Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Let's see. It is 529, and I'm gonna call the Planning Commission So it's 529, and I'm gonna call the Planning Commission meeting of Thursday, 04/16/2026 to order. And Commissioner Pearson will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Oh, I'm sorry roll call. Could we please conduct the roll call?

Commissioner Pearson.

Present.

Commissioner Grossman.

Here.

Commissioner Delacusack.

Here.

Commissioner Batya.

Present.

Vice Chair Lynn. Here. Chair Stark. Here. We have a quorum.

All right, thank you. And now we can rise for the pledge of allegiance.

All of us rise and are capable of rising and give honor to our flag with the pledge of allegiance. Begin.

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. So I'd like to open public comments for non agendized items. So, this would be anything that's not on tonight's agenda. Recording secretary, are there 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 public comments on non agendized items.

And thank you. So now we'll go on to introductions. Director Fraide, do you have any introductions?

No introductions tonight, chair.

Okay. Are there any commissioners who have any announcements or reports they would like to share? Okay. Director Freyde, are there any additions or deletions?

None tonight.

Okay. So, now we have the consent calendar. Does anyone want pull any I'm sorry. I've opened public comments on the consent calendar.

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. If any of the commissioners would like

to discuss the minutes please use your request to speak button.

Mr. Chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve and adopt the minutes of the regular planning commission meeting of 04/02/2026.

I will second.

Please set up the voting.

Chair Stark, the motion has passed with five in favor and Vice Chair Lynn abstaining.

Okay, thank you. So we'll move on to item two and I'll open the public hearing. Director Freyde, if you please introduce the item.

Thank you. The first item is master plan for a new single family residence and attached accessory dwelling unit with a variance for a reduced front building setback at 16972 Culver Drive in Planning Area 15 Woodbridge. Tonight's staff is recommending the planning commission continue this item to the regularly scheduled planning commission meeting of 05/21/2026. This is to allow the applicant to continue speaking with the HOA and working out issues. Thank you.

Okay. Is the applicant present? I don't think so. So, we'll open the public comments on the 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 some speakers on this item. We have two in the chamber and one on Zoom. We'll start first with Donna Hatch.

Hi commission. Thank you once again for extending this item to today. We were able to meet with Mr. Pieter on this item along with a couple of members of the community that will be directly impacted by this item. We discussed the impact after Mr. Pieter gave his presentation and possible solutions, including covenants. We haven't reached agreement yet, and we understand that the request has been put in for May 21, we fully support the extension until then to give us more time.

Thank you for the update.

Thank you.

Next we have Craig Johnson.

Hello, thank you very much for your time and thank you for extending the project. Think is that the way you're going to go with it. I did want to, there's lots of reasons for this, for not to build a two story house in ADU at this particular site. But today, I just wanted to focus on one in particular because I think it's not only important to ourselves as neighbors, but also to the city as well. My name is Craig Johnson.

My wife, Kath, and I live at 98 Windjam, which is right across the private alley from the proposed project. And the biggest concern I want to talk about tonight is the cottage's development was designed specifically to have all the garages back out onto a private alley. And from there, they drive onto a public street. This new project is going have a different configuration where the public street is the driveway that goes straight to the public street. And looking at the site plan over the last few weeks, it does not appear there's enough room for on-site to have on on his site to for a car to do a three point turn coming out of the garage, which means cars will be backing into a public street.

The way this intersection intersection works, it's pebble path to public street is a 90 degree turn, and we have a Windjammer Alley coming into it. So right now it's a three way intersection. Been perfectly safe. We've had no problems in the twenty eight years I've lived there. Now what we're going to do with this project is we're going to introduce a fourth leg and cars will be coming out of that backwards across a public sidewalk with potentially three cars coming in different directions.

And we think this is a very dangerous situation. What we'd ask you to do is ask the planning commission to direct staff to discuss this situation with the public works department, have them review it, make sure they're comfortable with this situation, and also talk to the city attorney because I think this might be a possibility where you've got additional liability that the city might be taking on by approving this project. And that's really all I ask for tonight. I do want to thank you for all your service on this. If anybody has any questions of me or wants to discuss this project in more detail later, project planner Calvin Mungione, he's got my contact information. I would be happy to sit down with you or have a phone call with you. But thank you very much. Thank you.

Next we have Marcella Musilig on Zoom. I will unmute you now. This concludes public comments on this item.

Okay. Thank you. So I'll open the commission deliberations. The commissioners use their request to speak button if they would like to ask questions or make comments. Brandon, would you like to speak?

Thank you, Chair. I'd like to move to continue this item. If there are no I don't see anybody in the queue, I'm sorry.

Do you want speak,

Seth? I'm

sorry, I saw you shaking your head Commissioner Grossman. I'd like to move to continue this item to the 05/21/2026 meeting.

Second?

I just want to address Mr. Johnson's comment staff if he does want to have further analysis done is it I assume it would be best to wait until the actual application comes back. It was talking about having the city attorney or traffic looking at it. Would I assume it would be correct? Proper procedure would be to wait for a final proposal to come back before we have any further investigation of it?

The public works department as the speaker mentioned was already rooted that project as part of the standard review process so we can further coordinate with them but everything that was presented to you previously when the item was continued has been routed through the public works department.

Okay.

And we've also shared any concerns related to easements, things like that with city attorney's office. So we've rooted it to that office as well.

But just if if if the community had further concerns, they they should submit it to submit those concerns to see if they're

They can submit them anytime as a comment on the project. We've been collecting that feedback and sharing it with the project planner and continue to take that into consideration as well.

Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that that concern was addressed. No other. Thank Nothing

you. Recording Secretary, could you please set up the vote?

The vote has started. The motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you. I also will move on to item three, and I'll open the public hearing. Director Freyde, could you please introduce the item?

Thank you. This item is conditional use permit for a new fast food restaurant with the drive thru at Northwood Town Center located at 1300140 Yale Avenue in Planning Area 8 Northwood. Presenting tonight is associate planner. Sorry. Adam Long joined by Principal Planner, Ann.

Good evening chairman stark and members of the planning commission mcdonald's is requesting a conditional use permit to construct a new 3,786 square foot fast food restaurant building with a drive thru. The proposed fast food restaurant building is located on a 0.61 acre site at 13140 Yale Avenue within Northwood Town Center at the southwest corner of Yale Avenue and Northwood. The subject property has a general plan designation of neighborhood commercial and is zone 4.1 neighborhood commercial. Adjacent uses include existing commercial tenants to the north and east and single family residential homes to the west and south. The site currently is developed with a bank that has a single drive through lane.

This building will be demolished to make way for the proposed project. Upon demolition of the existing 4,341 square foot bank, a new 3,786 square foot fast food restaurant with a drive thru will be constructed the restaurant will have two drive thru lanes located along the east facing elevation of the building the proposed one story building will be constructed of similar materials and colors to match the other existing buildings in Northwood Town Center. The proposed restaurant would operate twenty four hours daily seven days a week with approximately 10 to 15 employees on-site at any given time. The site plan shows the double drive through queue which can accommodate up to 19 vehicles. Currently there is no pedestrian access from the sidewalk on Northwood.

The site plan proposes to add an ADA accessible pedestrian access as highlighted in yellow. Northwood town center maintains a shopping center wide parking ratio of one space per two twenty two square feet of gross floor area. The proposed 3,786 square foot fast food restaurant building therefore requires 17 parking spaces the applicant will be providing 27 spaces including five motorcycle parking spaces that may be utilized to accommodate traditional motorcycles and electronic bicycles. These parking spaces will also be useful additions to anticipate patrons from nearby schools. Regarding landscaping, the applicant has also provided seven new parking lot trees to accommodate the proposed parking spaces.

Additionally they propose a variety of hedges along Yale Avenue and Northwood to create further separation from the roadways and drive thru lanes. In regards to environmental review a traffic analysis was prepared and concluded that the project can be implemented without impacting surrounding roadways. In addition condition 4.14 has been included to remove a stop sign at the Pueblo Norte driveway to prevent any vehicle queuing into Irvine Boulevard. In regards to noise, a noise memorandum has been prepared by the applicant's noise consultant to ensure that the operations will not exceed the Irvine noise standards. Conditions of approval have also been included to ensure that the applicant will complete a final acoustical report and to lower the noise during evening hours to limit impact on neighboring properties.

Finally in regards to the California environmental quality act this project is exempt based on section fifteen three zero two class two replacement or reconstruction this exemption is based on the replacement of an existing commercial structure with a new smaller commercial structure that will be located on the same site. Notices for today's planning commission hearing have been mailed and posted in accordance with city requirements. Since distribution of the packet, we have received six public comments regarding concerns for hours of operation, light pollution, noise, traffic impacts, ADA compliance, and odor control. In conclusion staff recommends the planning commission adopt resolution number 26Dash4070 approving a conditional use permit for a new fast food restaurant with a drive through at Northwood Town Center This concludes staff's presentation. City staff and the applicant and their team are available for any questions that you might have.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation. Is the applicant present and would like to make any comments.

Yes, my name is Robert Priest with Design Your Way. We're the architect and engineers for McDonald's for this project. And first one to thank staff and we filed this project originally back in January '5 or no 05/2025 that was a long time ago 2025 and pre op stuff and then brought site plan elevations took it to staff and so we've been working through it with them going different rounds with the different city departments to get where we are today and to bring in front of you so thank you for your time for the first time and getting to see it with us Staff covered pretty much everything, but we did just want to touch base on some things really about mcdonald's and the project and some of the public outreach that we've heard and ways we can either have already looked at it or addressed it. Obviously anytime you have mcdonald's on the application it's got a lot of eyes on it good and bad depending on what it might be lot of time the first reaction is negative but as you start looking into it and what it means for the community surrounding areas the public will be using it you start to see the benefit for it.

A lot of the ones again the public feedback we got originally and the big stuff and we deal with it often on these is traffic noise pollution safety those are all the big ticket items that we start to look at that when you first apply the public raises red flags for but to talk about those and really for the public so that they know as well and as we're looking at each individual one traffic we again we work with city staff and the engineering department to establish traffic study criteria study intersections study queuing and going all through all that stuff mcdonalds itself is not a destination like some restaurants are and we tend to service the patrons that are passing by on the street so when you look at the trip generations you can see that it's has no impact on the surrounding streets and noise obviously is the next big one and whether it's cars idling or speaker boards those are the biggest things we've already looked at all that with staff our menu boards have decibel adjustments so when there's a lot of traffic noise on the roadway it has a maximum number as that traffic dissipates in the later hours it drops so that we're able to not impact the neighbors that are across the street.

Pollution obviously is another big one smells McDonald's is an industry leader when it comes to smells in the restaurant and our hoods have cascade filters which filter beyond anything that other chains do and we also have a blast fans on the roof so by the time any of that's entering the atmosphere it's 39 feet in the air and then dissipates in the atmosphere so you're not getting a smell we we have a lot of these that are open in neighborhoods and they don't you don't smell them compared to other restaurants you might be used to seeing and light pollution is the other one it's cars that are in the drive thru lane Again, if the headlights are going across the street, obviously that impacts people based on their, what time of night it is, what time they're sleeping. We have hedges along the drive thru lane. Right now they're at three feet to growth and we're willing for commission if you want you can increase that to four or five and we're okay with that to help block visibility into cars or headlights or any of the lights that are coming out of the dining room.

Safety is obviously the other big one. Again, we started this project a year and three months ago with staff. So looking at it, studying the safety, the patterns, ADA routes, the bank today does not have an accessible route to it so there's a new ramp that gets you to the mcdonald's property without having to cross through the parking lot you go through the drive aisle and the exit but cars are already pretty slow right there and there's warning devices everything else so safety is kind of priority for us also litter those things are also have come up in some of the comments our staff I know the big one that everyone tends to think is you go into a McDonald's restaurant there's kiosks they're replacing staff that's not what we're doing the staff is now being utilized for other things they're servicing the customer at the tables they're filling their drinks they're going through the parking lot picking up trash much like people do when they're picking up grocery carts they're doing that to make sure that the parking lot stays clean these stores again you see a mcdonald's you assume it's being ran by chicago that's where home bases these are not these are local owner operators that are running these stores in the community they tend to have them in the community already so it means a lot to them to be able to support you from the city it's financially from little leagues they support those things it's Ronald McDonald house so if you haven't seen those it's pretty great cause that those go to also so a couple of those points again I'm here I have my civil engineer here and the traffic engineer here also so if there's anything you want to talk on this list feel free to ask us and the the biggest item I'd saw from public outreach really is the twenty four hour request We do that in general just to get flexibility for our customers and what they need will it be a twenty four hour store most likely not.

They'll talk with us in the center is a twenty four hour store We ask for it so that if the customers and the demand becomes an earlier hour then we'll open earlier hour. Much like most of the other stores that are in Irvine, the hours are pretty much from five a. M. To midnight Friday and Saturday, and five a. M. To eleven p. M. On Sunday through Thursday so again if we do it for a we ask for twenty four hour just to give the flexibility kind of as chat times change and everything else But, if the commission does feel like they need to condition those hours, we're okay doing that as well. So, any other questions, feel free. You can pull me up or any of my colleagues. So, thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. Appreciate it. So we'll open to public comments on this item. Do we have 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. We do have two speakers in the chamber. First, we'll start with Kazuto.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Kazuto Hayasu. I live in Northwood Park Association, and my residence is directly across Yale from the proposed location, specifically the pickup window area of the property in question. So, I've pre submitted summarized versions of the comments in the website, but I want to speak a little bit more in detail given the limitations of the submission process. So, my concerns, as were brought up earlier, have to do with noise, traffic, and odors primarily, and also the condition on the twenty four hour operation.

Previous speaker spoke spoke to some of those, specifically the older one, which was not addressed in any of the attached documents. So, I'd to see, you know, documentation on that, but other than that, I can maybe table additional comments until such time when that may be available. With regard to noise and light pollution concerns, one of the things that caught my attention when I looked at noise study was it didn't seem to address the fact that the property is approximately six or seven feet above grade, and as such, the walls that are in place around the neighborhoods are also at that height. So, because it didn't seem that that particular great difference wasn't addressed in the noise study that may or may not affect whether or not it's within compliance of city ordinances. And additionally, reviewing the traffic study, I believe the previous speaker is correct in stating that it's not necessarily a destination location.

However, the traffic study did seem to fail to address some changes in traffic patterns that may come from, in particular, the fact that there's a junior high school in the area that may generate traffic that didn't seem to be accounted for in the traffic study. So, I'd like to see that addressed. But overall, just the condition on the operational hours is the primary concern, so if it can be conditioned on not operating twenty four hours like the other McDonald's in within the city limits, then some of these concerns will be mitigated at least to at least for my satisfaction. Thank you. Thank you.

Next we have RJ.

Good evening my name is arjed arama I'm a resident and a neighbor of cas who just spoke. I'm also lucky enough to serve on the residents with disability advisory committee as its current chair but I'm here today on a personal capacity to express my opposition to the opening of this restaurant and specifically that concern is based on the effect that it would have on the traffic patterns on the corner of Yale and Northwood. I have a disability my son has a disability pretty significant mobility issues and we use that particular intersection quite a bit to get groceries to access Irvine Connect and that intersection is already dangerous in the way that it is. So to introduce that higher amount of traffic and to not see what the impacts would be in terms of safety for people like me with disabilities and the elderly that' very concerning I know that the previous speaker spoke or the person spoke about the fact that there will be an 88 access ramp to the actual property from the sidewalks it doesn' necessarily address what' going to happen to how much more dangerous potentially that intersection might be. I' in staunch opposition to the approval of the conditional permit for the conversion of that property into a mcdonald's with a drive thru but in the least I would like to request that the commission institute or initiate a independent study on traffic impacts relative to ada and disability usages of that impact or at the very least to limit the operation of the McDonald's to not twenty four hours.

Thank you. Thank you.

We do have one more speaker. You may approach the podium and state your first and last name for the record.

Jay Woo. Good evening. I am a neighbor with the previous two speakers. Thank you for your time. I was hoping just to have some additional discussion and maybe drill down a little bit more about a condition of approval regarding the hours of operation.

We are opposed to twenty four hours. We'd like to see maybe something similar to other drive throughs in Irvine. And specifically, I don't want to just focus on the twenty four hour Del Taco. It's a little bit of a different situation geographically. This McDonald's, while we're not completely opposed to it, the sighting of it just doesn't make sense with the residents in such close proximity. So, if we can lock in hours of operation tonight through a condition that gives some peace of mind for the residents, that would be helpful. Ten p. M, seven a. M. Open time.

I mean, we don't have to talk about it here. Or just something to consider. Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes public comments.

Okay. Then I will close the public hearing and open the commission deliberations. If everyone could push their button if they'd like to speak. And we'll start with Commissioner Batya.

CHRISTIAN Thank you, Chair Stark. Thank you for the presentation by city staff and applicant I I too have a sort of a hard way of grasping the twenty four hour scenario being its proximity to all the neighborhoods I you know I personally feel like if this was Vegas this would make sense but it's not it's it's in the neighborhood in a very serene atmosphere so I have a little bit of a hard time you know to fathom that this could be a twenty four hour operation I wanted to ask a few questions regarding for example trash storage where would that be located in this site would that be somewhere behind or on the side if you can point that out. The reason is it could impact the nearby neighborhoods.

Yes. Thank you for your question. It is on the right side on the screen, if you can see. I can bring my mouse up. The trash enclosure will be put on this location over here on the site.

Okay. So right, I see where Yale is, and it's right on the right. Okay. And the majority of the parking is on the right as well, but also in the front, right there is there when you mentioned the trees that are to be installed are there going to be any trees eradicated from this site or just just want to know, because usually that's a very expensive ordeal to relocate trees. I want to know, because there are some pretty big trees out there. And they're providing shade anyways. So I just wanted to know if that's part of the plan.

There are non existing trees. And those will identified by the darker green circles on the plan in front of you which will remain protected and in place. And then in addition, the applicant will be adding eight additional trees to the project site.

There

Okay. We had a speaker, RJ Derama. I understand his concern about ADA. I'd like to ask city staff if we've had any ADA analysis for the site, or is that something that could be conducted regarding any folks with disability that could have challenges to cross the street or reach the destination? Good

evening, members of

the Planning Commission. My name

is Lisa Tai from the Community Development Department and Transportation Section. In terms of ADA, the pedestrian crossing times at Yale and Northwood they are consistent with the state and city standards. If additional time is needed our traffic management center staff will be able to make those adjustments to accommodate additional pedestrian needs. This intersection is actively being monitored. And, once the project comes online, they'll continue to monitor and make any necessary adjustments.

Excellent. No, thank you for that. And that was my next question was, is there a monitoring period post construction for review to make sure that we mitigate any ongoing issues? And you answered that right? Right. Okay. No further questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Lin.

Thank you so much for the presentation. I do have several questions I kind of wanted to go through. One is, I believe there are two other McDonald's in the city. Do you know what the hours, operating hours, are for those two?

Leave the hours of operation for the McDonald's at the 5445 Alton Parkway location is 24 Hours.

And

we just pulled the twenty four hour fast food restaurants within the city. That was the only other twenty four hour McDonald's.

And I

wanted to add to that. So for McDonald's located on Portola Parkway, those hours are five a. M. To eleven p. M. On Alton Parkway it's seven a. M. To ten p. M. And on Culver Drive it's seven a. M. To ten p. M.

Great thank you my mistake there were three I forgot about the one on Irvine Boulevard or in Portola. Regarding the concerns regarding the odors and the smell, the applicant mentioned the HEPA filters. Is there a way to direct the, I'm sorry, exhausts? Are they directional at all? And if so, is there a way to direct them away from the neighborhood where the homes are?

I'll go ahead and defer to the applicant for this question.

Yeah. On this one, they're not directional, so they're a blast, so they're straight vertical.

Okay.

By the time the exhaust is basically being released most of them the microns that are already taken out of it are minute so by the time they get straight up in the air they're going to go with the wind pattern and where they're going to go but at that point they're 39 feet in the air then they tend to rise from that point So we can't just point them towards the center or anything else because they are just straight verticals.

Okay. Regarding sound, I'll jump to the sound. So there are concerns about the sound. You mentioned how the speakers can be adjusted in terms of the volume so are there plans or I mean we can put a condition on it as well but in terms of lowering the volume after a certain time is that a regular practice for McDonald's was wondering

yeah so the menu boards and the speakers are automated we can set the max decibel and then we can set the minimum so in there so what they do is again they just automatically listen to road noise or surrounding noise if again we're on a four lane road or street and so there's quite a bit of ambient noise coming on that during kind of high traffic volumes so at that point the decibels are going go up you're not going to hear them from the boards to across Gale or northward as it gets into the evening when traffic dies down there's a lot less ambient noise around the decibel drops So as a car comes into the drive through, it'll only be loud enough basically to hear over the car and as the person's talking. And so it's an automatic sensor is the way that those work.

Okay. Thank you for explaining that. One thing that did help was I noticed just based on the location the speakers would be on the opposite side of where Northwood is where the homes are. That does help a bit and it would be facing the center of the plaza versus the homes. So thank you for that clarification. Regarding lighting you had mentioned a barrier and you mentioned how you wouldn't mind if we conditioned it to be four to five feet what was that light mitigating I missed the beginning part

yeah no problem and so if you look the landscape plan right along the curb edge and you can see the dark green and the light green little circles What those are is the plant species. They go up to three feet when mature. We did that with the intent that it blocks headlights as they tend to go across Yale, As you turn the corner and then going south kind of towards northward. We're okay if the staff wants to or commission wants to to increase that mature height. We can go up to four feet or five feet depending on what you do or what you prefer.

Great. Thank you.

And that's it for now, Chair.

Thank you very Thank you. Commissioner Grossman.

Thank you. Of my concerns have been addressed I definitely have a concern around the hours and I would encourage us to condition on those hours. My concern is really around the landscaping and hedges and the lights. Think three feet I think we absolutely need to increase it to five feet. Seem to live in the land of cyber trucks and everything being a little bit higher here.

I think we have to be trying to be as protective as we can around that. If the landscaping can address that I think that would be best way to address or mitigate to that issue. One of the questions I wanted to ask the applicant, the menu boards, my understanding is that there is some technology where you have you can dim them, or kind of, for lack of a better analogy, when I look at my phone screen or my computer screen, can make it less visible to everyone. Is that something that you would be building into this, or would you be willing to make sure that that is a part of this process?

Yes. It's absolutely part of the process already. The menu boards, they're digital. Basically, they're a TV screen. There's two of them.

Again, you can set the brightness level. It auto adjusts based on the sensor. During the at night when you don't have as much ambient light then the screens automatically dim and they actually run almost like a GPS in the car now when you're driving your car and you go in a tunnel it goes from a white background to a dark background the screen the menu boards do the same thing at night the minute the sun goes down they reverse from a white background to a black background so the only real light is the actual product itself is what's showing up so it drastically reduces the amount of glare and everything that comes off those Plus as you probably saw in the exhibit they are angled so that they face towards the center so any light that would potentially do it is projecting at the center not across the street on the hill or in the building blocks northward.

That' s standard in That' the way

standard.

Okay. Good. Then the last question I want to ask was sort of about related hours and little bit related to the traffic patterns during those hours. McDonald' s traditionally been a very popular breakfast destination venue. My only concern is really is around sort of school times and and and and children going to school at the same time there might be let's hope for your business is called the breakfast rush type of a scenario.

Have we and maybe this is better for staff in terms of the traffic study, but have we looked at that specific period of time in the morning and whether we have any concerns around that? Maybe staff can answer from the traffic study.

The traffic study did analyze the morning and evening peak hours, so the morning does include the school traffic as well as the project traffic.

Was your maybe I missed it. Was the conclusion?

This traffic study actually had all the access points that would have increased traffic related to the project, and the finding shows that there are no adverse effects to the public roads.

Can you explain maybe for transparency, how do we monitor that if this project is approved and we observe that there will be observing and monitoring whether or not there are any issues and changes from what the expected traffic study?

Our traffic management center constantly monitors locations throughout the city including this one because it is approximately located close to middle school they are fully aware of the school traffic and if needed they will make adjustments to the timing also like to mention that staff is also coordinating with public works staff department that they' currently looking at changing the signal phasing at the intersection of Veal And Northwood to make that currently a green ball, basically a permissive left to a protected solid arrow green.

And what the timing on that review, or how is it?

That's currently underway. So, once this project comes online, definitely that's something that will be taken into consideration.

That's excellent to hear. And I'm not surprised that you guys are already looking to it, but it really wonderful to hear that you guys are being proactive and looking into that topic. Have my when we get to the motion I definitely would like to have the conditions on the I would like to suggest that we have the conditions on the hours and on those landscaping to my fellow commissioners.

Thank you. Commissioner Delacusack.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, staff, for the presentation, for the applicant, and for the speakers. I had some questions about deliveries, because I understand that could take up parking spaces or impact the way people enter and exit if this restaurant is approved. What would be the hours of delivery to, for this restaurant?

Thank you for your question. For delivery hours, we, our code allows for restrictions from seven a. To ten p. M. If they are directly abutting residential but in this case we can condition if you desire to have something similar where hours of delivery to the restaurant shall be restricted to 7AM to 10PM, and based on substantiated noise complaints, then the community development director may further limit hours of operation.

And may I ask, of a restaurant of this size, and we have other restaurants, other McDonald's restaurants to compare to, how often in a week does this store restaurant receive deliveries?

Yeah, can feel that one. A restaurant this size typically has deliveries twice weekly. And then the truck, when they deliver, they're on-site for about thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes. Perfect. And then one of my other questions is I didn't see it, but maybe it's not there. Is there going to be plans for like outdoor tables for people to patronize at the restaurant?

No at this moment there is no plans for in the outdoor seating area predominantly this mcdonald's is for the double drive through lanes and there is a smaller dining room area that's concurrent with the more current modern McDonald's design plans.

And my last question is for this restaurant, if I see there's a proposal for maybe keeping it flexible to have it 20 fourseven, but going to the dining room, there be like is there any thoughts on what the proposed cutoff would be for people to enter the restaurant?

Yeah from a dining inside versus drive through, typically what happens, and again it's normally based on feedback and as an operator running the store to figure out what the patrons want and most of the time the lobbies will close earlier in the evening and they' closed a couple hours earlier in the drive thru lane the drive thru is really capturing anyone that' driving home from work late or something and just need something fast so they come through and again you'll see you can see that in the traffic study and the queuing and the queuing like you mentioned morning is the big one for them and then it's got a lunch and then evening is normally the dip So, yeah, in the evening a lot of times they'll close the lobbies typically a couple hours prior to the drive thru itself.

So how would you accommodate like Uber Eats or like to get people who pick up food?

Yeah, so from our end there's, and again that's the newest model of McDonald's has changed so much, it's incorporating the drive thru, it's incorporating dining, and then it also is delivery, we call the three D's. Delivery is obviously becoming a lot larger and a bigger need for each restaurant so there' a couple spaces I don' remember on this one if there' one or two that are in front that are designated for uber or mobile order piece just because the mobile order app is the other kind of digital platform and if the lobbies close the front door that's facing Northwood that has a vestibule on it so as the uber driver or as the mobile order person that doesn't want to go through the drive thru lane they can walk up to that door into that vestibule it's much like an ATM lobby after the bank hours it's closed it's locked but there's a walk up window with a buzzer so the staff sees you walk up and they'll hand you then the foods it's on a geo fence so as they're within range they start cooking the food they put it on the queue and then as you get there they pretty much hand it to you so you leave pretty instantly

Thank you. That's all the questions I have.

Thank you. Commissioner Pearson. Thanks Adam and for the presentation. Applicant for your answering the questions. This is a project requiring a conditional use permit in an area, Northwood Town Center, that is essentially approving the type of land use and the zoning based on the general plan, based upon our zoning, I am very comfortable with the conditions that have been put into the resolution, 6.22 on the drive thru operations, and 6.23 on the noise issue gives the latitude for the community to appeal to the director should there be a problem with either noise, traffic, operations.

And I feel comfortable that

the

odor issue with prevailing westerly winds may not be as great as what may be assumed. I did want to ask the applicant are there scrubbers or anything in the evacuation of the smoke from the cooking? Or is it just a straight blow through ventilation?

Yeah, so it's the type one hoods, are the ones that have the grease laden on them. McDonald's is proprietary, their hoods are proprietary to them. It's not your generic one that you see at majority of other restaurants. So with that they have cascade filters that are specific to them. So any cooking grease or any smells pretty much are omitted at the filters. Those filters then get maintained throughout process and then as it up blast there's very small smells and grease or anything that's even coming out of that by the time it gets there through kind of the exhausting process

That answers my question. Time issue, obviously we have approved twenty four hour operations in the past. We saw a list of them. And so that was one of the issue of timing of operation. So I'm understanding you're requesting twenty four hours.

But based upon operating conditions, the twenty four hours may change, may be reduced, depending upon ongoing opportunity to serve the public? I see a yes. Okay. So you're going for the ultimate twenty four hour operation, which may not be twenty four hours. The issue of ADA, that's an issue both that needs to be addressed at building and safety, and it also is a transportation issue for our public works group.

And I would imagine that if we have an issue with ADA that will be taken care of directly by the city in one way or another. Given the conditions that are in this resolution I feel very comfortable that we can control the user and the operation. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

I have a couple of quick questions. I don' think it was addressed but there were concerns about the elevation of the restaurant being above the elevation of the resident's walls. It starts out at a higher height. Did the sound study take that into account?

Hello, my name is Amelia Belcher, and I'm a civil engineer. Our company, Kimberly Horn, performed and prepared the noise study. As part of the noise study, they put out devices that measure the existing noise where the proposed McDonald's is going to go. And they measured that to be coming in at an existing, I think, 65 decibels already. So that's what the allowable noise level is per code, per city code.

And so per the noise study, it also says that with the added noise of the menu boards, as well as the cars that are parked and the cars in the drive through lane, the noise level at the residence, matter I mean, taking into consideration also the level of the restaurant compared to the street and the residence, it's still going to be less than the 65 decibels that's allowable per code once it hits like the resident walls.

So my understanding of the study is you'd put the sound monitors near the residents, go to the actual place where the noise would be created, create the noise, and then measure it?

They put the devices where the proposed project is and then measure how much ambient noise is already like happening at that project location.

Okay. Thank you. That answers my question. I appreciate it. And, I do have a question about the scrubbers filters. Are these the same filters? I mean, are denser cities in Irvine where you might have residents above a McDonald's. Are the filters going to be used on our project site the same as the ones used in, say, LA or New York City?

Yeah. Short answer is correct. Yeah. It depends on the age of the restaurant some of the older restaurants didn't have the newest hoods in them they get retrofitted to put a version of it but the newest hoods which this will be does have that and when we're building in Downtown LA building in New York City it tends to be the same Okay. Thank you. In exhaust systems.

Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. I was going to ask about a protected left, too, there because that intersection always throws me because mostly everything else is protected. I'm glad we're already thinking about that. That's all I have. Commissioner Lin?

Thank you, Chair. Before I bring a motion, I have one more question regarding the deliveries just so we can help with one of the conditions I'm thinking up through. So let's say the hours of operation are 6AM to 10PM. What are the optimal delivery times? When would it usually happen for a restaurant to minimize impact on traffic and such?

Yes so from a delivery standpoint it's again the city requirement would be seven to ten and again that's how we condition it and the deliveries they're not going to deliver during peak they're not going to deliver in the morning they're not going to deliver during the lunch peak most likely they tend to deliver and again it's not we once they get it on the route they'll set the delivery time but it tends to be off peak and then it doesn't tend to be in the evening so a majority of them are delivering sometime probably later morning sometime between ten to twelve and then most of the other ones are in the afternoon sometime between like one to four so But it depends on where it falls on the schedule and the route for the delivery drivers.

Thank you. And Commissioner Pearson, I think I knew where you were going in terms of even if it's allowed the twenty four hours, you know, they may not. Right? They have the flexibility of changing it. However, having heard the public commenters and the concerns, and just given the location being so near its residential compared to the other McDonald's that we have in the city, where it's closer to a larger street, for instance Irvine Boulevard or Culver and Irvine Center Drive and then Alton. I'd like to move that we approve the recommended action with the following conditions. One being the height of the mature trees for the light mitigation to be minimum four to five feet. The hours restricted to six a. M. To eleven p.

M. I thought those hours would be a good compromise based on the other hours of the McDonald's locations all ten being twenty four that's an exception. However, the Culver location and the Portola location being five to eleven and seven to ten. And six I thought, you know, because it's near middle school, my child has zero period. And it's sometimes if they want to grab something on the way, it gives them that option.

As a parent with kids and sports and activities on weekends and such, it is nice to sometimes pick something up and be able to do so. But five is a bit early for the neighborhood, so I thought I'd like to propose 6AM to 10PM just to also give the residents a peace of mind. Because though it may not result in a twenty four hour, just the possibility would put me keep me uneasy. So I think I'd like to give certainty to the hours. And that's it, unless I've missed anything regarding any of the commissioner's concerns or ideas that were brought up.

Commissioner Lynn, could I just ask a clarifying question? Sure. I heard two different evening hours and I wanted to see just so we have the record right, if you are looking to condition the project from six a. To eleven p. M. Or ten p. M.

Oh, I'm sorry. Ten p.

M. Ten p. M. Okay.

Commissioner Bhatia, you don't want to.

No. Thank you for the motion, Commissioner Lin. I just had a few quick questions again regarding delivery when you we talk about delivery we're talking about one food distributor or various vendors like linen services and coca cola or the beverages are they all sporadic throughout the day or does that work with McDonald's like do they have some tasks coming for collecting you know towels and whatnot

yeah so when it comes to delivery there's Martin Brower's our main one that's majority of our product comes from them that's the one that comes on a large semi truck and we have smaller vendors like our bun delivery and that just comes on a standard box truck and so those tend to use standard parking spaces only the Martin Brower ones the one that comes with a large semi tractor we do have Martin Brower does majority of our food product plus our coke products and then the bun delivery is the secondary one to that so hopefully that answer your question there okay If I get a chance to talk hours I would like to but I'll answer your questions first.

I had one more question and I want to be educated on the not the delivery but the truck influx of trucks that we have on Sand Canyon going to the Bowerman Landfill are those restricted to just go on Sand Canyon all the way down or are they able to stop by and grab a breakfast somewhere and park adjacent somewhere I just wanted to know Because that could create a huge mess. And everyone loves McDonald's, let's be honest.

Hi. This is San Suiten Maria with the Community Development Department. And Sand Canyon is the established truck route for the city. It takes trucks directly from the I-five and the 405 Freeway, actually, all the way to Portola to Bowerman Landfill. And that is a designated truck route.

That is the route for which trucks are required to use. Unless there's some kind of enforcement that sees a truck wandering around in neighborhoods, It's probably possible that a truck that is on the way to Bowerman could stop at a food place. But the established route is Sand Canyon. Trucks are not they're not really encouraged at all to use city streets other than that roadway

they're not encouraged but there could be there possibly could stop by like the mcdonald's or carl's junior what have you right nearby

I mean it's possible for the driver to do anything he wants but it's not encouraged and and a public safety officer could cite a truck driver for going off of the established truck routes.

Okay no thank you for that and then you know want to heed to commissioner lens hours of operation due to the schooling and that' really important we don' t know truck drivers to get hungry and they want to park and grab a bite to eat and I think we should be mindful of school hours and how congested it can be during those hours And it's a safety issue. Thank you for that.

Commissioner Grossman.

I just was going to ask Commissioner you said four to five feet would you be willing to have a friendly amendment that says five feet. Four to five gives them the option of four or five. I would like to make it a five foot.

We can make it a minimum of five feet.

That's even better. Thank you. I

have one quick question. If we take away that we condition six to 10 for the hours, in the future, is the applicant able to come back and ask for more hours?

Because this is a planning commission project or the planning commissioner has purview over the project, if they were to revise the hours, should a condition be added, they would need to come back to the commission to revise that specific condition.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Pearson?

I'd just like to clarify, ask the proposed time of operation again is

what? Six to ten.

6AM to 10PM. Yeah. So if you're a first responder coming back and wanting to get something to eat after 10:00, you've got to find someplace else to go.

You can go to Del Taco. Right there.

Thank you.

So we have a motion on the table. Do we have a second?

I will second.

Can we please set up the voting?

The motion has passed with five in favor and Commissioner Pearson dissenting. Okay.

Thank you. Now we are going to go into our business items for item four and five. Director Frady, could you please introduce item four?

Thank you. Item four is a review of fiscal year twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven capital improvement program for consistency with the general plan. Presenting is senior planner Tiffany Lynn, joined by principal planner Nick Maloney.

Thank you and good evening members of the planning commission and again the item before you this evening is the general plan capital improvement project consistency report. The general plan is a state mandated policy and planning document that represents a long range vision of the city. Implementation of the general plan is facilitated in part by the construction, location, and timing of capital improvement program or CIP projects. The CIP is comprised of a list of anticipated infrastructure construction and rehabilitation projects, and state law requires the Planning Commission to annually review the city's capital improvement program to determine that it is consistent with the city's current general plan. The 2026 through 2027 CIP project list includes five rehabilitation projects, which are listed in this slide, which generally provide improvements to and replacement of existing facilities and equipment.

As mentioned previously, the planning commission must annually review the city's CIP project list to ensure that it is consistent with the general plan. The commission's finding that a proposed CIP project conforms with the general plan does not express approval or disapproval of any particular CIP project as the city council has full discretion in deciding whether to approve and fund CIP projects. Staff has evaluated each project against appropriate elements of the general plan and demonstrated how each project is consistent with the general plan, as well as identified relevant general plan objectives and policies. This project is not considered a project pursuant to the CEQA guidelines section listed in the slide, in that one, it is an administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes to the environment. Two, the individual actions described in the CIP are speculative.

And lastly, determination of conformance with the general plan does not commit funding to any specific project. With that, staff does recommend the Planning Commission adopt the attached resolution, finding the 2026 through 2027 CIP project list consistent with the city's general plan. This concludes staff's presentation, and we are available for any questions. And should the commission have any questions related to the specifics of each project, we also have Lincoln Lowe here this evening with Public Works and Sustainability.

Thank you for the presentation. I will open the public comments. Are there 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.

Okay. Then I will open up the commission deliberations. Do any of my fellow commissioners have a comment, question? Commissioner Lin?

Thank you, chair, and thank you, staff, for the presentation. One quick question. Are there any CIP projects that are not on the list due to funding or that we didn't make it on that we are still in the to dos just due to funding

just wondering

this list only includes new new projects that were not previously presented before the commission for CIP general plan consistency.

And everything is This is the entire list.

Okay. And everything is meaning there's enough funding and everything is just moving forward?

These are fully funded. This is the entire list, yes.

Okay. Thank you. Otherwise, no questions.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Batya?

Thank you for the presentation. Quick question. Are there opportunities to leverage state or federal funding for any of these CIP projects versus tapping into our local funding sources?

That's a finance question, but if Lincoln would like to go for it.

Yes, good evening. I'm Lincoln Lowe, Deputy Director of Public Works and Sustainability. So yes, there are opportunities to leverage for grant funding. Specifically on the list, there's one for the evidence refrigerator. The full amount as shown includes a little bit of grant funding that our police department was able

to get from an outside funding source. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Doesn't look like we have any more comments. Is there a motion?

Chair, I'll move to adopt the recommended action.

Second.

Please prepare the vote.

Chair, the motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you. All right. One more item. Director Frady, can you please introduce item five?

Thank you. Our last item is City of Irvine standard conditions update. Presenting again, Senior Planner Tiffany Lynn with Principal Planner Nick Maloney.

Thank you again, Chair and members of the Planning Commission. This next item before you is the standard conditions update. Standard conditions provide consistent uniform language for commonly applied project requirements and are typically used on a case by case basis depending on project needs. They also help ensure that developments operate as intended after approval and give code enforcement tools to address issues if they arise. Additionally, these conditions streamline the review process by reducing the need to recreate standard conditions.

The city first established standard subdivision conditions in 1976 with updates in 1987 and 1989 to reflect evolving policies and procedures. The last comprehensive update was completed in 2009. The purpose of this update is to align the standard conditions with current regulations and best practices. It also ensures greater internal consistency across all conditions, which improves overall clarity and usability. Another key goal is to incorporate updated and required environmental measures to reflect current standards.

Lastly, the update clarifies how and when conditions can be modified in order to provide for a more transparent and predictable process. This update introduces a range of new conditions, some of which are listed in the slide, to better reflect current regulatory requirements and city priorities. Overall, these additions are intended to address gaps in existing standard conditions and respond to evolving development practices. The new conditions also clarify department responsibilities and ensure alignment with updated codes and policies. Collectively, they provide for a more comprehensive and up to date set of tools to guide project implementation.

Newly proposed conditions also ensure operational requirements can be enforced for certain uses. Additionally, new conditions also reference mitigation measures from the general plan environmental impact report, as well as compatibility standards from the residential and residential mixed use overlay chapter of the city zoning ordinance. In terms of modifications to existing standard conditions, several existing conditions have been revised to remove outdated or obsolete references and provide consistency with current regulations. The changes existing conditions also improve clarity around submittal requirements and adjust the timing of certain conditions where needed. Finally, the process for modifying standard conditions has been updated to provide a more clear and consistent approach.

The standard conditions were drafted with the input of various internal stakeholders, such as public works and sustainability, code enforcement, and public safety, just to name a few. These conditions incorporate and reflect requirements and standards from these internal departments to ensure comprehensive and coordinated implementation. On April 1, the proposed standard conditions were shared with a broad group of external stakeholders familiar with the city's development process, and the list of those individuals is provided within this slide. In terms of environmental review, this project is exempt from CEQA analysis pursuant to the CEQA guidelines section listed in this slide. As previously mentioned, the list of standard conditions was shared with relevant stakeholders.

To date, staff has received feedback focused on improving clarity, consistency, and alignment with existing regulations and industry practices. Overall, the comments helped identify areas where additional refinement was needed, including applicability, timing, and technical language. Where appropriate, staff has incorporated this input to strengthen and clarify the proposed conditions. Staff would also like to note that an errata has been provided to the commission, which includes proposed changes to a number of conditions to respond to feedback received from a stakeholder. Generally, the revisions outlined in their audit address a number of the comments provided by the stakeholder, which include revisions to reference a general plan environmental impact report numbering for tracking purposes, updates to timing and noticing requirements for submission of draft CCNRs, minor text edits related to agency approvals, additions to ensure compliance with current laws, and refinement of specific conditions, such as affordable housing credit procedure and mitigation measure timing.

Overall, the updated standard conditions provide a comprehensive framework to guide development and ensure long term project compliance. The current update is especially important given that the last comprehensive update occurred in 2009. The update reflects current regulations, improves clarity and usability for both applicants and staff, and incorporates stakeholder input. With that, staff does recommend the Planning Commission adopt the attached resolution approving an update to the city of Irvine standard conditions. And that concludes staff's presentation, and we are available for any questions.

Thank you for the presentation. Now open public comments on the 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. We do have one speaker in the chamber tonight. That is Barry Curtis.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the Planning Commission. My name is Barry Curtis with the Irvine Company. We appreciate staff's efforts in this matter and we also appreciate the efforts taken in the errata. We do however ask that the commission refrain from taking final action this evening to allow us additional time to meet with city staff to address a few conditions that we still have concerns with. However, we do otherwise support the recommended item. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

This concludes public comments.

Okay. We'll open up the commissioner discussion. I see Commissioner Lynn would like to speak.

Real quick question. What's the

city's possession? Should we continue this item?

I think staff is supportive of a continuance if the commission is so inclined. We know that this is kind of a potentially meaty discussion. It is a large item that maybe can't be handled in a single meeting. So we were hoping to at least start the conversation tonight, answer some initial questions, take some initial comments and feedback. But we are more than happy to come back a second meeting and continue the discussion.

And really quickly, Mr. Curtis, how much time were you seeking?

I think ideally two meetings. I think we'd like to meet with staff, and I think that gives us time to get that done. If it was shorter, it could be continued, I suppose, if we completed it in that amount of time.

Okay. Thank you. No other questions, Chair.

All right. Thank you. I have one comment on the document, though. One thing I've noticed is that construction sites in the city often have a temporary entrance exit for the workers, but it's not really lined up with a light. And often, the easiest way to get where they wanna go is to make usually, it's an illegal left.

So, I actually put a request into code, and they told me that was actually a police matter. But, it does seem like it could be something that could be in this document to forestall having to call the police on people where maybe just the site foreman could talk to the crew and say, hey, you can't make a left turn across three lanes of traffic. It's not safe. And maybe we could approach it that way, and then maybe a code violation before we call the police. Is that the kind of thing we could stick in here?

I think a condition may be related to the appropriateness of that driveway is a a good idea.

Okay.

It's something we can look into when we come back.

So the specific example I'm thinking of is the project on Great Park Boulevard in Sand Canyon. The entrance exit for construction is on Great Park Boulevard, but nobody wants to turn into the Great Park and go all the way down to Marine Way to go to the 5. So, you know, you have hundreds of workers coming out of there taking a left on the Great Park Boulevard. This is just a coincidence. I'm sorry.

Yeah. Your applicants get

to Sand Canyon. But it's it's dangerous. There's a lot of bike riders. That section of road really isn't finished, so it's somewhat chaotic. But I see it happen in other places like magazine. The people that come out of there, I know that's not our project, but they want to go all the way across Irvine Boulevard to take that left on what's that street there? Fox or you know which street I mean, though. Right? So, they have to the streets are just not lined up, so they make technically, it's probably not illegal, but it's definitely not safe. And, I'm sure there's other examples of that in the city I could find.

Yes. We have a condition about construction staging that that might be appropriate in, is to show a safe location for that Okay. Entrance to the construction site. We'll look Okay. At

Thank you. That's all I have. Commissioner Grossman?

First of all, want to thank Steph. I think this document represents a significant improvement in terms of clarity, in terms of applicability ease of understanding for applicants from the 2009 version and I want to applaud as you can tell there' a tremendous amount of work put into this and a tremendous amount of collaboration amongst departments to put this together. I just want to acknowledge that. My comments really just constructive feedback to try and help give you some thoughts. I was trying, as I was going through this, I was trying to read it from as if I was an applicant from a usability point of view.

I'm just going to throw some general ideas of I can potentially talk to you more in detail at another point. One of the things that I notice is it's not always clear which department is specifically responsible for approval. I understand a lot of things in the city require collaboration amongst departments but ultimately in any good decision making matrix you need to have a single decision maker or a single responsible party. I think potentially idea would be to identify responsible party or responsible for collaboration, but ultimately the responsible party to make it a little bit easier for an applicant as they're going through the process. This actually is across multiple conditions so it's not just one specific condition.

Responsible department line I think would make a big difference. Second comment is we rely a lot on phrases to the satisfaction of the director. And I absolutely want to maintain discretion of the director because within this. However, I do believe that where possible we should try and pair to the discretion to the satisfaction of the director with maybe a more concrete example of what the satisfaction of the director might look like for so we can avoid maybe more back and forth too much. Trying to build a little bit more clarity when we use a phrase like to the satisfaction as to what the satisfaction of the director would look like, whether it's through an example or whether it's through more definition in there without absolutely tying the hands of the director, which I respect the need for the discretion.

Third general comment that I wanted to make is I appreciate that you've made a lot of progress on the timing language. I think one of the biggest problems I had when I looking at the red lining is that we use many many different phrases for when something is on the issuance of the building permit the first trigger of the permit there' multiple standards being applied. I do think though that there's still an opportunity to be more to find more standardization in the language. I think if you go through and I do have some specific red lines, I think it' appropriate for me to go through them now. You' find that the way we describe, for example, first building permit as the trigger is different in different standards.

It would be nice if we can just maybe go through a little bit and try and make that more make that standardized throughout. The last excuse me. The last thing is just one as you go through it this one last time, would encourage you to take the same approach that I am, and I know you have already, but try and again almost use it from that applicant point of view. One the ideas that I that I' always found useful in decision making documents is some sort of a flow chart or decision making, but a flow chart in particular that helps someone to understand maybe even visually for those of us that are more visual learners the process and the steps. A checklist is another way of doing it, but it just would seem to be a little bit easier from an applicant point of view for a company for applicants who, for example, don't have the resources of one of our speakers here, that they can have a little bit more guidance as to how it goes.

It's just my personal feedback on a checklist or a flowchart type approach I think would be useful. But overall, I want to commend you again I think it' a significant improvement I think with a few additional refinements focused on clarity and predictability this will be a really strong tool. I' sorry there' one more thing and I assume this will be resolved in the online version There' a lot of cross referencing to statutes and ordinances and codes which obviously you can' on paper see whether or not those are linked and hyperlinked to I would assume but I shouldn' assume. Would hope that on the online version someone would be able to hyperlink to to understand the specific code of ordinance that's being referenced to. I assume that would happen online.

But again, major improvement, and thank you for indulging me with that feedback.

Thank you Commissioner Pearson.

Grossman you took half of what I was going to

say. No, learned

from you.

Thank you. It was a very good comprehensive look of our standard conditions I' surprised we haven' done it since 2009. This is exceptionally late in coming. Guess there were a couple of triggers that made us do it. But I too would like the hyperlink to be able to cross reference.

I ask how many of the what did we call them stakeholders external actually replied?

We received four. Yes, four. Four.

Okay. That's surprising given that the importance of what we're doing impacts all of them in some degree. But anyway, I would agree with Barry and if there is an opportunity to further discuss it, which Stephanie had brought up that this was really attempting to introduce it to us, I wouldn' want to shortcut the process. But I think what we' done is very good staff level and I appreciate it. Thank you Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you. Commissioner Bahia.

Thank you for that and thank you for the presentation. I'm looking at the external stakeholders here and I see a lot. And then I wanted to know, like Southern California Edison, I know they do a lot of projects, EV charging and whatnot. Could a community choice aggregator like OCPA be on this list? Or why aren't they on there?

We focus the outreach to external stakeholders to applicants who prepare and submit many applications or frequent applications rather. OCPA is not an applicant that we see.

They've never done any applications whatsoever? No. Okay. Is it because is it a reasoning for that? Or it's just do they have control over filing an application for any projects?

Couldn't opine as to why we haven't received a particular application.

Oh, okay. All right. That's the only question. Thank you.

Commissioner del kusak

thank you chair I agree with commissioner grossman's points and commissioner piercing about making this more accessible and easy to follow I do agree with our stakeholder that is here that we should have some more time. Just saw the errata right before I left to come to this meeting. Think there's some time to digest this and to flesh it out. Believe we do have that, there's a willingness here from this body to review that and make something happen hopefully within the next few meetings. I had one last question was I heard there was four stakeholders that approved to provide input I see the Irvine companies here who are the other three?

The other groups were LSA, Five Points, as well as, I believe the last one was, Star Point Ventures.

Thank you. I appreciate that. And I'd love to hear what their take is and if there's any more that come in the next couple of meetings.

Thank you. Mr. Lynn.

If there's no other discussion I was going to move I'd like to move to continue the item for two more meetings.

May 14.

May 14 is it? Okay, thank you.

Since this isn't a hearing item, it doesn't have to be a date certain either. But we can come back in two meetings.

Okay, you.

Second? Okay.

You had your motion and he seconded it, right? All

right. Thank you. Let's vote. Please prepare the voting. All right. Boom.

The motion has passed unanimously.

All right. Thank you. So our next Planning Commission meeting will be held on Thursday, 05/07/2026 at 05:30 p. M. In the City Council chamber. It is now 07:01, and I declare the meeting of 04/16/2026 adjourned.

Recording stopped.

I'm

reading it differently than I read it a year ago.