State law requires Seal Beach to select a site where a homeless shelter could be built.
At this time, no one has submitted a project and a shelter need not necessarily be developed. However, if the city does not designate a site, it could lose grant money and the authority to control local land use.
The Accurate Storage area, located near the Seal Beach Police Department and the adjacent, gated neighborhood of Heron Point, is one site under consideration for rezoning to allow emergency shelters. The Seal Beach City Council is expected to take a look at the issue soon, as well as low and moderate-income housing. Meanwhile the deadline for adopting a Housing Element is in October.
Some Seal Beach residents are concerned over the prospect that the property will be rezoned to allow a homeless shelter. One of them is Bruce Smith of Seal Beach Leisure World. He is afraid it might come near his backyard.
“The residents of Leisure World are already being beseeched by telephone hustlers on a daily basis,” he said. “All we need now, according to the (Seal Beach) Planning Commission, is to have a whole contingent of transient beggars and hustlers on Leisure World’s front door.”
The council in late April held a study session to discuss whether the Accurate Storage area, the Boeing site or another part of Seal Beach, might be considered for rezoning to allow residential development.
Both the zoning for residential development and the zoning for an emergency shelter are required as part of the Housing Element of Seal Beach’s General Plan.
Cities that don’t comply with requirements could lose funding and the authority to issue building permits.
But while state law requires cities to zone areas to allow for low income housing, and even shelters, the property owners are free to build the housing they wish—or not build housing at all.
The Planning Commission looked at these issues during a joint session with the Ad Hoc General Plan Citizens Advisory Committee in early April. Housing element consultant John Douglas, of Douglas & Associates, told commissioners that the Seal Bach Housing Element needed to be certified by the state to keep eligibility for grants and allows local control of land use.
The Seal Beach City Council has until Oct. 15 to adopt the new Housing Element.
Jim Caviola, an Ocean Avenue resident who frequently appears before the council and Planning Commission on zoning issues, opposed changing the zoning for Accurate Storage.
He argued that Seal Beach should find another location for residential housing.
Planners held public hearings on zoning for emergency shelters and residential housing on April 3.
“The city did not approve a project for the area,” said Jim Basham, director of Community Development.
Basham said state law requires all cities to identify in their Zoning Code emergency shelters are allowed. Basham said no one has submitted plans for a homeless shelter to the city.
Planners held two public hearings concerning housing in that general area of Seal Beach. One dealt with emergency shelters in the Boeing area and the other with citywide zoning for emergency shelters. Rick Bennett, president of the Heron Pointe Homeowners Association, said neither he nor any of his neighbors received notice of that night’s public hearings.
According to the minutes of the April 3 hearing, staff said the city sent notices to 138 property owners within a 500-foot radius of the Accurate Storage area and published a notice of the hearing in the Sun.
According to staff, the city was only required to publish a notice in the Sun. According to the minutes of the April 3 Planning Commission meeting, the City Council decided to identify the Boeing property as a location for a possible emergency shelter last year. The minutes did not provide a specific date.
Caviola said developing 90 units was too many when the state only required 19 housing units.
This was apparently a reference to the fact that staff proposes to rezone the entire 4.5 acre parcel for the Accurate Storage site, which would create enough land to build 90 housing units.
Alisha Patterson, of Rattan & Tucker, spoke on behalf of the property owner in support of rezoning the land for residential use, on the condition that the owner be allowed to continue using the property for industrial purposes. Planning Chair Sandra Massa-Lavitt said she preferred the Shops at Rossmoor parking lot for residential zoning.
Almost a month prior to the April 3 hearings, Commissioner Robert Goldberg asked the City Council for a “do over” for discussion about the site, a request that was not granted.
“While it is true that the rezoning does not obligate the owner to build housing and he may chose to continue operating a commercial venture at the site, this seems very unlikely due to the potential financial windfall of converting the commercial site to housing,” Goldberg said.
“In fact, in 2006, a developer representing the owner at the time proposed to build 87 homes on the site, but the project was not approved. My understanding is that the current proposal to allow 90 units has been warmly received by representatives of the current owner,” Goldberg said.
In 2006 a developer proposed building homes on what is now called the Accurate Storage site. At the time it was called the Accurate Metals site. Planners rejected the project. Members of the business community objected to changing the zoning of an industrial/business park to residential. At the time, then-Planning Commissioner Ellery Deaton, now District One Councilwoman Deaton, was concerned about the site’s location near the Seal Beach Animal Care Center and Seal Beach Police Department Headquarters.
Gordon Shanks, who chaired the Planning Commisison at the time, said placing residential zoning next to the Boeing site would be inconsistent with current zoning. Shanks is now a member of the City Council.
