Planning commission approves Toyota dealership design, tree removals and sign exception in North Downtown

Walnut Creek City Planning Commission on Aug. 28 voted 7-0 to adopt a revised resolution finding the Toyota of Walnut Creek dealership project exempt from CEQA and approving final design review, a tree removal permit and a sign exception for a two-story dealership to be built at 2150 North Broadway and 1275 Pine Street.

The approval advances a redevelopment the City envisioned as part of the North Downtown Specific Plan and related amendments approved in May 2024, city staff said. The commission’s action clears permitting for a new showroom, service center, rooftop inventory parking and associated streetscape and stormwater work in the city’s Makers Row and Mixed Use Special District overlays.

Simmer Gill, senior planner with Walnut Creek City, told commissioners the project “will be located at 2150 North Broadway and 1275 Pine Street” and that it was part of the North Downtown plan amendments. Staff recommended approval after an earlier Design Review Commission recommendation and after the applicant revised the plans to respond to several design comments. The commission’s adopted resolution also includes a condition requiring the applicant to provide actual material samples for final verification.

The project proposal and key details

The applicant proposes a two-story, approximately urban-prototype Toyota dealership with a sales showroom facing North Broadway and a service reception and repair entrance on Pine Street. Steven Scanlon, who represents Toyota Walnut Creek, said the project began in 2018 and described the proposal as “our first phase of a multiphase development in Downtown Walnut Creek.”

Project components described in…