This is the third in a series of articles exploring stakeholder opinions on the forthcoming Downtown Specific Plan
Carol Perrin arrived in Manhattan Beach in 2009 after leaving Bel-Air, one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Southern California. But despite Bel-Air’s vaunted reputation, for Perrin there is no question that her quality of life has improved since relocating.
A big part of that improvement, she said, is due to the contained, quaint nature of downtown Manhattan. Being able to walk to downtown and pass an enjoyable day off, she said, is precisely what drew her away. It’s a happy medium between the extremes of congestion and car-bound isolation that can mark an experience in Los Angeles.
“You come here because you want this,” Perrin said, gesturing at the downtown streetscape while sipping coffee outdoors at Peet’s on Manhattan Beach Boulevard.
As head of the Downtown Residents Group, Perrin has been an advocate for maintaining a mix of businesses that serve the needs of residents, both those surrounding downtown and in the city at large. And in recent times, that advocacy has centered around the Downtown Specific Plan.
The plan is a zoning document that would govern future land-use decisions in the area. Its preparation was prompted by mounting concerns in the past several years over the changing face of the area. As rents in the city spiraled higher, banks and real estate offices were entering spaces that had long been occupied by retail outlets, whose slimmer profit margins made it hard to keep up. Residents and city officials worried that these new tenants, which tend to draw less foot traffic than restaurants and retail, would detract from civic life in the area.
The city hired the Urban Land Institute, a Washington D.C. nonprofit, to examine the downtown and provide recommendations. Work continues on the specific plan, and the public can offer comment on a draft Mitigated Negative Declaration, which outlines possible environmental impacts for the plan, through September 25.
Perrin has dutifully attended city council and planning commission meetings, and regularly discusses aspects of the plan with other Manhattanites. She said that residents have been clear about what they want embodied in the plan, and that city staff have been responsive to their concerns. Nonetheless, she said residents have no plans to lay off their advocacy.
“The onus is on the residents to be ever vigilant, not to blink,” Perrin said. “Until the Specific Plan is enacted, we do have to make sure that his is done with what has been the overwhelming opinion of residents.”
A kind of dry-run for their efforts came earlier this year. To prevent further changes in the face of downtown during work on the specific plan, officials imposed a moratorium on land use changes in the area in July 2014. They renewed the moratorium in 2015, but under state law could not do so again.
With a looming expiration date of July 1 this year, Perrin and other residents descended on a June council meeting, raising the spectre of a gap in the moratorium, and potential changes while the plan was still underway. But because nothing had been agendized for the evening, the Brown Act prevented the council from taking action.
The council and city planning staff ultimately remedied the issue by passing an interim zoning ordinance the next meeting, which must be renewed every 45 days but embodies many of the same restrictions as the moratorium.
Residents had some qualms about the process, but threw their support behind the interim ordinance. They were driven, Perrin said, by a desire to maintain the downtown they have come to know and love.
“The reason you come here is precisely why we have the moratorium: shops where people know your name,” Perrin said.
The threat of chain stores replacing quirky independent retailers was an impetus for the original moratorium. Looking forward, residents are not inherently opposed to chains, Perrin said, but do not want them to alter the character of the area.
“We’re not saying chains can’t come in,” Perrin said. “What we’re saying is chain stores need to adjust to Manhattan Beach, not Manhattan Beach adapt to chain stores.”
Being picky about sales tax dollars is a luxury many cities cannot afford. Combined with restrictions on street frontage and total square footage, limits in the interim ordinance could, if enacted in the specific plan, keep out businesses wary of making investments under such constraints. The concern became more acute with last year’s departure of Dewitt Petroleum. Although the business was not in the downtown area, its exit cost Manhattan hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue.
But if the city is concerned about revenue, Perrin said, permitting large-scope development in an already-cramped downtown makes little sense. Such ventures, she said, would be more appropriate on the city’s commercial corridors, like Sepulveda Boulevard.
Commercial property owners in the downtown area have objected that the moratorium and now the interim ordinance attempts to replace supply-and-demand with top-down legislation. Dictating limits on land uses, they say, will not expand the draw of downtown, because larger forces like the rise of online retailers are buffeting retailers in downtowns across the country.
Downtown residents dispute this theory. Martha Andreani, a lifetime Manhattan resident, said that any downturn experienced by local businesses has more to do with environmental factors than broader trends.
“We must limit the size of commercial businesses. Parking, and lack thereof, seems to be a bigger deterrent to shopping downtown than online shopping,” Andreani said in an email.
The city, she said, should prioritize maintenance of its streets and streets and sidewalks, an argument commonly voiced by residents at council meetings. Residents say combining a welcoming environment with a retail mix that appeals to locals — many of whom are high-income — is key to a stable, sustainable downtown.
“We have the population that every other retail area is trying to attract,” Perrin said. “If we can harness our residents, make sure that they spend money here, that would be better than any plan we could devise.”
Among Perrin’s suggestions in this regard is a more aggressive code enforcement operation. Currently, staff limitations in the city’s code enforcement office mean that the city relies on a “complaint-based” to issue citations to violators. (Such a scheme, however, runs the risk of alienating some downtown businesses, who would bear the brunt of fines for code violations in the area.)
Additionally, the city’s scenic beauty means that certain land-use restrictions might make more sense here than elsewhere, Perrin said. While many progressive planning experts advocate increased density in downtown areas, the associated rise in height limits could have a disproportionate impact on a coastal town. Gesturing at buildings running down Manhattan Beach Boulevard just east of Highland, Perrin said that permitting added height in the area would alter the character of the area in ways that are important but difficult to quantify.
“You would lose the feeling of being outdoors, of being by the sea,” Perrin said.
