Toll Brothers Apartment Living went back to the drawing board to address community feedback on its proposed Victoria Boulevard Apartments project following an informational meeting on April 25.
After residents raised concerns over the density of the project, which proposed 349 units on the site of the former Capistrano Unified School District Bus Yard, and building height of three- and four-story stacks along Victoria Boulevard, Toll Brothers Regional Director Michael McCann explained that the development company reworked the project to address community input.
“Over the last several months, we’ve been hard at work redesigning the plans for the new community proposed for Victoria Blvd. on the Capo Unified School District school bus yard. The changes come in response to community feedback about density and building heights,” McCann said in an email.
The new plan proposes 306 units on the 5.5-acre site for a density of roughly 55.6 units per acre. The height of the buildings along Victoria Boulevard were reduced to two- and three-story stacks, to be consistent with the fire station across the street, according to the Toll Brothers update letter.
The previous design for the project with 349 units included 15% or 54 affordable units. The new design continues to propose 15% affordable units, though with the total decrease of 43 units, the new design proposes 46 affordable units.
Because the project’s previous Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was considered sufficient for the new 306-unit plan, Toll Brothers will not need to recirculate the report for public comments.
However, Toll Brothers ran the Vehicle Miles Traveled Traffic Study again and determined that the results were consistent with the previous study, the company explained. Toll Brothers noted that a section will be added to the final EIR, documenting the revision to the traffic study and noting why the findings are still consistent.
The bus lot, which is owned by CUSD, was highlighted by the district as a surplus property in 2018 that it could lease to generate funds for facility improvements. Funds from the ground lease payment are earmarked for use at Dana Hills High School.
“We’ve been working tirelessly with city staff, Capo Unified and members of the community on this project to find a way to balance public input with the need to provide affordable housing, funding for public improvements in Doheny Village and funding for capital improvements for Dana Hills High School,” McCann said. “The project now checks all those boxes.”
“The $40 million generated through this unique ground lease agreement with the Capo Unified School District will benefit Dana Point students for generations to come,” McCann continued. “We’re really proud of what we’ve come up with and hope our neighbors and the city agree.”
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