Chino council keeps utility undergrounding rule on two Riverside Drive housing projects, approves 210 rental units on appeal
In two 5-0 votes on Sept. 1, the City Council refused to waive a requirement to bury overhead power lines for a 100-home project and a 210-unit rental project, while approving the larger project after a Planning Commission deadlock.
The Chino City Council voted 5-0 twice on Sept. 1 to keep a requirement that developers of two housing projects on Riverside Drive put existing overhead utility lines underground.
Both developers had appealed, asking that the requirement be waived as a concession under the state Density Bonus Law. The action record posted on Legistar shows all five council members voting yes on each resolution.
100 for-sale homes at Magnolia Avenue
Resolution No. 2026-056 denied the appeal for a 100-unit for-sale project at the southwest corner of Riverside Drive and Magnolia Avenue, at 6033 and 6041 Riverside Drive. Council Member Christopher Flores made the motion and Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Burton seconded it.
The staff report says planning commissioners approved it June 17 on a 4-1 vote and kept the undergrounding condition. The project sits on 3.76 acres and includes 10 deed-restricted homes for moderate-income households.
The meeting record identifies Warmington Residential as representing the applicant.
210 rental units at Mountain Avenue
Resolution No. 2026-057 granted the second appeal in part. It approved the site approval application for a 210-unit rental project at the northwest corner of Riverside Drive and Mountain Avenue, at 6210 Riverside Drive, and denied the request to drop the undergrounding condition.
Burton made that motion and Council Member Karen C. Comstock seconded it.
The staff report says the Planning Commission took up the project June 17 and that three motions to approve it each failed 3-3, leaving it neither approved nor denied. The plan calls for 25 residential buildings of two and three stories, plus a recreation building, on about 7.9 acres, with 21 units restricted to lower-income households.
The record identifies the applicant as BCT Development.
The dispute
Both sites are among 91 Affordable Housing Overlay sites created through the housing element the council adopted in December 2024, the staff reports say.
Because 10% of the units in each project are deed-restricted, each qualified for a density bonus plus a single concession. Each applicant asked to use that concession to leave the overhead lines in place.
City staff recommended against it. The reports say underground lines are less exposed to vehicle crashes, wind and falling limbs, and that protective measures such as barriers or relocated poles would not adequately address those risks.
The reports say the applicants argued the city had not made the finding state law requires before a concession can be refused, that it would cause a specific adverse effect on health and safety.
The meeting record lists written comments on both items from representatives of the state Department of Housing and Community Development, the Building Industry Association of Southern California, California for Home Ownership and the California Housing Defense Fund, among others. The record does not summarize their content.
On the Mountain Avenue project, the staff report says residents told the Planning Commission they were concerned about traffic near Cortez Elementary School and the adjacent Northgate Market. Conditions of approval include signal work and a southbound right-turn pocket at Mountain Avenue and Riverside Drive.