HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity of Westminster - 2018-07-25City of Huntington Beach
2000 MAIN STREET CALIFORNIA 92648
Mike Posey
Mayor
July 25, 2018
MAYOR TRI TA
CITY OF WESTMINSTER
8200 WESTMINSTER BOULEVARD
WESTMINSTER, CA 92683
Subject: Requesting City of Westminster to Defer Council Item on the Resolution Denying Case
No. 2016-60, an attachment to Staff Report, File #: 18-211, Item#: 3.3, City of Huntington
Beach Potable Well Facility located at 7499 McFadden Avenue, Westminster CA
Dear Mayor Ta:
As Mayor of Huntington Beach, I want to put on the record the City of Huntington Beach's
opposition to Resolution 2016-60, which would deny the potable well facility proposed at 7499
McFadden Ave. It is the opinion of our City Attorney that substantive legal and procedural errors
occurred on your vote to deny this project that was taken without findings, and the second vote
findings were inadequate.
Huntington Beach is requesting that you reconsider the action to deny the project that was taken
at the April 25, 2018, City Council Meeting. Our desire is that the City of Westminster will
reconsider the project based on the following efforts made by Huntington Beach:
• Huntington Beach has demonstrated willingness to comply with City of Westminster staff
requests, illustrated by three (3) separate Planning application packages submitted to
date, which lead to Westminster staff recommending the project to both Planning
Commission and City Council.
0 1st application package was submitted on Dec 2016.
0 2nd package was submitted on February 2017.
0 3rd package was submitted on July 2017.
• Huntington Beach obtained Westminster Planning Commission approval on March 7,
2018.
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FAX (714) 536-5233
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• Huntington Beach already expended approximately $500,000 in outside professional
services for the project, of which approximately $30,000 was paid to CW in fees. Over
half the amount of fees were paid to Westminster for Westminster to select and hire a
qualified environmental consultant to prepare the Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND)
for this project.
• CHB addressed groundwater rights concerns of CW by providing a letter of support from
the Orange County Water District (OCWD), the Groundwater Master over the
groundwater basin.
• Similar to CHB, CW currently owns and operates a water well in a residential
neighborhood, located outside its city limit in Midway City (see Exhibit 1).
• The MND addressed construction duration and drilling noise containment mitigation
measures, through the use of a steel frame and acoustical blanket system, surrounding
all 4 sides, known as a 24-foot sound wall, recently used in the drilling of CHB Well No. 1A
in a residential neighborhood (see Exhibit 2).
• OCTA's 1-405 Freeway Widening Project, a project with substantial impacts to the
surrounding neighborhood, involves a long duration of the closing of McFadden Bridge,
heavy construction equipment, significant traffic impact, and extensive night
construction. CHB staff desires to coordinate work with the OCTA's 1-405 Freeway
Widening Project. These coordination efforts to minimize the duration of both traffic and
noise impacts are:
o Storm drain contract is ready for award, and with permission from CW it can be
done before 1-405 project.
o Well drilling can mobilize to work concurrently with the 1-405 project, and will be
on -site with minimal truck traffic.
o Above -ground well facility construction will be on -site with minimal truck traffic.
• The draft resolution for denial of CHB's project contradicts multiple objective findings and
mitigations stipulated in the MND. In fact, if the draft resolution was true, no agencies
including CW would be able to construct water wells in any urban setting.
• The denial will cost the CHB additional project costs for re -applying and potential
redesigns exceeding $50,000, and, in this day of public scrutiny and financial challenges,
we are hoping CW will assist CHB to be fiscally responsible.
• CHB is offering the following benefits to CW:
o Street overlay on McFadden from the west side of railroad tracks to Vasser Street
(>0.3 Mile)
o Aesthetic improvements from all sides of the site (existing site in blight condition)
o Secured site will eliminate homeless encampment
o Extremely low daily traffic count to site
o Prevent future development of the site for higher density use
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o Minimize community impact by coordinating well construction with 1-405
widening project.
In summary, the findings presented in the resolution are inconsistent and fail to explain the
analytic route the agency traveled from evidence to action. Land use decisions require factually
based, substantive findings that bridge the analytical gap.
Attachments (2)
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Exhibit 2 — City of Huntington Beach Well 1A Drilling in a Residential Neighborhood