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This week, Patty Campbell of College Park East urged the council not to issue any permits for the Lampson Avenue residential project. The Lampson Avenue project is a residential development in the city of Los Alamitos. However, in March 2025 Seal Beach City Attorney Ghirelli advised the council there was a threat of a lawsuit against Seal Beach to compel Seal Beach provide the sewer connection to the 246-unit residential development.
The council took no reportable action during the April 14 closed session, according to Ghirelli.
The public is allowed to comment at the start of the closed session. A member of the City Clerk’s Office goes into the courtyard and asks if anyone wants to speak.
“I’m here to ask, please do not issue any permits to begin work over there,” Campbell said.
“The sewer system needs to be resolved,” Campbell said.
Campbell expressed the belief that Los Alamitos thinks Seal Beach could be sued to force the city to accept the project sewage.
“State of California is desperate to provide as much housing as possible,” Campbell said.
“Our Housing Element is not completed and they can scream builders remedy,” she said.
(“Since 1990, California’s Housing Accountability Act (HAA) has provided a so-called builder’s remedy that allows developers of affordable housing projects to bypass the zoning code and general plan of cities that are out of compliance with the Housing Element Law,” according to a 2022 primer on subject from the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy.)
“Quite frankly, we need to hire a litigation firm to represent us,” Campbell said.
“We cannot use in house counsel because of conflict of interest; because city employees have been working behind the scenes for this project,” Campbell said.
She said the city needed to hire a real estate specialist firm to defend Seal Beach against the developer or the state of California.
Campbell apparently didn’t know that the property has been sold to a new owner. According to news reports, a company called Lennar as bought the property.
Campbell is a current member of the Planning Commission and a past City Council member.
The Sun requested a comment on Campbell’s remarks from Interim City Manager Patrick Gallegos.
“As with all proposed development projects, City staff occasionally meets with an applicant in order to gather information about a proposed development and the requested City approvals, as well as to understand the project’s impacts on the City of Seal Beach and how to address those impacts. This information is needed in order for staff to advise the City Council, which has final decision-making authority over the requested sewer connection for the Lampson Park Place Project. The City is aware of no conflict of interest between staff and the developer of that project,” Gallegos wrote.
