ON THE AGENDA: Twentynine Palms Planning Commission, February 18, 2025
Campgrounds, RV and Mobile Home Parks, Redux
The main item on this agenda is Mobile Home and Special Occupancy Parks. The meeting will be at City Hall, 6136 Adobe Road, at 5 p.m. You can find the full agenda here.
SWEARING IN OF NEW PLANNING COMMISSIONERS
On the heels of their February 11 reappointments by the City Council, Leslie Paahana and Jim Krushat will be sworn in to begin their third, four-year terms on the Planning Commission.
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 be allowed to speak only 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.
CONSENT CALENDAR
Approval of minutes for the last two meetings, December 17, 2024 and January 21, 2025, are the only Consent Calendar items.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
3 DCA - Chapter 19.02 Authority and Chapter 19.04 The General Plan
This is a minor development code adjustment to Planning Commission member terms of office. It enables the City to meet a yearly April 1 state deadline for City review and public comment on two key reports that the City submits to the state, the General Plan Annual Report and the Annual Housing Report.
Currently, Planning Commission terms expire in February, with the Chair and Vice Chair selected in April. Under the proposed new schedule, at the first meeting of March, Commission terms would expire and the new Chair and Vice Chair would be selected at this same meeting.
4 DCA23-000004 - Mobile Home Parks and Special Occupancy Parks
The Commission will take yet another swing at bat to revise this code section dealing with mobile home parks, RV parks and campgrounds.
Perhaps the most contentious question here is, should the City continue to allow campgrounds in RL (Rural Living) zoning, which is most of the City?
This is a perennially controversial topic despite the fact that so far no such campgrounds actually exist in the City, likely because any such campground requires an expensive and difficult to obtain CUP (conditional use permit).
But that's far from the only hot potato on this platter — at past meetings on this code section, disputes have arisen about RV and campsite density, setbacks, minimum lot sizes and other issues.
See the table below for a summary of the current code, versus the most recent package of Planning Commission recommendations.
To recap, during the last 16 months the Planning Commission has chewed over this topic at a total of four public hearings and two workshops. The four hearings on it were September 19, 2023, November 7, 2023, February 20, 2024, and October 15, 2024; while two workshops on it were held March 7, 2023, and August 20, 2024.
Then, after sending their "final" modifications to City Council following their October 15, 2024, meeting, on January 6 the Commission asked Council for a do-over, which Council voted to grant at their January 14, 2025 meeting.
Bring your popcorn as it could be a long evening.
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