Green Light Is Given to Motorcycle Sales

Hermosa Beach’s acrimonious debate over whether to open its doors to motorcycle shops sputtered to an end this week as the City Council quietly amended the zoning ordinance to allow the sale of motorcycles and motorcycle parts on the Pacific Coast Highway commercial strip.

The unanimous vote was an anticlimactic finish to a controversy that began this summer, when the owners of an auto parts store at 640 Pacific Coast Highway asked the city to change their conditional-use permit so they could sell and repair Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

The plan set off a protest by the neighbors of the shop, South Bay Cycles, who feared they would be plagued day and night with the roar of revving engines.

The zoning ordinance allowed motorcycle repairs in the area, along with the sale of automobiles and auto parts and supplies. But motorcycle sales were not mentioned, and the Planning Commission used that ambiguity as grounds to deny South Bay Cycles the permit it sought.

After an emotional, hourlong public hearing last month, the City Council partially overrode the Planning Commission and gave South Bay Cycles a six-month permit to repair motorcycles. The owners were told to postpone selling the cycles until after the council clarified the zoning ordinance.

But the fierce debate that had colored last month’s hearing was absent at the council meeting Tuesday. Neither the owners nor the neighbors addressed the council. Members speculated afterward that the debate may have died down because the bulk of the noise from such enterprises is generated by motorcycle repair, which was dealt with at the earlier meeting.

Michelle Campbell, a co-owner of South Bay Cycles, said the clarification now opens the way for the owners to seek permission to begin selling Harley-Davidsons.

“We’re happy,” she said. “We just wish the whole process could have been taken care of all at once.”