Redondo Developer Accused of Duplicity

The way Redondo Beach developer Mark Kavanaugh sees it, his apartment project in Manhattan Beach is perfectly legal.

A year ago, Kavanaugh obtained approval from the City Council for a small shopping center in a Commercial Planned Development Zone near Polliwog Park. But instead of filing plans for stores with the city, the developer filed plans for a 13-unit apartment house--something permitted in the zone without council approval.

When he cleared the lot earlier this month, neighbors who expected stores learned instead that they would be living next to apartments.

Critics accused him of a bait-and-switch operation, and in an unusual Saturday session a week ago, the council unanimously enacted an immediate 45-day moratorium on residential construction in the Commercial Planned Development Zone. The council also faulted the city’s staff for not informing it that Kavanaugh had changed his plans for the lot a year ago.

The dispute comes at a time when the council is discussing whether to continue residential uses in this zone, which includes the downtown business district and portions of Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Highland and Rosecrans avenues. The moratorium, which can be extended if necessary, would give the council time to decide that issue.

Under current zoning, a commercial and residential mix is allowed, though council action is needed to approve plans for condominiums and shopping centers. Apartments and single-family homes may be built without council approval.

Kavanaugh, who said he paid $700,000 for the property and has spent $61,000 more on building plans and demolition of a gas station on the land, claims he is a victim of “after-the-fact zoning changes.” He said the council should have removed residences from the zone earlier if it did not want them there.

But Mayor Connie Sieber, who said that numerous calls from residents opposed to the project prompted the emergency council session, said Kavanaugh “knew he was taking a big chance” by proceeding with apartments when the council had approved stores. Before approving the commercial development in 1989, the council had turned down a Kavanaugh proposal for condominiums.

Although conceding that Kavanaugh acted legally under current regulations, Sieber said he should have been aware that permitting residences in that zone is under scrutiny.

A moratorium already was in effect on some home construction on Highland Avenue because of concern that it might harm service businesses in the area. The council also is discussing a comprehensive Zoning Code revision, she said.

Denying that he was trying to be deceptive, Kavanaugh said that between the time the Planning Commission approved the shopping center last year and the date it went to the council a month later, he learned that he could build apartments and worked on that plan as an alternative.

“I had both balls in the air (and was) not trying to smoke anybody,” he said.

Byron Woosley, community development director, said the staff processed the apartment plans, and a building permit eventually was issued. In retrospect, he said, the council should have been notified of the change.

Real estate broker Kenneth Giss, a spokesman for neighborhood critics of the apartments, said they interpreted Kavanaugh’s shopping center plans “as some sort of agreement” about what would be built there.

He said residents next to the property are concerned about traffic and a loss of privacy because of overhanging apartment balconies.

For his part, Kavanaugh accused Giss--whose realty office is next to his property--of “dictating how I will use the property.”

Kavanaugh said he will apply for a waiver of the moratorium so he can continue his project, but he doubts he will get it. He said he is discussing possible legal action with his attorney.

“I’m out a lot of money and I feel this is unfair,” he said.

Although some in City Hall have sympathy for Kavanaugh, no one says they’re fully on his side.

Councilman Bob Holmes agreed that the council, if it opposes residential development in the zone, should have moved earlier to ban it.

But he called the Kavanaugh apartment building a poor one by density and design standards, and he said Kavanaugh “found a legal way in the system to apply for a building permit for this project, so the council . . . found a legal and moral way to stop the project--a moratorium.”