ON THE AGENDA: Twentynine Palms Planning Commission, August 20, 2024
ON THE AGENDA: Twentynine Palms Planning Commission, August 20, 2024
A study session on development code updates for Mobile Home and Recreational Vehicle Parks plus suggested language for legalizing commercial campgrounds
The City of Twentynine Palms Planning Commission is set to hold the last city meeting scheduled for August at City Hall, 6136 Adobe Road., on this Tuesday, August 20, at 5 pm. The agenda packet can be found here and has one topic, a study session on potential development code amendments affecting Mobile Home Parks and Recreational Vehicle Parks and language allowing Commercial campgrounds in city limits.
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, which lists three topics under one item, 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.
CONSENT CALENDAR
The only item on the Consent Calendar is approval of last meeting’s minutes.
STUDY SESSION
Development Code Amendment Chapter 19.124 Mobile Home Parks and Special Occupancy Parks
A timeline of prior discussions
A review and potential update for regulations for Mobile Home and Recreational Vehicle Parks was first introduced at the September 19, 2023 meeting with the question being asked, should different types of occupancy parks be lumped together in the ordinance or separated?
Also at that meeting, former Planning Commission Chair (and current District 2 City Council Candidate) Jim Krushat introduced a letter sent to the Commission from Hipcamp, which rents vacant parcels for camping, similar to what AirBnB does for homes. The rental of parcels for camping is currently not allowed in city limits and the letter outlined ordinance changes that would allow Hipcamp-style rentals and other private commercial campground developments to operate in city limits.
The discussion was tabled to November 7 so additional information could be gathered. We discussed the camping proposal in depth in our agenda preview for that meeting. By this point, staff sought not only to separate the different types of occupancy parks (mobile homes, recreational vehicles and campgrounds), but provide detailed guidance for landowners.
At the November 7 meeting itself, a matrix for three tiers of commercialized camping, developed by staff with Hipcamp serving as a “subject matter expert,” was the topic of lively discussion among Commissioners. It was also a source of distress for several members of the public who spoke in opposition during public comment. In response, former Chair Krushat equated public concerns about private commercial campsites with being against tourism:
I hear this constantly. It's like, oh, we don't want to choose tourism over the neighborhoods. Speaking as somebody who's third generation, I've known since before this town was a city, we've always looked at ways to promote tourism. That was one of our aims.
A common theme of the Planning Commission discussion was the need to “get out in front of the issue” (of illegal camping). Yet, other than in the context of the unhoused, illegal camping had not been raised at Planning or Council meetings as an overwhelming concern in Twentynine Palms. Astrid Johnson spoke to the irony of legalizing commercial camping when homeless encampments are regularly “shooed away.” “It’s discriminatory,” she said. Ultimately the discussion was tabled to February 20, 2024.
By the time of the February meeting, research had led staff to recommend against commercial campgrounds being allowed in the city as well as suggest that RV parks be limited to Commercial Tourist (CT) or Public (P) zoning districts. They also suggested that if the Commission did allow commercial campgrounds, that they be restricted to Commercial Tourist and Public zones and then only with a conditional use permit.
Krushat pushed to consider areas that would accommodate overflow from the park so that people are not camping illegally and so that none of these campgrounds abut residential areas. Could there be a buffer when Tourist Commercial abuts residential? What other zones could be considered that aren’t rural living?
However, Code Enforcement Officer Vanessa Cabrera pointed out that “not once have we encountered someone camping say they didn’t have space at the park.” However, Community Development Director Keith Gardner conceded that Code Enforcement had received complaints about camping in rural living zoning but didn’t distinguish between tourists looking for campsites and the unhoused.
After a great deal of back and forth about what zoning could accommodate camping, the Commission agreed to study Commercial Tourist zoning with additional restrictions and to keep camping away from residential areas.
And with that, here are the current proposals:
Mobile Home Parks
1. Defining the density of a MHP to eight (8) spaces per acre.
2. Increasing the minimum lot size to ten (10) acres.
3. Defining the minimum dimension of each space at 10' x 100' (4,000 square feet).
4. Reducing the parking requirement to one stall per unit and guest parking to
one stall per five units.
5. Requiring common laundry facilities.
6. Reducing the landscape buffer to ten (10) feet along street frontages.
Recreational Vehicle Parks
1. Limiting RV parks to Commercial Tourist and Public zones. RV Parks are not permitted in the Rural Living zones
2. Increasing the minimum lot size to ten (10) acres.
3. Decreasing the density to five (5) spaces per acre.
4. Implementing a fifty-foot setback from all property lines.
5. Requiring trash enclosures.
6. Requiring a sewage disposal system
Private Commercial Campgrounds (these are changes to prior proposals, not to existing ordinance)
1. Limiting campgrounds to Commercial Tourist (CT) and Public (P) zones. Campgrounds would not be permitted in the Rural Living zones
2. Increasing the minimum lot size to ten (10) acres.
3. Decreasing the density to five (5) spaces per acre
4. Implementing a fifty-foot setback from all property lines.
5. Requiring trash enclosures.
The campground changes are to prior proposals, not to existing ordinance. Point 2 echos a proposal for “High Impact” camping presented as a part of a matrix at the February 20 meeting. At that time it would have required a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and allowed five spaces per acre on a minimum of 10 acres or 50 campsites. The current proposal is equivalent to the prior proposal and does not represent a “decrease in density” as claimed, at least on the minimum parcel size. Also while these would be restricted to Commercial Tourist zoning, per the Land Use map, most Commercial Tourist zones are surrounded by or immediately abut RS-4, RS-3, RS-2, RL1 and RL2.5 residential areas. The proposed buffer is 50 feet.
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No. All this city needs to do is provide services for the meth heads and their children. Other than that, just stop with all this poorly designed crap