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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3/10/2009MINUTES OF THE CITY OF DIAMOND BAR REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 10, 2009 CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Nelson called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the South Coast Air Quality Management District/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Shah led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL Present: Commissioners Kwang Ho Lee, Kathy Nolan, Jack Shah, Vice Chairman Tony Torng, Chairman Steve Nelson. Also present: Greg Gubman, Acting Community Development Director; Katherine Laufenburger, Senior Planner; Natalie Tobon, Planning Technician and Stella Marquez, Senior Administrative Assistant. 2. REORGANIZATION OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION — Selection of Chairman and Vice Chairman. C/Lee nominated C/Torng to serve as the Chairman of the Planning Commission. C/Nolan seconded the nomination. There were no other nominations offered. Roll Call: Lee Yes Nolan Yes Torng Yes Nelson Yes C/Nolan nominated C/Nelson to serve as Vice -Chairman. Chair/Torng seconded the nomination. There were no other nominations offered. Roll Call: Nolan Yes Chair/Torng Yes Lee No Shah Yes Nelson Abstain MARCH 10, 2009 PAGE 2 PLANNING COMMISSION 3. MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE/PUBLIC COMMENTS: None 4. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: As presented. 5. CONSENT CALENDAR: 5.1 Minutes of Regular Meetinq of February 10, 2009. VC/Nelson moved, C/Nolan seconded, to approve the Minutes of the February 10, 2009, regular meeting as submitted. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COMMISSIONERS: Lee, Nolan, VC/Nelson Chair/Torng NOES: COMMISSIONERS: None ABSTAIN: COMMISSIONERS: Shah ABSENT: COMMISSIONERS: None 5.2 Minutes of Regular Meeting of February 24, 2009. C/Shah moved, C/Lee seconded, to approve the Minutes of the February 24, 2009, regular meeting as submitted. Motion carried bythe following Roll Call vote: AYES: COMMISSIONERS NOES: COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COMMISSIONERS 6. OLD BUSINESS: None 7. NEW BUSINESS: None 8. CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING: Lee, Nolan, Shah, VC/Nelson Chair/Torng None None 7.1 Development Review No. 2008-18 and Minor Variance No. 2008-02 — Under the authority of Diamond Bar Municipal Code Sections 22.48 and 22.52, the applicant requested approval to construct a two-story, 9,654 square -foot single family residence with an attached 1,114 square foot garage on an existing 42,139 square -foot (0.96 Acre) Rural Residential (RR) zoned parcel with a consistent underlying General Plan Land Use designation of Rural Residential (RR). The Minor Variance was requested to MARCH 10, 2009 PAGE 3 PLANNING COMMISSION allow the exposed height of retaining wall to be increased from six (6) feet to eight (8) feet. PROJECT ADDRESS: PROPERTY OWNER: 3121 Steeplechase Diamond Bar, CA 91765 Arun and Indu Jain 1301 Glenthorpe Drive Walnut, CA 91789 APPLICANT: Pete Volbeda 615 E. Benson Avenue, Unit D Upland, CA 91786 SP/Laufenburger presented staff's report and recommended Planning Commission approval of Development Review No. 2008-18 and Minor Variance No. 2008-02, based on the Findings of Fact, and subject to the conditions of approval as listed within the resolution. There were no ex parte disclosures. Chair/Torng opened the public hearing. Pete Volbeda, Architect, explained the history of the proposed project. He pointed out that the project lot is actually not located within "The Country Estates" Homeowners Association. Chair/Torng closed the public hearing. C/Lee moved, VC/Nelson seconded, to approve Development Review No. 2008-18 and Minor Variance No. 2008-02. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COMMISSIONERS: NOES: COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COMMISSIONERS Lee, Nolan, Shah, VC/Nelson, Chair/Torng None None 9. PLANNING COMMISSIONER COMMENTS/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: C/Shah congratulated Chair/Torng and hoped the Commission would have a great year. MARCH 10, 2009 PAGE 4 PLANNING COMMISSION C/Lee congratulated Chair/Torng and said he believed everyone should have an opportunity to serve as Chairman or Vice Chairman. C/Nolan congratulated Chair/Torng. She said she looked forward to attending the Planners Institute. VC/Nelson congratulated Chair/Torng. He said he was confident that Chair/Torng would lead the Planning Commission and its business with a high degree of competency and excellence. He thanked his colleagues for their vote of confidence in supporting him as Vice Chairman and said he would support the Chairman and his colleagues. Chair/Torng thanked his colleagues for their support and said he would focus his efforts on the Commission and hoped to do a good job in working with staff. 10. STAFF COMMENTS/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: Public Hearing dates for future projects. ACDD/Gubman congratulated Chair/Torng and said he looked forward to working with the new Chairman during his tenure. ACDD/Gubman highlighted the State of The City event scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 12 at the Diamond Bar Center Grand Ballroom from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. ACDD/Gubman reported that staff met with representatives from the U.S. Census Bureau prior to the commencement of the 2010 census count. The first phase of the effort will involve address verification using field workers followed by mailers to residents. The City has agreed to work cooperatively with the Bureau by creating a "Complete Count Committee." Community Services Department staff will coordinate the effort with the emphasis on outreach to various public service organizations, churches and the Chamber of Commerce in order to help the residents understand what the census is about and provide translation services as required. The purpose of the census is to count the City's population and one of the goals is to ensure that the City will receive funding for programs based on an accurate population count. ACDD/Gubman stated that certain staff positions have been frozen due to the budget shortfall. However, the vacant Code Enforcement Officer position recruitment is moving forward in an effort to continue providing the City a high level of code enforcement services. MARCH 10, 2009 PAGE 5 PLANNING COMMISSION ACDD/Gubman reported that with respect to Site D, staff is screenchecking a Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Draft Specific Plan document. Site D is about 30 -acres and the Specific Plan develops a Land Use Master Plan to provide up to 200 residential townhome units and up to about 150,000 square feet of retail/commercial. The Draft EIR screencheck process should be completed and released for public review early April 2009. During the public review process staff anticipates having study sessions with the City Council and the Planning Commission to solicit comments from public officials and the general public. Once the 45 -day public review period is completed the environmental documents will be revised and staff will then embark on the public hearing process sometime in June 2009. ACDD/Gubman stated that staff met with the current Honda property owner to discuss possible development opportunities forthe site that would have the greatest benefit to the City in terms of tax revenue and appropriate land use. The property owner is in a holding pattern due to the impending NFL Stadium project which has been approved but may face legal challenges. Staff envisions a demand for a hotel development for the property as the best use for the site, regardless of what happens on the Industry property. VC/Nelson asked ACDD/Gubman to clarify an earlier statement that proponents believed that given the currently approved project the stadium project would result in less traffic. He was invited to an exclusive presentation by Mai Mai Huff on the stadium and while he was duly impressed with the different considerations that would be put into siting an NFL Stadium and that the City of Industry had met a lot of the criteria, one item he walked away with was that the existing project would result in more traffic over the course of the year. Obviously on any given Sunday or other major events there would be more traffic on a particular day. He said he was confused about whether it was accurate to say that over the course of the year the average daily trips related to the stadium development as opposed to the currently approved project would be less but on any given Sunday or event day traffic would increase. ACDD/Gubman stressed that this is not just a stadium proposal. The entire project involves the stadium as an anchor with a major retail and entertainment component that would be open seven days a week. In addition, office buildings are proposed. The stadium will employ individuals who would have a.m./p.m. peak traffic hours and the office building would also generate a.m./p.m. peak traffic hours as well. In addition, there would be additional traffic generated by the entertainment component of the project. Also, there are programming aspects that must be taken into account. For example, there are two NFL teams being considered rather than MARCH 10, 2009 PAGE 6 PLANNING COMMISSION just one and there will be other sporting and religious events and major concerts that may occur on week nights. ACDD/Gubman said he did not have the number of potential events that would occur at the stadium but it is many times more than the number of home games that would be played in the stadium. VC/Nelson said he would like to have Diamond Bar engage a traffic consultant to look at the Industry EIR to see whether traffic studies are accurate. ACDD/Gubman responded that the City hired two separate traffic consultants — one with expertise in the freeway area and one with surface street traffic issues. VC/Nelson said he wanted to make sure that he could be proud of the fact that Diamond Bar did not react based on emotion but on fact because lawsuits are expensive. VC/Nelson asked if the statistics are readily available and from our consultants viewpoint what is the comparison between the existing approved project and what the stadium project will bring. It's not just 10 games a year, they are talking about two teams, concerts, religious events and he believes recreation events. ACDD/Gubman said that when the City became aware of the proposal, it began studying the potential impacts and potential opportunities the development would bring to the City and immediately hired a team of experts including two traffic consultants and an environmental consultant. Diamond Bar simply wanted to get to the facts in order to measure the impacts and have some assurance those impacts could be mitigated. C/Shah asked if Industry's traffic report regarding the stadium was available. ACDD/Gubman responded to C/Shah that the stadium report prepared by the traffic consultant may be found on the City's Website along with the other technical materials along with the City's 102 page commentary on the EIR. C/Nolan wanted to know if there was consideration for retail for the Honda site that would benefit Diamond Bar residents rather than a hotel that would not necessarily benefit the residents and wanted to know if staff was encouraging a hotel strictly from a revenue -generating standpoint. ACDD/Gubman responded that if there is a builder that is willing to provide Diamond Bar with retail businesses desirable to the community, staff would be very happy to consider that option. Chair/Torng said there was two hours worth of public commentary on the NFL stadium project during the last City Council meeting. According to CM/DeStefano, as indicated by ACDD/Gubman, Diamond Bar was the first City to investigate the proposal and did not follow any neighboring cities. He is pleased the Commissioners are interested in the project because he has been approached by many residents who were opposed to the project. ACDD/Gubman responded to Chair/Torng that Diamond Bar has not filed a lawsuit. MARCH 10, 2009 PAGE 7 PLANNING COMMISSION Chair/Torng responded to an earlier comment made by C/Lee by replying that a commissioner can be a Chairman or Vice Chairman when they are ready for that position. 11. SCHEDULE OF FUTURE EVENTS: As listed in tonight's agenda. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business before the Planning Commission, Chairman Torng adjourned the regular meeting at 7:45 p.m. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 24th day of March, 2009. Attest: Respectfully Submitted, ,.14W Greg Gubman Acting Community Development Director ony Torng, Orman