Developer Sets Open Meeting on Land Uses for Playa Vista
When Maguire Thomas Partners took over early this year as lead developer of Playa Vista, the massive commercial and residential project south of Marina del Rey, Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter said the change meant that the project would no longer be planned in the back rooms of City Hall.
The planning process, Galanter promised then, will be “an open, public process that will bring the community in at the beginning.”
“We agreed with her then, and we agree with her now,” said Nelson C. Rising, who heads the development team for Maguire Thomas.
Four months of meeting with community groups will be capped Monday when Maguire Thomas provides the first glimpse of the direction it plans to take in redesigning the project. Development plans for the 957-acre parcel, which is owned by the estate of deceased billionaire Howard Hughes, have been mired in controversy for years over density and the loss of wetlands.
Meeting on Monday
The Santa Monica-based firm will hold a public meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Airport Marina Hotel, 8601 Lincoln Blvd., Westchester. Although specific numbers will not be discussed, Rising said the firm will indicate where it would like to make changes in the previous land-use plans.
Rising would not say what changes will be proposed, but they are expected to address residents’ urgings that the amount of commercial space be reduced, residential space increased and more wetlands be preserved.
Rising’s instructions, along with public comment, will be taken by designers and architects, who will develop a more specific, though not final, plan within about a week, Rising said. That plan will be available for further public comment.
It is unusual, Rising said, for a developer to seek public comment before specific plans have been drawn. But he said Maguire Thomas is determined to keep the planning process in the open.
The policy appears to be intended in part to spare Maguire Thomas much of the criticism directed at the project’s original developer, Howard Hughes Properties Inc.
Hughes Properties, a subsidiary of Summa Corp., aroused vigorous opposition from Galanter and many nearby residents with its unwillingness to consult with area community groups and its tendency to deal behind closed doors with then-Councilwoman Pat Russell. Russell’s support for the project was widely viewed as a major cause of her defeat by Galanter in the 1987 council election.
Hughes Properties received city and Coastal Commission approval in 1986 to build 8,837 housing units, 5.9 million square feet of office and research space, 970,000 square feet of retail space, 2,400 hotel rooms and a 40-acre marina with up to 900 boat slips.
The plan called for 175 acres of wetlands and 41 acres of sand dunes and bluffs to be set aside as a natural preserve. Hughes also pledged $10 million to the National Audubon Society to restore and maintain the wetlands.
State Property
A 70-acre portion of the parcel where Lincoln Boulevard crosses the Ballona Channel was acquired by the state last year as payment of taxes on the estate of Hughes, who died in 1976. However, state Controller Gray Davis has said in the past that he is interested in trading the parcel for preservation of more wetlands.
Russell’s defeat and her replacement by Galanter, however, brought some delays for the project. Last August, Galanter called for a new environmental impact report, the preservation of a larger portion of wetlands and a 40% reduction in the amount of office space.
In February, Maguire Thomas, which has a reputation of working with residents to get its projects built, bought into the project for an undisclosed sum and took over as the managing partner. Hughes Properties remains as a limited partner. JMB Realty Corp., which owns and built much of Century City, also purchased an interest in the project.
Maguire Thomas is using a team approach to design the project, involving specialists in urban design, planning and architecture. The core group of consultants is being directed by the Miami-based, master-planning firm of Andres Duany & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and by the Santa Monica-based firm of Moore, Ruble, Yudell.
Duany and Plater-Zyberk are noted for an urban design approach that uses the traditional small town as a model and creates communities where people live, work, shop and play, Rising said.
