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Downtown showdown
Yorba Linda to decide on zoning with input, but no vote, from public.
Sunday, December 4, 2005
BY CINDY ARORA
The Orange County Register
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Excerpts:
Yorba Linda City Council meeting
City Hall, 4845 Casa Loma
The regularly scheduled meeting will begin at 5 p.m.
The Town Center public hearing will begin at 6:30 p.m.
YORBA LINDA – Downtown's fate is set to be decided Tuesday.
If zoning changes to clear the way for a 130-acre commercial and housing makeover are approved, a June 6 growth-limit initiative intended to block the development will be too late.
The initiative "wouldn't take effect until it was approved," city spokesman Michael Maxfield said, "and it wouldn't apply to anything approved and finalized before its adoption."
A public hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to discuss an environmental impact report and zoning law changes necessary for the Town Center plan, including revisions made by the Planning Commission on Nov. 17.
Revisions included increasing height limits to allow three-story structures with gabled roofs, as well as moving 16 houses proposed for a strawberry field on Lakeview Avenue to the corner of Yorba Linda Boulevard and Imperial Highway.
The commission didn't reduce the overall limits of 501 homes and 512,691 square feet of commercial space, which opponents sought.
By comparison, the downtown Brea development has 500,000 square feet of commercial space.
There are no plans to develop the entire 130 acres, but a plan by Creative Housing Associates would put 180 to 200 housing units and 170,000 square feet of commercial space in 20.5 acres at the core of the project area.
The regulations to be discussed Tuesday would allow up to 225 homes and 186,000 square feet of commercial space in the same area.
Maxfield said the public would have a chance to be heard before a decision is made. A second City Council meeting is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 19; state law requires two votes to approve zoning changes.
"We actually thought the Planning Commission would take longer than it did," Maxfield said.
Ed Rakochy, a member of the Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment, said he expects the plans to be approved despite opposition from the community, calling the vote "a foregone conclusion."
"I'm really disappointed in the Planning Commission. They just breezed right through this," Rakochy said. "I don't think they are listening to the people."
Members of YLRRR succeeded in placing an initiative on the June 6 ballot that would put the final decision on "major projects" that require zoning changes in the hands of voters.
They had hoped to get the measure up for a vote before approval was granted for the Town Center project, but the council set the election for the latest date allowable.
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