Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by repealing Sections 21.52.204 and 21.52.281; amending Sections 21.15.1560, 21.15.2310, 21.15.2420, 21.15.3000, 21.15.3015, 21.21.302(B)(4), Table 31-1, Table 32-1, and 21.52.249, and by adding Sections 21.15.1576, 21.15.1859, 21.25.905, 21.52.200.1, 21.52.240.5, and 21.52.270.1, all relating to Conditional Use Permits, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Lucian Karis. Thank you. Hearing item two. Item Choose the report from Development Services Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the public hearing and adopt negative declarations. Zero one Dash 18 declared ordinance amending various sections of Title 21 of the Land Beach Police Code, all relating to conditional use permit. Read the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading and Adobe Resolution authorizing the Director of Development Services to submit amendment of the Long Beach zoning regulations and supporting materials to the California Coastal Commission for Approval and Certification Citywide. Thank you. Staff. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Tonight's staff presentation will be done by current planning officer Kerry Tai. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Garcia. Members of the city council. Tonight, staff is pleased to present to you proposed amendments pertaining to the city's use permit review process. Just a bit of background. In March of 2017, the city kicked off a city council initiated request to review the city's conditional use permit. As the council knows, there are uses in the city that are permitted by write in the city's zoning ordinance, and there are also uses that are subject to an extra process known as a use permit. Some are conditional use permits and some are administrative use permits. They're just sort of major and minor. But the request stemmed from feedback from city business owners who cited that the use permit process was hindering some of the creation or opening of new businesses, in particular aspects related to timeliness, predictability, efficiency and cost. So staff focused on these aspects and reviewed ways to maintain the ability of the community to address concerns, but also to try to improve on some of the aspects that the business owners were expressing concerns about. And so all of this really was done with the overarching goal of improving the city's image as a great place to do business. And so just an overview of the process. There are some dates on the screen, but I'll just quickly run through them. Since last spring, the staff did a multi-month engagement, along with a consultant with stakeholders and business associations in the community. The consultant that assisted the staff also did a thorough analysis of the city's zoning regulations and pointed out recommendations on how to make the process more clear and even how to make the zoning ordinance more clear. The engagement effort also included a study session with the Planning Commission, as well as the Economic Development Commission. And then staff also individually reached out to numerous business associations that, due to their staffing limitations, were not able to participate in some of the meetings. And so we did one one on one outreach prior to the Planning Commission hearing on June 7th. Staff also addressed inquiries from several resident groups pertaining to some of the changes which I'll go through in a bit. So after that extensive stakeholder effort in preparation of zoning recommendations, the Planning Commission did conduct a public hearing on this item on June 7th and recommended recommended approval that the City Council approve this application. So I'm going to go through just some more detail about some of the stakeholder issues. I'm going to categorize them. But generally, they fell under a several categories that I'm sure are familiar to many. Alcohol regulations, parking regulations, procedures and cost. And then the last aspect was the identification of the need for business assistance. In other words, the stakeholders mentioned that a lot of folks that appear before the city to start a business simply lacked the knowledge of what the process was and could have used better assistance to guide them through the process. In terms of the technical aspect of the zoning code, the consultant did an analysis and compared Long Beach to several other pier cities. The city's notification process for use permits, which right now is a 750 foot radius consisting of property owners and occupants, was found to be greater than pure cities. They also found the consultant also found that some cities do a much better job of providing information on business assistance and also sharing what what's going on in the process, what the steps are and what other applications are in the process. And lastly, the consultant noted that Long Beach's application costs seemed higher because the costs are bundled. The the cost to process the application, the notification costs and various surcharges are all bundled into one. And so they appear to be higher when in fact, when the numbers are actually broken down, they actually are pretty comparable in terms of the zoning code. The the assessment was that there were definitely definitions in the code that were outdated and and convoluted that made the code somewhat difficult to understand. There were missing references to certain issues, certain aspects relating to alcohol, so that the city's regulation of alcohol did not jive with the state alcohol and beverage controls regulations, and also that overall the code could use a better just just a better clarification. So one of the main recommendations, though, in terms of speeding up the process, was doing a review of uses and determining whether those uses in actuality needed use permits. The reason for that is the city's zoning ordinance was largely crafted in 1988 with intermittent amendments for the last 30 years, basically. And there are some regulations that could be deemed to be outdated given the there's new ways to do business and the new sort of marketplace and economy. So some of the uses that the that were identified as needing updated included included laundromats which currently require an administrative use permit, second hand stores. So reuse stores, thrift stores, those all require conditional I'm sorry, administrative use permits. Daycares in multifamily zones currently require conditional use permits. And yet the city's housing element identifies multifamily zones as areas needing daycares. The most live work units and commercial districts also require use permits when most other cities are not requiring use permits for that because adequate development standards can be put into place to regulate those. And so the there are basically there's a list of uses and their associated development standards, which also showed that there was a need to update the regulations based on kind of more modern way of doing business is one example is that for daycares the hours of operation were limited from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.. But today's longer work hours. Parents need to drop the kids off earlier and pick them up later. And so that was one of the changes that we are proposing. With regard to public notification, I did give a little background. The city's 750 foot notification does exceed what the state minimum is, which is 300. However, one thing that the staff took a look at was the effectiveness of that notification. We typically send out a couple of hundred, sometimes over a couple, sometimes over several thousand. If it's a project in the downtown, it's they're known to have over 4000 notices in a single mailing, and sometimes over 20% of them come back as returned mail. And also as a result of that, we've had public hearings where one or two people show up a result as a result of more than a thousand notices going out. So certainly staff observed the the lack of efficiency and effectiveness of that notification. So studied ways that other cities are providing notification of projects. The one recommendation that was that came down very strongly was digital notification. Clearly the movement of communication towards the Internet, the use of the website to the city's website, to post public notification as well as email email services like L.B. Link, where people are able to sign up for issues that they're interested in, as well as the thousands of people following the city on social media have been proven to be effective ways of getting the word out on projects that that are being proposed and also the state law, as well as many other cities allow for newspaper publication when the number of notices exceeds 1000 properties. That is a common occurrence in the projects that that Long Beach sees. And so one of the proposed changes is, is to incorporate that allowance into the zoning ordinance. And then the last part is in terms of a procedure, not necessarily notification, but creating a an administrative land use process to document uses that are by rights so that applicants can come in and sign and acknowledge that they understand the development regulations before they open a business so they can operate in accordance with city regulations. And they've indicated to the city that they understand that. So in your packet or there's an ordinance summarizing the changes that I've just summarized, and I want to go and just talk about a few next steps. So certainly the some of the stakeholder concerns related to some broader issues relating to, for example, alcohol sales and the changing nature of alcohol regulations, be it late night sales, late night sales of alcohol or change in alcohol products because it's sort of a moving target. Right now, the staff is acknowledging that there is a need to perform a continued study of improvements to to alcohol sales procedures. Also in the staff report, the the staff talks about the ease of use of the code after some of the changes are made. There are a couple of chapters in the zoning ordinance that are just very difficult to use. Things are not in order and things are difficult to find. And so the recommendation is to come back and reorganize some of the chapters without any content change just to improve the ease of use. And then lastly, the next step is to recommend enhancing the city's website to provide increased information about development proposals. And I and an example of that would be a map based software that shows what projects are going on so that people can easily relate what the what ongoing projects are in their neighborhood and what is most relevant to them. And so this process certainly is not over. I think this is step one of and of an effort to make it easier to do business in the city, to negotiate the city's use permit process. And the Planning Commission recommends that the City Council adopt the proposed changes in the attached ordinance. That concludes my presentation and I can answer any questions you have. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Pearce. Yes. Thank you very much, staff. This has been a long time coming. So when I first started talking about even running to sit behind this dais, I talked to a lot of small business owners that said that they had a lot of challenges with the conditional use permits, the process, the amount of funds it took for them to get their doors open with the types of uses that they that they wanted and that the cost was much higher than other cities. And so I am really happy. I want to just give a little bit of context and then I'll ask a couple of questions. This item came forward in December of 2016 with my council colleagues Lena Gonzalez, Stacey Mango, Al Austin, and that we together, you know, set out to try to get Long Beach to be updated for our businesses. And so this conditional use process has been several years in the making and not only included an outside consultant to work on this, but we did make sure that we included COBA, that we included small businesses, large businesses and multiple types of businesses. So I want to applaud staff because I know when we've done community outreach in the past and when this first came up, it was difficult to get some of the other users to participate in the process and really understand the Laundromats and some of those other uses that might not be as engaged in our city like restaurants are, because we all eat all the time. And so I want to recognize that we had a roundtable that included COBR, all of our business associations within the city, as well as individual neighborhood associations, Rose Park, Alamitos Beach, Bluff Heights, and in our downtown area as well. And so what was that in West Side? So definitely West Side, but that those were part of a work group that the consultants worked with, that this didn't just come out of city staff, but city staff really did a great job picking it up and leading it and making sure that it came back with a complete overhaul that the city is really due to have. So I'm really happy to see it here. I know that we had some questions the last time we met with community members around the online process. Could you elaborate a little bit of how you're working with it? And we discussed cutting back some of the paper notifications, but how are we really going to trust that are online sources like social media is the right way? What cities have we seen do that before? Shura Council Member Pearce, thank you for the question. In the in the study of the peer cities, the consultant took a look at the cities of Oakland, Anaheim, West, Hollywood and Huntington Beach I'm sorry, and took a look at what they are doing and they are taking advantage of a lot of digital digital notification processes. And in terms of working with are it working to ensure that the digital notification that this proposal is going to be effective? One of the very specific performance criteria that we have incorporated into the digital notification requirement. So it's not going to be optional. It's going to be in addition to the mailing that's going to be starting at 300 feet with a couple of exceptions, but starting at 300 feet, it's going to be mandatory digital notification. It means we have to advertise those public notices in an electronic format. And not only that, the performance criteria is it's going to be based on what is currently the most effective. In other words, where do we have the most followers? Where do we have the most subscribers? And the reason for that was to provide a way for the code, which does not change very often to respond to digital internet usage, which does change, I mean, in every two or three years, you know, a new form of social media peaks or a new website peaks, and it's to allow our code to have the flexibility without having to change it time and time again. And that will be developed through a policy within the Department of Development Services to regularly track what is the most effective notification method, and then to use, at a minimum, two of those. Great and I don't recall you going through it necessarily in your presentation, but you mentioned that some of them will be 300 feet, some of them will. Some of the uses are required to be further distance. Can you recap that one more time for me? Absolutely. So, yeah, I'm happy to go over that. It's going to make it a little complicated with the numbers. So the state minimum is 300 feet. So staff is so staff is proposing to move the default notification to 300 feet. But that would include still both the property owners and the occupants, which is still above and beyond what the state requirement is. State only allows only requires property owners, but for users, for example, that have buffers for the massage users that have a 700 foot buffer or a tattoo use that has a 500 foot buffer, the any any of those uses that requires a use permit, that notification would automatically be extended to that buffer to ensure that we have added coverage. Also, any project that has any parking reduction, anything a variance for parking, parking, shared parking that would remain at the 750 foot notification. And that was because during our engagement with the residential stakeholders, that was that was at the top of the list in terms of concerns about businesses taking up parking into residential neighborhoods. And so they wanted to be aware of any instance where that where the potential for there was the potential for that to happen. So that stays at 750. And so those are some of the examples of how the default is 300. But there are there are tiered systems to account for specific situations. Great. Thank you for that. I will just close with I think you touched on it, it's a rare opportunity to sit here and and go through the code like this. I think you guys have done a great job on really not having a blanket policy, but really going line by line with all the different uses. And I encourage my my council colleagues to support this change. I also want to recognize the Economic Development Commission and the Planning Commission that also spent a lot of time with this as well. So thank you guys very, very much. Thank you, Councilman Gonzales. Yeah. I want to thank Councilmember Pearce for bringing it forward some time ago and really our staff for continuing to bring us to where we're at now. I think this is a great win for small business and I just want to ask a few things. How does that look like internally? It's got to be a lot easier now for you or is that are we going to have a little bit of a a road to overcome before this actually comes to fruition and we figure out what the streamlining will look like? Sure. Thank you, Councilmember Gonzales. That's a that's a great question. And we are we are undergoing the internal process improvements that will effectuate the changes at. So one thing that, you know, I, I didn't specifically talk about, but I think it's covered in terms of in the report is that the slight reduction in the notification will have a cost savings and staff will be bringing back a slight fee update which will basically it'll reduce the fee for anybody who isn't subject to the the full 750 foot notification. So that's one internal process that you will actually see. And in terms of other uses, we know very specifically which uses have what buffers. And so we'll know which tier to put them in and put them in the the appropriate cost bracket, if you will. Right now at the back of our application packet, we already have all the different uses that require use permits listed out. And so it's just a matter of whenever a certain use comes in that meets the criteria for an extended buffer, we will be able to identify that pretty easily and then note that buffer for their application processing accordingly. Great. Thank you. That's great to hear. And were there any other I know that we're still in the next steps. We're continuing the discussion on alcohol sale procedures. I know that's probably the number one thing that we hear, especially in downtown. Do we know do we have any in addition to that alcohol sales discussion, do we have any other alternatives scenarios that were brought up that may not be in this presentation that were just sort of other ideas that we're looking at as well? I one of the things that we heard from applicants or a number of the businesses was their interest in a business that was currently selling alcohol that desired to potentially move to a different location. They would very much like a process that allows an existing business who's a good operator, hasn't had any issues or troubles to open up a new location and have them go through a minimal process because of their good record at one property. And that is something we're exploring. It is a challenge because every neighborhood is different. Every community, every location is different. And right now, we haven't found a way to essentially get them there to to waive the set up process. But one of the things in Kerry's presentation, she mentioned that we are taking a deeper dove, looking at alcohol sales. So as a part of that process will be exploring whether or not there is some way to minimize that process. But we that was one of the alternatives that that was put forward that we considered but could not we couldn't get there in this process. But we all will still be exploring that as an option. Great, Will, thank you. And I look forward to seeing how that evolves. And then just last thing that I think that has been mentioned is the multiple methods of communication. I think especially when it comes to development, we've known that's been sort of an issue that community members have talked about and ensuring that specific community groups are included. I know that we do a radius, but there's some community groups that might be right outside the radius. So I know we're being a little bit more cautious and mindful of that, which is good. One last question. Is there are there any existing proposals in the pipeline that would be affected? I don't know if there's like an abundance of laundromats that want to come to the downtown by chance. I just want to ask that. Yeah. Thank you for the question. And, you know, I'll answer that question and then I'll follow up on the other point. But actually, no, coincidentally, right now we do not have any pending applications for thrift stores, laundromats, daycares or or live work units. So and then to the other point about the neighborhood groups, it is currently already a part of the development services process. They use permit process to notify neighborhood groups not only when the public notification goes out, but also when the application is received. So while that is not codified, it is already part of our process. Okay, wonderful. Thank you very much for the work. I appreciate it. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. I'm very familiar with the neighborhood notification process. I haven't been neighborhood president for six years, but I still receive notifications, so I know that it is alive and well and working. But I think that our work to ensure that those lists are updated and while I happen to still serve on my neighborhood board and keep them apprized , that might not always happen, had something different happen to me than coming to the dais. So I think that we need to work really hard. I know that Neighborhood Services is always updating the list, but there has to be a process specifically as it pertains to each development. So the one in in my neighborhood recently was the Dorado. The Dorado received a notification to the neighborhood president email address, which came to me and I haven't been president for quite a bit of time, so we need to work on that a bit. I'm really excited. And while I appreciate Councilmember Pierce's excitement about this, this first came to the council in 2014 with Councilmember Richardson, Councilwoman Gonzalez and I when we first started talking about components of notification and the social media options related to digital advertising and geofencing around an area and ensuring that the ads for those areas are specific in nature. So, for instance, you can on a map put a box around a development project, and then anyone who looks at their browser for Google or any of the others would get an ad that this is happening in their community. And I don't know that I've. I hear that there's a social media component, but I don't know that that ad component that we kind of talked about back in 2014 has been included. Is that something that you guys are still considering? That is new information. But what I would say is that it's not currently a part of this process, but that is absolutely something we can explore. Christopher, do you have just for clarification, by adding in boosted post or. Or. ID using a different function? It's actually so at the time, the first project that was using this, I can't remember what it was, but there was a discussion around. Not. Not everyone's on social media. And so literally for a very small price. And I know that I've had talks. The person who brought this to my attention was Mr. Worthington. He uses this in the area quite well, where when you are a person who lives in 900808, no matter if you're on your phone. Anywhere. They can do it by two. Two paths. One, when you're near the dealership. If you're on a device, they can push forward an ad to you. And then the second is, if you live in this area, no matter what device you're on, let's say you're on an iPad in Pasadena, but you live in Long Beach. The ad could be pushed to you. There's lots of options, but it's actually targeting people, especially on my side of town, who may not participate in social media but go on the Internet to purchase things. And the but so you might be shopping on Amazon and the ad will pop up. There were even ads during this last campaign that would say vote for somebody for November right there in the Amazon screen. And so those are another very inexpensive way. I mean, they're so cheap ad buys, they would probably be less expensive and more effective than the mailings that are getting such. Low, low return. It would be very interested in looking at that. Yes. And there's people who know more about this than I do, obviously, that we can connect with the other component of this that I think came forward and I know Mr. Councilmember Richardson's. Up next is we talked about a phase two of this, which was first, let's look at the code and make it easier to get the copies . But there were also discussions related to what are the tools that we can put online that once they're in that process? They can download specific measurable specs. So let's say, for instance, their barrier to entry is an ADA bathroom. Councilmember Richardson kind of talked at the dais and I'm really stretching here. This was five years ago, but about the ability to just log on and say, here are 12 ADA bathrooms that meet the requirement. You should be able to download one of them and have your contractor do it instead of going through the processes and procedures . But like preapproved, here's what you need. To get done. And I know that was a part of the 2014 theory and Plan, which was a long time ago and several staff members ago. But I don't want it to get lost in the in the discussion. I think that this is a great first step, and I'm glad we're all on board. And I, I think the group of councilmembers who who brought this back in 2016 are very dedicated to getting this process to be streamlined. But I would also say that in my last three years, the number of businesses. That don't feel they fit. In the box. Has increased. So. A tiny, tiny gem of. Like six moms sitting around with six. Kids playing. Ball. It's not a gym, but they're being required to fit at the parking rate of a 24 hour fitness. And so finding those subcategories. I think, are. Going to be really important in the next five years. Thank you for all your work. Kathryn Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So congratulations and thank you to Councilman Pearce and all the signers on this original item. And, you know, you know, to take it even further back, I think the council before us even had a view a couple, I think, to keep conversations going to continue to evolve as we move forward. A couple things. So. On the notification. I understand that that is one of the largest expenses of a CFP, but I do have concerns and I do agree that we need to be able to use a scalpel and be more strategic and save money. But at the same time, the concept of simply using a newspaper ad over a certain threshold, we just don't have circulation and newspaper circulation in entire areas of town, which I think that that's going to disproportionately disengage certain communities. And I think we have to think through that a little bit. I think we have to have a question. Does this conversation still does this ordinance still leave the conversation open to talk about the actual the notification process? So the way that we handle public notifications, are we still there's the doors that open to discuss this outside of this ordinance? Well, if this ordinance passes, it would be the ordinance that would govern how we do notices going forward until the council decides to amend it once again. So that but that's specific to caps. I mean, all public notices. I mean, there there needs to be a broader conversation in general about public notices sort of, you know, how do you simplify them, make use less legal language and simplify the syntax? So basic people, you know, basic folks can understand that context. So are we able to talk about, like the structure of the notice, what it looks like? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Because I like to have a conversation outside of the S.U.V.. I like most of what's presented here, but I want to have a better conversation about making sure the public notices are simply just more effective and communicate the message better to all communities. Make sure we have a common denominator, a language that the common person can can comment on the language. Specifically on the laundromats. So we have a number of laundromats. And I I'm glad to know there isn't an, you know, a long line of laundromats waiting to get into the city. So that was that was good news. But laundromats, they do bring their 24 hours. And the nature of laundromat is loitering. People are washing their clothes and people need to wash their clothes. I get that. But certain hours a night, they require certain security standards or perhaps even hours of operation. The ability to to regulate the hours operation of laundromats, a new modern laundromat that's locating in the area. Does do the standards within this ordinance allow us to regulate operating hours on a laundromat? Thank you for your question, Councilmember Richardson. Yes. The purpose of development standards for these uses that we are proposing to allow by. Right. Rather than through a use permit, the purpose of those development standards is to ensure that those uses operate in a manner that does not create any potential for impacts of any kind. So that's absolutely acceptable here. And we are happy to hear your thoughts on that. So the ability to regulate time, hours operation is in this ordinance. The ability to correct it's not currently proposed. What would that process look like? So who would who would weigh in on that? Is it a an administrative officer or zoning officer? Who would who would apply that? It wouldn't be the city council. But who would it be? Typically what we've done is in in the interest of trying to simplify the process of getting these use permits, we've gone away from what we call the discretionary process, where it goes to the VA or goes to the planning commission. We've put in place an administrative process where it could go from whatever the time period was and the significant cost of going to the Planning Commission or the CAA. We've reduced the costs, but we've put in place what we call an administrative permit process, which takes a few days and it's a couple of hundred dollars rather than the long, drawn out process that costs thousands of dollars. But to protect the integrity and the compatibility of these uses that are no longer going to be a part of a public hearing process, we are adopting what we call operational standards or performance standards for each one of those and each one of those. Depending upon the nature of the use, we will craft a set of standards such as they may affect the operating hours, it may affect the opening and close times, it may affect signage, a number of different things that affect how it could potentially affect the neighbors. And that would be adopted and included as a part of this ordinance. So the. Standard. So you're saying the standard those standards would not be on a project by project basis. We would need to adopt them in these. That's correct. They would be put in place as a part of this ordinance. And we have standards now for the myriad of different types of projects like. And I'm going to just give you an example, a trucking use. When a trucking use comes down through a C, you p process there, the code contains very specific standards that that particular use has to comply with. And that's just one example. There are a myriad of other types of uses that are subject to a C up process where the code literally calls out very specifically what those standards be. They set back B they are as of Operation B, they landscaping and that is what would be incorporated with this action, those what we call special development standards. So what are what are the hours of operations proposed in this ordinance for laundromats? They currently are not. And that's why we made the comment earlier. If you have specific suggestions, we could certainly include that in this ordinance. Well. I think we should have our hours of operation. I haven't done any specific outreach to find out, like what are the what is palatable. I think they need to be on a project by project basis, I think. Councilman Yeah. That's something we couldn't do tonight because we didn't put anybody on notice that we might be restricting hours of operations. If this ordinance passes, we would have to bring it back to make that change, you know, and publicly notice it. But that said, there are a number of operational standards already in here. For instance, there's a 500 foot separation. So you don't get an overconcentration. There's a requirement that an attendant be on duty at all times and it's open. There's a requirement for the glazing, for the windows, how much are transparent so that people can see what's going on in and out. There's ten, 12, 15 standards of operation. Two kind of noise is one of the things that's covered in here, to keep the laundromat from becoming a nuisance. If you get a situation in the future where a particular one becomes a nuisance or you have a trend where they become a nuisance, we could always come back and amend this, or you could make a suggestion tonight, but we'd have to put that over to another date to. So that the public has notice of that that restriction might go into effect. And the Council I would just like to add that in considering the potential for this use to and what it might potentially impact, I think staff has been very diligent in crafting that set of specific development standards. I would just suggest that maybe a step that you could consider is to let this go forward. And if there are any problems, we can certainly monitor it, keep a close look at it, and we would certainly have the opportunity to come back and make additional revisions if if if we feel or you feel that is warranted . If the council feels it's warranted. Well, I do. And I feel that the conversation around I think it needs a little bit more work on in terms of the laundromat conversation, but I don't want to hold up the ordinance on that. So what I'd like to do is, you know, once we move, once this moves forward, maybe we convene a conversation and look at look into what the standard operating hours are and do a little bit outreach and maybe do an amendment in six months. Once we've done a little bit of outreach, you're open to working. That's acceptable to staff. Okay. Good. And then? And then. So the noticing on the public outreach went from 750 feet to 300 feet. Correct. As a starting point, correct? Okay. Although there are many exceptions. And we notify separately neighborhood associations. Right? That's correct. Do we notify any other civic or affinity groups like churches? No. We notify schools within a radius. Do we notify churches or any other affinity groups in the area? The only additional noticing would be for any parties that have previously expressed interest in that particular project that we would notify them. So unless somebody has previously notified us, no, there's not any particular group that's in the additional bucket. At what point is city council notified? As part of the the Planning Bureau's notification process, a notice of public hearing is transmitted to the Council District Office in which the project is located. Okay, so so I think we need to I think we need to do we have the ability to open it up beyond neighborhood associations include churches and schools within a more or more broad radius. If we're not going to do direct mail and save money and we know newspaper circulation and let's be honest, there's a lot of conversation about the digital divide in the city. So we shouldn't just assume using a technological solution is be the answer. So if we're going to save money by not doing as much on a mailer, then we should take that extra step and do a little bit more broad outreach to the organizations in the area. So particularly churches, business improvement districts and schools, I think at least those organizations within a broader radius should be included. So that's something we already have provision for. Is that something we can include to make? I don't know that I can let the city attorney respond to that. But I think that your other suggestions about looking at the hours of operation, certainly we can look at some refinements to the noticing to expand that. But I I'd prefer that staff had some time to examine. That a little bit. More closely. So we're not doing something on the fly, but be thoughtful about it and bring something back for the Council to to consider. Mr. May I was just going to add that that noticing that we're talking about really isn't even and never has been part of the ordinance is something that staff is implemented to, you know , get better transparency. So that's it's something we could change any time. So we could bring that back a recommendation back from the planning commission at the time. We bring back the further discussion about the laundromat, and they could do that. Absolutely. I think that I think that's smart. So we move forward. What we have now, we bring back a conversation about laundromats, but also about the broader conversation of how we know this, which is not specific, just two cups, but how we do public noticing in general the method, the means, all those things. They we have a broader conversation on that. But thank you. This is very good work. Again, Councilwoman Pearce, thanks for taking the lead on this. And it has my vote to make. From a super. Don. Thank you. I'm going to follow up on the council notification that Councilmember Richardson just brought up, and I had that as my number one priority anyway. So it's just coincidental that that was just discussed. So my greatest challenge over the last three years has been council notification. The reason it's so important is whether it's snail mail or however the public finds out about a project. Guess who they call first when they have questions and we should be notified as to what's going on. So I take it, and this might be a question for Mr. May, so we have policy and then we have something within the code. So could council notification be codified so that we make sure that it's an absolute that has to happen? It could be codified, but you could just as easily do it by policy and direct staff to notify you at a certain point in time with any application process, it wouldn't be necessary to have it. The code staff would still have to follow your directive. Okay, so that hasn't worked in the past. So it's just been spotty. And so I just I can't emphasize enough and I don't want to pick on development services because this is across the board. Back to Councilman Richardson's point. We have a fire training center in our district. They hand deliver notices to the public. Again, even with the fire training centers phone number on there, they will call the council office. So unless we have a copy of that notice, we have nothing to provide the public. So I just think in the spirit of Councilmember Richardson bringing this back, in terms of a general topic of notification, let's make sure we look at all those possible options. The other question, I think, is also for Mr. Mays, and that are there any legal limits to notification? That is, for instance, if if we wanted to put a notice out in our weekly email blast, would that be allowed legally? Sure you can always go above and beyond what the state law requires. And state law requires a minimum of three, a 300 foot mailing radius. So for the most part, the city's standards as projected insurgents are above what the state law requires. But you can always you can do as much. Okay. The next question I have sounds like it would it's a little too detailed or nit picking, but it's actually round one when the standard went from 300 to 750 feet. And I remember a lot of the questions back then. And one was, if you're dealing with a large property, where do you start the zero point? And it used to be in the center of that property. And I don't know if it's policy or code now, but the public asks that it be on the outer perimeters, the borders of that property. Is that the way it's measured now? Thank you for your question, Councilman. Super. And yes, the the radius is measured from the outer boundary of the property or properties. If they if the project site comprises multiple properties, it's not from the center point, it's from the to the property boundaries. Okay. And the last item I have would be and again, I think Councilmember Richardson was getting to this point, that we have residents who just aren't going to get the message electronically. How do we replicate that snail mail option if we're not going to do it anymore? Well, I mean, to the 750 feet, we're no longer doing it. Maybe I have that wrong. We're reducing the 750 to 300 for for hardcopy mailings. Yeah. That's so that's that's correct. Residents have a I think we listed a menu of options and certainly happy to take into consideration, you know, the not necessarily the the active electronic version but the the the passive version that Councilwoman Mongo mentioned. And we could take that into consideration. But yes, the one of the it's about balance and I think the 300 foot is is is continuing to be is going to continue on the mailing and that there's no change to that. And so the important part for for the staff was to identify the uses that were subject to the extended buffers as well as the sensitive topic uses like the parking and retain those extended buffers for that purpose. So, so I think it's about balancing how to improve the, the, the use permit cost in the process, but also trying to replicate as best as possible the existing notification. And you know, with, with the vast majority of people moving toward electronic, native electronic media, if you will, you know, I think also the outreach effort is to let everybody know that, you know, if you if you want to hear about all the agendas on all the items to sign up for those for those lists. But, yes, there there obviously will be a minor portion that that will have to make an effort to be notified. Okay. So this is just off the top of my head because we do an e-newsletter blast every Friday at 1:30 p.m.. We have request for hardcopy versions of that. So if if we look at this studying this whole issue, maybe you could sign up to request a hard copy version of notices? Sure. Absolutely. And there there we have had we had a past stakeholder effort where somebody it was it was a survey, but some small group of people requested the hard copy surveys. And we were we were happy to oblige. And also, the department keeps a permanent notification list for people who are interested and being notified on a wide range of projects. And that could also be a way for us to know who needs hard copies. Thank you for that. Thank you for that suggestion. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you for all the hard work you've put in. Councilman, just to add in, you know where we're talking about the mailed. Notices for copies, but we didn't talk in this presentation about things that are changing. And we did survey both our customers and the folks that we hear from in the public. And the number. One way that people learn about a project is they heard from a neighbor who already knew. The number two way they learn about it is that giant sign that we put on the property itself. And that portion of the notification process is not changing whatsoever, and that's a very important part of our notification process. We didn't have an extended discussion of that this evening because it's not changing, but that is something that people appreciate and that will continue today. The other thing is we're here in front of you tonight on this narrow topic of the copy, but one of the instructions council gave when the land use element was in front of you was to do an update of outreach overall. And that effort is underway and we'll be able to give you an update towards the end of the calendar year. But that also means having better lines of communication between individuals and neighborhood groups and the department and the city so that there are those lines of communication. So when an individual project comes in, that's not the first time that the homeowner or resident has had some interaction with the department, that there's some existing relationship that they can draw upon to understand the process and participate in the process. I think. Thank you for that. And may the record show that Christopher Coons brought up the term land use element. I did not. So but that gets back to my earlier point. I'll just make one last point. Thank you for bringing up the large sign on the property. I never want to learn about a project in my district from one of those large signs. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Pierce. So a little fact about my first engagement in Long Beach was around the notification process. And those large signs came from some community activism work that we did. So sorry that they're so big, but they do help. I did what I wanted to follow up on the question around laundromats because I don't necessarily have a challenge with them being 24 hour in my district, but I understand the type of business that can operate in there. So can you clarify one more time on the process that we agreed to? We're going to pass it tonight. And then what are we going to do with the laundromat question? Okay. Thank you for the question. So what we agreed upon was to move forward with the proposed ordinance tonight. And based on the I mean, the list of development standards here to ensure that the laundromats operate, you know, in a in a neighbor friendly manner is extensive. And so what we'll do is take a look and study other maybe other cities, study any calls of service for laundromats and determine whether an hours of operation parameter would be appropriate and bring that back within six months can. Okay. Is there a way to bring that back? When's the next reading of this? In two weeks. We can. It's too soon. Yeah. For second reading. I can hear. You even though I can't see you. It's okay. For the second reading, I'm assuming I'll be back in a few weeks. Yeah. We would not have we would not have sufficient time to prepare any. Recommendations on that. Okay. I think that that that answers my question. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to before we go to a vote, we're going to public comment. Any public comment on this hearing? Sing, Sing nun, please come forward if there is one. Any other public comment on this, seeing that this would be the only public comment. Thanks, Mayor. Good evening. Members of the City Council. Customer Pierce. Thank you very much for bringing this item to our attention and certainly engaging the business community. I think the opportunity for the business community. To have a say in really what their. Future looks like is very, very important. And having this opportunity really, really makes a difference to that business community. I want to thank the Planning Commission and staff for the work that they've done. Being able to reach out to you and making amendments and recommendations to the proposal really means a lot. And certainly appreciate the opportunity to work in a smarter and more efficient and effective manner really makes it more business friendly. I think that's really what we're trying to do. And really appreciate that, that gesture. Appreciate that and look forward to that support. Thanks. Thank you. With that, we're going to go to Councilman Richardson. Oh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mays, is it possible to move forward? The ordinance must separate and divide the laundromats from the ordinance until we've had that conversation over the course of the next six months. So we could. I was just looking at it. We could pull that whole section out. It would take some remembering and we would bring it back to you with the correct numbering for the various sections next week for second reading and hold the laundromat in abeyance. That would not be a problem. Sure. And out you know, Councilmember, you go with that. Okay. So that's our friendly amendment. So the friendly amendment would be removed to remove any amendments to the zoning ordinance related to laundromats, specifically section as it is currently styled. Section 21.5 2.239 would be removed for second reading when this comes back. So correct. Okay. Thank you very much. Please cast your votes.