Zoning: Defeat of Barrington Plaza Project

Westsiders owe Los Angeles City Council members Marvin Braude and Laura Chick a tremendous debt of gratitude for their disapproval of the proposed plan amendment and zoning change requested by the owner of the Barrington Plaza Apartments. As a result, Los Angeles retains the integrity of its community-designed Westside Plan. Westsiders should also be very grateful to their neighbors in the Hillside Federation, the Brentwood Homeowners Assn., the Pacific Palisades Community Council, the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation and others who worked so hard to protect the community’s plan by fighting the apartment project.

REGINE WOOD

Los Angeles

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Everyone I know thinks it is a shame that The Times failed to mention Jack Allen in the Dec. 15 story about the defeat of the 30-story Barrington Plaza project in the Los Angeles City Council. He was one of the five designated persons who spoke against the project. Everyone agrees that Mr. Allen, a retired city attorney and a member of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, played a very substantial role in stopping Mayor (Richard) Riordan’s pet project.

Mr. Allen’s masterful three-minute presentation to the council did in the developer. He argued that as a matter of law the city could not approve the project, because the council could not make a finding required by the law that the streets and highways in the vicinity of the project could accommodate the added traffic from the project. In colorful graphics, he showed that based on the project (Environmental Impact Report), 16 of the 17 intersections on Wilshire and around the project failed during peak hours, and that prevented the council from making the required finding.

His presentation not only helped solidify Councilman Braude’s side, it convinced the developer that if the council approved the project and Mr. Allen challenged the project in court as he had threatened to do, the developer would lose. As reported in The Times, the developer withdrew the project because of his fear of litigation.

We in the Westside owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Allen, who on his own time and at his own expense helped save us from what would have been a disastrous project.

SILVIA SIEGEL

Brentwood