Park development funds
In a unanimous affirmative vote during a meeting of Signal Hill City Council on Dec. 8, council members adopted a resolution approving an application for a grant aimed at actualizing the View Park plan and constructing a recycled water line and pump station.
The application is requesting $2 million from the Proposition 1 San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy Grant to enhance an existing fund of $500,000 from the City of Signal Hill.
In total, the $2.5 million will help unify two separate land parcels into a single park creation project located near Cherry Avenue and Burnett Street, encompassing 1.85 acres, and improve water sustainability efforts for Signal Hill.
One parcel contains an existing park owned and operated by Signal Hill, while the other is open land available for full development.
Long Beach owns the open land parcel, but the City “ha[s] indicated to [Signal Hill] they are interested in a long-term lease, so we are currently working with the terms of that lease,” said Public Works Director Steve Myrter.
Vice Mayor Lori Woods expressed disapproval at the fact that Long Beach is not donating the land for the project, and she requested a 99-year lease at a rate of one dollar per year to be presented to Long Beach officials.
A recycled-water extension system will be constructed concurrently with the parks to help bring non-potable water further into the city.
As currently proposed, the 24-inch pipeline will help bring in an additional 40 acre-feet of water per year, a term of measurement which Councilmember Edward Wilson asked to be explained further. Â
Myrter said that a single acre-foot of water is equivalent to 336,000 gallons, which accounts for roughly 5 percent of the city’s annual water usage and has the potential to sustain about five average homes for a year.
A youth employment program is required for the grant to be formalized, and the developers intend to utilize the Long Beach Conservation Corps to fill that quota, much like the grant funding changes to the Reservoir and Signal Hill parks.
Final approval is expected to come in April 2016 with construction beginning soon thereafter.
Water-capture facility
With a collective “aye” rising from the dais, the Signal Hill City Council authorized a cooperative agreement between the cities of Signal Hill and Long Beach to help fulfill an $11-million project funded by Caltrans to construct a sub-basin water capture facility for Los Cerritos Channel.
Referred to as the Los Cerritos Channel Dry Weather Diversion Project, “this project is very critical in assisting Signal Hill in meeting its state-mandated stormwater quality requirements,” said City Manager Charlie Honeycutt.
Tentative construction plans outline an underground collection basin to be constructed below the surface of Skylinks Golf Course to collect water from the Los Cerritos Channel, both lowering water levels in the channel itself and allowing the water to infiltrate through gravel and earth to naturally filter out trace elements before fully draining to the closest watershed.
Myrter followed Honeycutt with a review of the responsibilities both Signal Hill and Long Beach hold in the application of the project, as the two both drain to the Los Cerritos Watershed and are thusly held to the same standards of cleanliness drained water must reach.
“The watershed management programs are collaborative in that the cities that drain to these watersheds work together and they share costs,” Myrter said. “It allows for customized program implementation with extended compliance deadlines by essentially meeting these requirements, setting up the milestones these watersheds will get into. It gives us time to get compliant in the next five to 10 years.”
As such, the terms of the agreement allow for the City of Long Beach to financially assist Signal Hill with the three-year plan, as the City will benefit from the project by reaching the necessary compliance through the final basin even though it falls outside its borders.
Copper, zinc and lead are all currently found in drained water coming from Signal Hill, as the three are readily present in the city environment. Creating a sub-basin with a natural filtration system, such as the proposed Los Cerritos project, will reduce the amounts of these elements in the runoff water, overall leading to lower levels in the watershed.
Signal Hill resident Maria Harris took the floor after Myrter’s presentation to pose two questions: whether monetary allotments for project management were slated for the duration of the project or on an annual basis and whether an indirect cost allocation plan is to be instituted to cover labor and overhead charges.
Myrter answered that the management budgets were for the duration of the project and that as of now there is a direct billing process going straight through the project to gather money from the $11-million bank.
If all goes to plan, the sub-basin water-capture facility will be finished and functional by April 2019.
Municipal code amendment
At the Nov. 24 meeting, SummerHill Housing Group presented a potential ordinance to revise the Subdivision Act of the Signal Hill Municipal Code to encompass finance and conveyance maps.
Finance and conveyance maps are useful in the planning stages of development to indicate specific areas of land to be included in projects. State laws currently include explicit mentions of finance and conveyance maps, and SummerHill wants local codes to reflect that.
With no questions from the council or audience and a quick motion to vote from Councilmember Wilson, the council voted as a whole to adopt Ordinance Amendment 15-05, adding Chapter 18.13 to the Signal Hill Municipal Code.
Shop Signal Hill
Honeycutt opened Tuesday’s meeting by presenting a series of local restaurants, vendors and retailers that can serve as holiday shopping options.
Broken down into subcategories, the suggested locations ranged from Applebee’s to Best Buy and were introduced to encourage residents to spend their money locally.
“Stay within Signal Hill borders,” Honeycutt said. “You got it all here.”
