Proposed Density Changes to East Long Beach, More Traffic, Less Choice. What?!!?

What is Your Vision for Long Beach?

Read below the post concerning plans developed by Amy Bodek, Long Beach Developmental Services Director, and her staff, prior to any public discussion, and affecting many many locations in the 4th and 5th Council districts in which retail would disappear and population density and traffic would greatly increase. Perhaps this is an attempt by the City staff to singlehandedly address a national housing crunch in the belief that no one around here is going to church anymore or shopping at stores, at the expense of local Long Beach neighborhoods. However, after a scheduled hearing on August 17 with the Planning Commission at which Ms. Bodek praised "invisible government" as a good government, the Mayor's office released a statement on August 18 supporting neighborhood review at public hearings (the way we used to do things) as follows--

 

Future citywide workshops:
· Saturday, September 30, 3-5 PM at Veterans Park Community Center
· Wednesday, October 4, 6-8 PM at Whaley Park Community Center
· Saturday, October 14, 11-1 PM at Best Western Golden Sails Hotel
· Wednesday, October 18, 6-8 PM at Expo Center in Bixby Knolls

Read on: 
"RESIDENTS IN LOS ALTOS/EAST LONG BEACH NEED TO SPEAK UP!!
FUTURE VISION for East Long Beach: NO churches, NO retail, NO parking, hundreds more residents under the flight path.When faced with growing opposition to the LUE Plan [Long Beach Land Use Element]- the Bodek bureaucrats re-did their LUE maps to spread the density into the planned and balanced East Long Beach's 5th and 4th Districts.

In the Planning Commission presentation,  Bodek's staff looked to the church properties and called them underused. In the 4th District those underused houses of worship on the LUE map slated for high density housing include:
· Unitarian Church property on Atherton next to the small Botoun Creek Park: rezoned for 5 story condos or apartments.
· Bethany Church property on Clark next to single family residence- rezoned for 3 story apartments or condos
· First Church of the Nazarene on Clark next to single family residence- rezoned for 3 story apartments or condos
The church leadership contacted by LB4D had no idea about the LUE future plans for their properties.
In the Planning Commission presentation, Bodek's staff version of the future of East Long Beach retail would be on the bottom of five to six story residential buildings. The staff described the retailers on the bottom doing most of their business on-line- but giving "discounts" to the neighbors in the buildings above them.
Under the Los Altos Center plan, Bodek would leave a legacy to the City Council's of the future by putting hundreds of new residents in five story apartment houses directly under the flight path that goes over Los Altos Center South with jets flying literally just above their buildings.
4th District legacy properties are also targeted by the new maps. The Long Beach Playhouse property is on the Anaheim Corridor slated for 5 story residences. The architecturally significant Los Altos Medical Center, designed by architect Gordon Powers is slated for a 5 story residential re-zoning.
This is what Bodek's team has planned for East Long Beach retail redo:
4th District
· Los Altos Center North (Trader Joe's area) and South (L.A. Fitness/Lazy Acres): multiple five story condos or apartments
· Los Altos Center South (Hoff's Hut): multiple four story apartments/condos
· The Circle Center retail, Circle Porsche and Audi properties: 5 story apartments/condos
5th District
· Los Altos Gateway center (Kmart/Lowes): multiple five story apartment/condos
· Spring/Palo Verde retail centers : multiple 3 and 4 story buildings
· Town Center: Multiple six story condos and apartments.
The 4th District also gets increased density in its apartment communities. The well kept up and maintained Beverly Plaza-home to a CSULB mini-city- with multiple students living in two bedroom apartments in two story buildings is envisioned in the Bodek plan as SIX story apartment buildings-with the current parking situation.
The six story plan would continue to the apartments just north on PCH and the Traffic Circle."

See the original Long Beach 4th District Blog post on events at the August 17 Planning Commission meeting.  And thanks to the Facebook post by concerned citizen Michele Klein

The Powerful Effect of Clutter

A search on these words pulled up pages and pages of references on Google, which claimed over 7 million results.

According to these, there are psychological results, medical effects, happiness impacts, how it decreases productivity, how it affects your brain, the list goes on and on.

You can solve your clutter problems by getting a coach, getting therapy, using feng shui, stop overeating, clean off your messy desk, even using flower essences, or learning to overcome hoarding. You can stop buying stuff you don't need--it could be that simple. But we live in a society that manufactures more and more for us to take home, just look at the cargo containers arriving at the port before Christmas, where we associate buying with bringing happiness or fulfillment.  

Really, what is clutter? Merriam-Webster dictionary says: "to fill or cover with scattered or disordered things that impede movement or reduce effectiveness, a room cluttered with toys," or according to Oprah: "Clutter is anything that stands between you and the vision you have for your best life."    It's stuff you keep accumulating, bring into your environment, and don't find a place for it where it's out of your way until you really need it.  It's stuff you really don't have a purpose for, and haven't used or no longer use. Yes, there have been studies done, article in journals, all about people with messy desks or messy lives, but how long do you need to sit around and analyze and rationalize this? Don't you  really want to be more effective, and move freely?

It's time to get on top of things, literally.  It's time to stop denying that you have too much stuff, that you have lost control of keeping order in your own home.  Admitting you have a problem is the first important step, where have you heard that before?

When does this become a problem in the real estate world?  When people decide to sell their homes.  To put off the pain of parting with objects, they tell themselves that buyers actually want to come in and view all their stuff, all the while trying to see past it with the ultimate purpose of really finding a home they can love with their stuff in it.  This is not how it really works. All that clutter (to you, precious objects, to them, clutter) is a huge distraction for them, they don't know what to focus on as they look around this house.  And all your possessions are a distraction to you, it's a big job to decide about all those things, it's stultifying, and you can get locked in a quagmire. But you can manage it.

I don't know which method of decluttering will work best for you, but choosing one and following it will eventually lead you to a less complicated existence, which  I believe is a more rewarding way of life.  Try donating, having a yard sale, or going around your house and marking things that you will allow to leave you with a sticky, and then eliminate those things. Search for recycle centers in your area, or donate your car.  Other people may be helped by what you are ready to let go of.

When you make more space in your home, you make more space in your life where new and interesting experiences are allowed to enter.

If you're thinking of selling, please contact me, we can review the entire process to make it as painless as possible.

What Are Appraisal-Free Mortgages? Starting Soon

Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association since 1938) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home

Get good grades and you get an easier loan

Loan Mortgage Corporation since 1970s) are both government sponsored enterprises (GSEs).  Freddie Mac "buys mortgages on the secondary market, pools them, and sells them as a mortgage-backed security to investors on the open market." (Wikipedia).  Fannie Mae's "purpose is to expand the secondary mortgage market by securitizing mortgages in the form of mortgage-backed securities (MBS), allowing lenders to reinvest their assets into more lending and in effect increasing the number of lenders in the mortgage market by reducing the reliance on locally based savings and loan associations (or "thrifts")." (Wikipedia)

So in other words, both entities buy back mortgage loans to resell to investors.  In order to do that, mortgage loans made to new home buyers through various lending institutions are often completed under the guidelines of either or these two entities. 

The appraisal process is a key feature or the mortgage loan process, as the loan must be shown to be a good risk for the price agreed upon between buyer and seller, but that appraisal has often been a source of contention especially when market prices are moving up  rapidly. In addition, changes to the mortgage loan process in recent years has lengthened the time taken for many loan to get completed due to new lending guides required by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect borrowers.

So, beginning in 2016, certain refinance mortgages by Fannie Mae were approved for "appraisal free" loans.  Now, both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are jumping onto the bandwagon to offer mortgage purchase loans with internal automated appraisals which may save 10 days off escrow time and $500 to the borrower.

But this will not work for every borrower--the automated process will look at the borrower's loan-to-value (lower loan is better), the borrower's FICO scores and other determining factors about their application in order to determine the eligibility for the appraisal-free process.  Does this mean there's no calculation on the value of the property? No, because "Collateral Underwriter uses statistical models and algorithms built on a database of over 26 million appraisals to evaluate appraisal quality and drive greater confidence in the valuation of properties securing the loans acquired by Fannie Mae." 

So given that application and property value targets are met in this process, the buyer may obtain a Property Inspection Waiver on properties with low loan-to-value ratios. See Housing Wire
article. Fannie Mae does believe that the majority of mortgages will still require a traditional appraisal, however, for the right buyer, appraisal free transactions will ease their property purchase!