Redondo Block Loses First Try at Historic Designation

The Redondo Beach City Council decided Tuesday not to extend a building moratorium on the 500 block of Garnet Street after a group of residents failed to get enough support for an application to designate the block a historic district.

But the group still has until Oct. 31, the deadline for the original moratorium on construction and demolition on the block, to try to garner support for the proposed historic designation, city officials said.

Garnet Street is the last remaining intact block of old homes left in Redondo Beach, and some residents have argued that its historic significance should be protected. All 17 homes on the street were built before 1928.

Under a historic preservation ordinance that took effect Sept. 1, 85% of the homeowners, or 15 of the 17, must support an application for historic designation.

Frank Condon, a leader of a residents group lobbying for the proposal, said Tuesday he had the signatures from residents of five homes on a city-authorized petition. But 13 of the homeowners had supported a different petition favoring the proposal, proponents said.

Condon said residents did not have sufficient time to solicit signatures for the city’s petition, which he said they obtained less than two weeks ago. Two homeowners were out of the country, he said, and other homeowners were hesitant about signing because they did not understand what they might stand to gain or lose from historic designation.

But some council members said the 90-day period the council originally alloted the residents group should have been enough time to get the signatures, if the support for the proposition was there.

“It can’t take 90 days to knock on 17 doors,” said Councilman Stevan Colin.

The controversy began earlier this year when Garnet Street resident Tony Ballejos sought a permit to demolish his 81-year-old house and build a bigger one. Several of his neighbors objected to his building plans and sought help from the Redondo Beach Historical Society to have the block designated a historic district.

Other residents, however, were opposed to historic designation, arguing that it would restrict their freedom to alter their homes or demolish them and construct new ones.