[Editor: UPDATE ON 8/26/15: CONFIRMED: the first Planning Commission hearing will be on Tuesday, September 29, 6:30pm at City Hall Council Chambers. If additional speakers wish to offer public comments, subsequent hearings will be held on Wednesday, September 30, Thursday, October 1 and Thursday, October 8 (presumably at the same time and location?). The 45-day public comment period will close on October 15. – RS]
Benicia Planning Commission hearings will likely begin on Tuesday, September 29, 2015
The City of Benicia posted a notice on August 13 that the next Planning Commission hearing on Valero’s proposed Crude by Rail project will be held on Tuesday, September 29, 2015. If the hearing is held on that date, the Commissioners and public will begin their review of the RECIRCULATED Draft Environmental Impact Report, time and location yet to be announced.
The Planning Division’s 8/13/15 listing of Current Planning Projects shows a Planning Commission meeting on 9/29, designated for review of Valero’s Use Permit, and notes, “Railway extension inside refinery. Recirculated Draft EIR anticipated to be released for public review period on August 31, 2015.”
The meeting does not yet appear on the City’s Planning Commission webpage. Nor has it been posted on the Valero Crude By Rail page on the City’s website.
As of today according to the City’s Planning Department, the R-DEIR will be released as scheduled, on August 31, 2015. (Note correction: previously published information that the release would be on 8/29 was in error.)
We will let you know when dates and locations of future hearings are confirmed.