A four-story apartment building with 24 homes and a slice of ground-floor retail just got the green light in Redondo Beach, set to replace an existing commercial building at 2701 190th Street. The project will use an existing 35-car garage, and it includes four units set aside for very low- and moderate-income renters.
The City of Redondo Beach issued an approval letter to Redondo Seaside Living, LLC last month, according to Urbanize LA. The outlet reports the project will include 3,732 square feet of ground-floor commercial space alongside the 24 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, with DFH Architects handling the design. Renderings show a contemporary low-rise building that fits into the surrounding neighborhood rather than towering over it.
How the Project Gets Built Without New Parking
The project qualifies under AB 2011, the state law that allows housing to be built on commercially zoned land and unlocks density bonus incentives in exchange for income-restricted units. The project will reuse the site's existing 35-car garage, per the same outlet's report. Outdoor space totals roughly 4,800 square feet, split between private decks, a common courtyard, and a rooftop deck.
AB 2011 has reshaped how developers approach commercial strips across California, though uptake has been slow. A 2021 study from the Terner Center found only 38,000 homes were built on commercially zoned land statewide between 2014 and 2019, and just 16 of 106 Bay Area jurisdictions had addressed the law in their housing elements as of a later report. The 2701 190th Street approval adds Redondo Beach to the list of South Bay cities working through what the law actually allows on the ground.
A Second Try After a Coastal Denial
This isn't Redondo Seaside Living's first swing at an AB 2011 project in town. The same developer previously pursued a project on Pacific Coast Highway and, per Urbanize LA's reporting, is now pursuing this second effort farther inland. That earlier PCH proposal tells a different story, though: the Redondo Beach Planning Commission denied a coastal development permit for the developer's 49-unit mixed-use condo complex at 401-417 Pacific Coast Highway on December 18, citing restrictions to public access to the coast along with a lack of parking and safety plans, according to the Daily Breeze.
That PCH project had included 17,000 square feet of commercial retail space and used density-bonus provisions with five very-low-income units and three affordable-to-moderate-income units, the Daily Breeze reported. The developer could choose to appeal that denial to the Redondo Beach City Council, though the paper's reporting does not indicate whether that appeal has moved forward.
What's Nearby
The 190th Street site sits near other recent residential additions in the area, including a collection of townhomes a short walk to the west near the intersection of 190th Street and Hawthorne Boulevard, Urbanize LA notes. For a corridor more associated with commercial strips than new housing, the approval marks another data point in how state housing law is slowly reshaping what gets built along Redondo Beach's inland streets.
