Item 37 - Appeal No. 2023-07 Denial of CUP No. 2023-18 Anchor Stone Christian Church: 2938 S. Daimler Street

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City Response to Anchor Stone Christian Church ADDeal No. 2023-07 Comment 1: Applicant appeals for the reasons in Tab 1. Reason A: Corporate headquarters and campuses are expressly permitted uses under the Industrial/Flex-Medium land use designation. Reason B: The property is within Professional (P) zoning district, and churches are permitted uses in that district. Reason C: The Development Review Committee (DRC) denial letter issued on June 1, 2023, provides no rational or legal basis for its decision to deny the proposed CUP. Response 1: See responses to points A through B below. Response A: Staffs evaluation of the submitted project relied exclusively on the details provided by the applicant within the application, which explicitly indicates that the intended land use is for assembly purposes. In this case, staffs assessment was entirely framed by the information contained within the application and plans, and staff had no basis for considering any corporate headquarters plans that were not explicitly detailed. As such, the staffs review was firmly anchored in the scope of the proposed assembly use. Moreover, in May of 2023, Anchor Stone Christian Church applied for a certificate of occupancy (COO) for an administrative office space only. However, Anchor Stone Christian Church has not finalized the COO as they have not scheduled the required inspection conducted by the City of Santa Ana Building Division. Response B: Pursuant to Section 41-313.5 of the SAMC, churches and accessory church buildings may be permitted in the P zoning district, subject to the issuance of a conditional use permit. Churches and accessory church buildings are not a uses that are permitted by right. Pursuant to Section 41-638 of the SAMC CUPs may be granted only when it can be shown that a project will not adversely impact the community and General Plan. If these findings can be made, then it is appropriate to grant the CUP. Conversely, the inability to make these findings results in a denial. Furthermore, SAMC Section 41-638(a)(1) requires that all five of the specified findings of fact contained therein are satisfied before the Planning Commission may grant approval of a CUP, one of which is evaluating if the project will adversely affect the General Plan. The subject site's General Plan land use designation is Flex-3, which allows office/industrial flex spaces, research and development, and manufacturing corporate headquarters/campuses, and does not permit community assembly uses (e.g., churches) as a permissible use. Lastly, the proposed use will not be consistent with the goals and policies of the General Plan, including those from the Land Use Element (LU) and the Economic Prosperity Element (EP), as was comprehensible analyzed in the project staff report. Response C: The DRC denial letter issued on June 1, 2023, outlined the requirements needed for the Development Project (DP) application to be deemed complete by City staff. Pursuant to the Standards of Approval outlined in Section 41-670(1) and Section 41- 673(b)(1) of the SAMC, the proposed project must be consistent with the general plan and