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Council OKs tract map subdivision, introduces Swallows Creek/Fluidmaster rezoning
Summary
The council approved a tentative tract map to subdivide a commercial office park into 12 parcels and introduced an ordinance to rezone Swallows Creek and Fluidmaster properties to commercial manufacturing (with an adjacent parcel to open space); both items were advanced after staff presentations and council questions about future uses and parking.
The San Juan Capistrano City Council on March 17 approved a tentative tract map (Tract Map 25-001) to subdivide an existing commercial office park into 12 individual building parcels and one common area, and introduced an ordinance to rezone two sites — Swallows Creek and Fluidmaster — to commercial manufacturing while rezoning a narrow adjacent parcel to general open space.
Senior Planner Isaac Mireles said the tract-map application does not include physical site improvements and that the city’s environmental administrator found the request categorically exempt from CEQA under existing facilities provisions. He said the subdivision would allow individual ownership of building parcels and that CC&Rs would manage shared parking and common areas.
Council members pressed staff on long-term consequences, including whether splitting the property could facilitate future residential conversions under state law. Planning and development staff and an applicant representative said CC&Rs will be drafted to protect current commercial uses, and that while state law allows some conversions, the CC&Rs and the common area parcel structure make wholesale redevelopment less likely and provide legal protections for the association and tenants.
On the rezoning, Mireles said staff recommended changing two developed parcels from industrial park to commercial manufacturing to broaden permitted commercial and service uses. He told the council the change is consistent with the general plan and that the commercial manufacturing zone allows greater flexibility for uses such as vehicle sales or general office space in ways the industrial park zone does not.
Council voted to approve the tract map and to introduce the rezone ordinance; the rezoning ordinance will return for a second reading as a consent calendar item and would take effect 30 days after adoption. Council and staff emphasized that project-specific review (for parking, noise or conditional uses) would occur if particular tenants or uses are proposed.
What happens next: Final map and CC&Rs will be submitted for staff review and council final action on the tract map; the rezoning ordinance will return for a second reading and adoption before taking effect.
