The Planning Commission will have to hold another hearing on the permit for a proposed real estate office on the ground floor of the 100 block of Main Street.
A Sun reader’s question led to the discovery that the city did not publish the required public notice for initial public hearing. The city manager confirmed this was due to a staff error in a March 24 email.
Background
The Main Street Specific Plan allows office uses as long as they don’t front Main Street or Ocean Avenue, according to a March 21 staff report by Interim Senior Planner Art Bashmakian. “However, along Main Street and Ocean Avenue these types of office uses may be permitted on the ground floor subject to the granting of a conditional use permit,” he wrote.
A CUP requires a public hearing. Public hearings require publication of a notice, as well as email notices.
On Monday, March 21, planners approved by a 4-1 vote a conditional use permit that would allow Luxre Realty to have an office on Main Street at the former location of the Vault.
As the Sun reported in the Thursday, March 24, edition, 50% of the front of the store would sell home decor, according to applicant Debra Gietter of Luxre Reality.
On Thursday morning, a reader asked the Sun if the required legal notice for the public hearing had been published.
The Sun checked the staff report on the permit application. The report said the notice was published in the March 10 Sun.
The Sun checked the legal notices section of the Sun in both the March 10 and March 17 print issues.
A reporter and the publisher went over every legal notice from the city government for March. None of the Seal Beach notices submitted to the Sun had anything to do with the Main Street permit.
At 3:51 p.m., Thursday, March 24, the Sun emailed the Seal Beach city manager, mayor, and city attorney to inform them that the notice for the Main Street permit hearing had not been published.
At 5:49 p.m., the same day, City Manager Jill Ingram confirmed the error in an email.
“It was an unfortunate staff oversight, and the City Clerk’s office will be publishing the public hearings and agendizing for an upcoming Planning Commission meeting, with no additional fees required from the applicants,” Ingram wrote. She thanked the Sun for bringing the error to the city’s attention.
“Additionally, the City Clerk’s office will reach out to those who submitted comments as part of the Planning Commission public hearing,” Ingram wrote.
Whatever decision the commission makes at the next hearing is subject to a 10-day appeal period that starts the morning after that public hearing.
Emails
Seven individuals emailed the city to oppose permitting an office use on the ground floor of Main Street. No emails were sent in support of the proposal.
In a March 22 email, City Clerk Gloria Harper said the city had received seven emails on the subject, all opposed to the application.
Harper told the Planning Commission that the emails would be posted on the city website.
To read the emails, which are public record, go to the city website. Go to the page for council and commission videos. Download the agenda package for the March 21 Planning Commission meeting. The seven mails appear in the PDF file after the attachments to the staff report for Item B.
