Update: The Seal Beach City Council on Wednesday, May 29, voted 3-2 to have staff apply for a federal TIGER grant to cover the flood control channel in Leisure World. Public funds will have to be committed to the project. Council members Gary Miller and Ellery Deaton voted against the proposal.
The Seal Beach City Council will discuss helping Leisure World apply for federal grant money later this month.
Anne Seifert, of Leisure World, asked the Seal Beach council on Monday, May 13, to place federal TIGER grants on the May 29 City Council agenda. TIGER grants come from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The retirement community wants to use the money to cover a flood control channel that runs down the center of one of the gated community’s main roads.
According to Seifert, the total money for the proposed project will be $10 million from the TIGER grant funds and another $2.5 million would come from somewhere else.
Seifert said Leisure World has only until June 3 to submit an application. “No, we don’t have a heck of a lot of time,” said Golden Rain Foundation President Tim Bolton.
The foundation authorized Seifert to represent the retirement community before the council.
Seifert told the City Council that Leisure World was looking for matching funds for a project to cover the flood control channel.
Seifert told the Sun the matching funds would come from the Golden Rain Foundation or Seal Beach.
Bolton said applicants for the grant would be responsible for providing 20 percent in matching funds.
He said the channel runs through the Leisure World campus on Golden Rain Road.
He said it is protected by a chainlink fence.
Bolton said that while it does not happen often, sometimes drivers crash through the fence and end up in the ditch. No one has been killed to date.
Bolton said the Golden Rain Foundation, which runs Leisure World, has enough information to fill out an application.
“I think that the process takes a year,” he said.
Seifert said there are major problems on Golden Rain Road.
The flood channel is a road hazard and Golden Rain Road has a width that is below standard.
Leisure World would have a bike lane and wider roads if the channel were covered, as well as better access for emergency vehicles.
Seifert said Leisure World residents would benefit from having safer roads.
Speaking to the City Council on May 13, Joyce Parque, an Old Town resident, said Leisure World wanted more money from the city.
Directing her remarks to young people in the audience, Parque said grant money was money that their parents sent to Washington.
District Five Councilman Michael Levitt, whose district is in Leisure World, supported the request for an agenda discussion because of Leisure World’s short time frame.
This was not the first time Leisure World had asked for city support for a TIGER grant project.
On Oct. 24, 2011, Leisure World representatives asked for 20 hours of staff time and $2 million dollars for improving the Westminster Avenue/Golden Rain Road.
The improvement on Westminster Avenue might have included a southern exit/entrance gate for Leisure World.
At the time, project advocates said the flood control channel would be temporarily covered.
The request would have required 20-40 hours of staff time and a commitment of $2 million from the city.
The deadline for filing the application was Oct. 31.
The proposal failed to win any support from council members.
The request came following the Salon Meritage shootings and staff was behind schedule on other duties. Council concerns over the project included the question of whether there would be a problem with the city investing in private property.
The 2011 project would have required a commitment of $4 million at a time when there was only $5 million in discretionary money in city funds.
Since the item was not part of the agenda, the council would not have been able to vote on the matter.
The request was received and filed without any action.
Looking back on the 2011 request, Seifert said it was bad timing.
