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While the Los Alamitos City Council passed the four resolutions required to secure a construction permit for the 246-unit Lampson project last week, statements made by Seal Beach officials suggested there is still much to discuss.
The City Council of Los Alamitos voted at its November meeting to approve the project by a vote of 3-1-1. Mayor Jordan Nefulda, Mayor Pro-tem Shelley Hasselbrink, and Tanya Doby voted to approve the project while Council member Emily Hibard voted no and Council member Tricia Murphy abstained from voting.
During the meeting, attorney Carol Churchill attempted to challenge the validity of Doby’s vote, given her alleged acceptance of campaign assistance from a developer’s associate, but Nefulda stopped her in mid-sentence suggesting such talk was out of order.
With the project now approved, now comes the hard part of watching the development and the dollars. Seal Beach officials asked the Council to wait until all of the issues had been worked out before voting to no avail.
The project now, as it has been since being announced, is the geographic proximity of the 14 acres and the political control that goes with it.
Even though the project is geographically located within the legal city limits of the City of Los Alamitos, the legal limits to the city of Seal Beach is literally across Lampson Ave., giving municipal officials there much to worry about but absolutely no control.
Seal Beach has expressed concern that the Lampson project left no room for a school bus stop, the development will utilize two Seal Beach parks, the city is, or at least was, in discussions with developers to provide sewer service and they are concerned that traffic could become a nightmare, and construction trucks could tear up the streets.
First all, Lisa Landau, Mayor Pro-tem spoke, but said it was in her personal capacity, not as an elected official.
Despite the distinction, Landau said “I’m here tonight as a resident to talk about my concerns, and not in an official capacity. I am here this evening to ask for fair and just mitigation for the impacts this project makes upon its neighbor, Seal Beach.”
“Please notice this project does not provide park space, public space safety or its own sewer system. This project requires that Seal Beach pick up the cost of each of those without compensation or even the courtesy of a discussion,” she suggested.
Landau also suggested that $3 million of the $4 million in QUIMBY fees paid by developers should be paid to Seal Beach, She laid out her request for an amendment to assist Seal Beach.
“If you must approve this tonight. I ask that you, one, add an amendment to the approval that the Los Alamitos Rossmoor Sewer District be responsible for all project sewage since the project already has a Will-Serve letter from your Sewer District,” she said.
“Two, allocate within this amendment the $3 million in Quimby fees be paid to the city of Seal Beach to manage and upkeep the parks since the project designates two of our parks to serve the Los Alamitos development,” said Landau.
She also asked for an amendment for a bus stop at the project site for the Los Alamitos children to use.
“The public safety of the children of this project has been disregarded as again, Seal Beach is the site given for the school bus pickup and drop off for these students without a signal crossing guard or crosswalk tonight, please remedy these deficiencies within your approval,” asked Landau.
Catherine Showalter, a resident of Seal Beach and chair of the Environmental Quality Control Board, also had comments for the city.
First, said Showalter, the project’s final Environmental Impact Review is still unclear and makes questionable assumptions about Seal Beach.
“Unfortunately, there is still an underlying assumption that the city of Seal Beach will accommodate the impacts of that project,” she said, including vehicle miles traveled, transit service concerns and the impact of heavy trucks highway use for 33 months of the expected 39-month construction period.
Showalter said she was pleased with the additional language related to the homeowners association of the project being required to create an online forum to promote ride sharing.
Seal Beach Mayor Schelly Sustarsic, whose home is directly across the street from the Lampson Project in College Park East, was diplomatic, yet mentioned many of the same concerns of other Seal Beach officials who spoke earlier in the meeting.
She mostly focused on safety of the traffic situation and asked for an agreement that developers to pay for any highway damage.
“When it comes to road damage, I don’t think that has been addressed,” she said. “Thirty-nine months of construction is a long time.”
Sustarsic also expressed concern about the safety of Lampson Place residents crossing the streets to catch the bus, go to the park, and other amenities on the Seal Beach side.
‘This is taking into consideration that it is mostly your residents crossing the street. So we’re concerned not just about our safety but yours also,
During his presentation, consultant William “Bill” Halligan from Harris & Associates acknowledges that of all of the impacts of the developments, traffic would be the largest impact and must be mitigated.
Halligan, who Senior Environmental Counsel for the firm, went through the litany of potential impacts, citing legal justification for negating the impact for mitigation and, in some cases, new state laws that negate developer mitigation.
He exhaustively explained, to much surprise, why state regulations and various traffic metrics do not require a stop light at the intersection of the proposed development.
“The draft EIR did find that one impact could not be mitigated with all these mitigation measures, and that was Transportation and Traffic,” said Halligan.
However, since a change in state law, “level of service is no longer considered a significant impact under CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act).
“Now we review transportation impacts based on vehicle miles traveled,” said Halligan.
Halligan said a mitigation measure is needed at Seal Beach Boulevard and Lampson, and that mitigation measure is restriping the number two westbound left turn lane as a shared left and right turn lane.
“That would allow that intersection to operate at an adequate level of service,” he suggested. Other mitigations would deal with cut-through traffic, U-turns and congestion.
Todd Cottle, a principal of C&C Development, told the city that his firm has constructed over 30 low-income communities and that “we own every single one.” In addition to being a property developer, said Cottle, “we are the property managers for these communities.”
Cottle said in addition to the units, there will be approximately 2,800 square feet of community space where residents will receive school programming and adult education services.
“We are excited to be here providing affordable and workforce development housing,” he said.
In California, an income of $125,000 per year is considered low, said Cottle. He also said there has been a set-aside preference for veterans and he described the number of units set aside for seriously challenged low-income residents.
Many residents, like Jennifer Bullard, had no stake in the outcome but was happy to see Los Alamitos finally get new housing.
“I’m excited to support the project,” she said.
“My husband and I bought our home here in 2021 and we’re planning to spend the rest of our lives here and raise our kids here.”
“I just think the opportunity for more community members to come into this city because it is such a great city and something we should all have an open mind to,” said Bullard. “The community is beautifully designed, and it has great amenities. Is it going to have impacts, yes, but you know in a few years, we’ll be used to the community so I am excited about the future.”
One resident supporting the project urged the Council not to listen to naysayers, explaining had the City Councils from decades ago, who were likely faced with the same concerns, said no to development, residents in College Park East may not have a place to live.
