Newport Beach planning commission denies Acacia Atrium medical-office condominium conversion over parking and precedent concerns

The Newport Beach Planning Commission voted Nov. 20 to deny an application (PA2024-0236) to convert a three-story, 27,931-square-foot office building at 20280 and 20312 Acacia Street into 12 medical-office condominiums.

Staff presentation: Oscar Orozco of the planning division told commissioners the site currently provides 109 parking spaces; a full medical conversion would require 140 spaces, producing a 32-space shortfall equal to 22.9% of the required parking. The applicant requested a condominium conversion, a tentative parcel map for 12 units, a conditional use permit for medical-office use, and a waiver of 32 parking spaces. Orozco said the applicantprovided a parking study (Michael Baker International) that relied on two comparable weekday surveys at Spectrum Medical Plaza (Irvine) and Second Journey Medical Plaza (Aliso Viejo); the selected comparables did not include urgent-care uses, and staff recommended conditioning the approval to prohibit urgent-care facilities at the site to remain consistent with the parking assumptions. A traffic study by Gondini Group, prepared under Public Works,…