Are you OK With more traffic on Seal Beach / Los Alamitos Boulevard? If you drive on Seal Beach / Los Alamitos Blvd., you can expect MORE traffic, more crime, possible delayed response time for emergency vehicles and less safety around the Shops At Rossmoor, if LA Fitness goes in behind Sprouts as they are trying to do. This is NOT only a neighborhood issue … do you come from another neighborhood, drive these streets for business, take your kids to and from school or any other reason?  If so, this will effect you!
Yes, a gym would be convenient, but not a gym from a big corporation. We need to be realistic and compare apples to apples, we cannot compare LA Fitness to Rossmoor Athletic Club (independent gym) a Cross Fit or any other independent or small gym. We have a small independent gym in the center now that has NOT created a negative impact on our community. We are NOT talking small or independent!
LA Fitness can be compared to 24 Hour Fitness and have the same expectations of a comparable gym. 24 Hour Fitness draws 70,000 people/month, 2,300 people/day…we should expect the same for LA Fitness. This corporation is in it for the money and will need to be profitable, by selling memberships…lots and lots of memberships…thousands of memberships! Their hours will be 5 a.m. – 11 p.m. most days. Their members will be able to come from any other LA Fitness, drawing more traffic … 37,000 square feet is NOT a small neighborhood gym.
We need to be realistic…traffic will increase significantly! Safety will decrease! Crime will increase! More people introduced to the neighborhood…more neighborhood crime! The condo / townhome residents will lose their parking lot and park in front of the homes down the nearby streets. Walking from their car to their home at night, crossing Montecito could be very dangerous, especially with increased traffic, and many children and elderly individuals as well.
LA Fitness claims there will be extended lanes added, longer lanes means more cars, means more time to get to where you are going. LA Fitness claims an extra lane will be added to Rossmoor Center Way (by Sprouts & Panera). It doesn’t matter how many lanes they add, if a pedestrian is walking to or from Sprouts to their car, all traffic stops, all traffic on SB Blvd becomes greater!
If anyone is serious about becoming healthier or fit, our community is surrounded by several gyms nearby. LA Fitness on Valley View is ONLY 3.6 miles away, LA Fitness on Bellflower 3.5 miles, 24 Hour Fitness on Katella is ONLY 3.2 miles, 24 Hour Fitness on Bellflower is 3.5 miles away. Gyms with a Seal Beach address…Anytime Fitness, Beach Fitness, Cross Fit and Pure Barre. Why put our community at risk and compromise our environment when we are already surrounded by so many gyms, so close to us? Why put these small independent gyms at risk by the BIG corporate gym, when they were here first? If Seal Beach is feeling a void in their community, LA Fitness should be in downtown Seal Beach.
We are not opposed to a business in this location, we are opposed to a business with such a negative impact on our community.
Join the Coalition Against LA Fitness
Coalitionagainstlafitness@gmail.com
It takes a village!
Zoe Hagmann lives in Rossmoor.
