Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Table 41-1C of Chapter 21.41, relating to Alcoholic Beverage Manufacturing, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
So that hearing item number one. Report from Development Services. Recommendation Receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and accept categorical, categorical exemptions and statutory exemption. Declared ordinances amending the Long Beach Municipal Code relating to alcoholic beverage manufacturing definitions and accessory dwelling units. Read the first time in lead over the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading and adopt a resolution directing the Director of Development Services to submit the ordinance amendments to the California Coastal Commission citywide. Thank you. Mr. West or whoever is presenting. Limitato on screen. Here evening, I'd like to introduce our new current planner, Alexis Oropesa. She'll be making tonight staff presentation for this item. Good evening, honorable members of the Council. The agenda item for you tonight consists of a handful of amendments that were continued from the City Council's March 5th meeting. The purpose of the Minutes amendments are to reflect the changes mandated by the California Coastal Commission's action last October when certifying the relevant ordinances. At last month's hearing, the City Council acted to continue that item directing staff to return with additional information related to accessory dwelling unit permits and lot size for the benefit of those who may not have been in attendance. A brief a very brief overview will be provided of the other ordinances, the first of which is the Alcoholic Beverage Beverage Manufacturing Ordinance, which was adopted by the City Council to streamline the permitting process. California Coastal Commission's amendment to this ordinance makes clear the parking requirement for office space that is equal to 25% of the gross floor area of the album use. The second. That batch of amendments is a compilation of changes necessary to create consistency between the zoning standards and Title 21 and the 2017 Training and Building Code Update, as well as the state's water efficiency standards. The California Coastal Commission made a number of amendments, including creating a new definition for demolish and rebuild. Among those changes make a recommendation that the definition of remodel and rebuild that was mandated for the coastal zone only be adopted as a citywide standard. As background. The Accessory Dwelling Unit ordinance was drafted in response to the completion that went into effect in January 2017, which invalidated the city's local adopted standards for A2 use. The local ordinance was crafted to provide local standards for the development of areas where possible to ensure that adus were developed in a manner compatible with the city's development pattern. The city map on the left illustrates the distribution of permits issued for youths since January. From January of 2017 to December 31st of 2018. The map gives us a snapshot of the distribution showing that districts 78 and nine have the greatest number of permits issued for 80 use. Of the permit trends that we see, approximately 10% of the permits are being issued for the legalization of unpermitted dwelling units within the city, which helps to create safer housing. The California Coastal Commission Commission acted to certify the city's 80 new ordinance with a number of changes, the two of which were were asked to come back on related to the minimum lot size, where staff was recommending 48 feet be applied citywide. And the second citywide amendment that was recommending was with regards to the parking requirement, which exempts parking for 80 youths under any number of conditions, including when located within a half mile of transit. So staff's recommendation was to change the citywide standard to 4800 square feet outside of the coastal zone. This creates opportunity for 5800 additional lots to be eligible for the development of a to use this additional the number of lots does not create a change in the geographic distribution of units of excuse me of eligible lots to any significant standard. 1% is the greatest change. Staff finds that the 4800 square foot minimum lot size is appropriate citywide for the following five reasons, which includes that it's equitable for property owners both within the coastal zone and outside of the coastal zone. It's also creating one standard creates an understandable and consistent regulation for the public. And finally, it creates an opportunity for relieving the housing crisis that is being experienced city throughout the city and state. Public noticing notices were published in the Press Telegram on March 28th in accordance with the Long Beach Municipal Code. In addition, staff sent notices to members of the public that had previously submitted communication on the ADU ordinances. Staff received a half dozen emails provided to you tonight. Two of the letters expressed support for the four for the ordinance changes and other. The other emails can be summarized as requesting additional information. Staff requests that the City Council take action to adopt the zoning code amendment tonight, with one correction to a typographical area error made in subsection B of Table 51.2 7.2762 related to required parking for A2 use. And the correction would be to strike the distinction that it would be isolated to the coastal zone. This concludes Dove's presentation. We welcome any questions that you may have. Yes. Okay. Cause you'd like to do public companies first. Okay. Is that okay? Do you come in on this idea? Okay, fine. Is there any public comment on this item? Hello. Good evening. Well, good night. Actually, my name is Mona Abbas. I actually lived in District nine and I was trying to move because of, you know, issues in the neighborhood and the Barbie bar that we were they were trying to approve the legalizing the the the bands. So I came here and I said, if that was passed, I was going to go ahead and move out. I did. I took my family elsewhere. I am the director of Families in Good Health in Saint Mary's Medical Center. And we purchased a home that, of course, we couldn't afford a bigger home as we had in North Long Beach. But with the with the goal of actually going and adding to our home so that we could actually live as comfortable as we were living in North Long Beach. But we only have 50, 100 square foot lot. And so we need 5200 square foot is what I was told when when I called and tried to get permits. So as a Latina, as you guys know, it's really hard to live in the 90808 zip code. However, it is really difficult to well, we don't believe I as a Latina, I don't believe in convalescent homes. So I'm trying to build a future for my mom. And so I am just asking today if we could please go ahead and approve for the minimum of 4800. Thinking Speaker. Sure. Good evening, Mayor. Councilmembers. My name is Ryan Kelder. I'm a I'm an associate at a Studio 111 architecture firm here in Long Beach. And also, I'm a vice president, president elect of the American Institute of Architects local chapter, Long Beach Gothic. So we're currently amidst a severe housing crisis, as you as you all know, in California and and elsewhere. And at current rates of housing production, we are falling for four. We are falling far short of many. Both current and future housing demands are already having serious consequences on our population's quality of life, especially those in the median and low income bracket. The supply of affordable housing is diminishing and causing displacement out of existing and established communities and pushing the workforce community further away from employment centers. Because of the severity of the housing shortage, it will take multiple approaches to solve the housing crisis. One important part of the solution is a responsible expansion of use woven into the fabric of our existing communities, specifically within our single family communities. 80 youths are a prime contributor to multi-generational housing and co-housing accommodations. The development of ideas promotes a blending of socioeconomic groups within our established communities. 80 youth provide an opportunity for a grassroots scale of development to support, and the resolution of the housing crisis allow allowing owner owner occupied single family residents who know and care about their communities a mechanism to play a contributing role and being a part of the solution. I'm a supporter of the California Senate and the former governor's position on in court and encouraging local jurisdictions to embrace the intent of state legislation by enacting local ordinances to promote the development of ideas. I advocate for the City Council to support the Long Beach Planning Department's recommendation for the reduction of lot size requirements for energy use for 4800 square feet. This policy, in my opinion, maintains existing community scale and character by utilizing current end scale, form based zoning requirements. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good evening, honorable counsel. My name is Art Richardson. I'm a real estate investor and builder of Addus. And we have many that are available that meet the requirements of being less than 600 square feet. We know our housing situation in all of L.A. County is in a desperate situation. And I really think that I wish the council would consider to even drop the minimum lot requirement beyond 4800 square feet Long Beach. We have some of the smallest lots and L.A. County, and we could probably even go down as low as 4000 square feet and still, you know, be able to meet and get along close with the requirements that Bill and his safety want us to have. Also, if we can consider maybe allowing us to build these adds you not just with single family residence. I think that's one of the requirements that only single family residence that it's available to. There are some duplexes in our town that have the space for us to put a 4 to 600 square foot adu and still provide more housing for our people here. So I would recommend that we would consider even reducing it down to 4000 square feet. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Mr. Mayor. Members of the city council just two here supporting the change to the ADA ordinance. Really, we should encourage this form of development or community support of staff's findings to reduce lot area. I'd also note the parking standards shouldn't be unduly restrictive and and follow clearly established state regulations consistent with the staff recommendation. So in support of the proposed changes. Thank you. Thank you. Let me also. This'll be your last speaker. Good evening. I've heard a lot of talk about 1% tonight, so I'll try to make it quick. This 1% is important to me. I am the third district or homeowner within the third district. I am also a business owner. I own Harting design and construction and I help homeowners build adus and remodel and I help them early on in understanding their expenses and what they're getting themselves into. So first off, I'd just like to thank you all for everything that you've done to solve our housing crisis thus far. And I would like to thank you for protecting our city from overdevelopment and keeping the charm and uniqueness of our community. I would like to share a short story about why I support its use and why a little back yard rental has made me the man that I am today. Early on in my childhood, my grandmother, who we called Ooma, she helped my mom purchase a little two bedroom, one bath home with a backyard unit in the back. And at that time, we had renters living there for about four or five years, and they turned out to be fantastic people. I got to know them well in very many ways. They turned into parenting type of figures. And the rental income helped my mom. And it release the financial burden, some of the financial burden of raising two young boys. Later on in my life, after the renters had moved out, my grandmother Irma had moved in and that at that point, it really turned into a granny flat. The. At that point. She helped my grandmother, helped us a lot with raising us when my mom was going back to work. She cooks meals. She helped us with our homework. She basically took the place of an absent parent. And later on in college, when I was doing a counselor at Long Beach, I ended up moving into the granny flat. So I guess you could call it then from a dandy going to a Cindy, which was a student in my back yard, no longer the grandma in my backyard. And at that time, I had two of my friends. They moved into the front unit. And so there was three of us living in this two bedroom, one bath home with the little rental unit in the back. And we all focused on our studies. Once the community graduated through communications and speech within Cal State, Long Beach, we all rode gondolas in Naples, and we're still friends to this day. I guess what the moral the moral of my story and what I'm trying to convey is that ideas are multi-generational, they're multi-use, and they really will help solve our housing crisis. So I'm asking you today to approve this amendment, and thank you for your time and staying late. Thank you very much. I'm going to close public comment on on the hearing. Councilman Pierce. First, I was going to say this is early. It's only nine. Something about that late. Yes. I want to thank staff for their hard work. You know, I completely support staff's recommendations. And I think I did want to ask clarity on the duplex. They are not prohibited where duplexes are. Is that correct? They're not. So if you have two primary units, you you are not eligible to have an accessory dwelling unit. And accessory dwelling unit can only be constructed where there is one single primary dwelling unit. Okay. All right. Well, I totally support staff's recommendations. I do know I had a meeting with. Some folks from Airbnb recently, and I'm not sure if staff's aware of this, but they are going into the ADU development market, so they are developing a to use to go in drop in within 30 days. You have a whole new project there. So some interesting stuff. I wish that my districts had lot sizes that we could build more, but I appreciate the additions that could be added throughout the rest of the city so that we can tackle our housing crisis. Thank you. Excuse me, Councilwoman Pierce. I just want to make sure does your motion include staff's recommendation to correct the typographical error that occurs on. Page nine in the footnote B to. Remove the words in the coastal zone? Absolutely. That's what I thought. Councilman Austin? Well, I think in the motion, I strongly support this as I was part of bringing this this this motion to the council originally. I think this is a great way to help us solve our our housing crunch here in the city of Long Beach and throughout the region. I think the state legislation was was timely that that afforded us the opportunity to do it. And I want to commend staff for their work on getting us here. I did have one question, though. So I know that there are roughly 150 permits that have been issued for 80 youth since we passed this. Is that correct? That's correct. Let's. We have about round 100, but we've gotten over a couple of hundred actual applications in the process. Okay. So as we know, we will we will be creating housing as a result of abuse. Will this be credited toward our arena numbers? Yes. Our understanding is it is a legal habitable unit. And the arena criteria is that if a building permit has been issued for it, it counts and it will go generally unless it set aside for affordable housing, it would go to our moderate income arena account. Great. Thank you. I urge unanimous support. Thank you. Yes, I have a question. The young lady studio and spoke of her living in the ninth and she moved into eight. What is she like into that category? Would she be able to. Build. With the staff recommendation? She's at 5100. We would go down to 4800. She'd be able to build one. Thank you. Okay. Great. Thank you. I also support strongly the staff recommendation and I'm really glad we're moving forward. I think this is a great way of getting people into homes that are affordable and that are accessible and to deal with our housing crisis as well. So I do want to thank all the councilmembers who have been involved in this conversation. Let me just to to staff's point, I think Councilman Austin brought out some good points. I want to make sure that we're carefully tracking all of these so that we are counting them into all of our numbers. And in addition to that, it's a it's a good reminder for the council as well. And Councilman Austin, I think, alluded to this. When you look at arena numbers, I think there's a there's a misconception that, you know, well, it's true. You know, cities don't hit their arena numbers. But there's also a misconception that our biggest where we're doing the worse is in our low income affordable. The area within our arena numbers that we are need to do better on is actually in the market rate numbers. So we do need to build more affordable units and we are doing that. But whenever someone says we should stop building market rate units, we're doing actually worse in building market rate units according to our arena numbers. And so I, you know, let's let's use the data and we need to build market rate units and affordable units and meet and work to meet our meter numbers as best possible. And then the second thing I'll ask you, because I think I've brought this up a few times, I think, in briefings, but it's a good time to bring it forward more publicly. Ms.. Tatum is, I think, the same needs. We now have this this same effort needs to go into converting our minimum are our minimum number of square footage when it comes to micro units in Long Beach. And remind me again with the minimum number of square footage for a unit and long is. In the downtown plan that. Citywide citywide and downtown plan. Downtown is 600 citywide. We don't yet have a standard there is not currently a standard. And so that, you know, the 600 number for many cities is high. And so one of the one, if we really are to think are trying to create more density on both the affordable market rate side, that 600 number needs to be lower to whether it's closer to the New York number or some of the other cities or, you know, San Francisco or other places. But there is interest, whether it's on the student housing side, on the smaller unit side, to do 500 square foot units. In some cases, some cities are doing 400 to 450 square foot small studio units and are are and I know that for a lot of people, they couldn't imagine themselves living in that small of square footage. But if we want to build affordable units that people can build, the cost is less and we can build more of them. And so when can we see that proposal back in front of this body to lower that requirement? Mayor We are actually working on that now, but we've just started that effort, so I'd say probably 3 to 4 months. I'm very happy to hear that. So I look forward to that discussion in front of the council as well. And there's a motion in a second to to pass this. Please cast your votes. Mm. That motion carries a student. Oh, that's. Interesting. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Next up is item nine.