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PC Minutes 2001-08-071 1 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. MINUTES PLANNING COMMISSION GENERAL PLAN UPDATE AUGUST 7, 2001 PAGE 2 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. 1 1 1 1 1 MINUTES PLANNING COMMISSION GENERAL PLAN UPDATE AUGUST 7, 2001 PAGE 3 • 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. MINUTES PLANNING COMMISSION GENERAL PLAN UPDATE AUGUST 7, 2001 PAGE 4 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. 1 1 1 1 MINUTES PLANNING COMMISSION GENERAL PLAN UPDATE AUGUST 7, 2001 PAGE 5 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. MINUTES PLANNING COMMISSION GENERAL PLAN UPDATE AUGUST 7, 2001 PAGE 6 Lyra Reardon - Smith, Commission Clerk AS TO COIVTEN Kerry McCant Communit it evelopment Director 1 1