Ventura Blvd. Faces a Long Road Back : Planning: Widening dispute illuminates decline of Valley’s ‘Main Street.’

Shoppers no longer compare this stretch of Ventura Boulevard to the hip environs of Melrose Avenue.

No wonder. What five years ago was a bustling, neon-splashed promenade is now a half-deserted row of broken, empty buildings.

While the recession and the Northridge earthquake have dealt the neighborhood cruel blows, they are not totally to blame. A slew of more complex and subtle forces have converged gradually over the past several years to help suck the area into a whirlpool of decline.

Boulevard decision-makers face issues involving parking, street widening, sidewalk improvements and building renovations--which, by themselves, seem straightforward.

Taken together, however, they create an almost unmanageable morass of competing ideas that, if left unresolved, bodes ill for the boulevard’s future.

Add to that social trends difficult to define, let alone solve--such as a fickle public abandoning one trendy hot spot for the next.

A citizens group charged with carrying out a long-term blueprint for growth is trying to sift through the problems of this 18-mile street that spans the San Fernando Valley from Studio City to Woodland Hills.

At a raucous meeting earlier this week, it became apparent that every issue--no matter how simple--gets tangled with every other. And about the only point of agreement seems the recognition that sorting out the mess and reviving the boulevard will be a big job.

As the debates raged around the conference table, one person attending the meeting expressed the frustration felt by many.

So far, he said, “it’s like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Merchants and city officials are working to make this stretch of the boulevard an attractive destination again--to replicate the buzz now surrounding the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica and Old Town in Pasadena.

At stake is more than just civic pride. Most people acknowledge that the street serves as an economic lifeline for the Valley. If Ventura Boulevard is healthy, the San Fernando Valley is healthy. Its shops generate millions of dollars every year in jobs and taxes. And its evolution affects not only merchants but residents.

The citizens committee’s discussion this week, for example, focused on whether to widen a stretch of Ventura, west of Van Nuys Boulevard, to add another left-turn lane. The city required the widening by developers of the La Reina Fashion Plaza to accommodate traffic created by new shoppers.

That was eight years ago. The money to do the road work has remained in an escrow account while city officials and local residents argue over the project. In the meantime, La Reina operates under temporary permits until it can complete the job.

Engineer Allyn Rifkin of the Department of Transportation suggested several plans that would widen the north side of the boulevard. The widening would also take a 5-foot bite out of the street’s 15-foot-wide sidewalk.

Architect Jeff Kalban, who is trying to encourage pedestrians and beautify the neighborhood with decorative street lamps and benches, said the change would destroy the small-town flavor of the strip.

“We’re ruining an already ugly environment,” Kalban said. “If you take away 5 feet of sidewalk, you have nothing left.”

Shopkeepers also complained that making the sidewalk narrower would drive away customers. One property owner who already has two vacant shops said a third tenant has said he too will leave if the street is widened.

On the other hand, merchants and residents recognize they will also suffer if it is difficult to drive through the business district. And if the shops along the strip begin to fail, most agree it is only a matter of time until the larger community suffers as well.

The debate is meant to be guided by the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan, a city blueprint for development over the next 20 years. The plan is supposed to encourage more people to walk along the street as well as remedy its notorious traffic snarls.

But not even a blueprint can easily settle matters on the boulevard.

Of the three widening plans presented by transportation officials, two would take away parking spaces from merchants, who already face stiff requirements under the boulevard’s Specific Plan.

Without enough parking, new businesses cannot open. And there are few places to put new parking because Ventura Boulevard is lined on both sides by pricey residential real estate.

The lack of parking is a factor often cited in the decline of Westwood. And popular areas such as the Third Street Promenade and Old Town Pasadena have more accessible parking.

Meanwhile, the La Reina center is struggling to keep its two major tenants, The Gap and Banana Republic clothing stores, both of which were damaged in the quake. Sources say the retailers--which are owned by the same company--are reluctant to return to the center.

Gap executives and La Reina management declined to talk about the stores.

The presence of the two stores on the boulevard is important to local merchants because they draw shoppers from throughout the Valley. The Banana Republic store, for instance, was the only one of the chain’s outlets in the Valley.

Merchants figure that if shoppers come to the neighborhood to visit Banana Republic, they are likely to stroll about and drop in at smaller shops such as the Handmade crafts gallery and the Bead Club jewelry store.

Another blow to merchants would be the departure of Waldenbooks, which is trying to sublease its space because of sluggish business.

Executives at two other popular boulevard stops, the Johnny Rockets hamburger joint and the Sharper Image boutique, have said they will return to their Vesper Street corner as soon as the landlord finishes repairing the building.

But some small-store owners say they cannot wait that long. Already, some owners of quake-damaged buildings have sold out for dimes on the dollar, leaving crumbling, empty buildings in the heart of Sherman Oaks.

Rents along the boulevard in Sherman Oaks have dropped so far in recent years--from $3 a square foot in some places to $1--that some landlords are unwilling or unable to make repairs necessary to attract new tenants or keep existing ones.

In addition, many of the buildings are more than 40 years old, making them unattractive to prospective tenants. Even before the quake, newer facilities with modern utilities and ample parking were renting for the same price in other parts of the Valley.

And unlike the architectural flair that defines Old Town Pasadena, most of Ventura Boulevard through Sherman Oaks is lined with nondescript, single-story boxes punctuated here and there by glass-faced office buildings.

Some planners and urban designers question whether Sherman Oaks will ever recover the allure it held during the 1980s. The nature of trendy areas, they say, is that they often wither as quickly as they blossomed.

“Third Street 10 years from now might be empty,” said planning consultant Woodie Tescher.