HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC AG PKT 2003-08-25 #C Seal Beach, California
July 28, 2003
The City Council of the City of Seal Beach met in regular
adjourned session at 6:30 p.m. with Mayor Campbell calling
the meeting to order with the Salute to the Flag.
ROLL CALL
Present: Mayor Campbell
Councilmembers Antos, Doane, Larson, Yost
Absent: None
Also present: Mr. Bahorski, City Manager
Mr. Barrow, City Attorney
Ms. Yeo, City Clerk
The City Attorney invited any member of the public wishing
to speak to the item identified on the agenda to do so at
this time.
CLOSED SESSION
The City Attorney announced that the City Council would
meet in Closed Session to discuss the item identified on
the agenda, a conference with legal counsel with regard to
anticipated litigation pursuant to Government Code Section
54956.9(b). The Council adjourned to Closed Session at
6:31 p.m. and reconvened at 6:59 p.m. with Mayor Campbell
calling the meeting to order. The City Attorney reported
that pursuant to the Brown Act the Council met in Closed
Session to discuss the item set forth on the agenda and
that no reportable action was taken.
ADJOURNMENT
It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council,
to adjourn the meeting at 7:00 p.m.
THESE ARE TENTATIVE MINUTES ONLY, SUBJECT TO THE APPROVAL
OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH.
Council Minutes Approved:
Item C
Seal Beach, California
July 28, 2003
The City Council of the City of Seal Beach met in regular
session at 7:01 p.m. with Mayor Campbell calling the
meeting to order with the Salute to the Flag.
ROLL CALL
Present: Mayor Campbell
Councilmembers Antos, Doane, Larson, Yost
Absent: None
Also present: Mr. Bahorski, City Manager
Mr. Barrow, City Attorney
Mr. whittenberg, Director of Development
Services
Mr. Dancs, Director of Public Works /City
Engineer
Chief Sellers, Police Department
Ms. Arends-King, Director of Administrative
Services
Mr. Cummins, Associate Planner
Mr. Vukojevic, Deputy City Engineer
Ms. Yotsuya, Assistant City Manager
Ms. Yeo, City Clerk
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
The City Attorney recommended that Item "R ", the AT &T
Wireless Cellular Tower Lease Agreement for 3131 Beverly
Manor Road, be removed from the agenda and considered at an
August meeting. Yost moved, second by Larson, to approve
the order of the agenda as revised.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mayor Campbell reported having attended the open house at
the Seal Beach Animal Care Center on Sunday, also announced
an upcoming fund raising event to benefit the Shelter, an
evening of music from the Broadway stage. Mr. Ross Thomas
explained that the fund raiser will be held on September
13th at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, the Center
has a capacity of one thousand, four hundred tickets have
already been sold, it is expected to be sold out, and
presented two complimentary tickets to Mayor Campbell.
PRESENTATION - GARDEN GROVE (SR -22) FREEWAY
Mr. John Garcia, OCTA Project Manager, explained that the
focus of the presentation is on the aesthetics of how the
22 Freeway project will look when completed.
* An overview of the project from Valley View to the 55
Freeway was a carpool lane in each direction, a
continuous auxiliary all purpose lane between the 1 -5
and Beach Boulevard, a separation at the westbound 22
Freeway and the 57 connector for those exiting and
entering The City Drive, a collector /distributor road
Page Two - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
for those traveling eastbound entering and exiting
those freeways as well as entering nearby ramps, there
will be soundwalls and replacement landscaping;
* A photo was shown of The City Drive congestion at the
p.m. peak hours, proposed for a connector above with
the ramps underneath;
* The project has been held up for considerable time
awaiting the approval of the final environmental
document, that process is now expected to be completed
by August with a record decision from the Federal
Highway Administration, that will then allow the
project to be bid, OCTA is going to be the lead and
work with CalTrans to bid and award the project as
well as do it by means of the design /build method, the
hiring of one contractor to do the final design and
construction;
* 'If environmental approval is realized in August the
Board will be requested to authorize distribution of
requests for proposals for the design /build contract,
that will take approximately four months, the contract
could then be awarded by March, move forward with the
design /build contract right after that, at present
they are looking at about a three year period to
complete construction yet because of the nature of
design /build it is felt that time frame can be
improved.
Mr. Gary Adams of Parsons, the Project Consultant, noted
that this presentation is one that Mayor Campbell and other
elected officials along the corridor have seen. Mayor
Campbell mentioned that the focus of the presentation is
aesthetics, she felt it was important that people see what
is planned, this project is presently slated to end where
the 22 merges with the 405 yet the goal is to take it to
the County line which means it will be going through Seal
Beach.
* The aesthetics of the project are based on a document
that was approved in 1995 by the OCTA Board, a master
plan for the freeways and transit corridors in Orange
County;
* As part of the State Route 22 design /build project, at
least the area from Valley View to the 55, an
aesthetics committee was established that was
comprised of representatives from each of the corridor
cities in this phase of the project, OCTA
representatives, freeway architects and planners;
* Because this project will be built in a narrow right -
of -way the areas for landscaping will be limited, the
freeway will be built up to the soundwalls, therefore
the aesthetics is focusing on
the hardscape elements of the freeway, the walls,
bridges, etc. and where landscaping can be done,
basically the interchanges, it will be somewhat more
intense than is normally seen with freeway
projects;
•
Page Three - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
* The aesthetics committee established a theme for the
project, it was taken from the master plan which
designated this part of Orange County as agriculture
and orchard, therefore that was the basis for design,
an orange image that is reminiscent of an orange crate
was used as the symbol for the freeway;
* The master plan suggested how the plan for the freeway
could be expressed in concrete, the different way that
the images can be played out in a structure and the
landscaping;
* Photos were shown that were illustrative of the
hardscape features of the project, one being the
pilasters that define the beginning and end of a
bridge, special imprints on the barrier rails and
textures on the retaining walls;
* A photo too showing how the interchanges will be
treated where they are required to carry noise walls
over the interchange, some of the interchanges will
not get all of the treatments where they are askew
or not very visible, some will have special treatment
at gateway locations, some have more historic design
features, arch girders and bridge rails that are
reminiscent of the 1950's and 1960's, special slope
paving at the bridges to feature the orange image,
an opportunity for the corridor cities to have their
logo image placed on the pilasters;
* The retaining walls currently seen on the freeways
• are split faced block, the pilaster features will be
in the existing and new noise walls, retaining walls
will get special treatment;
* There will be opportunities for the corridor cities
to invest in the project over and above what is
planned for the project, possibly a little gateway
entry at some of the interchanges;
* In terms of landscaping they will try to salvage as
much of the plant material that they can, the
landscape plan itself will be up to the design/
builder and will work with the aesthetics
committee for the first year or so while the design
is being done, the contractor will do a complete
inventory and focus on saving palm and red bud trees;
* A visualization was shown of the Beach Boulevard
interchange as it exists and a concept of what it
will look like in the future, trees are put in
an orchard pattern reminiscent of the theme of
the project;
* With regard to the comment made by the Mayor that
sometime in the future the project could be extended,
the response was that the HOV lanes would extend onto
the 405 up to a connection with the 605, that is part
of the project that has been defined in the EIR, it
is likely through that if and when those improvements
Page Four - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
occur the aesthetics will probably be based on the
aesthetics program defined in the earlier study for
the 405 corridor versus the 22.
On behalf of the Council, Mayor Campbell expressed
appreciation for the presentation.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Mayor Campbell declared the Public Comment period to be
open. Ms. Joyce Parque, Seal Beach, spoke in support of
approval of the Boeing project, stated they are a good
business, pay the utility tax, property tax, employ people
who eventually buy, rent, and spend their money in town.
With regard to the Redevelopment Agency, Ms. Parque said
there seems to be some confusion as to how much money goes
to the Agency, she again mentioned that a house on 1st
Street sold for $985,000, one on 6th Street sold for
$926,000, a house on 8th Street pays $9,260 in property tax
of that the City receives $1,389, the County receives $836,
and the schools receive $5,926, the house in the Agency
area on 1st Street pays property tax of $9,850, because it
is a frozen basis when the Agency was formed the City gets
$20, the Agency gets ninety -eight percent which is $7,880,
to the question as to where does that money go, it goes to
pay bond debt, $180,000 per year for twenty years for
rental assistance in the Trailer Park and Agency home
improvement program loans. Ms. Parque claimed that the
home improvement loans were meant for all of Seal Beach,
anyone living here that qualifies, there is no catch or
strings attached to the grant program, both programs are
provided to income qualified residents of Seal Beach and
are available for housing programs, a single person having
an income of $63,480 can qualify for a grant of $10,000,
that is free money that comes from property tax paid by
another, for two persons the income qualifier is $72,600,
three persons is $81,600, etc., the grant is to be used for
the exterior of a house, there is a $50,000 loan program
but it and the interest is forgiven if the recipient stays
on the property for twenty years, it does not set forth
what the $50,000 can be used for, it could be skylights,
hardwood floors, new kitchen or whatever. Ms. Parque
mentioned that there was a news article that said there was
going to be slurry sealing in Old Town, she looked for it
however it was 1st Street which is in the Redevelopment
Agency. Mr. Glen Clark, Trailer Park, said the world has
lost someone who was important to all, someone who brought
a lot of humor to a tremendous number of people all around
the world, a person who was knighted by the Queen of
England, awarded an honorary veterans title even though he
never fought in a war yet a hero, born in England, moved to
Cleveland where he fought under the name of Packey West,
this person was a friend of his wife's father, he is known
as Bob Hope, and thanks for the memories. There being no
further comments, Mayor Campbell declared Public Comments
to be closed.
COUNCIL ITEMS
APPOINTMENT - PLANNING COMMISSION
Mayor Campbell moved to appoint Mr. Henry Eager as the
District Four representative to the Planning Commission for
Page Five - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
the unexpired term ending July, 2004. Councilman Doane '
• seconded the motion.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
CONSENT CALENDAR - ITEMS "C" thru "N"
Larson moved, second by Yost, to approve the recommended
action for items on the Consent Calendar as presented,
except for Item "K ", removed from the agenda.
C. Approved the waiver of reading in full of
all ordinances and resolutions and that
consent to the waiver of reading shall be
deemed to be given by all Councilmembers
after the reading of the title unless
specific request is made at that time for
the reading of such ordinance or resolution.
D. Approved regular demands numbered 42747
through 42960 in the amount of $749,849.17,
ADP payroll demands numbered 4799688 through
4799810 in the amount of $210,966.15, and
authorized warrants to be drawn on the
Treasury for same.
E. Approved the minutes of the regular adjourned
and regular meetings of July 14, 2003.
F. Received and filed the Monthly Investment
Report for June, 2003.
G. Approved the certification of the Confidential,
Supervisory, Professional and Technical
Employees into a recognized bargaining unit
represented by City Employees Association (CEA).
H. Received and filed the Interim Review
Management Comment Letter for 2002/2003 from
Lance, Soll & Lunghard, the independent auditing
firm.
I. Adopted Resolution Number 5145 entitled "A
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SEAL BEACH, CALIFORNIA, ACTING IN ITS CAPACITY
AS THE LEGISLATIVE BODY OF THE CITY OF SEAL
BEACH COMMUNITY FACILITIES DISTRICT NO. 2002 -02
(SEAL BEACH BOULEVARD /LAMPSON AVENUE LANDSCAPE
MAINTENANCE) TO CERTIFY THE RESULTS OF THE
JULY 22nd, 2003 SPECIAL LANDOWNER ELECTION,
DECLARING THE RESULTS THEREOF, AND SUCH OTHER
MATTERS AS PROVIDED BY LAW"
and
Adopted Ordinance Number 1503 entitled AN
ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SEAL BEACH, CALIFORNIA, ACTING IN ITS CAPACITY
AS THE LEGISLATIVE BODY OF CITY OF SEAL BEACH
COMMUNITY FACILITIES DISTRICT NO. 2002 -02
(SEAL BEACH BOULEVARD /LAMPSON AVENUE LANDSCAPE
MAINTENANCE) AUTHORIZING THE LEVY OF A SPECIAL
TAX WITHIN THAT DISTRICT, AND DECLARING THE
Page Six - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
URGENCY THEREOF."
By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution
Number 5145 and Ordinance Number 1503 was waived.
J. Approved the acquisition of a previously owned
beach tractor through a thirty -six month
agreement with Municipal Finance Corporation
through the adoption of Resolution Number 5146
entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF
THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION
AND DELIVERY OF A LEASE WITH OPTION TO PURCHASE,
AND AUTHORIZING CERTAIN ACTIONS IN CONNECTION
THEREWITH"
and
adoption of Resolution Number 5147 entitled "A
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SEAL BEACH, CALIFORNIA, AUTHORIZING A BUDGET
AMENDMENT, NO. 04 -06, FOR THE PURCHASE OF
USED JOHN DEERE BEACH TRACTOR THROUGH A LEASE
PURCHASE AGREEMENT."
By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution
Number 5146 and Resolution Number 5147 was
waived.
K. (Removed from agenda).
L. Approved the 2003/2004 fiscal year budget of
the West Orange County Water Board and the
City of Seal Beach share in the amount of
funding of $37,112.
M. Adopted Resolution Number 5148 entitled "A
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF SEAL BEACH ACCEPTING GRANT OF PUBLIC
ACCESS AND SIDEWALK EASEMENT ON THE SOUTH SIDE
OF WESTMINSTER AVENUE WEST OF SEAL BEACH
BOULEVARD." By unanimous consent, full
reading of Resolution Number 5148 was waived.
N. Concurred with the direction of the claims
management adjuster, Carl Warren & Associates, •
to deny the claims for damages of Daniel Aguilar,
Marlene Boehm, Karina Dahmen, Shelly A. Mask,
and Bill Rieman.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
HELLMAN RANCH - MITIGATION PLAN FOR CULTURAL RESOURCES -
COASTAL COMMMISSION
The Director of Development Services directed attention to
the supplemental staff report which provides a brief
overview of where the Hellman project is currently. The
Director said as part of the ongoing cultural resources
mitigation measures on the Hellman project, the Coastal
Commission has required that a mitigation plan be approved
by the Commission prior to allowing John Laing Homes to go
forward with the grading and cultural protection measures
that are necessary in conjunction with the continuation of
work on the project, the mitigation plan has been prepared
by the City authorized archaeologist, Edaw, and that has
•
Page Seven - City Council Minutes _ July 28, 2003
been submitted to the Commission. The Director recalled
that when the issue of the education center was brought to
Council at the last meeting the Council was advised that
the position of the Commission at that time was that they
would not consider the mitigation plan until the City
approved a final location for the education facility, at
some point then the Commission changed its mind and decided
• to bring the plan to the Commission for approval with a
condition -that the builder can not obtain a permit to pour
foundations for the homes until the final location for the
education facility is approved both by the City and the
Coastal Commission. He mentioned that the Commission staff
report has been reviewed and a comment letter has been
prepared for consideration of the Council that recognizes
that change of position by the Coastal Commission, also
suggests that the Commission grant to the Executive
Director the authority to also be able to consider
alternate locations within the area that are to be
encompassed within the approved grading plan for the
residential home project which includes slope areas and a
water retention /water quality basin westerly of the homes.
The Director offered that staff has no idea as to how the
Commission may respond therefore if the letter is approved
requested that the Council also authorize his attendance at
the August 7th Commission meeting in Huntington Beach to
respond to any questions that may be forthcoming.
Councilman Yost noted that he has spoken before the
Commission several times, he will not be available to
attend, therefore he would authorize the Development
Services Director to attend, possibly the Mayor and another
• member of the Council as well, suggesting Councilman Antos,
to speak to this issue, this is a mitigation plan and to
•
him the center should be placed in a mitigation area, which
is where the homes are to be located and not in the
backyard of someone else for the sake of proving the bottom
line for the builder /developer. In response to a question
of Council this is a three day meeting of the Commission,
this is the last item on their second day agenda for August
7th, the Long Beach desalination project is also believed
to be scheduled for that date. Mayor Campbell expressed a
desire to visit the proposed location sites for the
• education center. Councilman Yost responded that he has
visited the sites.
Antos moved, second by Yost, to authorize the Mayor to sign
the comment letter to the California Coastal Commission,
authorize the Director of Development Services to attend
the Coastal Commission meeting and respond to issues and
concerns on behalf of the City, and receive and file the
staff report. Councilman Larson stated he would vote a
reluctant yes as it is never known what the Coastal
Commission will do, nothing has been done to resolve the
issues he mentioned at the last meeting, about the gate,
etc.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
The City Manager advised that he and the Director of Public
Works would be stepping down and disqualifying themselves
Page Eight - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003 -
from the following items as the roadway in the area in
which they live is within five hundred feet of these
considerations.
Councilman Larson stated that he and Councilman Doane were
both cleared to vote on the Boeing project by the Fair
Political Practices Commission as a less than significant
affected segment of the public, the following project is as
close as the Boeing project therefore the assumption is
that the same reasoning applies therefor they are eligible
to vote.
DESALINATION TEST FACILITY PROJECT - CITY OF LONG BEACH -
COASTAL COMMISSION CONSIDERATION
The Director of Development Services explained that this
item is before the Council as a result of a concern
expressed at a prior meeting to what has been characterized
by the City of Long Beach as an interim test desalination
project that is to be located within the confines of the
Haynes Generating Plant on Westminster Avenue- He stated
that upon reviewing the Coastal Commission decision to
appeal the local jurisdiction approval by the City of Long
Beach, staff then requested a copy of the Commission staff
report, a copy of which has been provided the Council, also
requested approval of a comment letter to be sent to the
Coastal Commission. The Director offered that after
reviewing the material provided by the Commission it is
felt that the major concern of staff with water quality and
impacts to water quality and marine biological resources in
the River as a result of this project, and upon reviewing
the conditions that the project must comply with, the
existing pollution discharge permit requirements from the
Regional Water Quality Control Board, no increases will be
allowed under any of the discharge requirements, that
permit condition is in effect from now until year 2005. He
said if the project, as it proceeds, is found to need to
modify those permit conditions they would have to go back
to the Water Quality Control Board for an amendment of the
conditions as well as approval by the Coastal Commission.
The Director explained that the comment letter basically
states that Seal Beach is aware of the project, that the
City supports the position of the Coastal Commission that
the project must comply with the NPDES discharge standards,
and if any changes are found to be necessary they would
have to go through the Water Quality Control Board as well
as the Coastal Commission. He noted that this item is
before the Commission on August 7th as well.
Councilman Yost said 'just say no', anything that increases
the amount of salinity, anything that increases the
discharge of a worse quality water into the River, which a
desalination facility must do, he can not support and his
feeling is that the City should not come close to
supporting that kind of verbiage. Councilman Doane stated
that as a member of the West Orange County Water Board
desalination has come up many times, the reason for that is
that Arizona and Southern California are increasing in
population, both are fighting for Colorado River water, by
the time it hits the sea it is no more than a trickle,
another source of water is needed, the San Joaquin Valley
farmers are demanding more and more of the water supply,
Page Nine - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
but as Southern California continues to grow there needs to
be more water, there must be a solution and one of the
solutions being looked at not only by Long Beach but by
other cities in Orange County is desalination, it is being
used in many countries, it does work but is very expensive.
Councilman Doane said however that he agrees with
Councilman Yost that it must be monitored, it is not
desired that there be more pollution of the rivers, and the
salt will eventually get back into the ocean, that is not a
concern to him, as a member of the San Gabriel Rivers and
Mountains Committee the comments of Councilman Yost are
well taken yet his belief is that the need for desalination
is with communities today. Councilman Yost disagreed,
stating that there is a solution to the water problem and
that is conservation, there is a way to recapture a lot of
water that is wasted and sent into the stormwater system
that currently exists, there are a number of ways to
conserve the amount of water that is used, it could be used
much more effectively without polluting the rivers, even
Mexico said no to a similar facility because of the
environmental damage that it would have caused. The Mayor
noted that plans are developed to do one thing and in the
process they destroy something else. She added that
desalination is needed but a way needs to be found to not
return the salt to the ocean, dry it and take it away, but
they should not destroy the environment to do something
else, it is counterproductive. Councilman Antos also
agreed with Councilman Yost, he understands that there are
desalination plants in many places throughout the world,
some places that have them have no environmental laws, he
understands that they want to do desalination but they best
come to some agreement with a salt company to carry away
the brine, it can not go back into the San Gabriel River,
in the past there were discharge problems in the River, at
one point there was no sea life living in the River because
of discharge, now there is. Mayor Campbell noted that it
goes beyond an environmental issue, it is also an economic
issue, when the beach is closed because of pollution it has
been estimated the cost to clean the beach is in the area
of $700,000 per year.
Yost moved, second by Antos, to authorize the Mayor to sign
the comment letter to the California Coastal Commission to
reflect the opinion of the City Council with regard to the
Long Beach Desalination Test Facility Project, expressing
concerns regarding desalination facilities, requesting
notification of Commission consideration of proposed
projects within the Long Beach /Huntington Beach area,
directed staff to monitor proposed desalination projects
that could have potential impacts to water quality, animal
and plant communities, and water recreation uses.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council,
to declare a recess at 7:43 p.m. The Council reconvened at
7:54 p.m. with Mayor Campbell calling the meeting to order.
PUBLIC HEARING - BOEING INTEGRATED DEFENSE SYSTEMS
DEVELOPMENT PLAN - RESOLUTION NUMBER 5149 /CERTIFYING
•
Page Ten - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT - RESOLUTION NUMBER 5150/
GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENT 03 -02 - ORDINANCE NUMBER 1504 /ZONE
CHANGE 03 -2 - RESOLUTION NUMBER 5151 /BOEING INTEGRATED
DEFENSE SYSTEMS SPECIFIC PLAN - RESOLUTION NUMBER 5152/
TENTATIVE TRACT MAP NO 16375
Mayor Campbell declared the public hearing open to consider
the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Development Plan.
The City Clerk certified that the notice of public hearing
had been advertised and mailed as required by law, and
reported no communications received either for or against
this item. The Director of Development Services noted that
the Associate Planner would make the staff presentation and
the Deputy City Engineer was present to respond to
technical questions and concerns. The Associate Planner
presented the staff report, explained that the items before
the Council relate to a development on the Boeing campus
which is generally located at the corner of Seal Beach
Boulevard and Westminster Avenue, displayed an aerial photo
giving an idea of the total campus facility as it exists
currently, to the east is Seal Beach Boulevard, to the
north is Westminster Avenue, the buildings shown currently
exist on the site, the majority of the buildings exist in
Planning Area 1, the buildings to the west are located in
Planning Area 2, just north of where the track area is
located, the large undeveloped portion of land to the far
west is located within Planning Area 3, access to the site
is proposed at two separate locations off of both Seal
Beach Boulevard and Westminster, the interior roadway would
be called Apollo Drive to provide access from both
Westminster Avenue and Seal Beach Boulevard. Planning Area
1 contains the bulk of the existing Boeing campus
facilities, approximately forty -one acres, Planning Area 2
is about sixteen acres, it includes a number of existing
Boeing facilities that may or may not be developed in the
future, there are a number of land uses in that Area that
are line of sight to Planning Area 1, as such they are
currently set out in a separate Planning Area, Planning
Area 3 is the undeveloped portion of the property, Planning
Area 4 is the parking lot area at the far northeastern
corner. A proposed site plan for the area was shown with
entrance points giving an idea of where the building
footprints would be, showing the landscaping along the
sides of the streets, the future connection of Apollo Drive
that would take place when Planning Area 2 is ultimately
demolished and rebuilt with the new land uses. From a raw
numbers standpoint Planning Area 1 is the existing campus,
in the future an additional 345,000 square feet may be
built in that area for a total of a little over 1.1 million
square feet, Planning Area 2, if it were to be demolished,
could be rebuilt with up to 345,000 square feet, the
undeveloped portion, Planning Area 3, is a little over
625,000 square feet of new uses, and Planning Area 4 is
proposed to have a one hundred twenty room hotel and about
55,000 square feet of new retail uses, the sum total would
then be a little over 2.2 million square feet and the total
acreage of the site is about one hundred seven acres. The
Associate Planner offered that the first consideration for
the Council is the certification of the Environmental
Impact Report where the City as the lead agency needs to
publish a document for public review that individuals can
look at and analyze the environmental impact associated
Page Eleven - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
with the new development, under State law this assures
political accountability of the environmental impact of a
proposed development. Staff has been going though the EIR
process for several months, the document has been before
the Archaeological Advisory Committee, the Environmental
Quality Control Board, the Planning Commission, and now the
City Council, the Planner said he would review for Council
the recommendations from those advisory boards, the
document proposes a mitigation program with a number of
proposed mitigation measures within the various areas, RBF
Consulting, a City selected and hired firm was present who
prepared the draft and final EIR documents, they can also
review the various technical mitigation measures if
desired. The Planner stated that this project has four
identified and significant unavoidable impacts, explained
that pursuant to State law when a City publishes an EIR and
when there are significant and unavoidable impacts they
must be identified in what is called a Statement of
Overriding Considerations, those impacts relate to an
increase of traffic at the Seal Beach Boulevard /Westminster
intersection and at the bridge overcrossing of the 405
Freeway, the improvements that are required to bring those
impacts to a level of non - significance are basically not
technically feasible in this project, additionally there
are short term and long term air emissions given the
location of Seal Beach in the Southern California region
and it would be difficult to comply with the air quality
standards, virtually every project of this magnitude will
have this type of significant and unavoidable impact. As
mentioned, this project went before the Archaeological
Committee, they are primarily charged with looking at the
cultural resources section of an environmental document as
outlined in the General Plan, the Committee adopted a
resolution on April 23rd that recommends that the Council
adopt the mitigation program. The EQCB similarly held a
hearing on April 21st, they recommended that the document
be certified if five separate areas were further addressed,
that the Council consider reducing the wind speed and
duration, that is basically when there is a high wind
velocity which causes flying dust at which time the
developer should cease construction, historically the City
has used thirty -five miles an hour for a duration of one
hour, that is stated in the document however the EQCB would
like that to be considered for reduction, secondly the EQCB
determined that the long term noise impact is inadequate
and not sufficient to mitigate the noise impacts, third,
that the short term construction noise is inadequate, the
EQCB felt that short term construction noise should be
considered significant and somehow be mitigated, fourth,
that the traffic analysis at the Leisure World entries was
inaccurate, and last, that the long term traffic analysis
and proposed mitigation for that analysis was inadequate.
The Associate Planner offered to answer questions relating
to those issues and how they are responded to in the
responses to comments within the document, the consultants
available as well. The Planner explained that the Planning
Commission reviewed the EIR on May 21st, they adopted a
resolution recommending that the City Council certify the
document in its present form.
•
Page Twelve - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
The Associate Planner stated that separate from the EIR
there are a number of project approvals relating to this
development application, the General Plan, which is
basically the overall guideline for all development within
the City, there are a number of amendments to the General
Plan that would facilitate the Specific Plan adoption, the
changes primarily relate to changes in tables which sets
forth numbers of acres within the General Plan, that would
be the case with the Land Use Element where a specific
number of acres would be taken from the Light Industrial
Zone and create a Boeing Integrated Defense System Specific
• Plan area, the Open Space /Conservation Element amendment
would add some acreage for flood control and water quality
basins that will be shown on the tract map, there is
currently some language within the Housing Element'that
relates to the potential to create low and moderate income
housing within the Boeing site, in that that is not
proposed as part of this development application it would
be necessary to remove that language, the Circulation
Element, there would be a new street, Apollo Drive, that
would be designated as a collector having a sixty foot
right -of -way. As mentioned, the Planning Commission review
all of these items on May 21st, held over the project
approvals until June 4th and June 18th at which time they
recommended approval of all of the General Plan amendments,
zone change, Specific Plan, and Vesting Tentative Tract
Map. Upon approval of the General Plan, then the Specific
Plan sets forth the development standards, what can be done
.on the site, within the draft Specific Plan there are
several basic design guidelines of what things should look
like, there is a table of allowable land uses, which land
uses are allowed in which Planning Area and which ones
require a conditional use permit, which public facilities
will be provided for and which will be private, the Plan
currently provides for public streets as an example, there
are design and architectural guidelines within the Specific
Plan which would require subsequent developers or builders
who want to modify things to go through a Precise Plan
approval process, that will assure that there will be some
consistency amongst the building types within the Specific
Plan area, development regulations are also set forth for
setbacks, height restrictions, landscaping requirements,
what one can and can not do, and lastly the procedure for
making application for a Precise Plan and the process to
attain approval within the Specific Plan area. Within the
Specific Plan there are a number of allowable land uses and
it should be noted that the principal uses allowable in the
proposed Specific Plan are land uses that are currently
allowed within the M -1 zone, basically the only changes are
that Planning Area 4 would allow for a one hundred twenty
room hotel and some associated commercial within a time
period of at least eighteen months and would allow for some
point of sale land uses that may not currently be allowed
under the M -1 zoning, a list of the allowable land uses are
included within the staff report. The Circulation Element
plan would be to have a street at ultimate buildout to be
called Apollo Drive that will run from Westminster Avenue
to Seal Beach Boulevard, it is proposed to be a sixty foot
right -of -way, sidewalks on both sides of the street for the
full length, there would be no on- street parking on Apollo
Drive but there will be a parkway between the sidewalk and
• Page Thirteen - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
the property line, the applicant has a drawing of what the
entrance point of Apollo Drive will look like, from that
one can get the sense of what the treescape will look like.
Within the Specific Plan there is what is called a Precise
Plan, it is similar to what was approved for the Bixby
project where each separate development site was required
to go through a Site Plan review before the Planning
Commission to make certain it was consistent with what was
approved by the Specific Plan itself, make sure that the
buildings are in conformance with other buildings that have
been built, keeping a cohesive look throughout the entire
project. The Specific Plan proposes that these Precise
Plans be approved by the City staff as currently written to
allow the Director of Development Services or designee to
make those approvals and to make minor adjustments with
regard to setbacks, parking, zero lot line development,
etc., the Planning Commission however recommended that the
City Council adopt an appropriate resolution to have that
be a Planning Commission function as was done on the Bixby
project rather than approvals at the staff level,
additionally, there was some language that would allow a
height variation to be approved by staff and height
variation provisions of the Code that allow non - habitable
architectural features, spires, cupolas, etc. that project
above the height limit, the Commission again recommends
that those come before the Planning Commission for review
otherwise the developer simply meets the height limit as
set forth in the Specific Plan. The Planner explained that
the Vesting Tentative Tract Map is the actual subdivision
of the land, the proposal is to subdivide the one large
Boeing parcel into twenty smaller parcels and three
lettered lots, the lettered lots being non - buildable
parcels primarily for water quality basins, all of the lots
are less than ten acres except for Planning Area 1 which
are the existing Boeing campus facilities, this is
significant because within the development standards lots
larger than ten acres have a maximum height of seventy -five
feet, lots less than ten acres have a significantly smaller
overall height limit, their proposal is to create lots,
except for the existing Boeing campus facility that has
taller buildings, of less than ten acres and restrict the
height more to thirty -five or forty feet, more of a
commercial use type of height limit. There are some issues
relating to Planning Area 2, one building straddles a
proposed property line, that has been addressed by placing
a proposed condition that would require that building to be
demolished before those lots are conveyed to a third party
owner.
The Associate Planner noted that there are a number of
conditions of approval, a number of those are standard
engineering conditions, the Deputy City Engineer will
respond to questions with regard to those, there are also
specific conditions which are specific to this project
which puts into place the ability for the City to get
necessary public improvements that are specific to this
project, the City has concern with regard to getting
medians along Seal Beach Boulevard and Westminster,
landscaping those medians, and creating some type of
mechanism to pay for the long term maintenance of the
landscaping, there is need to provide for various water
Page Fourteen - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
quality controls in that the Regional Water Quality Control
Board is coming down on cities so long term water quality
needs are addressed in this project, the flooding concerns
are being addressed in front of Planning Area 4 by
requiring a study initially for drainage improvements to be
done at future buildout of Planning Area 4, sidewalk would
be installed where none currently exists on Westminster,
and three new- traffic signals installed, two for Apollo
Drive at Westminster and Seal Beach Boulevard, the third
being at Adolfo Lopez Drive at Seal Beach Boulevard.
Inquiry was made if one is not a replacement, the response
that two will be replacing existing signals at Road A. The
Planner stated that there will also be upgrades of existing
signals along Seal Beach Boulevard and Westminster so that
the signals are interconnected and can talk to each other
to help traffic flow through the Seal Beach
Boulevard /Westminster intersection. He mentioned again
that the Planning Commission adopted Resolutions on June
18th which required a number of public improvements, the
applicant approached the City and indicated that they could
provide a number of those improvements but not right away,
they would provide the City with what it needs in exchange
for a few things being pushed back, the Council packet
contains two sets of Resolutions, one reflects the Planning
Commission recommendations to the Council and one reflects
the concessions made by the applicant to do public
improvements throughout different phases of the development
schedule. He pointed out that the public improvement
schedule has been divided into two phases, essentially a
north phase and a south phase, the public improvements in
the north phase would be completed prior to a Certificate
of Occupancy on lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, and 13, that is to
improve the median landscaping on Westminster Avenue
including developing some type of financing mechanism to
pay for the long term maintenance, install the sidewalk,
and the Apollo Drive right -of -way would be dedicated upon
each final map recording, the developer has indicated that
they may be filing multiple final maps. Similarly in the
south phase should there be a certificate of occupancy for
lots 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 the Boeing team would construct a new
median on Seal Beach Boulevard the entire length of the
Boeing property, the median would be landscaped, install
new traffic signals at Adolfo Lopez Drive and Apollo Drive,
all signals will be improved for signal communication, and
provide a drainage study for the area of Seal Beach
Boulevard adjacent to Planning Area 4, subsequently what
the City would agree to concede at this point is that only
the new utilities would be undergrounded, the existing
utilities on the poles along Westminster Avenue would
remain above ground, and rather than amend the Open Space
Element to account for the water quality basins that are
being made a condition of the Tract Map approval whereby
they would need to provide them before the City takes
action on any of the final maps for the project, the reason
for that is that the water quality basins may change when
they get to the Coastal Commission, so if the raw acreage
were approved as it is today it could change at the Coastal
Commission and the applicant would then need to come to the
City to request a General Plan amendment to then be in
compliance because of the acreage change. Another
condition is to remove the requirement to repave the wide
Page Fifteen - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
southerly side of Westminster Avenue fronting the property,
with regard to the drainage improvements instead of being
done immediately that would be done at the development of
Planning Area 4, Apollo Drive will be dedicated
incrementally rather than at one time, Apollo Drive would
be constructed with the last Certificate of Occupancy for
lots 9, 10 and 13, explaining that there are three lots
that line the inside of Apollo Drive in Planning Area 2,
all of those lots still contain some Boeing use, Boeing
does not want to have a road that dissects their existing
campus so they do not want to build the road until they
have abandoned the land uses within Planning Area 2,
offering that the applicant team may be able to forecast
when that may be.
The Associate Planner explained that the proposed fiscal
impact for the project, depending on three different
development scenarios within the study ranges anywhere
between a net increase of a little over $450,000 to a
little over $800,000, when that report was received the
City in turn had an independent third party contracted firm
look at it, the report from that firm was that the revenue
projections, if all of the assumptions turn out to be true,
are essentially accurate, so there are a number of
situations where the revenue can be either overstated or
understated depending on market conditions at the actual
time of development and the final buildout of the project,
the revenue is primarily based on the Transient Occupancy
Tax from the one hundred twenty room hotel and additional
utility users tax because there would be more buildings
requiring utility services. The Planner offered to respond
to questions, noted that RBF, the EIR consultant was
present, the Deputy Engineer can respond to engineering
technical questions, a representative is present from the
third party financial review firm, it is also believed that
the Boeing team would like to make a statement, the traffic
consultant present as well.
Councilman Yost said the Apollo Drive seems to have been
relatively fluid in terms of its design, questioned if
there is any way to not have two signals in close
proximity, possibly have Apollo Drive go behind the
Accurate Metals building and come out to the Boulevard on
Adolfo Lopez, this would be to not increase the number of
signals within a short distance. The Associate Planner
responded that staff looked at that possibility
conceptually, pointed out the water quality basins, which
are drainage ditches, are identified within the EIR as
having wetland characteristics, that became a site planning
issue that made that difficult, the engineering staff can
explain the nature of the cut - through. Councilman Yost
said if one takes the current layout of Apollo Drive and
instead of making a left turn towards Seal Beach Boulevard
make a right turn to behind Accurate Metals would that be
superior in any way, he understands the issue of the
drainage ditches, that is likely one of the things that led
this project to be at this particular point. The Deputy
City Engineer confirmed that that was looked at previously,
one of the issues that came up was meeting the design
standards set by Orange County that the City is following
for this project, which requires that a road will be
Page Sixteen - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
continuous as opposed to having it come to a "T" or ninety
degree intersection, his recollection of the different
scenarios when looking at Apollo Drive was that it would
not meet those standards but it is believed that the
developer had issues with regard to how the lots would be
split at that point. With regard to a question relating to
the undergrounding of utilities in front of Planning Area 3
fronting Westminster, the Deputy Engineer clarified that
only the new installation of utilities will be
undergrounded, the existing high power lines that are
fronting Westminster, including cable television,
electrical, and telephone will remain as they exist, that
was one of the concessions during negotiations in order to
do some of the other items, the Code provides that
undergrounding is open as a condition, not a Code
requirement. The Development Services Director noted that
another issue the staff was dealing with is that the main
power lines on those poles are 66KV lines which are very
expensive to underground, undergrounding of the 66KV line
was not being looked at to begin with, the question was
then whether the other utility lines be allowed to remain
on the poles as well or taken down and leave the 66KV
lines, it seemed to make sense to leave all of them.
Councilman Yost offered his opinion that since the area is
going to be developed it would seem that the lines in the
area of the new development should be undergrounded. With
regard to the flooding area on Seal Beach Boulevard, a
concern for everyone that uses that roadway, it would seem
that if a development is going to be allowed that is going
to substantially increase the traffic flow through the area
without addressing the ponding issue, which takes away at
least one lane each time it rains, his feeling is that it
should be more than just a study, it should be addressed
given the increased traffic as a direct result of this
project. The Associate Planner explained that the way the
project is currently conditioned the applicant would
provide a study in the short term, would indicate different
solutions for the problem, and then correct the problem at
the buildout of Planning Area 4 which is the area that
immediately abuts where the problem exists. Councilman
Yost inquired as to police and fire services in an
industrial area such as this, does it require a different
type of service by the Fire Department, how does that get
paid in that the largest cost to the community in terms of
tax dollars is police, fire and public safety, will this
require the City to pay more and how does this cost get
passed on to those using the development. The Planner
responded that the Orange County Fire Authority was
contacted this date, the current contract with the
Authority continues until 2010, the Authority was asked if
this type of development would create a change in that
contract, their response was that it would not, in 2010 the
City would be renegotiating its contract and there was no
idea as to what the renegotiating methodology will be at
that time, therefore it is not possible to determine what
the impact could be long term. With reference to the
height limits, Councilman Yost noted that as part of the
Specific Plan building height was listed as forty feet with
an additional seven feet for architectural features, to him
that seems to be high, is that the standard. The Planner
responded that thirty -five feet is the typical commercial
• Page Seventeen - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
height limit, forty feet would be reasonable for an
industrial zone, the seven feet is the area in question,
the Specific Plan requests that staff have the ability to
approve architectural projections into the seven foot area
and the Planning Commission proposed that that be kept as a
Commission function for a height variation. Councilman
Yost concurred with the Planning Commission, however to him
it would seem strange to allow something in one particular
area that is not allowed elsewhere in the community, those
types of variations go through the Commission, it is not
known why an exception would be made for this particular
property, the approval for Precise Plans should go through
the Planning Commission also, as well as changes that are
less than ten percent from the original plan. Councilman
Doane mentioned that Apollo Drive would be constructed when
the last of Planning Areas 2 and 3 are sold, yet when
construction of Planning Area 3 starts there will need to
be access roads, will that be the cul -de -sacs that are now
seen. The Planner responded that access to those parcels
would come in either from Apollo Drive onto one of the cul-
de -sacs and through the parking lot, or to go to the
southerly parcel one would enter off of Seal Beach
Boulevard, the understanding is that they would like to
build it in two separate phases, and confirmed that
Planning Area 3 will be the first of the Planning Areas to
develop. Mayor Campbell mentioned that her questions deal
with the unavoidable and unmitigable issues of traffic,
noise, and air quality, of particular interest were those
that came from the EQCB, specifically the comments of
Member Hurley, and following his comments through the EIR
she found that there were inconsistencies, there lies the
responsibility to find out if one is right, one is wrong,
or if they are all wrong. With regard to the air quality
concern, the Planner explained that the Air Quality
Management District wind standard is thirty -five miles an
hour for one hour, that is typically used as the standard
as to when development should cease, the City has
historically used that standard in all of its environmental
work, therefore used again in this situation, the EQCB did
suggest that the Council reduce that velocity, they did not
propose a specific number, from the staff standpoint it has
been City policy to use thirty -five as a standard and as a
threshold by which to measure against, if more information
is desired as to why that is used the consultant is present
• to respond. Mayor Campbell offered that that may be the
goal standard but this is an area where the breezes blow
onto Leisure World, a community whose residents are older
and may not be able to tolerate blowing dust, the
suggestion of Member Hurley was that a competent City
employee be designated to determine when to stop the
construction activities and adequate mitigation would
include a complaint hotline to alert that employee,
obviously the thirty -five miles an hour is unacceptable to
Member Hurley, particularly when the wind is blowing into
Leisure World. Councilman Larson stated that he has no
method of judging how much dirt blows in at thirty -five
miles an hour as opposed to twenty -five miles an hour, he
could only assume that if everyone uses thirty -five there
must be some measurable difference yet he would agree that
Leisure World being directly across the street and if it
needs protection it should be done. Councilman Larson said
Page Eighteen - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
this project deals with something that does not exist which
is Planning Areas, they are dividing the property up into
small lots and have made the Planning Area designation as
if it is important, it is not, they want a number of lots,
they are going to sell the lots, the City can decide how
those lots can look without doing it in relation to a
Planning Area, that is merely an artificial designation
that is confusing, this deals with the ultimate Tentative
Tract Map which will show lots, he thought of that in
connection with Apollo Drive where they said it was too
close to Planning Area 1, they do not have that in Planning
Area 2, just say that there are no lots there and move it
over, the Council is has this whole piece of vacant land to
deal with and he does not want to get tied down with
artificial designations of Planning Areas, particularly
when there are difficult times getting cooperation from the
applicant. With regard to the wind issue, Councilman Doane
requested to hear from the consulting engineer.
Mr. Glen LaJoie, RBF Consulting, project manager for the
Environmental Impact Report, stated that the standard
identified in terms of miles per hour is pursuant to the
South Coast Air Quality Management District which is
referred to as Rule 403, a typical provision for reducing
dust emissions, the standard was identified pursuant to the
Air Quality District requirements, when discussion occurred
as to reducing the miles per hour provisions they did
contact the Air District to identify the latitude or
understanding if other jurisdictions have requested such
reductions and their contact at the Air District could not
identify a similar situation in other communities. Mr.
Lajoy said he could say, having done this type of work for
a number of years in Southern California, there are
situations where development is occurring adjacent to what
is referred to by the Air District as sensory receptors
which includes seniors, schools, hospitals, single family
residential areas, and in identifying the rule 403 relating
to dust emission there has never been a comment identifying
a concern to reduce the miles per hour provision, however
according to the Air District there is the latitude of the
local jurisdiction to further augment rule 403 by reducing
the miles per hour, and again he could not identify another
community where that has occurred. Councilman Larson
inquired if historically how many days a year that over
thirty -five miles per hour occurs. Mr. Lajoy stated they
did not do that measurement, and to that Councilman Larson
concluded then that it is not known if it would stop a
project for three days or forty days. Councilman Yost said
he could respond to that question as he knows about wind
patterns in Seal Beach, there are very few days that the
wind blows thirty -five and over, a Santa Ana on occasion,
and clearing winds after a major storm, even twenty -five
mile per hour days are extremely rare and usually for no
more than an hour, it would be unlikely to affect the
development if the wind velocity were lowered to twenty -
five. Councilman Larson noted that the Santa Ana winds
blow from the east directly into Leisure World, he was
trying to anticipate how it occurs on those days as it will
from the south which will be the prevailing flow. Mayor
Campbell said she was looking at this large empty field and
envisioning them trying to grade land and all of a sudden
Page Nineteen - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
having dust clouds, when that happens everything stops and
given the proximity to Leisure World that could be
problematic, possibly establish someone in the City for the
residents to call, possibly someone in the Planning
Department, yet Councilman Yost did not seem to feel it was
necessary to reduce the wind velocity to twenty miles an
hour during grading. Councilman Yost said if it were
reduced to twenty -five it would likely not be an issue,
would not affect the grading frequently, the Mayor may be
correct as to the type of soil, how fine the soil is.
Mayor Campbell suggested reducing the wind speed to twenty -
five miles an hour and if there is a problem have the
residents call the Planning Department because if the days
are rare it should not be a problem. Councilman Larson
inquired if there are requirements as to when they have to
spray the soil with water so that it does not blow. The
Associate Planner responded that there are several
mitigation measures that specifically address that
situation as a means of trying to depress dust from
floating every time they are using heavy equipment, there
are also mitigation measures in place that require the
placement of staging areas and location of where the heavy
machinery will be to further reduce impacts. Councilman
Doane said if the Council goes along with the
recommendation of the consultant and dust clouds do occur
the Council does have the capability of reducing the wind
velocity. The Planner explained that if adopted at thirty -
five the developer would not be required to stop until the
velocity were to reach thirty -five miles per hour for a
duration of one hour. Mayor Campbell mentioned that Seal
Beach has a high water table yet she looks at that open
area and it is not known if that land has a high water
table because there are no trees or growth, nothing for
many years which tells her that that land must be extremely
dry, her preference would be to reduce the velocity to
twenty -five and if as said that that is rare then it should
not present a problem, this would at least be a way to
protect the residents of Leisure World. With regard to
inspections during the grading operations, the Deputy City
Engineer said the past practice of the Public Works
Department, regardless of the wind speed or any
measurements taken, is if there is a heavy dust situation
the operation is shut down immediately and they are
required to get a water truck on -site to take corrective
action, and to the question as to whether that was the
action taken at the John Laing Homes and Bixby sites, the
response was yes, in that type of situation the Department
has the power to shut down a job and require water trucks
on -site. Councilman Antos offered that it seems that the
main problem period would be with mass grading as opposed
to fine grading, it would seem that lowering the wind speed
standard to twenty -five miles an hour during mass grading
times and with the requirement of water trucks that should
mitigate some of this concern, thereafter when there is
fine grading and a water truck is on site there could be a
different mile per hour standard, this is however a large
area that is probably going to be mass graded more or less
all at once, at least Planning Area 3, all or most of
Planning Area 4, that is the time when the problems will be
experienced. He noted also that the City does not have a
great deal of control over the military and their property
Page Twenty - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
and Mashburn Farms is an agricultural use and from time to
time they do plowing during the occasion of some fairly
heavy winds which has resulted in dust clouds over Leisure
World, the City has no way to shut such operation down
except to talk to base personnel. Councilman Antos
expressed his feeling that something needs to be done at
least during mass grading. Mayor Campbell said she lives
just south of the Air Station, there is farming directly
behind her home, and because the winds primarily blow from
south to north they do not get dust clouds, but there is
constant dust, again, her preference would be to reduce the
wind speed to twenty -five miles an hour and that the
Associate Planner be the contact for residents, and if it
is fact that higher wind speeds are rare then it should not
be a problem. Councilman Doane inquired of Councilman
Larson if he has witnessed dust clouds in the area in which
he resides in Leisure World, the response was no, just with
the occasional Santa Ana winds and even then nothing like a
visible cloud, it is just dusty. The Development Services
Director recommended that these suggestions be kept in mind
at this time as the public hearing has yet to be held.
Councilman Yost inquired as to the height limit for M -1
zoning. The Director advised that the current height limit
is seventy -five feet if the lot is over ten acres in size,
if less than ten acres it is either thirty -five or forty
feet, and agreed to confirm the less than ten acres height.
Mayor Campbell noted that EQCB Member Hurley claimed that
the numbers in the three noise tables were all different.
The Associate Planner explained that there are different
ways of measuring noise either in LEQ or CNEL, and upon re-
reading the document apologized for any confusion as a
result of not understanding the technical aspect of noise
measurements, and offered an explanation by the consultant.
Mayor Campbell pointed out that Member Hurley referred to
Volume I, page 5 -14, current noise levels, outer ear, 65
decibels, which is 10 decibles above the maximum allowed
for any residence per the Seal Beach Municipal Code, and in
Volume II, page 14 -52, No. 6 -Q, they were told that the
noise from construction machinery could reach 77 to 86
decibels in Leisure World, his question was what would be
the noise levels in Leisure World with existing traffic,
construction traffic, and construction machinery combined,
there seems to be some concern with not having solid
answers. The Planner said first it is necessary to
separate out short term construction noise from long term
operational noise once the buildings are ultimately built,
the noise study looks at what the current existing noise
patterns are and what the existing plus project noise
patterns would be, the long term operational noise, after
construction and the buildings built and occupied, the
increase is thought to be less than two decibels which
would be negligible to the human ear, the bulk of existing
noise comes from traffic traveling both directions on
Westminster Avenue, there will be a negligible increase in
long term noise, the bulk of increased noise comes from
short term construction in that it is relatively noisy to
build a building, the City Code addresses that noise and
exempts it from the noise standard, that is used as a
threshold in the document and identifies short term
,
Page Twenty One - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
construction noise as being non - significant under CEQA.
Mr. Ed Torres confirmed that there are multiple ways of
presenting the noise results, their results were presented
as stationery source and mobile source, mobile source is
the cars which is the primary source of noise in the area,
when the study says construction noise is a bit higher than
ambient, what is meant is construction levels are on the
tip of the scale, the noise levels presented of 77 to 86
decibels are for a worst case that would rarely happen, all
equipment operating at the same time at full throttle for a
limited amount of time, the noise levels presented in the
study are primarily for the mobile source levels. To the
reference of the Mayor to the questions raised by Mr.
Hurley, Councilman Larson cautioned that this is a public
hearing, it was improper for Mr. Hurley to send personal
letters to any member of the Council on this subject that
was not available to the applicant, noted that he and
Councilman Doane received such letter, did not open it,
submitted it to the City Manager who in turn gave it to the
Planning Director, at this time it is inappropriate to
discuss the questions of Mr. Hurley or what anyone might
say in a letter which could impact the legality of the
hearing. The Director of Development Services confirmed
that the applicant was provided a copy of the staff report
that included all of the attachments. Councilman Yost
again mentioned the height limit in an M -1 zone to which
the Development Services Director responded that the
existing Code provides for thirty -five feet, the Specific
Plan is proposed at forty feet, and the Code allows for the
seven foot height variation, to that the understanding of
Councilman Yost was that the Specific Plan adds five feet
onto what they would be able to do under the standard M -1
zone provisions without seeking a variance. Councilman
Yost made reference to page forty -two, attachment 1 of the
staff report with regard to changes in travel time at peak
hours at various intersections, and as a result of this
project questioned how much longer is it going to take a
person who is in an ambulance starting in Old Town to get
across the 405 bridge to get to the hospital, the Boulevard
being the main route to reach the hospital. Mr. Rich
Barretto said he could not answer the question in that they
did not do travel time surveys as part of the EIR, he could
respond to changes in the level of service, but a response
to travel time would be a guesstimate, an answer would not
be possible without having full background. It was
suggested that Mr. LaJoy be requested to speak to the
nature of the comments during discussion with the Fire
Authority and paramedics as to how those things are
typically looked at. Mr. LaJoy, RBF Consulting, noted that
the question of emergency medical response did come up
during the EQCB hearing, going back to the process of
preparing the EIR the Fire Department was contacted to
ascertain any specific concerns in terms of emergency
response, first and foremost there was no response time
issue for emergency medical response within the Leisure
World area, there was also no issues with regard to ingress
and egress to Leisure World, the Fire Department did not
identify any other specific issues or concerns in terms of
response time, medical emergency, access. Councilman Yost
offered that that is fine as it concerns Leisure World in
that the Fire Station is just outside their gate, the
Page Twenty Two - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
problem arises when the truck has to go back past this
development unless the truck from Old Town is used if it is
sufficient to handle the emergency. Mr. LaJoy said that
was the response of the Fire Department. Mayor Campbell
expressed her belief that the bottleneck is getting over
the bridge.
Mr. Clay Corwin stated he is a principal with the real
estate, development, and management firm Stonecreek Company
representing the Boeing Realty Corp. Mr. Corwin noted that
handouts reflecting their slide presentation were available
for the public. He thanked the Council, staff, and the
community for working with them over a period of time to
develop this project, it is felt that the process has been
productive in terms of what has been accomplished through
planning, engineering, the EQCB, Planning Commission, and
to this point, mentioned that this process was started a
couple of years ago with some informal sessions with staff
and members of the Council to design a product and project
that would meet the needs of the City, the landowner,
Boeing existing operations, as well as the community. Mr.
Corwin mentioned that through that process they came up
with several guiding objectives, 1) to respect and preserve
the Boeing ongoing operations, as is known the Boeing
Integrated Defense Systems will continue to conduct
business here with approximately three thousand programs
including R and D defense programs and others, 2) to plan
and build an industrial park that would be consistent with
existing General Plan policy, the project basically
respects the M -1 zoning that has been in place for quite
some time, enhance it to provide some things that are
beneficial for the City, 3) minimize impacts to surrounding
uses, as they looked at a range of land uses a main
consideration was minimizing impacts to surrounding land
uses in the community from an environmental perspective, 4)
to do a quality project, that is what the Specific Plan
contemplates by increasing some of the development
standards and design guidelines that are called for under
existing zoning, that is what Boeing looks to do every time
they do a project, and it should be remembered that they
will continue to occupy approximately forty -five to fifty
acres adjacent to the business park, and 5) provide
positive fiscal benefits, they heard loud and clear to find
ways to grow the economy and revenue streams yet do it in a
fashion that does not create more severe environmental
impacts as well as to create opportunities through the
Specific Plan for market driven uses that would come to the
area, and again minimize community environmental impacts.
As mentioned previously, Mr. Corwin noted that this
proposed project has been in the process for about two
years, the formal environmental review process commenced
with the initial study and scoping sessions in March of
2002, since then they have been involved in about fifteen
various public meetings, the draft EIR was completed by the
City in December of 2002, there was a forty -five day
comment period during which it is believed that the City
received some thirty comments from individuals and a
variety of public agencies, the City, working with the
consultant, responded to all of the comments which are now
contained in the Final EIR, the Specific Plan and EIR were
made available to the community and on the City website.
Page Twenty Three - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
Mr. Corwin noted concerns mentioned at this meeting,`and as
stated by the Director they did receive the letter. from Mr.
Hurley in the agenda packet, it is believed the consultants
for the City can respond to his noise concerns, it is known
that a community to the west, Island Village, had some
questions with regard to this project, there was a meeting.
with their board where some design changes were made to the
orientation of the buildings, to the setbacks from their
property line, and as mentioned there is a condition that
the sidewalk will be completed along Westminster Avenue
where it now does not exist, that is a benefit they asked
for, as well as the fact that City staff has included in
the conditions of approval a requirement that any user when
ultimately identified for their project would be required
to conduct a noise study to determine any impacts and
appropriate mitigation measures at that time, they have
tried to be proactive in addressing those immediate
neighbors. Mr. Corwin mentioned that the Specific Plan was
initiated in March of 2002 at the request of City staff to
build on the M -1 zoning and create some opportunities that
do not currently exist under that zoning, more specifically
to allow for point of sale retail uses to capture sales tax
from the business park as well as designate Planning Area 4
for a hotel and retail uses, that is what is planned at
this point however they can not make promises as to what
that end user will be, the ability to attract a hotel user
at this time is too early in the process yet they are in
discussions with a range of operators and developers and as
it gets closer to a final approval for land use through the
Coastal Commission it is felt certain that that issue will
get a little more right, they are working on that, point of
sale uses are now allowed under the proposed Specific Plan,
as well as within Planning Area 3, subject to a Conditional
Use Permit, retail and showroom uses are allowed, the CUP
process allows the City to filter what type of uses would
be desired, and to that they tried to be sensitive to make
sure that other existing businesses in the core City, Main
Street, etc., are not necessarily cannibalized, the City
has control over that process. With regard to the fiscal
impact that was analyzed briefly, Mr. Corwin said any
recurring revenues currently existing from the Boeing
campus are approaching $800,000 per year comprised of
utility user tax, property tax, some sales tax and a
significant amount of business license tax, what is called
the proposed project would be basically what has been
outlined, most of the development of the Business Park as
well as some retail and hotel uses in Planning Area 4 would
add about $700,000 of new, annual recurring revenue that
would come from about four different strains, sales tax,
transient occupancy tax, utility user tax, and increased
property tax from the development. Under a more
conservative analysis that would basically contemplate that
no hotel was located on the site the proposed revenue
baseline is still in excess of $450,000 from a mix of
utility users tax, property tax, as well as some point of
sale sales tax. It is believed that this adds
substantially to the revenue base of the City and should be
pushing the City in the right direction along with Rossmoor
and Bixby centers. Mr. Corwin referred to questions raised
in terms of the existing look and the look in terms of the
Business Park, the main development to the west, showed the
Page Twenty Four - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
existing entry from Road A, the building to the left' being
the Accurate Metals building, the signal light at'•Seal
Beach Boulevard /Road A, also showed a visual analysis of
what the buildout would look like under the Precise Plan in
terms of a landscaped entry, monument signage, etc. Mr.
Corwin mentioned that there has been some discussion thus.
far about proposed improvements from the project, this the
result of productive discussions with City staff over the
past few months, most of these are shown in the Vesting
Tentative Tract Map conditions in terms of public
improvements, it is believed they comprise most of the
improvements that they have heard concerns about, they
include new landscaped medians along Seal Beach Boulevard
of the entire Boeing frontage, significant improvements to
landscaping and entry at both project entries, new and
improved landscaping in the existing Westminster Avenue
median, new sidewalks that go along the entire frontage on
Westminster where no sidewalk currently exists, sidewalk
improvements along Lopez Drive, and on both sides of the
street within the Business Park, upgrading, replacement,
and improvement of existing traffic signals, the only new
signal will be at Lopez Drive and Seal Beach Boulevard, the
two existing signals at Road A and Westminster Avenue and
Road A and Seal Beach Boulevard will be replaced new, and
the two signals in the vicinity of Planning Area 4 would be
upgraded so there is synchronization on both of those
streets where the signals are impacted, several
deceleration lanes for traffic flow and safety have been
added at points of entry around the project, Boeing is
obligated to do a detailed study to resolve the drainage
problem and as soon as Planning Area 4 goes under
development then implement whatever the agreed resolution •
is as determined by the City Engineer. Construction
impacts are for a short period of time, the entries of
Apollo Drive would be built up front, the only issue that
was in question, now resolved, is the future connection,
the concern of Boeing was that their campus as it currently
operates would be forced to be bisected, a requirement that
the road go in before they had vacated ongoing operations
in Planning Area 2, for security and operational reasons to
have a public road was not feasible, what has been agreed
to with City staff is a condition that states that once a
map is recorded covering the three lots that front Planning -
Area 2 on the west then the obligation to improve the road
vests, and the traffic impact fees for this project is
about $1.8 million to be contributed to the City. Mr.
Corwin mentioned some additional project benefits, a state
of the art treatment system including bio -swail and using
the retention areas to treat urban runoff prior to
discharge into the Los Alamitos Retention Basin, it is
believed that comprises close to five acres incorporating
two of the ditches on the property, one the southerly ditch
off of Lopez and the central ditch. Fiscal benefits, the
recurring revenue, projection of potential jobs in the
fourteen to fifteen hundred range out of the Business Park,
there is an obligation to maintain the landscaping on the
new median improvements on both streets so that it is
revenue neutral to the City, again, point of sale land use
is an opportunity for the Council to control any competing
retail uses that may come in, and Boeing operations allows
Boeing to continue to grow and hopefully thrive in Seal
Page Twenty Five - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
Beach through this plan, this gives some flexibility'to
grow by allowing them to meet a corporate objectiite to
dispose of surplus land, this property has sat for forty -
five years without being developed, this allows all of that
to occur while security and operational needs of the
ongoing business are respected. He noted that the Specific
Plan is designed to enhance what already exists on the
property, it is consistent with the General Plan, design
guidelines and development standards are actually greater
than what is required under current zoning, as was
mentioned the height limit is up a little but there are
some tradeoffs in the Specific Plan in terms of increased
landscaping requirements over existing zoning, increased
setbacks, things that are felt will overall enhance the
project to make it a quality Business Park, the setbacks
are also an effort to minimize the impacts on the adjoining
communities of Leisure World and Island Village. Mr.
Corwin offered that they have tried to listen to the City
Council, spent considerable time with Planning and
Engineering, have listened to the community, his belief is
that they have come with a project, have come to agreement
with City staff on a range of conditions that they think
essentially satisfy all of the needs that have been heard
in terms of what the City is looking for. With regard to
some of the questions and comments made earlier Mr. Corwin
noted that there were comments on the roadway and the
timing thereof, they had looked at a large range of
alternatives for the road design to tie into Adolfo Lopez,
it became impossible to deal with County and City road
design standards to respect the wetland characteristics of
the ditches and existing buildings. He referred to a
question about undergrounding the existing utilities, as
was mentioned the cost is prohibitive, they talked to the
Edison Company and it is not something that they would be
asking that Boeing do, in terms of aesthetics as long as
the 66RV line remains the poles will remain, this allows
the creation of some other project benefits as opposed to
spending over a million dollars to underground those lines
so the basic infrastructure remains above ground. He
mentioned that the staff and RBF responded to other
questions, expressed appreciation for the time and
consideration of the project, and their team was present to
answer questions as well.
Mr. Alan DeFrancis, Vice President of Boeing Realty
Company, conveyed appreciation for Council consideration of
the Boeing project, it is hoped the project represents a
collaborative effort with the City that has taken place
over the last two years, on behalf of Boeing they are
pleased to be coming into this hearing in locked step with
Planning staff with a project that they are supportive of
and they believe has created opportunities both for the
residents of Seal Beach, created fiscal benefit for the
City, and important for Boeing as it maintains the
integrity of their existing operations. He too mentioned
that their team was present to answer any questions, and
again the feeling that there has been an ongoing
collaborative effort in putting this project together and
it is hoped that at the end of the meeting the Council will
feel the same way.
Page Twenty Six - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
Mayor Campbell invited members of the audience wishing to
speak to this item to come to the microphone and Identify
themselves. Dr. David Rosenman, Seal Beach, said he had
mixed opinions about the Boeing project, he agreed with the
comments of Councilman Yost relating to the height limit,
agreed too that approvals are not delegated to staff unless
one wants things to happen that one is then not happy with.
With air quality and grading, Dr. Rosenman stated he is
asthmatic and sensitive to such things, until he sent e-
mails to staff with regard to blowing dust nothing was
done, a false sense of security and assurance, there was no
water truck on site, the same will hold true with the
Boeing site. He said it was unacceptable and inexcusable
that no one seems to have an answer to questions relating
emergency vehicle access time, even more so given the only
remedy being a statement of overriding consideration, and
the Mayor correctly identified the other problem which is
the bridge. Dr. Rosenman said it was stated by a speaker
at the Bixby hearings that there was an access problem at
that time, it has not gone away, it is inexcusable that no
one has taken the time to develop that information, when a
question as to emergency access time was brought up at the
EQCB hearing the response of a representative of Linscott,
Law and Greenspan was that he has asked that of one person
at the Fire Department who did not provide an answer,
however he has personally asked two volunteers and they
feel there is a problem, this is an issue that needs to be
investigated further, this will be a problem for persons at
the school, residents of the Hill and Old Town, to the
statement that there will be no increase in the cost of
police and fire services he disagrees, there has to be an
increased cost for those services, and with regard to
undergrounding of the utilities, not knowing what Boeing
will make on this project yet given the price of housing in
this community, the expenditure of a million or two
dollars to underground would seem that the City would be
merely extracting a reasonable bargain, he would not be too
concerned that Boeing would not development this property
if they were actually made to do something, it is
inappropriate for staff to make concessions, that rests
with the Council. Mr. Terry Sears, a department manager at
Leisure World, said environmental issues is one of the
things that he is asked to speak on as an advocate on
behalf of some of the residents. Mr. Sears mentioned that
Boeing has been a good neighbor for many years, on the few
occasions that he has had need to call the issue at hand
has been immediately remedied, it is hoped they will
continue to be a good neighbor on this project. Mr. Sears
reported that there are at least sixty units that face
Westminster, the windows and doors of these units will face
this project and be dramatically impacted, the average age
of these residents is seventy -eight to seventy -nine years,
the portion of the population that are sensitive receptors,
his understanding is that construction will go on for one
to two years, the EIR says there will be temporary
substantial impact from matters such as noise and dust, in
his opinion one to two years stretches the definition of
temporary, for those residents that is a long time, there
can be medical recoveries, and they wear devices such as he
does that amplifies any machinery noise. Mr. Sears said
most of the residents that he speaks on behalf of are not
Page Twenty Seven - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
against the project, in fact some have asked for a bridge
over Westminster so that they can reach the new
development, yet they asked that the Council further the
mitigation and minimize their discomfort, of particular
concern with the project is dust and noise, his question
is, is good enough to meet laws and Codes good enough, an
example is that the statutes and history does say thirty -
five miles an hour for an hour in terms of wind, it is
hoped that that will be modified, in earlier environmental
meetings he had asked for twenty miles an hour yet would be
delighted with twenty -five, that would be an example that
would strike to the people that would be most affected. He
mentioned that there is some mitigation for dust that
requires watering twice per day, he has more concerns with
dust that he did not hear mentioned, one is dust at night,
if there is wind at night which blows towards the Leisure
World residents it will not only impact them at night but
blow onto Westminster and then in the morning when the cars
use that roadway the residents will have the dust a second
time. With regard to noise, Mr. Sears said upon reading
some of the early charts and in some of the volumes
distributed in the last few months some of the assumptions
made are a concern, an example would be a mobile noise
levels along Westminster that assumed an average traffic
speed of between thirty to forty -five miles an hour, upon
observation he would think an average speed would be more
like forty -five to fifty -five which will increase the
decibel level. Another thing is the synergistic effect in
that there will be mobile road noise, noise from the
construction machinery for one to two years, and those
combined with increased traffic will result in greater than
under the three decibel level that has been projected in
his opinion. Mr. Sears acknowledged that the City Code
does allow for increased construction decibel levels during
regular business hours, yet given that this is such a large
project is it possible that they could do some amelioration
or mitigation, for example on the western side of Leisure
World there was recently some pile driving activity and
part of the cost of that project was to install double
paned windows in order to absorb sound in those units that
would be most directly impacted, he had mentioned that in
some of the earlier meetings however he has not heard any
further reference to that. Mr. Sears again suggested that
the dust generation be lowered by some means, that there be
a hotline for residents to call, every possible mitigation
effort should be put forth to minimize the incidence of
noise and dust impacts on the Leisure World residents for
inconvenience and health reasons. Mr. Sears concluded by
reporting that Leisure World averages one hundred ten
paramedic calls a month, they have a short trip to enter
Leisure World but the trip north on the Boulevard is
already difficult, he was uncertain as to a travel time
from downtown, there is currently difficulty with traffic
in general, the culprit being the bridge which is not due
for any improvement until after 2006, he would suggest that
someone try to expedite the time frame for the bridge
widening. Mr. Bill Hurley, Leisure World resident, said he
had a few comments to add to the record in addition to
those that he had already made the Council aware of. Mr.
Hurley mentioned the negative health affects on people like
the Leisure World perimeter residents of excessive
Page Twenty Eight - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
environmental noise, the EIR mentions only one, page 5.5 -2
and table 5.5 -1, a study from 1970 showing hearing damage
at one hundred decibels for eight hours, there is a growing
body of research showing more extensive links of ill health
to environmental noise, in his research he has seen
reference to a study in the 1990's showing increases in
such things as cardiac and accidental deaths in people over
seventy -five years resulting from loud environmental noise.
Mr. Hurley said there is another example over and above
those already provided Council of the EIR quoting standards
that do not really apply to the sensitive receptors in
Leisure World, directing attention to page 5.5 -4 Mr. Hurley
said when the State noise insulation standards for multi-
unit dwellings, which is 45 dba interior units, was enacted
when the Leisure World units were already ten years old and
not required to meet that standard, the field testing,
shown on 5.5 -9, did not include but should have included
sampling inside the Leisure World perimeter units to
determine if the noise now is already above 45 dba and if
so by how much, that needs to be known before you can
estimate the effect of the project noise, both construction
and long term on Leisure World perimeter residents. To
Councilman Larson Mr. Hurley said he would assure that
before he sent something to the members of the Council he
inquired of the Planning Director if it would be alright to
lobby members of the Council, he was told it was but did
not mention the applicant, if there is a problem with what
was sent to the Council the problem is not with him but
with staff or legal counsel.
Mr. Corwin noted the comments with regard to air quality
and air speed and an amendment to the Rule 403 standard,
said Boeing is agreeable to reduce the wind speed threshold
to twenty -five miles an hour and establish a City appointed
monitor, and with regard to the undergrounding, he had made
the statement that they had spoken to Edison in that
regard, and said that Edison does not permit undergrounding
of 66KV lines because of maintenance issues and the need to
dig them up when there is a problem is a prohibitive
expense, this issue was looked at through the EIR in terms
of aesthetic impacts where none were identified, part of
that has to do with the existing substantial screening
along Westminster Avenue in mature trees as well as new
improvements that will exist in Planning Area 3, those
things combined led to the result of the discussions.
The City Attorney advised that prior to the closing of the
public hearing it would be appropriate to enter into the
record all of the staff reports, the four volumes of the
Environmental Impact Report, and all of the comments from
this public hearing.
The Associate Planner said he believed that the traffic
consultants would like to respond to the concerns expressed
relating to the emergency access. Mr. Rich Barretto,
Linscott, Law, and Greenspan, stated that in the Final EIR
they did an analysis of the existing and projected service
levels of the interchange with proposed improvements that
are identified by the City in their Project Study Report
and Project Report, there are five improvements, from that
they could interprelate how the service levels at that
•
•
Page Twenty Nine - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
interchange will improve, on page 14 -28 of Volume'II there
is a Table that summarizes the service levels. Mr. Baretto
said there is no disputing that it takes time to get across
that interchange, it is bottlenecked, it is a four lane
bridge section with single turn lanes to get on and off of
that interchange, with the improvements of adding lanes a
the intersections of the southbound and northbound ramps
and provide additional off ramp lanes, the service levels
then improve from Level Of Service F during the critical PM
peak hour at both intersections to Level Of Service E and
Level Of Service D, the overall capacity increases by over
thirty percent, and from that based on definitions for
delay in service levels a decrease in delay can be seen by
about thirty to forty seconds to get through the
intersection even with the project being built out, the
bottleneck is the bridge but if capacity is added to the
intersections it is possible to free up time for through
movements on Seal Beach Boulevard by processing traffic
much quicker and getting them through the intersection by
adding additional turn lanes.
The City Attorney confirmed that the public testimony
portion of the hearing could be closed, if there are
further questions of the applicant this would be the time
to pose them. The Mayor declared that public testimony was
closed.
Councilman Antos said his comments relate to grading and
wind speed, he expressed concern previously with mass
grading, not just work, and inquired if it would be
acceptable during mass grading of any of the areas to limit
it to when the winds are twenty -five miles an hour or less,
also watering at least twice a day or as directed by staff.
A second issue has to do with construction noise, it is
clear that there is probably two types of construction
noise, one would be using heavy equipment and /or pile
drivers, etc. which would be for specific times and
duration as opposed to regular construction involving
hammering, cement trucks, etc., would the project team have
any objection to contacting a designated person in Leisure
World prior to commencing heavy grading to let them know
what will be taking place so they can plan for it. Mr.
Corwin responded that they are agreeable to the twenty -five
mile per hour condition, the standard engineering
conditions that City staff referred to are conditions of
the Vesting Tentative Tract Map which contain a range of
very detailed conditions to be complied with including the
applicant providing its own monitor, a hotline number,
provisions for watering in place, the scenario described
would be acceptable if not already covered in the standard
conditions in terms of multiple watering, it is believed
there are also provisions that require construction area
fencing, a chainlink type of fence slats, all of those
things are acceptable in terms of providing a notice to
someone prior to a major construction activity, some simple
mechanism, that is agreeable, he clarified also that there
is no pile driving on this project, these buildings are all
on conventional spread footings. With regard to the noise
issue Mr. Corwin said he has heard and learned several
times from the testimony of the noise consultants that
contrary to a laymans view that stationary and vehicular
Page Thirty - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
sources of noise become additive that in fact they are not.
Councilman Doane clarified that the only Mutual in Leisure
World that would be affected by the noise is Mutual Two and
a person could be designated by that Mutual. The Mayor
suggested a direct call to the Associate Planner, and Mr.
Corwin said his understanding was that the request was for
a contact person prior to a major construction noise event.
Councilman Larson suggested that a construction schedule be
provided the Leisure World News, a newspaper that most
everyone reads, and inquired if the Boeing team considered
installing the double paned windows for those units that
face Westminster Avenue as did the Department of Water and
Power when they did the Haynes Steamplant project. Mr.
Corwin said based on all of the analysis and the input from
the City and their consultants that was not considered, it
was understood that was a markedly different project both
in terms of scope, duration, and noise, one of the other
suggestions that had been raised was to potentially
increase the height of the existing wall, comments to that
were that it is not allowed under City Code but maybe more
importantly from one of the Planning Commissioners who
raised concern that with a higher soundwall the resident
population would lose the benefit of the prevailing breezes
off of the ocean, it sounded as if that would create a
greater problem than the problem being alleviated.
Councilman Larson said his question was specific to the
windows, acknowledged that it was a different type of
project, however the window replacement served as a public
relations benefit for the people whose residence faced to
the west, the cost of the replacement is unknown. Mayor
Campbell offered that if there are sixty units and two
windows per unit, possibly $25,000, and asked if that could
be a consideration. Mr. Corwin offered to consult with
Boeing regarding that request. Councilman Doane said he
did not believe that there are sixty units in direct line
with where the construction will take place because a large
portion of that area of Mutual Two is the Leisure World
maintenance shed.
Councilman Yost referred to the hotel proposed for Planning
Area 4, to him one of the greater benefits, and asked what
the City can do to increase the chance that that will
actually occur. Mr. Corwin said everyone from a user type
situation like that wants to be wanted, wants to understand
the development process in the City, that has been one of
the challenges, they have talked to a range of hotel
developers and operators who have expressed interest in the
site, the biggest challenge so far is timing, and because
of the challenges that are known in dealing with the
Coastal Commission and their business planning cycle and to
look out a year or more to make a commitment has been a big
challenge, beyond that what could be done to attract a
hotel developer obviously is to provide additional
information in terms of demand, in terms of things that
would be attractive that they might not be able to discover
more easily on their own, market feasibility studies, which
they will do, possibly a honeymoon from the Transient
Occupancy Tax until they get ramped up and stabilized,
possibly a year or two, since their interest is in getting
a product built once they purchase a parcel of land to have
assurances to have expedited processing of plans and
Page Thirty One - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
building permits, work with them with regard to development
fees, those are the types of tools that they would like to
see to attract a particular user, this is not what a hotel
operator would call an "A" site in terms of all of the
characteristics that they look at, however there are
several positives as well, the proximity to the coast; not
much other product in the immediate area, proximity to
Leisure World, proximity to Boeing, those are positives and
that is how they have been able to generate interest to
date. Councilman Yost offered that he has heard that the
Ayres Hotel is the best performing financially of all of
their units, that information may be helpful, again, to him
the hotel is one of the better aspects of the project
because it does bring in recurring revenue to the City, it
can be well landscaped and be relatively attractive for the
community, also located at the entrance to the project and
the community, the City would like to assist in making
certain that that transpires, and asked if increasing the
time frame from eighteen months to two years would be of
assistance. Mr. Corwin said the provision is actually an
obligation to Boeing to market that property exclusively
for a hotel and retail uses for an eighteen month period
after Coastal Commission approval of the project, however •
after eighteen months if it looks like it is viable to
build a hotel as opposed to one of the other approved land
•
uses Boeing could still pursue that as a potential user,
what the provision of the Specific Plan says is that you
can not do other land uses like light industrial /office as
an example until the eighteen month period has expired,
noted that Boeing has had good experience with hotels on
other campuses, the market however has been fairly
depressed since 911, it is coming back but slowly, in the
most immediate past window expansion plans by the major
chains have basically been put on hold or substantially
minimized, as the economy improves he would expect that
market to improve as well. Mayor Campbell inquired as to
the target market for a hotel, the Ayres is in the area of
the 405 Freeway and Extended Stay America is on the east
side of the Weapons Station. Mr. Corwin responded that the
target market in terms of guest spaces would be similar to
what Extended Stay America is capturing at McDonalds
Center, but if a hotel product were next to the Boeing
campus where that group of users would be a fairly large
number, overnight and visitors because of the proximity to
the coast, a different market segment, a new product that
is not a luxury product, not like the product seen in
Huntington Beach, but has a better price point for a family
that is looking for an extended stay vacation, visitors,
family, and friends of residents of Leisure World, those
are some of the market segments that it is understood a
hotel operator would look for, contrast that with the Ayres
product in the Bixby Center, they have confirmed that their
project has been successful thus far, however it is
understood that they are basically looking to attract
drive -by traffic. Mr. Corwin reminded that this is not a
huge hotel, it would be a one hundred to one hundred twenty
room hotel.
Mayor Campbell made reference to the statement that the
project would generate fourteen to fifteen hundred jobs, to
that she inquired as to the quality of those jobs. Mr.
Page Thirty Two - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
Corwin responded that it is a range, an order of. magnitude
projection from the fiscal impact consultants that compiled
the study contained in the staff report, a range from
white /gray collar type jobs to potentially light
manufacturing to warehousing /distribution, the job menu
largely dictated by users which is also dictated by where
they might locate within the Business Park, there are
twelve buildings that range in size from approximately
thirty -five thousand square feet to about one hundred
eighty thousand square feet, some of the larger buildings
are designed to be divisible for multiple tenants,
certainly the three parcels that front Westminster Avenue,
shown as lots 1, 2, and 3 in the Specific Plan and on the
map, they would expect to draw a higher image, more of a
white collar research and development type user, one or two
of the larger buildings in the back of the project may be
more for warehousing and distribution, the projection is
based upon a range of those type of uses.
Mayor Campbell then asked how far back is Island Village
from this project. Mr. Corwin responded that the property
line from the closest lot, lot 3 at the northwest corner of
the project, is approximately two hundred thirty feet from
the nearest residential unit, the residential units tend to
backup and there is an intervening circulation road within
that community, immediately after lot 3 as one goes south
the property line of Island Village cuts away substantially
therefore the lot to lot distance jumps to about three
hundred seventy feet from lot 4 which is the next southerly
lot, in addition, there is about a seventy foot setback on
those two lots from the property line to the building
itself, there is enhanced landscaping along the property
line, various trash compactor units that are exterior, at
the request of the Planning staff they have been moved to
more muffled areas on the buildings, when one gets to about
lot 5 it is probably six or seven hundred feet across the
Los Alamitos Retention Basin. Mayor Campbell said she was
wondering from building to building what that would look
like to the Island Village residents. Mr. Corwin said from
a prior plan that went through a mitigated negative
declaration process around early 2001 some of the building
orientations have been shifted in terms of where loading
docks are, some changes have been made in window lines to
deal with visual aesthetic concerns as that relates to
concerns looking across into second level windows of the
residences that are nearby, lighting standards are spelled
out in great detail in the Specific Plan to shield lighting
so that there is not glare at night into those residences,
these are all benefits of the Specific Plan that not only
increases the quality of the project but minimizes impacts
to neighbors.
Mayor Campbell noted comments with regard to the different
sources of revenue, sales tax, utility users tax, transient
occupancy tax, and increased property tax, to which she
said while the utility tax would increase, if the City were
ever fortunate enough to reduce the utility tax that would
be a source of revenue that would just disappear therefore
can not be counted on forever like the sales tax. Mr.
Corwin explained that if one looks at the breakdown of the
increase of recurring revenue that is in the Robert Charles
Page Thirty Three - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
Lesser report in the Appendix and the increase over
existing versus new under the two scenarios, what.is called
the middle case and the low case, while there is an
increase of the utility users tax under those two scenarios
it is believed it is about $150,000 of the $750,000 in
scenario one and $450,000 in the second, there is another.
$70,000 to $80,000 in property tax that is a step up in the
base that will only increase, there is an increment as
analyzed of sales tax both from the commercial piece of
about thirty thousand square feet next to the hotel which
adds about another $100,000 with a projection of another
$100,000 to $150,000 from point of sale opportunities which
could be very large or very small. Mr. Corwin mentioned
that there have been discussions of the various options of
what might go in either under a CUP or existing zoning,
whether it is a point of sale use that is not a traditional
retailer or if it is a warehouse /showroom type operator
like Pacific Sales, so the utility users tax is a
significant piece, yet the other three pieces, sales,
property and TOT are also significant, as well as the
existing Boeing operation, even though it does go up and
down, the business license tax that the existing campus
pays to the City based upon contracts earned during a
period of time can range from about $100,000 per year to an
amount last year of about $400,000, the point being that
there would be comparable type users whether they be
government contractors or other defense contractors that
may choose to locate in the Business Park because of the
synergy of adjacency that could generate additional
business license tax that would not go away, none of that
is really accounted for in the fiscal analysis at all.
With regard to traffic, Mayor Campbell agreed with the
statements that the bridge is a bottleneck with no bridge
widening anticipated for four to six years basically
because that project is tied to the widening of the 22
Freeway, the widening project is starting at the 57 Freeway
and working its way west, at present there is no budgeted
money to take the widening past the 22 Freeway, yet the
goal is to go to the 605 Freeway, that is a reason for the
presentation by OCTA this evening relating to the
aesthetics because that theme will be carried forward
throughout the widening project, once the widening project
reaches this community the intent is to widen the Freeway,
widen and lengthen the bridge, the existing expanded right
hand traffic lane to the north of the bridge is in
anticipation of the bridge widening.
Councilman Yost noted that within the Specific Plan there
is a provision for on -sale and off -sale liquor
establishments in all four Planning Areas, asked why there
is need for liquor establishments in a Business Park,
requiring a CUP of course. Mr. Corwin responded that he
believed that was included with the CUP overlay simply to
give the City the greatest amount of flexibility in order
to attract and decide what type of food and beverage or
restaurant users might come in, similar to the sit down
restaurants in the Bixby Center, that is nothing of
importance to Boeing per se. Councilman Yost said he could
understand Planning Area 4 but he could not understand
Areas 2 or 3 which is proposed as a Business Park. The
Page Thirty Four - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
Development Services Director explained that from the
business parks that he has looked at one often sees smaller
buildings that have a number of service type uses to serve
the employees of the area, a restaurant operation, dry
cleaners, etc. within the business park development, this
allows that type of use to come before the City under'the,
Conditional Use Permit process to be considered on an
individual basis, yet if felt to be inappropriate for
certain Areas it could be eliminated. With reference to a
warehouse /showroom use, Councilman Yost inquired as to what
would that include. The Director said he would envision
that Pacific Sales or Frys Electronics would fit into those
categories, those uses would have to go through the
Conditional Use Permit process and public hearing to assure
the use is appropriate in that there are markedly different
traffic impacts generated by those types of uses as
compared to a business park use. Councilman Yost noted
that those types of uses have not been considered in the
EIR therefore why would such uses be included in the
Specific Plan, would that not require recirculation of an
EIR and should that be contemplated. The Director noted
that the process would be similar to that of Bixby where
projects came in, the restaurant uses were switched from
one end of the Center to the other, a greater trip
generation use moved to a certain area, and as that process
went through the Conditional Use Permit review there was
further evaluation of traffic impacts, noise, and air
quality, in those cases if substantial impacts are found
that need further mitigation a mitigated negative
declaration needs to be prepared to deal with those issues,
one can not project those things until there is a specific
user in mind to know what the impacts would actually be.
Councilman Yost then said this started out with zoning as a
high tech business park, the project was sold on that
basis, then on the last line of a chart in small print it
gives the possibility of a Frys and Home Depot coming onto
the site yet none of those have been described in the EIR,
he does not understand how that can be done. The Director
•
responded that it can under the process where there are no
identified users and they must come back for subsequent
review at a later point if a discretionary application is
filed, a request from someone to bring in a certain type of
a use, if the users that eventually come into this
particular project are all permitted uses without needing a
Conditional Use Permit those uses are the ones that were
evaluated in the EIR document, uses that require a CUP are
fairly speculative, it is not known what they may be or how
large they may be, or what the trip generation
characteristics are, and until those things are known
can not be evaluated, that is a subsequent evaluation at a
later point in time. Councilman Yost then asked what
triggers recirculating an EIR and going back through the
process. The Director explained there are a number of
trigger points but it probably would not be a full EIR
rather a mitigated negative declaration where there are a
limited number of impacts that require evaluation that can
be mitigated to a level of less than significant, if there
is an impact that can not be mitigated to a less than
significant level through the further evaluation then there
is a requirement to do a supplemental EIR, it depends on
the capability of the project and the ability to mitigate
Page Thirty Five - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
the impacts to a less than significant level. The City
Attorney confirmed the correctness of the statement by the
Director, at the time that they may come in with a new use
that requires a CUP or some type of discretionary permit,
the City would do an initial study, analyze the
environmental impacts of that particular use, a finding
could be made that it is already within the scope of the '
EIR, it could be a negative declaration, a mitigated
negative declaration, or if the impacts are substantial
enough it could be a supplement to the EIR. Mr. Corwin
added his comments from a different perspective in terms of
their feasibility of looking at various options informally,
stating that they did not talk to most of the users that
are being thought of, this is not a site that they would be
interested in, secondly as planned and proposed through the
Vesting Tentative Tract Map there are no lots that would be
appropriate at least under any of their business models.
Councilman Yost inquired as to the parking that would be
required for something like that, are there any lots that
have that amount of parking under the Vesting Tentative
Tract Map. The Development Services Director stated there
is not, generally the parking for those uses and the City
requirements probably are not sufficient for what those
types of uses need to provide, the City requirement is
basically one space per three hundred square feet of
building area, most times it is found that those types of
uses will want to provide five spaces per thousand square
feet, none of the properties in this area provide parking
in those ratios. The Mayor stated her belief is that a
Home Depot needs something like twelve to fifteen acres,
neither Costco, Home Depot, or Wal -Mart were interested.
Mayor Campbell declared the public hearing to be closed.
It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council,
to declare a recess at 10:16 p.m. The Council reconvened
at 10:26 p.m. with Mayor Campbell calling the meeting to
order.
Councilman Yost stated that it seems as if everytime there
is a project the height limit goes up by five feet,
traditionally he has been very cognizant of the height
limits in Seal Beach, if Boeing stayed with their existing
zoning and did the mitigated negative declaration they
could not build anything higher than thirty -five feet
without a variance, now with the Specific Plan they are
going to forty feet, the question is why. The Associate
Planner said he believes there are a number of reasons,
with a slightly taller height limit one can create the
capability of having mezzanine level in certain sections of
the buildings which makes the buildings more marketable to
certain segments, as one looks at the Specific Plan, the
reason the staff thinks that it is more palatable is that
there are greater setback situations that would allow for
those buildings to be further offset from outside property
lines which makes them less visually intrusive going up as
one may otherwise have with the existing zoning, there are
also additional landscaping treatments and design
guidelines that the current M -1 zoning does not require
which would also offset the visual impact of the additional
five feet. The Development Services Director explained
that the current M -1 zoning has a minimum lot size of ten
Page Thirty Six - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
thousand square feet which is approximately a quarter of an
acre and a fifteen foot setback requirement from''all
property lines, therefore under the current M -1 zoning
there could be thirty -five foot buildings fifteen feet away
from a property line, the Specific Plan allows forty foot
buildings, the smallest lot proposed under the Business
Park development is two and a half acres, those are lots
ten times the minimum lot size allowed and as indicated
with greater setback distances, the minimum is about
seventy feet from a property line as opposed to fifteen
feet, therefore the building is set back further with more
landscaping, it is felt that helps the marketability of the
buildings by being able to have the mezzanine level for the
types of business uses that need offices as part of their
use, or for research and development use in particular,
that was the thought process upon looking at the Specific
Plan. Councilman Yost asked if gymnasiums, like volleyball
gymnasiums, etc. have been looked at in terms of business
models and contemplated, the Director responded that he
believed that is allowed by a Conditional Use Permit.
Councilman Yost also inquired as to the thought of
increasing the time from eighteen months to two years to
require Boeing to shop the hotel area, to him that is one
of the major benefits to the community to ensure that that
is built. The Associate Planner offered that staff
definitely considered that, in fact originally was looking
at a three year time frame, went back and forth with the
Boeing team as to what that time period should be, eighteen
months was an arbitrary amount of time that was agreeable
to all, staff was looking at ways to generate additional
revenue and the Transient Occupancy Tax was one way to do
that, of concern as the Plan was development was that if
the hotel did not go in a large portion of the proposed
revenue would never occur, staff did look for a longer time
period. Councilman Yost proposed that the time frame be
extended to thirty -six months.
Looking at the Conditions of Approval, Mayor Campbell cited
the condition to provide a solution to the flooding
problems which exist after heavy rains along the eastern
edge of the Boeing property on Seal Beach Boulevard.
Councilman Yost said he would not only require them to do
the study but to resolve the issue, at least find a way to
get that accomplished in the short term as that is a major
problem for anyone traveling that roadway any time that it
rains, it reduces from a four lane road to a two and a half
lane road, it is a major issue for anyone coming up and
down Seal Beach Boulevard, it would be nice to find a way
as this project goes forward to get that taken care of in
the short term, especially with the added traffic that will
occur as a result of the development, it seems that a
connection can be made between how bad the travel will be
and the increased traffic that will be on that road. Mayor
Campbell asked if the Conditions of Approval have been
agreed to, to that the response of the Associate Planner
was that they are proposed Conditions of Approval on the
Tract Map, they are further broken down based upon certain
time frames, an example would be before a building permit
is issued, some before a Certificate of Occupancy is
granted for a building on a certain lot, and confirmed that
Boeing has agreed to those conditions as currently drafted
•
Page Thirty Seven - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
and set forth in Attachment Two. The Mayor proceeded to
clarify that Boeing has agreed to provide a mechanism to
provide for maintenance of landscaping to be dedicated to
the City of Seal Beach, the response was yes, to provide a
solution for the flooding problems that exists after heavy
rains along the eastern edge of the Boeing property along,
Seal Beach Boulevard, the response was yes yet with a
caveat, they have agreed to fix the problem at such time as
development occurs on Planning Area 4. Mayor Campbell
offered that if the time frame to market a hotel is
extended to three years that then delays a resolution to
the flooding problem. Councilman Yost said he is desirous
of making certain that the City gets the best long term
benefit, which is the hotel, the flooding needs to be taken
care of and if there is a way to get that done in a shorter
time period it should, yet the long term benefits need to
be looked at in terms of aesthetics and income, that is the
hotel. The Development Services Director suggested that a
thought be kept in mind that it may be difficult to
determine what all of the future drainage issues may be in
the area as a result of not knowing how Planning Area 4 may
be developed, under the scenario being discussed it could
be that a plan would be approved to deal with the existing
flooding problem that may require further correction once
it is known what is proposed for Area 4, that was the
reasoning for the suggestion to wait until that is known,
the drainage analysis would be concluded and everything
would be dealt with at one time. Councilman Yost said if
the time frame for a hotel is extended to three years
Boeing will have a lot that they will be paying on for a
longer period of time so it would behoove them to develop
it in the way it is zoned and conditioned, he would
recommend a period of three years, the hotel is important
for the long term recurring revenue stream to the City.
Mayor Campbell asked if the building height concerns had
been responded to satisfactorily, the response of
Councilman Yost was reluctantly yes, stating he has always
been a staunch opponent of raising height limits however in
this case and given the lot sizes are ten times the size of
what they would be under existing zoning, the setbacks and
landscaping, this in exchange for making certain that the
drainage problem is resolved in the short term and ensuring
to the best of ability that a hotel is built.
Mayor Campbell inquired as to how double paned windows can
be addressed in the documents. The Development Services
Director suggested that if the intent is to impose a
condition on the project, whether it be the installation of
windows or an evaluation of cost, would be to require
whatever is to be done prior to the issuance of a grading
permit for any work in Planning Area 3, a condition on the
Vesting Tract Map. Mayor Campbell said she would like to
see a cost evaluation, if it should be cost prohibitive
that may not be something that Council would want to
impose, given the fact that windows were installed prior to
the DWP project it seems that it would not be cost
prohibitive, however this should be looked into because
seniors are not as resistant as the general population and
it becomes a health issue. The Director suggested that at
the time of consideration of the final Vesting Map the
Council may wish to require that the evaluation be
Page Thirty Eight - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
presented and considered by Council and a determination
made as to whether or not it is appropriate to require the
window replacement, if approved that would then be a
condition prior to the issuance of a grading permit. With
regard to Planning Commission control, Councilman Yost
noted that the documents were drafted requiring Planning
Commission review of the Precise Plan, the architectural
features above the height limit, and the changes that were
less than ten percent of the plan yet in the Specific Plan
it states that is to be done by the Director of Development
Services, his feeling is that they should go before the
Planning Commission as they traditionally have, he would
not be comfortable having that done at the administrative
level, it needs to be done in a public forum. The Director
confirmed that the resolutions do reflect the
recommendation of the Planning Commission that those items
go back to them for final review.
Councilman Antos referred to the Grading section, 3.1 of
the proposed Resolution dealing with the Tract Map, in his
opinion that is where there should be a requirement for a
plan to be submitted to the Director of Development Service
for a program to notice upcoming construction to be
provided the Golden Rain News or some other appropriate
mechanism so that they are aware beforehand, and under
section 3.2.6 there is reference to the AQMD Rule 403, that
should be modified to a twenty -five mile an hour wind as
opposed to the unmodified Rule 403. The Director suggested
that it may be better reflected in the Mitigation
Monitoring Program where there is an entire section dealing
with all of the air quality dust provisions, that would be
on page 128 of the EIR certification Resolution, the
grading terms used by staff are rough grading and precise
grading, his understanding is that the rough grading permit
would reflect the twenty -five mile an hour limit for one
hour, the precise grading would reflect a thirty -five mile
an hour wind, if correct those changes will be made to the
Mitigation Monitoring Program and include the notification
procedure to Leisure World as well. Councilman Antos
indicated agreement.
Mayor Campbell reviewed the EQCB recommendations once
again, there was Council concurrence to reduce the wind
speed and duration from thirty -five to twenty -five miles an
hour, the remainder of their recommendations dealt with
noise, their feeling was that the long term noise impact
analysis was inadequate, did not sufficiently mitigate
noise impacts, the short term construction analysis was
inadequate with respect to sensitive receptors and the
proposed mitigation did not adequately address short term
noise impacts, the traffic analysis of the Leisure World
entries was inaccurate, that the long term traffic analysis
and proposed mitigation is inadequate, and consideration of
future buildout pursuant to the Circulation Element of the
General Plan of the Seal Beach Boulevard bridge widening
over the 405 should be considered within the EIR document.
At the request of the Mayor, the Associate Planner
explained that the things said at the EQCB hearing related
to existing noise levels and that any increase over that
should be considered significant no matter what the
increase, under CEQA the document needs to analyze whether
Page Thirty Nine - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
or not the increase itself is a significant increase that
would need to be mitigated, the noise analysis iiidicates
that the average human ear would not detect any noticeable
increase in noise over what is currently existing,
therefore from a CEQA standpoint there is not a significant
increase in long term operational noise, as mentioned
previously, the main bulk of noise is existing traffic on
Westminster Avenue, from the staff standpoint the long term
operational noise is not a significant impact under CEQA.
As it relates to the short term construction noise the City
Code exempts that noise from any type of noise standard, a
building could not be built without using equipment and
equipment has some impact, traditionally CEQA looks at
those impacts as being short term and non - significant
therefore those noise impacts have been analyzed as such.
Mayor Campbell inquired as to the projected increase of
vehicles a day on Westminster Avenue. Mr. Barrette quoted
from the traffic study that the existing traffic on
Westminster Avenue adjacent to the site ranges from twenty -
three thousand to twenty -four thousand vehicles per day,
projected to increase to twenty -nine or thirty thousand
vehicles per day, the existing daily service level of the
roadway is "B" then degrades to a level of service "D"
which is still acceptable. The Mayor said she was making a
comparison to Lampson Avenue which has increased by two
thousand vehicles a day since the Bixby Center, she looks
at the impact on the homes that back to the street, this
project will be a five to six thousand vehicle per day
increase, the question is the impact on the Leisure World
residents. It was stated that it is necessary to compare
the numbers to the capacity of the roadway, Westminster has
a greater capacity, also, an increase of five thousand
versus two thousand cars does not necessarily mean there
will be three times the noise impact. Mr. Torres explained
that for noise they use a model that is provided by
CalTrans, the Federal Highway Administration, and the
Federal Transit Administration, this model is the most
widely used for municipal projects, EIR's, Negative
Declarations, etc., they use the traffic information that
is given to them and model the scenarios given, the
existing and the existing plus project which gives the
increase for the project, they model future levels and
future with project to ascertain what the difference would
be with the future building when the project is complete.
Based upon the difference and the capacity of Westminster
Avenue it does have a higher capacity than most roads based
upon the lane configurations and width of the roadway and
the distance of the residences from the centerline of the
roadway which is the center point of the road, based upon
that the maximum increase from no project to project is 1.1
decibels, based upon multiple references and research they
have done from the scientific level and the administrative
level from CalTrans and Federal Highway Administrations the
most standardly used criteria level is that anything less
than 3 decibels is not noticeable to the human ear,
typically only noticeable under laboratory conditions
however in the field and in common practice anything less
than 3 decibels is not significant for most CEQA documents,
that is the standard that they used. Based upon the
increase of 1.1 decibels from no project to project it was
determined that the impact would be less than significant
Page Forty - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
to the receptors. Mayor Campbell said then what is.being
said is that the traffic will be increased six thousand
vehicles a day and the decibels will only be increased by
.1. Mr. Torres said another thing that needs to be looked
at as well is that when traffic levels are lower, currently
the vehicles on Westminster Avenue is about twenty -three
thousand vehicles a day, if there was a road with vehicles
in the range of eight to twelve thousand and it was
increased by five to six thousand vehicles there would be a
bigger difference. Mayor Campbell made reference to peak
travel times, from her experience from about 6:30 until
8:00 a.m. and 4:30 to 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. the traffic
increases significantly. Mr. Torres offered that since the
traffic levels on Westminster are currently high there is
already a high noise level, common practice in the
acoustics field too is that when there is that significant
level of traffic, twenty to thirty thousand vehicles, the
noise increase per couple of thousand vehicles gets smaller
and smaller, if there were forty thousand vehicles and ten
thousand were added the noise would increase by 1 or 2
decibels at the most, it does not add up on the mathematics
scale, the model does take into account the worst case
parameters, it assumed that there was no vegetation
surrounding the project site along Westminster Avenue, it
assumed it was all a hard site which means it is all street
scapes, sidewalks, asphalt, no intervening barrier, that
the residences within the contour band were within fifty
feet of the roadway, some residences are much further than
that but they took a conservative, worst case analysis,
that is why they were confident in their results of a 1.1
decibel increase with the project traffic levels, if there
was a lower traffic level of possibly ten thousand vehicles
and traffic was increased by five thousand there would have
been a greater increase in noise, since there are already a
greater number of vehicles the increase due to the project
will not be significant. Mayor Campbell noted the plant
growth adjacent to the Leisure World wall and asked if that
absorbs any of the sound. Mr. Torres responded that they
typically do, a wall will absorb 5 to 8 decibels and
according to the research done by the Federal Highway
Administration, foliage, trees or shrubs will reduce noise
by 1 to 3 decibels depending on the density, however in
their analysis they did not assume any intervention by
vegetation.
Mayor Campbell stated that she had completed her list, the
height limit, looking into the double paned windows,
reduction of the wind speed, future review and approvals
will be through the Planning Commission rather than staff,
the hotline will be the Associate Planner by day and a
Leisure World designee for evening hours. Councilman Yost
said he would like to extend to three years the time period
for the hotel to be shopped, that the drainage study be
prepared and that the flooding problem be remedied in the
short run as well, the time frame being within eighteen
months after approval of the project by the Coastal
Commission. Councilman Larson said something should be
learned from the Bixby project, if the City does not get
the concessions that they want now it likely never will,
with this project there is nothing for certain, just lots,
the street will not go through unless the buildings are
PAge Forty One - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
torn down and it is not known whether they will eves do
that, if they are a successful company they will.expand, it
is not known if they will get a hotel, he really does not
want to vote on anything until it is known exactly, he
agrees with the dust control measures, the hotline, that
the windows should go in, he will assume the number of
windows mentioned by Councilman Doane are correct, the cost
can not be that great, he supports the Planning Commission
approvals rather than staff, would like assurance that with
the height of the buildings that they not be allowed to
have noisy air conditioning equipment or other equipment
on the roof, that could be a noise problem, and he supports
the construction notification to the Golden Rain News. He
mentioned also that the City went through the bridge
problem with Bixby, whether the Council articulated or not
the City accepted the fact that the bridge is not going in
because of problems with the Orange County Transportation
Authority and CalTrans, therefore the problems that exist
must be accepted by reason of the bridge not being
improved, it is not certain why but Seal Beach Boulevard is
busy, some of the problems will be solved by the work that
is currently being done at Westminster and Seal Beach
Boulevard, there will now be two southbound left turns from
the Boulevard onto Westminster, that will help. Councilman
Larson said he wants to make certain that the City gets
what has been conceded, if the Vested Tentative Map is
approved that is final, the City may not get what it wants
in some instances depending on what the market is, that
needs to be understood, he also appreciates the concern of
the Council for the residents of Leisure World, shares the
concern of the Mayor with regard to traffic noise impacts,
yet if the Council can be assured by staff that the City
will get what has been discussed then his vote will likely
be yes.
Councilman Yost asked if there was a desire to hold this
matter over to the next meeting to allow additional time
for review of the information. Councilman Larson said his
understanding is that due to personnel absences it would
need to be held over until a future meeting rather than the
next meeting. The Development Services Director said the
concern is with Council having questions of the Engineering
Department regarding conditions on the Tentative Tract Map
in particular as the Deputy City Engineer will not be
available during the month of August, if there are
questions that can resolved at this meeting then the item
could be brought back to Council at the next meeting. It
was suggested that the Council may want to take action on
the EIR Resolution and hold first reading of the Ordinance
adopting the zone change, defer action on the Subdivision
Resolution until the second reading of the Ordinance, and
there may not be a need for the Engineering Department to
be present at the next meeting since the public hearing is
closed, the issues being discussed are not engineering
issues.
Mayor Campbell inquired about the location of loading docks
and times of delivery. The Director explained that those
are already specified in the Precise Plan approvals that
have been granted on the project, as part of those
approvals there is an additional noise analysis required of
Page Forty Two - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
the loading dock area once it is known who the end user of
the building is going to be and what equipment they will
have in the loading dock area, that is a requirement that
will need to be complied with, if the analysis does not
show adverse impacts they will be able to move forward, if
there are they will need to come before the Planning
Commission for amendments to the Precise Plan approvals.
Mayor Campbell expressed her preference to continue this
matter until the Deputy Engineer returns. Councilman Doane
noted that there are five recommendations being discussed,
the applicant and his team have worked a long time on this
project, if there are just a few problems they can be taken
care of through the mitigation mentioned, the Engineer will
be away the month of August, there is no first meeting in
September, it would not be considered again until the end
of September, and he would support the suggestion of the
City Attorney.
The City Attorney explained that the law requires that the
EIR be certified first, that the Resolution could be
adopted except that the Director has some changes to the
mitigation measures, then have the first reading of the
Ordinance, then the other resolutions could be deferred,
the key item is the conditions to the Tentative Map, the
other resolutions do not have conditions.
The Director stated that the one change he would propose to
the EIR Resolution would be to mitigation measure 5.4 -1a,
page 128, it would be to set up two categories for stoppage
of work as opposed to the existing one category, for rough
grading if the wind exceeds twenty -five miles an hour the
grading stops, for precise grading if the wind exceeds
thirty -five miles an hour, and incorporate into that the
language in the general conditions of the Vesting Tentative
Tract Map as to notification, and specify that the property
needs to be posted with phone numbers for people to call.
The City Attorney added the notification to the newspaper
and a contact for Mutual 2.
With regard to the issues of drainage and increasing the
length of time to shop the hotel to three years, Councilman
Yost asked if those are included in the Vesting Tentative
Tract Map or will they be contained in the proposed
ordinance or resolutions, the response was that the
drainage would be part of the Tentative Tract Map, the
three year marketing time would be a Specific Plan
provision. The City Attorney explained that the marketing
time extension can be done now, his concern is with the
drainage and windows, his feeling is that that is language
the Council needs to see. Councilman Yost mentioned that
this land has been vacant for some thirty -five years or
more, another couple of weeks should not matter, this needs
to be right. The Director said it may be whether the
Council is comfortable with the changes that have been
discussed, they are not an engineering technical issue,
rather policy issues for window replacement, wind speeds,
time of marketing the property, and time of improvements on
Seal Beach Boulevard to resolve the drainage issue,
therefore the remaining documents could be brought to the
Council on August llth. The City Attorney again clarified
that the only Ordinance to consider is to change the zoning
Page Forty Three - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
designation, and it requires a first and second reading.
Councilman Yost asked if it would be possible to''include
actual travel times for emergency vehicles into the EIR by
the next meeting, and if it is increased how many lives
that would mean in a year. The response of the Director
was that if changes are desired to the EIR it would require
finding that the EIR is inadequate, cite what is
inadequate, that requires a whole different analysis, the
EIR has been recommended as adequate by the EQCB,
Archaeological Committee, and Planning Commission, to go
back and consider travel times that have not been evaluated
at all and would require recirculating the entire document.
Councilman Larson noted that he sits on the Orange County
Fire Authority Board of Directors, he gets calls that the
fire response was twenty minutes and upon checking it is
found that it took ninety seconds, the Fire Department can
also use the center divider in which to travel, he would
not like to hold up the EIR for the emergency travel times.
With regard to continuing this item until August 11th, it
was noted that the water rate study will be on that agenda,
preference would be that both items not be on the same
agenda, the length of the consideration would depend
largely on how the Council comes together on the issues, if
the changes are to the resolutions to reflect the wind
speeds, analysis of window replacements, marketing time for
the hotel, and requiring the drainage improvements to be
done in eighteen months after Coastal Commission of the
project, they can likely be done fairly quickly, however if
the issues are to reevaluate the EIR and have a travel
analysis done, that would require recirculating the EIR and _
start the approval process over again. Councilman Yost
recommended that the drainage improvements be done within •
twelve months of Coastal Commission approval of the project
rather than eighteen months. Councilman Antos asked if the
study would be completed by that time. The Associate
Planner mentioned that the way the drainage study condition
is worded it requires the study to be done when something
happens on either the north or south phase, it is felt that
twelve months will likely pass before the condition for the
study would need to be complied with, if the Council were
to require some action to occur with regard to the drainage
within twelve months of Coastal Commission approval the
other condition would become mute because they would need
to do that study and fix the problem within twelve months.
The Director suggested that consideration be given to
approving the EIR Resolution as presented with the
modification to the wind speeds under mitigation measure
5.4 -1a, and adopt the mitigation plan, introduce the
Ordinance adopting the zone change, then carry over the
second reading of Ordinance 1504 and the remaining
Resolutions until the next meeting or another future
meeting. Councilman Yost said his problem is that nothing
is known about this project, things keep changing, Apollo
Drive keeps changing, everything is fluid, nothing is
specific, it makes it difficult to make a decision.
Larson moved, second by Yost, to adopt Resolution Number
5149 entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF SEAL BEACH CERTIFYING THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
REPORT FOR THE BOEING INTEGRATED DEFENSE SYSTEMS (BIDS)
SPECIFIC PLAN, MAKING FINDINGS PURSUANT TO THE CALIFRNIA
Page Forty Four - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT, ADOPTING A STATEMENT OF
OVERRIDING CONSIDERATIONS, AND ADOPTING A MITIGATION
MONITORING PROGRAM" as amended to reflect the reduction of
the wind speed during rough grading from thirty -five miles
per hour to twenty -five miles per hour. By unanimous
consent, full reading of Resolution Number 5149 was waived.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
It was again stated that the window issue would be dealt
with under the Vesting Tentative Tract Map, height issues
would be considered under the Specific Plan.
Doane moved, second by Larson, to approve the introduction
of Ordinance Number 1504 entitled "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY
OF SEAL BEACH ADOPTING ZONE CHANGE 03 -2, CHANGING THE
ZONING DESIGNATION FROM LIGHT MANUFACTURING (M -1) TO
SPECIFIC PLAN REGULATION (SPR) AT THE BOEING INTEGRATED
DEFENSE SYSTEMS PROPERTY (2201 SEAL BEACH BOULEVARD)." By
unanimous consent, full reading of Ordinance Number 1504
was waived.
It was explained that Ordinance Number 1504 merely changes
the zoning on the property from M -1 to Specific Plan
Regulation, this is the first reading, second reading will
be held at the next or a future meeting at which time the
Resolution will be considered to make the amendments to the
Specific Plan, which includes the recommendations from the
Planning Commission, plus the changes that are felt need to
be incorporated based upon the discussion of the Council.
Vote on the first reading of Ordinance Number 1504:
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
Councilman Larson recommended that the remaining Boeing
items be continued until the meeting of August llth. No
objection was raised.
CITY ATTORNEY REPORT
No report was presented.
CITY MANAGER REPORT
The Director of Development Services thanked the Council
for their patience in working through the Boeing project
process to the point that it is now.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Councilman Yost requested that staff look into Pavilions
being a curfew Center, look at ordinances and ways to
condition the center so that the noise is mitigated on that
site for the residents that live nearby, he is aware that
there are other communities that have curfew ordinances and
stores. Councilman Antos inquired as to when the next
Redevelopment Agency meeting will be held. Mayor Campbell
said possibly the last meeting in August. Mayor Campbell
reported that she wrote an article this past week on slurry
sealing versus repaving, provided the article to the Sun
who did not print it, the News Enterprise did, it is
Page Forty Five - City Council Minutes - July 28, 2003
also on the City website under her name, that she will be
providing weekly or bi- weekly updates as to thin4s going on
in the City which will also be posted on the website.
CLOSED SESSION
It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council,
to adjourn the meeting until August llth at 6:30 p.m. to
meet in Closed Session if necessary. By unanimous consent,
the meeting was adjourned at 11:23 p.m.
THESE ARE TENTATIVE MINUTES ONLY, SUBJECT TO THE APPROVAL OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH.
Council Minutes Approved:
Seal Beach, California
August 11, 2003
The City Council of the City of Seal Beach met in regular
adjourned session at 6:30 p.m. with Mayor Campbell calling
the meeting to order with the Salute to the Flag.
ROLL CALL
Present: Mayor Campbell
Councilmembers Antos, Doane, Larson
Absent: Councilmember Yost
Councilmember Yost arrived at 6:32 p.m.
Also present: Mr. Bahorski, City Manager
Mr. Barrow, City Attorney
Ms. Yeo, City Clerk -
The City Attorney announced that this would be the time for
any member of the public to speak to the two items
identified on the agenda. In response to a public
objection to the Council meeting in Closed Session at this -
time it was explained that this is an adjourned meeting
from the last regular meeting, the regular Council meeting
does not commence until 7:00 p.m.
CLOSED SESSION
The City Attorney announced that the Council would meet in
Closed Session to discuss the items identified on the
agenda, to confer with legal counsel with regard to
anticipated litigation pursuant to Government Code Section
54956.9(b), and to confer with the City's labor negotiator
with regard to the Management /Mid Management Employees and
Supervisors and Professional Association Safety Units
pursuant to Government Code 54957.6. The Council adjourned
to Closed Session at 6:33 p.m. and reconvened at 7:10 p.m.
with Mayor Campbell calling the meeting to order. The City
Attorney reported that the Council had discussed the items
identified on the agenda, gave direction to the City's
labor negotiator and City Attorney, no other reportable
action was taken.
ADJOURNMENT
It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council,
to adjourn the meeting at 7:11 p.m.
THESE ARE TENTATIVE MINUTES ONLY, SUBJECT TO THE APPROVAL
OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH.
Council Minutes Approved:
•
Seal Beach, California
August 11, 2003
The City Council of the City of Seal Beach met in regular
session at 7:11 p.m. with Mayor Campbell calling the
meeting to order with the Salute to the Flag.
ROLL CALL
Present: Mayor Campbell
Councilmembers Antos, Doane, Larson, Yost
Absent: None
Also present: Mr. Bahorski, City Manager
Mr. Barrow, City Attorney
Mr. Whittenberg, Director of Development
Services
Mr. Dancs, Director of Public Works /City
Engineer
Chief Sellers, Police Department
Ms. Arends -King, Director of Administrative
Services
Mr. Cummins, Associate Planner
Ms. Yeo, City Clerk
•
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Councilman Yost requested that Item "G" be removed from the
•
Consent Calendar for separate consideration, and a member
of the audience requested Item "F" removed. Mayor Campbell
stated that anyone wishing to speak to those items should
do so under the Public Comment period. With no indication
of objection, the order of the agenda was approved as
revised.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mayor Campbell announced that a notice has been received
from the Joint Forces Training Base officials that Arbor
Park will be closed at sundown on Thursday, August 13th and
reopened at sunrise, Saturday, August 16th, to accommodate
Air Force One at the Base. Mayor Campbell requested a show
of hands as to those persons present wishing to speak to
the dogs in Arbor Park issue as well as the number of
persons who read the news article in the local papers with
regard to same which was meant to convey the issues. She
mentioned that she had comments to that issue however they
were basically covered by the news article.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Mayor Campbell declared the public comment period to be
open. Mr. Jerry Dominguez, Region Manager for Southern
California Edison Company, said he wished to address
certain things that have happened over the past several
weeks, there were comments made at the last meeting to
which he has received telephone calls, and if there are
questions he can be reached by telephone. Mr. Dominguez
said this in regard to the undergrounding of electric
utility lines along Westminster Boulevard in conjunction
with the Boeing project, there was considerable information
that was disseminated in the news, comments made, and
Page Two - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
misconceptions which he wished to clarify. Mr. Dominguez
stated that the only reason for undergrounding utility
lines is for aesthetics, appearances, there is no benefit
to having utility lines buried underground, logic would
dictate that if there is a problem with an overhead
electric line, a break or fault as examples, it can be
detected, found, and repaired rather simply, if buried in
the ground one must first find the problem and then make
the repairs, to the concept that putting electric utility
lines is not inconvenient that is not correct, it is
inconvenient, it has to do with maintenance and repairs of
facilities. He noted that there was comment made that
Southern California Edison does not underground these
sixty -six thousand volt lines, that too is not correct,
they can be undergrounded, it is very expensive, requires a
five foot clearance from any other objects buried under the
ground, repairs and maintenance also part of the problem,
therefore the comments that it is a simple project and that
it is not a costly project is incorrect. Mt. Dominguez
mentioned that before estimates are done on such projects
the engineering fees are paid up front by the developer or
the agency that is requesting or requiring information for
undergrounding utility lines, until those engineering fees
are actually paid and the estimates are done there is not
an accurate cost, the Edison Company generally takes a
neutral position in these issues because there are
converging views on whether it is a good or simple idea,
who is going to pay for the undergrounding, who is going to
provide the necessary easements to place these facilities
underground, it is a fairly complicated process. Mr. •
Dominguez confirmed that he is the spokesperson for the
Company, or the service planner that is authorized to
provide the work, other people may not or should not speak
for him or the Edison Company, the conversations that he
has had with regard to this issue have been very low key
and informal, there has been nothing formal with regard to
this process, no estimates done, no request to have that
specifically done, but in the discussions with the company
representing Boeing and a couple of City staff they were
advised of the pros and cons with regard to this issue,
that it is conceivable that these facilities could be
placed provided there are proper easements and someone is
willing to pay the cost which could be extensive.
Mr. Joe Sova, past regional commissioner for the American
Youth Soccer Organization, expressed appreciation for the
relationship that there has been in Seal Beach for
providing the largest single sports program in this
community, the five year relationship has provided great
things for the community, an outlet for children to
flourish, has improved a public site for all sports groups
in the City to use, and along with the improvements has
brought an economic boom in that the Section playoffs, the
Ken Astin Cup, has been held for two years in the area,
people come from all over this region, eat in the
restaurants, stay at the hotels, buy gas, use the
convenience stores, and hopefully come back to vacation in
the community. Mr. Sova offered that AYSO has helped with
maintenance to improve the Park with the assistance of
Mayor Campbell and Mr. Eagle, this has brought attention to
the Park now that it is clean and utilized, AYSO provides
Page Three - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
safe and fair fun for children, part of that is not
allowing dogs in the area because it becomes a safety and
health issue, most sports facilities are run that way.. He
thanked the City for the opportunity to help create this
Park and atmosphere of safe, fair fun for all in this
community, this partnership has brought three major pluses,
improvement of the facility, an economic boom, and a
fantastic future for the children, there are seven to eight
hundred families in this community that are enjoying this
Park through the efforts of the City, their insurance does
not cover co- existence, AYSO would like to keep this Park
for the children so that they and their families can use it
without needing to have volunteers clean up before the Park
can be used. Mr. Bob Labradour, a Senior Director on the
Board that manages the AYSO that serves the communities of
Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, and Rossmoor, he is a fifteen
year former resident of Seal Beach, continues to be an
owner of income property in the Community, since moving to
Rossmoor in 1991 he has been involved with AYSO, well
ingrained in the communities served by the AYSO. On behalf
of the AYSO Mr. Labradour thanked the Council for taking
into consideration the proposal presented to Seal Beach
regarding a mutually beneficial contractual relationship
with regard to the AYSO continued use of Arbor Park as a
primary site for soccer practices and games for the next
five years, if the City obliges their proposal and votes to
approve the schedule the AYSO will tender an immediate
payment of $5,000 followed by two additional payments to be
remitted before the end of this year for a grand total
donation to the City of $12,000 which represents AYSO's
good faith commitment to help defray a portion of the
annual maintenance costs incurred by Seal Beach in its
efforts to keep Arbor Park a pleasant and safe public
asset. Mr. Labradour mentioned that in the past five years
AYSO has donated thousands of dollars annually to help the
City pay for regular maintenance, in the immediate past
twelve months they have invested $12,000 to correct
irrigation problems to maintain proper watering of the
Park, they have and will continue to maintain portable
toilet facilities for the benefit of the public. Mr.
Stanley Smalewitz, Guava Avenue, said as a parent of an
AYSO soccer player, Seal Beach Kids Baseball player, and a
dog owner, he objects to using Arbor Park as a soccer park
and not joint use, there should have been a citizens
committee similar to that which considered the tennis club-
'
use to formulate alternative uses. As a board member of
Kids Baseball he knows of their lack of facilities, lack of
ability of places to play, difficulty with practice times
because of other activities at Arbor Park, it is known that
AYSO does a lot for kids as does Kids Baseball and the dog
owners meeting there likewise has a community function, all
of these things are part of the community, this is not a
soccer or dog situation, it is a community situation. He
proposed that the Mayor should have come to the Park and
talked to the people who use it as a dog park, he has never
seen a staff report or heard discussion of this AYSO lease
until now, that is not the way things are done here, there
should have been discussion of some alternative uses and a
coordinated plan that would work for a majority of the
community, a compromise. Mr. Smalewitz suggested that an
effort be made to look at all of the needs, AYSO does good
Page Four - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
things for kids, they also have more facilities and the
ability to have their activities within the Rossmoor and
Los Alamitos communities, Seal Beach Baseball does not
kids baseball has three fields, they invested considerable
money at McGaugh this year, they too hosted a tournament,
he never knew that kids activities were about economic
development. He offered that if the Council would like a
proposal Arbor Park could be turned into the Los Alamitos
ballfield, host tournaments too to bring in dollars, that
should not be the issue, it should be what is good for the
community and good for the kids, look at this further, do a
little more study, do not rush into this, once it is done
it can not be undone. He has talked to other Kids Baseball
board members, they are willing to submit proposals, do
fund raising to improve the Park, they never thought they
had an opportunity to do that, they did not know they had
that opportunity because it was never brought up until this
issue came forth through the press, do not act on this
agreement, let the community come up with something that
works for most.
Mr. Michael Heltzik, Hazelnut Avenue, said many of his
neighbors, like himself, are frustrated with the failure of
the Council to solicit input from the community on the use
of Arbor Park, at this meeting the Mayor did not offer
comments to make her point of view clear, he would request
that those comments be heard after the public session, the
fact is that the only information that they have ever
gotten about the plans for this Park was in the nature of a •
series of fait accompli, that the City was entering •
negotiations, in negotiations, in discussions for a lease
with AYSO, AYSO needs a lease to make improvements to the
Park, some attendees found out for the first time tonight
that this item was on the Consent Calendar. This leaves
some with obvious questions, is the lease with the federal
government final, some news articles quoted the Base
commander as saying it was not final, what are the
understandings between the City and AYSO as to the extent
of permitted development that AYSO will do in the Park and
where, if there is an understanding what effort did this
Council make to solicit public input, was there a public
hearing, if not why not, and as a dog owner who uses the
Park frequently neither he or his wife have seen the Mayor
on those premises. The jurisdiction of the Park too has
never been established, some of his neighbors were cited in
the Park, the citations were thrown out of court because
there was no clear jurisdiction or notice. Mr. Heltzik
said they would like this removed from the agenda, placed
on a future agenda so that some type of sensible plan can
be developed for the use of Arbor Park, it is understood
that Los Alamitos also has this subject on their agenda
with some mystification as to what Seal Beach is doing and
why so hastily, it is understood too that the Los Alamitos
Manager has been in touch with the Seal Beach Manager with
questions about the AYSO arrangement, he would like to know
what reply was given. Mr. Heltzik requested that
enforcement of the dog regulation Ordinance at Arbor Park,
while there is no organized sporting activity going on, be
suspended until this matter is resolved, remove the AYSO
agreement from the agenda and postpone it until a future
agenda to allow for community input and discussion as to
Page Five - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
how the Park should be used by the entire community, and
since this Council is proposing to enter into a contract
with AYSO, the Mayor and members of the Council should,
disclose their relationship with AYSO whether it be board '
members, officers, volunteers, parents or relatives of
children that play.
Ms. Debra Malschick, Guava Avenue, said she was present in
support of finding a solution to the dogs in the park
dilemma, there is a need to create ways that the whole
community can use the Park, not primarily families who have
children involved in community athletics, her children
participated in AYSO, baseball, and each played high school
sports, as parents they were active in the process, in
addition to the benefits of the sport the activities
connected them socially to the community, the ability to
use the Park facilities to exercise her dog has also
resulted in a nice social connection in the community. Ms.
Malschick offered that the needs of the population that may
not be in the child bearing years must be addressed, there
is a large group of citizens in the community that have
dogs and would like to be able to exercise them and meet
with others doing the same, this is a responsible group of
citizens who care about the conditions of Arbor Park, the
sole purpose of coming to the Park is not for their dogs to
relieve themselves, if that were true they could merely
walk their dogs on the street, she and her friends clean up
after the irresponsible minority of people who do not clean •
•
up after their dogs, they go out of their way to inform
newcomers of the necessity to clean up after their animals
and keep them under control, they warn people to not use
the Park when there'are youth sporting activities underway,
she has gone so far as placing nasty notes on the
windshields of those who do not clean up. She claimed for
many years ran in the Park, she did not have a concern
with stepping in dog dirt rather with turning her ankle in
a gopher hole, or slipping on the excrement from the shore
birds, skunks, opossums, etc., those are hazards and
unsanitary, there is also trash discarded throughout the
Park, even to dirty diapers, there have been occasions of
seeing what appears to be people doing illicit drugs or
drinking in the Park, when someone arrives with a dog they
leave, the dog people are a deterrent to those who are
looking for a place to be alone and not observed. Ms.
Malschick offered that the Park is not in use for most of
the day, suggested that certain hours be set aside early in
the day and a half hour between sunset and dark when the
Park could be open for dogs, why not water the field for a
short time in the morning after the dogs leave, this would
rinse the ground and be dry by the time children come to
play, why not provide bag dispensers, possibly a local
market would donate them, why not post a sign warning of a
large fine for those who do not pick up after their pets,
she would be happy to provide names and times of those
individuals, why not give citizen Park marshals the right
to issue citations , why not create a yearly fee to use the
Park and collect it through the Recreation Department, this
money could be used for whatever is necessary because the
dog people are there, their group is willing to help, why
not a trial period of possibly a year, they deserve to be
Page Six - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
able to use the City facilities as much as anyone, the dog
people are neighbors and taxpayers.
Mr. Jim St. Om Eroy, Director of Players and Coaches for
AYSO, stated that they are not trying to create a situation
of AYSO or sports programs versus dogs, his belief is that _
there is an area that could accommodate a dog park, the
only complaint of AYSO is with those who do not want to
abide by the rules, let their dogs run so it is necessary
to clean the field before games and practice, he would like
to find a way that they could coexist, one concern however
is dog bites when people do not keep their animals under
control. He noted that there are seven hundred children in
AYSO from Seal Beach itself, there are about two thousand
children in the community, AYSO wants to share fields with
other sporting groups yet they are a very large
organization, they have also contributed funds towards
maintaining and keeping the fields up. Mr. St. Om Eroy
said again that they would like to find a way to coexist,
they do not want AYSO versus the dog park, however they do
not want to deal with dogs running all over the fields and
having to clean up after them. Mr. Glen Rabenn, Fir
Avenue, a more than twenty year resident, one of the dog
people. Mr. Rabenn said he would like to limit his
comments to the question of timing, he appreciates the
position of the prior speaker, his belief is that before
the Council does anything with respect to this contract
that there should be an opportunity for the public to be •
heard, a year and a half ago several individuals appeared
before the Council of Los Alamitos when this body requested •
Los Alamitos to amend their municipal ordinance to allow
Seal Beach to enforce dog regulations at Arbor Park, at
that time the City of Los Alamitos wrote back to Seal Beach
urging that public hearings be held on that issue, to that
he would ask when those public meetings were held, they
were not. Mr. Rabenn noted that the AYSO contract appears
on the Consent Calendar and it can be seen that there is a
substantial public reaction from people who have as much of
a legitimate right to complain about this as anyone else in
the community, he feels that in many respects the question
of the use of Arbor Park has been framed in an us or them
manner, not necessarily by the dog people and not by the
AYSO people because they want to be part of an overall
plan, yet there have been other people who have been quoted
in the media who have said that parks are for people, not
for dogs, that kind of attitude misses the point entirely,
this is about people who have legitimate interests in using
that facility. Mr. Rabenn said in their research of the
question of dog parks it was found that throughout the
Country there are hundreds of communities who have
successfully established and managed dog facilities
harmoniously with other uses, there is no reason why this
can not happen here, the representative from AYSO was heard
to say that they do not need the east two acres of Arbor
Park, that is the primary area where the people take their
dogs, therefore before the contract is approved his belief
is that the determination should be suspended and that
public hearings be held, there should be hearings to devise
an overall plan for Arbor Park, if the contract is entered
into it limits the options that will be available to the
City in planning Arbor Park, it has been heard from AYSO
Page Seven - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
that they are not demanding exclusive use, they are
accepting that the dog owners have an equal right to use
the facility, they should be taken up on that. Mr. Rabenn
again urged that no action be taken, that public hearings '
be held as to what is to happen at Arbor Park.
Mr. Craig Adler, Elder Avenue, noted a reference to the
Park as an active recreation area, from his observance over
the years the AYSO is active at Arbor Park approximately
ten percent of the daylight hours, therefore judging that
ninety percent of time the Park is empty perhaps there
could be some discussion of other activities. As the dog
owners have told him and asked that he speak to, there is
•
no expectation of using the Park when there are permitted
activities taking place, they stay away yet would like to
use the space when it is not in use and do not want to be
cited for it, with regard to the feces problem Mr. Adler
said their group is absolutely conscientious about picking
up after their animals and dogs that have been there before
them, they would welcome the citing of observed pet owners
who do not clean up after their dogs. With regard to the
reference to the picnic area Mr. Adler stated that there is
a water fountain that has not worked in two years, he has
never seen a picnic table, barbecue pit, or sand volleyball
or any other amenities that were spoken of or promised
years ago, he would not consider that a picnic area. If
sports groups that use the Park bring their animals with
them he would ask that they follow the same rules, walk the •
field, potty patrols, clean up. Mr. Adler 'mentioned that
•
he is not certain if they plan to install lights in Arbor
Park, if so they need to know that they can not exceed ten
feet in what is believed to be a half mile range because of
the Seal Beach vortex, the radar system that the airplanes
use for navigation, the reason the field is so open is FAA
and military regulations. He urged that this item be
placed on the public calendar rather than on Consent so
that it can be discussed openly and work out some type of
compromise solution. Mr. Robert Kelly, resident since
1967, stated his belief that he has used the Park since it
opened, said one of the reasons that people have taken
their dogs there is because there it very little
utilization of the Park, as an example last evening he was
in the Park at 6:00 p.m. and there was no one else in the
Park for well over an hour, also, the last thing he or
other people would want to do is exclude AYSO from the
Park, it is a community Park that should be utilized by the
community, that includes older individuals who like to walk
with their dog for exercise, his belief is that Seal Beach
found out a year ago that it did not have jurisdiction over
Arbor Park to issue citations so the City went behind
everyone's back, negotiated a separate lease without Los
Alamitos knowing anything about it and without any input
from the residents as to how they would like to have their
Park used and managed, it is felt it was done vindictively
against the people who utilize the Park. He too feels that
public hearings should be held, make this a Park that all
can enjoy, AYSO has expressed some of their concerns, yet
no one would take their dog in the Park when there are
activities going on, there are also people from out of the
area that use the Park, does that mean that the local
residents will be excluded because of their use. There
Page Eight - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
needs to be a more defined plan for Arbor Park utilization.
Ms. Sue McDannel stated she is a member of the Walk A Park
group of over fifty responsible dog owners who enjoy
exercising and socializing themselves and their dogs. 'Ms.*
McDannel noted that the Ordinance prohibiting dogs in parks
was passed in the 1960's, that is when she moved to College
Park East, at that time things were much different, there
was a lot of open space, dairy farms on Valley View,
strawberry fields on Katella, lots of children in the
neighborhoods, ample City budgets to do many things
including the free beach buggy, in 2003 there is virtually
no open space, strawberry fields are gone, there are many
fewer children, and the City budget is cutting the Police
Department budget. To that she asked how these changes are
affecting College Park East, there is no open space to play
catch or frisbee with your dog, it is now known that dogs
and people all need arobic exercise, the children are
grown, moved out, the parents have stayed and the children
are replaced with furry kids, there are fewer police on the
force and it is for certain that they have better things to
do than chase the people out of Arbor Park, what is the
answer. Ms. McDannel said it is understood the Council
wants to make it a sports park catering to soccer and
baseball teams, the people want a place to play with their
dogs, so as is the case where divergent interests come into
play her feeling is that the answer is compromise, she
understands that AYSO has a condition in their bylaws that
says that no dog shall be on the field when they have
•
practices or games, one solution that all strongly favor is
•
establishing dog hours, early in the morning and late in
the evening when no one is using the Park, and if anyone
shows up at those times they should be issued a ticket, the
group strongly supports allowing permitted teams to use
Arbor Park yet also realize that there are many hours where
the Park sits empty, with such limited space and budgets
her feeling is that this is not good use of tax dollars.
Ms. McDannel mentioned that the other on -going objection to
dogs in the Park is the health issue, the Walk In The Park
group abhors dog owners who do not pickup after their pets,
not only in the Park but in the neighborhoods or on public
property, in fact they would encourage the Council to adopt
an ordinance to fine a dog owner anywhere in the City who
does not pickup after their dog, the group often finds
themselves cleaning up after dogs that have not been
properly trained by their owners as well as after soccer
players and fans, the group would be agreeable to help
enforce the cleanup issue, form cleanup crews, clean the
Park before soccer games. In other cities such as Long
Beach and Huntington Beach they have compromised and found
solutions to these dilemmas, they would ask that Seal Beach
do the same, open minds and a willingness to work things
out.
Mr. Ray Keiser, representing Island Village Homeowners
Association, said he wished to comment on Item "L ", the
Boeing development plan. Mr. Kaiser mentioned that Mr.
David Bates, the President of the Homeowners Association,
wrote to the Seal Beach Planning Commission complaining •
about the foreseeable intrusion of noise and traffic to the
homes to the immediate west of the development, Island
Village has about a hundred or so homes, Planning Area 3
Page Nine - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
would be immediately east or adjacent to Island Village
where proposed buildings 3, 4, and 5 would border the
homes, there is an expression that high fences make for
good neighbors, and to that Island Village believes that
one substantial way that the Council could mitigate the
noise and construction debris and subsequent intrusion of
the development would be to condition any approval on the
erection of a sound barrier wall and a line of full canopy
trees. Upon looking at the staff report it appears that
this construction will take a substantial period of time
with no noise limits on the construction, and upon
completion of these three large buildings next to this
collection of homes there will be industrial business use
and the loading docks face westerly toward the homes. The
residents of Island Village appreciate the quiet enjoyment
of their property, nothing excites people more than an
unchecked barking dog next door or ongoing noise that
disturbs their peace and quiet, and in looking at the
Environmental Impact Report the land that is now vacant
will have a very intense industrial business use. Mr.
Kaiser said he would like to see the Council show good
faith to its neighbors to the immediate west, if there is
consideration of approving this plan with all of its
defects, that at a minimum require that at the inception of
construction some deference be given the homes immediately
adjacent, require the construction of a fifteen foot wall
barrier associated with a line of canopy trees, this is
something that should not await the completion of the
project, as has been suggested any noise reduction issue
should wait until after completion of construction yet the
construction inheritantly will involve continuous loud
noise, dust, and other nuisance conditions to Island
Village, but even after that this should not wait for the
homeowners to come to Seal Beach to complain about the uses
of the property which obviously would be in conflict with a
direct neighbor of a residential community. Ms. Joyce
Parque, Seal Beach, spoke in support of the approval of the
Boeing project, said they pay utility tax, property tax,
employ people, buy and rent in the community, and spend
their money in town. Ms. Parque claimed that an agenda in
January of this year reported that the City would be broke
in a couple of years, the excess money will be used, so
Boeing needs to be approved so they can help pay the City
expenses, police and fire services are fifty -four percent
of the budget. For the people in Leisure World who want
free windows she has an answer, the $10,000 grant of free
money through the Redevelopment Agency, both the grant and
loan programs are available to income qualified residents
of Seal Beach and only for housing programs, one thing
allowed is double paned windows. Ms. Parque read the
qualifying income numbers for individuals to families. She
mentioned also discussion about a year and half ago of
reducing the utility tax, at the same time there was the
electric energy crisis, from that the City received a
windfall of $4.3 million in utility tax, the utility tax in
the City is the highest income producer of any city. Ms.
Parque said another thing is the PERS pay increases which
Seal Beach adopted but can not pay for and has not told the
people that there is a $5 million debt to the retirement
system, her belief is that this year the City needs to pay
$500,000, this will cost the taxpayers $10 billion over
Page Ten - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
twenty years, the next thing is the tripling of the car
tax. Ms. Parque said when the City takes the water meter
reader and puts that employee in the Maintenance
Department, then contracts out the meter reader, how is
that saving the City money. Mr. Collin Boer, Cypress,
expressed support for the dog owners, opposition to
enforcement of the Municipal Code prohibiting dogs in Arbor
Park, it would be more appropriate to enact a scooper law
if the issue is sanitary or hygienic, he can assure that
dog owners who use Arbor Park already have a high
compliance rate should this be enforced, of greater concern
to the dog owners is the closed door decision of Seal Beach
to effectively permit the use of Arbor Park only to groups
deemed worthy, when secret political decisions are made to
benefit one segment of the population at the expense of
others it becomes the duty of the citizens to speak out
against such injustices and demand transparency of the
elected officials and the right to oppose such action. Mr.
Boer as a citizen, homeowner, taxpayer, and dog owner,
thanked the Council for consideration. There being no
further comments, Mayor Campbell declared Public Comments
closed.
It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council,
to declare a recess at 8:10 p.m. The Council reconvened at
8:18 p.m. with Mayor Campbell calling the meeting to order.
CONSENT CALENDAR - ITEMS "A" thru "R'•
Doane moved, second by Yost, to approve the recommended
action for items on the Consent Calendar as presented, •
except Items "F" and "G ", removed for separate
consideration.
A. Approved the waiver of reading in full of
all ordinances and resolutions and that
consent to the waiver of reading shall be
deemed to be given by all Councilmembers
after the reading of the title unless
specific request is made at that time for
the reading of such ordinance or resolution.
B. Approved regular demands numbered 42961
through 43139 in the amount of $1,027,488.15,
ADP payroll demands numbered 5031160 through
5031292 in the amount of $214,232.94, and
authorized warrants to be drawn on the
Treasury for same.
C. Approved the first amendment to the Ground
Lease for the AT &T Wireless cellular tower
located at 3131 Beverly Manor Road (formerly
Los Angeles Cellular) for the period of five
years with an option to extend the lease for
two additional five year periods.
D. Adopted Resolution Number 5153 entitled 'A
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH •
SUPPORTING THE TRI- TUNNEL EXPRESS, A JOINT
TRANSPORTATION AND UTILITY CORRIDOR." By
unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution
Number 5153 was waived.
Page Eleven - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
E. Adopted Resolution Number 5154 entitled "A
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF SEAL BEACH AMENDING RESOLUTION NUMBER
5141 RELATING TO ESTABLISHING THE RATES
AND AMOUNTS OF FEES AND CHARGES FOR GOODS,
SERVICES AND FACILITIES PROVIDED BY THE
CITY OF SEAL BEACH." By unanimous consent,
full reading of Resolution Number 5154 was
waived.
H. Approved and adopted the Orange County
Sanitation District Phase III, Fats, Oils and
Grease study as required by the Regional Water
Quality Control Board Order Number R8- 2002 -0014,
and authorized the City Manager to execute and
submit funding for Phase III to the Orange
County Sanitation District.
I. Adopted Resolution Number 5155 entitled "A
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF SEAL BEACH APPROVING LOT LINE ADJUSTMENT
NO. LL -03 -01 FOR PARCEL 2 AND SURFSIDE COLONY
ROADWAY ADJACENT TO AND SOUTHWESTERLY OF
PARCEL 2 AS SHOWN ON RECORD OF SURVEY NO. 91-
1052, ORANGE COUNTY RECORDS BOOK 138 PAGE 23."
By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution
Number 5155 was waived. •
J. Adopted Resolution Number 5156 entitled "A
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SEAL BEACH ESTABLISHING A CONTRACTOR's PROJECT
REPRESENTATIVE RESOLUTION" (City Manager,
Director of Public Works /City Engineer, Deputy
City Engineer). By unanimous consent, full
reading of Resolution Number 5156 was waived.
K. Adopted Resolution Number 5157 entitled "A
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SEAL BEACH AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION AND
DELIVERY OF A LEASE WITH OPTION TO PURCHASE
AND AUTHORIZING CERTAIN ACTIONS IN CONNECTION
THEREWITH" (John Deere Backhoe);
and
Adopted Resolution Number 5158 entitled "A
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SEAL BEACH AUTHORIZING A BUDGET AMENDMENT NO.
04 -07 FOR THE PURCHASE OF JOHN DEERE BACKHOE
THROUGH A LEASE PURCHASE AGREEMENT."
By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution
Number 5157 and Resolution Number 5158 was
waived.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
Page Twelve - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
ITEMS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT CALENDAR
ITEM "F" - ARBOR PARK USE AGREEMENT - AMERICAN YOUTH SOCCER
ORGANIZATION
The City Manager explained that this item is an agreement
with the American Youth Soccer Organization for Arbor Park
field use. With reference to the public comments and
subsequent discussion with the AYSO leadership, the Manager
referred to the map attachment to the staff report,
suggested the possibility that the field be squared off so
that the AYSO field lease can go forward, with that the
remaining trapezoidal open area could potentially, if other
options are not successful, be looked at as a restricted
dog park area. Also in response to the public, the City
has been in contact with the property manager of the West
Ed building, a nonprofit group, who indicated interest in
at least receiving a letter of interest from Seal Beach
with regard to fencing their area off for such use, if the
whole of their grassy area were used it would be 4.67
acres, option two would be a 2.62 acre area, or there could
be the 1.26 acre area directly behind the Arbor Park
playing field. The Manager recalled that a similar issue
was dealt with regard to the Spoiled Dog Society, it was
for the City has the property yet there exists the
Ordinance prohibiting dogs in parks adopted in 1968, since
then the Ordinance was changed slightly to allow on -leash
dogs on the greenbelt and in Gum Grove Park, from his
reading of the minutes that matter appeared to be somewhat
controversial. The Manager said a solution would be to
•
have a restricted dog area, with that there would be no
need to change the Ordinance, that would solve the problem
for all residents of Seal Beach, it is not exclusive to
College Park East, it is the Hill and downtown as well
given the previously referred to issue with regard to
Zoeter field. The Manager again suggested that the map be
adjusted, move forward with the AYSO lease, give the
residents some flexibility, and continue to investigate the
other areas outlined, that would seem to balance both
sides, reminding that the intent of the lease is that AYSO
wants to make improvements to the field, the lease was
renewed to alleviate the concern that any capital
improvements they make would be gone in five or six years.
Mayor Campbell mentioned that one nice feature of Arbor
Park is that it is fenced and one does not have to worry
about the animal going onto Lampson Avenue, people have
walked their animals around the West Ed building yet her
fear is with Lampson Avenue given the area is not fenced,
if one of the areas at West Ed could be obtained it could
be fenced for safety, and if that occurs she would like to
have water, benches, trash receptacles, the dog group may
have additional ideas, however first there must the focus
on the AYSO lease, separate that issue from the dogs. The
Mayor also mentioned that at the time the City distributed
letters of interest to organizations, including Seal Beach
Kids Baseball, the only one to respond was the AYSO.
Councilman Yost mentioned that he has a child that plays
AYSO, another plays Club soccer and does not use AYSO
fields, the AYSO group uses Hopkinson. He inquired if this
is an extension or rewriting of a contract, and what are
the requirements for a public hearing. The City Attorney
advised that there is no State law or local ordinance that
Page Thirteen - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
requires a public hearing for this type of agreement. The
Manager noted there is no current contract, the AYSO
agreement was considered by the Recreation and Parks
Commission and a meeting was held with other sporting
groups as well.
Councilman Antos moved to approve the agreement with
American Youth Soccer Organization for use of Arbor Park in
exchange for $12,000 to be used for maintenance purposes
only, with the modification that the trapezoidal section
referred to by the City Manager be held out as well as the
other identified areas and be referred to the Recreation
and Parks Commission for consideration at their regular
meeting with recommendations to be forthcoming to the City
Council. The City Manager stated for the record an
amendment to the last sentence of Section 1 -b, Definitions,
to delete the language "a general description of the field
areas..." to be replaced by "A map depicting the fields is
attached to this agreement..." Councilman Antos moved
approval once again and Councilman Yost seconded the
motion.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
Mayor Campbell posed the question what started all of this,
it started because AYSO wanted to do some improvements to
the field yet had concerns with doing so where there was
•
only a few years remaining on the Park lease, during
•
conversations the problems they were having with dogs was
discovered, she then got calls from some of the people who
like to walk in the Park, their concern was with dogs
jumping on them, then a father who was at the Park coaching
his sons team called Animal Control because an off -leash
dog wet on the equipment and clothes. Now there are
complaints, yet the Ordinance is on the books, it has to be
enforced. With regard to the renegotiation of the lease,
it was originally signed in 1982, due to expire in 2007,
former Councilman Laszlo and others worked out the lease
• arrangement with Base officials, the City of Seal Beach has
a lease with the Department of Defense, this has never been
a City of Los Alamitos park, Seal Beach developed it and
has always maintained it, then when the issue arose with
regard to jurisdiction the lease was reviewed and found
that the City did not have the ability to enforce its own
ordinances in the Park therefore when the lease was
renegotiated that was included, the lease went before the
City Council, no public hearing was required, the issue
that the people have is not with the lease, it is with the
City Ordinance, at the time of the jurisdictional issue the
City could not enforce any of its ordinances in the Park,
if the City is leasing the area and maintaining it then it
was necessary to have the enforceability. Both the Seal
Beach Naval Weapons Station and the Los Alamitos Joint
Forces Training Base are federal properties owned by the
Department of Defense, no city, county, or State has any
jurisdiction on those properties, federal supercedes
everything, when the Marines built something on the Weapons
Station they did not come to the City for permits they went
to the Army Corps of Engineers, the City has no say
whatsoever, the same can be said for the Joint Forces
Page Fourteen - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
Training Base, Los Alamitos too has no jurisdiction. The
relationship between Seal Beach and the Joint Forces
Training Base is strictly a landlord /tenant relationship,
the City has signed a lease with the Federal Government and
they have delegated authority to the City to enforce the
City ordinances at Arbor Park, this was not something that
had to be run through Los Alamitos because they have no
authority with regard to the Base, it is federal property.
Mayor Campbell explained that the City Ordinance under
discussion goes back to November 18th, 1968, that was
before College Park East was even built up so it was the
residents of Old Town and the Hill that initiated the
Ordinance, that Ordinance was amended in 2000 to allow dogs
on -leash in Gum Grove Park and on the greenbelt, they are
passive recreation areas, there is no where in this City
where dogs are allowed off - leash, to that there have been a
number of calls from Hill residents because people are not
adhering to that in Gum Grove. Last year a group called
the Spoiled Dog Society tried to persuade the City to allow
them to use Zoeter field in the mornings, the City had to
turn them down, why, it is a health issue. The Walk A Dog
group is good, they pickup and clean up, the ones that do
not would not show their face here, but the Walk A Dog
group is taking the brunt of that, Arbor Park is an active
recreation area, those who do not abide by the rules do not
get caught so they can be cited, it is the same thing as
the 4th of July with fireworks. Mayor Campbell reported
that this past week she and the City Manager met with •
Colonel John Smith and Troy Harden of the Training Base to •
discuss ways of solving this problem, during that meeting a
woman drove up, let her dogs out, the dogs relieved
themselves and the woman just stood and watched, when she
asked her to clean up after her dogs she became angry,
people break the law when they think no one is watching,
that is human nature, it is realized that laws are broken
but that does not make it right, again, the issue is not
with the lease it is with the City Ordinance. She said
both the Sun and News Enterprise printed good articles with
regard to this issue, covered nearly everything, the Sun
had an editorial with regard to a similar problem on Main
Street and the residential streets. The most common
complaints that she hears is that people want to park their
car in front of their house,• and even though it is a public
street people consider the space in front of their house as
their spot, the second issue is dogs, they do not want dogs
on their lawn for any reason, when people walk their dogs
late at night they are not walking the dog for exercise it
is because they do not want to clean up their own yard,
another concern of hers has always been those who walk
their dogs around the perimeter of Heather Park at night
and then children going to school the next morning either
step in piles or put their backpacks next to trees that
have been wet upon the prior night. The Mayor said last
week at a Coastal Commission meeting someone made the
comment that Gum Grove has become nothing more than a dog
park, the Commission was ready to take over enforcement at
Gum Grove, the response of City staff was that dogs are not
permitted off -leash at Gum Grove, which ended that
discussion for now, if the Commission gets involved with
Gum Grove the Federal Government would be a nothing as
compared to the Coastal Commission, several years ago while
Page Fifteen - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
attending a Commission hearing in Oceanside they brought up
the same issue to which she asked if that was not a Seal
Beach rather than Coastal Commission issue, they relented,
but if they keep getting complaints they will take over the
jurisdiction of Gum Grove and the City will have no say,
people need to stop letting their dogs off leash and need
to clean up so that Coastal Commission will not be
contacted. Mayor Campbell concluded that with regard to
what is being dealt with now, the Ordinance is on the
books, she would ask that it be respected and let this
issue be settled, this is being worked on and she would ask
for patience.
ITEM "G" - COUNCIL POLICY - CITIZEN INITIATED TRAFFIC
CALMING PROJECTS
Councilman Yost reported having received several calls with
regard to speeding cars, a family on Taper Drive had two
dogs killed in one day by a speeding driver, someone who
had been warned about speeding in the past, a family on
Bayside has experienced speeding traffic and has requested
more selective enforcement of the area, a similar pet death
on Driftwood Avenue as well, speeding cars is one of the
most frequent complaints that he receives. The Councilman
said what is before the Council is a policy statement that
allows people in a community to come together to do some
traffic calming, to take some matters into their own hands,
and when one looks at who is speeding it is not people from
outside the City it is people within the neighborhoods.
Yost moved, second by Larson, to approve the Council Policy •
regarding citizen requests for traffic calming projects
within the City.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
With regard to the next item on the agenda, the Boeing
Integrated Defense Systems Development Plan, the City
Manager stated that he and the Public Works Director would
excuse themselves from the meeting as a result of an FPPC
determined conflict.
BOEING INTEGRATED DEFENSE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT PLAN -
RESOLUTION NUMBER 5150 - GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENT 03 -2 /
ORDINANCE NUMBER 1504 - ZONE CHANGE 03 -2 / RESOLUTION
NUMBER 5151 - _BOEING SPECIFIC PLAN / RESOLUTION NUMBER
5152 - VESTING TENTATIVE TRACT MAP NO. 16375
The Associate Planner reported that after the last City
Council meeting there were still some unresolved issues
relating to the proposed Boeing development in the area of
Seal Beach Boulevard and Westminster Avenue. He noted that
there were a series of issues that came up and he would
present what the proposed resolution of those would be,
there were two issues that the Boeing team agreed to during
the course of the meeting, basically if during rough
grading the wind speed is twenty -five miles an hour for a
period of one hour construction activity would cease, they •
agreed to that on the condition that it would be included
in the EIR Resolution, there was also a concern that there
should be some type of notification procedure for the
Leisure World community when Boeing was about to commence
construction activities, Boeing agreed to notify the
Page Sixteen - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
Leisure World News and other applicable news sources.
Subsequent to that there were three issues that were held
over, staff has had conversations with the Boeing team
since that meeting, one was the drainage along Seal Beach '
Boulevard at the base of the hill near Planning Area 1, the
proposed solution at that meeting was to cure the drainage
problem within twelve months as opposed to the original
recommendation of creating a study, the Boeing team has
agreed to do that within twelve months after the issuance
of a California Coastal Commission permit, secondly was the
length of time to exclusively market Planning Area 4 for
hotel use, the original proposal was to do that for a
period of eighteen months, Council proposed to extend that
for a full thirty -six months, the Boeing team has agreed to
do that. The last concern related to noise and a
requirement that could be imposed to require dual pane
windows for units within Leisure World, to which the
Planner reported that there are about twenty -two units that
could be affected by construction noise across from
Planning Area 3, the Boeing team proposal was to add a
condition to require a study to determine the cost of such
installation, during the past two weeks staff has had the
opportunity to look at those units with the same contractor
that replaced all of the windows as a result of the
Department of Water and Power project in the City of Long
Beach, an estimate of cost was submitted of $130,000 merely
for Council consideration. At this point the Boeing team
has agreed to all requests of the Council except for the
•
window replacement matter, therefore with the receipt of
•
the estimated cost the Council may now determine whether
they want to impose that condition or not, the Council
could require a study as well and then defer a decision on
the installation of windows until a later date.
Councilman Yost inquired as to the distance between the
Island Village homes and Planning Area 3 buildings, and the
distance between Leisure World residences and Planning Area
3 buildings. The Associate Planner responded that the
closest lot in the northwestern corner of Planning Area 3
is approximately two hundred thirty feet from the closest
Island Village home, it is a greater distance across
Westminster to Leisure World, the exact distance he was not
certain of, the closest distance from lot 4, a middle lot,
is approximately three hundred seventy feet, and the
Precise Plan approved by the Planning Commission some six
weeks ago includes on lot 3 a loading dock which was
specifically designed to not be facing towards Island
Village because of noise concerns. With regard to the 66KV
lines that come in to service the Boeing facility,
Councilman Yost asked if they cross lot 4, and since that
is new construction will they be undergrounded, the
response of the Planner was no, they would be relocated,
explaining that the lines along Westminster would continue
then go straight onto the property but because of where the
building is proposed to be on lot 4 they would need to be
relocated so that they could get around that building to
the Edison substation that is located in the middle of the
property. Councilman Yost inquired if they should be
undergrounded if they are going to be running through the
new development area, the response of the Planner was that
as said by Mr. Dominguez they do not have to be.
Page Seventeen - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
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Councilman Yost said he understands that the 66KV lines
generate a lot of heat, undergrounding is expensive and
difficult to do, his concern is that this gets away from
the general policy that all new development construction
-should have the utilities undergrounded, not only for
aesthetic reasons but for safety reasons as well, it is
known that the undergrounding and maintenance costs are
higher yet the long term benefits are felt to be reasonable
to pursue. Councilman Larson said as he had indicated at
the end of the last meeting, as was learned from the Bixby
development what the City does not get now it is unlikely
to ever be realized, he does not want to approve anything
until it is known precisely what conditions are going to be
met, and in particular the window situation for Leisure
World, if it is determined to be left merely as a study and
approve everything else then Boeing will say that the study
shows that the windows are not needed and they will not be
realized, his preference then is that the matter be
continued until the study is done, the sound levels are
known, and what the arguments are going to be. Councilman
Yost asked if Island Village should be included in that.
The Associate Planner mentioned that there are mitigation
measures in place to address the placement of the buildings
on the lots and when it is known who the users will be,
there are mitigation measures within the EIR Resolution
that require additional noise studies on those buildings to
see if additional mitigation, whether it be higher
soundwalls or whatever, is necessary to mitigate noise from •
•
the ultimate user. Councilman Doane noted the speaker on
behalf of Island Village that mentioned a soundwall, and
asked if that would be a consideration. The Planner
responded that it could be if the noise study deemed that
it was necessary. Councilman Yost agreed with the comment
of Councilman Larson that a noise study should be looked at
and see what transpires with regard to Island Village and
Leisure World, Island Village is not in this City but they
are neighbors. The Planner stated that he would like to
separate the different types of noise studies, there is the
noise study that is typically done as part of the EIR, that
looked at going across Westminster Avenue in different
noise contours, it proposes certain mitigation based on
certain end users with the understanding that it is not
known what each end user is going to be, what is done in
that type of situation is require additional mitigation
which is in the form of an additional noise study to be
completed prior to the issuance of a building permit to
make sure that the ultimate noise mitigation is met at the
time it is known who the ultimate end user will be,
developers in most instances would not know who the user of
each building will be at this point. Looking at the issue
of noise in general, the Noise Study looked both across
Westminster and toward Island Village and determined that
at the end of construction there would be no noticeable
impact to the average human ear, what is being discussed is
short term construction noise• impacts which are currently
exempted from noise standards within the Municipal Code.
The Mayor asked if that means that a noise study can not be
requested for noise generated from the construction, the
response of the Planner was that it could be requested,
explaining however that Boeing was requesting a study to
determine the cost of installing the dual pane windows as
Page Eighteen - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
compared to a noise study to show different effects based
upon different types of window construction and how much it
would mitigate future noise. Mayor Campbell said to her
the cost estimate seemed to be unrealistically high, she
was not satisfied as to where it is right now, possibly
this decision should be delayed until two things are
accomplished, get a second estimate and talk about the
noise study. Councilman Larson indicated agreement.
Councilman Doane said possibly the Boeing team would have
something to add since the last meeting.
Mr. Clay Corwin, Stonecreek representing Boeing, said he
wanted td be clear on the noise study issue, his feeling is
that a noise study is not appropriate language in that the
noise analysis has already been done through the EIR by the
consultant for the City, his recollection of the discussion
was to get an understanding of those units that would be
affected, the Boeing team was unclear as to which units
would be affected, they have been on -site since the last
meeting, they have seen the materials that staff has
developed with the contractor in terms of identification,
and stated they are in agreement with the areas, those are
units that were identified generically before as units
having windows facing Westminster Avenue across from
Planning area 3 which is where the concern about
construction noise impacts would be. With regard to that
issue Mr. Corwin stated they are satisfied thus far to
resolve the sound issue which would require double paned
windows which was discussed at the last meeting, a request •
of Mr. Sears on behalf of Leisure World to have window •
replacement, the Boeing team would do that in a responsible
manner, with a responsible contractor, come up with a
procedure that is satisfactory to the City, the Council,
and the affected residents in terms of scheduling and
having it completed before there is on -site work, that was
their understanding of the intent, they had some concern
with the initial number of replacements yet if it ends up
being that, then that is what it will be. Mr. Corwin
respectfully requested that this item be moved forward
because he said he did not know what more could be studied
in the interim, he would be willing to put the study issue
behind them. Mr. Corwin indicated their willingness to do
the replacement windows. Both Councilman Larson and Mayor
Campbell stated that would satisfy them on that issue.
With regard to the Island Village residences, Mr. Corwin
mentioned that as was stated at the last meeting the Boeing
team had met with Mr. Bates and other members of the Board
of Island Village, just as they had held other community
meetings, to understand their concerns, it is felt that
they have made a number of positive changes to the project
to address those concerns, an adjustment was made to the
loading zone on the building nearest their property,
working with staff they have relocated some of the outside
trash compacting units on buildings 3, 4, and 5, a long
term desire was to have a sidewalk along the property
frontage, that is now a condition that they will be
complying with by means of the Map, they have adjusted the
exterior lighting on the buildings to deal with concern
relating to visual aesthetics, adjusted the glass line as
well, those things have been changed if not eliminated, the
number of units in Island Village that are close, which is
•
Page Nineteen - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
about two hundred thirty feet at minimum, is about four to
five units before the Los Alamitos Retarding Basin cuts
away and the balance of those units moves to the west,
there will be a wall and screening on the back of the
property at the time of final development, it is not
feasible to put those things in before the rough grading is
done, all of those features have been built in, and do the
people of Island Village think they have gone as far as
they should, apparently not, and when they started talking
about doing things to building 5 which is five to six
hundred feet away it was felt that those requests were
beyond what was thought to be appropriate, they will
continue to work with Island Village, give them notice
before construction, etc. similar to what will be done for
Leisure World residents, it is felt that there are a number
of positive things that have been incorporated into this
project.
Mr. Antos referred to page two of the staff report listing
conditions agreed to at the last meeting, one other was a
no cost performance item relating to watering and rough
grading, that upon there being winds of twenty -five miles
an hour or more that they cease their work, there could
also be a situation where if the last watering was at 2:00
p.m. everything dries out, the winds pickup and the dust
blows over Leisure World, in such a case he asked that
watering be as directed by staff, especially by the end of
the day, the Boeing representative indicated that would be
•
no problem, and asked that that condition be placed in one
•
of the documents. Councilman Yost noted that there were
other issues that would have been granted at the discretion
of the Development Services Director as opposed to going
through the Planning Commission, and asked if all of those
had been changed in the documents. The Associate Planner
stated that they had.
The City Attorney noted that with respect to the Island
Village comments raised earlier in this meeting, it should
be kept in mind that the public hearing was closed at the
last meeting, the people from Leisure World testified
during the public hearing portion, that was the time that
staff, Boeing, and the Council had the opportunity to
respond to comments, the comments at this meeting were made
at the Planning Commission with regard to the EIR and were
responded to as part of the Final EIR. The City Attorney
confirmed that the titles of the proposed documents would
need to be read, also suggested language he added for the
new Condition 32 of the Tentative Tract Map Resolution
regarding window replacement if that is the desire of the
Council.
Campbell moved, second by Larson, to adopt Resolution
Number 5150 entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF
THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH APPROVING GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENT 03-
2 (LAND USE, HOUSING AND CIRCULATION ELEMENTS - BOEING
INTEGRATED DEFENSE SYSTEMS SPECIFIC PLAN.) By unanimous
consent, full reading of Resolution Number 5150 was waived.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
Page Twenty - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
Campbell moved, second by Larson, to approve second reading
and adopt Ordinance Number 1504 entitled "AN ORDINANCE OF
THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH ADOPTING ZONE CHANGE 03 -2, CHANGING
THE ZONING DESIGNATION FROM LIGHT MANUFACTURING (M -1) TO '
SPECIFIC PLAN REGULATION (SPR) AT THE BOEING INTEGRATED
DEFENSE SYSTEMS PROPERTY (2201 SEAL BEACH BOULEVARD." By
unanimous consent, full reading of Ordinance Number 1504
was waived.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
Campbell moved, second by Larson, to adopt Resolution
Number 5151 entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF
THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH ADOPTING THE BOEING INTEGRATED
DEFENSE SYSTEMS (BIDS) SPECIFIC PLAN (BOEING INTEGRATED
DEFENSE SYSTEMS PROPERTY)." By unanimous consent, full
reading of Resolution Number 5151 was waived. It was again
confirmed to Councilman Yost that the future review and
approvals will be granted by the Planning Commission rather
than the administrative staff.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
Mayor Campbell read in full the title of Resolution Number
5152 "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL
BEACH APPROVING VESTING TENTATIVE TRACT MAP NO. 16375, _ •
LOCATED IN THE BOEING INTEGRATED DEFENSE SYSTEMS (BIDS)
SPECIFIC PLAN AREA." •
The City Attorney read the language of the new Condition 32
to Resolution Number 5152, "Prior to the issuance of a
grading permit for any of lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, or
13 the subdivider shall install double paned windows in
each of the twenty -two (22) units listed on attachment A,
the estimate, with the unit owners prior written agreement
to or rejection of such installation to be obtained within
forty -five (45) days of receipt by certified mail, return
receipt requested, of a request for agreement or rejection
of said replacement program. Failure of any owner /occupant
of an identified residential unit to respond in writing
within said forty -five (45) day time period shall release
the project proponent from any further responsibility
relative to this condition." The City Attorney noted that
there may be some residents that do not wish to have double
paned windows, the residents need to agree to have the
double paned windows, if they agree they will be installed
by Boeing.
Campbell moved, second by Doane, to adopt Resolution Number
5152 as amended to include Condition 32.
AYES: Antos, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
NOES: None Motion carried
Councilman Larson said he has seen the development behind
the Boeing building off of Bolsa Chica, that would not be
acceptable, he hopes that Seal Beach will have a first
class quality development as promised of which the City can
be proud.
Page Twenty One - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
PUBLIC HEARING / RESOLUTION NUMBER 5159 - WATER RATE
ADJUSTMENT / CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM / RESERVE FUNDS
Mayor Campbell declared the public hearing open to consider
water rate adjustments. The City Clerk certified that the
notice of public hearing had been mailed to each resident
and property owner in June, 2003, an additional notice of
hearing had been advertised, that the Director of Public
Works received a total of seven written comments, three in
support of the water rate adjustment and four against. The
Director of Public Works noted that this presentation was
made in April however it was being presented again for the
information of the public, also introduced Mr. Zeke
Rayiran, AKM Consulting Engineers, who performed the water
rate study as well as the update to the Water Master Plan.
The Director reported that the City consists of about 7,400
acres with a population of approximately 29,500, most of
the City is served with the exception of Rossmoor, west of
Seal Beach, which is served by the Southern California
Water District, the Bixby Towne Center and Centex are
served by Seal Beach. The Director mentioned that
$100,000,000 is the estimated replacement cost for the
water system, about seventy miles of pipe, three wells, two
booster pumps, two reservoirs, over six hundred fire
hydrants, and twelve hundred valves, all of which require
both regular operating maintenance capabilities and capital
replacement functions. Where does our water come from,
water is imported from the Metropolitan Water District
which is located in Westminster, that water is shared with •
other agencies on the feeder line, the City also pumps •
water from the ground, a stakeholder with the Orange County
Water District, the three wells are Beverly Manor, Bolsa
Chica, and Leisure World, the age of that infrastructure
ranges from twenty -four to forty -one years. The booster
pump stations provide adequate pressures for fire fighting
flow and delivery of water to the customer, one is located
within the Navy Base and one adjacent to Beverly Manor,
those are vital to the system and are included in the
proposed Capital Improvement Program. The reservoir on the
Base holds 2.7 million gallons, it is used to regulate flow
from the imported water supply and for the Navy booster
station, another is located at Beverly Manor that holds 4
million gallons, the total is close to 7 million gallons.
There is about seventy miles of pipe, much of which is old
and the City is working towards replacement of those pipes,
there is a total of about five thousand meters. The
Director reported that about $13.6 million of capital
improvements is needed over a ten year period, one being
the well north of the 405 Freeway in College Park East, if
that well is not built within ten years that property will
revert back to Bixby, it is necessary to do a telemetry
system in that the City is currently operating with a 1960
technology with no way to adjust the system, for
emergencies, mechanical upgrades, engine replacements, and
geographic systems to manage the water distribution system,
all is in need of replacement and upgrading. Mayor
Campbell noted the mention that some of the water is
imported and some is well water, and asked if some areas of
the City get water from a particular source or is it mixed,
the reason for the question is that when they moved to the
City they were told that College Park East was served with
Page Twenty Two - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
Colorado River water, the Hill and Old Town received well
water, that because of the way the pipes were laid out when
the system was put in.
Mr. Zeke Kayiran responded that it is mixed, likely because
the Bolsa Chica well was not constructed at that time, the
closest supply point to College Park East was most likely
the imported supply connection, because of the way the
water is circulated in the system it was probably mostly
imported water at that time. Mr. Kayiran explained that
the water system is financed through charges, one is the
commodity charge which is on the amount of water used, it
goes into one fund and used to recover the cost of
operating and maintaining the system, the costs include the
purchase of water from the Municipal Water District of
Orange County, paying for ground water to the Orange County
Water District, utilities to operate the system, the pump
stations, and performing maintenance on the system. He
noted the last time the commodity rates were adjusted was
in 1997, those rates vary by the amount of water used, a
tiered rate, established that way in order to encourage
conservation. The second charge is based on meter size, a
capital charge, that is used for updating the system and
implementing capital improvements, the capital charge
established in 1997 varies from $7 per month for five -
eighths and three quarter inch residential meters up to
$1,007.93 for a twelve inch meter. The Director of Public
Works noted recent media reports with regard to local
ground water versus imported water, there have now been
•
changes, in the past the City was allowed to pump seventy -
five percent of its water from the basin, it is now sixty -
six percent which means there will be thirty -four percent
more of imported water from the Metropolitan Water
District, that will increase water purchases per year by
$186,000, that is covered in the Water Rate Study. Mr.
Kayiran reported that over the past five years the revenues
for the Operation and Maintenance Fund have been quite low,
four of the five years they have been less than the
expenditures, the Capital Fund generates approximately
$600,000 per year and the balance is of July, 2002 was
about $1.8 million. It can be seen that the existing
commodity rates are short of the water system expenditures,
they have not been increased since 1997 except for a minor
adjustment made for purchased water, if the rates had been
increased just for inflation the current rates would be
fourteen to twenty percent higher, the existing Capital
Fund charges had been established based on a much smaller
Capital Improvement Program as recommended by the previous
Master Plan, that did not really address the needs of the
system, the system is getting old, many of the facilities
are outdated and need to be updated, neither fund generated
sufficient revenue for reserves. Mr. Kayiran stated that
the proposal is to revise the charges so that the revenues
adequately cover the operation of the system and
implementation of the recommended Capital Improvement
Program, the recommendation is a six year program where the
rates would be increased to implement the CIP. Many
agencies are evaluating their systems to assure that their •
customers are served adequately and properly, they are in
turn finding that they have to raise rates, La Habra
recently raised their rates by thirty percent in the first
Page Twenty Three - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
year of a multi -year increase, the Southern California
Water Company who serves Cypress, Los Alamitos, and a
portion of Seal Beach, as compared to Seal Beach they are
about $10 per month higher, and displayed a table showing
the increases in rates and increases in 2003 dollars, a
breakdown of the water bill showing the largest portion
going to Operation and Maintenance, the second largest the
CIP. Mr. Kayiran said there are many factors that impact
the establishment of rates between the various agencies
including the source of supply, Seal Beach gets a great
deal of its water from the ground, which is considerably
cheaper, the shape of the area is flat ground, there are
not high elevations where reservoirs can be established to
feed the system by gravity therefore it is necessary to
pump into the system continuously, the age of the system is
a big issue, water quality another of many issues. Mr.
Kayiran stated that the recommendation is that the Capital
Improvement Program and the funding alternative as
presented be adopted, included in that is a fiscal budget
policy to include sufficient reserves in the two funds.
The Public Works Director reiterated the recommendation to
adopt the proposed resolution that will adjust the water
charges for the next six years.
Mayor Campbell invited members of the audience wishing to
speak to this item to come to the microphone and identify
themselves. Mr. Jack Dampman, resident since 1966,
displayed a copy of the public hearing notice he received
via mail, to which he said even with the presentation he is •
somewhat concerned and confused, evidently this year the
water is being paid for within the City budget, the notice
says that the rates were calculated by determining ground
water and imported water costs and estimating the cost of
future needs therefore next year water will cost thirty -
five percent more, twenty percent the following year,
fifteen percent the next year, and then drop to three
percent for the next three years, and to that he stated he
is not convinced that the Council has received enough
information to make a decision to raise the rates by
thirty -five percent next year. A question in the flier
asks why the City is proposing a six year increase
schedule, the response is that it is to lessen the initial
financial impacts on the customer, yet the first year is
the largest at thirty -five percent. Mr. Dampman said he
cares naught what other cities charge, he merely wants Seal
Beach to charge him enough to bring him good quality water,
that is it, said again that he did not understand nor did
he think that a case was made to raise the rates thirty -
five percent. There being no other speakers, Mayor
Campbell declared the public hearing closed.
The Public Works Director responded that the increases were
staggered on a tier structure downward, as was pointed out
by Mr. Kayiran in 1997/98 the Water Operation Fund operated
at an $180,000 deficit, the following year at a $340,000
deficit, in 2000/01 the Fund was a $670,000 deficit, and in
2001/02 there was a $329,000 deficit, the money to cover
that deficit was taken from the Capital Fund which must be
paid back, the rates are being proposed to be raised enough
to cover the basic operating expenditure costs, that is why
it is eventually going to go down to three percent when
Page Twenty Four - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
there are appropriate reserves and operational cost
coverage for the system. Mayor Campbell said she believed
it was meant that in 1997 it was thought that the City had
everything covered but they did not, rather operating at a'
deficit. Councilman Doane suggested that there be an
explanation of the aquifer and why the City is not able to
draw as much water from the ground supply as it has in the
past. Mr. Kayiran said that is in addition to the City
operating at a deficit in the Maintenance and Operation
Fund, and explained that because there has not been
sufficient precipitation in the Santa Ana River Basin,
which feeds the Orange County groundwater basin, water has
been used from the ground at a much higher rate than what
can be replenished, the Orange County Water District, the
manager of the basin, decided to lower the percentage of
what could be pumped out of the ground for all of the
agencies in the groundwater basin, for about the last eight
years each pumper in the groundwater basin was allowed to
pump up to seventy -five percent of its need from the
groundwater basin at a reasonable price which was $127 per
acre foot last year, however because these levels have
dropped and to prevent sea water from intruding into the
groundwater basin, the percentage allowed to be pumped is
reduced to sixty -six percent, also, the replenishment
assessment that each agency will pay to the Orange County
Water District for water pumped from the ground has gone up
from $127 per acre foot to $149 per acre foot, a
•
substantial amount. Councilman Doane asked if the
increased population does not create more demands as well.
•
Mr. Kayiran confirmed that it does.
Councilman Yost sought clarification that this is an
enterprise fund which charges rates that are commensurate
with the cost to provide the water and the City makes no
money from that. The City Manager stated that was correct,
also, clarified that enterprise fund monies are prohibited
from being placed in the General Fund yet General Fund
monies could be used to subsidize the Water Fund.
Councilman Yost said then over the past several years the
Water Enterprise Fund has been supplemented with General
Fund dollars because the amount being collected in water
fees was not covering the cost. The response of the City
Manager was that it came from the Water Capital Fund, yet
if this trend continues the Water Capital will be
exhausted, and the step after that would be the General
Fund to keep the Enterprise Fund solvent. Councilman Yost
asked if there is a requirement to put that money back in
the Capital Fund, how is the amount of money in that Fund
gauged, based on appreciation and amortization of the
various resources. The Manager confirmed that to be
correct, it should also be noted that the program outlined,
• those improvements must be done, that is for safe, reliable
drinking water, and many of the systems in Seal Beach, the
wells, the lines, etc. when they go bad they are gone, he
would suggest that Anaheim Bay and the Sewer Fund be
recalled, Anaheim Bay was not anticipated and it was lucky
that funds were available because the repair was costly
when the line gave way, the same thing could happen in the
Water Fund, that the reason for the Capital amount.
Councilman Yost made reference also to the hearing notice
that said the intent was to lessen the impacts yet the
Page Twenty Five - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
highest increase is being imposed in the first year, why
was it worded in that way, and why is the highest increase
in the first year. The Public Works Director responded
that the rates could have been raised all at once in the
first year to satisfy the operating expenditure need but
then it would have dropped to three percent the next year,
instead the rates were tiered down so that the three
percent would be realized over a three year period instead
of raising the rates all at once the first year.
Councilman Yost said his thought was that possibly they
could have been raised not quite so high the first year,
yet it is realized that the City is in a deficit mode as to
the cost to provide the water service. The City Manager
mentioned that staff looked at a variety of scenarios, his
recollection is that if it were to be raised all in one
year it would have amounted to seventy -four percent, the
intent is to get the rates to a flat plain of three percent
as quickly as possible, people understand that costs do go
up, this seemed to be the best of the scenarios, a spike
for a couple of years and then the rates drop to the three
percent. Councilman Yost asked why this has not been
looked at sooner in that rates have not been raised since
1997, how has the City gotten behind with the cost of
providing water service. The Manager said basically one
would need to go back to the budgets, first you have to
provide a study, that took some time, and in the interim
there were electrical energy rates that spiked, electrical
pumps are used to pump the ground water, treat it, the •
rates should have been raised a small amount each year
•
since 1997, had that been done there would not be this
problem. Mayor Campbell suggested that the City is in the
same situation as the homes that are no longer new homes,
things wear out and need to be replaced, the Sanitation
District just raised rates in that northern and central
Orange County has infrastructure of thirty to forty years
old that needs to be replaced, the rate adjustment is not
sufficient to do what needs to be done so the District will
need to borrow the shortfall, she has a problem with
borrowing. Maintenance and Operations was artificially
increased during the electric energy crisis, those costs
were more than what was anticipated, bottom line is that
the City can no longer operate in a deficit, if the
residents use the service they need to pay for it.
Councilman Antos said he found that comment interesting,
then stated that a constituent recently went on a long
vacation, upon returning they received a large water bill
and inquired as to why, allegedly was told that the reading
did not appear to be high enough therefore it was felt that
there was something wrong with the meter and was adjusted,
and the meter would be monitored for a couple of months.
To that Councilman Antos said the people are either being
charged for what they use or not charged for what they use
and it is guesstimated, whatever the policy is it needs to
be made public, when these people were gone they received a
higher bill. The City Manager offered that those types of
instances occur once in a great while, sometimes people are
away believing that their water is off, an irrigation line
cracks as an example or a pipe breaks. Councilman Antos
countered that the meter reading was correct, the residents
were gone, they did not use water, the meter reading was
down, yet they were charged a higher rate because it was
Page Twenty Six - City Council Minutes - August 11, 2003
•
said there might be something wrong with the meter reading
correctly, they received a large bill yet used no water.
The Manager again said people are charged only for what
they use, if they have an issue, they can come to the City'
and something is always worked out with the rate payer, he
has no knowledge of this instance, as an example, even if
it can be seen that this happened, it will still not affect
the rates as substantially as is thought, every effort is
made to work out such situations.
Larson moved, second by Doane, to adopt Resolution Number
5159 entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF SEAL BEACH ADJUSTING WATER RATES." By unanimous
consent, full reading of Resolution number 5159 was waived.
AYES: Campbell, Doane, Larson
NOES: None
ABSTAIN: Antos, Yost Motion carried
CITY ATTORNEY REPORT
No report was presented.
CITY MANAGER REPORT
The City Manager displayed a newly constructed directional
sign to the Red Car Museum and signs advising of the
prohibition of all fireworks in the City of Seal Beach that
will be posted at every entrance to the City.
CITY COUNCIL COMMENTS •
•
Councilman Yost thanked staff for the Red Car Museum sign
on behalf of the Seal Beach Historical Society, stating
that the past tells where we are going and who we are. It
was confirmed to Councilman Antos that it is believed that
a Redevelopment Agency meeting will be held on the next
meeting date. Mayor Campbell reiterated that the City is
working as quickly as possible to resolve the dog issue, in
the meantime the Ordinance prohibiting dogs in parks is in
effect and will be enforced.
CLOSED SESSION
No Closed Session was held.
ADJOURNMENT
It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council,
to adjourn the meeting until Monday, August 25th at 6:30
p.m. By unanimous consent, the meeting was adjourned at
9:40 p.m.
THESE ARE TENTATIVE MINUTES ONLY, SUBJECT TO THE APPROVAL OF
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH.
Council Minutes Approved: