A move to restrict all offices and banks in downtown Manhattan Beach in favor of storefront retail was shut down at the city’s Planning Commission meeting last week, with several local realtors calling the proposal “discriminatory.”
The proposed amendments to the zoning code commercial regulations would have prohibited office and bank use on the ground-floor level on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Highland Avenue and Manhattan Avenue in the downtown commercial zone, and Highland Avenue and Rosecrans Avenue in the north end commercial zone.
Under the proposal, existing offices and banks could remain as “non-conforming uses” unless not used as so in the last six months.
“I think this policy that you guys are proposing is very discriminatory,” said realtor/broker Steve Morello, who explained during the public hearing that his real estate office, since opening in downtown on Highland Avenue in 1994, has reaped many long sustaining clients from “friendly walk-ins.” Despite popular belief, real estate offices like his own receive a lot of foot traffic, he said.
The Manhattan Beach City Council last month received a request from the Downtown Business Professional Association and the Chamber of Commerce to review commercial regulations in these areas. DBPA and the Chamber cited concerns that the number of small retail businesses in downtown are diminishing due to increasing rent driven by corporate banks and real estate offices, resulting in lower sales tax revenue for the city. Offices were also creating dead zones for pedestrians, they argued.
These concerns fall in line with the City Council’s six-month strategic plan, noted assistant planner Angela Ochoa, as one objective is to encourage a vibrant and sustainable downtown that increase retail business and sales tax revenue.
“We are looking to maintain that small-town village feel,” said Kelly Stroman, executive director of DBPA. “We’re not looking to ban, we’re not looking to discriminate, we’re not looking to kick anybody out on a current lease. We’re asking for a balance.”
According to the staff report, the north end has a total of 85 businesses with 19 offices, seven of them storefronts on Highland Avenue and Rosecrans Avenue. In downtown, there are 131 businesses with 45 offices, 16 of which front Highland Avenue, Manhattan Avenue or Manhattan Beach Boulevard.
The planning commission did not vote on the resolution but gave direction to staff to begin outreach efforts to realtors, restaurants and other businesses to gather their input of “what is needed in the community.”
The public hearing was indicative of bigger issues, chairman Chris Conaway said in his concluding statements. Of the 14 speakers, at least seven spoke on the need for a strategic economic plan for downtown.
“I think that is clearly the way forward and perhaps something we can recommend to council,” Conaway said. “This has become a much bigger issue than focusing on one small thing.”
