Good evening. Welcome and thank you for joining us for tonight's meeting of the Arinda Planet
Commission on January 14th, 2026, Wednesday. In the back of the room, there's a table where you
can find copies of tonight's agenda, the staff report and request to speak cards for the item
that will be heard tonight. At the dais in front of the Commissioner table to my right, you will
place the request to speak cards in the tray if you'd like to speak to the Commission this evening.
Once we begin the public hearing portion of the meeting, each item will be announced with a
brief description of what is being proposed. After any general questions by the Commission to staff,
the public hearing will be opened and anyone wishing to speak to the Commission on this item
will be invited to do so. When your name is called, please come to the speaker podium at
the front here again to my right. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak. Once everyone
everyone wishing to speak has made their comments, the public hearing will then be closed and
we will bring the matter up here to the Commission for discussion. If you will be speaking to
us this evening, please be sure to make all your comments when you come to the podium.
As a courtesy to all, comments made from the audience during testimony or Commission deliberation
will not be allowed and will not be included as part of the public record. I will now proceed
with the roll call to confirm certain matters for the record. I'd like to note that commissioners
Armstrong, Davis, doctors, Hubner, Gelnick, Marola and Schmidt are all in attendance.
There are no absences. Excuse me. Item B. Is there any change to the agenda tonight?
Madam commission, Madam director. I have none. Very good. No changes. If not, I'd like to
to move forward with tonight's agenda.
Do I have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda?
So moved.
Second.
Second.
Thank you.
All those in favor of adopting tonight's agenda,
please indicate by saying aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
The motion passes unanimously.
Public forum tonight item C.
The first item on tonight's meeting agenda
is the public forum.
The public forum is an opportunity for you to address
planning commission on items that are not listed on tonight's agenda. Seeing no one in the audience
and assuming that staff has nothing to address unless there's something not on the agenda,
we can move through that item. I have nothing. Thank you very much. Item D, some very important
business this evening. I announced the annual, I'm going to announce that the annual reorganization
of the planning commission will now take place. I'm going to hand the podium to my vice chair.
I now declare the seat of the planning commission chair vacant.
I now declare the seat of the planning commission chair vacant and call for the
election of a chairperson for the year 2026 nominations are now open.
Vice chair, I actually would nominate Commissioner Armstrong for the position of chair this evening.
are there any further nominations hearing none hearing none i move that the nominations be closed
i second the motion it has been moved and seconded that nominations for the planning
commission chair be closed all in favor say aye aye aye aye the opposed the motion has passed
and carried will the meeting clerk please call the role for the election of the of
commissioner Armstrong uh commissioner Armstrong to the planning commissioner
planning commission chair commissioner Armstrong that's you that's you say
Commissioner Davis. Yeah, Commissioner doctors. Yeah, Commissioner hubner. Yeah, Commissioner
Jelnick. Yeah, Commissioner Merola. Yeah, and Commissioner Smith. Yeah. The motion has passed.
Now you're now the chair.
I now declare the Office of Planning Commission Vice Chair vacant and call for the election of
of a vice chair for year 2026. Nominations are now open. Chairman, I'd
like to nominate Commissioner doctors for position of planning Commission
vice chair. I second. Are there any further nominations? Hearing none, I
moved that the nominations be closed. I second the nomination the motion. It has
been moved and seconded that nominations for planning Commission vice chair be
closed all in favor say aye aye aye aye those opposed say nay the motion has
carried will the meeting clerk please call the role for the election of
Commissioner doctors to the Planning Commission vice chair Commissioner
Armstrong Commissioner Davis yeah Commissioner doctors yeah Commissioner
commissioner hubner aye commissioner gel nick aye commissioner morola aye and commissioner
Schmidt a the motion has passed congratulations to the new planning commissioner planning
commission vice chair doctors item ease the consent calendar the consent calendar section
of the agenda consists of items that are acted on in one motion unless a commissioner or
a member of the public request that the commission remove the item from the consent calendar
for discussion. By approval of the consent calendar, the staff recommendation will be
adopted if the item is removed from the consent calendar. The commission will follow the procedures
described in the agenda for new public hearings. May I have a motion to approve the consent
calendar as proposed I would move to approve the consent calendar however as
amended both by the late correspondence as well as an additional typo that I
found in the meeting minutes which is that my name doctors Raja Shaker under
item six should be moved to the nose so I would move to to approve as amended
both by the late correspondence as well as verbally just now by me.
Second.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The motion is approved by unanimous vote.
Item F, policy matters, it appears there are none.
Item G, continued public hearing.
There are none.
new public hearings subdivision a ordinance 26-02 amending title 17 of the
arena municipal code to implement housing element actions 1a 1b and 1j
regarding streamlined approvals for affordable housing the recommendation is
to adopt resolution number 26-01 recommending that the City Council adopt the attached
ordinance 26-02 amending title 17 of the Arundah Municipal Code to implement housing element
actions 1a, 1b, and 1j regarding streamlined approvals for affordable housing for certain
housing element sites commissioner Hughes you may proceed with your report
thank you chair associate planner Darren Hughes I will give the presentation on
item H1 tonight this is something that came about fairly recently we were
looking at this and had a recommendation that we propose an amendment to our
code just to make our commitment to this particular policy that we're going to
discussed my crystal clear to HCD so all right so for the background city
council originally adopted the six cycle housing element on January 31st
2023 the housing element is what outlines the city's plan or in the
housing element there is an outline for the city's plan to accommodate 1359
units of regional housing needs allocation so these are numbers that we
have to make sure that we are meeting for this particular planning cycle and
And that particular number is broken down into a series of income levels.
So what we're going to be looking at tonight particularly pertains to lower income level
households.
California Government Code sections 65583.2C and H require multifamily residential use
by right on two types of sites identified in the housing elements inventory of sites.
So we have the sites that are reuse sites.
So for us, that would be a site like Santa Maria that was used in the last two planning
cycles to satisfy a portion of the arena for low income housing.
And then short fall sites, those were all the sites that were rezoned.
So when we went through the rezonings this past year for the downtown sites and for the
outside downtown sites, those are what we call short fall sites.
there were sites that make up that deficiency
that we couldn't get from existing capacity.
So looking at the implementation actions,
we have these within the housing element.
We've got one A and one B,
one A being the downtown and one B
being the sites outside downtown.
There's this requirement,
and this is just one element of that requirement.
The overarching actions here were the rezonings,
which we by and large satisfied.
This particular portion is the city will ensure compliance
with government code section 65583,
these subdivisions and a 3.2 these subdivisions
as listed below.
Permit, owner occupied and rental multifamily uses by right
and will not require a conditional use permit
or other discretionary review or approval for developments
in which 20% or more of the units are affordable
to lower income households.
And then we've got action item 1J,
which pertains to those reuse sites.
A vacant site, and this is a portion of this,
but a vacant site that has been included
in two or more consecutive planning periods
needs to be able to or shall not be deemed adequate
to accommodate a portion of the housing need
for lower income households unless the site is zoned
at residential densities consistent
with the city's default density.
And the site is rezoned within three years,
and it has to allow, just like the other action,
residential use by right for housing developments
in which at least 20% of the units
are affordable to lower income households.
So the sites that are relevant here,
we spoke briefly on the shortfall sites,
that's 1A and 1B,
1A being those downtown core and downtown general sites,
and 1B being the residential high density sites
that have been rezoned in this last effort.
And then 1J is the reuse site,
that's the Santa Maria Church,
which we hadn't really discussed
during the last cycle and the rezonings.
So these shortfall sites, we do generally,
I think I have this here, requirement for change,
we do generally within our code,
address this particular requirement.
But in kind of an obtuse way,
we say to the extent permitted under state law.
So we're only going to pursue a design review
for sites that offer multi-family housing
to the extent permitted under state law.
And staff interprets that and has interpreted that to be,
if something comes forward, if a project were
to come forward with 20% or greater affordability,
we would streamline that by going
through the ministerial processes.
But HCD wants to see that more explicit language that
commits us to the state law.
So we're proposing this text, which
will be universally applicable to all of these sites.
So this not only pertains to just the sites
that were rezoned, this is applicable to any sites that
could fall into one of these categories.
Right now, we've got those shortfall sites,
but in a future cycle, some of those sites
may qualify as reuse sites.
So we just wanted to make sure that this
is covering all of our bases.
So the proposed text is here.
I won't go over this in too great detail,
But this basically puts into the very first chapter
of the municipal code, which is something that
can be considered a global variable.
It's going to apply to all possible sites.
That the housing element inventory sites,
so this is creating section 17.1.12,
which currently doesn't exist, all housing element inventory
sites identified by the Department of General Services,
housing and local land development opportunities map shall comply with state law and then we
go into the particulars. So we are breaking this down into A and B. A is talking about
the types of developments and the way that this was designated and everything that we
have plugged into the language here is supposed to make sure that we're capturing these sites
and only these sites and it's not going to apply to their sites outside like a single
family residence. And then the B defines use by right as something that does not
exempt the use from design review because we do not we do not want to
absolutely remove design review from the table because by state law we're still
allowed to ask or we're still allowed to put a project through design review.
However by state law that design review is limited limited to ensuring
compliance with all applicable objective standards and shall not constitute a
project under CEQA. So basically if you were to see a multi-family housing
project come before you in one of those residential high-density districts or on
the Santa Maria site, the design review that we would be proposing wouldn't
adhere to those standards that you normally see associated with design
review. This would be basically a compliance check that is performed first
by staff and then by the Commission and offered to the public to also review.
um, make sure that these projects are going through, um, meeting all of the appropriate,
uh, um, objective design standards in, in effect for them and objective development standards.
And then subdivisions, if there's a subdivision that's involved with any such project would
remain, uh, subject to the subdivision map act. So they'd still have to go through all of the
appropriate processes there. Um, next steps, if the planning commission adopts this resolution,
the proposed ordinance 26-02 will be presented to the City Council for consideration likely next
month. And staff's recommendation is to adopt resolution number 26-01 recommending that the
City Council adopt the attached ordinance 26-02 amending title 17 of the Arinda Municipal Code
to implement Housing Element Actions 1A, 1B, and 1J regarding streamlined approvals for affordable
housing for certain housing element sites. And the one thing that I forgot to mention
earlier on in this right before this was we did have HCD look at a draft of this particular
report and the ordinance and they're pretty happy with what they're saying. So all right.
And with that, I conclude my presentation and turn it over to the Commission for discussion.
Thank you for your interviews.
Commissioners, do you have any questions of staff?
Quick question.
Thanks, Dan, for the presentation.
I recall we did a study session around objective design
standards specifically for the sort of type of sites
that would be covered by this.
I don't recall if those were ever finalized, mainly
out of curiosity, sort of where that stands.
Not yet, but all of them.
Commissioner, doctors, they have not been finalized.
The city council wanted us to come back
with another study session before them.
And so if we, that's on January 20th.
So if we get a go ahead, move forward again,
we will come back before you with the draft ordinance.
Okay, got it.
And those would be,
just wanna make sure I'm crystal clear
on the language from the previous slide.
Those objective design standards would be basically
if a project like this came to a design review light
or compliance review as I think you called it,
that would be what sort of the public staff
would be sort of double checking against
for these projects.
Okay.
That's correct, but just to be clear,
we have two sets of objective design standards.
We have that downtown.
Right.
Sorry, yes.
The respective set of standards for the non-project
because I know it's not a project in terms of the CEQA.
Okay.
to the public hearing. I'm not
with the objective design standards for downtown,
for instance, that basically says
if you have housing as a component of your project
and you are meeting all of the objective design standards,
it is a ministerial process
and there is no design review associated with that.
So that is going to be something that is,
as presumably fully ministerial,
if someone's able to meet all of those standards.
As soon as they have to request a variance,
it comes forward to you.
in terms of what this is most likely going
to impact in terms of projects that you would still
see coming before you, pretty much anything
outside of the downtown.
So anything on the newly rezoned sites and the Santa Maria site
would qualify under this law for, or this regulation
for design review.
So ministerial process, but with design review,
that again is just for objective standards.
So you would see any project on the sites outside downtown.
On the downtown sites, again, ministerially,
is there any public notice to that ministerial process?
There's a public notice to the, yes,
we would implement a public notice for the design.
Sorry.
To answer the question more easily for the other sites,
yes, that design review would include a ministerial process
for those sites outside downtown.
For the ones in downtown, I don't believe
that there would be a process.
I don't know if we would do a courtesy notification,
but we would almost certainly, at the very least,
we're setting up a large-scale project
that includes new houses coming in under SB 9
that don't come to the Planning Commission,
SB 1123, those newer subdivisions
that are allowed ministerially.
We're setting up something whereby the public
will have the ability to see projects
and come in and question us,
but it's not going to be the standard legal notice
because that's basically been waived by state law
for a lot of these.
So that assumes somebody's looking at a website
or something like that?
It would assume that someone's looking at a website,
which will, I don't know if there's a way to,
it's something that we can explore if there's a way
to link that site to in our new permit tracking system
that's coming online to a notify me that the city puts out.
Well, I don't think that we've explored
the possible connections there.
There might be the ability to do that.
Is that something I know typically we ask for sort of updates on number of ADUs
at the end of the meeting are those items things that we could just add to a
running list just so that we as a Commission can be aware of kind of how
that's progressing? That's actually part of the Commission doctors as part of the
goal because I think of you all the time I'm like okay I'm supposed to report the
numbers to them and so that's part of it too is we have a new soft trying to
modernize our software and so we're going with a program where the hope is
that I can spit out those sort of numbers easily and so that they could be
more readily available. Barron has touched upon it. There are several bills
out there, SB 9, 1123, which a lot of people haven't caught on to but there's
a project already in on 1123 and you'll never know about it unless you see the
construction happening next to you.
That's when you know about it.
So we're trying to create this webpage
to sort of have a link at the planning department
as well as I was just exploring today.
Maybe it's something we put in the Arenda Outlook.
Maybe we get it out in the Arenda News
and just remind people that there's access to these sites
because the state law doesn't require me to give you notice.
That's great, thanks for the update.
Thank you, that's really helpful.
Are there any further questions of staff?
Commissioner Abner.
Okay.
Hearing none, I will now open the floor to the public.
And is there anyone online?
Okay, seeing none in the audience.
There appears to be no one wishing to speak.
And I will close the public forum.
And I will bring the matter up
to the Commission for discussion and action.
May I have a motion by the Commission on this matter?
Chair, I'd like to make a motion to, excuse me,
sorry, I'd like to move that we adopt ordinance 2602
amending title, or we adopt the recommendation
that ordinance 2602 amending title 17
of the Orinda Municipal Code to implement
the housing element actions 1A, 1B, and 1J
regarding streamlined approvals for a portable housing.
Thank you, commissioner.
Do I have a second to that motion?
Second.
Thank you.
Please conduct the roll call vote.
Sorry, I have a question.
Was the, was it, did you adopt resolution 26-01 also?
I just heard 02.
I'm sorry, adopting the resolution that adopt,
that recommends.
It's right there, Chair.
Adopt resolution 26-01,
recommending that the council adopt attached ordinance 2602 amending title 17, et cetera.
Thank you.
Re-second.
Second.
May I have, okay, we have a motion and a second.
Can we have a roll call vote, please?
Armstrong.
Aye.
Davis.
Aye.
Doktors.
Aye.
Hovner.
Aye.
Jillnick.
roll the instrument. Hi. Thank you. The motion is carried with all commissioners voting in
favor. Item I planning commissioners report and I have no work for today. Commissioner
are planning director cross. Do you have a report? I have nothing today. Okay. And now
we're at item K, is there a motion for adjournment? I move to adjourn. We have a second. I'll
second that motion. Thank you. All in favor say aye. All in favor.