[0:41] Good morning. This is the time in place for zoning cases hearing for April 22nd, 2020. My name is Bradley Collin, and I will be conducting the hearing as a hearing officer. We have one case scheduled for today, and the relevant exhibits will be posted on the panel located directly behind the case planner. Due to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus and health recommendations from LA County Health Department, this hearing is being conducted.

[1:11] and publicly, public virtually with no members of the public present.

[1:16] The public is encouraged to watch and participate from the safety of their homes to practice

[1:21] social distancing.

[1:22] The meeting can be viewed on local cable TV and is being streamlined online at the city's

[1:28] website at www.glendaleca.gov.

[1:34] For public comments and questions during the meeting, please call 818-937-8100.

[1:43] Again, 818-937-8100.

[1:50] City staff will be submitting the questions and comments in real time to the appropriate

[1:53] person.

[1:55] I would also like to inform everyone that the official proceedings of the planning hearing

[1:59] officers hearing are being televised live and maybe viewed online in the city's website.

[2:06] Notification of this hearing was published by the use of public notices which were

[2:11] mailed to property owners and occupants located within 500 feet of the subject property

[2:17] physically posted on the site and question in place in the local newspaper.

[2:22] The hearing will proceed as follows. The case planner will make a brief overview of the case,

[2:27] give an analysis and make a recommendation.

[2:31] Next, the applicant will be asked to come forward, which will be done via phone.

[2:37] Stating name and address, and then they will give their presentation at that time.

[2:43] If there's anybody else that wishes to speak on the case, they will be then given that opportunity.

[2:50] Lastly, if needed, the applicant will be given an opportunity to make any closing comments.

[2:55] The hearing will be closed and the case taken under submission or a decision may be made.

[3:03] After the hearing, the decision will be prepared in writing and will be in the form of a letter sent to the applicant and to all persons who responded to the public notice,

[3:12] either by speaking at this hearing or by submitting written responses and have provided their name and mailing address.

[3:19] The date of the decision will be the date on the letter.

[3:23] Today's case is a conditional use permit under the provisions of Title 30, Chapter 30.42 of the Glendale Municipal Code.

[3:33] A conditional use permit shall be granted if the four required findings are present.

[3:37] They are, one, the proposed use will be consistent with the elements and objectives of the general plan,

[3:44] two, that the use and associated structures and facilities will not be detrimental to the public health or safety

[3:50] the general welfare or the environment, three, that the use and facilities will not adversely

[3:56] affect or conflict with the adjacent uses or impede the normal development of surrounding

[4:00] property. And fourth, that adequate public and private facilities such as utilities, landscaping,

[4:07] parking spaces, traffic circulation measures, are or will be provided for the proposed use.

[4:14] If the evidence presented in the application and at the hearing needs a criteria just describe,

[4:19] Then the hearing officer can either approve and pose conditions for approval on the case in question.

[4:25] If the findings in fact are not evident, then the request will be denied.

[4:31] The case we have before us today, as mentioned is the conditional use permit to allow the continued operation of a massage establishment in the downtown specific plan within the Alex Theater District.

[4:45] Described as Lot 44 and 45, the Glendale Park, Glendale Park Track, the City of Glendale,

[4:54] and the business is for Massage Envy at this time.

[5:00] Can we please have our staff presentation, please? Good morning, Mr. Collin and members of the public. My name is Cassandra Pruitt. I'm the case planner for the project. And as you mentioned, the application under consideration is a conditional use permit to allow the continued operation of massage envy and massage establishment located at 333 North Brand Boulevard. The case number is PCUP1918919 and the project is exempt from the California environmental

[5:29] mental quality act as a class one existing facility.

[5:38] Massage NV was established at this location in 2005,

[5:42] which was 15 years ago.

[5:44] At that time, massage establishments

[5:46] were not a permitted use in the zone,

[5:48] so the use was established by approval of a variance.

[5:52] That variance expired in 2008,

[5:54] and between 2008 and 2015,

[5:57] state law preempted cities

[5:59] from regulating massage establishments.

[6:02] Then in 2016, the city adopted an ordinance that required existing legal, non-conforming massage

[6:08] establishments, including massage envy, to apply for conditional use permit.

[6:13] Staff has been working with massage envy and we are now processing the conditional use

[6:16] permit.

[6:18] The staff report demonstrates that the four findings of fact for conditional use permit

[6:22] have been made for the project.

[6:25] As you described, the first finding of fact relates to consistency with the general plan.

[6:30] The land use element of the general plan designates the project as being located in

[6:34] the downtown specific plan, Alex Theater District, which is the area in white on this

[6:39] slide.

[6:41] This district features a variety of intimate-scale retail, restaurant, and service uses

[6:48] located within traditional storefronts.

[6:51] The massage establishment is consistent with the land use and provides a necessary service

[6:56] to residents, employees, and visitors in Glendale.

[6:59] It also maintains a pedestrian friendly store front which is consistent with the goals

[7:02] of the district.

[7:06] This slide of the floor plan demonstrates that in accordance with the downtown specific

[7:10] plan, the first 25 feet of tenant space is dedicated towards retail use in order to maintain

[7:16] a pedestrian friendly store front on this section of Brand Boulevard.

[7:19] The project is therefore consistent with the land use element of the general plan and with

[7:24] the recommended conditions of approval of approval pertaining to noise and safety, the

[7:30] project also complies with all other elements of the general plan. As such, the first finding

[7:35] of fact has been made.

[7:38] The second and third findings of fact relate to ensuring the

[7:41] use will not be detrimental to the public or environment and is compatible with surrounding

[7:46] uses and properties. The massage establishment has been operating at the site for 15 years

[7:51] without adversely impacting surrounding uses.

[7:54] The first floor of the building is occupied by retail and service uses

[7:58] and the second floor by general office uses.

[8:01] Therefore, no sensitive uses have been identified within the subject building.

[8:05] No relevant police reports are on file for the operation

[8:09] and the massage establishment uses a rigorous screening process

[8:11] to hire its massage professionals.

[8:14] Several conditions of approval have been recommended,

[8:16] which will ensure the ongoing operations of the business will not result

[8:20] and negative impacts to the neighborhood.

[8:23] Therefore, the second and third findings of fact have been made.

[8:26] The fourth finding of fact relates to ensuring adequate facilities exist for the use.

[8:31] The building has been used as a commercial building since 1923

[8:35] and no changes are proposed to the building that would result in it not having the necessary

[8:39] public and private facilities to continue operating as such.

[8:43] The building will continue to rely on a city parking lot behind the site for its parking needs.

[8:47] Therefore, the fourth finding of fact has been made.

[8:53] No public comments were received regarding this case, and the other city department comments

[8:58] included recommendations of standard conditions of approval that are typically imposed on similar

[9:03] projects.

[9:05] Given all of the information presented here and in the staff report and with the recommended

[9:10] conditions of approval, staff recommends the conditional use permit be approved.

[9:18] Thank you.

[9:21] I have no question.

[9:22] Good presentation.

[9:24] I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing.

[9:29] As of now, we have one caller.

[9:35] Hello, you're here.

[9:38] Please state your name and address for us, please.

[9:40] I'm sorry.

[9:41] You want to be the same.

[9:42] What?

[9:42] Your name and address, please, for the record.

[9:44] And then if you want to go ahead and give us your presentation, that'll be great.

[9:50] You want to say, this is for the occasion I used for.

[9:54] Go ahead.

[9:55] I'm sorry.

[9:55] Bye.

[10:06] Thank

[10:09] you. Did you want to go through your findings for the particular case?

[10:22] Okay. Did you want to present your findings?

[10:28] I'm not sure exactly what,

[10:32] I'm not sure what you're, what you're wanting. As part of the submittal that you made for the conditional use permit, you made four findings as submitted with your application. If you can kindly go through those.

[10:48] that will be helpful.

[11:05] Okay, are you, but you said you've read through the conditions of approval

[11:10] and you're comfortable with all of those as proposed by staff. I have some comments and some

[11:17] requests. Okay, and what are those? I'm

[11:36] speaking with. I'm sorry, this is Bradley Collin, I'm the hearing

[11:39] officer for today. Hi, Bradley. I wanted to find out.

[11:55] The conditional use permit is typically for

[11:58] Or uses that the city feels may have impacts to the surrounding area and they offer a procedure such as this to allow the public to comment on it whether in favor or opposition or if they have any questions and to make sure that the public is informed as to what potential uses may be coming into their area.

[12:23] If this is something that can be approved, typically conditions are placed on the project

[12:28] in an effort to make the project more compatible or consistent with the surrounding area.

[12:46] Typically, it's done on a case by case,

[12:52] but at this point, I think what I'm understanding

[12:56] with the staff report is that there's no proposed expiration on this application.

[13:01] Okay, ready to go ahead and make my comments for

[13:08] condition that we would like the option

[13:12] you

[13:17] pee.

[13:25] That's a standard condition, but I'm taking your notes down.

[13:29] Yeah, I'm not sure exactly how, you know, especially the expansion.

[13:50] Are you thinking, I'm sorry, are you thinking about possibly expanding to one of the other

[13:55] neighboring tenants' bases?

[13:56] It's been considered in the past

[14:06] and that's okay.

[14:13] There's possible two because a lot of times the parking requirements are based off the

[14:17] square footage of the tenant space and depending on if you were hypothetically to take over one

[14:24] of the neighboring tenants it may be something that requires additional parking and at that

[14:30] point staff likes to be able to evaluate that to make sure that we're still in compliance

[14:35] with the code requirements and that maybe you're hypothetically taking over the next five tenant

[14:47] If

[14:51] I was going to do an expansion, I'd have to go through planning anyway.

[14:55] Just through a tenant and proven for the building permit, but since the use of...

[15:00] Such that requires a conditional use permit, this is a typical condition. And

[15:08] if

[15:11] I was going,

[15:42] all right, we'll take that into consideration. You said you had some other questions? Yes,

[15:49] number 11.

[16:19] I've noted that down. And I guess that the last thing is

[16:28] always like a long with staff.

[16:45] That is already looks like taken into consideration.

[16:52] I want to thank.

[17:03] Okay. Thank you very much for calling in. Anything else that you need for me?

[17:08] No, I think I have a good understanding and I noted down the ideas or the suggestions

[17:13] that you've made.

[17:15] Yeah, we've been in an exemplant

[17:23] planning department,

[17:32] the Glendale Adventist Foundation

[17:34] Board.

[17:35] I mean, we are going

[17:41] to keep there as long as

[17:46] we can.

[17:46] Okay.

[17:46] Thank you.

[17:47] I appreciate your hearing and I look forward to the conclusions.

[17:51] All right.

[17:52] Thank you again.

[17:52] Take care.

[17:53] Bye-bye.

[17:53] We

[17:59] have no

[18:03] other callers at this time,

[18:09] as it relates to appeals for the project and the appeals provision title 30, chapter 30.62 of the Glendale Municipal Code, the decision may be appealed to the Planning Commission within 15 days of the date of the decision, anyone wishing to appeal may obtain forms and brochures on the procedures from building and safety section permit service center located on the same floor.

[18:33] this building. I'm going to take this under submission. And this is the end of the hearing.

[18:42] The meeting is now closed. It is 9.50 Wednesday.

Planning Hearing Officer Meeting - Apr 22nd, 2020

Transcript