Planning commission sends banquet-hall appeal back to staff after neighbors and operator debate parking and use

The Fresno Planning Commission on May 7 voted to send the appeal of a Planning and Development Department denial of Conditional Use Permit P2302631 back to staff for further work after public testimony and commissioner questions about parking, accessibility and community uses.

Staff presented the application for property at 4927 East McKinley — a tenant space in the Airport Village Commercial Center — describing a proposal to operate a banquet hall in an existing 8,300-square-foot tenant space. Chris Lang of the Planning and Development Department said the applicant proposes hours opposite the onsite adult day care: 6 to 11 p.m. on weekdays and 6 p.m. to midnight on weekends. The proposed assembly area is about 6,700 square feet; Fresno Municipal Code requires one parking space per 50 square feet of assembly area, which would create a need for roughly 135 stalls. The center currently has 95 total on-site spaces (54 on the subject parcel and 41 on the adjacent parcel under a shared-parking agreement that has not been recorded as a covenant), and staff said no code exception that applies to this use could be applied.

The staff report said planning denied the permit on March 25 because the required findings could not be made due to parking impacts and potential effects on neighborhood…