FAR 0.75 PROTECTS SURROUNDING RESIDENTS OF REDONDO BEACH

NO. Redondo Beach did NOT only place a 0.75 floor area ratio (FAR) on the BCHD parcel.

THAT IS SIMPLY FALSE and BCHD continues to email out that false claim over and over. 

All Public/Institutional (P/I) zoned land was designated 0.75 FAR except for a limited area of City-owned land that is held for development for the BENEFIT of CITY OF REDONDO BEACH RESIDENTS. All other similarly zoned P/I land, including the failed South Bay Hospital campus (assumed by BCHD) was zoned for 0.75 FAR. 

Why would the City take this action? It's quite simple. The taller, larger and denser a development is, the more damage to surrounding health, quality-of-life, and property values it creates. That's a development fact. By limiting the FAR to 0.75, the City is protecting the health, quality-of-life, and property values of surrounding residents. In the special case where all the benefits of municipal development accrue almost exclusively to residents of Redondo Beach, the City increased the density of development to 1.25 FAR.

This isn't just about BCHD.  But even if it were, BCHD's Healthy Living Campus is for the benefit of a supermajority of non-Redondo Beach residents. The HLC is 91% to 97% non-residents of Redondo Beach. So quite clearly, the damages of dense development overwhelm any benefits to nearby Redondo Beach neighborhoods as BCHD develops to house 91% non-RB resident tenants in the assisted living, 95% non-RB resident participants in allcove and 97% non-RB resident enrollees in PACE.

The City must create objective standards for development. The prior standard is no longer acceptable, and it was loosely "whatever the Planning Commission decided". That could have been an FAR of 0.1 to 2.0 or higher. Now, the FAR is 0.75 for all P/I development except a limited amount of City-owned land to be developed for resident benefit. 

This is a Redondo Beach General Plan for the benefit of Redondo Beach residents. The City has no obligation to make any concessions to commercial developers like PMB LLC as they consume our precious P/I land on the BCHD campus for 95 years. We need local, not regional benefits in exchange for the give generations of residents who reside in Redondo who will be denied use of taxpayer owned land by BCHD as it services a supermajority of non-residents of the City.

FYI - BCHD's current FAR on the campus is 0.72 based on BCHD's own numbers.