SPECIAL CONCURRENT MEETING MINUTES OF THE TRACY CITY COUNCIL AND
THE TRACY PLANNING COMMISSION
October 24, 2023, 5:00 p.m.
Tracy City Hall, 333 Civic Center Plaza, Tracy, CA.
1. Mayor Young called the meeting to order at 5:03 p.m.
2. There were no actions taken pursuant to AB 2449.
3. Roll call found Council Members Bedolla, Evans, Mayor Pro Tem Davis and Mayor Young present. Council Member Arriola was absent from roll call.
Roll call found Planning Commissioners Boakye-Boateng, English, Penning, Vice Chair Atwal present. Chair Orcutt was absent.
Council Member Arriola arrived at 5:11 p.m. during Items of the Audience.
4. ITEMS FROM THE AUDIENCE – Robert Tanner expressed concerns regarding the number of cannabis shops that are proposed in the City, asked that City Council make changes and follow the rules that were originally implemented by the Planning Commission.
5. DISCUSSION ITEMS:
5.A Staff recommends that the City Council and the Planning Commission conduct a concurrent meeting to receive public input on the Draft Housing Element and direct staff to make amendments, as instructed, and submit the Draft Housing Element to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for review.
Alan Bell, Senior Planner, and Veronica Tam from Veronica Tam and Associates and Dan Wery from Michael Baker International, Inc provided the staff report.
Council and Planning Commission comments followed.
Justin Derby, Meritage Homes referred to the 100 acres adjacent to Home Depot and expressed his excitement to work with the City in this project and shared there are many elements to this project, the importance of rezoning the areas to meet the criteria of the housing element that includes medium to higher density housing and Meritage Homes is far enough in the project that it has real viability and would like to build in the City.
John Beckman from Building Industry Association of the Greater Valley shared information from a press release from the Governor’s office and the shortage of housing in California, and expressed the problem is the policies that are in place are not being implemented and are being disregarded and the City is causing a governmental constraint within City Hall that needs to be rectified and until then, the BIA will be recommending to HCD that the plan that is presented be rejected.
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A community member asked why this plan was not brought back sooner, why rezoning has not been done yet and how is there a plan to build without this process being done.
Council and Planning Commission questions and comments continued.
Action: Motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Davis and seconded by Council Member Arriola to receive the public input on the Draft Housing Element and direct staff to make amendments, as instructed, and submit the Draft Housing Element to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for review. Roll call found Council Members Arriola, Bedolla, Evans, Mayor Pro Tem Davis, Mayor Young, Planning Commissioners Boakye-Boateng, English, Penning and Vice Chair Atwal, all in favor; passed and so ordered. Planning Commissioner Chair Orcutt absent.
6. COUNCIL ITEMS AND COMMENTS – Mayor Young stated that November 15-18th is the National League of Cities, in Atlanta and requested clear out of state travel procedures, clarification on the policy, asked for a travel request and potential amendment to the travel policy.
Midori Lichtwardt, Interim City Manager clarified that Mayor Young was asking for the travel policy to come back for discussion to approve out of state travel for one of its members and that item would come back on November 7th.
Mayor Young stated that she would like clarity since Council has approved individual budgets.
Bijal Patel, City Attorney clarified that there are two potential requests, one is a request for travel and the second is to potentially amend the travel policy and shared that the second request can come back.
Council Member Arriola seconded both actions clarifying that as long as the expenditure is within the budget it will not have to come back to budget.
Mayor Pro Tem Davis asked for support to reinstate the December 19th regular Council meeting, considering that there are critical items where the Council should consider having that meeting after all. Council Member Evans supported the request.
Council Member Evans stated that he was approached by some of the Transportation Commissioners about reprioritizing a section of roadway, specifically South Tracy Blvd to Valpico to the entryway to the Tracy Municipal Airport and requested that this stretch of road be prioritized for repairs considering that there are more activities planned at the Airport. Mayor Pro Tem Davis seconded the request. Mayor Young clarified that the request was to bring back the Pavement Management Plan. Council Member Evans asked if staff could prioritize this and bring back said plan and options for the Council body to consider.
Ms. Lichtwardt asked for clarification if Council Member Evans was referring to Linne to Valpico. Council Member Evans confirmed.
Mayor Young expressed the importance of considering the importance of following processes when considering items to come back to Council.
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7. ADJOURNMENT – Time: 9:05 p.m.
ACTION: Motion was made by Council Member Arriola and seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Davis to adjourn. Roll call found Council Members Arriola, Bedolla, Evans, Mayor Pro Tem Davis, Mayor Young, Planning Commissioners Boakye-Boateng, English, Penning and Vice Chair Atwal, all in favor; passed and so ordered.
Planning Commissioner Chair Orcutt absent.
The above agenda was posted at the Tracy City Hall on October 19, 2023. The above are action minutes. A recording is available at the office of the City Clerk.
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Mayor
ATTEST:
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City Clerk