Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and adopt resolution accepting Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND04-18);
Okay. We have two hearings, so we're going to get through those first. And so hearing item number one. Report from Development Services recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and adopt a resolution accepting the mitigated negative declaration. Adopt a resolution approving a general plan amendment. Declare ordinances, amending a zoning code amendment relating to the high rise overlay district and approve a zoning change. Read the first time lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for a final reading and approve a tentative parcel map to consolidate ten existing lots and then northerly 24 feet of the vacated alley into a single fit lot and approve a site plan review to allow construction of a four storey 102,840 square foot office building up to 74 feet in height in the high rise overlay district, including a three story parking structure within the CC and district at 3443 Long Beach Boulevard and 210 East 35th Street District seven. Thank you. We are now going to begin by opening up the the the item. I'm going introduce Mr. Modica. I don't believe an oath is required, Madam Clerk. And so, Mr. Murdoch, I'll do the presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We will hear first from Linda Tatum, our development services director, and she has an introduction and an announcement for us. Good evening, Mayor. Members of the City Council, I'm really pleased to present to you the staff that will make this presentation tonight. That's Alexis Oropesa. And I'd like to also announce that as of last week, Alexis has been promoted to the position of current planning officer. So we're really pleased to have her. She brings a lot of talent to the team and she's worked really hard. And if you don't recall. She replaces Carrie Tai. Who left to go to the port. So with that, I'd like to introduce you to Alexis. Thank you, Linda. Good evening, Honorable Mayor Garcia and city council members. For you tonight is the Laser Fish Office Project. Before getting into the project details, a brief project, a brief background of the project will be provided. In January of this year. The Planning Commission held a public hearing, considered public testimony both in support and in opposition to the project. The Planning Commission made a general plan conformity finding for the proposed alley vacation and took action, recommending the city council approve the project, which includes a site plan review, tentative parcel map mitigated negative declaration as well as general plan amendment zone change and zone text amendment. Following the Commission's action, an appeal was filed and then subsequently withdrawn. The applicant indicated that they had worked with the developer to ensure their concerns regarding emissions reductions had been addressed. So for tonight, we will focus on the entitlements rather than the appeal. The project is located at the north of the four or five freeway in the neighborhood of Bixby North. The project is located at the north end of the block, bound by Long Beach Boulevard to the east, 35th Street to the north and Locust Street to the west. The freeway onramp is located at the southwest corner of the block and Wardlow Road is located to the south. The project site consists of ten existing lots that are shaded in blue and separated by an existing alley that is identified by the black and white diagonal striping. For context, the project site is surrounded by a mix of uses which include residential to the west and south, a parking lot and office building to the north across 35th Street and a restaurant and oil derricks to the to the east across Long Beach Boulevard, as well as a gas station immediately to the south. The western portion of the site is currently zoned single family residential, and the eastern half is located within the community automobile oriented district and also has an existing high res overlay on it. The site photos depict the existing conditions of the site, which is vacant of any buildings today. The middle photo shows the North North-South Alley, which runs between 35th Street and Wardlow Road to the South. The majority of this alley is in an unproved, unimproved condition as depicted in that middle photograph. Previously, the site was developed with a range of uses, including a single family residence. Oil wells on the western half of the site and on the eastern half was previously developed with an office bar, billboard and additional oil wells. The applicant seeks approval of a tentative parcel map to consolidate the ten existing lots into a single 2.02 acre site that is to be developed with the four storey 102,848 square foot office building with a maximum height of 74 feet. The office building is identified, shaded in red in the exhibit, and a separate three story parking structure containing 343 parking spaces is proposed as well. The area showed it show a shaded in yellow identifies the bike parking area that is to be located within the parking structure. Vehicle access to the parking structure is low, located towards the middle of the street and identified by the dual red arrows on the screen. The perimeter of the site is designed with ample landscaping to soften the building's appearance and serve as a transition between the sidewalks and the residential uses to the south and the West. The proposed project will assemble the existing lots into a sizable area for significant development. That includes area improvements, which will include a new Signalized intersection at 35th and Long Beach Boulevard. A second left turn land will be turn lane will be incorporated into the northbound Long Beach Boulevard intersection. And then in addition, there will be improvements to sidewalks, parkway treatments and an approved alley. The architecture of the building makes use of clean lines, generous floor to ceiling heights and large ample areas, window areas that is reminiscent of mid-century architecture and compatible with the area. The eastern half of the site is located within the high rise overlay, which establishes the four storey height limit but allows for the actual building height to be defined through the site plan review process. The Planning Commission found the building height appropriate based on the proposed building form, as well as buildings of similar height along that corridor and the building relationship to the surrounding uses. The building has also been configured to locate the taller elements towards the center of the site along the alley that is to be vacated. The Commission found the project configuration and the design thoughtfully composed and advances the objectives of the purpose of the zoning code as well as the general plan. However, in order to facilitate the project, a general planning and zoning change and zoning code amendment will be necessary. The General Plan Amendment is proposed on the western half of the project site and I identified on the left part of your screen by the diagonal lines. And this would be changing the land use designation from single family residential to allowed eight commercial. The eight commercial corridor designation is characterized as being appropriate along major corridors. Since this area is contiguous with the new designation to the east and is proposed to be merged into a single lot fronting on Long Beach Boulevard, it is found to be consistent with the general plan, especially in conjunction with the development that is proposed. The Planning Commission found the amendment promotes the orderly development of the city, but is also a benefit to the public interest by supporting the investment of an existing business within the city. As a. Commission. As. Oops. A zone change is also proposed for both halves of the site to the CC and designation. The K and CN districts of both fall within the broader community commercial class districts, and this is represented on the right side of your screen. The community commercial class of districts are intended to provide medium scale users that may require buffering to ensure compatibility with adjacent neighborhood uses. These zoning districts are located on both major and minor arterials, located on and located on larger lots adjoining larger scale residential neighborhoods, which is fitting in this location. The proposed change. Is contiguous with the K district that is within the broader community commercial district. The high rise overlay district composes less than 1% of the city's 51 square miles. The project site is within the high rise overlay, which straddles both sides of Long Beach Boulevard, and there is no proposed change to the location of that zoning district. However, the high rise overlay what is proposed is a zoning code amendment to the high rise overlay yard requirement. This zoning code amendment would allow for the averaging of setbacks through the site plan review process. This averaging of setback and discretionary review would provoke promote greater design diversity by providing flexibility in cases where it was found appropriate. In accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act. A mitigated negative declaration was prepared and circulated for public review from December 17 through January 17th. The remedy found that all impacts can be reduced to less than significant through the adherence to the mitigation measures, which range from the inclusion of a second left turn lane of the Language Boulevard to a biological survey. Public noticing was distributed in accordance with the Long Beach Municipal Code. Staff has received one letter expressing support for the project in response to the council notices. The recommendation to the city council tonight is to enact the Planning Commission recommendation with one modification. In that we are requesting that the City Council accept the mitigated negative declaration by action and not by a resolution as indicated in the staff report. With that, that concludes staff's presentation and we welcome any questions you may have. The developer is in the audience, as is our consultant. Thank you very much. Thanks for the staff presentation. We do have a motion in a second. I'm going to ask for any public comment on this item. Now is the time. Getting no public comment on this item. I'm going to go ahead and go back to Mr. Come, Ringo. Thank you, Mayor. Before I make any other comments or questions, I would like to, first of all, thank staff for their work on this project. It's been one long in coming and I also want to especially thank our developers of a laser fish, Mr. Chris Wacker, who has been very accommodating in listening to the reviews and looking at the appeals and implementing a lot of the recommendations that came forward and being able to be a person to work with and a project to work with that that is going to be great for the Long Beach area, especially when we're looking at a major employer here in Long Beach and and a business that it has been very, very strong with Long Beach. And we're glad to have your headquarters here in Long Beach. So we really appreciated over that had to work. If there's any one question ahead had the alley that's in the back, it's a it's an alley that is very tore up, I guess, for lack of a better word. It's not all that a pit and it's just a horrible area. Are there any plans to address that, that alley in the back? Let me have someone answer either at the mike or staff concept developed up after that, please. Excuse me. There are plans with Ali vacation for the entire length of the alley to be improved. What? That's great. That's all I have to say for his project. It's a good project, and I hope that I could get the support of my my colleagues to vote yes. Thank you, Councilman Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to just add a few comments and say congratulations, Councilman Urunga and the laser fish team. It's a beautiful project and you've done a great job in making sure that the entire city understands this investment that you're making and the commitment you're making in Long Beach. And so I do want to want to recognize this. And, you know, the last thing I'll say that, you know, you know, districts seven, eight, nine, the uptown community is great to see someone place their their headquarters in the uptown community. I think that that's a feather in feather in all our caps we're really, really proud of, but proud about that and I think is going to do a lot for the neighborhood. So congratulations to all of you. And I'm going to be supporting this. Thank you. Councilman Pearce. I yes I too am one of the things staff for this. I had the pleasure of getting to take a tour of the existing facility and see the size of the lot next to it. And it's kind of cool to have like our Long Beach Google like business here and that you guys are opening up a second facility. It's just great to know that we have Long Beach jobs that are staying local and want to applaud everybody for the efforts that you guys did to get us here today. So thank you, everyone. Thank you, Councilman. Well, I'm only slightly disappointed that the final project didn't end up in the fifth District. I will say that the the documentation provided by your team is the most extensive and best project I've seen in my five years at the council. So I thought that for a layperson to be able to look through it, I didn't have to ask the same kind of questions that I've asked and had to learn through things in the last five years. So I really appreciate that. I think it's really approachable and easy to explain to residents because of the way that you put the packet together. So thank very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilman. Thank you. And I want to take this opportunity to congratulate my and my good friend, Councilmember Urunga, but the entire big business community and the city for being able to to have laser fisher as a partner, continued partner and expanding their their footprint here in in our community, I've had the opportunity to know Chris Wacker for for some time now. We were here over a decade ago on the YMCA board in Fairfield, and they have always been great community partners, aside from a great business model for our city. And so I'm enthusiastically in support of this. And this four storey building, I think is, is why, you know, when we went through our land use element few few months ago, it wasn't just about housing. It was about also creating good businesses with great jobs in our city as well. So congratulations. Thank you. Vice Mayor Andrews. Yes, thank you, Mayor. I first I want to thank our Councilman Durango for, you know, having this wonderful project in his district. But I think all the districts are disappointed because you can't get in one in all of our districts. So we're just going to buy that time until that happens. But but this is a great project for the city of Long Beach. And it's you know, when I look at it, all I see is jobs because I think it's a wonderful, wonderful project here. And of course, I thank you. And your wife has created a world class company in the city of Long Beach. And for that, the city is grateful to you. And we support and applaud your efforts to expand your companies here and in Long Beach. And I wholeheartedly support this project. And thank you again. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Gonzales. Yes. I want to just add on to everything that my colleague said. Chris, thanks so much for being a great partner. We were just singing your praises in Vancouver last week, talking about tech and bringing tech to Long Beach and specifically called out laser fish for being a great partner. So thank you so much. We're really glad to to see this expand and we look forward to seeing you succeed. Thanks so much. Continue to succeed. Thank you. We have a motion in a second. Let me just, of course, add, as you all know, I've been very supportive of Laser Fisher's expansion. I think this is a great project, very excited about the work the staff has done with the community and with Councilmember Ranga in particular. So Councilman, thank you for for helping guide this project. Please cast your votes.