TARZANA : Plan Monkeys With Boulevard Redesign

If Greg Nelson has his way, you might be spending your Saturday afternoons hanging out on a boulder, cafe latte in hand, in the cool shade of a tipu tree while admiring the view of elephants and the markedly reduced traffic in Tarzana along Ventura Boulevard.

It’s just one component of the Streetscapes project aimed at revamping Ventura Boulevard. Nelson, an architect who helped develop the proposed plan with other community leaders, says it would bring throngs of pedestrians to the boulevard’s shops and eateries in Tarzana.

Tarzana residents will have an opportunity to view and comment on the plan at 7 p.m. today, when the Tarzana Streetscape Committee holds a community meeting at the Tarzana Recreation Center, 5655 Vanalden Ave.

The Streetscape panel is a subcommittee of the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan Review Board, which is holding similar meetings in communities from Woodland Hills to Studio City. Board members hope that, in this way, residents will be able to have a say in city planners’ plans for landscaping Ventura Boulevard, a project expected to cost $17 million.

The plan for a pedestrian-friendly Tarzana borrows ideas from the highly successful Old Town Pasadena and Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, but with a definitive Tarzana twist. Because Tarzana was named after the vine-swinging Lord of the Apes created by one of the community’s earlier residents, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Nelson believes the Tarzan connection is a “very sellable commodity.”

Danton Burroughs, the novelist’s grandson and a Ventura Boulevard businessman, is enthusiastic about the proposal.

“I love the idea of giving the community an interesting jungle image,” said Burroughs, who would like to see full-grown trees planted around the neighborhood.

To produce a jungle-like atmosphere, Nelson suggested “putting sculptures of endangered species sporadically around” and placing metal silhouettes of monkeys in the trees. Nelson said he enjoys the idea of people, in making plans to rendezvous in Tarzana, saying to each other: “I’ll meet you at the giraffe.”

Nelson said he would like to see many artists participating in building these life-size animals. And to combat vandalism against these creatures, Nelson already has plans to have them built out of natural materials, which can be sandblasted clean if covered with graffiti.

Giant boulders will replace park benches, according to Nelson, not only out of novelty, but because they will be difficult to sleep on.

“It’s goofy,” admits Nelson, “but it brings a smile to people’s faces when they think about it.”