SHERMAN OAKS : Group Seeks Razing of ‘Eyesore’ Buildings

The president of a Sherman Oaks homeowners group on Friday renewed a call for the demolition of a string of vacant buildings that take up a block-long stretch of prime Ventura Boulevard real estate.

“We’re tired of looking at this eyesore,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “We’re anxious to see some action on the part of the developer.”

Close said he was promised by an aide to City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky that the buildings would either be demolished or cleaned up by the end of August.

“We were promised by the council office that this would be taken care of,” Close said. “But so far nothing has been done.”

Yaroslavsky’s planning deputy, Vivian Rescalvo, was not available for comment, nor was an attorney for the builder seeking to redevelop the property.

The site housed the old Scene of the Crime Bookstore development, the subject of a 1991 lawsuit against the city in which a developer contended that the recently passed Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan unfairly halted his development.

The site is now slated for redevelopment as 10,000 square feet of retail space and a 100-unit senior housing complex. In June, Yaroslavsky asked that the buildings in the 13600 block of Ventura Boulevard be destroyed because they attract vagrants and present a health hazard.