ON THE AGENDA: Twentynine Palms Planning Commission, November 19, 2024
Abandoned properties, Reset Hotel updates, and Entertainment Permit discussions continue...
This Tuesday, November 19, the Twentynine Palms Planning Commission is set to meet one last time before the holiday blitz with three topics to cover: declaration of a property as a public nuisance, development updates on the Reset Hotel, and the Entertainment Permits saga continues. The meeting takes place at City Hall, 6136 Adobe Road, at 5 pm. The agenda packet can be found here.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
After Planning Commission announcements, you can comment on items not on the agenda. Public comments on agenda items will be requested when the item is discussed. Fill out a green comment sheet for public or agenda item comments and hand it to the staff, usually sitting at the desk at the front of the room on the right side. You have three minutes to make your comments.
Regarding public comment during the study session, come prepared to only be allowed to speak once for three minutes.
You may also email comments to Planning Commission members and Keith Gardner, the Community Development Director, and request that comments be read at the meeting. However the City has a new policy on written public comments and they are not always read into the record at the meetings.
CONSENT CALENDAR
The only item on the Consent Calendar for this meeting is approval of the minutes for the October 15, 2024 meeting where Commissioners reversed their prior position of excluding commercial campgrounds and RV parks from residential Rural Living (RL) zoning.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
Declaring the property located at physical address of 56756 Homestead Road a Public Nuisance and Dangerous Building
Northeast of Two Mile and Shoshone Valley Road are a series of abandoned structures. These properties, having seen better days, are memories of Twentynine Palms’ past. While some have succumbed to the desert elements, others have been outright vandalized and turned into dumping sites. This particular property, located on Homestead Road (not to be confused with Homestead Drive further east), has become both a dumping site for vandals and a place for squatters. The public road adjacent to the property is also blocked with trash that has been illegally dumped, meaning vehicle access is restricted. Public roads leading to the property have not been graded in some time.1
The City of Twentynine Palms recently made derelict properties a priority, with the Planning Commission declaring three properties public nuisances in April of this year and City Council also addressing the issue at their most recent meeting.
According to the staff report, “The property is unsecured, vandalized and by all outward observations the property is a blighted and abandoned property without any control being exercised by the property owner.”
“The Code Enforcment [sic] Department has been monitoring this property in an effort to deter squatters and illegal dumping however due to the non-response by the property owner it appears that the only solution to mitigate the public nuisance is to demolish the remaining structures and remove all the trash/debris from the property.”
Using the San Bernardino County Assessor parcel lookup tool, the owner of the property, the Trust of Rosalina Galvan, also owns the adjacent property immediately north of the parcel and a house in the City of San Bernardino.
Citing violations of numerous statutes in Twentynine Palms Development Code Section 19.146, which addresses nuisance abatement, along with violations of the California Health & Safety Code, and California Building Code, the Planning Commission can move forward with the declaration and order the owner to demolish the property.
DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS
Reset Hotel Deferral of Utilities Undergrounding
A conditional use permit approved by the City in November 2021 set forth construction conditions the Reset Hotel developers must meet to move forward with certain phases of the project, including that "Utility lines shall be placed underground in accordance with the requirements of the City.”
As outlined in the Twentynine Palms Municipal Code (Section 19.94.50), property developers may submit a written request to defer the under-grounding of utilities “provided a ‘deferred improvement agreement’ is in place,” (Staff Report). The Reset Hotel property developers are now requesting a deferral of these utility undergrounding requirements for Phase 2 of their project, citing cost concerns.
According to the staff report, this request can be made by a developer so long as a “deferred improvement agreement” is in place. If approved by the Twentynine Palms Planning Commission, the Reset Hotel developers will now enter into this agreement, which would be “committing the participation of the property in its fair share cost of such under-grounding at a future date.” One of those developers is Benjamin Uyeda who was recently appointed to the Twentynine Palms Tourism Business Improvement District, and was sworn in as a city official on August 8th.
Similar utility discussions for the proposed Oasis Car Wash development took place in December of 2023. At the time, questions were raised by Planning Commissioners as to how long these utility deferment agreements would last with no specified end-date, and whether or not this allowance would open the door for future developers to take advantage of the municipal code statute, which, some may deem a loophole.
Business owners and developers alike who remained compliant with the City’s utility under-grounding requests in the past expressed concern that development agreements were not being applied consistently. "Rules are good when they're applied fairly," stated hotelier Veno Nathraj.
Ultimately, a 5-year utility under-grounding deferment was granted to the Oasis Car Wash developers on a 3-1-1 vote, with Commissioner Paahana opposed.
One piece of criteria that must be met for this deferral to be approved by Commissioners is the determination that cost to underground these SoCal Edison utilities exceeds the scale of cost of the entire hotel project itself.
Staff recommendation is for the Twentynine Planning Commission to approve the request.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR UPDATES
STUDY SESSION
Entertainment Permits Workshop
Because this is a study session, which are typically not recorded or live streamed by the City, those interested in the entertainment permit discussion are encouraged to attend this workshop in person.
First introduced to the Planning Commission in August by Community Development Director Keith Gardner, entertainment permits have been the Planning Department’s hottest discussion topic as of late. In September, the Twentynine Palms City Council directed City staff to clarify language for entertainment permits. A series of discussions and workshops have since taken place at the City level with the first Planning Commission study session held on September 17. After discussions between Development Director Gardner and the Public Arts Advisory Committee, Tourism Business Improvement District, San Bernardino County Fire, and San Bernardino County Sheriffs, the Planning Department staff narrowed down four key Entertainment Permit priorities before it can be codified:
”Live Entertainment" should be split into three definitions: Live Entertainment Venue, Ancillary Live Entertainment, and Special Events.
Approval for Ancillary Entertainment would be via an administrative license and not a land use permit.
Public safety is key: maximum occupancy of a building cannot be exceeded under any circumstance.
Inspections of events and venues must be conducted regularly, and licenses will be subject to annual inspection and renewal. Violators will be subject to fines up to $2,000.
An outline of suggested entertainment permit code language is included in the staff report. Community Development Director Keith Gardner hopes to bring this topic to City Council for final approval by the end of this year.
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Although public, it is unclear if this particular dirt road is City maintained or not. The Twentynine Palms City Council is set to address upkeep of city-owned dirt roads at a future meeting.