Objections Lead to Delay in Consideration of Mini-Mall

The Beverly Hills City Council has postponed discussion of an environmental report on a proposed mini-shopping center on Olympic Boulevard after representatives of a nearby synagogue and Hebrew school said they were concerned about the project’s effect on schoolchildren and neighborhood parking.

The council on Tuesday continued to Sept. 19 the hearing on the proposal by the Schurgin Development Corp. of Los Angeles to build a mall on a vacant lot at 9090 W. Olympic Blvd., adjacent to the Beth Jacob Congregation and Hillel Academy.

At that hearing, the council is scheduled to decide whether to order a full environmental impact report on the project as requested by Beth Jacob and Hillel.

Last Dec. 5 the council ordered a special study of the project’s potential effect on traffic, noise and parking but stopped short of requesting a full report.

Full Study Asked

Members of the congregation and the school requested the full environmental impact report because it would address alternatives to the mall project as well as the project’s affects on schoolchildren walking to and from the synagogue and Hillel.

Schurgin officials said that the project conforms to city commercial zoning laws, and the that the 4,200-square-foot project was much smaller than the 20,000 square feet allowed by law.

They said that a similar mini-mall project on Oakhurst Drive and Olympic, a block from the proposed site, was approved by city Environmental Review Board without an environmental report.

Rabbi Abner Weiss of Beth Jacob told the council that the city’s study for the project failed to address the congregation’s main concerns about the development’s effect on worshipers and students.

Increased Demand for Parking

He said that the mall would increase pedestrian traffic and the demand for parking on weekends when the congregation holds its services and other activities.

The congregation is not against development of the site, Weiss said, but prefers either an office building, which would not generate weekend traffic, or senior-citizen housing.

Council member Donna Ellman told Bandman at the meeting that Schurgin should consider building another kind of project on the property.

Council members Robert Tanenbaum and Maxwell Salter said that they would oppose the project.