Walnut Creek planners approve Taiwanese American Cultural Center, waive 8-foot wall requirement

Walnut Creek Planning Commission voted 7-0 to approve design review and three conditional use permits for the Taiwanese American Cultural Center of East Bay, a planned 4,500-square-foot, single‑story community center at 1755 Sunnyvale Avenue.

The project, which merges three parcels currently serving an existing church and related buildings and will retain the East Bay Formation United Methodist Church and an on-site social hall, will demolish a 3,000-square-foot office building facing Sunnyvale to make room for the new center. Commissioners adopted the draft resolution finding the project exempt from CEQA under Categorical Exemption Class 32 and approved the conditional uses and design review with modified conditions that specify downward-facing site lighting (design option 1) and allow a 7-foot wood fence in lieu of the municipal-code 8-foot masonry wall. The motion passed unanimously (7-0).

The center is proposed to offer Taiwanese cultural and language classes for adults and seniors from 9 a.m. to noon Monday–Friday, and an after-school program for kindergarten through eighth-grade students from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday–Friday. Staff described the after-school program as capped at 33 students (the…