NORTHRIDGE : Vons Works Toward Approval of Market
The Vons Companies Inc. has begun the process of obtaining approval for a 50,000-square-foot Pavilions Place supermarket at 19500 Plummer St., part of a long-planned shopping center that is finally edging toward construction.
A city zoning administrator will review Vons’ request for a conditional-use permit to sell alcohol at the site at a hearing Monday at 2 p.m. in the Van Nuys Woman’s Club, 14836 Sylvan St., Van Nuys.
The occasion is the first public hearing in several years involving the once-controversial shopping center, which is scheduled to replace a vacant hardware store on the nine-acre site near the Northridge Fashion Center.
Northridge Pavilion Associates, a Sun Valley partnership, battled for years to build a $50-million shopping center on the site. A zone change was finally approved in 1991 after the developer agreed to drop a controversial plan to include a movie theater in the complex, said Phyllis Winger, planning deputy of 12th District City Councilman Hal Bernson.
Last year, the partnership signed lease agreements with Vons and the Sports Connection health club. The shopping center is expected to have two or more levels and 246,366 square feet for shops. The hardware store will be demolished, said Jeff Pool, city zoning analyst.
Julie Reynolds, spokeswoman for Vons, said construction on the market is scheduled to begin in mid-1994. The opening is planned for early 1995. The store will be geared toward upscale customers, she said. According to planning documents, it will be open 24 hours a day.
Although some neighbors objected to the shopping center in previous years, Winger said the removal of the theater from the plans may have blunted the sting for opponents.
Don Worsham, secretary-treasurer of PRIDE, a north San Fernando Valley homeowners group, said he expects little opposition to the project.
“We are talking about an area that’s already been commercially built out for many years. It should go through pretty smoothly,” he said.
