Strip Developer : Narrow Parcels Will Mix Homes, Apartments and Industrial Sites
Talk about strip development. How about a parcel of land that measures 80 feet wide and two miles long?
The unusual Long Beach site is part of the right-of-way for the old Red Car line that once stretched from Los Angeles to Newport Beach. It totals 26 acres, one of the last large, open but admittedly oddly shaped parcels available for development in the city.
But what can be done with such a noodle-shaped parcel of land? For developer Bob Kendrick, the answer was easy. He’s building a mix of single-family homes, apartments, a senior citizens center, a day-care facility and buildings for light industrial use.
The type of development will mirror the different areas through which the right-of-way passes.
At the south end of the parcel, 14 single-family homes are nearly completed. They are placed side by side on the narrow strip of land that cuts diagonally through a neighborhood of modest California bungalows.
Farther north there will be senior citizen apartments and a center for the elderly that will be next door to a day-care facility. Where the property passes through industrial areas structures for light manufacturing and commercial storage will be built.
Kendrick said he worked hard to earn community support for his project, presenting site plans, sketches of the homes, colors and elevations at neighborhood meetings where residents could contribute ideas and suggestions.
“This wasn’t a Kendrick plan,” he said. “It was community plan. And the city had input too. It was consensus plan.”
A community activist, Leila Kay Menzies, appreciated his efforts. “He took time to work with the neighborhood,” she said, “that was something we valued very much.”
Christopher Botosan echoed her sentiment. He headed a community group called “Save Our Neighborhood” that worked with Kendrick to design a development that would be compatible with the area.
“I found out who Kendrick was and what he had done in the past, what he had designed and built,” said Botosan, who is a business consultant. “I found out he cared about Long Beach. I thought he was someone who wanted to do the right thing. . . .”
During 2 1/2 years of community meetings and discussions with the city Planning Department various alternatives were hashed out. Botosan said that at first the city wanted a “wall of condos” and there was talk of turning the right-of-way into a park.
But Botosan said Long Beach did not have the money to create a green belt that he felt would be difficult to police and maintain.
Menzies and Botosan said they and their neighbors wanted the property developed because it had become a dumping ground and a haven for transients and drug dealers. Residents were plagued by prowlers who broke into their homes and then fled across the right-of-way.
Among those opposing development of the site was Stanley Green, a member of the Long Beach Citizens Transportation Task Force. He called the Kendrick development a “travesty.”
“This was a phenomenal opportunity to preserve open space and to maintain a right of way for possible future use,” he said. Green added that neighboring communities were already very congested and did not need more housing that would bring in more people.
“But all this wasn’t Kendrick’s fault,” he said. “The city Planning Department has pushed for development of that area for years. They were shortsighted.”
In spite of Green’s hope of maintaining the right-of-way for future use, a representative of the Planning Department said the city has no plans to install light rail transportation besides the Blue Line that runs from downtown Long Beach to Los Angeles.
After Kendrick got city approval to build he was faced with an “engineering nightmare” in the form of dozens of encroachments on his property. They ranged from errant driveways to a house built partially on the site. Kendrick plans to build around the home.
Kendrick, who would not disclose what he paid for the strip, said he likes to take on “problem pieces of land,” trying to improve them so that he not only makes a profit but also gets the satisfaction of seeing neighboring property values rise as well.
“You can benefit a community without the government pumping money into it,” Kendrick said. “You can improve a community by seeding the neighborhood and in that way encouraging others to spruce up their property. . . .”
For example, he cited a former market gone to ruin. He leveled it and cleaned out adjacent junk yards. After building apartments on the site, nearby property owners set to work on their own homes “and I don’t think hammers stopped swinging for years,” he said.
