Lengthy makeover comes to an end

The sun came out after days of rain to welcome the formal end of an eight-month project to remake Hermosa’s main drag into a pedestrian-friendly avenue with wider sidewalks, a palm-lined center median, succulent flora in expanded planters, and a cutting-edge system to keep dirty storm water out of the Pacific Ocean.
“This is a great day for Hermosa,” Mayor Pete Tucker said to more than 100 people – including numerous city officials and businesspeople – who gathered for a ribbon cutting to mark the end of the $4.3 million project, and the unveiling of the new upper Pier Avenue.
Tucker hearkened to 1992, when an urban design team from the American Institute of Architects urged Hermosa to create a pedestrian plaza on lower Pier Avenue near the beach, and a calmer, more pedestrian-friendly layout for upper Pier Avenue, which climbs over hilly land toward Pacific Coast Highway.
Tucker pointed out that, thanks in part to the efforts of former Councilman Sam Edgerton, the lower section was converted into the pedestrian-only Pier Plaza.
Then a city-appointed economic enhancement committee recommended remaking upper Pier as the design team had suggested. The City Council launched a two-year study of upper Pier and held numerous public hearings.
Along the way, officials temporarily re-striped upper Pier to see how the public would feel about reducing the number of traffic lanes from four to two. The public flooded city email boxes with a collective and certain “no” to the lane reduction, and it was scrapped.
In mid-January city officials broke ground on the project during a ceremony outside the Java Man coffeehouse at Manhattan Avenue. Like many large public projects, construction went on longer than officials hoped. The initial target for completion was mid-July, and in May that was moved to mid-August.
On Tuesday officials returned to the location of the January groundbreaking to flank Tucker as he used a giant ceremonial pair of scissors to cut a giant ceremonial red ribbon stretched across the avenue.
Behind him, newly planted date palms stood with their fronds tied together to resemble an upright ponytail. The tall palms will burst the ropes and spread their fronds on their own, as they recover from the trauma of their replanting.
At key intersections, spacious pedestrian “bulb-outs” will shorten the walking trip across the avenue, which in places is nearly as wide as the hectic PCH. A new center median stood ready to serve as a pedestrian stopping place between the eastbound and westbound lanes.
“I think what you see here is an environment that will make you want to walk along Pier Avenue,” Tucker told the assemblage.
He drew generous applause when he praised avenue merchants for “putting up with” the construction project, which kicked up dust, filled the air with the noise of heavy machinery, tied up parking spaces and forced traffic detours. Tucker also lauded merchants for launching “First Thursdays,” a once-a-month, evening open house that will continue throughout the year.
Tucker pointed out that the upper Pier project was funded with federal stimulus money, grants and bonds.
“None of the money came from our general fund,” he said.
Officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission and the West Basin Municipal Water District showed up to praise a new system that replaces concrete with permeable substances that collect storm water before it can run downhill to the ocean, and recycle it to water the avenue’s plants.
John Kemmerer, associate director of the EPA’s regional water division, told the gathering that the storm water collection system was one of about four in the state that can be looked upon as models for cities nationwide.
Shelley Luce, executive director of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, drew unintended laughs when her tongue confused Hermosa Beach with neighboring Manhattan Beach.
Steve Napolitano, a former Manhattan Beach councilman and current aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, followed Luce to the makeshift stage and capitalized on the moment by opening with, “Welcome, Redondo Beach!”
Primitivo Castro, an aide to state Senator Jenny Oropeza, showed up to pay homage to the avenue project as well. ER