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Planning staff outlines code revisions, reports on mall redevelopment application and code-enforcement actions
Summary
Staff told the Westminster Planning Commission the zoning code rewrite will set numeric thresholds to distinguish administrative from discretionary approvals, reported several cell-phone CUPs now expired, summarized a mall redevelopment application indicating roughly 2,250 housing units (application incomplete), and said code enforcement has initiated compliance steps against unauthorized trucking and a truck-driving school.
Planning department staff used the Feb. 4, 2026 commission meeting to summarize forthcoming code clarifications, permit status for wireless conditional use permits (CUPs), a major mall redevelopment application and active code-enforcement work.
On administrative versus discretionary approvals, staff said past practice leaned on whether a CEQA determination was required but that the planned code rewrite will establish clearer numeric thresholds tied to building size so that larger commercial or industrial projects automatically go to the commission while smaller projects can be handled at staff level. "So it'll probably be a size," staff said, explaining the intent to set square-foot triggers; staff also said discretionary elements would continue to bring projects to commission review.
Staff reported it could not locate issued building permits or antenna installations tied to earlier cell-phone CUPs and that those CUPs likely expired under standard conditions. "Standard condition would be a year," staff said, noting the warehouse project had been extended to three years in a prior case.
On a pending mall redevelopment application submitted under the names Shop Off and Washington Prime Group, staff said the application materials provided so far are incomplete and ownership is not clearly specified in the submittal. Based on the materials staff has received, the project would redevelop most of the mall site (excluding the northern Best Buy parcel) and include an approximate program of 2,250 housing units across multifamily buildings, some low-income housing, townhomes, commercial space and a park; staff emphasized the application remains incomplete and ownership details were "not specified." The 2,250-unit figure was presented by staff as an approximate program element in the initial materials.
Commissioners asked about unauthorized commercial trucking operations in the upper Suitors parking lot and about a truck-driving school operating at the southwest corner of the mall (Edwards and Bolsa). Staff said code enforcement has started procedures, typically giving operators a month to comply before moving to citation; it was not known from the meeting record whether an appeal had been filed in either case.
Staff indicated it will update the commission if applicants resupply missing materials, if code enforcement has subsequent findings, or as the code rewrite provides draft thresholds for administrative approvals.
