“LONG BEACH- Environementalists won a voice Tuesday night in a new review of coastal zoning codes that have protected Los Cerritos Wetlands area for the past three decades.
The City Council voted 7-2 to have the city’s planning staff seek public input on the South East Area Development and Improvement Plan.
SEADIP governs the area mainly between Pacific Coast Highway and Studebaker Road , south of Loynes Drive to the city border at the San Gabriel River.
The council action — opposed by 3rd District Councilman Gary DeLong and 2nd District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal– did not include a recommended $250,000 funding proposal to pay for an environmental impact report.
Suzanne Frick, director of planning and building, had recommended an 18-month effort to update SEADIP in four phases: Public outreach seeking input, preparation of a draft plan and draft environmental impact report, public outreach on the plan and draft EIR and, finally, hearing for adoption of the two documents.
However, 7th District Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga proposed the council approve only the public input phase of the plan, and hold off on the EIR until the council got a report on the community meetings — so that it would not be locked into a costly environmental study.
Tuesday’s vote is a follow-up move by the council, which unanimously agreed June 5 to open up the review process.
Environmentalists consider both votes victories, opening up a process that had once blocked their participation.
A revised SEADIP proposal — put together by a committee picked by DeLong — called for code changes that would have allowed for increased building height limits up to 60 feet. Environmentalists asserted those changes would result in higher densities — and, as a result, pose dangers to the wetland’s sensitive ecosystem.
DeLong’s committee report was basically shelved by the council, or so it seemed, with the June 5 vote.
Times as saying that her planning “staff is creating its own plan using the research from DeLong’s group and others involved in the issue.”
She repeated that aim Tuesday night, saying that a lot of work had been done — by the DeLong committee and others — and that the public input would become a part of the mix.
During the public comment, environmentalists sharply criticized Frick’s role in the DeLong committee sessions, and said the review process she recommended Tuesday night would be biased toward developers.
Fourth District Councilman Pat O’Donnell pressed Frick — as did Mayor Bob Foster — for a clear statement that she would begin the SEADIP review with a “clean slate,” and not use DeLong’s committee report as a baseline.
“Everything is on the table,” Frick responded, but she said DeLong’s committee report would not be the foundation of a new report.
The Long Beach Chapter of the Sierra Club called for city-wide input on th effort to rewrite the coastal zoning codes — and not restrict the review to the 3rd District.
In the report to the council, Frick said the SEADIP codes are more than 35 years old with “provisions that are no longer legally enforceable.”
Environmentalists challenged Frick’s assertions, saying she lacked the legal training to make that call.”
JOE SEGURA, LONG BEACH PRESS TELEGRAM
Recent Comments