The Community Development director recently told the Planning Commission that staff was looking at having a joint study planning-City Council study session.
The date was confirmed by a city email that arrived at 2:15 p.m., Monday, July 13. The agenda was scheduled to be posted Friday, July 17.
The joint study session will take place at 7 p.m., on Monday, July 20, according to comments Director Shaun Temple made at the end of last week’s Planning Commission meeting. The subject: The Housing Element of the General Plan.
“So our City Council will be joining us at what is normally a regularly scheduled Planning commission meeting—not for a hearing item but for a study session regarding the programs related to the adopted Housing Element,” said Director Shaun Temple near the end of last week’s Planning Commission meeting.
As previously reported, the Housing Element is part of the city’s General Plan. The Seal Beach City Council officially found the Housing Element was consistent with state law in late January 2026. The finding was required by state law.
The adopted Housing Element required changes to the city’s Zoning Code to comply with a state mandate that Seal Beach plan to allow the potential construction of 1,243 living units in town.
This required changing some areas of Seal Beach from commercial zoning to mixed use zoning.
Note that neither the city of Seal Beach nor the state of California can legally compel the owners of private property to actually build that many units at the same time.
“The Housing Element programs are a series of goals that the state that we worked out with the state in order to during the life of the Housing Element,” Temple said.
He pointed out that the current Housing Element is current until 2029.
Temple said the study session would look at barriers to housing and find ways to incentivize housing for different income levels and housing needs.
According to the California Department of Housing And Community Development, in Orange County a family of four with a household income of $93,050 is considered low income. (For contest: A minimum-age employee in Orange County, living alone, would make slightly less than an “extremely low income” household but would make more than an “acutely low income” individual.)
“We did present a few Zone Text Amendments that went through the Planning Commission and to the council. When it got to the council, there was a request for a deeper discussion on the programs before we move forward with implementing any of them. And so that will be the purpose of that at that meeting,” Temple said.
In other news:
At the end of the April 6 Planning Commission meeting, District Two Commissioner Karen Nolta requested an update on the former Bank of America building on Main Street.
At the end of the July 6 Planning Commission meeting, Community Development Director Shaun Temple said
Seal Beach Management Analyst Jennifer Robles had reached out to the owners of the former BOA building. “She hasn’t heard anything back,” Temple said.
Temple said Robles had taken on the role of business concierge as part of the work of the Business First Advisory Committee.
“We’re starting first with Main Street, find out any sort of challenges or difficulties and how the city may assist. But I will report that from a government and regulatory perspective that they’re clear from the city and the Coastal Commission to move forward once they find the tenant that they’re looking for,” Temple said.
As previously reported, the owners of the building have received state and city permits to convert the former bank building into a restaurant.
Meanwhile, other changes are taking place on Main Street. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shop at the corner of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway has gone out of business.
Meanwhile, a new business will soon fill a long-empty spot on Main.
“The business going into the Old Town Café is a bakery named Chaupain. The tenant improvement permits have been issued,” Temple wrote in a July 8 email.
Old Town Café closed its doors without prior warning in January 2024. The space has been empty since then. A construction crew recently began remodeling the spot.
Meanwhile, Solera – Kitchen + Wine Bar has replaced the Osteria Mare Blu restaurant at 210 Main St.
According to a recent press release from Solera, the new restaurant has served more than 1,200 guests during the first 15 days the business was open.
The location was also home to a series of sushi places following the sale and closure of Grandma’s Cookies in the mid-2000s.