Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach municipal code by amending Subsection 2.63.080.I, and Section 20.20.050; and by adding subsection 2.63.080.J, and Subsection 20.12.180.C, relating to the extension of the expiration period for certain Certificates of Appropriateness and modifying the expiration period for future approvals, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Thank you. Concerned calendar has been adopted. We do have a hearing tonight. It's on cultural heritage. So let me turn this over to staff for the hearing. So the City Clerk. Report from Development Services recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and find the project exempt from secure declared ordinance. Amending the Long Beach Municipal Code to extend the expiration date for certain certificates of appropriateness. An ordinance to extend the expiration date for certain subdivision and entitlement approvals. Read the first time and later for the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading and adopt a resolution to submit the ordinance to the California Coastal Commission citywide. Thank you, Mr. Modica. Thank you. The staff report will be given by Linda Tatum, our director of development services. Good evening, Mayor. Members of the Council. In March, when the city the city council declared a state of emergency, the staff was asked to take a look at their operations and look for ways to develop resiliency, measures to assist the city residents and business leaders to return to normal life amid the economic the pandemic. So this request tonight is for city council to adopt an ordinance that extends the expiration date for land use entitlements. These entitlements are essentially the city's approval to allow land to be developed in compliance with code regulations. And when they are approved, they are granted either by the Director of Development Services, the Zoning Administrator, Planning Commission, the City Council or the the Coastal Commission. They also include an expiration date whereby the the uses that are approved must be either developed or the use must be vested. And if they aren't vested within those expiration timeframes, the the entitlement is voided. And if it's if an any entitlement is voided, it essentially means that the developer or the applicant has to start from scratch and file a new application because entitlements are costly to acquire both in dollars and in time. They are a significant they have significant value to the applicant, but they also serve an important public purpose. They encourage timely development of projects that are approved, and they also ensure that development approvals can be reevaluated if conditions on the ground change before the project is built. So in times of economic stress, so just what we're experiencing right now, property owners may not be able to utilize their entitlements as quickly as they would under normal economic conditions. And the city's interest in these entitlements shifts to providing a more flexible approach for developers in order to encourage new development. So staff is recommending with this action that all entitlements be extended for a period of two years and that this provision be retroactive to January 1st of 2020. There is a range of of different entitlement timeframes for various city approvals. It could be anywhere from 12 months for the certificates of appropriateness that are approved by the Cultural Heritage Commission up to three years for track maps that are approved by the City Council. So what this action would do, it would essentially extend the the entitlement time period for approximately two years, but it would make a consistent three year entitlement across the board for any entitlement that the city council approved or that the city approves. We think that this is an appropriate action because it can take anywhere from 8 to 12 months to get an entitlement and then an additional 18 to 24 months for a developer to secure plans, get building permits and the like . So we think it's a business friendly approach that also continues to protect the city because none of the approval processes will change, nor will any of the development standards change. So with that action, staff is recommending that City Council approved both of the ordinance, both for the Cultural Heritage Commission approvals, as well as for the land use entitlements and the zoning code. That concludes staff's presentation, and I can answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Can I get a motion in a second? If I can get, please, a motion in a second from the council, I have a motion by Councilwoman for ICE and a second by Councilmember Ranga. Councilman Pryce. Any comments? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilmember Ringa. Let me comment. I've got to go. Thank you. Okay, great. Councilman Austin, did you have any comments or were you queuing up. For a motion? No comments from queuing up for the next emotional thing. Okay, great. Then let's go ahead and then take a roll call vote, please. City attorney. I think we it's a public hearing. I think we need to open it up for public comment. Is there any public comment on the line? I didn't I wasn't I was told there wasn't any on for this. Is there is there. Call in public comments starts next Tuesday at the council meeting for this item. There's no. Nobody on the line and all public comments have been sent to council and staff. Thank you. So I see the roll call vote. District one. I. District two. I. District three. I. District four. All right. District five. By. District six. All right. District seven. By. District eight. District eight. District nine. Hi. Hi. Ocean carries. Irrigators on. This date is nice. Thank you. Great hearing has concluded. We will begin. The first item of the evening is going to be item 11. This is the which again, we're checking all the covered items first. And so we'll get through those in this first part of the meeting.