Redondo Beach commission tables proposed expansion to landmark 510 Garnet Street after preservation hearing

The Redondo Beach Public Humanities Commission on an uncertain date tabled consideration of an exemption declaration and a certificate of appropriateness for renovations and additions at the locally landmarked property known as the Low House, 510 Garnet Street.

Commission staff presented the project as an interior remodel, structural reinforcement and a two-floor addition to a house originally built about 1910 and listed as a city landmark and under a Mills Act contract. Planner Andrew Swiatek summarized staff’s analysis and recommendation, saying the project would maintain several character-defining features and that “staff recommends that the commission adopt the exemption declaration and approve the application for a certificate of appropriateness” pending any conditions the commission might impose.

The project as filed calls for roughly a 1,000-square-foot ground-floor addition and about 697 square feet on the second floor, to expand living areas and add a larger master suite; the existing house footprint was reported in staff materials as about 1,831 square feet. The architect, Miles Pritzkat of Pritzkat Johnson Architects, told the commission his client wants the house to “survive and continue thriving … for the next 100 years” and described measures intended to differentiate new work from old while preserving the porch and other visible historic elements.

Why it matters: commissioners said the proposed work alters the house’s street-facing massing and removes original windows, and they debated how visible the additions would be from public ways if mature trees are lost or decline. Several commissioners and preservation-minded…