A major expansion on Pacific Coast Highway by local shoe manufacturer Skechers is approaching the next phase of development, generating both excitement and concern in the affected communities.
The deadline for the public to submit comments on the scope of the required Environmental Impact Report for the project is tomorrow. The development will include properties in both Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, and although ultimate approval of each component rests with the city in which it is located, the two are being considered jointly in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act. Because a greater share of the project will take place in Hermosa, its Community Development Department is the lead municipal agency in the review process, and is responsible for receiving public comment.
The project will add to the two buildings Skechers currently occupies in the area, and will reshape several blocks of the highway, including six parcels in Hermosa and three in Manhattan. It also includes a home on Longfellow that will need to be rezoned for commercial use, a change that would eventually require the approval of the Hermosa City Council.
In Hermosa, the resulting development will include a design center occupying 101,358 square feet, a 32,241-square-foot executive office building, and a 16-foot bridge above 30th street linking the two. The Manhattan Beach component will consist of a 37,703-square-foot office building.
The vast majority of residents who spoke at recent public meetings regarding the project are from Hermosa, and most have expressed skepticism about the project’s size, impact and benefits to the community.
Company executives stressed that the purpose of the public comment period for the EIR was to gather input from such potentially disaffected residents.
“We’re not here to steamroll this thing through,” said Tim Ball, vice president for commercial development at Skechers. “We want to be good neighbors. I know a lot of you don’t think of us that way, but we want to get this right.”
Among the first tasks in potential construction would be the dredging of land for underground parking lots. The Manhattan component will involve removing 31,000 cubic yards of material. The Hermosa lots will require cutting 144,000 cubic yards, then adding 5,200 cubic yards of fill to accommodate the slope of the hill on which the Hermosa lots will be built.
The trucks that will be used for removal can hold between 14 and 15 cubic yards of material, said Lisa Kranitz, a lawyer representing Skechers in the EIR process. This means the Manhattan component would require 2150 truck loads, while the Hermosa lots would need more than 10,000.
Kranitz said that the trucks would not be idling on PCH as they wait to unload dirt.
“The staging area will not be on PCH,” Kranitz said. “There will be six or seven trucks filling up quickly and then exiting. It will all be monitored closely.”
The large size of the lots comes in part because Skechers is providing more parking than required. In Hermosa, the executive offices will have only the required 129 spots, but the design center lot will provide 507 spaces, 102 more than the 405 the city requires.
In Manhattan, plans for the new building would require 126 space, but the company is building 215. A current Skechers building at 225 S. Sepulveda in Manhattan is considered “underparked,” with some users taking parking spots in the neighborhood.
Many residents expressed concern about the scope of the building process.
Construction will require the closure of a portion of 30th street in Hermosa for up to six months. Skechers is also seeking permission from Hermosa to begin construction at 7:30 a.m. rather than 8, so that it can coordinate efforts with Manhattan, which permits 7:30 a.m. start times.
Builders for the project say they will take such deadlines seriously
“If construction can’t start until 7:30, there won’t be staging until 7:30,” said Scott Lawrence, project director at McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., which will be the general contractor on the project. He noted that construction workers will be shuttled to the job site, rather than parking in the neighborhood.
Estimated construction time is around two years, Lawrence said.
Once completed, traffic in and out of the facilities will be another concern for residents. John Elder, a Hermosa resident living on Longfellow, said the project was “completely out of scale with the surrounding area” in terms of the congestion it would impose.
Traffic analysts are in the process of finishing a report, said Claire M. Look-Jaeger, a managing principal with Linscott, Law and Greenspan, the firm handling the traffic engineering for the project. The estimated number of trips expected by 2019 is not yet available, but that the facility will require CEQA review for traffic impacts.
“I will not be able to tell you that there will be no significant impact,” Look-Jaeger said. She noted that because the surrounding intersections were already considered impacted, an added delay of even one second triggers the “significant impact” designation.
In order to minimize congestion, Skechers plans to cut into its own property and create “deceleration lanes” like those found in its current office at 330 S. Sepulveda in Manhattan Beach. The company will also ask for the installation of a traffic light at Keats and PCH to allow people to better enter and exit the parking garage there.
Residents have also expressed concern over a planned loading dock on Boundary Place, a narrow alley that divides Manhattan and Hermosa.
“They plan to have docks on the smallest street in town,” said Yves Vergnolle, a Manhattan resident living near the proposed development. “Already it’s dangerous turning down there with a car. I can’t imagine what it would be like with a truck.”
Ball said that the docks were required by Manhattan’s municipal code, and that nothing larger than a UPS truck would be using them.
“It’s not like we’re going to be sending semis up there,” Ball said.
Nonetheless, because Boundary Place is too narrow a space in which to turn around, such vehicles will impact traffic on by using surrounding thoroughfares like Dianthus Street as outlets, said Look-Jaeger, the traffic analyst.
Skechers executives say they understand the burdens that construction and traffic place on residents, and argue that the proposed development would be a significant improvement over the current state of the targeted stretch of PCH, which contains overgrown weeds and vacant lots once occupied by auto showrooms and mechanics.
Neighbors argue company let the area degenerate. Property tax records indicate that the Skechers has owned some of the parcels for more than seven years.
“The most frustrating thing is when people say, ‘It’s better than what’s there now,” said Stuart Wesolik, who lives on Longfellow. “But they’ve owned it for all that time.”
Residents who raised concerns about the project said they recognized that something needed to be done in the area. But the project, they said, would overwhelm the neighborhood.
“It’s the gateway to Hermosa,” said Jason Yasment, whose home will border the development. “When you drive into Hermosa, you are going to think Skechers, and when you leave, you are going to think Skechers.”
