SEAL BEACH : Residents Opposed to Carwash Project

Residents have launched a campaign to prevent an oil-change shop and carwash from being built next to the redwood water-tower house, an architectural landmark on Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach.

The effort comes after the Seal Beach Planning Commission last month approved a Santa Barbara developer’s plan to develop a vacant lot next to the 52-year-old tower.

Residents appealed the vote, meaning the City Council will eventually decide the issue.

Hoping to drum up opposition, development foes have distributed literature, circulated petitions and held several community meetings.

Of greatest concern to those who live near the 87-foot structure is that the oil-change shop will bring more traffic onto the area’s already congested streets.

Residents fear that cars entering and exiting the proposed business will block a right-turn lane from Pacific Coast Highway onto Anderson Street as well as stymie access to a bike path.

When the summer beach crowds converge on the area, the traffic problem will only get worse, they argue.

“We are convinced that this will cause accidents,” said Virginia Strain, who lives across the street from the tower. “The city of Seal Beach is going to create a deadly situation” if the oil-change shop is approved.

Strain and others also complain that the shop is an unsuitable neighbor for the tower, which many locals prize as a historic landmark. The shop would “destroy the architectural composition of the entire neighborhood,” according to a flyer distributed by development foes.

Strain is more blunt: “It’s a tasteless and repugnant project. It’s not appropriate for this site. It’s incompatible.”

Their opposition is well-known to planning commissioners, who have been grappling for more than six months with various development plans for the land.

Commissioner Jim Sharp, who voted to approve the proposal, said he does not think the oil-change shop would significantly worsen traffic in the area or detract from the character of the neighborhood.

“I feel that when someone has a piece of property, they have the right to develop it unless they develop it in a way that creates a real hazard to the neighborhood,” Sharp said. “I don’t think this will be a detriment to the neighborhood.”

One thing Sharp and residents do agree on is that the land is oddly zoned. The property in question is classified for commercial use although it is surrounded mostly by small beach bungalows and larger homes.

Seal Beach planning staffers noted in their report on the development that a residential development was “more compatible” for the land than a commercial development.

Before proposing the oil-change shop, developer Jeff Overeem suggested building condominiums on the site. However, residents opposed the plan because it would distort the view of the tower. Overeem later withdrew the idea.