Skechers project gets OK from Planning
A rendering of the proposed design center and executive offices, looking west across Pacific Coast Highway. Image courtesy DFH Architects
A proposed development from shoe manufacturer Skechers that would transform the northern edge of Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa Beach received tentative approval from the city’s Planning Commission last week, clearing a major hurdle in the project’s multi-year development saga.
In a pair of 3-2 votes, the commission bestowed a series of discretionary permits needed for the project to proceed and approved an Environmental Impact Report laying out effects the project is likely to impose on the community. Commissioners acknowledged that the project was likely to create challenges for both the highway and surrounding neighborhoods, but was ultimately convinced that it represented the best possible option for a stretch of land that has sat empty for nearly a decade.
“Traffic can’t be mitigated away, and it is important, but for this project, it is incredibly better than the alternatives…This project may not happen, but something will be built there. Whether it’s restaurants or a Jack in the Box or a Best Buy, there’s going to be more problems,” said commission Chair Rob Saemann.
The project will develop nearly 2.5 acres of space along the highway, starting a few blocks north of Artesia Boulevard and stretching to Duncan Avenue, in Manhattan Beach. The Hermosa portion of the project will create a new design center and executive offices, while the Manhattan portion will expand the company’s suite of offices on both sides of Sepulveda. (The EIR for the proposal covered all of the components, but because a larger portion of the project is located in Hermosa, it served as the lead agency. Manhattan’s Planning Commission will hold a separate hearing on Feb. 14 solely for the segments located within that city.)
Because traffic impact on seven nearby intersections is expected to be “significant and unavoidable,” commissioners were obligated under the California Environmental Quality Act to sign off on a statement of overriding considerations, forcing them to wade into the broader policy implications of their land use designations.
The city hired Kosmont Consulting to do an independent analysis of the project’s economic benefits. Along with the temporary construction jobs, the project is expected to house hundreds of new employees, many of them making upper-level salaries, Skechers officials said. A company-provided shuttle service is expected to carry employees into the Hermosa and Manhattan downtowns during lunch, potentially boosting the weekday sales of shops and restaurants in the area.
Kosmont vice president Wil Soholt, said employees and company guests would be expected to spend about $1.3 million in the city per year. The project would also be expected to boost business and property tax revenues for the city and school district by hundreds of thousands of dollars, Soholt said. The forecasted economic benefits of the project, along with the sense that alternatives might only make things worse, more than balanced out the project’s downsides, the commission majority concluded.
Vice Chair Marie Rice and Commissioner Dave Pedersen dissented. As the meeting stretched past midnight, both said they wanted more time to consider the potential negative effects of the “50-year project,” one of the largest developments the city has ever examined.
“We all know that this building as an office building, as this corporate use, is the best option. It’s compatible with the zoning, it’s easiest in the neighborhood and it has the least impacts. I’m very grateful for the company to come in and use the space in this way and build beautiful buildings. But my concern over the significant impacts from the number of people housed in these buildings and the impacts they bring…these are significant impacts and I feel I have a duty and a responsibility to really look at the alternatives and see if I agree with the statement of overriding consideration,” Rice said.
The number of employees was a point of concern. Pedersen was complimentary toward Skechers but noted that the projections for the design center had a relatively large amount of square footage per employee, causing him to wonder whether Skechers — or a future tenant — could someday pack in more occupants, increasing the impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
Skechers said that the design center had a smaller employee-to-square-footage ratio because much of the building was dedicated to showrooms. The showrooms are not occupied at all times, but are essential to displaying their projects to international buyers, a company representative said. And, citing the lengthy development process, Skechers President Michael Greenberg described the company as committed to the community.
“Our dedication to this project shows how badly we want to be here. It would have been easy to start up here, then go to East L.A. or Vernon where it is more cost effective to run a business,” Greenberg said.
Skechers began acquiring some of the parcels a decade ago and first submitted a proposal to Hermosa in 2014. The project has evolved significantly since then. Along with originally proposing about 10 percent square footage, at one point the company had sought to erect an elevated bridge over 30th Street connecting the design center and the executive offices. That plan was dropped in favor of a pedestrian tunnel under 30th, which will connect the two parking garages. The company also added a plan for a coffee shop at the corner of Longfellow Avenue and Pacific Coast Hwy. to break up the streetscape and offer some sales tax revenue; that proposal was dropped last week out of concern that it would aggravate traffic woes.
The changes pleased but did not entirely satisfy, project opponents, most of whom live in the area just to the west of the project. They continue to fear that the project was simply too large for the surrounding area.
“For our small beach community, this monster of a project seems to be a regression. It’s the first thing you see coming into Hermosa Beach, and the last thing you see when you leave,” said Jason Yasment.