Hearing Delayed On Studebaker/Loynes Mitigated Neg Dec To Demolish Tanks & Create Vehicle Storage; Document Will Be Recirculated w/ Add'l Info On Proposed Vehicle Storage Use
(Dec. 29, 2009) -- LBReport.com has learned that Planning Commission action on a city staff-proferred Mitigated Negative Declaration for a project to demolish tanks and create a vehicle storage use at 400 Studebaker Rd (at Loynes Dr.) won't occur on Jan. 7 because staff plans to recirculate the document with additional information on the vehicle storage use proposed by the applicant (Studebaker LB LLC, a Tom Dean entity).
Source: Released Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Decl
LBReport.com has learned that city staff requested further information from the applicant concerning the proposed vehicle storage use...and staff plans to include the information in a revised Mitigated Negative Declaration that will be recirculated for public response, likely later in January.
City staff will eventually bring the Mitigated Neg Dec to LB's non-elected (Mayor chosen, Council approved) Planning Commission for a hearing (with public testimony) and voted action.
As first reported by LBReport.com, Mr. Dean's LLC has ceased pursuit of a retail development at the site (which would have required some rezonings) and is pursuing a conforming use. The property's IG zoning permits a wide variety of industrial uses.
From LB's Municipal Code:
General Industrial (IG). The General Industrial (IG) district is considered the City's "industrial sanctuary" district where a wide range of industries that may not be desirable in other districts may locate. The emphasis is on traditionally heavy industrial and manufacturing uses. The IG district is intended to promote an "industrial sanctuary" where land is preserved for industry and manufacturing, and where existing industries are protected from non-industrial users that may object to the operating characteristics of industry. Performance standards still must be met, but the development standards are the minimum necessary to assure safe, functional, and environmentally-sound activities.
The IG district includes uses such as large construction yards with heavy equipment, chemical manufacturing plants, rail yards, and food processing plants. The buildings that house these operations may be older industrial buildings retrofitted to accommodate the use, or new state-of-the-art manufacturing plants. As is the case with all the industrial districts, the focus of the IG district is on the operating characteristics of the use, rather than the particular product created.
There are multiple uses consistent with the current IG zoning. City staff has previously indicated to LBReport.com that in general, a property owner could change an initially proposed use to some other use consistent with the IG zoning...but depending on the type of use proposed, additional city staff (and possibly public) review may be required.
Studebaker LB, LLC had previously proposed to use the site at 400 Studebaker Rd. at Loynes Dr. for a retail development anchored by Home Depot which would have required rezonings. That use was opposed by the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust and the University Park Estates Neighborhood Association, which filed a court legal action challenging the retail development's EIR (which was certified on a 6-3 Council vote with Schipske, O'Donnell, Gabelich dissenting).
Some had speculated that if approvals for the retail development were denied, the landowner might move forward with industrial uses such as cargo container storage; opponents of the retail development dismissed that at the time as a scare tactic.
The site is across the street from the University Park Estates neighborhood and the Los Cerritos Wetlands and is a bit south of a residential neighborhood on the east side of Studebaker Rd. (north of the 22 freeway)...and is within sight of the privately gated Bixby Hill and a CSULB-adjacent residential neighborhood. It is just north of the eastern end of 2nd St, the gateway to Naples and Belmont Shore's Second Street.
