Ventura Boulevard Funding Shift Supported

Property owners’ share of the bill for Ventura Boulevard improvements would be cut from nearly 90% to about half under a report adopted by a Ventura Boulevard planning board, with government funds making up the difference.

The Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan Review Board, meeting in Van Nuys on Tuesday, approved the report, which calls for property owners to pay for 52% of the plan’s budget and for Los Angeles city and other governmental agency funds to pay 48%.

The plan provides for widening intersections, building parking structures, running community shuttles and revamping pedestrian walkways

The report will be sent to the city Planning Commission and the City Council. On Feb. 10, the board submitted a draft of the report to the Planning Commission recommending that the commission scale back the goals of the Specific Plan and reduce costs from $220 million to $100.3 million. The commission agreed to consider the recommendations, which affect Ventura Boulevard between Woodland Hills and Studio City.

The report calls for public funds to come from federal, state and local sources such as state highway funds, Propositions A and C, the city of Los Angeles and permit parking districts along Ventura Boulevard.

“It’s not fair to charge property owners on Ventura Boulevard to pay for all the improvements,” board chairman Jeff Brain said.

Another recommendation calls for the elimination of “trip fees”--a charge to business owners based on each afternoon car trip that planners estimate their property generates. The report recommended charging business owners a certain rate per square foot of internal building space instead.

“We found (trip fees) to be a disincentive to doing business on the boulevard,” Brain said.

The board, which was appointed by the City Council, is made up of owners and residents of property along and near Ventura Boulevard.