The Ocean Beach Planning Board will take a look at a project proposed for the northwest corner of Froude and Del Monte, plus possibly appoint new board members and take up a slew of recommendations coming in from the board’s transportation sub-committee.
The board meets Wednesday, September 5 at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue, starting at 6pm. (The official agenda is posted below.)
1750 Froude Street
Richard Harmon, new owner of 1750 Froude, has a Coastal Development Permit and tentative map for his proposed project for the board to review – a project which includes the demolition of the existing house, and the construction of two 2-story condos along with a nearly 700 square foot subterranean basement. The new condos will total 5641 square feet on a .21 acre site.
The presenters provided two renderings, one showing the development without the palm trees – above – and another showing with the trees. They explained the reason was to show how the project will look without the trees because it could not be seen with the vegetation. The second rendering showed how the project would look when completed and it showed the buildings largely obscured by the palms and vegetation.
The project comes before the full board without a recommendation from the Project Review Committee, a sub-committee of the volunteer panel – as they did not have a quorum.
The only controversy aired about the project at the sub-committee hearing was whether the new project could be constructed without damaging the grove of all the various palm trees grown by the previous owner – literally, OB’s largest oasis of palms on private property.
The site as it appears currently.
Here are excerpts from Geoff Page’s report of the Project Review Committee meeting on the project:
It appeared as if the [project] presenters had heard this concern [about removing all the palm trees] and they immediately explained that all of the existing vegetation would remain. …
The plan is to build two condominiums on the roughly 9,000 square foot lot. The owners plan to live in one and sell the other. Each condo will be two stories over a basement level. The basement will house the garage, a laundry room, and a gym. The first floors will be a living room and kitchen and other space and will include a deck. The second floor will be for the bedrooms and bathrooms. The exterior will be stucco and stone. …
The architect spoke first explaining that the project met all city requirements for floor area ratio, height, parking, and setbacks and was not asking for any variances. A curb cut on Froude will be closed and one will be opened on Del Monte so the project will not impact street parking. The zoning in this area is RM-1-1, a multifamily zoning designation. The zoning allows for one unit for each 3,000 square feet.
View from Del Monte Ave.
A commenter to the original report said the house and property once belonged to Frank Day, who-
“was a fixture in Ocean Beach in the 60s. He was crazy about tropical fish and had over 100 aquariums in his house. He later switched his hobby interests to palms and planted hundreds of them in his yard.”
Despite the project presenter’s denials of removing or damaging the palms, there are real doubts whether a subterranean garage and two 2-story buildings can be built without negatively harming the trees.
View of site via Google Maps 3D
Now, of course, there is no legal authority for the Planning Board to demand the developer not harm the palms on private property – only moral, aesthetic and environmental persuasions.
Transportation Safety Issues
The Board also will review and vote on a series of letters proposed by the Transportation sub-committee regarding safety issues. One is about safety improvements along Bacon, considered “Bicycle Corridor”; a second is about safety improvements at the intersection of Niagara and Sunset Cliffs Blvd, and a third is also about safety issues – along Brighton Avenue.
Official Agenda
Here is the official agenda for the meeting:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
What safety improvements, stop signs? I live at the corner of Brighton and Cable, and I can’t begin to count the amount of collisions I’ve seen there because of the poor sightlines. Stop signs, or mirrors mounted on the power-line are needed there.
His name was Frank Dayes, as I remember it. You can read more about him and his fish at …
https://aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/livebearer_guppies/guppies_page_2.htm#michael
He was an expert aquarist and was very kind to share his knowledge with me, my brother, and lots of other beginning aquarists.
His yard contained many-many rare cycads and other related plants.