After holding a public hearing on May 11, the Signal Hill City Council approved a remodel of a Target store at 950 E. 33rd St. and developing the adjacent 13-acre site at 3177 California Ave. to become Gateway Center North.
The council’s approval is the final step for the plan to move forward, following an environmental review and the Planning Commission’s final okay in April.
The first phase of the plan is remodeling the Target store inside and out, which Target representative John Dietrich said will start this spring and be finished by the winter holidays.
The council also approved a conditional-use permit (CUP) amendment for Target that will allow it to sell alcohol for off-site consumption.
Economic Development Manager Elise McCaleb said the remodel and Gateway Center North development has incentivized Target to stay in Signal Hill rather than move to another city, retaining about 200 jobs. The other new businesses will further add jobs and sales-tax revenue for the City.
See related story: Signal Hill targets new development
Community Development Director Colleen Doan said the rest of Gateway Center North will be built in phases as developer VenturePoint, Inc. secures tenants.
New development plans include a three-story self-storage facility with outdoor spaces for RVs or boats and solar panels, a drive-thru restaurant with indoor seating and commercial space for up to three retailers and a medical or dental office.
As part of the self-storage facility deal, Signal Fields North—a subsidiary of Signal Hill Petroleum that operates oil wells on the site—has to pay the City a “public benefit fee” of $250,000 and an ongoing fee of $1 per leased self-storage space per month.
Parking on the site will be expanded to accommodate the new businesses with 492 total spaces, Doan said. The City will review parking and traffic circulation every quarter, especially given that there is an existing drive-thru—a Chick-fil-A restaurant—on Long Beach property adjacent to the planned new one, she said.
Resident Nick Pugh proposed an alternative plan to the new drive-thru that would make an eatery there less car-centric and more open, similar to nearby, pedestrian-friendly Steelcraft food-court at 3768 Long Beach Blvd. in Long Beach. However, the developer found the plan not to be a “good fit” with the location, according to McCaleb.
“Mr. Pugh’s use is best suited in a high-density urban location, pedestrian-oriented, surrounded with similar walk-up (food-truck oriented) small-food vendor facilities,” VenturePoint said in an April 8 letter.
Other planned development includes a new 75-foot Gateway Center North freeway sign which will replace the existing Target sign. There will be six-foot-high Target signs along 33rd Street and the store will have a tower added reminiscent of an oil derrick—a nod to the City’s oil-drilling legacy.
During the public hearing, the council heard from several members of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters (SWRCC), a union representing construction workers, some of whom live in Signal Hill.
“We oppose this Gateway Center North project unless and until the City has adequately assessed and mitigated the potential air-quality and health risks and greenhouse-gas impacts of the project,” SWRCC representative Ray Lawson said.
Other members called for the development project to hire local skilled workers to help mitigate the project’s environmental impact.
SWRCC representative Frank Zambrano said hiring construction workers locally will also help reduce area homelessness.
“The best way to be able to mitigate that is jobs,” Zambrano said.
He said the State has an apprenticeship program that local skilled craftsmen could enter to build a career and maintain a family with a livable wage.
“It’s a great project,” he said of Gateway Center North. “But it’s also about building a community.”
Mayor Edward Wilson encouraged project developer VenturePoint and Target to hire locally.
I do see this as supporting local employment.
John Clement, president of VenturePoint, speaking of securing 300 jobs through the project
However, John Clement, president of VenturePoint, said with Target staying in the city and additional businesses adding jobs, the project is securing 300 jobs that the city otherwise would not have.
“I do see this as supporting local employment,” Clement said.
Dietrich said Target uses mostly skilled union members for construction to ensure quality.
He also said that Target’s drive-up service for customers who buy online and drive to the store to pick up is not going away once COVID-19 pandemic restrictions ease. That service requires workers to bag products and deliver to waiting cars.
“We do not anticipate going down in employment,” Dietrich said. “Only up.”
