City Hall Hired Consultants To Conduct "Community Workshop" Tonite (Dec. 11), Possible Details Of Their Proposals For SEADIP (SE LB) Zoning Revisions

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City Hall Hired Consultants To Conduct "Community Workshop" Tonite (Dec. 11), Possible Further Details On Their Proposals For SEADIP (SE LB) Zoning Revisions

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(Feb. 11, 2015) -- Tonight (Feb. 11), City Hall-hired consultants will conduct a "Community Workshop" -- 6:30 p.m., Best Western Golden Sails Hotel, 6285 E. PCH -- at which they may provide details of their previously described conceptual scenarios for updating and rewriting the Southeast Area Development and Improvement Plan (SEADIP), the 1977 zoning document governing land use and development in a key portion of SE Long Beach (map below).

At a December 10. 2014 final meeting of City Hall's appointed SEADIP Advisory Committee, the hired consultants indicated they consider scenarios "feasible" that would enable taller buildings and increased density in SEADIP's "Mixed-Use Community Core"...and are also studying the possible extension of Studebaker Rd. (bypassing 2nd/PCH traffic) across the Los Cerritos wetlands. The ultimate decisions will be made further in the process by a City Council majority and the CA Coastal Commission.

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Current SEADIP zoning map

Proposals for increased density have drawn push-back from some area residents who say SEADIP was created to retain and protect the area's low density and open space in exchange for inviting greater density downtown. Wetlands advocates strongly oppose an extension of Studebaker Rd. across the wetlands to PCH.

As previously reported by Joe Mello on LBREPORT.com, a December 10, 2014 meeting of City Hall's appointed SEADIP Advisory Committee was marked by controversy over these issues as well as the consultants' views of traffic impacts.

[LBREPORT.com coverage]...Unlike the October Advisory Committee meeting at which traffic consultant Jason Pack conceded there was no "silver bullet" for traffic impact, the consultants' December presentation included "internalization" statistics that envision with "amenities" in new developments, people would be less likely to use cars and thus make fewer trips in and out of the area...and made no reference to the October-cited statistics on traffic impacts of those developments. This change in focus was noted by three Advisory Committee members and acknowledged by facilitator Lewis Michaelson.
The statistics cited in October indicated that the SEADIP area currently produces 119,394 daily driving trips into and out of the area, a number that doesn't include trips that pass through the SEADIP area or currently proposed projects in the area. Mr. Pack's October report showed that each Scenario One development in the area would add 2% more daily trips to the current total; each Scenario Two mixed-use development in the area would add 1% more total trips; every Scenario Three project built would add 3% more daily trips; and every Scenario Four project built would add 5% to the current 119,934 daily trips.

A City Hall announcement says that at tonight's meeting "attendees will have the opportunity to receive current project information, and review and provide feedback on the proposed land use plan, alternative development scenarios, and design considerations." However at some previous consultant-conducted "workshops," members of the public were directed to comment at various tables ("stations") in small groups [a technique effectivekly preventing those with persuasive arguments from being heard by others or hearing the views of others.)

In a dispatch on the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust website, Exec. Dir. Elizabeth Lambe writes:

I'll be letting City staff and consultants running the meeting know that I still do not understand why they are studying the extension of Studebaker Road through Los Cerritos Wetlands. Not only would the road extension cause a great deal of harm to our fragile wetlands eco-system, but it would be illegal under the Coastal Act. We think this information is so important that we commissioned a memo on the issue which we shared with the City. The response we got back is that it is required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that projects in the current SEADIP area must be studied and their impacts measured. But we remain confused why that requirement seems to apply to the extension of Studebaker Road, which we know would be illegal under the Coastal Act, and not other projects or areas within SEADIP. Hopefully we will learn more about the City's thinking at the upcoming SEADIP updating workshop.

To view the consultants' Power Point from their Dec. 10, 2014 meeting, click here..

To view LBREPORT.com extended coverage of the previous meeting (Dec. 10, 2014), click here.