Carson, CA — The Carson City Council approved a development agreement Tuesday for more than 1.5 million square feet of light industrial uses while also addressing truck parking, delays at Carriage Crest Park and the city’s landscape maintenance.

The council voted Sept. 15 to adopt two ordinances approving amendments to the District at South Bay Specific Plan and an amended and restated development agreement with Carson Goose Owner LLC. The agreement covers 1,567,090 square feet of light industrial uses in Planning Area 3 of the District at South Bay Specific Plan project.

The council also authorized Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes to execute the development agreement after approval by the city attorney.

Another major discussion involved the elimination of a 72-hour truck parking area on Figueroa Street following a request from the Los Angeles County Sanitation District.

Councilmember Jim Dear questioned why the city was eliminating the designated parking, noting that the area had previously been created to accommodate truck drivers.

“So was this requested by the sanitation district or why are we eliminating this truck parking?” Dear asked. “We purposely gave them a place to park their trucks because they often live in Carson and, you know, they’re in business and need a place to park their trucks.”

Jonathan Ye, a traffic engineer with the city’s Public Works Department, said the request originated with members of the sanitation district and involved both the removal of street parking and the 72-hour truck parking.

He said he was not aware of any accidents connected to the parking but added, “there’s always the potential because we have these large vehicles pulling out trying to exit our facility.”

Dear then asked whether the truck parking would be replaced somewhere else in Carson.

Ye said it would not.

“As proposed in the staff report, it would not be replaced,” Ye said. “It would just be eliminated.”

The discussion also raised questions about whether truck drivers had been notified. Ye said the city had not received input from truck drivers during the evaluation.

Dear urged the city to provide affected drivers with information about other available parking.

“What I would suggest as a polite courtesy to those individuals that rely on that location that the city is planning to eliminate tonight is that you notify them maybe with a map or something,” Dear said.

Ye later explained that other designated truck parking areas exist in Carson.

“On the website, there’s a map with existing truck routes and existing areas designated for both one-hour truck parking and 72-hour truck parking,” Ye said.

The council approved the recommendation.

The council also received and filed an update to the city’s Urban Forest Master Plan.

Staff said replacing trees and removing dead trees is an ongoing operation.

The master plan update also addressed grant funding for additional tree planting. Officials said the organization that secured the grant removed funding for Carson and other cities after cities were unable to meet certain guidelines.

Housing programs were another focus of the meeting.

Dwayne Cobb of the city’s Housing Department presented the 2025-26 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report, which tracks the city’s performance under its Community Development Block Grant program.

Cobb described the report as the city’s “annual report card to confirm that we’ve met the goals that we established for ourselves.”

Cobb said the programs included neighborhood improvement projects, youth services and housing counseling.

The council approved the final report and directed staff to submit it to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by Sept. 28.

Carriage Crest Park also generated discussion after the council considered an additional $66,580 for RJM Design Group’s professional services agreement for the park’s expansion and improvements. The amendment extended the agreement through Dec. 31, 2026.

The council also extended the operations and maintenance agreement for the Carson Stormwater Capture Facility at Carriage Crest Park through June 30, 2027.

City Engineer Gilbert Marquez said the city did not yet have an estimate for annual maintenance costs. He said the facility was not yet operational because the Los Angeles County Sanitation District still needed to complete a required facility demonstration.

“It’s still missing the facility demonstration,” Marquez said. “That piece is still missing or waiting for the rain to get tested.”

He said recent rainfall was insufficient for the testing, saying that there was “not enough water to perform the testing.”

The council also approved new landscape median maintenance contracts after city staff divided Carson’s more than 35 miles of medians into four quadrants.

Public Works Director Arlington Rodgers said the previous system divided the city between two vendors, creating difficulties.

“It was just too much for either of them to handle on their own,” Rodgers said. “It wasn’t up to the Carson standard.”

The new contracts were awarded to JAS Landscape LLC, EMTS Inc. and Mariposa Landscape Inc.

Rogers said the new system was designed to provide more detailed maintenance across the city.

“We did our best to incorporate all of that into the RFP,” Rogers said. “They will be doing irrigation, checking the sprinklers, removing dead plants, replacing them as all part of the contract.”

The council approved the contracts.