Right Place, Right Time : Others May Abhor Mini-Malls, but Pacoima Neighbors Welcome This One in Renewal Effort

It is the type of dense, traffic-generating commercial development that usually causes nightmares for homeowners:

A developer proposes to build a two-story, 8,700-square-foot mini-mall at a busy San Fernando Valley intersection. Because it is not financially feasible to build a spacious parking lot, the developer said he intends to install fewer than 20 spaces.

Yet, in less than an hour Friday, such a development was approved by the Los Angeles City Planning Department despite the fact that, two days earlier, the City Council extended a six-month moratorium on similar projects.

For Pacoima residents, the mini-mall is a dream come true.

Ramshackle Storefronts

At a time when such developments are assailed as eyesores that clog neighborhoods with traffic, Pacoima churches, community groups and the Chamber of Commerce are cheering because they say this center will revitalize a dangerous drug-dealing corner now home to a dilapidated bar and vacant, ramshackle storefronts.

At a public hearing Friday, the Rev. Arthur Broadus of Calvary Baptist Church praised mini-mall developer Erez Kaminski as someone who is willing to support Pacoima by investing in a blighted commercial district that other businessmen have abandoned.

“This will be a good start toward cleaning up the area,” Broadus said.

Police say the corner of Bradley Avenue and Van Nuys Boulevard is a notorious drug-dealing center. A bar on one corner, a liquor store on another and the neighboring San Fernando Gardens housing project to the south create a haven for loiterers.

‘Blatant Drug Dealing’

“That whole intersection requires an inordinate amount of attention because of the blatant drug dealing and alcohol-related arrests,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Wayne Woolway. “If they got rid of the bar, in my eyes, there would be less of a problem there.”

Under a citywide moratorium on the construction of mini-malls, a developer seeking to build such a center first must gain approval from a city zoning administrator and subject his proposal to a public hearing.

Before the moratorium was enacted in August and extended for six months Wednesday, a developer was free to build corner malls as long as the parcel of land was zoned for commercial uses.

Critics of mini-malls contend that some centers are unsightly and that most create traffic problems because of the lack of sufficient parking. While the moratorium is in effect, city planning officials are drawing up tougher building regulations for future malls.

Pacoima residents, however, didn’t want to take any chances that they would be denied this mini-mall.

“This business will help defray the nuisances of drug dealing and will help make Pacoima a beautiful and safe place to live,” Mary Cooley, chairwoman of a coalition of housing project tenant groups in the northeast Valley, said in a letter to the Planning Department.

Councilman Ernani Bernardi supported the project as well as Anne Dunn, head of the Pacoima Enterprise Zone, which was established to generate new business in the area.

Kaminski promised to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages at the center. He said there is no need for a lot of parking because most of the customers will walk to the shops from the housing project and neighborhood.

In approving the mini-mall, hearing officer William Lillenberg held Kaminski to his promise to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Other conditions placed on the center are that it close all shops by 10 p.m., hire security guards and, to deter loiterers, prohibit installation of outside pay phones.