LA Fitness is once again proposing to build a health club in the Shops at Rossmoor center (which is located in Seal Beach). The council rejected an identical project last year, but developers withdrew the application—which made it legally possible to resubmit the project at a future time.
LA Fitness is once again proposing to build a health club in the Shops at Rossmoor center (which is located in Seal Beach). The council rejected an identical project last year, but developers withdrew the application—which made it legally possible to resubmit the project at a future time.
The public has until Jan. 30 to comment on the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report on the proposed project. The plan is to build a 37,000-square-foot health club in the shopping center, near Rossmoor Center Way—near condominiums on the other side of that street and on Montecito Road. The club would be open 5 a.m.-11 p.m. on weekdays, 5 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturdays, and 8 a.m.-8 a.m. Sundays.
If the project sounds familiar, that’s because the Seal Beach City Council voted to stop the project in July 2016. The Seal Beach Planning Commission had approved the project, but residents of the Rossmoor Park homeowners association appealed the decision to the City Council. Following hours of testimony before a packed chamber, the City Council voted 3-2 to uphold the appeal—which meant the city would not issue a permit for the club.
Seal Beach District Three Councilman Mike Varipapa and Seal Beach Mayor Sandra Massa-Lavitt of District Five cast the votes that would have allowed the project to go forward.
District One Councilwoman Ellery Deaton and District Two Councilman David Sloan both cited the concerns about traffic and the safety of pedestrian children as reasons they opposed the project. District Four Councilman Gary Miller said the developer had not adequately addressed the noise and parking issues. Miller and Sloan termed out of office last year.
Mayor Massa-Lavitt, who was re-elected last month, argued that after the club settled in, area residents would not experience the problems they expected to experience. Councilman Michael Varipapa said he empathized with the shopping center’s residential neighbors, but could not find evidence that the health club was less compatible with the neighborhood than existing businesses or those that could be built without public hearings under the city code.
Even though opponents of the project had won the appeal, the issue wasn’t technically over. City staff had prepared a resolution to deny the appeal—which meant the resolution to formally deny the project would have to come back to the next City Council meeting. But the project developers formally withdrew the application between the July and August council meetings. This cleared the way for the project to legally come back.
Copies of the city’s initial study for the project are available for public review at City Hall, at the Mary Wilson Library, at the Rossmoor/Los Alamitos Library on Montecito Road or at www.seaclbeachca.gov.
The public has until 5 p.m., Jan. 30, to mail comments to Assistant Planner Steve Fowler, Community Development Department, 211 Eighth St., Seal Beach CA 90740; to email him at sfowler@sealbeachca.gov or to phone him at 562-431-2527, extension 1316. Email messages should include “LA Fitness” in the subject line.