Fast-Food Project OKd Over Neighbors’ Objections

After a contentious, three-hour hearing this week, the Lomita City Council approved in a 4-1 vote the construction of a Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell on the corner of Western Avenue and Palos Verdes Drive North.

The restaurant was the focus of a year-long fight between the developer of the vacant lot and residents of an abutting public housing project, who fear that it will add traffic to the neighborhood and be a magnet for crime.

In an unlikely union, Harbor Hills project residents joined their home-owning neighbors to suggest that Los Angeles County, which runs the project, use federal housing funds to buy the land from the developer and set up a child care or community center to help residents improve their economic prospects.

But the county said it is already planning to build a community center and child-care facility on the south end of the housing complex.

In the end, the council was swayed in Monday’s vote by the developer’s arguments that the restaurant would be an improvement to the area and would bring jobs and add tax revenues to city coffers.