This story has been updated to include corrected information on the commissioners’ individual votes
The city Planning Commission on a split vote has blocked plans for a commercial parking lot on Hermosa Avenue where the old Classic Burger and Hermosa Beach Donuts buildings once stood near downtown.
The decision can be appealed to the City Council.
Developers of the planned lot scrapped plans for a 12-foot tall sign with a moving electronic message along Hermosa Avenue, but numerous nearby residents complained of excessive noise from 24-hour parking. At the same time, owners of numerous nearby businesses supported the parking lot plan.
It all came down to the planning commissioners, who voted 3-2 at their regular meeting last week to deny a precise development plan for the project.
Commissioner Peter Hoffman said a parking lot is a permitted use of land in the commercial zone at Hermosa Avenue near 14th Street. But, he said, the city zoning code states that the purpose of the zone is to foster a residential shopping district, which would not be accomplished with the addition of a parking lot.
He said a proposal to replace Classic Burger and Hermosa Beach Donuts with 39 parking spaces not attached to a retail or dining business “could not have been realistically anticipated when the ordinance was written.”
Commission Chairman Kent Allen and Commissioners Peter Hoffman and Ron Pizer voted to block the project, while Commissioners Sam Perrotti and Shawn Darcy dissented.
The property has stood empty for five years.
Before the commission made its decision, five people living near the property asked the commission to block the project.
Neighbor Nell Stingley, who lives across 15th Street from the proposed lot, said more than 100 people signed a petition and wrote letters opposing the parking lot. Owners of 23 nearby businesses signed a petition supporting the lot.
A representative of the project said the lot’s metered spots were planned to stand far from the nearby homes, and a row of trees was planned to dampen noise from the lot. He said he has received several calls from people near the property eager to rent parking spaces that they could use when street parking is restricted for street sweeping.
Four years ago, plans called for the burger and donut businesses to be replaced by a mixed-use development with offices and a small eatery. Those plans languished in the economy’s down-turn, and the land remained fenced and empty.
Then in March 2010 a Palos Verdes Peninsula-based partnership called Hermosa Beach Parking Co. bought the land, hoping to build new parking spaces, some of them metered and others set aside for month-by-month lease.
“There’s a real shortage of parking down there, that’s the problem,” company manager Tom Brodie said of the project. ER
