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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC MINUTES 07-09-24 MINUTES COUNCIL CHAMBER& VIDEO CONFERENCE TUSTIN PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING JULY 9, 2024 7:00 p.m. CALLED TO ORDER. Given. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Kozak Present ROLL CALL: Commissioners Kozak, Mason, Mello, Chair Pro Tern Douthit& Chair Higuchi Absent Commissioner Mello Schindler City Manager,Aldo Schindler introduced himself to the Commission. The Commission welcomed City Manager, Aldo Schindler. PUBLIC INPUT: Hurtado Hurtado confirmed there was no public input. CONSENT CALENDAR: 1.. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES—JUNE 25, 2024 RECOMMENDATION: That the Planning Commission approve the Minutes of the June 25, 2024 Planning Commission meeting, as provided. Hurtado Hurtado confirmed there was no public input received on the Consent Calendar. Motion. It was moved by Mason, seconded by Kozak, to approve the Consent Calendar, as provided. Motion carried 4-0-.1. PUBLIC HEARING: Adopted Reso. 2. FIRST AMENDMENT TO DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT (DA) 2022-0002 No. 44.92. APPLICANT: EMILIE SIMARD OF INTRACORP TUSTIN 40 DEVELOPMENT LLC 895 DOVE STREET, SUITE 400 Minutes—Planning Commission Meeting —July 9, 2024— Page 1 NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92660 PROPERTY OWNER: TUSTIN 40 DEVELOPMENT LLC 411 15TAVENUE SOUTH, SUITE 650 SEATTLE, WA 98104 LOCATION: 17802 AND 17842 IRVINE BOULEVARD REQUEST: A request for the first amendment to Development Agreement(DA) 2022- 0002, an agreement between the City of Tustin and Tustin 40 Development LLC, for the "The Jessup" residential project. The proposed amendment is a request to eliminate owner's requirement to pay for the Voluntary Workforce Housing Incentive Program In-Lieu Fee in conjunction with the project. ENVIRONMENTAL: The Community Development Department has evaluated the request and determined it to be exempt pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") section 15061(b)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines as it can be seen with certainty thatthere is no possibility of a significant effect on the environment. J RECOMMENDATION: Thatthe Planning Commission adopt Resolution 4492, recommending that the City Council adopt Ordinance No. 1544 for the first amendment to DA 2022-0002, an agreement between the City of Tustin and Tustin 40 Development LLC, to eliminate the requirement to pay for the Voluntary Workforce Housing Incentive Program In-Lieu Fee in conjunction with the "The Jessup" residential project located at what was previously 17802 and 17842 Irvine Boulevard and which is currently under construction. Carver Carver provided a presentation to the Commission. She mentioned one email was received by staff requesting the notice be described in simplified terms,due to the complex nature of the request. Carver provided an email response to the individual, who lives in the Palm Wood Condominiums next door to the project site. Douthif Douthit asked Carver to read the simplified response to the individual. Minutes-- Planning Commission Meeting —July 9, 2024— Page 2 Carver In response to Douthit's question, Carver stated a simplified response was emailed to the individual (she did not have the email correspondence at the dais) and the individual did not respond to Carver's response email. Mason Mason also asked Carver to simplify the project requestto the Commission as well as what the impact to the City would be once the in-lieu fees are eliminated. Willkom Willkom explained, in great detail,to the Commission what is being asked of the applicant. The proposed project is located outside of the DCCSP. At the time the project was submitted, the City and the developer agreed with the terms of the development agreement which included the provision of affordable housing and payment of in-Lieu fees. The requirements mirror what was required in the DCCSP and the total amount of affordable housing and provisions of the in-lieu fee mirror the requirement under the Voluntary Workforce Housing Ordinance. Subsequent to the approval, the City Council adopted the policy which would suspend the provision of the housing in-Lieu fee temporarily for 36 months. The objective of that policy is to stir development and to incentivize development within the Specific Plan areas. Following that policy adoption, Intracorp requested that the City extend the elimination of the payment in-lieu fee fortheir project,which is why the item has been brought to the Commission. Staff will need to amend the approved Development Agreement to remove the provision. Past payment of in- lieu fees has been ear-marked for Families Forward project(six to eight affordable housing units) which is forthcoming. Higuchi Higuchi commented on the City Council's recent approval of in-lieu fees being eliminated for the KB Home, He asked Willkom for the reason why the in-lieu fees were taken back to the City Council for elimination. Willkom In response to Higuchi's question,Willkom stated the reason KB Home projectwas brought back to the City Council was due to the KB Home project being approved prior to the adoption of the new policy. Hurtado Hurtado confirmed no public input was received on this item. Mason Mason made favorable comments regarding the item. Douthit Douthit made favorable comments towards the applicant. Overall, his final comments included, in general: he did not feel the City needs to impose unnecessary fines or fees regardless if they are in-Lieu or mirror something close to the area;the City needs to build more housing; Higuchi Higuchi's final comments generally included: he was supportive of staff's recommendation; not in favor of housing in-Lieu fees; concerned with the impact of Minutes— Planning Commission Meeting —July 9, 2024— Page 3 the Voluntary Indusionary Housing ordinance; commended Intracorp on this project; he asked Emilie on the number of units remaining to be sold. Applicant In response to Higuchi's last question, Emilie Simard stated there are 10 for-sale units remaining in the community. Intracorp has released 3.5 production phases of the released units with a few left to sell. Motion: It was moved by Kozak, seconded.by Douthit, to adopt Resolution No, 4492, as provided. Motion carried 4-0-1. AdoptedReso. 3. CODE AMENDMENT 2024-0004 (ORDINANCE NO. 1543) No. 4491, as (ORDINANCE UPDATES RELATIVE TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE amended. 6T" CYCLE 2021-2029 HOUSING ELEMENT) Code Amendment (CA) 2024-0004 is a City-initiated request to amend various sections of Article 9 (Land Use) of the Tustin City Code (TCC) to implement the following programs of the City's adopted Housing Element of the General Plan: • Program 1.5(a)—This amendment will streamline the requirements for triplexes in the R-2 and R-3 zones and for residential uses Citywide in atl zones by removing the Conditional Use Permit requirements. • Program 2.1(a) — This amendment will add definitions for transitional and supportive housing and consider transitional and supportive housing to be a residential use and explicitly permits them subject only to those zoning regulations that apply to other residential dwellings of the same type in the same zone as required by AB 2162. ENVIRONMENTAL. The proposed CA 2024-0004 is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, Sections 15060 (c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly. RECOMMENDATION: Minutes— Planning Commission Meeting—July 9, 2024--Page 4 That the Planning Commission adopt Resolution No. 4491, recommending that the City Council adopt Ordinance No. 1543, amending various sections of Article 9 (Land Use) of the TCC to implement the certain programs of the City's adopted Housing Element of the General Plan, Maldonado Presentation given. Mason Mason asked what the impacts of this item would be to the City if the recommended action were to be approved. Willkom In response to Mason's previous question, Willkom stated TCC residential zoning originally came from the County Code — over the years certain sections have been updated and certain sections remain the same. In the R2 and R3 Districts, triplexes require approval of a CUP. A CUP generally was intended to regulate operational characteristics of uses (i.e. CUP for restaurants, the City may regulate the hours of operation or how live entertainment would be provided). Triplexes are permanent land use and the City cannot revoke approved CUP or remove triplexes once they are built. In addition, the recommended action is consistent with State law where HCD is asking the City to allow residential development meeting certain criteria by right, subject to objective design standards. Hurtado Hurtado confirmed no public comments received on this item. The Commission, collectively, was in support of the item presented. Motion: It was moved by Mason, seconded by Douthit, to adopt Resolution No. 4491, as amended. Motion carried 4-0-1. REGULAR BUSINESS: Received& 4. DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS IN THE DOWNTOWN COMMERCIAL filed. CORE & RED HILL AVENUE SPECIFIC PLANS FOR MULTI-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL PARKING AND PRIVATE STORAGE On December 5, 2023, the City Council was provided an assessment of the Downtown Commercial Core Specific Plan (DCCSP) and the Red Hill Avenue Specific Plan (RHASP). The assessment was prepared by Economic Planning Systems (EPS), Inc., and identified potential plan revisions that would remove barriers to development and would better align the plans with the existing real estate market. The Council received and filed the report, and directed staff to bring the recommended policy actions back to the City Council for individual consideration and action. Minutes—Planning Commission Meeting —July 9, 2024— Page 5 Two considerations presented by EPS included (1) a reduction in the number of parking spaces required for multi-family residential development, and (2) changes to the amount of private storage required r for dwelling units. This report provides an assessment of these two potential actions. Staff will receive feedback and incorporate the Commissions feedback in Specific Plan Amendments (SPA), which wiLL be brought back to the Commission and Council for final action. RECOMMENDATION: That the Planning Commission: 1. Receive and file this staff report; 2. Discuss potential. revisions to multi-family residential parking requirements in the DCCSP and RHASP; 3. Discuss potential revisions to multi--family residential private storage requirements in the DCCSP and RHASP; and 4. Provide feedback on changes to DCCSP and RHASP development standards. Eastman Eastman provided a presentation to the Commission. Mr. Gabriel Mr. Groen joined the meeting via Zoom. He voiced his support on eliminating Groen parking mandates and to consider removing parking requirements entirely. The Commission deLiberated and discussed, in great detail, staff's recommendations. Commission The Commissioners each asked questions regarding the application of parking and private storage standards and expressed opinions and concerns. Douthit Douthit agreed that tandem parking should be allowed without discretion. He would like to eLiminate public parking requirements completely. Douthit expressed that even if there is no minimum parking requirement, developers will provide parking they feel. is needed for their project. He thinks that the City should eLiminate the requirement for private storage space, and instead allow developers the option to provide private storage space as part of their private J open space requirement. Minutes—Planning Commission Meeting—July 9, 2024— Page 6 Kozak Kozak expressed a concern with the changes in the minimum private storage space requirement. He was concerned that residents would not have places to store large items if developers are not providing storage area. But he agreed that the City should not dictate private open space. Kozak stated that he thinks the parking requirement recommendation in the staff report is reasonable and he supports it. He also supported allowing tandem parking. Mason Mason stated that the City has a parking situation. She said that while she also does not want the City to mandate parking, she Lives two blocks away from a street that gets parked with over 100 cars a night. She wants to attract developers, but the City needs to deal with the reality that we Lack public transit to support the elimination of a parking requirement. Mason supported staff's recommendation to scale parking requirements to the size of the unit, similar to what other cities provide. She expressed concern with larger multi-bedroom multi-unit projects because the City currently has parking problems. Mason supported tandem parking. She does not believe that the City should require developers to build private storage areas. Higuchi Higuchi identified four types of housing that is likely to occur in the two specific plans: big 150+ unit multi-family development; affordable multi-family development; boutique small multi-family developments; and for-sale single- family townhome development. Higuchi stated that big and affordable projects will use density bonus Law to reduce their parking requirements, so changing the standard does not impact them. Higuchi said he is supportive of a new standard to support small boutique multi-family development on small parcels, which is often done by small entrepreneurial developers. Higuchi wants to encourage for-sale housing because multi-family (apartments) are not currently viable in the current economic market. He supported staff's recommendation regarding parking revisions, including allowing tandem. Higuchi did not support private storage area requirements. The item was received and filed. STAFF CONCERNS: Willkom WiLLkom did not have any concerns. COMMISSION CONCERNS: Mason Mason did not have any concerns. Kozak Kozak commended the Parks and Recreation department for the Concerts in the Park series. Minutes— Planning Commission Meeting--July 9, 2024— Page 7 Douthit Douthit requested that Code Enforcement staff address the issues with residents parking on lawns,sidewalks (specifically near Red Hill Avenue and Bryan Avenue, and Pine Tree and Pepper Tree Parks). Higuchi Higuchi echoed Kozak's favorable comments with regards to the Concerts in the Park. He also commended staff again for Historic Preservation Week. 9:03p.m. ADJOURNMENT: The next regular meeting of the Planning Commission is scheduled for Tuesday, July 23, 2024. ERIC HIGUC Chairperson l 4JUSNA "WUKOM Planning Commission Secretary Minutes— Planning Commission Meeting —July 9, 2024— Page 8