Planning commission approves remodel of 700 Pacific Coast Highway into six-tenant commercial building over neighbors’ traffic concerns

The Hermosa Beach Planning Commission approved a precise development plan to remodel an existing 4,750-square-foot building at 700 Pacific Coast Highway into a six-unit multi-tenant commercial building, voting 4-1 after a public hearing that included multiple neighborhood comments about driveway circulation and intersection impacts.

Contract planner Kanika Pompey presented the staff report, saying the project would divide the single-tenant building into six commercial units ranging from about 640 to 840 square feet without adding building square footage. The site is a 14,400-square-foot interior lot east of Pacific Coast Highway between Seventh and Eighth streets; the existing surface parking currently provides nine standard stalls. Pompey said the proposal would reconfigure the lot to provide 16 parking stalls (nine standard, five compact, and two ADA), remove an unpermitted canopy and an encroaching block wall from the public right-of-way, and add approximately 1,800…