Panel to consider housing project
A possible mixed-use development is creating concern for some living in the hillside region
A major mixed-use development on Hawthorne Boulevard, at the northwest corner of Via Valmonte, is expected to go before the Torrance Planning Commission next month, with the proposed project continuing a trend of larger developments despite opposition from a homeowners association.
Public comment on an initial study of the 18,340-square-foot development will remain open until July 29.
The development consists of two buildings, each three stories tall. One will have 11 two-bedroom apartments with private balconies and partially underground parking. The other will be a three-story commercial office building.
The project, which Ashai Design Consulting Corporation has taken the lead on, is notable because it represents a trend toward contemporary, larger mixed-use projects along the Hawthorne Boulevard commercial corridor where the street begins its climb into the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Statewide, there’s been a push toward higher-density develop
ments, particularly residential ones as California struggles with a housing shortage and homeless crisis.
The state legislature has passed laws in recent years that set benchmarks for how many housing units must get built and other related issues, and several other housing and density bills are pending. But many municipal officials around Southern California — particularly those who represent cities with larger lots and a more suburban feel, like Torrance — have balked at these laws, saying they strip them of local control.
“Torrance is more appealing because of the larger lots,” said Councilman Mike Griffiths, one of the most ardent opponents of state bills requiring higher density. “It’s nice to have choices like that. If you want a larger lot, you should have it. That shouldn’t be immoral like some folks are saying.”
As for the proposed mixed-use development on Hawthorne, the design and size of the structures also align with other projects Ashai Design has completed in recent years.
“The aesthetic quality is more aligned with what we’ve been doing since 2016,” said Billal Ashai, assistant project manager at for the development company. “For me, it was a fascinating project working with the topography because it’s all hillside.”
Opposition mounts
Some residents with the Riviera Homeowners Association, however, oppose the development, saying it’s too big and doesn’t fit with the surrounding neighborhood.
The proposed project is slated for land that has long been vacant behind a gas station. The land was broken into separate parcels, six of which Ashai Design bought.
Three parcels were zoned under a Hawthorne Boulevard specific plan and three as a light agricultural/general commercial district, which had greater restrictions. By merging the six parcels in 2018, the
23,657-square-foot property fell under the specific plan, which allows increased height and density.
Flags marking the planned height of the Ashai Design project, at 24601 Hawthorne Blvd., have been up since November, raising the attention of area residents.
“The homeowners association has concerns about it because of the height of the buildings,” said Judy Brunetti, past president of the Riviera Homeowners Association.
The project, Brunetti said, also has the potential to back up cars on Via Valmonte even though a traffic study said there will not be any discernible impacts.
“We think that can’t be true,” Brunetti said.
More than a decade ago, Torrance conducted an environmental impact report for its 2009 General Plan. The report found that longterm development in the city generally had the potential to cause unavoidable adverse impacts.
But an initial city study for this project found no substantial evidence that it would have significant environmental consequences beyond what the city conceded in the General Plan
“I can understand the scale of the project can be perceived as quite large, but in actuality it is not,” Ashai said.
The project, Ashai said, was designed to account for the hillside that naturally puts the buildings on a podium. They took care, he said, to blend the design with neighboring properties.
“We purposefully designed this north elevation to be very clean and regularized, so that it does not present itself to be louder than it needs to be,” Ashai wrote in an email. “Driving up from Hawthorne Boulevard, this building will operate as somewhat of a background building, while also keeping the scale of one to two stories along Via Valmonte.”
Fighting Sacramento
The Ashai development is not the only project in the area that has drawn opposition.
On the other side of Via Valmonte is the proposed 248-unit Butcher-Solana project, which will abut the steep hillside known as Butcher Hill, the site of a former earth mine.
That project, first proposed in 2017, is in the review stage, with developer Reylenn Properties needing to respond to public comments on an environmental impact report issued in 2019.
Griffiths, who last year founded a group called California Cities for Local Control to fight state bills that could make it easier to build more high-density housing, was among a considerable number of opponents to that project.
At first glance, Griffiths said, the Ashai project also seemed too big, though his stance is softer.
“The problem he has is it’s built up on a high platform of land, that makes it look tremendously taller than it really is,” Griffiths said, “which causes it to look out of character and out of place with other buildings in the area.”
Griffiths said his primary fight is with Sacramento and attempts by state lawmakers to wrest zoning control from the hands of local officials.
In 2017, for example, the Legislature passed, and Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law, a series of bills cumulatively called California’s 2017 Housing Package, to help address the state’s housing shortage. One of those, Senate Bill 35 — authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco — streamlined the construction process for residential developments in counties and cities that fail to meet state-mandated housing quotas.
The League of California Cities opposed SB 35.
This year, the Legislature is set to take up a series of other housing bills, which Griffiths says he is watching closely. The result, he said, will be more projects like the ones proposed on Via Valmonte.
But that seems to be the point, with Wiener — a major advocate of state legislation to address the housing crisis — touting his 2017 bill in a tweet late last month.
Since SB 35 went into effect “nearly 2,000 homes have been approved in (San Francisco),” he wrote in a June 30 tweet, “overwhelmingly affordable.”
“State housing laws work,” he added. “Let’s keep up the fight.”
Griffiths and other critics, however, argue these bills will only worsen residents’ quality-of-life, including with increased traffic and limited parking.
“One of the biggest problems I have with these ordinances is you are eliminating parking that used to be required on the property,” Griffiths said. “That’s making it harder to maintain the streets and it’s more difficult for residents to find
parking.”
Opponents to the proposed Hawthorne Boulevard development may not be able to stop it. Generally speaking, if a proposed project falls within a city’s zoning laws and there are no significant environmental consequences that would nix it, planning commissions will OK it.
The Torrance Planning Commission is set to take up the Hawthorne Boulevard project on Aug. 18.
Unless someone appeals the commission’s decision, the City Council — including Griffiths — won’t have any say in the project’s fate.