The Seal Beach Planning Commission voted unanimously to add the Bay City Partners’ oceanfront property to a list of potential sites for affordable housing on Wednesday, March 14.
The decision does not obligate the owners of the site—or any of the other six sites—to actually build housing for low or moderate income families.
A citizens committee had recommended seven potential sites for affordable housing to be included in Seal Beach’s Housing Element of the General Plan. However, the Bay City Partners property was not on the list. District 1 Planning Commissioner Robert Goldberg proposed adding the property to the list.
Planners removed the former site of an ARCO station on Pacific Coast Highway from the list, citing concerns about the on-going decontamination work being done on the soil and groundwater.Planners also agreed to keep the Shops at Rossmoor on the list, over the objections of nearby Seal Beach and Rossmoor area residents..
The list of potential affordable housing sites is part of the Housing Element of the Seal Beach General Plan. The commission’s decision is a recommendation that must be finalized by the City Council. The Housing Element must then be approved by the state of California. Then the city of Seal Beach can submit a Local Coastal Plan to the California Coastal Commission. If the Coastal Commission approves, Seal Beach would acquire some of the state agency’s permitting authority and that would streamline construction projects in Seal Beach.
According to the staff report by City Manager Jill Ingram, state law requires each city is required to project a minimum of housing units to meet the city’s growth at all income levels. State law calls this the Regional Housing Need Allocation.
According to John Douglas, the city’s consultant for developing the Housing Element, Commissioner Goldberg identified a math error that reduced the city’s apparent RHNA from 57 to 21. Douglas said the California Department of Housing and Community Development gave the city credit for two new units in the trailer park, reducing the number of units to 19.
Douglas said the RHNA was not a quota and the city would not be penalized if the units were never built.
However, state law requires cities to designate potential sites for the affordable housing units with at least 20 units per acre.
The Ad Hoc General Plan Committee looked at 26 potential sites and recommended seven to the Planning Commission: Accurate Storage, Sunset Aquatic Park, the former ARCO service station, Boeing parking lots along Westminster Avenue, the Marine Park expansion site, the Shops at Rossmoor and the State Lands Commission property at First and Pacific Coast Highway.
Goldberg asked Douglas if the units had to be multi-family units, as described in the draft of the Housing Element that the commission was looking at.
Douglas said multi-family units meant apartments or condominiums. However, he said state law did not prohibit low income housing from being detached units. He said he wasn’t aware of any detached housing that would provide 20 units per acre of affordable housing.
Goldberg said that if the former Los Angeles Department of Water and Power site would qualify, he would suggest adding the Bay City Partners property to the list.
Goldberg argued that the property owners had requested the property be zoned for residential housing. None of the other site owners had made such a request.
The Bay City Partners property is currently zoned for 70 percent open space and for a hotel on the remainder of the land. The owners have asked the city to change the zoning to allow construction of residential housing.
Goldberg said the Bay City Partners property is much further along in the process than any of the other properties on the list.
Douglas said if ownership of the units is not required, listing the property might “pass muster” with the state.
“If it would pass muster with the state, I think it should be on the list,” Goldberg said.
Commissioner Sandra Massa-Lavitt asked how the settlement between Seal Beach and the Bay City Partners would effect placing the property on the affordable housing list.
Assistant City Attorney Steven Flower said that was not clear. He said there was an application before the city. All the city agreed to was to process the application.
Goldberg said there was nothing in the settlement that prevents the city from placing the property on the list.
“It just seems like an opportunity to resolve this,” Goldberg said.
Douglas said the state legislature requires cities to designate potential sites for affordable housing. He said that doesn’t mean it is going to be built.
During the public hearing on the issue, Shirley Broussard, an advocate for the homeless, said there was a growing need for transitional housing. She said there were 20 homeless people in Seal Beach at any given time.
Ron Casey of the Rossmoor Community Services District board said he had met with the owners of the Shops at Rossmoor and they told him they want nothing to do with any kind of housing.
The Ad Hoc Committee had idenfified a presently little used parking area in the center as a potential site for affordable housing.
However, Casey said with new shops going in, that parking area would fill up. Casey asked planners to reconsider putting the Shops at Rossmoor on the list.
Michael Maynard, another Rossmoor Community Service District board member, said the Shops at Rossmoor site didn’t seem realistic to him. He also asked the planners to remove the shopping center from the list of affordable housing sites.
Later in the meeting, Goldberg said that he didn’t know if any of the owners of the properties being discussed were interested in building high density housing.
Assistant City Attorney Flower said owner consent wasn’t required for zoning.
Goldberg asked for and received permission to read a letter from Seal Beach resident Mario Iacoboni, who is a member of the Bridgeport area Technical Advisory Committee, which consults with Seal Beach on the decontamination of the former ARCO site on PCH and First Street.
In his letter, Iacoboni said the ARCO site would be off-limits to housing for years as decontamination is still on-going.
Speaking for himself, Goldberg said that changing the zoning on the ARCO site to allow housing would raise the decontamination standard.
The commissioners reviewed the list of sites recommended by the citizen’s committee one-by one. Goldberg recused himself while the Marina Drive Park expansion site was discussed because he lives within 500 feet of that land. The Marina Drive site stayed on the list.
The commissioners voted unanimously to remove the ARCO station from the list.
Goldberg proposed removing the phrase “multi-family property” from the Housing Element. The commissioners unanimously agreed.
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