Dave Emerson here. We’ve been receiving more citizen contributions lately through the “contact us” button at the top of each page. I put some into the “Curious Minds” post of a week ago, this time I thought I’d try a separate post from a “Concerned Citizen” who wishes to remain anonymous, although I really doubt you’d know this Los Al resident even if I told you this citizen’s name.
In any case, contributions from local residents and businesses are very much appreciated, regardless of the individual’s point of view. I’d really like to see this blog become less of an individual’s site and more of a community forum.
If you’ve got concerns to express, you can e-mail them to us via the “Contact us” button, or post them under the appropriate article, or under our “Curious Minds” post if they don’t fit in elsewhere.
by “Concerned Citizen”
(Los Alamitos, 7/31/2010) A few months back I filled out a questionnaire that the City was offering as a way for local citizens to have input on future commercial development. Good idea, right?
Well, a more detailed reading of the Commercial Corridor Plan from Compass Blueprint seemed to reveal that at the heart of the project was the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and Orange County Transit Authority (OCTA). And the plan is actually a prelude to increased bus service and bus stations along our two major thoroughfares.
It seems that the offer of input was really just a way to assuage the feelings of the residents for a plan that will result in more traffic, congestion, and attendant issues, further deteriorating the core of our City.
If that’s OK with you…then do nothing. Thanks for your time.
Dave again. “Citizen’s” post got me thinking, & I reviewed the page the city put up about the SCAG Compass Corridors Study six months ago, at the onset. If you read closely, you’ll see that a part of it was, as “Citizen” suggests, definitely about coming High Speed Bus Routes on Katella. (Note the portions I have bolded, which refer to bus routes):
The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is providing a grant to the City of Los Alamitos to re-envision the land uses, circulation, and livability of Katella Avenue and Los Alamitos Boulevard.
At the same time, the Orange County Transit Authority (OCTA) is planning to introduce enhanced bus service (Bus Rapid Transit or BRT) along Katella Avenue. Over the next six months, the City will analyze and outline actions that can be taken to capitalize on the forthcoming BRT routes and stations, stimulate new private investment and development, and ultimately create a new vision for great places in Los Alamitos
Bus Rapid Transit, done properly, could be a good thing, but clearly the SCAG Compass Corridors study was neither an impartial nor comprehensive study of long term zoning issues that would most benefit local residents and the community. That study still needs to be done, and the retail overlay proposed by our Planning Commission and tabled by our City Council should be implemented on an interim basis until such a study is completed.
Fortunately, the City Council has been considering the need for such a General Plan Review, which will be a discussion item at this Monday’s City Council Meeting (8/2/2010), based on the work of a subcommittee consisting of Dean Zarkos and Gerri Mejia, along with city staff. Click here for the staff report on the recommendations of the Council’s General Plan Subcommitteee.
Related posts:
My hopes were that this would lay out some groundwork for a real plan for the city. A chance to leverage the study to rezone Katella to a more retail district with some commercial, but focus on retail and growth.
Imagine my disappointment.
Yet another plan for a “downtown” when we should be focused on how to get one car out of every 100 that passes through to stop.
Los Alamitos isn’t quaint. We don’t have an artists colony. We have no beach. We have no pier. In simple terms, we have no draw. We are not 2nd Street, nor Pine Ave.
The only thing we do have is one very large piece of industrial zoned property that has frontage on Katella. Property that would have a far higher value if rezoned to commercial retail.
But, after screaming about this from the rooftops for the last two years (and more privately) it is quite clear, after reading the report, that the vehicle to do this is NOT the report.
If, as you have often said, Parker and Driscoll were so good for the city of Los Alamitos, why didn’t they rezone that industially zoned property when they controlled the city council for 4 years, and put a halt to the expansion of the medical complexes? Evidently they were no smarter than the previous council members that you’ve complained about.
Interestingly, the exchange between Mr. Ivler & Mr. “To: Ivler,” along with the topics above segue rather naturally into Monday’s Council Discussion Item on the work of the Council’s General Plan Subcommittee. I’ve added more about that to the body of the above post, including a link to the Staff Report, as well as a quote of interest from the City’s initial web page on the SCAG study.
When Driscoll and Parker were on the council it was not time for an update of the General Plan, now it is time for the update.
Thanks to the sense of urgency from Edgar we should soon be finding out what his plan is for Los Alamitos.
I am looking forward to what he has in store for the large industrial plot of land at Katella & Lexington.
At the last city council meeting he said “you have to spend money to make money”
I can hardly wait !!
Keep in mind the reason for this General Plan update is item #4, The incorporation of the hospital specific plan into the general plan. The consideration of future rezoning of the large industrial parcels on Katella was added by the Planning Commission. Too little too Late.
Unfortunately for the citizens of Los Alamitos a possible re-zone from a low impact industrial zone to a high impact retail zone may very well be a non-starter along Katella.
The hospital specific plan encompassing 18-20 acres when fully developed will generate massive traffic impacts that must be mitigated. In determining their required mitigations the Hospital must take into consideration the traffic impacts of other properties/developments in the city based on the existing zones of those properties.
For example, the Arrowhead Property is currently zoned Industrial and as such generates very little in the way of traffic impact compared to the same size parcel zoned retail. The hospital in looking at overall traffic impacts currently in the city need only consider the low impact of the industrial zone in determing the needed mitigations for their added traffic from the specific plan.
Those needed mitigations will be quite a bit less than if the current Arrowhead property were zoned Retail. In effect this allows the hospital to increase development to the increased level of traffic mitigations they can use as a result of low impact industrial zones. Note: Traffic impacts are calculated “as if” the property were fully developed as allowed in the zone. They are not based on current state of use or development.
Once the specific plan is in place, the proposed 20 year development plan will have identified traffic impacts and sufficient traffic mitigations to allow full build out of the hospital campus.
Unfortunately for the citizens of Los Alamitos a future zone change to Retail on the same Arrowhead propety will require the city to determine the traffic impacts of the re-zone. So now the city must determine the traffic impacts as if the property were fully developed retail and provide such traffic mitigations for those impacts.
Given the current level of development along Katella including the massive hospital specific plan it is questionable that there will be sufficient mitigations available to allow retail uses in the now industrial zones. It is a real possibility the hospital development will consume such significant traffic mitigations that zone changes to more intense zones in the city will be limited or even prohibited.
City planning should have been placed ahead of the hospital specific plan and not behind it.
Art–and any other readers with Planning & Zoning experience:
While from your viewpoint it would have been optimal for the Council to have approved the retail overlay proposed by the Planning Commission before the commencement of the hospital specific plan, wouldn’t such a change or proposed change now have to be taken into consideration in the process of approval of the hospital specific plan?
In other words, even if it would have been better to act sooner, aren’t there still significant benefits to acting now?
Damn Art, isn’t that what I was saying over a year ago?
JM–
It was what Art was saying too, and that got him kicked off the Planning Commission. He didn’t even hold up signs in a Council meeting, let alone use hand puppets.
If enough of us really commit to supporting strong, caring, intelligent and independent candidates financially & with our time & our contacts, hopefully three such people will pull and return papers before the week’s end.