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Placentia planners ask staff to study wider garages, driveway widths and parking standards
Summary
The commission opened a study session comparing Placentia and neighboring cities' driveway and garage standards, asked staff to add recommendations and to coordinate with Public Works and the County of Orange; commissioners signaled interest in exploring modest increases to garage/driveway dimensions.
Planning staff presented a multi‑city comparison of residential garage dimensions, outdoor driveway widths, multifamily parking and internal private street widths and asked the commission for direction.
Staff noted Placentia currently requires a 20‑by‑20 clear garage space and 10‑foot minimum outdoor driveway width in many single‑family contexts. Commissioners discussed livability and safety tradeoffs — including larger modern vehicles and EVs — and several said they want staff to evaluate modest increases rather than blanket expansion. As one commissioner summarized, “I think for this item, I think, everyone here is in agreement that we would like to see a wider garage.”
The commission asked staff to: break the driveway discussion into two sections (lead‑to‑back drive aisles versus front driveway widths); add a staff‑recommendation column to the comparative table; coordinate recommendations with Public Works/City Engineer and review County of Orange standards; and return with focused recommendations over one or two meetings.
Staff also noted practical constraints — for example, ADU and state laws that can affect driveway/garage requirements — and said any code amendments would go through the normal zoning code amendment process with public hearings and council review.
