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All council members were present for the Thursday, January 21 Special City Council meeting. Open session started at 6:00 p.m. and ended at 8:00 p.m. Here are the highlights:
City Council Vacancy Announced. The council unanimously adopted a resolution acknowledging the vacancy in the city council as of Jan 12 2021 created by Lula Davis-Holmes being elected Mayor. City Clerk Donesia Gause-Aldana explained three options the council has to fill the vacant seat. The council may either appoint a successor, call a special election, or fill the vacancy with an interim council member. If the council cannot make a decision in the next 60 days, the seat will be filled via a special election until its term expires in November 2022. The council did not provide any indication as to how they plan to fill the seat as of now.
Update to the General Plan Workshop Introduces new Flex Districts. Community Development Director Saied Naaseh lead a workshop where he compared the existing General Plan with the Proposed Preferred plan. In his presentation, he separated the city into 4 quadrants, adding that most changes will happen west of S Wilmington Ave, specifically the area between Del Amo Blvd and 223rd St. Naaseh also defined various Land Use classifications and introduced the new ‘Flex’ Districts (blue areas on the preferred plan map seen below). Flex districts is the first of its kind that allows residential, commercial and industrial use where the previous land use classification only allowed 2 of the 3 uses. This gives incoming property owners maximum flexibility to develop at those locations explained Naaseh. Councilmember Cedric Hicks requested city staff bring back information on Inclusionary Zoning laws at the next city council meeting to hold a discussion whether to implement a law that would require a percentage of every new development be put into affordable or workforce housing.
