To: PLANNING COMMISSION
From: LINA PORTOLESE, PLANNING ANALYST
TITLE
title
A PUBLIC HEARING FOR CONSIDERATION OF AN EXEMPTION DECLARATION, AMENDMENT TO A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT, OVERLAP PARKING REVIEW, AND A COASTAL DEVELOPMENT PERMIT EXEMPTION TO ALLOW THE OPERATION OF A PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT SERVICE OPERATING AS A YOGA STUDIO WITHIN AN EXISTING COMMERCIAL BUILDING ON PROPERTY LOCATED IN A COMMERCIAL (C-2) ZONE, IN THE COASTAL ZONE
APPLICANT: 423 YOGA
PROPERTY OWNER: KIRBYLANE, LLC
PROPERTY ADDRESS: 423 S. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY
APPLICATION NO.: PAA-2021-01; OP-2021-01
RECOMMENDATION:
1. Open public hearing and administer oath;
2. Take testimony from staff, applicant, and interested parties;
3. Close public hearing and deliberate; and
4. Adopt a resolution by title only approving the request subject to the findings and conditions contained therein:
A RESOLUTION OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF REDONDO BEACH, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING AN EXEMPTION DECLARATION AND GRANTING THE REQUESTS FOR AN AMENDMENT TO A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT, OVERLAP PARKING REVIEW, AND COASTAL DEVELOPMENT PERMIT EXEMPTION TO ALLOW THE OPERATION OF A PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT SERVICE WITHIN AN EXISTING COMMERCIAL BUILDING ON PROPERTY LOCATED IN A COMMERCIAL (C-2) ZONE IN THE COASTAL ZONE AT 423 S. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY
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BACKGROUND
Existing Site Conditions
The applicant is requesting approval to operate a new yoga studio within a tenant space on the first floor of an existing commercial building located at 423 S. Pacific Coast Highway. The site is comprised of four (4) underlying parcels with a total land area of just over 15,000-square feet, zoned Commercial (C-2), in the Coastal Zone (west side of Pacific Coast Highway). Surrounding zoning and land uses include a vacant commercially-zoned lot to the north, a 39-room motel to the south, and residential properties to the west along the rear of the subject property, zoned multiple-family residential R-3A. An 8-foot high masonry wall along the rear property line separates the subject property from the residential properties.
A Conditional Use Permit was approved for the site in 1985 allowing the development of a 2-story commercial office building 14,700-square feet in size. The building is served by 49 on-site parking spaces, which met code required parking for offices. There are parking spaces on the main level to the rear of the building, with additional parking spaces on a lower semi-subterranean level and a fully subterranean level. The property is accessed on the north side by a two-way driveway off of Pacific Coast Highway, leading to the main level parking lot at the rear, then down to the two lower levels.
As part of an overall tenant improvement plan in 2019, changes to the parking layout were required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which reduced parking to 46 spaces.
The building sits closer to the front property line. At the rear, the first floor of the building is setback 64-feet from the rear property line by the main level parking lot. The second-floor cantilevers over the first floor and the main level parking lot, with a 20-foot setback from the rear property line.
Request
The applicants propose to operate a yoga studio within a 1,425-square foot space on the first floor of the building. The remainder will continue to be office space, currently being utilized by the property owner for their cloud-based services consulting company.
Yoga studios fall within the definition of a personal improvement service. In the Coastal Zone, governed by Municipal Code Title 10, Chapter 5, a personal improvement service requires approval of a Conditional Use Permit (CUP). Since there is an existing CUP for the property when the building was constructed, the current request is to amend that CUP in order to add a personal improvement service use (yoga studio). The purpose of the CUP is to place conditions on the operation of the business so that it does not adversely impact surrounding properties and land uses. Potential issues that may arise from the operation of a yoga studio, or other fitness facility in general, are noise and parking impacts.
The request will also require approval of Overlap Parking, in order to demonstrate that the on-site parking is sufficient to accommodate a personal improvement service, which has a higher parking requirement than office uses, per Zoning Ordinance Section 10-5.1706.
The yoga studio will start with offering four classes each day Monday - Friday and two morning classes on the weekends. The class size would be 20 clients with one (1) instructor. There will be gaps between classes allowing time for one set of clients to leave prior to another set arriving. The condition related to hours of operation has been left flexible enough to offer future potential for additional classes while keeping in line with hours of operation of the surrounding commercial zone.
Analysis of Request
Yoga studios fall under the classification of personal improvement service, which is a conditionally permitted use in the Commercial C-2 zone in the Coastal Zone. There is an existing CUP for the office building, and the current request would be to amend that CUP to allow the operation of the yoga studio within 1,425-square feet of the building on the first floor.
Potential issues that may be of concern with the operation of a yoga studio, or other fitness facility, include parking and noise impacts.
Parking - Overlap Parking Analysis
The existing building was developed with 49 parking spaces, meeting the office parking requirement of one space for every 300-square feet of floor area. Due to ADA requirements to incorporate handicap accessible spaces, the parking had to be reduced to 46 spaces. Therefore, the building is short of the code requirement for office uses by three (3) spaces.
Per Municipal Code Section 10-5.1706 related to commercial parking regulations, a personal improvement service requires one (1) space per employee plus one (1) space for every two (2) students. Based on the requested class size of 20 clients with one instructor, 11 parking spaces would be required for the yoga studio. The requirement for 11 spaces increases the parking demand for the 1,425-square foot tenant space by six spaces.
The Zoning Code allows for consideration of overlap parking for uses sharing the same building site, per Section 10-5.1706 (d)(2). This review is allowed to be done administratively by staff, but has been referred to the Planning Commission for the overall consideration of the CUP amendment.
Overlap parking can be considered if based on certain criteria. For the current application, four of the five findings are met, as outlined below:
a. The total parking provided for the uses sharing parking shall not be less than fifty (50%) percent of the parking requirement for the same uses with no shared parking
The total parking requirement for the office building with the proposed yoga studio would be 54 (13,275 remaining office building at 1/300-sf totaling 45, and 11 for the yoga studio at the ratio of 20 clients and 1 instructor per class). The 46 provided parking spaces equals 85% of the total 54 parking space requirement, therefore not less than 50%.
b. The total parking provided for the uses sharing parking shall not be less than the parking requirement applicable to any single use with no shared parking
The 46 parking spaces provided are not less than what any single use would need. The other single use in the remainder of the building would be office at 13,275-square feet, which would require 45 parking spaces.
c. The applicant shall provide the Community Development Department information on the proposed hours of operation of each use and anticipated maximum number of employees and customers for each use typically generated during each hour of the day and day of the week
For the proposed use, the applicant has provided a business plan stating the proposed class times and class size. The remainder of the office building is utilized as property management offices for the owner of the building during typical business hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Occupants include employees of the property management, with client visits of two to three per hour.
d. The Community Development Department may approve shared parking subject to a determination that the typical utilization of the parking area would be staggered or shared to such an extent that the reduced number of parking spaces would be adequate to serve all uses on the site or parcel. If the site is in a pedestrian-oriented commercial zone, the Community Development Department may also approve shared parking subject to a determination that the use mix is conducive to customers parking and walking to visit more than one business on the same trip
N/A
e. A minimum two (2) week (fourteen (14) day) parking utilization survey, covering the existing and proposed business hours of operation, including hourly counts of vehicles shall be submitted along with a parking analysis of the subject property, which includes the number of tenant spaces and the number of parking spaces that these uses require, shall be submitted for review and approval of the Community Development Director.
The applicant has submitted a two-week parking survey demonstrating that during proposed class times, there remains more than 11 parking spaces, ample to accommodate the requested class size.
Staff conducted their own site visit at 9:10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, and noted that although the parking spaces on the main level were all utilized, only five spaces on the semi-subterranean level were used (13 spaces unoccupied), and the bottom level was completely empty (17 spaces).
Noise
An additional consideration when analyzing a personal improvement service is the noise impact it may have on adjacent businesses and properties, given the nature of fitness studios typically playing music and having instruction over an amplified system, in addition to potential noise from fitness equipment. In this case, the main concern would be noise impacts to the residentially zoned property to the rear (west), as well as impacts to the other office spaces in the building.
Yoga studios, by the nature of their instruction, do not tend to produce high sound levels. However, the approval of this personal improvement service will run with the land, and it may be possible that if the yoga studio were to vacate the space, another fitness facility could move in that location that could generate increased noise levels.
The tenant space is located on the first floor of the building, on the northern side adjacent to the driveway access for the property. This is the level of the building that abuts the main level parking lot, so that the building wall is 64 feet away from the residential properties to the rear. There are no windows are doors along that rear wall.
Based on the building separation and that there are no exterior windows or doors on the rear wall, staff does not anticipate noise impacts from the operation of any fitness studio to the residential properties at the rear.
In terms of noise impact to the adjacent offices, the tenant space is separated from the other office spaces on the same floor by a series of restrooms. There will be no shared walls between the yoga studio and office spaces on the first floor.
The yoga studio will share a ceiling/floor separation with the office spaces on the second floor, so this may be the one instance where noise could be an issue. A condition has been added to the draft resolution stating that if noise complaints are received, the business owner will work with the Planning Division to resolve them, but if the issue continues, the matter will be referred back to the Planning Commission for consideration of modification or revocation of the approval. Another condition has been added limiting the use of certain fitness equipment and heavy weights. Therefore, should a subsequent fitness facility wish to take over and utilize any of these items, they would be required to apply for an amendment to this approval for consideration by the Planning Commission.
Lastly, the overall hours of operation are consistent with those of surrounding commercial uses along Pacific Coast Highway.
COASTAL DEVELOPMENT PERMIT
The property is located in the City’s Coastal Zone, which is the area to the westside of PCH. This application is exempt from the requirements of a Coastal Development Permit subject to Redondo Beach Municipal Code Section 10-5.2208 Exemptions and Categorial Exclusions. The project does not involve any of the items listed as excluded from the exemption in subsection (2)a - h.
ENVIRONMENTAL STATUS
The proposed project is Categorically Exempt from the preparation of environmental analyses, pursuant to Section 15301(a) (Existing Facilities) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This section exempts interior and exterior alterations of existing structures including interior partitions, plumbing, and electrical, with no expansion, from environmental review. The project does not propose any floor area expansion, and work will be limited to minor interior modifications within the existing building, consistent with those items specified as exempt under this section.
CONCLUSION
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission approve the Exemption Declaration and grant the amendment to the Conditional Use Permit and Overlap Parking subject to the findings and conditions contained within the attached draft resolution.
ATTACHMENTS
Exemption Declaration
Draft Resolution
Planning Commission Resolution No. 5632 and staff report (1985)
Applications
Overlap Parking 2-week analysis
Business Plan
Architectural Drawings