The ELB Long Beach location was originally a popular Broadway location. As LBREPORT.com reported last month. the Transformco owned ELB KMart at Bellflower/Spring will be closing effective April 18.

While immediate speculation centers on possible future tenants, others are mindful of potential future impacts of land use bills now percolating in Sacramento If enacted in their present form (caveat: bills are commonly amended in the legislative process) some may invite future housing in ELB locations long treated as commercial and basically maintained that way in the City's 2017-18 Land Use Element revision.

As one example, SB 6 (whose principal co-authors include State Senator Lena Gonzalez [D, LB-SE LA County] would deem a housing development project an allowable use on a "neighborhood lot" it defines as a parcel within an office or retail commercial zone (not adjacent to an industrial use.) Last year, a predecessor to SB 6 (SB 3107) cleared the state Senate came within one Assembly Committee vote of advancing toward an Assembly floor vote and possible enactment. SB 6 as currenty written would apply to locations that allow mixed uses (commercial + residential) and the Kmart/Sears sites are currently zoned commercial...but a City Council majoority could make land use/zoning changes or Sacramento lawmakers could amend SB 6, or both.

The City of Long Beach took no position on SB 3107; letting it advance without City opposition (by city staff or any Councilmembers.)

SB 15 (by another author) would provide incentives (grants) to local governments that rezone idle sites used for a big box retailer or a commercial shopping center to instead allow the development of workforce housing "by right." SB15 defines "workforce housing" to mean owner-occupied or rental housing development in which 100 percent of the development project’s total units are for lower income or moderate-income households.

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