Anaheim Planning Commission meeting for April 24, 2023

The Anaheim Planning Commission has a scheduled meeting on April 24, 2023 at 5:00pm in the city council chambers. The agenda for the meeting is available online.

This is one of our more full agendas recently, with three items.

Item 1 - Variance Request - Four-unit Apartment Building

This request for several variances relate to the development of a four-unit apartment building located at 308 W. Vermont Ave. The specific requests are to reduce the setback between the buildings and an interior lot line from 20 feet down to four feet, reduce the landscape setback from an interior property line from five feet down to four feet, and reduction in common area recreation-leisure area from 80 square feet to 0 square feet.

The building will be built to RM-4 standards, which typically require 70 lot widths. This lot is only 54 feet wide, but since it already exists it can still be built to these standards without any variance for the lot width. However, since the lot is narrower than is typical for RM-4 standards, it’s difficult to fit a building on the site with the typical setbacks, which is why this variance is being requested.

My concern with reducing the setbacks from 20 feet down to four feet is whether there is sufficient space between the building and property line to access and maintain that area, and for any landscaping to grow in such a small area. Looking at the satellite and street view images of the property, it appears that there are block walls along both property lines. It would be difficult to get access between the building and the wall, and I worry that garbage will collect in these areas. To solve this problem, it seems reasonable to shift the building to have a zero-foot setback on one side of the building, and an eight-foot setback on the other side of the building.

I’m going to ask about the viability of this adjustment with staff and the applicant, because there might be reasons why it wouldn’t work of which I’m unaware. I’ll also be interested in hearing what my fellow commissioners think about this item.

Item 2 - Amend CUP - Anaheim United Methodist Church

This request is to amend the Conditional Use Permit for the Anaheim United Methodist Church on State College Blvd., across the street from Boysen Park, to allow the church to construct a new day care building with two outdoor play areas. The building and play areas would be built on a currently unused portion along the south side of the church property. This would expand their existing child care facilities from 5,352 square feet to 7,398 square feet. In addition, modifications to the existing parking lot would be made to improve pedestrian safety for children and staff walking between the existing child care facility and the new building and play areas.

In addition to the new building, the request also includes a modification of the hours of operation for the facility, and an increase in the maximum number of students. The number of students would increase from 111 to 160, and the existing hours would expand from 7AM and 6PM, to 6:30AM and 9PM.

Reading through this request, my main concern was regarding noise from the play areas to the residential uses to the south. However, the City prepared a noise study to determine if the kids playing in the play area would exceed the noise standard for the surrounding uses, and it does not. This is another example of city staff answering my next question before I even have a chance to ask it.

I’ll be interested in seeing if any neighbors object to this expanded use and hours of operation.

Item 3 - Amend CUP & ABC License - Chevron

The location of this item confused me at first. The Anaheim United Methodist Church is located at 1000 S. State College Blvd., and this item is located at 1000 N. State College Blvd. I’m not sure what the odds are of having two items at the same meeting with the same address except for the direction of the street, but they can’t be high.

This request is to convert existing automobile service bays to additional convenience store uses, and to allow for the sale of alcohol for off-site consumption. The existing building has an approximately 600 square foot convenience store and approximately 1,100 square feet for car repair. This proposal would convert all of the 1,100 square feet of car repair to store uses, for a total of a 1,700 square foot store. In addition, the store would sell alcohol, which it does not currently do.

As I was looking at this site in Google Maps, I found an old streetview image from 2017 that showed this as a 76 station, not a Chevron. I expect that this request is simply part of Chevron’s purchase of the site and conversion of the station to a more typical combination of services found at Chevrons instead of what’s found at 76 stations.

The most interesting part about this request is Staff’s decision to use a “common sense exemption” from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Section 15061(b)(3) of the CEQA guidelines state that:

The activity is covered by the common sense exemption that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this exemption used in the past. There are a number of categorical exemptions from CEQA that this project would fall under, such as Class 3, New Construction of Conversion of Small Structures (which are being used for Items 1 and 2 in this agenda) or Class 32, In-fill Development (which could have also been used for Items 1 and 2). This is definitely something I’m going to have to ask staff about.