Homeowner Victory : Developer to Pay for Street Improvements

In a victory for homeowners in Studio City and Sherman Oaks, city officials have abandoned a plan to waive street improvement requirements for a $14-million Ventura Boulevard shopping center.

Los Angeles traffic engineers have ordered developer Herbert M. Piken to pay to upgrade three major intersections near his project at the former site of the Tail O’ the Cock restaurant at Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

Piken will also be required to pay for a traffic study at two other intersections one year after his shopping center opens. If that study uncovers congestion, he will pay for improvements at both intersections, officials said.

The requirements are the latest triumph for residents who have fought for a year to limit the impact of the upscale shopping center on a neighborhood at the border of Studio City and Sherman Oaks.

In April, Piken lowered the height of his “Center at Coldwater” project, reduced its size by 43% and toned down its glossy, high-tech look at the request of residents and City Councilman Michael Woo. He also agreed to preserve a heavily used alley that crosses the site.

Change From Earlier Proposal

The city’s traffic requirements represent an about-face from a proposal made two months ago by traffic engineers.

At that time, officials recommended that Piken be excused from such requirements as paying for traffic signals and new turn lanes near his project in exchange for promising not to rent to certain kinds of tenants that attract heavy traffic. Traffic planners prepared a list of 24 prohibited businesses, including drugstores, movie theaters, dry cleaners, banks, convenience-type grocery stores, tanning salons, game arcades, video-rental shops and liquor stores.

The trade-off would have been the first of its kind between the city and a developer. It was viewed as precedent-setting by the city Department of Transportation.

Traffic engineers said that, if the Piken agreement was successful, similar waivers would be negotiated with other developers.

Officials said they scrapped the idea after homeowners complained that it would not adequately control traffic to and from Piken’s shops, and the city attorney’s office had ruled against it.

City Attorney’s Ruling

“The city attorney’s office said it’s more of a zoning thing than something under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation,” said Jerry Overland, a city traffic engineer. “They said DOT can’t review business licenses and tell a retail owner what he can or cannot do with his stores.”

The ruling means that “we won’t be accepting that mitigation measure in the foreseeable future” for other retail development projects, Overland said.

Traffic planners said the ruling is a setback in the fight against gridlock at major intersections such as Ventura and Coldwater--which is crossed by 5,235 cars an hour at the peak 5-to-6 p.m. rush hour. It is predicted that traffic at that time eventually will swell to 6,800 an hour.

“We like the idea because we’re not always able to add capacity to the street,” Overland said. “It would have allowed us to restrict traffic to and from a project. We can’t do that under the current city ruling.”

Homeowners are viewing the reversal as a victory, however.

“It would have done nothing to reduce problems,” Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., said of the waiver plan.

Close said homeowners had urged the city to require new traffic controls of Piken for two intersections near his project immediately instead of waiting for a one-year review.

Those intersections are Ventura and Van Noord Avenue and Coldwater Canyon and Dickens Street, which are primary entrances to a Studio City residential neighborhood.

Homeowner Rose Elmassian, who helped negotiate the new requirements, said homeowners will carefully watch for traffic problems and Piken’s one-year traffic review.

“The community will continue to be vigilant,” Elmassian said. “We have to stay on top of what is being done over here.”

City officials said Piken’s street improvements, estimated to cost $211,050, will be centered at three intersections.

Lanes to Be Installed

Piken will be required to have a southbound double left-turn lane designed and installed on Coldwater at Ventura, where some street-widening work and signals will also be required, officials said.

He will also install a second westbound through lane on Moorpark Street at its intersection with Coldwater by re-striping the street, the planners said.

At Coldwater’s Ventura Freeway underpass, Piken will add a third southbound through lane near the westbound on- and off-ramps. Traffic engineers said widening will require the removal of a traffic signal island and modification of the signal system.

Also, westbound cars on Ventura Boulevard will be prohibited from turning left into Piken’s project, according to traffic planners. Piken will also be required to pay any traffic improvement assessment fees levied for Ventura Boulevard.

Piken was issued a building permit Wednesday after agreeing to the requirements, officials said.