L.A. Council Approves High-Rises for Venice Opposed by Culver City

Moving at breakneck speed, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the $400-million Channel Gateway high-rise project in Venice despite objections from neighboring Culver City.

The 11-0 vote came less than a day after a key council committee gave its blessing to the massive project, which includes more than 1,050 luxury condominiums, apartments and an office building on 16 acres of prime land just outside Marina del Rey. It must still win final approval from the California Coastal Commission.

The council’s nod represents the latest in a series of government approvals of projects that could worsen traffic in the heavily congested Lincoln Boulevard corridor that runs from Santa Monica through Venice, the western edge of Culver City and south to Los Angeles International Airport.

A vigorous competition over coastal-area developments such as Channel Gateway has sparked a full-fledged border war between Culver City, Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, with each governmental entity racing to approve projects before remaining traffic capacity in the area is exhausted.

While other projects have been bogged down for years by community opposition, Channel Gateway has shot through the city’s planning process in 15 months with the backing of Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter and neighborhood activists in Venice.

Jody Hall-Esser, Culver City community development planning director, protested to council members Wednesday that Los Angeles’ “processing of this project has been fraught with error.”

Hall-Esser questioned the council’s decision to rush approval less than 24 hours after the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee endorsed the development Tuesday. Her request for a week’s delay in the proceedings was ignored.

The Channel Gateway project, slated for the Oxford Triangle area of Venice, won widespread support after politically well-connected Los Angeles developer Jerome Snyder and his associates bought the land last year for $45 million from a partnership headed by state Sen. Alan E. Robbins (D-Tarzana). Robbins retains a limited interest in the project.

Working with neighborhood activists and Galanter, Snyder abandoned Robbins’ plan to build a 2.1-million-square-foot regional shopping center, office and residential project on the site.

Just before the vote, Galanter told her colleagues that the Snyder project is “a vast improvement over what was previously proposed.” She said the project will provide desperately needed affordable housing and be an asset to the community. “The fact that the adjoining neighborhood is now supporting the project is a milestone,” she said.

To address Galanter’s concerns, Snyder agreed to reserve 20% of the 544 apartments in the project for renters with very low incomes. In exchange, he will receive $67 million in tax-exempt bond financing for the entire apartment complex. The project also includes 512 condominium units in two 16-story high-rises and a 300,000-square-foot office building.

Snyder also agreed to establish a $1.25-million trust fund, controlled by Galanter’s office, that will be used for neighborhood improvements and housing.

But before construction can begin, Channel Gateway must avoid becoming a hostage in an increasingly heated legal battle between Los Angeles and Culver City.

Culver City officials, angry at Los Angeles for suing to stop a $160-million shopping center in their city, are threatening to tie up Channel Gateway in the courts.

The consequences of such legal brinkmanship was not lost on Snyder. “If it wasn’t for the fact that we have this border war going on, I’d be grading now,” Snyder said.