Studio City Dispute : Parking Lot Off-Limits to Vehicles

Shopkeeper Mary Cohen figured her problems were over last month when she moved her gift store out of Studio City’s congested business district and into a shopping center that boasted two parking lots.

But Cohen’s grand opening was barely under way when Los Angeles city officials ordered one of the lots closed.

Since then, business has been anything but grand. Cohen’s shop competes for space in the remaining 32-stall parking lot with 10 other stores, including four busy restaurants.

“It’s total chaos,” she said. “Cars bump in the lot, people get angry. People leave their cars blocking the driveway and won’t let other people out. People can’t get in to shop. It’s a mess.”

Officials say they shut the 27-space second lot after six months of use because it was built without authorization on a residential lot behind the shopping center at the corner of Fruitland Drive and Sunshine Terrace.

Homeowner Complaints

Use of the lot had prompted complaints from nearby homeowners and from the influential Studio City Residents Assn.

Leaders of the homeowners group contend that the parking lot is an unacceptable encroachment of Ventura Boulevard’s commercial district on an expensive south-of-the-boulevard neighborhood. They complain that it sets an unwelcome precedent for developers.

“Our position is it should be removed,” said Polly Ward, president of the Studio City organization. “The community feels it’s absolutely ridiculous that builders can perform these illegal acts, and nothing’s done.”

Homeowner Elliot Midwood, who lives next to the controversial lot, led a neighborhood petition against it. He said developer Marty Bender should have planned adequate parking when he started work on his $3-million Studio City Center two years ago.

“The second parking lot was abominable,” Midwood said Friday. “That parking area should be put back to dirt and fenced off.

“This is a test case for Ventura Boulevard. People should not open shopping centers without adequate parking. That’s the bottom line.”

Bender said he would have installed a larger parking lot if he had realized his shopping center would be as busy as it has turned out to be. He said its original parking lot was built to city requirements that were in effect in 1985.

“It’s really a shame that our other lot can’t be used,” Bender said Friday. “More parking lots are badly needed in Studio City.

“It’s so ironic. We took a useless gathering place for derelicts and dope dealers and a dumping ground and made it into a beautiful new mini-parking lot that everybody used. Now, cars are parked all over the street, and the congestion is a mess.”

Bender said he opened the second lot without a permit because of a mix-up. He said he thought the site’s owner had secured one, and the owner thought Bender had.

Bender’s parking lot has its supporters, both in his shopping center and in the neighborhood.

“Believe me, we need it,” said Scott Banks, manager of an Italian restaurant in the center. “Our customers go somewhere else if they can’t find a place to park. Since the lot closed, our business is probably off 15%.”

Homeowner Brent Seltzer, whose backyard overlooks the closed lot, said he and his wife, Meg, favor parked cars over the trash and transients that collected on the site when it was vacant. They said Bender has been a good neighbor--even to the point of personally sweeping their street each night while his shopping center was being built.

“I’d rather live next door to Marty Bender’s parking lot than what was there before,” Seltzer said Friday. “People are playing politics with this rather than looking at the neighborhood.”

Howard Raphael, chief field deputy for Studio City-area City Councilman Joel Wachs, said he hopes to negotiate a compromise between Bender and the neighborhood opponents. He said a variance that would authorize the redesign and reopening of the lot was approved by a zoning administrator last week, although it is subject to appeal from neighbors.

Raphael said the latest city parking requirements have increased the spaces required for new Ventura Boulevard restaurants. Instead of one space per 500 square feet, the city now demands five.