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Planning Commission approves 184‑unit Cottonwood Avenue apartment project despite neighborhood traffic concerns
Summary
The Planning Commission approved a 184‑unit multifamily plot plan on Cottonwood Avenue after staff reported project peak trips fell below the city screening threshold; nearby residents and a property owner urged a corridor traffic study and expressed parking and emergency‑access worries.
The Moreno Valley Planning Commission approved a plot plan for a 184‑unit multifamily development on June 25, but the decision followed extended discussion about traffic, street width and off‑site impacts.
DJ Patel, assistant planner, summarized the proposal: 23 two‑story buildings on a 9.39‑acre site with 334 parking spaces, clubhouse, pool and roughly 56,980 sq ft of common open space. The project would provide 80 one‑bedroom and 104 two‑bedroom units.
Transportation staff said the project’s estimated trip generation did not meet the city’s threshold to require a full traffic impact study. "The AM peak hour trips added by the project would total 74 and the PM peak hour trips would total 94," said Seth Jennison, the city’s principal traffic engineer, noting those figures are below the city screening threshold of 100 peak‑hour trips.
Several nearby residents and a property owner argued the corridor already experiences heavy, episodic congestion — citing Sunday church traffic, a county fleet facility and school peaks — and urged additional study or corridor improvements before construction. "You've got schools, you have the safety issue there, you have the police facility, and you have the church," the nearby property owner said, warning the current configuration can cause queuing and delays on Cottonwood Avenue.
Staff and the applicant said the developer will be required to construct half‑width frontage improvements along Cottonwood as a condition of approval; the commission also removed and modified certain conditions that did not apply to the residential project. The commission voted 5–0 to adopt the Mitigated Negative Declaration and approve the plot plan, subject to the amended conditions recorded in the staff report.
What happened next: the developer will be required to complete frontage and other public‑improvement work as a condition of approval; the project decision is subject to a 10‑day appeal period. Several commissioners and residents asked staff to track future corridor needs and to ensure that conditions preserve emergency access and minimize the risk of spillover parking onto adjacent neighborhoods.
