Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the Anaheim Planning Commission meeting of January 12th, 2026. My name is Christopher Walker, chair of the Anaheim Planning Commission. As a reminder, planning commission meetings are broadcasts on all our channels, including online Anaheim and Anaheim TV channel 3. The first order of business is to salute the flag. I will lead us in the flag salute. Next, I will ask the planning commission secretary to take a verbal roll call vote of all planning commissioners.

Chair Walker, present. Vice Chair Tran Martin here. Commissioner Lieberman here. Commissioner Perez here. Commissioner Castro here. Commissioner Abdul Roman here. Commissioner Kelly here.

We have a quorum. Thank you. Um, if you would all please silence your electronic communication devices so that they don't disrupt the pro proceeding, we would be thankful. The doors at the back of the room are automatic. They open when you get close to them and they don't close until you have walked down the hall. Please move away from the automatic doors to allow them to close. Today we have two public hearing items on our agenda which are both continued from December 15, 2025. I would ask members of the public who wish to speak on public hearing items to please complete a yellow speaker card and give it to staff if you have not already done so. The cards can be found on the table at the entrance. Please note that public comments are limited to three minutes and we ask that you keep your remarks as brief as you can. We are influenced more by the content than the length of your presentations. First, we provide an opportunity for any member of the public to speak on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission that are not on tonight's agenda. Is there anybody here who wishes to speak? Seeing no one, prior to beginning the public hearing, I will ask planning commissioners for any disclosures they wish to make regarding the public hearing items on today's agenda. Anybody? Go ahead.

I met with the applicant for item one. I did as well. I did as well. I had communication for uh with the team for applicant one. Me as well. I do want Yes.

And I did as well. Um, please note that the actions taken by the planning commission tonight will be final unless an appeal is filed with the city clerk. The appeal deadline is Thursday, January 22nd, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Appeals forms and information are available at the city clerk's web page. I will now begin the public hearing and ask staff to present item one. Good evening, Chair Walker and members of the planning commission. Happy new year. My name is Landro Rosco and I will be presenting this item tonight. I'm joined by Ela Tinpaciti, principal planner. Item number one is a request for a final site plan, a minor conditional use permit, a minor deviation, a tenative track map, and a minor amendment to the OC5 master site plan for residential phase one. The site associated with this final site plan is within the OC Vive master site plan and is outlined in red. Seven other final site plans outlined in green have been approved by the city council and the planning commission. The proposed project is located at 1400 through600 South Douglas Road and is currently developed with an office complex. Surrounding land uses include the employee parking lot to the north, the San Ana River to the east, Hana Center to the south, and parking deck C to the west. The applicant proposes to demolish two existing office buildings and associated site improvements to construct two multiple family residential buildings with a total of 530 for rent units and a

new neighborhood park. In addition, two private drives, Private Drive A and Private Drive B would be constructed to provide access and utilities to the proposed residential buildings and the park. The proposed residential buildings would include a combined 161 studio units, 2301-bedroom units, and 139 two-bedroom units. Uh 35 of these units would be available for moderate income households. The image on the left shows the first floor plan with the ground floor units and the image on the right shows the third floor plan with the recreational amenity deck and the unit layout. The parking structure would provide 770 parking spaces for residents and guests and would be served by three vehicular driveways shown on this slide by the red arrows. The design of each building would be unique and include a variety of materials and articulation on all facads to enhance visual interest and integration with the surrounding area. Key articulation elements for building one consist of a series of steps to break down the hard corners of the building form as seen in the two images on the left. alternating balcony and window patterns, large woodclatted beams, and a two-story ground floor residential frontage. Key articulation elements for building two consist of asymmetrical pitched roof elements as seen in the two images on the right, a two-story ground for residential frontage, and structural break for a corner amenity deck on the third level adjacent to building one shown on the bottom right image. This final site plan request includes

construction of neighborhood park which would be privately owned and maintained but available for use by the public. Neighborhood park would be anchored by a large oak tree and lawn area at the center of the park flanked by smaller spaces with various passive uses. The park includes a series of internal sidewalks, landscape BMS, shade trees, a water feature, and dedicated parking spaces. The design of the project complies with the Platinum Triangle master land use plan and the OC Vibe master site plan. Therefore, staff recommends approval of the final site plan. The applicant is requesting minor amendments to the approved OCI master site plan to reflect changes proposed for the residential buildings. Since these are minor amendments with nonsubstantive changes made to reflect the proposed final site plan, staff recommends approval of the minor amendments to the OC5 master site plan. The applicant is requesting to amend the previously approved minor conditional use permit to change the location and size of five previously approved murals in the mural plan that would be located on buildings one and two. As the OCI project has advanced through the design process, the final building design has necessitated minor changes in the location and size of these previously approved murals. This amendment is limited to minor modifications of the previously approved murals. Therefore, staff recommends approval of an amendment to the minor conditional use permit for the OCAB mural plan. The applicant is requesting a tenative track map to establish eight numbered lots and three lettered lots. This tentative track map would refine the

proposed lot lines and lot areas to reflect adjustments in the building footprints and street alignments as the OCI project has advanced to the design process. Staff recommends approval of the tenative trackm. The applicant is requesting a minor deviation from the required sound attenuation for common recreational leisure areas. This common recreational leisure area located at the corner of Stanley Cupway and River Road would be exposed to sound levels up to 70 community noise equivalent level due to its proximity to River Road, which is above the 65 community noise equivalent level permitted by the zoning code. Attenuating noise to meet code would require the placement of a 6 and 1/2t tall solid masonry wall spanning the length of the recreational amenity area adjacent to river road which would compromise the goals and objectives of the platinum triangle mixuse overlay zone and also impact the aesthetic value of the project. For these reasons, staff recommends approval of this minor deviation from the required sound attenuation for common recreational leisure areas. Environmental impact report number 339 was approved in 2010 increasing the allowable development intensities in the platinum triangle. The OCI project was approved in 2022 with addendum number 11 and subsequently amended in 2024 with addendum number 13 to this EIR. Staff recommends a planning commission find that previously certified environmental impact report number 339 and associated agenda are the appropriate environmental documentation for this request. In conclusion, the proposed development is carefully designed and planned

project that continues to implement the OC VI master site plan. The project also conforms to the platinum triangle master land use plan and the platinum triangle mixuse overlay zone and staff believes that the proposed development would be an enhancement to the platinum triangle area. Therefore, staff recommends approval of the request. We did receive a piece of correspondence uh prior to this meeting. We have placed a copy of that on each of your desks and we will also include that in the record. And this concludes the presentation. Staff is available to answer any of your questions. In addition, the applicant and their team is present and also available to answer questions from the commission.

Thank you. Does anyone have questions? Michelle, thank you for the presentation. Just a quick question on the can you explain to me the difference uh in reasoning behind the lot number alpha uh betical um I can't think of the word I want some lots are numerical some are alphabetical and what's the difference

that's a great question I don't have the expertise to answer that and I would ask our development services team to explain the And just to clarify the question, are you just asking for the difference between the numbered lots versus the lettered lots? That's what I'm asking.

Good evening. This is Sean Azerush. Uh, the letter lot is not buildable. Yeah.

Anyone else? Okay. Um, can the uh applicant come forward? I don't know if there'll be any questions or not, but do you have I assume there's no presentation.

Yes, I have no presentation. Just want to thank staff for the presentation. My name is Brian Meyers, Chair Walker, and members of the uh commission. I have represented the project for now over eight years. Very exciting to see it get built. Uh I know that a lot of you share that opinion. It's fun to see things actually get built out of the ground. So, um I don't have anything to add. The staff report was uh terrific. We've answered a lot of questions with staff over the last few months and so I'll just be prepared to answer any questions you might have for me.

Thank you very much. Anyone seeing no questions? Thank you so much. Public comments. Anything. And does anyone wish to make a comment or statement? Seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing. Any discussion? Happy to move the item for approval.

Second. somebody uh discussions. No, let's vote. Seven yes votes. The motion carries. Congratulations again. Hello Grace. Whenever you like. You'll probably need to get the presentation up first. Thank you, Secretary. Um, good evening. My name is Grace Cho, senior planner. Uh, hello to Chair Walker and members of the planning commission. Uh the application tonight is item number two. A request by the owner of 300 South Harbor Boulevard to allow a reduction in the number of required parking spaces in order to accommodate medical office tenants within an existing high-rise office building. Um they would be utilizing and maintaining the existing parking supply as part of the project.

300 South Harbor Boulevard is located at the southeast corner of Harbor and Broadway. Uh the subject property is highlighted in yellow and is approximately 2 and a half acres in size. The office building portion is on the west half of the parcel and the fourle parking structure is on the east half of the site. Um the property is zoned low inensity office with a land use designation for mixed use high in the general plan. The surrounding uses include office development to the north, multifamily residential and religious assemble uses to the east and south and the Anaheim Public Library to the west. It should be noted that the a parking variance was approved in 1969 for fewer spaces than required by code as part of the original building entitlements. More recently, the adjacent Vibrant Mines Charter School, which is located due east of the site, is currently under remodeling and construction and has engaged into an agreement with the building owner to allow 50 spaces um to be available for employees of the school beginning of July of this year. The applicant is proposing to convert up to 50,000 square feet of the existing general office area into medical office suites. These tenants will provide procedures, testing, and therapy services services that operate by scheduled appointments rather than walk-in services that you might see in say like an urgent care clinic. A condition of approval has been drafted to ensure that the building would permit the less intensive medical office type practices. These prospective medical offices rely on longer planned visits and distribute patient arrivals and departures more evenly throughout the day and many of these patients would be dropped off and picked up by caregivers or be able to use ride share or public transportation.

The proposal does not modify the building footprint or add any floor area to the building. All the tenant improvements would occur within the existing building envelope. The existing parking structure contains 396 parking spaces. The the applicant prepared a parking utilization study that shows that the building currently operates at approximately 65% occupancy and that the peak parking demand is 85 vehicles. This confirms that a significant portion of the parking structure remains unused even during the busiest periods of the building. Several areas within the building, including unmanned data s data centers, a 6,000 square foot area that must remain vacant due to um security lease restrictions for Bank of America, and a basement storage space generate little or no daily parking demand despite contributing to the building's overall floor area. If up to 50,000 medical sorry if up to 50 50,000 square feet of building were occupied by medical office tenants the zoning code would normally require 496 parking spaces. However, the actual operational charact characteristics of the proposed tenency are distinctly different from urgent care clinics or medical or walk-in medical practices. Staff has also evaluated the 50 parking spaces to be made available to Vibrant Minds Charter School. For purposes of the analysis, those spaces were treated as unavailable during school hours, resulting in an available parking supply of 346 spaces for the building. Even under this very conservative assumption, the effective supply meets the building's general office parking requirement and remains well above the observed peak demand. The evidence demonstrates that the existing supply is adequate to accommodate the proposed medical office uses without causing any

spillover parking into the neighborhoods. Staff did not receive any calls or emails or other correspondence with the public with regards to this item. The request would allow the applicant to respond to current market conditions and attract medical office tenants that operate in a manner consistent with the available parking supply on the on the property. The utilization data demonstrates that there's substantial surplus parking and for and is not needed to um serve the current tenants. The appointmentbased nature of the medical practices combined with the low demand and no demand areas within the building ensures that the existing parking supply is sufficient to serve the project under normal foreseeable conditions. Lastly, the project qualifies for a class one existing facilities exemption under the California Environmental Quality Act because it does not expand the building or increase in intensity beyond historic levels. Based on the analysis provided, staff concludes that the requested variance meets the required findings and recommends approval of this request. That concludes my prepared remarks. Um I'm available as well as the building owner um this evening. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any commissioners have any questions? Very good. I'm going to open the public hearing and invite the applicant forward. Good evening, sir. Good evening. Thank you very much. Um, do you have a presentation or just

No presentation. just uh wanted to express gratitude to everybody in the planning department who's been helpful, Grace and Scott and Corey and Heather and just making it accessible for just a person like me to to undertake this over however many months and years it's it's taken. So, I just wanted to express my appreciation.

Very good. Uh questions by any commissioners? Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. I understand the uh time it takes to do this and I'm very impressed. Uh nobody to speak. I'm assuming anybody here wish to make any comments on this item? Seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing. Um anybody else have discussion? I'll make the motion for approval. I second. Very good discussion. Let's vote.

Seven yes votes. The motion carries. Congratulations, sir. updates. Uh before Scott gives updates for the upcoming um agenda, I just want to introduce Angelie Panoba. She's our contract staff who will be helping us out um until we fill the position permanently.

Sounds good. Welcome. I've got just a few announcements this evening. Um the next planning commission meeting on uh January 26, we have a additional use permit request to expand an American Career College facility over off of La Palma and near Magnolia. Um, on the February 9th meeting, we have a conditional use permit request for a community and religious assembly facility for a recovery center. And tomorrow night at city council, uh, council will be considering the festival residential development as well as adoption of the annual code update.

Be interesting. Very good. Any comments? We're adjourned.