I have never met Pia Sok.

But judging from her answer on her application to serve as the alternate on the Manteca Planning Commission, she was a solid selection.

The question asked was, “What do you believe the role of the City’s Planning Commission to be?”

Sok’s answer, “The role of the Planning Commission is responsible for overseeing and implementing the city’s zonal ordinance and general plan development. This includes reviewing and approving building permits, land use designations, and development proposals to ensure they comply with the city’s growth and development.”

Ok, so the commission doesn’t deal with building permits per se. But everything else basically nails the purpose of a planning commission.

It reminds me of a point made by an old school planning commissioner by the name of Marion Elliott who served on the Manteca commission in the 1990s.

Marion noted planning commissions weren’t policy boards. Their main function was to make sure city polices and requirements regarding development were carried out in the review of projects.

After coming to Manteca from Roseville where the planning commission was a bit politicized at the time, it was refreshing to hear there were commissioners that got it.

Elliott wasn’t the only one by far that served then, before, or after on the Manteca Planning Commission that had/has a firm grasp on their responsibilities.

So, what was so atrocious about the Roseville Planning Commission at the time?

Two examples.

Future Ford was just starting as a dealership on Riverside Avenue in the 1980s.

They were adding a line of Peugeot cars.

The problem? The majority of the commission didn’t like the colors of the Peugeot signage that featured a deep yellow lion with matching lettering against a royal blue background.

Commission members called it “garish” and “inappropriate” for Roseville.

The commission said they were going to turn down the site plan because they didn’t like the corporate colors on the sign. Future Ford asked for a continuance.

The next month, a Peugeot corporate representative flew out from New York to explain the colors were part of the company’s brand.

That didn’t phase the commission. They turned the site plan down.

The Roseville City Council stepped up on the appeal and approved the site plan.

The second example was a use permit requested to convert a former supermarket on Douglas Boulevard into a fabric store.

A commissioner asked what color they planned to paint the exterior.

The answer of purple didn’t sit too well.

That said, the commission did approve the use permit on a 3-2 vote.

To be clear, there were no “color standards” for commercial districts.

There was, however, a move afoot in the community to push for design standards.

It wasn’t the bailiwick of the commission, however.

That decision, if it were to be made, belonged to the elected council.

The last thing Manteca as community needs are freelancers.

That said, it doesn’t need commissioners that are simply rubber stamping things either.

And they need to push back when staff — or consultants — are basically blowing smoke.

The prime example is the original Chick-fil-A fiasco on East Yosemite Avenue.

Commission members at the time vigorously questioned the validity of the traffic study and whether the drive-in queue was adequate.

Staff and the traffic consultant stridently said everything was OK.

The commission expressed their doubts but the project still passed.

And we all know what happened next.

Chick-fil-A turned East Yosemite Avenue — and the Highway 99 southbound off-ramp — into de facto drive-thru lanes for close to two years.

The point?

Those with a good grasp of the community, including daily traffic pattens because they live and perhaps even work here, are invaluable.

Such knowledge is critical for community planning.

It is why Jesus Sillas, Shim Lacy, or Jacob Naven could have been as solid of a choice as Sok.

How can that be possible?

Manteca has — and has had — a lot of solid planning commissioners that didn’t come with the knowledge or credentials that Sok has.

Guess how that happened?

The appointees went through training on what their duties as a planning commissioner involved.

It is safe to say almost all grasped their duties.

This is not to say Sok can’t provide the same understanding of community nuances that are essential to temper “traffic modeling” and such.

After the Chick-fil-A foul up, the same traffic consultant for the Raising Cane project was asked about how they expected people to observe the no right turn sign to prevent those leaving the drive-in from turning left across Yosemite Avenue.

The consultant said drivers would simply go up to Yosemite Avenue’s intersection with Spreckels Avenue and make a U-turn.

There is a little problem with that.

Strike it. It was a big problem.

Not only was there no U-turn at the intersection but U-turns on Yosemite Avenue at any intersections with traffic signals is about as rare as a blizzard at high noon on the Fourth of July in the middle of Death Valley.

Again, none of this is to take away from Sok or her ability to do the job.

But what it should do is remind the council, or future councils, to never defer to old-fashioned “artificial intelligence” to determine who should be appointed to city commissions.

And by that, it is deferring to staff ranking of the people they would essentially answering to or some rigid model of candidates checking the right boxes.

The human element needs to be taken into account.

If not, why not just run everything the city deals with that is development related that goes to the planning commission through artificial intelligence programs that you can Google.

Knowing how reliable such programs are, they can probably confirm the modeling the traffic consultant used on Manteca’s original Chick-fil-A project as being spot on without have to deal with the human nuances of five commission members.

Or perhaps the city upfront should advertise a vacancy on the planning commission that engineers and professional planners retired or working in another city are preferred, with extra points in the rating process given to former Manteca city employees.

Common sense means something.

As does experience and a thorough understanding of the community.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com