Planning commission recommends zoning-code updates to encourage mixed-use projects along Montebello corridors

The Montebello Planning Commission voted to recommend a set of zoning-code changes intended to encourage mixed-use development and streamline review for qualifying housing projects.

Assistant Planner Emily Fernandez told the commission the city-initiated package would amend Title 17 of the Montebello Municipal Code to establish mixed-use standards for the C-1 and C-2 commercial districts, create a new Chapter 17.21 with objective measurable design standards for residential and mixed-use projects, update site-plan review thresholds, and amend the zoning map to align roughly 270 parcels with the Montebello 2040 general plan and the city’s sixth-cycle housing element. "The proposed text amendments ... are intended to implement the goals and policies of the city's general plan and housing element in accordance with state housing law," Fernandez said.

Under the recommended changes, mixed-use projects in the targeted commercial zones would be required to dedicate at least 50% of…