In March,
2000, the City enlisted the services of the Urban Land Institute's Advisory
Services Panel to evaluate the potential of the Heart of the City study area.
The ULI Panel held its Final Presentation
on the morning of
March 10, 2000 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (300 N. Harbor
Drive). The large crowd of 200+ viewed the Panel's recommendations
for land use and re-use in the
study area (the AES Generating Station, the
Harbor and Pier areas, and the west side of N. Catalina Avenue).
Fortunately, the Presentation was recorded and can be viewed at the City Clerk's
Office (City Hall, Door "C"), or purchased for $15.
In summary, the Panel encouraged more public
space, a more efficient and pedestrian-friendly use of N. Harbor Drive, the
creation of a "Catalina Corridor" entry to the Harbor, and effective
use of the AES Generating Station to provide complementary uses and better
access to the Harbor, the development of "entry" points to the Harbor,
and a landscape corridor from City Hall to the Harbor via Plaza Park.
Four sketches of their recommendations were unveiled
and are presented here:
"Catalina Corridor"
"Harbor Corridor"
"AES Property"
"Thematic Corridors"
(click on images for larger views)
It is important to note that the Panel's
recommendations are not final. However, their recommendations will serve
as the basis for future Community Workshops regarding amendments to the City's
General Plan, Harbor/Civic Center Specific Plan and Zoning Ordinance. The City
is now in the process of holding several Community Workshops and hearings to allow for public review
and comment.
The
Panel's outline of final recommendations is presented below.
ULI Advisory Panel - Summary of Observations and
Design/Revitalization Recommendations Worksheet
OBSERVATIONS - PROBLEMS & OPPORTUNITIES:
Problems:
Redondo Beach is not benefiting from its waterfront as much as in other
beach cities to the north.
No sense of entry to waterfront from PCH; Catalina Avenue area feels like
rear end of the power plant.
Weak identity and lack of "sense of place" or of a destination for
the study area.
Harbor Drive is not a pedestrian-friendly route, and is awkward as an auto
route southbound.
Bicycle and pedestrian circulation constraints include:
The Strand is cut off in both north and south ends of the study area.
The Rail "Green Belt" from Hermosa Beach is cut off.
The waterfront is inactive and dysfunctional:
The waterfront feels inaccessible from Harbor Drive out to waterfront and
into the marina, due to obstructions created by parking lots, fences, walls,
and gated roadways.
Dysfunctional land uses and conflicts between marina uses result in
underutilized marina facilities.
Marina users have conflicts with tourists and recreational users.
Primary Opportunities:
Upgrade City image/character by remedying shortsighted land use and
development decisions of past years.
Enhance quality of life and economic future by building upon and improving
the waterfront, the key asset.
Leverage the waterfront amenity to attract new destination uses to anchor
the Heart of the City and to raise the quality of development and quality of
life of residents.
Reconnect Redondo Beach citizens back to their waterfront. Open up views
and pathways that connect the waterfront back up to Catalina Ave., PCH and
the rest of the community.
Rather than developing the separate parts of the study area as isolated
projects, reconnect them into a dynamic "Heart of the City"
district.
Use the AES site as an economic catalyst to revitalize the district.
Change the lackluster pedestrian experience of Harbor Drive &
waterfront into an exciting sequence of public spaces.
Recapture leakage of shopping and restaurant customers to other
communities by providing fine dining, entertainment and destination uses
that make the most of the waterfront amenity.
SUMMARY OF DESIGN/REVITALIZATION IDEAS PUT FORWARD BY THE ULI ADVISORY PANEL
TO ACHIEVE THE VISION OF THE HEART OF THE CITY:
ULI recommends grouping the various improvement projects into Three
Thematic Street Corridors to Revitalize the Heart of the City:
I.
Catalina Entry Corridor
A.
Gateway:
1.
Make a major entry statement on Pacific Coast
Highway (PCH) - "The Redondo Roundabout" with landscaping and directional
signing, creating a district portal leading down the hill to the water.
B.
Streetscape:
1.
Connecting Sequence. Improve Catalina Corridor from PCH to Beryl
and down Beryl to Harbor, designed to connect from PCH to the
Waterfront.
2.
Design Improvements. Transform the auto-dominated
roadway into a high quality public space with impressive landscaping,
better lighting, on-street parking, slower traffic, and attractive
sidewalks.
3.
Arrival Point.
Culminate the boulevard at
"Catalina Circle" (presently Beryl/Harbor Drive intersection)
and connect to a new landmark fountain and beachfront park (see
"Waterfront," below).
C.
New
Development:
1.
Create a new neighborhood in previously undefined part of town. Use
infill and redevelopment on underutilized properties along the
corridor with human-scaled, townlike local serving developments.
2.
Over time, encourage the shopping center and other
businesses to open storefronts oriented towards Catalina Avenue.
II.
Coastal Corridor
A.
Harbor Drive Streetscape
1.
Redesign Harbor Drive as "street of character" with
traffic calming, landscaping, and pedestrian amenity.
2.
Create an attractive rotary at the intersection of Beryl
and Harbor Drive (see "Catalina Circle" in Catalina Corridor
section, above). The circle will serve as a distributor for people
going to the pier, the marinas and the new Town Green.
B.
AES Site
1.
Encourage private investment to support and activate the Heart of
the City:
a)
Retain NavCom as a growing local business.
b)
Enable retail, residential, office and commercial
uses on AES site (and other underutilized properties east of Harbor
Drive). Use a community workshop process and implement via a Heart
of the City Specific Plan to leverage the large site to create
substantial community benefit.
c)
Create Destination Uses. Investigate
leveraging the waterfront location to attract a five-start hotel and/or
public market like Pike Place Market in Seattle.
d)
Promote mixed-use residential and live-work residential
rather than typical condominium development in appropriate areas.
2.
Do not allow superblock development: extend existing
local streets through the AES site, connecting neighborhoods to the
waterfront.
3.
New View Corridors. Create and preserve views from
Catalina through to the water. Prohibit buildings from obstructing view
corridors.
4.
Pedestrian Scale Added. Treat architecture and
landscaping of the existing "Whaling Wall" building to create
pleasing scale and integration with the Harbor Drive streetscape.
5.
Hermosa Greenway. Extend Hermosa Greenway into the
City and through the AES site all the way through to Beryl and down to
the waterfront.
6.
Harbor Drive frontage improved as part of site
development plan - traffic calming, street improvements - see
"Harbor Drive" above.
C.
Harbor Area
1.
Street edge: Reconfigure the existing dispersed pattern of
retail and restaurant development into compact and walkable clusters
along Harbor Drive, with ground-level specialty shops, restaurants and
other small-scale businesses fronting onto the street.
2.
New Investment. Enable retail, entertainment, fine
dining and lodging development on underutilized land west of Harbor
Drive, with additional small-scale office uses on second and upper
floors. Leverage waterfront amenity to attract fine dining and perhaps a
public market and a five-star resort hotel.
3.
Public Space. New public space including a Town Green
with an interactive fountain and a new nautilus-shaped 200-foot public
beach; Retain and enhance Seaside Lagoon.
4.
View Corridor. Open the view out across the breakwater
with a focal element at the end of the breakwater.
5.
Pier area reconfiguration: Activate the waterfront by
eliminating barriers to continuous public access while keeping in mind
the need for safety and security.
a)
Extend the Strand continuously along the water edge.
b)
Consolidate marina activities by grouping them
compatibly.
c)
Restore connection to the water by creating
access onto the breakwater for strolling, views, and fishing.
d)
Expand the area of Mole B to 4-5 acres. Move the
Yacht Club onto Mole B along with their own basin.
e)
Improve Marina Way by removing center parking
aisle and creating a landscaped public bicycle and pedestrian access
way.
f)
Permit the development of new restaurants that
cantilever over the seawall and are accessed via ramp structures. Use
these ramps as a grade separation for bicycle path.
g)
Create a bridge structure to link the Strand to
the Pier and route the bike path around the pier.
h)
Modify Basin 3 to provide public access to the
docks via a floating promenade walkway. Consolidate rental activities
in this area. Open the area for exhibits and shows.
i)
Replace some existing slips with larger and better quality slips;
develop transient slips as well.
D.
Parking
1.
Reconfigure existing parking lots to be shared in time (e.g. used by
office workers in the daytime and marina diners and nightlife patrons
in the evening) and shared in space (consolidate small privatized lots
for greater efficiency).
2.
Add curbside parking to both sides of Harbor Drive.
3.
Potential on AES site to provide some public parking
facilities as well as multiple day-evening use of parking facilities.
4.
Consider remote-parking opportunities in some areas that
are currently underutilized, e.g. underneath the power lines.
III.
Civic Corridor
A.
Create a park-like campus setting for civic center, with linear
greenway extending from civic center to the waterfront lined by future
civic buildings.
B.
Consider limited residential land acquisition
between Broadway and Catalina as well as mid-block pedestrian
stoplights to complete the connection between City Hall and the
waterfront.
Comments
If you would like to share your comments or ideas on the above or on the
project, we can be reached
here.
