The Carwash and the Developer
In response to my May 27 letter, Richard Shedenhelm (Letters, June 17) says “profitability should determine land use,” and adds that my call for a moratorium on the corner of Ventura and Laurel Canyon boulevards, where a developer wants to level the neighborhood’s carwash, service station and coffee shop to build an upscale two-story retail complex, is politically dangerous.
I take that to mean that my call for Councilman Joel Wachs to protect the present site to “allow us time to meet (with the developer) and discuss the alternatives to total destruction” is a threat to the political freedoms of this land. Hardly. What is politically dangerous, however, are untrue statements made by overzealous, uninformed and ignorant developer sympathizers.
The members of this community want all developers to make a profit and be successful. Our concerns are exactly the words of Shedenhelm: “The entrepreneurs who fail to accurately forecast the wants of consumers sustain losses.”
Shedenhelm states that I am in fact substituting my personal preferences over that of my neighbors. Where was Shedenhelm during rallies attended by members of the Briarcliff Improvement Assn., the Studio City Residents Assn. and the Studio City Chamber of Commerce--who all oppose removal of existing improvements?
He states that market forces of profit and loss should be the only considerations in determining the viability of a development, and infers that I am against an “owner’s inalienable right to peacefully use his property as he himself determines.” Read my letter again, Mr. Shedenhelm. I supported owners’ rights to redevelop, but not freely when there is strong opposition from consumers and residents.
When some developers are allowed to proceed with redevelopment plans without considering the desires and needs of the surrounding community, it is commercially dangerous. One Studio City retail project was allowed to proceed over the protests of the neighborhood residents. Today it remains only partially occupied, and this community is stuck with it.
WALTER M. McINTYRE
Studio City
McIntyre is president of the Briarcliff Improvement Assn. and a member of the Ventura Boulevard Citizens Action Committee.
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