Santa Rosa Planning Commission Regular Meeting - August 8, 2024
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Santa Rosa Planning Commission Regular Meeting - August 8, 2024
The Santa Rosa Planning Commission met on Thursday, August 8, 2024, at 4:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Ave. Chair Karen Weeks presided with Commissioners Charles Carter, Aaron Pardo, and Terrence Sanders present; Vice Chair Vicki Duggan and Commissioners Patti Cisco and Julian Peterson were absent. The commission approved the July 25, 2024 minutes, heard non-agenda public comment, continued an appeal to August 22, and approved a modification to the Stonebridge Subdivision conditional use permit.
Consent Calendar
- No consent items were listed on the agenda.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Duane DeWitt, a Roseland resident, spoke during non-agenda public comment. He expressed concern that the City's Climate Adaptation Subcommittee meeting on August 7 lacked quorum, and urged the City to prioritize trees, urban forestry, and urban greening as essential climate adaptation measures. He cited the recent removal of trees around the Fifth Street parking lot, called for a tree census and better urban forest management, and noted Santa Rosa's Tree City USA status.
Discussion Items
- Supervising Planner Susie Murray delivered the department report, announcing upcoming zoning code amendments and stating that staff would schedule one-on-one briefings with commissioners.
- The commission reordered the agenda to first consider a staff request to continue item 11.2, the appeal of the Zoning Administrator's approval for The Club at Flamingo/Global Court at 2777 4th Street (CUP23-066). Staff cited late correspondence received the previous day and pending information from the applicant; both the appellant and applicant agreed to the continuance. The commission continued the appeal to August 22, 2024.
- For item 11.1, staff planner Mike Janusek presented the request to modify the previously approved Stonebridge Subdivision conditional use permit (PC-2022-035) at 2220 Fulton Road (CUP24-005). The modification would allow reduced setbacks on 21 of 108 lots—20 lots to accommodate a single-story floor plan and one lot (Lot 47) with a unique lot constraint involving an existing PUE. Janusek noted the project density remains 3.77 units per acre and no additional CEQA review is needed. Applicant representative Jacqueline Chan of DR Horton said the single-story plan would add variety, provide smaller homes for entry-level buyers, and support aging in place.
- Commissioner questions addressed fire access and compliance with previously approved DAC conditions. Commissioner Carter asked about Condition No. 12 (65% maximum lot coverage) and Condition No. 14 concerning five pairs of duets (10 units) subject to design review. Staff and the applicant confirmed the change does not alter the duets and that lot coverage will be verified at the master building permit stage.
Key Outcomes
- Approved the July 25, 2024 draft minutes as submitted.
- Approved Resolution PC-2024-012 approving the Stonebridge Subdivision CUP modification to allow reduced setbacks on 21 parcels. The motion by Commissioner Sanders, seconded by Commissioner Carter, was amended to correct a zoning code citation from Section 20-52.060 to Section 20-54.060. The vote was 4-0 (Weeks, Carter, Pardo, Sanders), with Duggan, Cisco, and Peterson absent. The decision is final unless appealed within 10 calendar days.
- Continued the Club at Flamingo/Global Court appeal (item 11.2) to a date certain of August 22, 2024, by a 4-0 vote.
- Chair Weeks adjourned the meeting at 4:59 p.m.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, um good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to call uh the August 8th, 2024 meeting of the Planning Commission to order, and if we could please have roll call. Thank you, Chair. Uh Commissioner Carter. Here. Commissioner Sisko is absent. Commissioner Pardell. Here. Commissioner Peterson is absent. Commissioner Sanders. Present. Uh Vice Chair Duggan is absent, and Chair Weeks. Here. I'll let the record reflect that all commissioners are present with the exception of Commissioner Sisko, Commissioner Peterson, and Vice Chair Duggan. Thank you. Um I did want to mention that we have had a request to continue item 11.2 to August 22nd, and we will just be discussing that under item uh 11. But for those in the audience who might be here for that item, I wanted to uh mention that. So with that, um we'll go on to approval of the minutes. They were the uh July 25th, 2024 minutes. Any changes? Nope. Okay, so then those are approved as submitted. And do we have any public comment on item two approval of the minutes? Okay, seeing no one. Um we will then now go to public comment on non-agenda items. Um you'll have three minutes if you'd like to go to the podium, um, and state your name for the record. And uh Mr. DeWitt, you're first. Hello, my name is Duane DeWitt. I'm from Roseland. I wanted to say hello to Mr. Pardo and congratulations on your volunteering for this very important effort here. I've come here for a number of years to try to be more helpful in my community, and what brings me here today is the fact that yesterday the city had a climate adaptation subcommittee meeting that wasn't able to be official because only one member of the committee, the mayor, showed up. And it was a very important meeting to discuss important activity on the part of the city and a consultant that they've hired to look into the general plan and how they'll be handling the climate adaptation type activities. So I have a basic request I want you to keep in mind for the rest of your lives. Trees, please. It's very basic. If we're gonna have any kind of climate adaptation that really works, we need to really delve into the fact that trees can be helpful and urban forestry and urban greening is a vital part of how to handle things here in the city where urban heat islands will exist. So we need to have an aspect of this that's long term. We need to nurture the urban forests that we have. With that in mind, we need to have a basic taking stock and doing a census of what's really important on this urban forest. I bring this up because if you leave from here today and go down to Fifth Street, you'll see that all the trees around the Fifth Street parking lot between D and E were cut down. So now you got yourself a nice urban heat island, an asphalt parking lot. And a lot of folks thought, well, maybe that was a little extreme. You might have been able to save those trees. But apparently the city doesn't have an arborist and doesn't really follow up on what it says. It's about in the uh preamble for being a tree city, USA, which Santa Rosa proudly proclaims itself to be. One of my heroes is a nice lady named Greta Thunbe. She's out of Sweden. She pays attention, she speaks up, and she's doing some good things.
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