TITLE
Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Section 21.21.302 relating to noticing requirements for hearings, read and adopted as read. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
On October 16, 2007, the City Council adopted an emergency ordinance adding additional noticing requirements for all planning permit applications for an interim period of one year (ORD-07-0050). To address residents' concerns over lack of sufficient notice for discretionary hearings, the emergency ordinance requires the following: (1) expansion of the existing 300-foot noticing radius to 500 feet plus two linear block faces in each direction, (2) posting of each subject site using a 30- by 36-inch sign, and (3) notification of all occupants, instead of property owners only, within the radius plus two blocks. In addition, Council directed staff to study the impacts of the interim noticing requirements and recommend amendments to the Zoning Ordinance to provide for increased noticing.
Staff held a community forum on October 1, 2008, to discuss the proposed changes with neighborhood group leaders and interested members of the community. At the forum, staff presented the proposed changes and received comments and opinions from the public. In order to align the changes more closely with the desires of the community, staff made several revisions to the recommendations before moving forward.
On November 6, 2008, the Planning Commission heard this item, and after public testimony, made recommendations that City Council take the following actions: (1) Adopt a requirement for a 500-foot radius, (2) Adopt a requirement that both owners and occupants within this radius be noticed, (3) Change the way the radius is measured, to use the subject site property boundaries instead of the far side of the adjacent public right-of-way, and (4) Adopt a requirement that a 22- by 34-inch notice poster be posted at project sites, with the poster and posting method to be designed b...
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