Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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more figure out how I'd like to officially call to order the planning commission meeting of February the 5th, 2026. Let the record reflect that all commissioners are present and we have one vacant seat on the commission tonight. Vice Chair Standard, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Thank you, Commissioner Standard or Vice Chair Standard. We'll start the presentations and Director Gail Arian will introduce the first item.

Yes. Our first item this evening is a year and review presentation for the year 2025. And I'd like to introduce our planning aid Tammy Ninsz. Good evening chair and commissioners. Tonight I will be presenting the year view for the community development department. The community development department is made up of three different divisions planning, building and code enforcement. In this presentation, I will go over the year in review for planning and building. Our code enforcement supervisor will have a separate presentation next month to go over what co code enforcement has been up to. In the past year, the planning commission has reviewed many entitlement permits and amendments and I'll be highlighting some of the projects from this list. The first project I'll be discussing is the imi critical engineering building which is on Pauling Street off of Pollola Parkway. This is a singlestory and manufacturing and office building that received planning commission approval in January. The project is currently under construction as seen on the photo on the left with an expected completion date in March this year and grand opening in April. Ovation's Performing Arts Conservatory on Burbank and Lake Forest Drive was approved in October. This is a commercial school for a youth musical theater which includes acting, singing, and dancing. They are currently in the process of obtaining building permits and are expected to move in this year. Barking Bliss is a dog daycare north of Maryland's Boulevard and Ridge Route Drive. They specialize in overnight boarding, daycare, and personalized dog care services. The facility could accommodate a maximum of 30 dogs at any given time and has

installed sound attenuating materials as required by code to minimize any dog noise impacts. The facility has obtained their building permits and is in the process of obtaining their OC animal care kennel permit. Next, we have an indoor table tennis athletic facility that was an addition to the World Table Tennis Management Group headquarters office on Lake Forest Drive and Regency Lane. It was approved in September. The project includes seven indoor table tennis courts and a warm-up area designed to support training for visiting world table tennis players. While it's not open to the public, it will support athletes ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Aspen Self Storage is a new one-story self-s storage building at an existing self-s storage facility. It was approved in September last year and is on Aspen Street near Mirland's Boulevard. The new building will have 36 individual storage units. Construction for both projects has not started yet as they both need to obtain their building and grading permits. Now moving on to major amendments. The mobility elements of the general plan was amended to be consistent with Orange County's master plan of arterial highways. The mobility network map was amended to modify two sections of El Toro Road from major arterial to primary arterial as seen in the photo. The zoning code was amended to replace the term cyber cafe and replaced by digital entertainment. This amendment removes unnecessary barriers for businesses such as the requirement of an annual license and related cyber cafe regulations. Additionally, the definitions of donation center and thrift store were also revised to comply with new state law. New design standards were created which includes ensuring that all

donations for the business are taken inside the building and no donations are left outside of the building. There were two ADU ordinance updates in the past year. There was one in the beginning of the year and one towards the end of the year that were initiated to amend the code to comply with changes to state law regarding ADUs and JADUs. Changes included size clarifications, impact fees, quantity of ADUs, and permitting timeline. The more recent ordinance was adopted by planning commission in December and passed by city council on January 20th of this year. Now, I'd like to highlight the award of excellence the planning department received from the American Planning Association. This award is in the housing innovation category which recognizes exceptional projects in housing development that address community needs through innovative approaches. The city re received the award for Mountain View and Aspen Court which were both developed by National Corps. Mountain View provides 71 apartment homes for individuals and families including units reserved for those who have experienced or are at risk of homelessness. Aspen Court will offer 50 units across four stories. It is on the corner of Aspen Street and Mirland's Boulevard. This project is Lake Forest's first borite development, streamlining the approval process and accelerating delivery of muchneeded housing. It includes 65 parking stalls, a landscaped courtyard, and a dedicated policing center embedded within the complex. Construction has not started yet as the site still needs to obtain building and grading permits. Both of these projects exemplify innovation in housing policy, public private collaboration, and community centered design. Moving on from planning, we'll go over to um the building division for updates. Last year, a total of 2,700 building

permits were issued. There were over 12,000 inspections, 28 ADU permits issued, and 61 single family dwelling units. These numbers are all an increase from last year's numbers, as seen on the slide. So, the building division has been busy. Every 3 years, the California building code is updated. City council adopted the 2025 California building code with local amendments effective on January 2nd this year. Key areas with local amendments include building, residential, electrical, mechanical, and fire. That concludes our year in review presentation. And please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Do any commissioners have any comments or questions? If not, Tammy, thank you very much for a very fine presentation. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Director, can you please introduce item number two? Yes. Our second presentation uh is the capital improvement plan update and Joe Claudio, principal engineer, is here this evening for this uh presentation.

Good evening, Chair Luton, members of the commission, ladies and gentlemen. Again, my name is Joe Claudio and I'm one of the engineers in the city's public works department. And this evening, I'll be presenting a capital improvement program or CIP update for the fourth quarter of 2025. So although technically the city adopts a 7-year CIP, the public works department reviews and updates the CIP on a two-year basis. So the current 2527 CIP includes 58 projects for a total budget of 54.5 million and that is spread over five general categories of projects including parks and recreation traffics environmental and facilities type projects. This evening I'm going to start off with the projects that have been completed in the 2527 CIP. Then moving on to projects in construction, preconstruction, design, and wrapping up with pre-esign. We have six projects under that have been completed. Two of which were at Heroes Park. The Heroes Park field renovation were u two fields, fields one and four, where we completely renovated fields one and four, and we also improve the LED lighting throughout the entire park. The next four traffic projects include TSSP projects, which are traffic signal synchronization projects at these various intersections. We also completed seven other projects previously than uh the fourth quarter. The uh residential street overlay in the

zone D project and Kenyana road overlay which included the full overlay of Kenyana Road from I believe Lake Forest Drive to Dimension Drive, the sports park turf replacement project and the building roof repairs. the community park turf replacement, El Toro irrigation conservation project, Normanddale open space renovation, and the citywide street name sign replacement project. Overall, those 13 projects represent a $10 million investment in the community. Now, currently, we have 12 projects in construction. Lyftum, which stands for Lake Forest Transportation Mitigation, is a developer fee funded project. This first project at Losos and Rockfield was actually bundled with the next two projects, Lake Forest and Geronimo and Lake Forest and Rancho. And essentially the the purpose was to construct a de facto right turn lane which is a curb lane with sufficient width to have a through lane movement and a right turn movement. The lake forest and Gono project was actually a physical widening project which is much more complicated because we have utility relocation involved as well. We did some citywide restroom renovations which are painting the flooring and some fixtures. And the uh renovations at Vintage Park include the tread guards that you see in the slide there as well as we will be repairing the um retaining wall at the toe of the slope. The Bacon Tribco is another um lift widening project which is pretty complex

because again but it's a physical widening and you have the utility relocation that is currently under construction as you see there in the slide and with the uh the K rail that concrete barrier there it's just to protect the workers and hopefully facilitate construction. That project is scheduled to be complete in the summer of this year. The next group of projects FCPP which is foothill circulation phasing plan is another developer fee uh based project and these four projects were the El Toro corridor projects. They were bundled together and awarded by council last September. The El Toro uh Geronimo uh widening project that's a physical widening on Geronimo just north of El Toro. Then we have the raised medians and the rehab project on El Toro road itself from Girono to Tribuko. And then finally we have a raised median on Tribuko just north of El Toro to replace the stick down delineators there. Currently we're doing pre-construction coordination with the contractor. So we have not yet issued the notice to proceed for this project. The Lake Forest Sports Pack Sports Park HVAC replacement and Foothill Ranch Bach Lacrosse projects are also in the construction phase. Preconstruction would be those projects that have not yet awarded a construction contract. So, they're either in the advertisement phase or we just have not yet awarded the construction contract yet. These include the pickle ball courts at El Toro Park, CDBG, which is community development block grant, APS is audible uh pedestrian signal, another uh grant

funded project, and the citywide street sidewalk repairs shown on the slide. Citywide Park Concrete Trail Repairs, slurry seal of zone D, and the city civic center slurry seal project are also in the pre-construction phase. The projects in design include these intersections, which will essentially all include um additional left turn movements. So, some of these are physical widenings, and the middle one there is actually Irvine lead as it said there. We also have the arterial wall enhancement in southwest lake forest and the bake parkway resurfacing project. That bake parkway resurfacing project will essentially take the improvements from where the bake tribucco job is stopping now which is I believe is artist's way and taking it easterly towards the city limit and the toll road. We're also including some improvements at Nature and Lake Forest Parks and Peachwood Park pre-esign. Now, these projects are not actually in the design phase yet. They're being scoped out and they include the Lake Forest Sports Park building renovation, Etnne's skate park building improvements, Aliso Creek drainage repairs, nature park trail connection, and Kavanagh Park. In summary, that concludes my presentation. Um, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Do any commissioners have questions? If not, thank you very much for your presentation. You're welcome. Thank you very much. At this time, members of the public may address the commission regarding matters not on the agenda and within the jurisdiction of the planning commission. Comments shall be limited to three minutes per person. If you'd like to make a comment, please fill out a speaker card and submit it to the commission secretary. Speaker cards are available at the agenda review table by the entrance. Madame Commission Secretary, have we received any speaker cards for non-aggendaized items? I have not received any for non-aggendaized items.

Thank you. This is the time for the commission to consider items or matters listed under the consent calendar. Have we received any comments from members of the public on the consent calendar? I have not received any. Thank you. Any commissioners wish to discuss anything on the consent calendar? If not, we're looking for a motion. I'll move it. I'll second. Please vote.

The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. I'll now open the public hearing for item number five, and director Gail Arian will introduce this item.

Yes. This item is a use permit to establish a pet daycare, grooming, training, and boarding facility. And assistant planner Siamara Solless has a report this evening. Good evening, chair and members of the planning commission. This item is an application for a use permit to operate an animal kennel training and grooming facility in an existing 1,383 square foot suite in the Lake Forest Corridor Shopping Center located west of the Rancho Parkway and Bake Parkway intersection. A kennel is defined by the Lake Forest Municipal Code as any non-residential property where four or more dogs or four or more cats over the age of four months are kept or maintained for any purpose except veterinary clinics and hospitals, pet stores, and property for which an animal permit has been issued includes dog daycare. The general plan designation is commercial. The zoning is urban activity and it is within the Baker Ranch planned community. The use of kennel requires a use permit approved by the planning commission. The use is subject to the zoning regulations of animal service business and pets and animals. Included in the project description and plans are proposed modifications to the tenant space, which include the creation of a waiting room, separate cat and dog activity areas, steril sterilization room, and cleaning room. The applicant is proposing to accommodate a maximum of 35 dogs and 15 cats at the facility. Hours of operations would be Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Saturday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday by appointment only. Overnight boarding services will be available Monday

through Sunday with the drop off and pickup taking place Monday between Saturday between 7 Monday and Saturday between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. and on Sunday between 9:00 a.m. and noon. City regulations for animal service businesses include the following. Animals must be in airond conditioned and sound attenuated buildings. Provide for animal waste bags and bins near the entrance of the business and a permit from Orange County Animal Care. In addition, city regulations establish a minimum of 50 ft distance from animal housing facilities to residential properties. The proposed location exceeds this distance requirement. The center includes a variety of service businesses such as a dental office, O'Reilly Auto Parts, and 24-hour Fitness, none of which present conflicting uses. The proposed business aligns with zoning as it will be sound attenuated. The suite intended for kennel use already has air conditioning. Staff prepared a draft resolution for approval of the use permit which was provided as an attachment to the report. The recommendation is based on the analysis in the report and cites factors such as consistency with the general plan, zoning, and distance between the proposed use and residential properties. This concludes the presentation on this item. The applicant is not available tonight to answer questions.

Thank you. Thank you very much for that presentation. I appreciate it very much. Have we received any comments from members of the public on this item? I have not received any. Thank you. Do any members of the commission have any questions or comments for discussion? If that's the case, I'll close the public hearing. Do I have a motion to consider approving this item as recommended by staff? I'll move the item. I'll second. Okay, let's vote.

And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you. I'll now open the public hearing for item number six. And director Gail Archer will introduce this item. Yes. This item is the demolition of the existing theater building and site improvements and the construction of a new Costco wholesale retail building and associate planner Connor Musler has a staff report and presentation.

Thank you. Good evening chair and commissioners. This item before you is an application package for the proposed development of a Costco wholesale retail warehouse at 2662 Town Center Drive. The proposed location is within the Foothill Ranch Town Center, more specifically phase 4, and it's the area that's generally bounded by Bake Parkway, Town Center Drive, Marketplace, and State Route 241. The project site is presently developed with the movie theater building that was most recently occupied by CineArk until its closure in September of 2024. The building has been vacant since then. This application package includes a few entitlement requests. The first being for a site development permit to demolish the existing movie theater building and construct in its place a new 165,068 square foot building with an entrance canopy. The building would be 34t tall and would include parking, landscaping, and associated site improvements. And there's been some rumblings out there, but the food festival next door will be remaining. In addition to the site development permit, there are a few use permits that are requested. The first being for off-site alcoholic beverage sales, the next for light automotive repair in the tire center, and the third for exceptions to the mixeduse development standards. In addition, a plan sign program is proposed to modify the existing plan sign program, and a determination of public convenience or necessity is also required for the alcohol beverage sales due to an overconentration of alcohol licenses in the census tract. The project complies with all applicable development standards includ including setbacks, maximum height and floor area ratio. All users within phase 4 share their parking facilities. With the proposed Costco, a total of 1,994 parking spaces would be required with a total of 2,68 spaces provided, leaving a surplus of about 70 plus spaces. As previously mentioned, there are a few requested exceptions to the mixeduse development standards. The mixeduse zoning regulations have a few site

design and building design requirements to ensure that high quality development occurs within the mixeduse areas. The first requested exception relates to the open space. Uh properties that are zoned mixeduse 43 are required to provide 25% open space. The site as presently developed with the movie theater and parking lot facilities only has about 8.1% landscape open space. The applicant has included landscaping throughout the parking lot, around the building, and along all the property lines, bringing the total proposed landscape a slight increase from what's currently out there to about 8.8%. The extensive landscaping has increased what's out there and maintains all required parking and shared driveway facilities. So, the exception the requested exception is pretty reasonable. The next requested exception relates to the massing brakes. The mixeduse regulations require that buildings have horizontal articulation at 50 foot intervals. This requirement is to ensure that there's no blank unarticulated facads uh facing the public. So, the applicant has included some architectural features such as some popouts using perforated metal paneling, some material changes with the varying usage of CMU blocks, vertical metal paneling, various colors, and canopies over areas of pedestrian accessible accessibility. These architectural features do not meet the criteria to be classified as massing brakes, but they do contribute to an architecturally interesting building that ensures that there are no blank unarticulated facade. In addition, the code requires that vertical articulation be provided at 50 foot intervals to ensure that there are no flat unarticulated roof lines. The applicant is proposing to include vertical articulation at various intervals ranging from 20 feet to 87.5 ft and those features are carried consistently throughout the building. In addition, on the outside of the building, the Foothill Business Association is proposing some modifications to the plan sign program that was initially approved by the

planning commission back in December of 2017. That sign program establishes sign regulations relating to the sign placement, construction, design, size of signs, and that covers all tenants within phase 4. The proposed modifications would expand the classification of a major tenant to include all tenants that occupy a building area of 25,000 square feet or larger. In addition, the percent sign area limitation for each sign is proposed to increase from 10% to 15% while still maintaining a maximum square footage limitation of 350 square ft. The total number of wall signs is proposed to increase from 3 to four and the total number of secondary signs from two to three. The secondary signs are things like the entry and exit signs and the tire center sign. Moving on to the inside of the building, the proposed alcohol sales would be in conjunction with a type 21 ABC license. This would allow for beer, wine, and distilled spirits for off-site consumption. The figure shown on the slide outlines in red where the proposed alcohol sales would occur. And that occupies about 1,765 square feet out of the overall 160,942 foot sales area or about 1.10%. Due to the over concentration of alcohol licenses in this census tracks, ABC has determined that a determination of public convenience or necessity is required. So, the application was reviewed by the chief of police services, and no concerns were raised with the sale of alcohol at this location. Costco is proposing numerous security measures, including the usage of security cameras, age verification prior to the sale of alcoholic beverages, and staff training. In addition, the warehouse area is only accessible to Costco members, and the sales are considered ancillary to the business offerings due to the extensive grocery, household, and automotive services and goods that are sold at this location. Also proposed inside the building are five tire center service bays shown in blue. The services would

be limited to the sale, installation, and maintenance of tires. The project is exempt from SQA pursuant to SQA guidelines section 15183. This means that the project is consistent with the city's general plan that's been adopted and the general plan ER that's been certified by the city council. There are no unique environmental circumstances that necessitate further environmental review. And the use of the SQA exemption is supported by numerous technical studies, including a traffic study, greenhouse gas analysis, and noise study. These technical studies that were prepared by the applicant, the applicant's development team were peer-reviewed by the city's environmental planning consultant, Denovo Planning Group, and city staff. With that, staff recommends that the planning commission find that the project is exempt from SQA and adopt the resolutions as shown on the screen and further detailed in your staff report approving the project. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have. The applicant, Michael Akuma, is also in the audience if you have any questions about the project. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your presentation. That was very well done. Madam Secretary, have we received any comments from the public on this? I've received two requests to speak. Dwight Robinson followed by Andrew O' Conor. Please state your name and city of residence for us if you would.

Well, good evening. It's uh I think this is my first time on this side of the dis. So, uh, my name is Dwight Robinson, resident of Lake Forest for 27 years, a former city council member and mayor, and, uh, I'm here tonight to support the recommended action from staff, uh, regarding the findings, as well as the adoption of the resolutions. Um, just want to share three things with you. first being uh just some of my interaction with residents with respect to this uh project, a discussion about uh taxes, and then a discussion about uh businesses and and uh competition and things of that nature. So, um when the movie theater closed, I had a lot of residents uh that reached out to me to express their dismay that we wouldn't have a theater here in town. Um, and uh, they were very curious about what might fill the place of a very big space uh, in one of the key centers in town. And just about every single one of them came up to me once they heard about Costco coming in and they said they're just so excited to see that happen. Um, I I bump into many residents when I go to the Costco uh, in Irvine and uh, have a lot of great conversations in the parking lot and inside the store. we're going to be able to have those in town now. So, that's going to be nice. Um, but I've I've received nothing but positive feedback about Costco coming into Lake Forest. And, uh, as you know, there's certain types of businesses that residents really want to see here. Uh, they want to see more independent restaurants, independently owned restaurants. Uh, they want to see uh, particular specialty grocerers, and Costco is another one of those uh, types of businesses that they want to see in town. So, heard a lot of positive comments there. That's what I've heard from many, many residents at my church, in my neighborhood, um people that I I I talk to, friends, uh family, my in-laws, all those sorts of things. Everybody's really excited about this. So, um that's that's one of the reasons why I'm here

tonight. The second thing that I want to talk to you about is uh taxes and sales tax leakage, right? And we have a sales tax leak sales tax leakage issue specifically with big box stores like this. Uh like I said, we've got a lot of residents going into Irvine and uh they're they're spending their money there and we want to make sure that they spend their money here. So, uh that's another reason why I think that we should support this. Finally, I want to talk about uh the businesses and potential competition, things like that. U my youngest son spends a lot of time in Aliso Viejo Pacific Park and Alicia Parkway. And uh he he's hanging out there with his buddies. they want to grab some pizza and there's a Costco right down the street that they could go to. Um, sometimes they're spending, my son's spending my money, sometimes he's spending his own. So, you'd think, you know, he might want to go for a cheap slice of pizza that's still going to nourish him and and taste good, but he bypasses that on occasion and ends up at Blaze Pizza. So, I I think that some of those adjacent businesses are going to thrive because there's going to be a lot more people in the center and there may be some uh loss of business, but I think they're going to gain just as much. So, um you know, all those restaurants um and and other businesses, I think that uh there's going to be great opportunity for them to increase their sales. So, thank you very much for your time. Really appreciate it. And again, I encourage you to uh um adopt the recommended action here from staff. Thank you very much for your comments,

Andrew O' Conor. Andrew Oconor, Foothill Ranch. I'm the original resident from 1990. I've seen everything get built, roadways, streets, schools, the whole thing. Um, I'm against this Costco development and I'll raise and I'll explain why. Um, first I'd like u the people who are on the commission up on the das of four of you. I'd like you to raise your hand and tell me how many of you live in district one. Okay. So, you're going to decide tonight. Do you live in district one, sir?

Which one is that? Is that the one in Foothill Ranch? Is that what you're asking? Yes, I live there. Okay. Thank you. How many live in district two? I do.

You live in district two, district three, district four, and district five. It's kind of embarrassing. You don't even know what district you're in on the commission. That's that's really interesting. I don't see any dates and I don't remember. You know, every mill knows Andy Okconor and Steve Lake Forest because I come to the city council meetings. Even Robinson knows me. We've had some good discussions, but I don't remember any dates or any town hall meetings to discuss this project. As big as it was, I never received any information. Was an informal vote ever sent out to the voters. It can be done. Aaron Rodriguez could do one really quick. I never saw anything go out. Why are we rushing so quickly to approve this thing to come in? Why? You haven't looked at other options. You haven't talked to the residents. You're just rushing that in. Okay, I get it. The the theater, we all know what's happened in that industry. It's got to go and it's going to something will replace it. Well, man, it seems like Costco showed right up and you guys are like, "Oh, man, look at that." And your eyes just got really big because of one thing. I got a $20 bill of Jackson on it. You guys just want the money. That's all. What about the quality of life for the people of Foothill Ranch? My quality of life. You're going to take it away from me. I don't expect a mega box there. The streets around I I wrote it here to you. The streets around it. They can't even handle the traffic. Now you're going to bring it to Costco. doesn't make sense. Mr. Robinson thinks that the food court's gonna survive. I I don't think so. You're going to crush them. He talks about opening independent businesses. Costco will crush them. They're gone. So, you're going to just crush that much

more of it. You have not you've not looked at other options for this. Costco came in, signed up, you got the money like, "Yeah, look at that tax dollars and all that." Our our city is run well, okay? We've got all this money. We're rated top. It's not like we need any more tax revenue, but you guys are rushing when Costco shows up. You haven't thought this thing out. You haven't looked at other options. You haven't talked to the uh residents how we feel about it. Thank you very much. Your time's up.

That concludes our public comment. Do we have any other comments from the public? That concludes our public comment. Thank you. Any of the commissioners have any questions or comments? Commissioner Greyel.

So, obviously the the number one issue for a a use such as this is traffic. there was a a the technical appendices spent hundreds of pages on the traffic analysis as well as as uh our requirements and guidelines of of levels of service and such. So, as reading through that, even projecting out into into 2028, it all the intersections were at least level of service B or better, as I recall, and there were were only two intersections. Um, and I may be mistake, it might be third, a third, but but I believe it's just two intersections that that were level service B. Everything else was A.

That's correct. Yeah, the two intersections were Bake and Town Center and Town Center and Marketplace. And the traffic report was I mean was literally hundreds of pages of very detailed analysis of not only uh all the intersection movements but traffic counts on the roadway looking at the guidelines of what Town Center was was originally supposed to max out at. And so with this Costco, uh, my understanding is that there the the counts are well below the city's city's requirements for the for the land use for this property. Correct. Correct. Yes. Okay.

Uh, excuse me. Excu Ex excuse me. I'm talking to the planner. So as far as the uh so as far as far as traffic being the most important issue that was examined, there's been no impacts that can't be mitigated. In fact, um there was no requirement for any mitigation whatsoever. And my understanding is Costco has volunteered to provide some additional self-migation I or or I'll call it maybe community benefits irrespective of the mitigation or lack thereof requirements. Corre so correct the technical studies for the traffic did not identify the need for any intersection improvements or any turning pocket extensions. Um we are you know as a good faith just working to make sure that all parties are satisfied to make sure that um there will be no continuous traffic issues that may come up in the future along Town Center Drive but at this time there are no need for improvements at that area. So, so with traffic impacts not really a factor in the based upon the analysis then noise, air quality, all the ancillary uh impacts analyzed are also well below the city's minimum uh or I should say maximum requirements on the site. Correct.

That's correct. Yes. Okay. Excuse me. You do not have the floor. The commissioners only are discussing this matter right now. That's all the questions I have at this time. Mr. Chairman, Commissioner Vilrock, do you have any questions? Yes, please, Chair. Thank you very much. Question either for Connor or Gail. When when this area in Foothill Ranch got reszoned to mixeduse, was that with the 2040 plan, general plan update? Yes.

Yes. I was going to just add that the mixeduse zoning allows for mixes of commercial and residential, all residential or all commercial. So, uh, this is consistent with that new land use designation.

Okay, great. So, looking and and living in Foothill Ranch somewhere that I go regularly that this area is constantly changing with different businesses like they come in, they go out at home is the one we get another chicken restaurant, we get a craft store, we get another craft store, a thrift store. Um, so Costco to me could be that anchor that could really bring the quality of restaurants and businesses that we want within Lake Forest. Um, one concern I do have is is looking at the vision of what I think mixed use is supposed to be, especially in communities across Southern California, that you see this walkable space, you have open space, you have bike paths, you have, you know, ground level retail and, uh, coffee shops, and you have above ground apartments, low income, um, all that stuff that kind of goes to that point. So this is what I would like and what I would hope that this area would eventually turn into and you need an anchor to start that process. So with that, the one concern I do have with the Costco is their request to have a waiver to reduce the open space from 25 to 8.8 8 which is.7% greater than what it was currently that I would hope to see that there was some more connection between the Costco with some open space some either paths or some benches that could connect to the existing um what's it called the the restaurants that are there that exist and see if there was any opportunity to to work on some of that open space to move forward. Do you have any other comments or Okay. Vice Chair Standard, do you have any

questions or comments? I do. Thank you. A couple of questions real quickly. Um, the meeting was public noticed as per protocol. Is that correct? That is correct. Yes. And we received I think three letters in advance of the meeting. Is that correct? That is correct. Yes. And one was from one of the speakers, the one of the public member speakers this evening. Um and then we've only had two speakers that chose to to dive into this topic up here and come up and speak. Correct. Okay. So everything was there and that was good. So there was notice to the public and they had the opportunity to respond.

Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Um, the traffic studies, they were paid for by Costco, I would imagine, during the development process. Correct. That is correct. Yep. And then they were reviewed by city staff and potentially a cons a city consultant and deemed correct or at least valuable and accurate. Is that correct? Yes. The applicant prepares the technical studies. We review them for their consistency with SQA and the city's policies and code to make sure that they meet those thresholds. And we did have an environmental consultant, Denovo Planning, also peer-reviewed those and they gave it the thumbs up. Is that correct? That is correct.

That's wonderful. Thank you. Um, just to piggyback a little bit, I do have a question on Commissioner Vilwalk's comments about the development of that center. We had a vision meeting last year for Lake Forest and the commissioners were gathered and we were provided input on what we wanted what who Lake Forest is, what we are u where we what we want to become and just the long-term vision for key areas of the city. One of them being the Foothill Ranch Town Center. And one of the things that was received positively in those comments was turning that into a being that it was mixed use was turning it into a center, a community center, like a a town center, truly town center, and being able to bring in housing aspect to it. um walking trails, shopping environment that is more walkable and the likes. Um so given the fact that Costco, I think they just broke ground not too long ago if I'm not mistaken in LA has a store going in with mixeduse aspects to it. Was that a question or involved in the discussions that were take that took place? The ultimate design of that would obviously I would defer to the applicant on that and what's going to work for them. From a city side of things, you know, we look at our zoning code and as Gail had mentioned, what is permitted in that location includes single-use projects. So, while it is zoned to allow for a mixture of uses, any user can come at the end of the day and propose a standalone retail project, a standalone uh residential project, there is no, you know, requirements that they include either one. And that's not within, you

know, the realms of staff to say, hey, you need to have residential here or you need to have a commercial component here.

No, definitely. I understand it's not a requirement. I was just curious if it was part of a discussion because in looking at the planning of the city and the specific areas, especially something especially when we have the housing push by the state in order to create units, if that was part of the discussion or could have been part of the discussion, that was that's just that was the question. So, and kind of a statement about we got together, we talked about it would be nice to have a little bit of follow have had a little bit of followup on that but other than that I think that's I've asked my question you've answered it perfectly. Thank you so much. My turn. In terms of Costco's discussion about the two intersections, is there any provision that if this traffic issue comes up again, presuming that something happens and these intersections now, these two intersections in question now become, shall we say, overloaded? Is Costco willing in the future to come back and help to mitigate that problem? Do we have anything in our conditions that would uh commit Costco to improving those intersections if that were to be the case

from the city's side of things? And that's kind of where that one little statement within the staff report is that you know we're maintaining that open dialogue with Costco to ensure that any impacts are very minimal that they comply with the technical studies that there will be no need for improvements and that's what you know we still stand by within the squid document of things. So, we are just going to maintain that open communication with the Costco team through this process. Uh, if during the time of opening and and I I think back to when Bass Pro Shops opened in Irvine, that was I drive right by there every day to get back home and that was a traffic nightmare. I'm sure there will be some high increase of everyone excited to go visit the Costco for a while and then they'll all die off and go back to whatever Costco they used to go to or find this one amazing. But, we are going to maintain that open dialogue with Costco. Well, the only reason I bring that up is I regularly shop at the Costco in Irvine. It is right now a traffic nightmare. No matter how you cut it and I know we have traffic studies and I know that, you know, they they're very carefully done. They're also paid for by the applicant. But I guess my question is, is there some provision we can put into our conditional use permit that says if that situation changes from what the traffic study says, can we go back to Costco and put a condition in that they will could be good on their offer? That's my question. I guess maybe I need to ask that to Gail or Amy.

I think my initial comment would be uh we've never included a condition of approval like that on any project. Obviously, if a business opens up and and there's congestion or something, it'd be difficult to attribute it to that particular business. So, we look at the technical studies. We did not identify any impacts. We did not identify any need for mitigation and then that's the recommendation and the project moves forward. We don't have a a look back on a project once it's built to say, "Oh, the city will now require you to spend, you know, x amount of money to um do something that wasn't considered."

Well, the only reason I mentioned that is we had the shopping center down there on Rockfield and Lake Forest that had a continuous traffic problem. We did need to at some point do something to improve that one. Is that it's totally the city's initiative or did we have a discussion with the landlord on that one? Was that the Lake Forest Gateway? Yes, the gateway plazard. Um [laughter] on on that particular project, that was a discussion with the applicant and I believe they added an additional um entry to the center that they didn't have before. They worked with their on-site circulation. Um uh that was uh an an action that was taken by the property owner.

Excuse me. You do not have the floor. You do not have the floor. Thank you. You're not allowed to talk. I don't care. Keep it up and I'll have you removed. Okay. I'm not going to pursue this issue any further. But I'm just curious since traffic has been the issue all along with this probably the only issue really that counts in this thing. So

Mr. Mr. Chair, in the report there was a a comparison of Costco in the area and I think based upon this particular location because it's a little further removed from some of the major corridors. I mean you have toll road right there but in terms of like the I5 and so forth where some of the other costs are located I think it was projected that the traffic counts here would be significantly less than some of the other locations also too the because I'm actually familiar with the one in Irvine as well although I'm not allowed to go into Costco by myself um anymore but the um but the throat in that parking lot is a lot a lot uh um shallower than what we're talking here. U and then also too to go along with with Commissioner Stannard's comments, we don't have the ability to to look at this center in a comprehensive format unless all the property owners kind of come together and approach the city in some sort of a a comprehensive planning exercise. Is that correct, Gil?

Um only partially. Uh we actually have a in the city's general plan we identify this mixeduse area mixeduse 43 and specifically call out in the foothill town center if a applicant were to come forward with a residential project that they need to do some sort of a master plan for the quadrant that they're in. So as in as residential is introduced there is a requirement that an applicant uh take a more comprehensive look at that. This project represents an existing commercial use being changed over to another existing commercial use. A little bit different situation there. Got it. Thank you.

One last question on the issue with the restaurants that currently occupy that theater building. Has there been any discussion about they're going to be relocated or is Costco had made any comments about that at the the food festival? Yes, the building will be remaining. So that food festival is not going anywhere. So, I don't see a need to relocate anybody. That's what I was just curious because they were demoing the theater building that to me they were kind of together. So, I think they share an architectural feature. It's like a a canopy type thing that goes between them that will remain as part of the demolition but just be cut off right there and separated from the from the movie theater.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. That's all the questions I have at this point. I'll close if there's any more no more questions. I'll close the public hearing. Can I just Can I see if the applicant's available for a question? Yes. Oh, well, we'll keep the public hearing open. Thank you. It'll be really quick. I'm the AVP of uh development.

Nice to meet you, sir. I just wanted to ask you the question. Is there any opportunity to increase the mixed use or sorry, the open space percentage above the 8.8%. We looked through it to in order to maximize the parking requirements from the as a city's requirement and also to uh uh add to the site. We had looked at it and we've increased it a bit to 08 or 7 7

from that and uh anything more we can look at it some more but anything more then we start dipping into the parking issue with the city in terms of parking requirements and as mentioned with the Irvine warehouse there is access and parking issues and we think we'll we believe strongly that we'll that that is addressed with this particular design that it wouldn't happen here as in our vine. So the current design addresses all that and currently you guys have more parking spaces that are required for the city of Lake Forest in this area. Correct.

Right. And and we believe that uh that's it's more than what the city's requiring, but it is it will work for our use in terms of uh the members in this community that will shop here. So, we're we're reluctant to drop it because we don't want to get into a situation like Irvine where you have a shortage of parking or Dustin. Is the Irvine location larger and the percentage of the parking comparable to what this is going to potentially be and the parking here? Somewhat somewhat I think we have a little bit more at this facility to accommodate.

Okay. So there's no opportunity to increase some of the open space that could really be the the anchor and the flagship for this area to really give us the vision of of changing this area into not a big black asphalt parking lot. We've we've done some work on the site uh working with staff. We can look into a little bit more to see if there's any opportunities. How about upsizing upsizing some of the the what you programmed in as far as landscape etc.

Uh we can look at we can look into that. Uh we've done quite a bit of upsizing to try to fit it fit it within the context of the planters and the planting uh the parking lot. Okay. Thank you. Any other commissioner questions or can I close to the point we're close the public hearing? Do we have a motion to motion on this? Do we need to do this separately for each of the four items or can we do this together? You could do this together. Okay. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve. We have a second

all the resolutions as a comprehensive motion. I will second. Okay. Do we want want have some additional discussion first? I I I just wanted to just again just reiterate that

with Costco coming in, I think it I agree it's a great opportunity to bring more uses in and to have more more scale of uh of of people coming in and and this being a destination. However, I still would like to encourage the uh the property owners, and again, the property owners, it's entirely up to their discretion, but it'd be nice to have uh just a just a comprehensive approach to the rest of the center with Costco as an anchor if if that is something that the uh um property owners are interested in doing. Are we ready to vote? I'm waiting for one more vote, please.

Going. Did you get it? Waiting for one more still. My screen's frozen. Yeah, mine's frozen, too. Um, I will reset it. Please vote. Okay, it's okay. Can I do a verbal? I'll go ahead and do a roll call vote. Hi, Commissioner Greyel. Hi, Vice Chair Stannard. I Chair Leen, I

Commissioner Vilbach, I.

And that passes unanimously. Thank you. At this point, we move on to the discussion items, which is the planning commission selection and reorganization of officers. and is the outgoing chairperson. I would like to thank everyone for like to thank everyone for the opportunity to be your chair for the last year and appreciate all the work that's been done and all the support that I've received and uh I've certainly enjoyed my time with each of you commissioners. I think it's been a great opportunity and I really enjoy working with the staff and the staff has done such an excellent job in providing you know the projects to us and in doing the work and making it easy for us to understand what we're doing here. Uh I just want to thank all of you for that and it's been a pleasure being with you and look forward to supporting the person who takes this seat after me. At this point we'd like to open nominations for the 26 chair.

Like to nominate Commissioner or Standard. Second. Second that. Okay. We have any other nominations?

If not, let's vote. I'm waiting for one more vote. Thank you. Motion passes with three yes votes and vice chair standard abstaining. Okay, at this point we'll open the nominations for vice chair. I nominate Tom Greyler. a second. A second.

And that motion passes with three yes votes and three yes votes and Commissioner Gible abstaining. Okay. At this point, you're a new chair and I'll defer to you. That's great. What's next? There you go. [laughter] That's why I have That's exactly why you have that.

Thank you. First of all, um, now is a time for the director's comments. Do you have any comments, Gail? No comments this evening. Thank you. Does the city attorney have any comments? Uh, no comments, but glad to see you all tonight. Good to see you, too. Thank you. Planning Commission comments. Commissioner Greyel. Just after completing one year, it's been a pleasure to serve and and look forward to uh the next year coming and serving uh all of you as your vice chairs. Thank you, Commissioner Vwok. Good job by staff. Good job, Connor. appreciate the presentation and nice seeing everybody and happy 2026.

Commissioner Leon, thank you everybody for the again for the fine service and uh I really don't have an issue with the uh the two intersections, but I brought that up just to make sure that we all understood exactly where we are with that. Uh so don't get me wrong on that one. I totally support the the Costco coming in here and I think it will be a great asset to Foothill Ranch. I know everybody that I've talked to has been quite excited about that and I think uh this was probably the largest information packet we've ever had at 2,000 pages 2400 I believe.

2400 I mean it's I'm surprised you don't have a sore arm carrying it around but uh you guys did an excellent job on that. That's a huge project. Studies were well done, I thought. And I think you covered the bases very well. I'm glad I was here to sign off on it. With that, we'll adjourn the meeting. Well, you'll adjourn the meeting. I I'm going to make a comment or two if that

if that's okay. Um I'm excited about the the the chair position. Thank you very much for the votes. I appreciate it. Um, and I do want to make a comment on Costco really quickly. Actually, both businesses, the the pet care, which is wonderful to have. It's well needed, and we know that from Barking Bliss. I remember when we did that. It was exciting um this last year and everything that was accomplished when we reviewed that uh the thorough report. Thanks again for that. Um on the Costco aspect of it, I love Costco. I'm glad that they're here. I'm somewhat sad that we're not going to have a gas station. Um, but there will be one in Mission VJO from my understanding as a standalone gas station. Um, with that said, I would like and I and I referenced it earlier in regard to how it is that we look at and I understand everything that we talked about in regard to these are property rights and owners have the the right to do that, but whether or not we can be more proactive in how it is if we're asking the questions. And that's why I posed it that way. Are we asking them, are we giving, are we putting the opportunity or at least a thought in their head as to how it is that we want things developed? And I think Commissioner Greybel um kind of piggybacked on that initial thought in regards to um bringing vision to some of the applicants as well. That I think would be helpful. I would love to see it because everything that we discussed at that uh vision meeting there was a lot of good things there and it would be wonderful to see it come for come come to fruition. So thank you very much. Um this meeting is adjourned and our next regular meeting is scheduled for March 5th 2026. Thank you.