Manhattan Beach struggled throughout 2014 on how to maintain its small town past in the face of forces driving it into the future.
This was nowhere more true than in the downtown.
As Manhattan Beach’s star has risen rents have also risen. As a result, chain stores and offices have begun to squeeze out the independent retailers, causing some residents to fear that the downtown will lose its charm.
In a phrase often used at city council meetings, downtown has “become a victim of its own success.”
In July, the city council passed an emergency zoning ordinance that prohibited all downtown businesses from changing their uses for 45 days. The ordinance was subsequently extended through July 2015. Councilmember David Lesser called it a “timeout.”
In October, at the council’s request, city staff brought forward a proposal to temporarily ban chain stores from moving in. The plan, based on one from San Francisco, would have required stores with 11 or more locations to obtain a use permit. The council rejected the proposal. Councilmember Amy Howorth said the plan needed to be more fully thought-out.
Later that month, the council enlisted the Urban Land Institute to conduct a five-day planning conference in January. Experts from the institute will interview over 100 residents representing property owners, business owners, renters and homeowners. There will also be meetings to allow the general public to share its thoughts. At the end of the week, the institute will issue a report with its recommendations for the downtown.
At that same October council meeting, the council expressed its support for hiring community planning consultants PMC to draft a downtown plan. PMC will observe the Urban Land Institute process to gather information for its plan.
This year, the council also approved funds to widen parts of Sepulveda Boulevard and to retrofit the Sepulveda Bridge, which spans the culvert at Rosecrans Avenue. According to public works director Tony Olmos, the plans have been decades in the making. They include adding a northbound lane to lessen the bottleneck at 33rd Street. Olmos said that work on the bridge will begin in fall 2015.
The intersection at Sepulveda and Marine Avenue is also going to be widened. Two left turn lanes will be added on westbound Marine Avenue to southbound Sepulveda Boulevard. Olmos estimated that construction would begin in the first months of 2015.
In December, the council approved another plan long in the making: the renovation of the Manhattan Village Mall. The plan languished for eight years as changes were negotiated between the developer, owner RREEF America Reit Corp BBB II and the city. Because the proposal required zoning changes, it needed the city’s approval. Residents living near the mall expressed fears that the project, which includes a three-story parking garage, was inconsistent with Manhattan Beach’s small town character and would bring increased crime and traffic. The final plan moved the parking structure’s third level 90 feet back from Sepulveda Boulevard.
Another complication was the fact that the property on which the mall sits is owned by three different companies: RREEF, Macy’s and 3500 Sepulveda LLC.
Sepulveda 3500 LLC, which owns the Tin Roof Bistro, the Vintage Shoppe and Susie Cakes sites, was concerned about a lack of parking, both during construction and after the project’s completion.
“Customers will have nowhere to park for two and half years during construction,” Mark Neumann, of 3500 Sepulveda LLC, told the council. “I anticipate a couple of tenants will go bankrupt because of the loss of business.”
RREEF said it would add 30 parking spaces in the culvert next to Fry’s, as well as stairs and an elevator up the hill that leads to 3500 Sepulveda’s building.
The rest of RREEF’s plan includes making the mall more of an outdoor experience and consolidating the Macy’s men’s and women’s stores, now at opposite ends of the mall, into one big store. The plan will add 110,000 square feet to the mall’s current 572,800 square feet.
RREEF representative Joe Saunders told the council improvements to the Fry’s property will be delayed to allow the developer “to design Phase III in a manner that responds to the market at the time.” But the corner will receive new signage and new landscaping. ER
