Foes of Seal Beach Project Beat the Clock, Foil Council

When the clock struck midnight Thursday, the City Council’s fast-paced plan for approving a controversial housing development screeched to a halt.

Starting at 10 p.m., angry residents stepped up to the podium in a bid to delay a vote on a Mola Development Corp. project that the City Council wanted to approve before newly elected council members take office Tuesday.

Two hours of testimony, punctuated by bursts of applause and jeers, forced the council to concede defeat at 12:05 a.m. Failure to vote Thursday meant that this council will not have the final word on the $200-million project, city officials said, so council members voted unanimously to delay consideration of the plan until Monday.

“It was an important victory,” resident Moira Hahn said. “It was the only reason we went to the meeting. It means we might have a chance to succeed against the Mola development. I was disgusted at the way Mayor (Victor S.) Grgas and the council didn’t seem concerned with what the citizens thought.”

The outgoing City Council is expected to give initial approval to the project at Monday’s regular meeting, but the new City Council being seated Tuesday will have the final say on the development.

The project may pass in any case, as three members of the new City Council have expressed support for the project, while two are strongly opposed. The development enjoys the strong support of four of the five current council members.

But people attending the Thursday night meeting seemed most upset about how the council tried to rush a vote.

On May 7, Grgas announced that he would do everything possible to have the Mola project approved before he left office on Tuesday. The Planning Commission met until 2:30 a.m. Thursday to grant the necessary approvals, and the City Council planned to vote on the project Thursday night.

(Under state law, City Manager Robert Nelson said, the city must give two approvals to projects, at meetings held five days apart. Thursday was the last day the outgoing City Council could give initial approval to the project so that a final vote could be taken Tuesday--before new council members were sworn in.)

Delaying action on the project was only half of what the residents wanted. They also urged the council to postpone a vote on the city’s local housing plan, a strategy for accommodating Seal Beach’s housing needs through 1994. Despite six hours of testimony--all in opposition to the plan--the City Council voted to adopt the local housing plan at about 4:30 a.m. Friday.

“We were getting so silly last night just because we were so tired,” longtime resident Marie Antos said. “One of the council members nodded off. My husband got so tired he had to go to sleep. Some of these (residents) have a plan: They’re going to bring pillows and blankets to the next meeting.”

It was the housing plan that threw a wrench into the Mola project, which had received final approval from the City Council in October after four years of debate. The proposal includes 329 homes and 76 acres of parks and restored wetlands on the Hellman Ranch Property.

But the Wetlands Restoration Society, a local group seeking a complete restoration of the property’s 100 acres of historic wetlands, sued to block the project. In March, an Orange County Superior Court commissioner rescinded the Mola approvals because they were granted while the city’s state-mandated housing plan was out of date.

The city was ordered to update its housing plan before reconsidering the Mola project or any other major residential development.

Since March, the City Council has worked nonstop to adopt a new housing plan. Seal Beach submitted a revised plan to the state, but state housing officials said the document was inadequate because it failed to show how the city would provide low-cost housing.

Mola’s plan was then amended to require the company to build 33 low-cost housing units outside of its project or pay a fee to the city to be used to provide other low-cost housing.

The Planning Commission approved both the housing plan and the Mola project at a meeting that lasted until 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

Although the clock kept the City Council from approving the development, Grgas said he is determined that the housing plan will be adopted.

“We’re going to deal with this document, since we’ve been dealing with it since its inception,” said Grgas, raising his voice to be heard above boos from the audience. “I think we have the absolute right to take action on this.”

The council called a 40-minute recess two hours into a public hearing on the housing plan to change a major portion of the document. The changes were in response to Councilman Frank Laszlo’s adamant complaints that some land recommended for future residential development was too close to the crash zone of the Armed Forces Reserve Center airfield in Los Alamitos.

“Allowing homes in this area is immoral and insane,” Laszlo told the council.

The amendment reduced the Bixby Ranch Property land available for residential development from 67 to 13 acres. The rest of the property can still be used for commercial development, Laszlo said.

Before opening the public hearing on the housing plan, Grgas asked the audience to wrap up their comments by 1 a.m. At 3 a.m., frustrated by the crowd’s verbosity, Grgas introduced an egg timer to the proceedings, telling residents their comments would be limited to five minutes each.

“It was just insulting,” longtime resident Antos said. “If you’re holding a public hearing, (residents) should be able to talk as long as they want.”

CHRONOLOGY: THE ROUNDUP OF HELLMAN RANCH

1982: Seal Beach City Council approves Ponderosa Homes plans to build 1,000 houses on 225 acres of the Hellman Ranch property, which included about 100 acres of historical wetlands. Ponderosa later backs out in 1984.

1986: Mola Development Corp. proposes building 770 units on 149 acres of the property.

1986-89: Planning Commission and City Council debate Mola plan.

October ‘89: City Council approves Mola plan for 355 homes.

November ‘89: Wetlands Restoration Society sues city for approving Mola plan without an updated local housing plan.

March 6, 1990: Judge orders Seal Beach to update housing plan.

March 16, 1990: Judge invalidates 1989 City Council’s approval of the Mola project because of obsolete housing plan.

March, 1990: Seal Beach submits revised draft housing plan to state.

April 12, 1990: State determines revised housing plan is inadequate, citing a lack of commitment to providing low-cost housing.

May 9, 1990: Planning Commission meets until 2:30 a.m. to approve housing element after rejecting it three other times, and immediately afterward approves Mola project.

May 10, 1990: City Council meets until 4:30 a.m. and approves housing plan.

May 14, 1990: City Council scheduled to consider initial approvals for Mola project, now at 329 homes.