For the Planning Commission Meeting of [January 29, 2020]
TO: Honorable Chairman and Planning Commissioners
APPROVAL: Matthew Schneider, Director of Community Development
FROM: Daniel Rosas, Associate Planner
Title
Conditional Development Permit No. 2018-0045 (MC2018-0102): A request to allow the development of a trucking facility consisting of a 15,258 square foot industrial building with a 1,400 square foot canopy, a storage yard with 30 truck/trailer parking spaces, and associated auto-parking, landscaping, and required street improvements on 2.84 acres of land (APN: 1133-081-01 & 02) located at the southwest corner of Locust Avenue and Stonehurst Drive within the General Manufacturing (I-GM) zone of the Rialto Airport Specific Plan. The project is categorically exempt pursuant to Section 15332 (In-Fill Development Projects) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Body
APPLICANT:
Tony Hsu, 14774 Jurupa Avenue, Fontana, CA 92337.
LOCATION:
The project site consists of two (2) parcels of land (APNs: 1133-081-01 & 02) located at the southwest corner of Locust Avenue and Stonehurst Drive (Refer to the attached Location Map (Exhibit A)).
BACKGROUND:
Surrounding Land Use and Zoning
The Project is located within the General Manufacturing (I-GM) zone of the Rialto Airport Specific Plan. As shown in the table below, the zoning of the properties to the north, south and west is General Manufacturing (I-GM) of the Rialto Airport Specific Plan. The zoning of the properties to the east, across Locust Avenue, is Planned Industrial Development (I-PID) within the Rialto Airport Specific Plan.
Pursuant to Chapter 18.104 (Outdoor Storage Uses) of the Rialto Municipal Code, the development of an industrial warehouse building with truck repair and a truck and trailer storage yard within the I-GM zone requires a Conditional Development Permit and a Precise Plan of Design.
|
Location |
Existing Land Use |
Zoning |
|
Site |
Vacant Land |
General Manufacturing (I-GM) |
|
North |
Equipment rentals |
General Manufacturing (I-GM) |
|
East |
Industrial Warehouse |
Planned Industrial Development (I-PID) |
|
South |
Precast concrete facility |
General Manufacturing (I-GM) |
|
West |
Vacant Land |
General Manufacturing (I-GM) |
General Plan Designations
The proposed project is consistent with the General Industrial land use designation which allows for a broad range of heavy industrial activities requiring large areas of land with convenient access for trucks.
|
Location |
General Plan Designation |
|
Site |
General Industrial with a Specific Plan Overlay |
|
North |
General Industrial with a Specific Plan Overlay |
|
East |
Light Industrial with a Specific Plan Overlay |
|
South |
General Industrial with a Specific Plan Overlay |
|
West |
General Industrial with a Specific Plan Overlay |
Site Characteristics
The project site is a rectangular shaped piece of land comprised of two (2) parcels. The applicant will be required to process a Lot Merger to consolidate the two (2) parcels of land into one (1) parcel of land. With the merger, the site will be 2.84 acres in size with approximate dimensions of 460 feet (east-west) by 330 feet (north-south). The project site is bounded on the east by Locust Avenue and on the north by Stonehurst Drive. To the north of the site is a 22,000 square foot industrial building, occupied by United Rentals. To the east, across Locust Avenue, of the project site is a 613,000 square foot industrial warehouse building occupied by KW International Logistics. To the west is a 5,300 square foot industrial building occupied by Bolding Engineering, and to the south a precast concrete manufacturing facility operated by Pyramid Precast Co.
Entitlement Process
The applicant submitted an entitlement application on December 5, 2018, which was preliminarily reviewed by the Development Review Committee on December 19, 2018. On January 3, 2019, an Incomplete Letter was issued for the project and the applicant began to work on revising the architectural plan set. The applicant provided revised architectural plans to the Planning Division on April 10, 2019, and began soliciting proposals from environmental consultants for services. On behalf of the applicant, environmental consultant Jericho Systems Incorporated, conducted a Historical/Archaeological Resources survey report for the project (July 19, 2019) as well as a biological assessment (October 15, 2019) of the project site. The final environmental component required to confirm qualification for Class 32 categorical exemption was the transportation review. The applicant engaged Integrated Engineering Group to work with the Public Works Department on completing a traffic scoping agreement which was approved on November 20, 2019. Because the applicant had submitted an entitlement application and was actively working on completing the application prior to the effective date of October 3, 2019, for Urgency Ordinance No. 1624 establishing a moratorium on truck terminals, the entitlement application may be considered by the Planning Commission for action.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION:
Project Proposal & Site Design
Tony Hsu, the applicant, proposes to develop the project site into a new trucking facility. According to the applicant’s site plan (Exhibit B), the development will include the construction of a 15,258 square foot industrial building with a 1,400 square foot canopy and paving for storage and parking areas.
The building will be located near the northeast corner of the project site, near the intersection of Locust Avenue and Stonehurst Drive.
The floor plan (Exhibit C) indicates that the building will consist of the following:
• 1,236 square feet of office floor area on the first floor to include a lobby, breakroom, conference room, and restrooms;
• 1,164 square feet of office floor area on the second floor to include office space for customer services, accounting, dispatch, a waiting area and additional restrooms;
• 11,873 square feet warehouse area which is available to temporarily store goods in the event the local receiver cannot off-load the materials as scheduled. The goods are moved into and stored in the warehouse where a new delivery schedule and transport method are created;
• 968 square feet of truck maintenance/repair floor area for private use only (no services to the public); and
• 1,400 square foot canopy over the grade-level roll-up door to provide protection from the elements while off-loading goods.
An employee parking lot containing twenty-five (25) auto-parking spaces will be located directly to the west of the building along the Stonehurst Drive street frontage. The truck and trailer storage yard will be located to the west of the building and the employee parking lot, furthest from the street intersection. The storage yard will accommodate the parking of thirty (30) trucks/trailers. A solid decorative block wall will be constructed along the storage yard to adequately screen truck trailers from the public right-of-way. The wall will have an interior height of fourteen (14) feet with street frontage landscaping sloped up to the screen wall so that only about 10 feet of the wall will be visible from the street. As shown in the attached screen wall details (Exhibit D), the walls will screen the view of all trucks and trailers from Locust Avenue and Stonehurst Drive.
The project site includes two (2) separate parcels at the southwest corner of Locust Avenue and Stonehurst Drive. A majority of the project site is comprised of Assessor’s Parcel No. 1133-081-02 (3.40 gross acres), while Assessor’s Parcel No. 1133-081-01 is a smaller triangular parcel (0.06 gross acres). A condition of approval has been included in the resolution requiring the merger of the two parcels into one parcel to facilitate the proposed development. In addition, a condition of approval has been included in the resolution requiring the dedication of the half-width of thirty-two (32) feet of right-of-way for Stonehurst Drive and fourteen (14) feet of additional right-of-way along Locust Avenue pursuant to the General Plan and Rialto Municipal Code Section 11.04.240, and make all of the necessary street improvements.
Architectural Design
The proposed building will feature significant footprint articulation on all sides of the building visible from the public right-of-way. The articulated portions will feature increased height, relative to the rest of the building. The articulated portions will also have a maximum height of thirty-five (35) feet from the finished floor, while the rest of the building will have a maximum height of thirty-two (32) feet from the finished floor. The exterior of the building will be of concrete tilt-up wall construction painted in three (3) colors. A light gray is the primary color used on the main wall planes. A darker gray is used as wainscot on the main wall planes as well as on the wall pop-outs. A blue color is primarily used to accent the building corners, trims and color blocking on all articulated wall planes. Three (3) dock-high roll-up doors and (4) grade-level roll-up doors will be located on the west side of the building to permit truck access. The solid block wall and the articulated wall planes of the building will screen these roll-up doors from public view. Other architectural features of the building include panel reveals, metal canopies, and generous amounts glazing visible from the public right-of-way (Exhibit E).
Access
The development will have two (2) points of access - one driveway connected directly to Stonehurst Drive and one driveway connected directly to Locust Avenue. Both driveways will provide full access movements to and from both Locust Avenue and Stonehurst Drive. The northerly driveway will serve as truck access as well as employees and visitor access. The easterly driveway on Locust will serve trucks entering and exiting the site.
Parking Calculations
The development will have 25 auto-parking spaces. This quantity meets the minimum parking requirement as shown in the parking calculation chart below and as required by Chapter 18.58 (Off-Street Parking Regulations) of the Rialto Municipal Code:
|
Type of Use |
Floor Area (square feet) |
Parking Ratio |
Number of spaces required |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Office |
2,400 |
1 / 250 |
10 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Warehouse 11,873 Up to 10,000 |
10,000 |
1 / 1,000 |
10 |
|
Beyond 10,000 |
1,873 |
1/2,000 |
1 |
|
Maintenance/Repair |
968 |
1 / 300 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total Required/Total Provided |
|
|
25/25 |
Landscaping
The landscape coverage for the project is 23 percent, which exceeds the minimum required amount of 10.0 percent. This includes a twenty-five (25) foot wide landscape setback along Locust Avenue, a fifteen (15) foot wide landscape setback along Stonehurst Drive and planters along the building, the parking area, and perimeter of the property. A minimum five (5) foot wide landscape planter will be constructed along the interior property boundary and will be planted with twenty-four (24) inch box cypress trees planted approximately every thirty feet and a continuous hedge to provide a buffer from the adjacent neighbors. All other landscape planters will feature a mix of fifteen (15) gallon and twenty-four (24) inch box trees every thirty (30) feet, and an abundant amount of shrubs and ground cover (Exhibit F).
Operations
The applicant intends to develop the site for his personal trucking business - Best 1 Trucking (“Best 1”). The facility is anticipated to operate 6 days per week between the hours of 6 am and 10 pm, and currently has 10 employees, which may be increased to no more than 15.
As a broker for independent truck operators, Best 1 Trucking leases standard 53-foot-long trailers which are stored at the facility. Best 1 then matches independent drivers with hauling jobs. Jobs are primarily to take an empty trailer from the Best 1 facility to a location within Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where the trailer is loaded, and the driver hauls the goods to an instate or out-of-state location, Much of the business entails hauling the goods to the East Coast. Goods are also “back-hauled” from the destination back to the receiver within the Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino service area. The empty trailer is then returned to the Best 1 yard where it is serviced and re-used for the next job. Best 1 Trucking had been operating in much the same way in a leased facility in the City of Fontana for the past 10 years, until the lease rate was substantially increased, The operation then moved to a leased location in the City of San Bernardino. Owner Tony Hsu, through his corporation T&D Management purchased the land in the City of Rialto and began the entitlement process to make the City of Rialto the new permanent home for Best 1 Trucking.
More specifically, tractor rigs will enter the facility, collect a trailer, and leave. Upon return, the tractor rig generally enters the facility with an empty trailer, parks the trailer and leaves. If the independent tractor driver will be taking a short break (2 to 3 days generally) before his/her next run, the tractor may be parked in the space with the trailer until the new hauling job starts. For contracted loads where the receiver was not ready to off-load the contents of the trailer, the contents would be off-loaded onto the loading dock, and transferred to the warehouse where a new pickup and delivery schedule would be created.
A 968 square-foot repair bay is planned within the facility to primarily service the leased trailers. Minor repairs (primarily safety items such as lighting, wipers, etc.) for the independent tractor rigs may also occur if needed by the independent driver. The repair bay will store minor amounts of oil and hydraulic fluid as needed for routine maintenance of the trailers. Oil changes may be performed for the tractor rigs if requested. Major repairs (such as drivetrain repair and maintenance) may also occur, although these repairs are anticipated to be infrequent as the more complicated repairs are generally performed by mechanics and shops that specialize in the more major repairs. All truck maintenance and repair will occur within the enclosed building.
The operation will have between ten (10) and twenty (20) trucks per day enter and exit the facility during the hours of operation. A condition of approval is included to limit the number of trucks entering and exiting the site each day pursuant to the proposed operational characteristics and allows the applicant to request a modification to this condition of approval if an increase if necessary, in the future. The condition would allow the Community Development Director to approve the request for a minor increase or refer the matter to the Planning Commission for a more significant increase.
Land Entitlements
The Project is located within the General Manufacturing (I-GM) zone of the Rialto Airport Specific Plan. Pursuant to Chapter 18.104 (Outdoor Storage Uses) of the Rialto Municipal Code, the development of an industrial warehouse building with truck repair and a truck and trailer storage yard within the I-GM zone requires a Conditional Development Permit and a Precise Plan of Design.
Development Review Committee
The Development Review Committee (DRC) preliminarily reviewed PPD No. 2018-0102 for the proposed development on December 19, 2018. The DRC asked the applicant to revise the site design and architecture of the building. The Committee’s revisions included enhanced building articulation and the incorporation of additional landscape planters. The Committee’s revisions have been incorporated into the project plans. After Planning Commission review, the project will return to the Development Review Committee for approval and finalization of all Precise Plan of Design development-related conditions.
Traffic
The applicant prepared a Traffic Scoping Agreement in coordination with the City of Rialto Public Works Department. The Public Works Department found that the project is exempt from the requirement of preparing a Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) consistent with the requirements set by the City of Rialto Traffic Impact Analysis Report Guidelines and Requirements approved by the Transportation Commission on February 5, 2014. Per the Public Works Department memo dated November 27, 2019, a Traffic Impact Analysis is not required, however, the development is required to pay a fair share contribution toward a traffic signal at Locust/Bohnert and a dedicated right turn lane at Locust/Casmalia that has been determined to be warranted (Exhibit G). The traffic signal determination was a result of other developments in the area that have prepared recent traffic impact analyses and the fair share is based on the total passenger car equivalent (PCE) trip from the project site.
As noted previously, the development of the project will also require the construction of half-width street improvements along the entire project frontage and the payment of development impact fees related to traffic. Development Impact Fees including “fair-share” payments must be paid prior to issuance of building permits and the completion of all street improvements is required prior to occupancy.
Land Use Compatibility
The project is consistent with the General Manufacturing (I-GM) zone of the Rialto Airport Specific Plan and the surrounding land uses. There are no sensitive uses near the project site. The proposed project should not negatively affect the surrounding properties since the applicant will install landscape buffering and block wall screening and anticipates passenger vehicle trips resulting from a maximum of 15 employees and between 10 and 20 trucks entering and exiting the site on a daily basis. The project is anticipated to be a benefit to the community and an improvement to the surrounding area. Aesthetically, the site will be enhanced with new landscaping and a structure that complies with the City’s Design Guidelines as well as the installation of half-width street improvements.
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY:
The project is consistent with the following goals of the Land Use Element and Economic Development Element of the Rialto General Plan:
Goal 2-16: Improve the architectural and design quality of development in Rialto.
Goal 3-1: Strengthen and diversify the economic base and employment opportunities and maintain a positive business climate.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:
The project is categorically exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Section 15332, In-Fill Development Projects. Class 32 allows for the exemption of a project that is less than 5.0 acres in size and is surrounded by existing developments. A Notice of Exemption form is attached to agenda report (Exhibit H).
PUBLIC NOTICE:
The City mailed public hearing notices for the proposed project to all property owners within 300 feet of the project site and published the public hearing notice in the San Bernardino Sun newspaper as required by State law.
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Planning Commission:
Adopt the attached Resolution (Exhibit I) to approve Conditional Development Permit No. 2018-0045 to allow the development of an 15,258 square foot industrial warehouse building with truck repair and a truck and trailer storage yard, subject to the findings and conditions therein.