Development the Big Issue in Torrance Council Race

By JEFFREY L. RABIN

March 4, 1988 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

In the final days of the Torrance City Council campaign, sharp differences have emerged among the candidates about how the South Bay’s largest city should deal with traffic, growth and development.

The three incumbents--paralegal Tim Mock, educator George Nakano and public relations consultant Dan Walker--all defend their record on development questions and pledge to protect the city’s neighborhoods from overbuilding if reelected.

Challenger Brian Hannon, assistant editor of a community newspaper, takes a firmer slow-growth stance, arguing that the quality of life in Torrance is threatened by too much development.

At the other end of the spectrum, real estate agent Tony Kriss is running as the self-described “special interest candidate” of the real estate industry, determined to put private property rights ahead of neighborhood preservation.

As the campaign enters its final weekend, Torrance voters are likely to find their mailboxes stuffed with 11th-hour appeals from the candidates.

So far, the council campaign has drawn a collective yawn from Torrance voters, judging the sparse attendance at candidate forums. The city clerk’s office predicts the vast majority of residents will ignore the election, leaving the decision in the hands of just 18% of the city’s 67,404 registered voters. Two years ago, only 14% went to the polls.

Nevertheless, the three incumbents and challenger Kriss have spent thousands of dollars in an effort to win the $100-per-month job. Almost all of their campaign money has come from those with a vested interest in the outcome: real estate people, developers, municipal employee unions and companies that do business with the city.

Although Kriss has done well with real estate interests, the incumbents have amassed the biggest war chests.

The quality-of-life issues have dominated the race as the five candidates compete for three open seats. (A sixth candidate, Suzanne Fermano, will appear on the ballot, but she withdrew from the contest for medical reasons.) Almost weekly, council members are called upon to choose between commercial and residential interests and to mediate disputes between neighbors.

The candidates differ in their approach to dealing with growth.

Incumbents Mock and Nakano were elected four years ago on the strength of neighborhood concerns. They are part of a council majority that has approved several residential, commercial and industrial projects but only after attempting to limit the impact on surrounding neighborhoods.

Walker, a politically ambitious veteran of 10 years on the council and a highly successful campaign fund-raiser, generally is more receptive to developers but often joins with the council majority on sensitive votes.

Hannon, who has financed his own campaign with the help of his father, is the most outspoken slow-growth candidate.

Kriss, the unabashed candidate of the local real estate industry, offers a sharply different perspective on growth. He blames the city’s traffic problem in part on the council’s decision to push for more commercial and industrial projects instead of allowing more housing, which he said would allow people to live closer to work.

Sharper Debate

The debate has grown sharper and more personal as the election nears.

Kriss, 60, a director of the local Board of Realtors and the California Assn. of Realtors and an unsuccessful council candidate two years ago, has attacked the incumbents for voting to tighten controls on development of thousands of residential lots.

The new restrictions were intended to stop the proliferation of small condominium and apartment buildings side by side with single-family homes.

Kriss, who mobilized hundreds of property owners to protest the controls, calls the council action downzoning.

“My conviction is that you, as a property owner who buys property, are entitled to use it for the purposes it was created,” he said. “If the city wishes to reduce the utility of that land, it would seem to me that . . . they can do one of two things: buy the land or compensate you for that.”

Last-Minute Appeal

The Kriss campaign has been financed almost entirely by real estate interests, who are mobilizing a last-minute telephone and mail campaign on his behalf. He has raised a total of $24,244, including loans.

“I am a special-interest candidate,” Kriss said during a debate last week. “My interest is the property rights and property values of everybody who owns property in the city of Torrance and everything that affects the quality and value of that property.”

But the incumbents say that Kriss cannot have it both ways.

Nakano, 52, the soft-spoken assistant principal of an Inglewood elementary school, defended his vote to restrict the building of “oversized condominiums.”

He said Kriss would act against the interest of homeowners by favoring those “who are in it for profit” and want to develop bigger buildings.

Lists Criteria

In all development decisions, Nakano said he considers whether the project would have an acceptable density, be compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, provide enough parking and have little impact on open space.

Nakano has raised $25,241 since last summer, including more small contributions of less than $100 than any other candidate.

Mock, 33, who works for a Long Beach law firm, said he voted to restrict building because “there was an outcry from the neighborhoods” where apartments and condominiums were overshadowing single-family homes.

“We did not downzone the property,” he said. “What the council did was give back a voice to those neighborhoods.”

Mock has raised $20,790 for his campaign since last July.

Walker, 47, who has his own public relations business, ended up supporting the development controls after first voting against them.

“We didn’t deny anybody the use of their property,” he said. “We said they had to put in more parking and storage. We didn’t reduce the utility of the property. We helped solve a neighborhood problem.”

A prodigious fund-raiser who has expressed an interest in running for the Assembly, Walker collected $69,260 for his campaign since last summer. He had $114,681 in his campaign treasury last month, more than five times the amount of his nearest rival.

Bare-Bones Budget

Hannon, 24, whose campaign has been run on a bare-bones budget, said he would have voted for the development controls but wants even more restrictions.

The assistant editor of South Bay New Times, a community newspaper, objected to the council’s decision to allow development of the massive Park Del Amo project in the heart of the city.

The sprawling residential and commercial development was approved after the project’s developer agreed to preserve nearby Madrona Marsh as open space.

Hannon said “the city got the short end of the deal” when it got 43 acres of open space in exchange for allowing the developer to build 1,482 condominiums and 850,000 square feet of office space on 140 acres. He called the project “a big mistake” and said he would not trade open space for so much density.

‘Area Is Too Dense’

“Our whole problem right now is the area is too dense and having a trade-off there doesn’t solve the problem,” he said.

Walker, Mock and Nakano defended the Park Del Amo decision.

“We cut the best deal that we could in terms of saving the Madrona Marsh,” Mock said.

In the future, however, Mock and Nakano said they would consider such a trade-off of open space for higher density only on a case-by-case basis.

Of all the development-related issues, traffic appears to be most on the minds of Torrance residents.

A poll of 300 registered voters conducted for the Kriss campaign by Carol Hamilton of Long Beach found that half considered traffic the biggest problem facing Torrance. Overbuilding, overcrowding, crime, drugs and pollution trailed far behind.

None of the candidates has offered a way to reduce congestion. They all said they object to tying new development to street improvements, although Hannon said he would not rule it out.

“We definitely need to do something,” Hannon said. “We have a severe problem here right now.”

Walker noted that much of the traffic moving through the city is headed to the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the beach cities.

“We could go forward and not allow a single house to be built, a single corner to be improved, a single office building to be built in this city and the traffic . . . would continue to rise,” he said.

‘Regional Problem’

Mock said he was concerned about motorists racing down residential neighborhoods trying to find short cuts around congested intersections. But he offered no solution.

“The traffic problem is a regional problem. It’s not just Torrance,” Mock said. “To try to put a wall up around Torrance would be a disaster. To maintain the quality of life here, we have to try to provide reasonable, controlled growth.”

Kriss said the city could relieve the traffic problem by approving more housing and less commercial and industrial construction in redevelopment areas and other parts of the city.

All candidates would favor construction of a light-rail trolley system down busy Hawthorne Boulevard, but with the exception of Kriss, they would insist that the rail line run all the way to the edge of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Another issue has divided the candidates: what to do to ensure the safety of residents living near the Mobil Oil refinery in Torrance. The sprawling refinery was the scene of a major explosion and fire on Nov. 24 caused by an excess of lethal hydrofluoric acid in a refinery unit.

More Data Being Gathered

A preliminary city report said that substituting sulfuric acid for hydrofluoric acid would lessen the risk to residents in an accident. Additional information is being gathered before the council takes any action.

When all the data is available, Walker said the council “will do whatever is necessary to make that plant and the people of the city of Torrance safe.”

But if it is shown that the refinery cannot be operated safely, Walker and Nakano both said they would consider trying to close the refinery.

Mock said Torrance should do whatever it can within its limited power to ensure “the safest type of oil refinery available.” He suggested state legislation to increase the “meager” fines that can be levied for air and water quality violations.

Hannon said he would not favor closing the refinery and instead suggested that the city and Mobil work together.

Kriss described Mobil as “a very responsible neighbor” and he said the refinery’s payroll and tax base is “a tremendous asset to the community.”

THE CANDIDATES

Tony Kriss

Age: 60

Occupation: real estate agent

Resident: 30 years

Community involvement: 1986 council candidate, director Torrance-Lomita-Carson Board of Realtors and California Assn. of Realtors, delegate American Assn. of Retired Persons.

Tim Mock

Age: 33

Occupation: paralegal

Resident: 33 years

Community involvement: City Council member for 4 years, member Friends of Madrona Marsh, Torrance Jaycees, Friends of Torrance Library.

George Nakano

Age: 52

Occupation: educator/assistant principal

Resident: 22 years

Community involvement: City Council member 4 years, member Torrance Historical Society, Kendo Club, Rose Float Assn.

Brian Hannon

Age: 24