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HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/28/2010MINUTES OF THE CITY OF DIAMOND BAR REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Torng called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. in the South Coast Air Quality Management District/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: C/Nelson led the Pledge of Allegiance. 1. ROLL CALL: Present: Commissioners Kwang Ho Lee, Steve Nelson, Jack Shah, Vice Chairman Kathy Nolan and Chairman Tony Torng. Also present: Greg Gubman, Community Development Director; Natalie Tobon, Planning Technician, and Stella Marquez, Senior Administrative Assistant. 2. MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE/PUBLIC COMMENTS: None. 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: 4. CONSENT CALENDAR: 4.1 Minutes of the Reaular Meeting of August 10, 2010 C/Shah moved, C/Nelson seconded, to approve the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of August 10, 2010, as corrected. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COMMISSIONERS: Lee, Nelson Shah, Chair/Torng NOES: COMMISSIONERS: None ABSTAIN: COMMISSIONERS: VC/Nolan ABSENT: COMMISSIONERS: None 4.2 Minutes of Study Session of August 24, 2010. VC/Nolan moved, C/Nelson seconded, to approve the Study Session Minutes of August 24, 2010, as presented. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: Nelson, Shah, VC/Nolan Chair/Torng None Lee None COMMISSIONERS: NOES: COMMISSIONERS: ABSTAIN: COMMISSIONERS: ABSENT: COMMISSIONERS: SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 PAGE 2 5. OLD BUSINESS: None. 6. NEW BUSINESS: None. 7. PUBLIC HEARINGS: PLANNING COMMISSION 7.1 Conditional Use Permit No. PL 2010-202 —Under the authority of Diamond Bar Municipal Code Section 22.58, the applicant requested approval to operate a new 1,895 square foot, foot and body massage establishment located at Diamond Bar Village, a 59,726 square foot shopping center located on a 4.2 acre property zoned Community Commercial with a consistent underlying General Plan Land Use Designation of General Commercial (C). PROJECT ADDRESS PROPERTY OWNER APPLICANT: 23499 Golden Springs Drive Diamond Bar, CA 91765 H -B Diamond Bar, LLC 10877 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1105 Los Angeles, CA 90024 Hongwei Zhang 9122 Ardendale Avenue San Gabriel, CA 91775 CDD/Gubman requested this matter be continued to October 12, 2010, to allow staff to complete the parking analysis for the proposed use. The project was analyzed with respect to parking using incorrect square footage data for the shopping center which presented a need to reevaluate the parking requirements based on the actual correct square footage and in order to do so, staff needs to conduct a parking analysis and will be ready to present the results at the October 12 meeting. C/Shah moved, C/Lee seconded, to continue Conditional Use Permit No. PL 2010-202 to October 12, 2010. Motion carried by the following Roll Cail vote: AYES: COMMISSIONERS NOES: COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COMMISSIONERS Lee, Nelson, Shah, VC/Nolan, Chair/Torng None None SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 PAGE 3 PLANNING COMMISSION 7.2 Conditional Use Permit No. PL 2010-307 —Under the authority of Diamond Bar Municipal Code Section 22.58, the applicant requested approval to establish a dance and instruction studio within a 2,000 square foot lease space located at Diamond Bar Village, a 30,281 square foot shopping center located on a 2.45 acre parcel. The subject property is zoned C-2 (Community Commercial) with an underlying General Plan designation of General Commercial. PROJECT ADDRESS: 23355 Golden Springs Drive Diamond Bar, CA 91765 PROPERTY OWNER: Chang Chih International Investments, LLC 23341 Golden Springs Drive Diamond Bar, CA 91765 APPLIICANT: Jin Chen Jin's Dance Studio 20260 Evening Breeze Drive Walnut, CA 91789 PT/Tobon presented staff's report and recommended Planning Commission approval of Conditional Use Permit No. PL 2010-307, based on the Findings of Fact, and subject to the conditions of approval as listed within the resolution. Chair/Torng asked staff to explain Condition No. 5 on Page 4 of the Resolution. CDD/Gubman responded that as stated in the application for the proposed use, the business plan identifies business hours seven days a week with hours of 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., Monday through Friday; 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. Also as described in the application there would be 16 or fewer students per class in addition to one dance instructor per class. Staff elected to not provide an arbitrary number limiting the number of students or the hours of operation based on the presumption that the applicant would be operating the business within these hours with this number of students. Staff understands there may be some variance — there may be 18, there may be 20 students in some classes, and staff did not find it to be appropriate to establish a cutoff number. Staff believes and presumes that the business operator will be operating within these parameters which should cause no problem. By not specifying a limitation on enrollment it allows the applicant flexibility to make adjustments in class sizes as needed. Should staff find in SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 PAGE 4 PLANNING COMMISSION the future that there is a parking shortage or that there are conflicts with other businesses in terms of having sufficient parking to meet parking requirements for all businesses, there may be probable cause for staff to reexamine these conditions and impose some limits on hours and/or number of students. Based on previous hearings where questions have been directed to staff when it has placed limits on numbers of students without empirical basis for those limits, the question was "how is that not arbitrary?" And, the only way to provide a response in this situation is to not attempt to establish limitations. The applicant has gone on record with the business plan and staff's analysis indicates that the shopping center's parking capacity can accommodate it, therefore, there is no cause at this time to place further restrictions on the use. There were no ex parte disclosures. Chair/Torng opened the public hearing. Greg Martin, Jin Chen's husband, said he and his wife are looking forward to continuing their relationship with the City of Diamond Bar. Ms. Chen has had a dance studio about 100 yards away in the same shopping center for the past eight (8) years and looks forward to continuing her business. Mr. Martin responded to Chair/Torng that he and Miss Chen read staff's report and concur with the conditions of approval. In response to the concern about parking, most of the students are dropped off and picked up and most of the adult classes are evening classes when minimal parking will be used. In addition, there are not many classes taught during the hours 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Chair/Torng cldsed the public hearing. C/Shah moved, VC/Nolan seconded, to approve Conditional Use Permit No. PL 2010-307, based on the Findings of Fact, and subject to the conditions of approval as listed within the resolution. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COMMISSIONERS NOES: COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COMMISSIONERS Lee, Nelson Shah, VC/Nolan, Chair/Torng None None SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 PAGE 5 PLANNING COMMISSION 8. PLANNING COMMISSIONER COMMENTS/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: Chair/Torng commented that it appears Site D is coming back to the Commission. 9. STAFF COMMENTS/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: CDD/Gubman spoke about the flyer announcing the Site D Community Workshop being sponsored, coordinated and led by the Walnut Valley Unified School District on October 16, 2010, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Castle Rock Elementary School. The workshop will begin with an overview for the residents and participants about what the workshop will entail. Following the introduction, the workshop participants will be transported in a school bus to Site D for a "Site Awareness" tour after which the participants will be transported back to Castle Rock Elementary School for breakout discussion groups during which participants will be given an opportunity to communicate their impressions of the site, observations and insights to the school district and to provide feedback about what they believe is the appropriate plan for the site. The primary objective that will be communicated to the public is that this is a site that is for sale and that it will be developed. The school district will not leave the land fallow due to significant budget issues for the school district. It is possible that this item could be remanded back to the Planning Commission for further deliberation before coming back to the City Council for adoption of the Specific Plan and certification of the EIR. The Planning Commissioners are welcome to attend, but because this is not a public noticed meeting or decision-making meeting of the Commission—and most importantly because there is still an open public hearing for the Site D Specific Plan which was continued by the City Council from July 20—Commissioners who attend are required to abide by the Brown Act and not interact with colleagues, not participate actively in any discussions with the working groups and not give any appearance of deliberating. Certainly, being observers in the process may prove useful to the Commissioners as the process moves along and possibly comes back to the Planning Commission. CDD/Gubman referred the Commissioners to the WVUSD website and the link directing the user to the Site D website for additional information. Chair/Torng asked how many people were invited and whether it was for the entire community or within the 500 feet. CDD/Gubman responded that it was within the 1000 foot radius. Chair/Torng said he was worried because the group that would attend would be the same group of people and the only thing that he would hear would be negative and he did not believe anything would contribute to the event such as people coming to support the plan. He wanted to know CDD/Gubman's feeling on the 1000 foot limitation. CDD/Gubman said that it was the school district and staff's intent to be responsive to comments that alternatives were not presented SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 PAGE 6 PLANNING COMMISSION for the Commission to consider, and respond to comments and concerns from participants not liking, for example, commercial and if this process can be used to help understand what it is about commercial that participants find objectionable. This additional outreach effort is being made to see if there is a land use plan that can gain consensus. There will not be any progress made if the consensus is that "the site should remain undeveloped" for example, or if participants claim this site is "open space" because it is not zoned "open space" and the owners have the right to develop the land and it will be developed in some fashion. C/Shah felt that if people take advantage of this workshop perhaps they can get a true picture and be able to make an informed decision. He agreed with Chair/Torng that it is the same people who show up time and again, but at least this will provide the clarification needed and he believes the workshop is a good idea. CDD/Gubman said that because it is hosted and being presented by the WVUSD there are other notification venues this will be advertised through such as their website, so there will likely be a more diverse audience as a result. As C/Shah mentioned, there has been misinformation by the opposition alleging, for example, that this is going to be a project for high density/low income apartments and that is absolutely not what this plan envisions for this site. But that misinformation, through repetition, has gained some traction. So yes, this workshop will provide an opportunity to set the record straight on these attempts to generate opposition and fear about what will happen with this site. VC/Nolan asked if the City had any participation as far as presentation or input and CDD/Gubman responded "no." Chair/Torng said asked if it was possible to put this matter to a vote. On this issue (Site D) it is important for the people surrounding the project and it is also important for the whole City. Is it possible to have all residents vote for this project? CDD/Gubman responded "no", this form of government is where representatives are elected to make those kinds of decisions. They need to hear the public's voice but ultimately, it is not a matter of having the public at large make that decision. There is always an option to put something on a referendum but this is still within the realm of having elected representatives make the final decision. CDD/Gubman reported that the Planning Division is developing policy and guidelines for artificial turf in response to water efficient landscaping and water conservation needs. SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 PAGE 7 PLANNING COMMISSION Last Thursday the space planner for the City Hall project interviewed staff and department heads for a needs assessment for the facility. As a result, preliminary planning diagrams will be prepared to design the floor space for the project. Target date for the move -in to the new facility is November 2011. The library will likely lag behind that scheduled date due to additional complexities of that project and the fact that it is funded through Los Angeles County. However, the City Hall project is well underway and moving forward. CDD/Gubman stated that because of a lot of calls to the City and the frustration with the lack of activity at the Shell Station at Diamond Bar Boulevard and Palomino, it appears that the issues with the property owner, contractor, architect and Shell Corporation are moving toward getting this project back online and staff hopes to see significant construction activity in approximately one month. 10. 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 7:38 p.m. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 12th day of October, 2010. Attest: Respectfully Submitted, Greg Gubman Community Development Director T orng, Cha'irma