The Signal Hill Planning Commission met briefly Tuesday to conduct a public hearing and voted to recommend a conditional-use permit (CUP) for Caliber Collision, an auto-body repair business, for the city council to approve.
It also discussed granting development awards to property owners and received and filed a report listing about 40 current residential- and commercial-development projects.
CUP recommendation
After hearing no objections at its public hearing, the commission voted to recommend that the city council approve a CUP for Caliber Collision to expand its repair work into additional units of its buildings as an auto-center accessory serving Long Beach Honda, which is also located in Signal Hill.
The commission had held a public workshop regarding this CUP at its previous meeting in August and received no requests for modification after that discussion. The owner of the business was on hand again at this week’s meeting, but neither the commission nor the public had any additional questions.
Scott Charney, community development director, later told the Signal Tribune that the lack of questions at this meeting after the previous workshop discussion shows that the approval process is working.
“Most of our projects go through the workshop process first to flush out potential issues and to get direction from the commission,” he said. “It’s not surprising there was not a lot of participation at the hearing because that was kind of by design.”
Caliber Collision, located in a light-industrial commercial zone at 2370 Walnut Ave., needed the CUP to expand its repair work because of a 1993 city code prohibiting auto-body repair, except for nonconforming uses whereby existing repair facilities would be allowed to continue to operate but could not expand.
Earlier this year, according to the staff report, the City became aware that Caliber was conducting auto-body repair in more than the three units of its six buildings permitted for nonconforming auto-repair work.
In its CUP application, Caliber reported to the City that it provides auto-body repair services to several dealerships and provided the City a letter from Long Beach Honda identifying it as a “majority service provider” of auto-repair work for that dealership, which qualifies Caliber for a CUP to expand, under a 2016 ordinance.
The city council had approved the 2016 ordinance to support the economic viability of the city’s auto center, according to the staff report.
“The ordinance facilitated the economic viability of the auto center by giving dealerships the option to concentrate core sales functions at the dealership sites and allowing certain accessory uses to be shifted to nearby locations, outside of the auto center in the industrial zoning districts,” the staff report reads. “One of the accessory-uses specifically envisioned to be operated off-site was auto-body repair with a CUP. To qualify, an auto-body repair facility must be owned or operated by an auto-center dealership, or be the ‘sole, or majority-service provider’ for the dealership.”
The City also determined that the expansion of such work at Caliber is not detrimental to the adjacent community, according to the staff report.
Colleen Doan, planning manager, explained at the public workshop last month that the auto-body work in the new spaces at Caliber would include squaring up frames, applying filler, welding, painting and detailing.
Development awards
During the meeting, Charney reviewed the City’s development-award program with the commissioners to encourage them to nominate more “impactful projects” that reflect property owners’ improvement efforts.
“We have a variety of award programs,” Charney later told the Signal Tribune, noting that the City offers three awards for property owners in addition to its beautification award, including recognitions for drought-tolerant landscaping and installation of EV chargers and solar panels.
Charney said the City offers two of those awards– for EV chargers and solar panels– when it grants owners installation permits.
“They get a lawn sign, and we can say they’re a winner,” he said. “For the drought-tolerant landscaping, since we don’t have permits for that, we rely on people giving us leads, and then we contact the person to see if they want a lawn sign or not.”
However, Charney said that not everyone who could receive an award chooses to participate.
“Although we maintain a list of award winners, we ask for consent,” he said. “If people opt out, we don’t put them on our website as the award winners. […] Some people are very sensitive about that.”
Nevertheless, Charney said, the award program is meaningful to those who participate and the Community Development Department is open to nominations.
“The 30 percent of the people that do it, they really love it,” he said. “There are people who literally end up in tears when they’re getting their awards.”
Current development
The commission received and filed staff’s monthly development status report (DSR) as part of approving its consent calendar.
The roughly 30-page monthly report lists commercial/industrial, auto-center, wireless-communication and residential projects currently in progress. Any new development project smaller than 10,000 square feet must be approved by the Planning Commission, Charney later said.
The report lists 18 residential projects ranging from home remodeling and add-ons to new residential complexes, including 25 three-story residences at Crescent Square.
Approximately 20 commercial projects listed in the DSR include construction of an industrial park at 2020 Walnut Ave., Signal Hill Petroleum’s conceptual plans to develop the former Majestic Golf Land site at 2550 Orange Ave. into 114 single-family dwellings and the Signal Hill Costco at 2200 E. Willow St. requesting to expand its gas-station hours to be 5am to 10pm seven days per week.
Charney later told the Signal Tribune that one new project not yet listed in the DSR is the replacement of the former Delius restaurant at 2951 Cherry Ave. with a new eatery. Though the City has issued a demolition permit for the former Delius site, it still has to check the new plans for compliance.
“I report it when somebody has done plan-check, but that’s not technically done yet,” Charney said. “It’s ready to be– we’ve looked at preliminary plans.”
The next meeting of the Signal Hill Planning Commission will take place Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 7pm in the council chamber at 2175 Cherry Ave.
