Oakley Set to Discuss Zoning, McDonald’s and Carwash

On Tuesday, the Oakley City Council is set to discuss Zoning Ordinance Text Amendments regarding drive-through restaurants, car washes, gas stations and self-storage facilities. This is a continued item from last fall.

The council will also have two other items where it will discuss conditional use permits for the Quick Quack Car Wash and a McDonald’s Drive-Through both to be located at the Laurel Plaza.

This dates back to April 2022 where applications were denied and the October 2022 meeting where council gave staff more time to work on its zoning ordinances–with council considering a moratorium.

4.1: Zoning Ordinance Text Amendments to Article 12 of Chapter 1 of Title 9 of the Oakley Municipal Code (“Special Land Uses”) – Adding Four Subsections to Address Drive-Through Restaurants, Carwashes, Gas Stations, and Self-Storage (RZ 04-21) (Continued from January 24, 2023) (Ken Strelo, Planning Manager)

Determine the Proposed project is Exempt from environmental analysis under the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3).

This item is a continuation from October 11, 2022 with 3 yes and 1 no to continue. The October 11, 2022 continuation was based on the receive of multiple comment letters from various legal firms representing developers, property owners, and businesses.

On January 24, 2023, the ordinance was brought back to the Council with various changes to address comments that were brought up in the received letters. After opening the public hearing and deliberations, the City Council voted 5-0 to continue this item to a date uncertain pending a court’s decision on challenges to two drive-through restaurant conditional use permit denials (McDonald’s and Quick Quack). The Council also directed Staff to add saturation and walkability language related to the drive-through uses, which would include car washes.

Full staff Report on the ordinance changes: Click here

4.2:  Quick Quack Car Wash at Laurel Plaza Conditional Use Permit (CUP 02-20) and Design Review (DR 08-20) – Request for approval to construct and operate a 3,596 square foot drive-through car wash facility; APN 035-510-009

This project falls on a 0.08-acre parcel which includes car wash facility, the applicant is requesting approval of vacuum and payment stations, trash enclosures, and associated site improvements (“Project”) at the corner of Laurel Road and O’Hara Avenue. On April 12, 2022, the city council denied both the conditional use permit and the design review application in a 4-1 vote.

Following the denial, the Laurel Plaza property owner filed an action challenging the denials in Contra Costa Superior court. The City is defending this action, filed as a writ of mandate, and would be prepared to oppose the petition if it proceeds to a court hearing.

As part of those discussions, the property owner identified it would accept additional modifications to the McDonald’s and Quick Quack project if the City were to reverse its denials of both projects. Those modifications are described within the section below titled “Additional Modifications.”

For the purpose of resolving the property owner’s lawsuit, this application is returning to provide the City Council an opportunity to further consider the project, as modified. The parties in this lawsuit have both reserved all their rights, claims, and defenses, and if the Council declines to approve the project, the litigation would resume and proceed to court resolution.

Additional Modifications

The applicant has agreed to make additional modifications to the project as it was proposed and conditioned at the April 12, 2022 public hearing. Prior to the resolution for denial, a resolution was presented to the City Council to accompany a Staff recommendation of approval of the project, as conditioned. All of those conditions are
included as conditions of approval for the currently proposed resolution, and the applicant had agreed to implement all of the conditions. One of those conditions was to restrict hours of operation on days Oakley Union Elementary School District schools were in session to not open until 8:30 a.m. as opposed to the normal opening time of
7:00 a.m. Another condition required the applicant to conduct an additional acoustical analysis within 14 days of the car wash’s full opening for business in order to ensure operation would not exceed the General Plan thresholds as predicted in the acoustical analysis, and to take additional measures such as increasing landscaping if it did.

Planting of Perimeter Trees
The applicant has agreed to work with the Laurel Plaza owners to plant additional trees along the northern property line of Laurel Plaza in the general direction the carwash tunnel entrance opening would face. Staff has added this condition of approval, which would require the trees to be a minimum size of 60” box and be of a species selection
and spaced out in a manner recommended by a licensed landscape architect and acceptable to the City of Oakley. It is anticipated that at least three additional trees would be planted. It is noted that the City of Oakley typically requires trees of 24” box and sometimes 36” box when wanting a more immediate landscaping impact. Multiple 60” box size trees would provide even more landscaping impact than a 36” box size tree.

Acoustical Analysis Before Final Certificate of Occupancy

As stated above, the project was already conditioned to conduct an additional acoustical analysis within 14 days of fully opening in order to ensure the operational noise levels did not exceed the General Plan thresholds. This condition will still remain and be modified to clarify that two separate acoustical analyses shall be conducted by an acoustical engineer selected by the City of Oakley at the expense of the applicant via a developer deposit account. One analysis shall be done during a soft opening, prior to a final certificate of occupancy being issued for the building rather than after fully opening. The applicant has agreed to set the tunnel up to operate as it would under normal business use in order to maximize the accuracy of the acoustical analysis. The second analysis shall be done between five and seven months of the business being fully operational. The condition would also require the applicant to notify any interested parties, such as neighbors of the use, a reasonable amount of time before the date of both analyses and allow them to arrange for a third party licensed acoustical engineer to conduct their own readings on the same day. The City would use the findings of the acoustical engineer hired by the City, and the results of both analyses will be reported back to the City Council.

Should the initial acoustical analysis find the operation to exceed the General Plan thresholds, additional measures shall be put in place with retesting until the thresholds are met. A final certificate of occupancy shall not be issued until the acoustical analysis shows compliance with the General Plan thresholds. Should the second acoustical analysis find the operation to exceed the General Plan thresholds, the applicant shall take immediate action to reduce the level of noise reaching neighboring properties and retest as soon as those measures are in place. The City Council may also request the Conditional Use Permit be brought back for additional consideration.

Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends the City Council approve the project titled, “Quick Quack Car Wash Restaurant at Laurel Plaza Conditional Use Permit (CUP 02-20) and Design Review (DR 08-20),” as conditioned.

Full Staff Report on this item: click here

Item 4.3: McDonald’s Drive-Through Quick Serve Restaurant at Laurel Plaza Conditional Use Permit (CUP 03-20) and Design Review (DR 09-20) – Request for approval to construct and operate a 4,365 square foot quick serve restaurant with dine-in and drive-through service; APN 035-510-006

This 1.7 acre parcel project was first denied by the city council (3-2 vote) back in February 2022 where they denied the conditional use permit—however, this project proposal dates back to April 2021.

Following the denial, the Laurel Plaza property owner filed an action challenging the denials in Contra Costa Superior court. The City is defending this action, filed as a writ of mandate, and would be prepared to oppose the petition if it proceeds to a court hearing.

In this case, City Staff, the City Attorney, and legal counsel engaged in informal settlement discussions with representatives for the property owner. As part of those discussions, the property owner identified it would accept additional modifications to the McDonald’s and Quick Quack project if the City were to reverse its denials of both projects. Those modifications are described within the section below titled “Additional Modifications.”

For the purpose of resolving the property owner’s lawsuit, this application is returning to provide the City Council an opportunity to further consider the project, as modified. The parties in this lawsuit have both reserved all their rights, claims, and defenses, and if the Council declines to approve the project, the litigation would resume and proceed to
court resolution.

Off-Site Pedestrian Enhancements

The supplement traffic analysis for Laurel Plaza identified several pedestrian enhancement recommendations for the intersection of the project driveway entrance/Laurel Road/Mercedes Lane. These recommendations were not necessarily impacts associated with the proposed use, rather recommendations to enhance pedestrian safety due to observations of Laurel Plaza being used as a drop-off/pick-up area for students resulting in additional pedestrian traffic across Laurel Road. The traffic analysis also identified other recommendations directly tied to the McDonald’s project, which were integrated into the project plans presented on February 22, 2022 and again for this consideration. In addition to the changes to the plans, McDonald’s offered to implement the off-site pedestrian enhancements as part of the Community Benefit Program, which is a voluntary action by a developer that does not factor into Staff’s recommendation on the project.

As part of the informal settlement discussions, the property owner has agreed to install the recommended pedestrian enhancement improvements, and McDonald’s has agreed to have them be a condition of approval for their project.

The off-site pedestrian enhancement include the following improvements:

• Install high-visibility crosswalks with advanced stop bars for all crosswalks at the intersection of Laurel Road & Mercedes Lane.
• Modify the signal phasing to include leading pedestrian intervals at the Laurel Road/Mercedes Lane intersection to improve pedestrian visibility and reduce conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles.
• Install blank out “No Turn on Red” signage to increase pedestrian safety for the eastbound and southbound approaches at the Laurel Road/Mercedes Lane intersection. The blank out signs should be operational during school pick-up and drop-off hours.

For the last bullet, Staff notes that the recommended signage already exists for eastbound traffic. The condition will only require the signage be installed for the southbound approach

Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends the City Council approve the project titled, “McDonald’s Drive-Through Quick Serve Restaurant at Laurel Plaza Conditional Use Permit (CUP 03-20) and Design Review (DR 09-20),” as conditioned.

Full Staff Report on this item: Click here

Oakley City Council Meeting

• Tuesday, April 11, 2023
• 6:30 PM
• Oakley City Council Chambers
  3231 Main Street, Oakley, California 94561.
• Full Agenda + Staff Reports: Click here