starting

next Wednesday at the Coloma Community Center so far workshop participants have had great

discussions and questions as we're encouraging discussion amongst participants and staff during

these workshops you can access the Sacramento for all educational website and learn more about

our upcoming workshops by scanning this QR code with your phone or by visiting cityofsacromania.gov

slash Sacramento for all and this concludes my presentation I'm happy to answer any questions

thanks got it anyone have questions

vice chair yeah oh let's take public I have I was just going to say I have no speaker slips

for public comment I've gotten too facile at looking over and seeing whether you have any

well no no speakers for this item so we'll move to vice chair again comment

just wanted to applaud the effort that the city is making to educate the the city on affordable housing

and so I was going through the website and just a lot of great topics there and so yeah now I'm

looking forward to I think there's going to be a community meeting in district eight in November so

really appreciate all the efforts this looks great in the in those community meetings is it

primarily led by city staff are there other kind of housing professionals that are invited to kind

of share their insights as well on housing it is just city staff we are inviting council members

to come speak and just give opening remarks but it was meant to be something that we could

replicate in as many district as possible just give people a lot of opportunities to come and say

we tried to be small but mighty yeah yeah I think I yeah I would just say I think one of the things

as we think about it in the future right I think this first effort is great but I think

one of the things that I think that I've heard in the past right is is kind of developers are

just seeing it's like they're demonized you know for better luck with term and so I think to

to the degree that we can just get people familiar with all the different players they kind of

make housing happen so we can just kind of create greater connections and promote broader

understandings of the different people like these are just regular people who are just

trying to see things happen I think kind of well also just kind of help with the overall understanding

but other than that this is just fantastic I'm really really proud of the work that you guys have done

Thank you commissioner thank you vice-chair young commissioner Chase thank you great effort

to a great a good job look forward to seeing this move forward having been the foil I think for some

affordable housing projects that that did finally occur in district two in my district I

going up against some of the nivism of my neighbors like you know it's just frustrating be great to see

more of an effort in the city behind that helping people understand that the people who live there

aren't going to be vaping and killing and you know destroying your property values and everything

and actually they're going to be paying and just so it reminds me of the study that the city finally

did I think a few years ago on cannabis which was at least for us I think this commission is extremely

valuable to be able to counter some of the concerns that the community had with some basis and you

know in fact and so I look forward to this being able to bring something like that forward at least

sharing it with the community so they have a better understanding I think kind of following up with

the comment about others perhaps being involved yeah I think commissioning young mentioned there

are some architects in the city who have specialized in affordable housing certainly for many many

years and some of them might be worth seeing if they could be available for some of these you know

workshops or outreach elements because I think they can add a and the advantage there too could be

they could take away from the just the purely the city orientation of the bureaucratic by bringing in

kind of a public private partnership there and but oh no I think it's a great effort and I really

look forward to this moving forward thank you for your work thank you commissioner chase commissioner

Kaden yeah I would just I would just echo the comments before me I mean I think this is really important

like it's it's not just a one-off like to me like passing progressive housing policy which I think

we've done an amazing job of doing in this city really requires residents like understanding

how housing policy actually impacts them what works what doesn't work right and just a certain

amount of like pragmatic knowledge I guess of the housing market and you know I think we have

that in spades in our residents here and it's like in stark contrast to I think a lot of places in

California and you go to the Bay Area and did planning work out there for a couple years and

it's like housing has broken that region's brain like they don't they do not quite understand

this and there's there's this huge like as you said demonizing of this like zero some mentality

between market rate and affordable development and I think what I appreciate about what you're doing

as part of this and what we do as a city is we're sort of uplifting yes to everything strategy so

I appreciate the work that you're doing and I'll see you at the Gloma Center.

Thank you Commissioner Kayden. Mr. Lamas. Thank you Chair. Thank you staff for the presentation

and for the program that you guys are overseeing as someone who's worked in affordable housing

and community development for the last 15 years I think this is a critical component of empowering

the community to be a part of the process and I know this is building on some of the excellent work

on the city has done with the city planning academy it's a city planning academy but particularly

focusing on affordable housing I also served on two different board of directors for neighborhood

associations and I know that these opportunities to engage directly with city staff and ask

questions about what the city is doing in terms of supporting affordable housing development

and access to affordable housing is critical so I commend the staff for your efforts on this and I

also am curious if this is going to be an ongoing thing like is it every year are you guys going to do

this every five years is the content available virtually can people request special presentations

and I'm thinking like businesses or is it eight workshops as part of this campaign and that's

going to be the full extent of it. Thank you Commissioner we don't have future iterations of this

planned for next year but it is pretty transportable and if there is a request you know I think one

off requests we can certainly accommodate that we do have all the information on our web page it's

supposed to it's meant to be a place where you can come and just learn about all these different

aspects of housing development and the city's housing strategy and so on so we're hoping that people

get a lot out of the website and this was more of an interactive way to get people talking and

thinking about this but yeah ultimately we'd love for folks to visit the website as well.

Perfect thank you and again just want to commend you guys for your efforts on getting this

information out I yield my time. Thank you Commissioner I just had a couple of comments I've been

trained we've all been working in this space for a long time right and putting the nuts and

bolts out there is really commendable and helping clarify and for people. One of the things that I

found like the most compelling and sort of our conversations around housing and rent control over

the last decade was these listening circles that capital public radio conducted this was a

while back but they had invited people who lived in low-income housing and talk about how it affected

their lives and because at the time the sense they'd surveyed people and sort of gotten these

frames together that were like people who are comfortable don't understand the challenges of

people who need these resources and that one-on-one like sort of dialogue with people was really

compelling and so I don't know if you guys are creeping from that at all or inviting residents

from places that we have developed I've tried to place some stories in the equities that part of

the B about this recently like even pulling people from the program that I brought up last

time which is our culture keepers program that Rochand Davis is running or things like that where

people can talk about like I wouldn't be able to do my art practice if I didn't live at warehouse

artists lofts so I just think those things like really help bring it home for people that these

are their neighbors and it's not just you know people from outside and even the people from outside

are just like your neighbors and we all have to you know work together to make this work for our

community so I think that was really beneficial for building that sense of community yeah we actually

interviewed our some of our community ambassadors and planning academy participants I don't know if

you watched the videos already but yeah you actually do something like that or the for the website

and now I'm wishing I showed it to you because we're showing you at our workshops it's a little snippet

of so we have a video on personal stories just like the benefits of affordable housing benefits

of infill housing and I think one more but we show a clip of the personal stories and there are like

anecdotes from the community ambassadors who are telling their story about how they benefited from

affordable housing and so I thought that was um those you know turned out well we really just came

with questions to all of the people who were willing to be in our videos and say it was cool to see

how it unfolded and their stories came out but those examples that you provided are I didn't know

about them so I'll look up that um cap radio yeah I'm serious great um and that's all I had to say

congratulations great work commissioner rest thank you yeah I also want to say um congratulations

and this is really wonderful um great park um and also echo um the the sediment about having um you

know what what you just shared about having residents speak I attend a lot of affordable housing

grand openings and when the residents speak you know there's there's always you know so much

impact on and everyone there to hear about that and then another um uh thing that might be of

interest is to have a some of the nonprofit developers share their work because some of them will

work you know I think a lot of times people just have this image of their mind of what a developer is

and these nonprofit developers you know might work on one site for 10 or more years and the

the work they have to do to get that capital stack and and to get these built is tremendous and

like the hours that I see them putting in and the applications they put in and they fail and they

do it again and do it again and that work just you know even when people are are wanting affordable

housing sometimes it's like okay just build it but to really see like what what goes into it

from you know both the the bureaucratic side and the the developer side could be useful thank you

for that. I'll see in the comments so I think that is it for tonight we didn't have to give you

we just review and comment great all right well thank you so much. Good much. Have a good evening.

I closed all my things out so I don't know what I'm doing. Commissioner comments ideas questions

anybody. All right I don't see anything so public comments matters not only agenda do we have any

speaker slips? Thank you chair I have no speakers for matters not on the agenda. All right then

we are adjourned 737

Thanks