PC Minutes 2001-08-071
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MINUTES
PLANNING COMMISSION
GENERAL PLAN UPDATE
AUGUST 7, 2001
PAGE 1
CALL TO ORDER
Vice Chair Keen called the regular meeting of the Planning Commission of the City of
Arroyo Grande to order at 7:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL VOTE
X Commissioner Brown
X Commission Fowler
X Commissioner Guthrie
X Vice Chair Keen
Absent Chair Costello
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
On a motion by Commission Brown, seconded by Commissioner Keen, the minutes of the
July 17, 2001 were approved as submitted.
ITEM I.
1.A. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Darren Shetler, 1225 Watercress Way, Arroyo Grande said he was concerned about the
public comments made at the July 31, 2001 City Council meeting regarding the planning
process for Tract 1834, Phase 5; great care had been taken to ensure that the project
would be esthetically pleasing, and he is now aware that this is not so. Recently he has
been working with the City, the Homeowners Association, and the property owners to
improve the landscaping to be consistent along the whole of James Way.
I. B. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
None
ITEM II. PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS
A.
CONSIDER THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT AND THE 2001
GENERAL UPDATE SAFETY ELEMENT
SAFETY ELEMENT
Rob Strong, Consultant, referring to the memo from Chair Costello, said although the
technical report related to the Safety Element is a relevant information document the
Consultant and Staff do not feel it should be an integral part of the General Plan policy
document. Specific reference could be made to the technical report and the maps as a
reference document that could remain on file at the City Hall and the Library for the public
interested in the detailed background.
A discussion followed on Chair Costello's comments on the Safety Element of the 2001
General Plan Update. The memo referenced additional materials Chair Costello
recommended be included and which are already included in the Safety Element of the San
Luis Obispo County General Plan in the Technical Background Report.
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AUGUST 7, 2001
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Commissioner Brown said Chair Costello has recommended very specific technical
information that does not seem as voluminous as is being indicated and asked if the
complete recommended materials could be included rather than just referenced as is being
suggested?
Mr. Strong said to include the complete documents could create a voluminous document
and it could become very expensive to produce all the maps and reference documents that
would be required. In addition if any further refinement comes out of the technical
information from special studies, and if it is an integral part of the General Plan, it would
constitute a General Plan Amendment (GPA) to reflect the new technical information. If it
is a reference document it can be upgraded without going through the GPA process.
Mr. Strong said with reference to the evacuation plan, he concurred with Chair Costello's
recommendations to include a policy to be added to the policies already outlined in the
plan.
The Planning Commission and Mr. Strong discussed the Flood Hazard Plan.
Commissioner Keen said he would be in agreement with referencing the documents to be
available for the public to review.
Commissioner Fowler said she was not in favor of recommending nine new documents
without looking at them, but would agree to add the implementation measure S5 -1.3.
Commissioner Guthrie said he would also like to see S5 -1 .3 be included and thought that
the whole document should be referenced not just the specific recommendations by Chair
Costello.
Commissioner Fowler made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Guthrie, to recommend
adopting the Safety Element and include the City's emergency measures - Implementation
Measure Policy S5 -1 .3, with the referenced technical documents not included.
ROLL CALL VOTE
No Commissioner Brown
X Commission Fowler
X Commissioner Guthrie
X Vice Chair Keen
Absent Chair Costello
THE FINAL EIR
Mr. Strong spoke at length informing the Planning Commission of their responsibilities with
respect to recommending the EIR to City Council and the following items were discussed:
• The statements of overriding considerations and findings.
• Water consumption and mitigation and monitoring measures.
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• Water conservation measures.
• Appropriate assumptions for the density of the mixed use areas.
• Population buildout.
Commissioner Guthrie stated that he believed that specific, appropriate proposed mitigation
measures were missing from the EIR at this time.
Rob Strong said the policy document is intended to be the primary mitigation and each one
of the elements in some form implies certain implementation measures. Ultimately there
will have to be a mitigation and monitoring program, but that needs to be discussed initially
by the City Council. The Planning Commission may want to be involved in the mitigation
and monitoring program and conservation measures, particularly those relevant to land use
issues.
Commission Brown said he was not comfortable with mitigation measures being included
just as polices and would like to see some specific measures included in the EIR.
Mr. Strong said if he had been involved in the update for three and a half years, and not
just the last nine months, he would have been able to have more specifics.
Commissioner Fowler said the General Plan could not go forward until the EIR is approved
by the City Council. We should refer our concerns to the City Council and not hold up the
EIR.
Commissioner Guthrie stated that they could proceed to recommend to the City Council
their position on the different elements and their concerns on the elements which they
could not recommend.
Commissioner Brown reiterated that he would still like to see the mitigation and monitoring
plan before recommending approval of the EIR.
Mr. Strong said the best he could do in the time available at this stage is a skeletal outline
form of mitigation measures that should be considered and maybe timetables associated
with the study of those mitigation measures.
Commissioner Keen said with respect to mixed uses have the allowed uses in each
particular zone already been assigned, as implied in the memo from the Councilman
Ferrara?
Mr. Strong said no determination has been made on what the mix of use would be in
various areas. He then explained how the process would work in adopting the General
Plan - changing the zoning and refining the Development Code. The City will study, refine,
and revise its Development Code for consistency. Public Hearings will have to take place
for any zoning changes.
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Commission Guthrie made a motion, seconded by Commission Fowler to recommend to
the City Council that they approve the adequacy of the EIR in all of the areas except for
Water, Air Quality, and Transportation Circulation.
ROLL CALL VOTE
No Commissioner Brown
X Commission Fowler
X Commissioner Guthrie
X Vice Chair Keen
Absent Chair Costello
Commissioner Guthrie made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Keen, to recommend to
the City Council the adequacy of the EIR with reference to Section V of the Air Quality and
with the recommendation that they would have to adopt the statement of overriding
considerations as being appropriate as the Air Quality is not mitigateble exclusive to Arroyo
Grande.
ROLL CALL VOTE
No Commissioner Brown
X Commission Fowler
X Commissioner Guthrie
X Vice Chair Keen
Absent Chair Costello
Commissioner Brown said that for the record he wanted to state that he believed the
Planning Commission would be shirking their responsibility, prior to approval of the EIR, if
they did not at least have a cursory look at mitigation measures before adopting a
statement of overriding considerations.
Commissioner Guthrie made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Brown to continue the
discussion on the Water portion of the EIR to a future date at which point they could be
presented with a skeletal outline of the water mitigation measures.
ROLL CALL VOTE
Commissioner Brown
No Commission Fowler
X Commissioner Guthrie
No Vice Chair Keen
Absent Chair Costello
Commissioner Fowler made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Keen, to recommend to
the City Council to approve the Water portion of the EIR if mitigation measures are
provided to Council.
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ROLL CALL VOTE
No Commissioner Brown
X Commission Fowler
No Commissioner Guthrie
X Vice Chair Keen
Absent Chair Costello
Commission Brown asked Mr. Strong to summarize the recommendations to City Council.
Mr. Strong summarized: The final EIR, other than Water, Air Quality and Traffic is
considered adequate. Concerning Air Quality, the adequacy and the statement of
overriding considerations are primarily related to the regional air quality problems. The
adequacy of the EIR related to Water and Traffic is unresolved.
The Planning Commission decided to continue the discussion of the EIR to the next
meeting to discuss the unresolved issues, if the City Council requested the Commission to
do so.
II. NON - PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS
None
III. DISCUSSION ITEMS
None
V. PLANNING COMMISSION ITEMS AND COMMENTS
1. Commissioner Fowler: Ninety per cent of the people of the City of Arroyo
Grande did not respond to the 1998 Citizen's Survey and this should be taken
into consideration if this survey is going to be used for mandating planning in
the City.
2. Commissioner Keen asked about the language in the staff report of July 31,
2001 to City Council, Page 4 the discussion on Mytle /East Cherry property as
he was concerned that his motion had not been clearly translated.
Mr. Strong said rather than say subject to a neighborhood development plan (if
that implies a more formal process) we could just say "that it is recommended
that the entire area be designated for single family residential medium density
subject to infrastructure improvements ". The Commission agreed that this
would be acceptable.
VI. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR COMMENTS AND FOLLOW -UP REPORTS
None
VII. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.
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AUGUST 7, 2001
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Lyra Reardon - Smith, Commission Clerk
AS TO COIVTEN
Kerry McCant
Communit it evelopment Director
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