Down to Nine, Going for Six!

Tonight, the Land Use and Planning Committee for the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council held a meeting in which more insight to what may be built at the corner of 20Th Street and Walker Avenue.

There was a fair number of VDONAC members in attendance and it appeared that almost their entire board showed up.

Yard signs are available now for a $5.00 donation and you can Email the group at VDONAC@gmail.com. You may also wish to have a newly created button for a buck's donation.

Here is what we found out at the meeting.

Mike Rosenthal is building three-single-family, detached houses on the three lots currently zoned for that type of residential unit. He is going to see how well those three houses sell before he decides what he'll do with the three lots, currently zoned C1-1XL.

Mr. Rosenthal told a reliable source that if the houses look like they will sell, then he is prepared to build three more single-family, detached houses, one to each lot currently zoned C1-1XL.

If he has trouble selling the three houses on the R1 lots, he told my source that he may go ahead and sub-divide the three remaining lots and place two houses per lot.

To build two houses per each C1-1XL lot, he will need to get approval to build a small lot subdivision. getting approval would come IF he successfully fought having the Q Classification Condition placed on the three lots, AND he get approval from the City Planners and, probably, approval by the L.A. City Council.

To be honest, for Mr. Rosenthal to build two houses per C1-1XL lot, it could take 12-18 months to accomplish that goal and it would face stiff opposition from VDONAC and Councilwoman Hahn.

Mr. Rosenthal has hired a lobbyist/consultant and he may be trying to get in favor with other Councilpersons. Whether Mr. Rosenthal is throwing money away is a matter only he can judge, at this point.

The processes are still going through placing the Q Classification Condition on the three C1-1XL lots. If that is successful, the lots will become zoned as QC1-1XL and they will have a building restriction placed on them that states that only residential dwellings comparable to the surrounding area may be built, no matter what the zoning remains.

The San Pedro Community Plan is starting a 12-18 month process whereby it will be renewed. This happens all over the City of L.A. and is ongoing in different areas of the City. If Mr. Rosenthal does, in fact, build three-single-family, detached residential units on the lots currently zoned C1-1XL, the new community plan will probably have the zoning revert back to R1-1XL, which is was some years before 1956, when the McCowan's Market that was recently demolished, was built.

Mr. Rosenthal seems to be fighting the clock, too. If he decides he wants two houses per C1-1XL lot, he has to try and get his small lot subdivision approved before the lots get stuck with the Q Classification Condition.

Probably in late March or early April, the Planning Commission will hold public hearings on Ms. Hahn-supported Q Classification Condition application. Interested parties will want to attend the meeting and voice either their approval of their opposition to having the Q Classification Condition placed on the three lots. The meetings will be held in downtown Los Angeles, but Ms. Hahn might provide a bus or two so neighbors and others interested in attending the meeting can get there easier.

One issue that may complicate Mr. Rosenthal's current attempts to find buyers, if he really does want to find buyers, is found on the Web site designed to market the three-single-family, detached houses.

www.20thstreetcustomhomes.com surely illustrates an extremely custom house. The floor plan illustration is of a single-story, three bedroom house with a detached two-car garage which has a small door on the other side of the garage than where house is located.

The photos and virtual tour are of a two-story house with an attached two-car garage. We still can't figure out this one and I hope somebody calls Mr. Rosenthal or the agent pictured on the site and inquire whether he is building a two-story house, or a single-story house, or whether he really is interested in selling the houses due to the major differences found on the site.

Oh well, I'm done.