Los Alamitos Shouldn’t Change Industrial Zones, Study Says

During the past 10 years, city officials have expressed concern that properties zoned for light industries were rapidly being turned into office parks and that the city was losing its industrial base.

Not so, said a city study submitted to the City Council this week. On the contrary, about 80% of businesses in the so-called P-M zones were industrial, it said.

Community Development Director Elizabeth A. Binsack said that the study was conducted in August last year after the City Council directed the Planning Commission to look into how the P-M lands could be best utilized.

She said the reasoning was that if offices were sprouting from the P-M zones, it was best to change the zoning designation to general commercial to allow for more uses.

The study concluded that there was no reason for a zone change. It was “working just fine,” the study said, and if a change would be made, many of the light industries would not conform to the new designation.

“The city could lose future industrial users because they may not be able to locate in the P-M zone due to land use compatibility issues,” the study said. “This situation could have long-term negative land use and economic impacts for the city.”

“If it ain’t broke, why fix it,” said Mayor Ronald Bates.

Another aspect of the study was how business parks in the city compare to others in Orange County. Binsack said that based on data available in August, a majority of Los Alamitos business parks had lower vacancies.

She said based on data provided by Grubb & Ellis, a real estate company, Los Alamitos business parks had a 13% vacancy rate compared to 19.5% in the county. That figure may not be the same now, she said.

“We just tried to isolate one time frame” for the comparison, Binsack said.

She said the study also looked into several other zoning options but the conclusion was to leave the zones as they are.

“Maybe we can put this subject to bed,” said Councilman Charles E. Sylvia. “Maybe it’s better for the businesses to operate only on P-M zones.”