Venice’s Channel Gateway Development

In my view, newly elected state Assemblywoman Debra Bowen is a developer’s representative who masqueraded as an environmentalist in order to get elected. Bowen is a central figure in the promotion of the Channel Gateway development, the largest project ever approved in Venice. I am a former member of the Venice Town Council board and have observed Bowen closely for years .

In 1989, Councilwoman Ruth Galanter selected a group of five Venice residents to act as if it were “the community” in discussions with the developer of Channel Gateway, Jerome Snyder. The group, which included Bowen, consisted of Galanter’s inner circle of supporters.

The discussions with Snyder led to a number of agreements, including a promise by Snyder to fund a beach shuttle. In return for the beach shuttle and other commitments, Galanter supported exempting Channel Gateway from her own Interim Control Ordinance. The exemption allowed Channel Gateway to soar into the sky.

Subsequently, Bowen helped form the Venice Resources Corporation for the purpose of providing the beach shuttle, and went to battle for Channel Gateway. She appeared at two Planning Department hearings and praised the project. As the attorney for the Venice Town Council and a group called COAST, she filed two lawsuits to stop Marina Place, a project in Culver City which threatened to compete with Channel Gateway. She successfully urged the Coastal Commission to join in those suits.

In August, 1990, Bowen flew to Eureka to attend the Coastal Commission’s hearing on Channel Gateway. At the hearing, Bowen spoke on behalf of Arnold Springer, a former Venice activist who had also been selected by Galanter to talk with Snyder in 1989. Springer’s Ulan Bator Foundation took $200,000 from Snyder in lieu of proceeding with an alleged lawsuit to pare down Channel Gateway.

Springer gave at least $12,000 to Bowen’s COAST lawsuit, using funds received from Snyder. Bowen, who helped arrange the deal between Springer and Snyder, received another $15,000 from Snyder for her services.

Channel Gateway and the new “city” of Playa Vista--Ruth Galanter’s raison d’etre --hang over this community like the blade of guillotine. We will be buried by these projects. Debra Bowen is a promoter and beneficiary of this disaster.

STEVE SCHLEIN

Venice