Council Curbs Apartments on San Pedro’s Pacific Ave.

Nearly two years after San Pedro residents first expressed concern about apartment development along Pacific Avenue, the Los Angeles City Council has enacted an ordinance intended to curb such growth and promote commercial revitalization along a 26-block stretch of the street.

The Pacific Avenue interim control ordinance, adopted Wednesday by a 12-0 vote, is a temporary measure that will place restrictions on development for the next year, while city planners draft permanent controls. It is retroactive to April 20, the date it was adopted by the Planning Commission.

Under the ordinance, developers will be permitted to build only one apartment unit per 1,000 square feet of lot space, a much stiffer restriction than the current rule of one unit per 400 square feet of lot space.

According to Mario Juravich, aide to Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, that provision will reduce the potential residential density of Pacific Avenue by 60%.

The ordinance requires landscaping and setbacks, and it attempts to ensure architectural diversity by mandating that the front wall of new buildings be composed of more than one plane.

Said Bill Lusby, a San Pedro architect who served on a task force that helped draft the interim controls: “I think it’s going to help quite a bit. . . . If (developers) want to go ahead with residential, at least they’ll have to go and design it rather than put up any old thing.”

Encouraging Mixed Uses

In addition, the temporary law bans residential uses on the first floor of buildings between Oliver and 13th streets and between 21st and 23rd streets, a provision that is intended to encourage commercial growth while permitting residential development.

For years, Pacific Avenue was the main commercial thoroughfare in San Pedro. But as many businesses moved out to Western Avenue, Pacific Avenue declined. By 1987, with the cost of land in San Pedro skyrocketing, developers discovered it was profitable to build apartments in the area.

But residents, as well as Flores, were disturbed by the high density of the developments, which were allowed under Pacific Avenue’s commercial zoning. In addition, the councilwoman did not like the building trend, with its boxy design and lack of landscaping.

In December, 1987, Flores introduced a motion recommending 15-foot setbacks for all residential developments on Pacific Avenue, from Oliver Street to Hamilton Street.

That measure was never enacted, but the councilwoman did appoint a citizens task force to study development along Pacific Avenue. The task force came up with its recommendations in June, 1988, but it was not until April of this year that the Planning Commission approved its proposed interim control ordinance.

Juravich said that, after the Planning Commission action, the measure became tied up in the city attorney’s office, as lawyers drafted the precise language of the law.