Panel OKs San Pedro Rezoning Proposal

A San Pedro citizens committee last week approved a detailed rezoning proposal, ending for now debate on the most contested section of a long-awaited community plan.

The proposal, which downzones much of the community, is largely the same as the one presented in January to the San Pedro Community Plan Advisory Committee by its zoning subcommittee.

The committee rejected an amendment that would have excluded apartment and condominium development from the Old San Pedro area. That issue had caused angry exchanges between committee members at a meeting last month.

In approving the plan--based on a block-by-block review of the seaside community’s zoning--the committee limited comment among members and the public on specifics of the proposal, acknowledging that its decisions are not set in stone.

“As (Ulysses S.) Grant said, ‘I am prepared to fight this out all winter,’ ” said Noah Modisett, chairman of the advisory committee. “But we all know this is going to be changed, and we need to move ahead.”

When the community plan is finished--including a proposed historic zone and a specific plan for the downtown business area--it will go to Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores and then to the Planning Department, which must hold public hearings.

The limited debate at Wednesday’s session was considerably toned down from the contentiousness in San Pedro about these issues, which include preserving historic homes, encouraging construction of low-cost senior housing and saving the Barton Hill area for low-income residents.

Many residents and committee members backed off previous hard-line positions on those issues after Modisett passed around a letter from a city planner praising the committee’s work.

“The important fact is that your committee has given us a good point to start this process,” wrote Don K. Taylor of the Planning Department. “The proposal must still go through a long public hearing process. The decision will eventually be made by the City Council. You should expect that even your best proposals may be subject to modification as we hear from the public during this process.”

The committee was appointed by Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores in 1988 to help guide future growth in an area of Los Angeles that has undergone dramatic growth and development in the past decade.

Zoning recommendations approved Wednesday include:

* Permitting developers in most of Old San Pedro--the neighborhood that runs from 10th to 21st streets between Palos Verdes Street and Pacific Avenue--to build three units on a lot, subject to “certain design standards to be established by the committee.”

* Substantially increasing the density allowed on the block bounded by 8th, 9th, Centre and Mesa streets, but “only if the property is developed for senior citizens.”