Battling for a Boulevard’s Soul : Mini-boom: A familiar land-use fight is being waged between homeowners defending their quality of life and developers determined to change the cityscape.

A burst of towering steel, marble and smoked glass is rising along Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys, quickly transforming the broad thoroughfare from a hodgepodge commercial and industrial district into a slick business center.

The two-mile-long mini-boom includes more than 1.5 million square feet of office and commercial space either under construction or on the drawing board. And it has been hailed and decried--depending on one’s perspective--as a new northern tributary of the San Fernando Valley’s glitzy Ventura Boulevard.

“It’s perfectly located, it’s right on top of the San Diego Freeway, near Sherman Oaks, Encino and the Galleria,” said John Battle, executive vice president of Beitler Commercial Realty Services, echoing the enthusiasm of other business leaders and developers. “It’s a good alternative to Ventura Boulevard.”

But Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., countered: “We don’t want Sepulveda to turn into another Ventura Boulevard. We don’t want the traffic, the high density. The community can’t handle it all.”

The disparate views have provoked a familiar land-use battle in which homeowners, intent on preserving the quality of life in their communities by limiting growth, are pitted against developers, determined to change the cityscape in the name of progress.

In one case, the developer of the largest project is negotiating with a group of Van Nuys homeowners demanding traffic and aesthetic improvements to relieve the impact of the sprawling seven-building development proposed for their neighborhood.

Other homeowner groups are voicing broader and stronger objections to the growth along Sepulveda, especially between Ventura and Victory boulevards.

A cadre of homeowner associations in Van Nuys, Reseda and Encino are calling on Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents the area, to initiate an immediate building moratorium until a detailed, long-term planning strategy for the boulevard can be drafted. But Braude is not prepared to delve into such a plan at this time.

The conflict over the future of Sepulveda Boulevard is the latest example in the Valley of how community plans--legal documents that guide future development drafted by the Los Angeles Planning Department in the early and mid-1970s--can be sorely out of touch with the rapidly changing and diverse interests of a community.

For instance, the Van Nuys-North Sherman Oaks Community Plan, which includes Sepulveda Boulevard, allows for industrial uses such as metal manufacturing and auto reconditioning and storage yards along a half-mile swath centered on Oxnard Street. The industrially designated parcels are directly across the street from single-family homes in some blocks.

It is the industrially zoned plots that have become the prime sites for the intense office development. City zoning laws permit such construction in most industrial zones because it is considered to be less intrusive development. Homeowners contend that industrial zoning is an obsolete land-use designation for the heart of the Valley and complain that controls to regulate commercial development in those zones are weak.

Apartment and office buildings along Sepulveda can rise as high as six stories in some areas and are limited to three stories in others. Such buildings may be small by Ventura Boulevard standards, but Sepulveda has become increasingly attractive to developers for a number of other reasons.

Developers have turned northward in the past two years as building restrictions have tightened on prestigious--and more expensive--Ventura Boulevard. After more than three years of often bitter debate, a detailed zoning blueprint along Ventura, called a specific plan, is headed for city council review next fall. Among other items, the plan limits commercial construction to an additional 8.6 million square feet.

Land prices along Sepulveda generally run between $35 and $50 a square foot, about half the $100 per square foot commanded on Ventura Boulevard, according to developers and real estate agents.

“One of the reasons Sepulveda is taking off is because all the other prime corridors in the Valley are shutting down as a result of specific plans or expensive land,” said Larry J. Kosmont, president of Kosmont and Associates in Burbank, a real estate and development consulting firm.

“It’s logical and makes clear sense for developers to turn to Sepulveda. It’s a major artery, a wide street and there is no specific plan,” Kosmont said. “It’s what I call ‘a developer no-brainer.’ ”

The danger, however, Kosmont and others said, is that without stricter controls and long-term planning along the Sepulveda corridor, the cumulative impact of each project will create a traffic nightmare even worse than the current peak-hour crisis.

Already six Sepulveda intersections--nearly every major cross street between Victory and Ventura boulevards--are rated “F” by the city Department of Transportation because of severe traffic.

The congestion and development troubles on Sepulveda could get worse if the $1.3-billion Valley Metro Rail extension is built. The proposed line, approved in March by county transit officials, would extend from North Hollywood to Van Nuys and is slated to end at ground level roughly at the site of the Sepulveda Drive-In Theater, between Erwin and Oxnard streets.

The theater land is also the site of the largest project to be proposed to date along Sepulveda, a cluster of seven mid-rise office buildings--dubbed the “Sepulveda Concourse”--that could bring about 750,000 square feet of office space to the boulevard.

“There is an urgent need for a specific plan to deal with development that is hemorrhaging onto Sepulveda Boulevard,” said Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, who also called for immediate building controls while long-term plans are drafted. “If we don’t, we will wind up with the kind of problems we now have on Ventura.”

Braude believes that imposing a building moratorium along Sepulveda would be premature because recent rezoning throughout Van Nuys reduced allowable densities in some areas and placed height limits along Sepulveda Boulevard, said Cindy Miscikowski, Braude’s chief planning deputy.

“Right now we are concentrating on Ventura Boulevard. If we succeed in getting that through council we would like to look elsewhere,” Miscikowski said.

Further distracting city planners and some community leaders is the preparation of a specific plan for Van Nuys Boulevard, the neglected cousin of Sepulveda and Ventura. That plan, which calls for revitalizing Van Nuys Boulevard into a modern business and administrative center, is nearing completion.

“Clearly, we can’t throw too much into the hopper,” Miscikowski said.

Braude is also satisfied that city policy calling for environmental reviews of major projects will enable him to examine the impact of pending developments along Sepulveda Boulevard whether or not there is a moratorium.

“Projects are not just given a green light,” Miscikowski said. “The environmental review gives us the ability to look at the project and enables us to better serve the needs of the community.”

Homeowners contend that the cumulative impact of these projects has not been assessed by city planners and the mini-boom is creating a regional business center.

At least six major office complexes and retail centers have been recently completed, are under construction or on the drawing board along the Sepulveda corridor in Van Nuys, according to city building records.

The largest project under construction is the six-story, 146,000-square-foot Tri Center Plaza being built by Woodland Hills-based Saunders Development Corp. on the southeast corner of Oxnard Street and Sepulveda.

But the development that has ignited the most community concern is the Sepulveda Concourse, which will be developed by National Prudential Inc. of Century City. The project covers more than 12 acres and plans show that it would include seven four- to six-story buildings and two parking garages with 2,609 spaces.

Robert J. Abernethy, a former Los Angeles planning commissioner, is a partner in the development.

Because the site is zoned for industrial uses, the developer does not need a zoning change to build offices and must only seek approval from the Building and Safety Department and the Department of Transportation.

A traffic study contracted by a consultant hired by the developer showed that the project would attract about 3,800 cars a day. The additional traffic along the boulevard could be mitigated if the developer made several street improvements, including traffic signal synchronization, the study stated.

“It may not mean that traffic gets better, but as a result of our project it will not get worse,” said George J. Mihlsten, an attorney for the developer.

On March 13, the two city agencies approved the project, declaring that it would have no significant impact on traffic or the surrounding area. After a public comment period the developer would be clear to take out building permits.

The public notice that the project would have no negative impact on the environment caught the eye of a Van Nuys homeowner. The scramble began. Homeowners petitioned for and were granted an extension to review and raise concerns about the agencies’ positive declaration. Braude intervened and called for more detailed environmental reviews.

Last month Abernethy asked city building officials to put the project on hold to allow the developer to meet with the community, particularly representatives of the 189-home neighborhood adjacent to the project.

Residents want the project scaled back to two-story buildings and would like brick and wood building materials instead of glass and steel. They want lush landscaping to screen the development and traffic controls to prohibit shortcutting through their quiet streets.

“We are going to put together some responses and we will continue our dialogue with the community,” Mihlsten said. “We will try and come up with a series of protection measures.” But the developer has not formally responded to requests from neighborhood representatives.

Representatives from other groups said the Concourse project, which they are pleased to have caught before it was too late, is a prime example of the immediate need for tougher building controls along Sepulveda. They said they will begin a petition drive to urge Braude to call for further studies.

“We don’t want to be a day late and a dollar short,” said Rob Glushon, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn. “I don’t want to say it’s too late now, but a lot of damage has already been done.”