Thursday, January 17, 2008

Should WE Live With What Redondo Beach Denied?

An article in today's Daily Breeze reported that the Redondo Beach City Council denied a request for a conditional use permit by a developer to build 40 Senior housing units on land that once held 13 residential units.

The development company, Urban Point LLC. wanted to build 40 units for senior citizens in a community they contend has a growing segment of older residents.

The site chosen by the developer has been vacant since 1995, when the remainder of the original 13 structures were torn down.

The developer can start anew with an application to build units that would have less density, but the Redondo Beach City Codes state that for "senior housing" at least 35 units would have to be built.

40 units on land that once held 13 units would increase the density by times.

The Ponte Vista site currently has about 245 residential units. Bob Bisno wishes to build 1,950 units on the site. That would be an increase in unit density of 7.959 times.

If the Council members of the City of Redondo Beach can deny an increase in density of 3.07 times, it makes good sense that the Council members of the City of Los Angeles should deny an increase of 7.959 times, at Ponte Vista.

If the Council members of the City of L.A. were to allow for an increase of 3.07 times the 245 units that exist on the Ponte Vista site, that would allow Bob to build about 752 units.

Can or should we live with a Ponte Vista development of about 752 units?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have said this before- why are we constantly being told that we have to roll over for any development offered, no matter what the cost because any protest might "scare away" developers? You couldn't scare away developers from this town with a chainsaw. They know undervalued coastal property when they see it. Why should we not demand the same sort of quality that every other coastal community does? I defy them to try the sort of stuff that's been foisted off on us in Laguna or Dana Point or Manhattan Beach or, yes, Redondo. I'm sick of being told that this is a blue collar community so we should expect and deserve less than those other places. If we don't demand better, we won't get better.