Density Watch / Coming To Planning Comm'n: Developer Seeks, City Staff Supports, Increasing Residential Units By Roughly 42%, While Increasing Parking Roughly 16%, In 35-Story Planned Eastern Tower At Ocean/Alamitos

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(Oct. 17, 2016) -- Will LB's non-elected (Mayor-chosen, Council-approved) Planning Commission approve a 42% increase in residential units within a previously-approved site plan for a 35-story downtown high rise at Ocean Blvd./Alamitos Ave. that proposes to increase on-site parking by roughly 16.5%?

From Exhibit B to Planning Comm'n agenized item.

The item -- scheduled for Planning Commission considering on Thurs. Oct. 20 at 5 p.m. -- comes roughly six weeks after residents in adjoining Alamitos Beach urged the Council to budget a professionally conducted comprehensive parking plan in FY17...but received no voted budget support from their recently-elected 2nd district Council representative, Jeannine Pearce (or any other Councilmembers.)

[Scroll down for further.]

The Oct. 20 agenda item seeks Planning Commission approval to modify City Hall's previous Site Plan Review to support a request by Shoreline Development Partners, LP to increase the number of residential units for an eastern tower -- roughly twice the height of a previously approved western tower -- at the NW corner of Ocean/Alamitos.

Exhibit B to Planning Comm'n agenda item

The western tower (17 stories, 223 residential units) opened earlier this year; the eastern 35 story tower was approved in 2007 for 221 residential units plus 6,367 sq. ft of retail/restaurant space but hasn't been built. The developer wants to increase residential units in the eastern tower by 42% by adding 94 residential units to the previously approved 221 residential units for a total of 315 residential units. The developer also requests, and city staff also supports, a roughly 5.4% increase in retail/residential area to 6,711 sq. ft from previously approved 6,367 sq. ft.

Accompanying these changes, the developer proposes, and city staff supports, increasing parking by roughly 16.5% from 393 spaces to 458 spaces and increasing the subterranean garage from two to five stories.

The item comes roughly five weeks after Alamitos Beach area residents urged the City Council to include in the City's FY17 budget a sum sufficient to conduct a comprehensive, professionally prepared parking plan. The residents testified that the 2012 Council-approved high-rise-density-promoting "Downtown Plan" (championed by their recently-exited 2nd Council dist. representative Suja Lowenthal with voted support by then-Councilman/now Mayor Robert Garcia) was supposed to deal with parking but, they said, hasn't been implemented.

Alamitos Beach area residents testified that they're now forced to cruise city streets for lengthy periods to find a parking space at the end of their work day, an issue they said makes the City less desirable for development and less competitive than it should be.

The Alamitos Beach residents urged the Council to budget FY17 sums for a professionally prepared parking study. The residents attended and testified at both the Council's Sept. 6 Budget Oversight Committee (Mungo, Austin, Supernaw) and at the full Sept. 6 City Council's budget meeting but received no voted support from their newly elected 2nd dist. Councilmember (and Lowenthal-endorsee) Jeannine Pearce.

In 2007, the Council approved an Ocean/Alamitos Shoreline Gateway Master Plan but the area is now within the 2012 Council-approved "Downtown Plan" area which invites increased density.

City staff is requiring the developer to provide 1.25 parking spaces per dwelling unit and 1 space per thousand feet of retail/restaurant (in this case 6.7 spaces) amounting to 458 parking spaces, 60 in tandem, and gives the developer an allowance for guest spaces that can be used to satisfy some required retail parking spaces. "Given this, the project exceeds the code requirement by 63 spaces," a city staff agendizing memo states visible in full here. "The tandem spaces are considered excess and will be required to be solely used and assigned for residential units only," city staff adds.

In 2007, a previous Council already approved the building's height and exterior; the developer-sought/city staff-supported changes are inside the 35 story tower. from 6,367 sq. ft to 6,711 sq. ft. The tower's residential units would consist of studios, one and two bedrooms and lofts, with sizes from 500 sq. ft. to 2,097 sq. ft with an "average" size of 900 sq. ft. Further details are in this agendized exhibit.

City staff prepared an EIR Addendum (on which the Planning Commission will also vote) concluding that "[A]lthough the proposed project could have a significant effect on the environment, because all potential significant effects (a) have been analyzed adequately in an earlier EIR or NEGATIVE DECLARATION pursuant to applicable standards, and (b) have been avoided or mitigated pursuant to that earlier EIR or NEGATIVE DECLARATION, including revisions or mitigation measures that are imposed upon the proposed project, nothing further is required." (To view the EIR addendum, click here.