210-Unit Apartment Complex Gets Murrieta Planning Commission OK

MURRIETA, CA — A project that proposes to bring an apartment complex to 14.4 acres at the northeast corner of Washington Avenue and Nutmeg Street — kitty-corner from the Ralphs shopping center — has received unanimous approval from the Murrieta Planning Commission.

During the Jan. 26 Planning Commission meeting, the commissioners gave a green light to certify the Final Focused Environmental Impact Report and approve a development plan for the Nutmeg Apartments project.

The development calls for 210 apartments within 17 buildings — 13 structures would be two-stories tall, while four would be three-stories high. The taller buildings would be located in the center of the complex, according to city staff.

The apartments would be leased at “market-rate” rent, and would not be low income, according to the city. There would be 88 one-bedroom, 88 two-bedroom, and 34 three-bedroom units.

A total of 446 onsite parking spaces would be built. There would no parking along Washington Avenue and Nutmeg Street, and two gated entrances/exits for the complex would be built, one on each street, according to the city.

Among the complex's amenities would be a pool, children’s playground, barbeque areas with picnic tables, a dog park, and bocce ball courts.

The development would obstruct the views for some residents in neighboring single-family homes. The project calls for landscaping to help hide the buildings, and shielded lighting to diffuse nighttime glare that would come from the complex, according to city staff.

In 2005, the same applicant received approval for a similar project at the exact location. That project contained the same number of apartment units spread across 23 one- and two-story buildings. Due to the recession that followed the approval, the property wasn't developed.

The property owners/developers are cousins MJ Winer and Barton L. Buchalter. The duo is behind nearly a dozen apartment comumnities in Southwest Riverside County, including the Crescent Heights project at 40800 Sunflower Road.

The lot for the Nutmeg Apartments has been zoned through the city since 1999 as multi-family residential. A nearby resident who lives on Black Bear Court argued that apartments were never part the general plan for her neighborhood. However, Nutmeg Apartments Project Manager Andrew Dixon contended that when that resident closed sale on her home in 2000, the nearby project property was already zoned multi-family residential.

The state's Housing Accountability Act ties the city's hands in some ways. Among other things, the act prohibits the city from disapproving, or putting unreasonable conditioning on a housing development project for very low, low-, or moderate-income households unless the city makes "specified written findings based upon substantial evidence in the record."