Planning Commission approves 69,120-square-foot industrial building at 130 Jones Boulevard

The La Verne Planning Commission on March 31 approved a site plan for a new industrial building at 130 Jones Boulevard, a 69,120-square-foot structure on about 5.95 acres that pairs with a concurrent final plat for the same property.

The project, requested by Kimley Horn and owned by Hamilton Creek Partners LLC, was presented to the commission by Mr. Logan, who said the site plan accompanies the prior plat and that most workshop comments had been addressed. "This is the site plan for the previous item," Mr. Logan said during the presentation, noting photos and existing surface conditions.

Why it matters: the development will add a large industrial building in the city's LI Innovation zoning district and requires coordination on site safety and utility easements. Staff and commissioners drew attention to a proposed 14-foot-high pre-split retaining wall and nearby 20-foot pre-split walls on adjacent property. A staff member urged coordination with the neighboring Skyworks property, saying the applicant must ensure blasting will not undermine nearby walls: "they need to coordinate with Skyworks in case their blasting right here makes their wall fall down."

The project's representative, Dean Holdelbrand of Kimley Horn, told the commission that because the retaining wall remains above the 30-inch threshold the code requires fall-protection fencing. "Any wall over 30 inches in height has to have a fence for fall protection," Holdelbrand said, adding that the wall's maximum height is a little under 4 feet. He also confirmed the heavily paved driveway on site is a private drive the applicant will maintain.

Commissioners and staff discussed an alternative grading approach to eliminate the wall and improve emergency-vehicle access by creating a 3:1 slope, which staff said would allow a fire truck to access the area without being blocked by a retaining wall.

Separately, the commission raised an administrative issue: letters in the site data table were missing from the PDF submittal (the "I" in words such as "Utilities" and "Environmental"). Staff and the project team said the omission likely resulted from PDF compression during upload and agreed to ensure the corrected file is provided before final sign-off.

The commission voted to accept the site plan as submitted and recorded a follow-up to correct the PDF submittal if necessary. The approval followed the commission's vote on an accompanying final plat that establishes the necessary easements for public sewer.