Anaheim Planning Commission meeting for March 27, 2023

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

There is only one item on the agenda this month.

Item 1 - Various Requests - A-Town Development Areas C & D

The final parts of the A-Town development in the core of the Platinum Triangle are finally coming before the Planning Commission to be approved. A-Town was originally approved in 2005 and significantly modified in 2015. Since 2015, the developer has been getting each of the development areas approved and building out the community. Development Areas C & D are the only two areas that do not have final site plan approval yet. If approved at this meeting, this approval would be the final ones necessary before A-Town can be fully completed.

The Master Site Plan approved in 2015 anticipated that Development Area D would include 140 to 217 homes with no commercial uses. However, this request includes the transfer of 38 homes from Development Area F, to the south, that were not built there, for a total of 255 homes. In addition, this request seeks to modify the ground floor uses at the corners of Development Area D to allow for entryways and resident amenities facing the street instead of requiring stoops.

Development Area C is a bit more interesting, because it includes both commercial and residential uses. When A-Town was originally approved in 2005, it was envisioned as a true mixed-use community with ground floor retail throughout the development. Unfortunately, when it was redesigned in 2015, much of the ground floor retail was removed, with most of the remaining retail being confined to Development Area C. I was on the Planning Commission when this redesign was approved, and I regret not fighting to keep more retail throughout the Platinum Triangle.

This proposal nearly maximizes the amount of residential uses within the development area, while nearly minimizing the amount of commercial uses. I certainly would have liked to see more commercial uses built into this remaining part of A-Town, but what is being proposed is within the range that was approved in 2015.

The one problem with the design of Development Area C is along the building frontage facing Katella. There is a stretch of wall over 225 feet long that has has nothing interesting to look at and would be very boring to walk along. The zoning code prohibits totally blank wall areas without windows or entrances within the Platinum Triangle. My sense is that it’s important to enhance the walkability of this stretch of Katella, since so many people walk here to Angels games and it’s a major thoroughfare through what should be a walkable community.

I have an email scheduled to send to planning staff in the morning with some of these questions. We’ll see how they respond and what is said during the meeting tomorrow. This seems to be the last opportunity to ensure A-Town meets its potential, and I hope that whatever we do we get it right tomorrow night.