As discussed at the July 24 Signal Hill City Council meeting, city officials will help relocate tenants from the above-pictured commercial property at 2700-2728 Cherry Ave. before they demolish the building.
Following two months of reviewing and implementing a new fiscal-year budget at its previous meetings, the council also authorized City staff to issue a request-for-proposals (RFP) for creating a parks-and-recreation master plan over the next year.
Tenant relocation
The council authorized a contract agreement with consulting firm Overland, Pacific & Cutler (OPC) to help relocate six tenants from one of the City’s commercial office buildings that it will soon demolish.
Elise McCaleb, economic development manager, said the former Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency (RA) had purchased the property, located at 2700-2728 Cherry Ave., in 2010. The successor to the RA, for which the council serves as board members, is seeking to sell that property, along with some adjacent properties totaling 2.3 acres, for auto-dealership use such as a new dealership.
The successor agency had recently entered into exclusive-right-to-negotiate (ERN) agreements with Timmons Subaru and Long Beach Mercedes-Benz to develop that area.
However, for negotiations to proceed, the City must demolish the commercial building to discover the condition of two abandoned oil wells located underneath it and determine whether there are leaks, McCaleb said.
The tenants, including a law office, design firm and landscape business, had already been leasing space in the building when the RA purchased it in 2010.
Per State law, the City must help relocate them. OPC will handle all aspects of that relocation, including issuing 90-day notices to evacuate, meeting with tenants to determine their needs and assisting and advising them on relocation options, which the City hopes it will complete within 180 days.
“Several years ago, we used [OPC] to relocate tenants at 1500 E. Hill St. and 2170 Gundry for the affordable-housing development,” McCaleb said.
According to the staff report, the estimated cost of $140,000 to complete the relocation consists of $26,000 for consulting fees, $109,000 for relocation and $5,000 to determine fixture-and-equipment values.
Since the economic-development budget includes only $100,000 for relocation services, the council also agreed to move $50,000 from the economic-development reserve fund to the operating budget to cover the rest.
In answer to a question by Vice Mayor Larry Forester, McCaleb said she doesn’t foresee too much difficulty in relocating the tenants.
“These aren’t particularly complicated businesses as far as equipment and installation,” she said. “They’re very comfortable with their trade area, though, and they’ve indicated they want to stay very close to where they are so the challenge will be finding available space that fits their needs.”
Parks plan
Aly Mancini, community services director, explained that the City last completed a parks-and-recreation master plan in 1989. Resulting park improvements included Hilltop Park, Discovery Well Park, Panorama Promenade, Sunset View Park, Raymond Arbor Park and the trail system.
“The goal of a [new] parks-and-recreation master plan is to provide a roadmap for the future development of parks, recreational facilities and trails to meet the changing needs of the community,” Mancini said.
She recounted how the City had conducted other needs-assessments to guide its planning. These included a 2008 assessment that identified the need for a larger library (currently under construction), a 2015 five-year strategic plan that identified a need to update the parks master plan and a 2016 community-recreation needs-assessment update.
The master plan will include cost estimates for identified park-related capital improvement projects and potential funding sources, Mancini said. The budgeted cost for developing the plan is $100,000, according to the staff report.
As a first step, the council approved releasing an RFP to find a qualified consultant to complete the plan.
It also chose Mayor Tina Hansen to represent the council on the RFP review committee, which also includes a parks-and-recreation commissioner and the directors of community services, public works and community development.
Mancini said she hopes the council would be able to award a contract by September, with the chosen firm completing the plan by next summer.
In answer to a question by Councilmember Lori Woods, Mancini said the consultants wouldn’t start from scratch but instead utilize the City’s previous planning work.
“One of the requirements is for the consultant to not only review the most recent document but the others,” she said. “We aren’t starting a process all over again but we’re actually building on the foundation that we’ve already established over the last many years, not just with the needs-assessment but our strategic plan.”
Business spotlight
Dan Gilboa, owner of Age of Aquariums, located at 2642 Cherry Ave., presented about his business during the council’s “small-business spotlight.”
“We are a full-service retail store and aquarium design-and-maintenance company,” he said. “I have a fleet of 10 vans that are on the road five days a week, maintaining aquariums ranging in size from five to 5,000 gallons.”
Gilboa, a marine biologist, said he has appreciated creating aquariums that include coral reefs, sharks and jellyfish in Signal Hill since 2007.
“All the building trades, fabricators [and] retail opportunities,” he said, “make Signal Hill the ideal place to run a business.”
The next Signal Hill City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Aug. 14, at 7pm in the council chamber at 2175 Cherry Ave.
