Palos Verdes Peninsula News
Friday, March 30, 2007
By Ashley Ratcliff  

RHE — A decision from the Rolling Hills Estates City Council at its Tuesday night meeting brings the city one step closer to its vision of a “revitalized” downtown area.

Condo project presses on with approval

Knickerbocker & Associates’ project — a 16-unit Mediterranean condominium complex at 827 Deep Valley Drive that incorporates the existing medical offices near Bristol Farms — is part of RHE’s Peninsula Village plan, which aims to turn portions of Deep Valley and Silver Spur Road into a European-style village.

This rendering shows how developer Craig Knickerbocker’s 16-unit condominium complex would look when it’s completed. However, a decision from the Rolling Hills Estate City Council on Tuesday means that Knickerbocker will have to modify the building’s exterior to make its appearance more consistent with the surrounding medical offices.

Tuesday night, the City Council voted 5-0 to approve Craig Knickerbocker’s conditional use permit, tentative tract map and grading plan, as well as grant a variance to permit fewer parking spaces than required by city code. Council also directed Knickerbocker to revise the condo’s exterior design to make the project blend in with the hillside and neighboring office buildings. The applicant will bring the project back to council once it is complete.

The 16-unit condo project is just one part of a bigger effort to “build up Deep Valley, make it a little nicer and help bring it into the 21st century,” Knickerbocker said.

Mayor Susan Seamans said Knickerbocker’s project joins three already approved developments that will give RHE’s fragmented downtown area a face-lift. “I think that this particular project fits in very well with what I think is going to happen in Deep Valley Drive,” she said. “I think that it adds a level of development further up the hillside … Something has to happen there.”

While the other council members saw the pros of Knickerbocker’s project, Councilman Steve Zuckerman was the most vocal in expressing his reservations with the development. He cited the aesthetic contrast of the condos with the medical facilities as a major drawback.

“I didn’t realize … how prominent these buildings are … The architectural style of the two buildings are pretty incongruous,” he said. “They really have very little in common … and the condominiums themselves don’t conform to the landform. There’s a lot of verticality in these things, especially the chimneys … It’s a very busy architecture compared to the office buildings.”

But Zuckerman acknowledged that the project’s exterior redesign should be left to the professionals.

Richard Barretto, traffic engineer with Linscott, Law & Greenspan, determined that during peak usage, 57 parking spaces out of the 81 provided are occupied.

“There’s definitely a surplus of parking that future residents and their guests could utilize during the evening and during the weekend,” Barretto said. “In my opinion, the project will definitely have sufficient parking, and will support the residential guest demand as well as the medical office employees, tenants and visitors.”

However, Zuckerman said he visited the parking structure at 827 Deep Valley on Tuesday morning and was shocked at how many spaces were occupied. He said what he saw was contradictory to what Barretto’s findings.

“To my eye, it looked like perhaps the project was generating the demands that our ordinances would suggest … and that we could have a problem in the future, possibly, if we have more business activity in the area and spaces that people are relying upon … are not available because it’s going to be used by the residents of the condominium,” Zuckerman said. “I’m worried about mid-morning [parking] when maybe all the residents haven’t left yet and yet a lot of people are coming to make their early-morning appointments [at the medical offices].”

On the brighter side of things, the focused traffic analysis indicates there aren’t cumulative traffic impacts on the Knickerbocker development, according to staff. Once complete, Barretto said, it’s anticipated that condo tenants will make eight trips daily per residence, which is minimal compared to what other Deep Valley developments may contribute.

“Normally I wouldn’t even be doing a traffic study for a project of this size because to meet the city’s significant threshold criteria … our project would have to generate at least 16 trips … and this project doesn’t,” he said.

Those concerned about the potential of another landslide due to Knickerbocker’s project can rest assured. Geologist Dale Hinkle said the project makes the hillside 50 percent more stable than it previously was.

“I’d like to make it clear that there’s not a landslide on this hillside at this location,” he said. “We know there have been problems down the street a little ways … This particular building is going to sit on drilled caissons, and the caissons will penetrate everything that’s on the hillside … In addition to all that, the back wall is going to be a retaining wall and that retaining wall is to be designed approximately twice the strength of a normal retaining wall … I have no fear whatsoever that the hillside is unstable.”

Knickerbocker, who purchased the 40-year-old building situated on a 1.2-acre parcel about four years ago, said his mixed-use project accommodates local businesses — orthodontists, dentists and pediatricians — that want to stay put. He said he’s already begun signing long term leases.

The 16-unit complex offers what he expects to be the lowest-priced condominiums on the Hill, which appeals to people from various walks of life, Knickerbocker said.

“We’re getting older people who want to keep a home in PV, and we’re getting younger people who would like to enter on the Hill interested in that product, and people who work in The Village even, because it’s a little more affordable than the rest of the Hill,” he said.

RHE resident Jordan Wheeler, 24, said the condominium complex is ideal for young couples. “My fiancée and I are excited about the possibility of owning property in Palos Verdes, to get our foot in the housing market, to be able to start our lives in the city we grew up in,” he said. “It’s one of the better projects that we’ve seen and it’s also the most affordable.”

 Visit the PV News website at:  http://www.pvnews.com/local_news/