San Gabriel : Commercial Condos OKd

The city’s first proposed commercial condominium project was approved on appeal Tuesday after the developers affirmed that they had not changed their original plans for the shopping center.

Conditions set by the City Council on Tuesday require the 44-unit building, already under construction at 1039 E. Valley Blvd., to include a restaurant and major anchor store on the second floor as approved last spring.

In October, the Planning Commission shot down the developer’s request to subdivide the property when it appeared that the plan replaced the restaurant and store with offices and had more office space and less parking on the 2.6-acre lot.

In appealing that decision, the developers, Gold World Partners, asserted that the plans had not changed from those the commission approved in March.

The project prompted the Planning Commission to recommend an emergency ordinance that would have placed special regulations, such as minimum unit size, on such developments, but the council rejected the measure in October.