NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.
July, 2004
Commission approves final Playa Vista project
By Shanna Thompson, Daily Breeze
July 9th, 2004
The Los Angeles City Planning Commission unanimously voted Thursday
to
send the second and last phase of the Playa Vista development --
which
calls for thousands of new dwellings and large increases in commercial
space -- to the City Council for approval.
The panel reviewed the project in council chambers before more
than 200
people, many of whom wore lapel stickers either praising the 111-acre
project or denouncing the traffic it would create. With so many
attending the meeting, opponents of the project set up a card table
outside the hearing room and offered beverages and bagels.
" This is a very excellent project. To a large extent it is an
experiment," said commission Chairman Mitchell Menzer. "If it works,
it
can be very important to the way this city grows and develops."
Known formally as The Village at Playa Vista, the project calls for
2,600 housing units and 350,000 square feet of retail and office space.
It follows Playa Vista's previous phase just below the Westchester
bluffs off Lincoln Boulevard, which included 3,246 housing units and
1.5
million square feet of office space.
Approval of Phase 2 is expected to go before the City Council in
October.
Although developers of the project touted its 8,000 construction
jobs
and 1,100 permanent jobs, they contend that its chief benefit would
be
the creation of new homes and apartments for residents who cannot
afford
the region's skyrocketing housing costs.
" Playa Vista is making a dent in the housing shortage and helping to fix
this imbalance," said Playa Vista President Steve Soboroff. "Come
to our
visitor center some weekend. You can see people who are desperate,
with
tears in their eyes, wanting to stay in Los Angeles."
The project received support from Mayor James Hahn, Councilwoman
Cindy
Miscikowski and the Culver City Council, which praised Playa Vista
for
paying for a series of local traffic improvements -- including
five new
buses for Culver City's municipal fleet.
Gwen Vuchsas, president of the Westchester-Playa del Rey Neighborhood
Council, which voted 13-10 to back the project, spoke of the need
for a
planned community like Playa Vista.
"
We definitely need housing. We need jobs," she said. "It has a
little
bit of something for everybody."
But the project drew opposition from the Santa Monica City Council
and
the Mar Vista Community Council, which warned that the thousands
of new
residents at The Village would flood Lincoln Boulevard with cars
and
force motorists onto local residential streets.
Santa Monica City Councilman Michael Feinstein told
the commission that
the project would result in the eradication of much-needed open
space
and the "densification" of the area north of Westchester.
" We're having an experiment of essentially putting in almost a whole new
city in a very dense area," he said. "It's got more impacts than
a lot
of small cities in Southern California."
Tom Francis, executive director of the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust,
called the project "bad planning" and said that housing isn't
the only
thing residents need.
" Not only do they need housing, but open space, a place to chill out and
calm down and relax," he said. "One of the biggest places of open
land
is sitting there. There has to be a balance between finding housing
and
open space opportunities, and I think you are missing one here."
Playa Vista developers have argued that they already downsized the
project, reducing it from 10,000 housing units -- a 74 percent decrease.
They also said the project will include 23 acres of open space and
pointed out that 10 percent of the jobs will be earmarked for at-risk
youth.
The other major area of contention focused on the disturbance created
by
the development of Playa Vista at the site of a Gabrieleno/Tongva burial
ground. Opponents of Phase 2 expressed concern that more of the ancient
Indian cemetery will be unearthed during construction of The Village.
" Three hundred and forty-four burials have been desecrated. This
desecration is an act of barbarism," said Anthony Morales, chairman of
the Gabrieleno/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel. "This situation has
turned into racism. If the desecration continues, we can definitely
say
this is now a hate crime."
After the 5-0 vote, Rex Frankel, president and executive director
of the
Ballona Ecosystem Education Project, called the review a "whitewash" and
said the opposition is already preparing a lawsuit.
"
We are fully expecting to continue the fight," he said.
Copley News Service correspondent Dave Zahniser and City News Service
contributed to this article.