[0:54] Something
[22:53] Okay, good evening everyone. Uh, welcome
to the March 23rd, 2026 city council
[22:59] meeting. I will now call the meeting to
order. Um, Councilman Steel, will you
[23:03] say the pledge, please?
[23:07] » And over your heart, repeat after me. I
aliance to the flag of the United States
[23:13] of America and to the republic for which
it stands. One nation under God,
[23:19] indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all.
[23:26] » Thank you very much. Uh, city clerk,
will you please take role? Council
[23:30] member Calm,
>> here.
[23:32] » Council member Sen here.
>> Council member Steel
[23:35] » here.
>> Mayor Prom Wang
[23:37] » here. and Mayor Landau
>> here. At this time, Mayor, I would also
[23:40] like to note that there has been a
change to the presentation title on
[23:44] tonight's agenda. The reference to the
Orange County Fire Authority has been
[23:48] removed. The present presentation now
reads, "Special presentation by the
[23:54] Orange County Firefighters Local 3631
by President Chris Ham." Thank you very
[24:00] much.
>> And with that, I would now like to call
[24:02] up Orange County Firefighters Local 3631
President Chris Ham.
[24:14] Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name
is Chris Ham. I'm president of Orange
[24:17] County Professional Firefighters and
Labor Leader of over,200 men and women
[24:21] that serve this community every day. I'm
here this evening with Battalion 1 BC
[24:26] Brian Man, Engine 44 crew. Um Oh,
[24:34] uh local 3631 Vice President Justin
Dylan.
[24:39] And we're here this evening to honor
council member and former OCFA director
[24:44] Joe Calm. Uh for those of you that
aren't aware, Joe Calm served on our
[24:49] OCFA board of directors, which is made
up of 25 elected officials. across the
[24:53] county of Orange. Joe has the distinct
honor of not only serving as uh Seal
[24:58] Beach's representative, but also being a
former volunteer firefighter with the
[25:02] Seal Beach Fire Department prior to
coming to OCFA. And you may be asking
[25:07] yourself why that matters. Uh most
people when they think of Orange County
[25:11] firefighters, they think of the engines
or trucks that you see driving down the
[25:14] street and you think of firefighters
responding to cats and trees or
[25:18] structure fires or vehicle fires. But
the reality is the firefighters of today
[25:22] do so much more. We are more akin to an
all-risk agency. Our firefighters
[25:27] respond to everything from active
shooters to weapons of mass destruction.
[25:32] And while you think what does that have
to do with elected officials? Well, we
[25:35] have 25 elected officials on our board
who make the determination on the type
[25:39] of equipment, the type of staffing, and
the type of financial support our
[25:42] firefighters are going to get to respond
to those types of emergencies. When we
[25:46] have an elected official like Joe Camck
who has prior experience, it makes our
[25:50] job significantly easier to have those
more complex conversations. And so we're
[25:55] here this evening to thank him for his
support of our members. thank him for
[25:59] his support of his service to his
community and recognize that having an
[26:04] opportunity for a council member like
Joe Calm to step aside in his final year
[26:08] as an elected official to allow Mayor
Landau to step up to the board is not
[26:11] only beneficial to us as firefighters,
but it's beneficial to the Seal Beach
[26:15] residents because you not only have a
professional on the fire engines that
[26:19] ride on the engines and trucks or the
battalion chiefs that ride in BC wagons,
[26:22] but you have somebody who sat in the
room. So when Mayor Landau has a
[26:25] question, she has multiple resources to
reach out to. So with that, I want to
[26:29] say thank you for your service, Joe. I
want to present you with this plaque,
[26:32] and hopefully we can get you down here
to take a picture along with Engine 44
[26:36] and Battalion One.
[27:03] Do we need to sit or can we stand?
>> Who's taking a picture? Corey, are we
[27:07] okay standing?
>> Yeah,
[27:10] » these guys might need to smush.
>> I'll send them to all of y'all.
[27:35] take it home.
>> Okay. Later. Thank you.
[27:41] » Yes.
[27:45] » Joe, real quick, if you just hold up the
plaque. I just want to make reference to
[27:48] the 44 on the side of the helmet. There
is uh downtown Seal Beach Fire Station
[27:52] 44. So,
[28:04] » I'm going to ask Mayor uh Prom Wong to
help me save my voice a little bit. So,
[28:09] we'll be switching up.
>> Oh, I'm so sorry. Joe, would you like to
[28:15] make a comment?
>> Sure. Um,
[28:20] I just want to say what a pleasure and
an honor um, it's been to spend 40
[28:27] years.
Um, considering I could never decide if
[28:31] I wanted to be a cowboy or a fireman
when I was a kid. I at least was able to
[28:36] pick one and and uh have a a career
almost. Um, I certainly appreciate the
[28:43] recognition
and uh it was it it was a hell of a
[28:48] ride, believe me. So, I want to thank
everybody for all the support. Thanks.
[29:02] Thank you, Mayor. uh for oral
communications. At this time, members of
[29:06] the public may address the council
regarding any items within the subject
[29:10] matter juris jurisdiction of the city
council. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the
[29:15] council cannot discuss or take action on
any items not on the agenda unless
[29:19] authorized by law. Matters not on the
agenda may at council's discretion be
[29:24] referred to the city manager and placed
on a future agenda. All speakers will be
[29:28] limited to a period of 5 minutes.
Speakers must address their comments
[29:32] only to the mayor and the entire city
council and not to any individual member
[29:36] of the staff or audience. Any documents
for review should be presented to the
[29:40] city clerk for distribution. Speaker
cards are available at the clerk's desk
[29:44] for those wishing to sign up to address
the council. Although the submission of
[29:47] a speaker card is not required in order
to address the council.
[29:53] And I believe we have our first uh
public meeting speaker card is for
[29:57] Charles Krueger. Sure.
[30:13] » Honorable Mayor Landau and esteemed
members of the city council. My name is
[30:18] Lion John Schroeder of the Seal Beach
Lions Club. I am here to announce and
[30:25] introduce one of the least vocal members
of the Seal Beach Lions Club, namely
[30:32] Lion Jellybean Bunny.
Many of you know Jellybean is one of the
[30:38] quietest members of our club.
In fact, she asked our board to appoint
[30:45] a loudmouth member of our club to speak
for her. Naturally, my name came up.
[30:54] In any event, we're here to announce the
2026 Easter egg hunt taking place at
[31:01] Eisenhower Park on April 4, 2026
at 9:00 a.m. sharp. Miss Bunnikans or a
[31:11] reasonable faximile thereof
will be there to present the start of
[31:18] the event and to take photos with
children and or adults or city council
[31:26] people.
This is an annual fun event hosted by
[31:31] the Sil Beach Lions Club. Please plan to
attend to show your support. And I might
[31:37] add, on a plus side, for elected
officials such as yourself, this event
[31:42] gives you a prime opportunity to meet
and mingle with your constituents in
[31:49] beautiful Seal Beach. And best of all
for you, the hunt itself lasts only five
[31:55] minutes.
So we hope that you can be there. And as
[32:00] a token uh and a reminder of the event,
each of you have received a relatively
[32:07] worthless
plastic egg. Now, what happened,
[32:11] Bunnings? You sat down. We have You
forgot about the obligatory photo.
[32:18] » You know, we have to have the obligatory
photo.
[32:25] » Take it easy, Bunnings.
[32:29] Okay,
>> John, you want to come up?
[32:33] » Speak up, mayor, so that she knows where
you are.
[32:36] » Why don't we Why don't we go down there?
>> Okay.
[32:39] » Want to go down there?
>> All right.
[32:41] » Here we go.
>> For the obligatory photo.
[32:46] » Do you want to go up there, John?
[32:54] » Thank you.
[32:58] Thank you, buddy.
[33:05] » She has more eggs to fill, so we're
going to leave you now. Goodbye.
[33:09] » Thank you very much. Um, our next
speaker, Charles Krueger.
[33:46] That was interesting.
Uh, Charlie Kuger, College Park East.
[33:51] I'd just like to bring to uh council's
attention what's going on in College
[33:57] Park East with uh the development and
now that they're approaching the state.
[34:03] Um, back when the uh project was
approved in Los Alamos,
[34:09] uh, it was brought to everyone's
attention and it's on the record that
[34:15] the sewer issue was going to be costly
and it was going to the exact words in
[34:22] the EIR was that the sewer was going to
be cost prohibitive.
[34:27] Lamson LLC was part of that process.
Currently, Lamson LLC is a partner with
[34:35] LAR.
They should have communicated this with
[34:40] LAR. Now, LAR is approaching the state
to force,
[34:46] I guess, the city, us to do something
for LAR at our cost. What we're trying
[34:54] to remind the city here is that we have
an obligation to the uh golf course
[35:02] development which is within our city,
not the Lamson project which is uh in
[35:09] Los Al.
We're obligated to do affordable housing
[35:14] and all those units are going to tax our
sewer system.
[35:19] We have a responsibility to those
projects pro before the lampson project
[35:26] and we'd like that brought to the
state's attention. It's an issue that
[35:31] that that needs to be put on the table.
It's it's it's
[35:37] paramount. Um Lamson LLC
should have made a lot of things
[35:44] disclosed to uh LAR. Uh we understand
now that there's uh some issues with the
[35:51] Quimby fee uh which was brought up at
the uh the EIR
[35:58] at uh Lassal
approval
[36:01] and because the state relaxed its EIR
issues, why is Seal Beach being taxed or
[36:09] being responsible for certain
requirements? It's going to be costly
[36:13] for us. those costs should be put on or
worked out with the city of Loal.
[36:20] That's really what we wanted to bring to
attention. One other issue we'd like to
[36:25] try to bring to light
um the lamps and well we understand is
[36:32] going to be finally
uh the uh the project is going to start
[36:38] repairs. We'd like to an accounting of
how many months, years that the project
[36:47] has not been run efficiently. How many
years has that lampson well after it was
[36:53] remodeled?
[36:57] Why how many why I'm having a hard time
explaining this, but it hasn't run at
[37:03] 100% efficiency really since it was
remodeled. and it's been quite about
[37:09] quite a long time and I think for for uh
a coste effective project we should look
[37:18] at that item. Um we at College Park East
have been on the short end of that and
[37:26] we need an efficient uh well and we're
asking for some kind of accountability
[37:31] on that.
One other item, uh, I brought it up
[37:37] earlier in an earlier meeting. We'd like
the city to consider any kind of, uh,
[37:46] electrical items brought up or new
revisions to any kind of issues.
[37:55] An item should be also considered as far
as uh an efficient cost effective item
[38:03] should be a um a u
[38:10] rather than running something with
Edison or lighting it should be a u
[38:16] » 30 seconds Charles
>> 30 seconds um
[38:20] » solar
>> some some type of solar
[38:23] consideration.
Any item should be automatically
[38:28] considered uh a solar project. At least
the the cost efficiencies should be
[38:34] looked at. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Charles.
[38:40] » Um that is uh the one and only public
speaking uh meeting speaking speaker
[38:46] card that I have. Is there anybody else
that would like to make a comment?
[38:52] Yes, please. If you can state your name
and uh neighborhood.
[39:02] » Uh my name is uh Scott Fet. I've been a
uh College Park East resident for over
[39:06] 20 years. Uh I just want to bring up a
couple of things. Uh put a little bit
[39:11] more of a face on it. Um I happen to
live on Hazelnut between Rose and
[39:16] Heather. the Lamson project will impact
me quite significantly. Uh, a couple of
[39:22] things downtown, the parking, we all
know that it's been terrible. Or
[39:27] actually, actually, I don't think it's
that bad. I've never had a problem
[39:29] finding a spot, but you did so much
work. You had committees. You passed so
[39:33] many laws and, you know, about moving
the cars and all the work that went into
[39:38] making sure that the parking downtown
was as equitable and as fair as
[39:42] possible. I'd like you to take that into
consideration where I live. in my
[39:47] neighborhood because if that project
goes in, there isn't enough parking. We
[39:52] all know that. So, where are they going
to park? They're going to park where I
[39:56] am. Okay? So, as much work and effort
and all that time and energy and
[40:00] resources you put into figuring out
downtown parking, if this project goes
[40:04] through, please consider our parking
issues.
[40:09] Uh the other thing I want to bring up is
I was uh very involved with my children
[40:16] with the school district.
There is no lefthand turn. There is no
[40:23] bus turnaround.
If you have ever driven on Lamson A in
[40:30] the morning when we have that mist in
there where you can't see 30 feet in
[40:34] front of you,
it is incredibly dangerous.
[40:39] There have been several people that have
died on Lampson A since I've lived here.
[40:45] What are we going to do of all those
residents and all those children who are
[40:50] crossing that road
in the morning with the mist? And I know
[40:56] the police force has driven that road.
You know how dangerous it is. You can be
[40:58] going along, you're going along, and
speed limits 45. I'm sure everyone only
[41:02] does 45. And it goes from completely
clear to all of a sudden you hit a mist
[41:06] and you can't see 10 ft.
So, we're going to have elementary
[41:10] school, middle school, high school kids
that are going to have to cross that
[41:14] road
to get to Heather Park to pick up the
[41:18] bus.
Lamson is a dangerous road,
[41:25] especially for children who may not be
as aware and not paying attention.
[41:30] That is an incredible credible burden
for us and the police force to monitor
[41:35] that to make sure it's safe for all
these children.
[41:39] The other thing is is my road where I
live is going to turn into a freeway
[41:44] because every single person that leaves
that complex, if they're going to work
[41:50] to Seal Beach Boulevard, they'll make
that right. They're going, but when they
[41:53] come home, they're going to have to make
that they're going to have to make that
[41:56] turn. So, they're going to turn down
Heather, rip down my street, come up
[41:59] roads, and come around. If they have to
go out the other way, if they're going
[42:02] to value View, they're going to go to
Heather. They're going to turn and
[42:05] they're going to come flying down my
street. Our
[42:08] police force is incredible. I know some
of them. Of course, Yoshi everyone
[42:12] loves, but um
I won't say he's my favorite, but u but
[42:17] the police force does a great job. But
this isn't going to be another burden on
[42:20] them. How are they going to keep my
street safe and my kids?
[42:26] Uh I'm going to be a grandparent in a
couple weeks. I'm super excited. How are
[42:30] they going to what are they going to do
if my grandkid is coming and I've got
[42:33] all these extra traffic? And this isn't
even just during the construction phase
[42:36] where all those trucks are going to have
to go somewhere. They're going to have
[42:40] to turn around.
So, just
[42:43] think about it and have a little uh I'm
looking for a little consideration,
[42:47] compassion of how it's going to affect I
moved to Seal Beach. I grew up in
[42:51] upstate New York. Okay. They call Seal
Beach the Mayberry by the sea. I grew up
[42:56] in Mayberry, a little town in Colony.
Top 10 safest cities and blah blah blah
[43:00] in in the country when I was growing up.
Fantastic. I love College Park East.
[43:05] It's so warm. It's so inviting.
It's Little Mayberry. It's so nice. This
[43:12] Lamson project is going to change that.
From what I can see, Loal reaps all the
[43:18] benefits,
all of the pluses.
[43:23] And the city of Seal Beach, which I know
we're inland,
[43:27] we are going to suffer all of the
negative. it is going to negatively
[43:32] affect our quality of life.
>> There you go, Scott.
[43:36] » Thank you. So, I just wanted to say my
piece, give you a little bit of human
[43:40] perspective of someone that's going to
be really affected by this. And I
[43:44] appreciate your time. Thank you very
much for everyone for listening. And the
[43:49] Easter Bunny was awesome. That was
incredible. Those lines are incredible.
[43:52] Thank you very much. Have a wonderful
year.
[43:53] » Thank you, Scott.
[43:58] Uh, is there anyone else who would like
to address the council? Yes, please. If
[44:02] you can state your name and
neighborhood, please.
[44:15] Hi, good afternoon. My name is Robert
Jackson. I'm a resident of College Park
[44:19] East. My home is located in close
proximity to the 405 freeway sound wall.
[44:25] A few weeks ago, my wife Lucille Jackson
addressed this council and presented
[44:29] data we have been collecting from our
second story window documenting
[44:33] excessive freeway noise levels that are
in clear violation of California code
[44:37] S1162
pertaining to the soundwall. Uh I am
[44:41] here today not to specifically speak
about that to speak about one of the
[44:44] root causes uh of this excessive noise
and propose practical solutions that
[44:50] could be implemented in the near term
while long-term improvements to the
[44:54] soundwall are considered. The stretch of
the 405 freeway begins at Bolsuchica
[44:58] Road and and ends at Seal Beach
Boulevard. It's approximately 2 miles of
[45:04] straight roadway. Uh on a daily basis,
uh we hear vehicles, particularly the
[45:10] motorcycles and cars with modified
exhaust systems using this stretch of
[45:14] the freeway to accelerate excessively.
Under California Vehicle Code 27151, it
[45:20] is illegal to modify a vehicle's exhaust
system to exceed 95 dB at the source.
[45:25] However, based on our measurements, this
threshold is being exceeded regularly.
[45:31] Over the past several weeks, we have
recorded sound levels exceeding 90 dB
[45:34] from our home, which is approximately
450 plus feet away from the wall uh
[45:41] which is separated by that 18 ft sound
wall. Uh according to the distance to
[45:45] this uh accounting for this distance and
attenuation, this strongly suggests that
[45:50] vehicles themselves are producing sound
levels well above 100 dB at the source.
[45:55] In addition to these daily occurrences,
there are recurring issues on weekends,
[45:59] illegal street racing. These events
typically occur between 11:00 p.m. and 2
[46:03] a.m. The vehicles involved are often
high performance cars with very loud
[46:07] engines. And from our vantage point,
they appear to be accelerating near
[46:10] Buluch Chica overpass and continuing the
full two-mile stretch towards Seal Beach
[46:15] Boulevard where they de accelerate.
The result is sudden extreme noise and
[46:20] that disrupts the entire neighborhood,
waking even deeper sleepers in College
[46:24] Park East and nearby Washmore where we
used to live where we heard it as well.
[46:29] Um, just to give provide clarity what
that 2-m struts is capable of, a a stock
[46:35] Corvette 0 to 60 in 3 seconds could hit
200 mph by the time it hits Sil Beach
[46:40] Boulevard when starting at the Bolts
Chico Road. Um, that is the problem I'm
[46:46] here to address and I respectfully ask
that Seal Beach Police Department work
[46:50] in coordination with the California
Highway Patrol to implement effective
[46:54] deterrence. Why? While I understand the
jurisdiction jurisdiction jurisdiction
[47:00] limits, there is an opportunity
opportunity here to collaborate to
[47:04] improve the quality of life for the
residents. I would like to prop propose
[47:09] two solutions. First, the placement of a
parked CHP CHP vehicle near the near the
[47:15] Bulsa Chica overpass equipped with a
noise activated system. When sound
[47:20] levels exceed 95 dB, the system would
trigger flashing red and blue lights for
[47:25] a short duration, 30 seconds maybe,
serving as a visible deterrent to
[47:29] excessive accelerations in racing.
Second, the installation of a similar
[47:33] noise activated device along the top of
the freeway sound wall with in strategic
[47:38] locations. These systems would function
in the same way creating a consistent
[47:42] deterrent uh present along the freeway.
These solutions are relatively low cost,
[47:49] scalable, and could significantly reduce
illegal racing and excessive noise uh
[47:54] vehicle noise. For context, I'm a
principal mechanical engineer working
[47:57] for a local defense contractor where I
design and build unmanned systems. I am
[48:02] suitable, but if a suitable
off-the-shelf solution does not exist, I
[48:08] am confident I in my ability to help
design and implement such a device. I
[48:12] understand that the freeway falls under
the jurisdiction of CHP, not the Seal
[48:17] Beach Police Department. However, I
respectfully ask that the city take
[48:21] initiative in advocating for the in
supporting these solutions in part in
[48:25] partnership with the CHP. Thank you.
That's it. Thank you, Robert.
[48:35] Uh, are there any other speakers? Yes.
[48:41] Mayor Lando, city council, city staff,
thank you for your time tonight. My name
[48:46] is Darren Dillion with Nashville on the
Coast, and I want to start off by
[48:51] thanking all the city council for being
on opening night this past uh past week.
[48:56] It was very appreciative that you guys
were there to support. I just wanted to
[49:00] give a brief update on this year's
Nashville on the Coast Festival. We had
[49:06] five days of music. Each day was at a
different venue. There were 47 different
[49:10] songwriters from all over the country
that came here to perform that week. Uh
[49:18] from myself and my staff, I'd like to
thank you and the city of Seal Beach for
[49:22] all your support and hopefully we can
grow it even better next year. So, I
[49:27] want to thank you. Also, thank Chief for
being there on that opening night also.
[49:32] So, thank you all. Have a great night.
>> Thank you, Darren.
[49:44] Uh, good evening, Mayor Landau, city
council, and and city staff. Um, my name
[49:49] is Corey Deleó, and I proudly represent
the Seal Beach Chamber um as their their
[49:55] Gaka Gak co-chair along with our well,
your own Patty Senagal.
[50:01] We would like to recognize the new
members. We continue to grow here at the
[50:06] Seal Beach uh chamber. Our new members
are Careuilders at Home, Alzheimer's
[50:12] Association of Orange County, Diane
Wellness, the Youth Center, Lee
[50:17] Austinorf,
and um our brand new bronze level
[50:22] sponsor um Seal Beach Teriyak who is
offering free delivery in Oldtown and up
[50:28] on the hill. Uh so again, we really
encourage if if you are thinking about
[50:33] doing business, it's one of the things
I'm most proud about Seal Beach is that
[50:36] we continue to support our own. Want to
continue to um ask you to support that.
[50:41] We do have some upcoming chamber events
and uh thanks to uh Patty's suggestion,
[50:47] we will be emailing you a copy of these.
You don't have to write them down, but
[50:50] I'm going to list them um all the same.
On March 25th, we have our speed
[50:55] networking 5:30 p.m. at Fire Station 48.
on March 28th, a big day. We have run
[51:02] Seal Beach um from um and we just
encourage all of our businesses and our
[51:07] residents to understand that they're
going to be impacted from about 4:00
[51:11] a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Um later that night,
we have the youth center casino um
[51:18] casino night at Rush Park in Rosmore.
March 31st, we have social media
[51:23] workshop from 11:30 uh at 11:30 in the
morning uh fire station 48. So if you
[51:29] are ready to get your social media game
up, this is the place to go and figure
[51:33] out how to do that. On April 9th, um we
will have our annual or manual monthly
[51:41] uh networking breakfast bright and early
at 7:30 at Ali's featuring Natalie
[51:46] Wilson who will speak to us about
Olympic dreams and how to get into those
[51:50] games. On April 9th, uh the ambassador's
meeting um right after the chamber right
[51:56] after that um networking meeting will
happen at the chamber office at 9:30.
[52:01] April 10th, um we have an exciting new
ribbon cutting. April Ray by the Sea is
[52:07] a um new children's space. Um and it
will be the grand opening will be at uh
[52:14] 12 p.m. located at 13924 Sil Beach
Boulevard.
[52:19] I can't believe it, but it's already
here. April 15th, um, we were, so I
[52:25] should say start with April 25th is the
car show, but April April 15th, we are
[52:30] going to have a car show kickoff
5:00 p.m. at um, 3:20 Maine. Um, so as
[52:38] as we know, we have the annual car show.
U, typically that's going to run from
[52:43] 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. It is sold out.
However, there is a wait list and we do
[52:48] encourage anybody that's interested to
contact the chamber to get on that
[52:52] weight list. We are looking for vendors.
If you would like to if you or you have
[52:57] a business that would like to sponsor a
trophy, it's only a mere $125 and that
[53:01] will sponsor the trophy that actually
features wood from the um old pier. Uh
[53:07] we are looking for volunteers for that.
May 28th, we will have a nonprofit panel
[53:12] from 11:30 in the morning at the Epson
building. that's going to be
[53:16] co-sponsored with the Loal Chamber and
there is sponsorship opportunity there.
[53:20] June 13th uh right around the corner
will be the 19th annual Be More Healthy
[53:25] Expo. We want to give quick
congratulations
[53:29] to um Lion Terry Young who um who was
named Senator Strickland's 2026 woman of
[53:37] distinction. I believe Maryland was
there for that presentation
[53:42] uh this past weekend. We were so honored
uh to be to be around for while we
[53:47] honored Ray Longoria as our Seal Beach
Citizen of the Year at the Americana
[53:52] Festival. Uh want to give quick
congratulations to a very successful
[53:58] farmers market opening at the Seal Beach
Pier. And we want to let everybody know
[54:03] um that's going to be every Friday from
9 to 2 o'clock. Um our own community was
[54:09] featured in beach.com. So, we want
everybody to go to beach.com and see
[54:13] what and see all the fantastic things
Seal Beach has to offer. As if you
[54:16] didn't know. Um,
>> 30 seconds.
[54:20] » We're going to do this quickly. I would
be remiss if I didn't say
[54:23] congratulations to Joe Calm. His
dedication
[54:26] um as a as a firefighter is is well
known um but so appreciated. So,
[54:32] quickly, I'm going to try to do this as
fast as I can. Gold level sponsors. We
[54:35] don't do this without our sponsors.
Boeing Lions Club of Seal Beach, F&M
[54:40] Bank for Public Services, Silver Level
Sponsors, All Protection Services,
[54:43] Golden West College, Glowwaukee
Chiropractic, Lisa Kovac Residential
[54:48] Real Estate, Pavilions, The Law Offices
of Justin Heim, Pearl Vision, Think
[54:52] Boutique, Sip Safe Solutions, and Sale
Beach Chiropractic. Thank you so much.
[54:57] » Thank you, Corey.
[55:01] Are there any additional speakers?
I'd like to reclaim my time, please.
[55:09] » Good evening, Mayor Landau, city council
staff, and first responders. My name is
[55:15] Chad Bellinger. I am the president of
Seal Beach City Rotary, and I have been
[55:18] a resident of Oldtown for the last 18
years. Since we last gathered, uh, Seal
[55:24] Beach City Rotary hosted Mayor Landau as
our guest speaker, and she gave us an
[55:28] update of her past accomplishments and
current goals. Uh and again it was a
[55:33] pleasure working with city staff Lauren
Barrett and Jennifer Robels on that
[55:36] project and thank you city manager
Patrick Gyos for also attending. It was
[55:40] a pleasure to have you. We also had the
pleasure of witnessing that afternoon
[55:45] Sister Flood receive a badge from Chief
Henderson as the newest member of the
[55:49] Seal Beach Police Department chaplain
program. Uh it's a blessing for our city
[55:54] and an honor for her as well. I have
since attended the settlement project uh
[56:00] which was at Spagatini. Their mission is
to reinstall faith and family in the
[56:04] election process with the 2026 elections
coming up. I also attended the OC GOP
[56:09] March assembly where I had the pleasure
of witnessing Council Member Nathan
[56:13] Steel receive the party's endorsement.
Congratulations, sir. I attended the
[56:18] Leisure World America First Republican
Club to hear council member Mayor Prom
[56:23] Ben Wong speak on his recent trip to
Washington and report on his work with
[56:28] FEMA and HUD. Excellent, excellent work
with HUD. That was a huge
[56:32] accomplishment.
Rotary's new initiative, Walk with the
[56:36] Sun. Of course, we are delivering
newspapers into Oldtown and this is the
[56:41] second week that we have done it. And
last week we did fourth, fifth, 6th,
[56:45] 7th, and 8th Street in Oldtown with
getting our Sun newspaper back into
[56:51] circulation. I had coffee with Chief
Henderson at Bogarts and and we had a
[56:56] chance to visit with council members
Steel and Calm that morning as well. And
[57:00] then I took a walk through farmers
market, which I believe is a great
[57:03] addition to the city, uh, one of the
resources that we now have to offer, and
[57:08] picked up some cabbage. So,
congratulations to the chamber. Uh Corey
[57:11] and I think Peter had some work to do
with that. Excellent. And the city, it's
[57:16] a wonderful addition. Uh Saturday, I
participated in the Save Our Beach
[57:21] Cleanup. I am getting my steps in.
Yesterday, we celebrated my 50th
[57:26] birthday and I want to just remind
everyone not to complain about growing
[57:31] older as it is a privilege denied to
many.
[57:36] Tomorrow at noon at Old Ranch, we
welcome Golden Age Foundation President,
[57:40] Miss Anna Derby. And Anna will tell us
about her service projects that she has
[57:45] led over the last 20 years in Leisure
World. She is a powerhouse. Uh for more
[57:51] information, please visit our website at
seal beachcityrootary.com
[57:55] or call the office line at 562-509-8640.
[58:01] I have a couple more spots if there's
any council members who represent
[58:04] Leisure World and would like to attend.
Thank you so much for your time this
[58:08] evening and I wish you a providential
meeting. Thank you.
[58:12] » Thanks, Chad.
[58:17] » Uh any other interested speakers? Yes.
[58:31] Ken Scythe from College Park West. Hi
again, uh, mayor, council, our staff,
[58:36] and first responders. I want to thank
you tonight for continuing to listen
[58:41] and, uh, have your interest in, uh, the
outlying areas of the city, in
[58:46] particular, College Park West and
College Park East. Um, I think our city
[58:51] always hopes to cooperate with projects,
including for our neighbors, but I think
[58:57] it's been pretty well demonstrated that
there are very few, if any, tangible or
[59:01] significant benefits to these projects
at College Park East and uh, College
[59:06] Park West. Um, I'd like to say tonight
that I I can't speak for everybody
[59:11] anywhere, especially College Park West,
but I think many residents of College
[59:15] Park West support College Park East
strongly. And I think I mentioned here
[59:19] before that I've lived in Sil Beach for
over 50 years. I lived 26 years in
[59:23] College Park West in the last I'm sorry,
East in the last 23 in College Park
[59:28] West. And when we lived in College Park
East, we did experience storm water
[59:33] flooding. It didn't happen too often,
but there were some scary times. I'm not
[59:37] going to take time today to talk about
that. The time my kids were trapped uh
[59:42] when the water came up to the porch and
then also sewer backups. So, I've lived
[59:47] through those and those are real,
although hopefully not too often. Uh
[59:52] the the uh benefits to the College Park
East project uh according to what I
[59:57] heard last week when the attorney
testified were $1 million storm water
[1:00:02] studies, traffic improvement, and other
benefits, whatever that means, 1.22
[1:00:07] million in permit revenues. my
understanding but I don't have the exact
[1:00:12] figures but the the the amounts that
would be required to com to really
[1:00:16] improve our sewer system are in the
multi-millions of dollars so I think
[1:00:21] that's the whole sewer system very old
uh and the storm water improvements also
[1:00:27] are in the millions of dollars so to me
that's not really a fair trade-off I
[1:00:31] don't know that they would have to pay
for everything but this isn't about
[1:00:36] trying to get something I don't think
that's any any again I don't feel that
[1:00:40] that's what we're trying to do here. But
if there are risks and dangers, then I
[1:00:45] think we can expect to have some type of
uh negotiation in kind to to try to
[1:00:50] mitigate those things. Um
at College Park West, we have the bridge
[1:00:56] and there are other alternatives. There
are already two pipelines on the bridge.
[1:01:00] One is an oil pipeline. So they're
planning two more. How many pipelines
[1:01:05] can a small neighborhood is there? Would
there be two more in another few years?
[1:01:08] is the magic number four six I I don't
know in uh
[1:01:14] in uh in College Park East of course uh
you know the the threats to the storm
[1:01:19] water and the sewer. So at College Park
West again it's the you know shortterm
[1:01:25] with the construction and longer term
risks to the bridge uh when it already
[1:01:30] needs much improvement.
So um and again as was testified last
[1:01:36] week by uh Mr. Janisk from our from our
neighborhood. These disasters where
[1:01:41] something fails are not common, thank
God, like the dam he talked about. But
[1:01:47] if it happens, there are no detours in
Seal Beach and I mean in College Park
[1:01:51] West. And if uh there are other bridges
and other alternatives that they can DWT
[1:01:56] can use, I don't see why they can't use
those. I wanted to bring up an article
[1:02:01] from the Long Beach um paper. Uh which
one was it? The post on the second
[1:02:09] street bridge, the Davies Bridge over to
Naples. There was an article that that's
[1:02:13] supposed to be improved and now it's on
hold. The Olympics uh the traffic
[1:02:17] problems and that's determined to be
structurally deficient, which are the
[1:02:21] exact same words utilized for our bridge
in College Park West. The the the
[1:02:27] article was from 22726.
But even in the worst case scenario,
[1:02:32] there are detours, although they're
really out of the way. They mentioned in
[1:02:35] the article that one of them would be
Studebaker Road, uh, which of course is
[1:02:39] now under big-time construction if
you've been up there with the Studebaker
[1:02:43] Road improvement, which it does need,
but uh, so there's a lot to think about
[1:02:48] there. Again, College Park West has no
detours. There is no other way in and
[1:02:53] out. So the la last thing I'd like to
just mention is the um
[1:02:59] again I kind of talked about this in the
past and they never really have enough
[1:03:03] time but so to think about what would
happen if uh if actually the college the
[1:03:08] Hannes projects are delayed. The DWP
always starts off all their
[1:03:13] presentations that they're under the gun
from the state water board. They have to
[1:03:16] get these projects approved by 228 or
229. But what if they don't? Are they
[1:03:22] going to get fined? uh you know they
have tremendous political and financial
[1:03:25] clout. They could fight it in court. Uh
they could get political clout to delay
[1:03:30] it. We as a city of Seal Beach and
Orange County could support them and say
[1:03:34] they need a delay. Uh I and then to try
to find another route or uh another uh
[1:03:40] approach. But the bottom line is
>> Time is up, Ken.
[1:03:43] » Okay. The bottom line is uh I don't know
that there's going to be a major problem
[1:03:47] for them if they we can delay this and
they can um find some other route or
[1:03:51] alternative uh to the using the College
Park West Bridge. Thank you for your
[1:03:56] time. Thank you, Ken.
[1:04:12] I'm Katherine Sho Walter, resident of
College Park East. Um, good evening,
[1:04:16] Mayor Landau, Prom Mayor Wong, um, and
other elected
[1:04:24] representatives, Steel, Senal, and
Comic, our city council. Um so this
[1:04:29] evening I just basically because my
conscious is telling me that I've been a
[1:04:34] nag about the Olympics since the uh
strategic planning committee met back in
[1:04:40] 2023 and I was saying okay the Olympics
are five years out do we have any
[1:04:45] planning started and then again at 2024
okay 2025 yay now we have something
[1:04:51] going and I'm just wanting to say thank
you um something probably would have
[1:04:56] been happening anyway without me
nagging, but I just feel like um I've
[1:05:01] I'm invested in this and I so look
forward to seeing how this all plays out
[1:05:06] with ideas that come forward from the
people that are being selected. So,
[1:05:10] thank you.
>> Thank you, Katherine.
[1:05:18] » Any other comments?
Yes.
[1:05:30] Hello, city council. Um, my name is Rod
McTar and I'm a resident of uh, College
[1:05:35] Park East. Um, wanted to talk a little
bit about the lead lampson project and
[1:05:39] and some of my concerns regarding
specifically safety. Um, so we're
[1:05:44] already seeing signs of the
infrastructure stress as was um,
[1:05:47] mentioned earlier. The during the heavy
rain, the sewer manholes tend to bubble
[1:05:52] up already. This is a system under
pressure. My concern is we're adding
[1:05:56] more pressure. Um the study that was
done was done by the developer. Uh I
[1:06:01] would like to see an independent study
done um before we stress a system that's
[1:06:05] already that's already having issues. Um
and go also I know was mentioned earlier
[1:06:10] on the no left turn. Um that's really a
concern to me. I live at uh Guava uh
[1:06:16] which is just just a little further down
from from Heather and Heather Park.
[1:06:20] Heather Park is right there. Um so many
of our children play there. We have a
[1:06:24] beautiful new park that we're excited
about. I'm going to, you know, I can see
[1:06:28] a lot of people making that U-turn
there. There's so many kids on bikes.
[1:06:32] There's kids playing in the park.
There's balls that run into the streets.
[1:06:36] Um, you know, we can always watch our
kids. I know that's our personal
[1:06:39] responsibility, but you know, um, some
of the stuff that could happen and and
[1:06:44] and I'm thinking about people rushing to
work eventually when this project's done
[1:06:47] and making those U-turns. You know,
these accidents only have to happen
[1:06:50] once. They're tragic. Um I I work as a
physician in my medical career. I've
[1:06:54] seen lots of these accidents and I just
I can't in good conscious not come here
[1:06:59] and address you all about it. Um we
don't have a plan. Um and and that's
[1:07:04] concerning to me. You know, I think
whatever needs to happen needs to
[1:07:07] happen, but I think we do need to have a
plan for our infrastructure and for our
[1:07:10] our safety and most importantly our
children's safety. And um that just
[1:07:14] doesn't sit well with me that we haven't
really I mean we've talked about it, but
[1:07:18] we don't have a plan for that. and and
I'd really love to see us um going
[1:07:22] forward have that looked at also with
the liability and the risk of the uh
[1:07:27] sewer system which I don't want to be
labor I know was talked about earlier
[1:07:30] but we need to have a million dollars I
mean that you know for this and and
[1:07:33] what's going to go on in the future um
if the system breaks down who's going to
[1:07:37] be responsible what are we going to do
about it so um that's just my ask is
[1:07:42] that I would really hope that we could
have a little bit better of a plan
[1:07:45] before moving forward and I really
appreciate you guys hearing me out today
[1:07:48] thank
Thank you, Ron.
[1:08:04] » Uh Dan Brandt, uh College Prius
resident. Uh thank you, city council and
[1:08:08] mayor. Um first of all, just kind of
want to I'm going to talk about some
[1:08:12] real stuff. I know you've heard a lot of
the infrastructure, you've heard about
[1:08:15] the sewer line, you about safety, a lot
of different things. I want to give you
[1:08:19] a couple analogies just to to kind of
hopefully hit home with you because I
[1:08:23] understand that there's big money behind
this project, right? And I understand
[1:08:27] the stress. I read the letter from the
lawyer. I read all that and I understand
[1:08:32] I understand that there's been there's
been lawsuits up and down the state
[1:08:36] regarding um housing density and the and
the different projects like Huntington
[1:08:41] Beach, different cities. This is
different, right? This is different in
[1:08:45] the fact that we are a different city
being impacted by another city in
[1:08:50] development. Okay, Steel Beach didn't
say, you know, when the developer picked
[1:08:54] up that property, right? It's just like
if you buy a home, you get a dirt lot,
[1:08:58] you know what issues you're going to
have. They picked it up, they made their
[1:09:02] their their pick. They got a will serve
letter from the the Rossmore Lostell
[1:09:07] sewer district, not from Still Beach.
You do your due diligence. Let me think
[1:09:11] about this, right? You own a property,
your neighbor has a lot. They want to
[1:09:14] build a home, build a brand new,
beautiful home, right? But they go, "Oh
[1:09:19] man, that that sewer line's about 100
feet to the to the street. You know
[1:09:22] what? I'm going to take my neighbors and
I'm just going to go ahead and dock it
[1:09:26] up to theirs 10 feet away, right? Let me
just dock that thing up. If anything
[1:09:30] happens to it, you know what? You're
liable for it." Right? And the argument
[1:09:34] is, okay, like, well, you know what?
Like we were sharing sprinkler lines
[1:09:38] before, kind of like the the West
project where we were just sharing a
[1:09:42] little bit because it was open 8 to 5 or
whatever it was at Westad, right?
[1:09:46] They're they're flushing some toilets,
whatever. They're not not a big impact
[1:09:50] on our sewer line. But now you want to
connect, coming back to my analogy, you
[1:09:54] want to connect to my house and you want
to give me 3% and if it goes bad, you're
[1:10:00] on you're on the hook for it, right? And
this isn't just a College Park East
[1:10:03] problem. This is a this is a seal beast
problem. Okay. So, if that goes down
[1:10:07] right now, we're now as Seal Beach,
we're now we're on the hook, not just
[1:10:12] College Park East. So, you really got to
think about this is two different
[1:10:14] arguments from what's what's happened
along the state. And this is a this is
[1:10:20] think about the precedence that we're
setting that one city can tell another
[1:10:24] city basically, we're going to go ahead
and let let this process
[1:10:28] we're going to make you take the
liability. Hey, if you can get a letter
[1:10:31] from the developer saying if this goes
bad, we're going to pay for that. I'm
[1:10:36] all about it. Let's do it. I'm not an
MB. I'm not against the development. But
[1:10:40] I am against someone saying you're going
to be liable for something that I want
[1:10:43] to do. Okay. Think about this, too,
right? Like the sewer line's not
[1:10:47] perfect. You know, I've heard people
say, "Why don't you go out the city for
[1:10:51] not fixing the sewer line?" Well, we
want you to fix the sewer line, right?
[1:10:54] It's bubbling up in there when it when
it the heavy rains. Um, we I mean it's
[1:10:59] well documented what's going on in that.
I don't need to keep talking about it,
[1:11:03] but kind of my thing is like you have
something that's working. Every once in
[1:11:07] a while you got to repair it and make it
happen, but if you put such a heavy load
[1:11:10] and it becomes where it's not repairable
anymore, who's going to fix that? Right?
[1:11:16] So, my thing is we got to we got to hold
our ground on this. You know, I know
[1:11:19] there's lobbyists going on in Sacramento
with big money trying to push this, but
[1:11:25] at the end of the day, this is a whole
other argument than we're talking about.
[1:11:28] So, you got to hold you got to hold
steady. I know it's going to be hard,
[1:11:32] right? I know it's hard for us, but at
the end of the day, for $1 million, and
[1:11:35] I read the different things. What about
the long term? We're not talking about
[1:11:39] just for the next couple years. We're
talking long term. There's no school bus
[1:11:44] that I mean, that's ridiculous that
there's no school bus that can go into
[1:11:46] this prop property. you have 100,000 for
a crossing guard who in five years now
[1:11:52] you have no money and these kids are
going to be crossing the street. No
[1:11:54] one's going to be picking up that
liability. Um we just got to think about
[1:11:59] um how how we're going to make sure that
we hold our line. Um and I and I feel
[1:12:04] for for residents in Oldtown. We all
feel for each other. I know there's a
[1:12:07] lot going on in Long Beach with all
those developments, okay? But we got to
[1:12:10] control what we can control. And the one
thing we can control is the fact that
[1:12:14] they got a will serve letter from
Rossmore Los Al sewer district, not Seal
[1:12:19] Beach. Give them all the permits to tear
it all down. You can tear down whatever
[1:12:22] you want. You want to fix the
electrical, go for it. Sewer line, you
[1:12:26] said you were going to build it from
your project to Rossmore Lostell sewer
[1:12:30] district. Good luck. Do it. I'm all for
it. Tear up the streets. Build it. Okay,
[1:12:36] that's fine. Do what you got to do.
>> 30 seconds. But let's make sure that
[1:12:40] last thing I want to say, please don't
fold to the lawyers, to the letters.
[1:12:47] Please make sure that you take care of
Sil Beach residents. This is going to
[1:12:50] greatly impact um not just Callsburg
East, but Sil Beach. Thank you very
[1:12:55] much.
>> Thank you, Dan.
[1:13:01] » Is there anyone else who wishes to
address the council?
[1:13:06] Going once, going twice. Okay. By motion
of the city council, this is the time to
[1:13:11] notify the public of any changes to the
agenda and or rearrange the order of the
[1:13:14] agenda. Does anyone want to pull a
consent calendar item?
[1:13:21] » Um, I'm going to be pulling item F and
item G. Uh, does anybody else want to
[1:13:26] pull an item?
No. Okay. Um at this time I'd like to
[1:13:30] ask um community development director
Sean Temple to uh give us a overview of
[1:13:36] item F and G.
[1:13:45] Okay. And then after
Okay. Um we're going to change that a
[1:13:50] little bit. Um I'd like to call for a
motion and a second to approve tonight's
[1:13:54] agenda.
[1:14:04] You want to
>> refresh?
[1:14:09] Refresh.
I have a motion by council member
[1:14:13] Calmeck. Do we have a second?
>> I second.
[1:14:19] » We have a second by Mayor Pro Tim Wong.
Council member Calman. How do you vote?
[1:14:26] Yes.
>> Mayor Pro Tim Wong, how do you vote?
[1:14:28] » Yes.
>> Council member Still, how do you vote?
[1:14:30] » Yes.
>> Council member Senagle, how do you vote?
[1:14:32] » Yes.
>> And Mayor Landau, how do you vote?
[1:14:34] » Yes.
>> Motion carries, five votes. Yes.
[1:14:36] » Thank you.
>> Okay. Now, on to reports. Um, city
[1:14:42] attorney uh Gerelli, do you have
anything to report?
[1:14:44] » Yes. Thank you, Madame Mayor. The city
council met in close session this
[1:14:48] afternoon to discuss the three items on
the posted agenda. All five council
[1:14:51] members were present uh but no
reportable action was taken. And I will
[1:14:56] just provide a brief response to the
questions of comments about the LAR
[1:14:59] project at 4665 Lamson. Uh the developer
has submitted a letter to the city uh
[1:15:07] disclosing that they have pivoted to uh
building their their sewer line down
[1:15:11] Lamson to connect to the Rossmore Los
Alamos area sewer district. They still
[1:15:15] have requested to connect to the city
sewer system and the city has responded
[1:15:20] with a letter saying that in order to do
that again uh a sewer study of the
[1:15:25] impacts of that project on the city's
sewer infrastructure would need to be
[1:15:29] conducted and to be proactive about it
the city has initiated that study and it
[1:15:34] is currently ongoing and once that study
is prepared it will be evaluated to
[1:15:39] determine what the impacts on the city's
infrastructure are and to respond to the
[1:15:45] community benefits that the uh developer
has proposed. But until then uh for the
[1:15:51] time being that the developer is moving
forward with the uh sewer connection to
[1:15:55] the Ross Mor Los Alamos Area Sewer
District. That's all.
[1:15:59] » Thank you, City Manager Gyos.
>> Uh yes, thank you, Mayor. Good evening,
[1:16:03] uh Mayor, members of the city council,
and members of the public. On March
[1:16:06] 14th, I attended the Orange County Fire
Authorities annual open house, which
[1:16:10] which was a huge success. Uh so thank
you OCFA for inviting us. Uh this was an
[1:16:15] opportunity for the community uh members
across Orange County to meet their
[1:16:19] firefighters toward the headquarters and
learn learn more about OCFA's core
[1:16:23] services. Uh we appreciate OCFA's
continued partnership and their
[1:16:27] commitment to community outreach and
public safety. Thank you very much. Last
[1:16:31] Friday, March 20 20th, uh spring kicked
off with ver the our very first uh Seal
[1:16:35] Beach Farmers Market uh which was
mentioned earlier at the base of the
[1:16:38] pier and Eisenhower Park. Our hope with
this event is that it will provide
[1:16:42] residents and visitors a safe and
community uh communal opportunity to do
[1:16:46] some local shopping. Uh the city will
continue to monitor the market over the
[1:16:50] next few months to ensure that it
evolves and offers opportunities that
[1:16:54] are reflective of the Seal Beach
community. Lastly, our staff attended
[1:16:57] the Cal City's division uh meeting where
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes served
[1:17:02] as a guest speaker. Thank you,
management analyst Lauren Parish, for uh
[1:17:05] for being uh present uh on our behalf.
This meeting also included updates on
[1:17:10] several legislative items are currently
being monitored. Uh as always, we'll
[1:17:14] continue to actively partner with
Calities to stay informed uh and engage
[1:17:17] on legislative issues that may impact
Seal Beach. With that, uh that ends my
[1:17:22] report. Mayor,
[1:17:32] » sorry about that. Um Councilman Steel,
do you have anything to report?
[1:17:37] Thank you, mayor. Um, I attended the
Orange County Older Adult Advisory
[1:17:42] Commission meeting a week and a half
ago, something like that. Um, I
[1:17:46] explained, we talked about the older
adult uh advisory uh commission last
[1:17:51] meeting, and so I won't repeat any of
that stuff. Also attended the Orange
[1:17:54] County Mosquito Vector uh control
district where we formally accepted the
[1:18:00] design build $10 million project by the
whole board of trustees.
[1:18:06] I also attended Cal City's Orange County
Division um uh meeting that we had with
[1:18:14] um Sheriff Don Barnes who gave a uh kind
of an assessment, an overall assessment
[1:18:19] of uh the risk profiles that we face in
Orange County here. It's a lot more
[1:18:23] complex than we sitting in Seal Beach
can even possibly imagine. One of the
[1:18:28] highlights that he had for me is the
risk that we have from swarms of armed
[1:18:35] drones. And I'm going like, how can that
affect us? But apparently it's in the
[1:18:41] risk profile somewhere. And he he said
we really don't have a good response for
[1:18:44] that yet. But they're working on it. But
nonetheless, he's a a great sheriff and
[1:18:49] I enjoyed listening to him. I enjoyed
being at the opening of Nashville on the
[1:18:53] Coast. If you guys do not go out to any
of these Nashville on the coast, you are
[1:18:57] missing it. These these musicians are
really top drawer. They are absolutely
[1:19:03] unequivocally top drawer. One of them is
actually appeared on The Voice. Am I Am
[1:19:08] I not mistaken on that? That was
terrific to see these people and listen
[1:19:11] to the songs they write and they sing
these things and they're really talented
[1:19:15] musicians. So find a time to get to
Nashville on. Do we have another one
[1:19:19] this year or is that it?
>> We'll have popups throughout the year.
[1:19:22] » Okay. So, we'll seriously they get top
door musicians on these things and it's
[1:19:27] a it's a good time by all and I had a
good time too. Uh let's see. I did
[1:19:32] coffee with the chief. It was good to be
at uh Bogarts and see the chief and meet
[1:19:36] folks and talk to folks. And the farmers
market was outstanding people. This is
[1:19:41] really really a great farmers market. I
bought a I bought a couple of bagels. I
[1:19:47] have a theory about bagels and their
quality. The closer you get to New York
[1:19:50] City, the better the bagels. We're a
long way from New York City here and
[1:19:54] those bagels were pretty good. So, and a
loaf of bread and the guys got balsamic
[1:19:59] vinegar and things like that. So, I
spend about 20 bucks. It was good to be
[1:20:02] there and uh take advantage. It's uh
it's very pleasant place to be anyway.
[1:20:06] Uh but the farmers market was great. So,
thank you to
[1:20:11] our folks in city hall who brought that
and made that be. And so, that's my
[1:20:16] report.
>> Thank you very much, Councilman Kelmick.
[1:20:21] Thank you, mayor. Uh I also attended the
uh the grand opening of the Nashville on
[1:20:26] the coast. Um and I have the same would
echo the same comments that others have
[1:20:31] made. But I also want to point out that
by having these events, the benefits
[1:20:35] that it brings to our city. Um it's
something else that our residents can
[1:20:40] get interested in and excited about and
and it it brings more revenue to us. Uh
[1:20:48] so again, thank you to Darren and and
everybody that put that on. It's really
[1:20:52] something. I I attended my um monthly
rivers and mountains conservancy meeting
[1:21:00] where we are, you know, continuing to
fund projects up and down the uh the San
[1:21:06] Gabriel and the lower Los Angeles
rivers. I attended the watershed
[1:21:12] conservation authority board meeting
that I sit on and um we gave out more
[1:21:17] money for more projects that extend all
the way up into the watershed uh into
[1:21:22] the San Gabriel Mountains. Uh I also
attended the uh the farmers market. I
[1:21:28] want to thank Peter from the chamber and
Tim Kelsey and all the rest of our staff
[1:21:34] that um put it on. It it looked to be a
very smooth operation. Um, I was there
[1:21:40] off and on from 9 until 2 and there were
people shopping all day long and with in
[1:21:48] a sense very little publicity. Uh,
there's going to be, for those that
[1:21:52] aren't aware, there'll be more vendors
that will be coming to the market who
[1:21:56] are still in the process of getting
Orange County approval, uh, you know,
[1:22:00] for being able to sell food. I think
there's going to be a fish monger um
[1:22:05] which again should uh really bring us
some opportunities to get some some
[1:22:11] great fresh produce and some other
products. I attended the coffee with the
[1:22:17] chief to offer some moral support. We
had a nice turnout of folks coming and I
[1:22:21] I think it's really a tribute um to the
chief and our department that they're
[1:22:27] willing to step out and engage with the
public. There's no rules. There's no you
[1:22:33] can't ask us about this or that. You
know, he's there to talk to you and
[1:22:38] engage with whatever comments or
questions that you might have and follow
[1:22:42] up. And that's basically my report. I do
want to make an acknowledgement that I I
[1:22:47] just found out actually in the paper uh
the passing of a Seal Beach resident,
[1:22:51] Phil Bush. Uh my knew Phil for you know
50ome years. Uh he was a volunteer
[1:22:58] firefighter in town and was well known
in Oldtown um as a physical fitness guy.
[1:23:04] He was uh a plumbing contractor and um
you know he will be missed. So I just
[1:23:09] wanted to acknowledge that. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Councilwoman Synle.
[1:23:13] » Thank you, Mayor. Uh first of all, I
wanted to um give a shout out to our
[1:23:18] Lions. We have a property in College
Park East on Rose Street where our
[1:23:22] resident did pass sadly and the um lawn
is quite high and um just the and the uh
[1:23:31] frontage to it as well. So, thank you
Sean for working with the Lions. We're
[1:23:35] going to have the Lions out tomorrow at
4 for a mow the lawn. And uh our Lions
[1:23:41] are just uh fantastic. They're fast and
they can help us out in a pinch. And so,
[1:23:46] um, our residents in that area will
appreciate we want to get those weeds
[1:23:49] down, uh, for the mosquitoes and little
critters that live in there. So, thank
[1:23:54] you for arranging that and thank you to
the Lions. Uh, number two, wanted to
[1:23:58] mention we've had a lot of, uh, College
Park East residents in tonight to talk
[1:24:02] about the Lamson project. Um, the school
bus, the left turn lane, the parking
[1:24:06] discussion. Um, I have been working on
all these with our public works or with
[1:24:11] PD. We've been into a lot of discussions
about what we can do for a parking
[1:24:14] district. Um and so again, these things
are all being discussed and we'll um
[1:24:19] keep moving till we can get some
solutions there. Also want to mention
[1:24:23] the League of Cities um that has been
discussed this week, Thursday, Friday.
[1:24:28] All of their policy committees are
meeting in Anaheim. These are statewide
[1:24:32] city council people who serve on
committees and everything. Uh I mean
[1:24:37] pretty much every topic. Um I happen to
be on the energy committee and they vet
[1:24:41] legislation or regulatory issues coming
from the state house and so um I'll
[1:24:46] report back on uh some of the um
positions that are taking uh Nashville
[1:24:51] on the coast. Um thank you for the
opening and I met beach cowboy.
[1:24:58] I thought that was fantastic. So again
um thank you for inviting us.
[1:25:03] » Thank you very much Mayor Prom.
>> Uh thank you mayor. um since our March
[1:25:08] 9th last council meeting. I uh also
attended on Tuesday, March 10th, um the
[1:25:13] road club meeting. Briefly stopped by to
hear Mayor Landau's u uh recap for the
[1:25:19] year. Um fortunately, I had to leave
midway, but it still was a great
[1:25:23] meeting. Um on March 11th, on Wednesday,
I also attended the beginning of
[1:25:28] Nashville on the coast. Again, very
excited. So to see the it kick off and
[1:25:33] um it was a great venue especially I I
very very much like the stage setup. On
[1:25:38] uh March 13th uh on Friday I attended
the Yakoot uh probiotic factory in
[1:25:45] Fountain Valley tour. This was uh hosted
by Assemblyman uh Tree Top and there we
[1:25:50] tooured the Yakoot probiotic factory. I
didn't even know it was there to be
[1:25:55] honest with you and my son drinks that
every day, right? And so it's good for
[1:25:58] your gut. And then it was a great tour.
Um on March 17th, um on a Zoom call, I
[1:26:05] did a um I guess log in and uh watch the
Cal Chow Chambers roundt network meeting
[1:26:11] on best practices. And then uh later
that same day, that afternoon, I and
[1:26:16] myself with Patty Sakow um attended the
Chamber of Commerce meeting with the
[1:26:20] city where we met with President Richie
Barnes and city staff as well. And then
[1:26:25] uh this past Saturday on March 21st, I
attended the Americana, the 51st annual
[1:26:31] awards uh ceremony. Um Chief Henderson
was there as well with his wife and
[1:26:36] there we were there um hosted by Cypress
College to celebrate our very own Seal
[1:26:41] Beach Ray Longoria and the Lions turned
out in force. So that was great as well.
[1:26:46] And so that was a fantastic evening. So
I very much enjoyed it. Um, lastly
[1:26:52] before I wrap up tonight, um, I do want
to address the the issue that has been
[1:26:57] before us for some time now regarding
College Park West and the Hannes Bridge,
[1:27:02] Hannes Pipeline and College Park West
bridge. Um, for some that you may know
[1:27:07] or some that may not know, uh, this has
been, uh, ongoing issue. And so to give
[1:27:12] you a very broad summary and recap,
College Park West, if many aren't
[1:27:17] familiar with the neighborhood, uh it's
in my district. Um I'm also a resident
[1:27:21] there. There's just over 300 residences
in this uh neighborhood. And there is
[1:27:26] only one way in, one way out across this
bridge. It is by far um some love it
[1:27:33] because of the safety, because the one
way in, some hate it because there's
[1:27:36] only one exit. But that bridge is
obviously without saying too much, it's
[1:27:40] essential to the neighborhood. This
bridge, however, is owned and operated
[1:27:45] by Long Beach. And so the idea that's
before us is that LWP is wanting to
[1:27:51] install some pipelines to the bridge.
Now, this has become an ongoing topic.
[1:27:57] Um, starting really in January 2025, we
had a public College Park West
[1:28:03] neighborhood and there we invited
representatives for both Long Beach City
[1:28:07] Utilities and as well as um, LWP and
there we had a a public discussion very
[1:28:14] a very uh, animated discussion I will
say at the park but the turnout was
[1:28:18] great. Since then, in July of that same
of same time last year, we had a
[1:28:23] subsequent meeting at the Hannes
pipeline uh with both uh Mayor Landal
[1:28:27] and myself and public works director uh
Iris Lee to see on find out on any
[1:28:32] updates.
Since then, since July, we had a third
[1:28:36] meeting and this was uh basically topped
off in November of last year, November
[1:28:41] 2025. And this was at the tennis
pickleball center and there LWP agreed
[1:28:46] to come back out again and there we met
with they met with essentially Color
[1:28:52] Park West residents to discuss the
issue. Since then um we have not had
[1:28:57] much communication with Long Beach or
LEWP. Yet at the same time we've begin
[1:29:02] to see u some engineers and consultants
come and start to take measurements of
[1:29:07] where they intend to basically look for
a right of way. And so at this point
[1:29:12] right now, I would like to ask um city
manager Patrick Ayos if he can now add a
[1:29:18] future item to the agenda and to
basically help organize and then
[1:29:23] officially uh give clear direction to
city staff on both terms to a potential
[1:29:28] franchise agreement on what would be in
the best interest of the city of Seal
[1:29:32] Beach and College Park West residents as
well as task excuse me
[1:29:38] basically conduct or hire an independent
study of the welfare and the safety of
[1:29:42] the bridge and how it might affect our
residents.
[1:29:46] » Thank you, council member. Uh I know
this is a very important uh issue for
[1:29:50] not only the city but uh your
neighborhood. Uh and you've been really
[1:29:54] great in in taking the time and uh being
very deliberate and thoughtful to work
[1:29:57] with the residents out there. So we
appreciate that. Uh and certainly we uh
[1:30:00] will take your direction so long as the
council agrees uh and move in that
[1:30:04] direction.
>> Thank you.
[1:30:07] » Thank you. Okay. Um, I will make mine
quick because I know there's a lot of
[1:30:11] people waiting, uh, to be recognized.
So, um, uh, I don't think I can describe
[1:30:16] all of the events that have occurred,
um, any better than my colleagues have.
[1:30:19] Nashville on the coast. Darren, you
knocked it out of the park again. Um, I
[1:30:23] want to thank Chad, uh, Seal Beach City
Rotary for inviting me to do give an
[1:30:28] update uh, on the city and I want to
thank staff. You guys did a great job
[1:30:32] supporting me, so thank you for that.
Um, I also want to recognize Terry Young
[1:30:37] as uh her um woman of the year of
distinction uh from Senator Strickland.
[1:30:43] And then last but not least, um I
attended uh the funeral for our planning
[1:30:48] commissioner Rich Kohl's. It wasn't his
funeral, I'm sorry, his uh bench um
[1:30:54] memorial. Um and staff did such an
amazing job. Um the family was so happy.
[1:31:00] um they the family got the bench where
they wanted it to be and it was just a
[1:31:03] beautiful beautiful event. So um I want
to thank staff for supporting that
[1:31:08] family and and making sure it was a
beautiful day for them. And that is all
[1:31:12] I have right now. Um we are moving on to
the consent calendar. Items on the
[1:31:16] consent calendar are considered to be
routine and are enacted by a single
[1:31:20] motion with the exception of items
removed by council members. I'd like to
[1:31:24] call for a motion and a second to
approve the consent calendar with the
[1:31:28] exception of any item pulled.
>> It has been moved by Mayor Pro Tim Wong
[1:31:32] and second by council member Synle.
Please cast your vote.
[1:31:40] Mayor Landal.
Are you a yes?
[1:31:44] » Yes.
>> Motion carries five votes. Yes.
[1:31:48] » Thank you very much.
[1:31:52] Okay. Okay, now on to items removed from
the consent calendar. Um, I would like
[1:31:57] to call on Director Temple for a staff
report.
[1:32:02] » Thank you very much, Mayor. Good
evening, council members. Uh, good
[1:32:05] evening, city manager. Uh, item F
tonight is regarding the appointment of
[1:32:12] of uh citizen to of committee members to
a proposed citizen council business
[1:32:18] first advisory ad hoc committee. Um, as
some background, on November 8th, the
[1:32:23] city held a public strategic planning
meeting in which the the council
[1:32:28] identified goals that they wanted to
look at in the upcoming year. One of
[1:32:31] those being economic development. And as
a key priority, uh, staff was directed
[1:32:36] to create a committee that would serve
as a collaborative forum, uh, between
[1:32:41] the city and and and members of the
community in furthering those goals with
[1:32:45] some of the priorities being developing
a business concierge program uh,
[1:32:49] reviewing potential updates to the main
street specific plan and evaluating
[1:32:53] beautifification and revitalization
efforts. And so the item before you
[1:32:57] tonight members are being proposed for
ratification by council.
[1:33:03] » Thank you very much. Uh do any council
members have questions?
[1:33:08] » Go. Okay.
>> Okay. Uh I would like to take a moment
[1:33:14] to uh address this um and to address the
committee appointments to ensure we are
[1:33:19] being consistent and fair in our
process. As we reviewed the
[1:33:23] applications, there were a couple of
candidates who submitted after the
[1:33:27] stated deadline. While the deadline
itself is not binding, I think it is
[1:33:31] important that we apply our process
consistently and be mindful of those who
[1:33:35] submitted their applications within the
original time frame. In that spirit, I'm
[1:33:40] proposing to move forward with the
candidates from the original applicant
[1:33:44] pool selecting in the order in which
applications were received. This
[1:33:48] approach assures fairness, transparency,
and consistency for all applicants. With
[1:33:54] that um being said, I would like to make
a motion to adjust the appointments
[1:33:59] accordingly. I'll make a motion to
approve the committee appointments with
[1:34:02] the following revisions. Replace Woody
Woodruff with Natalie Wilson on the
[1:34:07] business first committee and replace
Sher Drum um with Lynette Van Voris on
[1:34:13] the Olympic Committee. Can I get a
motion in a second?
[1:34:21] It has been second by council member
Cyn. Please cast your vote.
[1:34:29] » That'll be a yes for me.
Motion carries. Five votes. Yes.
[1:34:34] Thank you very much.
>> And may I ask mayor is um are any of the
[1:34:38] members u for the business first ad hoc
committee here? Oh, sorry. Excuse me. I
[1:34:42] spoke out of turn. Apologies.
>> Um okay. At this time, I'd like to ask
[1:34:46] the appointees to the Citizen Council
Olympic Advisory Adoc Committee to
[1:34:50] please stand and be recognized.
>> What committee? Just one?
[1:34:55] » The Olympic.
>> Oh, no. Was it the business first?
[1:34:58] » No. Well, that's
>> Oh,
[1:35:01] so if you're if you're if you were
selected on the the Olympic committee,
[1:35:05] please rise.
[1:35:09] » Yes.
>> And
[1:35:16] Will everyone state their name?
>> Christine B
[1:35:23] » Catherine Walter
>> Rich
[1:35:27] Evan Moore
>> Margo Wheeler.
[1:35:31] » Thank you.
[1:35:36] » Congratulations on your appointment to
the Citizens Council Olympic Advisory
[1:35:39] Adoc Committee. We thank you for your
commitment and your willingness to serve
[1:35:43] the Seal Beach community. We look
forward to working with you. It's going
[1:35:48] to be fun. Okay. Now, I would like to
ask the appointees to the Citizen
[1:35:52] Council Business First Advisory Ad Hoc
Committee to please stand.
[1:36:00] State your names.
Steve Briggs,
[1:36:06] » Rosie Richie,
>> Cory Deleó.
[1:36:11] » Thank you. Congratulations on your
appointment to the Citizen Council
[1:36:15] Business First Advisory Adoc Committee.
We thank you for your commitment and
[1:36:19] your work and your willingness to serve
the Seal Beach community. We look
[1:36:23] forward to working with you. Thank you,
[1:36:30] » Madame Mayor. Before we move off of the
consent calendar, I needed to make one
[1:36:34] quick announcement on item H. Um the
employment agreement for the director of
[1:36:39] community development, a recent change
in the Brown Act requires that for all
[1:36:44] department heads, now an oral summary of
the compensation to uh and employment
[1:36:49] agreement needs to be made at that
meeting. And so I just wanted to
[1:36:53] announce that the annual salary will be
$188,899.60,
[1:36:58] which is step two in the pay scale for
the classification. and the benefits are
[1:37:02] the same same as other executive
managers. And thank you.
[1:37:05] » Thank you very much. Okay, we are now
going to move on, but again, I want to
[1:37:10] thank everybody for um submitting their
applications. And we're really excited
[1:37:14] to um see what we can come up with for
the Olympics and how to make Seal Beach
[1:37:19] successful with that and then also uh
help strengthen our business community
[1:37:23] and our main street. So, thank you all
again.
[1:37:29] Okay, now we are moving on. Oh, wait. We
need to vote. Oh, we did. We did. I'm
[1:37:35] sorry. I'm still sick, so forgive me.
Okay, now we're moving on to new
[1:37:40] business. Um, and I would like to call
on management analyst Barrett.
[1:38:01] Thank you, honorable mayor and city
council. It's a pleasure to be present
[1:38:06] this evening and to present about the
waste infrastructure enterprise, also
[1:38:11] known as WISE agreement.
>> Debbie Kelly from Republic Services is
[1:38:17] also joining. Thank you. I was hoping
Chief Bailey would click click through
[1:38:22] me, but okay. Um, Debbie Killy from
Republic Services is also joining us
[1:38:28] this evening, and we're happy to answer
any questions you may have after the
[1:38:32] presentation.
[1:38:36] » First, I'd like to share an executive
summary. The action requested is for
[1:38:41] council to adopt the wise agreement with
Orange County Waste and Recycling. I'll
[1:38:46] be referring to them as the county or
OCWNR.
[1:38:50] Um, adoption of the WISE agreement
ensures stable long-term disposal rates,
[1:38:55] modernizes terms, and maintains
participation benefits.
[1:39:01] The impact of adoption includes phase
disposal rate increases beginning in
[1:39:05] fiscal year 2026 to 2027, July 1st of
this year. Residential and commercial
[1:39:12] bills will increase in July 2026 per the
franchise terms with Republic Services.
[1:39:18] The term of the agreement is 10 years
with one optional 10-year extension.
[1:39:27] Now, I'll offer additional background.
The current waste disposal agreement or
[1:39:31] the WDA governs disposal at Orange
County waste and recycling landfills.
[1:39:37] Cities and sanitary districts deposit
waste at OCWNR landfills for stable
[1:39:42] rates. The Senate The city entered into
the WDA in 2009 and it was amended in
[1:39:48] 2016.
OCWNR introduced the new WISE agreement
[1:39:52] as WDA neared the June 30th, 2025
expiration date. Upon review, the Orange
[1:39:59] County City Managers Association, of
which Patrick, our city manager, Gyos,
[1:40:04] is a member,
um requested a 12-month extension to
[1:40:08] negotiate with OCWNR for better terms.
Cities, including Seal Beach, adopted
[1:40:14] amendments to extend the WDA term to
expire on June 30th, 2026. To allow time
[1:40:20] for this negotiate negotiation,
OCCMA convened a working group of
[1:40:25] subject matter experts to negotiate on
behalf of the cities. So why is there a
[1:40:31] need for a new agreement as opposed to
extending the term of the current WDA?
[1:40:35] The current WDA limits increases to
consumer price index only and does not
[1:40:41] reflect rising operational, regulatory,
and environmental compliance costs. And
[1:40:47] the county needs capital for landfill
closure and capacity expansion to
[1:40:51] continue meeting the needs of the
county.
[1:40:57] The key provisions negotiated are the
result of the negotiations that occurred
[1:41:03] between OCWR and OCCMA.
It was adopted by the board of
[1:41:08] supervisors in January and now it is
time for the cities to consider it. Key
[1:41:14] provisions negotiated by OCCMA and
included in the wise agreement include
[1:41:19] the rate structure phase rates for this
fiscal year through 2028-29
[1:41:25] CPI adjustments beginning in 2029 to30 a
slower increase than originally proposed
[1:41:32] by OCWR
an annual true-up process starting in
[1:41:36] 2030
um where they may free CPI adjustments
[1:41:41] depending on OCWR cost recovery and
tonnage revenue and cities may initiate
[1:41:46] meet and confer with review by an
independent consultant. Continuing on,
[1:41:51] transparency and oversight, annual
review and notification provisions
[1:41:56] ensuring OCCMA participation and
visibility, risk mitigation removed
[1:42:01] language that would make cities
financially responsible for hauler
[1:42:04] non-payment. A blended CPI index was
adopted with a blend of including solid
[1:42:11] waste and the all urban consumers index
and organics flexibility which remove
[1:42:18] the requirement to send all of the
organics to OCWNR.
[1:42:22] The county will offer the optional
organic processing services agreement,
[1:42:27] but staff does not recommend executing
the optional agreement at this time, and
[1:42:32] the city will continue utilizing
Republic's option as it is most
[1:42:35] cost-effective.
Of note, cities must adopt WISE by April
[1:42:41] 30th, 2026 to secure these rates.
Otherwise, cities are subject to a 10%
[1:42:47] increase. I also wanted to briefly share
an update on where we're at with
[1:42:51] adoption by the cities as this is not
just for Seal Beach. All cities in
[1:42:56] Orange County are currently going
through the same process. So cities that
[1:43:00] have adopted wise as of tonight include
Laguna Woods, Villa Park, Fullerton, the
[1:43:06] Midway City Sanitary District, Rancho
Santa Margarita, Dana Point, and Tustin.
[1:43:11] And in addition to Seal Beach, the
cities of Los Alamidos and Costa Mesa
[1:43:16] are considering WISE this evening as
well. And according to the OCCMA subject
[1:43:22] matter expert lead, we have not heard of
any cities that are not moving forward
[1:43:26] with WISE. All replied with moving
forward.
[1:43:32] Let's talk about the financial impact.
Keep in mind that WISE is an agreement
[1:43:37] between OCW and R and the city and our
franchise agreement is between the city
[1:43:42] and republic services. They are
interrelated and I hope I can clarify
[1:43:48] any confusion that might exist. But
talking now about how wise impacts the
[1:43:52] franchise agreement in terms of
financials.
[1:43:56] Republic rates use a blended formula for
annual increases where 70% is adjusted
[1:44:01] based on CPI and the remaining 30% is
adjusted based on landfill tipping fees.
[1:44:07] These are the fees where when a truck is
going to drop off trash at the county
[1:44:14] landfill. These are the fees we're
talking about
[1:44:17] under WISE. The disposal rate will
increase from 43.76
[1:44:23] to $67 per ton on July 1st of 2026.
Um, keep in mind that while this is an
[1:44:33] increase, the original request prior to
OCCMA negotiation was $82 per ton. So,
[1:44:40] the middle ground was $67 per ton. And
again, this is the cost of depositing
[1:44:45] trash at the landfill. Under the city's
current solid waste hauler agreement,
[1:44:51] this increase in tipping fees is passed
directly through to solid waste
[1:44:54] collection accounts. And these higher
tipping fees will help will result in
[1:45:00] higher rates. Here we can see the wise
rate structure as well as the republic
[1:45:05] services customer rates change from the
current fiscal year to the next fiscal
[1:45:10] year. And these rates would become
effective on July 1st of this year.
[1:45:17] Before opening it up to questions, I'll
close with alternatives and
[1:45:21] recommendation. First, alternatives.
OCWNR owns all of the landfills in
[1:45:26] Orange County. In theory, waste could be
taken outside of the county and
[1:45:31] deposited elsewhere. In practice, this
would be more expensive due to increases
[1:45:36] in labor and transportation fees. In
addition to being subject to a public
[1:45:41] disposal rates outside of the county,
this is something that Debbie and I
[1:45:45] talked about and it is the more
cost-effective option to execute WISE at
[1:45:50] this time. As far as we know, as
mentioned again, no cities are not
[1:45:54] signing WISE and staff's recommendation
is to execute the WISE agreement to
[1:45:59] ensure stable disposal and low rates
which is in the public interest.
[1:46:04] Thank you for your time this evening and
Debbie and I will be happy to answer any
[1:46:08] questions you may have.
>> Is there any comments or questions?
[1:46:17] » Did I hear you say correctly that all of
the OCWR owns all of the waste sites in
[1:46:23] Orange County?
>> The landfills. Yes.
[1:46:25] » The landfills. So, we're really talking
about landfill usage here. And is this
[1:46:29] where we currently are with Republic? So
my our friends at Republic, we're not
[1:46:36] changing out companies, bins,
infrastructure at all. We're still uh
[1:46:42] » Yeah, it's it's only the trash that's
going to those landfills.
[1:46:46] » Okay. And are you currently dumping into
these the trash into these sites?
[1:46:51] » Yes.
>> And of course, we're paying what? $43
[1:46:53] now, and it's going up to 67 in one fell
swoop. That's pretty big step
[1:46:59] » right there%.
But that's not for you. That's what
[1:47:03] » that's the landfill.
>> The landfill gets that moneyated here
[1:47:06] because only 30% of your service rates
or of your rate is made from that.
[1:47:12] » But this is smooth in terms of Republic
and your operations. Correct.
[1:47:17] » This is smooth. Yes. Same same place
we're going.
[1:47:19] » Thank you. I appreciate that.
>> If I may, mayor.
[1:47:24] And then uh based on the upon the
readings um this does not include the SB
[1:47:29] 1383 which is the how to deal with
organics or as far as being the unfunded
[1:47:35] state mandate. So just as just for
clarification for the audience um this
[1:47:40] uh trash increase will not include uh
dealing with organics. Is that correct?
[1:47:44] » Correct. This is for the city's current
franchise agreement. As you know, we're
[1:47:49] in negotiations with Republic to get
into compliance with SP 1383 and yes,
[1:47:55] rates would be adjusted at that time.
>> Thank you.
[1:48:01] » Um, similar question on the organics.
When will we see that rate increase? 6
[1:48:06] months, 10 years,
make it 20.
[1:48:12] » We're certainly um always very sensitive
to any rate increases. Um, so we're
[1:48:18] looking at all options as we continue
negotiations because they are ongoing ne
[1:48:24] negotiations. Honestly, not sure how
much I can say up here publicly. I can
[1:48:29] happily turn it over to public works
director Lee or our city attorney.
[1:48:35] » Okay,
thank you for your question, Council
[1:48:39] Member Senle. Um, just like U management
analyst Burch just said, uh, we are
[1:48:43] currently in active negotiations. While
we do have a target of trying to get
[1:48:48] this accomplished as soon as possible,
we do not have a definitive date that we
[1:48:51] could present at this time.
[1:48:55] » Okay. So, our just again where Council
Member Wong, excuse me, Mayor Prom Wong
[1:48:59] was stating um we just want to make sure
people know that there isn't a different
[1:49:04] rate increase coming down the road.
Okay.
[1:49:08] » Another can.
>> What?
[1:49:10] » Any other?
>> And another can. Not everybody's getting
[1:49:13] a can though, right? on the organics.
>> Um, most residents already have three
[1:49:19] containers like College Park residents.
So, it would just be the residents that
[1:49:22] only have trash and recycle right now.
They would be getting a third cart. So,
[1:49:26] it' be a three cart program is what
we've been negotiating.
[1:49:29] » Um, and what if those carts don't fit
and some of our alleys are super narrow
[1:49:33] and people don't even have space?
>> So, the the um the law allows for
[1:49:39] waivers. So, property owners that have a
space constraint, we can definitely work
[1:49:43] with them. do a waiver
>> on a waiver.
[1:49:47] » Any other comments or questions,
>> Patty?
[1:49:52] » Oh, I'm uh No, I'm I'm good. Sorry.
>> Okay. There's a lot going on in the
[1:49:57] trash world. So,
>> thank you, Lauren and Debbie. Thank you
[1:50:00] for coming tonight. I appreciate it. Um
I'd like to call for a motion in a
[1:50:04] second, please.
>> It has been moved by Council Member
[1:50:07] Calmic and second by Council Member
Steel.
[1:50:11] Please cast your vote.
[1:50:17] That would be a yes. Motion carries.
Five votes. Yes.
[1:50:20] » Thank you, ladies.
>> Thank you.
[1:50:24] » Okay. Now, moving on to public hearing.
Uh consideration of amendments to the
[1:50:29] zoning code to implement the housing
element relating to farmworker housing
[1:50:33] density bonus, minimum unit sizes, and
parking standards for studios and
[1:50:38] one-bedroom units. And I would like to
call upon interim uh director
[1:50:43] Temple.
>> Thank you, mayor. Good evening again,
[1:50:48] council, city manager. The item tonight
is a public hearing regarding zoning
[1:50:52] zoning code amendments, text amendments
related to the imple implementing the
[1:50:58] adopted housing element.
To provide some background, city council
[1:51:04] adopted the current cycle of the housing
element on October 27th of last year.
[1:51:11] Uh, and the
HCD issued finally issued us the letter
[1:51:17] of being in compliance on fe February
26th. And yes, if you do the math,
[1:51:21] that's took them four months to do that.
Um, we are in compliance. Uh, which is
[1:51:27] good news. However, in that letter, they
also reminded us that we are m are
[1:51:32] required to timely implement uh some
some of the statemandated programs that
[1:51:38] are related to the housing element. Then
the purpose of the those programs are to
[1:51:43] remove regulatory barriers to housing,
promote housing for all income levels
[1:51:48] and special needs groups, maintain
housing affordability, and to further
[1:51:53] fair fair housing.
[1:51:56] the programs being presented to council
tonight. Uh uh the first being program
[1:52:02] 1Q, farmworker housing. This doesn't
necessarily apply to the city of Seal
[1:52:07] Beach, but it's it's the state has a
one-sizefitit all in a lot of their
[1:52:12] programs, and there are several
communities throughout California that
[1:52:15] have farm workers that that are in need
of housing. Uh our the request is for us
[1:52:21] to update our code to uh allow employee
farmworker housing of six persons or
[1:52:26] fewer by right in residential zones um
and to add farmworker housing as a
[1:52:31] defined residential use. Program 2A and
2G are related. They're regarding the uh
[1:52:38] state's density bonus laws. So the state
has for quite some time has had a
[1:52:45] program which we actually have in our
code right now related to what's called
[1:52:49] a density bonus. That's when a housing
project proposes to
[1:52:56] have a certain amount of units within
the project set aside for lower income
[1:53:01] housing. And if you do so you're allowed
to get a bonus in the d beyond what's
[1:53:07] normally allowed in the density of the
zone. So, if you could normally build 20
[1:53:12] units, you could go up to 25 units
depending on how many uh affordable
[1:53:18] units that you have. Uh to to allow that
um because in certain situations, the
[1:53:24] development standards wouldn't allow
that. Uh it there's incentives related
[1:53:29] to relief from development standards
such as height, floor area ratio,
[1:53:34] reduced parking, setback reduction. Um
and there and in inclusive of uh program
[1:53:41] 2G
uh part of that the proposal is to
[1:53:44] facilitate the partnerships between
commercial and affordable housing
[1:53:48] developers uh to to so that they can so
that commercial developers can look at
[1:53:54] those those programs.
[1:53:58] The final two programs uh program 3H is
the state has told us that we needed to
[1:54:05] reduce minimum unit size across
residential zones. Uh currently in our
[1:54:10] single family neighborhoods the minimum
unit size is 1250 square ft and within
[1:54:15] Oldtown area it's 950. the so it's being
proposed that the minimum unit size to
[1:54:21] build a primary unit within one of those
zones is is 500 feet square feet across
[1:54:27] the board. Um and there was also as part
of it we cleaned up some of the language
[1:54:33] in Surfside some of the older language
as it as it spoke about ADUs and Jadus
[1:54:39] um that currently matches the language
for the rest of the city. Program 3J is
[1:54:45] parking standards. Uh right now any type
of housing that you build requires two
[1:54:50] spaces per unit. Uh this the this
proposal would reduce that requirement
[1:54:55] for studios in one bedrooms from two
spaces to one space per unit with the
[1:55:00] idea that those smaller units have a
lower demand in parking. uh just given
[1:55:05] their size and with the also with the
intention to to promote smaller, more
[1:55:10] affordable units.
[1:55:14] This item was heard by our planning
commission on February 2nd. Uh the
[1:55:19] commission considered the ordinance but
no recommendation due to a two tie vote.
[1:55:25] Uh one commissioner was absent and uh
there was a split vote.
[1:55:31] What that means procedurally is that the
state statute requires that the planning
[1:55:37] commission
uh review and make comment for the
[1:55:41] council to consider the item. But the
commission's role is advisory only on
[1:55:47] not binding to the city. And per the
code, if the for these types of
[1:55:51] situations, if the planning commission
fails to adopt the resolution, it's
[1:55:56] deemed approved to move forward to the
council for for review. And so that's
[1:56:01] why it's it's with with the council
tonight. Uh when when it was presented
[1:56:05] to the planning commission, there was an
additional program regarding emergency
[1:56:09] shelter provisions. I believe that's
what was the the controversial part uh
[1:56:16] amongst the most of the the commission's
discussion. Staff has uh removed that so
[1:56:21] that we could do further background
research into the issue and address it
[1:56:24] separately. And u we're moving forward
with the rest of the items tonight.
[1:56:31] So that concludes my presentation. Uh
staff's recommendation is to introduce
[1:56:36] and approve the ordinance 1725 to
implement these programs to in order to
[1:56:42] comply with state housing law.
>> Thank you.
[1:56:45] » Thank you very much.
Um do you we want to hold our comments
[1:56:50] until after we hear the public?
>> Okay. Uh at this time I will now open
[1:56:54] the public hearing. Are there any public
comments?
[1:57:07] Hi again, council mayor and and
everyone. Uh, just on this, so to my
[1:57:12] knowledge, the only real farming
activity in Seal Beach is on the weapons
[1:57:16] station. I'm not really sure of any
major other than just backyard
[1:57:20] gardening. And I understand probably
this is required by the state or related
[1:57:24] to our housing regulations and uh zoning
but um is is such housing uh you know to
[1:57:33] and again I don't know a lot about this
I didn't have time to read much about it
[1:57:36] but uh there there had been in the past
information that such housing is to be
[1:57:42] provided or on the property of the um of
the property owner for the farm or the
[1:57:48] ranch or whatever. Now, you know,
there's been a lot of changes and I
[1:57:51] haven't kept with a lot of that, but
would this housing be on the base? I
[1:57:56] would think it would not be and if it
was on if it's not, where in Seal Beach
[1:58:00] would it be or does it have to be
designated? So, it's just I guess
[1:58:05] procedural questions like that I was
just wondering about and is there any
[1:58:09] housing like this in Seal Beach now or
on the base or anywhere else related to
[1:58:15] farming or other agricultural activity?
Thank you.
[1:58:19] Thank you, Ken. Are we able to answer
his question?
[1:58:25] » Yeah, I want to emphasize that this is
not a development plan nor a development
[1:58:29] proposal. The these are updates to the
code. They're more policy updates by the
[1:58:35] council in order to facilitate
facilitate any proposed development in
[1:58:40] the future by private property owners.
So, there's no proposal for any
[1:58:44] farmworker housing within the city. Um,
Mr. Scythe is correct. There's not a lot
[1:58:50] of farm activity in the city. Uh, this
um, as I stated earlier, this is a a
[1:58:57] state of California one-sizefits-all
request. They would they essentially
[1:59:03] everything being proposed to to the
council tonight is already state law and
[1:59:09] that and the and the state is just
asking us to bring our codes to be in
[1:59:13] alignment with their codes to avoid uh
so that to avoid procedural
[1:59:20] timelines that so so that projects can
move quicker because there's not that
[1:59:25] conflict because because this the the
state law is actually the law that we
[1:59:30] needed defer to on these issues.
>> Thank you.
[1:59:33] » The only thing I would add is that by
adopting this, you're not encouraging
[1:59:37] any more farmworker housing or less
farmworker housing because it's simply
[1:59:40] what the state law already is.
>> Thank you. Are there any more public
[1:59:45] comments?
[1:59:56] » Hi, Teresa Miller. Um, Oldtown. Um, I
just had a couple cont comments. Um, I
[2:00:02] went through all of the This is section
D of the um, I guess it's the housing
[2:00:08] element programs and um, part of the
programs I just want to refer to there's
[2:00:13] like I don't know 52 out of 54 that are
funded from general fund. So the
[2:00:20] question is um, where is that money
going to come from and is there an
[2:00:24] estimate? Um everything was very vague
in this but I I have to talk about some
[2:00:29] of these because there are um I have
notes on all of them. Um you know we
[2:00:34] have there's one program for um ADU's
marketing u materials. Okay. Um to to
[2:00:41] let people know that this is really an
important thing. There is um something
[2:00:46] from the let's see where's this one? Uh
okay that was the employee farm worker
[2:00:52] which we just talked about for a second.
the um about the Navy or no I'm sorry
[2:00:57] about uh Main Street specific there's
something on that um there's
[2:01:02] uh some outreach for developer outreach
that was in here and one of them um the
[2:01:09] programs there was let's see promote OC
mortgage assistant programs there's you
[2:01:15] know there's just a ton of programs that
are um varied and and honestly everybody
[2:01:22] should really read it to see what it
entails because everything has you know
[2:01:27] a general fund at the end of the day. No
price tag but just where the money is
[2:01:31] going to come from. So um I think that's
just my question mainly. Um at the very
[2:01:38] end the very very last uh program it's
6C is to promote the uh smart growth and
[2:01:46] this this pretty much sums up everything
about um reducing the objective is to
[2:01:52] reduce the reliance on vehicle travel
where possible and foster healthier
[2:01:56] neighborhoods.
Th this document goes through a lot of
[2:02:00] things about um what's good what's good
for citizens but the majority focuses on
[2:02:06] highdensity housing in almost every
neighborhood. Um which you know when the
[2:02:14] question comes up about you know um the
remedy the the whatever that's called
[2:02:20] the builder's remedy. This is the
builder's remedy. This is it. Everything
[2:02:24] that they talk about is in this
document. There's no difference. So, I
[2:02:27] mean, by signing by approving all the
zoning that you did in December has
[2:02:35] locked us up. And if somebody does
decide, there's no going back. This is
[2:02:40] all to make it easier without any
regulation, without any oversight of any
[2:02:45] other uh group like the planning
commission. And um it's basically
[2:02:50] selling out to any developer who wants
to do just about anything as long as
[2:02:54] they meet the criteria. it can just, you
know, bypass anyone else's eyes. This is
[2:02:59] our community. I mean, I don't This is
our community. We bought houses here, as
[2:03:04] they did in a lot of others. I mean, I'm
sick and tired of hearing, "Oh, but the
[2:03:07] state says, um, okay, well, we're going
to get another administration soon, and
[2:03:11] maybe they're going to say something
different, but there's really no going
[2:03:14] back." So, um, I don't know. I I want to
know where all the money that these
[2:03:20] programs cost is going to come from.
So, thank you. Thank you, Teresa.
[2:03:27] » Thank you, Teresa.
Are there any other public comments?
[2:03:44] Hi, Ellery Deon, Oldtown. Two comments.
Number one, people need to think before
[2:03:50] they vote. This is absolutely what we
get for what we've got in Sacramento.
[2:03:56] It's time for a change. That's number
one. Number two, you keep getting
[2:04:01] threatened with builder's remedy. Look
at what you're signing off on. It's
[2:04:05] builder's remedy. It's an empty threat.
You're giving it away instead of having
[2:04:10] a builder come in and take it. So, I
You're in a tough place. I know it.
[2:04:16] I didn't vote in the way that got us
here, but the state of California did.
[2:04:21] So, we need to change how we vote if we
expect any changes at all. So, thank
[2:04:26] you.
>> Thank you, Ellery.
[2:04:30] Are there any other public comments?
[2:04:35] Okay. If not, I will now close the
public hearing and um now is the time
[2:04:41] for council discussion and deliberation.
[2:04:46] Thank you, mayor. Uh, yes, we're in a
tough spot, but we've seen that uh other
[2:04:53] cities that have uh decided to fight
that have lost at every um judicial
[2:05:01] milestone
and uh it's costing a lot of money. It
[2:05:07] will cost them a lot of money to come
into compliance before there's an
[2:05:11] opportunity for a regime change.
Um, and unfortunately, uh, on top of all
[2:05:18] of this, I understand from our community
development director and reading the
[2:05:22] document that there's like everything
from monthly to quarterly to annual
[2:05:28] reports on all of these items that our
department is going to have to comply
[2:05:34] with, which is going to take staff time
and is another unfunded mandate. So, um,
[2:05:42] yes, it's a tough situation for us, but
I think that, um,
[2:05:48] you know, if we
if we kind of take a step back and we
[2:05:53] look at at how development,
um, has actually evolved in Seal Beach,
[2:06:00] you know, our College Park
neighborhoods, Leisure World of course,
[2:06:04] which is self-governing,
um, and for the most part, on the hill,
[2:06:10] you know, things have not really changed
substantially. You know, there's some
[2:06:15] ADU activity that's going on and and uh
you know, that's that's happening. You
[2:06:22] know, Oldtown the uh the real threat for
Oldtown is we we can't get very much
[2:06:30] more dense
within 25 ft of height. And so the
[2:06:36] alternative, not so much an alternative,
but the the only course of action I if
[2:06:43] these rules become tighter is that we
would be forced to go up or we'd be
[2:06:49] forced to go back to R2 instead of R1 on
a oldtown 25- ft lot. Um, but so far
[2:06:59] that doesn't seem to be imminent. But I
think what we have to be very watchful
[2:07:05] of is what the next RENA assessment's
going to be. You know, I've heard from
[2:07:11] different sources that watch out. You
know, um, from from my viewpoint, um,
[2:07:19] anything anything over one in the next
round is
[2:07:26] you know, is almost impossible since
getting to the 1243
[2:07:31] was, you know, doing a a real dance of
the seven veils, you know, to get to
[2:07:36] that point. So, um, you know, I can't
offer solutions. Um, but I think if um
[2:07:46] I I think because we we are watchful,
meaning those of us that live in the
[2:07:54] different districts are are watchful of
what's going on in the district. You
[2:07:59] know, we hear, you know, what's what's
happening? Are people um wanting to
[2:08:04] start to push the envelope of what
they're going to be allowed to do? And
[2:08:08] of course, you know, they then have to
deal with their neighbors. And so
[2:08:12] there's sort of a a community pressure
to not go too crazy. Um, you know, in
[2:08:18] Oldtown it's a little bit a little bit
more difficult because, you know, all of
[2:08:24] a sudden people things suddenly appear
in Oldtown. Uh whether they be the
[2:08:30] vacation rentals or ADUs and so forth.
Um
[2:08:35] but I think that if as a community we
kind of keep our eyes open for uh what
[2:08:41] we think may be coming and you know we
can sort of act accordingly without you
[2:08:48] know blatantly trying to push back on
the state. I think it's been
[2:08:52] demonstrated that that doesn't get you
anywhere at this point. Thank you.
[2:08:58] » Thank you.
Um so I I in reading the document um I
[2:09:05] noticed in several places that it talks
about um who's the responsible party for
[2:09:11] different pieces of these programs and a
lot of it says general fund. So my
[2:09:16] concern is we are now in budget time and
going to be moving through the budget
[2:09:21] and then we have if we adopt this right
now we've got all these unknowns in here
[2:09:26] with general fund general fund general
fund. We have no idea what we're walking
[2:09:30] into. And so I'm deeply concerned that
we need to look at the financial
[2:09:37] obligations of an unfunded mandate that
is going to be put upon this city. So
[2:09:43] that is very concerning. Um the other
thing is tonight in item D because we
[2:09:48] voted that out. Um our staff is able to
move forward with the progress report
[2:09:53] that is due April 1st. So, if we were to
hold this back, this does not impact the
[2:09:59] ability to submit our first report
that's due on April 1st. So, that would
[2:10:03] be cleared. So, um I um there's a lot of
information in here. Every time I read
[2:10:09] this stuff, it's more confusing than the
first time I read it. And I think um
[2:10:15] your quote, Ken, was just, you know,
probably where a lot of our people are
[2:10:20] don't know. It takes a lot of time. You
know, it's spot on. So anyway, I'm of
[2:10:25] the opinion because we don't know the
cost that we're walking into, we need to
[2:10:28] hold off on this piece. We've already
voted out the most important piece so we
[2:10:32] can be in compliance. And I think this
needs to go back. Um I would encourage
[2:10:37] us to consider a study session. Our
residents are very unaware of this and
[2:10:42] we need to let people know about this,
walk through it with us. I think we need
[2:10:45] a study session, get our residents
informed, our businesses informed, and
[2:10:49] we need to understand the implications
on our budget because we're in budget
[2:10:53] right now. And if there's stuff in here
that's going to hit us, that means we
[2:10:56] got to cut elsewhere to be able to
afford this stuff that the state wants
[2:11:00] us to do. So, I'm deeply concerned about
the budget implications. So, um, that's
[2:11:05] where I'm at. I think this is not this
piece is not ready to go tonight. We
[2:11:09] need to send it back. We can have
planning commission look at it again
[2:11:12] study session let our residents and
businesses opine be aware and then bring
[2:11:17] this back. I I do not feel that I have
enough information to vote on this.
[2:11:23] » Thank you.
>> Can I can I just ask a clarifying
[2:11:25] question? Uh I understand the comment
about the general fund and the impacts
[2:11:29] of the programs, but the ordinance
tonight is the I guess the cost or the
[2:11:34] resources to implement the four or five
programs that are addressed in this uh
[2:11:39] ordinance have been absorbed for however
you want to put that um and are
[2:11:45] memorialized in this ordinance.
Obviously, there are other costs
[2:11:50] associated with compliance with all the
other uh programs that need to be
[2:11:54] discussed and considered as part of a
budget, but the four or five programs
[2:11:58] that are addressed in this ordinance, I
guess, are sort of that cost has been
[2:12:02] incurred.
>> I'm reading tons of programs in here.
[2:12:07] » I totally get it. Uh and the ordinance
is only covering how many programs,
[2:12:12] Sean,
>> there it's five programs tonight?
[2:12:15] » Five programs.
So there's yeah there's um I don't know
[2:12:20] when I when I do the uh the annual
progress report there's some there's 70
[2:12:25] different uh reporting items but some of
them were broken of different programs
[2:12:31] but there's there's uh I believe there's
probably about 25 30 programs and the
[2:12:39] but for example one of the programs was
adopt the mixeduse zone which was done
[2:12:45] in last October And so these are it's
not being proposed that we adopt all
[2:12:50] these programs tonight. Um it we're just
as our city attorney stated, we're just
[2:12:56] looking at the the five of the programs
which which I listed out in my
[2:13:02] presentation. Those were absorbed
through staff time. Staff time is paid
[2:13:07] out of the general fund and that's why
that was listed. Uh similarly um Teresa
[2:13:13] Miller brought up a few items program 6A
the the smart goal implementation and in
[2:13:22] and uh urban planning what what smart
growth is is is trying to
[2:13:29] design development that moves more to
pedestrian scale kind of how oldtown is
[2:13:35] versus the suburban scale which is the
the driving you drive everywhere you go
[2:13:40] instead instead of walking. And so
through the implementation of the
[2:13:43] mixeduse zone where you now have
potential to have residential uses
[2:13:49] within the commercial areas
that we reported that as achieving the
[2:13:56] the smart goal policy of 6A the ADU
marketing materials uh is essentially us
[2:14:03] updating our website. We have a ADU page
on our website that has a lot
[2:14:08] information on on ADUs that accomplishes
that goal that was done through staff
[2:14:14] time updating the website. Several of
these um are just staff time and I I
[2:14:21] agree with Council Member Synagol. I
think I think a study session and and
[2:14:26] looking at these uh programs would be
very beneficial. It's very confusing
[2:14:32] this housing element. It's not it's it's
just it's so much information
[2:14:38] that it's it's hard. It's like taking an
entire uh three or four year program in
[2:14:44] college and trying to read it over the
weekend. It's it's just it's it's too
[2:14:48] much information and I I think some some
additional community outreach. uh and
[2:14:54] I'm always available if anyone wanted to
reach out to me directly uh would would
[2:14:59] be helpful but a lot of this is just
incurred by by staff time and anything
[2:15:04] that would need any sort of significant
amount of money uh you know within the
[2:15:09] tens of thousands or or above. We would
bring to council individually that
[2:15:16] program and say this program is going to
need need this amount of money and then
[2:15:21] we could have that discussion on how
much money it merits at that time.
[2:15:28] » Thank you very much.
>> I have a question
[2:15:32] » if I may
>> please.
[2:15:34] » Um thank you. Um,
this is the kind of thing that we do. We
[2:15:41] we just don't have enough information
really to to even fathom what this is
[2:15:45] all about. And I have little to none no
trust in Sacramento and their policies
[2:15:51] and the way they're pointed in this
world and the way itffects affect Seal
[2:15:56] Beaches.
To be honest with you, we don't know
[2:15:59] what Seal Beach is going to look like in
25 years. I know what we want it to look
[2:16:03] like in 25 years. And that's not
substantially different than what it
[2:16:07] looks like now. But if we start opening
up the um the the floodgates to a 500
[2:16:13] square foot minimum, for example, or if
we have um density bonuses that allow
[2:16:20] some builder somewhere someday get a
density bonus that allows them to build
[2:16:24] a six-story building or 30story building
or whatever it happens to be somewhere
[2:16:29] in here and we don't have the control as
a city to to do something about it. I
[2:16:34] know we have ordinances that have passed
that prohibit that have height limits in
[2:16:38] it, but what does the builder's remedy
do to that with a density bonus? And so
[2:16:43] I'm not I don't like this. I've been
I've said it before, I'll say it again.
[2:16:48] I think Sacramento is
[2:16:53] I won't I won't repeat what I said last
time. So I've been quoted on that. Uh I
[2:16:58] don't want to give them an inch. I
always bristle when uh things like
[2:17:02] housing elements come around and I
played along with that and now we have a
[2:17:06] this is the back end of the housing
element I suppose right now and I I just
[2:17:10] I don't like playing the game. I don't
mind telling Sacramento
[2:17:16] no until I have a better understanding
of really what we're talking about here.
[2:17:20] if they're they're opening the
floodgates to 500 foot ADUs and those
[2:17:24] ADUs could be sold in the secondary
market and that could genuinely impact
[2:17:29] Oldtown. It could impact uh uh the hill.
It could impact every part of this town.
[2:17:36] Uh so I I I don't want to play along to
be honest with you tonight anyway till I
[2:17:42] get more information.
>> Thank you very much. Mayor Prom,
[2:17:47] » do you have any comments?
>> Not at the moment. Sorry.
[2:17:50] » Um, okay. Um, so 2 a um transferring
review of authority from the planning
[2:17:57] commission to the community development
direct. So why do we even need a
[2:18:03] planning commission? Is that really
what's where we're headed with this?
[2:18:10] » Well, when it in reference to the
density bonus, essentially all this is
[2:18:16] already statutory law within the state.
what what would be requested if they
[2:18:21] provide a certain amount of affordable
units, they're allowed to have certain
[2:18:24] incentives.
And so the commission while having the
[2:18:30] ability to hear it wouldn't have the
discretion, which is their purpose is to
[2:18:34] have discretion to make changes per the
state law. They could say something
[2:18:39] contrary, but then that would be
contrary to state law. So the idea is
[2:18:45] since these are pretty much objective
standards within the state code that the
[2:18:50] state wants it to be done through
administrative process. So that would be
[2:18:55] done through through the director's
review.
[2:18:59] » Thank you. Um I feel like at this rate,
you know, uh the next question will be
[2:19:06] why do we even need a city council?
So,
[2:19:11] um, yeah, I'm I'm I'm not for pushing
through this quickly. Um,
[2:19:17] something else, um, you said earlier in
regards to the farm workers, uh, that
[2:19:21] the state has made it like a
one-sizefits-all, and I feel like that's
[2:19:24] what they're doing to us with the arena
numbers. So, it's not fair, um, where
[2:19:30] that we've got the the same numbers or
that same template uh, as other cities.
[2:19:35] And um you know I I when I go out to the
Inland Empire um they have so much land
[2:19:40] there and they're building like crazy.
Um but it it's it's not what we'd be
[2:19:47] looking at here in Seal Beach. I mean
somebody said to me once uh the analogy
[2:19:53] once the toothpaste comes out of the
tube there's no putting it back in. And
[2:19:58] once we go, you know, high density here
in in Oldtown, the the character of
[2:20:03] Oldtown is going to be destroyed forever
and there's no going back on that. So,
[2:20:09] um I I also think we maybe need to bring
this back. So, okay.
[2:20:15] » Can I um Mayor Oh, I'm sorry. Were you
going to speak?
[2:20:20] » No, go ahead.
>> Oh, okay. I'll make a motion. Um um I
[2:20:24] would like to motion that we bring this
um this item back and in the interim we
[2:20:29] have another stop at the planning
commission for discussion. Maybe you
[2:20:33] combine the planning commission with a
um study session or separate them
[2:20:38] whatever staff thinks is best. I think
we need more information. Um I certainly
[2:20:43] need to be again um it's it's confusing
and so I think we need to um bring it
[2:20:49] back. So, the motion is return this um
at a later date and in the interim have
[2:20:54] the planning commission and a study
session um together and then bring it
[2:20:59] back or you can if if it's better to
separate them or bring them together,
[2:21:03] but bring this back after we have more
time to really understand what we're
[2:21:07] voting on and our residents need to know
what we're voting on and our businesses
[2:21:10] need to know what we're voting on.
>> I'll second.
[2:21:18] » Go ahead. I I just had a question, Sean.
Um
[2:21:22] the delay that we're asking for, how
what's the impact on your department and
[2:21:28] our ability to, you know, be in
compliance with the state and our
[2:21:34] housing element being valid,
a re report to the state once a year. So
[2:21:41] that was the item D tonight was the
annual progress report that will be sent
[2:21:46] to Sacramento this week and they can our
next reporting period would be next
[2:21:54] April 1st. So it they would want to see
what updates have happened in between
[2:22:02] now and then in the programs.
>> We say next April 1st. Is that 2027?
[2:22:08] » Correct.
>> Next year.
[2:22:09] » Correct. However, I don't they may do a
review of the annual progress report and
[2:22:16] ask for some sort of updates. I don't
know if that would happen, but the next
[2:22:20] report would be uh April 1st, 2027.
>> The only thing I would add is that
[2:22:27] there's not like a the deadlines for a
lot of this have already passed in the
[2:22:31] housing element. Uh HCD is charged with
reviewing this compliance with every
[2:22:37] city's housing element.
um when they're going to do that I can't
[2:22:42] say for certain. So a a next April 1st
is not like a deadline. Doing it as
[2:22:47] quickly as possible is I guess the only
thing I can offer.
[2:22:53] » Thank you very much. We take a role.
>> Yes. Council member Synical. How do you
[2:22:58] vote?
>> Can we repeat the motion, please?
[2:23:02] » Do you want to read it back or you
>> Oh, you can read it back. I did make
[2:23:07] notes. You did say that you wanted to
>> this item would be returned to staff to
[2:23:12] um have return it to the planning
commission a study session and also um
[2:23:18] we need to fill in the blanks on some of
the costs whatever this general fund
[2:23:21] impact is. We need to see the cost
impacts as well when this comes back
[2:23:27] or the best you can estimate our cost
impacts.
[2:23:30] » So does that mean we're not voting on
item J or we are substituting? We are
[2:23:37] substituting what the recommendation
was.
[2:23:41] » Mayor Landau, how do you vote?
>> Yes.
[2:23:43] » Council member Calm, how do you vote?
>> Yes.
[2:23:45] » Council member Steel, how do you vote?
>> Yes.
[2:23:47] » Council member Mayor Pro Tim Wong, how
do you vote?
[2:23:50] » Yes.
>> Motion carries. Five votes. Yes.
[2:23:53] » Okay.
>> Thank you very much. Okay. Um, I will
[2:23:58] now adjourn tonight's city council
meeting to Monday, April 13th, 2026
[2:24:03] at 5:30 p.m. to meet in close session if
deemed necessary. Thank you and good
[2:24:08] night.