Correction: This article incorrectly stated that Hawthorne Mayor Larry Guidi abstained from voting on two development projects. Guidi, indeed, abstained from voting Tuesday on a proposed
development site of the former Hawthorne Plaza mall, but voted to approve a housing development for the property formerly occupied by Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center.
The Hawthorne City Council this week pushed through a new housing development on former hospital property but put the skids on a plan to replace a former mall with condos, stores and offices.
Both projects offered a large number of moderately priced housing units - advancing the city's already booming construction of new homes.
The council approved the proposal Tuesday from local developer and former Mayor Guy Hocker to build more than 100 homes on the site of the former Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center, an 8-acre
parcel near 116th Street and South Grevillea Avenue. The hospital closed in 2004.
The plan by developer Arman Gabay of the Charles Co. to convert Hawthorne Plaza into a
mixed-used project failed on a 2-1 vote. Three votes were needed for passage.
The mall, which has been vacant for more than seven years, would have given way to four-story
buildings with 285 condominiums, along with stores and offices.
Councilwoman Ginny Lambert said she was thrilled by the proposal, and Councilman Pablo Catano also voted to approve it.
"We've been trying to attract retail here for 10 years," Lambert said. "That parcel will be beautiful."
She alluded to two large retailers that expressed interest in leasing there. In the past, city officials have talked to Wal-Mart about opening a store there.
Councilman Gary Parsons said he favors stores and offices on the site but voted against the project because the condos would be too close together and too near the city's municipal airport.
"I suspect what's going to happen is one Sunday morning, they'll go out on their nice patio and see airplanes right overhead," Parsons said. "They'll start complaining to us: `Shut the airport down."'
Mayor Larry Guidi abstained from voting on both projects without explanation. Councilman Louis Velez was absent.
The state Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration object to the
project. Both agencies said that it would be dangerously close to planes, and extremely noisy.
Several years ago, Gabay's company told the city it would work to bring stores, restaurants, a gym
and day-care center to the mall. Instead, Los Angeles County welfare workers moved their offices into one of the mall's vacant wings.
Residents at the meeting also were divided in their opinions of both projects.
Alex Vargas said the densely packed homes would cause an increase in crime and lower the quality of life in Hawthorne.
"The Hawthorne mall project will push us further down the road to demise," Vargas said.
He said the Prestige Villas condos on the former RFK site will be too close together and will add to the city's rapidly increasing supply of moderately priced housing.
Another resident, Darlene Love, defended the new housing.
"These are going to be nice homes," Love said. "If you build things right, make it comfortable - and
with what you'll be paying on these houses - you will have to keep your thug son or your thug daughter or your thug husband out of there
