Redondo Beach Panel Scraps Most of Redevelopment Plan

The Redondo Beach Redevelopment Agency this week scrapped most of a controversial redevelopment proposal for many of the city’s commercial strips, but left a small portion intact for at least another month.

Still under consideration for a redevelopment project is an area in north Redondo Beach that includes Artesia and Aviation boulevards, Compton and Inglewood avenues, the Southern California Edison right of way, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District Sump, an industrial area in the northeast corner of the city, the City Hall complex and the Thrifty Shopping Center on Pacific Coast Highway.

The agency--made up of the mayor and City Council members--voted 4 to 1 to abandon the rest of the proposed project, which has been fiercely criticized by residents for the past eight months.

Councilwoman Kay Horrell said although she opposes the proposal, she voted against killing only part of it because she did not want to act in a “piecemeal” fashion.

Agency members said they will decide on March 1 whether to kill the rest of the proposal or to continue studying the area to determine if it should be made into a redevelopment project.

Councilmen Ronald Cawdrey and Archie Snow, whose districts include most of north Redondo Beach, persuaded other agency members to postpone voting on the remainder of the project. Snow said residents in District 4, which he represents, want redevelopment on Artesia and Aviation boulevards.

He and Cawdrey said action should not be taken until after Cawdrey has a meeting with his constituents in District 5 on Feb. 27 and the city staff holds a meeting in District 3, which does not have a council representative, sometime this month. (The District 3 seat was vacated in November and will be filled by a special election in the next few months.)

The areas deleted from the redevelopment proposal generally included the state beach, Veterans Park, Dominguez Park, the Redondo Union High School campus, Pacific Coast Highway between South Guadalupe Avenue and Anita Street, Catalina Avenue between Beryl and Anita streets and between Pearl and Diamond streets and an industrial area on 190th Street.