by Elka Worner
As many as 50 new residential units could be built by St. Cross Episcopal Church at its Monterey Boulevard location as a result of rezoning proposed by the Hermosa Beach Planning Commission at its Tuesday, June 20 meeting.
At the meeting, the commission voted unanimously to rezone 15 church-owned parcels from low and medium to high density residential. The parcels include the church, classrooms, the parking lots, and 18 residential units.
“We have no plans to tear down the church and build a massive development,” St. Cross Senior Warden Jack Tedford said.
But neighbors voiced immediate opposition.
“The last thing we want is to have a developer come in and build 50 units in the middle of our quiet, quaint community,” Realtor and Hermosa Beach resident Robb Stroyke said. “It will increase traffic, take away from street parking and increase density.”
Opponents of the rezoning have gathered over 900 signatures on an online petition called “Preserve Our Neighborhood.”
The proposed rezoning is for review by the city council at its July 11 meeting.
Tedford said the church welcomed the idea of having the properties rezoned because “it opens up opportunities in terms of what we can do with our rental properties.”
“The church has interest in being able to generate income from those properties to help with the finances of the church,” he said. “We also feel we have a spiritual and moral obligation to provide housing.”
Tedford said the church has reached out to several developers “to see what they have to offer.” St. Cross also hired a property consultant “just to tell us what can be done.”
Under a new state law, the city must provide for 558 additional housing units by 2029. Prospective sites for the mandated units must be listed in the city’s general plan Housing Element. “Previously, cities could adopt a housing element and then implement the zoning associated with the housing element over the course of a designated timeline,” Community Development Director Carrie Tai told the Planning Commission at the June 20 meeting. “However, since Hermosa Beach is past the statutory (Housing Element) deadline, we are required to have those zoning changes in place before HCD (state Housing and Community Development) will certify our housing element,” she said.
Tai said St. Cross was one of the property owners who reached out to express interest in developing additional housing.
“In order to achieve the low-income housing density that HCD requires, they’ve [St. Cross properties] got to be put into the high-density residential category,” Tai told the commissioners. “That doesn’t mean they necessarily develop to that number, it’s just to realize the potential to do that.”
Planning Commission Chair Steve Izant said he voted for the zoning change so the city can comply with the state housing mandate.
“If you don’t have 50 units from St. Cross, where do you get them?” Izant said after the meeting. “City staff and the consultant have scoured the city for other sites.”
“This paves the way for an albatross project similar to the 79-unit Highrose El Porto,” St. Cross neighbor Karyanne Thim contended.
The combined lot size of the St. Cross parcels is 109,023 square feet, more than twice the size of the HighRose site, Thim said.
Opponents of the rezoning said the city should explore other properties more suitable for high-density development, including lots along Pacific Coast Highway, Aviation Boulevard and downtown Hermosa Beach.
“Don’t sell out our community,” Hermosa Beach resident Erin Andrews wrote in the comments section of the on-line petition. “There are plenty of options in commercially zoned areas.”
“I hate to see the character of that neighborhood ruined by a cash grab by the church,” Christa Lyons, who lives at Monterey and 16th Street, said at the planning commission meeting.
Dulan Erickson, a 40-year resident who lives just north of St. Cross, said he has no problem with the church remodeling their rental units, but building 50 new units will have a negative impact on the neighborhood.
“They’re just doing it for the money. They’ll go for the maximum density,” he said.
He said the church should practice what they preach.
“My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers,”Erickson said, quoting Matthew 21. ER
