Anaheim Planning Commission meeting for October 23, 2023

The Anaheim Planning Commission has a scheduled meeting on October 23, 2023 at 5:00pm in the city council chambers. The agenda for the meeting is available online here.

There are two meetings on this agenda, the most interesting thing about these two items is that they’re for the same shopping center.

Item 1 - CUP & Variance for Drive Thru and Car Wash

The owner of the Walmart shopping center at the corner of Orangethorpe and Lemon are proposing a new drive through restaurant and car wash. In addition, they want to install some pole mounted signs in the future right of way along Lemon Street.

I see two challenges with this proposal. First, these businesses simply make our neighborhoods worse. They further invest in a car-oriented pattern of development that makes our city poorer, and our residents less healthy and more unhappy. However, as a city, we don’t have a plan to do anything else other than car oriented development.

The second challenge is that the new buildings are proposed to be near the ultimate right of way, and once the road is widened, there won’t be a landscape setback between the building and the sidewalk.

Item 2 - CUP for Drive Thru & Parking Reduction

Within the same center as the proposed drive through and car wash is another proposed drive through on a separate parcel, apparently owned by different owners. This property owner is proposing another drive through and a reduction in required parking.

The interesting thing about this proposal is that the city cannot use a Class 3 categorical exemption from CEQA due to a past cleanup order on the site that was closed in the 1980s. Therefore, the city is proposing a common sense exemption for this project instead of doing CEQA review. I’m interested in digging into this at the public hearing for this item.