Film Firm Asks Permission to Build in Open-Space Area

A European film-products manufacturer plans to build a training and storage facility near the Glendale and Ventura Freeway interchange on land designated by the city of Los Angeles as open space.

Agfa U.S.A., the American subsidiary of the largest film products company in Europe, has asked the Los Angeles Planning Department for the needed changes in zoning and in the area’s general plan. The company has an option to lease the four acres from the California Department of Transportation if it can obtain a building permit from the city.

The company proposes to build a four-story, 90,000-square-foot film distribution center with offices, warehouse space, classrooms for customers learning to handle the company’s film equipment and 230 parking spaces. The facility--expected to cost $6.5 million--would become the company’s Los Angeles headquarters.

A city planner has recommended that the requested changes be denied, but a hearing before the full Planning Commission is scheduled for Sept. 1.

The undeveloped land, which borders Glendale in Northeast Los Angeles, is being used by Caltrans for bus and trailer storage. But the land--part of a city-designated scenic corridor--is zoned for residential development and recently was redesignated in the Northeast Los Angeles District Plan as open space.

The developer, Michael Crino, said he believes the Agfa building would upgrade the property. “I think they could have a very lushly landscaped development with an architecturally desirable building with a minimum impact on traffic,” Crino said. “It’s a very good project.”

Representatives of The Eagle Rock Assn., a local residents group, said they are examining the plan and have not decided whether to oppose it.

The city decided in June that the project would have no significant impact on the environment, but planning department hearing officer Lourdes Green recommended the city consider the project’s effect on open space.

“We took the most conservative, the most protective approach,” Green said. “The question is, if this is granted now, is one opportunity lost for studying alternative uses for open space?”

Caltrans project coordinator Bill Pasternak said more than 50 commercial projects have been built on land leased from the agency.