Votes at a glance: Willows City Planning Commission approves minutes, continues cannabis hearings, elects chair and vice chair

The Willows City Planning Commission on July 1 took several procedural and substantive actions: it approved the June 3 meeting minutes, continued two cannabis conditional-use-permit hearings to Aug. 5 because required mailed notices were not sent within the 10-day window, elected Sherry Brock as chair and nominated Keith Forum as vice chair, and approved a design review for an EV charging station at 246 North Humboldt Avenue (file ODR2504).

City staff apologized on the record for a noticing error related to two separate cannabis business conditional-use permits. "I apologize that staff was not able to complete the 300 foot mailed notice for these conditional use permits in time for this planning commission meeting," a staff member said, adding that the required newspaper advertisement had been published and that mailed letters would be issued as soon as possible. Because the 300-foot mailed notices were not sent within the 10-day noticing period required by city practice, commissioners voted to continue both items to the Aug. 5 planning commission meeting.

Procedural votes - Approval of minutes: Motion to approve the June 3 minutes passed (mover/second not recorded in the transcript). - Continuance of cannabis conditional-use-permit items a and b: Motion to continue both items to Aug. 5 passed; staff cited failure to complete the 300-foot mailed notices within the 10-day noticing period and said the newspaper advertisement had been published. - Election of chair: Commissioner Sherry Brock was nominated and elected chair; the motion passed (record does not show roll-call tallies). - Election of vice chair: Commissioners nominated Keith Forum for vice chair; the motion passed (record does not show roll-call tallies). - Approval of EV design review: The commission approved the Iona EV charging station design review (file ODR2504) at 246 North Humboldt Avenue; see separate article for details.

The transcript records that the meeting had five commissioners present after a recent appointment and that the session lasted roughly 18 minutes. Several items on the published agenda were continued or delayed to future meetings. For the cannabis items, staff said mailed notices would be sent and the commission will revisit the applications on Aug. 5.