Anaheim Planning Commission meeting for February 13, 2023
The Anaheim Planning Commission has a scheduled meeting on February 13, 2023 at 5:00pm in the city council chambers. The agenda for the meeting is available online.
There is only one business item on the agenda, but two other procedural items as well.
Underground Conversion Subcommittee Appointment
The first procedural item is the appointment of a planning commissioner to the city’s Underground Conversion Subcommittee. The subcommittee is made up of five members, three appointed from the Public Utilities Commission and two appointed from the Planning Commission. One of the Planning Commission appointments has opened up due to changes to the commission’s membership. Currently, the subcommittee is made up of Public Utility Board members from districts 1, 2, and 5, and a planning commissioner from district 1.
This is an interesting program that started back in 1990 in an effort to increase electric service reliability and clean up the visual clutter along our city streets. I remember when it started. Back then my dad was on Planning Commission and he had real concerns about the utility under-grounding. Specifically, he was worried that under-grounding the utilities along Santa Ana Canyon Road would ruin the small town character of Anaheim Hills. However, once the project had been completed along that section of road, he realized how much nicer it was to not have all of the power lines hanging above the roadway.
Anaheim Public Utilities provides a great map showing where all of the past, current, and future under-grounding projects are located in the city.
Based on this map, it seems like the majority of the future projects are in districts 3, 4, and 5. Those are the districts that will be the most impacted by these projects, and therefore should have the most representation on the subcommittee. Unfortunately, districts 3 and 4 have no representation currently. We’ll see if my fellow commissioners are interested in changing that.
The second procedural item is election of a vice chair for the commission. I’m throwing my hat in the ring. We’ll see how it goes.
Item 1 - CUP Modification - Travel Inn
The only item on this week’s agenda is a city-initiated modification to an existing Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the Travel Inn on Beach Boulevard. The staff report can be found online.
This request is very simple. The CUP that was approved last year included a condition that the Travel Inn could not rent rooms to guests younger than 21 years old. This request would modify the condition to reduce the age from 21 to 18.
I do have a few questions about this item:
Is this a standard condition for other hotel and motel establishments in Anaheim?
If it is a standard condition, is the normal age 18 or 21?
If it’s 18, why was the condition for this CUP initially set at 21?
If it’s 21, why is staff recommending lowering it to 18 in this case?
Are there any state laws that regulate the age at which someone must be to rent a hotel or motel room?
Mostly, I want to ensure that we’re treating all businesses in Anaheim consistently with one another, and that we’re not adding unnecessary or duplicative regulations that our businesses must navigate.
I’ll be very interested to hear the answers to these questions on Monday.