Please send a letter to the Coastal Commission before their hearing on Thursday, October 12th.
A proposed development (former Congressional Place) near Los Cerritos Wetlands violates new zoning. We need your help to stop it.
For those of you who have been following the new development proposals moving forward near Los Cerritos Wetlands, it has been a lot to take in. These new developments will bring a lot of height and density to an area that is adjacent to sensitive ecological resources.
We are doing what we can to improve these new projects and make them as environmentally friendly as possible, including this one. Thus we appealed to the Coastal Commission a development that is slated to replace Congressional Place. What is being proposed is a 6-story residential building (over one level of basement parking) with over 3,000 square feet of retail space to replace the current 2-story building (over one level of parking).
The developers have availed themselves of a statewide law that allows them to go up in height if they provide some low-income housing. Therefore, you would think the City (and the Coastal Commission) would at least hold these developers to the new zoning rules approved back in 2021. Especially the parts that protect habitat and sensitive ecological resources.
The Project Fails to Comply with Required Wetlands Buffers.I am sad to report that the City (and now the Coastal Commission staff) would allow construction of this project even though it violates the buffers put in place to protect nearby sensitive habitat (in this case the marine habitat of the San Gabriel River).
There is supposed to be a 100-foot buffer between the property and the river, instead, both agencies are allowing a cut-down buffer of 76 feet. While that may not seem like a big deal, in reality, it is. After all, our wetlands and nearby habitats already suffer from nearby urban intrusion and can’t afford any more intense light and noise than they already have to deal with.
Ironically the Coastal Commission staff’s recommended action agrees the 100-foot setback applies to the Project, and that it does intrude into the required buffer area. However, instead of requiring compliance the Coastal Commission staff is letting this inadequate buffer stand. What’s the big deal you might ask: the area is already crowded, dense, and urban. So then we ask ourselves, what is the point of this new zoning, which ostensibly was designed to protect wetlands if the rules are ignored with no consequences? What kind of precedent do you think that sets for future development proposals in the area?
We are disappointed that the Coastal Commission does not agree with us that this vital protection should be enforced or at least (as a compromise) mitigated.
Please do your part by sending a letter defending the buffer width now.
Thank you,
Elizabeth LambeExecutive Director
Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust
P.S. For a little background, you may remember there was a multi-year process to update and rezone the lands in and around Los Cerritos Wetlands. In the end, what was approved by the City Council and then subsequently by the Coastal Commission was new zoning for the area. The new SEASP is a combination of good things and bad. The old plan was woefully outdated and could have allowed development in sensitive wetlands. The new plan has bird-safe lighting, a native plant palette, and robust buffers between the wetlands and development. But it came at a price: density and height (mostly along the PCH corridor). We didn’t agree with the new density and height and did our best to fight them (going so far as to sue the City). However, in the end, as so often happens, we won on some issues but lost on others. We need to keep fighting for the provisions we did win, which are robust buffers to protect wildlife. This project does not comply with that provision.
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