Home
Redondo Life is a not-for-profit website that is supported and maintained by community members of Redondo Beach that are concerned with the quality of life in our city. If you encounter any problems with this site, please click here to Email the webmaster.
This site was last updated 07/21/2015 pm



July, 2015
*** Appeal of Legado Project at City Council Meeting Tonight, 7/21/15 at 6p, at Council Chambers ***

The group fighting the first of the South PCH hyper-development projects will be presenting their appeal to the City Council to mitigate the development.  Please attend and lend your support for the appeal if you can.  For more information, contact the local citizens group at: http://savetheriviera.com .



September, 2014
** No more door-notes will be delivered - check this site or use the email below for further updates **
To get further updates - either check this web page, or send an email to request-update@redondolife.org.
Please also let me know via the above email if you want to be contacted via email.  If so, also provide your name and address.

Updates on Proposed Development at 521-527 S. Broadway in Redondo Beach

PLEASE NOTE - If you see any peculiar activities at the site, please note the date and time, and details (what appears to be taking place, how many people, how many and what kind of vehicles, etc). Everything being done to the building will merely be heresay unless we have witnessed record.  You may then forward the information to the email above so we can keep a chronology of events that have taken place.

As of September 2, 2014 at 10pm...

  • THANK YOU to all who showed up tonight in support of our people, and spoke at the Council Meeting.
  • We gave it a good fight.  Unfortunately, our appeal was denied by a vote of 4 to 1.
  • Bill Brand (Distruct 2) was the lone Councilman who understood our position, analyzed what we were asking, and voiced any support.
  • Our own Councilman, Jeff Ginsburg, was the person who made the motion to have our Appeal denied, and Matt Kilroy (Distruct 5) seconded the motion.
  • Stephen Sammarco (District 4) was conspicuously silent during the whole hearing, until the time for the roll-call vote, and Pat Aust (District 3) had been expected to come down on the side of the Developer anyway.
  • Thanks to all of you who lended assistance and support for this effort.  I wish I had better news to report at this time.
  • Feel free to keep in touch with me at pfs@redondolife.org

As of August 21, 2014...

  • The City has sent out, and many have received, the formal notice that the Appeal Hearing has now been scheduled for the City Council Meeting of Tuesday, September 2, 2014, at 6pm.  Please plan to attend this very important meeting, and also plan to speak to the Council about your concerns that this project brings to the neighborhood.nbsp; You may also write your comments in a letter and deliver it to the Council when you speak so it remains in the formal record.
  • Below are links to the materials that the City had available for the Appeal Meeting of August 5th:
    • Click here to view the Agenda of that meeting - Our Appeal Hearing was item L1, which was postponed (removed form the agenda at the time at the request of the Developer), and has now been rescheduled for Tuesday, September 2nd, at 6pm.
    • Click here to see a list of the items provided by the City (for the August 5th Hearing) in support of the development project, and for having our Appeal denied in full.  Please feel free to download and review these, as they contain the information presented by the City and the Developer in support of the project.
  • See the posting below (as of August 6th) to see our materials that we were ready to present. These are being revisited and will be altered upon the finding of new and updated information.
  • A few more thoughts that you can ponder as residents:
    • This area is in the Coastal Zone - which experiences MUCH greater demands for parking during weekends and summer months.  Adding these homes and accompanying vehicle parking requirements will have negative impacts on our quality of life by making parking for current residents and their guests more scarce.
    • There is talk about "property rights" when someone purchases a lot, yet no one speaks in support of the current residents' "property rights" - including the right to maintain their own property values, and quality of life, by keeping the neighborhood in good appearance, and prevention of the over-saturation of parking demands.
    • Processes were not followed here - Neither the Developer nor the Planning Department contacted to meet local residents to discuss the project, its appearance, mitigation of concerns, etc - as provided by the Residential Design Guidelines (downloadable below).
    • The Residential Design Guidelines were developed including a large number of neighborhood representatives from various parts of the City and its neighborhoods.  It is not proper nor ethical to assign sole discretion of the Guidelines interpretation and implementation to people isolated in a single (Planning) department, who are not advocates for the public, but work to Plan and Develop properties in the City.  Consider the recent title change of "Planning Director" to "Community Development Director".  The communities that are affected by such developments need to be involved.
    • The Developer and his team are all from outside Redondo Beach - and, other than building and selling homes, seem to have no long term interest in establishment or preservation of the quality of life in, or general quality of, our neighborhoods - including establishing any kind of positive relationships with the local residents.  Granted, developers develop, but such should be done with support for-and-by the community, not as an adversary to it.  They should want to build a project that the locals are not only happy with, but enthusiastic about to the point of telling their friends about it.
  • Please plan to attend, and speak at, our Appeal Hearing at the City Council Meeting this coming September 2nd at 6pm !!   We CAN make a difference if we have enough people there !
  • Feel free to email me at pfs@redondolife.org if you have any questions.

As of August 6, 2014...

  • At last night's City Council meeting, the Appeal Hearing had been postponed until, likely, early-to-mid-September. The Developer was apparently not aware that we were doing a powerpoint presentation, and there was some mis-communications among the departments and parties, so they are being allowed time to prepare a powerpoint presentation. On behalf of our group, I indicated that would be no problem - as we preferred to have the full City Council present anyway (and rumor was that our request for postponement was to be denied). The next scheduling of the Appeal Hearing with the City Council will be noticed via mail and placards at the property per usual procedures.
  • Please review the presentation materials we had prepared for last night below:
    • Click here to download the presentation in pdf form (4.2 MB).
    • Click here to download the RDLs excerpts in pdf form (627 KB).
  • We will plan to schedule a meeting or two before the Appeal Hearing meeting - please keep an eye on this website.
  • Feel free to email me at pfs@redondolife.org if you have any questions.

As of August 5, 2014...

  • The Appeal Hearing to the City Council is TONIGHT at the city Council meeting which is scheduled to start at 6:30p in the City Council Chambers at 415 Diamond Street. PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND - AND BRING A LETTER TO SUBMIT AS WELL as people in attendance who voice and submit their concerns mean much more than a page with hundreds of signatures.
  • Our Presentation and Residential Design Guidelines (RDL) Excerpts may be downloaded here for your preview:
    • Click here to download the presentation in pdf form (4.2 MB).
    • Click here to download the RDLs excerpts in pdf form (627 KB).
  • It's been a long trek - and we are now near a major milestone - and hopefully a new and fresh outlook.
  • Feel free to email me at pfs@redondolife.org if you have any questions.

As of August 3, 2014...

  • The Appeal Hearing to the City Council is scheduled to take place this coming Tuesday, August 5th, at 6:30p in the City Council Chambers at 415 Diamond Street. PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND - AND BRING A LETTER TO SUBMIT AS WELL as people in attendance who voice and submit their concerns mean much more than a page with hundreds of signatures.
  • It would also be very helpful if you emailed ALL councilpersons AND the Mayor prior to the meeting (day before if possible) - indicating your concerns and what you would like to see changed with the project. You may go to this link to email all of them at once per instructions on the page: Contact Council and Mayor.
  • NOTE - We did submit a letter asking that the Appeal Hearing be rescheduled due to the absence of Councilman Sammarco form this coming Tuesday's meeting, but the indications are that such a reschedule will not take place, so we need to be present and prepared with our arguments. If, during the hearing, enough people express concerns that Councilman Sammarco is not present, it is possible that they might "continue" he hearing to the next Council Meeting.
  • We had a group meeting saturday (8/2) afternoon, and discussed that although there are many issues that really should be addressed with regards to this project, the main leverage we have is discussing issues related to non-compliance of current laws and ordinances - such as:
    • The Residential Guidelines were not followed in action nor spirit, including, as stated under "Section A. Purpose", "An important objective ... is to improve the quality of life...". They were not even applied to minimize the impacts on the local quality of life. Other areas where the guidelines were not discussed nor applied include massing, incompatible design, and effects of the maximum number of units on parking - all the time and especially on weekends.
    • The Planning Commission did not exercise its authority to see that the Residential Guidelines were properly addressed as mentioned above in addition to the Planning Department.
    • The possibility that the creation of an EIR (Environmental Impact Report) on the project may have been improperly avoided.
  • Other issues, such as traffic, parking in general, alley safety, etc are all valid concerns, but as there are not any hard laws nor code addressing such issues, they may be ignored. However, if and as we can collectively voice enough concern regarding (such as) increased parking demands as a result of the number and size of the units, we could make a difference.
  • To familiarize yourself with the residential design guidelines, please feel free to download and read the following:
    • You can download the Residential Design Guidelines here: Guidelines in whole (3.5MB)
    • You can download the highlighted excerpts being forwarded to the City Council here: Guidelines Excerpts (627KB)
  • Please talk with your neighbors and others in the neighborhood as this will likely be our last chance to have any effect on this project, and attendance at (and letters to) the Appeal Hearing at the city Council meeting (above) is very important.
  • Feel free to email me at pfs@redondolife.org if you have any questions.

As of July 31, 2014...

  • The Appeal Hearing to the City Council is scheduled to take place this coming Tuesday, August 5th, at 6:30p in the City Council Chambers at 415 Diamond Street. If you want to make a difference, it is essential that you plan to attend and provide your concerns and input. Note that since Councilman Sammarco (District 4) will not be present, we have submitted a letter (today, Thursday the 31st) asking that the Appeal Hearing be rescheduled for a later time when all Council Representatives will be present. By what I've seen so far, that is very unlikely to take place, but we're still trying for it. At any rate, PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND as people in attendance who voice their concerns mean much more than a page with hundreds of signatures.
  • Another this you can do that would be of great help would be to email all Councilmen and Mayor of the City to let your concerns be known to them. You may go to this page to http://www.RedondoLife.org and click on the "Contact Your City Officials" link at the top. That page will allow that you can email any or all Council members. PLEASE DO THIS NOW. You may also bring printed copies of your letter(s) and deliver them to the Council on Tuesday as well.
  • ONE MORE THING - Come by to meet with Bill Brand, District 2 Councilman, this coming Saturday, August 2nd, to talk with him about your concerns with regards to this project. Note that Councilman Stephen Sammarco of District 4 was also invited, but he is leaving early in the morning for his vacation, and will also not be present for the Tuesday Appeal Hearing. Come to 504 S Broadway at 3pm, and walk down the driveway to the back yard. After our visit with Councilman Brand, we will discuss some points that are critical for getting this development more in line with the neighborhood.
  • We're now down to the wire - just a few more days and we will hopefully be on the way toward seeing a project more compatible with our neighborhood.

As of July 15, 2014...

  • About 9 people showed up at Jeff Ginsburg's monthly meeting at Alta Vista. We started to talk with Jeff about this development issue and how it is, as it currently stands, detrimental to the neighborhood, and it turns out that there were a number of other people in attendance, unrelated to our issue, that agreed that the Residential Design Guidelines should be observed and followed, as well as general concerns about over-development in our neighborhoods. But there was at least one fellow who was fanatically opposed to our position, feeling he should be able to build whatever he wanted to on any of his properties. Another guy made an immediate wrong assumption that people will next want him to tear down his 1950's home. This was immediately corrected. Jeff did listen and had a few questions, but remained steadfast in that he will not meet with a neighborhood group who is making an effort to preserve the character of their neighborhood. He also said that he would have some questions and would make contact to ask them.
  • If you have any questions, information to contribute, or special concerns you would like voiced at the Appeal Hearing, please email them to me, and cc: Hank Folson at HankFolson@gmail.com. I will have limited access to emails over the next few days, so please be sure to cc Hank with any questions or info you want to share.
  • The Appeal Hearing to the City Council will be on August 5th. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you attend this meeting so the City Council can look up and see the number of locals concerned with this project.

As of July 11, 2014...

  • MEETING AT OUR HOUSE ON BROADWAY HAS CHANGED - Now meeting will be - - - - Saturday, July 12th at the Alta Vista Community Center Meet at 10:15am. Jeff Ginsburg's meeting goes until 11am - we will go into his meeting together at 10:30a and use the last 1/2-hour to discuss this issue with him. Although Jeff has refused to meet us at my house to discuss the issue with residents, he said we could come to his monthly meeting. I will have summary materials available at 10:15 for your review. I'm sorry for the late change on this.
  • The Appeal Hearing to the City Council has been changed from July 15th to August 5th. It is very important that you attend this meeting so the City Council can look up and see the number of locals concerned with this project.
  • If you haven't already done so, send me your email address, with name and address, so I can email updates as well. See email address below.

As of July 7, 2014...

  • The Appeal Hearing to the City Council regarding the 521-527 development has been rescheduled for Tuesday, August 5th. The City sent out a notice today that should arrive by Wednesday. Please tell you neighbors about this, as well as the information below.

As of July 6, 2014...

  • The city has distributed a notice of the Appeal being presented on Tuesday, July 15th. THE CITY WAS SUPPOSED TO COORDINATE THIS SCHEDULE WITH BOTH PARTIES. This will likely be DELAYED until Tuesday, August 5th. Check www.redondolife.org Monday and/or Tuesday (7th and 8th) for update.
  • VERY IMPORTANT MEETING FOR NEIGHBORS this Saturday, July 12th, at 10:30a, at 504 South Broadway to discuss appeal issues, actions, and to meet with Council members to discuss. This may be our only meeting, PLEASE COME.
  • REDONDO WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT NEEDS YOUR INPUT. Public Input meeting will be held at the Performing Arts Center THIS WEDNESDAY, July 9th, from 6p to 8p. Current plans include a misguided giveaway of the waterfront to a mall developer - for a HUGE MALL - with the likelyhood of no rent paid to the City for at least 30 years. For more, see letters in the local papers and visit the City's website at www.redondo.org to link to more info.
  • If you haven't already done so, send me your email address, with name and address, so I can email updates as well. Send to pfs@redondolife.org.

As of June 11, 2014...

  • It has been observed that a porta-potty has been delivered to the site sometime during the past week.
  • THIS SATURDAY (June 14th) - Don't forget to attend Jeff Ginsburg's monthly meeting: at the Alta Vista Community Center at 9am.
  • THIS SATURDAY (June 14th) - SHOW UP AT THE ALTA VISTA CC AT 8:30a (1/2 hour early) so we can have a discussion about the development at 521-527 S Broadway prior to meeting with Jeff.
  • If you haven't already done so, send me your email address, with name and address, so I can email updates as well.

As of June 3, 2014...

  • The Appeal to the City Council for the development was filed on Thursday, May 22nd, and including a reference to issues mentioned at the Planning Commission meetings (which included density, mass, parking concerns and possible historical significance)
  • As of Tuesday, May 27th, we had received enough funds for the appeal:   $530  (appeal costs $500).
  • Also during the week of May 26th, it appeared that a construction fence was erected at the site.  Per planning staff, this should not have gone up until a permit to demolish has been issued, which had not been done.
  • Prior to May 29th, people saw individuals removing the pews (bench rows) from the building, using not protective materials, and loading into standard truck and UHaul-type trailer.
  • The building was apparently also used for police training prior to May 29th, with no notice given to Planning or Code Enforcement, which as resulted in at least one broken entry and broken windows.
  • District 1 Councilman Jeff Ginsburg's next monthly meeting will be Saturday, June 14th, at Alta Vista Community Center from 9am to 11am.  You should attend this meeting to let Jeff know your thoughts about this development project.  Link to Jeff's City Council page is: http://www.redondo.org/depts/council/council_1.asp.
  • Research of possible Historic Significance of building is continuing
  • Content of presentation to the City Council is being sketched out.
  • Paul will plan a meeting for the neighborhood over the next few weeks to review and discuss issue - check this page for date/time.
  • Appeal Hearing to the City Council will likely take place in August or possibly July.

Resources (click each link to access)...