Proposed Entertainment Center Draws Protests : Rancho Park Residents Pack Meeting; Yaroslavsky Assailed as Unresponsive

More than 200 Rancho Park residents turned out Wednesday night to protest what they claim will be increases in traffic, parking and noise if a movie and restaurant complex is built at Pico and Westwood Boulevards.

Members of the Westside Homeowners Alliance complained that the city has refused to order a full environmental impact report on the proposed project, called the Pico-Westwood Entertainment Center. The city, which has little control over a project that does not exceed zoning limitations for the area, decided instead to ask the developer to change the project to reduce potential traffic congestion.

Alan Casden, the developer, was reached by phone, but he refused to answer questions about the project. However, alliance spokeswoman Sara Berman said Casden has said the three-story complex proposed for the Pico-Westwood intersection would include five United Artists first-run movie theaters with 2,000 seats, an Irvine Ranch supermarket and a variety of specialty and fast-food restaurants.

Yaroslavsky Criticized

Some residents attending the meeting at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church, 10425 W. Pico Blvd., directed their anger at Los Angeles Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district includes the area affected by the project.

Yaroslavsky, who was not present, was represented at the meeting by an aide, Ginny Kruger. The residents said Yaroslavsky had not done enough to reduce congestion caused by the Westside Pavilion shopping mall across from the site of the proposed complex.

The residents complained that the Pavilion mall was built without review by the city Planning Commission or the City Council because, like the proposed Entertainment Center, it met the zoning requirements for the area.

“He’s (Yaroslavsky) not being responsive, and this kind of turnout and emotion is representative of the residents’ frustration about not having their needs met by their elected representative,” said Luke Asbury of Ayers Street in West Los Angeles. He lives two blocks from the project’s site at the southwest corner of Pico and Westwood, which is zoned principally for commercial use and partly for residential use.

“Hopefully (the alliance) will put pressure on Yaroslavsky to be more responsive to the community. . . . I really think he is dropping the ball here,” Asbury said.

Kruger told the group that while the councilman is not against the project, he intends to try to reduce its impact on the area.

Variance Requested

She said residents would have a greater voice on the proposed complex than they did on the Westside Pavilion because the developer has asked the city for a zoning variance to accommodate an underground parking garage, and that requires a public hearing. The four-level, 1,200-space garage is proposed for the residentially zoned portion of the site. Yaroslavsky has not decided whether he is for or against the variance, Kruger said.

The city Zoning Administration has set a hearing on the variance for 1 p.m. Jan. 21 at City Hall. However, a second meeting was set for 3 p.m. Feb. 3 after alliance members said the city did not provide enough advance notice of the first meeting.

About 3,000 members of six neighborhood associations in Rancho Park formed the alliance after the city of Los Angeles approved the Westside Pavilion.

Pavilion developers, after talks with city officials and residents, agreed to provide more parking space than the project required and to allow a discount supermarket to operate there.

All but a few alliance members voted against the variance during a straw poll at the protest meeting. They claimed the 1,200 parking spaces would not solve the parking problem caused by the extra traffic the project would attract.

The developer told the city the project would add an extra 2,000 car trips per hour between 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., Berman said.

6,000 in 3 Hours

“We’re talking about 6,000 extra car trips over a three-hour period when people are driving home from work,” she said. “Our concern about the uses (of the complex) is about traffic in an area that is already really congested. It also impacts small businesses that are very much a part of our community.”

Berman conceded, however, that the question is not if, but how, the project will be built. The developer has also said that he will build the project even if the city does not grant the variance for the garage.

“The best we can do is make constructive comments on what we think (the city and the developer) should do,” she said.

Petitions were circulated during the meeting requesting a full environmental report on the Pico-Westwood development, which the alliance claims is required under the California Environmental Quality Act. Residents were encouraged to send written comments to the city’s chief zoning administrator and the environmental review committee before the time for public comment ended last Friday.