The Seal Beach Planning Commission on Monday, Feb. 2, held a public hearing on state-mandated updates to the Zoning Code. The commission’s task was to make a recommendation to the City Council. The changes were required because of the state-mandated change to the Housing Element of the city’s General Plan.
However, commissioners voted 2 to 2 on whether or not to recommend approving the proposed changes. District Two Commissioner Karen Nolta had an excused absence.
Upshot: The issue will come before the City Council in the near future without an official recommendation from the planners.
According to Interim Community Development Director Shaun Temple said the six programs they were considering were required by the state government. Temple said the programs further fair housing. “They were adopted in October by the city council uh as part of the housing element update as policies for the city to implement,” Temple said.
He said the code requires the Planning Commission to make recommendations to the City Council whenever there are updates to the Zoning Code.
According to Temple, after the council adopted the ordinances in October, they were sent to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for review. The HCD sent it back asking for additional findings from the City Council.
“They said that the Housing Element would not be certified until those findings were made, which they were done uh last Monday by City Council,” Temple said.
According to Temple, the HCD letter reminded Seal Beach that the city had to implement the programs that were before the Planning Commission for the city to stay in good standing with the state government.
She asked the Planning Commission to do whatever it can to protect the city.
Members of the public were concerned about a state requirement to allow emergency homeless shelters and transitional housing.
Motion
District One Commissioner/Vice Chair Calvin Mingione made a motion to approve the item as recommended by staff.
District Five Commissioner/Chair Margo Wheeler seconded the motion. They voted yes.
District Three Commissioner Susan Perrell and District Four Commissioner Patty Campbell voted no.
The motion was defeated.
Senior Assistant City Attorney Amy Greyson asked if anyone want to try a different motion.
Campbell suggested waiting until Commissioner Nolta was there.
In response to a question from Mingione, attorney Greyson said if the commission could not get three votes, then the matter would go forward without a recommendation to the City Council.
She said an option would be to continue the hearing until the next Planning Commission meeting.
Campbell made the motion to continue the public hearing.
Wheeler seconded the motion.
Mingione opposed delaying the matter.
Wheeler said the state government was not going to change in the next two weeks.
Greyson suggested another alternative: The commission could have a motion that includes the concerns of the commissioners.
Campbell said the council should decide without the Planning Commissioner’s decision.
Perrell questioned the constitutionality of the state mandates.
Public comments
During the hearing, resident Theresa Miller said the specifics were not discussed during the Housing Element approval process. She said neither of the two consultants brought up the issues, apparently referring to emergency shelters.
“Now, it could have been in the fine print, but it wasn’t something that was uh was discussed or even presented as even an option,” she said.
Miller suggested using the city jail that is currently not being used for a homeless shelter.
She concluded by saying she did not think the specifics of the Housing Element were ever pointed out.
Sharon Mays said based on conversations with her neighbors that the proposals have people very concerned.
“To me that’s absolutely scary that all at once the city has no say whatsoever in a development that might literally hurt this community,” she said.
“I have no idea how strong these mandates are,” she said.
Because of the complexity of the amendments, what follows are highlights from the staff report. You can find the complete staff report on the city website.
Because of space limits in the print edition, this article does not include a word-for-word transcript of the commission discussion but instead has highlights from the meeting.
Commissioner comments
Wheeler said in the 1980s there were state mandates. “There’s nothing new about state mandates. And it doesn’t matter who’s in office,” Wheeler said.
District Three Commissioner Susan Perrell proposed an amendment to the resolution that would make the changes possible. She suggested adding language to “erase” the proposed changes if the state loses their related case in the Supreme Court.
“There’s no such thing as a motion for a caveat,” Wheeler said.
“The city can change its zoning any time,” said Senior Assistant City Attorney Amy Greyson. She said staff doesn’t typically draft conditional details in a city law.
“The single family housing designation doesn’t exist anymore. California killed that and a lot of blue states killed that also,” said District Four Commissioner Patty Campbell.
“They put in place laws that will cause significant harm to all our neighborhoods,” she said.
She said some people in College Park East had converted their garages to units. “That’s just what Sacramento wants,” Campbell said.
Campbell said she was voting no as a protest vote.
Background
“On October 27, 2025, the City Council adopted the Housing Element of the Seal Beach General Plan for the 2021-2029 (6th Cycle) Planning Period together with adoption of ordinances amending the Zoning Code, the Zoning Map and the Main Street Specific Plan,” according to the staff report by Interim Planning Manager Art Bashmakian.
“The adopted Housing Elements contains a list of state mandated programs required to be implemented. In addition to the amendments (primarily the adoption of the new Mixed-Use zoning district) that were adopted in October, there are additional zoning amendments listed in the Housing Element that need to be adopted by March of 2026,” Bashmakian wrote.
The required programs include, according to the Bashmakian report:
“Program 1k: Emergency Shelters, Low Barrier Navigation Centers and Transitional/Supportive Housing.
“Program 1q: Allow Employee/Farmworker Housing Consistent with State Law,” Bashmakian wrote.
“Program 2a: Streamline the Density Bonus Review Process
“Program 2g: Commercial Density Bonus
“Program 3h: Remove Minimum Unit Size Requirements
“Program 3j: Reduce Parking Requirements for Studios and 1-Bedroom Units,” Bashmakian wrote.
