L.A. Council Passes Interim Building Curbs for San Pedro : Development: Restrictions on construction of apartments and condominiums will be in effect for one year while permanent regulations are drafted.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to impose temporary restrictions on apartment and condominium construction in San Pedro, ending nine months of debate in the seaside community over how best to preserve its single-family neighborhoods.

Harbor-area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores described the restrictions as the most significant growth controls in San Pedro since 1980, when the council approved building curbs as part of the San Pedro community plan. The new restrictions will be in effect for at least one year while a citizens advisory committee appointed by Flores drafts permanent regulations.

The interim regulations are intended to halt apartment and condominium construction in predominantly single-family neighborhoods, even when the zoning allows multifamily projects. Residents have complained for months that developers are destroying San Pedro’s single-family character by razing small homes.

But neither Flores’ office nor the city’s Planning Department could say how many lots would be affected by the temporary restrictions, which were adopted in the form of an interim control ordinance. One member of the citizens advisory committee estimated the ordinance would apply to fewer than 400 properties.

“I don’t think it will affect as many lots as people both pro and con would have liked to believe,” said Bill Lusby, a local architect who said he wrote much of the ordinance.

Several city officials, including an aide to Flores, acknowledged that San Pedro residents should not expect an immediate drop in apartment construction because of the new ordinance. In many instances, they said, the new restrictions simply forced developers to speed up projects to beat the ordinance’s Aug. 31 cutoff date for filing plans.

“You have so many people that submitted an application before the deadline and very few developments have actually started, if any,” said Mario Juravich, Flores’ San Pedro deputy. “So you figure that all of those are still to be developed. . . . The ordinance does not stop development immediately. It stops the process.”

Plans for the building restrictions were highly publicized in San Pedro last spring, when the citizens advisory committee debated what form they should take. The proposed ordinance, as written by Flores and the committee, was made public May 25. At the time, it included a July 1 cutoff date.

The proposal sent a clear signal to builders throughout San Pedro, city officials said, although the temporary ordinance includes a hardship provision allowing builders to apply for an exemption any time.

According to Planning Department statistics, developers submitted plans for 43 condominium projects in June, including 14 containing five or more units, which would be prohibited under the new restrictions. During May, the department received seven applications for condominiums, all but one requesting permission to build at least five units.

City planners said there were few, if any, condominium applications submitted after July 1, because developers believed the deadline had already passed.

There was a similar rush to beat the deadline for apartments. The Department of Building and Safety issued 178 building permits for apartment projects in June, more than it had issued during the previous five months of the year. In July, the department issued just one permit for an apartment project.

Key provisions of the temporary ordinance include:

* A ban on apartment and condominium construction on blocks where 50% or more of the housing stock consists of single-family homes and duplexes. The provision is intended to save single-family homes in areas where they predominate.

* A limit on the number of units allowed in each apartment and condominium building. On lots of 6,000 square feet or larger, one unit is allowed for every 2,000 square feet of lot space. No building, however, may be larger than four units. This is intended to discourage developers from tying lots together for massive projects.

* An increased parking requirement for apartment buildings and condominiums. New projects must provide one guest parking space for every two units. The provision is intended to alleviate curbside parking shortages.

In asking for council approval of the ordinance on Tuesday, Flores told her colleagues that it was no accident that no one from San Pedro came to City Hall to protest the controls. Similar restrictions enacted elsewhere in the city have led to heated hearings before the council.

“I think we have here . . . a community consensus about what direction they want . . . while they are working on permanent zone changes for the area,” Flores said.