Moratorium on Condos, Apartments Is Rejected

The Inglewood City Council backed off from a proposed moratorium on new apartments and condominiums Tuesday. Instead, the council asked city staff to come back at the end of the month with recommendations for curbing density.

Councilman Anthony Scardenzan, who raised the density issue last week, said a 45-day moratorium would give the city time to review the growth of multifamily residences in certain segments of the city.

“I’m not against development,” Scardenzan said. “I’m against producing a situation that is going to be negative for the life style of the community.”

The council adopted a series of zoning measures last fall designed to restrict high-density development. In addition to stricter height limits, setbacks and density requirements, the city created a new zone in the northeastern section of the city north of Centinela Park that doubled the square footage required for multifamily units.

Congestion Worsening

Despite those measures, Scardenzan said, the city’s congestion continues to worsen, especially in District 2 and portions of District 3, where zoning allows condominiums and apartments to replace single-family homes.

Scardenzan said some narrow residential streets are becoming so congested with parked cars that emergency vehicles have difficulty getting through. Too many people packed into a small space also allows drug dealing and other crime to thrive, Scardenzan said.

“Why should we please an investor who comes from out of town, then leaves us with whatever it’s going to be, good or bad?” Scardenzan asked.

Deputy City Manager Lew Pond said Wednesday that city staff would present its recommendations to the council at its Aug. 29 meeting. One measure to curb crowding could be zoning changes that would restrict multifamily units in certain high-density areas, he said.

City officials say the new development is primarily geared toward middle-income residents with jobs in the South Bay. A recent rent study conducted by the city found that recently constructed developments are offering average rents from about $650 a month for one-bedroom apartments to about $1,000 a month for three-bedroom units.

But in addition to the new developments, Mayor Edward Vincent said the city’s congestion is aggravated by the rising population of Latino immigrants.

Councilman Jose Fernandez supported the emergency moratorium on new multifamily developments, but Vincent and Councilman Daniel Tabor said they would not approve the measure.

Scardenzan withdrew the proposal after Vincent and Tabor refused to support an amendment that would have limited the moratorium to Districts 2 and 3.

Vincent called a moratorium a “buzzword” that would frighten away potential developers. “Developers and investors get very excited when they hear the word ‘moratorium,’ ” he said. “This would be very dangerous to the community as a whole.”

Tabor said he might approve a moratorium after he received more facts on the problem from the city’s staff. Tabor said the freeze would have blocked developers from submitting new building plans for multifamily structures but would not have affected those projects already under review in the city’s Planning Department.