Readers React: Target bucks neighborhood wishes -- and Target loses

To the editor: It is disturbing that Target Corp. expects us to give it a pass for building a store that is more than twice the maximum height allowed in the area by arguing that the L.A. mayor and City Council requested that Target do it and that they are complicit in this lawlessness. (“Judge orders Target to stop building Hollywood shopping center,” Aug. 20)

This is to be expected when Big Business and Big Politics work together to further their own interests.

What I find truly disheartening is that for the relatively small sum of an additional $5 million or so, we could have had an aesthetically pleasing, low-profile structure with underground parking that would have complied with the zoning plan for the area.

What the mayor and City Council had given us is the commercial version of the McMansion.

Dave Bower, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Since 2008, the Hollywood Studio District Neighborhood Council has made every effort to work with Target and the city to facilitate the design and construction of a store that would respect our community and stakeholder concerns. This means working within the confines of our carefully crafted zoning laws.

Unfortunately, Target and the city refused to consider the community’s input on the design and scale of the store, which an L.A. County Superior Court judge has now invalidated. This was all completely unnecessary and a waste of time and Target’s money, since a store could have been constructed and already open if Target and the city had simply complied with the zoning laws and the community’s desires.

Instead, at every opportunity the community was shut out of the process and the project moved forward in its current state.

This is a sad commentary on a city planning process that often shuts out those most affected: community members and neighborhoods. This all could have been avoided by giving more than lip service to the people of Hollywood.

Bill Zide, Los Angeles

The writer chairs the Hollywood Studio District Neighborhood Council.