Politics & Government

City Plans Future, Including Major Retail or Housing Near 605 Freeway

During a town hall meeting to solicit input for the upcoming General Plan, residents and city officials buzzed about a 13-acre site next to the 605 Freeway.

Residents shared their vision for the future of Los Alamitos including plans for retail development along Katella Avenue, talk of a future community garden and hopes by some of a possible housing project near the 605 freeway entrances, during a Town Hall meeting on Monday night.

Designed to gather community input on proposed land use changes for the General Plan, a 10-year planning document for future development in the mostly built-out city, the meeting prompted residents to share their wish list Los Alamitos.

Specifically, the city is proposing land use changes to 10 different areas.

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One site includes 13 acres of land that would be newly designated for retail use, on the north side of Katella Avenue near the 605 freeway entrances.

“That area is the last real hope the city has for retail use and sales tax revenue,” Councilman Dean Grose said.

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Almost ten of those acres are designated for professional office space use and represent an empty lot, currently for sale by the company the Super Media Group.

“That site is for sale now, so it’s a good place to take review of the proposed land use changes by its applicants,” said Community Development Director Stephen Mendoza.

Two representatives on behalf of Super Media Group spoke to the council requesting the zoning be changed to residential.

According to council member Grose, the land sits next to the freeway and could have signs visible to the 200,000 daily commuters. Customers would have access to the north and south entrances of the 605 the freeway, allowing for business to come into the area while minimizing additional traffic on city streets, added Grose.

“I would like to see that area preserved for retail space,” Grose said. 

One of the representatives on behalf of super media was Ashish Khatana, from The Shopoff Group, a real estate investment capital company. He said he is a developer under contract with Supermedia and would be in favor of the change to residential, or mixed residential and retail use. "Not all of the frontage is strong for signage," he said. "Traffic impacts could be up to four times worse with retailers coming in there, for the area by the middle school (Oak) or residential area across the street (Rossmoor)."

Also within that prime 13-acre property sits City Hall and the Civic Center. About 4.6 acres is city-owned land, currently designated for Community and institutional use. Changing it to retail would give the city options for redeveloping the land for commercial uses in the future. For example, the council could move city hall to another location. 

Resident John Underwood said he has been following the project since it first began two years ago.  He approached the council, asking about some open area space behind the back Oak Middle School.

“I’ve had a number of people say to me ‘we want a community garden,'” he said. “We should try to appeal to people’s natural instinct of wanting to grow something.”

Candy Drucker from the parks and recreation commission was there speaking out on behalf of the St. Isidore Church, the oldest community building in Los Alamitos.

“There’s a lot of people who want to see that place preserved,” she said.

The general plan dictates city council policy and decision making on a variety of issues, including things like zoning. In the next phase of the process, the city will generate an Environment Impact Report examining the impact of proposed changes.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK IN THE COMMENTS

What do you want to see the old Pac Bell property next to the freeway and city hall used for?


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