All right, welcome everyone to the Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 planning commission meeting.
Can we get the call to order, please?
Vice Chair Henderson.
Here.
Commissioner Stoker.
Here.
Commissioner Vasconcelos.
Here.
And if you could please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, I'll lead it.
Begin.
I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Alright, thank you. Moving on to the approval of the agenda. Could I please get a motion?
I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as prepared. I'll second that.
Commissioner Henderson. Yes. Stoker. Yes. Vasconcelos. Yes.
Moving on to the consent agenda. All items listed on the consent calendar are considered to be routine matters or are considered formal documents covering previous planning commission instruction.
The items listed on the Consent Calendar may be enacted by one motion and a second.
There will be no separate discussion on the Consent Calendar items unless a member of
the Planning Commission or town staff request discussion on specific Consent Calendar items
at the beginning of the meeting.
Public requests to comment on Consent Calendar items should be filed with the Commission
Secretary before the Consent Calendar is called.
Looks like we have two items on the Consent Agenda.
Is there anyone in the public that would like to speak on the consent agenda items?
Anybody online? Any commissioners have any issues?
Could I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. I will second that
Yes, yes, yes
Moving on to Department reports item number four. Can we get the report please?
Thank you by Chair Henderson and commissioners. This is the Outdoor Lighting Ordinance Second
Review and Discussion. The recommendation is that the Planning Commission receives and
files a report and provides any input and direction to return the item to a future
meeting.
For background, previously at the meeting of July 28th, the Planning Commission
provided direction and requested additional information on the following to be considered
as part of the outdoor lighting ordinance update.
Modernizing the ordinance to account for LED technology,
balancing preservation of the night sky with safety and security,
moving towards warmer lighting with a target of 3,000 Kelvin maximum,
ensuring standards are enforceable and implementable, and providing some
from other jurisdictions, particularly those that are nearby, such as City of 29 Palms.
This is to just kind of establish what we're talking about.
You can see what is light trespass to an adjoining residential home as compared to
one that directs the light downward and away from the adjoining property.
For a little bit more technical discussion, the proposed language that we have drafted
It's been wrapped it up for review incorporates some quantitative standards and some mental requirements that would provide staff with tools needed to address outdoor lighting fixture compliance during plan check for new construction and where complaints are received that require timely code enforcement.
Those additions are summarized here, including definitions for correlated cover color temperature which is kelpens lumens luminaires lux.
establishing a nighttime curfew definition and a definition of non-essential lighting.
Also importantly is some measurable light trespass limits which are to be defined as
light trespass limited to one lux, which is approximately 0.09 foot candles at adjoining
residential property lines and three lux which is approximately 0.28 foot candles at
commercial slash industrial property lines or public rights of way.
With measurements taken using a light meter at five feet above grade.
So that aligns with our current implementation.
When it comes to discretionary commercial projects requiring a condition of approval for no more than 0.3 foot candles that property line.
We've also added a 3000 Kelvin maximum color temperature that applies both to residential and to commercial projects.
added a residential lumen limit of 1,000 lumens per luminaire, which is essentially the light fixture itself,
while also providing flexibility for motion control lighting used for safety and security that would be exempted from that particular limitation,
establishing that motion detection automatic shutoff requirements after five minutes for lighting use for safety and security are required,
and a nighttime curfew to extinguish or dim by 50% non-essential outdoor lighting,
which includes things like landscaping or architectural lighting, for example,
for both residences and businesses.
And some additional alignment with applicable building and energy codes
and requirement for new construction,
that there's applications to no requirements to document compliance with those standards,
including compliance statement, lighting schedule, and photometric plan when that is
also determined necessary by the director.
This illustrates a little bit more of
the relationship between lumens and lux where lumens are the amount of visible
light emitted by the source and lux is the amount of light that falls on a
surface measured in lumens per square meter so this is a metric
This also illustrates what 2,700 Kelvin looks like, which is pretty close to our proposed standard of 3,000 Kelvin as compared to 4,000 Kelvin.
You can really see the difference in warmth and coolness between those two.
So the proposed amendment preserves the current structure to address non-conforming lighting fixtures and complaint-based enforcement procedures.
the language of the ordinance.
States existing outdoor lighting fixtures installed
or constructed on developed properties
which are non-conforming shall be allowed continued use
except that the lighting shall not be structurally altered
so as to extend its useful life
aside from regular maintenance.
However, should it be determined
that a non-conforming lighting fixture
results in light trespass,
the town may require the light to be either shielded,
filtered, redirected, replaced
with a less intense light source,
removed or a combination thereof
to eliminate light trespass so that preserves staff's ability to address complaints while
also addressing new construction.
The other jurisdictions that we reviewed have rather
similar outdoor lighting ordinances but they may not incorporate all of these areas but common
themes include standards for fixture shielding, light trespass, light levels, glare, hours of
of operation and curfews for specific uses, automatic controls,
color temperature, prohibited lighting,
submittal requirements, and special uses and exemptions.
Notably, modern ordinances address
things like lumens, luxe or foot candles,
and the color temperature rather than wattage alone.
And you will find some examples
that do still rely on that wattage in the packet tonight.
This is a specific table from 29 Palms,
identifying the maximum and minimum illuminations
for various categories of uses.
So this is one way of doing it.
You can put it in a table and really break down
what that looks like,
not just for residential, commercial, industrial properties,
but specific things like the parking lot,
pedestrian walkway, non-residential structure, and public buildings where that might apply.
Our standard that's proposed, for example, for adjoining residential property is equivalent to
that 0.09 foot candle maximum, 29 palms is just slightly lower than us in that regard at 0.05
foot candles but we're still relatively close. The recommendation once again is
that the Planning Commission receives and follows the report and provides any
input and direction to turn the item to a future meeting and staff is available
to answer questions following public comment. Thank you. Okay thank you. At this
time we're going to open up the outdoor lighting ordinance second review
for public comment. Anybody in the audience wishing to speak on this
item, anybody online? Since there's only three of us, I'll just open it up. Who
would like to go first and make some comments?
Yeah, I like this report. I
think I think the information you brought back is exactly what we were
asking for. I think it's going in the right direction. I had a question that
says, so what outlines not including lighting for safety and security for
both residents and businesses.
So how is that determined in regards to safety
and security lighting,
where it's not being impacted by the curfews?
So that would include things, I think,
that were brought up in our prior meeting,
such as those lighting fixtures
that are installed to support security camera equipment
that may include things such as safety lighting
around your residential driveway or walkway
Until I'll you to safely get from one point to the other on your property and also see anybody who could be
My only fear on that is like people can interpret any lighting as a security and safety
So I think it might be beneficial for us to determine and outline exactly
What is accepted or whatever the qualifications are for that so that we don't get people coming back to us saying well
This is for security and safety because I think anyone can make that argument for lighting
Steph understands
Other than that, I like it. I don't have any other comments at this time. If I have anything else that sparks my mind after listening to these gentlemen, I'll chime in. Thank you.
Yeah,
my couple comments, I think 1000 lumens is your maximum for any residential Lumiere that that's, that's correct. And that's based on the recommended dark sky association model ordinance jurisdictions might choose different limitations such as 2000 in some cases or maybe 5000.
But that is kind of the recommended best best practice that we presented. Okay. Yeah, I mean even 1000 lumens like most most can lights if there's a canline on the outside of a house those can light you buy or like 600 lumens is what those maximums are and
And a thousand seems almost like a floodlight for a security camera.
So I just wanted to – I don't want it to be too high to where it's just we're
not doing anything better than we currently have.
My other question, and it relates to one of the comments you guys had on the presentation
which said, uh, existing outdoor lighting fixtures installed or constructed on developed
properties which are non-conforming shall be allowed to continued use, except that it
will not be structurally altered as to extend its useful life aside from regular maintenance.
That kind of sentence that we have there reminds me of the sentence we have in our
sign ordinance, which I think is one of, it's a sentence I didn't like in that ordinance
either because it kind of, we've gotten into this already where signs are kind of torn
to pieces and put back together. And even though we determined that that was taking
it apart beyond its useful, it just leaves it so open to where some of these lights are
never going to change. So personally, I would like in our commercial ordinance to have
something that some sort of sunsetting of what's existing and non-conforming, whether
that's a year limit, if it's five years or something, first places to come into conformance,
that would be awesome if we started to see, you know, shopping centers, they have gives
them time and we can send out informational mailers and things to property owners
just to let them know like, hey, five years from now, this thing is going to sunset
And we want all the lighting into conformance.
And I think that would be something nice because I think our sign ordinance that was one of, I mean, I don't want to say failings but one of the something that should have been in our original sign ordinance and we wouldn't be looking at so many signs that are still out of conformance.
And it's been 15 years or whatever since that last version.
So, I don't know if that's something that you guys have looked at that is a provision that you can find and other jurisdictions ordinances. It's essentially an amortization period 29 pounds. For example, set there is at one year from the date of the ordinance being adopted.
County set there is at 18 months.
So it is, it is an approach that we could consider.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know. And I don't know how the rest of the commission feels. And maybe nice. Maybe our next version of this that comes. Hopefully we have everybody here to be able to have a discussion with with all of our commissioners.
But I just feel like we we if we ever get back to a sign ordinance.
I would like to fix that because we've given everyone enough time.
And if it's not an architecturally significant sign where it's historic,
then they should have had enough time to come into conformance, you know.
And those are my two real big ones.
I think it's great the work that's gone on so far.
I like updated definitions.
A lot of those are in kind of lockstep with what new kind of new technology.
So I like all of those things.
Great, thank you.
Just had one comment.
Then my screen goes off, right?
One second.
On the exemptions on item E in regards to emergency lighting and fixtures necessary.
And it's talking about emergency equipment type stuff.
And I was thinking that when we look at this, that a location like a fire station,
They might need very bright lights if they're coming back from a call for service at night so they can inspect their rig, outside, et cetera.
If that's not in there, maybe that's something we can look at.
I know like the sheriff's deputies have a location over here nearby, but it's a little more remote as opposed to a station that might be more in the middle of town.
But that was just one thing I want you to present.
And I wanted to share one idea with my fellow commissioners,
and I agree, Commissioner Stoker, that we'll probably have to come back.
We'd like to get additional feedback from the other commissioners.
But I thought of something that I know that the town council,
when they brought this to us, there was a spirit here.
And that is trying to get us into compliance with all the latest technology.
but also, since I've lived here, and I know you guys have lived here probably your whole
lives as well, that there's always a community concern about light pollution.
There's always been those complaints.
And as we develop this code, and I love staff's opinion on this as well, that I think that
we want to come from this as more of a pioneer, more of a partner with the community
and educating them, but also I was thinking of building in that there
should be an annual lighting health report that's presented in front of the
Commission every year similar to short-term vacation rentals and they
could also be presented to the Town Council and I thought of some metrics
where you know planning staff could give us an overall grade as a town how
we're doing in regards to this and some of the metrics I was thinking
about was you could certainly have quantitative or like maybe the number and type of lighting-related
complaints received and resolved, how many plans have been reviewed and conditioned for compliance,
any measured or observed trends in light trespassing data,
and then also the town could share with us success stories from this code,
because sometimes we build these codes but we don't really get the feedback on how they're
doing related to enforcement.
And then also because technology changes rapidly with something like this, the annual report
could come back to us and maybe share with us some of the latest technology that's going
on so we might have to tweak this code.
That way it will stay updated.
But I don't want to create extra work for staff, but I think sometimes when we build
these codes and you see this especially right now with controversy issues in
communities. Communities are towns and government that partner with the
community and are transparent and what's going on I think are in a much
better place and more successful. So what do you guys think about having an
annual lighting report that comes back and kind of the staff can grade how
we're doing based on these type of metrics. I like it. I think even you can you
could even request a report from like Mount Palomar to see how much the the
lighting has been affected for the community over the year annually like
okay here because people are saying you know the dark skies whatever but if
there's an actual physical number that like hey hasn't been impacted by you
know this percentage has gone it's grown a little bit brighter or it
hasn't had any fluctuation or anything that I feel like that's a that's a
value that the community as a whole would be like oh because you know you get
people saying you just can't see the sky anymore but if you have facts of the
report saying you know nothing really has changed or it's changed so minutely
that it is looking the same or it has changed a lot there's something to you
know have a discussion about with the report you know. Yeah and I think it
kind of shows that we really take it serious the light pollution is
important to us and and you know from that education standpoint and again we
can tweak the code annually if need be. What do you think Commissioner Stover?
No I I agree with you that it'd be nice to know how we're doing it's always nice
to get updates you know when we approve things I don't have a problem with that
be interested to hear what what Matt and and Jerry how they feel when they're
back that would be nice to have all of us kind of in lockstep on that if something
would like to do I agree yeah just looking through other exemptions so do
all of the exemptions apply to residential and commercial yes
okay so
So I think exemption number C, Commissioner Henderson, would address your want regarding
fire stations. Exemption number B is the one I was kind of looking at where I don't know
that is neon signs would it ever be appropriate at someone's home? I mean, I know what the
intent is. It's intended for like restaurants and bars and those kinds of places where
you'd see neon. So your your sign code generally doesn't allow residences to
have signage outside of address signage so it wouldn't be anticipated that
residents would have a neon sign to answer your question. Okay. I might look
at that just as maybe it's just only on neon lighting fixtures in a
commercial sense because I feel like even looking on Amazon you can buy
I like really cool like neon whatever you're into
and put it in your front window.
I just wouldn't want someone to look at the exemptions
and try to use those as a reason
to have whatever they want approved
because maybe it might not be a sign
but it's still like a picture or some sort of thing.
The other thing that I was looking at was
new item F which is holiday lighting fixture displays.
and I in looking at I looked at some other jurisdictions ordinances a lot of
those have like times of year that that's allowed so that way a holiday
lighting display doesn't go past Christmas and it's still you know you
still have those lights running in the middle of July and I don't know if
that's a thing yeah I mean some people just don't well some people just don't
leave them down. Don't ever take them down. And they're still running. So I just don't
know if there's timing for those outdoor displays, because I'm just trying to think
of what other people might be upset about with their neighbor about. And it'd be nice
to have more things organized in a fashion to where at least it's here.
That's a really good point. And then also I see what you're saying on item number
I think I focus in on D&E more. So yeah, that should be covered under C. So thank you. Any other comments on this item?
No. Okay, I'll go ahead and I'll make a motion that we receive in file. And then we just bring it back to a future meeting with the other commissioners.
I'll second that motion.
Commissioner Henderson.
Yes.
Okay, moving on to item number five, land development update.
This
will be a pretty brief update, just kind of letting you know what's very close to coming into the Planning Commission.
We expect to deem Yucca Valley Materials Lab complete very soon and they have been making corrections as they've been going through the completeness process.
So that should be available for Planning Commission review shortly.
Similarly, same with the CNS rotisserie chicken bar that has several rounds of review and they're
very, very close to being complete right now.
Tumbleweed Sanctuary is in the final one to two weeks of their CEQA review process.
It's at the point where they're just having legal review, which is basically the last
step before it can be published for the public review. Following those three,
the windmill wireless facility is about to kick off their CEQA process.
So that will likely be coming to the commission
somewhere between four and six months from today. And then the last one that's a little
bit more of a wild card, but we anticipate it being complete in the fall sometime is
the Joshua Tree Distilling Company. They have a conditional use permit and also a development
code amendment. They're in general commercial zoning, which does not currently allow for
any manufacturing processes. So they're proposing to amend that portion of the development
to potentially allow some type of manufacturing which has not yet been fully determined,
but to potentially allow that sort of operation where they're storing and bottling and manufacturing higher-grade alcohol in the commercial zoning.
So, those five projects are the ones that we'd foresee coming most imminently to the Planning
Commission.
Okay, thank you. I'll just open up to public comment. Anybody wishing to speak on any of
the land development updates? Anybody online? Moving over to commissioners if you have any
comments.
Okay, we'll go ahead and close that out and we'll move to future agenda
items.
Those two women to make a motion to receive a file. Oh, I'm sorry. Welcome. I'll make a motion to receive a file. I'll second commissioner Henderson. Yes. Stoker. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Moving on to future agenda items.
Those five items and then our general plan update is also getting very close to completion. So those five for the commercial projects and then our open space and conservation and safety elements should be wrapping up soon as well.
And I know our general plan is a big one and same with the lightning ordinance we're focusing on now is is that something after reading that and where I was kind of got my brain wrapping around our sign ordinance.
Is that something we could plan as a commission on working on for the future.
Is that something that's been on your radar already or something we could.
The sign ordinance. Yeah.
You know, it's always the least favorite thing of all, according to Shane.
Our chairman's favorite.
Landscaping is the hardest one, I don't know.
One of the hardest ones is the...
It's something you could send up to the council for consideration if you wanted to ask them
where that sits in the priority listing.
Okay.
And then final thing is about sign codes.
codes, sign codes are never finished because the minute you adopt a new ordinance, you will
have somebody that wants to make a change to it. So sign ordinances are never finished.
They're a constantly revolving circle. It's one of those things where not everyone is
happy all the time.
Well, I mean, I'm okay with most of the ordinance. The only thing that bothered me
is that same sentence where we talk about,
as long as you can keep it up to date,
then it's good forever, and it'd be nice to sunset.
So I don't know if that's something
we could just modify a line or tweak something
with an amendment to remove that,
or add some sort of a sunsetting.
You can always try and limit the amount of amendments,
but once you open up the sign ordinance for discussion,
you typically get a huge-
requests for different changes. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Shane. Moving on to public
comments, the Planning Commission takes its time to consider your comments on
items of concern which are not on the agenda. When you are called to speak,
please state your name and community of residence. Please limit your comments to
three minutes or less. Inappropriate behavior which disrupts, disturbs, or
otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting will result in
forfeiture of your public comment privileges. The Planning Commission is
prohibited by state law from taking action or discussing items not on the
printed agenda. Anybody in the audience wishing to speak? Anybody online? Seeing
there's none, we'll go ahead and close that and move on to staff reports and
comments.
No additional reports or comments. All right, thank you. We'll move
on to commissioner reports and comments. Starting on my far right,
Commissioner Vaskensuelos. No, I don't have anything at this time. I just
want to thank staff for another really informative meeting and you know hopefully
the next time we get this put in front of us we'll have our whole commission here
to discuss and the review and maybe get some finalization on some of us that
send up so thank you.
Commissioner Stoker much the same thank you to
staff and yes it'll be it'll be good to get one more ordinance kind of
behind us, so that's what we're looking forward to.
And on a side note, if you haven't driven by Bremfield
lately, it is so green, it's beyond green,
like they re-overseated the grass,
and it is fluffy and green, it's really good.
So thanks to, you know, the public works
and recreation staff are working together
and get all that stuff up to snuff. It looks really good.
Awesome. Thank you.
I'll just echo a great meeting, great preparation, and it's an important topic.
The lighting ordinance is an important topic for the community.
It's one of those right up there, in my opinion, with Joshua trees and water, everything.
So thank you for the good job.
And we look forward to our other commissioners providing their comments.
Just one thing, I can't make it, but on, is it Tuesday, September 1st, are we having a grand opening for the Athletics or Recreation section on Tuesday?
Is it private?
No, I said that once in town.
Yeah.
Alex says Tuesday at five.
Tuesday at five?
All right, thank you.
All right.
Moving on to announcements.
Upcoming meeting schedule the next regular meeting in the Yucca Valley Planning Commission will be held on Tuesday, September 8, 2026 at 6pm in the Yucca Valley Community Center.
And with that, we will go ahead and adjourn.