Council approves Harbinger Motors mezzanine, general-plan amendment and site plan for Knott Street property

The Garden Grove City Council voted 7-0 to approve a general-plan amendment, adopt a negative declaration and approve a site plan that will allow Harbinger Motors to add an interior mezzanine and increase the permitted industrial floor-area ratio (FAR) for several parcels along Knott Street.

City Senior Planner Preet Kasla told the council the request would create “sub areas A and B within the existing IC land use designation” and allow an industrial FAR of 0.55 in sub‑area B while keeping commercial FARs unchanged. Kasla said the proposed mezzanine at 12821 Knott Street would increase that property’s FAR to about 0.53 and would be constructed wholly inside the existing building, without expanding the footprint or reducing the existing parking lot.

The approval matters because it lets a Garden Grove manufacturer expand office space while keeping the property in industrial/commercial use rather than allowing residential development. Kasla said the project is one of several priority projects in the city’s Sewer System Rehab Plan Phase 2 and that the site plan and negative-declaration environmental review met applicable local and state requirements.

Harbinger representatives described the mezzanine addition as an office…