The Santa Rosa Planning Commission held a regular meeting on April 27, 2023, from 4:30 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chamber. Commissioners present: Chair Karen Weeks, Vice Chair Julian Peterson, Commissioner Vicki Duggan, Commissioner Terrence Sanders, Commissioner Charles Carter, and Commissioner Patti Cisco. Commissioner Jeffrey Holton was absent. The meeting included a public hearing on a conditional use permit for Lazzini's Market and a public hearing on proposed Short-Term Rental (STR) Ordinance amendments. The Commission approved the Lazzini's permit unanimously and recommended the STR amendments to the City Council on a 4-2 vote, with one friendly amendment.
Chair Weeks, we're good to start on time whenever you're ready. Thank you. So with that, I'd like to call to order the what day is this? No. I'd like to call to order the April 27th, 2023 meeting of the Planning Commission. And if you could please take roll. Commissioner Carter. Your Commissioner Sisko. Here. Commissioner Holton is absent. Um just an FYI. He was supposed to remote in, but he can no longer no longer participate in this meeting. So the information at the top of the agenda is not needed. Um Commissioner Duggan. Here. Commissioner Sanders. Present. Vice Chair Peterson. Here. Chair Weeks. Here. Thank you. Um, and as recording secretary indicated, Commissioner Holton will not be here tonight. Um so with that, uh, we go on to approval of minutes, and we don't have any minutes tonight tonight, so we'll go to a public comment on non-agenda items. This is the time when any person may address the commission on matters that are not listed on this agenda, but which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission. And if you are in person and want to make a public comment, uh please go to one of the podiums at the top. And you will be unmuted. And please state your name for the record. But you know the drill, don't you, Mr. DeWitt? Are you ready? Hello, my name is Dwayne DeWitt. I'm from the Sonoma County Housing Advocacy Group. Earlier this week we put forward a flyer that we sent in to you folks. We hope you've had a chance to read it about seniors and veterans extended stay suites. Hopefully you looked at the idea and the proposal. It's something that's a successful business model throughout the United States. It's been going on for at least a quarter of a century, where they build these extended stay suites, holiday end extended stay suites, uh, extended stay America, things of that nature. Here locally, we've had two housing uh short-term rental type of things, what are known as hotels in the past, that were built very quickly. One is the AC Hotel over here in Railroad Square, and the other is La Quinta down on Santa Rosa Avenue. The reason this was put forward to you is to point out that if you were to build housing on a commercial model, you could get it in much faster than if you tried to do it under your typical approach of affordable housing, sometimes taking up to a decade to a dozen years for the Lantana project in Southwest Santa Rosa and in other areas they've taken that long. So you'll say, well, we don't have a project before us. Well, part of the idea is you have a department that's paid for with taxpayers' money called the advanced planning department. And you folks could give them direction to say, how could we work with the commercial community to get these types of housing projects in quickly here closer to the center of town and have them be multi-story, just down the street. Now you've got Mr. Futrell's project seven stories. You can get these taller projects in with prefabricated modular building techniques, and they can be done within my lifetime. Affordable housing is taking far so long for so many of these people. Seniors and veterans are losing out on the chance. Some of them are actually having to lose their house, and then they end out on the street and maybe going homeless.