Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record and conclude the public hearing; Adopt resolution approving and certifying the Environmental Impact Report Addendum (EIRA-05-20) to the previously certified Midtown Specific Plan Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (SCH No. 2015031034);
Thank you. That concludes consent counter. We have two hearings, as you hear them. Item number 11. Report from Development Services recommendation to receive supporting documentation under the record. Conclude the public hearing. Adopt resolution approving and certifying the Environmental Impact Addendum. Declare ordinance approving a zone change on nine lots located at 2012245 West Pacific Coast Highway and 1827 Pacific Avenue. An An ordinance approving zoning code amendment to the Midtown specific plan read for the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading District six. I'd like to think. So, but I'll let the. Here and go out and start stuff. Like to introduce Christopher Coons, the deputy development services director for this item. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, vice mayor and members of the council. This evening we're talking about an important housing project in the Sixth Council District. And it's also important because this is our first project brought forward pursuant to the land use element that was approved by the council back in 2019. So with that introduction, I'm going to hand it over to Patricia Defender, who is our planning bureau manager, and she will guide you through the presentation and take any questions. Good evening, Mayor and council members Patricia deepened over here. So this project, as Christopher noted, is a project located at 201 Pacific Coast Highway. I. The proposal is for a zone change and a zoning code amendment. This project was heard before the Planning Commission on November 5th of last year. At that time, the Planning Commission approved a site plan review for a new, new five storey buildings with 138 units, a mixed use project and a lot merger of nine lots into two separate lots. So at that time, they approved. They took those actions to approve the site plan review and the lot merger. And they also took an action to recommend that the city council approve a zone change, which I'm going to tell you more about, and also to approve zoning code amendments to expand the boundary of the Midtown specific plan. And that would be an expansion to one block west of the current boundary of Pacific Avenue. This is the site here in question at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Pacific. And you can see that the colored area on the map is the proposed extension zone change area and boundary extension area. This map here shows you the existing zoning. You can see from the map on the on the right that the zoning is a combination. The site currently consists of zoning. That is a combination of C, H.W. K and R2. And the first two zones are commercial zones that do not allow any residential use uses. And the second, the last of the zones that are two one is a low density residential zone. Important to note here, as Christopher mentioned, this is one of the first projects or the first project coming in using taking advantage of the newly adopted land use element. The proposed zone change would go from. Sorry. The proposed the general plan land use element identifies this area as what's called Tod Yellow, a transit oriented district low. This place type encourages mixed use projects that mix commercial industrial uses. It encourages a development pattern that's designed to foster a pedestrian friendly and invite environment and encourage transit use. And it also encourages transition so that larger scale developments transition and step down to smaller scale developments that may be existing. The current zone being that it does not allow mixed use and each of those those zones allow only single use are inconsistent with the toddler place type. And as a result, you know, this is one of the reasons why this zone change is an appropriate zone change for this property. The general plan land use element map additionally permits seven stories at this location as you can see on the on the map shown here. The subject location is identified also in the U.S. as a major area of change and as seen on the map and as shown on the inset map on the slide, and is described as an area where transit oriented development is anticipated, given its location on a major bus corridor and its proximity to the airline station at PCH and Long Beach Boulevard. This slide here shows photos of the existing condition at the subject location. The photos are looking north at the north side of PCH and west of Pacific Avenue. The subject locations and under-used site largely vacant or occupied by surface parking. It also contains a longstanding vacant building. The site has been a nuisance attractor and contributes to blighted conditions in the area as shown particularly on the bottom photo there. The fenced off vacant lot. This slide shows the location of the proposed zone change. So the zone change would be to the Midtown specific plan, transit node low. That is the zone and it is a mixed use zone that is consistent with the Todd Low general plan place type and would be extended west to the subject site . To apply the zone. The Midtown specific plan would be extended to the subject site, as you can see here on the map. Consistent with the general plan. The table shows the consistency of the proposed specific plan, transit node, low zone with the Todd Allawi place type. So you can see the general plan identifies this area for mixed use at seven stories. The zone is a mixed use zone that allows five stories, and the project as proposed is a five story project. So this slide shows the general plan goals of the zone change helps to implement and is consistent with so it for there's a number of different general plan goals and accommodate strategic growth and change. It encourages degraded and abandoned buildings and properties to transition to more productive uses and it diversifies and the housing opportunities and provides new opportunities for housing that is located on corridors and near transit. Likewise, the zone that is proposed better aligns the zoning of the parcels with the goals of the top low place type. It facilitates the construction of mixed use development consisting of commercial and residential uses, and it facilitates construction of new housing consistent with state laws, including Senate Bill 330, the Housing Crisis Act of 2019. And finally, it facilitates the citywide rezoning efforts to bring the zoning into alignment with the new land use element. The city is currently undertaking a systematic geographic rezoning program citywide to bring consistency between the general plan and the zoning. And this request in the meantime, is consistent with that effort to rezone in a manner that that does implement the general plan. Just a quick note on, you know, state law, this particular in particular this bill. Senate Bill 330 was passed in recognition of the current housing prices. The proposed zone change facilitates construction of new housing units consistent with this bill, which gives substantial weight to the general plan and essentially says that when the general plan, the zoning differ, the city is required to apply the objective zoning standards that are consistent with the general plan. Just very quickly, I wanted to kind of run through some of the benefits of this project and what this project does. It increases housing. It increases opportunities for access to shopping and services it will replace, as proposed the current grocery store, which is located on the site. It creates an active pedestrian environment with ground floor commercial uses and an activity to pursue. It promotes walking, biking and the use of public transit and reducing number of vehicle trips, which is something that the general plan aims to do. It replaces underutilized surface parking with new commercial opportunities. It reduces building massing adjacent to low scale residential uses by stepping down in height. And it improves safety in the area by creating eyes on the street. The this as I noted previously, the planning commission did approve site plan review for this project that's contingent on this zone change in the zoning code amendment. Just wanted to show a rendering here of the project. This is the front facade or elevation of the project that would be facing Pacific Coast Highway. This is another rendering that shows how the building steps down to a existing low scale residential use that is directly to the north of the project. So you can see that the building steps down to a height of as low as 19 feet as it approaches the single that the single storey residential uses to the north. This slide just summarizes some of the public comments. There was a significant amount of public comments at the time of the commission and some of those issues related to height and compatibility of the project to the to the neighboring development. In terms of noticing or pardon me, an addendum to the Midtown specific planning. I r was prepared for this project in accordance with sequa and it was duly noticed in accordance with the municipal code requirements and notices were mailed to owners and tenants and site was posted in publication in the newspaper as required by the code. So in closing the City Council, the recommendation is that City Council from approve an addendum to the Midtown specific plan IIR. They did approve his own change from the existing zoning to the Midtown specific plan transit node lo district and approve a zone text amendment to the Midtown specific plan to reflect the expansion of the boundary to the subject area. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions that the Council and the Mayor might have. Thank you. Well, thank you for that. Let me first close out that part of the hearing. I don't believe there's any public comment for this hearing. Mr. Roberts. Oh, actually, I'm sorry. That's not true that you do have public comment on this hearing. So let me go ahead and have the court call the public comment and then we'll go back to Councilwoman Sorrell. So public comment, please. Mr. Mayor, this is Mike Brooks. Before we call public comment, just a reminder. We're going to need three separate votes. On this action. The first one is a resolution certifying the EIA and then a separate vote on each of the two orders and. Forward. Thank you. Well, we'll do that. Thank you. Madam Clerk, public comment. Our first speaker is John Dike's. Thank you, Mayor. City Council. I am the project manager for the project and we have been working on this for three years now and we're proud of the project presented to you. Architecturally, we think it's a significant move in that area and. We think it's going to make a big difference in helping the continued progress of that corridor, especially that Pacific PCH corridor. So those are the only comments I have. Other than we thank you for bringing this to council and we appreciate your support. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Rebecca Davis. Rebecca Davis. Our next speaker is Todd Loomis. Hi, this is Todd Lemons from Pacific six, along with John Bendis. We also are pretty excited to get this corridor up and up and optimized. You probably know our company, Pacific Six, we are we're doing the Breakers Hotel and the Ocean Center Building where we re recently negotiated to be the developer on this project. We're a Long Beach developer and we're really eager to connect with the neighbors and members of the community. And since we just recently signed on, we really haven't had a chance to do that yet, but we certainly plan to and are very excited to do that. And as with all of our projects, we are certainly committed to build a great project and and we believe that the project will be a real asset to the community. Thanks very much. Thank you. Your next speaker is Rebecca Davis. Rebecca Davis. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, I'm turn it over to Montoro. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank all of the residents and many people who care about the current market. That's right there. It's a high personal market. And I appreciate Mr. Lim is calling in as well to introduce himself as the new property owner. I just wanted to share that, you know, the owner wanted to make a public comment but wasn't able to do so. But I just wanted to make sure that I hear that those who that he's been serving the community during this pandemic, as you know, essential business has been providing groceries as almost kind of a little bit like a bodega in the neighborhood. Right. And so I know that he has expressed a lot of concern, as well as many who shops at his market, and that I want to make sure that he knows and many other knows that I'm committed to working with council members and danger as well, since we have, you know, residents that are just right neighbor that that are neighboring residents of this market and that we're committed to working together to ensure that we work with Mr. Specific six and anybody as well as residents to proceed in a way where we can continue to communicate about this development and this project as we proceed forward and just want to make sure that, you know. That it is. We have new owners that that's how I would like to proceed and appreciate all the comments and concern people have shared and looking forward to hearing the discussion and conversation with everybody. Thank you so much. And that I motion to I don't know if we have to have a motion for a hearing, but I do want to express that. I do want to support this project and that it's bringing housing and affordable housing into our neighborhood and meanwhile, wanting to address many of the other public comments, concern that was provided in the slideshow. Thank you so much. Well, thank. Thank you. That's a motion for the hearing to approve. Can I get a second on the motion, please? Set in by Councilwoman Allen. Any comments? Councilwoman Allen? Councilman Allen, any comments? I do not have any comment. Customers and day has. Think, Mayor, I just want to say how grateful I am to Councilmember Sorrell for her partnership and her willingness to to involve me and my residents in this project. I am super excited about this project going up. I think it's going to going to be fantastic for District six, but not only for District six, but for District one as well as we are the neighboring district and we share a lot of the things across PCH. So and I also want to thank all of the residents that have gotten involved in in this project and that have been concerned. I know that it has been a great concern for us to see the displacement of a wonderful grocery store that has been providing affordable food for our our residents, both in the sixth District and in the first District. And I want to thank Mr. Kell for all that he has done. You know, up until now, providing our residents with with not only great food, but also being a staple in the community and serving our first district residents as well. I'm very excited that Pacific Six has come on. I know that they have great partnerships with the community and I know it hasn't been like that in the past couple of months and that the community has felt that they were left out from participating in this in this exciting project. So I just want to say how encouraged I am by Bay and Pacific six coming into this project. I think that they're going to be fantastic and that our community is going to absolutely benefit from having them. I think that, you know, it's it's really hard for my residents and the residents of the sixth District to see our El Bassano market be this place. But I know that, you know, working with Councilmember Sorrell and working with Pacific Six, I'm hoping that we can provide some some good, good guidance and and maybe hopefully come up with another. I know that there's going to be an additional grocery store there. So I hope that it is tailored to our to our neighborhood. And I did have a question. When we send out notifications of projects, are those are those notifications also sent out in Spanish for the neighboring communities to understand what's going on? So Councilmember. Our. Notices typically include the bulk of a text is in English and then there is portions of the notices in other languages. And then on a case by case basis, we obviously have projects and locations where there's a lot more need for Spanish language. So when we have a meeting on those particular projects, we staff accordingly and have staff able to conduct that meeting in Spanish. When we do specialized outreach, we provide additional notification in Spanish, but the legal notice is provided in English with text at the end of the end of the notice that in Spanish and provides the option for the individual to request a translation. This is an area where the department, prior to COVID, was doing a lot of examination and looking to update our noticing and to to better multilingual our notices. That's a project that's on the shelf that as as COVID abates and we get back to staffing we can return to. So to answer your question, the notice is primarily done in English, but we do supplemental in situations. Where Spanish is helpful. Okay. And obviously it would, you know, in this area would be Spanish. And my so I thank you for that and for looking into that. And I thank you for for hopefully getting back to it. I think it's going to be important with other projects that may come along. And I know that there's a lot of development going on, so that's going to be very important moving forward. So I just want to say thank you to all of my residents that have been submitting comments and letting their their opinions be heard and also those that have continuously called my office and who have partnered also with with District six. And I think this is going to be a really good project for for the city, but especially for District six and District one. And I look forward to supporting this site. And thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. I think that concludes when we check here the council comment. We have a motion in a second. Let's do a roll call. Vote, please. District one, i. District two. I. District three. District four. I. District five i. District six. District six. I District seven. I District eight. District nine. My motion carries. Great. Thank you very much. We are hearing item 12, please. We have two more votes for that item there. You're absolutely right. Let's take that second vote and then call the third one after.