The California Coastal Commission says the Bay City Partners’ application for the Ocean Place project is incomplete and has asked for more information.
The project manager for Bay City Partners said they are still on schedule.
The Sun obtained a photocopy of the Coastal Commission five-page letter when an unknown individual hand delivered a sealed envelope (without a return address) to the newspaper’s Main Street Seal Beach office.
The Ocean Place residential development project would develop part of the land formerly owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and power. If the Coastal Commission issues a development permit, the Bay City Partners have agreed to give Seal Beach 6.5 acres of land for a potential park. Last year, the Seal Beach City Council made the gift of the ocean front real estate a condition of changing the Zoning Code to allow residential construction on the property. The Seal Beach City Council unanimously approved the Ocean Place project Monday night, July 9, 2012.
The “notice of incomplete application” was sent to Ed Selich’s Newport Beach office on Feb. 6, 2013.
Selich dismissed the importance of the notice.
“Typical Coastal Commission,” Selich said in an e-mail to the Sun. “They find all applications incomplete to avoid the consequences of the permit streamlining act. We are still on schedule.”
The Coastal Commission notice requested a hazard analysis of the site, more information about biological resources, information about site remediation, and Construction Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans and hours for the proposed open space area.
“Minor details,” Selich said. “We will be submitting the requested information shortly.”
The Coastal Commission notice said the parking space figures provided in the application were inconsistent.
The letter requested a copy of a final agreement between the Bay City Partners and the State Lands Commission concerning a public trust easement on the property. As the Sun reported last year, the California Lands Commission said there appeared to be a public easement on nine of the proposed residential lots.
“The State Lands Commission staff is drafting the exchange agreement,” Selich said. “We will be reviewing it shortly.”
The letter also requested speaker slips or a list of speakers before Seal Beach agencies that held hearings on the Ocean Place project, including the Recreation and Parks Commission, the Planning Commission and the City Council. Bay City Partners had apparently provided the Coastal Commission minutes of those hearings, but commission staff members are asking for speaker slips or a speaker list instead.
The city of Seal Beach does not require the public to fill out speaker slips before they testify at public hearings.
