by Laura Garber
Plans for a 35-foot high, four-unit apartment house as an alternative to a 50-foot high, five-unit apartment house at 3415 Hermosa Avenue have been submitted by property owners Tony and Renardo Ferraro.
“The owners want to work with the community,” Michael Shonafelt, the couple’s attorney, said Friday.
The 50-foot high plan is scheduled for review, and possible approval by the Hermosa Beach Planning Commission at its Tuesday, September 16 meeting. Neighbors have organized in protest of the project, which they say is too high, and out of character with the neighborhood.
Hermosa’s height limit is 30-feet. But the Ferraro project is allowed to exceed the height limit under the “Builder’s Remedy,” a state program meant to increase housing, and which supersedes local zoning ordinances.
Shonafelt said his clients intend to present the 35-foot plan to the Planning Commission at Tuesday’s hearing, even though the commission will be prohibited from acting on the new plan because only the 50-foot plan is on that night’s agenda.
Shonafelt says the Ferraros prepared the 35-foot plan in response to concerns neighbors expressed at a March Planning Commission hearing about the projects.
“I think it’s a meaningful effort. It comes with no small sacrifice on the part of the owners. But it’s intended to address neighbors’ concerns, and if possible create some community support going into the next hearing,” Shonafelt said.
“We’re open to the proposed [50-foot] project, or the [35-foot] alternative. It will be up to City Staff and the City Attorney to decide how to proceed,” Shonafelt said. “We’ll be there to answer any questions.”
Neighboring residents have also expressed concerns that approval of a 50-foot tall development would set a precedent for more projects that exceed the city’s 30-foot height limit.
Shonafelt dismissed that concern.
“It [the Builder’s Remedy] was a temporary one, and that’s why setting precedent is not necessarily a concern that needs to be wrangled with by the public,” Shonafelt said.
A city staff report prepared for the upcoming Tuesday’s meeting acknowledges the 50-foot “project is not consistent with the underlying zoning standards and general plan.”
But adds, absent “adverse impact findings… the City has no authority to disapprove or to condition the approval in a way that renders the project infeasible.” ER
