Its permits withdrawn, CenterCal project ‘is dead’
A 3D model of CenterCal’s Redondo Beach Waterfront project. File photo
The future of the Redondo Beach waterfront is wide open. Plans by both the City of Redondo Beach and its estranged development partner CenterCal Properties have been withdrawn.
Tuesday night, the Redondo Beach City Council directed staff to withdraw California Coastal Commission application permits for the CenterCal project, as well as permits for a new boat launch facility at King Harbor’s Mole B.
“I think I’m comfortable saying that this project is dead,” Mayor Bill Brand, a longtime opponent to the project, said. “For me, this is a major, major milestone.”
Redondo’s action came after CenterCal announced they would pull their applications from Coastal Commission consideration on July 2, owing to a June letter from CCC requesting the entities withdraw their applications. The CCC letter followed a court order from Superior Court Judge James Chalfant, finding the project Environmental Impact Report deficient, precluding the City and CenterCal moving forward with the project.
This appears as an end to a winding path that began in March 2017, with the voters’ passage of Measure C, which rezoned the waterfront to stymie CenterCal’s plan. That election also swept Brand into the Mayor’s office, and Todd Loewenstein and Nils Nehrenheim onto City Council.
“And when I campaigned for Mayor, and for Measure C, my best talking piece was a picture of the model [CenterCal] built,” Brand said.
The decision wipes away nearly six years of work and warring between the two entities. El Segundo-based CenterCal was chosen from among three developers to revitalize the aging waterfront and pier area.
The initial plan, approved by the City Council in 2016, would have built 523,939 square feet of development over 36 acres, including a market hall, parking garage, boutique hotel and movie theater. Residents revolted over the CenterCal plan, which they said ran counter to original public discussions.
A new boat launch, once planned and approved for Mole B, has also been pulled from Coastal Commission consideration, owing to that same June letter. The boat ramp, which has been in consideration for King Harbor since the harbor construction in the late 1950s, would have been a condition for major redevelopment in King Harbor.
However, concern over the boat ramp’s positioning at Mole B, a man-made outcropping near King Harbor’s north end, caused the city to begin looking at other areas to place the ramp.
Brand and Nehrenheim see the application withdrawals – particularly for the waterfront project – as clear validation of their agenda to maintain Redondo’s existing culture in the face of region-wide housing and development crunches.
“Anyone who wants to come to this community, do something, not in the scope of what the community wants, I think is going to be in for a world of hurt,” Nehrenheim said.