Sony Denied Request to Close Madison Avenue : Development: The City Council’s decision, made after hearing protests from the public, stalls studio’s bid to expand.

Building heights and project density are subject to negotiation, but city streets are sacred.

That was the message more than 100 Culver City residents conveyed at a council meeting Monday as they opposed Sony Pictures Studios’ bid to absorb a block-long stretch of Madison Avenue as part of a proposed expansion.

After three hours of overwhelmingly negative public testimony, council members unanimously voted to deny Sony’s request for a 60-day trial closure of the city-owned street from Washington Boulevard to Culver Boulevard. The test would have been the basis for a decision on whether to permanently close the street to vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

Councilman Steve Gourley said Sony must prove that closing the street would greatly benefit the city before he would approve such a test.

“This is literally a situation where you have the cart before the horse,” he said.

The thwarted proposal has stalled the approval process for Sony’s plans to consolidate its far-flung media operations at its 44.8-acre lot in Culver City.

“This was a project that was moving forward with tremendous momentum,” said Mark Winogrond, the city’s director of community development. “It is now delayed by a matter of months because of the Madison Avenue discussion.”

Sony Pictures Entertainment, parent company of TriStar and Columbia Pictures, has a 12-year development plan on the table that would increase office space to 2.6 million square feet, from 1.5 million, by modifying or building new structures. The number of people working at the studio would triple, to 5,804.

The City Council certified an environmental impact report for the project last October. By early January, paving the way for public hearings, the city staff and Sony had worked out a sweeping list of conditions designed to address community concerns over the project’s impact.

The conditions included reductions in building height and in the amount of retail space, and extensive traffic mitigation measures.

The first public hearing before the city’s Planning Commission was scheduled for Jan. 27.

Some plans changed, however, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. announced that it would move its offices to Santa Monica, vacating the Filmland Corporate Center, a ziggurat-shaped, eight-story building across Madison Avenue from the Sony lot.

Sony then decided to occupy and possibly purchase the building. Ken Williams, senior vice president of corporate operations for Sony Pictures Entertainment, said many community concerns over the expansion plan could be resolved by bringing that section of Madison Avenue into Sony’s walls.

Sony’s absorption of the building, which already has been renamed Sony Pictures Plaza, would reduce the need to build office space and would allow Sony to reduce the project’s overall building height and density, Williams said.

It would be necessary to close off Madison Avenue to traffic, he said, because Sony employees will be crossing Madison Avenue in great numbers. Company security concerns would make it necessary to exclude public pedestrian traffic as well.

Other solutions, such as a pedestrian bridge or tunnel, are unsatisfactory, Williams said. A bridge would have to span an area much wider than the street to make the grade gentle enough to be usable by people with disabilities, he said. Underground, there is a large storm drain to deal with.

After the vote, Williams said he planned to study other ways to unify the lot, including a resident’s proposal to open Madison Avenue during non-business hours.

Williams said it was unfortunate that the Madison Avenue proposal was isolated from the expansion plan, making it a “black-and-white” issue.

Much of Sony’s agreement with the city’s list of conditions hinges on the outcome of Madison Avenue, Williams said. A decision to keep Madison a public street would force Sony to treat the plaza as a satellite facility, putting “new pressure back on the main lot in terms of height and density,” he said.

Winogrond predicted that public sentiment will not change.

“Communities don’t relinquish their streets readily,” Winogrond said. “I always thought that Sony had underestimated the importance to the community of Madison.”

Residents voiced several concerns over the possible closure. They predicted that diverted traffic would overload nearby Duquesne and Overland avenues. They pointed out that nearby facilities require street accessibility, notably the fire station, Police Department, City Hall and a hospital.

“Sony is a very large facility that is very difficult to circumnavigate,” one Madison Avenue resident said. “By closing Madison, you’ve denied us a street that we absolutely need.”

A small number of residents spoke in favor of the test closure, saying the city must cooperate with its most important business to maintain a healthy economy.