The Daily Breeze
Thursday, June 14, 2007
By Nick Green - Staff Writer

Traffic fears curb Rolling Hills Estate proposed smart growth overlay

Officials abandon residential development plans during a heated meeting.

    Visions of vehicle-clogged roads derailed an ambitious plan five years in the making intended to create a vibrant pedestrian-oriented urban village in Rolling Hills Estates' commercial core.
    But supporters of what's dubbed smart growth said Tuesday's dramatic City Council decision to abandon the so-called Peninsula Village Overlay Zone may not signal the stunning repudiation of the philosophy it appears to represent.
    The proposal would have set in place a planning framework to build hundreds of condominiums - the exact number was unclear - in a 45-acre area where today there are none. Proponents envisioned the plan would inject a degree of economic vitality into a struggling business district along Deep Valley Drive some residents regard as tacky and outdated.
    But a perception that the overlay may cause additional traffic congestion in a car-oriented community already plagued by it caused an outcry that forced officials to backtrack.
    "I don't see it as a defeat, I really don't," said Councilwoman Judy Mitchell, an advocate of the proposal. "Now we are back to mixed-use over the whole (area). It's not fragmented now the way it was before, so in some ways I think we've come out ahead."
    That's because projects will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
    The overlay area itself had gradually been reduced in size, allowing for less planning flexibility.
    "It's a disappointment," said Mayor Suzie Seamans, another proponent of the overlay zone. "But the way things had been going with the overlay zone, it wasn't the overlay zone we had originally envisioned. It was getting eaten away at the edge constantly."
    The decision was taken before a standing-room only crowd at a drama-laced City Council meeting regarded as one of the most pivotal for the future of the small Palos Verdes Peninsula city.
    Rolling Hills Estates, where the majority of the housing stock consists of large rambling homes, had been on the vanguard of the mixed-use movement regionally.
    Urban planners see the melding of places people can live, work and play in as the key to eliminating sprawl, which is blamed for everything from long commutes to sterile suburban neighborhoods to expanding American waistlines.
    But it was a radical planning departure for a city that prizes its semi-rural atmosphere. Many residents found the counter-intuitive notion that denser housing meant a more liveable environment difficult to accept.
    Residents had clamored for a go-slow approach in the wake of the approval of 133 housing units in four different projects. Another 244 are in the planning stages for a total of 377.
    A proposed moratorium was intended to allow more information to be gathered on what the scale of development meant for the city and led to Tuesday's showdown meeting.
    The initial 45-day development moratorium sought was eventually rejected - after almost three hours of testimony from 40 speakers - when officials admitted there was no legal basis for it.
    That's in part because no further projects in the area were scheduled to come before policymakers during that time span anyway.
    Still, the ensuing discussion showed a majority of audience members opposed any moratorium, the opposite position from those who had called or e-mailed council members before the meeting.
    That included senior citizens hoping to buy a smaller home in the new developments and members of the business community who presented a dire picture of the area's economic prospects.
    "All this talk about revitalization has been very interesting to me because it's never been very vital," said resident Lisa Couts, who described herself as an urban planner by profession. "Businesses have been struggling for a long, long time."
    Michael Liberatore, the regional manager for the company that owns The Avenue of the Peninsula mall, painted a picture of a shopping center struggling to survive.
    Sales per square foot are 20 percent below the industry average, while the vacancy rate hovers just below 20 percent and could double in a couple of years, he said in an unusually candid assessment.
    "There's been a perception this is a vibrant retail center and that's not the case," Liberatore said.
    He wondered that if the closure of stores forces residents to head to Torrance to shop, that could create the very traffic problems those who oppose the overlay are trying to avoid.
    That could also spell trouble for the city, which relies on retail sales taxes for roughly a third of its operating revenue.
    The discussion exposed sharp divisions in the usually sedate City Council that underlined the issue's importance.
    The moratorium debate morphed into one on the future of the overall plan, which officials agreed was no longer viable.
    Most outspoken against the overlay was Councilman Steve Zuckerman, who had actually voted in favor of the approved residential developments in Peninsula Village.
    Zuckerman, an executive with a company that builds automotive-dependent strip malls, attempted to paint the overlay as a polluting, unhealthy concept, to the visible frustration of his fellow panelists.
    "Is the cure going to be worse than the disease?" he said of the "significant and unavoidable" emissions from cars consultants had said the new homes would create.
    Yet Zuckerman also fretted no overlay meant reduced city control over development and sought assurances that would not be the case.
    "You're asking for a level of assurance we can't give," finally interjected a clearly frustrated Doug Prichard, the city manager. "The types of questions you're asking don't have answers."
    Also left unanswered: the status of up to $8.1million in planned street and road improvements in the area.
    Still, at least the city won't face any lawsuits by abandoning the overlay.
    The City Council meeting had been delayed 30minutes, while panelists discussed threats of litigation by companies - including the mall - concerned the overlay could prevent them building homes on their property.

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