Warner Center Traffic Plan’s Value Doubted

As a proposal for construction of a 14-story, 340-room Hilton Hotel in Warner Center moves to the Los Angeles City Council, critics have assailed as meaningless a plan for reducing the project’s impact on traffic.

With city transportation engineers predicting heavy congestion by 1987 in Warner Center, traffic has become the key issue in the debate over the hotel’s construction. In recommending earlier this month that the hotel be approved, a City Council committee added traffic-easing requirements to the project.

The committee also recommended that the council impose similar requirements on all future development in the rapidly expanding Warner Center in Woodland Hills. This recommendation, while being called a moratorium, would not prohibit construction but would require developers to take steps to reduce the traffic their projects would generate. The as-yet-unspecified measures could include requirements to pay for street widening or to provide a shuttle system.

The recommendation, along with the hotel proposal, is expected to come before the full council early next month.

‘Acceptable Levels’

Currently, traffic in Warner Center is at “acceptable levels,” the city Department of Transportation says. During rush hour, commuters can cross an intersection on the first green light, or at worst, on the second.

But traffic will get worse because of projects that already have been approved, traffic engineers say. By 1987, motorists will have to wait through two, three or four signal changes before getting across an intersection unless something is done to reduce traffic.

The hotel alone will not create as much additional traffic as some other planned developments at the center, city traffic engineers say. But the hotel traffic, when added to that from projects already approved, will make a bad situation worse, they say.

With this in mind, the council’s Planning and Environment Committee earlier this month voted 2 to 1 to support the hotel’s construction and to impose traffic-easing conditions on future projects.

Ride Sharing

In doing so, it voted to require Norman Kravetz, the hotel’s developer, to take such steps as hiring a “ride-sharing coordinator” for employees and providing shuttle buses. The idea was to reduce the impact not only of the hotel, but also of Kravetz’s entire Trillium project. Besides the hotel, Trillium will include two 17-story office buildings, already approved, and a health club on eight acres, along Canoga Avenue south of Victory Boulevard.

Under the committee recommendation, Kravetz would be required to reduce the projected increase in rush-hour traffic from his entire development by 15%. Roy Nakamura, a city transportation planner, said it would be unrealistic to expect the developer to reduce it more, “given the habits of people.”

Kravetz also would be required to pay for transportation improvements in Warner Center.

City planners already were working on a plan to require transportation improvements as conditions for future projects in the center, but that plan is not expected to be ready for council consideration for at least another year, and the committee believes that that is not soon enough.

Skepticism Voiced

Critics of the hotel’s construction, however, are skeptical that the traffic-easing measures proposed by the committee will work.

“I doubt it will do any good,” said Gordon Murley, vice president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization.

Murley questioned whether Kravetz would be able to get employees to car-pool. “Unless you make the penalties so high for them to use their own cars, they’ll never do it. It’s just human nature.”

Critics also question whether the city should be approving any development in Warner Center without first coming up with a plan to solve the area’s projected traffic problems.

“They’re developing without getting the solution in place before they create the problem,” Murley said.

Others, however, point out that the hotel would cause less traffic congestion during the critical rush hour than would a high-rise office building, which, under current zoning laws, could be built without the special city approval required for a hotel.

Timing of Trips

Donald Howery, general manager of the city Department of Transportation, noted that hotel patrons come and go at all hours but that office workers arrive and leave at the same, busiest times of the day.

“By right, an office structure could be constructed there that would have a greater impact than the hotel,” Howery said.

The hotel is expected to generate 3,500 trips a day. An office building on the same site would create 2,700 trips a day, a city traffic study shows. While the hotel would generate more traffic than an office building, it would generate only about 250 trips during rush hour. An office building would bring about 500 trips during rush hour.

In contrast, three other large projects approved or under construction in Warner Center--including a hospital and a high-rise office building on property owned by developer Robert Voit--would generate a total of 60,000 trips a day, the city traffic studies show.

Glut of Office Space

Kravetz also has contended that he has made a major concession to the city by agreeing to reduce the projected increase in traffic not only from the proposed hotel, but also from his entire Trillium project, including those parts already approved.

Murley, however, was not moved by the argument that the developer could put up a high-rise office building that would generate more traffic than a hotel. He said there is a glut of office space in the area and he therefore sees no reason that Kravetz would construct another office building.

The proposal to build the hotel has featured an unusually fierce battle between lobbyists for Kravetz and those for Voit, on whose nearby property Marriott Corp. is building a 17-story, 470-room hotel.

Voit’s representatives have expressed concern that the hotel’s construction would create so much traffic in the area that it would make it difficult for other developers in Warner Center to win approval for their projects.

Surprise Recommendation

In supporting the hotel’s construction with traffic-easing requirements, the Planning Committee surprised observers by recommending that similar requirements be imposed on future developments in Warner Center.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, whose district includes Warner Center, questioned the need for immediately imposing restrictions on development there, saying she knows of no major projects in the offing.

However, committee Chairman Howard Finn said that, if the city is serious about trying to do something about traffic, it must do it centerwide, rather than project by project. That is especially the case since some projects do not need to come before the city for special approval, he said.

Finn also said there could be other projects in the works that Picus does not know about.

It is difficult to predict how the council will act. Usually, council members follow the wishes of the colleague whose district the matter in question affects, but they don’t always follow this unwritten policy when the stakes are high or the lobbying particularly strong.

Picus supports the hotel project but said she wants to take no stand as yet on the recommendation to immediately expand the traffic-easing conditions to all future developments. Unless the council acts on the issues separately, however, she may have little choice.

Ten of the 14 council votes will be needed to approve the hotel’s construction, regardless of whether the broader restrictions are included. If Mayor Tom Bradley vetoes the project, it will take 12 council votes to approve the hotel’s construction over his objections. The Planning Commission opposed the project.