On a recent Saturday afternoon, Keoni Boyd stood in the midday sun a block off of Cypress Avenue, hunched shirtless over a shortboard he was repairing, just as he has for decades.
It was a page pulled right from Cypress’ rich surf history. Going back to the 1960s, the handful of blocks on and around the street have been a home to world-renowned board builders including Hap Jacobs, Greg Noll, Bing Copland, Dewey Weber, Wayne Miyata, Donald Takayama and Phil Becker. The area’s legacy is steeped in resin.
But Cypress is bracing for change now as a coalition of local residents works on an ambitious plan to convert a four block stretch of the street into an arts district, tentatively called Cypress Junction. They hope to attract a new wave of tenants such as artisans and craftsmen to the area to create a new cultural center for Hermosa.
The transition to a creative district would be natural for the area, given the artistry involved in surfboard building, said local resident Mike Collins. But the challenge will be to also preserve the area’s blue-collar-by-the-beach grit.
“The initial phase of this is going to really scare these guys,” Collins said. “They’re going to say ‘Oh God, here come the yuppies. They’re going to ruin the neighborhood.’ What we have to do as this area evolves is make sure they’re involved. We have to make sure that they understand the changes and that they’re on board.”
The project has taken on added significance since proponents are hoping to accomplish it all in plain view of E & B Natural Resources, which has an office on the street and recently failed in its bid to drill for oil in the neighborhood. Creating a new image for Cypress — without oil — would mark yet another symbolic victory for many who fought Measure O.
Already, Cypress has expanded as a creative community with the recent opening of design studio and interactive showroom Hermosa Design a few weeks ago, as well as the opening of audio and video production space Studio 637 in 2013. Ideas being thrown around now include coffee shops, craft breweries and European-style pedestrian walkways on a street where one of the most prominent tenants is an auto body repair shop.
Those and other concerns were discussed on a community walking tour of the area on Saturday led by Raimi+Associates, the firm selected by the city to draw its new general plan. The firm has been collecting community input and hopes to submit a draft of the plan in the fall, laying out a vision for Hermosa’s next 30 to 40 years.
Residents on the tour voiced their desire for the Cypress area to be welcoming for pedestrians and bikers. The street is bracketed by South Park to the south and Clark Field to the north. The Greenbelt is a block to the east. A pedestrian-friendly street would encourage foot traffic from the parks, residents said. One idea is to model Cypress as a woonerf, a street style popular in the Netherlands that emphasizes shared space and low speed limits. Other ideas included converting the street to cobblestone for added character.
Raimi+Associates’ plan for the area calls for a street framed by one and two-story industrial buildings or lofts with artistic appeal, rooftop greenspace and outdoor amenities. Retail would be focused on specialty wares rather than daily shopping needs. Utility poles would be replaced by underground utility lines. Mixed-use residential space is another possibility.
One concern common to gentrification projects is that rising rents drive out the people who gave a neighborhood its character. That concern is less pressing in this case, Collins said, since some of the area’s older building owners are shapers and artists. For example, big wave surfing pioneer Greg Noll owns the building where Boyd works. Fletcher Dragg, guitarist of punk band Pennywise, owns the building across the alley.
“All these guys are grandfathered in and they’re here to stay,” Boyd said.
Many residents who support the creative district also fought Measure O, which would have allowed oil drilling on the city maintenance yard that backs up to Cypress. Now, the question is what to do with that space. The city has considered moving the city yard to Valley Drive next to City Hall, which would open the land up to new uses.
Some said the city needs to invest in the area for the project to truly catch on. One option would be for the city to build a parking lot at the site and sell air rights above the lot for commercial or mixed-use space, said Phil Friedl, a local resident and senior vice president at real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
“If the city is committed, it makes it easier for developers to invest. It takes on a life of its own,” he said.
The area is zoned for light manufacturing. Approved uses include surfboard building, pottery making and microbrewing.
If the area were to be designated as an arts district, it could also become eligible for grant money, said Lauren Pizer, a local resident and a consultant to the state’s Joint Committee on Arts.
Beyond making physical improvements, it will also be important to market the district as a creative hotbed, said Erika Seward, a local resident and chief executive at brand marketing firm Ninth House.
A big part of that will be promoting and preserving the area’s history as a mecca for board builders.
“There have been makers who have been here for a really long time,” she said. “It’s just about giving this part of the community a brand identity as the intersection of art and innovation, to draw people here and to draw the right kind of businesses here.”
