A new ordinance that establishes Police and Fire impact fees for new construction should be passed tomorrow (March 20).

The Long Beach City Council will consider adopting an ordinance establishing police and fire impact fees for all new construction in the city. The combined fees would total $1,199 for a single-family home and $915 per unit for multi-family projects. Commercial, office and industrial development impact fees would be determined by the square footage.

In the never ending airport improvement story, the City Council postponed its study session.

The council has postponed a special session to study preliminary plans for the renovation of the Long Beach Airport terminal. No new date has been set for the meeting originally scheduled for March 20. “ To be fair, it was postponed because the mayor could not attend on the 20th. This also opens more discussions with the group that is protesting the environmental impact report before the meeting,” said City Manager Jerry Miller.

Long Beach Business Journal

Tomorrow, March 20, the Hathaway Sisters will hold a Tea & Lively Conversation to celebrate Women’s History Month by meeting.

Mary, Margaret, Susan and Martha were four of the five daughters born to Reverend George W. Hathaway in Maine. Learn about the lives of these women including how three of the sisters married three of the Bixby men and settled on ranches in California! Travel back to the 19th century as these living history docents recount their experiences, describe their roles, and share their challenges as pioneering women living in 19th century Southern California. Step back in time to the isolation of the ranches, the birth of Long Beach, the trials of raising and losing children, and the importance of family.
The tea will take place on Tuesday, March 20, at 2 p.m. Seating is limited for this ticketed event, and advance reservations are a must! Cost is $20 per person, $17 for members of Friends of RLC. To make a reservation, look for a flier at your local library or contact the Rancho.

Still playing catch up with the news. Be back tomorrow.

The Hospitality Alliance of Long Beach released a statement announcing the success of its petition effort against a controversial labor peace ordinance. The Hospitality Alliance has picked up a lot of press over the last few months and it was hard to see what was really happening.

Alliance spokesperson Mike Murchison gave the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder in Norwalk a verified total of 23,477 signatures. Only 21,000 were needed to place the measure on a ballot. He added that the city council would likely schedule for the February 2008 Presidential election.

“We are thrilled with the results and believed all along that the voters of Long Beach would see through this ordinance as nothing more than outside union tactics,” Murchison said. “We also would like to point out that . . . our petition has more support of registered voters than what voted in many of the most recent council races. Hopefully, the council will take note and rescind this bad ordinance.”

He told the Business Journal last week that he expected to qualify by a “large margin.”

On February 26, the Alliance submitted more than 36,000 signatures to the city clerk’s office supporting a referendum that would allow voters to decide the fate of the labor law, which effectively forces non-unionized hotels on city-owned land to negotiate no-strike agreements with unions.

Due to the preparations required for the May 1 6th District special election, the city clerk’s department turned the official count over to Los Angeles County officials.

Source: Long Beach Business Journal

The Planning Commission will consider the SeaPort Development and the Belmont Pier Mooring Buoys taday.

During the March 15 Long Beach Planning Commission meeting, commissioners will consider approving plans for Lennar’s proposed 175,000-square-foot, mixed-use development at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and 2nd Street. In addition, the commission will discuss whether to adopt a mitigated negative declaration that would further a proposal to construct 90 mooring buoys for the short-term anchoring of vessels by the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier.

Source: Long Beach Business Journal

If you’ve followed local news on this portion of the city, you know that the city wants our unique pink motel, between PCH and 2nd Street to be torn down and replaced with a half condo, half retail space building. As a business man, I can understand the rationale of wanting to tear down something to make room for a bigger development. As a person who loves old building and homes, I am sad to see what it would replaced with.

But wait, there is more…

Seal Beach is not happy at all with the plans, to the point they have sent letters to our city and caused a few EIRs. The issues at hands are valid, increase traffic load on roads and highway infrastructure, building height codes not respected as well as other important environment factors.

In a nutshell, project would create 425 residential homes and about 170,000 sq ft of retail space. With around 1,000 parking spaces, it falls short of the SEADIP ordnance per condos. SEADIP requires 30 percent open space for retail development and the project allows for 20. Height, in some parts of the projects are also part of the issue. With a normal restriction of 30 ft for residential and 35 for non-residential use in building heights, the project sometimes goes up to 70 feet.

I have made my point before about modern and current projects. I do not care much about them aesthetically. They leave me shrugging my shoulders. When we are lucky enough to have a architectural cultural heritage such as ours, I would hope that our development would stick to the Southern California cachet.

Ah, local politics. So go to the March 15th Long Beach Planning Commission public hearing and see what will happen.

Or at least, it seems so after much debates and talks. A new leadership coalition association was founded to help guide the non-for profit foundation that operates the ship and adjacent land. The coalition will focus on the historic preservation of the ship. It will work with the current foundation to maintain a comprehensive preservation and restoration program.

This makes me very happy, as I really love that ship. As we are witnessing more and more tear down of our lovely old homes over the last few years, it is great to see something like the ship being restored by a group of folks who know what they are doing. I have had a few occasion to wear my tuxedo on that ship and had the best time. It is a place that brings you back in time, especially wearing black tie attire.

http://www.queenmary.com