Fifth in a series about the city’s plans.
City officials will be looking at the future of Main Street. Nothing is going to happen right away. The City Council recently directed staff to make a goal of revisiting the Main Street Specific Plan over the course of next year.
In related news, the steering committee for the Main Street improvement project will begin meeting at a future date to determine the scope of the project. It is not known if the steering committee will meet before the council approves a new city budget.
The related-issue of outside dining in the Main Street area remains subject to the California Coastal Commission.
Main Street Specific Plan
District One Councilman/Mayor Joe Kalmick proposed updating the Specific Plan for the Main Street area during the recent strategic planning workshop. City Manager Jill Ingram suggested making a review of the Specific Plan as long-term goal. Ingram described reviewing the plan as a major undertaking.
The council directed staff to make the review of the Specific Plan a separate goal from the improvement project.
“I think it’s time to take a look at the Specific Plan and see if there can be some improvements, some changes, that would accommodate real world situations that we’re living with now,” Kalmick said.
Main Street improvements
In October 2019, the City Council approved a contract with a consultant for design services for the Main Street improvement plan.
The agreement approved at the time was for $130,465, according to the staff report. Among the goals at the time was for the consultant to come up with cost estimates and hold three workshops on the project.
During the March 2021 strategic planning workshop, Ingram told the council that the project had been delayed by the pandemic.
“I think there’s an opportunity here for economic development in terms of recovery of our businesses,” Ingram said.
“I think there’s a lot more here for consideration by the steering committee as well as the public in terms of Man Street and what that would look like,” Ingram said.
She said the staff’s goal was to re-engage the steering committee and work on community outreach so staff could at least determine the scope of work.
Ingram said that then staff could come back to the council with information about costs.
District Five Councilwoman Sandra Massa-Lavitt said this should be a high priority.
“I think we need to get started on this sooner rather than later,” Massa-Lavitt said.
However, District Three Councilman Michael Varipapa said that it was his experience that the project became a wish list. “I think the steering committee will need some guidelines,” Varipapa said.
He called for parameters so there would be a better focus on what the city was trying to obtain.
“It was more than an improvement, it was a revitalization, if you will,” Varipapa said.
Kalmick said he believed that when the steering committee last met, there was a recognition, because of finances, that there was no way to come up with a complete revitalization of the entire Main Street corridor and then execute it.
He recalled that the committee’s direction to the consultant was that the city needed to look at Main Street improvements in terms of modular projects that could be done over the course of time and at a cost that Seal Beach could afford.
It was at this point that Kalmick suggested revisiting the Main Street Specific Plan.
District Two Councilman Thomas Moore suggested waiting until the council knows what it wants to do with the parklets before looking at Main Street. (For more about the parklets, see “Seal Beach city government ponders permanent outdoor dining parklets,” at sunnews.org.)
For results of the Sun Newspapers online poll about parklets, see page 6.
District Four Councilwoman Schelly Sustarsic said it was important to get input from the community—residents and businesses. She said she was not sure that virtual meetings would capture everyone’s concerns. Sustarsic suggested waiting until summertime, when things had opened up a bit more.
Varipapa concurred with waiting. “We’re not here to change the look and revitalize the whole Main Street,” he said.
According to City Manager Ingram, staff is hoping to do a public outreach on the Main Street project after the steering committee has regrouped and been given some guidelines.
During a May 1 phone interview, Kalmick said the steering committee had not yet met. He said that right now, because of the budget, the closest the city would get to Main Street at the moment was the concrete work on the Seal Beach Pier.
“It all hinges on money,” Kalmick said.
