A public hearing will be held by the Planning Commission on Wednesday, July 7th for the reclassification of Chapman and Glassell from Primary Arterials (4-lane) to Collector Streets (2-lane), as well as removal of the Critical Intersection status of the Plaza in the form of an Amendment to the recently adopted General Plan Circulation and Mobility Element.

This amendment to the General Plan is something OTPA asked for regarding the spoke streets. It was one of OTPA’s main concerns that Chapman and Glassell were designated 4-lane arterials and OTPA did not want them to be designated four lanes. OTPA requested that they be reclassified to 2-lane as they exist now. The city successfully worked with the county to accomplish this.

OTPA were informed that this would occur after the General Plan had been approved and that is what will be presented and discussed at the July 7 meeting.
This reclassification will now be reflected in the General Plan as an amendment.
This is a GOOD thing.
Your attendance at the July 7 public hearing is important. Hope to see you there.

Feel free to call Anna Pehousek with any questions and for additional information.  The Planning Commission staff report will be available via the City’s website on June 24th if you’d like to view it.

Note: Planning Commission meeting is on Wednesday, rather than Monday the 5th, due to the 4th of July holiday.

Orange City General Plan Update

Orange City General Plan Update may be approved as soon as Tuesday, March 9 by City Council.

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who sent in letters and/or have been involved in the General Plan Update process. Even though the proposed density levels were not reduced to our recommended maximum we were still very successful in limiting the impacts to our historic district. To date the general Plan Update has been about a six-year journey from 2004 when two OTPA board members were invited to participate as members of the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC).

Without OTPA’s involvement and community input the plan as it relates to Old Towne may have been approved close to what was originally proposed.

Although the plan has not been officially adopted at this writing, we are confident that the densities on spoke streets will remain at .6 FAR within a second Old Towne Mixed Use designation (that we proposed), from a proposed Old Towne Mixed use designation of a maximum of 1.0 FAR. We also convinced the city to lower densities in parts of the depot area from a 1.5 FAR to a Max of 1.0 FAR, to revise the Circulation and Mobility plan and clarify many other aspects of the plan relating to Old Towne. Even though the FAR is much higher than we would have liked it is likely these revised maximum densities will not be realized due to the city’s design standards ordinance.

“If OTPA was not present watching/commenting throughout the process we would surely be looking at a much different plan,” said Jeff Frankel.

Council will most likely come back to discuss this further before approval. It is our hope with further discussion council could lower the FAR closer to our desired .35 FAR as the .6 FAR is almost twice the FAR that currently exists on the ground. For those unfamiliar with the term, FAR or floor area ratio refers to the relationship between the lot size and the total amount of floor area built on the lot. For example, a 2000 square foot home on a 6500 square foot lot would equal under a .31 FAR (2000 divided by 6500 equals .3769 FAR). A .6 FAR would equate to a 4000 square foot building on the same size lot.

We will further need community support and involvement, as there are two pending projects we need to address. One is the Depot Specific Plan which has been a real challenge so far, as well as the Design Standards Update. We need to work closely with the city to ensure that the Standards are not diluted in this process, so we need to pay close attention to the revisions proposed. We also should expect another Depot Specific Plan workshop soon. This plan also proposes unacceptable development that may adversely impact our cultural resources in the depot area. As we have seen with the General Plan Update the community’s involvement and support does make a difference.

Compiled by Jeff Frankel, OTPA Preservation Chair.