Council Adopts Westwood Village Development Curbs

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a development control plan designed to save Westwood Village’s remaining Spanish-style and Mediterranean buildings, limit the height of new construction and make the auto-clogged shopping district once again pleasant for pedestrians.

Walking, rather than driving, through the village would be promoted by some street closures, the widening of sidewalks and construction of pedestrian plazas and sidewalk cafes.

The restrictions would force new businesses to provide more parking and would limit construction of more movie theaters and fast-food restaurants, which nearby residents blame for the bulk of the congestion.

The plan places a three-story height limit on new structures, aimed at ending fears that the village will be swallowed by huge office buildings. Such buildings have already gone up on Wilshire Boulevard at the edge of the village.

A notable exception would be a 350-room, multilayered hotel on Glendon Avenue that could rise to eight stories. The size of the hotel, once envisioned as a 600-room structure, was scaled down in a compromise move earlier this year after homeowner groups objected.

Although village visitors would be unlikely to spot any immediate changes, proponents hope that one day traffic congestion that has plagued the area will be greatly reduced and expensive stores will be built to attract upscale shoppers, replacing the heavy influx of teen-agers on weekend evenings.

Long sought by Westwood-area residents and Los Angeles preservationists, the plan was introduced by City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the area.

If signed by Mayor Tom Bradley, the plan will likely be cited by the councilman in the coming mayoral race as an example of how to deal with key urban problems such as traffic congestion. Yaroslavsky, who has said he will oppose Bradley, has said that elements of the Westwood Village restrictions could be applied citywide.

Unlike some community plans that outline vague restrictions on property use, the Westwood Village guidelines contain specific provisions that will provide “stability” to land-use decisions, Yaroslavsky said.

“You will know exactly what you can build on every single address and you will know exactly what you cannot build on every single address,” Yaroslavsky said after the City Council vote Wednesday. “The surprise element--one day there’s a historical building and the next day there’s a Motel 6 or a mini-mall--will be gone.”

Laura Lake, president of the Friends of Westwood, a leader in the slow-growth movement and a candidate to succeed Yaroslavsky on the council, praised the council’s vote, saying it is a “very creative effort to allow development, but with the benefits (going) to the community.”

The new restrictions would tighten up planning guidelines first enacted in October, 1973, two years before Yaroslavsky was elected to the council. Those plans have long been criticized as allowing too much development.

The latest guidelines were prompted by concerns that the once-quaint village is rapidly losing its identity because of proliferating movie theaters and other businesses that since the 1960s have catered to a teen-age clientele.

City officials said the crime rate is higher in Westwood Village than in other parts of West Los Angeles and blame the problem on the youthful visitors.

Area residents also worried that rapidly rising property values would some day tempt owners of the older Mediterranean or Spanish-revival low-rise buildings to demolish them in favor of multistory replacements. A demolition and construction moratorium approved several years ago by the council recently lapsed, but officials said that property owners had continued to observe it.

Under the new plan, there would be a near prohibition on destruction of what the city views as “historically significant” buildings in the village area. Demolition would be allowed only with city permission. Officials estimate that nearly 60 buildings, or roughly half the village’s existing structures, would be protected.

Owners of such historic buildings, however, would be allowed to build a slightly taller new building at another site in the village to offset any losses.

Other features of the plan include:

- Prohibition of new drive-through businesses, such as restaurants, and auto and motorcycle dealerships

- A limit of 3.4 million square feet on total development in the village. Now, 1.8 million square feet of property is developed in the village.

- Available parking, now an acute problem in the village, would become a top priority in any new development. For example, new offices would be required to have about three parking spaces for each 1,000 square feet of office space.