Planning commission studies Vision 2050 land-use update; housing East of PCH and SB 79 flagged as key issues

El Segundo planning staff and consultant MIG led a study session on Oct. 9 to begin shaping the city’s Vision 2050 land-use element update, presenting background research, public-engagement findings and preliminary vision statements and guiding principles.

Laura Stetson of MIG said the city is updating only the land-use element of the general plan and presented six months of background work including a market analysis, mobility analysis and a public engagement program that the consultant team said included community leadership interviews, focus groups and an open-house workshop. Stetson said the online questionnaire for the project drew roughly 860 responses, which staff described as a strong response for a city the size of El Segundo.

Consultants and staff summarized key findings: El Segundo’s resident population is about 13,000; more households rent than own (staff cited about 57% renters and 43% owners); the city has a very high jobs-to-housing ratio and roughly 70,000 people commute into the city daily. The team told commissioners that more than half of households are cost-burdened (paying more than 30% of income for housing), with about 30% described as extremely cost-burdened (paying more than 50%). The team also presented an interactive “story map” summarizing existing conditions including zoning, specific plans, overlays and state pollution-burden mapping published by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).

Commissioners raised several recurring themes and questions. Multiple commissioners emphasized the political and fiscal sensitivity of allowing new housing east of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), where some neighborhoods also fall into the Wiseburn School District. Commissioners asked staff for high-level fiscal context — who receives business license revenue, how property and school fees flow — and how housing added in particular locations would affect city finances and school-district revenues. Planning staff clarified that business license taxes are administered by the city and go to the city; property tax flows through state and county allocations and the city receives a portion, while developers also pay one-time school impact fees to the school district where development occurs.

The commission discussed Smoky Hollow (a mixed commercial/creative district with a recent specific-plan amendment) and whether limited housing could be compatible with the district’s existing creative/tech character. Staff said Smoky Hollow was previously considered for housing but the city chose not to add residential uses then; the land-use update provides an opportunity to revisit that balance. Commissioners and staff also discussed the market reality that many office owners told planners it is often more feasible to demolish older office towers and build new housing rather than convert existing office structures, though economics vary by site.

Several commissioners asked staff to examine corridors and large parcels that could support housing — for example, surface parking areas and underused parcels — and to provide directional fiscal analysis (high-level revenue and cost flows) to better inform tradeoffs. Staff and the consultant flagged the city’s housing-overlay areas (established in the housing-element process to provide capacity to meet the state-assigned housing need of roughly 600 units over the previous housing cycle) as places to consider for increased density, but they cautioned that changing the housing element or its overlays could have implications for state certification by HCD.

Commissioners were briefed on state legislation circulating at the time of the meeting: the consultants and staff referenced Senate Bill 79 (SB 79, pending signature by the governor) that, if enacted, would require jurisdictions to allow residential uses at specified densities near high-frequency transit stations (the consultants noted quarter-mile and other station-radius effects). Staff said the city has three stations within its jurisdiction and a fourth station’s quarter-mile radius touches the city; the new law, if signed, could constrain local zoning options unless the city uses flexibility in the statute (for example, concentrating allowed density at a single designated transit-oriented site and seeking HCD approval of that alternative). Staff also noted that Metro-owned properties near stations could be developed by Metro under certain conditions.

Public-engagement themes, as summarized by consultants, included preserving El Segundo’s “small-town character,” prioritizing infrastructure and open space, and maintaining a diverse local economy. Staff said the earlier community workshop and online questionnaire responses skewed older and toward homeowners, and they advised pursuing additional targeted outreach to underrepresented groups in the next phase.

Next steps: staff will present the same materials to the City Council in a study session on Oct. 21 at 4 p.m., work with the commission to frame land-use alternatives and return to the commission with economic and mapping analyses (including station-area maps and an inventory of large parking parcels) to support a public round of alternatives and a later preferred-alternative decision. Commissioners asked staff to circulate the memo and maps used at the meeting to the commission for follow-up review.

The commission took the item as received for the record and provided direction to staff to explore land-use alternatives and fiscal implications and to expand outreach in the next phases.