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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNB 12 USE PERMIT 78-18 04-21-80DATE: April 21, 1980 NEW BUSINESS No. 12 4-21-80 Inter-Corn TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council FROM: Community Development Department SUBJECT: Use Permit 78-18, Packers Square Senior Citizen Condominiums A request has been addressed to the City Council by Village Homes to reconsider certain conditions placed upon the development when approved by the adoption of Planning Agency Resolution No. 1776 (refer to enclosure). Specifically the request is to remove the 50 year and older age requirement for all residents. Since these conditions were authorized during an advertised public hearing, they can only be changed through the same process. The matter has been brought to the Council's attention at this time, however, at the recuest of Village Homes. 21an:'_ing staff does have some thoughts on the matter which are follows: iL. A h.21©w standard parking requirement{!% per unit) was author- ized based upon the lower requirements of~ a senior citizen population. Staff cannot agree with the contention that a younger population would result in less demand for parking. To young professionals(working couples) auto transportation is a necessity to comx. ute to work. Also, a larger working group of childless adults would tend to purchase second vehicles for recreation se,sit as campers, pickups, etc. The senior citizen concept was an important aspect of the City's approval due to the city-wide ~rotest at the time over increasing multiple family construction. q'h~ concerns of those who ha~e already eu~cnased units believing they will be living in a senior c~_t[zen commu~'~itv should be considered. Approval of such a request, which could be viewed as variance, would set a precedent for future condominium requests in wi]ich economic difficulties would be the basis for lower standards. Any parking problems would tend to overfl ~w to the private street and neighboring shopping centers. The shor~ term answer to the developers problems, which also may be short term, could result in a long term parking problem for the city, future tenants and neighbors. Y~ "i.!iage Homes wishes to terry the matter furth , ~-~-.?,v should konorable Mayor and City Council April 21, 1980 page 2 be advised to file an application to amend Use Permit 78-18 in which they propose to satisfy all provisions to the Planned De~.-elopment District(PD). RESOLUTION t,lO, !776 A RESOLUT,ION OF THE PLANNING AGENCY OF THE CITY OF TUSTIN, APPROVING USE PER;41T 78-18 FOR THE RESIDENTIAL AND CO,'~HERCIAL PORTIONS OF THE PACKERS SQUARE DEVELOPNENT The Planning Agency of the City of Tustin does hereby resolve as f o 1 1 o w s: 1. The Planninl ':~ ..... 'w ne : _ ~,._ ...... , ~ the City o: Tt stin finds and determines as f~ !e.vs: That a proper- application ',/as filed by the Robert P. t,/armingl:on Company, ]~o:,~'2 Hate Ave., Irvine, [or a Use Permit to allow the construction and operation of a Senior Citizens development and co~,~,erclal center on the southerly s~de of Newport ~nd ~rvine S:,~ievard kno,,m as Packers Square. 7-._-[ a pu,.;!c hearing was dui;, called, notice~ ~nJ h~_!;t on said nz;! ica~ion on August 7, ]7/~. Council, UniForr~ Building Code. FTr~ Cc~:t-, and s~r,~eC ,}r,j public ~ i fac tar. The Planning Agency hereby grants a Use Permit as 4pplied ~or, to a] to.; Lhe construcLion of a Senior Citizen Eonulominium Comp!~x of 12a units and an of[ice-co~nmercid} cpmplsx as dascrihed in Exhibit attached hereto subjdct [o the fcllo,,-~inc conditions: Compliance ,;irh al! of the r 'i:;4r_i~,g ,lee~ure~ propo~-d in EIR ~-L~ as a,~ ::~J ;~,cluclin9 ~ ~: reco~:,~.~r~da~iu~:~ cuntain~d within ~he staff r,::p~rL ~n~] p.~rti:,~r~L ~ssu,:-~ contain:~:l within the Staff approv, i ,:,,J Final Pi:,~nln,'! /crncy r,,vidw of the site plan ~i-~ ~ed to: 1. Provide 150' setback for all t'.','r~ qtnr,/ buildings aJjncent to P,-I RESOLUTION ' ~ Page Two August 21, 1¢78 Approval by Orange County Fire Department of all fire hydranLs, emergency access drives, alarms and smoke detection system to be used and in the unics. £ompl iance with Tustin Securi [~ OrJinancu. Review of alii l-~:]:Jsca3ing, building desi,'-ns, crud colors and mat.3rial bx tn~ uu.,,u i[y D~:v~lopment Director. ~. Co:,_[ruction .), :,, ..... ~ ] ,:r'ov~.'ents For parking, drives, an :);-:dz:s~rian ,.-:-J]:.'.~a,S and tandsc~ping on a.djacen~ Tustin Height Shopping Can[er as per original oesign. I ; R~corda~ion ~ all reciproca] ,_~_,~_.,;s ,3r dcc~,ss and parkind to the adjacen: parcels enco~npassed i~,, General Plan ~d,,ena~-' ment 77-2 '- 9rov:Pe ~ D~rkin~._ rat~oof I -.,~[n s~aces p~- unit ;_:) include :.D,,'eFej space Der Unit. in:i.¢dinq current Developme=r :~e~ ~: ~ne s'~ is iimi-~ persons age4 .~ u~d rO ~ , th~ Planning :3 reapply and mee~ ~ne rec]uir,"~n:_S ' ; ~h~ ~3 zOne. ADOPTED a: .~ remular mee['nq ,r:f the Plann;nq Agency of the ;.v of Tu*::- .... California heldon the 2ts[ any 3f Augus[, 1c',73._; RE ] L'?.3 I '~G S E Cz%E,TA RY ILLAG Traditional Qualiw ,~ Enduring4 [-;le~ance April 10, 1980 The Honorable Mayor Stephen L. Schuster and Members of the Tustin City Council City Hall 300 Centennial Way Tustin, CA 92680 Reference: Tract 10495 - Village Homes Tustin - Location: Southeast of intersection of Irvine and Newport Boulevard Resolution No. 1776 approving Use Permit 78-1~ Dear Mayor Schuster and Members of the City Council: On August 21, 1978, the City approved a use permit permitting the construction of 124 condominium units. As a condition of the use permit, the age of prospective residents was restricted to individuals fifty years of age and older. Construction on the project has progressed to the point where we will complete the vast majority of the units in approximately thirty days. FrGm an aesthetics point of view, we feel the community possesses the design integrity we had envisioned in our original design process and feel the project is an asset to the City of Tustin. Our reason for writing you this letter today deals with the economics of the home building marketplace. We opened sales in c, ur new community on January 26, 1980. Since that time, the federal government has tightened all areas of the money market and more specifically, has made it nearly impossible for the home building industry to continue its direction in building new h:)~es to meet the overwhelming demand necessary to fulfill the American dream of home ownership. We have found that the age group we are catering to finds i'L extremely unpalitable to purchase when the interest rates are from 16 to 17% for home loans. We have reduced our opening prices Some S7,~00 and we have also initiated an interest subsidy plan wherein we are subsidizing the interest rate some four percentage points below the prevailing rate of interest at the close of escrow for 24 months. This has further reduced our sales prices by some $3,300 or a total of some $11,100 per unit. The interest subsidy has been pursued in the hopes that our market segment of people over fifty would Find the lower rate acceptable and, therefore, purchase our homes. When we originally opened for sales in January, we had some 500 names and were confident that our project would be sold out in a very short time. Today we have fifteen sales. We have found that the interest subsidy has done little to help encourage the over fifty market segment to purchase one of our fine new homes. If we were to continue on our present sales course, we might find ourselves in a position where we are unable to find people to move into the homes, and therefore, the units would sit vacant. From a community standpoint as well as our own financial standpoint, we would all find this most unacceptable. It would be a negative influence on the community of Tustin as well as our company. We are, therefore, respectfully requesting that the age restriction portion of the use permit be reduced to permit an expanded market segment to purchase and live in our community. By expanding our market spectrum at this most critical time in our industry, we feel we can achieve a reasonable absorption rate in our new homes. We have retained the firm of Market Profiles, an internationally known marketing and consulting firm who does a great deal of work for various real estate oriented companies on a local basis. They have assured us that if we were able to remove the age restriction and, at the same time, keep the community an adult oriented community with no children, that we can anticipate a reasonable sell out period which would avoid some economic hardships both for us as ~e builder as well as the community ~f Tustin. We know that or,~ of the ma~oF concerns to the raaidents ,,,'ho are neighbors ~o us on the ea~'t amd south is the issue of cars and traffic that potentially could be tenderizes within our cc:munity. In a recent su~'~ey, we found thr,:, the average ~umser of cars owned by prospects over the age of fifty who ~isited our office, was neari? t,,.;u cars per family. ,~,ke~ Profiles, through their in depth marke[ research in the area, has found that if ~-ie remove the -a2e restriction and allow all adults, eighteen years and older to als'] live in the community, that the nmmber of cars per fami;./ .~]~ld drop ~Drec!ably to 1-I/2 cars per family or less. Therefore, we feel ther~ ,'o~'.d be little negative effect on our community and potent:.~!!y we may have less cars than anticipated. '.n addition, we anticipate that our neighbors may have some concerns about this younger ame group. We want to assure you that because housing is so expensive tel!aS'? by reducing the age requirement to whom we sell, we will attract mam~ ,L~n$ ]rofessionais and their incomes will? by necessity~ quita high. ~ order to quali~v f'or one of our units priced at $64,990, the home bu./~r ',,,'~] nave to r;a,'e an annual income of soma $34,000 in orcar ~.o m~et the roc;':~' ,' 3ayments of some $830.00 Oue to the high interest rates and our limited market appeal to adults over fifty years of age~ we are quite concerned about the continued economic viability of o~r project. We are confident that by reducing the age restriction to eighteen years of age we can achieve a reasonable sales rate as the yeunger market will purchase even in the face of difficult economic times. At the same tin!e, we are confident that the integrity of our citihomes community will remain high and that it will be an enduring assets to the community of T~.~stin. We respectfully request your concurrence in this most important issue facing us in Tustin. Therefore~ please place us on the agenda for the April 21st meeting. Sincerely, V ! LL. AG.~F~J~,,O~q~ 0 F ~A L IF~O RN I.g~.~ ~' ~ ' C. "Bob" Albertson,~Cr. President (~.~y ROBERT P. WARMINGTON CO.~$PANY Robert P. Warmington President LCA:br