Politics & Government

Really Big U-Haul Gets OK to Move In

A $10 million project will change the face of Jeronimo Road between Orange and Cherry avenues.

By Martin Henderson, originally posted at 2:44 a.m.

The corner of Jeronimo and Orange is about to get a facelift so extreme, it will make Joan Rivers jealous.

U-Haul, the do-it-yourself moving giant, received approval Wednesday night from the Lake Forest planning commission to construct a $10 million, three-story project on the site currently occupied by a nursery. 

With commission chair Tim Hughes and commissioner Jerry Zechmeister absent, planning commissioners voted 3-0 in favor of allowing U-Haul to build a 115,327-foot self-storage facility with equipment and truck rental services on the location a block from El Toro Road. With the approval, principals said property owner Shawn Kelter and the U-Haul team will close a sale of the property before the end of business on Friday.

Commissioners Andrew Hamilton, C.J. Brower and vice chairman Jerry Verplancke admitted they had a tough time conceptualizing what 14 vehicles—from the 26-foot truck to the smaller car tow dollies—would look like showcased in front of the building.

But U-Haul was amenable to Hamilton's suggestion that it reach out to neighbors across the street concerned about the appearance and that it create a lush landscape along Jeronimo Road with mature trees that would reduce the building's visibility from local residences. That would mean providing more than the four trees U-Haul intended to plant along the streetscape in 35- to 65-foot increments.

"This is Lake Forest," Hamilton said. "We're the city of trees."  

Seated near the front of the audience, U-Haul honchos nodded in agreement as Hamilton spoke of the property, which is a block south of El Toro Road.

U-Haul principal planner Michael Benning indicated it grows shrubs to a height of two feet and trims trees below 14 feet to provide a 12-foot viewing window under the canopy, and noted the building and the equipment serve as the company's only advertising. Commissioners indicated an artist rendering depicting the scene with all the equipment showcased in the viewing area would have been helpful.  

They were deciding whether to replace the airiness of the nursery site with a 115,327 square feet behemoth, along with a one-story second building of 6,280 square feet. However, the three-story building—which occupies a footprint of more than 37,000 square feet and is about 200 feet by 200 feet—will be set back 90 feet from Jeronimo Road; it will rise only 22 feet above street level.

Comments from the public were largely opposed to the project, with residents saying it will block the second story view from their own homes of Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel, and that it will create sound pollution from its operation and from the ricochet of vehicle noise on Jeronimo. 

The U-Haul camp, particularly Kelter, argued that it fits the guidelines of what the area was zoned for, light industrial, and that the alternatives could be far worse. 

Hamilton stressed the importance of planting mature trees to soften the impact on the adjacent neighborhood, calling it the "neighborly" thing to do.

Residents can also expect the front of the site will become a no parking zone to prohibit customers from parking the trucks on the street. 

"It's a very good looking building, one of the best U-Hauls I've ever seen," said John Behrens, owner of an apartment complex whose tenants will be looking at the structure. "But some of the issues that will affect my tenants is the noise, increased traffic with the trucks, and the size of that building is going to act as a reflective wall. I can't imagine what kind of volume level that will have." 

But at the end of the night, per Hamilton's suggestion that the company build a bridge with the locals, Behrens was passing contact information to U-Haul's Benning, and vice-verse. 

The moving giant was ready to move forward.


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