Voters to Decide Harbor Zoning in November

The city council Thursday decided residents will vote on the city's harbor zoning map Nov. 2, and it will be a peculiar question that they will face at the polls.

Voters will be asked to vote yes or no on the existing zoning map using the alternative zoning map from 1964 as a comparison. 

Superior Court Judge Robert O'Brien ruled last week that residents had the right to decide the harbor area zoning ordinance. O'Brien was settling a lawsuit that had been filed against the city by Building a Better Redondo, which has pushed for voter approval of major land use changes for four years. 

O'Brien said the city neglected to get California Coastal Commission certification over the years for zoning changes, so it's current map is invalid. The judge left it up to the city to determine the current state of its harbor zoning in light of his ruling.

Because the city neglected to get coastal commission certification before amending its harbor zoning over the years, City Attorney Mike Webb advised the City Council to use the last legally sound zoning map , which would be the one from 1964.

City Council members said Thursday that they didn't like using the 1964 zoning map for a comparison to today's because it is so old, but the judge's ruling left little choice. Webb said the use of the 1964 zoning map was for purposes of ballot comparison and to satisfy the city charter only.

The 1964 zoning map stayed in effect until 1982 when it was amended without certification from the California Coastal Commission, which was formed in 1976.

To members of Building a Better Redondo, the City Council's decision to compare today's zoning map with the 1964 one was a ploy to sway voters toward supporting the current zoning ordinance. Although on the ballot for comparison only, voters might not want to support a nearly 50-year-old plan with outdated city boundaries.

"Using the 1964 zoning is a totally farcical comparison," said Jim Light, president of Building a Better Redondo.

Building a Better Redondo has opposed the current harbor zoning ordinance approved two years ago, believing the 400,000 square feet of commercial development that it allowed was too much. Light said voters in November will weigh in on whether they want to pass the zoning that would add 400,000 square feet to the 900,000 already built and would also approve raising the structures' height limit to three stories, and as well as allowing time-shares.

Light encouraged the City Council not to use the 1964 zoning map and instead tell voters that there is no applicable zoning on the coast. "That wouldn't be lying to the people. It wouldn't be misleading them," Light said.

A city's zoning map must match up with its general plan and land use plan, and the 1964 zoning map does not do that, Light said.

Councilman Bill Brand was the only member of the council not to support placing the 1964 ordinance on the ballot for comparison. Brand agreed with Light that voters should be told that there is no effective zoning at the moment on the coast. 

Mayor Mike Gin said there are only a couple of issues regarding the current zoning ordinance that the City Council and Building a Better Redondo disagree on, and "we're not far apart at all on those issues," he said.

Those issues are development capacity and allowing three-story time shares, Gin said.

Although on the ballot for comparison only, it's unclear what would happen if voters were to support a 1964 zoning map over the current one. Brand asked Webb if voters approved the 1964 zoning map, then would the 46-year-old map go into effect?

"It may," Webb said, not wanting to say more on the matter other than, "It depends on circumstances."