Surveying the Road Ahead : Ventura Boulevard: The City Council on Dec. 18 will take up a plan to control development along the Valley’s main thoroughfare. Even the merchants can’t agree if less is more.

Finding Ventura Boulevard is no problem. Drive south to the gridlock and there you are.

Determining the future direction of the San Fernando Valley’s main street and commercial anchor is another matter, one the Los Angeles City Council will tackle this month.

The street has been changing for a decade, amid controversies that have frayed the nerves of politicians, builders, homeowner groups and merchants. Today, many stretches seem to consist of one fancy clothing store, hairstyling salon, nail parlor, cute little mini-mall and trendy restaurant after another.

There are still hot dog stands amid the valet parking. A few days ago, red-vested attendants shuttled Jaguars in and out of the parking lot of a popular eatery called Mary’s Lamb, while a few doors away, a white Mercedes-Benz pulled into the driveway of Arthur’s Hideaway, an adults-only motel. But the trend is decidedly toward fancier retailing and bigger buildings.

“Anything goes here, as long as it’s quality,” said Raspin Stuwart, publisher of On the Boulevard, a publication distributed in shops along the street.

Maybe not forever. The City Council on Dec. 18 will take up a plan to control development along Ventura Boulevard’s 17 miles.

The plan was formulated largely by a group of developers, homeowners and community leaders. It has been the focus of bitter debate over whether it is fair to property owners.

It would establish a limit of 8.6 million square feet of additional commercial development over the next 20 years along the boulevard in Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Tarzana and Woodland Hills.

The debate promises to be warm.

Developers say many aspects of the plan are too restrictive and would lessen their property values. Some homeowners have said it is not restrictive enough. They argue that the street is already congested by much of the existing 19 million square feet of development--specifically several high-rise office buildings and complexes that dwarf longstanding small businesses and nearby residential neighborhoods.

Rip Rense, a free-lance writer who lives in Sherman Oaks, said he enjoyed late-night strolls on Ventura Boulevard 15 years ago.

“There was a comfort in the isolation of it all,” he said. “There was nothing open, no yogurt shops, no coffee shops.”

That obviously has changed, and not for the better, in his view.

“I do like the new activity, seeing the night spots and all the color,” Rense said. “But I seldom go out for walks anymore because along with all this life has come an abiding unfriendliness of spirit. In the summer, there is a never-ending parade of young Valley schoolchildren in their $50,000 automobiles, screaming and salivating out the window.”

Motorists, mostly not screaming, make about 70,000 trips a day on Ventura Boulevard. Planners say that if there were no controls on growth, about 40 million square feet of development and 150,000 more vehicle trips would be generated in 20 years, resulting in round-the-clock traffic jams.

Highlights of the plan under study include restricting the height of most new buildings to two or three stories and requiring commercial property owners to pay for upgrading Ventura to accommodate the traffic that additional development will bring. The council could approve, reject or change the plan. Some observers do not expect a vote until early next year.

Many homeowners and merchants say the length of the street west of Sepulveda Boulevard shows growth’s worst aspect. That’s the home of high-rises whose construction about 10 years ago spurred homeowners to try to prevent similar development. A temporary moratorium on development is in effect.

“There is gross overdevelopment west of Sepulveda,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents part of the Studio City portion of the boulevard. Politicians and homeowners blame previous city administrations for the poor planning.

One couple who want to see the plan go forward are Dennis and Bunny Delluge, who run Diane & Rudy & Sons Fountain & Statuary in Tarzana. The couple said passage of the plan would reduce their property values--and they are all for it.

The Delluges said a large developer is angling to take over the business to build a shopping center on the property, which is at Vanalden Avenue.

“We don’t want to see this beautiful setting destroyed,” Bunny Delluge said as she walked among tree-shaded stone angels. “We want to keep this place just the way it is. It’s been in the family since the 1950s.”

Gerald A. Silver, an outspoken Encino resident who thinks that the plan is too permissive, said his doctor put him on a strict diet because his blood pressure has gotten too high over his reaction to development on the boulevard.

“It’s a traffic nightmare, an example of unplanned growth and the caving in to developer-driven planning,” said Silver, the slimmed-down but agitated head of Homeowners of Encino.

His voice became more shrill as he continued: “Twenty years ago, the street was an ideal, community-oriented shopping strip. There was anything you wanted--supermarkets, restaurants, music stores, seed and garden shops. You could drive up one side, park and do all your business, then park on the other side and do the rest of it.

“Now I cuss and swear whenever I drive down the street. My blood pressure shoots up. We’ve lost almost all of our community shopping. Now it’s just a developer gold rush to put in more buildings. The street is just one bank and copy store on top of the other.”

To some business people, the street is better than it’s ever been and getting better all the time.

“It’s time to blow this boring Valley image out ,” said Lenny Flahm, 30, owner of Lenny Salon in Sherman Oaks. “This is the new Valley.” He would like to see more glitz, trendier businesses and a lot more advertising for the boulevard.

The new Valley charges Beverly Hills prices. Flahm says he charges about $30 to $45 for a haircut, and “the prices go up from there.” Lee Willis, co-owner of the Jona boutique, said his store carries designer merchandise with a “Rodeo Drive-type” price tag: Moderate to expensive.

Flahm said the business climate of the boulevard has yet to peak. “It’s a great street because no matter what you want, you can find it here,” he said.

Developers regard Ventura Boulevard as prime real estate for large shopping centers, multiplex cinemas and office buildings.

Owners of some stylish businesses have found Ventura Boulevard to be a gold mine, not unlike other affluent business districts of Los Angeles.

Westsiders have been driving over to swank restaurants along the boulevard, including the Bistro Gardens, a $3-million restaurant that is the local offspring of a Westside spot. Dinner without wine averages $70 a person, lunch, $25.

That establishment, near Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Ventura Boulevard, is the centerpiece of a $15-million shopping center built by developer Herbert M. Piken, who calls it an example of suburban elegance. Piken has built seven shopping centers on the boulevard. He is not surprised that the street supports an upscale restaurant.

“There are actors and others from the studios who will come here,” he said. “There’s nothing like it in the entire Valley.”

Piken is a villain to homeowner groups. Opposition to his center at Coldwater dragged the project a year behind schedule and $2 million over budget.

Piken said he does not understand the emotional reaction of the community toward development.

“There are always people who try to keep things from happening,” he said. “But I took rides down the boulevard near Studio City. The stores were not that pretty. Sure they served the needs of the people, but they just weren’t that attractive. If someone comes in with a nice project and landscaping, it should be welcomed. A lot of the boulevard needs to be more organized, better arranged and better utilized.”

The boulevard isn’t everyone’s river of money. Some large businesses have their problems, and so do little ones.

An attempt by developer Dennis Bass to turn the historic La Reina movie theater in Sherman Oaks into a two-story, Melrose Avenue-caliber shopping mall flopped. Despite being near busy Van Nuys Boulevard and popular Tower Records & Video stores, the center went bankrupt in August.

“We felt that the neighborhood would support that kind of upper class of business,” said Bunny Dixon, property manager for Bass’ development company. “We came in with a lot of the top names--Pure Sweat, Mrs. Fields, New York Jock.

“But Pure Sweat went bankrupt. New York Jock just walked out and abandoned the store. One day they just emptied everything out. Mrs. Fields’ store is dying. They’re doing a quarter of what they expected to do. Overall, we lost 10 stores.”

What went wrong? Parking, Dixon said.

“The street doesn’t lend itself to people parking and spending time here,” she said. “Our parking lot was in back. We had plenty of parking, but people just didn’t bother to go around the block. We also had a lot of foot traffic, but those people didn’t spend any money. They just browsed.”

On a smaller scale, Renee Spina, who owns Urban Art, a clothing and leather-airbrushing store in Studio City, said she is struggling to become known.

“How do you get people’s attention when there’s just store after store after store?” asked Spina, 24, who was a hostess at a Woodland Hills hamburger restaurant before starting Urban Art in June. Some days, no customers come through her doors and Spina is alone with a hamster named Manhattan.

“I really wanted to be on Melrose, but it was too much money,” Spina said. “So I came to the Valley. I thought having a Ventura Boulevard address would be better for the business than being somewhere else in the Valley. But it’s been a real struggle. There’s no foot traffic, and people just pass by because there isn’t anywhere to park.”

To attract customers, Spina puts eye-catching clothes in her front window. A T-shirt with a flaming skull and two guitars in the background is the centerpiece.

She would like to move to a location with more pedestrian traffic, or into one of the new shopping centers.

“But it’s ridiculous,” she said. “Every one of these developers wants to charge $4.25 a square foot for rent. A small business can’t possibly survive. It blows my mind. I would like to move, but when I do, it’s going to be off Ventura Boulevard.”