The Weekly Newspaper of Torrance Herald Publications - Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 5, No. 32 - August 6, 2015 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................8 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Food.....................................10 Legals....................................9 Police Reports.....................2 Real Estate.........................12 Sports....................................5 TerriAnn in Torrance..........7 Weekend Forecast Honda’s Evening Under the Stars Brings the Community Together Eric and Gertrina Woods enjoy the perfect summer afternoon and festivities at the 29th Annual “Honda Evening Under the Stars” Gourmet Food & Wine Festival that was held August 1 on the grounds of the American Honda Motor Company in Torrance. Guests dined on fine cuisine and refreshments from local restaurants and were entertained by Grammy Award-winning vocalist Peabo Bryson as well as Daniel Ho. The Festival, in partnership with the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce, is “Honda’s way of bringing the community together in a spirit of friendship to help a worthy cause,” said Steve Morikawa, from American Honda Motor Co., Inc. All proceeds benefit the non-profit Torrance Memorial Medical Center. For more photos, see page 11. Photo by Chris Nishimura. Friday Partly Cloudy 74˚/64˚ Saturday Sunny 74˚/63˚ Sunday Sunny 75˚/64˚ City Staff Directed To Prepare Ordinances Relating To Keeping Chickens and Bees By Cristian Vasquez After a lengthy public comment period and many comments and concerns expressed by members of the council, the Torrance City Council directed city staff to prepare ordinances that will modify the Torrance Municipal Code to regulate the keeping of chickens and/or bees for single family residents. City staff will consider separate ordinances to address each of the animals. The initial recommendation made to the members of the council was to consider a land use study for the purposes of keeping chickens and/or bees in single-family homes, but it asked that the study pair the two animals. “I don’t think that the draft ordinance supplied by the Environmental Quality Control Commission incorporates all of the various things that have come up tonight, so with the suggestion of my colleague [Councilman Rizzo] of separating the two, I would like to make a motion to modify the draft ordinances from the information that you received tonight form the dais,” Councilman Kurt Weideman said before the vote. “There are still open questions such as fees and we would certainly like to have a legal stance on bees and liabilities… I am specifically asking that those two be separated.” With the council’s approved motion, staff will look into the studying the risks and benefits of keeping bees first, as well as how to regulate such activities within the city. The focus will then shift to chickens/hens, in order for the council to have a more informed discussion about how to proceed. The comments made by members of the public ranged from supporting the regulation of keeping bees and chickens, to opposition allowing such animals in single-family homes and there were also comments from beekeepers and people who keep or have kept chickens. For people who currently own and keep chickens, the concern is that an ordinance making it illegal to keep such animals or modifying the conditions to maintain such animals, will force them to get rid of their pets. Stemming from direction given on March 3, staff has gathered information regarding the keeping of hens and bees pertaining to enforcement, fees and logistics, using other cities as a sample for said ordinances. The staff report presented to the council intended for a draft ordinance to allow through “relatively minor modifications to the existing code” the keeping of hens and bees. However, at the moment members of the council believe there is too much information that is unknown to them in order to make an informed and definite decision. Furthermore, there was a consensus that city staff needs to study the regulation of both animals separately. “Granted there are similarities between the two issues that we’re dealing with, such as very similar permitting processes, but some of the regulations and some of the conditions that we may want to look at in connection with chickens may be different than the issues we will look at with bees,” Councilman Geoff Rizzo said. “I really do believe that we need to look at this as we move forward and take into consideration some of the things that we talked about tonight.” Mayor Patrick Furey added to Councilman Rizzo’s thoughts. “Some issues that will be there for bees will disappear for chickens while other issues will raise up for chickens. I know the training aspect of the bees is a very important thing,” Mayor Furey said. “Then we come back to chickens and there are issues about disease and vaccinations that are required and then we have to look at a fee structure. How much per hive? How much per chicken or hen? They will be different and we need a laundry list See City Council, page 9 Council Recognizes Local Teen’s Academic, Extracurricular Abilities By Cristian Vasquez During the last council meeting of July, Mayor Patrick Furey and the Torrance City Council recognized two-time U.S. National Yo-Yo Champion Alex Hattori. “It is truly an honor for us on the council to honor a young man who truly made a name for himself, not just in the City of Torrance and regionally but across the nation,” Mayor Furey said. Hattori, a two-time national champion in the two-handed yo-yo performances, is scheduled to compete at the 2015 World Yo-Yo Contest in Tokyo in a few weeks [Aug. 13-17]. The South High graduate has made appearances on Nickelodeon and Good Day L.A., among other shows, to showcase his expert yo-yoing skills. The young man has also appeared on the cover of South Bay Magazine as one of the most impressive teens of the South Bay. “As one of the world’s best doublehanded yo-yo specialist Alex’s winning yo-yos, which he designed, are currently displayed in the national yo-yo museum in Chico, California,” added Mayor Furey. In addition to his skills with the yo-yo, Hattori excelled academically during his time at South High. Such is his commitment to succeeding in the classroom that Hattori exhausted all the available science classes at South High despite a rigorous course load filled with AP classes. His academic efforts in high school earned him the honor of graduating an AP scholar See Local Teen, page 4
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