New Storage Facility Proposed in San Pedro

Developers are planning to build a storage facility at 825 W. Miraflores Ave. in San Pedro, and on Sept. 15, the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council voted 12-0 with one recusal to support the project, albeit with conditions. On Sept. 28, the Los Angeles Dept. of City Planning approved the project 5-2.

The neighborhood council’s support comes with the condition that the developers repair curbs, gutters and sidewalks nearby, and that there will be no long-term parking in the parking lot, said Diana Nave, chair of the neighborhood council’s planning and land use committee. In addition, the council’s conditions include that the hours of operation will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and that the developers try to save about 10 pine trees they have proposed removing.

“What we eventually are asking them to do is contact the city’s office of forest management to make sure that it’s done properly, and that they can be saved,” Nave said.

The proposed project will be two stories and 37,000 square feet. It will include 20 parking stalls. Its proposed hours are from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the staff present from Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Nave said.

“Lots of cameras will help them control for unapproved uses,” Nave said. “There will be no outside storage. They will also have external lights in place.”

Nave said her committee reached out to Miraflores Park Homeowners Association, which represents about half of the surrounding neighborhood, as well as one neighbor not represented by the association, and both supported the project.

“They were all in favor of the facility primarily because they felt that it was preferable to any other potential use that might be proposed, since it is an industrial zone,” Nave said. “They’re particularly concerned about anything that requires trucks, because they’ve got a problem already with truck traffic on Miraflores.”

The project will be directly behind the Harbor Animal Care Center, and Nave said that some neighbors thought that the center could provide a buffer for the noise coming from the care center.

Honey Koletty, a representative of Miraflores Park Homeowners Association, spoke in favor of keeping the trees.

“We are in a canyon,” Koletty said. “The wildlife that we have here, we want to keep the wildlife. And also, climate change, I think the trees contribute to the health of the area, because there is a lot of truck activity here, we can use all the green we can get.”

Koletty said that other neighbors who live within 500 feet of the property are concerned about the construction. In particular, they are concerned about the traffic that it will bring. She said that there are a series of cul de sacs on Miraflores that will be blocked.

“Traffic will be impeded, critically impeded, with the construction going on, and also the noise abatement, as well as the dust,” Koletty said.

Delaney Jones, a neighbor who lives within 500 feet of the proposed project, also voiced his concerns at the meeting. He said that when Harbor Animal Care Center was built, he was told that the dog shelter would be indoors. The opposite happened. He can hear the dogs barking frequently.

“That’s why I’m concerned about the accuracy of this storage place,” Jones said. “Does that picture accurately represent what it’s going to be like?”

He also expressed concerns with traffic.

“It’s highly congested as it is, and that cut through is really not an alternative for cars,” Jones said. “At one point, going through the alley, it’s literally one-way. There’s been numerous traffic accidents reported in that alley, including my next-door neighbor.”

Eric Higuchi, who represents the developers, said that the neighbors were right about the traffic that construction will bring.

“There’s no hiding it,” Higuchi said. “It will be an inconvenience for residents.”

Higuchi said the city won’t allow the developers to block traffic in the previously mentioned alley, but that they will use Cabrillo Ave. as an alley for construction staging.

“I understand Miraflores is already impacted by delivery trucks, just parking kind of in the middle of the street,” Higuchi said. “I can’t speak for everyone, of our contractors, but every effort will be made never to block that street.”

Higuchi said he does not want to remove the trees but he’s planning to do so to comply with the San Pedro community plan.

“Not saving them would require a variance,” Higuchi said. “We hope with your support, and pressure on city planning that we will be able to save them. But it’s a function of requiring a parkway setback along that street.”

Higuchi said that there are a lot of new multi-family housing projects proposed in the area, but not a lot of storage facilities, and argued this would benefit new residents. He also said it might keep homeless people away.#Storage, #SanPedro, #Traffic

“There is a transient problem that we’ve noticed on Cabrillo Avenue,” Higuchi said. “We hope that the cameras and the lights would dissuade those transients from parking in the car, or loitering out on that street.”