(Aug. 3, 2004 initial 11 p.m., updated Aug 4, 2:45 a.m.) -- Capping a nearly five-hour hearing, the City Council voted 6-2 (Reyes Uranga and Gabelich dissenting, Richardson absent) to approve -- with over three dozen conditions -- LB's first permanent year-round homeless shelter in a vacant industrial building at 1368 Oregon Ave.

The Council chamber was filled for the hearing on the adults-only sleeping facility that will be operated by the Institute for Urban Research and Development (IURD), which run homeless facilities in Glendale and three other southern California cities.

In July, LB's Mayor-appointed, Council-approved Planning Commission approved granting an administrative use permit for the facility on a 4-2 vote (Sramek and Rouse dissenting)...and 19 individuals filed appeals, bringing the matter to the City Council.

The LB homeless shelter, which will not accept walk-in users, was supported by City Hall staff. The issue split boardmembers and others within the Magnolia Industrial Group...although the most prominent opponents of the facility were industrial area business owners and property owners who argued that the industrial area wasn't appropriate for a homeless shelter.

The hearing began at 5:42 p.m. with City Attorney Bob Shannon explaining the applicable law and Mayor Beverly O'Neill describing the procedures that would be followed.

1st district Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal, in whose district the facility is located, read a nine minute opening statement in support of the homeless facility. She stated in pertinent part:

City staff presentations in support of the homeless shelter followed.

Among the other appellants speaking were George Janich of the Magnolia Industrial Group; Jane Kelleher; Leonard Chudacoff; and Annie Greenfeld-Wisner, south Wrigley activist with the Neighborhood Advisory Group. The appellants concluded their presentations in roughly 55 minutes.

Shelter applicant IURD spoke...and illustrated their points by using the Council chambers visual projector to present slides and the like.

Mayor O'Neill explicitly offered the appellants an opportunity -- which is part of LB's Municipal Code hearing procedures but not often used -- to question those who'd spoken previously (city staff and the applicant). After a twenty minute recess to mull whether to exercise that right, Mr. Berns indicated his personal lawyer would ask some questions of the applicant and city staff.

The questions included asking LBPD Police Chief Anthony Batts (who hadn't spoken previously) if he had any concerns about the location of the facility. After being sworn (as were all who testified), Chief Batts said, "At this point in time, I don't see any information that shows me reason for concern. I think what is obvious from the constituents in that area is that they want a concentration of police enforcement. We are able to do that...As far as I hear from the information tonight, I am OK with the situation."

During the questioning, Dep. City Mike Mais suggested adding as a condition of approval a written waiver and acknowledgment by the property owner and its tenant IURG that if IURD ceases operation at the site, City Hall's approval of the homeless facility on the site would not automatically continue (that is, approval of a homeless shelter on the site would not run with the land). Mr. Mais indicated that both parties had previously agreed to this orally at the Planning Commission proceedings...and there were no objections to the condition indicated from the property owner or IURD at the Council hearing.

Mr. Berns wrapped up by stating, "Tonight's vote is not a vote on homelessness....We're voting on an operation and a site that's in an industrial area...and what we would ask you [is] to either deny this or to postpone it until you have good information and a good understanding and we have a plan for our whole city."

Two members of the Magnolia Industrial Group board indicated that their board members were split roughly 50-50 on the issue.

Veteran LB activist Joanne Weinhof O'Byrne quoted Emma Lazarus' words on the Statue of Liberty ("Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me...")

Councilwoman Lowenthal made the motion to deny the appeals and sustain the Planning Commission's determination approving the homeless shelter administrative use permit, with inclusion of a condition specifying the applicant and property owner's written waiver and acknowledgment voluntarily giving up their respective rights to have the requested administrative use permit run with the land.

8th district Councilwoman Rae Gabelich urged creation of a cohesive land use plan and noted that as a long time community activist she'd previously spoken at the podium on issues involving a lack of good City Hall planning. She urged creating a consortium of cities, a master plan for addressing homeless needs, a County project possibly located somewhere on County land, not focused on 59 people but a larger population of people that have needs. Councilwoman Gabelich said she favored having city staff (which indicated during the hearing that long term planning was being done) should go back and bring back the bigger picture...and address the global problem and "not just with band-aids" as it does so often.

Councilwoman Gabelich offered as a substitute motion a request to have staff take this back and wait for environmental studies and a health risk assessment to be complete, as well as encouraging staff to come up with a more cohesive program to address LB's homeless problem. City Attorney Shannon said this wasn't really a substitute motion, and the Council had to vote the requested administrative use permit up or down.

Vice Mayor Jackie Kell called for the question.

At the request of absent Councilwoman Laura Richardson, Mayor O'Neill read a statement on her behalf. Councilwoman Richardson's statement indicated she'd made attempts to continue (delay) the item and now urged laying item due to concerns over environmental issues and how conditions would be enforced. The Mayor indicated that she (the Mayor) believed several of the issues had been addressed at the hearing.

The Mayor then offered her own comments...that the proposal is for one year and "we have been trying very hard to find ways to work with the problem that we have in the city of Long Beach with the homeless. If you have an emergency, you don't say let's wait till we have a master plan...The things that we have talked about I think are extremely important, but I do feel that a band-aid is better than nothing to get us started and we have to take a step in the right direction."

Mayor O'Neill said the appellants "did an excellent job...and if there is the slightest thing that shows that there is a problem...it has to be taken care of immediately and I specifically am going to make sure that we pay attention to this."

Councilwoman Gabelich moved to continue the hearing for two weeks...which City Attorney Shannon ruled was a proper substitute motion. The substitute motion failed 3-5 (Yes: Gabelich, Reyes Uranga, Lerch; No: Lowenthal, Baker, Colonna, O'Donnell, Kell; Absent: Richardson).

The main motion to uphold the Planning Commission's approval of the homeless facility passed 6-2 (Yes: Lowenthal, Baker, Colonna, O'Donnell, Kell; No: Reyes Uranga and Gabelich; Absent: Richardson).

City staff's agendizing memo described the homeless shelter proposal as follows:

City staff's report said the site has undergone remediation work for removal of hexavalent chromium contaminated soil and received clearance from the CA Regional Water Quality Control Board for future industrial uses. Conditions of approval require the applicant to obtain approval from regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over remediation of contaminated sites with compliance with all directives of such agencies before obtaining permits to operate.