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SOUTHBAY ELECTIONS : Gardena’s Hot Issue Is Zoning for Apartments

Times Staff Writer

For Laura Shipley, the issue of whether a developer should be allowed to build a large apartment complex a couple of blocks from her home boils down to one of “the little fish being gobbled up by the big fish.”

The little fish, in Shipley’s view, are homeowners like her, who fear that such a complex could cause their neighborhood to deteriorate. The big fish are the developer and those city officials who have supported a zoning change that would pave the way for the complex to be built.

“It is really a very emotional situation,” said Shipley, a registered nurse. “We just don’t feel the complex would be safe for the public health or welfare.”

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Shipley is chairwoman of a group of residents, numbering no more than 50, who are working to defeat Proposition A, a ballot measure that would rezone a large chunk of property near their homes for the 84-unit complex. The groups calls itself the No on Proposition A Committee.

Although Proposition A is not the only issue Gardena voters will decide when they go the polls April 8--four candidates are seeking two City Council seats and Mayor Donald Dear is running unopposed for a third consecutive term--it has served to ignite an election that has thus far been void of fiery issues.

Specifically, Proposition A asks voters to decide whether a 4.45-acre parcel on Budlong Avenue near the city’s western border should be rezoned to allow the construction of multiple-family dwellings. The land now is zoned for single-family dwellings, but for more than six decades has been a garden nursery.

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Last year the City Council, by a 3-2 vote, approved the zone change, clearing the way for the Bidamar Corp., a Glendale-based development firm, to buy the land and construct the apartment complex. Kazuo Minami, whose father founded the nursery in 1923, said he and his brother want to sell the property and retire.

However, neighborhood residents rallied against the zoning change, and gathered the voter signatures needed for a referendum to force the council to reverse its decision, or place the issue on the ballot. The council chose the latter.

But opponents of the zoning change face a tough battle from its supporters, who have formed their own group, Citizens for a Better Gardena. According to campaign disclosure statements filed late last month with the city clerk, the group thus far had received one contribution--$6,900 from the Bidamar Corp.--and spent $5,000 of it to hire the Los Angeles political consulting firm, Winner, Taylor & Associates Inc.

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The No on Proposition A Committee had received contributions totaling $100, according to the statements.

Jill Gomes, chairwoman for Citizens for a Better Gardena, said the group includes a large number of supporters, but she did not know exactly how many. She said its members believe that the apartment complex will be attractive and provide much-needed rental housing for the city and that it could attract more residents to Gardena and, hence, generate more commercial activity and tax revenues.

“I don’t live too far from the (proposed) project,” said Gomes, a senior vice president and manager for a bank. “I know the area and I was raised in Gardena. If I didn’t think the project would enhance our community, I wouldn’t support it.”

Opponents of Proposition A said, however, that they believe the apartment building will increase crime and traffic problems in their neighborhood. They also say proponents of the proposition are misleading voters by stating that more rental housing is needed because the city’s rental vacancy rate is1.9%--a figure supporters said they received from a private economic research firm.

Opponents, pointing to statistics provided by the city’s Planning Department, said the vacancy rate as of last November was 4.8%.

Additionally, the group said the complex, which would be built in an area where many parcels of land have already been rezoned for apartments, would set yet another precedent that could lead to a decrease in the number of single-family dwellings in the city. That view has been voiced most vociferously by Terry Kennedy, who led the early opposition against the zoning change and later decided to become a City Council candidate largely because of it.

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“The single-family home is becoming an endangered species in Gardena,” said Kennedy, who lives about two blocks from the nursery. “We are essentially being surrounded by apartments, and if this project goes in here, it will be the straw the breaks the camel’s back. I feel we are taking a last-ditch stand to save our neighborhood.”

Resident 16 Years

Kennedy, a 44-year-old U.S. Customs supervisor, is challenging incumbent council members Mas Fukai and Gwen Duffy, as well as the other candidate, business consultant Ollie B. Hadley. Council members, who are paid $200 a month for the part-time job, serve for four years. The mayor, who also sits on the council and is paid $300 a month, serves for two years.

Kennedy has lived in Gardena for 16 years, and served for six years on a city-sponsored Citizens Advisory Committee before the group was abolished by the council in 1984. Describing himself as a council regular because he frequently attends the council’s twice-a-month Tuesday night meetings, Kennedy said he would favor a reduction or elimination of the city’s 5% utility user’s tax, provided the city can afford it, and supports binding arbitration in renter-landlord disputes. At present, the city has a Rent Mediation Board to handle such disputes, but its rulings are not binding.

The other council candidates also said they also favor, if possible, a reduction or elimination of the utility user’s tax, but do not see a need for binding arbitration in renter-landlord disputes.

Kennedy said that although the zoning dispute was a major reason he decided to run for the council, he also wants to unseat three-term incumbent Fukai. “It’s time for a change, especially with regard to Councilman Fukai,” Kennedy said. “He’s obviously using the office as a steppingstone to a higher office, and I think we need new blood.”

Supports Zone Change

Fukai, an aide to longtime Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, said he has no plans at present to run for any other political office. The 59-year-old Fukai, who as of late last month had amassed the largest treasury of any candidate--$50,668--pointed to the city’s success in luring several commercial developments to town as one of its major accomplishments during his tenure as a councilman. The developments, he said, have helped wean the city away from its dependency on card-club revenues, which have dwindled in recent years.

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Fukai said he supports the zoning change to allow the development of the apartment building. “I know the people who own the property and they had a chance to let it go for low-income (single-family) housing, or non-subsidized private enterprise,” Fukai said, adding that of the two, he believes the latter is more desirable.

Gwen Duffy, who is seeking a second term on the council, also referred to the city’s recent commercial developments as one of the positive things that have occurred while she has been in office. The 63-year-old councilwoman said such developments could provide the revenues needed to abolish the utility user’s tax, which she voted against in 1983.

Duffy, the first woman to be elected to the City Council, said she is against the apartment complex, adding that if the city continues to eliminate areas zoned only for single-family dwellings, Gardena could eventually face an imbalance in housing variety.

Tax a Major Issue

Hadley, 48, who teaches part-time at El Camino College, said he favors the apartment complex for the same reason voiced by Fukai. He said he believes that a major issue in the election is the utility user’s tax because under the provisions of the tax, the council is mandated to review it annually to determine if it should be reduced or eliminated. “I haven’t heard anything” from the council since the tax was passed, Hadley said.

Hadley, who resigned as president of the Hollypark Political Action Committee to run for the council, said he seeking a “a good government and open government.”

“What I am bringing to the forefront (in my campaign) is government of the people, by the people and for the people,” he said.

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Incumbent Mayor Donald Dear, 46, pointed to the city’s record in attracting new developments and retaining what he termed a high level of services in the post-Proposition 13 era as among the council’s accomplishments under his leadership. Dear, a junior high school history teacher who was first elected mayor in 1982, voted against the zoning change to allow the apartment complex on Budlong Avenue.

“I’m assuming the reason I am running unopposed is because I have made no major mistakes,” Dear said.

Arthur L. Johnson, a high school chemistry teacher and city planning commissioner, announced last week that he had withdrawn from the race, but his name will appear on the ballot because it had already been sent to the printer before his withdrawal, City Clerk May Doi said. Efforts to interview Johnson this week were unsuccessful.

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