Moraga Planning Commission
Ben Helber
Commissioner, Moraga Planning Commission.
14 of 17meetings heard, of those they sat in
6.9–8.3minutes speaking per meeting seated, not counting meetings they ran: named, to named plus their share of unnamed speech
7clips
—Not ranked yet: much of what members say isn't matched to a person yet, so these minutes are floors
5.7questions asked per meeting where we named them (14 meetings)
Source: the body's own roster page, read Oct 8, 2026.
How we know
'Named' counts meetings where our voice check put this member's name on their speech. It is not attendance: a member can attend and not speak, or speak in a stretch we couldn't name. More on how we count
Clips
What Ben Helber said
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 31:33I 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 27:36I agree, great work. I would say I don't remember how many we did last year, but I'm quite certain it wasn't 10. And I think, uh, 10 units that actually meet the affordability is really impressive considering I can remember when we weren't doing— we were doing zero or maybe one.
Ben HelberCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Mar 10, 2026Watch the full meeting from 26:57Could you speak to that a little bit more about what we'd be changing to go towards more objective design standards and where and in what zoning areas for?
Ben HelberCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Mar 10, 2026Watch the full meeting from 23:31The reason why I asked is I didn't see anywhere for a large bank of gas meters, and that's another thing that we've learned that comes in at the end sometimes is they said, oh, by the way, we need to put a huge bank of gas meters, and that changes the natural aesthetic of a building.
Ben HelberCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Mar 11, 2025Watch the full meeting from 1:28:41Small lot, I believe I'm thinking about the small lot standards, and they are, and I really like them, the objective design criteria, right? If the project complies with this, then it can move forward. And, you know, it's easy for the applicant. It's easy for the Planning Commission. It's easy for town staff.
Ben HelberCommissioner · Moraga Planning Commission · Sep 15, 2026Watch the full meeting from 51:25
How we know
Clips start where they began speaking. Officials only. More on how we count