Dreams to Revive Van Nuys Boulevard Fall Short : Rejuvenation: The effort to attract new development to the once vibrant thoroughfare has been attempted several times in the past 20 years with little success.

Deuk Perrin remembers Van Nuys Boulevard the way it was in 1945: a tree-lined promenade of shops and department stores with Red Car tracks running down the middle. It was downtown San Fernando Valley, suburbia’s Main Street.

But shopping malls lured away the department stores in the 1960s and ‘70s. Shoppers followed and the aging commercial strip around the Van Nuys Civic Center fell into disrepair. The storefronts that once housed family-owned dress shops and cafes were too often filled by adult bookstores, discount warehouses and pawnshops. Main Street looked more like a back alley.

Now Perrin, a Los Angeles city planner, is coordinating city plans to turn the area around, to attract new development and capital.

It is a task that has been undertaken several times in the last two decades with little success; the recent history of efforts to revitalize the Van Nuys Civic Center area has been one of minor victories within a framework of disappointment.

Most recently, construction of an office building that local leaders had hoped would spur more development was put on hold because city officials failed to attract a private developer. Why the Van Nuys Civic Center area has resisted rejuvenation efforts since the 1970s is a question that city officials, community leaders and private developers have asked themselves for years.

Most agree that the area is ripe for new development, but economic, physical and political obstacles so far have been insurmountable. Although those obstacles are recognized by nearly everyone with a stake in the boulevard’s future, how to overcome them is subject to debate.

City and state officials, merchants, developers, consultants and community leaders all agree that the area around the Civic Center has built-in attributes that make it a prime spot for new construction--including easy freeway access, lower property values and close proximity to a complex of government offices.

“If there’s any part of town that’s likely to be renovated naturally, that’s it,” said Richard Peiser, director of the USC Rusk Center for Real Estate Development.

But while commercial strips such as Ventura and Sepulveda boulevards have flourished, Van Nuys--despite its attractive qualities--remains nearly void of new development. A handful of attorneys moved into offices near the Civic Center and some business owners have been successful, but such improvements fall short of community visions of a pedestrian-friendly environment of shops, cafes and plazas.

“Obviously, something is not jelling,” said Cindy Miscikowski, planning deputy for Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents the boulevard south of Victory Boulevard.

Those knowledgeable about the area attribute the slow pace of rejuvenation in part to the area’s poor reputation, fragmented ownership of property that makes it difficult to assemble large building sites, and a lack of direction due to the absence of a coherent plan for the area.

Several Civic Center workers said there is little along the boulevard to draw them out of their offices during their lunch breaks, except a few sandwich shops. Going out after work, many said, is out of the question because they don’t feel safe. Business owners, likewise, complain that they have seen a decline in the number of customers over the years as the area deteriorates.

“We have a very bad reputation,” said Luigi Della Ripa, who has run his small tailoring shop on Sylvan Street, just off Van Nuys Boulevard, for 35 years. “People are afraid to come to Van Nuys.”

Despite that reputation, some local businessmen expect developers to eventually come to Van Nuys Boulevard despite its reputation.

Bruce Ackerman, former chief executive officer of the Van Nuys Chamber of Commerce, said that in recent years Ventura and Sepulveda boulevards may have attracted developers away from Van Nuys Boulevard because of their proximity to the Ventura and San Diego freeways. As those streets fill, however, Ackerman said it is natural to expect developers to look at Van Nuys more seriously.

When they do, some speculate, Van Nuys Boulevard will take off. Corey Mazzarini, chairman of the planning and land-use committee for the Chamber of Commerce, said that once one or two developers build successful projects in the area, others will follow.

“The first steps are the hardest and most significant,” Mazzarini said.

One of the first steps has been taken, but it is yet to trigger the increased development that some envision.

David Honda, one of the few developers to invest along Van Nuys Boulevard, said he is still waiting for others to follow him into Van Nuys. Honda’s building on Gilmore Street was hailed by Mayor Tom Bradley as a model for future development in the area.

Likewise, the new city office building was envisioned as the centerpiece for new development. Its failure to attract a developer will slow the pace of renovation, according to Marcia Mednick, a consultant for the Valley Economic Development Center, because the city land was one of the few spots available for a large project.

Mednick said property along the boulevard is divided into small parcels--some with as little as 25 feet of frontage--which makes it difficult to assemble a lot big enough for the type of project needed. For example, a new project that requires 10 parcels would be unable to proceed if one property owner refused to sell.

Sepulveda Boulevard’s construction boom was due, in part, to the relative ease with which large parcels could be assembled.

Peiser and others suggested one way of accumulating enough parcels for larger projects is by creating a redevelopment zone, which gives the city the power to seize property through eminent domain and sell it to developers at below-market value.

Such a redevelopment zone along the boulevard was proposed in 1986 by state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), but was rejected by Los Angeles City Councilmen Marvin Braude and Joel Wachs.

Planning deputies for both councilmen said the rejuvenation of Van Nuys Boulevard should take place as naturally as possible--with city incentives, but without the far-reaching authority of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Robbins still believes the city should redevelop at least one block around the Civic Center area through eminent domain as a way to stimulate development.

“If they take one block and put in nicer restaurants, shops that cater to middle- and upper-class income shoppers, then they would be stimulating the development of the whole area,” Robbins said.

Miscikowski and Wachs’ deputy Tom Henry said market forces should direct the rejuvenation of the boulevard. Property values lower than other areas of the Valley, some said, should eventually attract new construction and capital.

But Sam Gonen, owner of a pawnshop on the boulevard, said market forces created the environment that allowed his Collateral Lender and other businesses in the area to thrive. He agreed, however, that outside agencies should not impose renovation on businesses, some of which are struggling as it is. “They want to create something that’s impossible,” Gonen said.

“This is not Russia,” he said. “You don’t take a neighborhood and make it a fancy part of town.”

Peiser said rejuvenation along Van Nuys is even further complicated by the fact that much of the surrounding area is made up of low-income families and recent immigrants. “The poorer the neighborhood, the harder it is for these things to work,” he said, adding that such a turnaround is not impossible.

Some interviewed suggested that part of the problem may be the lack of vision for the area. Various studies have suggested different plans for the future of the area, but none have been adopted. That lack of direction makes some developers wary, wondering what the guidelines for their projects will be.

City officials began efforts to reverse the downward spiral 15 years ago by ordering a plan for the area around the Civic Center to address ways of encouraging new development under guidelines to keep it in check. The Van Nuys Central Business District Specific Plan, bogged in public hearings and subsequent revisions, has yet to be completed.

Perrin said the plan should come before the Los Angeles Planning Commission before spring. It will be based in large part on a 1988 study called Vision Van Nuys, which unleashed a team of planning experts on the boulevard to compile suggestions for improvements. Those included using the Civic Center as a terminus for pedestrian traffic and creating an environment along the boulevard friendly to pedestrians.

Mazzarini said the plan should help revitalization because it will give developers and shop owners a set of guidelines for new construction and renovations.