SHERMAN OAKS : Market Expansion Meets With Approval

A popular Sherman Oaks market that for years has been the target of neighbors’ complaints about its overflow parking and evening deliveries, has won approval from the city to expand its operation--and will do so with the blessing of some of its critics.

Restrictions under the expansion plan will help rather than heighten the parking problem at Trader Joe’s market on Riverside Drive near Hazeltine Avenue in Sherman Oaks.

“It’s pretty much going to be to everybody’s benefit,” said Michael Galliano, manager of the market. “We’re expanding, and we’re trying to make it aesthetically pleasing to the people around us.”

Galliano said that in addition to a 2,000-square-foot expansion, plans call for a landscaped 50-space parking lot and an 8-foot-high brick wall that will serve as a buffer between the market and neighboring houses on Stansbury Avenue.

“It’s a win-win situation,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “The market is allowed to expand and the city is able to impose some regulations that will improve problems in the neighborhood.”

Despite complaints about the market’s parking and noise for nearly a decade, there was nothing that could be done, Close said.

“There was no way to deal with it because they were operating legally,” he said. “But the request for an expansion gave the city a chance to impose some conditions.

“No one appealed it,” he said. “It’s very unusual for no one to appeal.”

Galliano said he hopes work will begin in July and estimated it will take about two to four months to complete.