|
Housing plan gets neighbors
stirred up
DEL AIRE: Residents of area near Imperial Highway and La Cienega Boulevard
say 450 apartments would affect traffic.
By Kristin S. Agostoni Daily Breeze - Monday, August 16, 2004
A developer's plan to build a 450-unit apartment complex south of the
Airport Courthouse in Del Aire has caught criticism from nearby neighbors,
who fear more residential development will cause traffic hang-ups and
strain local schools.
Trammel Crow Residential, which developed a similar apartment complex on
Glencoe Avenue in Marina del Rey, is making plans to add two four-story
buildings on a vacant 5-acre tract southwest of Imperial Highway and La
Cienega Boulevard.
Last week a group from Del Aire -- a tiny community on unincorporated land
between El Segundo and Hawthorne -- scrambled to circulate petitions and
submit its comments to the Department of Regional Planning before an Aug.
12 deadline.
The Planning Commission is scheduled to take up the matter Sept. 1 at 9
a.m.
"This is certainly going to impact the schools," said Michele
Crawford, who moved into a home on 118th Place a little more than a year
ago. "It's not the right place."
The tiny community is without a neighborhood association, which makes it
difficult to articulate widespread concerns, said Julie Vogel, who has
lived on 124th Street for three years.
"We have no representation. We have no homeowner's association,"
she said. "It's word of mouth."
The property in question is zoned for a manufacturing planned development
and would have to be reclassified as residential in preparation for the
development.
But that type of zoning classification could have attracted a development
significantly larger in size, company officials say.
Kim Paperin, a development associate, said Trammell Crow is entitled to
erect a 720,000-square-foot office building on the site but opted instead
for a smaller cluster of apartments.
"I think that residential housing is really needed," she said.
"We are offering an opportunity for a lot of these employees of
existing businesses (to live) in the South Bay."
Hawthorne officials voted unanimously in March to oppose the project, even
before hearing a presentation from company officials. But not all of Del
Aire's neighbors are objecting.
Last month the El Segundo Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors voted to
support the plan, on the grounds that the city doesn't have many apartment
buildings offering the same number of units and amenities, said David
Herbst, the chamber's president-elect.
"Our perspective is representative of the business community,"
he said. "There's just not enough housing for the people that want to
work and do work in this area."
With monthly rental rates estimated from $1,300 to $3,300, the Alexan
Pacific Concourse would include space for studios, one-, two- and three-
bedroom apartments, along with an underground garage, swimming pools,
spas, media center and other amenities, Paperin said.
Publish Date:August 16, 2004
|