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Request to Deny Item 4.2 Conditional Use Permit No. 3117-20, ADT Office Expansion, 210 W. Baywood Avenue
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Susan Corrales-Diaz / Larry Pomatto
2200 North Glassell Street
Orange, CA 92865
Tel: 714/323-1871
June 11, 2020
City of Orange Planning Commission
Agenda for Monday, June 15, 2020
Subject: Item 4.2 Conditional Use Permit No. 3117-20, ADT Office Expansion, 210 W. Baywood Avenue
Dear Commissioners:
We reviewed your report and are expressing our concerns regarding this Conditional Use Permit and ask
that the City deny CUP No. 3117-20 for the following reasons.
You need to understand how things operate in this area which was negatively affected during ADT’s prior
occupancy of 210 Baywood. We have been the owners and occupant of 2200 North Glassell (Glassell) for
over 25 years. Glassell is a standalone office building that was constructed about 60 years ago with a very
high parking to building sq. ft. ratio (compared to current building requirements), so we have a sizable
parking lot compared to the adjacent properties, and have parking on 3 sides of our building. The primary
access to Glassell street runs along the south side of our property through our parking lot. To the north side
of our property / parking lot is an adjacent row of leased business offices that have limited parking in front
of their offices with roll up doors at the rear of each office. Behind us at 210 W. Baywood Avenue
(Baywood), is what was originally a manufacturing business in a standalone building, which had been
recently occupied by ADT. The back (west) side of the Glassell building contains the trash bins and
additional Glassell parking. Access from Glassell street to our Glassell building is via a driveway located
on the south side of our building. This street driveway enters into our Glassell parking lot which has turned
into the drive through access for: the front of the business offices next to us; all the delivery services to the
shipping bays at the back of the office buildings, and the access for the trash trucks. On the south side
adjacent to our property, is John Jory Corp’s building (JJ) at 2180 N. Glassell and their access driveway /
gate for the semi-trucks is parallel to our property. Attached is a hand drawn picture of our area to help
you better understand our concerns.
One of the biggest problems in this area is PARKING!! There is not enough parking for the row of leased
business offices when they are fully operational, so they illegally use our Glassell building parking spaces
and overflow along the street curb on Glassell.
The worst impact occurred when ADT moved into the 210 W. Baywood Avenue (Baywood) roughly 5
years ago. ADT had too many employees for the number of available parking spaces allotted to the
Baywood building so the parking overflow intensified. There is side door on the southeast side of the
Baywood building that opens into a flat drainage channel which ADT’s people used as a short cut walkway
to access their illegally parked cars in Glassell’s private parking lot and their cars parked along the street
curb on Glassell. (See red circle on the attached drawing).
Beyond the daily battle with ADT employees to not park in the Glassell lot, there was increased overflow
parking from the row of businesses beside the Glassell building into our private parking areas because they
were also impacted by ADT using their spaces. ADT company vehicles were parked in the Glassell parking
lot. ADT employees illegally parked their cars over the weekend in the Glassell parking lot. ADT people
parked along the curb behind our building (next to trash bins) making it difficult to access the parking stalls
Request to Deny Item 4.2 Conditional Use Permit No. 3117-20, ADT Office Expansion, 210 W. Baywood Avenue
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in the back of the Glassell office building. The ADT employees were also in competition for the spaces
along the curb on Glassell Street. ADT employees were regularly walking through the back of the Glassell
parking lot which is blind spot area for drivers turning the corner around the Glassell building.
There was a non-stop parking battle because the Baywood building had too many ADT people for the
limited number of parking spaces!
It was all getting ridiculous, so in the interest of being able to better control the Glassell private parking
area, we gave ADT authorization to use about 14 of the Glassell parking spots, but these were not enough
as the ADT people continued to park along the curb in the back of the Glassell building and along the street
curb on Glassell.
It was a relief when ADT finally moved out to another building in Anaheim by Fry’s Electronics over a
year ago – the daily parking problems left with them.
After reading your report, as the Baywood building is not being made any bigger, and there was such an
egregious parking problem with their existing parking space, allowing the owners of the Baywood building
to build additional office space without addressing the parking is going to make the old problem worse than
it was before!
The City’s report did not mention that ADT used some of the parking on the Glassell property as a relief to
their parking problem, but we will not consent to accepting this liability again. Nor did it state that the ADT
people also use the curb parking along Glassell street as overflow parking.
The City’s report did not identify the drainage ditch or the door on the south side of the Baywood building
which gives the ADT employees easy access to the Glassell building parking lots; the parking spaces in
front of the row of office buildings and street parking on Glassell. Besides the continual flow of ADT
employees walking through our parking lot, which was a nuisance, it also created a hazard.
The JJ building to the south of the Glassell building has their gate access for the semi-trucks adjacent to the
Glassell parking lot. These trucks, if they can’t safely park along the curb on Glassell street (because of all
the ADT and business offices parked cars), the trucks end up parking in the center of Glassell street until
they can get access to enter the JJ gate. The hazard becomes apparent as the semi-trucks, parked in the
middle of the street, block the view of traffic and made it almost impossible for anyone trying exist from
the south driveway of the Glassell building to turn north onto Glassell street and difficult to see traffic when
turning south. (Though the trucks may be doing this illegally, there is no enforcement).
These problems were virtually eliminated once ADT moved out of the Baywood building. These problems
did not exist when the Baywood building was a manufacturing operation with many fewer people.
We are requesting that the City of Orange deny this Conditional Use Permit. The area is mixed use, with
both manufacturing and office space and wherever there is office space, the parking requirements are
imposed and enforced. To allow an owner to change the parking density of an industrial building without
addressing the parking problems will result in overloading Glassell street and resume and intensify the
parking war in the Glassell’s building parking lots.
If the City would have gone to the site, they would have seen that the logical place for the overflow parking
would be along Glassell St. because of the back door of the Baywood building (located at the southeast
corner). The comments about using Baywood St. for extra parking reflects the fact that the City staff
reviewing the application never came to the building. Nor does the City understand the parking problems
caused during ADT’s previous occupation of the building. We had to deal with the parking problems caused
Attachment to Corrales-Diaz & Pomatto Protest of CUP No. 3117-20