Residents grilled a representative of Paragon Commercial Group, which wants to build a Gelson’s supermarket on Sepulveda Boulevard and 8th Street, at a meeting hosted by the Manhattan Beach Residents Association on Oct. 21.
About 60 people attended, including Mayor Mark Burton, City Planning Manager Laurie Jester and Paragon principal Jim Dillavou, a Manhattan Beach resident.
Though Dillavou identified some changes to the proposal, many attendees didn’t seem satisfied.
“I haven’t heard anything that allays my concerns,” said Eileen Neill, who lives behind the site and gave a presentation outlining the concerns of some residents.
The biggest changes had to do with parking.
In the original plan submitted earlier this year, Paragon asked to be excused from the number of parking spaces required by the city’s code. It also didn’t include room for all employees to park onsite.
Neighbors behind the site worried that employees and shoppers would crowd residential streets.
Paragon appears to no longer be asking for a parking exception and will provide spaces for all employees in the onsite lot, according to Dillavou’s comments, though his language wasn’t entirely clear.
“The site will be parked in compliance with city requirements,” said Dillavou.
Dillavou said the company owns a small lot across 8th Street which it could use if necessary, though he noted it didn’t seem to currently be necessary. Paragon bought the lot along with three others just west of it. The three others were sold and now have houses being built. When some attendees asked if they could’ve used those lots for parking, Jester said they could have, although Dillavou said the lots had been zoned residential.
“We’re not residential developers,” he said.
Another touchy subject was a potential Environmental Impact Report, which would study the project’s impacts on things like noise, pollution and traffic. Some concerned residents have pushed for a EIR. Jester said that because Paragon hadn’t yet submitted all of the required studies to the city, no decision has been made about whether to require an EIR.
One woman asked Dillavou why Paragon wouldn’t do a report anyway, even if it wasn’t required.
“If you care that much about the city and its residents, why won’t you just do an EIR now?” asked the woman, who said she had some developers in her family. “Most developers I know, if they came up against this much opposition and legitimate concern, would conduct an EIR.”
Dillavou responded by saying “the project doesn’t come anywhere close to requiring an EIR.”
“I don’t know what else to say. We’re going to comply 100 percent with what’s required of us and the project,” he said.
As for adding a deceleration lane next to the store on Sepulveda, Dillavou said the road belonged to Caltrans and they couldn’t make that decision. They would, however, add a left hand turn arrow onto 8th Street from Sepulveda.
Resident Gerry O’Connor asked if Paragon had considered any other uses for the site. Dillavou said they had, and that they could make more money by building a fast food restaurant, but that wasn’t what they wanted to do.
“We’re retail developers,” said Dillavou. “We only develop retail. Other uses were retail, fast food and nail salons, which I have no interest in building in the city I live in.”
A final proposal will be submitted to the city in about a month once all the studies are complete, according to Dillavou. ER
