The California Coastal Commission hearing on the Ocean Place development project has been postponed. The hearing on the application by Seal Beach, Bay City Partners and Marina Beach House for a development permit to build houses near the San Gabriel River was originally scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 9. However, the Coastal Commission website now lists the hearing as “postponed.”
@font-face { font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } “We have requested a postponement to allow us time to adequately address the issues raised in the staff report,” said Ed Selich, project manager for the Bay City Partners.
A recent Coastal Commission staff report recommended that the commission reject the application.
According to the Coastal Commission agenda for Oct. 9, the city of Seal Beach, the Bay City Partners and a business called Marina Beach House have jointly applied for a coastal development permit on the land commonly referred to as the DWP site even though the property has not belonged to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for decades.
The applicants want “to subdivide and develop (a) vacant 10.9 acre waterfront property (known as the DWP site) including public trust lands with 4.5 acre 32-lot residential development and 6.4 acre passive open space area, located at Southwest corner of 1st St. and Marina Dr., Seal Beach, Orange County,” according to the Coastal Commission.
The proposed development, if the state agency allows it to be built, will be called Ocean Place.
In July 2012, the Seal Beach City Council voted to change the zoning of the land to allow construction of residential housing—on the condition that the Bay City Partners give the city 6.4 acres of land to be developed for a park.
The property owners agreed on the condition that the city will only get the land if the Coastal Commission issues a development permit.
One of the objections to approving the project raised in the Coastal Commission staff report is that the city has not provided evidence it owns the land.
Seal Beach area opponents of the project have accused city officials of being illegally pre-committed to approving the project.
Some of those opponents included City Council-appointed members of the Tree Advisory Committee, the DWP (site) Committee, the Environmental Quality Control Board and the Recreation and Parks Commission.
Controversies over the property boundaries and the definitions of the open space area versus the development area hovered over the proposed project for about two years before the council agreed to allow residential development.
