Manhattan Beach will not have the new 96,000-square-foot luxury apartment complex on Rosecrans and Highland Avenues in El Porto.
The city council rejected the development of the 40- to 50-foot-tall, 79-unit Highrose/Project Verandas as proposed this week, with panel majority members adding unconventional buildings that could have a negative impact on the seaside town. I said I wasn’t going to. Health and safety of residents. The committee voted 3 to 2 for him, with Rep. Richard Montgomery and Rep. Hildy Stern against denying the project.
The developer of the project initially received ministerial approval, which is permitted under state law. This was before residents appealed to the Planning Commission months ago for the six affordable units slated for the complex.
The commission approved the project at the time, first allowing the developer to demolish the Verandah Beach House event venue and Tradewinds Village retail building, making way for the consolidation of two lots at 401 Rosecrans Avenue and 3770 Highland Avenue. opened. Make way for the High Rose.
However, residents have now appealed to the city council. The committee has postponed the decision for several months, preparing for a council meeting on Tuesday, October 18.
An initial motion to reject the project was not obtained on Tuesday, but subsequent motions to approve the project failed. Finally, another motion was passed to reject the project.
If the Council had stuck to the failed vote, the Planning Commission’s earlier decisions would have taken precedence.
Staff reports said the council could only reject a project if it would cause a specific adverse effect on a community that could not be feasibly mitigated. The project site is close to the Chevron Refinery.
“Allowing people to live near known sources of air pollution should be mitigated by expanding buffer zones,” Napolitano said. “You can’t mitigate the risk. Someday something will go there[in the field]but it shouldn’t be residential.”
But Stern said the state’s density bonus, which qualifies this project for low-income residents, allows developers to build taller buildings than the city normally allows. And since the city changed its code nearly a decade ago to change all density bonus projects to ministerial, there was no real reason for the city council to deny the project, she said. .
But Montgomery said California Attorney General Rob Bonta is keeping a close eye on the city to make sure it adds the housing it needs to fill the statewide shortage.
“Things have changed and we have a housing crisis in this state,” Stern said Tuesday. “I don’t think we can expose our city to greater consequences if we don’t approve of this.”
Some speakers during the public comment period said denying a project by a local developer would be a bigger and potentially more reckless move by a developer coming in from the outside, making residents even more disgruntled. It warned that it would give way to building skyscrapers. It cannot be cracked down.
Opponents in the community are concerned that the height of the apartment complexes will ruin the city’s small-town character and cause too much traffic on the already busy streets where the place is, harming the health of residents. I got
But residents in favor of the project said they wanted more options for young, middle-class families to live in expensive Manhattan Beach.
If the council approved the plan, the staff had made provision that none of the units could be used for short-term rentals.
It is unknown if developer Frank Buckley will reapply to build anything else on this site. He declined a request for comment.
