Curbing Growth: The Battle for San Pedro : 200 Residents at Hearing Call for Preservation of Single-Family Neighborhoods

In a call to arms against further construction of apartments and condominiums, a crowd of San Pedro residents turned out last week to demand that city planners limit growth and preserve what’s left of their community’s single-family neighborhoods.

During a three-hour hearing Thursday before the Los Angeles City Planning Department, about 200 residents called for San Pedro’s future zoning to severely restrict new high-density development, particularly in Old San Pedro and the south side neighborhood known as Point Fermin.

Further, many of the residents urged a historical designation for Old San Pedro, where dozens of older California Craftsman-style homes and fishermen’s cottages have been razed in recent years to make way for apartments and condominiums.

“This is at least the third time that residents of that community have petitioned for downzoning,” said Old San Pedro resident Tom Dawson, presenting a handful of slow-growth petitions to city planners. “And so far all we have gotten for our efforts is more stucco boxes.”

Added Sam Botwin, a former city planning commissioner and 50-year resident of San Pedro: “People love San Pedro . . . it’s the only place in L.A. where people are willing to downzone their properties even though they know it will cost them money” in land values.

The hearing was held to collect public comment on the latest proposals to rezone the seaside community of 80,000 residents for the first time since 1986, when a state law forced planners to re-examine zoning throughout Los Angeles.

One plan, offered by the San Pedro Community Plan Advisory Committee, calls for downzoning nearly half of the community’s residential neighborhoods, designating Old San Pedro a historical preservation area, and establishing a design review board to monitor further development. The 25-member citizens panel also recommended new regulations on design, construction, traffic, parking and building heights.

The plan, committee members said, would effectively limit San Pedro’s future population to about 90,000 residents, about 13,000 fewer than would now be possible under current zoning. According to the U.S. Census, San Pedro’s population rose more than 18% between 1980 and 1990--to 79,600 from 67,300--making it one of the fastest-growing communities in the city of Los Angeles.

After reviewing the committee’s recommendations, city planners concurred with virtually all of the proposal, agreeing that apartments and condominiums have no place in neighborhoods already reserved for single-family houses. They also held that no area of the community should be rezoned to permit more intense development than is now allowed.

But city planners split with the citizens panel on a few key recommendations, sparking a debate that dominated the hearing at Los Angeles Harbor Department headquarters.

About 40 San Pedro residents who took their turn at the podium complained the city planners’ report would not adequately protect their community.

“What we heard in the 1970s is let’s rezone” to permit more apartment and condominium construction in San Pedro, said Roxanne Arian, president of Save Old San Pedro, a community group that helped organize the turnout. “And we have seen the unbridled destruction of the area, we have seen many of our historic homes destroyed.”

In Old San Pedro, now zoned to permit one unit for every 1,500 square feet of building space, the citizens panel recommended additional restrictions to further limit multiunit developments. But city planners, while proposing one unit for every 2,000 square feet, did not go as far as the panel in imposing parking and other restrictions for Old San Pedro, an area bordered by 9th and 22nd streets, Beacon Street and Pacific Avenue.

Planners also disagreed with the committee in the call for a design review board, arguing that such panels are reserved for more architecturally unique areas of Los Angeles.

The committee’s recommendation of a historical designation for Old San Pedro must be taken up with the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission, not the Planning Department, planners said.

While many of the speakers focused on Old San Pedro, others took aim at city planners for not recommending more restrictive zoning in other pockets of the community, such as Point Fermin, where single-family neighborhoods have been transformed in recent years with more and more multifamily developments.

“We need to preserve some areas where families can meet other families,” Point Fermin resident Cindy Murry demanded. “I say, save this community for the beautiful jewel that it is. Let the kids grow up in a town where they have a neighborhood.”

But not everyone at the hearing agreed that development in San Pedro should be further restricted. Some argued that limiting growth would hurt, not help, the community by making land prohibitively expensive and contributing to a lack of affordable housing.

“I want to see Old San Pedro redeveloped . . . it’s not the quantity of people, it’s the quality of people,” said Salvatore Di Massa, who argued that the neighborhood includes many dilapidated properties frequented by transients and drug users. To change that, DiMassa said, he and his brother, Luigi, are building a six-unit apartment building on one of four lots they own in Old San Pedro.

But such pro-growth sentiments were roundly rebuked by the majority of residents in attendance.

When developer Art Corona argued that “you have to have growth or die,” one resident shouted, “I’d rather die.” The remark, like those of other slow-growth speakers, drew applause.

Comments from the public hearing will be used by city planner Terry Speth to prepare a report on the proposed rezoning for the Planning Commission. The commission has scheduled an Aug. 29 meeting in San Pedro to discuss the rezoning plan. Its decision will then be sent to the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley for final action.