TITLE
Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and adopt Mitigated Negative Declaration MND-06-17;
Declare ordinance amending Parts 11 and 17 of the Use District Map (Zone Change ZCHG17-007) read the first time and laid over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for final reading;
DISCUSSION
The project site, located at 2300 Redondo Avenue, is currently the home of the United States Postal Service (USPS) Long Beach Processing & Distribution Center (P&DC). This is a regional mail processing facility, constructed approximately 40 years ago, and is one of three serving the Los Angeles metropolitan area (the other two are located in the City of Los Angeles and the City of Industry). This facility’s operations involved industrial-scale, region-serving inbound and outbound trucking and transportation of the U.S. mail, and distribution to the national and regional mail delivery networks. The Long Beach P&DC is in the process of being closed by the USPS due to budgetary and operational factors, and nearly all mail processing activities at the site have ceased. The USPS continues to operate a retail Post Office at the site, which will move by April 2018, to the newly-constructed retail Post Office facility directly east of the project site, located at 3700 E. Burnett Street. The new retail Post Office site is located on a 3.07-acre parcel subdivided out of the P&DC site and retained by the USPS; the remaining 19.091-acre development parcel was deeded to Pacific Industrial (Developer) in April 2017, after they were selected by USPS through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
The Developer, proposes to build a new light industrial center, named Pacific Edge, at the site of the Long Beach P&DC (Exhibit A - Project Location and Vicinity Map). The site is surrounded by industrial and institutional uses to the north, industrial uses in the City of Signal Hill across Redondo Avenue to the west, the California National Guard facility to the south, a residential neighborhood zoned R-2-N (Two-family Residential, standard lot) across the alley to the east along the southern two-thirds of the eastern edge of the project site, and the newly-constructed USPS retail Post Office facility to the east along the northern one-third of the eastern edge of the project site.
The Developer will clear the 19.091-acre (831,623-square-foot) project site of the approximately 326,000-square-foot single-story USPS building, and the site will be subdivided into three smaller lots of 382,468 square feet (8.78 acres), 238,125 square feet (5.467 acres), and 211,030 square feet (4.845 acres) (Exhibit B - Tentative Parcel Map No. 77075). Each of the three lots will be improved with one new single-story, 45-foot-tall light industrial building. The buildings will total 424,050 square feet, broken down into 206,525 square feet at 2300 Redondo Avenue (Building 1), 113,520 square feet at 3200 E. Burnett Street (Building 2), and 107,520 square feet at 3600 E. Burnett Street (Building 3). The project will be provided with a total of 638 parking spaces, 286 at Building 1; 175 at Building 2; and, 177 at Building 3. Each building will also be provided with a 135-foot-deep truck court, and an optional 10,000-square-foot mezzanine for office use. The buildings will feature the office spaces as architectural corner elements, with room for potential addition of future office space inside Building 1 on a second corner of the building (Exhibit C - Plans and Renderings). The buildings will accommodate various light industrial tenants, and the truck courts for each building have been specifically designed to preclude any trucking, transloading, or third-party logistics uses, which normally require 180-foot-or-more-deep truck courts. Access to the site will be taken from Redondo Avenue and Burnett Street, with no vehicular access from 23rd Street or the alley of the site.
The project site is currently zoned I (Institutional), reflective of its longstanding use as a government facility, which also matches the zoning of the California National Guard property directly south of the site, and the Army National Guard property farther to the south across Stearns Street (Exhibit D - Existing Zoning Map). The Institutional zone does not allow for light industrial uses; therefore, a Zone Change is requested to accommodate the proposed light industrial development. The proposed zoning recommended by staff is an extension of the adjacent Long Beach Business Center Planned Development District (PD-7), which allows the use, scope, and development standards that are appropriate for light industrial development at the project site (Exhibit E - Proposed Rezoning Map).
A Zoning Code Amendment is required to amend PD-7 to provide for the addition of a new subarea for the project site, and to specify the use restrictions and development standards that will apply (Exhibit F - Draft Text of PD-7 Zoning Code Amendment). The zoning and development standards of PD-7 largely mirror those of the IL (Light Industrial) zoning district, which allows a wide range of industries whose primary operations occur entirely within enclosed structures, and which pose limited potential for environmental impacts on neighboring uses. The performance and development standards of the IL district (and PD-7) are intended to allow a wide range of uses as long as those uses will not adversely impact adjacent uses. These uses typically will include clean, non-nuisance industries whose operating characteristics (e.g., noise, hazardous materials, odors, dust, light, and glare) are either confined completely within the property or result in limited secondary impacts in terms of traffic, air emissions, and hours of operation. Examples include research and development, flex space (e.a., combined office/sales/warehouse/production for one firm), warehousing, small-scale incubator industries, or assembly operations. These types of restrictions are appropriate and necessary for light industrial uses adjacent to a residential district, and this model currently provides for successful coexistence of light industrial uses and adjacent residential uses in areas across the City.
The site is located in General Plan Land Use District (LUD) No. 7-Mixed Use District. This LUD allows for large multi-purpose activity centers, including centers of employment and a wide variety of larger-scale uses. The entire industrial-institutional corridor that stretches from Willow Street and Redondo Avenue south to Pacific Coast Highway and the Traffic Circle has this LUD No. 7 designation (Exhibit G - General Plan Land Use District Map pages 11 and 17). The proposed project is consistent with this designation, and in conformance with the General Plan; therefore, no General Plan Amendment is needed.
A number of dedications and other improvements are required by code and conditions of approval to offset the capital improvements to public infrastructure necessary to support this project. These include street and sidewalk dedications on Redondo Avenue and Burnett Street, construction of full ADA improvements on existing right-of-way adjacent to the project, traffic signal upgrades to all signalized intersections directly affected by the project, bus stop relocation and reconstruction, and new tree wells, street trees, root barriers, and irrigation systems adjacent to the project site. Additionally, other infrastructure upgrades and improvements are required as part of the mitigation measures identified in the environmental analysis prepared for this project. These include a new traffic signal at Redondo Avenue and Industry Drive, a traffic signal timing study and adjustments to signal timing at the intersections of Redondo Avenue/Willow Street and Lakewood Boulevard/Willow Street. Staff has also included conditions of approval aimed at protecting the residential neighborhood to the east of the project site from any noise generated in the truck courts and any other outdoor operations of the project site, to ensure that no significant negative impacts occur to the residential neighborhood (Exhibit H - Conditions of Approval). This includes enhancement or replacement of the existing property line block wall, and a construction timing requirement to ensure the block wall is completely in place during maximum periods of on-site construction.
Overall, staff finds the proposed project conforms to the requirements of the applicable Zoning Regulations, subject to City Council approval of the Zone Change request and the Zoning Code Amendment to PD-7, and that all other relevant findings of fact necessary for approval are met (Exhibit I - Findings). On February 15, 2018, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on this project, and recommended that the City Council approve the recommendation. Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Mitigated Negative Declaration MND-06-17, approve the Zone Change, Zoning Code Amendment, Site Plan Review, and Tentative Parcel Map for the proposed development.
A total of 600 notices of public hearing were distributed on February 27, 2018, in accordance with the requirements of Chapter 21.21 of the Zoning Regulations. A newspaper notice for the Zone Change and Zoning Code Amendment was published on February 28, 2018, in the local newspaper of record, as required by Chapter 21.21. As of the preparation of this report, no comments or written testimony have been received.
Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the State CEQA Guidelines, an Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND-06-17, SCH #2017121033) has been prepared for the project and finds that, by implementing identified mitigation measures, the project will not result in significant effects to the environment. The IS/MND was circulated for a 30-day public review period between December 12, 2017 and January 10, 2018. Staff received two comments on the MND, both from other public agencies providing standard informational comments.
The recently-built Richard D. Browning High School, located at 2180 Obispo Avenue, southwest of the project site across Redondo Avenue, began operations in fall of 2017. A separate traffic study was conducted by the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), and the City’s traffic consultant who prepared the traffic study for the MND reviewed this traffic study, and determined that inclusion of the anticipated high school vehicular trips in the Cumulative (Year 2019) Plus Project Conditions analysis would not change the result of the traffic analysis in the MND (Exhibit J - MND-06-17 and supplementary memorandum).
This matter was reviewed by Assistant City Attorney Michael J. Mais on February 27, 2018 and by Budget Analysis Officer Julissa Josè-Murray on March 1, 2018.
TIMING CONSIDERATIONS
City Council action is requested on March 20, 2018. Pursuant to Section 21.25.103 of the Zoning Regulations, this request must be presented to the City Council within 60 days of positive action by the Planning Commission, which took place on January 4, 2018.
FISCAL IMPACT
There are no fiscal or local job impact associated with this recommendation.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Approve recommendation.
BODY
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LONG BEACH AMENDING THE USE DISTRICT MAP OF THE CITY OF LONG BEACH AS SAID MAP HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED AND AMENDED BY AMENDING PORTIONS OF PARTS 11 AND 17 OF SAID MAP FROM I (INSTITUTIONAL) TO PD-7 (LONG BEACH BUSINESS CENTER PLANNED DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT)
Respectfully Submitted,
TOM MODICA
INTERIM DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT SERVICES
APPROVED:
PATRICK H. WEST
CITY MANAGER