A Plan Gone Right, at Long Last : Though the City Drew the Process Out, Approval of Warner Center Plan Is Appropriate

The Los Angeles City Council appears to have finally gotten it right. We are referring to its approval Wednesday of the Warner Center Specific Plan that will serve as a guide for development and traffic improvements at the 1,100-acre Woodland Hills site. Warner Center already includes 15 million square feet of office space, hotels and apartment complexes and now will be allowed to more than double in size. In its final form, the plan amounts to a reasonable compromise among developers, neighbors, planners and the council.

Neighbors can now be satisfied that new construction will be delayed or halted outright if sufficient traffic and road improvements have not been made to offset expanded business. Unusually severe limitations on development for a site this size, as well as inordinately high costs, have also been removed. That ought to give Warner Center at least a fighting chance to attract new tenants even in these woeful economic times. Moreover, the council has approved a relatively simple way to monitor and enforce the plan’s standards.

The build-out plan, for example, is to occur in stages. At each stage, the City Council must determine that all of the plan’s traffic improvement requirements for that phase have been met. Otherwise no new development may occur. These checkpoints occur at 20.5 million square feet, 26.5 million square feet and 31.5 million square feet. The final build-out can only take place when, and if, Warner Center is linked to Metro Rail and Metrolink commuter lines.

Former 3rd District Councilwoman Joy Picus had originally wanted the council to go too far in the opposite direction, seeking a limit, for example, of 26 million square feet of development. That was rejected by the city’s Planning Commission, whose members rightly contended that Picus’ efforts amounted to a laundry list of suffocating and high-cost restrictions that would have stifled new development. Picus now supports a larger Warner Center.

We must, however, voice one complaint: This plan took eight years to develop, and that is an indefensible amount of time regardless of the final result. What kind of message does that send about how serious the council and the city as a whole are in terms of willingness and ability to welcome new business to their environs? During that period, Warner Center has fought a losing battle to hold on to its tenants. Its 22% vacancy rate can be explained, at least in part, by questions and concerns over what kind of expansion the council would approve, and when.

The plan that the council has finally approved is good enough to serve as a model for the future. Next time, however, we hope it won’t take eight years to get the job done.