Plan to Ease San Pedro Building Regulations Will Be Aired Monday

An amendment to San Pedro’s coastal plan, which would remove requirements that new developments include low- and moderate-income housing, will be discussed at a public hearing Monday in downtown Los Angeles.

The amendment, proposed by City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores in 1987, would aid developers who want to build luxury or upscale projects in the coastal zone in San Pedro.

The amendment would alter the San Pedro Local Coastal Program Specific Plan. It would delete a requirement that developers devote at least one quarter of new units to low- and moderate-income housing, and also remove a stipulation that developers replace apartment stock that is demolished for new development or converted to condominiums.

The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. in Room 561-A at City Hall, 200 N. Spring St.

Supporters of the Flores amendment say the current coastal plan housing requirements are so strict that they make development of many properties economically unfeasible. They also say that Los Angeles city ordinances provide adequate protection for low- and moderate-income San Pedro tenants, without the additional requirements forced on San Pedro 14 years ago by a state law.

“Right now, the coastal plan does not allow any leeway to determine whether the housing requirements are economically feasible or not,” said Mario Juravich, Flores’ San Pedro area deputy.

Opponents argue that removal of the coastal requirements will mean a net loss of affordable housing. They also say that the amendment could encourage developers to raze existing apartment buildings without having to relocate tenants.

In recent years, San Pedro has seen the demolition of hundreds of single-family homes to make way for new development.

“If the Los Angeles requirements are equally strong, why do they need to delete the coastal protections?” said Howard Uller, head of Toberman Settlement House, a San Pedro social service agency. “It seems to me this just makes it easier for a couple of greedy developers to build.”

Section 6 of the Coastal Act of 1976 was designed to protect tenants in coastal areas who were being evicted to make way for new development. But five years later the Legislature decided no community should be forced to include any housing policies and programs in its coastal plan.

San Pedro is one of only a few remaining communities that have not stricken the low- and moderate-income housing requirements from their local coastal plans.

Under the current San Pedro coastal plan, any new development--whether apartments or condominiums--with eight or more units is required to make available at least one-quarter of the units to low- and moderate-income tenants, even if that means charging less than market rate rents. It also requires that developers replace low- and moderate-rate apartment stock that is razed for development or converted to condominiums by building new units within two miles of the former apartments.

According to Barbara Zeidman, director of the Los Angeles rent stabilization program, city ordinances do not require any development, regardless of size, to provide units of low- to moderate-income housing. Instead, city regulations provide incentives as a way to encourage construction of affordable housing: Developers who agree to set aside at least 25% of new units at prices below 120% of median market value can be awarded “density bonuses,” allowing them to build more units per lot than otherwise allowed under local community plans.

Zeidman said that, even if the Flores amendment is approved, a new San Pedro community plan now moving through the city bureaucracy could restore some of the low- and moderate-income housing protections in the current coastal plan.

“The unsettling thing about (what is going on in) San Pedro is that the community plan review is not yet complete. This would all be easier if they would just let that community specific plan get finished,” Zeidman said. “But for right now, I don’t think (the proposed Flores amendment) is going to have a great impact on available low- and moderate-income housing in San Pedro.”