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Density Decision Day Re SE LB: Council To Vote On SEASP City Staff-Proposed Bldg Height Increases; Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust Says They're Too High, Proposes Baseline Cap Land Use Approach
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Density Decision Day Re SE LB: Council To Vote On SEASP City Staff-Proposed Bldg Height Increases; Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust Says They're Too High, Proposes Baseline Cap Land Use Approach
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(Sept. 19, 2017, 7:45 a.m.) -- Later today (Sept. 19), the City Council is scheduled to cast a vote carrying long term consequences for SE LB as city staff proposes that the Council rezone a key portion of SE LB (in and around 2nd St/PCH) to allow developers to increase building heights and increase density.
City staff's agendizing memo is here with exhibits here and here.
City staff proposes, and LB's Mayor-chosen Planning Commission has recommended, that the Council approve allowing up to five story buildings instead of the current three stories in the red areas in the map above...but with up to seven stories possible (for a hotel) on up to 20% of the area on the west side of PCH north of 2nd St. (Marina Pacific area) where city staff's text indicates buildings with roughly 20% of project areas "may be considered" for the following:
Hotel or mixed use buildings containing hotel as a portion of their use, if it is demonstrated that significant community amenities are provided, above and beyond those that are required under the maximum height of five stories. Amenities can include plaza spaces, enhanced landscaping, public artwork, public parking, (See Section 5.7a Mixed Use Community Core height and FAR incentives.) Seven story buildings are intended to be an exception to the building massing for all structures within a project. The majority of the buildings within the Mixed-Use Community Core designations are intended to be constructed at or near the maximum base height. Building footprint of all buildings using seven stories cannot exceed 20% of the total acres in the MU-CC.
Page 70 of the SEASP 2060 document (Table 5-4 Building Story Requirements) also indicates that "Architectural features up to an an additional 10 feet may be approved by the Site Plan Review Committee."
[Scroll down for further.]
Mr. Warren Blesofsky, president of Citizens for Fair Development, appealed the Planning Commission's certification of the plan's EIR.
The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust isn't an appellant; it commends some elements of staff's proposal but says city staff's proposed building heights heights are too high and proposes a baseline cap, a land use approach it publicly proposed in June 2017 when SEASP came to the Planning Commission (reported in detail at the time by LBREPORT.com.)
Under a "baseline cap" or "interim baseline cap," the City would set a limit on increased density unless the now pending General Plan update process supports further increases in development. "The cap would remain in place unless the General Plan update process supports further increases in development density and intensity," writes attorney Doug Carstens. "Under an interim baseline cap, additional development density and intensity could be considered in the General Plan update subject to a policy requiring any additional development be conditioned on delivering 'community benefits.' The interim baseline cap would be the capacity of total allowable net new density and intensity for the SEASP area unless and until the General Plan process provides additional information, analysis and support for more development in the SEASP area" writes attorney Doug Carstens in a detailed Sept. 15 letter visible here.
City staff's initial June response to the concept of a baseline cap wasn't supportive. City staff has proposed (and LB's Mayor-chosen Planning Commission has recommended) what it calls a "reduced intensity alternative" that would enable increased building heights and density but to a lesser extent than City Hall-hired consultants initially proposed (which prompted community push-back.)
A Council majority will ultimately decide...and on district-impacting matters, Councilmembers tend to (but aren't required to) defer to the views of the Councilmember for the district. As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, at a Sept. 9 community meeting, Councilwoman Suzie Price voiced her then-stance on SEASP in non-specific terms: "I believe that the proposal that will be coming to Council from SEASP is a good one. I will be making some changes and modifications to it, but I will tell you that we have been at the table from day-one with our environmental advocates talking about the impact of the particular development or the proposed development on the surrounding environment and I think we're in a good place in coming up with an alternative that is lighter density than what was originally proposed."
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On its website, Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust Executive Director Elizabeth Lambe writes:
[LCWLT website text] Things we like that have been added to the plan include:
Native and drought tolerant landscaping, including a plant palette recommended by the Los Cerritos Land Trust, have been added.
A development and mitigation fund that would fund wetlands restoration is now a part of the proposed plan.
Audubon-Society-suggested bird-safe building measures are now included.
All of that is good. It really is. But development allowed under the current proposal will still be too dense for the limited development sites: the buildings are too high, putting bird safety at risk; the buffers between development and wetlands are too small, and public access plans for the area are uncertain.
Not to mention that the benefits for our community, as a result of approving this amount of new development, need to be more specific, including clear rules concerning wetlands and public open space protections.
To make the plan better and gain our approval, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust supports a few essential modifications to the proposed SEASP:
Further reduced density in the form of an "interim baseline cap" (and requiring additional traffic and other analyses and increased community benefits before that "cap" can be increased). The interim baseline cap would be the capacity of total allowable net new density and intensity for the SEASP area unless and until the General Plan process provides additional information, analysis and support for more development in the SEASP area. Specifically that means within the updated SEASP we could support the approval of 2,191,746 total square foot of retail space (which is 100,000 square feet over existing). 375 total hotel rooms (same as existing allowing for redevelopment of these rooms) and 5,079 total housing units, which is an increase of 1,000 over what currently exists). That seems like the right amount for such an important and sensitive area for now.
Lower building height limits, especially near sensitive wetlands and in flyway areas. Lower building heights are essential for bird safety in this important flyway between the ocean, Alamitos Bay and sensitive wetlands. The most essential and feasible mitigation to protect birds in the SEASP Area are lower building heights. Therefore, buildings above five-stories should be prohibited in the SEASP area and buildings adjacent to wetlands should not exceed 3 stories in height. Buildings within SEASP, must demonstrate that they do not interfere with - and ideally enhance - views of coastal resources, including the water, wetlands and natural areas and landforms. Buffer areas abutting wetlands must be robust and based on science.
Buffers on properties adjacent to wetlands must be a minimum of 100 feet in width, with buffers to remain as natural areas. Passive recreational uses, including bird watching, walking, jogging, and bike riding could be permitted beyond the 100-foot setback along the edge of parking or structures, but not within the wetlands buffers themselves. Public open space must be accessible and fully integrated into any new development. Usable open space within the new SEASP areas needs be a minimum of 20% of a development site and defined as "publicly usable open space." Therefore it should not include areas inaccessible to the public such as courtyards, balconies, decks, indoor gyms, and patios.
Furthermore, as new development is permitted, it should incorporate open space set aside for public access, not just to the wetlands but to the marina and Alamitos Bay also, creating an integrated system of walking, biking, and hiking routes and staging areas.
In June, city staff told the Planning Commission that traffic impacts were the "most common concern expressed by the public." It said the reduced intensity alternative "results in the least potential traffic increase between the existing PD-1 and SEASP. Through reductions in residential and particularly commercial development, the reduced intensity alternative results in impacts comparable to buildout with the existing PD-1 regulations."
Scenario
Trips (external)
Change from existing
Existing
65,741
--
Proposed
96,299
30,568
No Project (adopted PD-1)
86.564
20,833
Reduced Intensity Alternative
86,964
20,233
Under the "reduced intensity alternative," city staff predicts a capacity of 2,584 new dwelling units, an increased population of 4,018 persons and commercial employment of 307,071 sq. feet. The Planning Commission also approved an accompanying draft EIR that includes a "statement of overriding considerations" acknowledging that some environmental impacts of the SEASP rezoning, including traffic, will be significant but can't be feasibly mitigated.
Long-time locals say the area's current zoning (SEADP, adopted in late 1970s) was intended to protect SE LB's low-rise coastal zoning in exchange for allowing greater density downtown. Pro-development advocates argue that the city's SE gateway needs and deserves upgraded and more intense commercial activity. Others respond that 2nd/PCH is already LB's most congested intersection.
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Today's Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. at City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd. (and LBREPORT.com will video stream the proceedings LIVE on our front page.) The SEASP item is scheduled near the start of the Council meeting and, as a formal hearing, is supposed to occur at its time certain (caveat: it's unclear if Mayor Garcia can move them or may try to do so.)
Other items placed on the Sept. 19 agenda are also expected to draw large crowds, including proposed City actions to supplement SB 54's statewide immigration "sanctuary" actions and a proposal to grant additional protections/rights to workers at some LB hotels (sought by the politically active UnitedHere! union and opposed by the LB hospitality industry.) The latter two agenda items are co-agendized by four of LB's nine Councilmembers, require five votes for passage and six votes to override a veto if Mayor Garcia were to use it.
The Council's Sept. 19 vote on SEASP will (via an appeal or otherwise) ultimately go to the CA Coastal Commission, one of whose members is 7th dist. LB Councilman Roberto Uranga. Five of LB's nine Council incumbents (Gonzalez, Price, Mungo, Uranga and Richardson) plus Mayor Garcia (the latter with a veto but not a vote) will face voters in April 2018.
