Local News in Brief : Shopping Center Gets OK

In the face of criticism from residents, the Manhattan Beach City Council Tuesday granted a conditional-use permit and zone variance to developer Kurken Alyanak for a 25,000-square-foot shopping center on Sepulveda Boulevard.

Residents voiced concerns about safety, increased traffic and noise from the proposed shopping complex and threatened to vote council members who supported the development out of office.

Councilman Larry Dougherty said he favored the project as an experiment in whether a commercial project would be an asset to a predominantly residential area. He said he believed that traffic could be controlled.

Responding to concerns about rowdy late-night patrons of proposed restaurants in the complex, Dougherty responded, “These are going to be restaurants, not bars.”

Three hundred signatures on petitions against the project were submitted to the council on July 21 at its first public hearing. Twenty-five people spoke against the project on Tuesday, and eight people spoke in support.

Councilwoman Jan Dennis, the only vote against the project, agreed with opponents that the approval might set a precedent. She called the project “too large to be an experiment.”

Charging that she was misled by the city, Janet Cecchino, a resident on adjacent Oak Avenue, told the council that Tamma Davis, her home’s co-owner, was told by city staff in April that it had no developments under consideration on Sepulveda. The project’s application had been filed in 1986.

Councilman Gil Archuletta abstained in the 3-1 vote, with Dougherty, Mayor Robert Holmes and Councilwoman Connie Sieber voting in favor.