Council Candidates Focus on Height Limit, Sony Project

Nothing illustrates the differences between Culver City Council incumbents and challengers better than their attitudes toward a building-height limit law passed by voters in 1990.

How the new council applies the law after Tuesday’s election will have a profound effect on one of the largest development projects ever proposed in Culver City.

Sony Pictures Studios wants to extensively redevelop its property at Overland Avenue and Washington Boulevard, the historic former MGM Studios site, into a headquarters for its corporate parent, Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The project could bring millions of dollars to the cash-starved city. But nine buildings in the expansion plan soar well above a 56-foot height limit that was passed two years ago after slow-growth advocates gathered 3,600 signatures to get the measure on the ballot. Two of the proposed buildings are 11 stories high.

Of the five candidates for City Council, three promise to apply the 56-foot limit--or four stories--to the Sony project unless voters pass a law directing them to do otherwise.

But drafters of the initiative apparently overlooked a section of city code that exempts redevelopment areas from such restrictions.

Incumbents Steven Gourley and James Boulgarides and challenger Mollie (Lee) Welinsky, an attorney, say they believe that voters clearly intended for the height limit to apply to the entire city.

Sony Pictures Studios is in one of three redevelopment areas that make up 30% of all land in Culver City.

The two other challengers, Richard Alexander and Albert Vera, said they would stick to the legal advice of the city attorney and would not apply the height limit to the Sony project.

Alexander, an engineering consultant and former council member, said allowing a few tall buildings would enable Sony to build the project with open space between, which he said would probably be preferable to a “56-foot-high monolith.”

Three out of five council seats are up for election Tuesday. Mayor Paul Jacobs is not running for reelection.

The two council members whose seats are not at stake, Jozelle Smith and Mike Balkman, said they too would judge the project on its overall impact to residents and would not apply the height limit.

If the three candidates who pledge to apply the height limit are elected, the expansion plan as it is proposed would probably fail to win City Council approval.

Sony spokeswoman Barbara Cline said that if the plan is rejected, the company will work with the city to “strike some kind of balance.”

Sony has made no plans to look for another site, she said.

A financial study that accompanied the environmental impact report for the project, released last month, estimated that the Sony expansion would generate a net income of $1.3 million each year to the city in utility, business and sales taxes. The report deducts city services that would be used by the project--such as police and fire--to arrive at the figure.

In addition, the project would bring $6 million in developer fees, commercial taxes and contributions to the city’s public arts program.

The revenue is enticing to a city that, according to head finance administrator Bob Norquist, is facing a projected $3.4-million deficit for the 1992-93 fiscal year.

Vera, owner of Sorrento Italian Market, and Alexander have emphasized the city’s struggling economy in their campaigns, and have accused Gourley and Boulgarides of fostering an atmosphere that is hostile to business. City officials estimate that businesses generate 73% of the city’s revenues and consume a far smaller share of city services.

The Vera and Alexander pro-business themes appear to have attracted considerable financial support for their campaigns. As of the end of March, Vera led the pack in money raised ($28,586) and spent ($21,761). Alexander followed with $21,012 raised. The other candidates had raised less than $10,800 each.

Of all present council members, Gourley, an attorney, and Boulgarides, a management professor at Cal State Los Angeles, have been generally the most skeptical in their approach to new development. Both voted against the Marina Place regional shopping mall, for example, saying it needed more study.

Although Vera has been criticized during the campaign for being vague about whether he would apply the height limit to the Sony plan, he sounded a strongly pro-Sony tone when asked about it in an interview.

“We are going to make sure they know we appreciate their presence in Culver City,” he said of his goals if elected. “They may not get all of what they ask for, but by God, they’re going to get what they need to be successful.”

Gourley, Boulgarides and Welinsky say their main goal is to represent the community.

“The issue isn’t the height limit,” Gourley said. “It’s opening up city government.”

Gourley said he ran in 1988 to break up an “old-boy network” that didn’t listen to residents.

The height limit debate took a new turn at the March 23 council meeting when initiative co-author Robin Turner said a loophole was purposely included in case of emergencies.

Up to that point, Turner maintained that the late Richard Pachtman, a former councilman and the attorney who drafted the initiative, clearly intended to limit buildings in all instances, except for schools, churches and hospitals.

“If something (came along) that is so good,” she said, “like we would be like Tombstone, Ariz., if we didn’t take it, there was a loophole. It was intended as a loophole.”

Turner could not recall exactly what the loophole was, but said she was sure that it had nothing to do with redevelopment areas.

Turner’s remarks raised eyebrows, including those of Balkman.

“If they made this provision to consider a beneficial project,” he said later, “well, isn’t that what we’re doing?”

The Sony project is in the midst of a 55-day review period of its environmental report, which began March 19. After that, it must be approved by the Planning Commission and the City Council.

To illustrate the trade-offs between building height and open space, Sony also developed a plan that would meet the 56-foot height limit. Structures deemed historically significant by the city, such as the water tower and 1930s bungalows on the northeast part of the lot, would be torn down if the height limit is applied to the project, Sony officials said. Proposed buildings would flatten out, filling open space, spilling out to property lines, eliminating landscaping around the studio and blocking views into the studio.

Cline said she was not convinced that the 56-foot limit was the overriding concern of the community.

In two Sony-sponsored public meetings held since the environmental report was released, residents mainly talked about traffic and the proposed helipads. The height limit “was mentioned almost in passing,” she said.