Slow Growth Activist Ousts Incumbent In Redondo Beach Runoff Election

REDONDO BEACH, CA — With 60.8 percent of the mail-in votes, slow-growth activists Nils Nehrenheim handily defeated incumbent Martha Barbee for the District 1 seat on the Redondo Beach City Council. Out of the 3,015 mailed-in ballot cast Tuesday, Nehrenheim received 1,834 votes to Barbee's 1181.

In the March 7 election, Nehrenheim was leading Barbee but was not able to capture more than 50 percent of the votes to avoid a runoff. This is the first runoff election in Redondo Beach in two years.

Nehrenheim, 39, ran on a slow-growth platform. With him on the City Council, the balance of power has tipped for slow-growth proponents, 3-2. These slow-growth activists have fought the $400 million CenterCal waterfront redevelopment project as well as the several other mixed-used projects.

Nehrenheim, who is a member of the Rescue Our Waterfront slow-growth group, co-authored the anti-waterfront-redevelopment initiative Measure C that overwhelmingly passed in the March election, putting the project in limbo.

A final tally of the votes is scheduled for May 25 but was not expected to change the outcome. Nehrenheim will be sworn in on June 6.

— Photo courtesy of the campaign