Residents Divided Over Fox’s Plans

David Handelman, Fox’s senior vice president overseeing the rezoning project, should spend five minutes between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in front of the homes lining Motor Avenue, or any other residential street that has become an artery leading from Century City.

If he closes his eyes he will have no trouble imagining he is standing directly on a freeway. The roar and stench of the dense traffic during rush hour have already threatened the once-peaceful Westside communities near Century City.

The development of Century City was predicated on the the construction of a Beverly Hills freeway. When the residents of Beverly Hills successfully defeated that project, the increasing traffic burden fell on neighboring streets in Los Angeles.

Part of the compromise to accommodate the limited traffic flow was negotiated in the Specific Plan after much debate. In it, Fox agreed to limit its existing lot to low-density residential development in exchange for the high-density commercial projects that were allowed.

Now Fox wants to renege on its agreement.

While Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky argues that “the last thing the Westside needs is another 2,200 market-rate condominiums,” it is not true that condominiums would generate the same kind of traffic as 771,000 square feet of new construction on the Fox lot. Residential traffic does not have the rush-hour pattern that commercial developments generate. Residents travel at different times and in varying directions, resulting in less trauma to the communities.

RENEE S. DERNBURG

Los Angeles