Good evening.

Welcome to the October 9th, 2025 Planning and Design Commission meeting is now called to order.

Will the clerk please call the roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Lee?

Here.

Commissioner Tao?

Here.

Commissioner Lamas?

Here.

Commissioner Naibo?

Here.

Commissioner Caden.

Here.

Commissioner Hernandez.

Absent.

Commissioner Macio III?

Here.

Commissioner Ortiz?

Here.

Commissioner Blunt?

Here.

Vice Chair Chase?

Here.

Commissioner Rishke?

Here.

Commissioner Thompson.

Is absent.

And Chair Young.

Here.

Thank you, Wabacor.

I would like to remind members of the public in chambers that 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 speaker slips.

We will now proceed with today's agenda.

Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people and tribal lands.

To the original people of this land, the Nissanon people, the Southern Maidu Valley, and Plain Plains Miwok, Patwin Wintoon peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, 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 today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation of Sacramento's indigenous people's history contributions and lives.

Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right.

First, we'll have the director's report from Station.

Thank you, Chair.

We've had one item go to council since our last commission meeting that I wanted to report out on.

The commission had heard the Crocker Village multi-flex zone parcel project on May 22nd.

That decision was appealed to council, and council heard the item on September 9th and upheld the planning and sign commission decision and staff recommendation on that item.

And that is all that I have.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

All right.

Are there any members who wish to speak on the consent calendar?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips for this item.

Okay, are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Motion or second on the consent calendar.

Okay.

I'll second.

I've got a motion from Commissioner Lamas and a second from Vice Chair Chase.

All right.

The clerk please call the roll call.

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Lee?

Aye.

Commissioner Tao?

Aye.

Commissioner Lamas?

Aye.

Commissioner Naibo?

Aye.

Commissioner Caden.

Aye.

Commissioner Hernandez is absent.

Commissioner Masas Reed?

Aye.

Commissioner Ortiz?

Aye.

Commissioner Blunt?

Aye.

Vice Chair Chase?

Aye.

Commissioner Rishke?

Aye.

Commissioner Thompson is absent.

And Chair Young.

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Thank you.

All right.

We'll move to item two, which is the SMUD station J file ID 2025-01709.

Before we begin, are there any disclosures or recusals for this item?

Vice Chair Chase?

Or was that from the previous item?

Sorry.

But um I did meet with the uh capital.

Perfect.

Commissioner Naibo.

I virtually met with the applicant.

Commissioner Caden.

I met with the applicant as well.

And I met with the applicant as well.

Thank you.

All right.

Sierra Peterson here.

Good evening, Chair and Commissioners.

Um, I'm Sarah Peterson, project planner for the application before you tonight is the proposed substation J.

The application is before the commission because Sacramento City Code requires high voltage transmission facility land uses to be considered by the Planning and design commission with a recommendation to the city council for final action.

The proposed substation is located on a 10.3 acre site on the south side of North B Street between North 12th and North 14th Streets.

The site is zoned heavy commercial and is within the river district special planning district.

Surrounding land uses include heavy rail tracks to the south, Fire Station 14 and residential to the east, industrial buildings and retail to the north, and social services to the west.

Development of the proposed substation would include demolition of existing on-site structures, construction of a approximately 3,500 square foot control building transformers, switch gear, and remote monitoring equipment.

The facility will be enclosed with a masonry wall, 10 feet in height.

Access to the site will be provided through two driveways, one on North B Street and the other on North 14th Street.

There's no visibility into the site from the adjacent public right away when the masonry wall is built.

A total of three 115 KV transmission lines are proposed.

One transmission line will connect Station J to Station G and will be entirely underground within the existing streets.

Two transmission lines will connect Station J with existing overhead transmission lines to the east.

A portion of the lines will be underground and will terminate at the corner of North 18th Street and Basler Street.

The due transmission lines will then connect to two new transmission pools, which will take the transmission lines approximately 900 feet eastward to connect to the existing transmission line network, and this will go over the existing rail line.

The proposed substation is necessary infrastructure in the downtown area to support development that has been recently approved and provide capacity for future build out of the river district, rail yards, and downtown.

The facility will provide electrical service to meet SMUD's goal of ensuring safe and reliable electrical service in down in the downtown Sacramento area by 2030.

This concludes my presentation.

Representatives from SMUD are in attendance to me, and we are available for any questions you may have.

Good evening, Chair Young, Vice Chair Chase, and fellow planning commissioners.

My name is Tim Padden.

I'm the regional and local government affairs manager at SMUD.

Today with us from SMUD, we have Eric Crane of the government affairs team.

Eric Poff, Director of Substation and Telecommunication and Metering Assets, Patrick Garvey and Frank Kwant, also with the substation team, and Ammon Rice, our environmental services manager, to answer any questions that you may have on the project.

We want to thank staff for their hard work on this project.

The last sub-SMUD substation that went to the planning commission happened in 2017, so it's been just a few years since we were before you guys.

Station J will serve the rail yards, which is the largest urban core property on the West Coast.

Station J supports the rail yard specific plan goal C S-4, which is to provide adequate electrical service to the area.

Additionally, Station J supports the river district's strategic vision that was set forth in 2024 that focuses on a mix of entertainment, residential, office, and commercial uses.

The project is necessary, is a necessary infrastructure catalyst for many economic development projects.

SMUD appreciates your thoughtful consideration of the Station J application and forwarding a recommendation to City Council.

At this point, we are waiving our formal presentation, but we are here to answer any questions that you may have on the project.

Thank you.

Clerk, are there any speaker slips for this item?

Thank you, Chair.

I have two speaker slips for this item.

Our first speaker is Greta Lachen.

Good evening.

My name is Greta Lechin, and I'm speaking on behalf of the River District Development Committee regarding SMUD's substation J project.

We want to begin by thanking SMUD for listening to community feedback and making meaningful changes.

We appreciate the commitment to a red brick exterior to signify that the building is in our historic district.

The addition of wall lighting and the decision to make remove EV chargers for now.

We do want to offer a note of caution regarding a proposed mural.

While we support adding public art maintenance and graffiti are real concerns, and we encourage SMUD to plan for upkeep so the mural can remain a positive feature.

We also commend SMUD for preserving trees on the east side of the property and for expressing openness to moving the North B wall in the future to allow for possible community uses.

Like classrooms, a demonstration electric kitchen, or EV chargers once the neighborhood is more active.

We would also like to request that additional trees and landscaping be added in the future along or near North B, perhaps at the time when the wall is moved.

Overall, we thank SMUD for their partnership and stand ready to continue working together to ensure that this project fits seamlessly into the river district.

I do have a few questions for SMUD.

I wonder if there is a way to get these changes slash requests as an integrated part of the permit so that over time they are not forgotten.

I'm very familiar with the phenomenon of the loss of institutional knowledge over the years.

For example, the upkeep of murals, moving the B Street wall to make room for active uses and more landscaping, including trees on North B when the wall is moved for more active uses.

Is that possible to do that?

Is there somebody who can answer that question for me?

I can afford time for them to answer that question.

Thank you for your comment.

Our next speaker is Christina Navarro.

Sorry, I didn't see that stuff there.

Good evening.

My name is Christina Navarro.

I'm here representing the river district.

Today, the river district is a growing community of residents, businesses, and service providers that seek to improve the lives of others.

Thoughtful planning of projects like the SMUD substation will ensure that the river district is not left behind and are key to the growth of the region.

Thank you for making space for continued growth, not just for the residents that call this area home today, but also for future residents, neighbors, and families that will pass by the SMUD substation and will see the intention with which this community was shaped.

I yield my time.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Chair, I have no more speakers.

Thank you.

Do we have any questions from the staff for the staff or the applicant?

Commissioner Naibo.

I didn't see where I have a question about the color of the brick.

What's that going to be based on?

The color of the brick is in the renderings that were included in the staff report.

Um we'll look up the page.

And that was at the request of the river district to include a uh red brick style.

There was one time when there was a standard for brick.

Here's my phone on.

I'm sorry, this might be a bit of a tangent.

Historically, the bricks in Sacramento were made out of clay that came off of the river.

Historically, that's in every city.

So every city has their own um color pattern for bricks.

Sometimes the new development is from a different region.

I know we've had development coming from Texas, and they want to use yellow brick per se, or CBS has a national color brick or something along those lines.

Is it is this in this um that's a lot of brick on there.

Are we respecting the color palette for historic Sacramento.

So this is a precast brick um like panel.

Um I can defer to the applicant um for more information on the material.

Thank you, Commissioner Naibo for that question.

Uh this is a ballistic wall that will be uh erected around the perimeter of the the property.

Uh there's a couple reasons for that, but the primary reason is that we have found that um people are shooting into uh utility substations, and so we want to protect the property as much as possible.

So it is a red brick ballistic wall.

Do we know what color road?

Is it just the exact color?

Ferrari road?

Kind of a desert.

Is it a yeah?

Do we have a picture?

It's if it's possible.

Um the applicant does have a presentation.

If we can display that, I believe they have an image on there.

I don't think we'd necessarily have to go through the whole.

If we'll we'll pull up the picture that has the the wall.

There it is.

So that's uh you can see uh good evening, Commissioners.

Uh Eric Crane uh with uh with with SMUD uh regional government affairs.

Just wanted to point out uh this is uh again a facade, so it will not be uh something that's actually made of brick, but it will reflect the the image of a red brick, traditional red brick, uh as you can see here.

Is there is there any way that we could put in the conditions that it would try to mimic the historic red brick of Sacramento and then the that color palette?

And I understand it has to be precast and everything else, and I don't know.

Are there are they are they pre-cast somewhere else in the broad here?

Are the custom precast or the um just I don't want to put an unreasonable condition of approval on there?

I was just wondering if if it can be sent to it.

I think it's something that we can definitely take under consideration and and get back to city staff on that to see if that's possible.

I did see those renderings, but they're more orange than they are red.

And I'm we I know when we spoke we talked about the ballistic wall extensively, so I I may I probably should have brought it up then, but we can definitely investigate and see if that's uh a possibility.

Okay.

I appreciate that.

Thanks.

Commissioner Ortiz.

Thank you.

Um I did hear uh the representative from the River District Development Project asked for three specific items as to whether or not, you know, we we do indeed as a body have the opportunity to suggest conditions be included.

Um it would be helpful to hear from SMUD if you could address each of the concerns.

Uh the first one was the proposed mural, uh, whether or not you would ensure likely graffiti would be removed and or the mural wall would be maintained.

The second question was uh I know it was second or third, but moving the B street walls.

I think there was a specific question to that, and then there was also whether or not additional trees and landscaping could be added.

Um could you address those three points and see whether or not we could meet the neighborhood's concerns?

Absolutely.

Thank you, Commissioner Ortiz.

Um as far as the mural wall and the additional trees, I think that is something that uh is certainly um something we want to explore and have be part of the project uh if possible.

Um and as far as um the second second point, the main was it maintaining the B Street wall or I thought it was moving the B Street walls, yes.

Uh I don't know if that's yeah, if you want to come.

So um just to give you a sense, uh in the the future when this area is developed, the uh wall has been designed in a way.

You'll notice there's a uh a road uh on the internally before you get to the Transformers, uh, that there is a space potentially to move that wall back, but I think it's contingent upon uh the area being ready to support whatever development is is going on out there, and that's why we removed at the request of the the River District the EV chargers because putting them in now uh there would be challenges with uh vandalism and other um you know things that we don't want to have to, you know, kind of replace them.

Um with that said, uh, you know, the request about adding trees to that area, we we took that into consideration, but you know, our substations um have to be secure uh from a you know safety and and uh security standpoint, and so having any trees that are that close to the wall wouldn't uh work for now.

Now, if the wall were moved back at some point, I think that the tree item is something we could revisit, but you know, as as you notice um, um you'll notice in this uh picture, we've had to push the wall back and add a wrought iron fence, and there'll be some riprap rock material between that, uh, basically to allow those existing trees to stay.

So there has to be a distance, otherwise uh it's a security hazard.

Our substations are very safe uh on the outside, the exterior, but if someone were to uh climb a tree and get into the substation, it can be very deadly, and so we want to avoid that as much as possible.

So as of right now, uh we have the wall with the mural, but that is something we could revisit as the the area develops and grows.

I appreciate that.

And uh to the gentleman earlier, I really appreciate exploring and being willing, but I think unless it comes out as a condition with this body, we you know, if you explore it and you consider it and disregard it or determine it wasn't there's no ability for there's no remedy for the community.

So it would be helpful, and I don't know how we would do it as a body or whether even there's a desire by my colleagues to do so, but I would like something stronger than consider and explore.

I'm just gonna throw that out there.

I would like a commitment essentially, so whether voluntarily or as a condition.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chair.

I'm good.

Commissioner Naibo.

I I'm sorry, if I have a follow-up question on that.

Are you looking at moving literally moving the wall or recreating the wall?

Yeah, so this is conceptual at this point, but it does allow the space to actually uh remove the wall that exists there now and and push it back to accommodate either uh you know EV chargers or other uh other considerations.

The the trees in the classroom are a little bit more challenging because it's not uh a traditional design to have a classroom or facility directly next to our substations due to security, so that that would be challenging.

But I think um as far as space goes, the other consideration we have to work with the city uh to allow for parking and EV charging in that area.

It's currently a no parking zone.

So there are uh factors that come into play, but the wall would would uh be uh literally taken down and built further back.

So but that that's I think something that uh again, the area would have to be able to support uh that type of infrastructure and then those investments.

So it would be a new wall.

Yes, it would be a uh a new wall recreated in in similar fashion to the existing wall.

Commissioner Rishke or Thompson?

Okay.

Um I I'm not totally clear on the moving of the wall.

Like you're is there's an existing wall there now that would be moved as part of the project, or it would be moved at some point in the future.

Yeah, so just to give you a sense, uh, so there is enough space to move.

As you can see, there's a 20-foot setback for where the uh the gate is there.

And so we've designed the transformers to be far enough back that in the future uh if the area is able to sustain these types of investments with EV chargers, the wall could be uh moved back to approximately where you see that that brown gate.

Okay, so the wall that is jogging out right now would would potentially be able to move.

And why wouldn't you build it back in the first place if you don't know it's uh given given the uh current site?

There are some challenges.

Uh if uh if any of you are familiar with the site, there are currently encampments uh in the area around the site, and so uh we want to work, you know, obviously, with the community to not make that uh an attraction point for uh additional encampments.

It's giving the space would be.

Yeah, because the the space if it's if it's empty will invite um that that challenge.

Okay.

And so what would moving the wall look like?

I mean, would that be the community coming to you and being like, hey, we're ready to have more more space for whatever um EV chargers or something?

I think ideally it would we would involve coming back to the city and having that conversation in in partnership with the the river district and you know in partnership with the community.

So it's again it's it's more conceptual as a possibility, but I I think that you know, for what the uh substation is right now, I think that this is the the best design that we have to accommodate kind of the the current uh environment of the district and and making sure that it's safe and uh reliable as well.

Thank you.

Commissioner Macias Reed.

Yeah, I just wanted to touch base on uh what Commissioner Ortiz and the community um had brought up around the mural discussion.

Um and I know in this piece right here, it looks like there's rendering of murals and lighting at other substations, so just have a couple of questions and maybe some clarification, um, so we can kind of maybe have a discussion here.

So uh is this okay?

So do you have other murals on substations and is this something that you have actually done before?

We we do.

Uh actually station station G uh, while it doesn't necessarily have murals per se, it's it's decorated.

Uh you know, we all know after Kings Win, it's lighted purple.

Um, but we do have we actually encourage I think a lot of uh artistic uh work on our substations, and something that is actually reflective of the the community that it's in.

Okay, and so with the conversation that you had with the community, um there was a discussion around having a mural on the substation, correct?

And I think with the conversation, or rather the comment that Commissioner Ortiz had said is she was interested in having a condition around some maintenance there.

So I guess I have a couple of questions.

Um was there ever a commitment by SMUD to pay for a mural on this substation, or is that just again conceptual at this point?

I think it's conceptual.

Now we did meet with the park or sorry, the uh Alkali Flat Mansion Flats Neighborhood Association, and they they were very um supportive of having uh you know murals as part of the project, and um we didn't commit to that at that meeting, but um we we strongly want to have that be a part of the project.

Okay, so what I think could be a reasonable condition if you were open to this, because you know, I I work for the Franklin Boulevard Business Association.

We we um go after grants um and funds for murals.

We've produced a ton of murals and worked with artists over the years.

I know what it costs and I know what it takes to uh you know uh pay for a mural.

And so um I think what would be reasonable is not to ask to to obviously pay for a mural, but I would say if the community could you know come up with the funds or find the funds or find an artist to do a mural and you guys could offer the space.

I think what could be a reasonable ask is that you could maintain it by you know, there is graffiti coating um out there that could last for 15 20 years, um, and that easily cleans off graffiti if it were to uh be susceptible to graffiti.

Um we do have murals in our district that they're not it's not common, but it's also not uncommon for it to, you know, for uh public art to have graffiti on it.

Um, and so with the coating, um, it does protect the art for a long period of time, and then it's very easy to clean off if it does um have you know graffiti or tagging on it, and so I think that could be a reasonable um, you know, request.

I think that is oh, you want to say, yeah.

Um, you know, one of the considerations for the site currently, I think that the the river district mentioned in their letter uh was the fact that the old general produce site does have an existing mural.

So I think that there is a strong commitment from SMUD to want to work with both the River District PBID and uh also the Alkali Mansion Flats neighborhood to uh to have some sort of mural that activates the space.

Because we we recognize that.

And so I think there's very clearly uh a path forward there.

Uh I I would say that just, you know, we have murals at other substations that aren't.

This is just a a rendering.

This actually never came forth as a mural.

Uh, but this gives you a sense of the lighting at night with the the potential for what a mural could look like.

Um our other murals are are well maintained.

We have a great facilities crew that goes out and and actively maintains these spaces.

So um we're we're definitely committed to uh you know working with those parties uh to to put something that's gonna really brighten the area.

Okay, so you already have something in place that already takes care of other substations in situations.

We do we we have uh yeah, teams of our on our facilities side that uh will go out and and maintain um the the artwork that's out there.

So that's okay.

So I think that it would be reasonable then to uh add that as a condition to this.

Yeah, we'd we'd be happy to happy to have that.

That would be great, thank you.

I have a few questions.

Um I was looking at the attachment, the uh final EIR that's attached to the staff report.

Is that EIR subject to being finalized after commission and city council have voted to approve?

Excuse me, Carlo Felix Senior Planner with community development.

So SMUD in this case is the lead agency, and they do have a certified EIR.

Um, this commission has part of tax recommendation.

We have reviewed staff has reviewed that.

And um, we as the responsible agency can rely on that.

However, we do need to make our own SQL findings, and the uh draft resolution that you have in your staff report does include those findings.

Okay, great.

Um, so I was looking at the I just wanted to know kind of what the conditions are of the site.

I EIR mentions that there's some impacted soil, and that there is a soil and groundwater management plan.

If you could maybe speak to kind of what's I know there was like a former uh automobile repair site, so if you could maybe kind of speak to what's going on there.

Thank you, uh Chair Young.

I'm gonna have Amon Rice, our environmental services manager, address that question.

Hello, uh Am and Rice.

I'm uh the interim manager of environmental services at SMUD, and I supervise our SEQA team.

And so, yeah, when we did do our environmental impact report, um we prepared a phase one and a phase two.

Um we've done some testing at the site.

Um we are currently doing some abatement of the buildings, and so we're doing those all in um accordance with our plans, and then um we do have plans after the buildings are demolished that any soil contamination that is encountered um that we'll be doing a cleanup of that soil.

Okay, so is it essentially kind of petroleum that's kind of okay?

And do you know if that petroleum has seeped into the groundwater?

We don't believe it's seeped into the groundwater now.

Okay.

How many borings have you guys utilized to test?

I believe it's eight.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, so then I guess just reading it.

I guess if if there's some if you're finding any other contaminated soil, I think the plan is basically to remove that soil and ship it off to some other site, correct?

Yes, that'd be uh taken to the appropriate landfill.

Okay, great.

And then this is just more of a architectural question because it's in a 200 year flood zone, the the site.

So architecturally, what's done to kind of protect the facility should heaven forbid like you know, a flood occur in that area.

And the EIR we did um determine that the flood risk would be minimal due to the surrounding levee infrastructure.

Um, but you know, we are very careful in our design of taking um items that have long lead times, um, like for example in our control building, putting those on the second floor um to be cautious just in case.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, are there any other um Commissioner Ortiz did did we address all the the conditions that you were kind of possibly seeking?

Um I I heard a commitment on the uh mural, because that's what they summarily do, and they do have art in public I mean uh to maintain.

Um I did not hear uh a commitment about um the additional trees and landscape.

I think it was a general we'll explore where should the wall move, right?

That's a separate that's independent of whether or not the wall moves is my understanding.

Maybe I I misunderstood.

Just to to clarify, um, as the wall exists now in the in the proposed uh site plan that it wouldn't um be enough space to accommodate trees.

So because of the the security features, uh, were the wall to move back, the the trees could be explored.

I think I'm not sure if um EV chargers and trees, but I think there's a room for um discussion on that with the community.

But a strong commitment to explore, meaningfully explore and work with the community to absolutely an acknowledgment of the request and and definitely uh more conversations to come up.

Yeah, no, I appreciate the risk of accessing a very dangerous situation and I think there are some unknown variables that they have to work through.

But I think a public commitment to try to strive to achieve that if it's safe and there's enough space is what I think I'm hearing.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, for asking for that clarification.

Commissioner Lamas.

Yeah.

Um and thank you for the presentation.

Um I did have um some questions about um maybe some mitigating factors that um you may have considered given the proximity to two uh housing facilities, right?

The um the two homeless shelters uh home and uh my first steps community and cottage housing, which provides permitted supportive housing for folks who were previously homeless.

Um it's directly adjacent to those housing properties.

Um are there any other stations that directly abud uh but a housing facility, and if so, what kind of uh mitigating factors were included there and is there any similar mitigating factors that are going to be instituted in this project?

Yeah, we do have substations that are also in, you know, residential areas, um obviously a lot of distribution substations that are located in new developments.

Um we have had extensive talks with um all of our neighbors, and that has been something that's been raised as concerns, and we are addressing that by doing a handful of different things, including being very uh aware of our start times.

You know, we don't want to go to start doing construction early in the morning, seven o'clock in the morning when we could have residents that are sleeping and so pushing back our start time to accommodate that.

Um we would be putting up barriers to help with um sound attenuation within the site uh while we're doing construction, and then obviously having a 10-foot concrete wall um also helps with that.

Okay, so it sounds like some uh noise control um features were instituted for long-term um operation of the facility.

Um does that do you know like how low it brings down the noise level with those added features and is it like anticipated to be lower than like is there like a projected decibel, you know?

Uh you know, I believe we do have that in our EIR.

I off the top of my head, I'm I don't know what that level is.

Um, but yeah, we can provide that.

And again, I believe it is in the environment report.

Okay, thank you.

And the only reason I'm asking is because I think one of the letters from the Salvation Army kind of try to address some of those concerns and the noise level and some of the population that um is in the area accessing the housing resources with social services and trying to be mindful of um uh the the community that um it's it's next to so.

I just wanted to add that our project team uh and our um leadership directory level leadership have actually gone out with the the head of salvation army, the facility uh that's out there and visited our station E just to give a sense of of what the uh uh the sound level is from our transformers.

Uh luckily our our newest uh transformer technology is is quite a bit quieter than um even some of our substations that were built uh maybe 20 or 30 years ago.

So that um you know I think helped to alleviate some of those concerns.

We're also uh of course, you know, working closely with uh Quinn Cottages and Mercy Housing.

Uh SHRA is another uh property owner in the site.

So we're we're working with all our neighbors to kind of you know minimize any of the impacts or concerns, and if there are you know concerns that come out, we we want to be very responsive as a you know publicly owned utility.

Perfect, thank you.

I'm glad to hear that.

Glad to hear that um and I appreciate the additional context.

I yield my time.

Thank you.

Um just one more follow-up question on the environmental.

I it it does seem like the DTSC is still responsible for approving the soil management plan, and as well as I guess there's sort of a groundwater plan as well.

So they're they're responsible for approving that plan.

Right.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Um, seeing no other questions, um, can we get a motion for approval?

Second.

Commissioner Blunt.

Yeah, uh motion to pass.

Okay.

On those conditions, on those conditions, yes.

Okay.

Commissioner Masias Reed.

And I'll second.

All right.

Will the clerk please call roll for a vote?

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioners, please unmute.

Commissioner Lee.

Aye.

Commissioner Tao.

Aye.

Commissioner Lamas?

Aye.

Commissioner Naibo.

Aye.

Commissioner Caden.

Aye.

Commissioner Hernandez is absent.

Commissioner Massius Reed?

Aye.

Commissioner Ortiz?

Aye.

Commissioner Blunt?

Aye.

Vice Chair Chase?

Aye.

Commissioner Rushke.

Aye.

Commissioner Thompson, absent.

And Chair Young.

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

All right, moving on.

I think item three is being continued, so we'll moving on to the discussion item number four.

The 2026 planning and zoning work program.

ID 2025-01576.

Chair Sandland.

Good evening, Chair Young, members of the commission.

Greg Sandlin, Planning Director.

Happy to present the draft 2026 planning and zoning work program.

So I'll provide just a brief background on the process of developing the work program.

Talk about some of our achievements, other aspects of our 2025 work program, and then walk you through each initiative essentially in the 2026 work program.

So each year I come to the commission with a draft work program, usually in September.

But I thought we had a crowded agenda on September 25th.

We ended up canceling the meeting.

So here I am in October.

Where I'll present the work program, take your comments, questions, and then we'll report back in November.

And then request that you forward uh the uh work program on to law and legislation and the council for their consideration.

So, plan is we'd go to law and legislation committee in December, and uh then council would approve the 2026 work program in January.

As for looking back last year, how we did some of the key accomplishments, um, just a few to highlight.

Um adopted an ordinance removing minimum parking requirements from the Sacramento City Code.

Um largely a formal thing, uh, but I think still it's a pretty significant uh achievement for a city, anywhere.

Um conducted a workshop here on the planning and development code update, provided an update, got your input on um certain aspects of form and uh commercial uses in neighborhood zones.

Um updated the universal design ordinance.

Then also uh something I I've really enjoyed the last year is we had a a small developer boot camp we were looking to do, but it's turned into a program where we had various touch points throughout the year, and we've been really developing a new community of small developers, looking to develop their capacity, improve access to our development system.

It's been a great source of feedback on how our website works, our processes.

Often we consult with larger developers, so hearing from them, and uh just taking the long view of just getting more of these developers that can help play a role in developing ADUs and missing middle housing and more interval housing, um, also updated our vision and guiding principles for the river district-specific plan.

Um completed our first climate action adaptation plan annual progress report, and then most recently we participated with Sacramento County on the Urban Land Institute's technical leadership exchange program, where we got recommendations on how to adapt to extreme heat in our community.

I'll also note just in terms of adapting to state legislation that we get each year, we updated over 12 forms and applications to reflect new state laws, and those are just the various types of applications you can utilize with all the different legislation we're working with.

Some of the projects we began with the central city-specific plan.

We brought a consultant on board and we are now working on background information, looking to do some initial public outreach soon.

Extreme heat mitigation is really with those recommendations for the ULI technical panel.

We can get going on that, and I'll get into that in a little bit in our work program.

And then the Food Literacy Urban Farm Community Action Plan funded by money from SACOG and Caltrans, that we'll uh well, I can get into a little bit more detail later.

So the remaining milestones to work on before the end of the year, we'll have a workshop here on the River District specific plan.

Um, get going on our initial engagement for the central city specific plan.

Um, we hope to have a one final hearing at council on our cannabis land use regulations that went through the commission here that's on November 18th.

Um Greta's worked really hard to get the pro housing designation application in, just recently turned in, and so we should be hearing back from the state in November.

We have a six-week small developer boot camp that we are helping to sponsor, facilitated by the incremental development alliance, and um we also look to adopt our local ordinance implementing SB 684.

I think that's coming to you uh next meeting, and then also we will have looking to do a council workshop on the mixed income housing ordinance, providing new council members and elected uh background on the history of the ordinance, the effectiveness of the current one, and our latest recommendations on that.

Some work that was not anticipated was just the amount of analysis and work on the planning and development code update to be consistent with the general plan.

We are now bringing on consultants, opticos, to continue to refine our missing middle housing standards.

Um we also had to intervene and help co-sponsor state legislation that will help allow our city to continue to permit development in areas where we're just finalizing 200-year-level flood protection.

We weren't able to make the deadline by the end of the year for two areas of the city, and so that legislation will hopefully be signed by the governor soon.

Um just the amount of staffing and required for supporting the small development incubator pilot program, and then the amount of work in preparing for the ULI panel briefing materials and getting interviews set up, and it was quite a lot of work and coordination with the county, but yielded some great recommendations.

So we'll move on to the 2026 planning and zoning work program at this point.

So the work program is organized by citywide policy, housing policy initiatives, neighborhood community planning, climate and equity policy, and then some ongoing programmatic work that takes some staff time.

Terms of citywide policy, of course, the planning and development code update, this is would include consolidation of our residential zones, incorporating missing middle housing standards, rezones for a good chunk of the city, portion of the city, and looking at permitting more neighborhood commercial uses, which we'll soon have a survey going out to the community to get input on that.

We will be looking to amend the general plan to add a truck route map per AB 98, which regulates warehouse uses, and it's required in to have in every general plan across the state, I believe by the end of next year.

Of course, we'll do our 2040 general plan annual report in April.

Back on the flood protection matter, while our levies will be certified very soon with 200-year level protection for the entire city.

Access is a key thing, as you may know, there's a lot of properties that back into levees with pools and fences and the like, and we need to have enough space for emergency access and monitoring of those levies.

To do that will require resources and funding and coordination with other agencies.

So we will be working on that implementation plan next year in coordination with our utilities department and Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency.

So of course, a big large amount of our time is responding to state legislation.

SB 79 might be passed soon, which would have additional requirements for development near Light Rail stations.

But many other things that continue to come out from the state, and so those get worked into our omnibus ordinances often.

We have one that is still that would be coming forward very soon to you, incorporating work from the 2024 legislative session, and then in the fall, we'll have another omnibus ordinance in 2025 or for 2025.

This is something we've been working on and looking at for the past couple years, but really updating our development codes, both Title 17 as well as Title 13 on how we can provide flexibility and better guidance on where these facilities, dumpsters and toters and whatnot are incorporated into new development as we move from a development pattern of predominantly single-family homes and apartments for missing metal housing and everything in between.

How do we have good reasonable standards that don't drive project design?

So that'll be a key work program next year.

And just keep in mind also, we don't just have trash and recycling, we have green waste, and so another thing to add to the site, which is great, but yeah, takes some puzzling.

The commission has expressed interest in having a workshop to discuss how we consider off-state alcohol sales, particularly in with our EJ policy.

Kevin Collin, our zoning administrator, is looking at bringing that discussion to the commission in this winter.

A key thing is just finalizing those cannabis amendments.

Short-term rental regulations, working with finance.

They're looking to simplify ADU, I'm sorry, not ADU, but Airbnb rentals, and work on their regulations, but it does have a slight impact to Title 17, and so there'll be largely technical cleanup amendments that we'll be bringing to the commission shortly and likely worked in in early 2026.

We have, as you may know, council does request throughout the year, they make proposals that pass through law and legislation, other committees.

So we had a request to update some of our digital sign standards in the entertainment and sports center special sign district.

So that's another thing we're looking at and researching.

AB 1033.

We've been researching this, but I think we're we're looking forward to developing an ordinance to permit the sale of ADUs.

Also, to encourage ADUs is looking at ADUs on wheels, how someone could bring that into a backyard.

Let's just say, permanent safe hookups and connections.

We have updated the ordinance, but we are gonna be working with uh ARP, other agencies and resources to improve consumer awareness of these options so the buyer knows that they can even ask for these accessible features.

Also, um, I'm happy to let you all know that we will be inspecting model homes to make sure that these features are actually being advertised per the ordinance.

Right now, our building inspectors don't, they're too busy looking at other safety aspects of the code, but um that will bring a little bit more accountability on it on how the development committees marketing these features.

As I indicated earlier, we'll continue to provide programmatic support and city hosted events for the small developer incubator program housing element along with our general plan annual report.

We'll bring a uh annual progress report forward.

We also have a housing policy working group that's comprised of development, advocates, neighborhoods, uh affordable housing developers and advocates.

It's a great effective way to take our our various housing-related initiatives, both from our division as well as outside departments to get those perspectives.

We also have some commissioners that sit on that in that working group.

Neighborhood community planning.

Update.

Uh, we're in full swing of that with the public review draft.

We anticipate out um fall of next year, quite a bit of outreach this fall to help the develop the document, and we hope to have commission and council hearings by year end.

Central city specific plan is on a similar timeline and track.

We're we're working with RT because they have a new light rail alignment, as they're calling it the streetcar that goes over the tower bridge and connects along N Street and other light rail lines, and so that's pushing us to get that specific plan updated by the end years end of the year as well.

Stockton Boulevard specific plan.

We have the action grant program to move ahead with the different um actions laid out in that plan.

So this is more so in partnership with our Office of Innovation Economic Development with grant management, RFPs, and working with the uh the grantees.

Our neighborhood development action plan will continue to do various initiatives like ADU resource affairs, assisting with the small developer incubation program.

We will also be bringing on a consultant to look at other areas of the city and try and prioritize areas that need additional planning with that inclusive economic development angle.

Um just looking at what's next after Stockton Boulevard and Del Paso Mary's Rule Boulevard, supporting the community ambassador program that is really helping to get the word out in a multilingual, multicultural way.

It's been a very successful program.

And yeah, a variety of other initiatives we're working on with that team.

Climate and equity policy, a key feature of implementing our existing building electrification strategy is adopting a local reach code.

As you replace your furnace and AC, we would require an electric heat pump.

And so this is taking recently adopted state law through AB 130 that helps allow jurisdictions like ours that have that general plan policy to go ahead with this change.

In terms of extreme heat mitigation from our side, is looking at building design strategies, some of the ULI recommendations touched on this shading from building and where is the shade being cast on in terms of parking lots or other usable open space, and then trees, looking at minimum tree requirements.

I think particularly we're having challenges with small subdivisions that are using private streets with no tree planners, and they're building out the lot, and so how with with when we have increasingly hotter summers and days, is that really sustainable?

Not having that shading there.

Also, our other departments we're working with public works.

They're they're gonna be looking at they have some money for consultant assistance to look at our current parking lot shading requirements and any adjustments necessary for those.

Also, public works and utilities are studying how extreme heat might be impacting their infrastructure, and how we as a city adapt to that.

Our zero emission vehicle basically strategy, which is critical in our climate action plan.

Over 50% of our greenhouse gas emissions are from the transportation sector.

So what can we do in terms of looking at encouraging and promoting greater EV acceptance and finding ways to get infrastructure, charging infrastructure for apartments and homes without driveways?

This study and analysis will help inform the next climate action and adaptation plan update.

That will come along with our general plan update, which we'll start scoping out early next year.

Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, net zero energy for buildings, doing feasibility uh assessment on that.

We have a goal of being carbon zero by 2045.

So, how are we doing in terms of our various pathways of renewable energy and storage to achieve that net zero carbon emission goal?

And so, again, that this is a type of assessment that's gonna help inform our next climate action update.

Of course, we have a variety of partners we work with in implementing climate action adaptation plan to help us implement it.

SMUD, RT, which isn't listed here, but um the capital region climate ready collaborative and we have good work in relationships now with Elk Grove and Sacramento County, because of course, all this is you know well outside our boundaries in terms of making an impact.

Um we do plan on coming back to the commission uh this winter with an ordinance that will require a maximum vehicle parking around in transit areas, as well as adjustments to our bike parking requirements.

And then, in terms of equity and food access, we're gonna be working with, we're already starting to work with the Food Literacy Center.

There is an urban farm near Leotata Floyd elementary, um, that's also proximate to public housing and other affordable housing.

And so working with that community to help engage them, actually get them, you know, promoting healthier food strategies and also just connecting them to the urban farm.

As far as ongoing programmatic work, our planet academy will be once again going with our 24th class in early 2026, and we'll be taking applications in December.

And of course, our long range planners and other uh zoning planners are helping out the public counter.

Answering email helped us.

I think this is a great way for them to understand how our current regulations operate as they are playing a role in updating regulations.

And that uh largely includes my presentation.

Just note um, some considerations are with this continued structural budget deficit.

Um, we might have some constrained resources in terms of staffing.

Um I'm keeping a position vacant and long range for the time being until we see what type of cuts um need to be made.

Council I think just acted on a two year budget, so those structural cuts will have to be deeper, but um I'm optimistic that we can offset these with um fee revenue and other resources versus a limiting positions.

Um but it's kind of a wait and see situation, of course.

With our federal government, uh we had a grant that we were looking at that um unfortunately we were unable to access, but um, in terms of particularly with our climate strategies and other strategies, we're just looking at other grant opportunities, local and statewide, and um I have the uh work program to reference if you have any specific questions about certain line items, but um, I'm here along with uh many of my staff leads on these different programs, uh, in case you have any questions.

Are there any speaker slips for this item?

Thank you, Chair.

I have one speaker slip for Rosie.

Thank you, Greg.

Hi, uh, my name is Rosie Yaqub.

I'm a volunteer with 350 Sacramento and a resident of District 7.

Um I'm happy to see that the work plan includes bringing AC to heat pump ordinance um to council next year.

Um heat pumps are way more efficient than standard air conditioners, and Sacramento residents will be able to anticipate utility savings when they go through that conversion.

So, sounds like you know, it's good for climate, but it's also good for the residents.

Um, there are already five other cities in California that have approved similar ordinances, and as Greg mentioned, it fulfills part of the existing building electrification strategy that the city accepted.

Um, since air conditioning to heat pump is explicitly mentioned in the city of Sacramento's planning documents and which were approved before June 10th, it should also be covered under the exemptions of AB 30 for local codes.

130, the one that passed that said you can't add more codes.

Well, because it's already it was specifically mentioned in one of the planning documents, it should be fine to go forward with this, so super happy to see that.

Um but I noticed that it was um scheduled to be brought before council in um quarter four, and given that they've been working on this for a while, there's template language in these five other cities.

Um, I'm just asking that maybe consider whether it would be okay to move that forward because um the sooner we move on some of these actions, the sooner we can start moving houses, existing buildings into more efficient um at you know, energy-wise uses.

Um, because right now, just with rebates, we're not even recovering a tenth of the buildings in into this new technology, and so this will greatly ramp that up.

Um thank you.

Thank you for your comment, Chair.

Yeah, I have no more speakers.

Thank you.

Moving on to Commissioner Comments questions, Commissioner Masias Reed.

Well, you guys have not been busy at all.

Exactly.

So I just want to start by saying congratulations to the entire team because you guys rock.

You're awesome.

I think when we started the work plan, I thought it was like 2021-ish, but I just clarified with Stacia, it was 2020.

It's just there's just so much, and I appreciate that you all juggle the priorities of the state mandates and the council and the commission and the general plan, you know, requirements, and just you know, with what you have.

And so I just really admire and appreciate what you guys do with the resources that you have.

I think it's really phenomenal.

We really have an awesome planning team.

So I just want to start by saying that we've accomplished a lot.

So I wanted to ask first about the um, there was a mention in the report about the updated financial feasibility analysis around the city's our mixed income housing ordinance.

Um it said that you guys had concluded the most recent one in September of 2025.

Um obviously, I know we had a discussion, I think it was last year, it could have been even longer than that.

I don't remember.

Um, obviously, last time we've updated this ordinance, it's been 2015, it's been a hot topic item.

Couldn't get through on the last conversation.

Um obviously there was a lot of market factors into consideration.

You guys have updated, you have an updated feasibility and analysis, but yet it's listed on the work plan as TBD.

So just curious um when do you plan to release that study and what are the what is the plan in 2026 for coming back to either the commission andor the council on that?

Yeah, so um it's been requested that we go straight to council with uh the feasibility analysis and our latest recommendations and provide the background to the new electeds and the ones that were there before the recommendations, all that information in one meeting where everyone can get that information at the same time.

Um I believe there's some concerns uh about this, I think from our council about getting a lot of uh advocacy leading up to that meeting, and they would just like to just have a check-in um and then provide direction on further work from that point.

So, depending on what council direction is at that point, it would really uh determine when we're we certainly would be checking in with the the commission if we're directed to continue to do work on that ordinance.

So you're still TBD on that as of right now, but you're thinking sometime in 26.

Certainly, yeah, that'll be a likely be a major part of our our work, unless the council says no, we're good with the current ordinance.

I doubt that, but thank you.

Okay, thank you for the updates.

Um, okay, so in terms, so I wanted to talk about I'm probably a lot of my comments are probably gonna be around um housing policy initiatives.

Um, not that any of these are more important than the other, um, because they're not, but um, I just wanted to, you know, when as I'm looking through the plan, and and you're more than welcome to pull it up if you want.

Um, but like, so, under how um the housing policy initiatives, there you go.

Um, so I mentioned the first one, um, but you know, the ADU fair that you guys co-hosted with the BIA, the housing development toolkit map.

I don't know if you guys have checked that out, but you guys um have released that um it launched in April of 25, and then of course you talked already and showed photos about the small um developer incubator program, you've hosted workshops, mixers, um open houses, right?

That's turned into like a larger project than you guys even anticipated.

I know I think that's also grant funded, I believe.

We did receive the grant initially, but lately it has come out of uh the city's budget to sponsor more of these events, okay.

So these are the kinds of initiatives and programs that I really think obviously with the funds, if we do have it, to that we need to continue to have.

I'd love to see more of them.

Um I would like us to primarily focus on those work in the work plan because I think their goal and intent is to support development of more housing production, obviously.

Um it's a goal that we a shared goal in our region.

Um there's also um the continued partnership that was also mentioned with Matt Hurdle, we miss Matt, and the work that he's leading with the building department and Streamlined Sacramento.

I've actually firsthand witnessed I've been at some of those meetings that they've had.

They've had some public meetings with contractors, developers, and just the general public around hey, what are some of the headaches that you're dealing with on a day-to-day basis and how can we you know work on them, right?

How can we make things better?

And um that you know the city's really listening, right?

Well, I I really appreciate it as a as a construction company, a small construction company, but as someone who has to submit paperwork to the city, I really appreciate when uh I can get something, my when I can get help with something.

Um, and it you know, with ADUs in particular, it looks like that's happening.

And so I really appreciate that, and I I want to see the continued partnership with the building department with the community development department and the Streamlight Sacramento program.

I want that to continue happening, to continue to look for opportunities to identify more, you know, initiatives and opportunities to support those efforts.

Um, I think that's really important.

So the other thing is I know this came to law and ledge recently.

I got a little bit of an update.

I didn't get a chance to watch the meeting, but um, the potential voter polling for vacant property tax measure.

Uh it's listed under remaining work anticipated to be completed by the end of 2025.

Uh I believe the last thing I heard about law and ledge was that there wasn't much of an appetite for it.

And so I guess my question on that is are you still planning to potentially go out to poll the public?

I guess I will ask that as a first question.

The committee directed us to do further outreach, both on this as well as the code enforcement's vacant property fees, um, and then come back with a report back, and then they would determine whether we should uh invest money into polling.

So they weren't uh quite ready to direct staff to do the polling for that measure.

Okay, understood.

Is that a fair summary ground?

Um, okay, yeah, I I think I think I mean you guys obviously probably looked into some of the cities that already have a similar ordinance.

I think it's an important factor in our ongoing discussions around encouraging more development and housing, particularly in our aging commercial corridor corridors, and I obviously I work in an aging commercial corridor, but um we don't really have we're not a large you know area, we don't have a ton of vacant properties, but it does impact our district, and I think more so when we see the Stockton Boulevard just strategic plan on this work plan, um, if for those who don't know, Stockton Boulevard, uh I think even just within their property and business improvement district, their PBID district, uh they have, I believe, approximately 600 vacant lots.

So I could imagine that just within their PBID area, you know, the vacant lots are having a tremendous impact, right, in their district and their community.

And so and I don't think it's a positive impact.

And so I really think that you know, I don't know that there's an appetite, you know, for a property tax, and you know, it's not something that is a tax on every person, right?

It's a tax that would potentially be levied on a person who owns a vacant property, right?

If they're not doing actively doing something with their property, but um I just want it to be to continue to be a priority on the work plan as much as we can, as much as there's an appetite for it, because I just think that it could be a useful tool.

Um, and then of course, if the polling suggests that it's it's not at this time, I wanted to consider that we look into how we can incentivize um owners, vacant property owners to you know activate their space in some way.

So there's that.

Um then the other thing, let's see.

Oh, the AB 1033.

Um, I'm just really excited to see that.

I think that's again yet another tool for us to um be able to offer a more affordable housing uh for ownership options.

So I um I know there's only a couple of cities in the state who have that ordinance, would love to see that um happen sooner rather than later.

Um and then the zoning reform efforts that we're currently you know undertaking right now, the rezone program, it's already in motion.

Um that's just another tool in our toolkit, um, to hopefully support more housing development.

So I think these are all I think we're just um obviously you guys are doing a ton of work, Greta.

You know, thanks.

You guys are awesome.

Um keep up the good work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Caden.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

And um, I every year when when we do this, I'm sort of blown away by how much work that we are uh doing as a city.

Um, and I just wanted to lift up a couple of I think the accomplishments that that we were able to do this year that I think are just super meaningful.

I mean, you started your presentation with the um kind of formally doing away with parking requirements.

I agree that is a really big deal and should not be understated.

I mean, there's only a handful of cities in the country really that have done that, so you can at a city, you know, uh of our scale, so uh that was a big deal.

I I would also echo some of the comments around streamlined Sacramento.

I mean, I I can imagine probably as a planning department, it's like this, it feels like this constant battle to kind of do streamlining exercises, and it feels like we're always doing them, but I think that's that's sort of how these things work, right?

It is it is never going to be perfect.

We're gonna continue to sort of work and work and work to make sure that you know this is as sort of an efficient and and streamlined a development review process as we can be, and I think we're doing a really good job at that, and so I think I just want to lift up that that work both in terms of planning and the building department and kind of you know uh making those two things work together.

Um the small developer incubator program.

I know that's like an unexpected sort of work as well, um, but I that is really really worthwhile.

Uh I it is I had an opportunity to attend the um the all-day um small development workshop that um staff did, I think that was in March.

Um, and I think just you know, staff did an amazing job with that.

I thought the speakers were great.

I think as you were kind of noting, Greg, it's like this kind of ongoing dialogue that we're able to have to sort of get there's a kind of a feedback loop where I think we're learning from their experience, they're learning from our processes.

Um, and it's it's also just like a nascent industry, right?

That that you know, there are not a ton of these kind of small developers yet, and we're trying to lift them up, we're trying to kind of support this new ecosystem.

And so I think that that's just really important work, and I'd I'm really happy that we're continuing to do that.

I know we have the um the six-week small development boot camp coming up um later, which I'm excited to to see.

And then I think the you know, I think it's in December you were saying the the SP 684, the the buy right process for small lot subdivisions.

I think that's you know, it it's it's wonky, but it's I think it's really important and kind of in in line with what uh Commissioner Masius Reed was talking about with um the uh 1033 ADU sales, this is all kind of in this category of making it um uh you know opening up more affordable homeownership opportunities right I think a lot of our missing middle work and kind of our like higher density work has been really focused on the rental side which is great we need that for sure I think we also want to try to open up these home ownership opportunities through kind of these these more um streamlined subdivision processes and and opening up ADUs for sale as well.

I wasn't gonna mention it but since you did bring it up Greg the um SB79 so I know it's sitting on the governor's desk presumably it will get signed here shortly has have we considered um whether or not we're going to be pursuing a local alternative ordinance um which is I think allowed but not required.

We were discussing that this morning actually um it's something we'll take a look at and see if there's any aspects that would be worthwhile to pursue um and how that integrates with our our areas of FAR too around transit um and our planning and development code update we've been look studying or look at looking at SB 79 as it's been going through legislature and just comparing how it impact what we're doing with the planning and development code but um that it it's well we'll see if it gets signed but uh we'll we'll certainly study it some more and see what our options are if um staff is looking to pursue that would would the commission have an opportunity to to weigh in certainly yes commissioner cading can you give me the reader's digest on SP79?

Yeah SB 79 is uh uh four or five years in the making um transit oriented development upzoning bill that essentially allows for um similar development that we've done actually through our general plan but much denser development within a half mile of qualifying transit across the state for existing and proposed transit stations.

Okay.

Okay.

So yeah I would yeah if we are going to pursue that I would love to you know have have an opportunity for the commission to to weigh in.

I think one thing that I was um that I wish was not being pushed out quite so far although I you know completely understand the the challenges is the the Title 17 zoning code overhaul um and you know making our zoning code consistent with the with the general plan we adopted in 2024 I think um I will go so far to say that I I think that this is the most important thing that we're working on next year.

I think this I mean I I see the number of hours I mean it's a remarkable effort um because it just sets the table for for what we're allowing where and it's it's really the overarching implementation of our general plan.

I I think we're in kind of a weird moment we're sort of in limbo right now in the sense that we have this extremely you know progressive general plan that deservedly I think got a lot of national attention that we adopted last February and then the zoning code to actually implement that general plan is being you know pushed back a year now and um based on this work plan I it looks like we're looking at targeting next end of next year.

So you know over two years after the general plan adoption and I just I know there's been some you know situations where where builders are are trying to kind of build more housing options that are allowed in the general plan are likely going to be allowed in the updated zoning code but are kind of running into challenges with our you know existing zoning code that will you know pretty soon be kind of outdated and antiquated here.

And I and I know the department is is aware of these and are kind of you know working through and keeping these um projects moving but just kind of given the time gap now that it's like more than two years, I I would love to just kind of see some like internal and maybe external guidance for how these types of projects can proceed.

And I would I guess ask that to the extent possible, we can exercise some flexibility there, recognizing that we've you know there's we've acted as as a city on the general plan, and the intent is to allow these types of products.

And again, I completely understand how how big of a a task uh the zoning code update is and how much um work is involved, but I just I just wanted to I guess reinforce that um for me that that's the the number one priority uh in the work plan next year, and and so I just want to you know I would I would hope that we're able to kind of you know hit hit that sort of new deadline um but one project that I meet with my staff every week on to talk about the schedule.

So it's definitely a priority as well for me to hear.

Um all right, well that's that's it for me.

Um thank you, and and thank you so much to to all of your staff for all of the the hard work that you do.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Chase.

Thank you, Chair.

Um Greg, thanks for the update, the report, the program.

I want to echo my colleagues' comments about a uh the the quality of the work that your the whole staff has accomplished uh over the years, and and I know we'll continue to do so.

It's uh it's really uh very heartening.

Um the only question I had was and you touched on your last slide is you know the uncertainty that we're looking at in terms of the budget of the city and beyond the city, but specifically that um have you taken you've mentioned one vacancy that you will be keeping uh un you know unfilled.

Are there any other anticipated uh uh effects on from the budget on your plans that would affect anything you've presented moving forward?

Um I think it it remains to be seen.

Um, taking account what our revenue is, because a lot of our positions in planning our are revenue-based, fee revenues and the like.

Um and then we are adjusting some of our development fees, but um most of those adjustments occurred already a couple years ago.

Um so I just want to keep a vacancy open in that area just in case we have to cut a position.

Um, but I've certainly we have a a wonderful general plan maintenance fee that we collect on every single building permit, that really helps pay for all this planning that you see.

Um that could offset general funded positions potentially.

So I'll I'll certainly be looking at that, but um that means that's less money that would be going towards um consultant services for planning efforts, and likely we would have to increase that fee at some point because we'd be running out so it's just I've now that we're looking at a two-year budget too.

Um what our our budget department or division will be asking us to to cut and propose is um remains to be seen.

Is it isn't both the uh planning and building uh revenue based, is there any general fund money that goes to uh community development?

There is, yeah.

Um our neighborhood development action team is um 100% general funded.

Um, so uh a lot of our long-range planners they're they charge towards the general plan maintenance fee fund for the work they do because it's all implementing the general plan.

Um but uh yeah, we have limited uh a lot of our yeah, a lot of our planning positions are are based off of revenue.

Fortunately, after the Great Recession, we had to do a lot of layoffs then, not fortunately, but we we developed the economic uncertainty reserve after going through that that helps us keep those positions and that helps us be ready for the next economic wave, and we're not trying to hire people and train them up.

So yeah.

Having gone through that with the city, I know how painful it it was.

But uh again, thanks for your report.

We look forward to certainly working with everyone moving forward too.

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Lamester Tower.

Good evening.

Uh first off, I'd like to commend you uh Greg, and your whole team on uh amazing presentation and what you've done in this past year.

Um, I think, you know, our city compared to any others, you know, I think we're on top of it with when it comes to being on top of um legislation, middle income housing and all that, we we are on the forefront, and uh I think we're we're we're all setting the standard, and so I commend our team for doing that.

Um, you know, that I see it's really beneficial is the NDAT, you know.

We focus on uh uh marginalized communities and getting uh folks that usually don't get involved involved, and I I see this uh working in North Sacramento with Del Pasa Boulevard and Mary's Bell Boulevard, and uh the work that's being done there with the nonprofits and organizations and the community.

I mean, they're uh very proactive that we haven't seen in the past.

Um other than that, you know, I just want to put on my advocacy hat and I see the neighborhood specific plant, and I know both uh council member Kaplan and Councilmember Dickinson wanted to put forward or they are putting forward a Roblox specific plan.

Uh Robla is in the North Sacramento community.

It is north of I-80, it's not with the NDAT plan.

Um it's also a very challenging community.

Uh it has high uh, it has a big industrial area that's right next to residential, it deals a lot with a lot of vacant land.

I think uh a lot of um in fill development with uh and so they're currently in, I think including the North Acurador community plan, but the community there's been wanting and pushing for a specific plan for the past couple years, and I think it's time that they have their own specific plan because there's a lot of development that's going there.

Especially, you know, there's the Robot Estates, 117 uh info development with uh housing that's coming in, now KB home they're building about I think 30 or 40.

Uh and it's popping up all over and you know the neighborhood, it's a mix of uh, you know, 0.17 acre homes to half acre homes in a lot of potential for ADUs and all that, and so I think it's time that we look at a specific plan just for Robla.

And I thought I think the community be really supportive with that.

Our staff um on September 30th went out uh and had a listening session with members of that community, and yeah, we do anticipate that proposal.

Um, and so despite the end that planning needs analysis if council tells us to do it, then we do it.

Okay, any other comments.

Uh yeah, I just wanted to thank all the planning staff for all the hard work that they've done this year and are planning on for next year.

I I was asking Stacia like how many planning staff are there?

Because I was like, we we should do like a potluck or invite you guys out to lunch or something like that.

But she was like saying there's like 40 staff, and I'm like, well that break my budget, huh?

52 of us.

52.

I don't know.

I'd love to host a potluck for you guys.

You guys work so hard, and I wish we could like do something like that as an as a group.

So I don't know.

We'll we'll we'll talk about it because we will would really figure out we'd love to be able to find a way to just honor honor all your work and and hard work and be able to just you know uh just celebrate, celebrate with you guys.

So um I uh had a question about the um the air conditioning and heat pump ordinance.

Um I'm not super familiar with the requirement.

I know we're we're trying to move towards an electrification of of the city.

Um given the fact that a lot of the I'm I'm assuming a lot of these energy rebates are are disappearing, right?

Um, with the federal government kind of slowly slowly uh backing away, if if that's correct.

Um I guess one of my my concerns is also just thinking about kind of like lower income neighborhoods where you know, you have a household that's you know, they're their AC is going out, you know, and is we but I think those heat pumps can be quite expensive, especially without the rebates, and so I'm not sure of how we would consider how we might be able to mitigate the the financial impact.

Is SMUD still involved in the I think and I speak from experience because I replaced an outdated central seating air with SMUD in 2020.

But the SMUD rebates are still in place and they're independent.

I think the federal tax credits is where you know it's not a lot, but I think it's about $2,500.

That was from SMUD for my heat new system that you're right.

The all of the federal including the EVs, which is gonna be pretty devastating.

Um, yeah, I mean certainly we have a pathway that the state has has given us, but um that will be a big part of our outreach um and developing the and going ahead uh is and these issues have been raised in the past by this commission is how that impacts low-income um homeowners and and the like, and that does have to be worked out uh as part of the that process.

Rosie.

Yeah, I would say that you know for homeowners, it's a pretty rare exception.

Oh come on up, come on up.

For the TV watchers, they can't hear you.

Yeah, oh god, yeah.

Um SMUD actually through their EPA program has more supports for electrification of low-income homes.

I I don't know what their EPA program is doing currently, the extent, but they're they were doing full electrification at one point.

Yeah, I think that that pool was limited.

Um I would just appreciate that as as we go down this road, right, that we're we're actively going through the math, right, as far as how many other households are potentially gonna impact, and then you know, if if they just can't pay for it, like what are we gonna do, right?

So I just want us to be able to consider that part of our efforts.

Um, as far as the question on the um the small developers program, I was hoping to maybe just get a little bit more color, like as far as develop are these like primarily small housing developers, or are are we talking about developers and other I would say small housing.

Some folks that are just looking to do an ADU, um and uh, but then others that might want to do one as an investment um after that, and it's it's you know, a big thing from the the workshop that Dov and I attended is just start small, start manageable.

Um it was about developing your proformas, um considering uh building code triggers.

It's a big factor when you go from residential to the commercial code, your costs go up.

Um residential lending versus commercial lending.

So all of this is just uh an education, um, certainly for people to invest in their current property and add units, but also if they want to move on to something bigger, maybe they move on to a duplex or a triplex or as they don't get that experience and they're successful do larger infill development.

I know info developers that started with subway franchises, so it's incremental as you learn the the process, great.

Um, and I think as far as just um overall housing policy, I know that we're um you know, we've been entertaining the idea of these kind of um I think these tiny home developments, and I think the I think the city's like putting in like about like two hundred thousand a unit to build um I'm just sort of wondering there's sort of a narrative right now that I feel like the city can't afford to invest in permanent affordable housing because it's too expensive because the narrative out there is like it's like six hundred thousand a unit to to build, which it is, but I would I would also maintain that that six hundred thousand in addition to state and federal subsidies combined um for for that project, and usually if there's like a local match, we're really putting in like a third of that if if that and so we're really as a city putting in like about 200,000 for permanent affordable housing.

Um the reason why I'm just bringing that up is that I just I would just encourage as far as housing policy goes, we do have a new city manager.

I don't know what her position and stance is, but I feel like as a city we have tended to drift away from focusing on trying to secure additional sources for affordable housing because we just deem it to be too expensive and just out of the ballpark considering our structural deficit.

Um that we're doing to the community um that we that we try to give a little bit more education as far as like really what what is the city putting into this for affordable housing.

Um I think we just need to do just a stronger job of educating the city because I think that um we really do need to pass uh whether it's a bond measure or other spending measures, right, to really look towards building the permanent affordable housing and as well as all the other initiatives that that your planning staff are working towards and other solutions that that we've been just talking about this for so long, right?

Like we're we're trying to figure out all these creative ways to to build more housing, but but we acknowledge that we we do need subsidy of some sort to get things going and so um I I would hope that that a little more priority would be done on on some fiscal analysis as far as what what it's going to take for us to to get to that place where we can come up with a more permanent source for for housing.

So um, oh with that, I think we have uh a few more comments here.

Sorry, but but thank you very much for listening to my soapbox.

Uh Commissioner Thompson or Rushke.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much to to the staff for this program.

This was really fun to read through and and to um uh you know look forward to to all these projects.

I was really heartened to hear that uh Title 17 consens consistency is something you're focusing on so much and meeting with staff every week.

I'm really excited for that uh to be consistent and um I'm really proud to live in a city that you know provides so many resources for residents like the planning academy and the ADU workshops and the small developer uh workshops as well.

And um and then I just want to say like as a as a user of the planning and building department counters, um, you know, at some of the workshops I heard some like sort of complaints and and struggles with those, but I just have to say they are so smooth and so easy to use and I really you know I always get um really quick feedback if I have a question for the general planning mailbox and um and yeah the the system just seems very very easy to use and and user-friendly and I just wanted to to name that because yeah, so thank you.

You vice chair chase.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Uh just uh a comment I think to your uh comments about the cost of affordable housing.

Um we know it's been reduced, you know, six to eight hundred thousand dollars per unit isn't quite you know sustainable in the long term.

Um there are some, and I know stab as well aware of them, there are some local developers who are providing affordable housing by design, not by going through w we in the housing uh you know, AIA ULI call it uh, you know, small A affordable housing as opposed to capitally affordable housing, going through all of the regulations, getting all the sources of funding.

But uh some of these folks have been able to bring unit costs down to you know the two hundred thousand dollar range uh per per unit.

So um probably lessons there for the small developers moving forward uh to learn from from them and uh uh look forward to seeing more of that happening because yeah, unfortunately, the you know the the the the the capital A affordable housing is just absurd.

I mean, I don't know the steps have to be there.

We understand the reasoning.

Problem is it costs the same terms of material cost and everything, costs the same to build the market rate housing as it does affordable housing.

Yet the cost, you know, just escalates so much with the uh the affordable housing.

So I look forward to more work by the you know the local development community uh with uh you know affordable design uh projects.

So thank you, Chair.

All right.

I don't know if we have any more comments, and so I think this discussion item we can move on to the next item.

Thank you very much.

All right.

The next item is the City of Sacramento Planning and Design Commission 2025 annual report.

And Station, will you be presenting?

I will.

All right.

Thank you, Chair.

So I'm happy to be here with you tonight to begin our conversation about the preparation of the commission's 2025 annual report.

So we're here tonight just as a review and comment item only.

I'm soliciting your feedback on what's been prepared to date.

I'll take your comments, incorporate any updates, and then I'll be returning to the commission's November 13th meeting along with Greg to review the final draft and at that point ask for a recommendation from the commission to forward the report to the PMPE or public and personnel and public employees committee.

So just a little bit of background for anyone who might be watching.

Um in March of 2023, the City Council updated its rules of procedure, which established an annual reporting requirement for all city boards and commissions.

And this requirement is to make sure that boards and commissions have the opportunity to communicate their accomplishments and their priorities to both council and to members of the public.

The report is first reviewed by the commission itself, then it goes to PMPE committee and then on to city council as a receive and file item.

So the draft report is in your packet this evening, and it follows a template provided by the city clerk's office to all of the boards and commissions.

I want to take a quick moment to walk you through what's included in the report.

First off, it starts with an introduction on page three that discusses the establishment of the particular commission.

It tells you how many commissioners we have, how they're appointed, and our list of current members.

Page four has a list of staff that support the commission.

Page five goes into a summary of the purpose, powers, and duties of the commission, and this is taken directly from Title II.

Page six is to be added.

This is a message from the chair.

So I'll work with the chair over the next um few weeks in order to put in a message for this annual report.

Page seven is where we get into a section that highlights the key accomplishments of the commission over this past calendar year.

Um so during the 2025 reporting period, I I've gone through and itemized all of the items that the commission has heard, whether they've been heard to date, what we're projecting to hear through the rest of the year, and summarize that, and I'll I'll keep updating it as we move through our meetings.

The commission will have held 17 meetings this year in 2025 and heard an anticipated 42 agenda items.

This does represent about a 32% decrease in the number of agenda items we had over last year.

Um that's maybe not particularly surprising given that overall our number of applications is down.

It's just kind of a general slowdown in um in the economy and in um the number of permit applications that we've been receiving.

But the division of work between private development projects and um long range items has remained relatively the same.

About 55% to the private projects and 45% to the long range items.

Of the of the total 42 items, 21 of them were private projects, and 12 of those involved a conditional use permit.

So that continues to be kind of a majority of a lot of what the commission hears.

We had four alcohol permits this year, that's on-site and off-site, two auto service and repair use permits, and then just one of kind of everything else.

So one gas station, one drive-through restaurant, monopol, tobacco sales, mini storage, outdoor amusement.

And there for the second year in a row, we didn't have any cannabis use permits here at the commission.

We had one appeal of an item that the commission heard one appeal, the director decision, that was for a third-party appeal for a use permit modification related to alcohol sales at 3501 Northgate Boulevard.

Beginning on page eight, there are uh there's a list of work plan items that were heard, and it's in chronological order.

I'll just continue to update that um in preparation for the November and for the final report.

Page nine, um I added this section, and um it is uh discussion of the prior year recommendations, so um I thought might be something good to add to the report, so I I added that in.

Last year the commission made two recommendations.

Um first was to look at reducing the number of commission seats and um maybe evaluating how the commission votes um how its votes are tabulated when it's uh attempting to make a motion.

This item I brought back um to the April 10th commission meeting to have a discussion, and all of the pros and cons and all the discussion that the commission had, I summarized and um took back to the PMPE committee.

Um happened to be Tuesday of this week.

Um the committee ultimately didn't favor reducing the number of seats um or changing the method of voting.

The second item um was as Greg pointed out to discuss alcohol use permits in relation to EJ element 2.16, and so that will be taken up in quarter one of 2026, ideally after cannabis is done.

And then on page um page 10, we have an accounting of the cost of the commission, and our costs have gone down because we've had fewer items, fewer staff attending.

Our meetings have also been on average shorter, so two and a half hours la per meeting last year and about 1.9 this year, so that affects the overall um cost of the commission has come down.

Page 11 is the final um bit here, and this is the work plan for the upcoming year.

We're we're lucky to already be in a position where we kind of already know through the planning and zoning work program what staff's gonna be working on, and you are our partner in a lot of those, so we know kind of what we'll be bringing you this next year.

So, what I have done in past years is taken that annual report when it or the um work program and attached it to the annual report so we have a record of what the commission would be working on the next year.

So, next steps, um, any comments or suggestions that you have on this annual report draft tonight.

I'll take them, incorporate them in, bring it back on November 13th, and then um eventually this will go on to PMP, and I can go over that process again if needed.

And with that, I'm available for questions and comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Clerk, I don't think we have any speaker slips.

Thank you, Chair.

Now we have no speaker slip for this item.

I'm like the check.

Uh Commissioner Blunt.

Thank you, Stacia.

This is really helpful and um, yeah.

No, this is this is great in your group.

So thank you.

Um I'm curious about, I mean, we're looking at more than $55,000 in the difference between um 2024 and 2025, right?

On page 10, right?

Um, and you mentioned shorter uh meetings and less items.

Um so I'm I'm then I'm curious about like the less items.

Is that because of um ministerial changes on um different types of items or is it just like happen like it's just a weird, weird, weird year, or like what's overall it looks like uh the number of applications will finish the year about like 17 percent is my rough calculation at this point below the number of applications we had submitted last year.

Some of that is just a change in um, like for example, last year we had a lot of people applying uh for um SB 330 preliminary applications to kind of freeze fees before the utility rate increase.

So we had an influx of a lot of of ministerial applications to vest those fees.

Uh it doesn't explain it all.

Um most file types are are down.

Uh but this this reduction in the commission cost is relative to just the the reduction in the number of staff hours required to produce those staff reports and to attend attend hearings.

Okay, cool.

Thanks again, Commissioner Messias Reed.

Honestly, that was sort of my question, too.

But um it was more of an operational thing on the on the cost too.

But I have to just make one comment that I am shocked.

Um, it's been seven years on the commission.

The first four were nothing but cannabis, and two years in a row we've had none.

I just had to make a comment on there, but that was very interesting.

Um so yeah.

Um it looks like um yeah, it's a great report.

Thank you.

Commissioner Naibo.

Stacia, when I was going over the agenda and I saw this, it was a really a pleasant surprise.

I've never seen anything like this before.

And I I thought for the first time in um in being on the commission, it really synthesized to everything that happened.

I found it to be very helpful, kind of the layer of the land.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Vice Chair Chase.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Yeah, just uh relative to uh my colleague uh Commissioner Massillus Reed's comments um on cannabis.

This year, I don't know how many people went to the uh the state fair, but the exhibit that the state had on cannabis was incredible.

It was huge.

In fact, it's the second year in a row that I've seen it.

Uh just very educational, and really great to see what the state's doing, how they're coordinating with uh what's happening on a local level.

So real really took up a good chunk of real estate there, but it was very well done.

So thank you, Chair.

Having I think that's it.

Why don't we move on to the next item?

Uh do we have any commissioner comments, ideas, questions?

So I would like to maybe bring up I does the planning staff have like some sort of year-end party where they all kind of like get together that maybe we can crash and bring a dish.

Is it like here in the council chambers or something like that?

Like past midnight.

Do you have a holiday party at the second floor of lovely 300 Richards Boulevard?

Um, where it is we bring food.

I mean, I think you absolutely could crash that.

Well, I would love to crash that.

Thank you for the invitation, Greg.

Yeah.

Can we bring it?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Could you let us know the date of that?

We'll just say you know, I usually work down how.

So okay.

And maybe planning commission, we could maybe do a song and dance.

You can't talk about, you know, no brown act violations.

We gotta, you know, just purely talk about song and dance numbers, like should be okay.

No, no browner.

And we do ugly sweaters as well.

So okay, but yeah, that would be great.

I think we would love to celebrate with you guys.

Um, all right.

Uh public comments matters not on the agenda.

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips for this item.

All right, thank you very much.

That adjourns our meeting for tonight.

Thank you.