Town of Moraga

Moraga Planning Commission

17 meetings on video, Oct 2024 to Sep 2026. The typical one ran 1 h 35 min in session.

Recent meetings

What the body took up lately

Special meeting · 2 h 10 minTuesday, September 29, 2026The commission held a public hearing on a 27-home subdivision with 7 accessory dwelling units at the eastern terminus of Moraga Way and approved the design review, subdivision and grading permits with added conditions, 4 ayes and 0 nos.Speakers: Kayce Rane, Ben Helber, Dustin Moore

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Meeting · 1 h 35 minTuesday, September 15, 2026The commission held a study session on proposed revisions to the R-20, R-24 district standards and to small lot and townhome development standards, reviewing a staff presentation and giving feedback without a vote.Speakers: Ben Helber, Nicholas Polsky, Kayce Rane, William Weber

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Meeting · 52 minTuesday, August 18, 2026The commission reviewed staff's draft designs for pre-approved accessory dwelling units and gave feedback on design flexibility and the approval process, taking no action on the item.Speakers: Marcus Bode

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Meeting · 1 h 49 minTuesday, July 7, 2026The commission reviewed a 49-unit townhome condominium development with 5 moderate-income units at School Street, and the resolution for the project passed.Speakers: Alexis Mapel, Ben Helber, Kayce Rane, Dustin Moore and 1 more

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All 17 meetings

How we know

We count one meeting per body per day. A summary line shows only where a second AI reader checked every sentence against the transcript. More on how we count

Clips

What members said

For the plot map and the circulation and access, are there— I couldn't quite tell from the maps because they looked very small on my computer and a little blurry for my older eyes. Are there sidewalks fronting all of the roadways for Court A, or are there no sidewalks along Court A?Kayce RaneCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Sep 29, 2026Watch the full meeting from 26:30

Who, if it's a private drive, who is responsible for the long-term maintenance of the vehicular and pedestrian pathways that are kind of common rights of ways?Kayce RaneCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Sep 29, 2026Watch the full meeting from 30:16
This is my biggest question tonight. Um, on the— you called it the middle zone housing, or the missing middle, missing middle housing. It's tied to fee simple, and I'm just wondering why the town wants to encourage one type of subdivision over another type of subdivision.Ben HelberCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Sep 15, 2026Watch the full meeting from 46:44
I didn't see it here. Um, a joint trench plan, but is this an all-electric community, or is this community also going to be served by gas? The only reason I asked is if it's going to be served by gas, where are the gas meters going to be located, and how will that affect the elevations?Ben HelberCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Jul 7, 2026Watch the full meeting from 31:33
I was looking at condition 15. If I missed one, um, and I noticed that the garage— the, uh, trash recycling are proposed to be located in the garage, which I think is awesome. But I don't know if we have adequate space. It's not like available.Ben HelberCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Jul 7, 2026Watch the full meeting from 27:36
A couple other clarifications. Your report also references The CAPI EIR, the Comprehensive Advanced Planning Initiative EIR. Was that for the Moraga Area Specific Plan in general, or for this project specifically?Kayce RaneCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Jul 7, 2026Watch the full meeting from 25:29
This 15-gallon for clear-cutting an entire site and coming in with just 15-gallon trees seems incredibly light.Dustin MooreCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Jul 7, 2026Watch the full meeting from 34:46

How we know

Officials on the body's roster only, never members of the public. Each clip plays here from where the member began speaking, and we checked who is speaking before it went up. More on how we count

Where the time went

Housing element, rezoning and state housing laws took 33% of this body's meeting time.

Out of 23 hours. The two AI readers disagreed on 10% of it; that time stays in the total.

Housing element, rezoning and state housing laws33% · 7.4 h
Specific housing and mixed-use projects32% · 7.1 h
Other building projects and design review19% · 4.2 h

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How we know

Two AI readers (Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini) each split every transcript into agenda items and gave each one issue from a fixed list. A stretch counts toward an issue only where both agree (lines on an item's edge are left out); the rest is 'unknown' and stays in the total. An issue's time is shown only when an independent Claude Opus read of randomly drawn moments (longer lines more likely) agrees at a Wilson lower bound of .90 or better. More on how we count

How members spoke, as a body

At least 11% of members' remarks raised a concern, of 123 remarks.

Board level only: never one member, never ranked against other bodies. A floor: the strict rule misses many polite concerns.

How we know

Three AI models read each member remark on these items. A remark counts as raising a concern only when all three agree, so the share is a floor. Never one member, never ranked against other bodies. More on how we count

Its busiest hearings

2 of the 20 busiest hearings were here.

9public commentersMoraga Planning Commission, Sep 2, 2025Housing element, rezoning and state housing laws · Housing element, rezoning and state housing laws item8 against · 1 for
7public commentersMoraga Planning Commission, Feb 17, 2026Specific housing and mixed-use projects · Hetfield Estates design review and grading permit for 7 residences5 against · 1 for · 1 no clear sideThe meeting

The members

Who talks on the Moraga Planning Commission

Minutes speaking per meeting · 17 meetings with names, Oct 15, 2024 – Sep 29, 2026 · talk time only, never tone or stance

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Listed by seatMuch of what members say isn't matched to a person yet, so these minutes are floors. The real totals are higher.

Minutes are each member’s own speaking time that we could match to them, so each is a floor. We are measuring how much we miss.

Members · listed by seat

Marcus BodeVice Chair1.5+min per meeting, at least7 of 15meetings heard, of those seated and not running it1.0questions asked per meeting where we named them

Ben HelberCommissioner6.9+min per meeting, at least14 of 17meetings heard, of those seated and not running it5.7questions asked per meeting where we named them

Eric LentellFormer commissioner · Sat in 4 meetings. We rank members after 80.2+min per meeting, at least2 of 4meetings heard, of those seated and not running it0.5questions asked per meeting where we named them

Brenda LusterFormer commissioner2.3+min per meeting, at least3 of 10meetings heard, of those seated and not running it7.7questions asked per meeting where we named them

Alexis MapelChair · ran 12 meetings · Sat in 5 meetings they didn't chair. We rank members after 82.0+min per meeting, at least3 of 5meetings heard, of those seated and not running it3.6questions asked per meeting where we named them

Dustin MooreCommissioner · Sat in 7 meetings. We rank members after 81.7+min per meeting, at least4 of 7meetings heard, of those seated and not running it3.0questions asked per meeting where we named them

Nicholas PolskyCommissioner · ran 5 meetings6.5+min per meeting, at least8 of 12meetings heard, of those seated and not running it4.6questions asked per meeting where we named them

Kayce RaneCommissioner3.0+min per meeting, at least7 of 12meetings heard, of those seated and not running it3.1questions asked per meeting where we named them

Graham ThielFormer commissioner · Sat in 3 meetings. We rank members after 80.0+min per meeting, at least0 of 3meetings heard, of those seated and not running it—no question counted

William WeberCommissioner1.7+min per meeting, at least7 of 12meetings heard, of those seated and not running it4.3questions asked per meeting where we named them

Minutes speaking per meeting held while seated, leaving out the meetings the member ran; a meeting they missed, or where we couldn’t match their voice, counts as zero, so every number is a floor · talk time only, never tone or stance · Hamlet · How we count

How we know

Two AI readers named each voice and had to agree. A blind reader checked 231 names across this group of bodies, as drawn: 230 were right, and the 1 wrong lines were taken down. Minutes count meetings while the member was seated; a meeting they missed counts as zero. Questions count the times a member put a real question to staff, presenters or colleagues; two AI readers had to agree, and 287 of 290 we checked were real questions. Only speech we could name counts, so they are floors. Meetings each member ran, of those counted here, from the body's dated officer list: Alexis Mapel 12, Nicholas Polsky 5. A member's minutes leave out the meetings they ran. More on how we count

Public comment

10 of the 17 meetings we counted had a public commenter. The busiest, on Sep 2, 2025, heard from 9.

9 on Sep 2, 20252.4 a meeting on average

How we know

We count public commenters. They are counted, never named or quoted. Officials, staff and invited presenters aren't counted. We checked the count against a full read of 50 meetings: 50 were within one speaker. More on how we count

Attendance

The roll call, at the 15 meetings where we could read one

Roll-call attendance, member by meeting
Member	Sep 29	Sep 15	Aug 18	Jul 7	Jun 2	May 19	Mar 10	Feb 17	Oct 21	Sep 2	May 20	Apr 15	Mar 11	Feb 18	Nov 19	Oct 22	Oct 15
Alexis Mapel	Present	Absent	Not recorded	Present	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Absent	Present	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Present	Present	Present
Marcus Bode	Absent	Absent	Present	Absent	Absent	Present	Absent	Not recorded	Absent	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Not recorded	Absent	Present	Absent
Ben Helber	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Present	Not recorded	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Absent	Present	Present
Dustin Moore	Present	Absent	Present	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded
Nicholas Polsky	Absent	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Present	Absent	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Present	Present	Present
Kayce Rane	Present	Not recorded	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Present	Not recorded	Present	Absent	Present	Present	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded
William Weber	Absent	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Absent	Not recorded	Present	Present	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded
Eric Lentell	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Present	Absent	Present
Brenda Luster	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Absent	Present	Absent	Absent	Present	Not recorded	Present	Present	Absent
Graham Thiel	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Absent	Present	Absent

PresentArrived lateAbsentNot recorded

How we know

From the roll call, or the chair's statement of who is present, read by two AI readers who had to agree. A meeting with no roll call we could read says "not recorded"; we never guess. We checked 158 roll calls against a separate read and 157 matched; of 91 absences, 91 were right. More on how we count

Members from the body’s own roster page · Meetings from videos the city posted