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 and operations need tied to company growth. “We are a manufacturer of medium duty trucks and also produce high‑tech battery packs and electric motors,” Ben Desastre, chief financial officer of Harbinger Motors, told the council. Desastre said the company moved its headquarters to Garden Grove in February 2023, employs about 264 people at the site and has leased a neighboring building to store inventory and provide additional parking.

Company representative Zane Keith said the site currently provides 198 striped parking stalls and that the business has access to additional stalls at 12700 Knott (65 stalls) plus about 50 stalls at Calvary Chapel under an informal arrangement. Keith said employees now on site number about 150 daily and that after the expansion the daily figure is expected to be about 200. “We have extra stalls we can use there,” he said.

Neighbors and some community members urged caution. Tom Raber and Tony Flores raised concerns about mailed notices and parcel listings for the general-plan amendment, and Raber said he calculated a small difference in the parcel acreage that could affect FAR math. Flores said earlier public notices had inconsistent information and threatened possible legal action if the notice or project descriptions were materially altered from those before the Planning Commission. “The public notices for tonight’s city council did include both addresses and parcel numbers where available for all properties associated with the request,” Kasla responded, saying staff had added information after community requests.

Council discussion focused on two issues: ensuring notice and transparency for neighbors, and how parking impacts would be handled. The approved conditions include a requirement that the applicant submit and implement a parking management plan if on‑site parking cannot accommodate demand and the city determines a nuisance or circulation problem exists. Preet Kasla read the proposed condition requiring the applicant to “devise and implement a plan approved by the city to relieve the situation” and listed possible tools including off‑site parking arrangements, on‑site parking control personnel, or reduced hours of operation; the plan must be implemented within 30 days of written notice from the city’s community development director.

Mayor Stephanie Klompenstein and members of the council emphasized they want Harbinger to remain in Garden Grove and to grow local jobs while also asking staff to pursue clearer public notices in future land‑use mailings. Councilmember Breidingham moved approval; a second was received and the motion carried 7-0.

The site will proceed under the conditions of approval; construction of the mezzanine was described as internal only and not changing building height or lot footprint. Harbinger representatives said construction will not affect the building exterior beyond new matching windows and that they are working with staff on a formal shared-parking agreement with Calvary Chapel to conform with municipal code standards.

Why this matters: Harbinger describes itself as one of the area’s few manufacturers of electric-drive trucks and high‑tech components. The council’s decision clears the way for incremental expansion of office and operations space at an operational manufacturing site while attempting to address neighborhood parking concerns through conditions and a future formalized shared‑parking agreement.

Votes and next steps: The council approved the negative declaration, general-plan amendment and site plan with conditions, 7-0. Staff will process the final permits and the applicant must submit any required parking‑management or shared‑parking documentation per the condition of approval.