Discussion Continues on Future of Peninsula ‘Antennae Farm’

A public hearing will resume Feb. 3 on an 83-home project proposed for what is considered the largest piece of real estate suitable for development left on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

City Council members last week decided to continue the hearing to next month and to discuss the project themselves on Monday.

Continuing the hearing, which began Jan. 6, after the council discussion will allow the public to comment on any changes that the council makes.

“This particular tract probably represents for us more problems than we’ve ever had to deal with,” said Mayor Melvin Hughes. He said the property is the largest chunk of land suitable for development left on the Peninsula.

24.1 Acres

The site is the 24.1-acre Wallace “Antennae Farm” at the southwest corner of Armaga Spring and High Ridge roads. Since the 1920s, it had been used as a transmitting station by radio pioneer Don C. Wallace, who died in 1985.

Ronald Florance, a Palos Verdes Estates city councilman and a general partner of Wallace Ranch Associates, which owns the property, told the council he is not asking for zoning variances in his application to build the 83 single-family residences, which will cost from $400,000 to $500,000.

The council is wrestling with such issues as whether to require the developer to dedicate a 1.16-acre park site to preserve Wallace’s home and radio equipment.

Radio buffs have appealed to the council to consider the historical aspects of the site.

The city is unsure how the maintenance of such a park would be financed.

Other points the council is seeking to clarify include the location and possible dedication of trails, elevation and drainage and whether to permit curb cuts for driveways on Armaga Spring Road.

The council approved one access to the site from Armaga Springs Road and asked city staff to research the possibility of a linear park as a buffer between Armaga Spring and the development.