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Council upholds daycare permit with screening removed, requires intensified landscaping
Summary
The council approved a conditional use permit for a proposed daycare at Norco Village shopping center, striking the planning-commission condition that extended a pipe-and-mesh screen and instead requiring intensified landscaping along residential property lines; council and applicant agreed to preserve parking commitments (617 stalls) and add a landscaping plan.
Norco City Council voted to approve a conditional use permit (CUP 2504) for a proposed daycare facility at 2490 River Road in the Norco Village Shopping Center, removing the planning commission's requirement to extend pipe-and-mesh screening around the site and replacing it with a requirement for intensified landscaping to screen adjacent residences.
Planning staff said the original planning-commission approval included three added conditions: additional trees in the parking area, extending pipe-and-mesh screening across the property lines, and prohibiting loading/unloading from unparked vehicles. The council and the applicant debated whether the black mesh screen provided meaningful benefit given existing setbacks (staff cited setbacks of roughly 140 to 166 feet to adjacent homes, plus a 6-foot masonry wall and dense landscaping). Creed Group representative Mike Johnston said the applicant's parking analysis shows the center can accommodate 617 stalls and that the combination of setback and intensified landscaping renders the extended mesh screening redundant.
"So the plan that you see up on the screen before you accommodates 617 stalls," Mike Johnston told council. Planning staff confirmed the project meets city standards for landscaping and parking but said council could add language to intensify screening where needed. After public comment (one speaker asked for clarification that tubular-steel screening and netting were included in the approved treatment), Mayor Newton moved to strike the mesh-screen condition and add the enhanced-landscaping requirement read into the record; the motion was seconded and carried.
The adopted approach places responsibility for additional trees, shrubs and screening treatments on the property owner (the resolution language mirrors the condition proposed for the adjacent vesting tentative map) and specifies that the landscaping plan will be subject to planning-division review and approval. The council also discussed enforcement and staff certification of final grades and photometric plans to limit light spill toward neighboring properties.
The council approved the CUP and the related map conditions. The transcript does not record a roll-call tally for the CUP motion; the council stated the motion carried. Staff will incorporate the landscaping language into the CUP/resolution and the vesting tentative map as appropriate.
