More than 70% of El Segundo residents who weighed in on the area east of Pacific Coast Highway said they want more housing there, according to figures from the city's Vision 2050 community outreach cited at a Planning Commission study session Thursday, Sept. 24.

The 70.6% figure, raised by City Council candidate John Pickhaver during public comment at the session, puts a sharp number on a recurring question: will El Segundo's long-range plan reflect what residents have asked for?

The area east of PCH also ranked highest among five locations in the city's 2021 Housing Element survey when residents were asked where new housing should be built, Pickhaver said on Instagram on Friday, Sept. 25, the day after the study session.

A $659,000 lesson

The housing question east of PCH is not new. In 2018, Metro offered El Segundo a $659,000 grant to study economic development in the area, Pickhaver said. Just $5,000 of that grant required studying affordable housing there.

The City Council voted 4-1 to direct staff to ask Metro to remove the affordable housing study component, according to Pickhaver. The vote included then-Councilmember Pimentel. Metro refused, and El Segundo lost the entire grant.

That history looms over the current planning process.

@johnpickhaver: "We cannot repeatedly ask residents what they want, receive a clear answer, and then take that option off the table before the planning process even begins."

Pickhaver also pointed to SB 79, a state law that allows housing development near certain transit stops. He said the area east of PCH in El Segundo qualifies, meaning the state could permit housing there regardless of local preferences.

Vision 2050 background

Vision 2050 is El Segundo's effort to update the General Plan Land Use Element, which governs how land in the city can be used. The project launched in March 2025 and is expected to take 18 to 24 months. The updated plan will guide growth and development decisions for the next 25 years.

Staff presented preliminary rezoning concepts along with fiscal and mobility analyses at the 5:30 p.m. session in City Council Chambers, according to the city's Vision 2050 webpage. The full staff presentation is posted on that page.