The City of Redondo Beach once had a vibrant downtown. However, in the past 40 years, the city has seen the demolishment of many historic commercial buildings and the destruction of waterfront structures by natural disasters. Following a visioning charrette by invited experts from the Urban Land Institute, the City retained a multi-disciplinary team to develop a specific plan to guide future development in the downtown area. This team was led by the design firm of Freedman Tung & Bottomley. Redondo Beach’s Heart of the City specific plan features a village core that will transform the harbor area and the surrounding neighborhood into a vibrant, interconnected waterfront district.

CHS developed the transportation plan, which included guiding principles for vehicular circulation, parking facility locations, a major transit center plan that includes park-and-ride shuttle buses, shared parking guidelines, and a pedestrian/bicycle path linking Hermosa Beach to the north with the Redondo Beach Piers to the south. CHS was retained by the City to prepare the transportation section of the Heart of the City Specific Plan Environmental Impact Report.

The Heart of the City Specific Plan was unanimously approved by the Planning Commission and City Council. It has received an award for Innovative Design for Small Cities from the Southern California Chapter of the American Planning Association.