While our city's residents may have just gone through an election, things in our neighbor-community of San Pedro have not slept while we debated.
Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn is still running for Jane Harman's former seat in Congress. It appears that the special primary election will be conducted in May to see which top vote-getters in each party stand for formal election to the seat.
It also appears that the Congressional District's lines will be redrawn, perhaps in time for the 2012 election.
For us, I have been told by a very reliable source that our current Congress member will be heading for reelection in a totally Orange County seat. This means we will either be placed into the 36Th C.D. which Ms. Hahn seems to be the front runner for election, or we might move into another's District.
But there is more news concerning our friends and neighbors to the east of us, that is also at least as important to those of living where we do.
"Harbor Highlands Homes" has been the commonly used name to identify a 134-home development brought into the San Pedro picture by JCC Homes.
The location of the proposed residential project is along Gaffey Street between Battery Street and Capitol Drive, basically.
The site was home to the old Kinder-Morgan petroleum site and has been a large mud pad for some time now.
Things have changed recently and our residents should know that the project is moving forward.
First, JCC Homes sold most of its interests and allowances to Standard Pacific Homes. There should be no real visible changes in plans to build 134 'patio style' homes on 11 acres of the site, but we now know a better timeline and more breakdown of the site.
A representative of the site's developer spoke last night at the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council meeting. Here is a bit more of what he spoke about.
There are 134 designated 'lots' or sites for construction of each single-family residential unit on lots of far less than 5,000 square feet. The 'lots' comprise a communal site so the dwellings, while viewed as single-family units, are actually parts of a condominium complex.
90 of the 134-lots are considered to be part of the 'West' portion of the development and will be developed first. The other 44 lots are part of the 'East' complex and will probably not meet eligibility to be formally purchased and built on for 18-24 months from now.
Meeting attendees were informed that the first of the 90 houses that are now slated for lots in the 'West' portion will see a family move in, in about two years.
Naturally, there will be construction phasing and the 'East' portion probably won't see new construction until most, if not all of the 90 other units are built.
The geometry of Harbor Highlands Park, along Capitol, will change when an road is placed towards the south side of the park for access to the development from the west.
The Neighborhood Council has worked with the various development team members to seek and find the best development possible for current and future residents of the area.
What is most important to us is the fact that in about two years, we will be in traffic along Western that will have new residents from the new area to our east, even if that number of residents is not all that great and they are welcomed over an extended period of time.
I have written much of what I know about the JCC Homes project on my Ponte Vista Blog, but I think it is time to share the fact that new housing is 'officially' coming to our area and we now have dates available.
But then again there is Ponte Vista at San Pedro!
I didn't learn much more than I already knew about the current plans and events dealing with the project last night, when the meeting featured some comments from the Land Use Committee Chair of Northwest S.P.N.C., but I did learn one important thing about the current view towards the Environmental Impact Report.
I have been writing recently that it appears that the new Environmental Impact Report for what can only be described as the 'scaled down' P0nte Vista at San Pedro Project, will be available in 3-4 months.
The Traffic Study portion of the EIR has seen its field studies completed.
It now looks like the EIR will contain three 'Alternatives', meaning that the development team will offer EIR studies for three different building scenarios:
The largest Alternative will be for up to 1,135-units consisting of one 392-unit (apartment) building, more multi-family unit buildings and some single-family detached residential units built on lots of far less than 5,000 square feet.
I was intrigued by a statement made last night that one other Alternative will be of a project of "about 820-units", according to the Committee Chair.
This falls in line with my call for no more than 831-total units, which brings the dwelling density at Ponte Vista equal or just under the dwelling density at The Gardens, the 1,100-unit two-story multi-family dwellings along Westmont Drive.
The final and mandatory Alternative is normally titled the "No Project" Alternative. This alternative is mandated for every EIR and states that the site remains with its current residential and open space zoning, whether anything is built on the site, or not.
The 'No Project' Alternative keeps the residential zoning at "R1" which allows for up to 429-single family, detached residential units on lots of not less than 5,000 square feet in size.
The Ponte Vista at San Pedro site has always held provision to build housing according to its current zoning since it was purchased by Bob Bisno, back in 2005.
As expected, the Committee Chair commented that the current development team expects to be granted entitlements and then have other companies actually build housing on designated parcels and that there could be several different construction companies developing portions of Ponte Vista.
What this also probably means is that the largest Alternative for up to 1,135-units actually carries the legal abilities to consider density bonuses on parcels or the whole property site.
When certain criteria is met with proposed developments, an up to 35% increase in the number of units entitled on the site, could actually be built.
What this means is that the 1,135-unit entitlement, could see up to 1,533 units constructed and the "820-units" Alternative could allow for 1,107 units.
The current development team have repeated stated they do not with to have density bonuses applied while they control development, but if they 'sell off' parcels to other entities, it does not look likely those other developers are legally required to keep from using density bonuses that could be granted to them as a result of the sale to them, of parcels.
I will be writing more posts about the Ponte Vista at San Pedro Project on my www.pontevista.blogspot.com site, probably ramping up again in the nearer future. Please visit that site for the best news, comments, and information about the big development on our border.
It appears that the westbound lanes of Weymouth at the intersection of Western Avenue will be re stripped AGAIN.
So many drivers never learned that there was an elimination of one lane able to turn north onto Western, so the city's traffic folks will soon change the lanes back to 'normal' where there will again be two lanes having allowances for drivers to turn right onto northbound Western Avenue.
You know those really, really big twin tanks that are near Gaffey Street? They are the two tanks that have been fought about for years and should have been moved or removed decades ago.
The most recent study dealing with the effects of a catastrophic failure of both of the tanks suggest a damage zone of 6.8 MILES!. What this means is that just about all of us living on the East side of The Hill won't need to worry much about escape plans or moving anywhere if the worst-case scenario plays out. We just would no longer be.
There will be a new "land" in San Pedro, shortly. Yogurtland is coming in to the site of the old Hollywood Video store in the Ralph's shopping center on Western Avenue near Park Western Drive.
This will be at least the third frozen yogurt sales facility within a mile, along Western from Summerland to Caddington. That's not counting any frozen yogurt sold at markets or our 31 Flavors.
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