Redondo Beach is extending its mixed-use building ban—for nearly a year

The Redondo Beach City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend the city’s moratorium on mixed-use developments for 10.5 months, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The votes comes amid resident concerns over a scourge of traffic, and extends a previously implemented 45-day moratorium the council voted for in August. At that time, much of the debate around the ban focused on concerns of existing residents about the potential crowding that new development and new residents would bring to the beachside community.

As the city’s mayor, Bill Brand, said at the time, “Redondo does not have a housing shortage, and the crisis we do have really is a traffic crisis and an on-again, off-again water crisis ... and if we continue with a lot of this residential, soon we’ll have school overcrowding.”

The 10.5-month construction pause is meant to give city leaders a chance to devise new rules for mixed-use projects.

It’s not totally clear how many projects would be affected by the building pause.

The moratorium will prevent future mixed-use projects in areas zoned for mixed-use development, but doesn’t apply to previously approved projects, or projects in residential areas. It won’t apply to a planned makeover of the South Bay Galleria that would add housing to the retail center because the Galleria is in a “specialty zone,” says the Times.

This isn’t Redondo Beach’s first move to limit development in its borders. In March, voters approved a ballot measure limiting waterfront development in the city. It’s not certain what the passage of the measure means for a massive makeover planned for the city’s pier.

• Redondo Beach halts mixed-use developments after residents raise concerns about traffic [LA Times]