Item 23 - Amendment Application (Zone Change) No. 2024-01 to Amend the Zoning Map

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AA No. 2024-01, CUP No. 2024-01, and CUP No. 2024-02 for McDonald's Restaurant at 2101 and 2109 E. Santa Clara Avenue February 26, 2024 Page 6 The project would be required to meet all development standards and would apply for ministerial permits through the City, including a demolition permit, landscape permit, grading permit, building permits and occupancy permits. With approval of the zone change and CUP, the proposed project would be consistent with the Santa Ana Municipal Code (SAMC). In addition, the project is located within an area characterized primarily by retail and commercial uses. Therefore, the project would be consistent with the C5 zoning district, would not conflict with the SAMC, and would be consistent with the GC land use designation. The proposed drive -through was designed and intended to generate the least amount of community impacts as possible. An analysis of the site access and site circulation determined that the proposed site plan provides adequate spaces for vehicles to maneuver through the project site and drive -through. In addition, a drive -through evaluation was provided which was intended to determine if the proposed circulation plan provides adequate on -site drive -through storage capacity to accommodate the peak on -site vehicle demands. The analysis determined that the dual drive -through lanes exceed the City's stacking requirements and will allow for a storage capacity of approximately 16 cars, which is sufficient capacity to accommodate average and peak vehicle demands for the proposed project without disrupting drive aisles or on -site parking spaces. As designed, the proposed building will implement many of the current McDonald's restaurant design improvements. McDonald's restaurants are designed to optimize operations, drive -through lane configurations, parking, and on -site circulation. To reduce the vehicle drive -through wait time, McDonald's has developed equipment and procedures to improve cook times and crew efficiency. These improvements include dual order boards (or a side -by -side drive -through) that enables customers to place orders earlier. The side -by - side drive -through allows two cars to stack next to each other which allows the kitchen more cook time to prepare the food to have it ready by the time the customer gets to the pickup window. Since the proposed McDonald's provides a drive -through storage capacity of 16 vehicles, the proposed drive -through lane will accommodate the reference average queue length of 5 to 11 vehicles. At no time does the existing or reference peak queue exceed a maximum of 15 vehicles. The drive -through queuing analysis demonstrates that the maximum vehicle queue of 16 vehicles can be accommodated within the drive -through. The site plan provides adequate drive -through storage capacity to serve the average queue length of 5 to 11 vehicles within the drive -through lane. During peak drive -through demands, the site plan can accommodate a total of 16 vehicles within the drive -through. Therefore, peak queuing can be accommodated within the drive -through as designed, and vehicles queuing in the drive -through will have adequate space to queue within the project and will not enter onto East Santa Clara Avenue.