A Second Article on the Same Day!

Another Round for San Pedro's Ponte Vista
Wednesday, March 11, 2009, by Dakota

The power of neighborhood councils to stop proposed developments--that's the crux of today's LA Times' story on San Pedro Ponte's Vista, a development that at one point was a proposed 2,300-unit project.

Spearheaded by developer Bob Bisno, the development was supported by locals businesses, but "facing potent opposition from within the community's increasingly sophisticated neighborhood councils," the planning commission shot down the project, which was set to rise on a 61-acre site on old Navy property, last December.

Bisno is now out of the project, which is being handled by DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, a subsidiary of Credit Suisse Bank.

Tomorrow DLJ will hold a community meeting to get input on the new, revised development (likely it'll be much smaller) and then the project will head off to the planning commission on April 9th.
Via the paper:

[Councilwoman and San Pedro resident Janice Hahn] "said the original proposal was much too big and now developers must come up with a smaller project -- perhaps of about 885 units -- that will offer enough benefits to justify a zoning change."

Meanwhile, to get a sense of the neighborhood councils and how they're operating, check out the "R Neighborhoods Are 1" web site (the name invokes one of the zoning changes desired).

There's an update posted by Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council member John Greenwood about the meeting tomorrow.

Here's their position: "We think that the developer must begin again with a new proposal and an updated traffic study. Simply revising the existing proposal prior to the April 9th hearing would not allow for a sufficient public input process for consideration of a project of this magnitude."

You can read the PDF of the Greenwood's statement here.·
San Pedro residents organize to oppose Ponte Vista development [LA Times]·
NW San Pedro NC [Official Site]·
R Neighborhoods Are 1 [Official Site]
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As a matter of fact, the 61.53 acre site is currently zoned for single-family dwellings on lots of not less than 5,000 square feet, which is R1. The two types of zoning on the site are; R1-1XL and O1-1XL, those being the lot zone for residential structures and the open space zone compatable to the R1 zoning. The "1XL" stands for structures of not greater than two storys or 30 feet tall, maximum.