King Harbor rezoning gets Redondo Beach boiling again

Redondo Beach officials tonight will start the arduous job of rezoning land around aging King Harbor - a move seen as key to the area's eventual revitalization.

[Westchester]

City staff throughout the South Bay too often reject the views of constituents in favor of a build, build, build philosophy. What's in it for them?

[KHYC]

It's about time to bounce the KHYC out for their blatent racial discrimination. It's criminal and they shouldn't be allowed a leasehold.

[Billy Bob]

This issue has little to do with the residents of Redondo, more to do with real estate development interest and city staff. The residents want a park development at the harbor. Developers want big money projects so they can live comfortably somewhere else. Until Redondo is able to move past the special interest, no progress will ever be made. Harbor stake holders and staff need to show that they can do something with the existing vacant buildings that are costing the residents revenue. Why build more square footage when no one can manage the existing properties there? Whats not to like with having all your restaurants and shops underground with foot traffic passing on top of or under more vacant shops?

[Phat Daddy Love]

I encourage all residents to attend tonight's Council meeting and speak your mind... I will be there..

[VICB3]

This was tried once before with the "seaport village" themed shopping arcade built on top of the pier parking structure. Intended to attract the "upscale shopper," it flopped because, to paraphrase one critic, "all you get at the pier is the corndog and churro crowd." 25 years on, that hasn't changed. The locals with the money don't go to the pier, prefering instead the bars and resturants in Hollywood Rivera, Hermosa, and Manhattan Beach.

Rather than yet another grandiose development scheme, why not look at a guaranteed money maker - doubling the number of ships in the harbor via,say, dredging a channel across King Harbor into the back portion of the power plant. There's a shortage of space throughout Southern California. At 12-15+ dollars/foot, those new slips would be leased out overnight. Traffic impact/increase would be nil. And boat owners DO tend towards the upscale side of the equation.(Have you ever heard of boat owning gangbangers or taggers?)

[BobFox]

Very tough decisions. Someone has to come up with the ideal and innovative plan that will incorporate all of the following:
1. Beauty and environmental concerns.
2. Little or no cost to the citizenry for both development and then maintenance.
3. Keeping GREED out of the equation.
4. Keeping corruption out also.
5. Making it nice enough so that even our citizens will enjoy it and not just a tourist stop.

What a challenge. Just remember this: Life is full of choices. All choices have consequences.

Now I think I will just pray for a solution!

[hmm]

VICB3 wrote:

"all you get at the pier is the corndog and churro crowd." 25 years on, that hasn't changed. The locals with the money don't go to the pier, prefering instead the bars and resturants in Hollywood Rivera, Hermosa, and Manhattan Beach.

don't forget about hte meth heads that fish there on a daily basis.

[bz in rb]

VICB3 this is the only suggestion so far that I have understood because it directly deals actual need on the waterfront. All this talk about square footage and hotels left my head spinning. Why do we need more square footage when seaport village is vacant? Why do we need another hotel? Are the ones there currently booked to capacity? Thanks VICB3 for a breath of fresh air! When is your campaign for RB city council starting?

VICB3 wrote:

This was tried once before with the "seaport village" themed shopping arcade built on top of the pier parking structure. Intended to attract the "upscale shopper," it flopped because, to paraphrase one critic, "all you get at the pier is the corndog and churro crowd." 25 years on, that hasn't changed. The locals with the money don't go to the pier, prefering instead the bars and resturants in Hollywood Rivera, Hermosa, and Manhattan Beach.
Rather than yet another grandiose development scheme, why not look at a guaranteed money maker - doubling the number of ships in the harbor via,say, dredging a channel across King Harbor into the back portion of the power plant. There's a shortage of space throughout Southern California. At 12-15+ dollars/foot, those new slips would be leased out overnight. Traffic impact/increase would be nil. And boat owners DO tend towards the upscale side of the equation.(Have you ever heard of boat owning gangbangers or taggers?)

[VICB3]

hmm wrote:

<quoted text>
don't forget about hte meth heads that fish there on a daily basis.

No argument here. I was trying to be politic.

[VICB3]

bz in rb wrote:

VICB3 this is the only suggestion so far that I have understood because it directly deals actual need on the waterfront. All this talk about square footage and hotels left my head spinning. Why do we need more square footage when seaport village is vacant? Why do we need another hotel? Are the ones there currently booked to capacity? Thanks VICB3 for a breath of fresh air! When is your campaign for RB city council starting?
<quoted text>

Maybe I should. My family has been in the South Bay for over 100 years, so I guess that makes me a local.

[Jim]

King Harbor needs to be totally re-done. Manhattan Beach has been "Yuppified"

Hermosa has been ruined with the terrible Pier Plaza, a trend which will probably continue.

Now it will be Redondo chance to say goodbye to the past.

[Richiewho]

I just wish they would tear down that awful AES power plant. THe value of my home would certainly increase!

[Richies Conscience]

Richiewho wrote:

I just wish they would tear down that awful AES power plant. THe value of my home would certainly increase!

When the power plant goes down...so does do the power lines. When the lines go down...the entire strip of land east of the power plant and up 190th and past the dog park open up to new development.
This would be a nightmare scenario at best creating total gridlock. 190th and PCH is already a category F intersection...that is bad by the way!
So much for the value of your home. Exclusivity increases the value of your home....basic supply and demand. Just read the papers, too many houses equal lower prices.
Be careful what you ask for.

[Jim]

Richiewho wrote:

I just wish they would tear down that awful AES power plant. THe value of my home would certainly increase!

Is the AES plant still generating electricity? If so, why should it be torn down?

[Richies Conscience]

Jim wrote:

<quoted text>
Is the AES plant still generating electricity? If so, why should it be torn down?

Some...It is mostly a standby power plant in case the grid needs more power.

It takes up a huge amount of space. Most of the physical plant is dead and long ago retired. It is a "Stalin like" building that has an amazing 180 degree ocean view.

Everybody wants a piece of it. Except the boaters in the harbor. They have their great view. They all want us to just go away and leave them to their own private paradise.

Oh one more thing. This multi national power company wants to build thousands of condos on the site.....but they want taxpayers cover many of the costs. They almost pulled it off.....Redondo City Hall isn't a great brain trust.

[Jim]

Richies Conscience wrote:

<quoted text>
Some...It is mostly a standby power plant in case the grid needs more power.
It takes up a huge amount of space. Most of the physical plant is dead and long ago retired. It is a "Stalin like" building that has an amazing 180 degree ocean view.
Everybody wants a piece of it. Except the boaters in the harbor. They have their great view. They all want us to just go away and leave them to their own private paradise.
Oh one more thing. This multi national power company wants to build thousands of condos on the site.....but they want taxpayers cover many of the costs. They almost pulled it off.....Redondo City Hall isn't a great brain trust.

If there is not enough capacity in the grid (as we have seen), then the plant should stay there operating no matter what the local citizens or the power company want.

We always hear that there isn't enough refinery capacity. Remember the outcry when Shell wanted to close the Unocal refinery in Bakersfield?

I don't think that we should be decommissioning power plants when there are capacity concerns.

There should also be concerns about what the source of the replacement capacity is.

I realize that Redondo Beach is not part of the DWP, however I do think that the following is relevant to this discussion.

Do people in Los Angeles realize that much of the power comes from a coal burning plant two states away, that is a large source of pollution?

The Intermountain Power Plant (IPP) is located in western Utah near Delta. It consists of two 875-megawatt units that were recently upgraded to produce 950 megawatts (gross) each. The City of Los Angeles takes roughly 45 percent of the power that the plant produces. In 2003, IPP produced 3,400 tons of sulfur dioxide, 27,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, and 15 million tons of carbon dioxide. In 2002, the owners of IPP announced their intention to expand the plant by adding a third 900-megawatt unit.

So before this plant is closed, we should know what the source of the replacement capacity is.

[OC Observer]

I grew up in the area and all I see is bureaucratic wrangling and nobody doing anything that's profitable. Oh well, it's not my problem. South Orange County waterfront areas are thriving upscale venues.....Seal Beach, Huntington, Newport Beach, Laguna, Dana Point etc etc. All the money is down here and so are the good lookin' women. You guys in Redondo, Hermosa and Manhattan could do it too if you'd just cut the B.S. and make it work. If you continue screwin' around, it'll be another 30 years of businesses going downhill and you'll have a waterfront ghetto. Hermosa's already got a bunch off riff-raff and seedy joints.

Oh, by the way.......there's no freeway access to your area and that's a problem.

[Jim]

OC Observer wrote:

All the money is down here and so are the good lookin' women.

Hey I grew up in Hermosa and just moved 2 years ago. Your right, Pier Plaza is the worst thing that ever happened to Hermosa Beach. But there are still plenty of good looking women in Hermosa & Manhattan.

[sb politico]

Jim Light and his crazies will once again throw a monkey wrench into any efforts to improve our great city. All they want is to obstruct; offering only silly options that add no pragmatic benefit. The last great hope to upgrade our city will be caught in yet another stranglehold of petition drives, dilusional conspiracy theories, paranoid accusations, etc. And in the end they will accomplish their goals of nothing. It really is getting very boring.

[John von Germany]

OC Observer wrote:

Oh, by the way.......there's no freeway access to your area and that's a problem.

What map are you looking at?