Murrieta planning panel approves two-lot subdivision for shopping-center parcel

The Murrieta Planning Commission on Oct. 22 unanimously approved Tentative Parcel Map 39163 to subdivide a roughly 5.08-acre parcel within the Marriott Town Center East commercial center into two lots.

Dennis Watts, senior planner in the city’s development services department, told commissioners the map would create Parcel 1 (about 1.6 acres) and Parcel 2 (about 3.4 acres) and that “no development is proposed or authorized as part of this map.” Watts said existing reciprocal access easements serve the site and that new easements between the two proposed parcels will be required.

Staff recommended the commission find the project categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under the small-land-division provision and adopt a resolution approving the map, subject to conditions in the staff report. The commission had no substantive objections during commissioner questioning.

The commission opened the public hearing and received no public testimony. The commission then moved and seconded the resolution and voted to approve it unanimously (4-0).

The approval allows the owner to record the parcel map and prepares the site for future discretionary development permits, but it does not authorize any specific building or site improvements. Any future development on the two parcels will be reviewed against applicable zoning, access easements and the conditions of approval the commission adopted.

Authorities cited at the hearing included CEQA implementing regulations for small land divisions (cited in the staff recommendation). The applicant was listed in the record as the property owner for the parcel within the Marriott Town Center East commercial center.

The commission moved on to a second, unrelated tentative parcel map later in the meeting.