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Neighbors Advocate for Sunrise Village

by Carol Edmonston, Cynthia Gil-Santillan, Lynne Frutchey, Sam He, Wayne Lancaster, Teresa Lim, and Cathy Yang

As you may remember the City Council did not approve the original plans of 164 housing units on the site of Sunrise Village shopping center [Rosecrans and Euclid] at their December 7, 2021 meeting.

With a belief that Sunrise Center had the potential to become a valued neighborhood commercial site, City Council recommended the following to the developer:

1. Fine tune the plans and preserve as much of the commercial space as possible

2. Reduce the density of the overall project

3. Eliminate roof-top decks on all units, especially townhomes

4. Work on aesthetics to be more in sync with the neighborhood.

On January 19, several of us met with the developer William O’Malley (Shopoff Reality Investments) and City Development Interim Director Gregory Pfost to review the newly ‘revised’ plans.  Unfortunately, the recommendations by City Council did little to alter the proposal with the exception of reducing townhome density by only 11 units at the site where the Red Cross was located and turning that space into two retail/commercial units.  There were NO other changes of any significance made.

Our team continues to work closely with the existing businesses supporting all our efforts to revitalize and retain Sunrise Center as a much-needed commercial site. A number of businesses have been operating at the Center for decades. Dr. Cho and his veterinary practice have been there for 41 years and has thousands of clients.  Imperial Spa has invested millions in their business and has nearly 6,000 patrons. Elite Prep has been there for 12 years and serves students from Parks Jr. High and Sunny Hills High School.  Kumon caters to the younger students. And the list goes on.   The Dumpling House owner has successfully relocated his thriving business to Sunrise Center from Beach and Malvern because most of his clientele lived in our neighborhood. This is their livelihood and they have successfully made it through the worst of the COVID closures.

Some of the businesses in the Sunrise Village shopping center that could be displaced by the Pines housing development. Photo by Saskia Kennedy.

We will continue to keep you updated and let you know when the developer submits revised plans and provides the public with an opportunity to review the proposal BEFORE it goes to Planning Commission.

Along with all your continued support, we CAN make a difference.

The next Planning Commission meeting will be on March 30. Find more at http://www.cityoffullerton.com


3 replies »

  1. I completely agree that it should be updated
    with better outdoor / indoor dining Restaurants and keep the dog clinic there because my dog goes there and we love the care they give to our Dog.
    Already Uclid is packed and congested leading to all the surrounding Schools and Freeways so I can’t believe they would do this and make this worse for us plus to the neighborhood.
    The amount of parking per unit / single family home really 3 parking places per place is ridiculous that seems like a problem in itself you are cramming all these units and houses with no visitor parking and only three parking spots per place but you say it’s a family area and I don’t even know how families are going to park especially visitors let alone just the families not planned out well at all.
    The surrounding neighborhoods are gonna be so upset if they’re gonna flood out into all the neighborhoods because you’re only allowing three spots per home plus per townhome or condo so it is ridiculous the amount of units you’re planning there just piling / Stacking them in to a small area
    When it is a commercial Zoning to top it off.
    You have no Visitor parking what a Joke so
    What is the plan ????
    All are going to flood into the Existing neighborhoods bad poor planning.
    This isn’t comparable to the Existing homes now at all and if anything was to change it should be like the track homes existing single family houses spaced out with decent backyards and decent parking not congested like they want to do and not over build with a Congested over building Units so ridiculous really

  2. One has to question the recent purchase of this property by its buyer if it was its intent all along to redevelop the property into homes from the get go? Have to believe that was the case. Why are they being allowed by the City Council to possibly move forward so quickly with re-purposing the property instead of spending money on updating the property so soon into their ownership of this zoned retail property?

    Shouldn’t there be a minimum amount of time a property owner has to own a property before they can just up and try to change what the property has been zoned for all the time prior to their purchasing it?

  3. We got empty lots here in West Fullerton. What used to be Zakie Market/F&M Bank (on the Orangethorpe/Pacific intersection) needs to be bought and developed. Same with the former lot of Taqueria El Rancho restaurant on Brookhurst. Too many empty places for bums sneak into and turn into piss’n’poop lots.