Residents Oppose Shopping Center Project : Development: Activists fear site to be anchored by Home Depot would attract congestion and day laborers. Hardware chain pledges sensitivity to area plan.

In this season of returning gifts, Tom McArdle and Claudia Haas would like to return a shopping center project sent by Mayor Richard Riordan and Councilman Hal Bernson.

Although McArdle and Haas admit that many in their Granada Hills neighborhood might make good use of the gift--considering that hardware giant Home Depot probably will anchor the center at Chatsworth Street and Zelzah Avenue--a growing number of residents near the site say the development will only draw traffic and day laborers to a community that doesn’t want either.

“I’m not saying Home Depot is an evil monster,” McArdle said. “But go look at the one at Roscoe and Balboa (in Van Nuys) and think about what that would look like down the block from you.”

After learning of the proposal just days before Christmas, residents like Haas and McArdle are scrambling to organize opposition to the project, which would convert the current Coast Federal Bank administrative headquarters into a shopping center.

“I believe the city and the developers geared this meeting for holiday time,” Haas said. The Los Angeles City Planning Commission hearing on Dec. 21 came a day after Riordan announced Coast Federal was buying part of the shuttered Hughes Aircraft facility in Canoga Park, an event he hailed as a triumph of his business-retention agenda.

City officials say there was no effort to railroad the Home Depot proposal past residents during the holidays.

“The last thing the community needs is a vacant building,” said Greig Smith, legislative deputy for Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, referring to the Coast Federal site.

Besides, the Coast Federal facility once was a retail outlet and is zoned for commercial use, Smith noted. “Actually, they could go in and start selling things today,” he said.

Rocky Delgadillo, head of the mayor’s Office of Economic Development, confirmed that his office helped Coast obtain a new tenant in Granada Hills, as part of the broader objective of keeping Coast in the Valley. He said the new Home Depot would generate 500 jobs.

“We’re hoping the community will support our efforts at job creation, and our effort to keep businesses in the area is part of that,” Delgadillo said.

Coast Federal still is negotiating with Home Depot, which would purchase two-thirds of the site. Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. would develop the remaining third, said Marc Wane, assistant general counsel for Coast Federal.

“This is not going to be your typical Home Depot,” Wane said. “This will be consistent with the Granada Hills plan.” The building will be set back from the street, built in a Spanish Colonial Revival style, and developers will widen adjacent streets to accommodate traffic, Wane said.

The transaction hinges on obtaining a zoning change that would allow the buyers to tear down the warehouse-style structure already on the site and rebuild, Wane said.

McArdle and Haas said they appreciate Bernson and Riordan’s intentions to replace the bank administration facility. But they prefer a less intensive business than Home Depot.

The city Planning Commission is scheduled to take up the issue in January, after which there will be additional opportunities for appeal.

Haas and McArdle welcome the chance. “We just think homeowners were not given adequate time to review this project,” Haas said.