For the Planning Commission Meeting on September 14, 2022
TO: Honorable Chairman and Planning Commissioners
APPROVAL: Paul Gonzales, Community Development Manager
FROM: Dionne Harris, Senior Planner
Title
Conditional Development Permit No. 2022-0029: A request for the use and development of an 83,272 square foot commerce center on a total of approximately 3.96 gross acres of land on a portion of two (2) parcels (APNs:0132-161-13 and 0132-202-06). The project site is located on the east side of Willow Avenue south of the existing Walmart Center, east of the Fire Station 205 and Cactus-Rialto Channel within the Industrial Park (I-P) land use district of the Gateway Specific Plan. The Planning Commission of the City of Rialto certified an Addendum to the Environmental Impact Report for the Gateway Specific Plan on January 7, 2022 (Resolution No. 2022-01).
Precise Plan of Design No. 2022-0052: A request for site and architectural review and development of an 83,272 square foot commerce center on 3.96 gross acres of land on a portion of APN 0132-161-13 and 0132-202-06.
Body
APPLICANT:
Jacob Glaze c/o Kimley-Horn & Associates, 1100 W Town and Country Road, STE700, Orange, CA 92868.
LOCATION:
The project site consists of two (2) parcels (APN: 0132-161-13 and 0132-202-06) located on the east side of Willow Avenue south of the existing Walmart Center, west of the Fire Station 205 property, and east of the Cactus-Rialto Channel within the Industrial Park (I-P) land use district of the Gateway Specific Plan. (Refer to the attached Location Map (Exhibit A)).
BACKGROUND:
Surrounding General Plan Land Use Designations
|
Location |
General Plan Designation |
|
Site |
Specific Plan with a Specific Plan Overlay (Gateway SP) |
|
North |
Specific Plan with a Specific Plan Overlay (Gateway SP) |
|
East |
Specific Plan with a Specific Plan Overlay (Gateway SP) |
|
South |
Specific Plan with a Specific Plan Overlay (Gateway SP) |
|
West |
Specific Plan with a Specific Plan Overlay (Gateway SP) |
Surrounding Zoning Designations
|
Location |
Zoning |
|
Site |
Industrial Park (I-P) |
|
North |
Office Park (O-P) |
|
East |
Retail Commercial (R-C) |
|
South |
Retail Commercial (R-C) |
|
West |
Industrial Park (I-P) |
Site Characteristic
The project site is a relatively flat, square-shaped parcel of land comprised of two (2) parcel that is 3.96 gross acres in size. The project site is bound on the south by the Gateway Shopping Center, on the east side by the Rialto Village Shopping Center, on the west by the City of Rialto Fire Station No. 205, and on the north side of the project by the Rialto Marketplace Shopping Center. The property is entirely vacant at this time.
Furthermore, the project site is located within the Industrial Park (I-P) of the Gateway Specific Plan. The I-P land use designation is intended to accommodate a mixture of professional office, light industrial, research, and development, business park, light manufacturing, assembly, and related storage and support services uses.
BACKGROUND:
The Successor Agency’s Long-Range Property Management Plan identifies several parcels within the Gateway commercial and industrial areas that are intended for future economic development, including a 15.5-acre residual site remaining after the development of Fire Station 205, located to the west of Riverside Avenue and north of Valley Boulevard.
On December 8, 2020, the City Council approved the Exclusive Right to Negotiate Agreement (ENA) consistent with the direction provided by the Economic Development Committee (EDC). On April 28, 2021, NewMark Merrill presented the EDC an update on their leasing commitments on the commercial center along with the incorporation of a draft industrial component into the site plan for approximately four (4) acres of land located on the westernmost portion of the site.
This project is a joint partnership with the City and developer NewMark Merrill. The project was intended to be a phased development with the commercial center (Rialto Village Shopping Center) being reviewed and approved as the First Phase and the commerce center now being reviewed as the Second Phase. The location of the proposed commerce center would not be suitable for commercial uses due to contamination of land on the rear of the project site. The location of the project is also deficient of street frontage as it is located approximately 320 feet from Willow Avenue and a much larger distance from Riverside Avenue. This greatly limits any visibility for commercial uses therefor limiting the success of commercial uses at this location. The project before you is consistent with the I-P Zone, and the General Plan, and has been reviewed and deemed appropriate by the Economic Development Committee.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION:
Project Proposal
The applicant, Kimley-Horn & Associates, Inc., proposes to construct an 83,272-square-foot commerce center on the project site. There is no proposed tenant for the new building at this time, but the design of the building will accommodate various commerce center uses.
Entitlement Requirements
The following entitlements are required for the applicant’s proposal:
• Conditional Development Permit: The development and operation of an industrial warehouse use within the I-P land use district require the approval of a Conditional Development Permit.
• Precise Plan of Design: The design of the development and the related site improvements (e.g. building exterior, landscaping, etc.) requires the approval of a Precise Plan of Design.
Site Design
As provided on the site plan (Exhibit B), the applicant requests to construct an 83,272 square-foot commerce center building east of Willow Avenue on the south side of Fire Station 205 and adjacent to the Cactus-Rialto Channel. The proposed layout includes an enclosed truck court on the east side of the building and passenger vehicle parking areas along the south and east sides of the building. The truck court will accommodate a maximum of twenty (20) trucks and trailers, while the passenger vehicle parking areas will provide for the parking of up to sixty-five (65) passenger vehicles.
A new forty (40) foot wide driveway connected directly to Willow Avenue at the west end of the project frontage will provide right-in/right-out access for both trucks and passenger vehicles, and a second twenty-six (26) foot wide driveway connected directly to Riverside Avenue near the north end of the project frontage will provide full access movements for passenger vehicles but will be limited to right-in/left-out access for trucks.
Other proposed on-site improvements include paving, lighting, landscape planters throughout the site, screen walls around the truck court, and an underground infiltration basin for runoff water quality treatment.
Floor Plan
The floor plan for the proposed building (Exhibit C) indicates that the building will consist of 5,990 square feet of office space and 83,272 square feet of commerce center. The office space will occupy the southeast corner of the building, with 2,500 square feet on the ground floor and another 2,990 square feet up above on a second-floor mezzanine. The east side of the building will have seventeen (17) dock high loading doors and one (1) grade level roll-up door. The main entrance to the building is proposed on the south side with office space shown on the southeast corner of the building, along with fifteen (15) secondary/emergency exits distributed amongst all four (4) sides of the building.
Architectural Design
The proposed building will feature significant vertical and horizontal wall plane articulation in the form of recessed wall panels and panel height variations on all four (4) sides of the building. As shown on the elevations (Exhibit D), the building height ranges from 35’-6” feet to 36’-6” feet from the finished floor level, with the highest points being the southeast and southwest corners of the building. The exterior of each building will be of concrete tilt-up wall construction painted with a palette of four (4) different colors - white, gold, and various gray tones. Other architectural features of the building include tower elements at the corners, roofline treatments, reveals, metal brow accents, glazing, and the use of wood tile on the exterior of the building.
Parking
The development will have 66 auto-parking spaces, including five (5) ADA-accessible parking spaces. This quantity equals the minimum parking requirement as shown in the parking calculation chart below and as required by Table 3-6 (Parking Standards) of the Gateway Specific Plan, which requires one (1) parking space for every 250 square feet of office space gross floor area, one (1) parking space for every 1,000 square feet of warehouse space gross floor area up to 10,000 square feet, and one (1) parking space for every 2,000 square feet of warehouse space gross floor area beyond 68,272 square feet:
|
Type of Use |
Floor Area (square feet) |
Parking Ratio |
Number of spaces required |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Office Warehouse |
5,990 |
1 / 250 |
22 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Floor area up to 10,000 square feet Floor area 10,001 square feet or more |
10,000 67,282 |
1 / 1,000 1 / 2,000 |
10 34 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total Required/Total Provided |
|
|
66/66 |
Landscaping
The landscape coverage for the project is 10.3 percent, which exceeds the minimum required amount of 10.0 percent. This includes the ten (10) foot landscape planters around the perimeter of the building and the project site. All the landscape planters will feature a variety of trees spaced every thirty (30) linear feet and an abundant number of shrubs and ground cover (Exhibit D).
Traffic
Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. prepared a Transportation Impact Analysis (TIA), dated December 2021, to assess the project’s potential impacts on local streets and intersections (Exhibit E). The TIA estimates that the project will generate approximately 163 actual daily vehicle trips (274 PCE daily vehicle trips) with 14 trips in the AM peak hour and 15 trips in the PM peak hour. Trucks will constitute 65 of the 163 actual daily vehicle trips.
The TIA analyzed the following three (3) intersections in the project vicinity:
• Two full-movement signalized driveways on Riverside Avenue;
• One right-in, right-out (RIRO) only unsignalized driveway on Riverside Avenue;
• One full-movement unsignalized driveway on Willow Avenue.
The Transportation Commission reviewed and approved the traffic study on December 20, 2021. A total of 6,396 daily Passenger Car Equivalent (PCE) trips are anticipated, with 290 AM peak hour trips and 628 PM peak hour trips. The traffic study determined that the project is responsible for “fair-share” payments towards improvements at the intersections along Riverside Avenue, south of San Bernardino Avenue. Trip generation estimates for the project are based on daily and peak hourly trip generation rates obtained from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual (11th Edition). ITE trip generation estimates for the project are based on the trip generation rates for the following ITE Land Uses ITE Land Use 110 - General Light Industrial; and ITE Land Use 821 - Shopping Plaza (40K-150K). It is assumed that trips generated by the shopping plaza are all passenger vehicle trips. According to the ITE 10th Edition Supplement, the trips generated by light industrial use would be 92% passenger vehicles and 8% trucks. The City of Rialto TIA Report Guidelines specify a truck split of 70% of trucks being 4+-axle, 28% of trucks being 3-axle, 2and % of trucks being 2- axle. These truck classification splits were applied to the daily and peak hour trip generation to develop an estimate of truck volumes by the number of axles that would be associated with the proposed project.
The project is not expected to generate additional significant transportation impacts not disclosed in previous environmental documents. However, the project should meet the conditions of previous environmental studies as well as pay applicable Development Impact Fees.
Land Use Compatibility
The project is consistent with the I-P land use district, the Gateway Specific Plan, the regulations contained within Chapter 18.112 (Indoor Storage Uses) of the Rialto Municipal Code. There are no single-family residences located within 1,000 feet of the project site so the development and operation of the proposed commerce center will not impact residents within this radius. Additionally, the installation of solid screen walls and landscape buffering will reduce both noise and visual impacts. The Draft Resolutions of Approval contain conditions of approval requiring that the project not exceed the traffic estimates contained within the TIA, thereby ensuring that the project will not significantly impact local streets and intersections. The project will be a benefit to the community and an improvement to the surrounding area.
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY:
The project is consistent with the following goals of the Land Use Element of the Rialto General Plan:
Goal 2-16: Improve the architectural and design quality of development in Rialto.
Goal 2-22: Promote commercial and/or industrial development that is well designed, people-oriented, environmentally sustainable, sensitive to the needs of the visitor or resident, and functionally efficient for its purpose.
Goal 3-1: Strengthen and diversify the economic base and employment opportunities and maintain a positive business climate.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:
California Environmental Quality Act
The Planning Commission adopted an Addendum to the Gateway Specific Plan Environmental Impact Report (“Addendum”) on January 7, 2022, in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Addendum analyzed the development of an 83,272 square foot industrial building and the 93,773 square foot shopping center on the project within the Gateway Specific Plan area. No further review under CEQA is required for the project.
PUBLIC NOTICE:
The City published a public hearing notice for the proposed project in the San Bernardino Sun newspaper, posted copies of the public hearing notice outside the Council Chambers and the City Clerk’s Office, and mailed public hearing notices to all property owners within 1,000 feet of the project site, as required by State law.
RECOMMENDATION:
The Planning Division recommends that the Planning Commission:
- Adopt the attached Resolution (Exhibit F) to approve Conditional Development Permit No. 2022-0029 to allow the development and operation of an 83,272 square foot commerce center on 3.96 gross acres of land on a portion of APN:0132-161-13 and 0132-202-06 located on the east side of Willow Avenue south of the existing Walmart Center, east of the Fire Station 205 and Cactus-Rialto Channel within the Industrial Park (I-P) land use district of the Gateway Specific Plan, subject to the findings and conditions therein; and
-
- Adopt the attached Resolution (Exhibit G) to approve Precise Plan of Design No. 2022-0052 to allow the development and operation of an 83,272 square foot commerce center on 3.96 gross acres of land on a portion of APN:0132-161-13 and 0132-202-06 located on the east side of Willow Avenue south of the existing Walmart Center, east of the Fire Station 205 and Cactus-Rialto Channel within the Industrial Park (I-P) land use district of the Gateway Specific Plan, subject to the findings and conditions therein.