Fast operator

Easy Reader - 8/4/22 https://easyreadernews.com/letters-to-the-editor-8-4-22/

Dear ER:

Beach Cities Health District is misrepresented as seeking a builder/operator for its massive 110-foot-above-Beryl Street proposed building (“About town,” ER July 28, 2022). BCHD’s investment bankers and CFO have recommended that BCHD lease our public land to a Developer/Owner/Operator for 50-99 years. BCHD will have no ownership of the building or project and will collect rent only on the land. According to BCHD documents, BCHD will collect $1.5 million per year in rent from the building owner. But BCHD will be required to pay the owner a rent of $822,869 per year for use of about 30,000 square feet. This means BCHD is leasing three acres of our public property to a private developer for a net lease income of only $677,000 per year. It’s disappointing to see BCHD misrepresent its project over and over. The project is being built for over 80 percent non-residents of the District that owns and funds BCHD, according to BCHD’s marketing consultant consultant report. Why can’t BCHD just come clean? Probably for the same reason BCHD refused to go to the voters for low-cost, tax-free bond financing. BCHD knew voters would reject them so they went after a commercial developer/owner/operator instead and gave up our land for generations to come.

Mark Nelson

Redondo Beach

Out of scale

https://easyreadernews.com/letters-to-the-editor-6-30-22/

Dear ER:

Questioning Beach Cities Health District’s Health Living Campus plan is not being anti-development. It’s pointing out what is and isn’t allowed under this type of zone, P-CF (Public-Community Facility). R-HD (residential high density) would be the appropriate zone. What they propose is a private endeavor, a risky one at that, and in part, using taxpayer dollars to do so.

A residential care facility for the elderly is allowed, but only with a Conditional Use Permit “okay” by the Planning Commission. BCHD’s actions have shown they presume this approval is a given, when it is not. The spirit of every conditional use on the P-CF list is public-use. If this project moves forward, the Planning Commission’s duty will be to recognize that this project is not for general public use, but only the deep-pocketed public. It is also out of scale to the surrounding area, violating Redondo Beach Municipal Code requirements.

Lara Duke

Redondo Beach

Neighbors will pay

https://easyreadernews.com/letters-to-the-editor-6-2-22/

Dear ER:

I attended Beach City Health Campus meetings regarding the proposed Health Living Campus even before their summer scoping meetings. These were contrived meetings with heavy-handed promotion of their project. I spoke at one, citing how their overdevelopment ambitions would affect surrounding communities, in particular, the five neighboring schools, two of them elementary schools, Beryl in Redondo Beach, and Towers Elementary School in Torrance. Parras Middle School, and both West and Redondo Union High School students, also, would have to navigate traffic on Prospect to get to school. So this “healthy” living campus only adds to their vulnerability.

There was never an adequate needs assessment to justify this private takeover of public land, only a statistical market analysis based on the increased number of seniors living longer than their predecessors. AARP’s statistics of the overwhelming number of seniors choosing to “age in place” did not deter BCHD’s claims. Their stated target market are those who can afford $12,000 to $14,000 a month, whether they live in the beach cities or not. The median income in the beach cities is $65,000. That means the majority of the campus will be nonresidents of the Beach Cities – in fact, a largely white, privileged class. Yet taxpayers in the Beach Cities are already subsidizing the BCHD through their property taxes.

Granting even a conditional use permit to a for-profit entity is not a fair exchange.This use of land zoned P-CF, for public community usage (a school, a hospital, or police/fire services), justified the 50 year leasing of the school district property where the Kensington Senior facility is. It had some merit because that revenue went directly to the Redondo School District. You can now review that decision based on how much it has cost the city in infrastructure costs. The surrounding neighborhoods have paid the cost through traffic noise.

Mary R. Ewell

Redondo Beach