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All council members were present for the March 21 & April 4 City Council meeting. Open session for both meetings started at 6:00 p.m. and continued for a couple of hours. Here's what you missed:
Carson 2040 General Plan Update passes incorporating input from businesses and residents. The council finally approved the Carson 2040 General Plan Update with Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes claiming that the new amendments will meet all concerns brought up by the business community and residents alike. The update passed to a 4-0 vote, with Councilmember Jim Dear recusing himself for the duration of the discussion.
The new amendment to General Plan incorporates the following new changes:
While residential uses are not permitted in most Flex districts, they are allowed in flex districts listed in the Housing Element, as well as the property located at the northwest corner of University Drive and Wilmington Avenue. Community Development Director Saied Naseh noted that several standards have been added to those flex districts and specifically the previously mentioned property to separate residential and industrial uses:
Residential-use developments will require a specific plan amendment and a master plan to come before the Planning Commission and City Council. What we're looking for is just separate the residential and industrial uses.
Separate access points to residential and industrial portions of flex districts. The district located at University Drive and Wilmington Avenue will have its residential access located on University Drive while Glenn Curtiss or Wilmington Avenue will serve as the industrial access point.
Residential development shall be limited to areas that are no more than 300 feet north of the southerly property line. Additionally, no residential structures shall be placed within 350 feet of the westerly property line,.
A non-residential building shall be placed between the proposed residential area and the existing industrial area as a buffer zone.
No dock high doors can face the proposed residential area or any existing residential areas. All dock high doors (and outside activity areas) in close proximity to proposed or existing residential areas shall include screen walls with appropriate heights.
The residential density will be capped at 20 units per acre only for the parcel on the northwest corner of University Drive and Wilmington Avenue. Otherwise a maximum of 40 residential units per acre is permitted in the areas of Flex Districts that are included in the housing sites inventory in the Housing Element.
If the general plan causes any non-conforming uses from existing, lawfully established land uses, those operations may continue indefinitely without complying with the provisions of the amended zoning designation. If a business or operation moves away, a new entity with complementary uses (permitted by right or conditionally permitted) can move in within one year of the previous occupant’s relocation. This will ensure consistency with the incoming Zoning ordinance amendment.
The Zoning Ordinance amendment proposed for Council consideration shall be consistent with the current Zoning Ordinance in regard to the permitted use regulations for the following land uses in the City’s light industrial and heavy industrial zones: truck yards, truck terminals, container yards, container parking, and storage yards. (No matter whether these uses were automatically permitted, permitted provided certain special requirements are met, conditionally permitted, or prohibited)
Requiring a conditional use permit as well for truck terminals in the flex district to ensure consistency with the existing code. According to Saied, conditional use permits are required for truck terminals in both light industrial and heavy industrial zones.
The recently passed resolution states that warehousing/distribution/logistics/truck terminal facilities are not permitted in FLEX districts except for under the following circumstances:
Small-scale facilities to 30,000 square feet of gross building floor area (including mezzanine and all floors) are permitted.
Facilities larger than 30,000 square feet are only permitted with provision of community benefits by means of a Development Agreement or if they meet the criteria listed below.
In the approved Specific Plan area located immediately southeast of Del Amo Boulevard and Main Street (i.e., constituting the 157-acre site); or
Where a property is subject to an adopted Specific Plan that permits logistic uses following findings by the City Council of demonstrated good faith efforts to secure tax generating uses or other City Council-desired uses, and demonstrated good faith efforts documented in a Development Agreement approved by the City Council.
$100,000 reward established for information leading to safe return of teen girl. The council approved a $100,000 reward in exchange for information that will lead to the safe return of 16-year-old Alinka Angeline Castaneda. The reward will only be given if the information provided not only leads to Alinka’s safe return but also leads to the conviction of those responsible. “This city council heard your cry and we want you to know that we take it very serious” said Mayor Lula Davis Holmes to Alinka’s mother, “but it's not only for the return of your daughter, but it's for the conviction of the person that has taken this because child trafficking is on the rise. We cannot have that in the city of Carson and go home without doing something positive.” If you have any information on the whereabouts of Alinka Castaneda, please contact the Carson Station at (310) 847-8362.
Carpenter Unions bring awareness to industry tax fraud. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America attended the meeting to invite everyone to the Construction Industry Tax Fraud Days of Action coming April 12 – 18. The event serves to bring awareness to the over $8.4 billion lost per year from the construction industry employer tax fraud. “It is estimated that construction tax fraud is responsible for cheating communities out of $8.4 billion in tax revenues each year,” said union brother James Mathew, “That's billions of dollars in lost revenue that could be used for building and renovating schools, repairing roads, caring for veterans, sheltering homeless and funding other essential public programs.” According to Matthew, cheating contractors and other construction employers have been utilizing criminal practices to walk away from paying federal and state taxes for years. For more information, please visit https://stoptaxfraud.net/standup/.
Council sign letter to support for AB 1538, Clean Energy Reliability Program. At the request of councilmember Cedric Hicks, the council voted unanimously to sign and send a letter supporting AB 1538, which aims to create a catalyst program with the Clean Power Alliance (CPA) to incentivize increasing clean energy capacity. Written by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, the ultimate goal of the bill is to decrease clean-energy costs and increase grid reliability.
According to the letter, AB 1538 will do two things. First, it would establish the Clean Energy Reliability Program to be administered by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). This program would provide incentives in the form of payments to clean energy distributors, such as the California Clean Power Alliance, to bring in more clean energy resources above their compliance requirements. This should help get more capacity online, which in turn should bring increased competition to the clean energy market and reduce prices.
AB 1538 would work in conjunction with an open proceeding at the CPUC to create a long-term framework and a big, and bold target for new clean energy resources by 2035 to ensure enough capacity to meet reliability needs.
Dominguez Channel will receive special attention under newly signed Water Resource Development Act. Los Angeles County will be authorized to use $103 million under the newly signed the Water Resource Development Act of 2022 (WRDA) to improve environmental and stormwater aspects for the Dominguez Channel and similar structures according to the Director of the county’s public works department Mark Pestrella. While the amount of money for the waterway has not been designated yet, Pestrella points out that the Dominguez Channel is specifically mentioned as a qualifying project in the language of the law.
“The federal government has basically made a commitment to do a very large watershed-wide assessment of this area and the other areas that feed water into the Dominguez channel to assess what could we do to improve its flood mitigation, it's stormwater capture and environmental improvements along the Dominguez Channel” said Pestrella during his report to the council. “We will be working with the city to go after that money, get that project designed, and constructed in future years.”
Los Angeles County Public Works in partnership with the City of Carson will also be working on the Greenway Project to establish a linear park along the channel and incorporate it to the City’s bike path project. Pestrella noted that a public outreach campaign to design the Greenway Project will begin in 2024 and the project’s completion in 2025.
The council made the following Proclamations:
Recognizing the month of April as Sexual Assault/Violence Awareness Month.
Recognizing the month of April as Donate Life Month.
Recognizing the month of April as Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month.
Recognizing the month of April as Alcohol Awareness Month.
Events:
E-Waste Recycling, Paper Shredding & Dump Day Event - Saturday, Apr 22, 8 A.M. - 12 P.M., Carson City Hall Parking Lot
Self-Care Health Fair - Saturday, Apr 29, 9 A.M. - 1 P.M., Carson Event Center
Cinco De Mayo Celebration - Saturday, May 6, 11 A.M. - 4 P.M., Carson Park