SEAL BEACH : Main St. Plan to Be Reviewed Next Week

What do city officials want Main Street to look like 15 years from now? Just about the same.

The first new plan for the city’s Main Street area in nearly 20 years will be up for review next week at a joint session of the City Council and Planning Commission. The Main Street Specific Plan is intended to prevent any development that residents fear could destroy the city’s small-town atmosphere.

“In our case, we’re using the specific plan to protect what we already have,” said Lee Whittenberg, city director of development services. “There are a lot of recommendations in the plan to keep the type of identity that we now have.”

Main Street, which runs through the city’s Old Town area from Pacific Coast Highway to the beach, has a mix of small shops and restaurants, each with its own architectural design.

The new plan will continue the city’s prohibition of “franchise designs” typically used by fast-food restaurants and other retail chains, Whittenberg said. There are also restrictions on structure size “so that somebody can’t come in and buy up eight or 10 lots and put a big building on it,” Whittenberg said.

The Main Street plan is also intended to address parking, restaurant operating hours and noise in the Old Town area, Mayor Marilyn Bruce Hastings said. Residents with homes near Main Street have fought to limit the number of businesses that serve alcohol because of noise problems.

“We don’t want a bunch of piano bars and amplified music,” Hastings said, “because 50 feet behind some of these businesses you have a residence, and a very expensive one at that.”

The joint meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9 in City Council chambers.