February 27, 2025 Planning Commission - City of Rancho Mirage

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[00:00:10] it looks like it's 2 o'clock so we'll go
[00:00:12] ahead and start today's Planning
[00:00:14] Commission meeting Thursday febru
[00:00:16] February 27th 2025 at two so we'll go
[00:00:20] ahead and start with the flag salute
[00:00:21] I'll ask commissioner David Gray for
[00:00:25] delet us
[00:00:49] all right now we'll go ahead and move on
[00:00:50] to uh roll call commissioner
[00:00:53] Bryant present commissioner Curran
[00:00:56] present commissioner gray present Vice
[00:01:00] chair chanter and chair agustini present
[00:01:03] we have a
[00:01:05] quorum may we please have a motion to
[00:01:08] excuse Vice chair
[00:01:09] chanter is so
[00:01:11] move I'll second
[00:01:21] it
[00:01:23] fantastic okay uh motion
[00:01:27] carries hold on one second let me start
[00:01:30] that did you abstain commissioner
[00:01:34] Bryant
[00:01:36] oops okay let's start that one more time
[00:01:39] sorry about that please enter your vote
[00:01:43] and motion carries 4 Z thank you thank
[00:01:46] you so now we'll go ahead and open up to
[00:01:49] uh commissioner comments so I'll move to
[00:01:52] my left commissioner
[00:01:54] curan thank you um the only thing I have
[00:01:56] to say today is I once again appreciate
[00:01:59] all the work that staff puts in to all
[00:02:01] the work they do here and it's always
[00:02:04] nice to they take the time to talk us
[00:02:06] through things answer questions and it
[00:02:08] just um making sure every eye is dotted
[00:02:11] and every T is crossed so thank you yeah
[00:02:15] I Echo that I mean looking through
[00:02:16] today's agenda and kind of summarizing
[00:02:19] all the past success we've had this year
[00:02:21] last year it kind of makes you feel good
[00:02:25] um kind of makes it worth like you're
[00:02:28] how we're contributing to our city and
[00:02:30] and really contributing to our growth
[00:02:31] here so again thank you to staff um you
[00:02:34] guys make this a lot easier than it
[00:02:36] looks so I'll move on the commissioner
[00:02:41] gray thank you
[00:02:43] chairperson um so I just want to Echo
[00:02:46] the comments so far again I'm really
[00:02:47] grateful for the terrific staff that we
[00:02:49] have that makes us look so good and
[00:02:53] makes us look so easy
[00:02:56] um I was raised in a tradition of public
[00:03:00] service and I've been blessed in my life
[00:03:02] and I'm grateful to have had the
[00:03:04] opportunity to be able to give back a
[00:03:06] little bit of what I've gotten over this
[00:03:07] over the years I wanted to express a
[00:03:09] particular gratitude that I am almost
[00:03:12] certain that no other commissioner in
[00:03:14] the history of Rancher Mirage has ever
[00:03:16] expressed in any meeting because I
[00:03:20] didn't have the
[00:03:23] uh lack of discipline that I have so I'm
[00:03:27] going to say why um as I was driving
[00:03:29] here today I was reminded one more time
[00:03:31] that the desert is full of our many
[00:03:34] visitors and some people that only drive
[00:03:37] this time of
[00:03:39] year and as I was cut off for the third
[00:03:42] time by someone who failed to signal or
[00:03:45] realized that I was anywhere near
[00:03:48] them I realized that I was grateful for
[00:03:51] my position of public service because it
[00:03:54] restrains me from expressing the strong
[00:03:57] feelings that I have when people act in
[00:04:00] that way and may have also saved my life
[00:04:02] depending on whether or not they were
[00:04:04] armed at the moment anyway so one more
[00:04:06] one more thing to be grateful for thank
[00:04:08] you thank you moving on to commissioner
[00:04:14] Bryant uh well I'll uh ditto three times
[00:04:17] about the uh support from the staff um I
[00:04:21] was looking at the uh City website and
[00:04:24] uh um not too I don't know four or five
[00:04:28] weeks ago
[00:04:30] the um there's a list of all of the
[00:04:34] projects in the queue and before it used
[00:04:37] to be on an Excel spreadsheet and now
[00:04:40] it's very it's visual it has a map and
[00:04:44] then it has a list of all the things is
[00:04:46] going on and it is incredibly
[00:04:49] outstanding and so M and your staff it's
[00:04:52] really really good and that's so
[00:04:55] important this day and age how
[00:04:57] information is uh conveyed quickly and
[00:05:01] and user friendly and it's much better
[00:05:04] than uh you know Excel spreadsheets and
[00:05:07] say so it's easily to digest and uh be
[00:05:12] time before we've had sessions where we
[00:05:14] want to have you explain what's going on
[00:05:16] what's out there it's all right there on
[00:05:18] the website so uh uh hands down it's
[00:05:22] really uh it's really excellent so uh
[00:05:25] whoever did that in the city really uh
[00:05:28] my hats off to them
[00:05:30] and kind of along with that I've been
[00:05:33] reviewing I I made a point I'm going to
[00:05:35] I'm going to review every website of
[00:05:38] every city in the valley so I've been
[00:05:41] reviewing uh mostly their Planning
[00:05:43] Commission uh their housing the Rina the
[00:05:47] affordable housing and I'm also looking
[00:05:49] at their financial statements so um some
[00:05:53] of them are good some of them aren't and
[00:05:56] uh again we're in competition and we
[00:05:59] want to continue to be the best and so
[00:06:01] that is a great start U and it also uh
[00:06:07] in terms of the openness and the
[00:06:10] availability of the public to go to the
[00:06:14] both city council and now recently the
[00:06:16] Planning Commission uh on YouTube
[00:06:19] Everything Is there it couldn't be more
[00:06:22] open and uh so if anybody wants to know
[00:06:26] anything uh and obviously saves a lot of
[00:06:28] time in the where we used to do the
[00:06:30] minutes and all that and you always got
[00:06:32] everything I said wrong anyway so I'm
[00:06:34] glad it's being
[00:06:36] videotaped uh and so again it's just it
[00:06:39] just opens up to the public and our
[00:06:42] residents what's going on uh in the city
[00:06:45] and they can see it all right there at
[00:06:47] their fingertips 24 hours a day so it's
[00:06:51] terrific thank you
[00:06:53] commissioner uh so now we'll move on to
[00:06:55] the non-agenda non-agenda public
[00:06:57] comments
[00:06:59] thank you I did not receive any speaker
[00:07:01] cards is there anyone in the audience
[00:07:03] who would like to speak on something not
[00:07:04] on today's
[00:07:05] agenda no speakers thank you uh so now I
[00:07:09] need a approval of of the minutes from
[00:07:12] the February 13th regular
[00:07:15] meeting I'll move we approve the
[00:07:20] minutes I'll second
[00:07:24] that V
[00:07:31] motion carries 4
[00:07:36] Z so oops so this brings us to our next
[00:07:39] our first action item uh reviewing the
[00:07:41] 2024 Planning Commission annual report
[00:07:43] for submitt to the city council and I
[00:07:46] believe Mina's I'll handle that thank
[00:07:48] you chair uh thank you and good
[00:07:49] afternoon planning Commissioners this
[00:07:51] will just be a verbal report uh since
[00:07:53] 2003 each board and commission the city
[00:07:55] has provided a brief annual report of
[00:07:57] activity to the city council this item
[00:08:00] is the summary report for 2024 the
[00:08:02] Planning Commission held 10 meetings and
[00:08:04] considered 17 projects a few of these
[00:08:07] projects included the Vil affordable
[00:08:09] housing apartments and the katana
[00:08:12] specific plan which included market rate
[00:08:14] and affordable housing that concludes
[00:08:16] staff's presentation I'd be happy to
[00:08:17] address any
[00:08:22] questions I'll go ahead and open it up
[00:08:24] to public comment and I did not receive
[00:08:27] any speaker cards is there anyone in the
[00:08:29] audience who would like to speak on this
[00:08:30] item no
[00:08:32] speakers I'll move to commissioner
[00:08:35] comments so I'll start to my right
[00:08:37] commissioner
[00:08:40] gray my only comment is that although
[00:08:42] the numbers are uh a little bit lower
[00:08:45] this year in terms of the total number
[00:08:47] of meetings and projects considered uh
[00:08:50] that's something that's not within the
[00:08:53] control of the Planning Commission we
[00:08:55] deal with what is presented to us and um
[00:08:58] we can't make it up but I also uh want
[00:09:02] to note that the the depth and breadth
[00:09:05] of many of the items that we considered
[00:09:07] this year was considerable with many
[00:09:10] multi hundred or multi- thousand page
[00:09:12] submitt and I want to thank all of my
[00:09:15] co-members of the Planning Commission
[00:09:17] for their participation along with me in
[00:09:21] this sometimes arduous
[00:09:23] task thank
[00:09:25] you commissioner curan I don't have any
[00:09:27] comments but I certainly agree with
[00:09:29] commissioner gray statement thank you I
[00:09:31] as well yeah uh certainly want to thank
[00:09:34] all the Commissioners for their time and
[00:09:36] staff again especially with those big
[00:09:38] packets um you guys really make it easy
[00:09:41] so I'll move to commissioner Bryant for
[00:09:43] his
[00:09:45] comments while there were 17 planning
[00:09:48] projects David to further what you were
[00:09:50] saying there were actually 40 items on
[00:09:53] there ranging from something very simple
[00:09:55] a a sign program up to far more complex
[00:10:00] things and so U there there were a
[00:10:04] number of items in those San planning
[00:10:07] projects and you're right uh many
[00:10:09] thousands of pages uh in there that for
[00:10:13] both the the planning department have to
[00:10:16] go to get through all that and again
[00:10:19] just the tip of the iceberg and uh so
[00:10:22] again uh my commendations are to the
[00:10:25] city staff for all they've done thank
[00:10:28] you
[00:10:33] uh so we need a motion in a second for
[00:10:37] item action item one I'd like to make a
[00:10:39] motion that the city council receive and
[00:10:41] file the 2024 Planning Commission report
[00:10:44] I'll
[00:10:48] second vote motion carries 4 Z great uh
[00:10:54] so moving on to action item two housing
[00:10:57] element 2024 annual report
[00:10:59] Sea action not subject to squa as the
[00:11:02] report is not considered a project as
[00:11:05] defined as section
[00:11:07] 15378 B2 of the public resources code so
[00:11:11] I'll turn that over to Ben oh Mark
[00:11:14] Marcus will be pres this one I can't see
[00:11:17] far
[00:11:19] away thank you commissioner Aus chair
[00:11:23] agustini good afternoon chair agustini
[00:11:25] planning Commissioners and staff the
[00:11:27] state of California requires all local
[00:11:29] governments to adequately plan to meet
[00:11:31] the housing needs of everyone in the
[00:11:33] community California's local governments
[00:11:36] meet this requirement by adopting a
[00:11:37] housing element as part of their General
[00:11:39] plan the housing element demonstrates
[00:11:42] how each City will work to meet the
[00:11:43] state-mandated Regional Housing needs
[00:11:46] allocation or Arena determined by the
[00:11:48] regional government starting in 2017
[00:11:52] each jurisdiction in the state is
[00:11:53] required to prepare an annual progress
[00:11:55] report summarizing the jurisdiction
[00:11:58] status and progress and implementing its
[00:12:00] current certified housing
[00:12:02] element the city of ranal mirage's
[00:12:04] reallocation for the six cycle planning
[00:12:06] period of 2021 to 2029 is
[00:12:10] 1,746 units of the 1,746 units 670 units
[00:12:16] are designated as above moderate units
[00:12:18] and 1,76 units are required to be in the
[00:12:21] affordable housing range a very
[00:12:24] low income to mod income range the city
[00:12:28] has worked diligently with with private
[00:12:29] and affordable housing developers to
[00:12:31] reach this unit
[00:12:37] goal as of the end of calendar year 2024
[00:12:40] the city has entitled a total of 442
[00:12:43] affordable units 41% of Reena affordable
[00:12:47] units with an additional 400 units 37%
[00:12:50] planned for through executed disposition
[00:12:52] and development
[00:12:55] agreements oh je sorry this progress
[00:12:57] brings the city to meeting 78% of its
[00:13:00] Reena required affordable units the
[00:13:02] three entitled projects are located
[00:13:04] within housing element inventory sites a
[00:13:06] b and d Kat Katana located in inventory
[00:13:10] site a the corner of Ramone Road and
[00:13:12] Radler Road was entitled August 21st
[00:13:16] 2024 the project is a mixed use
[00:13:18] neighborhood with 210 single family
[00:13:21] homes and 94 affordable housing
[00:13:23] apartments via Veil Apartments located
[00:13:26] in inventory site B adjacent to the
[00:13:28] ranch marage dog park was entitled July
[00:13:30] 18th
[00:13:32] 2024 the project will consist of 236
[00:13:35] multif Family Apartments with 233
[00:13:37] affordable units and three unrestricted
[00:13:40] manager units Crossings at Peterson Road
[00:13:43] in inventory site D was entitled
[00:13:46] December 5th
[00:13:47] 2024 the project will consist of 160
[00:13:50] multif Family Apartments with 115
[00:13:53] affordable units and one unrestricted
[00:13:55] manager unit these three projects
[00:13:57] demonstrate the city's efforts in
[00:13:59] implementing the following policies and
[00:14:01] programs policy H1 program
[00:14:05] h1e projects proposed on sites b c and d
[00:14:09] shall include a balanced mix of
[00:14:10] extremely low very low low and moderate
[00:14:13] income units in order to meet the city's
[00:14:15] ritten allocation this requirement shall
[00:14:17] be added to the affordable housing
[00:14:19] overlay when
[00:14:20] codified policy H3 affordable housing
[00:14:24] developments shall be distributed
[00:14:25] throughout Rancher Mirage rather than
[00:14:27] concentrated in one area
[00:14:30] policy H4 program h4. a the Housing
[00:14:34] Authority shall consider all available
[00:14:36] options When developing rental units
[00:14:38] including hiring contractors through
[00:14:40] requests for proposals participating in
[00:14:41] tax credit applications and other Strate
[00:14:44] strategies as they become available
[00:14:46] policy H4 program H4 pointd the city
[00:14:50] shall include a minimum of 15% of units
[00:14:52] developed on sites B and D for extremely
[00:14:55] lowincome
[00:14:57] households additional data captured and
[00:14:59] reported in
[00:15:00] 2024 annual progress report covers all
[00:15:03] Housing Development and building
[00:15:05] activity for clarification the data
[00:15:07] tables in the annual progress report
[00:15:09] solely account for activity in
[00:15:12] 2024 in 2024 the city entitled 154
[00:15:17] single family attached dwelling units
[00:15:19] issuing no building permits or complete
[00:15:21] status for this category entitled 88
[00:15:24] single family detached units issuing 51
[00:15:27] building permits and 41 complete final
[00:15:30] status for this category entitled 446 5
[00:15:34] plus units per structure SL Apartments
[00:15:37] issuing no building permits or complete
[00:15:39] status for this category for accessory
[00:15:41] dwelling units the city issued s seven
[00:15:44] building permits and one building permit
[00:15:46] for mobile manufactured
[00:15:48] home each jurisdiction's annual progress
[00:15:51] report must be submitted to the
[00:15:52] California Department of Housing and
[00:15:54] Community Development and the governor's
[00:15:55] office of planning and research by April
[00:15:57] 1st of each year
[00:15:59] my recommendation to the Planning
[00:16:00] Commission is to receive and file the
[00:16:02] city of ranchel mirage's 2024 housing
[00:16:05] element annual progress report this
[00:16:07] concludes my presentation I am available
[00:16:09] for any questions you may have thank you
[00:16:11] thank you Marcus so I'll go ahead and
[00:16:13] open up for um public or public comment
[00:16:17] thank you again I did not receive any
[00:16:19] speaker cards is there anyone in the
[00:16:20] audience who would like to provide
[00:16:21] public testimony on this item no
[00:16:25] speakers thank you I will close public
[00:16:28] comment and and now we'll move it to
[00:16:29] commissioner comments start with
[00:16:31] commissioner Kieran I I don't have any
[00:16:34] questions on this item great um I'll go
[00:16:38] ahead and go next uh just looking
[00:16:41] through the report just really is
[00:16:44] encouraging to see all the support uh
[00:16:48] the city of ranch Marauders gives to the
[00:16:50] Cella Valley Rescue program cag's first
[00:16:52] home program a number of workshops
[00:16:55] working with sunline Transit Habitat for
[00:16:57] Humanity so many programs really
[00:16:59] encouraged development and uh
[00:17:02] Community um and then I I just had a
[00:17:04] couple questions um
[00:17:07] regarding uh the success or Direction in
[00:17:11] reading through one was the the junior
[00:17:14] the pilot program for adus and Junior
[00:17:15] adus and then also the area of Thunder
[00:17:18] Road area if there's been any future
[00:17:20] progress in
[00:17:23] those the progress on the uh junior Adu
[00:17:26] pilot program uh work currently staff is
[00:17:28] is working on a uh
[00:17:30] standard standard Adu uh issuance that
[00:17:34] people can choose from so we want to get
[00:17:36] that going prior to starting the junior
[00:17:38] Adu program so we can have a standard uh
[00:17:41] expectation for for the building of the
[00:17:45] adus in the Thunder Road area is that
[00:17:48] making any progress or is that still
[00:17:49] kind of we have no progress on the
[00:17:51] Thunder Road area for
[00:17:53] infrastructure those are my comments and
[00:17:55] questions thank you
[00:18:02] commissioner gray thank you um I only
[00:18:05] have one question could you bring up the
[00:18:07] slide that shows the percentage of uh
[00:18:11] low-income requirements that we're
[00:18:13] satisfying was one of the early slides I
[00:18:16] believe where it's 78% rhna affordable
[00:18:19] units I'm just curious uh as opposed to
[00:18:23] other cities or jurisdictions that have
[00:18:28] uh uh
[00:18:29] are also subject to the
[00:18:31] rhna requirement which I understand is
[00:18:34] every municipality where do we stand in
[00:18:36] relation to um the percentage of
[00:18:39] affordable units are we High average I'm
[00:18:43] guessing we're high at 78%
[00:18:47] but so you're you're asking based off
[00:18:51] the number of units that were required
[00:18:52] to build yes corre where we where are we
[00:18:55] about you know obviously 78% Meeting
[00:18:57] those requirements to me seems awfully
[00:18:59] good my question is how is everybody
[00:19:01] else doing in the state as compared to
[00:19:04] other cities we've had quite a bit of
[00:19:05] action in terms of entitlements in our
[00:19:07] ddas um I'm also aware of at least one
[00:19:10] other City not even having their housing
[00:19:12] element certified still a local city
[00:19:15] correct I'm not shot we're doing pretty
[00:19:18] well great Kudos again to the staff and
[00:19:22] our Council for making this
[00:19:26] progress commissioner Bryant
[00:19:31] well although he's not here I I do want
[00:19:33] to thank both Ben and uh Marcus Tuesday
[00:19:38] um they spent a lot of time with me as I
[00:19:39] was reading through the report that came
[00:19:42] out there's thousands of data points in
[00:19:44] there and uh frankly I was getting lost
[00:19:48] uh when multiple Pages repeat the same
[00:19:51] addresses and you're saying what's going
[00:19:52] on here uh so we did a deep dive and um
[00:19:58] uh and thank you Marcus for simplifying
[00:20:01] it with the graphs you showed uh about
[00:20:04] the uh the breakdown of what we have the
[00:20:06] numbers their percentage uh so it's much
[00:20:09] easier to understand and uh U that would
[00:20:13] be great if that would those type of
[00:20:15] things could be included in the future
[00:20:16] reports because once again you can look
[00:20:19] at it quickly and you can comprehend
[00:20:21] everything rather than going through
[00:20:23] trying to all those spreadsheets and so
[00:20:25] on so that's very very good so again
[00:20:28] like the the website and the list and so
[00:20:31] those are all um things that help uh uh
[00:20:37] not only the planning Commissioners uh
[00:20:39] but residents and the public understand
[00:20:42] what's going on and uh to think we're
[00:20:45] only into the basically the second year
[00:20:47] of the housing cycle and we're that far
[00:20:50] along that's pretty amazing I haven't
[00:20:53] reviewed all the cities I've reviewed a
[00:20:55] few and we're well ahead of
[00:20:59] I'm talking about the valley I'm not
[00:21:00] talking about California uh Southern
[00:21:04] California region I think it's uh Rina
[00:21:07] is 1.3 million housing units in the and
[00:21:11] the Southern California Association of
[00:21:13] governments uh throw some numbers to
[00:21:15] that and uh uh that's a pretty
[00:21:19] staggering number that they're going to
[00:21:21] have to come up with the money and along
[00:21:23] that vein I I hope that there's a
[00:21:26] someone comes up with an alternative
[00:21:29] not an alternative but another business
[00:21:31] model how these developers can raise
[00:21:35] money to make these affordable housing
[00:21:38] units come around uh because the the the
[00:21:43] amounts of money it would take to
[00:21:45] fulfill all of the like just 1.3 housing
[00:21:48] unit subsidize is way more than the uh
[00:21:52] the budget many times of the State of
[00:21:54] California which has a $60 billion
[00:21:57] budget deficit
[00:21:59] so uh I'm hoping there's another
[00:22:02] business model or an additional business
[00:22:03] model to help raise money uh to bring
[00:22:07] these affordable housing units not only
[00:22:09] in our city but everywhere
[00:22:13] frankly that's it thank you thank you
[00:22:16] commissioner
[00:22:18] so that concludes uh commissioner
[00:22:21] comments so we'll go ahead and I'll need
[00:22:23] a motion in a second in my goal goal of
[00:22:27] moving the passage of every single item
[00:22:30] today I'd like to make a motion that the
[00:22:32] Planning Commission receive and file the
[00:22:34] 2024 annual housing element progress
[00:22:37] report now second that fantastic let's
[00:22:45] vote motion carries 4
[00:22:48] Z so that concludes today's agenda and
[00:22:52] Planning Commission uh 222 on February
[00:22:55] 27th I thank everyone for your
[00:22:57] attendance