by Laura Garber
Renovation of a century-old downtown Hermosa Beach building, at 901 Hermosa Avenue, could hinge on whether the building is 14,021 square feet, as owner Kyle Ransford contends, or is 7,780 square feet, as County property records report.
If the renovation increases the building’s square footage, under the city code the improvements must include additional onsite parking. If, as Ransford contends, the renovations will reduce square footage, no onsite parking will be required.
Ransford purchased the property, which was listed for sale as 8,300 square feet in 2022, for $5 million from Geg Dahl. The Dahl family had owned the property since 1913. In 1922, George L. Stiles opened a Lincoln–Ford–Fordson (truck) dealership in the Mission Revival building. Over the next century, the building’s tenants included Haworth Chevrolet, clothing and flower shops, law offices, and currently Trick E-Bikes and Bay Storage.
Ransford’s design, by Hermosa Beach architect Anthony Laney, preserves the building’s Mission Revival architecture, with its tall, arched windows, while adding a contemporary style, glass walled third floor.
Hermosa Planning Commissioners praised the design during a hearing on the proposal at their Tuesday, October 27 meeting.
“This is fabulous,” said Commissioner Pete Hoffman. “I desperately want to approve this project.”
Chair Kate Hirsh agreed. “I was so excited to see the rendering… you really combine the new modern with preserving the historic aspect,” she said.
Commissioner Steve Izant praised the proposal’s “very creative uses of open space,” and added, “Net-net, this is a good project for the city.”
But the commissioners’ enthusiasm waned when they examined the conflicting square footage numbers.
The discrepancy between the 14,021 square listed on the plans and the County record’s 7,780 square feet revolves around what Ransford described as a “movable floor” between the two-story self storage lockers.
Hoffman, who visited the building, said, “I’m looking into what appears to me to be a two-story space with two-story lockers, but there’s no second story floor.”
Commissioners also questioned the plan’s “decommissioned space” — areas that would be built out but walled off and not counted in the square footage measurement.
“If anyone brought me a plan that included a large space that only needs a door put in it to become usable, cynical me says no,” Hoffman said.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Chair Hirsh said.
The commission unanimously voted to continue the proposal hearing to its Tuesday, December 16 meeting.
Written with assistance of Claude AI. ER
