The Seal Beach City Council will hold the first of two public hearings on the Bay City Partners development project tonight, Monday, June 25.
City staff is recommending that the council approve the 32-home residential development project. According to the staff report by Greg Hastings, Interim Director of Community Development, the project was reduced from 48 homes to 32 homes based on public comments, the recommendations of the Seal Beach Planning Commission and the recomendations of a council subcommittee made up of District 3 Councilman Gordon Shanks and District 1 Councilwoman Ellery Deaton.
Bay City Partners are now asking the city to allow the construction of 32 residential homes on 4.5 acres of the partnership’s 10.7 acre ocean front property. The land is currently zoned to build a 150-room hotel. Some opponents of the proposal to build residential housing near a residential neighborhood have advocated a 60-room hotel.
Another 6.4 acres of the property would be sold to the city for $1.1 to be developed as open space if and when the Bay City Partners receive a Coastal Development permit from the California Coastal Commission.
The Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend approval of the project. Bay City’s application includes a request to amend the Specific Plan for the site, amend the General Plan, amend the Zoning Map and approve a tentative tract map for the project.
The Environmental Quality Control Board voted 4-1 to advise the council that they believed the Final Environmental Impact Report for the project was inadequate. Planners, however, unanimously recommended certification of the Final EIR.
The DWP Advisory Committee also voted 4-1 against the project.
Some critics of the project have accused the city of being illegally pre-committed to approving the so-called “Ocean Place” project. Many of those critics have included City Council appointees to Seal Beach committees and commissions.
