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Latest waterfront design gets mixed reviews from neighbors
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The latest design for the “Heart of the City” aims to create a waterfront downtown in the area now occupied by harbor parking lots. The image above shows a vision of the waterline and the proposed village core. South of Seaside Lagoon, a fresh fish and produce market would draw visitors to the water’s edge and the pier area. A proposed movie theater or high-end hotel would anchor the site project on the north end, along Catalina. Rendering courtesy Freedman, Tung and Bottomley |
Planners presented the latest version of the “Heart of the City” plan to residents and Redondo officials Tuesday night, and what had been a relatively temperate discussion got turned up a notch.
To applause from other harbor-area residents, Marcene Anderson said she was concerned that people who lived in the area were going to bear the burdens of the new development in terms of increased crime, traffic and loss of views.
“You’re going to put a downtown in my front yard,” she said.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first chance for the city council to see the plan in the company of the harbor and planning commissions.
The biggest changes announced dealt with parking. Planners axed building a parking structure in the middle of the “Heart of the City,” with a floor set aside for boater’s parking. Instead they recommending expanding a proposed parking garage underneath what will be the village core, stretching from south of Portofino Way down to Basin 3, which houses the International Boardwalk.
To make up for the lost parking for boaters, planners recommended lining the waterfront along marinas with parking reserved for marina users. Planning Commissioner Steve Aspel echoed the concern of non-boaters who questioned moving the Strand bike path away from the marina’s edge in favor of the parking. He said running the bike path through the new commercial district instead of along the waterline could take away from the experience of being on the Strand. Aspel said he was concerned that boater’s interests might be subverting the best interest of the project.
“It seems like they’re being treated awful special. How many of the people that keep their boats in the harbor are even residents of Redondo Beach?” he asked.
Harbor Consultant Michael Middleton cautioned against letting the Strand run along the marinas. He compared harbors to residential neighborhoods where increased traffic drives down property values.
Boat owners voiced concern over security problems that could come with increased traffic and opposed taking away boat owner’s parking without creating an alternative. King Harbor Yacht Club Commodore Bill Webster said that the success of the project was closely tied to the success of the marinas.
“If you destroy the harbor, you destroy the ambience for your waterfront downtown. A marina full of derelict boats isn’t going to create the ambiance you’re looking for.”
Middleton also recommended moving the boat yard and boat hoist to the end of Mole B, the projection of land where the harbormaster’s office is located. Moving boat services there would centralize harbor facilities, making it closer to the sanitary dump and the fuel dock. It would also cut down on the number of employees and make them easier for visiting boaters to find.
Plans to expand Mole B into the Harbor’s main channel had been cast aside earlier in the process. Boaters questioned whether there was enough parking on Mole B to serve boaters using the hoist and whether moving the boat yard was worth the expense.
Finding a home for the hoist was problematic, said District 2 Councilman Kevin Sullivan, because leaseholders wouldn’t want it on their land.
“Nobody wants something that doesn’t get much of a return on their property,” Sullivan said.
Redondo Beach Mayor Greg Hill said that compromises would have to be made, but in the end everyone would benefit.
“We’re trying to make sure everyone walks away from this with something,” said Hill.
Councilman Bob Pinzler, District 4, raised the question of how much money the city would have to put into the project to get it going. Some improvements, like beautifying the waterline with a promenade, could be paid for by the developers, said urban planner Michael Freedman. But some of the other projects, especially farther away from the waterfront, would have to be funded by the city, Freedman said.
“For instance, I’m virtually certain the city would have to spend several million dollars in building a parking structure for the movie theater,” he said.
The design is still in its embryonic stages, and has yet to pass the scrutiny of the city council or any state agencies. The city council asked planners to come up with computer models that would help them to visualize the scope of the project and its impacts on views. City commissions and the city council will be scrutinizing the plans in the coming months. Hill set a tentative deadline of having a plan on the table by June 2001. Community members are invited to post their comments on the plan to the city’s website, www.redondo.org, where information from this and prior meetings is posted. ER