'Big Step' For Chandler Project

RHE City Council approves tentative plan for ranch.

Tuesday night, the Rolling Hills Estates City Council certified the final environmental impact report, accepted amendments of certain land-use designations in the city’s general plan, and approved a tentative tract map, grading plan and conditional use permits for the Chandler Ranch/Rolling Hills Country Club project. Mayor Pro Tem Susan Seamans recused herself from the discussion and vote.

This is not the end for the decade-long process, but it signals the beginning of the end.

“I never thought I’d see this day,” said John Robertson, grandson of Linden Chandler, founder of the the Chandler Sand and Gravel Facility.

It was a major step for the city and project, Councilman Frank Zerunyan said.

“Perhaps with our due diligence that we have and the type of city that we run, maybe we were too slow for you. … We never intended to be a difficult city, only a transparent city,” he said.

The 228-acre project, which straddles the cities of RHE and Torrance, is a collaboration between the Country Club and the Chandler family, who still owns the sand and gravel facility on Palos Verdes Drive East. Since 2002, the two entities have worked on a plan that includes the development of 114 single-family homes, a new 61,000-square-foot clubhouse and related facilities, and a redesigned 18-hole golf course.

Since that time the plan and its EIR have gone through a number of revisions. During public hearings, residents have cited traffic, noise, school district boundaries, the horse overlay zone, as well as the aesthetics of the clubhouse and the 114 homes to be built if approved.

City staff and the project’s managers have gone back to the drawing board many times to modify the plan to mitigate some of the residents’ concerns.

Some of the compromises include: The club and the Chandler family agreed to earmark $2 million for equestrian projects, including trail improvements, in exchange for the removal of horse zoning from the housing project; and the homes, the clubhouse and related facilities must fall within the city’s neighborhood compatibility ordinance, and those plans will have to be reviewed by the city’s Planning Commission.

Still to be determined are the school borders. The city of Torrance has agreed to give RHE jurisdiction of 32 acres of the project that falls within its borders, but the Torrance Unified School District has made no agreement. Some of the students residing in the housing development will attend TUSD. The other students are expected to attend schools within the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. However, in June, a question regarding houses falling within the Los Angeles Unified School District arose.

“It does appear from the information that we have from the district that five of the homes are within the LAUSD boundaries,” Niki Cutler, the city’s principal planner, said Tuesday night.

City Council will have a second reading of three ordinances approving the zone changes and amendments to the general plan related to the project at its Aug. 9 meeting.

Projects, such as building designs, will go through the Planning Commission and City Council as they come about. If the redevelopment does not happen because of economic reasons, the city’s ordinances, zones and trails will remain as they are today.

“This is the beginning of a long process. I hope the economy recovers, comes back faster than we think, so that we see a project,” Zerunyan said.

Note: Originally written by Mary Scott of Peninsula News