City reaches “Functional Zero” homelessness
“Functional Zero” means, for a given area, the number of homeless people placed in housing (interim or permanent) is higher than the number who become homeless in a six-month period.
The South Bay Cities Council of Governments deemed that Redondo Beach reached the mark in 2024.
It is the first city in Los Angeles County to do so – according to the Council of Governments’ parameters.
In a ceremony Oct. 30 at the Redondo Beach historic library, L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell gave her congratulations and set her sights higher.
“Functional zero, countywide,” she said. “There, I said it.”
The designation also requires a city’s median homeless time on the streets to be less than 90 days.
The Council of Government’s (SBCCOG) Functional Zero pilot program sets benchmarks of accountability based on data collected and analyzed weekly by staff. This includes names, duration without a home, demographics and psychographics.
In Redondo Beach numbers, from January to June, the SBCCOG recorded 65 homeless people, and an outflow of 66 – meaning those moved into housing.
Median time on the street was 14 days, with 25 active local street cases, down from a peak of 261 seven years ago.
Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Torrance signed up to be the next cities to participate in the program.
“Bill was successful because he was one of us. Bill’s vision is the community’s vision,” Redondo Beach Mayor Jim Light said of his “best friend,” former Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand at a memorial service for Brand on Sunday, March 3. Photo by Kevin Cody
Mayor Brand dies, council appoints Jim Light as successor
As crowds milled about Feb. 10 before the start of the Super Bowl Sunday 10 K, renowned local tenor Dennis McNeil took to the microphone before the national anthem and announced, “We lost our mayor last night.”
Bill Brand, longtime mayor, city councilman and activist died at age 66 after a battle with lung cancer.
Two weeks later, on Feb. 20, Harbor Commissioner Jim Light was appointed to serve out the remaining 13 months of Brand’s final term.
The city council voted 3-2 to make the choice after extensive public input, including many endorsements of Light and a suggestion that Brand himself named him on his deathbed as whom he wanted to succeed him.
Light first said this in public comment to the council and City Councilman Nils Nehrenheim said so as well. Councilmembers Paige Kaluderovic and Scott Behrendt supported taking more time to choose Brand’s successor.
The last time Redondo Beach appointed a mayor was 1950.
Voters approve new police station, two new fire stations
In a city council discussion last summer to put a $93 million bond in front of voters to build a long-sought new police station and two new fire stations, City Manager Mike Witzansky told the council he might do a cartwheel outside city hall if it came to fruition.
Measure FP was approved by voters in November, with “Yes” votes totaling 25,849 (71.4%) and “No” 10,243 (28.6%). The count represented the required two-thirds margin.
The ballot measure was the postscript to a six-year process in which Redondo Beach leaders considered whether to keep its fire department operated by the city, or to contract with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
After three major studies, and accompanying controversy on the city council, the current council voted 5-0 in June to keep its city fire operation.
Wind shuts down BeachLife final evening
Their beards waving in 40 mph winds, ZZ Top were pulled off the stage for safety May 5 at BeachLife Festival, but not before Billy Gibbons got in a few notes of “Cheap Sunglasses.” A security guard finally took him away.
A one-hour delay ensued, which turned into an evacuation of the grounds, then cancellation.
Interim Fire Chief Patrick Butler and Police Chief Joe Hoffman conferred on the decision to cancel, after wind gusts reached 51 mph.
Crowds were informed by the Festival’s public address system to stay clear of free-standing stages and other potential hazards.
The Festival’s Unified Command Team – made up of Redondo Beach Police and Fire Department personnel – assessed the grounds on foot and evacuated the 7,500 attendees.
Reimbursements were granted to May 5 Festival-goers after the winds cut short the three-day festival by three hours.
Controversy flares over BCHD Floor Area Ratio
The Redondo Beach city council began public hearings in September on a General Plan Update, a seven-years-in-the-making revamp of the city’s “constitution.” The main focus of the hearings was land use, much of it about one particular piece of land, the Beach Cities Health District Campus, for which the city planning commission recommended reducing its allowable development size.
The city council convened twice in October on the matter. The General Plan Update goes to voters for approval next March.
For the BCHD campus – the 11-acre site of the former South Bay Hospital – the planning commission advised the council to take the property from having no Floor Area Ratio (F.A.R.) limit to a .5 F.A.R., meaning that square footage of development may be half the square footage of the land.
The planning commission called for an F.A.R. of .5 for all Public Institutional Property zones, except for city properties such as city hall, police headquarters and the police annex, which would have a F.A.R. of 1.25.
Over the past eight years, Beach Cities Health District has put forth plans to build an assisted living complex, along with other features, in a public-private partnership, as part of turning its property into the “Healthy Living Campus.”
This would require a F.A.R. above 1.0 to be feasible. The campus’ current buildings add up to an F.A.R. of .77.
The Redondo Beach General Plan Advisory Committee, appointed by the city council, held 28 meetings since 2017 to create the Update, which looks to the next 25 years.
City wins lawsuit against state housing effort
Was State Senate Bill 9’s goal to create affordable housing defined sufficiently to override the authority of Redondo Beach and four other California cities, who sued the state saying it was not?
The Superior Court of Los Angeles agreed with the cities April 22, in a ruling of potential statewide significance.
Judge Curtis A. Kin found “SB9 is neither reasonably related to ensuring access to affordable housing, nor narrowly tailored to avoid unnecessary interference in local governance.”
Judge Kin’s decision makes it so the 2022 state law does not apply to Redondo Beach, Torrance, Carson, Whittier and Del Mar — the cities who sued – and possibly 117 other charter cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
Under state law, charter cities have more autonomy.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta led the respondents in the case.
SB9 obligates California cities to approve residential lot splits unless they violate public health and/or safety or the environment. The bill requires an owner to live on the property at least three years after the split.
In a statement after the ruling, SB9’s author, state Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) said the judge’s verdict was “sadly misguided” and vowed to “remedy any loopholes city governments might utilize” to block new housing.
Juvenile whale washes up on beach
The body of a 51-foot juvenile fin whale was towed out to sea Aug. 11, after it washed up on Torrance Beach, still alive the evening before.
Once reported, marine animal agencies converged, performing an abbreviated necropsy in the morning – an animal autopsy – while careful of the encroaching tide and the danger of the 20-ton whale shifting in the surf.
Veterinarians cut away tissue samples, and slit openings in the whale to be sure it would sink once taken back into the ocean.
Workers from L.A. County Division of Beaches and Harbors earlier attached a chain to the animal’s tail, and attempted to pull it further up the sand with two tractors, but they only spun their wheels.
A large crowd watched as L.A. County Lifeguards kept the onlookers behind a rope.
A lifeguard rescue boat, Baywatch Redondo, ran a line through an old firehose – so it would be less abrasive – and tied it around the whale’s fluke/tail.
Once the tide had risen, the boat aimed for the open ocean.
Baywatch towed the whale to a spot over the Redondo Beach submarine canyon, and untied the firehose. The remains sank into the 1,500 foot-deep water.
An endangered species, fin whales are the second largest animals on Earth, second only to blue whales.
Ranked-choice voting chosen
The Redondo Beach city council voted 5-0 in August to establish ranked-choice voting as its method for instant-runoffs in elections.
City voters approved instant-runoff last year, but it was left to the council to decide how specifically to go about it.
The council made its decision after a presentation from City Clerk Eleanor Manzano, on “Hart” voting equipment and how ranked-choice works. The council took in added input from Chris Hughes, senior director of policy and general council at the Ranked-Choice Voting Resource Center.
Ranked-choice voting is a system for voters to choose more than one candidate in order of preference. Their choices are then used in a series of tabulated runoffs until a candidate reaches 50% of the vote plus one, to be the winner.
“We’re going to educate, educate, educate on all of this,” Manzano said.
Ranked-choice in Redondo Beach is set to only apply to city council elections. School board elections are not included.
