Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'd like to call the Planning Commission meeting of July 6, 2020-26 to order. And I, Mr. Beck, oh, hi, how are you? Good to see you, Arlen. Please call the roll. Oh, Pledge of Allegiance, right. And I will be doing the pledge, so please rise. Again, I pledge allegiance to the flag.

All right, Arlen, would you call the roll, please? No problem. Commissioner Vasquez, absent. Commissioner McCormick? Here. Commissioner Maldonado? Here. Commissioner Behar?

Here.

Vice Chair Tucker? Here. Chair Leslie? Here. Let the record show there is a quorum tonight.

All right, at this time, members of the public may address the Commission on matters not listed on the agenda, which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Commission, provided that no action may be taken on off-agenda items unless authorized by law. Public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker. Have we received any requests to speak tonight? All right, very good. On to the consent calendar. All items on the consent calendar are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion. Any member of the Planning Commission, staff, or the public may request an item be removed from the consent calendar for a separate action. Is there any request to remove any consent items? Okay. Make a motion to approve then the consent calendar. There's a second from Allison Vahar. Let's call for a vote. Okay, motion passes. Moving on to the public hearings. Public hearing 4.1, a public hearing to consider a request to allow the sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits, type 47 ABC license for on-site consumption in conjunction with the operation of a restaurant and bar with outdoor seating located at 237 West Chapman Avenue, and finding of CEQA exemption, conditional use permit number 25-0014. All right, I'm now opening up the public hearing. Staff, oh, I'm sorry, I totally skipped. Let's start with the staff report. Anna?

Oh, Alyssa Yurkovics will be presenting.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chair and members of the Planning Commission.

The item for consideration is a conditional use permit to allow the sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits on-site consumption in conjunction with the Type 47 ABC license at a new restaurant and bar with outdoor seating located at 237 West Chapman Avenue. The new restaurant involves the adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of a historic service station site, commonly known as the former location of the Hoffman Radiator, at the corner of Chapman Avenue and Lemon Street. In total, the restaurant will provide 225 dining seats and 16 bar seats. which are all located outdoors and an activity play area for patrons. The hours of operation for the window are Sunday through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., while on Fridays and Saturdays will be from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. No changes are proposed to the lot size, building square footage, or tenant space as part of this request. Staff has reviewed the proposed conditional use permit request in consideration of the surrounding land uses, proposed hours of operations and proximity to sensitive receptors, including residential buildings, churches and public facilities and other establishments that sell alcohol beverages. After investigative research, the sale of alcohol at this location is not expected to contribute to the crime statistics in the area or create an undue burden on public safety resources. Should the Planning Commission approve the COP, the standard conditions of approval for the safe operation of the restaurant with alcohol service will be included. I do want to mention we did have a hot file with the tables. I noticed that the staff report was cut off, so we do have some printed copies. I do want to add one quick note. Property owner is actually going to have to be changed to the Chapman Circle LLC, so I just wanted to bring up that discretion. Other than that, this does conclude staff's report and presentation. Staff is available for any questions or answer any immediate questions that staff commission members may have. And as well as the applicant team is in attendance this evening. Thank you.

Thank you for that report. Are there any questions of staff from commissioners?

Thank you, Chair. I had a question on item number 22 on the proposed draft resolution, which talks about no bar or lounge area shall be located in the premises. And in the project plans, right in the middle there, it says bar lounge and then interior bar. So... So I have a question about that, whether or not that's going to be a bar, folks can come in, sit down and get a drink without having any food.

No, that condition is a standard one. So it does contradict, but we do have specific language in the thirties. I believe I forgot on top of my head where it does say that alcohol should not be served without any sales of any food item. So that might be a condition we have to modify because the whole seating is outdoor and there's bar lounge, but strictly no alcohol sales alone. It has to be with a food item.

Okay, great. Thank you. And I also wanted to know, I know that we, there was a change in the zoning code. to not require CUPs for new restaurants that wanted beer and wine sales. So I'm curious as to why this one did not comply with those regulations and had to come to us.

So the only thing, the reason why is because the applicant chooses to do the hour. So with the alcohol exemption permit, it has a straight cutoff of 10 p.m. The applicant wanted to not do the 10 p.m., wanted to continue the hour. So this is why we've chosen this route.

During the week?

It's actually, yeah, so they would have to be from Monday through Thursdays, I believe, or it's till 10 p.m. or Sunday on the AEP. So they want it to extend to 11. So for the alcohol exemption permit, they would be under scrutiny on that time limit or curfew.

Thank you. That's all. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Yes. Yeah, I have a question. Talking about the... conditions of approval. I was looking, it says the current zoning ordinance, this is getting approval because current zoning ordinance, it doesn't require no parking. I wasn't seeing any parking, obviously. So this has been zoned to have no parking?

So AB 2097, they're within the parking buffer zone. So because of there, they're not required to provide parking. Like I said, these conditions are standard from PD. So some of them for a lot of restaurants, we include that so I can modify it. But this establishment is not required to do parking. They're in that exemption buffer zone.

Okay, the second question I had, did design review committee review this or the historical resource committee for Old Town review this project?

Yes, so in the table there is previous entitlements listed on there, so I did go to design review. They were approved, so first hearing, then they got continued, and then on June 3rd is when they were approved for the rehabilitation of the two structures.

Okay. I had another question. Looking for section three about the patio conditions and fencing and gates and security. It was not clear to me what the intent is in securing the site because of the alcohol type that's being sold here. So I was just curious about that.

So originally, the site was fully, had enclosed, but per design review committee members, they said it looked too cage-like, and they wanted more of an open, so the applicant did modify the plans to have an operating gate that can slide open on Chapman for pedestrian access, so with that condition, all the areas still being closed, no exit signs, but at least for the portions, and that was because it was a recommendation. But if staff, we can change it if you would prefer that the premises is fully enclosed for security reasons, because that is... Was that a police condition as well, to have it fully enclosed?

Yes, it was. So we're not doing that?

not to the pedestrian access ways on Lemon and Chapman right there. So on the, when you're looking at the, let's see, that's north, southeast corner, there is where the gate's gonna be open, pedestrian access, and then when you're looking past Lemon before the loading area, you have another one right there that leads to Building B. and those areas will be open. I can show you some elevations of the project plans, of those renderings.

Okay, so that seems to be about almost 68 feet wide, right?

Let's look at the plans.

Sounds like a plan.

Might defer that to the applicant.

So all the fencing's gonna be six foot high?

Yes, it's six foot high. Raw iron. with two feet landscaping buffer before the public right-of-way.

Okay, that's all I have for now.

Thank you.

Okay, any other questions for staff? All right. At this time, if there's any public comments. Do we have any public comments? Okay. All right, very good. The public hearing is now closed. have the applicant present if that's there an optional or that is that correct so open the public hearing so anybody wouldn't all right very good all right so the excuse me so the public there's no public comments at this time okay very good so we'll close the public hearing at this point there's no applicant presentation optional or would you like to present

I will have the applicant come up and speak.

Hi, I'm Jeff Goodman. I'm a founder of The Window and CEO of American Gonzo Restaurants. We have 21 restaurants, seven windows. This will be our first in Orange County and really probably the most spectacular restaurant that we're going to produce. For clarification, the fence line is also bordered with landscape. So it's not It's more visually permeable, but people can't just walk through the landscape to get in. So there is that control factor. There was one more question that wasn't fully answered.

It was like the width of the opening.

Oh, yeah. About 30 feet is what it goes. I don't know if you heard that, but the property is fully enclosed with a fence at night, so the police department signed off on that. I don't know if any of you have been to a window. This is a family restaurant, a restaurant that we first produced to be of service to our community in Venice. Extraordinarily inexpensive cheeseburgers, a $4 single, a $7 double. The window is really meant to be an egalitarian concept, approachable, easy for everyone. It is not meant to be a bar-driven concept. It's really... The space itself was big and there were two buildings and it felt like that would be a nice accompaniment, but this is a restaurant, not a bar. We're really excited to be in Orange. We have a restaurant. in Stadium Promenade, Pit Fire Pizza. We've been open for several years. We serve a full array of alcoholic beverages. We've never had an issue or a strike against our license. And as a company, we've been in business for 28 years. So we're not a fly-by-night. We're not a mom and pop. We take guest safety and our team safety very, very seriously.

Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Appreciate it. Comments or discussion for the applicant from commissioners? Yes, question.

Yes, I just love this concept and I've been to a similar type place. I haven't been to one of your stores, but up in Paso Robles there's a place called Backyard where there's fire pits. You sit outside in Adirondacks and there's a food trailer and people go up and get their food and sit down. There's quite open and I'm not sure, I can't recall how they control whether people walk off premise with a glass in their hand, but how do you plan on controlling that?

A typical window has four managers. This restaurant will have five or six. There'll be a dining room manager patrolling. And if, of course, we ever had an issue, we would hire security. We'll have a fully trained staff working on site. We'll put signage up if necessary to prevent people from walking off. We have a number of patio restaurants where we manage that properly.

All right, any other comments or questions, Commissioner?

Now that you said comments, I actually, first of all, I love the reuse. I think it's a great idea, and I love the use. I think it's, and the concept of the use, I really, really like, too. That's why I asked about fencing, because of the injection of children being in the area and that type of situation. The only comments I would have Having like that large open space is that I think if it was my choice, I would put in some larger canopy trees to get up and overhead rather than the small patio trees that probably will not give the same impact if you'd had something above with the umbrellas and the lighting. I think getting a higher canopy above is always a much better thing. If you have the opportunity. I have no wires. You have no restrictions on that. So it's a perfect opportunity to do that. Thank you for that.

So that's my only question. We agreed in design review to only trim as necessary and to provide as much canopy as possible.

I didn't mean trimming. I meant a tree selection type that would actually get bigger rather than smaller.

Thank you.

Any other commissioners? All right. Very good. Thank you for your comments.

Thank you very much.

This time, we'll entertain a motion for the agenda item.

I'll make a motion to. Thank you, I apologize. To approve Planning Commission Resolution Number 14-26, approving Conditional Use Permit Number 25-0014 to allow the sale of beer and wine for on-site consumption in conjunction with a new state of California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Type License 47 at a new restaurant and outdoor seating located at 237 West Chapman Avenue. And to find The request categorically exempt from California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, in accordance with state CEQA guidelines.

All right. Is there a second?

Before, did you want to ask staff to affix the CUP where it says they may not have a bar and lounge to address that language?

Yes. I can address the language. We will.

Does that need to be a part of the motion?

Yes, if you guys would like that, I would make it clear as part of the motion.

Thank you. With the additional clarification that no beer or wine can be sold without food as well to the table.

And then, yeah, and I'll modify condition number two, because that's the one I was, will do. Thank you.

I didn't realize, I didn't know the number. Yes.

That would be clarification and modification of item number 22. Did you mention it was in the 30s as well? I couldn't find an additional mention of that particular item.

Yes, I can show you after where it talks about it.

Clarification in 22 and any other items in the resolution that need to be revised to ensure that language is in here.

Consistent with one another. Yes. Thank you.

All right. Is there a second to approve that agenda item with those two conditions changed? Nope. I have a motion and a second. All voting? I think so. Okay, very good. And motion passes. All right, very good. Moving on to agenda item 4.2. A public hearing to consider a proposal to operate a new charter elementary school with a maximum enrollment of 864 students within two existing buildings and construct two new play areas within an existing parking lot on a property located at 1937 and 2011 West Chapman Avenue. And a finding of CEQA exemption PA25-0156, conditional use permit number 25-0156, and minor site plan review number 25-0156.

Staff report. Thank you, Chair Leslie. Lauren Briggs, planning technician, will give the staff report. All right, very good.

Hello, good evening, Chair Leslie and planning commissioners. The project for review is a proposal to convert an existing commercial building and establish and operate a new charter elementary school with ancillary site improvements. The zoning designation of the project site is C2 General Business and is owned by 2000 Chapman Incorporated. The surrounding properties to the north are zoned R16, single family residential, and R3A multifamily residential with a single-story overlay zone. The properties to the east, west, and south are zoned C2 general business. The project includes interior tenant improvements to accommodate additional classrooms and construct two new play areas behind the existing buildings. This will replace 111 existing off-street parking spaces on the site and include other ancillary site improvements. The municipal code section 17-13030 permits schools in the C2 district through a conditional use permit, which shall be reviewed by the planning commission. The applicant proposes a maximum enrollment of 864 students and will have a total of 45 teachers and staff members. The school plans to open enrollment incrementally, reaching full capacity of 864 students by the 2029-2030 school year. The applicant does acknowledge that the school may reach the maximum capacity enrollment of 864 students by the first opening into 2027 to 2028 school year. The school will incorporate a queuing management program for drop-off and pick-up with staggered start and end times for classes and operate entirely on-site. The queuing system will be accessed from the existing entry along the north side of West Chapman Avenue. The applicant has provided a traffic impact analysis for review, which includes the analysis of the queuing program, which can be found in attachment seven of the staff report. Staff is recommending approval of the assessment with the conditions listed in the resolution and to coordinate with the Public Works Traffic Division to address concerns should they arise. The applicant has also submitted a community outreach report to show support for the project. This is included as attachment five to the staff report. To date, staff has received nine voicemail comments and one public comment submitted electronically through the e-comment function on the city website. That is the conclusion of the staff report. Staff is available for any questions, and the applicant is also here in attendance for any questions or clarifications.

Thank you. Thank you for that report. Commissioners, any questions of staff?

Yes. Just to clarify, towards the beginning of your staff report, I kind of remember that it said that they thought they'd reach capacity by 2930 and not, I think you said this year. Maybe it was just a, but I just want to make sure. I don't know if it's.

Yeah, so technically within the staff report, the applicant would like to start enrollment at 520 students. However, they did acknowledge that they may reach full capacity enrollment by that opening year as well. They can clarify any procedures on that if you'd like.

Thank you very much.

Commissioner McCormick.

Yeah, I had a question. A question on the traffic count, specifically project description on the time frames and the number of students being dropped off or picked up. Question was, did the traffic engineer weigh in on those amounts based on cars? I kind of looked at 316 as 150. But the plan only shows 64 cars on the stacking. So I was just asking if the traffic has reviewed this.

Yes, the traffic department and division has reviewed their TIA. The queuing system At what has been reviewed and approved, the accommodation is 58 cars at once with six cars specifically in the drop-off and pickup area. Their analysis is based on their private consultant and their review and calculation data. but the Director of Public Works has reviewed it, and if you review the resolution conditions, there are additional measures in place should concerns about accommodating that queuing system arise, and they're prepared to address them and move forward with us.

Okay, that's all for now. Any other commissioners have questions? Okay. Okay. This time I'm gonna open up the public hearing. Do we have any public comments? Okay, very good. I don't have a list of the names or, yeah, my screen's, no, sorry. Yeah, that screen looks like it's stuck. Okay, very good. First speaker I have is April Hoy. You'll have three minutes for your comments.

Countdown timer. Good evening, commissioners. Thank you for this opportunity to speak today. My name is April Hoy, and I'm the parent of two students at the California Republic Leadership Academy. Our family's experience at CRLA has been nothing short of extraordinary. Academically, we have been amazed by both the curriculum and the expertise of the teachers. After just one year in transitional kindergarten at CRLA, our daughter is reading at a level comparable to where our son was reading at the end of kindergarten in a local public school. The growth we have seen in such a short time has been remarkable. Before enrolling, we knew very little about classical education. Today, we are wholehearted supporters. The quality of the curriculum is exceptional. And what makes it even more meaningful is the intentional integration of virtue and leadership into every aspect of learning. We are so excited to see our children develop not only into strong students, but into thoughtful, articulate, morally grounded thinkers, collaborative leaders, and responsible citizens. Beyond the academics, the care our family has received has been incredible. Our son has an IEP and we have never felt so supported as we have at CRLA through the IEP process. Every concern we brought forward was met with open arms, genuine compassion, and a true desire to work together. Rather than feeling like we were simply attending a meeting, we felt like valued members of a collaborative team. The staff has taken the time to understand my son's unique needs and has implemented that plan with exceptional care and consistency. As a result, our son is flourishing academically, socially, and emotionally. The difference between our experience at Sierra Lea and what we have experienced in our local public school has been profound. CRLA has been an incredible blessing for our family, and we are deeply grateful for the opportunities it has given both of our children. Our experience is just one family's story, but we know many other families have experienced the same life-changing education and support. Approving this project will allow CRLA to continue serving students and families in Orange while providing a permanent home where it can grow and thrive. Schools like CRLA strengthen our community by developing young people of strong character, academic excellence, leadership, and service, qualities that benefit us all. I respectfully ask you to approve this project so that more children and families in Orange can experience the same opportunities our family has been blessed with. I am confident that you and the community will be more than glad you did. Thank you for your time, your service, and your thoughtful consideration.

Thank you, Ms. Hoyt, for your comments. Appreciate those. Next, we have Lisa Cervantes.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Evening.

Hi, my name is Lisa Cervantes, and I have two children who've gone to Sierra Lea. One has gone for the last three years, and my son will be attending for a second year. I also have a four-year-old who will be joining in the next school year. I cannot tell you enough how choosing CRLA to bring our children has been the best decision for their life, educationally, that I can. I believe this so much that in our open house with the children this last year, one of their teachers had up the Leader in Me virtues. And I asked him to share that with us. And in our kitchen, we have those same Leader in Me virtues hanging. And in the morning, we reflect on them while they're preparing breakfast, preparing their lunches and dinners. When it came to sponsorships for our fun run, me and the children went out to the community into the small business complexes, and they all introduced themselves, and they all shared what Sierra Lea meant to them and what their sponsorships would do for their school. If that doesn't speak to the leadership development that's happening at Sierra Lea, I don't know what does. So it really has been the best decision that we've had. EVER MADE. ANYBODY WHO WILL LISTEN, I WILL TELL THEM. AND I REALLY, REALLY URGE YOU AND ASK FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN BRINGING C.R.L.A. TO THE CITY OF ORANGE.

THANK YOU, MS. RONTES.

I APPRECIATE THAT.

OKAY. MR. RODRIGUEZ? MS. I'M SO SORRY. THE FIRST NAME. MS. RODRIGUEZ. SO CORAL RODRIGUEZ.

Estoy aquí para apoyar para la escuela Charly. Would you like me to translate for her?

Yes, please. Thank you. She's here to let you know that she is in support of the new project, the charter school. Adelante, señora.

Estoy aquí para apoyar para la escuela Charly. It's okay.

So she says that she lives close by and that she wishes that you will move this project forward because she lives close by and thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

I believe that's it for the public comment section. Is anybody else, would anybody else like to make, yes, yes sir. At the podium there. Thank you. I have a question. What's your name, sir?

My name's David Schaefer, and basically I live at 2028 West Arbor Way in the city of Orange, which is right adjacent to where the school will be. And my question is, what about parking issues and traffic issues in terms of West Chapman Avenue? Have they been anticipated at all? And also noise in the area. Just questions.

Thank you for those questions.

You're welcome. I hope they can be answered.

Thank you for your comments, sir. Any other comments at this time? Is there someone else with a hand? Okay, that's it. Okay. So at this time, we're going to close the public hearing. And the applicant, would they like to come forward? Thank you. It's a presentation. You don't have a time limit, so.

I won't take up too much of your time. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Donna Tripp. I'm a partner at Craig Lawson & Company, land use consulting firm representing the applicant team. Joining me here this evening are Gary Davis, Executive Director of California Republic Leadership Academy, or CRLA, the school operator. Also joining me tonight are David Huynh, Lori Hashimoto, and Enrique Diaz of Red Hook Capital Partners, the project developers. And we also have team members from La Anaca's architectural firm, Dan Kloos of LLG, the traffic engineer, who can answer your questions specifically if you like, Craig Vayner of Ecotierra, CEQA consultant, and the outreach teams at Casala Group and Taurus Consulting, all of whom are available to answer your questions. We'd like to thank Ms. Briggs and Mr. Beckman, I hope he feels better soon, for all of their hard work over these past several months on this project application. Staff's presentation was thorough, so we don't have too much to add. But I did just want to highlight a couple of aspects of the school, which I think were reflected in some of the comments you heard from some family members whose children attend other CR Lake campuses. Upon your approval of the application before you, this will be CRLA's fourth public charter school in Orange County. For the past several years, CRLA has provided tuition-free TK through eighth grade classical education in San Juan Capistrano, Yorba Linda, with a new campus launching in Laguna Woods this fall. CRLA's approach is to teach its students the art and joy of learning. At both of the San Juan Capistrano Yorba Linda campuses, Sierra Lea students have consistently scored significantly higher than the state averages in both math and English language arts. As planning staff has highlighted, Sierra Lea Orange will occupy two existing commercial buildings which have housed other educational institutions in the past years. Tenant improvement work will be undertaken to accommodate 45 classrooms. including specialty program rooms for music and art, 10 offices, a multipurpose room space, and breakout areas in the existing buildings. Two play areas, as Ms. Briggs noted, will be provided behind each of the two buildings for the students. And with respect to parking, there's presently over 200 parking spaces behind the existing buildings. And after the play areas are constructed, 100 parking spaces will continue to remain. And that is well beyond the code required amount. The parking spaces are primarily for staff and guests. All queuing will be accommodated on site. Having that large parking area in the back definitely accommodates that. And with their experience at their other campuses, Sierra Lea is committed to utilizing not only staggered school start time, there's three staggered start times at the beginning of the school day and there's three staggered pickup times at the end of the day. They'll also utilize numerous staff coordinators and also a digital app system that they have implemented at other CRLA campuses and the goal is to ensure that there is efficient and safe drop-off and pickup every day. As you'll see in the record, extensive outreach up to 700 feet radius around project site was undertaken. and nearly 200 signatures of support from community members were secured. In addition to some of the speakers that you heard here tonight, it's my understanding, as Ms. Briggs noted, that several other speakers left messages in support of the school project as well. On behalf of the applicant, we thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this application to bring a new public charter school offering TK through eighth grade CLASSICAL EDUCATION TO FAMILIES IN THE CITY OF ORANGE. AND WE'RE AVAILABLE FOR QUESTIONS.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR PRESENTATION. COMMISSIONERS, OPEN UP FOR DISCUSSION AND ANY QUESTIONS OF THE APPLICANT AND STAFF? YES, COMMISSIONER MCCORMICK.

YEAH, I HAVE A QUESTION. I GUESS I'M STILL NOT CLEAR ON THE QUEUING AND THE TRAFFIC ISSUES WITH THAT TABLE THAT I SAW IN THE Hot file. I'm concerned about concerned about queuing unnecessarily in the parking area, but approaching Chapman, which doesn't have a kind of a right turn, a right turn queuing on Chapman. So I was just wanting to make sure that was addressed significantly because of the impact of cars and children in the area basically being dropped off necessarily not when they're playing. On top of that, I have a second concern on the fact wanting to find out if there's been a special variance been secured with trash pickup, knowing that trash pickup is probably going to be the same day as the use of the site. So I was just wanting to make sure that was addressed and not have that to be a variant that would exasperate this issue. So that's, I guess, my question. Has all those things been addressed?

Yeah, so staff has adequately addressed, again, their traffic impact analysis report. We have also conditions in place for the entry and exit off or out of the project site. We have requested them to create measures and procedures for enforcing the right turn only and any other traffic violators that would probably go in and out of the site. Again, they did mention that they'll have five to eight coordinators and valet persons on staff at all of the staggered times. So the queuing system should be able to accommodate their full requested capacity. And if there are any issues, should that arise, they are committed to working with our director of public works to satisfy those issues and concerns. As far as the trash enclosures, I believe there are conditions in place related to trash, but I believe the applicant, if they would like to speak on the queuing system for that.

Thank you for the question, Commissioner McCormick. I think you could see from the site plan, am I correct that what I'm looking at is what's on your screen as well? Right. It shows the double queuing that is able to be accommodated around there. I think we're estimating 58 spaces, 58 cars can be accommodated on site. And then the loading area is the, as you're exiting the property, it can accommodate six cars. And again, utilization of the staggered times, three staggered times at the beginning and end of the day with also some students being picked up after care, which is about five to 10% of the students will also be attending after care. So Sierra Lea's experience with doing all of these different things, the staggered, pickup and drop-off times, the utilization of about eight staff coordinators with the walkie-talkies, with the apps, with the placards and parents' cars, and with all this onsite queuing, it should be sufficient to accommodate. And I think as Ms. Briggs noted, one of the critical paths for us to get to you tonight was extensive back and forth between LLG and your public works staff. They had lots of questions as well. And as Ms. Briggs noted too, there's several conditions that are part of the resolution that require that we do the proper signage and striping and other measures to ensure that people understand the proper flow and that they're only making right turns. And I think there's language in here too that if there's observations by the city that noncompliance is happening, then that's something that we have to address through the city again.

Okay, I guess I would like to reiterate my question about trash pickup and what time that would be. Because I know the trash group likes to pick up at a certain time in a certain area on a certain day.

I'm going to ask my Red Hook team. I'm not sure if they're aware of the trash procedures.

Speak at the mic. Thank you.

Lori Hashimoto from Red Hook Capital Partners. For trash pickup, our current plan is that the City of Orange requires CR&R trash service, which is private. And so in our experience and in some discussions, we assumed a multiple-day pickup, that it would not be just once a week. It would be multiple days a week. And you can usually work out the time with the company to determine what time they're picking up your trash.

Okay, thank you. My second question was from 8 to 8.30, 316 students being dropped off in that half an hour period. Assuming that's two students per car, that's 150 cars. So I'm just doing the math. I was just concerned about the logistics of such an amount of kids. Maybe the issue of the 316 is a five-year goal, or this would be an issue. If you had that, then you could work through this issue. as time goes on.

Yeah, this number assumes maximum enrollment, which we are definitely projecting further down the road, but your question is noted. I don't know if there's specifics with the technical analysis that you'd like to hear from the traffic engineer with respect to these staggered start times.

I've been through this before. I have three kids. So I understand the traffic being not necessarily emptying out into a collector, but it's a major arterial highway. That being said, it's not signalized and it's not a stop sign. So you could have times where there's a lot of cars passing by with no egress at all. So I was just wanting to make sure this is all taken a look at. And so that's my only concern about the project. I love the project, by the way. I love what you're doing. Yeah, I can't say that enough. But I just want to make sure it's successful. And that's the reason why I'm asking questions.

I can definitely assure you that your staff wanted to insure, too. So it was extra time, definitely, in this process to vet this. Commissioner Tucker.

Yes, I have a question. Thank you. I was wondering if your other projects had been located on an arterial road, on a major road like Chapman. Gary, do you want to come up and address?

Good evening, Chair Leslie, commissioners. Thank you so much for this opportunity tonight. Gary Davis, the founder and executive director of the Sierra Lea Schools and First, maybe I'll just tell you quickly about the app system that we use. I'll talk about drop-off first. When we do drop-off, those staff members that she mentioned would be out there. We actually are out there. We greet the families as they come, and we open the doors for them. Part of that is just service. We want to welcome kids to the day. We want to It's our chance to get assessment of, like, how are these kids doing today? What should we expect later in the day, depending on, you know, kind of their moods. But honestly, also, it's just about efficiency. So we welcome them. We open the door, greet them by name. And, yeah, two plus. We find that a lot of our families carpool, and sometimes they'll have one with a van that pulls in with, like, eight kids in it. So that's how we do the drop-off. And then on the pick-up, That pickup patrol app, which we've been using for three years now, the way it works is every car has a placard in it with a number, and then that number is assigned to kids that will be getting into that car. And that could change each day. So if you're like, oh, we're carpooling today, so I'm going to be in this car, they log in and they let us know that they're going to be in that car. And so we'll have a staff member that sits pretty far back in the line with an iPad, and they just look at the number they entered in, And then that instantly communicates with all the classrooms where those students are. And then those students know to go to the front. And so by the time the car shows up at the pickup area, the students are right there. And they're ready to walk in. And it works. And same thing. We open the door for them. We tell them goodbye and see them on their way for the day. So it works very quickly and very efficiently. We've got it down now, I think. We've been doing it for three years. And it works really well. I would say where our other two campuses are, for sure. We are on major arterial, or Fairmont Boulevard and Yerba Linda, so it's a pretty major road there. The one in San Juan Capistrano is not as major of a road, but it's co-located with another elementary school, so there's a lot going on at that site. And again, we have found, well, first, we work very well with the city, so anytime there are concerns or questions in that case, usually it's the first week of school where you kind of get the most going on, and people calling in, and we're very quickly to adjust and respond, and again, I think, And someone kept us drawn to the parking lot's tiny, so we are actually definitely on the road. In Yorba Linda, we're able to get, just like this, we're able to get off of the major road and onto the property for the drop-off and pickup, and we definitely envision that happening here. Right in, right turn, right in only, right turn out, we'll actually put up cones so that Anybody that maybe tries to sneak a left turn, they can't do it. They're gonna have to come in right and we'll station somebody out there to keep an eye on it if people are ignoring that somehow. So I hope that answered your question.

Thank you. Yes, I just have concerns about safety because we have other schools where the parents are just, it's all about their kid and not necessarily what's going on around them. And cars back up or they pull in quickly or they cut people off. And then you have cars going quite fast down Chapman that maybe they're not paying attention. I would just hate for someone to get rear-ended who's waiting to go in. I don't know how you control, like if they pull up and there's cars right at the edge of the sidewalk, do they go around the block? I mean, how do they know that they can't pull in at that moment? Because I would imagine they'll just sit in the driveway and then the next one will pull up, which is what we see at other schools. I'm just from experience. I also agree. I think this is a great use for these buildings and this property. And I'm excited about this coming to our town to serve our children. But it's just really about safety. And I know that I read the whole traffic study. It was so exciting. But I did see that there's a lot of extra trips coming down the street. So this neighbor's concerns are valid. And in the morning, 832 increased trips in the peak hour of Chapman commuters. So it really is a serious point to be addressed. And so just so you know, I know the city will be watching, and I'm sure the neighbors will be watching. Like you said, that's your best policing. But it's really about safety. And it sounds like you have all these tools in place, which is great. But that's all the comment I wanted to make.

And I'll just say we care very much about safety as well. And again, our goal is to be extremely responsive to you all. And so if that starts to happen, then we'll have a conversation with your traffic team and maybe we'll do additional staggering or we'll do, you mentioned, we'll have a conversation with our families about increased carpooling. We obviously don't anticipate having that issue, but if we do, we will work with you to address it immediately.

I had one more question, just based upon what you said. Is your demographic only in orange, or does it come from a larger area away?

So that's a good question. What we found at our three other sites is that although they are predominantly local students coming to the school, we definitely do get some that are willing to drive from a ways away. The way charter public schools work in California is that anybody can go to any charter public school. And if there's a greater demand than there are seats available, which has happened in all three of our campuses, we have a public lottery. And there are priorities built in. And in this case, there's priority given to the families that live within the local elementary school boundary. So the short answer is it's certainly possible. We don't know for sure who's going to sign up and come to the school. But our marketing is going to be focused on Orange. The neighborhood students, kids get priority. And so our hope is that we're serving the neighborhood.

And the reason why I ask that is because your goal, I mean, your mission statement is so commendable that a lot of people want to come from a long way away, but they'd be less likely to carpool because they may not have a large group to pull from. So that's why I'm concerned about the carpooling idea is a great idea. We did that with my kids as well. But when I see the demographic move out, I see the carpooling issues go down.

Yeah, you, well, that could certainly be the case in some places. I can tell you, like in our San Juan Capistrano School, we've got vans coming from San Clemente. You know, at our Yorba Linda site, we have a couple vans coming from the Corona area in Riverside. So I think that certainly could be the case, but I also think when that is the case, there are still opportunities for carpooling, at least in our experience.

Okay, got my fingers crossed. Me too.

Any other comments or questions for the applicant? I just have a comment quickly, not a question, but this site has a... history of being an educational footprint, both of those buildings. Building A was South Coast College for many, many years, several decades, which was a court reporting and trade school. There was a nursing program there. Building B at one point was Santiago Canyon College Extension. So it's nice to see the educational footprint being used again in this case. And I just want to say I commend you for this project, for focusing on that western part of the city there for the need for students to have a good place for their education. And so, again, thank you for bringing this project forward. And with that, I think we'll close unless anybody else has any comments. All right. Thank you. At this point, we'll ask for a motion.

I'll move. So I will move to ‑‑ where is it? I will move to adopt planning commission resolution number 15-26 approving planning applicant number 25-0156 conditional use permit number 25-0156 and minor site plan review number 25-0156 to allow an 864 student charter elementary school and related site improvements on an existing commercial site located at 1937 and 2011 West Chapman Avenue and find that the request is categorically exempt from CEQA in accordance with section 15301 of the state CEQA guidelines.

Okay, is there a second? All right, I'll second. Okay, let's take a vote. All right, the motion passes. Congratulations. All right, and with that, this meeting is now adjourned. The next regular meeting will be held on Monday, July 20th, 2026 at 5.30 p.m. in the Council Chamber.