BCHD Plan Fails RBMC 10-2.2502 Planning Commission Design Review Sect b(1) "Privacy"

BCHD proposes to allow its Developer/Owner/Operator (D/O/O) to construction a 109.7-foot above Beryl & Flagler streets structure. The structure proposes outward facing balconies, doors and windows with up to a 150-foot height advantage over Torrance Hillside Overlay and other properties.

Furthermore, the new facility on leased land will be located at the far north and east perimeters of the roughly 30-foot elevated site with expansive views into surrounding residential properties, maximizing the BCHD project privacy invasion and noise transfer of the open balconies. The current South Bay Hospital building is nearly centered in the site, thereby minimizing its visual and privacy impacts.

In addition, BCHD continues to misrepresent the height of the current campus. Only a lone, 968-sqft mechanical room (0.3% of total sqft), dubbed "the Penthouse" is at 76-feet tall. The other 311,000-sqft of the current campus buildings are below 52-feet tall. As a result, with 99.7% of the campus at or below 52-feet tall, and with the location nearly in the center of the parcel, BCHDs proposal is vastly more privacy invading that the current centered buildings.

In 2017, BCHD stated to the Community Working Group that it would buffer its damaging facility from the surrounding neighborhoods with parking and greenspace. In 2019, BCHD proposed a 60-feet structure on the north, east, and south perimeters of the 30-foot elevated lot. In 2020, BCHD approved a height increase to 76-feet. In 2021, BCHDs draft EIR showed a height of 103-feet. BCHD has demonstrated a pattern of damages maximization with respect to excessive height leading to privacy damage maximization.

BCHD also removed 160,000-sqft of underground parking, and replaced it with a proposed 8 to 10-story parking garage at Prospect and Diamond. The proposed parking will have expansive views into surrounding residential properties and associated noise production. Again, BCHD maximized damages by removing its proposed underground parking and replacing it with a parking structure adjacent to residential use.

BCHD is fully aware that building on the perimeter maximizes neighborhood damages.

BCHD knows that an 8-10 story parking ramp and a 6-story, 110-foot building with balconies, both at the edge of the site against residential neighborhoods will damage privacy and residential use.

BCHD is fully aware that only 968-sqft of the site's buildings are at 76-feet, and that the 76-foot point is nearly centered on the site - thereby minimizing visual size and privacy impacts.

Current BCHD occupied buildings have very small privacy impacts, due to centered location and 99.7% of square feet under 52-feet tall. BCHDs 109.7-foot tall, perimeter proposal is visually much larger and provides balcony views into surrounding residential uses.