Hermosa Beach PCH makeover approved
A rendering of where in Hermosa Beach on Pacific Coast Highway and Aviation Boulevard would see improvements as part of the PCH-Aviation Corridor Beautification Project. Courtesy of Katherine Spitz Associates Inc.
The city of Hermosa Beach will embark on a nine year project to improve Pacific Coast Highway and Aviation Boulevard starting this year.
The City Council voted unanimously to approve the conceptual design and master plan for the PCH-Aviation Corridor Project, which would cost approximately $26,482,315. The project seeks to make the streets more pedestrian friendly and aesthtically pleasing and will span PCH between Herondo Street and Artesia Boulevard as well as on Aviation Boulevard between PCH and Prospect Avenue.
Representatives from Katherine Spitz Associates Inc., the landscape architecture company that the city hired for the project, said that elements such as medians, park-lets and a potential round-about could all help to have a calming effect on traffic, increase pedestrian usage, provide opportunities to add trees and other plants to the two main streets, thus creating a more inviting street-scape. The plan would also add one additional crosswalk on Pacific Coast Highway and two on Aviation Boulevard. Bike lanes are also being considered as part of the plan.
Councilman Peter Tucker said that the plan was exciting for the city.
“Not only will it benefit this community, but the county and state,” Tucker said. “We can make it into what we as a community want visitors to see when they drive through.”
City Manager Tom Bakaly said the city has set aside about $1 million for the project so far. Additional funds for the project would come through fundraising and from state and federal grants as well as grants from organizations such as Caltrans and South Bay Cities Council of Governments.