KINGSBURG CITY COUNCIL AND PLANNING COMMISSION
WORKSHOP MINUTES
JANUARY 13, 2022
THE COUNCIL CHAMBER IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AT 100% CAPACITY.
Call to Order: At 6:01pm the Kingsburg City Council and Planning Commission Workshop was called to order by Mayor North.
City Council Members present: Jewel Hurtado, Brandon Pursell, Jr., Michelle Roman and Mayor Laura North.
City Council Members absent: Vince Palomar.
Planning Commissioners present: Craig Ruch, Brianna Valdez, Bruce Blayney, and Chairperson Paul Kruper.
Planning Commissioners absent: CJ Brock, Robert Gonzales and Jared Ekizian.
Public Comments: None.
Kingsburg Growth Management Ordinance
Community Development Director Holly Owen explained about the allocation process and the Growth Management Ordinance, which is to limit the rate of residential growth. She explained what allocation means, the allocation process, the ranking and rating process and the requirements for application.
Staff recommendation is needed, such as drafting, language etc. Should we make it longer than 365 days? Council review? Timing of allocation process? Rolling allocation issue. Allocation can be phased into 2 parts.
City Manager Henderson addressed the need to hear from this group. When there is development, there is quality development. Staff is supposed to use ranking and rating. Without an allocation, how much money and time will they be using. Staff will not have anything to review. We need to tell the staff and applicant how to improve application. Explaining how for example, the process was from 2017 and how things do change over time. The ordinance we have now is good, but we have come to a point where we can tweak it a little bit.
Commissioner Blaney explained the historical perspective of the ordinance. When this was put together in 2003, there were 6 developers. There was 120 units towards SKF that never happened. This growth management plan was put in place. Then the economy lagged. It takes a long time to get the developer to get things annexed. What was planned once does not apply a few years later. There are a lot more constraints for developers now then back then. It takes 4-5 years just to move dirt, let alone building a house. With the call center going in, we will have more housing on demand. People are looking to move to quality. We need to be realistic to what is going on in this point in time.
There was a discussion about the competitive process where ideally is to do it once a year because it will be more competitive. If it is more than once a year, you might get less projects. The time lag the developer will go through to get the allocation takes 4 years just to start the construction. When there is a lot of houses being built at the same time, it shouldn’t matter....it may take 4-5 years to phase all this.
Kingsburg City Council & Planning Commission Minutes
01/13/2022
City Manager Henderson explained how allocations expire. February, opening the 2nd round. 80 single family per year. 240 allocations available for 3 years. If you have a large enough project, you can phase it for an additional 2 years. Most flexible is 5 years window that applicants apply for.
Chairman Kruper said the ordinance applies to real world growth. We need to catch up to other cities. It is a philosophy argument. Commissioner Blayney said the state issues what is projecting how many is allowed in the city. 11 is the number of housing units allowed. In 2004, we did not have development standards, now we do. For example, rear facing garages. Echoing what Commissioner Kruper said, at that point in time, the citizens did not want to go ahead and have tract homes. We didn’t have any guidance to show developers. We had no legal way to prohibit the undesirable growth/ Kingsburg’s image.
Mayor North said we can’t control the actual building, just the allocation. Looks like from allocation to moving in, it’s taking 4-5 years. Some were allocated in 2005 but still not built. Our schools can handle more kids. With T-Mobile, we are going to need more houses. We will see more of a need. Young families cannot afford houses that are brand new. Schools can handle more students, but we will not see them.
Council Member Hurtado said she is a young family that can’t afford housing. Can we change the percentage of single family and multi-family. 40/60? 50/50? We are still expensive, even if multifamily goes up, we will still have quality. Director Owen said the housing element is looming. We will have to look at rezoning multi- family, it’s about money and interest. We will definitely need to rezone.
Commissioner Kruper agreed we need more multifamily housing. If you leave it with the developers, you are not going to get it. Even with allocation enticement. It’s up to the council. If you are not going to make it mandatory, you will not get it.
Council and Planning Commission direction:
1. Projects that need annexation. The final map would be the final entitlement. Give a time frame to get to this final map. It will prevent applicants from getting a tentative map and sitting on it.
2. The twice a year is good. Need to specify language. The council has the option to open that up again.
3. We have a 3-year rolling and 2 year phasing and will keep it as is for now. We can have another workshop in the future and the public is more than welcome to come to these workshops.
4. Language cleanup. Come back to the planning commission for the approval. Have staff draft something and come back.
Adjourn Kingsburg City Council and Planning Commission Workshop: At 7:39 P. M. Mayor North adjourned the meeting.
Submitted by:
____________________________________
Karyl Bartel, Community Development Administrative Assistant