AGENDA REPORT
REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 08/05/2020
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Community Development Department
SUBJECT:
Title
City Council consideration of Precise Plan 2019-0008, for the review of the development of the Bedford Marketplace consisting of 134,378 square feet of commercial/retail building area and a 135-room hotel on approximately 21.7 acres within the General Commercial designation of the Arantine Hills Specific Plan (SP09-001) located on the west side of Interstate 15 and south of Eagle Glen Parkway. (Applicant: Glen Powles, Bedford Market Place, LLC)
End
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommended action
That the City Council:
a. Take no action, thereby affirming the Planning and Housing Commission's action granting PP2019-0008, based on the findings contained in the staff report and conditions of approval.
OR
b. Set the item for review at a subsequent meeting.
Body
ANALYSIS:
Precise Plan 2019-0008 is an application by Bedford Market Place, LLC for the review of a new 21.7-acre commercial retail center within the Arantine Hills Specific Plan (SP09-001) located on the west side of Interstate 15 and south of Eagle Glen Parkway. The project site is located in Planning Area 11 and zoned General Commercial of SP09-001. The project includes 134,378 square feet of new commercial/retail building area and a 135-room hotel. The project site also includes the construction of a 1.77-acre water infiltration basin located on the southern portion of the site. The basin is a requirement of the project’s Water Quality Management Plan and is designed to accept and treat surface water runoff within the project site before entering the Bedford Wash.
Site Plan
The project site is bordered by Eagle Glen Parkway to the north, Bedford Canyon Road to the west and Interstate 15 to the east. Vehicular access onto the project site will be from Bedford Canyon Road. The center’s site plan is designed to maximize its visibility from the adjoining streets and freeway while taking into consideration the neighboring residential and open space land uses within the Arantine Hills Specific Plan (aka Bedford Community). Smaller standalone retail and restaurant pads including a drive-through bank and daycare are situated along the center’s frontage on Bedford Canyon Road with a service station and convenience store pad located at the corner of Bedford Canyon Road and Eagle Glen Parkway. A carwash pad is also located close to Eagle Glen Parkway to separate the use farther from the planned residential uses to the west. The carwash, in addition to the establishments with drive-through services, will require the approval of conditional use permit prior to construction. The proposed commercial center site plan shows placeholders for these future uses, and the intended users of these pads will be required to process their conditional use permit for the business. The uses situated closer to I-15 freeway include two standalone restaurant pads, three anchor buildings that can accommodate a fitness center, market, pharmacy, an in-line shops building, and a four-story, 135-room hotel.
All building pads within the project site are designed to meet the landscaped yard setbacks from a public street, freeway rights-of-way, and other planning areas, which is 10 feet.
Parking
Parking is regulated by Chapter 17.76 of the Corona Municipal Code, which establishes parking requirements for various commercial uses. Based on the various land uses planned for the Bedford Marketplace, the project site requires 916 parking spaces. The project site provides 1,028 parking spaces, resulting in 112 excess parking spaces. All parking spaces and drive aisles within the project are reciprocal and shared among the tenants.
Access, Circulation and Public Improvements
Bedford Canyon Road will provide immediate vehicular access onto the project site from Eagle Glen Parkway. Three driveways are proposed on Bedford Canyon Road. The north driveway will allow for a right-in and right-out only turn movements due to an existing raised concrete median in the center of the street. The north driveway will most likely act as an exit for vehicles leaving the center and heading northbound. The central driveway is the center’s main access and will be signalized to allow full turn movements in and out of the project site. The south driveway will also allow for full turn movements.
Bedford Canyon Road has an overall right-of-way width of 97 feet with a roadway width of 72 feet from curb to curb and was fully constructed by the master developer of the Arantine Hills Specific Plan or Bedford Community. Sidewalks and parkway landscaping are located on both sides of the roadway. The landscaping along the west side of Bedford Canyon Road will be done by the master developer when the residential units in Phase 2 are under construction and the landscaping on the east side along the project site’s frontage will be completed by the applicant.
Onsite Multipurpose Trail
The applicant is proposing to construct a six-foot wide multipurpose trail along the project site’s frontage extending from Eagle Glen Parkway to just beyond the southern limit of the project site. The trail will connect to an existing access road at the existing water basin leading to the Bedford Wash multiuse trail south of the project site. The trail is located within the property’s 10-foot landscape setback and will be constructed next to the existing 8-foot wide public sidewalk along Bedford Canyon Road to provide for an overall 14-foot wide pedestrian access. The trail will be constructed of decomposed granite and separated from the commercial center by a 3-foot high vinyl rail fence that will extend along the entire length of the property’s frontage. The trail will be for public use but will be privately maintained by the center’s property owners’ association.
Traffic
The overall Bedford Marketplace is estimated to generate 7,014 trips per day with 394 AM peak hour trips and 686 PM peak hour trips. The traffic study concluded that the circulation improvements, required under the adopted Arantine Hills Specific Plan and Supplemental Environmental Impact Report certified on May 19, 2016, are sufficient and maintain acceptable levels of service. Therefore, no additional circulation improvements are required beyond those already constructed and planned by the Arantine Hills Specific Plan.
Architecture
The Bedford Marketplace commercial buildings have an American Farmhouse architectural style. This architecture is permitted by the specific plan for commercial uses. The American Farmhouse theme adopted by the Arantine Hills Specific Plan is a modern interpretation of the traditional version and is expressed with natural materials (stone, wood, metal) or materials that mimic a natural look, simple forms and details, low to moderate pitched roofs, clapboards, projecting eaves, and earthen colors.
The General Commercial designation permits commercial buildings to have a maximum of four stories or 50 feet, whichever is greater. All the buildings for this project are below 50 feet in height, including the hotel which is incorrectly shown on the elevation plans as having a building height of 58 feet. The applicant has confirmed with City staff that the final construction drawings for the hotel will comply with the 50-foot building height limit. This will be verified by staff through the plan-check process.
Soil Import Operations and Grading
The project site is bifurcated by a slope having a 2:1 ratio that creates an elevated westerly pad and lower easterly pad. The easterly pad is approximately 25 feet lower than the westerly pad and therefore needs to be filled with dirt in order for the easterly half of the project site to have sufficient gravity flow to the City’s sewer lift station located to the south of the project site. The applicant expects to import 440,000 cubic yards of dirt to the site to raise the 17.85 acres located within the easterly pad. The applicant has a signed agreement with the master developer of the Arantine Hills Specific Plan to import dirt by scraper from Planning Area 14 (PA 14) within the specific plan boundary. PA 14 is an elevated plateau located south of the project site and south of the Bedford Wash.
Project Signage
Entry monumentation will be constructed at the southeast corner at Bedford Canyon Road and Eagle Glen Parkway, which marks the gateway to the Bedford Marketplace. This corner is proposed with a serpentine stone wall with signage of the Bedford Marketplace name intertwined with olive trees. The wall is approximately 56 feet in total length flanked by decorative boulders on each end of the wall. The wall is 6.5 feet tall at the center and tapers down to 3 feet high to the boulders. The sign will advertise the center’s name and will be externally lit using an uplighting method.
Several monument and pylon signs are proposed that will provide signage space for the center’s tenants. Five multi-tenant monument signs are proposed along Bedford Canyon Road with each sign having a height of 7.5 feet and allowing up to two tenant spaces. A hotel monument sign is also proposed on Bedford Canyon Road and serves primarily to direct hotel patrons to the hotel site towards the back of the center. All monument signs are proposed as double-sided and will be placed perpendicular to the streets. External lighting methods will also be used for the monument signs.
Two 40-foot high pylons are proposed along the site’s freeway frontage. The north pylon sign is a multi-tenant sign that can advertise up to 9 tenants and the south pylon sign is devoted to advertising only the hotel. Both signs also advertise the name of the center. Both signs are designed to be internally illuminated. The pylon signs are required to have an automatic dimmer installed that will automatically dim the lighting within the cabinets during the nighttime hours.
The design and colors of the signs are architecturally consistent with the American Farmhouse architecture proposed for the buildings.
Consistency with the General Plan
The project is consistent with Growth and Development Policy 4.3 as it would allow for the development of vacant lands within the City on the periphery of existing development that complements the scale and pattern of existing uses, protects development and population from natural hazards, and where it is logical and feasible to extend infrastructure improvements. The project fulfills Land Use Policy 11.2 by providing a range of retail commercial uses that include larger-format uses, national retailers, restaurants, and overnight accommodations that serve the region as well as the local community, and is located adjacent to freeway off-ramps for accessibility. The project implements Community Design Policy 4.2 by providing a pedestrian-friendly multipurpose trail with a vinyl fencing barrier along the project’s frontage to connect to off-site trails located in the vicinity of the project site. The project ensures that urban runoff from the development does not degrade the quality of the City’s surface waters, groundwater system, and other sensitive environmental areas under Infrastructure & Utility Goal 5 because the on-site water infiltration basin will treat the project’s surface water runoff before draining into the Bedford Wash. The project is consistent with Economic Development goals and policies in general because the project contributes to and helps strengthen the City’s economic base by providing a commercial center that supports the local and neighboring communities while generating jobs.
COMMITTEE ACTION:
The Infrastructure Committee at its meeting on June 5, 2019, was provided information on the project which included discussion on the import of dirt to the project site. The applicant discussed the number of truck trips that would be required to import dirt to the site from an off-site location located on the other side of the freeway. Additionally, under this scenario the applicant would need to request from the City a variance to allow trucks to haul dirt to the site during the nighttime hours between 8 PM and 4 AM in order to avoid traffic peak hours on the Cajalco Road/I-15 interchange. The Committee talked about noise from the nighttime activities involving truck trips and the potential for the nearby residents to be disturbed by the sound. However, the Committee did not want the dirt hauling operation to conflict with the travel peak times for residents going to and from work and preferred the nighttime operation.
STRATEGIC PLAN:
Not applicable.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The applicant paid $82,560.75 in application processing fees for the Precise Plan.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
The City Council certified a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) on May 20, 2020 with associated application General Plan Amendment 2019-0002 (GPA2019-0002) for the Bedford Marketplace. The SEIR was prepared as a supplement to the Arantine Hills Specific Plan Final EIR certified August 5, 2012 (SCH# 2006091093), Supplement to the Final EIR certified May 19, 2016, and Addendum to the Final EIR adopted on December 19, 2018. The City of Corona has determined that no additional environmental review is necessary in connection with its consideration of PP2019-0008, as PP2019-0008 proposes no changes to the project analyzed under the certified SEIR or circumstances that would require further environmental review pursuant to CEQA Guidelines § 15162.
PLANNING AND HOUSING COMMISSION ACTION:
At its meeting of July 6, 2020, the Planning and Housing Commission considered the subject matter and took the following action:
Motion was made, seconded (Siqueland/Hooks) and carried unanimously, that the Planning and Housing Commission adopt Resolution No. 2554 granting PP2019-0008 based on the alternative site design Option A, and based on the findings contained in the staff report and conditions of approval. The draft minutes of the Planning and Housing Commission meeting are included as Exhibit 4.
REPARED BY: JOANNE COLETTA, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
REVIEWED BY: ROGER BRADLEY, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER
SUBMITTED BY: JACOB ELLIS, CITY MANAGER
Attachments:
1. Exhibit 1 - Locational and Zoning Map
2. Exhibit 2 - Site Plan for PP2019-0008
3. Exhibit 3 - Planning and Housing Commission Staff Report
4. Exhibit 4 - Draft Minutes of the Planning and Housing Commission meeting of July 6, 2020
APPLICANT INFORMATION
Glen Powles, Bedford Market Place, LLC., 5780 Fleet Street, Suite 225, Carlsbad, CA 92008