Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, consider a third-party appeal (APL18-002) from James Richardson; accept Categorical Exemption (CE18-079); and, uphold the Planning Commission’s decision to approve a Conditional Use Permit (CUP18-006) for childcare services, health and wellness programming, and a 1,760 square-foot outdoor play area at an existing church at 2325 East 3rd Street, in the Single-Family Residential District (R-1-N) Zone.  (District 2)
Okay. We have two hearings, hearing item number one. Report from Development Services recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. To conclude a public hearing, consider a third party appeal from James Richardson. Accept categorical exemption. And uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve the conditional use permit for child care services, health and wellness programing, and a. 1760 square foot outdoor play area at an existing church at 2325 East Third Street in a single. Family residential district zoned. District. Two. Thank you. We have a motion and a second counsel appears. Yes. I'd like to hear a staff report on this first and then go to public comment and then I'll have a couple of questions. Thank you. And for the clerk, I believe an oath is required on this one. Yes. Those. Those of you. Wishing to testify. Please stand and raise your right hand. You and each. Of you to solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the course now in pending before you, this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you. God. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the city council. We will have a staff report from Carrie Tai, our current planning officer. Good evening. Mayor Garcia and members of the city council. Before you tonight is a public hearing for the appeal of the Planning Commission's approval of a conditional use permit to allow for the YMCA to host childcare services and a health and wellness center at the existing Grace Methodist Church, located at 2325 East Third Street. Just for clarification, the applicant has stated that the appeal solely relates to the health and wellness component of the conditional use permit. The project site is located at the northeast corner of Junipero Avenue and Third Street and the R-1 and Single Family District there. The church does have an off site parking lot across the street and it's also zoned residential. The area is characterized as a well-established residential neighborhood. There are residential, multi and single families surrounding the property. At the site is in the Carroll Park Historic District. There are some well, there's an aerial area. There are some photographs on the screen. But just to show you the building, the round portion on the upper left hand corner is the rotunda, and that is the primary assembly area of the church. This church was rebuilt in 1965 after some fire damage, but really the building depicted on the right dates back to 1921. And it's actually the lower level of that building shown on the right, which is where the health and wellness component will be, will be hosted. And then the photograph on the bottom shows the parking lot that I referred to that is across the street. So the child care services would be provided Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and the health and wellness program would be offered 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.. And it's important to note that neither of these would be offered during church assembly purposes in order to render the parking to be available. And just to talk a little bit about the health and wellness programing, so on the screen, the arrow shows the room at the back that was depicted in the photograph, but it's a 1470 square foot room that where the health and wellness program would be hosted and it's sports clinics, fitness equipment, certain group classes. I liken the size of that room to some of you have stayed in hotels that have a fitness center that's fairly small that's for the guests use and it's roughly about that size. Just to also inform the council, there are some play areas that would be provided as part of the child care. Those are not in the health and wellness room. They would be partly inside, inside, as well as partly outside. And then lastly, to talk about the parking a little bit, there are 58 parking stalls between the on and the offsite lots. The church does own both lots. The child care and wellness programing combined only requires 22 parking spaces, but nonetheless they would not be offering those services during church use. So the Planning Commission did conduct a public hearing on this on June 21st and voted to approve the item. The appellant filed the appeal. Within the ten day appeal period, appeals are conducted as public hearings and require noticing in response to the noticing for this City Council public hearing item staff received a four emails and and which of which three were in opposition, one in support, and also one phone call in opposition with that staff recommends that the City Council deny the appeal and uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve this conditional use permit as the proposal meets the city's requirements for parking as well as land use. And in accordance with the findings that the Planning Commission met for the conditional use permit, the appellant and the applicant are here in the chambers tonight at this concludes staff's presentation, and we are here to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. So we have mixed up the applicant and then the appellant, and then the applicant gets a rebuttal. So if the applicant can please come forward. And while you certainly don't have to use all 10 minutes, you get 10 minutes. And Mr.. Mr. Mason, the applicant in this case is actually. Los Altos YMCA. Yeah. Okay. So please come forward. The YMCA is the applicant. They come first. Okay. So the applicant is the YMCA. Oh, sorry. Okay. Thank you. On Ramallah city council and city staff. Thank you for having us this evening. I'm Brandy Claudio. I'm the executive director of the Los Altos Family, YMCA co applicant with Grace United Methodist Church. I am also a local resident living two blocks from Grace, so have a personal understanding of any concerns about this conditional use permit that have been raised by neighbors. Thank you for your time reviewing our project. Our Los Altos Y is very excited about this partnership with Grace, which brings together two community serving organizations in order to provide needed programs and services. Additionally, we have worked in partnership with Councilwoman Janine Pearce's office in developing this plan to address voids in the neighborhood. And I would like to point out nearly 30 letters of support included in your packet. Note that this conditional use permit was approved by the Planning Commission with a40 vote, as well as acknowledge the supporters we have present this evening from the Y and grace. If you want to work with their scattered around, we are really excited about this. Over a year ago, Grace identified some community needs that they had the building infrastructure but not the human infrastructure to address. And a partnership with our Y enables us to most effectively address these community needs. This project addresses both the need for affordable child care and youth recreation programing, as well as health and wellness fitness programing for all ages. Because this appeal is only challenging the health and wellness fitness portion of this project. I will focus my comments on that. The CDC tells us that chronic diseases are responsible for seven of ten deaths each year and that physical activity helps prevent chronic disease. According to the American Heart Association, children with increased physical activity are more alert, confident and focused in school. Rates of severe childhood obesity have tripled in the last 25 years. This is a critical social issue. That is why this Council adopted the Healthy Communities Policy in 2014. Approval of this conditional use permit will help us to address chronic disease in the Long Beach community with minimal fitness facilities and none that serve the entire family. If you went to our Y this evening, you would see an eight year old running on the treadmill next to his parent and you would see a family taking a group exercise class together. Our goal is to build and strengthen families in spirit, mind and body by providing opportunities to be healthy and spend quality time together. I would like to make special note that this project requires zero construction. We are simply reactivating a building to the original intent. It was built to serve the community. We have made numerous considerations in respect to neighboring residents, primarily related to noise and parking. The fitness portion of this proposal is 1500 square feet of space intended to target residents within a mile radius who can walk and bike to our health and wellness center. Although Grace meets exceeds actually city parking requirements for these uses included in this copy, we have also taken additional steps to encourage biking and walking through the approval of a new bike rack and bike share hub. We are just waiting for installation. I thank you in advance for your support of this collaboration, which addresses well known and well documented community needs, and I will be available to answer questions. Thank you so much. Now about that, Mr. Richardson, who is the appellant? Well. He's again. My friend. I have no objection to the daycare center. The problem we face a problem I face. I live on Lumina Drive, which is a little L-shaped narrow street that runs right off of the church entrance and around the church does have a huge parking lot, but you have to cross two streets to get to it. Louis The drive is right at the church entrance. You just walk across one street or parking is already a critical problem. It has been for for a long, long time. Just last week, I had to have a car ticketed who parked across my driveway. And a few months ago, one of the women who lived in our neighborhood had to park several blocks away in order to well, she had to park several blocks away and she was assaulted. This is the problem's not bad during the day because people go to work. Most of the people on the street work. So the parking is fine. But from about 5:00 on. The problem we have is there are five restaurants right around the corner. There's hard drive. A star of Siam Chan's Park Pantry and fat tomato pizza chains is the only one that has parking off street parking. Also on our street there, ten units, you see. We talk about when the church was built. It was built in the twenties. In the twenties. There was a trolley that ran along Third Street. I've lived here since the forties and I can tell you my mother and I took busses and trolleys places, so it was built at a time when there was nothing like the kind of traffic or parking problems that we have today. No. Yes. People, they have adequate parking. But what is to prevent them if they see a spot on the way to drive it? It's public. On street parking. What's to prevent them from parking on our street to go to their fitness center? And it's perfectly legal. Anyone can take the parking first. Come, first serve. We already have a major problem, a huge problem on the way in to drive. And this fitness center will just exacerbate that. I think it was due consideration given to this major problem when these permits were allowed. That's really all I have to say. Thank you very much. The applicant gets 3 minutes if you want to have a rebuttal. If not. Nope. Actually, there's only one you can speak to in public comment if you'd like, sir. But Mr. Richardson is actually the appellant. Thank you. Does the does the applicant want a rebuttal or. No? Okay. You get 3 minutes if you'd like one. Just 3 seconds that I would just encourage everyone to refer to the conditions in regards to the conditions that were made regarding parking and the accommodations that we would made and that we have more than sufficient parking on church grounds. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And with that, there is public comments. Sir, if you wanted to speak, you can you can do it now. Mayor Garcia, members of the City Council. My name is Elliott Boone. I've lived in Carroll Park since 1972. My only concern with the fitness center is its applica its the ability. Of it to exist in accordance with the city code for. Zoning. I have looked extensively through the city code and find no permission for a fitness center to exist in an R one end zone. To do so without a public hearing would violate the essence of. The. Long Beach. City Code. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no other public comment on this hearing there is please come down. And if you if you have a comment for this hearing, you need to please be in line. Thank you, counsel. Mayor. My name is Thomas Daniel. I live in three, three, two, one, two. Pair right up the street from the church and now our neighborhood. Welcome the child care center. We were real happy about that. But the fitness center is a commercial endeavor and that endeavor belongs into a commercial zone because of the parking issues and everything else. And there's plenty of fitness around Bixby Parks down the street. There's a bike path, there's a pedestrian path, there's a gym on seventh and one apparel. There's numerous gyms in town. And I know the person that brought this up said there there's somebody on a bicycle in their gym now and a child next to them, but they're in a commercial zone. They're probably on Bellflower Boulevard. There's a lot of. Gyms in town, so I just appeal to you. This does not belong in a residential zone. It belongs in a commercial zone. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, city leaders. My name is Pastor Christopher Wiles and I am the pastor at Grace United Methodist Church. I am also happy to say that last month I was sworn in as Long Beach's new police chaplain. So I'm here to serve the community and our churches here for the community itself. This trophy is from 1927, as far back as our records that I can tell, in 1918, the YMCA was in partnership with Grace United Methodist Church. Now, I may not look like I was around then, but I have really good doctors who keep me up well. This is a partnership that has been there for a long time. Grace United Methodist Church is in the business of saving lives and taking care of the community, as is the YMCA. And actually listening to your budget proposal this evening, I find that I'm very impressed that it seems like the budget has a lot of items for that too as well. I would like to say that this is going to go forward as you guys seem fit. That's not the issue now. The issue for me today becomes what can we do to support the city with that budget, to make sure that we take care of our community? One thing I would like to hear from the council is how we're going to take care of prevention. The YMCA is here for prevention, for wellness, so that they don't end up in the hospital. We have so many families in our community that are one paycheck away from homelessness. I'd like to see us focus on prevention like we at Grace and the YMCA does as well, preventing people from becoming homeless before they get to that place. And as you go back and you think about your budgets and you pray about your community, please make sure that we put some of those dollars into prevention. And you can call me at Grace United Methodist Church. You can call the YMCA, you can call any of these people standing here in line. And we will be there for you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Makes me complete. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Cole McDaniel. I'm the childcare. Get this thing of child care camp director at the last. Thank you. Whoever is doing this. Thank you. I'm the child care camp director at the Los Altos Family YMCA. I'm reading this on behalf of one of our board members. His name is John Rockmore, due to the delay and fortunately had to go home. So this is these are John's words. My name is John Rockmore. Long Beach has been my home for more than 30 years, and I currently live in the neighborhood of Grace United Methodist Church. As a father of a seven year old boy, I've always been involved in our wonderful community, especially as it relates to programs and services for youth. I'm a member of the Los Altos YMCA Board of Managers and an active member of the Belmont Heights United Methodist Church, which is a sister church to grace and located at 317 terminal here in Long Beach. In fact, I'm a chair of the Board of Trustees, which oversees the health and well-being of our preschool and daycare programs at Belmont Heights UMC. So I have firsthand knowledge and experience with how needed these programs and services are in this area. I also coached high school football at Millikan High. In fact, we had a great group of my players this past Saturday at Grace United Methodist for a work project, and it will be back this Saturday. And in addition, as a neighborhood resident, the portion of this project that includes health and wellness fitness options is exciting and needed in this community. While there are many where while there are some small gyms around, nothing serves the entire family. I'm looking forward to utilizing these facilities with my wife and son, so together we can focus on our health and wellness. The conditions of approval for this permit are more than fair to our neighbors. This will be an incredible asset to the community. And I ask for your approval of this project tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Next, bigger. I have to lower this because he's a lot taller than I am. Hello, Mayor. Hello, City Council. City staff. My name is Damon Cole Lucca, and my family and I have lived in Long Beach since 1987. And I'd like you to know that I'm one of the people. That's excited about having some wellness programs in my neighborhood. I live about a mile away on Roswell Avenue and look forward to walking. Over and taking advantage of the wellness programs the YMCA strives to. To strengthen communities by nurturing children. Improving the health of families and seniors, and connecting neighbors. I think this is something that we could use more of. This partnership with Christ Church will bring badly needed chronic disease prevention programs that will combat the rise of Type two diabetes, support people living with cancer, help seniors achieve longer, more independent lives, and partner with families to help keep them healthy and active. This partnership will help. This will help neighborhood families connect, thrive and grow. And I implore you to approve. This or uphold the council's or what's the Planning Commission? There you go. Thank you. The Planning Commission's decision. Thank you. Thank you. Next week, you. Hello. My name is Alan Rivera. I'm going into my senior year of high school and I actually live on Junior Bro in the neighborhood of Grace Church and I am also a participant in the YMCA Y Team Leader Program and Youth and Government Program. And I also utilize the health and wellness facilities at the Los Altos YMCA and actually serve my youth in government. Delegates and advisors are here in support of the conditional use permit. I used to attend an elementary school that the YMCA will be servicing through this partnership. And while I was a student at Horace Mann, I used to be in rap, an after school program and by the school, while I had the privilege of attending rap after school. MANN Now and other schools in the neighborhood are now in need of additional providers, and the Y is here to serve. As I mentioned, I have firsthand experience of how the way I provide services towards youth and families. As a current program participant myself, the youth of today is the future of tomorrow. I believe this is how the staff at the Los Altos YMCA teach the youth there, which includes opportunities for health and wellness and activity for youth and families, are designed to better and strengthen the community. I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity of a YMCA fitness facility close enough to my home that I can walk to thank you for your time and careful consideration of this exciting partnership. Thank you. Thank you. Next Speaker. Good evening. My name is Marquis Richardson. I'm also. A resident in the. Neighborhood for the proposal for the YMCA. I just wanted to say a couple of things. I know the focus is on the health and wellness side of it, but being of course a mother, the childcare portion, as you just mentioned, my daughter does attend Burbank Elementary, which is right down the road. They do offer the rep program. But again, additional after and before care programs are needed. In addition to the health and wellness, I am one of those mothers that will have the eight year old. She's sitting up there on the treadmill with me being an expectant parent. It is expected that we do exercise. A lot of times being outside in the heat is not conducive to, you know, the condition that we're in. So having something that's in the neighborhood that we can get to easily, that's accessible, that does also cater to the community, which is my whole family that will offer programs that are needed for the youth. I just want to also mention the parking portion of it. Obviously living in the area, I know there can be an issue with the parking, but also, you know, there are like I said, as you can see, that there are options for parking for those who are going to be attending the the YMCA program. So I just want to implore you guys that we will need this program for you guys to upload up, uphold the approval so that we can have those things that are needed in the community, because the YMCA is about that. The city needs those things in order for us to be able to progress into the future. Thank you very much. To our next speaker. Now lead me. Good evening, council members. My name is Rocky Howard. My address is 2325 East Third Street. I want to talk about that health and wellness part of this as my my family, we are a very active family. We like to ride bikes. We like to walk. We like to stay fit. My 14 year old son is a basketball player. He works out currently at the YMCA in Los Altos. That's about maybe a ten minute drive for us right now. So if we can walk and get our workout on as a family staying fit, that will be a great thing for our family and it will make our bond even greater. Also, I am a P.E. instructor at Patrick Henry Elementary School, and seeing that these kids only have P.E. classes once a week and the Long Beach Unified School District is a problem and an issue, I think that the YMCA. YMCA is tackling a very big issue in our community. So if your kid is only going to PE once a week, you can always come to the YMCA and get your workout on. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. And these will be our last two speakers. And then we're taking a vote. My name is Francis Burns. I live at 301. Barrow. If anybody's going to be impacted by this, it's going to be me and my wife. She's around or somewhere. When they showed you the picture of the parking lot, those two cars, that white truck and that little versa were ours. I've lived in Long Beach for 20 years. I lived on third and orange for a long time. So I understand what they're talking about when they talk about these parking problems. But the fact of the matter is, just like going to the gym the first time you go to the gym, there's going to be a few growing pains. But it's something that needs to happen. This community needs what Grace United Methodist and the YMCA are going to provide. And like I said, my wife and I are going to be the ones that are most impacted by this. And it's a small inconvenience to see a place grow where families can be together and be healthy and enjoy a greater community. And I think that the issues that were addressed, I think as the community comes together more, some of those issues are going to go away because as more people become involved in the community, as we see more walking, as we see more bicycling, it's going to become safer. Those people who want to pray in our community are not going to want to be around anymore because there are going to be too many people to make that fit for them to have that happen. So like I said, I understand the parking situation, but I think that that this is bigger than that. And I think after a while we're going to be able to work it out to where it's not going to be an issue. And we have grace and said that they've provided parking for the service and it's a big parking lot and there's going to be room for people. And I understand that people might not want to walk across the street initially, but again, as the community. It grows as they understand and become part of the community. I think that's going to change as well. I'd also like to say that since we live right there. Speak to the mike. Thank you so much. No problem. My name is Benny and I live with this guy. And our apartment is right above the proposed project area, the outdoor project area. So I just want to let people know that so many people in the community come up our stairs and ask us about the programs that the church offers. And when they find out that the YMCA is there, they're very excited. You know, I can't tell them anything yet, but I would like to tell them that because a lot of people want to do things with people in their community, safe things, healthy things. And also we're working on the yard. I'm sure everybody in the community appreciates that and the YMCA is helping us do that. We couldn't do that without their help. And I just want to say that while I'm working in the yard, a lot of people stop me in the yard and ask about services the church offers and the YMCA, YMCA offers. So I really hope that the council goes forward with this project. Thank you. Thank you so much. That concludes the public hearing and we will take some council action and deliberation. Let me begin with Councilmember Pearce. Great. Thank you so much. I want to thank all the staff to work on this. I want to thank the appellants and the YMCA for all of your efforts. I know that this conversation was a lengthy one when it came to planning, and my hope was that when it came today, that we would have some some clarity on some issues. So I'm going to ask, even though we have the presentation in front of us, I'm going to ask a couple of questions and then I'm going to ask for some for some support and direction. So the first question for city staff or possibly for the city attorney is the question that was raised by the appellant about not allowing a fitness center in the r-1 zone. Can you clarify where that where that is stated and what gives us the ability to do that. Mistake and probably give you more details? But basically it is considered. To be an accessory use. Type use to a church, and churches are allowed to engage in all types of community. Based accessory type activities. That's pretty much it. She's shaking her. Head. Yes, great. So because it's a church, we're allowed to have the accessory activities. So we are check there. So I know that that was one concern. I do want to highlight that this church I cannot say enough about this church. I live in the neighborhood as well, right down the street. And for a decade, this church has been opened up to the community. And if you've ever been in it, the space inside is massive. It's very large. I know a lot of people in this room have been there for the state of the city several years ago , and it is a space that really is deserving of some TLC and allowing the community to come in and not only have a child care center, but a fitness center in an area that we do have a desert. Right. I have a six year old daughter. I know how hard it is to find child care after school programs are still really difficult. And so I'm happy today that the conversation was more around the fitness center and understanding that it is allowed. But the other question is around parking. And so I do see that it is parked to code. I did have an opportunity to meet with the two gentlemen here that live in Carroll Park. So I did want to ask city staff, probably Mr. Beck, if he could walk through with us now that we know that it's parked accordingly, if he could walk through for us the process to do a residential parking permit, just so we can understand as we move forward after today, what that would look like for Carroll Park, which is largely parking impacted as well as Alameda Street. Yes. Councilmember Pearce. Thank you for the question. Mm hmm. Basically, the city does provide preferential parking districts where residents within that district can apply for that designation and receive basically a parking permit to park within that restricted zone. And there is a formal process that we go through ultimately that would come to council for approval and and designation for that zone. And it would it would go into effect that way. What we look at when we review applications are how many vehicles are parking in the area from outside that neighborhood. We work with the residents to define exactly what that area would be, what streets would be included, and then we would move forward with the analysis and the formal adoption. And can you give us a typical timeline, like if you guys started working with them? I know we're in budget right now, but if if you started next month, what a timeline might look like. Well, again, if we have support from the community and active participation, we would go through that initial screening that would take anywhere from 30 to 60 days. That would conclude if we met those requirements with a survey that would be distributed to all those homes impacted. And we would have to get that information back, prepare the staff report and then bring it to council. So you're looking at some on 120 plus day range to get something like that done. And that's that's on the fast side. Great. Thank you so much. So I'm really excited about this. We've been working with the YMCA for a while. I think the fact that we have our question around, is it allowed answered? Yes, it's allowed to. Is it adequately park? Yes, it's adequately parked. Does that not still mean that there are people that could park in the neighborhood and that that might be an impact? Yes, but today is not today to make action on that. So I'm going to ask staff to begin working with Carroll Park right away, to start going through that process of having a residential preferential parking. And we know that it's not a guarantee it's going to happen because we've got to survey the neighborhood, but that we are going to do our very best to make that happen for that community, because I know how how difficult it is. So with that, I urge my colleagues just to deny the appeal and to move forward with bringing YMCA, childcare services, programing and fitness center to the heart of Alamitos Beach. Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. I support Councilmember Pearce's motion and appreciate the great work that the YMCA does locally, regionally, and especially in districts two, three and four. And I hope that there is some opportunities to resolve some of the concerns and impacts through some sort of mitigated option. So thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman Mingo. I wanted to thank our youth in government, young adults for coming out and being a part of the process. I think that's really important. Many know that in addition to the Pastors Alliance citywide, we have a fifth District pastors group and the consistent thing that comes up year after year is the concern and need for additional child care in our city. And so any organizations that are willing to work with the community to find options for those things are strongly encouraged. And as long as they can adopt to and be in alignment with the neighbors, which it sounds like a lot of the neighbors are very supportive. It sounds like the city is moving in the right direction because child care is a really important need. So I appreciate everyone who spoke on both sides of the issue tonight. And thank you for all of those who compromised to come up with solutions. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, we will take a vote on the hearing. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Those that came out for this, I also I think I missed a presentation. So there actually there is a presentation tonight. And I want to turn this over to Councilwoman Gonzales for that.