A Seal Beach homeowners group has appealed a Planning Commission decision to allow an LA Fitness club to be built in Seal Beach. The City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed 37,000 square foot club on Monday, July 25. In related news, the Rossmoor Community Services District, recently passed a resolution opposing the plan.
The club would be built in the Shops At Rossmoor, which is located in Seal Beach between Montecito Road and Seal Beach Boulevard.
On Wednesday afternoon, June 29, Margaret Parker, the president of the Rossmoor Park Owners Association, submitted a formal appeal of the Planning Commission’s recent 3-2 vote to approve the project. The public had until 5 p.m., Thursday, June 30, to appeal the project. The appeal could come before the City Council in late July.
The Rossmoor Park condominiums are located on the Seal Beach side of Monecito Road. “I felt we needed to something proactive to protect our interests,” Parker said.
According to Parker, increased traffic in the area would contribute to local air pollution.
Thomas Cripps, another member of the Rossmoor Park board, said that in 2006, a traffic study concerning the Shops at Rossmoor center was made available online. According to Cripps, the most recent study was only available at the public library or at City Hall. Cripps said the study was made available just four to five days before the Seal Beach Planning Commission considered the project. The most recent study is a 128-page document.
Cripps was concerned about the traffic issue and questioned the accuracy of the latest traffic study. Cripps worked for Orange County, staring in 1986, first in transportation planning and later as a demographer. For example, according to Cripps, the study left out the fact that an exit gate from the Rossmoor Park complex opens on Rossmoor Center Way. That two-lane street passes between the condo complex and the planned site of the club.
According to Cripps, a 2012 traffic study estimated almost 9,600 average daily car trips for Seal Beach Boulevard in that area. Yet the 2015 traffic study put the average daily trips at slightly more than 2,700. According to Parker’s appeal to the City Council, the size and location of the health club within the shopping center were not challenged during the California Environmental Quality Act process.
Critics of the health club project said that in May, the city’s Environmental Quality Control Board voted 4-1 that the initial environmental study for the project did not meet the requirements of the Environmental Quality Act.
However, the staff reporr to the Planning report did bring up three issues identified by the environmental board: potential stacking off traffic at the four-way stop sign adjacent to Pei Wei restaurant on Rossmoor Center Way, the potential traffic impact on the intersection of Seal Beach Boulevard and St. Cloud Drive and the traffic impacts on the shopping center from Seal Beach Boulevard.
On Tuesday, June 28, the Rossmoor Community Services District board unanimously approved a resolution opposing the LA Fitness club project.
That night, Tony DeMarco, the president of the Services District, acknowledged that the Rossmoor board has no jurisdiction in the matter.
