Planners Delay Decision About Housing Growth in San Pedro : Development: Dozens of residents want new limits on high-density projects to preserve single-family neighborhoods.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission Thursday postponed a long-awaited decision on greatly limiting new residential development in San Pedro, where a decade of apartment and condominium construction has spawned a fierce slow-growth movement.

The delay in acting on a new San Pedro Community Plan followed a two-hour hearing that led a dozen residents to urge adoption of new limits on high-density development, particularly in old San Pedro and the southside neighborhood known as Point Fermin.

The residents, joined by a representative of Harbor Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, told the commission that the community needs tougher development standards to preserve what is left of its single-family neighborhoods. Otherwise, they said, the community’s population could swell beyond reason, creating new traffic congestion and other problems that would overcrowd the community and lower property values.

Those concerns have been expressed for two years in San Pedro, where U.S. Census figures show that the population rose about 18% during the 1980s. The population increase made San Pedro, with about 70,000 residents, one of Los Angeles’ fastest-growing communities and triggered a backlash against the construction of multifamily units in what used to be single-family neighborhoods.

Last August, the Planning Commission delayed a decision on new zoning restrictions in San Pedro, arguing that stringent development standards in the community would hurt the city’s general goal of providing more housing in Los Angeles. To resolve that concern, commissioners asked city planners to detail the consequences of an array of land-use restrictions on San Pedro.

A report by planners concluded that San Pedro’s current zoning would permit up to another 12,900 residential units and a population of nearly 90,000. Adopting the more stringent zoning standards, planners said, would cut those numbers to about 9,900 additional units and a population of less than 83,000.

“I think it’s right that the community says, ‘Wait a minute. Let’s put a halt to this,’ ” Mario Juravich, an aide to Flores, told the commissioners.

The community, Juravich added, is not unreasonably refusing just any new development. “San Pedro is not a community of NIMBYs,” he said, referring to the moniker often reserved for people whose rallying cry is “not in my back yard.” Rather, he said, San Pedro is “a community that feels it has done its share” of adding new housing for Los Angeles.

The commissioners, however, said that remains to be seen.

Planning Commissioner Theodore Stein Jr., for example, said he is concerned that new limits on San Pedro’s residential growth could compromise the city’s goal of more housing.

Commission President William Luddy added that, although he agrees some new limits are appropriate, their consequences must be carefully weighed.

After the public hearing, the three commissioners debating the matter opted to postpone any vote because they could not agree on an action and wanted the panel’s other two members present to break the logjam. Fernando Torres-Gil was the third commissioner at the meeting. Commissioners Lydia H. Kennard and Suzette Neiman were absent.

The commissioners also said they would like to further review the report by city planners.

A new vote on the plan was scheduled for the commission’s May 21 meeting at Los Angeles City Hall. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m.