SEAL BEACH : Council to Update City’s General Plan

Charging that the city’s current General Plan is “out of line with reality,” the City Council has agreed to update the document, which serves as the blueprint for the city.

“It hasn’t really been updated since 1973. . . . Things have changed since 1973,” Mayor Frank Laszlo said. “The major thing is that it is out of line with reality.”

The City Council voted unanimously Monday on an initial outline for the effort.

Updating the plan will also keep Seal Beach from being challenged in its decision making, much of which is based on the General Plan, by parties who charge that the document is inadequate, said Lee Whittenberg, director of development services.

The city has done some patchwork updating of the plan in the last few years, said Whittenberg. The plan’s housing element was updated in 1990 after it was questioned in a lawsuit filed against the city by the Wetlands Restoration Society, which sought to kill a 329-home development project on the Hellman Ranch property. The Mola Development Corp.’s project had gained council approval based on the unrevised housing element of the General Plan.

Some of the components of the General Plan that will be updated include Seal Beach’s economic development, seismic safety, residential densities, parks, safety, congestion management and local coastal plan, documents show.

A companion document to the General Plan, called a master environmental assessment, will look at the environmental effects of how the city currently operates. It also will be revised during the updating process. The assessment will later be used as a resource for environmental impact reports and negative declarations, documents show.

Whittenberg will spearhead the updating process, which he said will take about two years. To keep the updating costs down, the city is not asking for outside help, such as from hired consultants. The process is not expected to cost the city anything except employee manpower.

As the updating progresses, Whittenberg said, committees made up of residents could be formed to solicit their views.