What Garden Grove’s Planning Commission is about to decide

The Garden Grove Planning Commission meets Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. at the Community Meeting Center, 11300 Stanford Avenue, with two public hearings — both on housing. These are pending decisions from the posted agenda packet — nothing below has been approved yet. Every item links to the official record.

Source: official agenda packet with staff reports (PDF) · Planning Commission page · Written comments: public-comment@ggcity.org by 3:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting

🏠 Public hearing: three new homes on Loara Street

• What the commission is asked to do: “Adopt Resolution No. 6150-26, approving Site Plan No. SP-178-2026 and Tentative Parcel Map No. PM-2025-119, subject to the recommended Conditions of Approval.” The request also includes “a front yard determination request to designate the private street frontage of Lot 3 as the front yard and Loara Street frontage as the street side yard,” and a finding that the project is categorically exempt from CEQA (Sections 15303 and 15315). The property owner is Saint John Loving Care, LLC; per the draft resolution, the case was initiated by an individual applicant with the owner’s authorization. Staff: Assistant Planner Zachary Hernandez, under Planning Services Manager Maria Parra. Item C.1
• The plan: the R-1 lot on the west side of Loara Street, north of Chapman Avenue, would become three lots of 11,932, 7,230 and 8,066 square feet (the zone minimum is 7,200), reached by a private street along the southern edge that would be its own fourth parcel, with four on-street parallel parking spaces, “No Parking” signs and a turn-around for trash trucks and emergency vehicles. Each lot would get a 3,789-square-foot, two-story home with an attached three-car garage and three open parking spaces, designed for “five (5) sleeping rooms.” Staff list a density of 3.61 units per acre against a code maximum of 11. Rear (north) elevations would use high clerestory windows and louvered slats on the private decks to meet the R-1 second-story privacy rules. An abandoned well parcel (APN 090-491-08) on the site would also be removed as part of the subdivision. Item C.1
• The property’s history, per the staff report: the site holds a two-story, 3,500-square-foot house with two detached accessory structures, built before the city incorporated. A 2006 approval for two homes on two 18,028-square-foot lots expired because a final parcel map was never recorded. The current owners bought the property in 2017. It “has an active code enforcement case for violations pertaining to landscape maintenance, storage of debris, storage of inoperable vehicles, and unsafe living conditions that originated in 2019”; the main residence was “Red Tagged” in September 2023 (a later section of the same report reads “September June 2023”), and a demolition permit for the house and both accessory structures was submitted in July 2026. Item C.1
• Housing-law findings: the site is on the city’s Housing Element Site Inventory with “a realistic capacity of one (1) above moderate-income unit”; because the project would build three above-moderate-income homes, staff say “No Net Loss” findings are not required. On replacement housing, the report says the property “has remained vacant, with the exception of unauthorized tenants without a lease agreement,” and that “with the unit unoccupied for at least five (5) years, there is no obligation for the applicant to provide a replacement affordable unit.” Item C.1
• Draft conditions include: recorded CC&Rs requiring every garage to keep room for three vehicles and barring garage conversions and garage rentals (unless otherwise permitted by law) and business activity or garage sales in garages; a homeowners’ association to resolve issues over the open parking spaces; a six-foot decorative masonry wall around the site and between lots; and traffic mitigation, in-lieu park, drainage facility and water assessment fees, with “the amount of said fees” to be “calculated based on the City’s current fee schedule at the time of permit issuance” — the packet states no dollar amounts. The site plan would become void if construction does not begin within two years after the appeal period ends. Item C.1

🏢 Public hearing: more time for a 53-unit apartment project on Choisser Road

• What the commission is asked to do: “Adopt Resolution No. 6152-26 approving a one year time extension” for Site Plan No. SP-120-2023 and Vesting Tentative Parcel Map No. PM-2021-206 for Investel Garden Resorts, LLC, the owner, on the west side of Choisser Road north of Twintree Lane. Per the agenda, “A California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) determination is not required as the project was previously exempted.” Per the staff report, “No changes are proposed to the previously approved project.” Item C.2
• The project: approved by the commission on February 16, 2023, it would consolidate four vacant parcels (28,793 square feet, 0.66 acres) into one lot “to facilitate the development of a six-story, 53 unit-residential apartment complex.” Per the staff report, “in exchange for reserving five (5) of the apartment units for very low-income households, the applicant qualified for density bonus, concessions, and waivers and reduced parking.” The attached 2023 staff report describes six affordable units — five for very low-income and one for low-income households. The site is “designated for the development of low-income housing in the General Plan Housing Element” and sits “immediately adjacent to the site of the future resort hotel development commonly referred to as the Site ‘C’ Project”; the 2023 report says the applicant is also the developer of the Site “C” Project. Item C.2
• Why an extension: the approvals took effect March 10, 2023 with a two-year life; Assembly Bill 2729 automatically added 18 months, to September 10, 2026. Per the staff report, “the grading and construction plans have been approved by the City, and are awaiting permit issuance pending the recordation of the vesting tentative parcel map,” which is in review with the County Surveyor’s Office. Staff find the request was filed before the approvals expired, that the site’s General Plan and zoning have not changed, and that no pending study would make the project nonconforming. Approval “will extend the expiration date of the land use entitlements by one-year to September 10, 2027.” Item C.2

🪑 Also on the agenda

• Approval of the minutes of the September 3, 2026 meeting. According to the draft minutes in the packet, with Commissioners Cueva, Flanders and Lindsay absent, the commission approved Resolution No. 6151-26 (Item for Consideration No. IFC-004-2026, non-binding design guidelines for the “Little Saigon” area) on a 3–1 vote — Beard, Laricchia and Ramirez in favor, Ashland opposed — and received and filed the August 20, 2026 minutes 4–0. Item B
• Oral communications, matters from commissioners and matters from staff. Items A, D, E
• This is the commission’s first meeting since September 3; the September 17 and October 1 regular meetings were cancelled, per the city’s notices.
• Roll call as printed on the agenda: Commissioners Ashland, Beard, Cueva, Flanders, Laricchia, Lindsay and Ramirez. The agenda does not list first names or designate a chair.

Council Brief summaries are produced from official public records by our automated newsroom and reviewed before publication. Items are described as posted; the council may amend, continue, or remove items at the meeting. Spot an error? hello@councilbrief.com — we publish corrections.