Review of Environmental Study Delays Store

The Torrance Planning Commission has delayed making a decision about whether to allow Price-Costco to build a store near the Lomita border while commissioners look over an environmental review of the controversial project, city officials said.

Price-Costco wants to build a 147,000-square-foot store adjacent to the busy Crossroads Shopping Center. The Torrance City Council approved the environmental review in July, but Lomita city officials have opposed the plan, arguing that there is not enough parking and that streets surrounding the store cannot handle the added congestion.

“They are not addressing the parking and traffic concerns at all,” said Lomita City Councilman Dave Albert. “They’ve just rubber-stamped the project without addressing the impact this will have on the future.”

Development at the Crossroads Shopping Center has been a sore point between the cities for more than two years. Although Torrance owns the land where the shopping center was built, the city of Lomita owns the stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard that customers use to get in and out of the center.

Lomita won a temporary injunction to stop construction of a Claim Jumper restaurant at the shopping center in 1995, but agreed to drop the suit later that year when owners of the shopping center, owners of the restaurant and the city announced that they would pay Lomita $130,000 to restructure and resurface Crenshaw Boulevard.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to vote on the project Oct. 1.