PLANNING COMMISSION STUDY SESSION
TO: Planning Commission
FROM: Ursula Luna-Reynosa, Community Development Director
BY: Jessica Bui, Associate Planner
SUBJECT:
title
COASTAL DEVELOPMENT PERMIT NO. 19-001/CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT NO. 19-001 (3RD STREET COMMERCIAL BUILDING)
REQUEST:
To introduce a proposal for a four-story building with approximately 1,660 sq. ft. of retail on the ground floor and 18,000 sq. ft. of office above with an accessible roof top deck on an 8,475 sq. ft. vacant lot. The project includes one level of parking at the ground floor with 34 percent of the required parking in a vertical tandem configuration (car lifts) and one level of subterranean parking accessed by a car elevator and a valet parking service.
LOCATION:
321 3rd Street, 92648 (north side of 3rd St. between Orange Ave. and Olive Ave.)
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APPLICANT:
Jeff Bergsma, 221 Main Street, Suite S, Huntington Beach, CA 92648
PROPERTY
OWNER/
BUSINESS
OWNER:
Justin Helwig, WBJH Properties, 1112 Park Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92648
STATEMENT OF ISSUE:
To introduce a proposed four-story 19,660 sq. ft. retail and office building with vehicle lifts, vehicle elevator, and parking controls, at an approximately .19 acre vacant site.
PROJECT PROPOSAL:
The project proposes a four-story building with 1,660 sq. ft. of retail on the ground floor, 18,000 sq. ft. of office above, and a roof top deck on an 8,475 sq. ft. vacant lot. The project includes one level of parking at the ground floor with 34 percent of the required parking in a vertical tandem configuration and one level of subterranean parking accessed by a car elevator that will be managed with a valet service. South of the project site are recently constructed single-family dwellings and the surrounding properties are single-story and two-story commercial buildings. The proposed building will be the headquarters for a local business with a small-scale retail use at the ground floor.
Coastal Development Permit: to construct an approximately 19,660 sq. ft. building with 1,660 sq. ft. of retail on the ground floor, 18,000 sq. ft. of office above, and a roof top deck on an 8,475 sq. ft. vacant lot in the Coastal Zone.
Conditional Use Permit: to permit 34 percent of required on-site commercial parking as vertical tandem parking with a parking management plan for valet services.
PARKING DESIGN:
The proposed project requires 41 parking spaces and provides for 41 spaces within two levels of parking. The retail component requires one parking space per 1,000 sq. ft. and the office use requires two spaces per 1,000 sq. ft. as shown in the breakdown below:
Retail = 1,660 sq. ft./1,000 * 3 = 4.98
Office = 18,000 sq. ft./1000 * 2 = 36
TOTAL = 41 SPACES
The Downtown Specific Plan (SP 5) allows for a maximum of 40 percent of required parking for commercial uses to be provided as tandem parking with the approval of a conditional use permit. Additionally, in developments where 100 percent of the required parking is provided onsite, the Planning Commission may still impose parking strategies, such as valet service, to avoid impacts to public access and parking. In this case, the applicant submitted a parking management plan (Attachment No. 4) to demonstrate how retail customers and office tenants will be provided parking through the vehicle lifts and car elevator.
The parking design includes parking at the ground floor with seven standard stalls and 14 spaces in a vertical tandem configuration (34 percent of required parking). The vertical tandem spaces are operated with a mechanical lift where the lift is lowered to the ground and a vehicle is driven onto the lift and raised to allow another vehicle to park below. The parking layout also includes a subterranean level that is accessed by a car elevator located within the ground floor parking lot. The car elevator allows for one car to be lowered into the subterranean level at a time. The subterranean level has 20 standard stalls and bicycle storage.
The applicant is proposing a parking management plan that includes a valet service that will be available during office and retail operating hours. The valet service proposes to have two attendants on the ground floor and two attendants on the subterranean level. Each attendant will be equipped with radios to communicate to each other to operate the service. Upon entering the parking lot, an attendant will park a vehicle on one of the mechanical lifts and then raise the lift to expose the lower space for another vehicle to park. Once all ground floor parking spaces are filled, vehicles will be placed on the car elevator and lowered to the subterranean floor where the two attendants will park them in available spaces. During a peak arrival time, one attendant from the subterranean level will come up to the ground floor and bring any queuing vehicles into the car elevator to send them to the subterranean level to provide relief for the upper level operation and to minimize queuing into the alley. The parking management plan states it takes approximately three minutes and 20 seconds to utilize the car elevator method and approximately one minute and 45 seconds for the mechanical lifts. The retrieval of vehicles is similar in time. If a vehicle is within the subterranean parking level, an attendant on the ground floor will radio an attendant below to retrieve the vehicle and send it up the car elevator. When a vehicle is on a lift, one attendant will move the vehicle parked below while another attendant will lower the claimed vehicle. In addition, as spaces open up at the end of the day, vehicles will be moved into easily accessible spaces to ensure vehicle retrieval is expedited.
To address potential queueing into the alley, the parking management plan proposes to stagger the start time of the office use. In addition, to ensure the proposed parking design is easy to use for a mix of uses, e.g. - long-term users such as an office employees and short-term users such as the retail customers, retail customers indicating their stay will be short will be kept off the lifts and parked in the standard ground floor stalls to expedite their departure.
A survey of other cities that allow for alternative parking designs similar to the proposed project also require a covenant and agreement regarding maintenance of the mechanical parking system to ensure the parking system is maintained in operable condition at all times. Furthermore, the covenant requires the automated parking systems to be equipped with an onsite generator with sufficient capacity to store and retrieve cars when the power is down. Mechanical lifts must provide manual override capability to access or remove cars from the parking lift in the event of a power outage; and if the facility is inoperable for more than three days, what the operator’s plan would be to accommodate the parking of vehicles until the system is fully operational.
CEQA:
The proposed project is covered by the Downtown Specific Plan Final Environmental Impact Report No. 08-1, which was adopted by the City of Huntington Beach on January 19, 2010. The request to construct approximately 19,660 sq. ft. building with 1,660 sq. ft. of retail on the ground floor, 18,000 sq. ft. of office above, and a roof top deck on a 8,475 sq. ft. vacant lot is subject to compliance with the adopted mitigation measures contained in the Final Environmental Impact Report No. 08-1. The project is exempt under the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Section 15182 of the CEQA Guidelines, which states that when an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) has been prepared for a specific plan, there is no need to prepare an EIR or Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) for projects in conformity with that specific plan. The project is consistent with the Downtown Specific Plan. Furthermore, implementation of the project would not result in any new or more severe potentially adverse environmental impacts that were not considered in the previously certified Program EIR for the Downtown Specific Plan project (EIR No. 08-1) and the project is conditioned to comply with all applicable EIR No. 08-1 mitigation measures. In light of the whole record, none of the circumstances described under Section 15162 of CEQA Guidelines are present; and therefore, no EIR or MND is required.
PLANNING ISSUES:
⁻ Consistency with the General Plan and all applicable requirements of the Municipal Code;
⁻ Compliance with the applicable Downtown Specific Plan requirements and other regulations including parking, circulation, and open space;
⁻ Compatibility with surrounding land uses; and
⁻ Compliance with the Local Coastal Program.
PUBLIC HEARING DATE:
The Planning Commission public hearing date is tentatively scheduled for October 22, 2019.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Vicinity Map
2. Project Narrative received and dated April 3, 2019
3. Site Plan, Floor Plan, and Elevations received and dated September 6, 2019
4. Parking Management Plan received and dated August 2, 2019