2007-09-07 TSHEPARD - Laserfiche WebLink

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application with the idea that they’re going to move to another site when it becomes available; and it’s limited to a very small area. I just want to caution the Commission that as a matter of overall policy we are going to see these applications come in generally with a very nice person, who’s the applicant. Generally there’s going to be some degree of hardship or a business desirability to locate in a Ag area rather than an Industrial area; and they have to be very careful about approving these kinds of things, or this is what you’re going to get in the Ag area. GRAHAM: Thank you, Mr. Yuen. YUEN: I also wanted to say if the Commission does, very often, you know -. Because we do have a set of conditions that we would recommend if the Commission is inclined to grant the permit. We sometimes do this when, because we’ve had situations like this before where the Commission, the Department has been negative and the Commission has been favorable. So we do have a set of conditions that we would be prepared to suggest to the Commission if the Commission wants to grant a permit for some set timeframe. GRAHAM: I’d like to, just as far as our protocol here, rather than discussing how we might take action, we bring the applicant back at this time; and then we can go into our discussion mode. So Ms. Sheppard and Mr. Yeh, if you’d like to come back. And generally this opportunity is for you to respond to anything you’ve heard in the public testimony. In this case the public testimony was all supportive, so really it’s just the opportunity for you to make any further comments before the Commission, I think. YEH: Thank you, Mr. Graham. I understand where Chris is coming from and from a, I guess, overall policy standpoint also understand why that position would be. I guess the only thing that I would say is that, you know, the special permit by its nature is intended to be a vehicle by which whether it’s, you know, in the Ag land or under the General Plan or the Land Use Commission, under those special kinds of circumstances where it is unusual and reasonable as we find in this case and the circumstances warrant, you make exceptions. And that’s by definition, to me, a special permit allows a use other than agriculture in that zone. I don’t think probably in your history sitting here as a Planning Commissioner or in any of the Commissions that I’ve seen have we really ever seen an applicant who has been so far engaged in agriculture as Ms. Sheppard has and who has supported as greatly as she has and who is going to continue to use the same property as it has been and as she intends it to be. And, you know, I think her and Mr. Zelko kind of pointed out to you the difficulties, I mean, we pay -. I shouldn’t it call lip service, but we have these policies of trying to maintain this integrity of agricultural lands. And to some extent it’s used as an open space concept to preserve it from development. But the practical difficulty of engaging in agriculture, as you can see over the last, just over the last five years, is we have these shifts between ginger, papaya virus, sweet potato, taro. That is just a market force itself aside for the fact that we have weather, and other kinds of forces that play. So we have here someone who’s genuinely making a go of it, trying to make a go over it, has some extra space, on a temporary basis, EXHIBIT B 11