Coastal Neighborhood Council Meeting

The Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council held a meeting of its Board of Directors on Monday January 28.

I was not in attendance but a very talented person, who has a good talent for reporting, sent me information about the meeting that I will pass through via this post.

The agenda for the meeting did not include the issue of the proposed development on the site of the former McCowan's Market.

However, since this was the first opportunity for residents objecting to the idea of having condominiums built on the site, to meet with their representatives on the Board of Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council (Coastal), the first part of the meeting was devoted to those issues.

According to the reporter, a standing room only crowd of approximately 110 people cam out to oppose plans to have condominiums built.

Twenty members of the audience spoke on a variety of topics concerning the overall issues and not many of them repeated comments made by others.

One person spoke that he was a vendor to McCowan's while being owned by Mike Rosenthal. He stated that he supplied fish to the market and was told he would be paid only "pennies on the dollar of what he was owed".

Several speakers spoke about the problems neighbors of the former market had in that, many individuals used to walk to and from the store and having lived in the area for so long, were not prepared to need to find transportation to and from the larger markets outside of the neighborhood.

One speaker supported having the "Q Condition" put on the zoning variances of the parcels that are currently zoned C1.

A few speakers talked about being concerned that traffic on Walker will be dramatically changed. Instead of folks being able to walk to and from their neighborhood store, now everyone will have to find transportation to and from other stores. Since Walker Avenue has a signal at its intersection with 25Th street, traffic on Walker may be completely altered.

A representative from Councilwoman Janice Hahn's office came to speak. Although he wanted to speak early on, the President of Coastal told the gentleman that he was there to listen to comments from the public and after those comments were completed, he could address meeting attendees.

The representative told the group that Councilwoman Janice Hahn must initiate the process of getting the "Q Condition" applied. He also said that that process could take several months of study, perhaps 2-3 months.

The representative did inform the group what could be built on property zoned C1 as the parcels are. He also took "pointed" questions from some of the audience.

The intrepid reporter wrote about concerns that instead of condominiums, apartments could be built without the same amount of variances that condominiums would require.

It appears to me that at this first chance to have residents voice their opinions at a scheduled public meeting was a great step in learning about the proposed development and getting folks involved in working towards finding the best result for that neighborhood and OUR community.

I didn't get any word that a park was even remotely considered by speakers at the meeting, or realistically considered by the Board or the audience.

It seems Mike Rosenthal threw that line out and it only took a little-bitty fish to throw the line back at him. Turns out, there was not even a hint of bait on the line.

It also turns out that this is not the first time that someone attempted to build condos on the site of McCowan's. John McCowan considered taking down the market and building condominiums. My reporter wrote that Mr. McCowan's idea was defeated by the actions of the residents of that neighborhood.