Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning everybody or good evening, sorry, time change, you know. Um, welcome to the Anaheim Planning Commission for November 3rd, 2025. I'm Christopher Walker. I'm the chairman of the Anaheim Planning Commission. As a reminder, planning commission meetings are broadcast on all channels, including online and Anaheim TV channel 3. First order of business is to salute our flag. And I do ask anybody. Michelle, can you do it? I usually like to say something. You guys know what to do. Right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. Okay. Next, I will ask the planning commission secretary to take a verbal roll call vote of all planning commissioners.

Chair Walker here. Vice Chair Tran Martin here. Commissioner Lieberman here. Commissioner Perez here. Commissioner Castro here. Commissioner Abdul Raman here. Commissioner Kelly here. We have a quorum.

Thank you. Um if you would please silence your electronic communication devices so they don't disrupt the proceeding. We would appreciate that. Uh today we have two public hearing items on the agenda. I would ask members of the public who wish to speak on a public hearing item, 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 outside the entrance. 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. Would anyone like to speak? See no one. Prior to the beginning of the public hearing, I will ask planning commissioners for any disclosures they wish to make regarding the public hearing item on today's agenda. Nobody. 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, November 13, 2025 at 5:00 pm. Appeal forms and information are available for the city from the city clerk's website. I will now begin the public hearing for item one and ask Nicholas to make a presentation.

Thank you. Good evening, Chair Walker and members of the planning commission. My name is Nicholas Barrera, associate planner, and I'll be presenting item one this evening. The applicant requests approval of a tenative parcel map to subdivide an existing industrial built property into one lot for condominium purposes to create eight airspace units. This item was continued from the October 6th and October 20th planning commission meetings to allow the applicant additional time to review some of the conditions of approval. The project site is located at 621 to 631 Southeast Street. Surrounding land uses include an industrial building to the north, town homes to the south, single family residential uses to the east across East Street, and a recycling facility to the west. This approximately 1acre property is developed with an existing one-story industrial building and a telecommunication antenna. The applicant requests approval of a tenative parcel map to subdivide an existing industrial building into eight airspace units which would allow for the individual sale of each unit. The subdivision would result in one lot and the areas outside of the building would be considered the common areas. No expansion to the building is proposed. However, the applicant is proposing exterior site improvements which include a reconfigured driveway approach, new landscaping, restriped parking stalls, a new trash enclosure, and new exterior paint. All parking spaces on site are provided as common spaces and not assigned to individual units. As proposed, the project meets all required findings for a tenative parcel map. The site is physically suitable for the proposed density and development because the subdivision is limited to the creation of airspace units within an existing industrial building. The proposed exterior improvements would all conform to the development standards of

the industrial zone. The subdivision is consistent with the general plan, does not alter the physical configuration of the building or site, does not establish a new land use, and does not result in environmental damage, harm to wildlife, or public health concerns. Staff supports the request and recommends approval of the application subject to the conditions of approval. This concludes staff's presentation. Staff and the applicants agent, Renee Varga, are available to answer any questions the commission may have. Thank you. Anyone have questions for staff? Go ahead, Michelle.

Thank you, Nicholas. I did spend an inordinate amount of time on this trying to figure out where um eight units of residential were going to fit into this property till I figured out it's not residential. Um I was just wondering um you know everybody's familiar with residential condominiums um with a commercial one I would assume but I would like to know um that there are CCNRs in place there there is a common um uh association to oversee maintenance of the property. Is that how it works?

Yes. says uh there is a condition condition number 18 which talks about there um is a master CCNR for this project that will be recorded. Okay, thank you.

Okay, I'm going to open the public hearing and ask the applicant to come forward and either do a presentation or we'll see if anyone has questions for you. Hello, my name is Renee Varga. I'm with DRC Engineering and I'm representing the owner subdivider who is unable to attend this evening. Um, good evening, Chairman Walker and the planning commission. Uh, we like to thank the staff for working with us on this project and we want to let you know that we have read and support the conditions of approval and excited to bring new ownership opportunities to the business community in Anaheim. Thank you for your consideration and we appreciate the support of the planning commission and we're here to answer any questions that may arise. Anyone have any questions? Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Do we have No. Okay. Um therefore, I will close the public hearing and ask for discussion and or a motion. I'll make a motion to approve it.

I'll second. Very good. Any other discussion? I guess we vote.

Seven yes votes. The motion carries. Thank you very much, sir. Congratulations.

Good evening, Jose. Good evening. It's all yours. soon as you get your thing up.

Good evening, Chair Walker and members of the planning commission. Um, item number two before you this evening is a request for a conditional use permit to convert an existing commercial building into a senior living facility large and a variance to permit fewer parking spaces than required by the zoning code. And this is at 3341 West Ball Road. The approximate uh.16 acre site is located on Ball Road just east of West Veil Drive as shown on this slide. The project site is in the general commercial zone and is designated for residential for corridor residential land uses in the general plan. The site is developed with an ex existing 1700 1773 foot commercial building and parking area at the rear. Surrounding land uses include single family residential to the north, multif family residential properties to the east, and medical offices to the west and south across Ball Road. The applicant proposes to operate a senior living facility facility large, also classified as a residential care facility for the elderly to accommodate for up to 10 residents. The facility would provide 24-hour care and assistance with activities of daily living, including personal hygiene, dressing, meal preparation, and medication management. The project includes a 289 foot addition to create a shared common living area for the residents. Site improvements would include a new accessible path of travel connecting the building to the parking area located at the rear of the property. The reconfigured parking area would provide six on-site parking spaces and vehicle access maintained through the existing alley at the rear of the site. The image displayed on this site on this slide illustrates the existing commercial building highlighted in blue, the proposed addition which is

highlighted in green and the exterior path of travel highlighted in yellow. The images displayed on this slide illustrate the proposed exterior improvements on both the north and east elevations that include the addition and path of travel improvements. The application includes a variance request to provide fewer parking spaces than required by the zoning code. The senior living facility requires eight spaces and the proposed project and the project proposes only six parking spaces. The proposed senior living facility would accommodate up to 10 residents, none of whom would be permitted to drive or keep personal vehicles on site. During normal operations, a maximum of two staff vehicles would be present at any time. One parking space would be allocated for scheduled transportation services and three spaces would be available for visitors and service providers. Residents would not be permitted to drive or keep any vehicles on site. Staff believes that the proposed uh parking spaces would adequately accommodate the anticipated parking demand associated with the use. staff finds that the proposed senior living facility would be compatible with the surrounding residential and commercial uses and is not anticipated to result in any adverse impacts to the area. The requested conditional use permit and parking variant satisfy all required findings for approval. The project would provide needed housing and care for seniors within an existing commercial building. The requested parking variance is supported by the facility's operational operational characteristics which which demonstrate that sufficient on-site parking would be available without creating additional demand on surrounding streets or adjacent properties. For these reasons, staff supports the proposed project and recommends approval of the application. This concludes staff's presentation. The

applicant um is present and available to answer any questions as well. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anybody have questions? Yeah, thank you, Jose. Um, I believe the applicant um currently operates a couple other similar facilities. Is that correct that you're aware of? Yes. Yes. And speaking with the applicant, they do have other

Okay. did. I'm concerned about the parking. Um, and six spaces sounds like a lot, but you know, you've got two for employees. Uh, one that's kind of be half the time dedicated to a shuttle service or transportation services. Um, and then you're going to have miscellaneous services, food deliveries, and and what have you, medical, whatever. And so it's getting really crunch time. And um I'm assuming these the the residents are allowed to have visitors and my question is really um have you had an opportunity you're telling you're telling us that six spaces is adequate but based upon what on um experience with other facilities of this type? Did you go see the applicants other facilities? Um I I need something a little more than take your word for it. Understood. Yes. Yeah. So, as part of the the review of the application um the um with with the number of staffing that that's consistent. There is the the proposed space allocated for transportation services for anything off-site for the residents. Um, with respect to the visitors and the service providers, those are all be pres-scheduled. So, they have an ability to control the timeline in terms of visitors coming in on site, if they're providing whether it be medical or dental services on site, that's strictly coordinated with the management staff there. So, they're able to coordinate that in advance to make sure that there isn't

okay that influx. Very good. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to open the public hearing and invite the applicant forward.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Fasel Rajut. Uh I am a proud RCFE owner. I own several RCFs here in Southern California. Um and I'm here to answer any questions you might have. Oh yes. Oh, thank you so much. Um, so going back to the parking issue, so the two spots out of six will go to the employees. So there's four spots left for people, vendors who'd come in or pres-scheduled people. What about family visiting? You know, there's 10 beds. So if there's 10 residents, um, what about families coming to visit? Where would they park?

Yeah. Let me begin by saying this particular program, the RCFE program, um it's a non-medical program. So, we don't take care of residents that require medical attention. It's a board in care. Um reason why I bring that up is because there's not really much medical assistance that's needed. We don't have daily doctors coming in or uh medical professionals coming in. It's really a board in care where the residents uh are woken up every day. They're bathed. They're fed. our caregivers do a great job of doing that. So, there's not much traffic. But the other sad reality of this industry is that a lot of our seniors don't have visitors. That's not an excuse. Um, but as uh Jose mentioned earlier, we do a good job of managing uh families when they do come and visit the loved ones. Uh, so there's not an overcrowd of people coming and going. Um, but again, sad truth is they don't really have much family that come and visit. So, in our other facilities, parking has never been an issue. Um, and we don't plan to see any parking issues here either. Uh, most of our facilities are all six bed facilities, so it's a standard, you know, four bedroomedroom, two bath. Uh, even with the limited amount of spaces, we've never had any issues. I hope that answers the question.

So, the the parking spot designated for the shuttle. That would be a shuttle coming to pick them up to take them to a doctor's appointment. So, it's not going to be So, it could possibly be a overfilled parking spot. Correct.

Um, so the shuttle service, we don't really we've never required any shuttle service because again, it's we're non-medical. Uh if for any reason the residents do need to go to a hospital, um we we do call the non-emergency paramedic uh ahead of time to come pick them up. So that's where the I guess the handicap parking space would come in handy. Um two car spaces uh for employees uh and then there that leaves us with I think three or four. Um again, when it comes to family, we always have them call in and schedule a time when they want to come. So we would make sure that there's no laps or you know two three different families coming to visit at the same time. So that's kind of how we manage that space.

Okay. So you really might have four parking spaces really because the other one is designated for if they have a doctor's appointment and a service comes and picks them up. It's just for them to park, load them, and leave. Right. Yes. If need be. Yeah. A lot of times also we have if if we require medical staff to come into our facility, they can come to our facility which would not require them to leave our facility as well. Right. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much, sir. We appreciate your time. Anybody? No. Okay. No public speakers. So, um, no applicant rebuttals. I'm going to close the public hearing. And is there any discussion? I'll make the motion to approve. Oh, seconded. Very good discussion on the motion.

Oh, is that get my two cents in? I just want to thank you. Uh, what you're what you're doing is an out an excellent service. It's sorely needed. And I did see you online, so I know who you were when I walked in. Anyone else? Very good. Let's vote.

Seven yes votes. The motion carries. Thank you very much, sir. Congratulations. updates. We want give Jose a chance to get out.

He'll get out. I think um at our next meeting November 17th, uh we have our annual code update where we provide some changes and revisions to the zoning code from this previous year. We also have the Anaheim Hills Festival residential project. The OC Vibe parking deck a final site plan. We have an auto repair conditional use permit request for a Tesla auto repair deal uh location. And we have the environmental impact report for the OC Riverwalk project. On December 1st, uh we have a density modification request from a Windham hotel in the resort. We have the South Plaza final site plan for OC Vibe and we have a conditional use permit request for an indoor softball training facility. On December 15th, we will have another final site plan from OC Vibe. They're busy out there. Um, this one would be for the residential component of the project. Um, there's uh a couple more that we may have in December yet to be completed, but when they will where they are, we'll let you know. That's it.

Thank you very much. The 17th sounds very busy. We'll see you guys in two weeks. We're adjourned.