El Segundo staff previews Vision 2050 land-use update; council asks for El Segundo‑specific policy on housing and business retention

El Segundo city staff and consultants presented the Vision 2050 general‑plan land‑use update at a study session, previewing draft guiding principles, outreach findings and next steps and asking the City Council for direction on where to focus future land‑use alternatives.

The presentation noted a shortage of housing relative to local job growth, strong demand for industrial space, and a need to weigh infrastructure and fiscal impacts before committing to changes. Mayor Chris Pimentel said in the project's video premiere, “This update will ensure new growth is smart, coordinated, and serves our community’s evolving needs,” and staff asked the council to identify priorities the consultant and planning staff should study in more detail.

Why this matters: the land‑use element sets long‑range policy that affects housing availability, business retention and the city’s tax base. Councilmembers pressed staff for more El Segundo‑specific detail rather than high‑level guiding language, citing the city’s unusual revenue mix and employment patterns.

City staff officially launched Vision 2050 in March 2025 and showed a public video at the meeting; project staff said they intend to prepare land‑use alternatives for public review, study environmental impacts and aim to return with a draft plan ahead of public hearings and a final adoption process targeted for early 2027. Staff provided a project website (elsegundo.org/vision2050) and an email (vision2050@elsegundo.org) for public engagement.

Public comment and outreach findings Anya Goldstein, a member of the public who spoke during the meeting’s public‑comment portion, said she and others “are in favor of affordable housing, housing for people of all income levels, housing along PCH and on the other side of PCH and… safer streets for pedestrians and bicyclists.”

Laura Stetson, a consultant with MIG, summarized outreach to date: leadership interviews, focus groups with employers (including major local employers), a community workshop with about 70 participants and an online questionnaire that drew about 850 responses. Stetson cautioned the council that the survey responses skewed toward homeowners and older residents and are therefore not demographically representative of the whole city. She said the outreach will expand in later phases to reach groups underrepresented so far.

Key technical findings presented - Housing and affordability: The team reported demographic and housing‑burden figures presented during the meeting: 57% of households are renters and 43% owners; roughly 29% of owner households and about 33% of renter households are classified as housing‑burdened (spending more than 30% of income on housing), as presented by the consultant. The presentation did not identify a single method for the consultants’ housing‑gap estimate and staff said they would provide the underlying math at a later meeting.

- Jobs and commute patterns: Consultants noted El Segundo’s role as an employment hub and cited a large daytime workforce. The presentation referenced an employment figure in the range of 55,000–70,000 people coming into the city for work (consultant and internal sources differed). A jobs‑to‑housing ratio of about 2.6 was cited in the presentation materials as an indicator of imbalance.

- Real‑estate markets: The consultant reported a strong industrial market with higher rents and lower vacancy than county averages, a retail market with relatively high rents during daytime demand, and an office market showing higher vacancy consistent with broader regional trends.

- Data sources named in the presentation included Kaiser Marston Associates (market analysis), CoStar and the California Employment Development Department (EDD). Stetson also referenced prior local planning work such as the downtown specific plan and the Smoky Hollow specific plan.

Council discussion and directions requested Councilmembers asked staff and consultants for more El Segundo‑specific policy framing rather than high‑level guiding language. Several councilmembers expressed that the draft guiding principles were too general and asked for specificity that reflects El Segundo’s economic structure — a city that relies heavily on business revenues — and the distinct character of neighborhoods.

Specific topics councilmembers asked staff to analyze further included: - Whether and where to encourage additional housing, including how the city should use the housing overlays discussed in the adopted housing element (consultants noted overlays with densities cited in the presentation and compared those to existing R‑3 densities). - How to preserve single‑family neighborhood character while finding locations for added housing. - Whether to allow greater flexibility in industrial and office zones (for example mixed industrial/office product types that have supported local startups and technology firms in Smoky Hollow). - Downtown density and the interaction between the recently updated downtown specific plan and the land‑use element. - The potential local impacts and opportunity costs of data centers and similar low‑employment, high‑infrastructure uses.

Staff direction and next steps Staff and the consultant team said they will produce land‑use alternatives for public review that include the fiscal and service‑level implications of each option (tax revenue, public‑service impacts, circulation and infrastructure costs) so that public feedback is informed by tradeoffs rather than map colors alone. The consultant said the next steps are to refine guiding principles, develop alternatives, expand outreach and model environmental and fiscal effects before returning to the planning commission and council.

No formal council action or vote was taken at the study session; councilmembers concluded by asking staff to return with more focused, El Segundo‑specific policy options and technical detail earlier in the alternatives phase.

Ending Staff advised the council that the team will move quickly from principles into alternatives and will provide more detailed policy options for council review. The meeting then recessed into closed session after the study session portion concluded.