Council approves development plan for 901 Hermosa Avenue after lengthy debate over decommissioned space and parking

Hermosa Beach — The City Council voted Jan. 27 to approve a precise development plan and lot-line adjustment for 901 Hermosa Avenue, permitting a remodel and a 4,058-square-foot third-floor addition to an existing two-story, multi-tenant commercial building. The council tied approval to conditions intended to prevent later conversion of a centrally located, so‑called “decommissioned” area and directed staff to recalculate floor-area and parking impacts.

Kanika Pompey, the city’s contract planner, told council the building’s existing permitted floor area is 12,012 square feet and the proposed project would add a third floor while decommissioning roughly 1,340 square feet on the second floor; staff recommended the project be found categorically exempt from CEQA and approved subject to conditions. “The project was reviewed for consistency with the zoning code and general plan,” Pompey said during the staff presentation.

Developer Kyle Ransford, representing Cardinal Investments, said the team sought to preserve the building’s historic façade while replacing substandard interior elements. Ransford told council, “We share many of the concerns that you’ve brought forward,” and said the project would remove unsafe or noncompliant interior construction and rebuild to modern standards while keeping the four exterior walls.

Council members pressed staff and the applicant on how the city calculates ‘‘usable’’ floor area, why stairways and movable floors had been excluded from that total, and whether the decommissioned, structurally limited area could later be activated — which would trigger additional parking requirements. Staff described using building-permit records, scanned plan measurements and Bluebeam software to derive usable area and acknowledged that prior permits and as-built records were incomplete in places.

City staff told the council that adding back the decommissioned area plus stairways could add roughly 1,678 square feet to the calculated total and, by their estimate, would require a minimum of seven additional parking spaces (they cautioned that other uncounted utility areas could raise the requirement further). Council members and staff repeatedly said the exact tally would depend on whether particular elements (stair shafts, transformer rooms, movable floors) are counted as floor area.

To address the council’s concerns, the motion adopted by a 5–0 roll-call vote required that the second‑floor area identified in the plan be used for storage and be physically inaccessible to future tenants (i.e., “decommissioned”), authorized staff to finalize a precise floor‑area calculation that includes stair/elevator areas and other utility spaces, and directed staff to compute any resulting parking obligation or in‑lieu fee. Councilmember Jackson, who supported the project, said he favored moving the project forward while ensuring the city did not absorb off-site parking burdens.

The approval followed months of review at the Planning Commission and multiple plan submittals over four years, city staff said. The developer and staff emphasized the project’s goals of adding retail space at street level, bringing formal loading and trash access off 10th Court, and addressing public-safety and structural issues in the existing upper floors.

Next steps: staff will finalize the floor‑area and parking calculations, prepare any necessary change orders or conditions tied to parking or in-lieu fees, and monitor the project’s construction schedule and inspections as the developer pursues building permits and code compliance.

Vote and action: Motion to approve the precise development plan and lot-line adjustment, with the conditions described above. Motion by Mayor Seaman; seconded. Roll-call: Francois — Yes; Keegan — Yes; Jackson — Aye; Mayor Pro Tem du Toit — Aye; Mayor Seaman — Aye. Outcome: approved.