Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Hi. Welcome to the center at Founders Village Senior and Community Center. Why should you join us? Come and see for yourself.

Teenagers are known for their technical skills, so what better teachers to bring to the Fountain Valley Senior Center than high school students? And it's also been a learning opportunity for both the students and the seniors. Team Tech Tutors started a few years back with a need that was noticed at the center at Founders Village with seniors asking staff.

I should be in the room, all the way down.

Just kidding. Okay. Thank you so much.

I need help with my phone regarding why is it, like, lagging, how can I get get my password back? I need help on this app. And, of course, it became a reoccurring thing through Monday through Friday.

So the city reached out to Fountain Valley High School to see if students could volunteer.

I'm here at personal tech support. I'm here at Adam Morrison.

So they come in with questions, and we answer them. And it can range from either helping them with their emails.

I'd like to call the Planning Commission meeting of 04/22/2026, to order. Please join me in the salute to the flag. Roll call, please.

Yes, sir. Commissioner Vu? Aye. Commissioner Brothers? Here. Commissioner Escona? Here. Commissioner James? Here. Vice Chair Huebner? Here. Chair Langer? Here. We have a quorum sir.

Are there any supplemental communications tonight?

Yes, I believe our senior planner Matt Jenkins provided a red line version of the resolution before you this evening with some minor changes and he'll walk you through those during his presentation. And I also believe there's some public comments in there as well. Great, thank you.

Zoom participants wishing to address the Planning Commission can indicate through the chat feature which item you would like to speak on and click on the raise hand icon to let the administrator know you wish to speak. Anyone in the audience wishing to speak must fill out and submit a blue speaker card. The planning commission can take no action on this date unless the item is agendized. Anyone wishing to speak on items not on tonight's agenda may do so during public comments. Speakers on items scheduled for public hearing or nonpublic hearing items will be invited to speak when those items are heard.

All public comments are allowed up to three minutes to speak. Right. So now we're at the public comments section. Anyone wishing to speak on nonagendized items may do so at this time. Do we have any of those?

I don't believe I have any in the

in on the Zoom? Yeah. No. Great. Onto our consent calendar. We have the 04/08/2026 Planning Commission meeting minutes. Can I get a motion for item one? Move the item. And second. Great. I've got a motion from vice chair Huber and a second from commissioner Brothers. We'll do a voice vote. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? For the record, I

believe commissioner Vu, you were absent last meeting, so I'm gonna we'll mark it as app abstaining. Thank you.

Alright. On to the public hearing. Before we start, I must note that it's customary for commissioners to visit applicant sites. Unless any commissioner has further disclosure statements at this time, it may be stated that no contact was made during the visit with the applicant, his or her agent, or neighbors of the proposed project. Any of those?

Alright. We will go to item number two, code amendment twenty four zero one, precise plan five eighty one, Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center parking structure project. The proposed project includes the removal of an existing surface parking lot with 231 parking spaces for the development of a freestanding three story parking structure located at the southwest corner of Talbert Avenue and Foster Street. The proposed structure includes one subterranean level, three covered parking levels, and a rooftop parking level for a total of five levels. The project proposes redeveloping the 2.23 acre surface parking lot at Foster Street with a freestanding parking structure totaling 784 parking spaces for hospital employees only.

The proposal includes a pedestrian bridge on the third level connecting the parking structure to a freestanding elevator and staircase tower on the OCMMC campus on the East Side of Foster Street. The proposed structure would be 35 feet in height at the rooftop parapet of the structure with an elevator tower at the southeast corner of the structure under 42 feet in height. CEQUA determination. A mitigated negative declaration in conjunction with the above proposal has been proposed to reduce environmental impacts to less than significant levels have been provided in the mitigated monitoring and reporting plan included with the project in compliance with section 15 o seven o of California environmental quality act guidelines. I will now open the public hearing.

And before I go to the staff report, we have a very busy room tonight and appreciate everyone coming here. We're going to go through our staff comments, staff discussion. We'll also have an opportunity for public comment. I know there's a lot of public speakers. We'll ask that anyone wait until that time to express themselves when they get their three minutes.

And, also, I see some signs, and I just ask everybody be be careful not to accidentally whack anyone with those or otherwise impede the proceedings with those. I'm I'm I know everyone intends to be respectful. But just a reminder on that, and we'll we'll do another reminder on the etiquette for public comment when we get up to that point. But with that, please,

staff report. Thank you, mister chair and members of the commission. So tonight before you, Memorial Care is requesting several entitlements for a proposed parking structure at the corner of Foster And Talbert. The proposal proposed title entitlements include an initial study and a mitigated negative declaration, mitigation monitoring and reporting program, a code amendment to amend the Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center specific plan, and precise plan five eighty one. Three of the items, are tasked to make a recommendation to the city council.

And for the precise plan, you have the responsibility to make a decision on that application. This slide shows the Orange Coast Medical Center campus and how it relates to the other uses out there. Planning Area 3 is the subject in question. Number 7 is identified here on the site plan as referred to as the foster lot with 231 parking spaces. This view is facing facing west, showing the the foster lot west of the ninety nine hundred Talbert Medical Office Building.

The surface parking lot is about just under just over two and a half 2.2 acres, again, with 231 parking spaces, and this lot is shared by employees, physicians, patients, and guests. Currently, is striped with approximately a 126 employee parking spaces, and the remaining a 105 are up for the remaining patients, guests, and other physicians. So the Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center is zoning a zone specific plan, and the official title is Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center. Some years ago, MemorialCare changed the name, and now they're just called MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center. So the surrounding land uses, they're single family residential to the North and to the West.

The rest of Orange Coast Medical Center campus is to the East and to the South, and then garden homes, which are residential townhomes called the Mariposa townhomes are to the South. So this project would demolish the surface parking lot and construct a freestanding parking structure with three covered above grade levels, one basement level, and a rooftop parking level for a total of 784 parking spaces, including 40 electric charging vehicle spaces. This also includes a pedestrian bridge across Foster Street just to the west of the 9900 Talbert Medical Office Building where there'll be a elevator tower and a staircase tower on that area. And in that parking area, three parking spaces will be removed to accommodate that elevator tower. Again, the proposal is for a 784 space freestanding parking garage just under 300,000 square feet.

The correct height to the rooftop parapet is actually 36 feet, not 35. That has moved around several times from 35 to 36. The elevator tower height is just under 42 feet, and the bridge tower height on the east side, as I previously explained, near the 9900 Talbert Medical Building is just under 38 feet. And the bridge clearance over Foster Street, you'd have just over 18 feet above Foster Street for vehicle clearance. And this view right here would be facing north towards Talbert, a view of the bridge and the structure to the west.

Our site plan here shows the circulation. This shows the parking setup for the 1st Floor showing the setbacks along Talbert, Foster to the South to Mariposa and towards the West towards the single family homes. The entrance to the parking structure is one entrance at a driveway on the South End of Foster close to the current location of surfing surface parking lot if you're familiar with it. And the single exit is on the North Side of Talbert, and it would be a right turn only exit on the north side. So on the basement, there's a 176 parking spaces.

The 1st Floor, which you see here, there's a 162 spaces. The 2nd And 3rd Floors, there's a 160 parking spaces. And on the rooftop deck, there would be a 126 parking spaces. Again, the basement level, there's a 176 spaces. This is just under 75,000 square feet, and this also includes a 9,800 square feet of storage for the hospital.

One important note that placing the one level of parking at a basement level reduces the overall height of the building and provides the parking that they're looking to provide. And here we are back at the 1st Level or 1st Floor, which contains a 162 parking spaces and just under 20 ADA accessible parking spaces. And I previously explained the main entrance. The single vehicle entrance is off Foster Street at a right turn in. There'll be two stacking lanes for two lanes of vehicles down that long gray driveway on the south side.

And then the exit will be on the north side with a right turn only onto eastbound Talbert. We have our 2nd Level with a 160 parking spaces, smaller in size at 56,000 square feet. And if you see on the left side of the graphic, the second level is set back from the property line, 36 feet, and below the parking that is at grade below. Going to the third level, the third level shares the same setback, 36 feet to the residential properties to the west. And this floor is where the pedestrian bridge is connected for access to the elevator and stair tower, the Orange Coast Medical Center campus next again, next to the 9900 Building.

Here we are at the rooftop level. The rooftop level on the left side or the west side shows the setback, which has a greater setback than the second and third levels. The top level setback has increased to 64 feet as shown here. So in order to approve this parking structure, this requires an amendment to the specific plan, the Orange Coast Memorial medic Medical Center specific plan. This amendment would update the specific plan, the text, and the exhibits would revitalize the site utilization tables, which show the square footage of all the uses and the buildings for the specific plan.

It would allow for a freestanding parking structure in Planning Area 3 where previously that was not a permitted use. It would also modify building setback requirements along Talbert Avenue to accommodate the design of the structure and allow for the structure up to 40 feet in height with elevator towers and lighting and solar features up to 50 feet in height in the specific plan. We'd also update various parking regulations to be consistent with the city's requirements as well. So the proposed setbacks for the structure, we have a long Talbert 23 feet eight inches long Talbert. Foster Street, 17 feet, and most important setbacks would be on the west side and the south side.

The first ground level setback is 18 feet, and that'll be landscaping as shown on the 1st Floor site plan. The second and third levels will be set back additional distance at 36 feet and the rooftop at 64 feet. And the south side from the wall of the garage is set back 66 feet to the property line to the south. This is largely in response to community meetings that MemorialCare had over the course of this process in direct response to issues with lighting and effects of possible shade. I have an image that shows the old design right here where the entire structure, all levels were set back at the same distance to the single family homes to the west on Lemon Street at a 18 foot setback.

So you had all four levels here above ground levels with the same setback at 18 feet to the residents. And after several meetings in the last meeting being in September, Orange Coast looked at their plans and revised their proposal to take in that community input and step back the structure. Again, the second and third levels are 36 feet back, and the rooftop level is 64 feet back from the residential properties to the west on Lemon Street. The parking will be on the 1st Floor, will be at grade, and with the existing walls separating the residential properties that are six feet and high over, that will obscure any vehicles that are parking and their headlights facing the west direction. And then also with the redesign, if you see the parking, the cars that are on the second and third levels that are kind of facing towards you or the image, that's actually a drive aisle where this design is scaled back from that property line, again, to 36 feet.

The previous proposal that was head in parking similar to the blue vehicle you see in the image, there would have been vehicles facing the same direction as that blue vehicle towards the West property, and that's the direction of their headlights. That was in the previous design, and that is no longer the case as shown in this situation. Again, this shows the setback at a bird's eye angle. An additional measure was to move the staircase. Staircases provide a area where people can stop and observe other points.

And so by moving the staircase farther into the structure prevents anybody from stopping on the staircase and having views of the single family homes to the west. Here's some additional graphics showing the additional setback on the left was the 18 foot original proposal with all three levels with that 18 foot setback, and then the middle showing the increased setbacks, which also reduces the shadow effects to the properties to the west. And you see the two pictures on the very right showing the landscaping proposals that would buffer the structure to the residents to the to the west. So the bottom right showing the revised proposal with a much greater step back for those levels. Here we have landscaping.

Of course, landscaping is provided up to about 20% of the project's property, And they proposed trees along the the west and south sides with trees on the west side growing up to approximately over over about 30 feet at maturity and trees on the south side reaching, as they indicated, about 20 feet in maturity to provide landscape buffers there. They provided some renderings. This view shows the structure looking west. If you're on the hospital property looking west towards the structure across Foster Street and the maturity after five years of planting. These trees would be adjacent to the Mariposa townhomes to the south, so this view looks north across the drive aisle entrance across that entrance and looking towards that structure.

So you'd see the trees on the that landscape buffer and the 66 feet away from the property line at those townhomes to the south. This view is if you're at the single family homes on Lemon looking east and showing those trees and the planting the maturity of those trees after five years of planting. And here we have this elevation is along Talbert Avenue with trees planting along there as well. Difference being on this elevation, they have metal perforated screens and to add on the Talbert elevation for architectural design. This view shows additional landscaping with different types of trees.

This view facing west showing the entrance to the parking structure and the pedestrian bridge to the right. So this slide summarizes the campus existing campus parking supply. As I said before, the Foster Lot, which is the proposed lot to be demolished for this freestanding parking structure, currently has 231 parking spaces for both employee and patient and visitors. The total campus parking supply is 1,353 parking spaces, and majority of them, 816, are located in the existing parking structure at Orange Coast Memorial. This site plan shows a breakdown by the parking areas.

Again, Zone a on the upper left is the Foster Lot where the proposed parking structure would be. The remaining areas are all surface except for the existing parking garage in the South Side Zone E, and that's 816 spaces. And then the yellow areas indicate the valet lot areas that are currently in use and will be after this project to meet their parking demand. Now the specific plan requires parking for the the medical uses out there. And this graphic shows the required parking based on the type of medical use and the type of buildings.

So the total parking required by the city's code for Orange Coast Memorial's property and all their uses out there is 1,585 parking spaces. Well, there's an existing parking supply of 1,353, which there is a deficiency of 232 spaces. But with the proposed structure, the parking supply would increase to 1,903 parking space spaces providing a parking surplus of 318 parking spaces. Plus valet services, add another 61 parking spaces. This project would supply Orange Coast Memorial with 1,964 parking spaces resulting in a surplus of 379 parking spaces.

The reason why this Orange Coast Memorial is deficient in parking is due to largely the approval from 2007 when the Patient Care Pavilion, the tallest building in the city and at their campus, was approved in three phases. The first phase being the Patient Care Pavilion, which was built and finished in 2011, and then phase two, which was an expansion to the emergency room, which was completed in and around 2015. The third phase, which did not have a time frame that was provided in 2007 when it was approved, but it was for the parking. And so here we are today for the parking. And the original discussion in 2007 was for the parking for a possible expansion of the parking, the existing parking structure in the lower right hand portion of the property close to Brookhurst.

That proposal is not being pursued anymore for various reasons, and Orange Coast Memorial is pursuing the Foster Lot location. They've provided Orange Coast Memorial has provided a parking management plan that they intend to implement during construction. Construction workers would be able to use the Living Waters Christian Church that is across the street, which provides up to a 111 parking spaces that they can utilize there. And then employees will need to park somewhere as well. Now MemorialCare owns office buildings and properties actually right across the street from here, and they have proposed a shuttle service that they can run up to three shuttles with 50 people in each shuttle at a time from the hospital starting at 05:30 running till 06:30PM to shuttle up to 300 nonessential employees from the hospital campus back to this location.

And they've indicated they've started doing this some time ago to work out any of the issues, and I've personally seen those vans over in the parking lot. So they're getting employees used to that transition should that occur if the project is approved. As I mentioned before, MemorialCare had several open house meetings, one in September and one in March. And they've also included 500 support letters that were included in your packet for this project. So after the last meeting, they reduced the parking structure, you know, from 862 spaces to 784, again, with those setbacks on the 2nd And 3rd Level increasing from 18 feet to 36 feet and the rooftop increasing to 64 feet from the West Side where the single family homes on Lemon are.

Again and they reduced the head in parking that faces that area on the West Side and also reduced the building size by from 308,000 square feet to 293,000 square feet. So for the environmental review, under the California Environmental Quality Act, an initial study mitigated negative declaration were prepared by Ultra Systems Environmental. The city council approved a contract for them on 12/17/2024. For this IS and MND, we had a public comment review period from March 3 to April 2. We received 16 comment letters, and the applicant has provided response to those comments.

He provided them yesterday as there were quite a few, and the applicant can speak to those on a high level.

I don't know.

Can you

speak to them now? Yes. And then I'll come back.

Sorry. Is this is that the how are we gonna do this? Is this part of the staff presentation, or are we now going to This

gentleman is part of the city's team in terms of the environmental consultant. Correct? Yes. Thank you. So part of staff's report in terms of the environmental response to comments.

Alright. Could you go ahead and introduce yourself then?

Certainly. Thank you, chair Langer and commissioners. I'm Michael Milroy with the Ultra Systems. I'm the environmental project manager for this project. If you'll excuse me for one second.

So

oops, pardon me here. Oops. There, thank you. What I did for the responses to comments, the comment letters sorry, oh wait, hold on. Let me see if I can is that better?

Yes.

Okay, great. Thank you. The comment letters totaled 141 pages. I could not go through that kind of that volume of comments this evening. So what I did is I created a topical summary of the comments and the responses that I'll be presenting tonight.

In the interest of time, I'm not planning to read the responses and in some cases I'll only be reading part of the comments. Here is a list of the people who submitted comments and the comment letter designations in the response to comments document. So the starting in with a summary of comments and responses. First off, aesthetics, there were some comments on the project size, massing design and the compatibility of the project with surrounding residential uses. The comments opposed the project on these grounds.

One of the comments for example stated there was no attempt to address compatibility, the visual environment or the high sensitivity of the adjacent residences. This is an unattractive structure and the location will serve as the entrance to our residential neighborhood and be an eyesore for years. Now, I would be happy to read the response if you'd like.

Mr. Chair, could you summarize your response?

Yes, yes. Thank you. So comment acknowledged and the project complies with city general plan and Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center specific plan policies regarding scenic quality. The project also includes as Matt mentioned, an amendment to the Memorial Medical Center specific plan transferring the proposed parking structure from an expansion of the existing structure to a new structure on the project site.

Moving

on to comments on shade and shadow. There were concerns about a loss of sunlight and natural light, loss of sunrise views, etcetera. Now Matt talked about the setbacks, 36 feet from the on the second and third levels of the parking structure and 64 feet of the roof level from the Westside boundary. And then regarding natural light on the residences west of the site, shade and shadow impacts were determined to be less than significant. Now a significant impact a significant shadow impact is shading of shadow sensitive uses for three hours during the period from 9AM to 4PM during Pacific Standard Time or for four hours during the period from 9AM to 5PM during Pacific Daylight Time.

The shadow analysis followed methods set forth by the City of Los Angeles. Facilities and operations that are sensitive to shadows generally include routinely usable outdoor spaces in residential, recreational or institutional land uses, commercial uses such as pedestrian outdoor spaces or restaurant outdoor seating areas, nurseries and solar collectors. There were a few comments about privacy expressing a concern about a loss of privacy. The project include the responses, the project includes the planting of a denser of trees in the west at the edge of the project site to screen residences to the west from views of the park from the parking structure and vice versa. Matt also mentioned that the stairway was moved from the west end of the structure into the interior portion of the structure to help protect privacy.

Lighting, spill light, especially from roof level pole mounted lights. And one comment was position rooftop lights more centrally and that rooftop lighting must be shielded. The response is spill light at the West project site boundary from roof level parking lot lights would be zero foot candles determined by the photometric study included in the project plans. Parking lot lights would be aimed and shielded in accordance with city municipal code section specified here, which requires outdoor lighting to be shielded to reduce lighting directly visible from any 0.5 feet or more beyond the property line. Light from vehicle headlights.

The project design includes 3.5 foot high concrete walls on the perimeter of each level of the structure. Much of the light from vehicles would be blocked by such walls and by ceilings of levels one through three. Now, Don, excuse me, what is the term for the arrangement of the parking stalls on the above ground levels that you mentioned?

Matt talked about that a little bit.

Right.

It's a dry vial instead of

Yes. Okay. Oh. Can't hear him. Okay. Sorry. Oh, pardon me. So on Sir,

sir, I need you to stop. So if you could repeat what was said from whoever you're just talking to.

Yes, certainly. Thank you. So the arrangement of the parking stalls on levels from Levels 2 through the roof level would be on drive aisles. They would be the stalls would be perpendicular to the west end of the site. In other words, no drivers would be driving up to the west end of the site to park.

That again is on the second level through the roof level. There was a comment about air quality regarding impacts of vehicle emissions on neighboring residents. Air quality impacts were determined to be less than significant. In addition, project development would not increase vehicle trips to or from Orange Coast Medical Center. Land use, the 2007 specific plan included future expansion of an existing parking structure, not structure, not a parking structure on the proposed site.

The response is proposed the proposed project includes a specific plan amendment transferring the proposed parking structure from an expansion of the existing structure to a new structure on the project site. Another comment, the environmental documents reference the Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center specific plan governing development within the hospital campus. It would be helpful for the city to clarify whether the proposed parking structure was specifically contemplated within that plan and whether prior environmental review addressed a project of this scale. The response is, they specific plan permits construction of an expansion of existing parking structure in Area 1, the southern part of the specific plan area. The project includes an application for a specific plan amendment shifting the proposed parking expansion from the southern part of the OCMC campus to the project site.

Regarding noise, first off, from their comments about noise from vehicles in and on the structure including tire squeal, horns and car alarms. The response is using the Institute of Transportation Engineers hourly distribution of trip generation for hospitals and taking into account the distance from the parking structure to the nearest residents and sound attenuation from the aforementioned wall, we estimated that the long term exposure from an for on-site parking would increase from 26.2 A rated decibels dBA and CNL is community noise equivalent level to 31.9. For comparison, dBa is the sound level of leaves rustling or a ticking watch. 30 dBa is that of a whisper. Now 80 decibels are adjusted to match the sensitivity of the human ear and community noise equivalent level has adjustments made for to regarding the sensitivity of noise during evening and nighttime hours.

Most of the noise from inside the structure would be attenuated to the by the North and East walls of the building. In addition, a tire squeal treatment, a coating or texture grinding is recommended to OCMC. The operational noise analysis in the initial study accounted for noise from vehicles within the parking structure, noise from the speakers at the parking structure entrance gates and project generated vehicle trips on adjacent roadways. The noise section has been revised to expand the discussion of parking structure noise sources such as tire squeals and alarms and to identify design features that will reduce exposures more than already stated. A comment on traffic noise on the project entrance and exit driveways and adjacent roadways.

The response the operational noise analysis in the initial study accounted for noise from vehicles within the parking structure, noise from speakers of the parking structure gates and project generated vehicle trips on roadways. The impact was found to be less than significant. Construction noise. The longest construction phase will be erection of the parking structure. According to the calculations in the ISMND, one hour average noise exposures to residents along Scanlon Court and Lemon Street will be about sixty five and sixty three A rated decibels respectively.

The found value municipal code exempts construction from noise exposure limits, which is why we commonly use Federal Transit Administration's threshold of 80 A rated decibels. In addition, the municipal code sets time of day limits for construction. If construction occurs outside the limits, effective residents can contact the city and request that an inspector be sent immediately to verify the code violation. Another comment asked, will construction be done at night? Response, project construction work will be limited to the hours permitted by the City Of Fountain Valley Municipal Code Section 21.06.40 between 7AM and 8PM Monday through Friday, 9AM through 8PM on Saturday and at no time on Sunday or any legal holiday.

Construction noise impacts were determined to be less than significant in the initial study. There was a comment about one appellate court case or West Adams Heritage Association versus City of Los Angeles regarding cumulative noise impacts and ambient noise levels in a residential area regarding a Class 32 categorical exemption from CEQA. Response, the case is inapplicable to the proposed project on two grounds. One, it concerns residential development and two, it pertains to a Class 32 or infill categorical exemption rather than a mitigated negative declaration. Comment, consider additional mitigation measures to protect nearby homeowners such as enhanced sound barriers, landscaping buffers, limits on rooftop parking or restrictions on idling.

Response, the initial study sets forth mitigation measures for impacts on biological resources, cultural resources, geology and soils, particularly fossils and tribal cultural resources. The city of the Fountain Valley is only allowed to require mitigation measures for impacts found to be significant without mitigation. No significant impacts without mitigation were identified on any other environmental factors analyzed. Therefore, the city cannot require mitigation measures for impacts on other environmental factors. A comment about noise at the speaker, particularly malfunctions or an increase in volume.

Response, the speaker will only need to be loud enough to be audible by the driver compared to for instance a fast food restaurant speaker that needs to be audible by everyone in the car. The parking structure will be available to employees only and will be accessed by employees' fobs. The hospital will address issues with employees who frequently arrive without their fobs. Next comment regarding traffic and the traffic impact analysis. Vehicles approaching the structure on Talbert to turn right at Foster and proceed to the structure will cause congestion.

Response, the revised traffic impact analysis or TIA recommends an update to the signal timing and or upgrading traffic signal equipment at the intersection of Foster Street and Talbert Avenue to improve traffic flow and queuing along Talbert Avenue. Comment, traffic impacts at the intersection of Foster Street and Talbert Avenue. The transportation impact analysis Section nine includes a queuing evaluation at that intersection for year 2027. This is in with project conditions. The existing storage provided for the westbound left turn pocket.

Now this is why when I say westbound left turn pocket, this is on Talbert Avenue for turns to southbound Foster Street heading towards the structure entrance. The storage is adequate to accommodate the anticipated queues with the project. The intersection of Foster Street at Talbert Avenue is forecast to operate at level of service A during the AM and PM peak hours for year 2027 with project. Now the backup here for one second, level of service is a qualitative gauge of intersection operation with six levels ranging from LOS A or level of service A which indicates free flow traffic to level of service F which indicates severe congestion. Therefore, the proposed project will not have an adverse impact on the intersection.

Furthermore, Section 11 of the traffic analysis analyzes the Foster Street and Phillips Avenue. Now Foster Street and Phillips Avenue are two roadways that have where Phillips Avenue extends West from Brooker Street and there is a knuckle, there's a 90 degree knuckle northward and Phillips Street at that point turns into Foster Street. The intersections along this roadway are forecast to operate at LOSA. Therefore, the segment has sufficient capacity to accommodate any additional outbound traffic while maintaining acceptable level of service. However, since egress access is no longer provide which is exit access is no longer provided on Foster Street, It is not anticipated that outbound traffic will use Foster Street as a cut through route.

The latest site plan limits ingress along Foster Street to southbound right turn only. A supplemental letter has been prepared that looks at these traffic implications. Cut through traffic on a comment regarding cut through traffic on Phillips Avenue and Foster Street. Section 11 of the traffic analysis includes an analysis of the project's potential impact along Foster Street and Phillips Avenue. The project will add a nominal amount of trips along these roadways during the peak hours that is 22 trips in the AM peak hour and nine trips in the PM peak hour.

Unless the project will not impact the residential community. Next comment, vehicles northbound on Foster. That is vehicles on northbound on Foster approaching the parking structure. There will be a no left turn sign proposed at the structure entrance driveway from at Foster Street. And the comment was concerned that vehicles will continue north and turn around adding to congestion.

The response, employees are familiar with the site and will adjust their patterns as needed to eliminate any unnecessary circulation. In addition, a supplemental letter has been prepared that looks at the traffic implications based on the latest site plan that limits the ingress along Foster to southbound right turn only. The supplemental letter attachment F to the response to comments document determined that the reconfigured parking structure access did not affect the overall findings of the April 2026 traffic impact analysis and that the recommendations of the traffic impact analysis remain valid. Next comment, the Orange Coast Medical Center employee count of 1,300 is incorrect. Response, the OCMC staff information reflects the most current data available at the commencement of this study in 2025.

OCMC has a total staff of approximately 1,900 employees, of which 1,300 are representative of a typical daily staffing level. There are no future increases anticipated by the project. As such revisions to the report are not required. A comment, the existing conditions information in the traffic analysis that is from 2025 are obsolete. Response, the existing baseline represents the year in which the project commenced that is 2025.

Therefore, the base year is appropriately represented. Revisions to the report are not required. Next comment, traffic counts, which were from 2024 are obsolete. Response, the existing baseline year represents the year in which the project commenced, which is 2025. Therefore, the base year is appropriately represented.

Next comment, our 2027 estimated traffic conditions accurate? Response, the methodology to estimate 2027 traffic volumes is appropriate and was developed in coordination with city staff. Therefore revisions to the report are not required. Questions about cumulative traffic volumes and those volumes compared with observed traffic on Talbert Avenue. Response, Figure six-two represents traffic volumes for cumulative projects only.

The methodology to estimate 2027 cumulative traffic volumes is appropriate and was developed in coordination with city staff. Therefore, the traffic volumes are considered to be accurately represented and revisions to report are not required. Queuing analysis, the data for Talbert at Foster Eastbound back to Driveway 1 that is the parking structure exit shows an inadequate storage. In other words backup of vehicles in line for year 2027 based on current and post construction estimations. Response, the eastbound queues at Foster Street and Talbert Avenue extend past Driveway 1 on Talbert Avenue.

As part of the proposed project, it is recommended to update signal timing and or upgrade traffic signal equipment at the intersection of Foster Street and Talbert Avenue to improve traffic flow and queuing along Talbert Avenue. Next comment, the currently twenty twenty six observed traffic backup for the eastbound Talbert Foster Intersection plus backups to the Lemon And Briar Street exits entering Talbert from the adjoining neighborhood is a problem and needs to be reevaluated. Response. While intermittent blockage of Briar Street and Lemon Street may occur due to existing east bound queues on Talbert Avenue, it is not uncommon for unsignalized roadways to experience longer delay due to heavy volumes on the major street like Talbert Avenue. Furthermore, this condition is unrelated to project access or circulation.

The project does not route traffic through these local streets and project trips represent a negligible contribution to overall eastbound traffic volumes on Talbert Avenue. Furthermore, a review of crash data from the past five years indicate no reported crashes along this segment of Talbert Avenue. Thus the existing queuing issues do not result in adverse safety issues. Therefore, the project will not exacerbate the existing access limitations experienced at these locations or result in any additional safety concerns. It should be noted that as part of the proposed project updates to signal timing and or traffic signal equipment at Foster Street at Talbert Avenue are recommended to improve traffic flow and queuing.

Excuse me one second. The proposed parking structure concentrates access at the intersection of Talbert Avenue and Foster Street. This traffic study acknowledges that vehicle queues on Talbert Avenue makes and past the project driveway during peak conditions. Now this response I think I've already covered that response so I'm going to move on to the next comment. Because Foster Street runs through hospital controlled property near the project site, the city should evaluate whether traffic operations could be improved through roadway modifications within the hospital's frontage.

Possible improvements include an additional entry lane from Talbert Avenue onto Foster Street dedicated to parking structure access or an additional exit lane from Foster Street onto Talbert Avenue during peak periods. Response, the queuing analysis determined that arrival queuing could occasionally extend onto Foster Street. The average rate of vehicles arriving during the 7AM to 8AM hour would be about 9.25 per minute, that is five fifty four trips in sixty minutes. It is understood that the rate of vehicles arriving would vary. It is expected that arriving cars would be able to turn right from Childford Avenue onto Foster Street within the existing street configurations and that addition of a right turn lane on the eastbound approach of Childford Avenue would not be needed.

Operation of the proposed parking structure would shift some existing OCMC Orange Coast Medical Center parking to the proposed structure which would have an exit driveway onto Talbert Avenue. Thus the project would not create a need for an addition of an exit lane on Talbert Avenue. Next comment, the project substantially expands parking capacity and concentrates traffic access adjacent to a residential neighborhood. These issues raise legitimate questions regarding whether the project may result in significant transportation impacts that have not been fully analyzed. Response, like parking automobile delay as measured by level of service and other similar metrics is no longer considered a significant impact on the environment under CEQA.

Senate Bill seven forty three codified in public resources code section 21,099 changed the methodology for analyzing transportation impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act. Senate Bill seven forty three directed the office of planning and research to prepare proposed revisions to the secret guidelines establishing new criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts. The Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency subsequently certified secret guidelines section 15,064.3 establishing vehicle miles traveled or VMT as the most appropriate metric to evaluate a project's transportation impacts. Nevertheless, the traffic impact analysis for the Memorial Care parking structure and bridge project prepared by LLG was commissioned to provide an evidentiary basis for analyzing the secondary impacts of the proposed of the project associated with transportation and the projects consistency with the city's general plan. It is noted that the traffic analysis includes analysis of Foster Street and Phillips Avenue.

The results of the analysis indicate that the project will not have an impact on the adjacent residential community. Comment, the structure entrance driveway capacity may be inadequate. Section response, Section 10.3 of the traffic analysis includes a vehicular stacking analysis for the gated entry only access driveway on Foster Street. The analysis indicates that the two inbound lanes provide a total storage of four ninety feet which is considered adequate to accommodate the inbound vehicle flow. The queues would not impede traffic or queue onto Foster Street.

Next comment, construction traffic and temporary lane closures on Talbert Avenue and Foster Street specifically notification of residents. Response, the neighborhood will be notified of any temporary lane reductions or street closures in accordance with the city's standard construction notification protocols. These typically include advanced notice through posted signage, distribution of notices to affected properties and coordination with local stakeholders as appropriate. Information regarding the duration and extension of closures as well as any changes to access along Talbert And Foster will be communicated to ensure residents are adequately informed prior to and during construction. Comments on traffic and roadway design hazards.

Next comment. This site distance evaluation treats Driveway 1, the structure exit driveway as though it's a cross street entering a main street. Driver 1 is a special driveway and should be addressed as such. Response, the site distance analysis for Driveway 1 was appropriately completed for the Cal trans Highway Design Manual and has been reviewed and approved by city staff. Thus revisions to the report are not required.

Comments on traffic and pedestrian hazards. Next comment. Pedestrian crossing pedestrians crossing the structure exit driveway at Talbert Street lack protection for pedestrians there or the project plans lack protection for pedestrians there. Response, driver one along Talbert Avenue is designed with proper visibility to allow motorists to see pedestrians when exiting the parking structure. As such, the project as proposed would not create unsafe conditions at the driveway.

Nevertheless, subject to concurrence by city staff, the project could install watch for pedestrians sign at this driveway to alert motorists, employees of pedestrian conflicts as they exit the site. Furthermore, given staff is given city staff is not supportive of the keep clear pavement markings that were suggested in a previous version of the traffic analysis. This improvement is no longer recommended in the traffic analysis. This improvement being the keep clear pavement markings. Comment, pedestrians crossing Foster Street next to the southeast corner of the structure and recommend a flashing beacon at that location.

Response, the project includes a pedestrian bridge over Foster Street connecting to the 3rd Floor of the parking structure. A second pedestrian path of travel between the parking structure and the rest of the Orange Coast Medical Center campus would be on the south side of the intersection of Foster Street and Talbert Avenue. The ground level of the parking structure would include a fence and a wall on the east side and southeast corner of the structure to block pedestrian entrance and exit from that corner of the structure. As pedestrian ingress or egress to or from the southeast corner of the parking structure across Foster Street will be blocked, a flashing crosswalk will not be needed at that location. Parking and parking study.

First comment, the OCMC employee data from 2024 is obsolete. Response, the OCMC staff information reflects the most current data available at the commencement of this study in 2025. OCMC has a total staff of approximately 1,900 employees of which 1,300 are representative of the typical daily staffing level. There are no future increases anticipated by the project, thus revisions to the report are not required. COMMENT, OCMC shift hours in the parking study are incorrect.

Response, the peak hours are based on shift information provided by OCMC. Comment, spillover parking into neighborhoods. Response, the project would add both employee parking and total parking on the OCMC campus and this is not anticipated to cause spillover parking impact into surrounding neighborhoods. The OCMC campus is estimated to have a parking surplus of three eighteen spaces at project completion or three seventy nine spaces with continued operation of OCMC's existing valet service. The parking management plan identifies parking management strategies to ensure that adequate parking is provided for both employees and visitors to deter people from parking in the residential neighborhood.

Comment, there is a question as to how the minimum requirement for fifteen eighty five spaces was derived. OCMC has 1,900 employees. Response, with the construction of the new parking structure OCMC would result in a five fifty space net increase in parking for a total campus wide parking supply of nineteen oh three spaces. The project management plan identifies parking management strategies to ensure that adequate parking is provided for both employees and visitors. OCMC employee shuttle hours don't match shift changes.

Response, shuttle operations are designed to accommodate peak employee shift patterns, including reasonable transition periods between shifts, while individual variations in shift turnover may occur. The proposed schedule provides adequate coverage for the majority of staff. Comment, the initial study doesn't show the need for the number of parking spaces proposed. The environmental record should clearly disclose the existing parking utilization across the hospital campus, employee shift counts used to estimate parking demand, the methodology used to determine that seven eighty four spaces are required and whether smaller parking alternatives were evaluated. Response, a parking study for the proposed project was completed by Whippenscott Line Greenspan LLG in 2024 and was included as Appendix I-one of the initial study.

Existing parking supply on the OCMC campus. Note Matt went through some of this and so I'm going to skip past some of this response here. And I did not actually cover the only thing I would mention is that the project was reduced during planning from eight sixty two to seven eighty four spaces. So yes, a smaller alternative was considered. Next comment, parking for patients and visitors.

Response, all of the existing parking facilities on the campus are available for staff including physicians, patients and visitors. The 1st Floor of the existing parking structure is reserved for physicians and the Top Floor is for employees. Operation of the proposed parking structure would involve shifting staff parking including for physicians from existing parking lots and structure to the proposed structure. The project would expand parking availability for patients and visitors. Next comment, increasing parking supply by more than five fifty spaces may encourage additional driving by reducing parking constraints.

This by the way is called induced demand when it's applied to roadways. The environmental analysis should evaluate whether expanded parking availability could result in increased automobile commuting to the hospital campus over time. Response. The project does not expand staffing services or intensify uses of OCMC and this will not generate additional vehicle trips to or from OCMC. Per the vehicle miles traveled screening assessment for the project included as Appendix I-two.

Regarding mode shift from other transportation modes to automobiles, which mode will people shift from? Only a very small fraction of the staff would live within walking distance of OCMC. One of the two nursing shift changes at 7PM is at night for half the year. Many people choose not to bicycle at night for safety reasons. Two OCTA bus routes serve the intersection of Brooker Street and Talbert Avenue, Route 35 on Brooker Street and Route 76 on Talbert Avenue.

Route 76 operates hourly and ends before 7PM. Route35 operates at thirty minute frequency. Thus it is unlikely that a considerable number of people would be using transit currently and would shift to driving after the proposed parking structure opened. Next comment. What parking is required by for OCMC by city code?

What parking is actually needed by OCMC? Response, a parking study for the proposed project completed in 2024 by LLG and is included as Appendix I-one of the initial study. Also see the previous response. A comment regarding CEQUA processing asks that an EIR be prepared for the project. Response, no significant impact after implementation and mitigation is identified in the response to comments.

And I could clarify here that an EIR is required where there are significant impacts that would remain after mitigation is implemented. As all impacts can be mitigated to less than significant levels and EIR for the project is not required. Next comment. The project is a done deal. Response.

The purposes of CEQA include informing the public of environmental effects of projects. The CEQA process includes several opportunities for public participation, two of which are written comments on the initial study and the planning commission hearing here tonight are notice on the notice of intent. The project is not a done deal and the city welcomes public input. A comment regarding notification of residents. The notice or notice of intent includes the Planning Commission hearing on April tonight combining the 30 public review of the initial study and the Planning Commission hearing date may confuse the public.

The three weeks between when the comments are due and the date of the public hearing may cause public confusion. The project does not, pardon me, the public does not understand the public review and hearing process. And I'm going to go on to the next slide here. To protect the integrity of the public hearing process, the city should consider a re notice of the public. Response, the notice of intent states in two places under agency public comments that the public review period ends April 2.

The NOI or notice of intent separately states that the public hearing, the Planning Commission public hearing is April 22. There is value in notifying both opportunities for public participation in one document and this is the city standard format for this document. This comment will be considered by the city before the City Council considers the ISMND for adoption. That concludes my presentation.

Great to hear more from staff.

Thank you, Michael. Yes. Yes. I'll follow-up with a well, Well, I would follow-up with a few more slides, but just a few last comments. Michael touched on it, but transportation is analyzed as a part of the mitigated negative deck.

And under for this project, vehicle miles traveled is analyzed. And this project actually screens out because it does not produce more than a 110 daily trips to the property. This is for new projects that create square footage. This parking garage is intended to serve the existing parking demand for the existing employees at Orange Coast Memorial. The project does not intend to increase the hospital staff nor the services nor intensify the use, and so it will not generate any new trips.

It does alter the circulation, but the impacts have been determined to be less than significant. Let me forward here. And I wanted to touch on the the queuing entrance to the parking structure. It is a gated system for employees. There will be a call box for a employee that may lose or not have their key fob.

They'll be able to contact. So this would be a rare occurrence that noise activity at the call box. And it being an employee structure, Memorial Care has management capabilities over their employees to rectify future situation should they, you know, become habitual losers of their key fobs. So the dynamic is different than a fast food drive up window where there's frequent noise constantly versus being a one off scenario. The graphic on the bottom shows the two drive lanes with the queuing space for up to 22 cars for those two lanes.

So providing 22 car lengths of space for cars to get off Foster, wait for that bar to go up, and the studies provided in the report show that about nine car eight to nine cars could go through that every sixty seconds. As another overview of the site plan in relationship to a bird's eye view facing west. And Michael touched on the noise. That concludes my report, and I do have slides showing the shadow studies that were provided by the applicant if you'd like to see those. That concludes my report.

Again, you have responsibility of recommending a decision on the mitigated negative deck, the code amendment to the city council, and the task of approving or denying or continuing the precise plan five eighty one for the freestanding parking structure at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center.

Could you go ahead and just run through the slides on the shading so we don't have to go back to the PowerPoint?

For the slides? I mean the

The ones you just mentioned. The shade.

So one of the environmental impacts that you're required to look at in the MND is aesthetics. However, shade created by buildings, It's not one listed, but the city of Los Angeles does have some requirements on shade effects, and they have some analysis with significant threshold hours given. And so during the time of year between March and November, if there's more than four hours of shade after 9AM during that time of the year, that would be considered considered significant if a structure is providing that shade, and so that would be a significant impact. The other time of the year, November to March, if it if there was more than three hours of shade. Now the two images on the right show the applicant's revisions to increase the setback of the upper floors so that would reduce the amount of shade that is projected onto the homes to the west throughout the year.

So here is December showing the top left being 8AM analysis, the shadow. Now those trees on the south and the west side, and in the projections, they're supposed to grow a significant height. Mind you, the parking structure is 36 feet tall, and so adjacent trees could be around that same height. But you see the shadows fading off to the left on the top left image dated December 21 at 8AM, and then going to 9AM, 10AM, and then 10AM, the image shows the shadows to the left and the trees going over to the backyard, but that being the trees and with the structure shadow kind of terminating before it reaches the property line. And then showing an image at 11AM with no shadow impacts on the West side on the single family homes.

You see the shadow, but the shadow is being cast on the parked cars on the first level of the garage down there. There is shadow casting over Talbert Avenue, but then that's the street and not against any sensitive receptors or people or homes. So showing later in the day from 12PM, 1PM. Again, the sun is traveling towards the west, and so the shadows are cast towards the east, but that is towards the 9900 Talbert Building where the pedestrian bridge tower is gonna be located. So, again, not casting over any sensitive uses.

This is during between March and September, and the left image showing the shadows being cast over the homes at 8AM. There is shadows being cast, and then going to the right 9AM. And then at 10AM, it's indicated that there's no shadows being cast after that 10AM time period. Again, so top left being at noon all the way to 3PM and the shadows being less less of a throw of that shadow and then the shadows being cast to the north and the east later in the day, not over any sensitive uses. Here again, the summertime in June at 7AM on the top left showing shadows being cast over the backyards of the homes and then going to 8AM to 9AM being much less shadows.

And then at 10AM, there being no shadows from the structure being cast over to the homes to the West. And then eleven to two p. M, no shadows being cast to the homes to the West. And that concludes the slides for the shadows. And if you have any other questions, I can answer them.

Questions for staff?

Matt, quick question. How far from the exit right way to the Foster Intersection?

From the exit on Talbert, do you mean? Yes. It's just under over 300 feet from the exit on Talbert to the intersection at Foster And Talbert.

So I guess almost the same 300 feet from Foster Street to the entrant right way too. The total is about 600 feet from the exit back to the entrant right way, a total distance. Right?

Are you saying from Foster Street to Talbert Avenue No, as you would drive

Foster to the entrance right away. From the intersection from Foster, so you go to the entrance right way.

Right at the property where right here? Yep. That's from there to the gate, it's labeled here for the stacking distance. The bottom lane 200 feet, two zero two, and then two fifty five, And that being represented at 20 feet per car. So you have 200 feet and two forty feet to the automated gate and then vehicles will travel in.

All right. I got my answer. Thanks.

Commissioner Brothers?

Thank you. I have several questions. I'm gonna these are not in any order necessarily. Is there a light at Brookhurst and Phillips?

No. There is not.

No. Okay. And was there any consideration given to the employees not using a key fob, which could be left in the other car or left at home, to use their employee badge, which they would have I'm seeing head shakes.

Okay. The staff did ask that question, commissioner, just so we could eliminate the gate and have more free flow. I think the and the applicant can speak to it, but they wanted security in in the facility or the structure. And I know some residents have talked about criminal activity and things that happen in structures. And so, I think the hospital is concerned about that too, and that's why they wanted to keep it more secure.

But it seems like they all wear a batch to get to get where they're going to work. And so if that could work at the gate, that might solve some problems. And on the West Side, in regards to shadows, it's primarily from the landscape, from the trees. So I guess the those homeowners would have to decide what was more important, sunlight or trees. There was a question in some of the letters on the South side were the existing trees going to remain?

Are they all being replaced?

It's my understanding. Everything would be demolished on the property, including the trees.

Okay. So they would be replaced?

Correct. Yes.

Okay. And a comment was made about the rooftop lights being on the perimeter. Why couldn't they move to the center? And I had the same question. Unless there's a reason that they could not move, it might I hate to say it, might make some people happy, if they were in the center and not on the perimeter. And I understand, all the shields and all that, but if they could move to the center, it might be considered.

I think, we did look at that. I think if you put them in the center to get light to the edges, the lights would have to be taller to get to full coverage, for safety purposes.

Okay.

So I think we were comfortable as a staff in terms of the lights going out further, but, having the photometric study showed that there's zero spillover.

Okay. Well, just I thought it was a good question, and hopefully, was looked on looked at. It was mentioned that cars heading north on Foster would just go to Talbert and make a U-turn? I don't think there's room for a U-turn on Foster. Okay.

Just needed to check that. And has MemorialCare given any thought to a carpool coordinator available to all employees might improve overall your parking issues if they could create more carpools? I have another comment, but it's in regards to landscaping. And on the let's see. That'd be the West Side.

I'm gonna suggest to you that if you want to see the sidewalk litter from that trumpet tree, just head to Heritage Park. It's as bad as a jacaranda tree, and you might not like that. And the Brisbane box trees are great. They every tree sheds something, but their debris is pretty tolerable. And that's all my comments. Thank you.

Other questions from commissioners?

Yeah. One of the things that stood out to me was the comment about the noise inside of the structure. And so I just wanted to know if there's any sort of noise, attenuation or mitigation regarding things like the tire noises or any sort of other, like, diesel engines idling, if that's addressed specifically in the plan or if it's just in general listed as noise attenuation? Like is there that degree of granularity into how specific types of noise are going to be addressed?

Yep. The noise consultant, Michael Milroy, who spoke earlier, brought that condition up as a possibility, and I think it might be in the response to comments and he mentioned it about anti squeal painting or coating for the the flooring of the structure. Now that has not been brought up in our conversations but we can certainly look into that and create a condition if you so desire for something of that nature.

Yeah. I just like something to be a little bit more concrete in writing rather than just a suggestion.

Great. I was going ask that same question. So we'll come we can come back to that one in the discussion. Similarly, maybe following up on the last question, what about idling? Are there restrictions on idling as part of the conditions of approval? I didn't see that.

Not specifically to idling as its own.

I don't think we really saw idling as an issue. We can revisit it. But, I mean, people will be going into the structure and then trying to find parking. I'm not sure. There's no deliveries or anything happening here. Idling issues for us usually come up and there's deliveries and people are, you know, waiting for something as opposed to just entering. There will be idling in terms of waiting to get into the structure, but otherwise, we don't we don't foresee any idling.

Well, maybe I'll save a question for the applicant when they come up because I know I mean, I've done this at my job. Like, go in the car and take your break there and, like, sit there for forty five minutes and you're idling for a long time. So I I bet they could discourage that or do something about it, but we can we can talk I'll save that one for the applicant. One question I have, and again, this this may be a question for the applicant, but can we go to the the map that or the layout that shows the the driveway that where the people are queuing? There's a sure.

That that works. So so the the gates are, like, all the way down at the end, and I understand why that is because you want the queuing to take place adjacent to the structure and not on Foster Street. But has anyone talked about how are we going to like, I think people are probably they go there, probably used to going into that surface lot now. They may not know that that is now only employees only. And, again, if you if you all don't know how they're gonna handle this, you can I can ask it again when we have the applicant up? But have we thought about, like, what you just know where to turn around, so you're gonna get to the gate. You're not allowed to park there. You're stuck. What's gonna happen?

That that's one of the per purpose of the call box that will be there for emergency purposes. The gate malfunctions. You lost a key fob, or there's that instance where you're a patient or you're not supposed to park there and you need to get out. We've all been there. And so we do have a condition that there'll be a button that connects to a live I put it in there, a live human being that can attend to your situation at that time.

And what about signage on Foster Street? Don't come here.

I think we can add that. I think the thought here was, you know, during the first few months, if this is approved and it's constructed, you might have some folks that try to go park there that aren't supposed to, and then they'll learn behavior. And you'll you might see it for, the first few weeks or month, and then it'll taper off as people learn that you can't park there anymore. So long term, we weren't concerned, but short term, you know, there may be some issues.

K. Well, maybe we can come back to that one too, and I I may ask the applicant as well. Mhmm. And then I I see we got we got past some changes, and one of them is about the the community development director can make additional modifications regarding the lighting. So I think it's some of the questions. But so, Omar, could you talk about like how you might implement that with a you know, if there if there are lighting issues, like, can you do?

Yeah. So, you know, light we rely on the studies. They're great. Sometimes when in real life things happen and, you know, we run into instances where there might be a little bit of spillover or some issues that neighbors have. And so it leaves this condition leaves it open for you know, we do receive complaints to go back and address it.

It could be looking at the size or the the lumens coming out from the from the pulls. It could be adjusting the the the backing so that there's no glare, but there's a number of things we can look at if there are any issues that arise and it doesn't match up. One of the things we normally have them do now is actually turn on the lights before we give them their final certificate of occupancy and let them use the site to ensure that the lighting is as was proposed and that we don't have the spillover that was indicated in the plans. And so what we try to do now is try to go out there one night before they open up and ensure that it looks proper and that there's no spillover.

Well,

with the lighting, I would think that the change to move the stairwell to the interior of the structure inside the exterior would also reduce some of that lighting that would be necessary for safety. So lighting that stairwell is now going to be lit internally rather than extra light that could be filtering out toward the residents as well. So is that a fair assessment?

I think so. I did spend some time in discussions on the exposed stairway next to Talbert. You see the new location there and it's, yeah, it's enclosed. And the previous see, the previous was more exposed. Yeah. So it would have been illuminated in the older version. Yeah. Good good point.

Alright. Any other questions? Okay. Is the applicant present? Great. Please come forward and state your name for the

Good evening. Evening. I'm Emily Randall. I serve as the chief operating officer for Orange Coast Medical Center. Would you like me to address some of the questions that you ask commissioner brothers or chair

Looks like you might have a presentation. My suggestion is you go through

The presentation.

What you had prepared and

then Okay.

If if you wanna then lead into some of those questions, sounds like we might have some more questions for you. So Okay. Let's go

that way.

So my name is Emily Randall, and I do have the privilege, to serve as the chief operating officer at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center. Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to speak before you this evening about this critical project for the Fountain Valley community and those we serve. MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center is honored to provide valuable health services to Fountain Valley and the surrounding community. Our thirty year legacy of clinical excellence is built on a foundation of trust, expertise, and patient centered care. We have always believed that a great hospital should also be a good neighbor.

This means addressing the needs of the people we care for inside our medical facilities while respecting the needs of the surrounding community as well. Our success and continued demand for services, has created a parking shortage that is stressful for those who are coming to seek care and for family members visiting a loved one. The lack of available parking has also created issues for neighbors when visitors and staff are forced to find parking off campus on neighborhood streets. Despite offering free valet services, additional adding additional valet stations and other parking management strategies, the demand for parking far exceeds available spaces. This is supported by the parking demand study, the city parking requirements and the daily experience of patients and visitors circling the campus over and over again in search of a place to park.

When we began planning this parking structure, we started by reaching out to our neighbors. Over the past two years, we've worked collaboratively with the city and community, and the project has evolved in response to that input. These efforts are reflected in the more than 500 letters of support submitted to the Planning Commission by residents and stakeholders who recognize the need for this project.

Okay.

Let's see. That's not working. So we're the slides aren't going. Oh, there they go. This is just a, depiction of the entrance to the driveway, and chose the pedestrian bridge. Okay. Early in the process, we made the decision to dedicate the parking structure to staff and physicians with access restricted through a key card badge system. So not a key fob, but a badge system. This approach was intentional for two reasons. First, it allows patients and visitors to park closer to the medical offices and facilities, improving convenience during what can often be a stressful time.

Second, by limiting the structure to employees, we can better manage operations, reduce constant in and out traffic and ensure accountability since all users are identifiable through their access badge. It's also important to note that this project does not introduce any new services or programs and therefore will not generate any new trips to our campus. The city's parking codes require fifteen eighty five spaces for the existing uses. However, that calculation does not account for the operational realities of running a hospital 20 fourseven. For example, when the morning shift of nurses arrive to start their shift at 7AM, the night shift nurses have not left because they have to provide report to the oncoming nurses.

If they were to leave beforehand, we wouldn't need so many parking spaces, but we will not abandon our patients to ease the parking situation. So that then morning nurses come in, they receive report from the night nurses, and then the night nurses leave. So there's a period of about thirty minutes to an hour where there can be the the shift from the the day shift coming in, the night shift before they've left. And that's why we require that surplus of around 300 spaces compared to the requirements that are really intended for non twenty four hour health care environment. So we do have we do create temporary peaks in parking demand because of that shift overlap and the requirement to hand off the report from one shift to the other.

To address these real conditions, the proposed structure includes approximately 300 spaces above the minimum code requirement. These spaces are not for growth and services, but to accommodate existing operational needs. Through two, I'm sorry. Finally, the project fulfills both the city's requirements and the commitment made when the patient care pavilion was approved. This photograph or this rendering shows the parking from above, to show all of the circulation around the parking structure just to get a view of it from across Foster Street from the hospital side.

Through two community open houses and countless meetings with the surrounding neighbors, we made significant modifications based on the feedback and ideas shared through these conversations and meetings. The modifications include, as I mentioned earlier, restricting the structure to staff, physicians and volunteer parking only with badge controlled access, lowering the structure by placing one floor below grade to reduce the overall height, removing a planned green belt walkway along the southern part of the property, which we heard loud and clear could be an attraction for folks to come and take a rest, and we didn't want that to occur. Adding a pedestrian bridge, which is my favorite part of this project, so that staff, physicians, and volunteers could safely cross Foster without interfering with vehicular traffic. I think a tremendous safety advantage from the situation that we face now with the crossing of Foster, which is dangerous to both staff and staff visitors and the the vehicles that travel on Foster. We also expanded the entry to accommodate approximately 23 vehicles with two lanes to ensure traffic will not back up on Foster.

We enhanced the landscaping along the west and southern borders to provide a stronger green buffer. We improved circulation by having staff use one area and patients using the area closer to the facilities. And we directed we're directing exiting traffic to Talbert to improve ingress and egress without affecting the neighborhood streets. In addition, continued dialogue with our residents, surrounding residents led to further refinements. We increased the setbacks, as described, along the west edge by terracing or stair stepping the upper levels to reduce perceived height, bulk and shading impacts on the neighboring residences along Lemon.

Eliminated we eliminated parking that faces the west edge at the upper levels to improve privacy for adjacent residences. We expanded the landscape buffer along the West West edge so that now the landscape buffer is, I believe, 26 feet, if I'm not mistaken, something like that. So increased from the existing six feet to twenty six twenty six or 27 feet. And we also expanded I'm sorry, shifted the staircase, which we've talked about along the northwest corner of the parking structure to ensure privacy for adjacent residences. And we added a choker curb and signage at the parking structure entrance on Foster to prohibit left hand turns into the parking structure and eliminate traffic through the townhome, the Mariposa townhome residences.

This picture is a picture of just a small member of a small number of the staff that serve this community day in and day out. I wanted you to see the human side of Orange Coast Memorial, which really is the purpose that we're here for tonight is to take great care of our patients, our visitors, our staff, and our physicians. We do ask for the Planning Commission's support this evening. This project is critical to meeting the parking needs of our existing medical campus, honoring the commitments we've made to the community, and to ensure that we can continue providing outstanding health services to Fountain Valley and beyond. At the end of the day, our goal is simple, to provide exceptional care while also being good neighbors.

This project helps us achieve both. Thank you for your attention.

Alright. Did you wanna take a stab at any of the questions you heard? Otherwise, we'll we'll remind you.

Sure. Just just a few things. So it is it has always been a badge access because employees have to have that when they come to work and to get into the facility as well. So if they show up without their badge, it would be a rare instance, but they would call to that through that call box, that is manned that will be manned, by security twenty four seven so that they'll get an answer. And, they will be allowed to give their badge number, which each of us knows by heart, and they'll identify that it is someone that is supposed to be, coming into the structure and so and a reminder not forget their badge again.

As far as those wrong way drivers or those that are lost, in the from the public that may, get to the gate and realize, gosh, I don't have a way to get in here and, I'm I must be in the wrong space. If they've gone past the signage and haven't seen it, they also will be instructed to push the button on the call box and the security officer who will answer that will direct them to travel. They'll they'll ask where the where the, visitor or patient is intending to be. If they're going to main radiology in the Patient Care Pavilion or or if they're going to an appointment at Edinger Medical Group, and they will, give them directions as to, how to go through the ground level of the park the parking structure and exit onto Talbert and where they should park to be most convenient for their visit to our campus. Also, the I appreciate the information about the the trees that shed like Jacarondas.

I love those Jacarondas, but they're horrible to clean up after. And so we will definitely take that into consideration. And the suggestion of a carpool coordinator is a great one. We, have a employee wellness program called the Good Life at Orange Coast, and this certainly would contribute and fall under the activities that we that we encourage from our employees. So we'll we'll take that, back to the facility and make sure that we, get prepared to do that.

We do have incentives at this point for carpooling, better parking for those who carpool. And so we can certainly set up programs that will encourage more carpooling among our staff. That's all that I have. May I answer any other questions?

Just a let me ask a couple of follow-up questions on some of the things you already talked about. So what signage do you expect to have on Foster to let people know that they're not supposed to go in there? It's a little bit of it it's kinda weird. There's it's a little bit of a blind turn.

Mhmm.

I'm I'm right. That's how I imagine it. Mhmm. The pictures. So what's the

I think the signage program with, that the architects have designed and will continue to refine, once approved would, start the signage, at it wouldn't just be at the edge of the driveway entering the parking structure, but it would begin on the corner, of our campus. So at the corner of Foster And Talbert that this is an employee only parking, structure. So that it'll get people used to the fact that it's not it's not for the general public. Many hospitals have the same kind of setups and it's, you know, the signage once, the signage twice and a reinforcement a third time is probably the best way to go. And but there's undoubtedly will be people that miss the signage, and, have to be instructed and helped how to get to where they're where they should be going.

Great. And then the other question I had was idling in the in the parking structure. Have you thought about that at all? How you would address that?

We certainly have because we have an existing parking structure that backs up to Mariposa, townhomes, further in the campus. So the parking structure that exist, off of off of the at the south end of our campus does back up. Very few complaints over the years about idling in that area. Most of the employees that that park there, they need to get into work and so that they can punch in and get the shift started. So we will have cameras in the new parking structure and and regular rounding of security.

So if we if we have an instance of an employee that's spending time out in their car, that that will be, addressed by our, by our policies and by our security, officers.

And is that I mean, I guess now asking about the existing structure, is it is it signed, like no idling or you tell people that or like

I don't believe that it's even signed in the existing parking structure, but that's certainly an easy thing to do if we find that it's a problem or if we wanna prevent a problem from starting.

Yeah. Go ahead.

So that kind of brought to mind another question that I had regarding people that would just accidentally get lost and wind up in the parking structure. Mhmm. Because you mentioned the cameras, my question was going to be so, you know, somebody just hits the button, says, oh, no. I'm not in the right spot. Security says, we'll drive through and turn back on to Talbert. And the person says, well, I see a spot over there. I think I'm just going to park there.

Mhmm.

So I I'm assuming that the cameras will also mitigate people just being opportunistic and trying to park in the structure even though they're not supposed to.

Yes. I think that would be our best defense against, such activity. I I obviously, there you can never 100% guarantee that that won't happen. But with the cameras and the regular rounding of security, I think we have, the opportunity to mitigate most of that activity. And we with the cameras, we do have their license plates. And so we we monitor, who's on our campus, and so we could do that with, frequent flyers or or offenders for for that situation.

Go ahead.

First, I'll thank Matt for his presentation and then thank you for yours.

Thank you.

I will be one of the residents that probably pulls in there by accident. Okay.

Come and hear you out.

Which brings me to my next point. I work over by Siegerstrom, the Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. And we have similar problems when there are shows happening and those of us are trying to get into work in the afternoon or in the evening. So we also have a badge and it works for many years and we still use it to get into the parking structure and we also have separate entrances like you will have for your employees. The other thing we also have and this is just a suggestion is a sticker that is almost like a fast track that goes inside of our car. And so it's just faster now to where we come up. We don't even have to worry about having our badge or our fob. So it just like It reads through? Yes. It Okay.

Because I am also one of the ones that would pull into there and try to find my badge left at home or whatever but now I have the sticker and I'm able to get in there really Okay. It's just a suggestion.

That's a great suggestion. Thank you. I

have quite some questions just want to clarify with the applicant. So my first question is, is this one is the to propose the parking structure, is that you're going to solve the long term problem or just today problem?

It's a long term problem. I think the adding above and beyond what is required at the moment will accommodate that shift change and the shift report transfer, but it also gives us a little breathing room. I mean, have not had additional parking added to the campus for years and years. The original it's really the original situation that we're dealing with.

So just follow-up with this one. So if the employee of the mem memorial care going up, so is that this parking structure, they're still sufficient for enough parking for the future?

Yes. I definitely believe so. But we are we have no plans to increase. Everyone is looking at holding stable their staff members and making sure that we use our resources really wisely. So we don't have any intention of adding significant numbers of staff.

The third question is for the for the parking. So you mentioned about when the shift changing. Mhmm. So the morning shift nurse is not leaving yet and no the night shift nurse is not leaving yet, the morning coming. So if the arrival of numbers like is it expected Like, did you, like, envision there gonna be a a parking jam or anything during that shift change?

No. I don't at all. And that's because of the excess parking that we've allotted. So, I I don't feel that there will be we we have a awful lot of our staff, especially the nurses that get there early, that park in the existing parking structure. And I stand out there, security stands out there and kind of watches how it runs and it runs really smoothly. So I don't anticipate any traffic jams, a change of shift.

Then another question regarding the construction. So if the case like if the construction is going on with the parking and if we hear some complaint or anything from resident about some incident happened during construction, how we are to resolve that problem.

I will give you my cell phone number. And if you you have if if there are complaints at the city, I I would assume that you guys would share those with us immediately. And our our director of construction and campus development, Mark Shuck, would address those or and and use any means necessary to to make sure that we we mitigate those complaints.

Okay. So come up to my last question is, do you think this one is the best solution right now with the Memorial Care parking problem? Because I think you can use the we have a bundle of existing parking memory care having right now. Also the off-site parking and the shuttle option. So why this one is the best solution?

The are you are you speaking of shuttling in from From the the

offside parking.

The corporate office. Yeah. There that is a temporary measure during construction because you would have to make up the entire deficit on a regular basis and that requires any hourly employees have to be paid overtime, for shuttling to and from. So that's adding that's adding, thirty minutes to their day, either, you know, with coming and going on the shuttle. So we really don't wanna do that.

We don't wanna impose a longer work day on our staff. We want them to arrive at work fresh and ready to be able to take care of patients. So it's a temporary measure, the shuttle is. It's not sustainable for long term or with our entire staff.

And not so much a question, but point of clarification. So you're mentioning these shift change. How often does a shift change happen?

The major ones are two times a day. So it's 7AM and 7PM.

Thank you. So it's not like this is happening every four hours. Something that's it's known Yeah. And Perfect.

Thank you. Any

questions from this side?

All right. Thank you.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak.

Okay. So we're going to go to public comment. I think we have

some. Just a few.

Alright. So a couple reminders. Everyone will be given three minutes to speak. Ask that everyone else wait their turn to speak until they have their three minutes and not try to talk over the people who have their time. That's really important. The other thing that's a reminder for to folks, especially if you don't come to these meetings a lot, which is probably most people, is that this is not a dialogue. This is your time to talk to us. We're not gonna have a conversation. You're not gonna get to have a conversation with the folks other folks in the audience. It's your time to talk.

If there are questions, we will take some of those down, and we will do our best to answer those. Can't promise that we will satisfy you with every question, but feel free during your comments if you really have a question, say it, but just don't expect anyone to answer it while you're up there. We will try to get those to the end to the best of our ability. And we will stay here until every single person gets their chance to speak. So please be patient. You'll get your turn. And with that, do we have any public commenters?

Mister chair, if you could call like three names at a time. I noticed there's some empty seats up front. You could make your way up there when you're about to speak. It saves time from working your way out of the middle of the aisle.

Great idea.

Yes. I'll do that. And then also we'll have a timer on the screen over here that I'll give you that'll show your three minutes. So first we have Prem Balani and then he'll be followed by Tam Nguyen and then Steve Nagel.

Good evening, chairman Langer and members of the planning commission. My name is Prem Balani. I'm a proud resident of Fountain Valley with my wife for over thirty years. We live next to the hospital campus on Bird Court in the Mariposa community and adjacent to the proposed parking structure. Our neighbor, Orange Coast Medical Center, has been delivering on their promise to provide excellent healthcare and I should know having been a patient in the hospital.

I have seen firsthand how the team of health professionals led my compassion and deliver quality medical care. I recently went through a medical issue which required me to come to the facility three times a week over three months. While I live in walking distance of the hospital, I was able to walk to most of my appointments. The other patients who eventually became my friends at cardiac rehab were coming from other areas and had to manage parking three times a week. The patients would often complain about parking and how lucky I was to live where I where I live.

Most in this room cannot relate to this medical issue and I hope they never have to, but it is real. Some, yes, some will be inconvenienced for a while during construction and don't want the hospital to grow. However, if you needed access to the facility, you would appreciate that this solution would eliminate the parking nightmare the patients, staff, vendors, and families encounter each day. Over the last year and a half, I lost my dad who was also in the hospital under hospice care for twenty one days. I would visit him at all hours of the day, even if it was just for a few minutes.

He probably didn't know I was there. Again, I would walk over there for most of my visits. The care and empathy provided to me and my family by hospital staff went beyond my expectations. Yes, I am biased. Yes, my opinions may be different than from my neighbors.

However, we all appreciate good service. That's one of the reasons we go to the restaurants that we do. I truly believe the hospital and staff provide excellent service. The hospital leadership team has been thoughtful and has worked closely with the Fountain Valley residents to listen, make adjustments to parking structure design, to address concerns around landscaping, easements, security, shadows, noise, and traffic. Today, I ask this planning commission to approve the Orange Coast Medical Center parking structure to improve access to health services for patients, caregivers, residents and hospital staff. Thank you.

State your name. You have three minutes.

Yeah. Good evening, Chair Langer and members of the commission. My name is Tam Nguyen. I'm a Fountain Valley resident, local business owner, and also a proud Memorial Care Board member. I'm here to respectfully ask for your approval of the Orange Coast Medical Center parking structure. This hospital is more than a building to my family and to many in this community. My wife, Christine, and I, our primary care physician is theirs, and and we do. We drive unlike Prem. We drive over five minutes, but we are part of the of the patients that drive around looking for a parking spot. My 80 year old mother recently was cared there in the emergency room, and and also my wife, Christine, spent over a decade serving patients as a pharmacist in this hospital.

All three of my children were born at this great hospital as well. In fact, today is one of their birthdays. For us and so many others, this is a place of care, trust, and life's most important moments. As a nonprofit, Orange Coast Medical Center has consistently given back to our community. That commitment is why and what first led me to volunteer on the community benefit oversight committee and now on the board.

At its core, the mission is about access, access to emergency care, outpatient, inpatient services, preventive screenings, physical therapy, and maternal health. Simply put, our community needs this care. It must be this care must be there without barriers. So for nearly for thirty years, this hospital has built a legacy of clinical excellence grounded in trust in patient centered care. As a board member, I take seriously my responsibility to ensure that access continues not only for our Fountain Valley residents, but for all who rely on this hospital from our surrounding communities.

I also want to recognize Emily Randall who spoke earlier and presented on the hospital's behalf. She was recently named the hospital CEO and a longtime beloved and respected COO decades long. She's led with both strength and compassion. Over the past several years, she's met with city staff, neighbors, community members, listening carefully and addressing concerns thoughtfully. She truly shows up and listens with an open mind and an open heart.

The community certainly has responded more than as you heard 500 letters of support from our residents, patients, seniors, physicians, nurses, employees, which reflect how much this project matters. This parking structure is a result of that listing. The collaboration and care. I respectfully ask for your support and approval. Thank you for your time, your service to our community in this great city. Thank you.

Steve Nagel followed by doctor Hubert Wong.

Good good evening. Chair Langer, Vice Chair Huber, and members of the Planning Commission. Thank you very much for listening to our complaints and interest and making sure that we see progress made in our city. My name is Steve Nagel. I'm here to as a hospital neighbor and also a Fountain Valley resident for nearly twenty five years.

Having worked on the fire department as a paramedic until the late nineties, I delivered patients to Fountain Valley or Orange Coast Memorial and and Fountain Valley Regional. But our city has benefited from having another hospital come to being centrally located in our city, and we're blessed to have it become such a member of our community, but also providing the great service that it does. The people that surround the hospital, I know, enjoy the luxury of having something close by, but all of our residents and community surrounding us have a hospital that serves everybody in in a 10 mile radius, really, to get paramedic and first responder service. So I'm asking tonight that we look at the plans that have been approved, been gone over with a fine tooth comb, making it better. Lot of accommodations have been made, and I think it's gonna benefit the community, but also get traffic flowing around our neighborhood streets, but also keep our thoroughfares open for traffic going to the freeway, which is a main concern I had at one time when I was on the city council that I didn't really wanna see more traffic going or coming off of Talbert and and cause problems for our traffic flows.

But I think the accommodations that have been made for this structure is now where it should be, and I request your consideration on approving this project. Thank you.

Doctor. Wong followed by Peter Swanson and Lisa Schultz.

Members of the Planning Commission, thank you for the opportunity to share my support for the Orange Coast Medical Center parking structure. My name is Doctor. Hubert Wong. I'm the chair of the emergency department at Orange Coast. And I'm proud to say that I've helped care for this community for over twenty years and really seen the community grow during that time.

Our emergency department, of course, is open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and we're open to anyone regardless of their insurance coverage. And we see so many individuals during some of their most vulnerable moments. And I just want to particularly thank the city for their support for the expansion of our emergency department, was completed back in 2019. It roughly doubled our size, and it proved critical to ensure that we had the capacity to take care of the community during the COVID-nineteen pandemic. Now, I think few of us would have envisioned that just a few years later, about five years later now, we are seeing nearly 50,000 patients out of our emergency department every year.

And whether those patients are admitted to the hospital or ultimately discharged home, Many of them have very concerned family, friends, caregivers that may need to make multiple trips to the hospital or even during their emergency department visit to really attend to their needs. It's critical for us as physicians that caregivers and family are present so that we can get all the relevant clinical information to know that we are taking care of the patients appropriately, to take care of their loved one appropriately. And equally so, it's vital for the patients to have the support of their loved ones present. And time and again as part of the physician team, we hear from very frustrated family and patients sometimes who are very concerned about their loved one and are circling, circling, circling trying to find a parking spot on campus. And so this parking structure that we're talking about today will really ensure that not just our patients but their loved ones will really be able to navigate our campus more easily and really be able to get to the right place more quickly.

It's equally important for us as the providers and for the hospital employees and staff to really be able to for all the people that support the emergency department, to really be able to get to the unit promptly when they arrive on campus. And so this as we've talked about, this structure is really designed for badge access for employees and staff. And it also will allow the existing structure right next to the hospital to truly be provided for patients and their families to be able to be a resource for them. So really

One second.

I want to thank all of you for considering this proposal and really on behalf of all the physicians and our hospital's patients, do ask for your vote to support this project.

Thank you.

Peter Swanson followed by Lisa Schultz and Brian Genovese.

Good evening Chairman Langer and fellow commissioners. My name is Peter Swanson, and Orange Coast Memorial Care has given me a superpower. I'll explain that in a minute. I'm here to offer my strong support for the proposed parking structure that we've been talking about. My wife and I have been residents of Fountain Valley for thirty five years.

We've been coming to Memorial Care for two decades and Edinger Medical Group, which is our neighbor, for three decades. As the motto goes, Fountain Valley is a nice place to live, and I live today because of the quality of health care at Orange Coast. Three years ago, my Apple Watch told me I was having an irregular heartbeat and recommended I get immediate medical attention. After a battery of tests, the doctors confirmed the irregular heartbeat, but they also told me I needed a quadruple bypass in the next two weeks. Over the next fifteen months, I had two surgeries, four outpatient procedures, eight imaging tests, four hospital stays totaling nineteen days and fifteen nights, a dozen doctor's appointments, and 36 cardiac rehab sessions.

That's not my superpower, that's the hospital's superpower. They did all that. My wife and I came to the hospital at least 93 times for that care. So we think we're qualified to offer an opinion. We search for parking all around the medical complex. That drone shot shows all the places we parked. The one place it doesn't show is Tony's Pizza by the Slice or the Slice House, which my cardiologist said I can't go to. Even though it was frustrating on many occasions circling around, I did eventually find parking and got the medical care I needed. I'm worried about people who gave up and missed their medical appointments. So now about my superpower.

I've been a volunteer the last two years at Memorial Care, and I'm blessed to work in the pre and post op department for cardiology where I had all my surgeries. I get to work with the doctors, nurses, surgeons, all the professionals that took good care of me. Twice a week, I arrive at 06:30 to sit with patients and their loved ones prior to open heart surgeries. When I tell them I've been through what they are going through, you can see their faces relax a little bit and they go into surgery with a bit more optimism. That I think is a superpower I've been given.

Additionally, I escort patients from the hospital entrances to the cardiology department. I make two to three dozen trips per shift and the only complaint I get is about the parking. So please, please approve this parking structure. Thank you very much.

Lisa Schultz followed by Brande Genovese until you win.

Thank you. Mr. Chair and Planning Committee members, my name is Lisa Schultz. Thank you for the opportunity to share my support for Orange Coast Medical Center's parking structure. I'm here today as a patient, a Memorial Care Medical Group employee, a Fountain Valley resident and a community volunteer having served for eight years on the Fountain Valley School District's Board of Trustees. My family, friends and neighbors know that we are very fortunate to have such excellent health care in our community in the form of Memorial Care Medical

Center.

However, the need for parking is not a secret and the city was aware of this when they approved the specific plan that required construction for a parking structure at the campus. As a patient, it's critical that you approve this parking structure so that patients like me and my neighbors can be sure that parking is available when and where we need it. And that we can access the hospital and the medical services in a timely manner. As most of us here probably have been patients at the hospital or any of the other medical buildings on campus such as the Breast Center, the doctor's offices, the surrounding medical office buildings that house doctors there that we go to on a regular basis. And I've been there at all days and times, and it's always difficult to find parking near where we need it to be.

And that's what you hear from just about everybody. So the need is definitely urgent. The solution to increase parking for staff with a structure and in turn free up convenient parking spots for patients is a win for everybody. As employees, we often spend a lot of time cruising the parking lots and the surrounding neighborhoods looking for that spot. In addition, the plans to include a pedestrian bridge will support safe street crossings for staff and help the residents to navigate traffic and pedestrians on their neighborhood streets around the campus.

People are walking dogs, taking their morning walks, while employees are going back and forth across Foster from one lot to another, looking for that parking spot. And then never knowing how much time you need for parking, racing, jogging across, trying to cross Foster again to get to your job. As a resident and community member, I applaud you for developing housing, community spaces, jobs and access to quality health care that is essential to a healthy and growing city like Fountain Valley. I hope you do not wait any longer and improve this project so that the work can begin on this critical parking structure. And just reminds me that I'm really looking forward to what the huge parking structure across the street is going to look like as I live in the neighborhood across the street and I hope it looks as nice as the plans for this structure.

So thank you for your time.

Brian Genovese followed by Thuy Nguyen and Theresa Stern.

Hi, good evening. Commissioner Langer and esteemed commissioners and city staff. Thank you for the opportunity to be able to speak tonight. My name is Brian Genovese. I'm a community volunteer and also do business here in the city of Fallon Valley.

I grew up here in Fallon Valley. I remember when I used to be FHP over there back, the family health plan back in the old days. So, that's always been a dedicated space for the hospital and it's always I think been anticipated that would grow and need to accommodate, you know, more more people, more parking, and things like that. So, I think it's a natural natural evolution for that space to occur and to provide better access for the current patients and future patients coming in over the next ten years. We're going have quite a few people aging here in Fountain Valley are going to need access to those facilities including people in the neighborhoods behind there.

So, I think it's imperative that we actually go through and get this go ahead, get get it going and then because the future of our of our our community, you know, the hospitals we have here, we have such great great great care, and there's no doubt and no dispute that orange orange Coast Memorial has superior care and does a great job for our community. They're a great partner for our for our community. They're always there when we need them. So we really appreciate that. And so I'd say let's go ahead and take the staff recommendation. Matt did a great job tonight presenting and recommend you approve the planning commission recommendation or the staff recommendation to approve this project.

Thank you.

Thuy Nguyen followed by Theresa Stern and Courtney Harris.

Hi, good evening Planning Commission members. Thank you for your time and the opportunity to speak in support of the Orange Coast Medical Center parking structure. My name is Tween Nguyen. I'm a pharmacist and I've worked at Orange Coast for ten years and I've been a Fountain Valley resident for seventeen. Parking on campus is a daily challenge for patients, visitors, and staff. Many patients and their families already plan appointments around off peak hours just to avoid the stress of finding a parking space. One of my coworkers worries every time her mom has to come on campus for oncology care. She's concerned her parents will be late for their appointment or that her mom will have to park far away and struggle to walk. To ease their burdens, every time, you know, she alerts all of us that, hey. My parents are coming.

I might have to run off and give them my parking space and then sometimes I'll say, well, I'm parked closer, let me give it to them. And so we do a lot of this organization so we know that the patients are suffering. And really, finding parking should be the least of a patient's worries when they are seeking medical care. Parking also affects employees and staff. Many of us arrive early or we circle the lot competing for these limited spaces.

Parking availability can also determine if we should leave campus for a quick errand or to go to lunch. My kids, you know, go to school close by and sometimes they'll ask me, hey. Can you come to the school event? And I sometimes I worry and I say, I don't know if I leave in the middle of the day. I might not be able to find a parking space and I might not be able to get back to work on time even though I'm so close by.

So this impacts employee efficiency and morale. The design of the parking structure has been thoughtfully developed under the leadership of Emily Randall and has been refined over time with extensive feedback from residents, city officials, and our own staff. The current design reflects that collaboration and includes an easement to create separation from nearby homes, the landscape buffer, to give homes more privacy, and the and I'm also really excited about the pedestrian bridge over Foster because that will improve safety, reduce jaywalking, and ease concerns for both drivers on Foster and staff crossing the street. Both Orange Coast Medical Center and Fountain Valley have grown, especially, you know, in the seventeen years that I've lived here. So to support that growth responsibly and to support our patients in our surrounding areas, we need this infrastructure to keep pace.

Fountain Valley is a nice place to live, and Orange Coast is a great place to work. I respectfully ask for your approval of the Orange Coast Medical Center parking structure. Thank you.

Teresa Stern followed by Courtney Harris and Katie Roulette.

Chair Langer and members of the Planning Commission, I'm here today in support of the parking structure at Orange Coast Medical Center. My name is Theresa Stern, and I have the privilege of overseeing Orange Coast Medical Center's ancillary operations, which includes diagnostic, therapeutic, and supportive services. One area I oversee is the Parkinson's and movement disorders program. Parkinson's disease is a disorder of the nervous system that progressively worsens over time causing symptoms such as tremor, rigidity and difficulty walking. Orange Coast Medical Center graciously supports people with Parkinson's by offering a vast array of complementary groups and classes such as patient support groups in which patients get to connect with their families and other people

with

Parkinson's for educational opportunities, shared experiences, and community resources. We offer caregiver support groups, which focuses specifically on the unique needs of patients' caregivers and their loved ones. We offer free exercise classes and physical therapy to support strength, balance, and mobility. And we offer speech therapy focusing on helping people with Parkinson's maintain their ability to speak and their ability to swallow safely. As you can imagine, in order for patients who are on this difficult journey to utilize these valuable resources, many visits to our campus are required daily and weekly.

This means people suffering from Parkinson's symptoms, their caregivers, and their loved ones currently have to deal with the stress of finding parking and potentially being late or even missing these these valuable services. I am here today asking you to make it easier for them to access our campus. Please approve this project for memorial care so we can provide the best care for our patients, their caregivers, and their loved ones. Thank you.

Courtney Harris followed by Katie Roulette and Linoi Reba.

Chairman Langer and members of the Planning Commission, I'm here today in support of the parking structure. My name is Courtney Harris. I'm a nurse and director of cardiovascular services at Orange Coast Medical Center. I have the privilege of overseeing Orange Coast Medical Center's Heart Institute. Both men and women experience heart conditions throughout their lives, and we are here to help them with our team of cardiologists, surgeons, RNs, technologists, and rehab teams.

After a major cardiac event, there are necessary therapies to support the patient to full recovery, which may mean cardiac rehab, pulmonary rehab, and physical therapy. These patients will be coming to our campus three or more times per week for several months to ensure their full recovery. Our cardiac patients are particularly vulnerable to experiencing elevated blood pressure and its downstream effects. This is most often in stressful situations. This can cause their health conditions to further deteriorate.

That means our cardiac rehab patients need to be able to come to our hospital campus and remain calm while finding a parking place should not be on their list of concerns. I've seen first hand patients coming to our cardiac rehab in various states of anxiety and agitation due to circling the campus multiple times trying to find a parking spot. This frequently makes them late for their appointments and adds much more stress to their day. With that said, I had the privilege to meet our neighbors living near Orange Coast during both of our hospital open house events to give community members opportunities to see the plans on the parking structure and provide feedback. Memorial Care has made multiple updates to the design and plans to address feedback received as presented in the proposed project that you've seen tonight.

I'm here today asking you, please approve the parking project for Memorial Care patients and our staff. Thank you.

Katie Roulette followed by Lenoa Rabe and Jim Calligan.

Good evening Planning Commission members. Thank you for the time and opportunity to voice my support for the Orange Coast Medical Center parking structure. My name is Katie Roulette and I'm the director of social services as well as EVS, which includes our dedicated team of housekeepers housekeeping staff to make sure our hospital is always clean for visitors and patients. My desire is for my teams to be able to arrive to work on time and without the stress of hunting for a parking spot. It negatively impacts their workday when they arrive late to start their day.

This parking structure will alleviate a lot of stress for staff and help to ensure our focus is a 100% on patient care and the services we provide. Despite offering free valet parking and implementing other parking management strategies, the demand for parking far exceeds available spaces. As the director of social services, my staff are often the first ones to receive family members when visiting patients, and

more than more than we

would like to see, these are end of life visits or goodbyes. Finding parking should be the last thing that our families have think about when arriving to see their loved ones for the last time. For these reasons, please approve the Orange Coast Medical Center structure parking structure. Thank you.

Lenoa Rabi followed by Jim Kelligan and Doctor. Stan Arnold.

Good evening. My name is Linda Robby and I've been a Tiburon resident for about twenty five years. In the corner of Brookhurst and Talbert has been my medical center ever since its inception with FHP. And before that, was a pretty good movie theater. I've been a caregiver. I am a patient. And for well over the past fifteen years, a hospital volunteer. My husband was a volunteer for several years as well. And he also stood before the commission years ago as the HOA president from Tiburon to support the building of the medical pavilion. My current volunteer position is at the hospital entrance right across from the parking structure.

I greet all visitors, soon to be parents, and many patients as well. The major complaint is parking. Even with four valet stations, it's difficult for patients, visitors, and staff parking. Every day there are complaints about no parking and our valets are often extremely congested. Patients and visitors come in frustrated, angry, anxious, and stressed due to the lack of parking.

Orange Coast Memorial is an excellent hospital and medical center providing exceptional care to the community. However, the limited parking does not meet the requirements of the patients. The proposed parking structure for staff will alleviate much of the turmoil. Having an overhead bridge is an added plus. It will almost completely eradicate crossing in the middle of the street as well as cars driving around looking for space or using parking designated for residents.

So many community members, staff, and experts have worked diligently to come up with the best solution to meet the needs of the patients and citizens while taking into consideration the surrounding neighborhoods. I urge you to approve the parking structure as quickly as possible so that we may finally appropriately accommodate our community. Thank you.

Jim Calligan, Doctor. Stan Arnold, and then Lillian Yao.

Good evening. Thank you members of the City Planning Commission for the opportunity to voice my support for the Orange Coast Medical Parking Structure proposal. My name is Jim Callahan. My family and I have lived in Fountain Valley for thirty two years. During these years, I've come to know the hospital and many of its dedicated staff members.

My late wife and I have both been patients as well as worked in the hospital for many years. Orange Coast Medical Center and its team of doctors, nurses, and staff provide valuable health services to the Fountain Valley and the surrounding community. The hospital's mission is to improve the health and well-being of individuals, families, and our community. I know this to be true as my wife Cindy was the former director for the breast imaging center at the hospital. Cindy's biggest concern was that patients were treated with dignity and respect in their patient care experience.

When a patient is giving an unfortunate diagnosis of cancer, it is a frightening and stressful time. These patients are cared for by a high quality team of oncologists that design and deliver a treatment plan that is then administered by the hospital. This may include a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Cancer patients will then experience frequent visits to the hospital accompanied by family and friends during this treatment. Difficult difficulty finding parking creates more stress on this already daunting cancer journey.

I can attest to this as I have experienced this during my wife's cancer journey. It's imperative to find a solution to the parking shortage at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center. This proposal before you today addresses the needs of the hospital's patients, employees, and our community. Orange Coast Medical Center's legacy of clinical excellence is built on a foundation of trust, expertise, and patient centric care. Part of this care should include safe and readily available parking. I ask this planning commission to approve the parking structure proposal and provide a much needed solution to this problem. Thank you for your consideration.

Doctor Arnold, followed by Lillian Yao, and Linda Falland.

Good evening, Chairman Langer and Planning Commissioner members. My name is Doctor Stan Arnold. I'm practicing internist in the community for forty years and, president of Edinger Medical Group. Today, I'm asking on behalf of our team of physicians, nurses, compassionate staff, and most importantly, patients for your approval of the much needed and long anticipated parking structure at Orange Coast. Edinger has been in the community since 1961, managing chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, preventing illness, promoting wellness.

I'm proud to say that we've been voted number best medical group in Orange County for ten years in the Orange County Register. We when we came into the community thirty years ago, we've been in in the community for sixty one, but thirty years ago, we moved to the campus when a memorial moved into the old FHP hospital. At that time, it was a sleepy little community hospital wandering through the floor, you know, in the floors of the hospital. It was like a ghost town, you know, patients scattered here and there, to where we are today, which is now one of the premier hospitals in Orange County, one the most competitive regions in the world. And it's a great hospital.

And with that growth has come, you know, the patient numbers, both in doctors and patients as well. And the parking is critical. We see it affecting patient care. And so I'm here to please ask you to approve this parking structure. Actually, was talking to one of my partners on and he said, what are you doing? And I said, oh, I get to I get to go to the planning commission. How fun is that? And and asked for the for you guys to approve the structures. And she said, don't ask them. Beg them. So I'm begging you. Thank you. Thank you for your time.

Lillian Yao followed by Linda Fallon and Herb Fallon.

Hi, my name is Lillyn Yao. I'm a long time resident of Fountain Valley. I live in the townhomes off of Foster On Bird Court behind the hospital. No doubt, everybody wants great healthcare. I myself an employee I was an employee over at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

And a couple things I had in listening to everything. As an employee, I had to take into account my commute time on the 405 Freeway, park, and then walk ten minutes to get to my time clock. So to the idea of the current location off of Slater where there are the corporate offices, when the patient care pavilion got approved back in 2007, one of the ideas was to have the employees park there and then be shuttled over here over to the current location. That, from what I can tell, has never been tried. And to Emily's concept of, well, then you have to pay for the shuttle ride, like, I never got paid to walk to my office.

So if the time clock starts when you arrive at your office, then as an employee, I would take into consideration, okay, I've got to drive my commute to the designated employee facility and allot for time to then take the shuttle to get to my workplace. This is probably done at Disneyland where people have to park significantly far away from where they have

to

work. It's probably done, like, at the hotels. I was recently in LA where the self parking was a good five, ten minute walk to the actual hotel. So while they want to have this parking structure everybody wants parking really close, including the employees. We're all concerned about the visitors, yes.

But have we even explored like right now, the explored the employees to park at the Slater facility. That's their proposed backup plan for during construction. So why not start that now? If they start that now and have the employees park over there, I'm sure that will free up a lot of parking for the visitors. Real quickly, the and that can also be incentivized in their Good Life program that they have for the employees.

Lastly, before or as Mariposa was being built, Fieldstone, the builder, had to stop construction because the parking lot in Ralph's was cracking. The city then asked them to stabilize the ground that Mirapossa 2 is currently on, wait for a year to make sure that ground was stable. So in digging into the dirt and creating this basement level makes me concerned, what are we going to do as homeowners if our ground starts cracking because of this development? So I beg you to consider alternate locations.

Thank you.

Linda Fallon followed by Herb Fallon and Doctor. Gary James.

My wife had to leave, so I'm going to read her statement for you. Currently, hospital parking employees park in the neighborhood. How will it be for the visitors when they know that they can't park in the structure? We're concerned that visitors will not get acclimated very quickly. How many of you commissioners, even with minimal planning expertise, think it's a good idea to have a five story cement block at the entrance to a beautiful housing development in your city adjacent to your homes.

You can say, well, it's not only not really ideal, it's not really compatible, but the hospital has expanded so much they need the parking. Why is it that Mariposa Mariposa's problem to deal with the kind of encroachment on our residential streets in aesthetic appeal? I know the consultants and the hospital staff have convinced you that this traffic will not be impacted on Talbert, Foster, or that already horrible stacked intersection, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to anticipate where it's going to occur with the additional 553 parked cars. I came home from an appointment today at 3PM, and I sat at the intersection on Talbert for three signal cycles. That's how far back the cars are stacked on Talbert.

Can you imagine what we when the add when we add the parking structure egressing onto Talbert on top of the existing everyday traffic, trying to get on the southbound 405? How do the commissioners, staff members, the general public like looking at the temporary cement block across from the street here from City Hall? You know that it's temporary, but it will be hidden by the new development. What would you say what would you be saying if that was your permanent view? You wouldn't be wrong.

I could go on and on. This is not the location for this structure. Now my my name is Rick Fallon. I live at 9793 Bird Court. My wife and I are residents of the Mariposa Townhomes. We've seen the and experienced the expansion of the hospital campus personally. This is not an issue of health care. This is an issue of land use and planning. Yes. The campus does need parking, but not at the numerous not as a result of the numerous impacts to the neighborhood neighborhood and at this location.

For the last fifteen years, I've been retired and the reality of the hospital's impacts are felt daily. Cut through traffic, employee parking, construction trucks, traffic up, truck traffic, primarily delivery trucks, employee and visitor parking on Foster And Phillips. For myself?

You you can't you can't hand on the time.

So you you got three minutes left. Wife.

She left. It's three minutes per person.

Okay. Recommend that you deny the initial study of the mitigated negative declaration to the city council and that you denied the precise plan for the project with findings.

Thank

you. Doctor Gary James followed by Renee Lee and Charlene Freeman.

Hi, I'm Doctor. Gary Jones. It's Gary with two R's. I'm a retired dentist. I spent fifty years down in the mouth.

And a couple years ago I had my knees replaced and it was a little tough walking. My doctor is Edinger Medical Group, I

just saw him

leave. But I had to park, I had to leave home early because I knew the parking was not so terribly great. So I drove around the campus for maybe twenty minutes trying to find a place to park, Following four or five cars ahead of me waiting for somebody to pull out. I went up the parking structure. Finally, gave up and I traveled south on Brookhurst and parked in that parking area where there's some doctor appointments there.

Found one apartment, one parking spot. That meant I had to hoof it as quick as I could to make my appointment at Edinger Medical Group. And when I got there my blood pressure was up and my knees hurt and I'm still in a recovery phase. And I complained to Doctor. Arnold that what's happening with parking. He says we're gonna do a new parking structure one of these days in that South parking. I'm hoping that you guys approve that because it's going to make people like myself a little bit easier to get to our medical appointments. And that's about all I've got.

Renee Lee followed by Charlene Freeman.

Members of the planning committee, thank you for your time and opportunity for me to voice my support for Orange Coast Medical Center parking structure. My name is Renee Lee. I have been an operating nurse at Orange Coast for thirty years and a Fountain Valley resident for longer. Throughout my career, I've cared for patients and community members, which has brought fulfillment to my life and the reason why I came to Orange Coast. I get to see the day to day works of our OR teams, from the nurses to the doctors, ensuring our patients receive high quality surgical care at the hospital.

The hospital leaders, especially Emily, have created a culture of family with our amazing nurses, doctors, staff working together to care for our patients. However, it has been well established that there is insufficient parking for the current flow of vehicles and the number of people on the campus. I start at 07:00 in the morning. I get there about six in order for me to be able to have a parking spot. I, more than half of the time, walk to work because I am local.

It takes me, you know, twenty, twenty five minutes, but it saves a parking spot. I can't always do that. I'm on call and I can't in the middle of the night have to walk home. There are many challenges with our parking. It makes me sad when I hear our patients not wanting to come to Orange Coast, even though we are wonderful, and we treat our patients with the utmost respect, care, everything.

But they don't want to come because of our parking. And I have I've been a patient. I have family members have been patients. I have other family members that work at Orange Coast. It's a problem.

And if we do not do something, I feel that we're going to do disservice to our residents and our patients. And I hope that you make an awesome decision and improve the access of our health service by approving the parking structure. Thank you.

Chair, I just want to say I can't be blamed for mispronouncing these names. Some of these are

written by doctors and I just

can't read them. I'm going to say Charlene Freeman followed by last name is Mitan and then Beth Hamilton.

Thank you so much for allowing me to speak this evening and to voice my support for the Orange Coast Medical Center parking structure. My name is Charlene Freeman and I serve as the patient relations director. And I've had the privilege of working at Orange Coast for more than thirty five years. I was originally employed with FHP Hospital in 1990, which was a for profit private hospital that limited access to FHP members only. And in 1996 Memorial Care acquired the hospital now known as Orange Coast Medical Center.

So over the past three decades, I've seen firsthand how Memorial Care as a nonprofit organization has thoroughly evolved this campus to provide high quality medical and clinical care that is accessible and responsive to the needs of the Fountain Valley community. In my role, I help patients navigate their care throughout the hospital, which may include complex services ranging from heart surgery to oncology care and many specialties in between. For our patients and their families, healthcare is a journey. And my team works closely with our patients to ensure access to the many services needed to support a full recovery after discharge, such as physical therapy and oncology infusion, radiation, and the other services that have been mentioned already. As a result, patients and their loved ones may need to return to our hospital campuses multiple times, and access to convenient parking becomes an important part of their overall experience.

Despite offering valet service and implementing a variety of parking management strategies, the demand for parking continues to exceed the number of available spaces we have. So over the years, hospital leadership has worked creatively to address this issue. This includes partnering with my sister who's a senior pastor at Living Waters right across the street for additional employee parking during the work week. And we've accessed that, but even with this effort, we still do not have enough parking spaces to adequately serve our patients, visitors, employees. So our continued success and the growing demand for the vital health care services have resulted in a parking shortage that can be stressful for employees and especially for those seeking care or visiting hospitalized loved ones.

So I respectfully ask that your approval of this project so Memorial Care can continue to support our patients, families, and the Fountain Valley community with a great experience and the ease of parking. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Last name I believe is Mee Tan, lives on La Colonia, followed by Beth Hamilton and Doctor. Elham Khanifar. Beth, want to come up? Go ahead, come up Beth.

Good evening, Chair Langer and Planning Commission members. Thank you for allowing me to come before you and share my support of the proposed parking structure for Memorial Care Orange Coast Medical Center. Having recently retired from Orange Coast as the senior program and community outreach liaison for the hospital, I know and understand the needs of our local senior community, not just as an advocate, but as a current senior and patient myself receiving ongoing medical care at Orange Coast Memorial. One of those and as one of those who wholeheartedly believes in the city's commitment to well-being and access for all, I still volunteer for the persons with disabilities dance and other things. So I applaud the city for being that organization that really does fight for access for all people.

For twenty years, I partnered with the Fountain Valley Senior Center and the city to both support and create multiple programs to help seniors access health education classes, medical care, and health screenings as well as programs addressing food and security and transportation needs. My role was to help improve the health of our senior residents in Fountain Valley by making healthcare more accessible from creating workshops for seniors on disease and injury prevention and disease management to helping them navigate the healthcare system in and around our hospital campus. I know firsthand as we age, our utilization of healthcare services increases. And it's for this reason that we need you to support the approval of the parking structure. We seniors, our family members and our caregivers come to our hospital and unfortunately, we immediately become stressed driving around and around and this is my case now because I'm no longer an employee so I don't have guaranteed parking, looking for parking spaces.

If you were in our shoes, please think about being late for a chemo infusion appointment, for an appointment with your specialist to hear that critical answer to what your tests revealed this time, to a participant in a Parkinson's support group. Teresa mentioned their limited mobility as well. Having access to close parking where we need our care, where we access our care as seniors and the community is vital. So tonight, you can help our seniors and our community by supporting this parking structure plan. As a patient and a senior receiving ongoing care at Orange Coast Memorial, I thank you for your consideration and I thank you for your service. Good night.

Doctor. Kneefer followed by Christina Alessio and Megan Taylor.

Dear members of the Planning Commission, good evening and thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. My name is doctor Elham Khanafar, and I am the medical director of the Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratory at Orange Coast. I'm here tonight to speak about the critical need for the proposed employee parking structure. At our hospital, providing compassionate patient care depends entirely on the people who show up every day to provide it. Our employees, nurses and medical staff are the foundation of that care.

Our hospital has experienced steady growth, which reflects the increasing needs standard of care that we provide. However, our parking capacity has not kept pace and this creates a daily challenge for our staff as well as our visitors. We simply do not have sufficient parking on-site for the number of staff, patients and visitors that come to campus daily. Our laboratory staff and other hospital employees have to endure this daily, and it is a very real stress and burden. Many arrive early for their shifts and still find themselves driving up multiple levels of the current parking structure, Sometimes round and round and round to the 5th Floor and then all the way back to find a patient to follow up back to wherever they were parked so that they can nab that spot.

If there are no spaces, they then go to the foster lot and circle there. And if they can't find anything there, they have to go to the nearby communities and streets and find parking there. I've heard colleagues state that it has taken them thirty five to forty minutes to find a parking spot before they have to start their workday. This current situation leads to increased traffic on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods as staff drive around around looking for parking. This obviously creates a safety concern for everybody.

For our staff, it's a source of fatigue and stress before the workday has even begun. In health care, where attention to detail, good judgment and compassion are essential to providing exceptional care, starting a shift already tired and frustrated can impact how the care is delivered. Our goal should be for every member of our staff to begin their day focused entirely on their patients, not on where they can park their car. A full parking lot means that patients and visitors feel the strain as well, and we've heard from multiple members of the community reflecting that also. This proposed parking structure is a thoughtful and necessary solution.

It will provide a secure designated parking location for employees accessible by ID badge and reducing the unnecessary traffic both on the campus and in our surrounding streets and neighborhood. The inclusion of an elevated pedestrian bridge will also improve safety by reducing jaywalking across Foster Street, is happening very frequently right now. Most importantly, this project will reduce stress and anxiety at the start of the day, ensuring that our staff can dedicate 100% of their energy to patient care. For these reasons, I respectfully ask for your support in approving the parking structure at Orange Coast Medical Center, and that is in support for both our dedicated healthcare team and the patients and visitors we serve and our surrounding community. Thank you.

Christina Alaseo and Megan Taylor.

Hi. My name is Christina Alisio. I've been a resident of Fountain Valley for thirty years and lived in Mariposa for twenty years. I've also volunteered at the hospital in the cancer center, nine women and I making quilts, and I distributed them every week to cancer patients. And I agree that parking is needed, but I'm concerned.

I don't feel that Talbert and Foster can handle this. And I feel like well and you have to think about their semis going down the street to Gothard, the freeway line's all backed up, people are going to the high school, and I feel like Talbert and Foster should have to be widened to accommodate all this. Or and that there's a lane for residents to go around them. So when they're all queued up, can we go around and go I mean, think about it. Foster's two lanes.

This is not gonna work. And also a big concern for me is the property value of my house is gonna go down to accommodate all this growth. And I I realize it's needed, but how come we're not going with the original plan that the parking structure's on Brookhurst in that shopping center that was supposed to be the parking structure, not the spot right in our residence. So that's all I have to say.

Megan Taylor.

Good evening, Planning Commission chair and members. My name is Megan Taylor. I live on Lemon Street directly behind the proposed structure. My family has lived in this home for nearly fifty years, long before there was a hospital or a Mariposa. Before FHP was even a hospital, the residents met in my parents' living room and were promised we would never have a structure behind our home.

This project will permanently change how we live. It'll block the sunrise from inside our home, something that's part of our daily life, something that we enjoy and look forward to, and something that was also not analyzed by any report that was looked into. It will eliminate the privacy in our yard, something that we use every day. It in it introduces a significant increase in the daily activity right behind our home. This is five times the amount of staff members taking their lunch in their car and us listening to their phone calls that they probably have no idea we hear every day.

The CEQA analysis also doesn't evaluate the pedestrian safety on Talbert. Even though all the traffic is being funneled to this location, this now results in a tenfold increase of the amount of cars that go over that one driveway. In our neighborhood, we have three service dogs, two families that are blind. We have a fam a whole home for disabilities. We have a convalescent home, and these are all people that use your hospital.

There is no safe way for them to get across. In addition, the lighting impacts have not been fully addressed. Instead of the current minimal lighting in our yard today on a currently flat lot, we will now have multiple elevated levels of lighting going directly into our home and into our yard. While at the same time, we're also going to lose the natural light in our yard for our garden and the things we do in our yard. A lighting mitigation example would be the structure you already have on Brookhurst behind Citibank.

If you go look at that, there are actually no light poles on the wall. They are in the middle. So somehow there is a mitigation option, maybe putting lower lights on the parapet walls. This project is intentionally designed to funnel all the exiting traffic onto Talbert directly behind private residential homes. A focused residential traffic analysis was done on Foster, but it wasn't done for our neighborhood.

There was no traffic analysis on Talbert west of the project. Are not asking Ten seconds. We are not asking for you to stop the project. We're asking for proper shielding of the lights from our property, stationary louvers on the whole West Side so that we don't have the light or the sound, and a pedestrian activated safety system on Talbert. This permanently impacts our homes and our property values, and I would ask that you don't approve the excess or surplus, just approve the required number of spots that the hospital needs.

Thank you.

Robert Sterling. I believe Mr. Sterling had Robert Sterling. Good

evening. City council and the staff of the hospital. My name is Robert Sterling. I'm a resident in the Briar Lemon Street in Turtle Dove neighborhood. I've lived there for the last forty years.

I'm a retired Boeing test engineer. And as a test engineer, I've reviewed the RMD. I've reviewed the plans for the change to the structure, not just from a brick and mortar point of view, but I look at it from a operational point of view for the hospital and what they may need to do and look ahead. It's very easy. Some of us have done modifications to our home and built a new home or done bought a car or whatever and bought it.

And I want this is what I want. And then after you get into it, you go, oh, we should have done this and we I wish I had done that. So I'm trying to I looked at these things from Megan's point of view because they introduced me to the project and I looked at it from the hospital point of view, from an operational point of view, from an engineering point of view, from a day to day point of view so that they look at it now before they get the structure built and Fountain Valley is out of the picture, the architect is out of the picture, and they're left with their structure that may or may not satisfy all of their needs. So I would suggest to them that that you consider not just your needs and and and the medical needs, but but the ongoing day to day small things that make a difference. You know, they say, you know, you don't know somebody's job unless you've done it and walked in their shoes.

And I think some of that needs to be done. This gentleman here presented a lot of facts having to do with the parking and the tables and the city and the regulations and everything else. But that's from my history is is a lot of looking up things and tables and applying rules and things you've seen. And that's not the same as coming out here and measuring the traffic, watching it, sitting here for a week and watch the traffic and see what happens on today's existing thing because we have a heck of a backup on this thing. And and it doesn't matter.

It's not just rush hour. This project has three big prongs, the city of Haunton Valley, the hospital, and community. And they have three different needs. The city of Haunton Valley will get the hospital they need it, but then they will get tax dollars that are good for the community. The hospital has needs, growth so that they can service the community. And the community has a need because we need the health care

That's a difference.

Can get by having a hospital here. So the hospital needs the structure. That's a given. You can't undo that. In the forty years that I've lived here, you know, from a a drive in theater or an asparagus fields to what we have today is is great. The other question that would come up with the neighborhood

Sir, you're you're out of

is that, you know, why don't you

Sir, you're you're out of time.

Build a the the brokers and use that lot. And they've said that that that, you know, you can't do it because it's can't do.

Could we get the next person up?

But it is doable.

You have no other requests. Thank you, sir.

Alright. Do we have anyone on no one on Zoom. Okay. With that, I will close the are we good? Okay. With that, I'll close the public hearing. And, I don't think I caught any questions that I noted. So why don't we go ahead to discussion and comments from the commissioners? Who wants to go first?

I'll go first. The current structure that's on the property. I don't know if this is a question for you or maybe Emily. I don't know who was there when that was built. Is it up against townhomes that are currently in that area? And I'm trying to think when I'm late for my appointment, I'm driving around in that structure. There's no openings on that back side. Correct? Correct. There is a roof parking.

And has there been any complaints or issues with the current parking situation, people parking the roof from those residents that live there? I don't know what's between that parking structure and their back. They're right up against it. Right?

Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

About four foot. Four foot.

I haven't received any I don't recall receiving in the last four years any complaints about that.

Yeah. But there's a very small setback.

Mhmm. Okay. And then, again, I'd like I would encourage the sticker or looking at that for employees again because it will alleviate some of the traffic that people are talking about coming in and out. The other question I had was, I am all for putting a sign at that exit of that parking structure to watch for pedestrians, if that's something that we can look into and do. I think that needs to be looked into. Yes. Because I live off of Talbert also on Magnolia and Talbert, and it's a lot of traffic like everyone else has been talking about. And it's fast in the morning getting to the 405, and it's fast all times a day. So to alleviate any incidents

Just to clarify, you want because there are a few different things to talk about. You want a a warning something for pedestrians, or you want something in

the street,

or you want something for the people leaving the structure?

I'll take all of it. I will take all of it. I will take it for the pedestrian to look out for the driveway. I'll take it for the cars to look out for the pedestrians. If there needs to be a mirror there to look to see if there's a car coming. I mean, those lanes are tight. There's no bike lane, and it's fast. So that's all I got.

Other comments? Commissioner Morales?

Yeah. I'll follow-up on that. When people are pulling out onto Talbert from the structure, they're looking left at their oncoming traffic. Pity the pedestrian wants to go west, and they're not being seen. So, and I know for a fact my my son was hit by a car in that scenario. So, yes, some opportunity for pedestrians in both directions to make cars aware that they're there.

Yes, I would agree that part too. It used to be the side distance for the car to tendency to see is more on the right turn than to the left. And there is also a similar situation that I experienced with one of my friend who got struck by that way. So by any chance, we put any of the warning on the side that prevent that. So I think it would be contributing a lot into the project.

I think this project is bringing it up last year in front of us. And I remember that's one at that time, when they asked the question is with the own proposal is if I stay the top of the parking structure, I'm in the front of the car, am I able to see the resident in the front of me? And answer back from me. He said, probably you can see it at that time because the parapet was only 3.5 feet. And if the guy intention to stay in the front of the car that time with the parking perpendicular to the backyard.

And today, I come back and I see that we have a bunch of modification on that 5th Floor on the top roof, the setback and the parallel parking, I think that helped a lot compared to last time my question was last year. So I really appreciate that really you guys can consider that into the factor. I know that the impact to the resident right now is we're still we're still not sure what how much of impact when we go into construction and how it's going to be how it's going be after it's complete. But I also think this is a balance in it, like when I asking a bunch of my question about, are you sure this one is the best option you use for you evaluate? And I'm I'm sure that the the team of memory care, they already consider this one is the the best option they can do already.

And I think I can trust on that. I believe that. So by that way, I I will support the project. And with some some something like the size is, I think it will be really enhanced for the pedestrian. And also, I want to ask our committee director that for the lighting, if we have some issue with the lighting can be shut into the resident. So can we do have some modification after that after that? Or

Yes. I if approved, the conditions allow for that. I I am taking notes. I at some point, if there's a recommendation, I can give some language on the pedestrian safety and and the lighting as well.

Thank you. And that's not all my comment. Thank you.

So

I want to add from personal experience that this situation is not just unique to this hospital. I've been to other hospitals in Orange County that are having this exact issue. And it seems to arise from a combination of an outdated campus that's now growing and expanding its services. And the community itself is growing, and there is a greater population that is in need of care. And so I think that, you know, the intent of this project is to make that care accessible.

And that's meaning for both the people that are receiving the care, the people that are their support network, and the people that are providing that care. I mean, not much is very, very clear. Another thing I want to point out is that having seen this project before last year and then now seeing how much that it's changed really shows the degree of care that's going into the thought and intent behind this project. Because it is very, very rare for projects to come before this commission and have this significant degree of changes. And it's unusual to see an applicant go through this degree of wanting to get the community involved, wanting that input, and then actually making changes that are significant.

And so, you know, that really shows me that, yes, I understand the concerns of those residents that are going to be directly impacted. But at the same time, the applicant is trying to do their best to satisfy the needs of all of the parties involved, and that's no small feat. And so, you know, I just hope that that's not lost in this discussion that changes these significant and really caring about that degree of feedback and trying to satisfy everyone when, realistically, that's kind of impossible. But trying to get as close to meeting the needs of everyone in the community as possible, I mean, this is really an example of going above and beyond and doing more than where I think the the standard kind of operating procedure is.

Commissioner Anzcada?

Just to circle back on signage. Another maybe possibility to assist the residents who live there in the community for those that were for it or against it. Is there signage now as you're going into Foster that says, you know, no hospital parking, no residents only parking. Is there something that we could put?

We can explore that with the public works and engineering department.

Even if we do it

on Foster and then coming on off of Phillips too, maybe?

Yep.

That would help? Okay. Thank you.

Great.

Yes. I have a a few thoughts, and then I wanna come back to some of the potential, potential additions. So, first of all, I wanna thank staff while I have a chance. We got a 1,040 page, staff packet for this meeting. I mean, a lot of that was just, some letters, but there was actually, like, 700 pages of of actual work that the staff did.

So I really wanna acknowledge and appreciate that. The city does a lot of work just to make this all happen. And on on actually, on that point, we had a commenter say, I think, and I wanna add a little corrective to this, that, you know, it's kind of the sentiment. This is, like, our one one stop to opine on the project, and then, like, that's it. That just runs forever.

And, actually, I think one of the things I've learned a lot being on the planning commission and getting to know how the city works is that, actually, all of what we do is really just the beginning. We're we're starting a project, and then it's every day forever that if there's issues from the community, complaints, problems, things break, things don't go right, that's actually what the planning department, community development department does all day is dealing with that stuff, and then occasionally, we get a new thing. But I I just wanna say that's a really important part of this. So when we look at the conditions, and for those of you who've looked through those pages and pages of conditions, a lot of it is things that we're delegating to the community development director to implement on a day to day basis. And I know for a fact with other things that we've approved that there's been concerns that those things do get enforced, and that happens just be we we haven't been very fortunate that we have a very well run city with really professional staff that stay on top of that stuff.

I'll also say, picking piggybacking on our vice chair's comments, it also helps, and it's important that we have we have good neighbors and good actors in, involved here. I I do I definitely agree. I I think it's a good sign that some pretty serious modifications were done to the plan that, was shared with the planning commission at study session in August. I think those are are really material improvements even though I absolutely understand that if you're if you're a neighbor of this, even if the we haven't crossed the legal thresholds of of, what counts as an impact under CEQA. I think, you know, it is a change, and that is not a change that you would choose to have.

And so I think having it be the best version of the project is pretty important, and appreciate that there's been some flexibility on the other side for that. So on on to the specific couple specific things, and I'll also, thank our, commenters who were opposed to this, and some of the letters we got were were, I think, constructive. So I think two issues that we might wanna explore a little bit if we're going to make a support motion with changes is the lighting question. The item came up about louvers, which I think is interesting. With that said so I we do have this amended condition, and I wanna ask our planning director.

Do you think that with this amended version of the your authority to enforce and change the lighting conditions that you would be able to do that kind of mitigation if it if it was determined and necessary?

I could. There was also one suggestion which I've heard in previous, for structures that we've approved previously, which is to replace the vertical lighting standards with parapet mounted sconces, which is being done more and more. So I was gonna also suggest a for that top floor, a condition replacing the vertical light standards on on the top of the structure with wall mounted lights scone or sconces to the greatest extent possible. So you may have some lighting in the in the center, but also sconces on the on the perimeter. But I think we'll need to work with the applicant on that. And then I have one for the pedestrian issue as well if you'd like to talk about that.

Yeah. I'll so I okay. I think we can do so we'll we'll accept the changes already made, but with the addition of to the greatest extent possible, if someone wants to make that motion, to the greatest extent possible, I don't know, sconces, pedestrian lighting, something like that. Okay. Yeah. And then on the I think there we we came up with a bunch of different ideas on the, pedestrian issue. I don't know how you're thinking about this. I was thinking we could do something like

I I'd like to let the engineering department weigh in on it. So the the verbiage I was looking at is to require, installing pedestrian safety devices along the Talbert exit, of the structure, of the parking structure, to the satisfaction of the development director and the city engineer.

Yeah. I I like that. I I think there were constructive suggestions on that both from up here, but also from the community. I I saw in one of the the letters about pedestrian activated blinky lights or I I don't know what you call it. But I think

we can include a statement after saying this may include pedestrian blinky lights and Thanks, you wherever you see fit.

That's now the defined term. Thank you. Yeah. I think that'd be good with with some flexibility understanding that we can't, design the project from the podium tonight. But, I think if we can get you that flexibility, with all that said, then I would I would support. So, any other discussions or comments on that, or would someone like to make a motion?

Make a motion to approve.

Would you like to add, some

Yeah. With with the conditions that we discussed in adding that more precise language that would allow us to have those decisions made by the community director regarding the lighting and the pedestrian safety.

May 2? Great. So I have a motion from vice chair Huber and a second from commissioner Vu.

I can do a roll call vote. Commissioner Vu? Yes. Commissioner Brothers? Yes. Commissioner Ascona? Yes. Vice Chair Huber? Yes. Chair Langer? Yes. Motion passes five zero. If I may add chair so this item can be appealed to the city council. Will for most of the items on the agenda tonight, you're making a recommendation to the city council. So this will automatically go to their agenda either event.

And so we will be sending out those public notices once we schedule that for hearing. Great. Alright. Rounding out our agenda. Nothing on new or unfinished business. Are there any staff comments?

No, sir. Great. Are there any comments from the commissioners? Looks like we have a couple over here. Commissioner Brothers.

Thank you. Yes. For the people who had objections to the parking structure, I have a lot of sympathy, especially in regards to traffic. I've had to change my timing, my routes, and it's going to unfortunately happen more and more in Fountain Valley. It's just unavoidable.

And I remind people, Fountain Valley has actually built nothing new in years. All of this added traffic is coming from the cities that are building new, that's Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and they are going to continue to grow also. We're blessed and cursed by having a freeway.

Thank you. Commissioner

Oscar. I just wanted to know when graduation is because I feel like you're in my doctorate degree tonight sitting

up here with all your comments. But thank you

to everyone who spoke tonight, especially the residents who came out. Thanks.

Yeah. I just want to thank everyone for sticking around. This is quite a long meeting for the Planning Commission, but we appreciate everyone staying to the very bitter end, giving your input and showing up because it matters, because we listen and we want to make sure that, you know, our role is to be able to take into account the, you know, the thoughts and the sentiment of the community. And so thank you for sticking around. Thank you for speaking to us tonight, and thank you for city staff for providing such a thorough report to us as always.

Yes. One thanks to everyone coming here today. I think it's really a good community outreach from memory care last from last time Because I remember from August when we have a study session, I don't see much of the resident come here and and press your opinion like this right now. Last time, it's only a few. It's not like we turn out as a lot of people from resident concern this time.

So I think that's really a good successful for everybody come here and express. And so we know what is the concern of President and how we can balance the need of the business in our city and the resident need. So thanks for everyone for coming tonight.

Alright. And with that, I will now adjourn to the next regular planning commission meeting scheduled for 05/13/2026 at 6PM. Thank you, and have a good night.

What could be better than being a kid, going to the library, and having a book read to you during a special story time session? Well, what if it's read to you by a firefighter? That's right, a firefighter, and that's happening right here in Fountain Valley.

The book is called Fire Chief Fran, and it's about the day in the life of a fire department and a crew, and how you work out and check out your equipment, and typical calls, and how anything can happen very spontaneously. The trucks are inspected above and below. The tools and equipment are ready to go. We're just so happy to be here. We're happy to serve the community. Serving children is one of our favorite things to do. Go to the schools or go to events like this.

This the first time the library has collaborated with the Fountain Valley Fire Department.

Forming a community partnership, making sure that the entire community knows that these are the services we offer. This is our first aid responders, and not only are they out there saving lives, they're also participating and advocating for literacy, which is really important for the community.

So look around where we are. We're out here in the park. The weather is amazing. It's a perfect afternoon. Nobody's staring at a screen inside on a couch. We're all together outside enjoying the outside atmosphere and we're learning in the same at the same time. What could be better?

Then lights begin flashing and clang, the bells black. They leap into action. They need to move back.

A third call. Woah. It's personable, and it's an opportunity for us to share and connect face to face. This

one's right there.

Oh, this

is just my pen case I have to write things down, and then it keeps some important things in my pocket right here, like a little notepad.

Kids even dressed up for the occasion, excited to meet the firefighters.

They read two beautiful stories. The librarian was here, and she sang a few songs to get the kids moving. We got to see the firefighters. You know, we got to hear about their stories and things that they do out every day, and we got to see the fire truck. We took some pictures. Lots of smiles and lots of fun.

Benjamin gives us his review.

Very, very, very fun.

I did firefighting for thirty three years. I was industrial and so I just thought she would enjoy it. I thought I'd take bring her here and get to see an engine right up close. And firefighters here at Fountain Valley, they've been extremely polite and helpful and and talking to the kids and explaining everything to them. So we really appreciate that. So it was a good day. Did you have fun today? Yes.

Both of them love fire trucks. Both of them love reading books. And this event was all about firemen reading to little kids. And we thought why not? Let's come and they loved the event. They my little one was asking questions like a 100 miles per hour. What's this? What's that? And they were so patient and they were answering all his questions.

What is right here?

What's up there?

Oh, we

have all kinds of stuff up there.

Is that light up there?

Yep. Those are lights.

So when at night when we go

on calls, turn those on and we can see.

It's a beautiful event and we'd love to see more of these in the future.

We are told in the future the library plans to hold more events like this with the fire department along with social services and OC waste and recycling.

Yeah. It's gonna go. Reporting

from Fountain Valley, I'm Jacqueline Twigg. Here at Fire Station one in Fountain Valley, it's their annual open house open to the public. And by the looks of it, it's the kids that are the most excited.

It's fire prevention week, and what we're doing is we're bringing people into the fire station, their home, their house. This is you know, the fire station belongs to the community. And

Sharing lessons of fire safety.

We're all thinking of something.

Understanding of the 911 system and introducing them directly to our firefighters that are here today. From

the turnout try on station to the photo op booth to the games and information stations inside.

So we love to be part of the community. So anything that we can do to support Fountain Valley and our first responders is amazing. So we heard about this, we had to come. So I've lived in Fountain Valley my whole life. I teach in Fountain Valley. Dad's a policeman. So we just love being here and supporting our first responders and seeing the community come back.

Two and a half year old twins, Jack and Max, try turnouts too. Not an easy task with all this gear for such little guys.

You look great, guys. Cheese.

And, of course, the fire truck and ambulance on display is a big draw.

This right here is gonna be our track when the gurney comes in. As you guys saw, it's all automated.

Right when we came in, he started running towards the ambulance over here. He wanted to, like, look inside. He saw the fire truck, and he was, like, screaming and jumping up and down. So it's just it's fun to see him so excited about the ambulance and fire trucks.

It's really nice, especially because we only get to see, like, fire trucks and ambulances from a distance and we don't really know what they do and him getting that experience to see it up close and see what's inside, it's it's really fun for him and for us too.

Thank you.

There's also a barbecue lunch served up by the crew for the community to enjoy.

Our barbecue today, the hot dogs and hamburgers, have been provided from our union. We're just really excited and happy to take our money from our union that we can raise and give it back to the community in any way, and this seems to be a fun way we get to do it every year.

We're educating, and we're getting an opportunity to do hands on. They get in here and there's different stations that they can work through and they learn in that process working with our people. And then we do specific demos that are a little bit more intensive.

Then to educate with demonstrations, two car extractions bring in a big crowd.

So, we'll go ahead and begin, guys. First was removing all four doors of the car, passenger and driver's side, and then we removed the roof. We used the jaws of life or we call them spreaders, and then we used our cutters.

As far as the second car?

We did which was called a dash lift. That gives more space between the steering wheel and the seat if someone's trapped underneath the steering wheel,

and it'll remove both doors on the other car as well. And another demonstration teaching the importance of fire extinguisher use and safety.

It's nice, you know, when emergencies happen that you have a system down inside your head that you can use. And we always use the acronym PASS, which is p a s s. That is pull the pin, aim, squeeze the trigger on the extinguisher, and then sweep the fire at its base. Just to show the public exactly what we do throughout the community and show them exactly what tools, what our city council has been graciously given to us. We just wanna show them exactly what we do day in and day out.

And parents are leaving with more tools to be safer in their own homes too with the information they've learned today.

You know, you don't realize the dangers that we have in our house. So if you know those, you're prepared for them, and you teach your children to be safe too, then it makes it a better happier community. The

connections made with the community at the end of this event.

I think that's probably the most important. Right? Because as the fire service, it's our job to connect with our local community. I refer to our fire department as a concierge level service because we reach out to the community at those levels. We know exactly what their specific needs are being a small town. So being able to bring them into the fire station, build those relationships and those connections is important for us.

Reporting in Fountain Valley, I'm Jacqueline Twag. In Fountain Valley, the police department is using new technology to help fight crime and keep the community safe.

Today, we're out here with our automated license plate readers from Fox Safety Group. It's our newest piece of technology that we're using to, fight crime out here on the streets of Fountain Valley.

This license plate reader has recently been implemented at 10 locations throughout the city. It's also a resource to help find missing people.

We wanna see how well these things work for us, you know, in our investigations. So there's definitely the potential to buy more, which we probably probably are. We basically determine these locations by placing them at mostly the entrances and exits for the city. So when people commit crimes in the city and leave, we capture their data as they're leaving. Some of them, you know, obviously are in high crime areas. We've placed them over there as well.

The funding for these?

Basically, the police department, we reached out to one of our, community partners, Kingston. They're right down the street here. They were all about, you know, helping the police department. We secured the first year contract through community funding through Kingston Technology.

In Southern California, captain De Santis tells us there are about a 150 cities that have these in place.