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Smaller Core and Corridors Plan, Big New Development Project Anyway

April 27, 2016 //
2

600 W. Commonwalth Overhead

More and more high density housing..,

Matthew Leslie

Here is the good news: Fullerton’s Planning Commission is not scheduled to make any decisions about the newly revived Downtown Core and Corridors Specific Plan (DCCSP) or the giant mixed-use housing project proposed for the 600 block of West Commonwealth Ave when they meet on the evening of April 27. The bad news is that this two-building project is being proposed in the first place, and that the DCCSP still exists, albeit radically downsized by Community Development Director Karen Haluza and her staff of planners.

Wednesday night’s meeting is instead a study session for both proposals. The four page staff report about this proposed development attached to the agenda explains rather cryptically that, following a preliminary public meeting in September, 2015, “it was acknowledged that this project would be reviewed concurrently with the final design and development components in the revised DCCSP.” The DCCSP itself has undergone quite a change since first approved by the Planning Commission in 2014. Readers will recall that consideration of the massive, and massively inappropriate, plan was halted in its tracks by, among other concerns, revelations shared on this blog that two members of the Fullerton City Council owned property within 500 feet of the plan area. A study session was promised to properly consider the implications of what would have been the largest single Specific Plan in the city’s history. It never happened, and neither did anything public with the DCCSP, but the Community Development planners were evidently hard at work trying to salvage something from it. Two weeks ago, they narrowed it to “three new zoning tools” to “replace the DCCSP” for the Planning Commission. The proposed tools are:

  1. Mixed-Use Overlay Zone
  2. Adaptive Re-Use Incentive Zone
  3. Central Business District

It is the first new tool, Mixed-Use Overlay Zone, that is being considered “concurrently” with a plan by Red Oak Investments to build nearly three hundred living units in two structures on the 600 block of W. Commonwealth Ave. that together would take up most of a city block between Commonwealth on the North and the railroad tracks on the South side. Unfortunately, this tool seems to be more concerned with “appropriate building and frontage type combinations,”  quoting the staff report, than it does with the appropriateness of adding so many new housing and retail units to the former car dealership land in the first place.

600 W. Commonwalth Specs

More apartments, parking spaces.

The plan addresses the issue of overly large building frontages by proposing two stories facing Commonwealth stepping up to four stories backing up to the train tracks (what a view!), but the two structures will still represent over 270,000 square feet of mostly residential space with 568 new parking spaces. And therein lies the major problem. Despite prioritizing water main and electrical upgrades to Commonwealth Ave. in recent months in anticipation of projects like this one, there is virtually nothing that can be done to accommodate the additional vehicular traffic that will be added to our already clogged streets once the units are occupied by people with, you know, jobs to get to. Unless flying cars are introduced into the marketplace by the time tenants move in, there will be more traffic not only on Commonwealth, but also on the residential streets immediately to the North, as drivers try to escape rush hour left turn lines at Euclid and Harbor by cutting through adjacent neighborhoods.

ReidFleming

Reid Fleming has found a traffic solution, how about you?

The Red Oak project is more than six blocks from the train station. Although a bus line does run up and down Commonwealth, do we really think these new residents are all going to take public transportation? Where are the infrastructural upgrades that will facilitate these additional vehicles? Nowhere, that’s where. Anyone driving near this new project would just have to spend even more time stuck in traffic, and nearby residents would have to endure even more cars speeding through their neighborhoods. Oh, and where are we getting all of the water for all of these new residents?

The DCCPSP may have been downsized, but its purpose seems to have remained the same—to facilitate more and more multistory high density residential developments in the downtown area and along Fullerton’s major transportation corridors, whether the current residents of the city want them or not.

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Categories Architecture, Core and Corridors Plan, Downtown Fullerton, Fullerton Planning, Uncategorized

OCTA Invites You to “Hit the Bars” in the Middle of Fullerton’s Alcohol-Free First Night

December 31, 2015 //
3

LiveItUpRecto

“Hit the Bars.” What OCTA thinks you should do downtown on New Year’s Eve. (You can probably forget about the jazz).

UPDATE: Commenter, and public transit advocate, Jane Reifer alerts readers that bus lines do not actually run until 2:30 a.m, January 1. OCTA is providing free bus rides until that time, but readers should consult OCTA’s individual route schedules to find out when their last bus leaves downtown Fullerton. Ms. Reifer has helpfully supplied some of those times in the comment section below. For complete bus schedules, check OCTA’s website: www.octa.net.

The Orange County Transportation Authority would like to make sure you get home safely New Year’s Eve by offering free bus service until 2:30 a.m., January 1. Discouraging people from driving drunk is a good idea, but sending a mailer to local residents encouraging them to “Live It Up!” in Fullerton’s downtown might be confusing to anyone who is planning to attend the city-organized alcohol-free First Night celebration, scheduled to take place in the middle of the same downtown.

First Nights are offered nationwide by participating cities. Fullerton advertises itself as the only city in Orange County to offer a First Night celebration, a family friendly alternative to traditional drunken revelries of New Year’s Eve. The city’s website describes it as an “annual alcohol-free New Year’s Eve celebration of the arts and will look to include children’s activities as well as live music, art galleries and a 10-minute fireworks show finale that will cap the celebration at midnight”. First Night Fullerton has been generally well attended. After a 2012 budget-related cancellation, the city increased sponsorship in order to provide what it claims is a cost neutral event.

FirstNightEmail

What the City of Fullerton invites families to experience (enjoy the cover bands!).

First Night has been celebrated downtown since before the area became saturated with bars and restaurants with full liquor licenses in the past decade. The alcohol-free event has existed fairly peacefully alongside the party district on one the major drinking holidays of the year, but OCTA seems to intent on confusing the two activities in a large postcard mailer recently sent to residents. “LIVE IT UP!” implores a headline on the front side of the card, along with instructions to “Go ahead and celebrate in Downtown Fullerton,” and “Hit the bars. Listen to Jazz. Enjoy a great meal. Or, attend First Night Fullerton. No need for a designated driver..,”

LiveItUpVerso

“You really can’t beat free!” Free advertising for downtown bars, that is. How did the alcohol-free First Night get mixed up in this business?

In addition to being evidently clueless about the closing of Steamers, Fullerton’s only jazz club, over six months ago, OCTA seems awfully confused about what First Night Fullerton is supposed to represent. The back side of the card even features a multicolored map of the downtown area, complete with the locations of entertainment stages, the fireworks show, a “Kids Lane” with a giant bouncer, and nearly twenty different restaurants and bars, and their proximity to the bus lines offering free rides to presumably inebriated patrons.

It would be tempting to assume that someone at OCTA just didn’t get the message about First Night Fullerton, but the Rag’s conversation with a member of the transportation agency’s marking department proved otherwise. OCTA reportedly worked with both the Chamber of Commerce and the City of Fullerton to develop the mailer, which suggests a major conflict of interest between simultaneously promoting both a family friendly, alcohol-free night out and a roster of bars and restaurants who want to attract patrons on New Year’s Eve. The Chamber of Commerce, which receives taxpayer money from the City of Fullerton’s budget, ought to know the difference between the two, but was evidently comfortable colluding with OCTA to invite drinkers to downtown Fullerton in the middle of an annual family event designed as an alternative to a liquor-soaked New Year’s Eve.

The aforementioned OCTA marketing staffer who worked on the promotion acknowledged that the mailer should have explained in more detail what the First Night celebration was about, and that oversight, on that point, “was kind of missing.” She also acknowledged that the bars and restaurants had not paid to have their names listed, leaving residents to wonder why an Orange County government agency privileged free advertising of privately owned food and alcohol establishments over an alcohol-free public event organized by the City of Fullerton.

It could be argued that inviting prospective patrons to ride the bus both removes the danger of drunk drivers and frees up parking for First Night patrons, but how did OCTA get into the business of free promotional mailers in the first place? The agency, which regularly cuts bus services during the rest of the year ought to find ways to provide critically needed transportation for those who depend upon it during their long work weeks instead of inviting even more drinkers to our downtown area in the middle of an event designed to help families celebrate a safe holiday.

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Categories Downtown Fullerton, Fullerton Chamber of Commerce, OCTA, Transportation

Where the Sidewalk Ends (on East Commonwealth)

December 1, 2015 //
3

Sidewalk-Closed

Creating a pedestrian-friendly downtown, by blocking sidewalks.

A senior apartment complex under construction at 345 E. Commonwealth, at Lawrence, seems to have no compunction about completely blocking the sidewalk on the north side of a major street in Fullerton for the past year. Like other dense, multistory residential complexes approved by the city and constructed in recent years, the finished project will extend itself so close to the sidewalk that it apparently can’t be constructed without covering it completely while it is being built. In the meantime, anyone walking along Commonwealth is evidently just supposed to cross the busy thoroughfare, even though there is no traffic signal or marked crosswalk at this intersection.
Closed-Sidewalk-Man-Cane-copy

No sidewalk for you, elderly man with cane.

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Categories Architecture, Downtown Fullerton, Fullerton Planning, Uncategorized
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