Plans for a contemporary building with 30 condo-style offices, a snack shop and an upscale restaurant have given way to plans for a parking lot on Hermosa Avenue land where the old Classic Burger and Hermosa Beach Donuts buildings once stood near downtown.
Some neighbors have opposed the parking lot, and complained of plans for a 12-foot tall sign with a moving electronic message along Hermosa Avenue. The city Planning Commission is expected to discuss the parking lot plan, and a proposed variance to allow the sign, on Jan. 18.
The original mixed-use plan for the lot, approved four years ago, languished in the economy’s down-turn, and the land that once housed the scruffy but venerable burger and donut joints has stood fenced and empty. Then in March a Palos Verdes Peninsula-based partnership called Hermosa Beach Parking Co. bought the land.
The company wants to build about 35 new parking spaces, some metered and others set aside for month-by-month lease, perhaps by nearby residents and businesses.
“One problem is that Sunday and Monday nights you have to play musical chairs with your cars because of street cleaning. Some people work late at night, and there aren’t too many parking places for local people,” said company manager Tom Brodie.
“There’s a real shortage of parking down there, that’s the problem,” he said.
Paving paradise?
About a dozen people have told the city that they don’t want the parking lot, or the 12-foot high illuminated sign with a seven square-foot moving electronic display that is proposed for the Hermosa Avenue side near the property’s southern edge.
“The loud, drunken noise from party revelers will get even worse, with shouting from this parking lot after midnight. A large sign in the neighborhood is a blight to the community,” neighbor Ron Spears wrote in an email to City Hall.
“The parking lot and sign will intrude on residences in the in the immediate area, create a light and noise issue for residents, and will reduce the property [values] for the homeowners in the vicinity,” wrote neighbor Burton Marcus.
“The 405 Freeway has plenty of ugly billboards on it but Hermosa Beach doesn’t need such things in the city limits,” Kenneth Park wrote from his iPad.
“For mercy’s sake, please don’t do it,” pleaded neighbor Liz Brubaker. “We already have almost no parking in the neighborhood; this will make having guests an impossibility…A large flashing sing in the neighborhood is an indignity and an insult to the family atmosphere of Hermosa Beach. Please don’t import Hawthorne Boulevard to this classy community.”
“I am a homeowner on 15th Street [at the northern edge of the property] and I do not want a billboard or any advertising blinking in my windows. The parking lot I can understand but not the advertisement. This is a neighborhood, not a freeway,” another resident wrote.
However, Hermosan Gavin Schuette emailed the city to “fully support” the parking lot plan.
“I think more parking is a great idea in the densely packed area,” Schuette wrote.
City officials described the proposed sign as 17 square feet in size, but Brodie said he believes it would be smaller than that. He said it would be smaller than the signs on other nearby businesses.
Brodie said the pros and cons of the sign would be hashed out before the Planning Commission.
“One problem I see is that people who purchased homes, and live there, live next to the downtown district. If you live next to commercial property, you need to be aware that you’re going to have something there. If I bought a house, I would want to know what the zoning is, and maybe I would not want to buy a house there,” he said.
“We need to have parking,” Brodie said.
The parking lot and its sign were originally scheduled for a hearing before the Planning Commission Nov. 16. Then the matter was postponed until this week, when it was expected to be postponed again until Jan. 18. City officials said both postponements came at the parking lot company’s request, although Brodie said he believed the first postponement came at the city’s request.
An email from Hermosa architect Larry Peha stated that the second postponement would allow the company to “try to mitigate some of the concerns” expressed by neighbors. ER
