Spring Valley panel approves land-use change, rezoning and design review for warehouse complex at Post and Mann

The Spring Valley Town Advisory Board on Jan. 28, 2025, recommended approval of a package of four actions for a proposed office-warehouse development at the northwest corner of Post Road and Mann Street. The board approved a master-plan amendment (PA24700036) to change the land-use designation from Rancho State neighborhood to business employment (light industrial), a zone change (ZC240675) from RS-20 to IP, a vacation/abandonment of perimeter easements (VS240677), and a design review and waiver of development standards (WS240676) for increased parking tied to a proposed 35,000-square-foot office-warehouse project composed of two buildings.

Tony Celeste, representing the applicants Thomas Pittman Jr. and Agnes Rev. T R (TRS), described the project as two buildings — roughly 14,000 and 21,000 square feet — configured as 11 office/warehouse units intended for multiple small tenants. He said the proposed buildings would place roll-up doors facing internal aisles to comply with Title 30 standards and would include landscaping along the site edges.

Celeste told the board the applicants sought a parking waiver under the new Title 30 parking standards because the project’s multi-tenant layout produces higher peak parking demand than a single large warehouse. He said the current design results in parking 15% higher than the code baseline to accommodate separate tenants and their customers.

In discussion, a board member questioned the rationale for the parking waiver and criticized the implication that the code “social engineer[s]” travel choices. The board member said: "So in other words, you wanna social engineer people riding the bus to the job at the warehouse," and suggested heat-island mitigation could be addressed through canopy trees or shade structures rather than reducing parking. The applicant reiterated that multiple tenants and customer visits justify the additional parking.

Staff recommended approval of the master-plan amendment and zone change; the advisory board approved all four items with staff-recommended conditions on separate voice votes. Each motion passed with the board saying "Aye"; the meeting record contains no roll-call tallies.

The approvals will be forwarded to the planning commission and/or the Board of County Commissioners for final action. Department of Aviation property borders the site to the west and north, and Celeste said the aviation-related overlay and noise contours discourage residential development in the area — a key rationale the applicants used to support the change to light-industrial uses.

The design review approval includes conditions imposed by staff; the parking-waiver approval allows increased parking relative to baseline Title 30 requirements for this multi-tenant office-warehouse configuration. Board members indicated they would reserve further comment for the formal public-comment period at later hearings.