Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

of August 25th, 2026. And we're going to start tonight with the Pledge of Allegiance from Commissioner Gullo. Gosh. Oh, no. You planted the seed.

All right. Please stay with me. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, Vera, roll call.

Let the record reflect, all commissioners are present except Chair Pro Tem Kozak, who is absent due to illness.

Thank you. All right, for public input, if you're here in person, please fill out a request to speak form and hand it to Vera, and we'll invite you up to the podium at the right time. And if you're watching via Zoom, please raise your hand in the webinar, and you will be called to speak. Vera, do you have any public comments for items not listed on tonight's agenda?

CHAIRPERSON WONG. Chair, there are none. Thank you. MS. OK, thank you.

All right, the next item is on the consent calendar. At this time, any member of the public may address the Planning Commission on matters which are not listed on tonight's agenda, provided the matter is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Planning Commission. I should have said that earlier. So the first one for the consent calendar is approval of meeting minutes. Are there any comments for the consent calendar, Vera?

Chair, there are none. Thank you.

Do we have a motion and a second? Motion to approve. Sorry. This is approval for meeting minutes of August 11, 2026. Do not say that on record.

Motion to approve the meeting minutes.

I'll second.

All right. Vera, can you do a roll call vote, please?

Commissioner Higuchi?

Aye.

Commissioner Gallo? Aye. Commissioner Douthit?

Aye.

And Chair Mason? Aye. Motion passes 4-0-1. Thank you.

The next two items on the agenda are public hearing items. We'll start with the design review, 2025-2021. Subdivision 2025-0010, and Tentative Parcel Map 2026-108. Recommendation from staff this evening is that we, one, adopt resolution number 4555, approving the following. Design review 2025-0009 for site layout and building design of two new industrial warehouse buildings consisting of approximately 177,696 square feet on an 8.3 acre site. And sub 2025-0010 and test and partial map TPM 2026-108. to subdivide the site into two numbered parcels and one lettered lot. So tonight, we have a presentation from Erica Demkiewicz, our senior planner.

Good evening Chairperson Mason, members of the Commission, good evening. The project before you this evening is an industrial redevelopment project located in the planned community industrial zone within the city. It's addressed at 2441 Michelle Drive. Shown on this slide are the surrounding land uses and zoning designation. As you can see, it's surrounded to the west and the south by planned community industrial as well as office and industrial similar zones. And the one difference is across from Tustin Ranch Road, it is zoned residential. The request includes two applications, a design review for site layout and building design and a subdivision request to subdivide the 8.3 acre site into two numbered parcels and one lettered lot for right away purposes. There are two industrial buildings proposed with this project, and they are essentially mirror images of each other. Building one is slightly larger than building two. Each building will have 11 loading docks on one side of the building. Each building will also have ground floor office and mezzanine space, and each building will share a central truck court for loading. Totals for the warehouse is approximately 158,600 square feet and 19,000 square feet of office. In conjunction with the two buildings, the applicant is also requesting a tentative parcel map to subdivide the site. As shown here on this slide, there are two parcels highlighted in blue and one lettered lot highlighted in purple. The lettered lot is approximately .39 acres in size and will be dedicated to the city as right of way. The project provides two access points off of Michelle Drive. There's one central access point down the middle between the two buildings, which is approximately 40 feet in width. There's a secondary access that's located just to the southeast of the main driveway. There are fire lanes throughout, in front of and in between the buildings. As I mentioned, there's 11 loading docks for each building, which is highlighted in green on this slide, and 158 on-site parking spaces, which exceeds the code requirement of 157. The building heights for both buildings will be approximately 47 feet. Building one will be slightly taller at 47 feet 10 inches. Building two at 47 feet 6 inches. As you can see on the slide, it will illustrate a contemporary architectural feel. We'll have concrete tilt-up panels with articulation that's visible along Michelle Drive. In addition, there'll be insulated glass entries, cantilevered metal canopies, and exterior tile accents, as you can see on these elevations. The same materials and features carry over to the east and west elevations of buildings one and two. This slide highlights the loading zone, and more specifically, this is the entrance to each of the buildings, which will be on the interior. The dock doors and loading areas fully screened from Michelle Drive in compliance with the planned community industrial regulations. WHEN A PROJECT FITS WITHIN AN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY THAT THE CITY HAS ALREADY CERTIFIED, CEQA LETS THE CITY RELY ON THAT STUDY, AND THIS IS THE CASE HERE. FOR THIS PROJECT, THE STAFF PREPARED A STREAMLINE EXEMPTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH CEQA SECTION 15183, WHICH ANALYZED THE PROJECT AND EVALUATED AGAINST THE CITY CERTIFIED GENERAL PLAN EIR. That analysis concluded that there was no further review required and applicable mitigation measures are included in the conditions of approval. At this time, staff recommends adoption of resolution number 4555, approving the design review for site layout and building design and subdivision action to approve the subdivision of the site into two numbered lots and one lettered lot subject to the findings contained therein. And this concludes the staff's presentation. I'm available for any questions if you have them.

Thank you for that, Erica. So does the Planning Commission have any questions for staff?

Through the Chair. What's the fence type along Interstate 5?

I believe it's a chain link fence.

There's a chain link fence there already that looks like it's an OCTA's easement or property. That's the proposed fence type along the property is chain link?

No, through the chair, the applicant was actually proposing an eight foot high wrought iron fence that'll surround the perimeter of the site. Okay, I just wanted to confirm. Yes.

Okay. I have a question for staff. So the last church that came through that's going to be in the parcel next to them, part of their agreement with Kaiser was that they had to build a sidewalk connecting the two. But in the renderings on the blueprints, it looked like there was a sidewalk in the plans. Is that in cooperation with the church, or does that satisfy the requirement to build the sidewalk?

And through the chair, the previous approval for the Spirit and Truth Church that was before you at the last meeting, they have a condition of approval that in order for them to use the Kaiser building, the applicant before you tonight for this project would need to complete their sidewalk in front of the building, in front of the project site. So until this project completes their street improvements and sidewalk improvements, at that point the church can utilize their joint use parking agreement with Kaiser.

Very good.

I had a question I emailed staff, and I'll summarize that for the response. I think my concern is that, not concern per se about this project, but in that area, Jay gets ready, it empties out. So a lot of the traffic on Walnut where that street would empty out, neither can go to Jamboree on Walnut. Walnut is already backed up past Franklin where the nearest signal is at any key hour between like 2 and 7 for cars queued up trying to turn right to get on the 5 freeway. I think this is not queued to be like a last mile warehouse. It's got only 11 loading docks. It's not going to be big rigs all day. But I do believe they would have a problem at any key time turning out the intersection because cars are backed up past Franklin Street already. He reached out to the traffic engineer. There have been no complaints. I would say if people have problems, we know to complain. Sorry, staff. But it's important to do that. But I do think that could be an issue that needs to be watched and perhaps addressed. Jay, if you want to comment.

Thank you. We did speak with the traffic engineer about this at the intersection at Walnut and Tustin Ranch Road. We don't currently have any knowledge of any specific issues that are occurring. We do recognize that during peak hour traffic, A LOT OF INTERSECTIONS IN THE CITY DO BACK UP SO THIS HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO OUR ATTENTION WE'LL TAKE A LOOK AT THAT INTERSECTION TO SEE IF IT'S A RECURRING ISSUE AND THE PEAK HOURS THAT THAT DOES OCCUR THAT BEING SAID THIS PROJECT IS BEING BUILT ON A SITE THAT DOES CURRENTLY INCLUDE IN INDUSTRIAL BUILDING. And so the net increase in square footage for an industrial building is relatively small, at about 50,000 square feet. This area is zoned for industrial. It is intended to accommodate this type of use. So we don't anticipate that there would be any traffic impacts generated by this project.

Thank you. I want to know if the applicant is here and wanted to make any comments. Invite you up.

Good evening, commissioners and staff. I'm here and available for any questions if you do have them. We just want to express our gratitude for staff leading us through this process. This is a wonderful city in Southern California to process these projects through. So special thanks to Erica for that. And if you have any questions, I'm available, as is some of our team.

I just have... Should this go through, I welcome you to the community. I am curious, did you reach out to the residential neighborhood? Have you let folks know? Just, again, to Commissioner Gullo's question, I think, is the traffic flow is going to be an issue. Sounds like it was vetted, but I'm curious if there was ever any engagement with the local community.

We sent out the mailers of the notice that this was going to Planning Commission, as was required by the process. So I've not spoken to anyone across Tustin Ranch Road. You may know that overpass. There's a pretty significant grade for where this site is relative to that residential. So while on the image that you see, it does look quite close, there's a pretty significant grade drop that this pocket is located in. So while development could change the view from Tustin Ranch Road, It's not something that I'd see as a significant impact to that community at all, but we're happy to do anything that Planning Commission and staff would recommend to be good neighbors.

Any other questions or comments? All right, thank you. Thank you so much.

That was actually the applicant. So should these get approved and built, how fast do you think you could get a tenant in these two new buildings?

I would love to ask the same question to our brokers and to get a similar answer. What I can share with you is that market sentiment has changed dramatically over the last month with COVID and what that did all over the country and with inflation. There's been a significant impact to the business communities in Southern California, but over the last month, there's been quite a dramatic change. Our marketing process started about a month and a half ago, and we've seen some pretty significant and interesting changes BUSINESSES AND USES THAT ARE INQUIRING ABOUT THE PROPERTY. SO IT'S ABOUT A 12-YEAR BUILD. WE WOULD OBVIOUSLY HAVE TO KICK OFF CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS. SO THAT PROCESS OF PREPARATION AND PLAN CHECK IS ABOUT SIX MONTHS. AND MARKETING IS ALREADY UNDERWAY. SO SOME EXCITING INQUIRIES WE'VE HAD OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS.

Good to hear. Anyway, I will bring it back to the commission for any final comments. I will also entertain a motion.

Yeah, final comments. I commend staff for the 15183 exemption use here. Not to get too sequin nerdy, but that's great. It's helping speed up projects like this, which I don't think need a whole lot of environmental scrutiny. And I think the elevations, especially running along the five freeway, look pretty good. So thanks for looking out for our city.

Sorry. Thank you.

Chair, if I may, would you mind asking if there's any other comments?

My colleague just reminded me. Before we bring it back and take a motion, are there any public comments, Vera?

Chair, there are none. Thank you.

I have a comment. It seems like a great project, and I think this is a really good spot for it as well. My comment on the traffic isn't necessarily to the applicant. It's just if we're developing in an area, I think we need to pay a little attention to the traffic patterns there. I personally used to go this route every day for years. Went by there yesterday, and you can just say the backup was nothing new. It's there. I also want to note that it's adjacent to an Irvine bicycle trail in Green Lane that just kind of stops at the Tustin border at Myford. That is to be a bike trail. I think some improvements there. Give you a hint, that backup is pretty much exclusively in the bicycle lane. So advocating for some attention paid to that. But this project seems well thought out. I think it brings building and industrial type to this city, which we need. It's a great spot for it. It's perfect. I think it would be a good addition to our city. All right.

I'll make a motion to approve the recommendations as drafted.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Vera, you want to take a roll call vote?

Commissioner Hibuchi?

Aye.

Commissioner Gallo? Aye. Commissioner Douthit?

Aye.

And Chair Meason? Aye. Motion passes 4-0-1. Thank you.

All right. Congratulations. Thank you for coming in. All right. We're going to move on to the next item, which is development agreement 2026-0002 conditional use permit 2025-0022 design review 2025-0020 for the development and operation of a 33,422 square foot religious assembly use within neighborhood D of the Tustin legacy specific plan. It will be referred to as the TLSP. So tonight's recommendation from staff is that the Planning Commission adopt resolution number 4556, determining that the location, purpose, and extent of the proposed disposition of the 3.32 acre site within neighborhood D of the TLSP for the development of the proposed project is in conformance with the city's adopted general plan. Recommend that the Planning Commission adopt resolution number 4557 for the following. Approve design review 2025-0020 for the design and site layout for the proposed project. Next is approve the CUP 2025-0022 to establish and operate a religious assembly use within a 33,422 square foot building. Next is recommend that the city council adopt ordinance number 1581, approving DA 2026-0002 to facilitate the development and conveyance of the 3.32-acre city-owned site. And finally, to adopt to the TLSP 2025 SEIR, finding that pursuant to CEQA guidelines sections 15164, 15162 and 15168, that the proposed project is within the scope of the TLSP 2025 SEIR, and that no subsequent or SEIR is required. So tonight we have another presentation from Erica Demkiewicz. Erica?

Good evening again, Chairperson Mason and Commissioners. As was just described, this is a 3.32 acre property within the Test and Legacy specific plan area. It's currently vacant. It's located within Planning Area 8, 13, and 14, which is categorized as mixed-use urban. which allows for a variety of uses, but namely churches and religious institutions require a conditional use permit. It's located just south of Warner Avenue and just to the west of Veterans Way and east of John Johnson Way. Surrounding area includes both existing and future residential uses, future public park, a senior living facility, and some undeveloped land to the north. The project includes three requests. There's design review for site layout and building design, a conditional use permit to authorize the operation of the religious assembly use, a development agreement to facilitate the development and conveyance of the land, which is city-owned, and a general plan conformity finding that finds that the location, purpose, and extent of the land sale conforms to the general plan. The project includes a two-story assembly building that'll be comprised of 33,433 square feet. The first floor will consist of a main sanctuary area with 622 seating capacity, a stage platform, green room, back of house, lobby, pantry, restrooms, five worship meeting rooms, which will be for infants of infant age up until age 15. And the second floor will consist of seven worship meeting rooms, age 16 to adult, three administrative offices, restrooms, storage area, and the second floor will be used concurrently with the first floor during the Sunday services. The building is sited at the northeast corner of the site, which concentrates the mass of the building and reserves the balance of the site for parking and landscaping, as you can see on this slide. There are two access points to the property. Vehicle access will be from John Johnson Way and from Veterans Way. And there will be a total of 276 onsite parking spaces, which exceeds the peak requirement of 267 spaces. The building design will feature contemporary architectural style with an overall height of 37 feet to the top of the parapet. Low sloped roofs will integrate then conceal the rooftop equipment that'll be located on the roof of the building. The concrete tilt up panels will consist of the walls and a warm to cool gray color palette. There will be decorative tile insets, as you can see, and four-sided architecture on all elevations. For each south and north elevation, there will be two storefront entries, which is a requirement of the specific plan. Solar blue glazing with black moldions and a semi-resist metal cross accent. The design features... including the, as we move to the parking, parking for the project is based on the Tustin City Code and the simultaneous use of square footage within the building. Peak operating times will take place on Sunday from 8 to 1 p.m. and weekdays in the evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. There are no Saturday services proposed, and this chart highlights the square footage of space used within the building for the Sunday service. There are 267 required parking spaces, and the applicant is providing 276. The traffic city engineer has reviewed and accepted the parking study methodology that was provided by the applicant, and the project is adequately parked during all peak hours of operation. For all private non-residential development within the Tustin Legacy, a development agreement is required. This slide highlights the different parts of the development agreement between the applicant and the city. Essentially, PROVIDING FUNDING MECHANISMS AND MAINTENANCE FOR THE LONG-TERM SITE OPERATION. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TUSTON CITY CODE, THE PLANNING COMMISSION WILL REVIEW THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT AND MAKE A RECOMMENDATION TO THE CITY COUNCIL WHO WILL ULTIMATELY ADOPT IT THROUGH AN ORDINANCE. SIMILAR TO THE PRIOR PROJECT, THIS PROJECT ALSO HAD A STREAMLINE EXEMPTION PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH CEQA GUIDELINES TEARING THE REVIEW OF THE PROJECT OFF OF THE TESTS AND LEGACY SPECIFIC PLAN SUPPLEMENTAL EIR WHICH WAS CERTIFIED IN 2024. Based on the analysis of the project and using that document, it was determined that no further review is required and mitigation measures that were set forth in the prior environmental documentation were carried forth into the conditions of approval. Before the city sells a real property, the Planning Commission is required to make a finding that the location, purpose, and extent of the sale conforms with the general plan. The general plan designates this site as an active living, working, shopping, and recreational environment with access to amenities that support the community. THE LAND USE ELEMENT CONTAINS A NUMBER OF GOALS AND PROVIDES FOR WELL-BALANCED LAND USE PATTERN THAT ACCOMMODATES EXISTING AND FUTURE NEEDS FOR THE RESIDENTS AND THE PROJECT SATISFIES THOSE GOALS AS INDICATED. AT THIS POINT, STAFF RECOMMENDS ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION NUMBER 4556 FOR THE GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY FINDING AND ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION 4557, APPROVING THE DESIGN REVIEW AND CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT APPLICATIONS, ADOPTING THE CEQA ADDENDUM THAT WAS PREPARED AND RECOMMENDING TO THE CITY THAT THE CITY COUNCIL APPROVE THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT THROUGH ORDINANCE. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. I UNDERSTAND THAT THE THE APPLICANT IS HERE. AND WE INVITE YOU UP TO MAKE A PRESENTATION BEFORE WE BRING IT BACK TO THE COMMISSION AND PUBLIC COMMENT.

GOOD EVENING. I'M BLAKE CRANE. I OVERSEE ALL OF OUR DEVELOPMENT AND EXPANSION FOR MARINERS. THANK YOU FOR inviting us here to share and present. I second. I appreciate the Tustin staff greatly for how collaborative and welcoming and how they've helped walk us through this process. Erica and Raymond and Jason and the whole team have been phenomenal. So I look forward to continuing to work with the city. So Mariners has always had a heart for church planning now sixty three years running in Orange County and in twenty twenty manners became a multi site church which began our search for launching a church in testing through that we. Sort of partnership with Orange County rescue mission not too far from here and twenty twenty two we start hosting. weekend worship services there at the rescue mission. For four years we've been doing that and serving that community, the staff, and their students and their families every weekend there. And through that process and working with the city, serving at various events like tiller days and Easter celebrations within the city, the opportunity to potentially move into the legacy area became an option and clearly became an opportunity, what I would say a landmark opportunity for us to LAUNCH A PERMANENT FACILITY IN TUSTON, STARTING MARINERS TUSTON, WHICH WILL ALLOW US TO PROVIDE THE FULL COMPLEMENT OF MINISTRY OFFERINGS THAT WE HAVE AS WELL AS CONTINUE TO SERVE THE OCRM COMMUNITY REALLY WELL. As I mentioned, Mariners is much more than weekend worship services. We're committed to shepherding and bringing the gospel to the next generation, including young adults and youth groups and kids ministry, as well as providing space for Bible studies and for life groups to meet, as well as moving through our local outreach initiatives like our partnership with OCRM. Tonight with me, I've got the staff from Mariners Tustin, the lead pastor, Aaron Opog, and Kevin and Catherine, the associate pastor and kids pastor. Buildings are just tools to support ministry. It's people who make up the church and people who serve people. And I'm so grateful for this opportunity to present in front of you guys here and share a little bit about how much this opportunity means to us. And so... Where we're at today, we are fully prepared and working towards following an approval that we hope to get from you folks today to continue development and construction of this facility as soon as possible and opening it. However, we have faith that this will see its way through, and we're stepping into that faith by not waiting until the building is open to start serving the Tustin community. And in fact, in December, we're launching our church in Tustin at a temporary location to start serving the community now. So hopefully in a Tustin school near you. I'm still working on that. So as I was reflecting on what to share with you folks tonight. It dawned on me that this land that we're talking about and this development that we're talking about for many decades supported our military, which served this community well and our country well. And the fact that we have an opportunity to make sure that this land continues to serve this community well and to be of service to the community for decades to come was something that just filled my heart. So we are super grateful for the opportunity to be a greater part of the Tustin community and to help to serve not only all those residences that you showed on the map that are just right near our church, but the entire city as a whole in Orange County as we continue to grow and expand. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. So I'm going to bring it back to the Commission. Any clarifying questions for staff or the applicant?

Thank you, Chair. Question for staff. I've noticed on the overall site plan you've included John Johnson Way and Airship Avenue and you've shown OFF-SITE PARKING THERE. JUST TO BE CLEAR, THE 276 PARKING STALLS ARE ALL JUST ON-SITE PARKING?

THROUGH THE CHAIR, THAT'S CORRECT. IT'S ALL ON-SITE.

IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR REASON WHY YOU SHOWED 58 AUTOS FOR STREET PARKING AND 20 AUTOS FOR STREET PARKING ON AIRSHIP AND JOHN JOHNSON WAY?

I'M NOT SURE. WHICH PLAN ARE YOU LOOKING AT?

I'M LOOKING AT PRELIMINARY SITE PLAN SCHEME 5. I THINK IT'S PAGE 461.

All right, bear with me here, 461, okay. I guess my, that's a prior reiteration of the project.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, it's not the current proposed project. Okay. Parking is all on site.

And then the water quality, I've noticed you have some two-foot basins around the property. That's what we're looking at for water quality treatment?

I believe that's the case, yes.

And then just for future reference, it looks like the Planning Commission was not provided with colored elevations, except for the rendering on the title page.

There were color elevations included in the PowerPoint presentation.

Right.

But yes, not per se within the packet.

That's it for me.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner. No questions.

The one with the surrounding uses. Yeah, slide two.

Perfect.

Okay, so Steph, can you remind me what is on the other side of Warner for future uses?

That area is designated for residential, I believe. I may have to confirm that with the team here, but it's undeveloped at the moment, but it's designated for, I believe, high density residential.

Yeah, if I can, through the Chair, I believe that area is a mixed-use zone, but it does accommodate, I believe it's a neighborhood D-North, it does accommodate quite a bit of residential. Originally it did not, but we rezoned it to, in the rezoning effort, to include residential. I have to look at the numbers that were added. But at this point, there's no current plans to develop it in the near future. It's not on our list of active sites. And I believe a portion of that property also is currently owned by the Navy. I'd have to look at a larger aerial.

But it has not yet been released. Sounds good. And that's the part of Linear Park that will have a bridge over Warner, correct?

That's correct. So where the green area ends on Warner there, that is currently elevated. It ramps up the dirt slope. And there will be a bridge, a pedestrian bridge crossing Warner there. And the lineal park will continue to the northeast on the other side of Warner.

So just a hypothetical. Could you walk me through somebody on the residential on the other side taking a pedestrian bridge over trying to access the church. They'll come down the park. And then how do they cross to get to the church?

I don't have plans in terms of what that slope is and where it terminates at the base. So I don't know exactly where they would come down that slope. but presumably they would take the sidewalk and they'd cross the street. Sounds good.

The point I'm getting at is I mentioned when I think this will be a very successful church, the density on the other side I think is going to attract a lot of people just to walk across the pedestrian bridge. I want to make sure there's a safe access point from the park to the church, whether it be a crosswalk, hawk lights, one of those, something that can connect the two easily. And then as far as notices go, the residential tract on the other side of Lanier Park, not the one being developed by Irvine Company, but the ones already developed, they're noticed in today's public hearing, correct?

Yes, they were included within the radius. A portion of that would have been included in the radius, yes.

The ones in the radius, sounds good. And we didn't hear any responses from the notices?

Staff did not receive any responses.

Sounds good. That's it for my questions. Thank you.

Just a couple clarifying. And Eric, I'm sorry if I missed this, but what's the actual maximum occupancy and the schedule for the week? What's planned?

Through the applicant's letter of operations, they'll have two services held on Sundays, and their peak hour will be between 8.30 and 1 p.m. each Sunday, and then in the evenings, they will have weekday small groups, meetings, that type of thing happening between six and nine. So on Sunday, they could potentially have up to 600 individuals attending, and about 100 people attending during the weekday.

For separate events or?

I believe it's for separate events.

So you would have a 100-person event?

Yeah, for instance, on Wednesday nights, we host youth night, which is mostly kids, but their parents drop them off. And then Mondays and Tuesdays, we'll host life groups or a Bible study that we call Rooted, which tends to be about 100 people or less.

Is that what the conditions will reflect? Operationally, they're limited to 600 people on Sundays and 100 on weekdays? Or that's just an estimate on use?

It's an estimate on the use, yes.

Because candidly, I hope you have more than 100 people on weekdays. I appreciate that. We do too. Yeah.

But is the 600 people maximum occupancy?

I have to confirm that. I don't believe that it's not based on the building occupancy, such as the building code, per se. It's more the numbers that are anticipated to be for folks utilizing the space.

I'm great. I'm just thinking about growth and how big you can go. And we have future development across the way. We just approved the Clearwater. That's the one adjacent to it. So I'm just curious, just in terms of the parking. So that traffic analysis, did it anticipate this? Did we do that all together or separately?

If I can, through the Chair, when we do projects like this and look at traffic, we do a projects list, cumulative projects list. So yes, that project did consider this proposal because this was a project that had been proposed. What I will say is that this does occur, the main traffic does occur on off-peak hours. It occurs on Sundays. So we have a low volume of traffic at that time.

Can you park on Warner?

I don't believe so. I don't think there's any parking on Warner. I'd have to take a look to see if it's parked.

I'm seeing heads shaking over here, so you would know. All right, okay, thank you. Those are all of my questions.

I have a follow-up question. Okay, please. Sorry, to the applicant. You've got very little office here. What's up with that?

That's a great question. We, you know, I think in today's age, the need for actual physical office space is not the same. You know, our teams spend two days at our main campus in Irvine working with central teams and other congregations. And then, you know, between actual events that we have where they're serving in those events, not in their office. And then outside of that, we're mostly in the community meeting with, you know, volunteers or other ministry partners or things like that. So it's a very hybrid model in terms of how the church staff office. And we want to maximize the amount of square footage that we can use to serve the community and less on the administrative side.

I also notice you have server pantry space. Is this going to be contemplated as a kitchen, or just kind of pre-prepared food and distributed later on, or just coffee?

It's almost entirely coffee.

Yeah, gotcha. Just to make sure people are alert and paying attention. Yeah. That's what the AC is for. You just crank that baby up.

We use both. OK. All right.

Thank you. I'll bring it back. There's a lot going on over in that area, and I'm excited to see Mariners coming in and bringing more community and engagement. It seems like a thoughtful plan, and I know how hard staff has worked on this. So I am in support of this. God, public. I'm sorry. I didn't have any protein today. I'm just going to go on record. And now I'm going to open it up for public comment. Vera, are there? Any questions or comments?

Chair, there are none. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Apologies, everybody. OK, now I'll bring it back. And I already made my comment, so Commissioner Gullo? Hello?

I'm going to mess you up.

Yes, it already did. No.

No, this seems like a fantastic project. I mean, spaces like this are necessary as we build community in that area. Seems like well thought out. And I think it's a good spot for it. It's a good proposal. It seems like it'll do a lot of good for the community. Maybe something that was mentioned, no parking on Warner. There's a bike lane. But no, I think this is going to be a great thing and wish you well. Commissioner Towns.

I'm excited for it. One of the things that I'm also excited about is that the residents closest to the project were noticed. And no news is good news. So I think they're excited too. So with that, I'm in support as well. I'm excited to see what it does for the community and how integrated it will be in that new neighborhood. So it's going to be busy. It's going to be a busy construction area.

Through the chair. The first youth group I went to when I came to Orange County back in 2000 was Mariner's Church. And I think it was Mike Erie was the youth leader back then. So I can't think of a better partner in Tustin than Mariner's Church. Certainly, it had become a world-class, great church. I think DK is our, yeah, he's our, he was, well, I was at New Song, and he went to, he's a great lead pastor, or worship leader. And my wife sang with him. So I'm inclined to support this. Take that in mind. And I'm probably going to end up attending this church. It's down the street from me. So when I say these next comments, keep that in mind. They come from a place of love. The design does baffle me a little bit. So I made this comment last time. We're spending all this money on this park across the street. I THINK WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO BE MORE INTENTIONAL, A WAY TO BE MORE INTENTIONAL, AT LEAST TO PLACATE ME, THAT AT LEAST TO PLACATE ME, THAT WE'RE CONNECTING PEDESTRIANS WE'RE CONNECTING PEDESTRIANS TO THAT PARK. TO THAT PARK. BECAUSE IT SHOULD BE A PRETTY BECAUSE IT SHOULD BE A PRETTY AWESOME PARK. AWESOME PARK. WITH RESPECT TO THE DESIGN ITSELF, WITH RESPECT TO THE DESIGN ITSELF, WHEN I GO TO CHURCH, I CAN'T WAIT WHEN I GO TO CHURCH, I CAN'T WAIT TO LEAVE. And I want to run out to get to the open space. There's no open space gathering area here, which is a little bit of a bummer. Again, I'm supportive. And I don't know how far along you are on CDs. But maybe these are some design critiques you can take into account. So some little open space area or little tables for coffee would be awesome. Second, the primary point of ingress and egress is right out to this straight shot of an access road. And that seems a little, because people tend, in my opinion, again, this is all my opinion, people tend to gather in the outside area, saying goodbye to their friends or other family members. It seems like that's going to be a problem traffic-wise. Again, it's your problem, because it'll be on your property. But it's just... I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT. I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT. I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT. MAYBE SOMETHING COULD BE DONE I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT. MAYBE SOMETHING COULD BE DONE I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT. MAYBE SOMETHING COULD BE DONE BETTER THERE. MAYBE SOMETHING COULD BE DONE BETTER THERE. MAYBE SOMETHING COULD BE DONE BETTER THERE. THAT'S JUST MY THOUGHT BECAUSE BETTER THERE. THAT'S JUST MY THOUGHT BECAUSE BETTER THERE. THAT'S JUST MY THOUGHT BECAUSE FRANKLY I MIGHT HAVE TO ENDURE THAT'S JUST MY THOUGHT BECAUSE FRANKLY I MIGHT HAVE TO ENDURE THAT'S JUST MY THOUGHT BECAUSE FRANKLY I MIGHT HAVE TO ENDURE SOME OF THESE TRAFFIC CONCESS So I do appreciate you guys and gals investing in our city.

All right. Thank you. Well, I'm going to make a motion to approve.

I'll second.

Vera, you want to do a roll call vote?

Commissioner Higuchi?

Aye.

Commissioner Gallo? Aye. Commissioner Douthat?

Aye.

And Chair Mason?

Aye.

Motion passes 4-0-1. Thank you.

All right.

We're going to move on to regular business, which there is none.

So we'll go into other business. And I'll turn it over to our community development director for her report.

Thank you very much, Chair. Just a brief update for you and the community that last week we held the local redevelopment agency's annual meeting. It was a spectacular event at the AMC Theater. And part of that was a short film that has been created for the Legacy. to give a little bit of explanation about what's going on out there the process for how things get selected and built and developed over time so that link has been put on the city's youtube page and linked to our website if you go into into our website into the real property under the city manager's office you can find that link and watch that video and really encourage everyone to do so to get a better understanding of what's going on out there and the magnitude of it all which is very impressive that's it for my report tonight thank you

Thank you. Commissioner Higuchi.

Commissioner Gallo. I was fortunate to attend that LRA meeting last week. It was really something special to see a city council meeting in a movie theater. And it was really exciting to see three movie theaters filled with people, I think 350 people. So great to see that come out. I will say some of the comments from the public about what they'd like to see threw me off a little bit, some good ideas. But I think that was the point of it, is how can we do to engage people and see uses, whether we predict them, we see them or not. So props to the city for putting that on. I know it was a big production. but also getting people to come out, care, and engage. And I hope we get some interesting things because of that. So that was really neat. And thanks to staff for spending your night at that fair. It was a pretty cool event. Also fortunate today, congrats to the city, opened a new park today, the Camino Real Park. I guess it's not new, but redone. Truly special. But one comment that stuck out there, somebody was impressed at the theming and did that. And I think those are some of the details that make Tustin special, right? Well, it's not that we just put a slide there, but somebody painstakingly went to a conference and selected an appropriately themed slide and accoutrements and ADA accessibility and all that to really put out something the community could enjoy. So props to the city for getting that one done. All right.

Thank you. Commissioner Douthat.

Well, it's a little ironic to follow the Mariner's application, but the Tustin Historical Society is hosting their dive bar history on Friday at 7. So one of the historians has been diving into some of the old military history dive bars and outlaw bars from the city's inception. And it should be pretty interesting. And I think we've really talked to it. jumped into that topic before. So we'll see how it goes.

Yeah. Well, that sounds fine. No other comments, then, other than thank you, staff, It is amazing how much development is going on in the very corner we seem to be speaking about repeatedly. I think hopefully they're going to have traffic cops and all of the construction going on over there at the same time. That's a handful. But other than that, and other than I'll probably be at the dive bar event, we're finished. No other reports. And I can go ahead and adjourn this meeting. And the next meeting, the next regular meeting of the Planning Commission is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026. Thank you, everybody.