6 Show Up to Testify at Hearing on Changes to San Pedro Plan

Only six people testified at a Monday hearing in downtown Los Angeles on a plan to loosen requirements that new housing developments include low- and moderate-income units in San Pedro.

City planning hearing examiner Dick Takase expressed surprise at the sparse attendance but said residents will have one more chance to voice concerns about the proposal when the city Planning Commission meets in San Pedro later this month.

“I thought this was supposed to be a controversial issue,” Takase said.

City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores proposed the amendment to the San Pedro Local Coastal Program Specific Plan in 1987. The amendment would delete a section of the plan designed to preserve the number of low- and moderate-income housing units, despite razing of housing to make way for new development.

Section 6 of the current San Pedro coastal plan requires developers of multi-unit projects with eight or more units to devote at least one quarter of the development to low- and moderate-income housing. They must also replace apartment stock that is demolished for new development or converted to condominiums.

Under a 1976 state law, local coastal specific plans were required to include provisions to protect low- and moderate-income housing. However, the Legislature undid that in 1981, deciding that no community should be forced to include any housing policies and programs in its coastal plan. San Pedro is one of only a few communities that have not stricken the low- and moderate-income housing provisions from their local coastal plans.

Three opponents of the proposal complained Monday that many San Pedro residents who wanted to speak against the plan were unable to attend the 9 a.m. hearing. San Pedro is 23 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

“As residents of San Pedro, we feel a hearing of this magnitude should not be held downtown,” said Armando Sanchez, reading a letter from resident Shanaz Ardehali-Kordich.

Other opponents said replacing the coastal plan housing requirements with weaker city regulations will encourage developers to raze affordable housing to build luxury apartments and condominiums.

But three supporters of the Flores amendment said the coastal plan requirements for low- and moderate-income housing discourage needed development in San Pedro, the only community in Los Angeles with such restrictions. They argued that city programs designed to encourage construction of such housing will protect low- and moderate-income residents.

“We need low-income housing, but we also need a level playing field. If the city is going to do this, it should be done (on) a citywide basis,” said Leron Gubler, executive director of the San Pedro Peninsula Chamber of Commerce.

Venice and Playa del Rey, the other coastal communities in the city of Los Angeles, do not have community coastal plans. Wilmington did not come under the coastal plan requirements.

The proposal will be discussed at 9 a.m. on March 29 before the city Planning Commission at San Pedro City Hall, 631 Beacon St. People wanting to comment on the proposal should write to the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, Room 503, City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, 90012, and refer to case number 30149.