Anaheim Planning Commission meeting for February 27, 2023

The Anaheim Planning Commission has a scheduled meeting on February 27, 2023 at 5:00pm in the city council chambers. The agenda for the meeting is available online.

This agenda only has two items. The first one will be fairly controversial, while the second is routine.

Item 1 - Conditional Use Permit - Tesla Dealership

This proposed project would convert the Cinema City movie theater on the corner of La Palma Ave. and Imperial Hwy. to a new Tesla showroom and service center. The staff report for this item can be found online.

When I told my kids about this project, they erupted in protest at the idea of the local movie theater going away. I expect that this will be a very controversial project within the community for that reason, and a number of others. In fact, this property has a long history of controversy going back to the ‘90s when my dad was on Planning Commission.

Before Cinema City was built, this parcel was an undeveloped dirt field next to the Knowlwoods hamburger stand. When the theater was built, many people wanted to grab a burger and then see a movie, which caused parking problems for Knowlwoods since cars were now in their lot for two or three hours instead of cycling through more quickly when they were just getting food. This parking problem came to a head in 1991 when the remainder of the Knowlwoods property was set to be redeveloped as the Promenade Shopping Center that is on the site today. In fact, I went with my dad on a site visit just prior to that shopping center coming before the Planning Commission, and we sat there watching people as they knocked down the chain link fence that had been erected between the two properties with their car so they could easily walk from the restaurant to the theater.

Over the years, a number of solutions to the theater’s parking problem have been attempted. The theater was required to enter into a reciprocal parking agreement with the neighboring bank, as well as construct a parking garage on the back side of the theater. Unfortunately, the parking garage is almost unusable due to sight line issues within the structure and the general tight configuration of the parking and drive aisles. The past few times I’ve been in that center, including just yesterday, the parking garage has been completely closed off. Also, during a hearing for a new CUP for the theater in 2017, it was revealed that the theater had stopped paying on the reciprocal parking agreement and that it therefore was no longer in effect. I expect that these parking issues between the theater property and the neighboring properties will be brought up again at the meeting, more than 30 years after they first became an issue.

In addition to these issues, the nature of a movie theater and a car dealer are quite different. The property owner of the Promenade submitted a letter expressing concern over how the operations of the car dealer might affect his property, especially given that both properties share access from La Palma. One of the findings that the Planning Commission must make to approve any CUP is that the “proposed use will not adversely affect the adjoining land uses.” Given this particular site, I’m not yet sure that’s a determination I can support. I need a bit more information about the existing agreements that are in place, and possibly some modifications to the conditions of approval that would limit some of the dealership operations.

With all of that said, this area in general is not a bad place for a Tesla dealer and service station. Just down the street are dealerships for Mercedes and Land Rover. The question regarding whether the Tesla dealer will fit will hinge on the specifics of this site and whether the impacts to the neighboring businesses can be mitigated.

Item 2 - Citywide Code Update

On a fairly regular basis, the Anaheim planning department updates the City’s zoning code to ensure approval processes are streamlined, that new state laws are incorporated into the City’s code, and to make minor modifications to development standards to respond to changing market trends. This is one of those regular updates. The staff report can be found online, with a summary of amendments here and the complete text amendments here.