During its Nov. 12 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council approved leasing a parcel of land adjacent to Long Beach Honda for auto storage. It also agreed to accept State housing-plan funds, extend the City’s waste-disposal contract with EDCO, bill a property owner for abatement costs and schedule a public hearing for Jan. 14, 2020 to receive any objections on increasing municipal water rates as of Feb. 1.
A map displayed at the Nov. 12 Signal Hill City Council meeting showing a parcel of land at 1400 E. Spring St. the council agreed to lease to the adjacent Long Beach Honda to use for auto storage.
Honda lease
The council approved leasing land at 1400 E. Spring St. to the adjacent Long Beach Honda dealership for $15,000 per month over a 10-year term, with a 5% increase every three years.
City Manager Hannah Shin-Heydorn said that the City has leased the three-acre site to various auto dealerships for auto storage in the past.
The City entered a short-term lease with Honda in June that both parties now wish to extend.
Elise McCaleb, economic-development manager, said that under the terms of the agreement, Honda is required to improve the property in preparation for it becoming part of the dealership.
Those improvements– totaling $540,000– include applying asphalt and sealcoat, striping the site, replacing lamposts and fixtures, constructing a retaining wall to allow paving and improving landscaping.
“We’re very excited to be able to do this lease with Honda,” McCaleb said. “Honda is excited to put some work into this site.”
City Attorney Dave Aleshire said that the Ken Garff Group– Long Beach Honda’s current owners since 2015– has aggressively expanded its sales.
“We’re looking [at] a long-term partnership,” Aleshire said. “Adding this leased property to their operation is maybe just the first step in even bigger things to come.”
McCaleb added that Honda’s sales have almost tripled in the last four years and the adjacent land for storage will assist sales by making more vehicles available.
“People today buying a car want to go on the site, pick out their car and drive it home after a few hours,” she said.
Housing funds
The council also approved accepting funds related to California Senate Bill 2 to plan additional housing units required by the State.
Shin-Heydorn said that the State is offering $160,000 in a planning grant program (PGP) to encourage housing development needed to meet demand and mitigate homelessness.
Acting Community Development Manager Colleen Doan said the funds stem from the 2017 Building Homes and Jobs Act and the amount is based on Signal Hill’s population.
“This is the first funding the State has made available to local governments for the purpose of accelerating housing production since the demise of Redevelopment and its associated housing funding,” Doan said.
She said the money will be used to prepare for the State’s next round of required housing development and that everyone who qualifies receives funding this year.
“Qualifications are that you need to have a certified housing element– we do– and that you have to have annually submitted your general plan annual progress report– we have,” Doan said.
The Gateway Cities Council of Governments (COG) assisted its member cities with the PGP and hired a regional-planning director with housing expertise as well as a planning consulting firm, Doan said.
The current fifth round of the state’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) ends Oct. 1, 2021 and to date, Signal Hill has met 100% of its required housing goals for very-low and low-income housing and constructed 120 of the 169 total new housing units required, Doan added.
“PGP funds will provide much-needed assistance […] as the City prepares for this 2021 through 2029 sixth-cycle housing-element update,” Doan said. “It’s important to note that this next-cycle RHNA allocation is 516 units versus the current cycle which was 169 units.”
She said the City will need to adopt zoning on multiple sites with sufficient densities to accommodate 516 new units, so this year’s PGP funding will be used for research and technical analysis of potential sites throughout the city and for preparing an accessory-dwelling-unit ordinance and updating the city’s density-bonus ordinance.
Waste audit
The council also received and filed an EDCO audit showing that the waste disposal company has a clean record and approved extending its contract with the City through 2035.
Shin-Heydorn said that EDCO not only collects the city’s solid waste but also oil waste, bulky items and Christmas trees.
“In March 2019, as a best practice, the city council authorized staff to retain MSW Consultants to conduct an audit of the most recent five-year history,” she said.
She also said extending EDCO’s contract term by 10 years to 2035 would ensure it would help the city in complying with future state-mandated regulations.
Management Analyst Sara Russo said that the audit covering five years from 2013 to June 2018 examined five key provisions of EDCO’s agreement: its rate-adjustment calculations, customer-billing accuracy, fee payments, reported tons and accurately calculating the city’s share of recycle revenue.
“MSW’s audit results confirm that EDCO had accurately calculated its rates, paid its fees and reported its tons during the designated period,” Russo said.
She added that the audit results help the city determine rates for a public hearing next year on fee adjustments to cover EDCO’s higher operating costs and increasing State regulations, especially regarding organic-waste recycling.
Steve South, EDCO’s president and CEO, said that under Senate Bill 1383, residents and businesses will soon have an organic-waste container in addition to those for trash and recycling.
He added that separating organic waste from other trash helps achieve the law’s purpose of reducing methane levels in landfills.
At its Nov. 12 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council authorized billing the property owner of 3309 Lemon Ave. (pictured) with trash-abatement costs of nearly $23,105.
Abatement costs
The council authorized staff to charge owners of a residence at 3309 Lemon Ave. with the total costs of nearly $23,015 that the city incurred to abate trash, debris and overgrown landscaping around the property.
Colleen Doan, acting Community Development director, said that staff asked the council to proceed with cost recovery now that the exterior abatement is complete.
“The property owner will have 15 days to appeal or 30 days to pay the costs,” Doan said. “And if timely payment is not received, the City would then record [a] lien on the property. The expectation would be that the cost recovery would happen upon sale of the property.”
Doan added the City is discussing even more interior abatement as well with the LA County Health Department and other agencies.
The council agreed that while it’s unfortunate the City had to step in to clean the property, it was better for preserving property values and the neighbors’ safety.
“It’s good news that they’ve engaged a realtor and [are] thinking about selling it at this point,” Vice Mayor Robert Copeland said.
A slide from the Nov. 12 Signal Hill City Council meeting showing water-rate adjustments a municipal subcommittee recommends to increase revenues to match expenses, starting with a 15% increase beginning Feb. 1, 2020. The council agreed to schedule a Prop 218 protest-hearing date of Jan. 14, 2020 to hear any objections to the increase.
Water rates
The council agreed to set Jan. 14, 2020 as the date it will conduct a public hearing pursuant to Proposition 218 before implementing a water-rate increase on Feb. 1.
Shin-Heydorn said that the City reviews its water rates annually to ensure revenues meet operating costs. A subcommittee completed such a review last month.
“On Oct. 8 and Oct. 28, 2019, staff hosted two workshops on the water-rate analysis and three [rate]-adjustment scenarios,” Shin-Heydorn said. (The Signal Tribune previously reported on the workshops in its Oct. 11 and Nov. 1 issues.)
Matt Tryon, water-systems superintendent, explained that Signal Hill has two sources of water– its primary source of groundwater and a secondary source of purchasing water from the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), which costs twice as much.
The city owns about 2,000 acre-feet of groundwater-extraction rights and its annual consumption is about 1,800 acre-feet, serving 3,161 customers through 50 miles of pipeline, Tryon said.
“Many of these pipelines […] are approaching 50 to 80 years of age,” he said.
Tryon also discussed the challenges in providing water to residents and businesses given the city’s diverse topography, but said that there are 2.6 million gallons of water stored on the hilltop.
“If there is an emergency or we have a fire, we have the water that’s capable to meet the needs,” he said.
Tryon noted that when the 37-year-old Well 8 unexpectedly went offline a few years ago, the city imported water from the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), costing twice as much.
“We have an opportunity now in 2019 to redevelop Well 8,” he said. “And we have an opportunity to take advantage of an interest-free loan and create a plan so we can have a replacement.”
Kim Engel, acting finance director, said the city has three funds to cover water activities but that revenues are not meeting required operating expenses and not covering needed capital improvements or debt servicing.
She said cash reserves had become depleted during the construction of Well 9, around the same time as consumers began cutting back on water usage following a 2015 statewide conservation-mandate to address the drought.
Cash reserves will run out by the 2021-2022 fiscal year after necessary capital improvements to stay functional, such as pipe repairs and replacements, Engel said.
“At current water rates, operating capital-expenses continue to be greater than revenue,” Engel said. “Cash balances are projected to decrease each year due to expenses in excess of revenue. Cash balances are expected to be depleted by 2021.”
Public Works Director Kelli Tunnicliff said the subcommittee evaluated three scenarios – one with no change to water rates, one increasing rates to allow capital improvements without replacing Well 8 and a final one that includes Well 8-replacment.
The subcommittee advocates the third option because without Well 8, the City would have to purchase more expensive MWD water and further deplete its funds, Tunnicliff said.
She added that the third scenario also includes taking advantage of $1.5 million zero-interest MWD loan and would rebuild cash reserves by 2023.
That scenario increases water rates by 15% in 2020 and 2021 (including the 8% increase already budgeted), 12% in 2022 and 7.5% each in 2023 and 2024. Well 8 would be rebuilt in 2022.
Tunnicliff said that even with the rate increases, Signal Hill water rates are on the low end compared to similar local cities. The average monthly rate will be $45.44 in 2020 and increase to $52.75 by 2024, she said.
The city will continue to offer a water-rate discount to low-income customers, she added.
“If you were to purchase a hundred gallons of water from the City of Signal Hill that would be delivered to your home, that would cost you 65 cents for those hundred gallons,” Tunnicliff said. “If you were to go to the store and purchase that same hundred gallons, that would cost you approximately $100.”
Tunnicliff said that the City will place legal notices at end of this month, schedule the public hearing on Jan. 14, 2020, with a second reading on Jan. 28 and implement the new rate schedule on Feb. 1, depending on results from the hearings.
Three residents came forward to ask for clarification, which staff provided. Tunnicliff said her department would also create a chart to help residents understand how expenses are allocated in 2019 compared to future years.
Councilmember Edward Wilson asked Tryon about lead piping. Tryon replied that the water tested safe for lead but that 80-year-old cast-iron piping underground could be a danger.
“A whole intersection can be swallowed up by a cast-iron pipe bursting,” he said. “Those are the things that we really want to focus on with our capital improvement program– getting a lot of this older infrastructure replaced.”
The council unanimously approved a resolution of intent to change the rates and set a hearing date but Mayor Lori Woods said the change was still open to public comment.
“Reach out to city staff and we’ll get those questions addressed,” she said.
Other business
In other business, the council heard presentations highlighting the City’s Halloween Carnival in October and Mayor’s Cleanup event, and one promoting holiday shopping in Signal Hill.
It also heard a presentation by One Legacy and Donate Life, nonprofit organizations that promote organ and tissue donation at the end of life.
Also, resident Daniel Pursglove approached the council with a list of complaints regarding crumbling sidewalks, lack of ADA sidewalk compliance, missing trees, stray shopping carts, messiness around the Food 4 Less grocery store, lack of police enforcement in moving parked cars and lack of efficiency in municipal cleanup efforts.
He suggested that councilmembers get better answers from staff before making decisions, such as the recent purchase of new police vehicles with EcoBoost engines and creation of a preferential parking zone.
“I just want the city council to be a little bit more proactive and see some of these things on your own,” he said.
The council adjourned the meeting in memory of Ashleigh Williams-Pearce, a member of the Community Services Department who coordinated senior programs, facility rentals and the city’s special events such as its Concerts in the Park.
“Ashley was known around the city for her outstanding work ethic, her ability to get along with everyone and her amazing baked goods,” Woods said. “Ashley had a bright smile, quick wit, and a heart that truly led her to serve others.”
The next Signal Hill City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 7pm in the council chamber at 2175 Cherry Ave. (There will be no regular meeting on Nov. 26.)
