Editor’s note:
The Los Alamitos Planning Commission approved the project at its meeting last week. The developer, Lincoln Property Company, now has the greenlight to begin the project. The print edition stated the project still has to go through the hands of the city council, which is incorrect according to Steven Mendoza, Los Al’s Community Development Director, when asked to clarify on Nov 21.
Editor’s note:
The Los Alamitos Planning Commission approved the project at its meeting last week. The developer, Lincoln Property Company, now has the greenlight to begin the project. The print edition stated the project still has to go through the hands of the city council, which is incorrect according to Steven Mendoza, Los Al’s Community Development Director, when asked to clarify on Nov 21.
A new shopping center development at 3131 Katella Ave. is up for a vote before Los Al’s Planning Commission tonight at 7 p.m.
The project will be heard in a public meeting for a second time tonight, which means the traffic commission’s approval gives the developer the go-ahead to begin.
Lincoln Property Company currently owns the site, dubbed “Supermedia” in the past, at 3131 Katella.
Included in the project up for approval tonight is:
• Site plan review for a 105,880 square-foot shopping center, which looks to have been named the Los Alamitos Village; the square footage could possibly increase to 113,880 during the development stages if approved later by the city
• A vesting tentative map, which breaks down the project into five parcels to illustrate how each square-foot of the property will be developed
• Six conditional use permits for: two drive-through facilities, three large outdoor seating areas, and one alcoholic beverage sales license
• A height variance for a 120-foot high, 3,050-square-foot freeway sign
• A planned sign program
• And, an Environmental Impact Report
Shopping Center
The bulk of the proposed shopping center’s 105,880 square-feet design shows it will consist of five tenant buildings that will line the rear portion of the property that borders Oak Middle School.
Three major buildings separated by two smaller buildings in between make up 94,880 square-feet in total, according to the architectural site plan included in the 130-page application before the commission tonight.
The application did not indicate many possible stores that could go in to the new development except Whole Foods, which is included in the application’s renderings of the shopping center.
Two smaller buildings estimated at 8,000 and 3,000 square-feet will sit at the front of the property lining Katella Ave. These two buildings look to have been designed with intent of opening drive-through restaurants in them as drive-through lanes for the building are designed into the architectural site plan.
Vesting Map
Currently the biggest highlight from the map break down is that the developers have set aside just under five acres of land to develop parking spaces on the nine-and-a-half acre property. Though the numbers are still speculative at this point, about 505 parking spaces are estimated to be constructed as well as five loading docks behind the five major tenant buildings, according to the application. City staff wrote in the report that “only 424 parking spaces are required. The project provides 466 standard (nine feet in width and 19 feet in depth) and 22 accessible parking spaces, which exceeds the City’s parking requirement by 64 spaces.” The report indicates the developers intend to share a portion of the parking lot with the Los Alamitos Recreation and Community Services Department.
Conditional Use Permits
Two permits, if approved, would allow 24-hour drive-throughs at the two buildings lining Katella. The lanes currently designed would allow up 15 vehicles to line up at a time before spilling over into the parking lot.
The permits for outdoor seating areas are for planned plaza areas in front of the major tenant buildings and the two smaller buildings.
Freeway Pylon Sign and Sign program
The proposed height variance allows the construction of a 120-foot tall, 50-foot wide Freeway Pylon Sign, with a 555-square-foot digital commercial display built in, at the northwest corner of the property bordering the 605 Freeway and Oak Middle School. The report indicates no exposed neon lighting will be allowed on the sign. Currently, the maximum height allowed for a sign on the property is 20 feet.
Signs displaying the businesses in the shopping center are also proposed at various entrances on Katella.
Environmental Impact Report
Two main things that the application addresses as potential impacts are: noise and traffic.
The major noise disturbances are expected to occur during the construction phase of the project so the developers included the construction of a temporary wall.
“Complete elimination of construction noise is technically infeasible,” but the developers are hoping this along with limiting the hours of construction and maintaining deliveries of over-sized loads during the hours of 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. will help decrease distrubances.
In terms of traffic, the results of a study included in the application estimates that 10,773 daily trips would be generated by the new shopping center. 437 trips are estimated for the morning peak hour and 531 for the evening peak hour.
A timetable hasn’t been released yet that estimates how long before the project is completed but the year 2019 is mentioned as a possible target year for the opening in the traffic analysis section.
Many other questions are yet to be answered like what this means for the future of neighboring civic center as negotiations to sell the property are still underway.