Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Melanie, can you please start the recording?

Recording in progress.

05:29 I'm calling the planning commission meeting of Thursday 04/02/2026 to order. Recording secretary could you please conduct the roll call.

Commissioner Pearson? Present. Commissioner Jeffs? Commissioner Jeffs is absent this evening. Commissioner Grossman?

Here.

Commissioner Delacusack?

Here.

Commissioner Batya?

Here.

Vice Chair Lynn is absent this evening. Chair Stark?

Here.

We have a quorum.

And now if we could please rise to the Pledge of Allegiance. Commissioner Batia will lead us.

Please place your right hand above your heart and repeat after me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right.

So now I'd like to open public comments for non agendized items. This would include speaking on any item not listed on tonight's agenda. Melanie, do we have any public comments on non agendized items?

If anyone on Zoom wishes to speak, now is the time to raise your hand. We'll take speakers in the chamber first. Chair Stark, we do not have any comments on non agendized items.

Okay, thank you. Director Fraide, do you have any introductions?

No introductions tonight, Chair.

Thank you. How about staff reports?

No staff reports.

All right. Do any of my fellow commissioners have any announcements or reports they would like to share? Okay. And Director Fraide, do we have any additions or deletions to our agenda?

None tonight. Doctor.

Excellent. Okay. So, first item is our consent calendar. Does anyone want to pull anything from the consent calendar? Okay. So, open public comments on this item. Are there any public comments, Melanie?

If anyone on Zoom wishes to speak, now is the time to raise your hand. We'll take speakers in the chamber first. Chair Stark, we do not have any public comments on this item.

I don't see any request to speak from the commission. Do I have a motion for this item?

Mr. Chairman so moved.

Second. Can you please set up the voting.

Atia, we're still waiting for your vote. Chair Stark, the minutes have passed with five present and Commissioner Jeffs and Vice Chair Lynn absent.

Okay, thank you. So I'd like to open the public hearing for Item two. Director Frady, please introduce the item.

Thank you, Chair. Item two is Tentative Track Map, Master Plan, and Park Plan for the 2,400 Barranca Residential Project located in Planning Area 36, Irvine Business Complex. Presenting tonight is senior planner Eric Martin joined by principal planner Chris Chung.

Thank you chair Stark. I'll go ahead and get started. And as director Freddy mentioned tonight I'll be presenting the 2400 Bronco residential project. That includes the proposal for a master plan, tentative track map, and park plan. That is being proposed tonight by the Irvine Community Land Trust.

I'll start with the project vicinity. The site is shown in yellow on this screen, and it is a 4.95 acre property located along the South side of Bronco Parkway, in between Von Carmen Avenue to the West and Millikan Avenue to the East. Adjacent land uses include the district shopping center to the north and east across Bronco Parkway within the city of Tustin, and there's also a mixture of office and light industrial uses that surround the site to the south and west. The project includes tentative tract map number 2025 Dash 164 which is shown on this slide and that that would subdivide the site into two numbered lots for residential development lot one would contain the townhome component and lot two would contain the affordable apartment component in total this mapping action would facilitate the residential development developed at a density of 60.88 dwelling units per acre The master plan proposes two twenty one total units made up of 150 affordable units, one manager's unit, and 70 townhomes. As shown on the site plan here, the eastern portion of the site along Gates Avenue would include the five level wrap style apartment building providing 151 units with structured parking and resident amenities.

The western portion of the site would include 70 for sale townhomes arranged in eleven three story row style buildings. Here are renderings depicting the proposed exterior design with the apartments on the left and the townhomes on the right. The project features a contemporary architectural style with varied materials and articulated building forms across both the apartment and townhome components. Overall, design elements, excuse me, create a cohesive project design and help break up the building massing along both Barranco Parkway as well as throughout the site. The project also includes a park plan which describes both the community and neighborhood park obligations for the project the required community park obligation would be satisfied through an in lieu fee of approximately $2,430,000 while the neighborhood park obligation would be satisfied through a combination of on-site land as shown on this plan, as well as through improvements and an additional in lieu fee of approximately $990,000 A key component of the project is its affordable housing program which provides enhanced affordability by dedicating the entire apartment building to affordable units that would be deed restricted in perpetuity.

In total that building would provide 150 affordable apartment units with affordability levels ranging from extremely low to lower income households as shown on this table this level of affordability and specifically by reserving at least 23 units for very low income households also allows the project to utilize state density bonus law. Under state density bonus law the applicant is requesting concessions and waivers shown on this slide. In terms of concessions these include the participation in the IBC residential incentive program as well as exemption from the requirements for public art and also for shared access to common open spaces. The applicant is also requesting a total of 18 waivers providing relief from various development standards that are in the zoning ordinance, as well as the municipal code, the parks manual, and objective design standards manual. Because these requested concessions and waivers meet the standards of state density bonus law in that they would not create an impact to health or safety, the city is required to grant them.

The project has been reviewed by the relevant advisory bodies on 03/11/2026 the subdivision committee recommended approval of the tentative tract map number 2025 Dash 164 and prior to that on March 4 the community and library services commission recommended approval of the park plan in terms of environmental review the project qualifies for a sequel exemption under section one five one eight three because it was evaluated evaluated excuse me within the scope of the general plan eir a consistency analysis concluded that there are no project specific impacts beyond those that have already been analyzed and applicable mitigation measures from the general plan EIR have been incorporated into the project. Notice of tonight's hearing was mailed, published, and posted in accordance with city requirements and no public comments have been received thus far. Based on staff's review and with approval of the requested concessions and waivers under state density bonus law, the proposed project is consistent with the general plan as well as the urban zoning ordinance, the municipal code, and applicable city standards. With that, staff recommends that the planning commission adopt the resolutions approving the tentative track map, master plan, and park plan for the February project.

This concludes staff's presentation. We are available for any questions. Actually, me, excuse me. I will transition now to Irvine Community Land Trust. They are going to be providing their own short presentation as well.

Okay. Thank you.

Prior to that, I do want to mention one thing, excuse me. There was an errata provided to you at the dais today, and it was with regards to the residential incentive program. With that, I'll go ahead and transition to the applicants.

Test, test. There we go. You can definitely hear me. Yes. Good evening Chair Stark, members of the Planning Commission. I'm Tim Straighter with Star Point Ventures, consultant to Irvine Community Land Trust, the property owner. Some of you are probably familiar with ICLT. They were formed by the city of Irvine twenty years ago as a nonprofit organization to produce and preserve affordable housing in Irvine. They became an independent entity in 2017 and are again tasked with providing affordable housing in Irvine, which is why we're here tonight. First, I'd like to thank staff for all their work on this project.

It's been a long process. We've gone through months and months of analysis and traffic analysis, back and forth on the affordable housing plan and the CEQA. And we're happy to say that tonight we're comfortable with everything and accept the conditions and urge your approval. Just to introduce the players a little bit, Irvine Community Land Trust has partnered with USA Properties Fund on this project. Mike Allen of USA is going to give a very brief introduction of his firm.

And then Doctor Horton will be doing the townhomes. And Parker George will also give a very brief introduction on his firm. This project will provide some of the deepest affordability ever done in Irvine Business Complex, containing a mix of extremely low, very low, and low. As you know, the zoning code only requires very low, low, and moderate. And this project is going all the way down to the extremely low category.

The beauty of it though is if you look at the rendering, people who are going to drive by on Barranca will never know this is an affordable housing project. It fits right in with the community and is very similar to other market rate apartments in the IBC. Mike will go into a little more detail should you desire on rents, but just very briefly, based on the current affordable methodology, extremely low one bedroom units will cost $952 a month, very low at $15.86 dollars and low at $19.00 $4 Just as a frame of reference, I have a 28 year old son who just leased a market rate apartment on Main Street and he's paying $3,400 a month for one bedroom unit. So, it'd be nice if he could get a $900 unit, but probably not going to happen. So, our entire team is here.

There's 13 of us. We've got you outnumbered more than two to one. Should you have any questions, we're all here to answer them. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Right, Tim might be hard to follow but I'll try my best. Mike Allen, USA Properties, I'm the development manager for this project and we are very excited to be here. We love affordable housing, we love what we do, we love real estate and it's an honor to be able to present this project to you. So USA Properties just a really brief background. We started about forty five years ago and we've been very busy since then.

We've accumulated and built over 19,000 apartment units. Most of those are affordable and there's a span over 90 and counting multifamily communities. Hopefully this will be 91. We're in three states currently California, Nevada, and Oregon. And one of the unique things is we are all under one roof.

So acquisitions and development, of course, is the team I'm on. We entitle the projects and then send them over to our in house construction team who builds them and then we hand it over to our in house property management team who manages and leases the projects. So we're very interested in how these units are designed because we're going to have to manage them. So over the past forty five years we feel like we've gotten really good at design and function and making great communities. The map on the right shows our presence in Southern California.

Just to give you some context, we've got 19 projects in the surrounding community, LA and Orange County. The yellow dot represents Irvine the one we're proposing tonight and number 16 which is kind of hidden behind the yellow dot is the Orion which is under construction right now right up the street in Tustin so we're happy to be able to propose another project here. Eric already showed this one, so I won't spend hardly any time on here. This is the AMI levels of our units and we can go into that more detail if anybody has questions on it. But you can see the different AMI levels 30% up to 70% of area median income.

And this is the one that I'm I like this slide because a lot of people don't know this. So USA Properties again we mostly do affordable housing and we also are very interested in helping our tenants kind of level up. So sometimes we need some help from time to time and our tenants move into our brand new units so we give them the same opportunities that you know maybe they wouldn't have otherwise. Addition to that, we partner with a company called Lifesteps. So, they come in and they assess the new projects and they provide all these services that you see here, including eviction prevention, financial training, financial literacy, after school programs for kiddos from three to six p.

M. All kinds of stuff. And we provide this 100% free for all our tenants. So, I'm really proud of that. It's one of the reasons I work at affordable housing, I'm sorry, at USA Properties, because we really try to help people. Very proud to be partnered with LifeSteps. And that's it.

Easy peasy. I think Parker.

Thank you. Thank you.

This is oh it is still on good evening mr. Chair and members of the planning commission very thankful for the opportunity to be here tonight My name is Parker Torich, project manager with D. R. Horton. Founded back in 1978, D.

R. Horton has grown to be one of the nation's leading homebuilders, delivering quality sites throughout multiple communities throughout the country. We're very happy to be here today to do the same within your city. We appreciate the opportunity to present the townhome portion at the project at 2400 Barranco. I was planning on going through multiple different items within the master plan, but city staff has already done an excellent job at doing that. So I will leave that for any questions or anything else. We respectfully request your support and are happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. So I'm going to open public comments on this item. Do we have any public comments?

If anyone on Zoom wishes to speak, now is the time to raise your hand. We'll take speakers in the chamber first. Chair Stark, we do not have any public comments on this item.

Thank you. I'll go ahead and close the public hearing then. If my fellow commissioners have questions, could they please press their Request to Speak button? And we'll get started. Oh, actually, we can't see the button. It's a good way to shorten the meeting time. I guess we just yeah, would someone like to make a comment? Think I saw you trying to push the button. Commissioner Bhatia?

Yeah, no. Thank you very much for that. Thank you city staff, and thank you for the applicant on the presentation. So I had some questions here. You know, I first and foremost apply the affordability aspect of this project at this magnitude given the number of units. I think that's pretty paramount for IBC. I had some questions. I know we came up with the errata. And the errata addressed some of the DIBs. For example, forfeiture of the DIBs, is that simply if affordable units are not constructed in a timely manner or constructed at all? Are there any other sort of parameters to forfeit the DIBs?

Correct. The affordable units need to remain constructed on-site and applicant has to make progress towards that application in order to be eligible under the residential incentive program.

Okay. So it has to meet the affordability guidelines and be constructed in order to kick in the dips, right? The phrase or I saw the two words diligently pursued for the permits. What does that essentially mean? Is there a timeline for these permits for them to be diligently pursued? What is that?

So their entitlement would expire within three years. But for them to diligently pursue their building permit, usually we want to see activity on that. So they need to be resubmitting, communicating with the planning staff and building team as they go. But there needs to be activity essentially on the building permit.

Okay. Okay. Good. And the Quimby fees, I see there's a 3,420,000 in lieu fees that goes towards exactly what I'd like to know

quimby fees collected on projects are deposited into an account held by the city and the city council decides how those are spent.

Excellent. And do we have a grand total of what funds we have already in the pipeline? Or is that a city question? Or would you guys happen to have that information?

Administrative services keeps those totals, but we can obtain those. Yes.

Got it. Okay. And again, those quimby fees, they work towards what is it landscape or parks? Or what are we looking at here for this project? Are they just thrown into funds? Or is there any plans develop something down the road?

They would be allotted for capital improvement projects and those specifically that are geared towards recreational improvements.

Okay. I have no questions I probably will piggyback off the capital improvement project later. Commissioner Pearson.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I appreciate Eric the presentation and the presentation by the applicant. I' ve got one basic I' got a couple of questions but the townhome project is at market rate, correct?

That's correct.

Okay. So the affordable portion is the wrapped apartments.

That's correct,

yes. And obviously, it takes the market rate sales to allow this project to pencil out.

I would defer to the applicant on that one, I'm

trying to understand what maybe the applicant knows. Right now, on the townhomes, what is the demographic profile that they're trying to shoot for?

You

made it up.

I'm Dan Boyd, Vice President of D. R. Horton. It's a pleasure to be speaking in front of you and responding to your questions. What we always answer with that question is we always chase the market. There's no reason for us not to chase the market. So, what that means simply is we'll be pricing these units to come within markets so that we can be successful and move the projects forward. And obviously to say these are first time homebuying units may not be accurate. They could be a move up or move down. They obviously are attracted to get renters the younger generation if you will, into homeownership and that's our primary objective is to get homeownership throughout California that's what we're all trying to do.

So, the answer basically is we follow that market. What exact numbers does that mean? Well, we don't have those exact numbers because we don't have all the cost yet. But bottom line is we can't exceed the market. So, for example, if it's a $400,000 marketplace, we'll be pushing that 400,000. If it's more great we push that but we don't have the ability to raise market prices based on today's economy. With today's interest rates today's cost labor material those are all constraints on what we can do as a builder.

I understand where you're coming from. My question, though, is if you're in the pardon me. My question relates to the user, the buyer of the townhome, the age brackets that they fall in, and the necessity to have adequate parks in the complex. And I understand, I see what you've done, And I'm concerned that I don't believe that the park is enough for a mid startup family that may have one or two children. That would be my concern.

I understand that you're capable of waiving and capable of not utilizing or transferring the economics in a fee. But it bothers me that I don't think we've got enough parkland there. Obviously, you've done the studies. And the design reflects what you think you're going to need. Marketing wise is this going to be a detriment to your progress in sales?

No we don' believe so and you raise a great question I appreciate that. One of the things is we have to create a balance of affordability, homeowner association dues, level amenities. We look at the general proximity of location in itself. And of course, we look at your standards and guidelines that follow. Frankly speaking we're all blessed to have a lot of amenities in the city of Irvine public as well as the ocean and so on and so forth.

What we don't want to do is overburden that homeowner that's striving to make that mortgage payment with an unnecessary high level of maintenance. So we do strike a balance and frankly speaking we look at the not necessarily the first time homebuyer in this marketplace but certainly the next move up. And they have kids and so they can make that decision as to whether or not there is ample recreation amenities we feel there are and we have a long history of analyzing what is enough versus what is too much. We always try and strike that balance. We feel very confident in the example before you tonight that we' achieved that balance with this project.

I appreciate that I' very familiar with the r Horton and you' the ones that are going to have to sell it. That' absolutely correct. I believe your marketing efforts and demographic studies represent really a good project. Thank you very much. You' welcome.

First

of all thank you as always to staff for an excellent presentation and overview and to the applicants. I' very excited to see this project and I' excited to see all of you here today. This is the type of project that I' looking for I' been excited to see. We often at this stage have been approving developments and often they are at market rate and that' needed in this marketplace as well but the ability to address the affordability issue and to do it in a way that is architecturally and aesthetically as pleasing as you have been able to put together is a remarkable achievement and I acknowledge that and I truly appreciate the work that you and your team have done to make this happen and I wish it every success the world. Only question and it' more from my as an education, two questions one is just to clear it with staff I' read in the report that a transportation study and a traffic study is done I would just like you to affirm because I like transparency we feel that the adjacent streets and all of that will be comfortable in handling the additional passenger traffic.

Yes, that's correct. The traffic study did conclude that there would not be significant impacts past what was already analyzed in the general planning EIR.

Good. I knew it was in there. Always like to make sure that we reference that the due diligence has absolutely been done. More from my own education I would love to hear from the team of the urban community land trust about how this project was able to achieve the levels of affordability you've done and some of the challenges that you faced in order to make that happen. Would like to briefly share a little bit the work that you've done to make this happen.

Hi, thanks for your time and your question. I'm Leon Thomas, Vice President of Acquisitions at USA Properties Fund.

And I'm Billy Hughes, Executive Director of Irvine Community Land Trust. So how this project came to be was USA brought it to us as an opportunity. We saw that there was excess land underutilized in the IBC. And frankly, we put together a project that needed to be separated. And I think one of you referenced that, that the ability to go so low on our affordability really is hinged on being able to sell the other half of the property.

And we partnered up with D. R. Horton, who are, as you've seen, will deliver very impressive product and then that allows us economically to build our side. And Leanne ran all the numbers.

At USA Properties Fund our number one thing we look at is how do we build affordable housing using the tax credit program, how do we score, and how do we ensure we could build quickly. You know, the market dynamics can change and so our goal here is to move as quick as possible so the location of the building is intended so that we hit the trailhead points of the bike trail down the way intended to get the grocery points you know it was specifically chosen so that when we go to the state where a top scoring project they have three rounds a year and we've also lowered the AMI levels purposefully to be a top scoring project so the economics of the deal were a big part but also how do we remain competitive We compete with all coastal cities throughout the state. So when we teed it up, that was one of the big drivers, and also getting as many units to be efficient on our economies of scale.

Thank you. That's I appreciate it. I'm always sort of amazed at how many factors go into making this happen, the collaboration between the city staff and all of you to make that happen. Thank you. I'm really excited to see this project and good luck with everything.

Commissioner Duske.

Thank you staff, thank you for the applicant for being here today. I'm excited to review this project. I drove by the site over the weekend a couple times. I was doing my errands, I was like, yeah, I still remember that light industrial building there, and I saw it's fenced off, and organizations starting to make those plans come to light. I do have a few questions.

I'm glad to see that being decided less than five acres, you're able to make this happen and pencil it out. I think it's important to have the affordable housing so people could be near their jobs and their schools, I can't think of a better place in the IBC than this place, and being affordable housing to give that people the opportunity to have a dignified life I think that is good to be good neighbors and good residents here in the city of Irvine so kudos for the balance to making that happen My question is, thank you from D. R. Horton to bring up that point about trying to balance those costs because I know sometimes, as a home buyer myself, when I was looking for several years, got to put those numbers in the budget like the HOAs, your maintenance and your utilities and all that. That being said I'd like to know would there since this market is market rate houses are going be any Mello Roos CFDs attached to this?

Hello, Commissioner Delacuszak. First off, want to apologize for the shakiness earlier. I was super excited to be here tonight. Great question because that is part of the cost offset. That's something you need to include in your budget. There is going to be a likely CFD for this project for the 70 market rate townhomes. That being said though we're still working on analysis about formation. Fortunately for this site the tax rate is still extremely low compared to a lot of the other ones that we do work on within different communities. So we're happy to announce that.

All right, definitely. And then the schools, maybe that's for anybody up here. Do you know what school district is? Because I know the IBC is kind of different ones in play.

Yeah. So in this case, this is located in a Tustin Unified School District.

Okay. A good to hear that. And one of my last questions is, what is like the timeline? Because I know housing is always in the news. Like probably a couple of days ago, read an article about housing in Irvine and trying to meet our goals. How soon can we, yeah, can make this happen?

I think next Friday, does that work for you? Yes,

just don't take a break.

No, the, are planning on starting CDs, construction documents shortly after this hearing. Hopefully it goes well. And then we would start construction May '27 is the current schedule. For the apartments. Oh, the apartments. Okay. So yeah, kind of go on different tracks now. And then Parker's team would do their own. So I'm not sure when you guys would start.

We're tracking the same timelines, the way we've partnered with Irvine Community Land Trust with Billy Hughes right behind us. They will be in charge of doing all the improvements. We will be coming in at a certain time when that is completed. So we'll be ready to go as soon as that is ready. Excellent.

Thank you very much. Of course.

Thank you.

I have no further questions. I hope to see more from the Irvine Community Land Trust and hopefully more products like this with these great partnerships. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Yeah, I think this is a great project. Brings a lot of extremely low, very low, and low income units to Irvine, which we're always lacking on our reports. So that's well worth it. I have a question. Eric, since this is split into two lots, is the density of the 60.88 different for those two lots?

In terms of our review, we do analyze based on the 60.88 dwelling units per acre. But if we were to look at it separately, it would be a difference in the dwelling units per acre based on the two lots. Okay.

60 is good because usually it's a lot lower. The other question I had, I guess, would the company that helps people move up to market rate rents, do we know a percentage of people that move up to market rate from affordable that work with that company? Like, I'm just wondering how successful they are.

LEON THOMAS USA Properties Fund. We don't have an exact percentage we have been doing this for a long time and we do retain ownership of most all of our affordable projects as well as property manage them. We do see some long term renters in a lot of our community and especially in our senior communities we're seeing them struggle to keep up with market rents and increases but social security is not keeping up and so the way the affordable housing rents increase is in a five year look back. So it's always lagging the market. So right now we're doing an average of 2020 to 2025 rent growth.

Back in 2020 rents kind of spiked once everybody was trying to find their own place during COVID. And so what we're seeing is kind of affordable housing rents spiking while market rents for rental product is kind of flattening. And so we're trying to keep our residents at a level where it's still affordable, but the rent growth through the tax credit program is higher than market. And so while their rents can be 20%, 30%, 40% below market, they're still growing monthly. So that's been a challenge and that's why we have longevity in our units.

But partnering with LifeSteps really helps people who are trying to get to that next level. So with our resume building classes and our after school programs and you know we're trying to get the whole family to be able to move out of our units and go to homeownership or into a market rate unit so we're very supportive of that we offer the services to all residents And you know we're happy to have them if they would like to stay.

That's great that you offer LifeSteps to help the residents.

Yeah and LifeSteps is really great too because our number one concern in our tenant program is food insecurity. When you pay so much for rent, just don't have that much left for food. And so LifeSteps will partner with the local food bank. And we have a large refrigerator and a pantry in all of our amenity space for LifeSteps to provide fresh food and pantry staples and so if our residents are facing food insecurity they can go down talk to the manager and access those. It's just really USA does a great job partnering with them to make those type of things happen and ensure food insecurity is not on the top of their mind.

That's a wonderful thing to think about. Thank you. That's all for me. Commissioner Batya, you had it. Thank

you, Chair Stark. I had a question for the applicant, could be Mr. Strader. It's regarding so I know we have multiple waivers for the open space and landscaping but is there any possibility for more amenities like rooftop or pocket parks within this community I just want to know because is this the minimum standards or are we getting the bare bones and we can excel from that?

I'll let Mike address that. It was a collaboration with staff on all of that, but go ahead.

Thank you. Mean rooftop amenities are amazing. In a perfect world we would provide rooftop everything, But it's a fine balance of getting this product to pencil and providing amenities that we know our tenants will use. So in the affordable side, based on staff's recommendation in the city of Irvine, we put in a pool. We usually don't do pools, so that's a little bit of a unique thing for us.

And so we squeezed in the pool. Are you able to put up the map part? I'm visual so it's easier to see it but the pool and then we have a tot lot area for smaller children we've got an indoor fitness center we've got an indoor leasing area we've got an indoor club room so we also include the indoor amenities as part of our kind of overall package, not just the exterior. So we think it works really well. And you know the pool deck, you know we had to do a waiver to get the, we had to make this all kind of fit.

And Mark from MJS landscape, they did a great job making all this fit into one. I mean I think we fit everything we possibly could fit in this site and still have it be functional and safe and up to code and you know all that good stuff. Hopefully that answers your question.

Yeah, no, appreciate that. I just wanted to get a little more insight about the amenities there.

No, it's always, you know, we try to get as much possible and still have it be feasible.

Absolutely. Thank you for that. This could be a question. The next one I have, thank you for city staff about the urban tree canopy goals that we have. Does this project align with that in any way? Or do we foresee future projects that we have, lot of them being infill or conversion projects, sort of working in tangent with the canopy, the trees and the urban forestation?

I can take that. A lot of the urban forest master plan touches on public spaces. It doesn't really impact private properties. So we wouldn't expect projects like this to impact that plan.

Okay. So it really they're not connected, basically. Okay. Since that we have two twenty units, I heard someone mention in terms of getting our affordability, had to look at how close we are to the grocery store. I want to know Diamond Jamboree is probably one of the biggest shopping centers and I'd like to know where we are in terms of the parking structure so we can accommodate for future residents for a project like this. Is that something that you, Eric, or maybe Stephanie would have information on? Where we are in terms of the structure for Diamond Chambery? Know that was approved last year.

If you are talking about kind of the phase three at Diamond Jamboree, last we met with the applicant of that project, it is on hold right now. So there are no immediate plans to build that, but the applicant does have active approvals if they do become ready to move forward.

Okay. So it's on hold right now. Okay. I only bring that up because we have so many projects with non residents like James Senior Living Towers and I just want to know where they're going to go shopping. That's good to know.

Lastly, I'm piggybacking off of the capital improvement projects one being like a sidewalk improvement project that we have for IBC and the reason I bring that up and I tie it with this project is it's building new sidewalks and I'd like to know sort of the walkability and quality of life for residents of IBC. And I guess this may not be a question but I'm just pivoting to in general speaking on behalf of IBC residents who don't exist yet but they will. You know we have a lot of folks at the Great Park they come forward and congregate when it comes to specific issues here we just want to make sure we have a proper build out with all these infills and all these conversion projects to make sure there's enough shade, canopy, walkability and especially with the sidewalk program. If I could humbly request for I know I was I think I emailed earlier about maybe a public works individual to come here to speak on that behalf because it ties in with projects like this But if we can have a subsequent perhaps meeting with somebody sort of akin to what Steve Shirley did with the Great Park and give us an update on the sidewalk project for the improvement, I would love that from the city staff.

We can look into that.

Okay. I appreciate that. No further questions from my end. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other? Mr. Pierson? Thank

you, Chairman. Eric, we're being asked to approve a tentative track map. And the definition that I've been looking for, I cannot see the outline of the respective two parcels that we're dividing the one parcel. Do you have a graphic that you could show, or at least describe?

Thank you, Commissioner Pearson. I do not have a graphic. We can go to the detended tract map slide and see if we can describe. So I would say the property line begins for, guess the divider for the property line begins at that initial intersection or driveway on Barranca. And that's where the property line begins and then it goes up into the midpoint of the pool or at the end of the pool and then it kind of intersects easterly and then south again, and then back out to the driveway along Hale Avenue.

So we've got two parcels. We're sharing drive entries and access points through from Branca to Hail, what is The two parcels, will they be owned in fee by two different entities?

I can defer to the applicant on that one. We do have a condition of approval related to shared access agreements. So that would be evaluated at that time. But the applicant can also respond to your question.

Yes, they will be owned by two separate entities.

So Doctor Horton would end up with one of

the parcels, then you would end up? ICLT will retain the other.

With the second one. Okay. And there is going to be reciprocal or shared agreement between the two property owners?

There would be. Commissioner Pearson, if I can, I can kind of show you with the mouse if you see it here on your screen? And we can sort of outline the property line for you here. So it goes south here. And then about right here, it goes easterly. Sorry, right here. And then comes back down south, and then exits along Hale Avenue there.

And the park for the townhomes is within that parcel? Within the townhome parcel. That is correct.

This plan here roughly shows where that would be split, and the property line would split along that line there.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You'll be welcome.

Anyone else? Okay. Well, since all commissioner comments have been received, I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Chairman do you want three motions or one motion?

I would just like one motion for the item please.

Then I would make the motion to adopt resolution number 2067, the tentative track mac. I would make a recommendation or adopt resolution 2068, approving the master plan, and adopt resolution twenty six-four thousand and sixty nine, approving the park plan.

Thank you. I have a comment from the recording secretary. Sorry. Any errata?

For clarification, is that with or without the errata?

With the errata.

With the errata.

Does your motion include the

Including the errata.

Thank you.

Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Will we please set up the voting?

The motion to adopt the three resolutions with The Arata has passed, with the five present and Commissioner Jeffs and Vice Chair Lynn absent.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So now we can move on to item three. I'll open the public hearing for it. And Director Fraide, could you please introduce the item?

Thank you, Chair. The next item is conditional use permit modification to construct an expanded child care center, including administrative relief from child care center and parking standards located at 1800182 Culver Drive in Planning Area 20, University Park. Presenting tonight is senior planner sherman jones joined by principal planner ann woo.

Good evening chair historic and members of the planning commission. Light of christ church is requesting a conditional use permit modification to construct a new approximately 6,400 square foot building to allow an expansion of its existing childcare operations. The light of christ church campus is located on the Northeast corner of Covert Drive and Sandberg Way approximately 800 feet south of Michaelson Drive the church campus is currently approved with a sanctuary child care center multipurpose building and a storage building. The church property has a general plan designation of education and zoning of 6.1 institutional. Land uses to the North or the university park retail center there' also residential to the East and south and across Covert Drive to the West is the racket club of irvine.

The applicant is proposing to increase its current child care capacity from 55 children to 100 children by constructing the new child care center building with an outdoor play area the child care center would include five classrooms the age range would be from two to five year olds staffing for the center would include one director five teachers and five teacher aides. The proposed hours of operation would also be expanded from what was previously approved to 8AM to 5PM Monday through Friday the remainder of the church campus is open from nine a. M. To five p. M.

For office and support uses. The child care center will also include four adult classrooms that may be used only on Sundays by the church. The existing child care center operates out of the building shown circled in red. The condition use permit modification would allow construction of a new building and outdoor play area that shown in green. The new child care center building is a one story building approximately 21 feet in height it will be constructed of materials and colors to match the other existing buildings on the church campus.

Child care centers five classrooms range in size from seven thirty five square feet to seven sixty four square feet in size and will accommodate up to 20 children per classroom and two staff members per room. The zoning ordinance and the state department of social services identify as required interior improvements for child care centers as shown on the screen the proposed project satisfied all five of the indoor requirements by providing indoor space activity of 37 square feet per child water sinks drinking fountain bubblers separate restrooms for adults and children and isolation room for ill children. The zoning ordinance also identifies outdoor requirements for child care centers as shown on the screen based on a maximum number of 20 toddlers the applicant is required to provide 1,500 square feet of outdoor play area as designed the child care center will include a play area of 2,964 square feet which equates to about 148 square feet per child which is in excess of the minimum requirement based on the maximum of 80 preschool age children that's the three to five year old the applicant is required to provide 6,000 square feet of outdoor play area however the applicant is only able to provide 5,344 square feet or about 67 square feet per child in order to remedy the deficit the applicant will be requesting administrative relief for the outdoor play area for the preschool age children additionally the plans for a mix of pavement and fall surfaces but not the required grass the applicant is also requesting administrative relief from the surface materials requirement.

Overall the proposed child care center satisfies five of the seven outdoor requirements. The applicant is proposing a staggered schedule so no more than 40 preschool age children would be at the playground at any given time with this schedule the ratio exceeds the state minimum of 75 square feet per child by providing 133 square feet per child for the surface material the applicant is requesting not to install grass because of safety and maintenance concerns the applicant contains the natural grass on its own does not provide the necessary shock absorption needed for falls Staff supports the request for administrative leave from the child care center standards however the department of social services would license the center and they would decide whether or not the flexibility for the outdoor play area and the selection of surface materials is warranted. As part of the conditional use permit modification the applicant conducted a parking study and found that there is a weekday demand of 14 spaces during the week and 44 spaces on Sundays which equates to 58 spaces for the existing uses. If this project is approved the weekday demand would increase from 14 spaces to 31 spaces and the Sunday demand would remain unchanged.

There will be a maximum demand of 75 spaces for the project site. Will be 139 spaces after the project is constructed so there will be more than adequate parking available to support the new child care center. As you can see on the screen there was a traffic study that was conducted and concluded that the project can be implemented without impacting design or operations of surrounding roadway systems. The project is exempt from c grow per class 32 which is an infill development the project was noticed and posted and we did receive a phone call earlier today from a resident that just wanted some additional details about the project. Staff recommends the planning commission adopt resolution 20 six-four 66 that concludes staff's presentation staff and the applicant are available for any questions that you might have thank you

thank you for the presentation is the applicant present would they like to make any comments?

Thank you chair. Good evening my name is mark seekman I am the trustee and the building committee chair for light of christ lutheran church. First I want to thank Sherman Jones and the Irvine planners and staff for all of their hard work over the years of us going through the CUP process just really appreciate that. And second, want to thank you, the Planning Commission, for reviewing our project. If given the opportunity to expand our facility, we at light of Christ Lutheran Church and Preschool really look forward to serving more families in our Irvine community. Thank you.

Thank you. I'd like to open public comments on this item. Are there any public comments on this item?

If anyone on Zoom wishes to speak, now is the time to raise your hand. We'll take speakers in the chamber first. Chair Stark, we do have one speaker today in the chamber. That is Dawn Miller.

Hi, I I'm Dawn live probably 200 feet from the proposed site of this, and I was just notified. I got a letter in the mail recently, and I was quite shocked. I was reading the study today and going over all the 168 pages of it, and it says it would not adversely affect the area, and I completely disagree. There's a small left turn lane from Culver to go on to Sandburg Way and only holds about four or five cars. If we're going to double the amount of people, that's going to have a huge impact there.

Cars are already backing up onto Culver trying to make a left turn there, and they're not able to. I've seen many cars go around as they're come as they're on Sandburg. They they've they've come from Culver and they're on Sandburg, and people are trying to get into the church parking lot. I've seen people go around on the right consistently coming near fatal accidents many times. My level of services will be definitely decreased if this goes through. The hours of operation have increased. Now there's going to be people picking up kids at 05:00 instead of 03:30. How's it's been since I've lived in that house for fifteen years? Are late pickups gonna be allowed? Are people gonna be coming at five or 06:00?

Is there gonna be all kinds of extra noise from the extra children? Because like I said, my my kitchen window looks right up to where the construction will be taking place. Your traffic study is from 02/2023, so I noticed it was six years, three years old. And it says that there's acceptable levels of service on the existing conditions. Now, conditions are going to change.

So, was that information taken into account on this traffic survey? I went proposing a secondary exit from this proposed school addition if it goes through. Right now there's only one way in, and that's on Sandberg, directly in front of my home. Can we have another exit from the facility directly on to Culver Avenue, Closer to where the University Park, I don't know that building, I don't know that shopping center is located. So, that would help to ease the traffic that's constantly going on to Sandburg Way. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Any Zoom comments?

This concludes public comments.

Okay. Well, then I would like to close the public hearing. And I guess we can start Arnes, you want start on your end for comments? Would you like to make any comments? Questions?

What is staff's response to the traffic concerns

good evening chair stark and members of the funding commission my name is san san twitin mario I'm manager transportation planning and community development for this project a traffic study a comprehensive traffic study was prepared that evaluated the increase in trips to and from the site resulting from the increase in students that will are proposed as part of the day care project. The different study years that were included were short term, which is five years out, twenty years out, and build out conditions. And that project, using our adopted traffic study performance criteria, identified that there were no project impacts for which this project is responsible for providing improvements. The findings of the traffic study identified that there was enough capacity on the roadways adjacent to the project to handle the increase in trips caused by the increase in number of students, and the traffic study was prepared in 2025.

Don't have any yet.

I'll probably follow-up. Thanks. Commissioner Grossman.

Thank you, Mr. Senifer, excuse me, for following up on that. In a previous life I served on a child care committee and the number of child care spaces in our community is woefully underserved and more child care spaces are desperately needed. And I applaud the church for stepping up and working on making this happen because as we just had a presentation on housing and the cost of affordable housing everyone has to work we often have to income all members of the household having to work in child care is a tremendous burden and need in our community. On that level thank you for your efforts here.

My question is to the applicant related to the waiver related to the surface can you explain a little bit more and ultimately this will be by the state social services but can you explain a little bit more as to why you think this is a challenge that you need to wait for?

As we are looking at the grass inside that facility trying to maintain it also with the reclaimed water and things that are already that would be needed for that So for maintenance it was an issue and also for the fall risk ground can get very hard and so that's why we're doing the rubberized surface which would then be a better surface for the children to fall upon.

There' s another authority that will opine upon that. Can you speak a little bit more to staggering of scheduling and how we can make sure that we ensure that the spirit of space requirements that are being met just can you explain a little bit more about your process on that

Currently how our drop off and pick up procedures take place is that basically people can bring their parents can bring their child to our preschool between eight and 09:00 so there is plenty of time there's not a single queue that happens it's just kind of a more fluid and then through on pickup time can be any time there are sometimes they are picked up prior to nap time or at one when the studies like they have some curriculum that they do in the morning but then those pickup times go anywhere from one to five so it is staggered through the whole afternoon as far as when those pickup times are.

Thank you that an explanation that wasn' what I was asking. With the outdoor play area you' asking for administrative relief request the gap is not a very large gap obviously you' got about 600 square feet out of 1,000 so you' only 10% off and I understand the request for admission but can you just for the comfort of us as commission members can you explain the staggered place schedule that you' planning to make sure the safety and health and well-being of the children?

Each teacher would release their children to the playground at separate times so they will be where some would be inside for instruction or any kind of indoor play and then the other groups would be outside. So it would stagger throughout the day times of when they would be out there in the playground.

Is that something that when as it goes and maybe staff can help me out on this as it goes to the next administrative review you will outline that specific schedule and they will be the ones responsible for monitoring that type of stagger schedule happens is that the way that works? M just not familiar.

I do want to add that we do have a condition of approval on this staggered schedule so they would have to comply with that obviously it goes with the department of social services but also with the the condition of approval shows that they have at no time can exceed what the staggered schedule is from what you see in front of you If they do want to modify that they' have to come back to the city for a modification with the community development department.

Just to clarify then they' subject because of this condition to our own compliance if there were reports that this was not being followed we would follow-up in our own compliance Understood.

Good evening. I'm Saria Syed with Rangolin Company architects. We are the architects for the project. And we did submit a staggered play time for different classes. So, the city should have that. The staggered play time

for Yeah, yeah. Yes, you did.

We've already submitted that

Yes.

To the city.

Right.

So, it should not be a problem.

No, I, I, does require the condition and the administrative relief request, and I just was looking for a little bit more clarification on how that would happen. So, but thank you. I appreciate that. I have no further questions.

Okay, thank you. Commissioner Pearson.

Thank you very much. I'd like to compliment staff Sherman on a good presentation and good backup. This is something that we have requested child care centers to come before us because it makes us aware as planning commissioners really what's going on on the conditional use permits that we are approving, or it' approved by a different body within the city and we' requested it to come to us. As commissioner grossman said, we are extremely deficient on child care in this city. I understand the problems of increasing from 50 to 100 participants in this program.

But based upon the staggering that I have understood and the delivery and the pickup, the intersections and the traffic issues is not as great as one would expect, even though it is a single entry point off of a single intersection. I do feel for anybody that lives in the area that may have an impact from this, but I think the overall benefit to the city is definitely allowing a child care center to expand and to service the city residents. I've gone through the conditions of approval, and they seem extremely adequate. DSS really controls the ability to license the facility. They will look at all the different elements that are being provided, And I believe that accepting or eliminating the grass is not as objectionable you know, as for such a small area as some may imagine.

But anyway, I'm very favorable and would like this project to proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIRMAN Thank you. I would just like to say I would also like it to proceed. I do know we have a shortage of childcare. And I do understand the concern and frustration with what could be more traffic on your street. I know there are lot of areas of the city that at certain times of the day there is more traffic than we would want. But I don't think we could overengineer the streets and never have traffic. This is a service the community needs. It's necessary for the community to grow. So I do support this. That's all I have. I don't really have any questions. Do any other commissioners have

a Commissioner Batya? No, I concur. Thank you, Chair Stark. I concur with everybody here that, you know outline that we need more child care in the city overall I had a question regarding the operating hours so are there going to be specific functions or events that you know you can have throughout the year that would allow everyone to come in all at once? And could that be a traffic nightmare and a parking nightmare? I just want to know sometimes childcare facilities do host various events, even talent shows for that matter. So I'd like to

know your sort of curriculum or if you've outlined a entire year's worth of typical events that you host yes so basically there are two events that would involve the congregation and the preschool altogether one of them is our October fest on us and both of them take place one on a Saturday and Sunday October is a Sunday service and celebration and then we have our family fun day in June once a year on a Saturday where would actually involve all both preschool and the congregation.

No thank you for that. Last question is there a safety measure when parents come in do they clock in or punch in electronically and is there a secure lock for the safety of the children as well? I can probably hear the yes answer. Perfect. No that's a very it's very important because this day and age you never know there's psychos out there and it's a daycare as children keep them safe at all times so I appreciate that and I fully support this project thank you.

Can I say one more thing in regard to the traffic one of the things that we did in anticipation of having the expansion is we did and our goodwill drop off-site it was the largest goodwill drop off in Orange County and that involved over 200 cars per day and three twenty four foot truck pickups per day? So we did eliminate already that amount of traffic which more than accommodates what we will add.

I used to drop off there and I always wondered what happened to it.

Yeah that's why we made that decision beforehand to say you know what we've got to cut the traffic down.

I think it's a fair trade. Thank you. Everyone good? Since we're all received does anyone want to make a motion on the recommended action?

I will make a motion to adopt resolution 2066 approving the conditional use permit for the expansion of a child care center with request for administrative relief from child care and parking standards. Second.

Thank you. Can we please set up the vote?

Motion to adopt the resolution has passed, with five present and Commissioner Jeffs and Vice Chair Lynn absent.

Wonderful. So our next Planning Commission meeting will be held Thursday, 04/16/2026, at 05:30PM in the City Council Chamber. And it is now 06:44, and I'm going declare the 04/02/2026 meeting adjourned. Thank you.