Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan

Placentia is a city with a rich heritage and a promising future. Building on the success of Old Town Placentia and the Transit-Oriented Packing House Districts, which have enabled new mixed-use development and will benefit from the forthcoming Metrolink station, the City continues its momentum with the Chapman Corridor. As the western gateway to Placentia and its civic and historic districts, the revitalization of Chapman Avenue presents a unique opportunity to create a welcoming, connected, and vibrant entry point for both residents and visitors.

To support this vision, the City has developed specially tailored standards and design guidelines aimed at enhancing the corridor's character, supporting responsible development, and encouraging long-term investment. A key focus of the plan includes improving the public realm to support walkability, multimodal travel, and high-quality urban design.

Please refer to the FAQs below for answers to frequently asked questions and concerns raised by the community. Additional information regarding the project's background, boundaries, public outreach efforts, and the draft Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan can be found following the FAQ section.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan?

The Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan is a long-term vision and strategic planning effort to enhance the Chapman Avenue corridor between Placentia Avenue and Kraemer Boulevard. The Plan aims to guide future development, improve transportation and walkability, support economic growth, and preserve the corridor's unique character.

2. Is the City planning to use Eminent Domain?

Absolutely not. The City of Placentia is not, and will not, pursue eminent domain as part of the Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan. Any future development or improvements envisioned under the plan will be based entirely on voluntary participation, cooperative partnerships, and incentive-based programs. The City is committed to respecting private property rights and ensuring that no property will be taken or condemned through force or mandate.

3. Why is this plan being developed?

The Chapman Avenue corridor is centered around Chapman Avenue, a critical east-west arterial in Placentia. It currently has a mix of aging commercial centers, underutilized parcels, and limited pedestrian related infrastructure. The City initiated the plan to:

4. Will this plan lead to gentrification or displacement?

No. The City of Placentia is firmly committed to ensuring that the Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan does not result in the displacement of existing residents or businesses. Equitable development is at the core of this effort. The Plan will include specific, proactive tools designed to protect and uplift current community members-not push them out.

5. What type of improvements are being considered?

The plan is proposing to include:

6. How does this affect my property?

For property owners, the plan is proposed to:

No private property will be redeveloped without property owner's consent, proper noticing and public input. Property rights will be respected throughout the process.

History

Placentia, Latin for "a pleasant place, has retained a small-town image that has remained since settlers arrived more than 100 years ago. After it was incorporated in 1926, Placentia was known as the "baby city" on account of its status as the smallest in Orange County. Like many other Orange County towns, Placentia has been transformed from an agricultural area, where residents worked their own land, into a bedroom community where most residents leave the city for work. Placentia experienced several transformative changes that ended Placentia's orange-packing businesses ranging from a citrus disease that wiped out a majority of the orange groves to a period of exponential population growth in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.

Oil also played a part in Placentia's history. The Union Oil Co. discovered oil in 1919 on C.C. Chapman's land in northeast Placentia, and Samuel Kraemer, Daniels' son, also found oil on his property. This led to Placentia's first initial population boom.

The City of Placentia has remained a bedroom community until a golden opportunity presented itself in the form of a new Metrolink station adjacent to the City's town center in Old Town Placentia. The station is to be located near Melrose Street and Crowther Avenue, just east of the Orange Freeway (SR-57). This new station will be the 13^th station on the Metrolink 91/Perris Valley Line, which runs from Los Angeles' Union Station to Downtown Riverside and then further east to Perris. Metrolink expects an initial ten daily train trips and 530 daily passengers to use the station when it opens. An estimated 350 vehicles are expected to park within a proposed parking structure located adjacent to the station. The positive effect of Metrolink passengers and the convenience of living near a train station provides a foundation for the revitalization of the City's historic core. Leveraging this significant asset to transform this area into a transit-oriented destination was at the heart of the vision for the establishment of the TOD "Packing House District" along Crowther Avenue, including forging a development pathway from the city's westerly boundary on Chapman Avenue to the Old Town core and then the Metrolink station.

Background

If Old Town Placentia and the Packing House District serve as the proverbial hook and line, it is lacking a sinker in Chapman Avenue to attract greater patronage to these districts. In recent years there has been little notable development along Chapman Avenue. Land uses are comprised of mostly postwar developments described as single- and two-story residential and commercial structures. The Chapman corridor contains a patchwork of land uses developed during different development booms from the 1920s through the 1980s. This one mile, stretch of thoroughfare between Placentia Avenue and the City of Fullerton's easterly border and Kraemer Avenue and the City of Placentia Civic Center and Library, encompass approximately 55 acres of land primed for adaptive reuse and further economic investment with the primary goal of revitalizing and reimagining development along Chapman Avenue.

Objectives and Goal

City staff is seeking the revitalization of the Chapman Corridor with development standards and design guidelines that are specially tailored to their immediate neighborhood. A stretch of corridor that allows for integrated land use patterns that encourages multimodal travel, walkability, mixed-use development, high-density residential, public/private open space opportunities, and high-quality urban design that is in scale with a respective property and its surrounding area. The goal is to encourage a network of cohesive developments that revitalizes the corridor, provides a path to the Old Town and Packing House Districts, and anchor the westerly city boundary with the City's Civic Center.

On October 1, 2019, City Council adopted the comprehensive General Plan Update. This update included all Elements of the General Plan except the Housing Element, which was adopted as part of the required 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocations in March 2022, and will come before this City Council as an amended document. The Land Use Element of the 2019 General Plan strongly encourages enhancements and improvements to the visual image, physical design characteristics, economic vitality, and infrastructure of the Chapman corridor.

Chapman Corridor Existing Conditions Story Map

Click here to visit the Chapman Corridor Existing Conditions Story Map: https://tinyurl.com/ChapmanCorridor. This resource provides a visual snapshot and narrative of Chapman Corridor today - how land is used, what surrounds the Plan Area, how residents get around, how the economy functions, and how the City's physical form impacts development. The information presented in this Story Map is intended to establish a shared understanding of these important characteristics to highlight what we can build from and what we need to address in the revitalization of the Chapman Corridor.

Public Outreach

ln-person outreach opportunities are planned in an effort to inform this process. The city will be coordinating a variety of outreach efforts that will be disseminated to the public at large, including property owners, business owners, and stakeholders. These outreach efforts will be provided via fliers, the City's website, and social media as a means of engaging the community. Such scheduled outreach efforts will be noted below through the course of the development of the Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan. These efforts are noted below as follows:

CHAPMAN CORRIDOR UPDATES
DATE & TIME	EVENT	LOCATION
Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at 7:00 pm	City Council Meeting - Study Session to review Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan (CCRP) progress	City Council Chambers, 401 E. Chapman Avenue
Thursday, March 30, 2023 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm	Public Meeting to inform the community about the project and gain initial ideas	Edwin T. Powell Building, 143 S. Bradford Avenue
March 30, 2023 - July 10, 2023	Online Survey - Provide feedback on what you want to see in the proposed plan (86 responses received)	English Survey https://arcg.is/0qn1Ci0 Encuesta en Espanol https://arcg.is/1mTO0z0
Ongoing	Additional Outreach Efforts	Summer Concerts, Oldtown Placentia Meetings, CA Weekly Articles, City Website Spotlight, & Social Media Posts
Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 7:00 pm	City Council Meeting - Study Session to provide final policy direction on the CCRP	City Council Chambers, 401 E. Chapman Avenue
Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 6:30 pm	Planning Commission Meeting - Study Session to provide a status update with the plan and gather additional input	City Council Chambers, 401 E. Chapman Avenue
Tuesday, July 8, 2025 at 6:30 pm	Planning Commission Meeting - A public hearing will be held to review and consider a recommendation of approval for the Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan. The Planning Commission will evaluate the proposed plan and determine whether to forward a recommendation of approval to the City Council for consideration at a future meeting.	City Council Chambers, 401 E. Chapman Avenue

The intent of the in-person events will be to facilitate friendly and casual interactions while gaining valuable input for this project.

For result of the Chapman Corridor Survey, please click on the following link Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan Survey Summary.

Progress

For additional information regarding the progress of the proposed Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan (CCRP), you may refer to the most recent City Council Agenda Report presented to the City Council on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. This report provides a detailed overview of the CCRP's development, objectives, and implementation strategy.

City Council Study Session

Both the PowerPoint presentation and the draft CCRP document are available via hyperlink for public review. These materials offer further insight into the vision, goals, and proposed actions outlined within the plan.

Planning Commission

The Draft CCCRP will be presented to the City of Placentia Planning Commission on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. for review and consideration. Following Planning Commission review, the Draft CCRP is tentatively scheduled to be presented to the City Council for further consideration and potential adoption at its first or second regular meeting in September 2025.

A copy of the Draft CCRP proposed for Planning Commission consideration is available for public review below.

Click on the image below to open and view the full document.

Should you have any questions regarding the status or progress of the Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan, please feel free to contact the Development Services Department at (714) 993-8124.

The Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan is a long-term vision and strategic planning effort to enhance the Chapman Avenue corridor between Placentia Avenue and the Kraemer Boulevard. The Plan aims to guide future development, improve transportation and walkability, support economic growth, and preserve the corridor's unique character.

The Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan is a long-term vision and strategic planning effort to enhance the Chapman Avenue corridor between Placentia Avenue and the Kraemer Boulevard. The Plan aims to guide future development, improve transportation and walkability, support economic growth, and preserve the corridor's unique character.

The Chapman Corridor Revitalization Plan is a long-term vision and strategic planning effort to enhance the Chapman Avenue corridor between Placentia Avenue and the Kraemer Boulevard. The Plan aims to guide future development, improve transportation and walkability, support economic growth, and preserve the corridor's unique character.