GRANADA HILLS : Bank Won’t Sell Site to Home Depot
A controversial proposal to build a Home Depot in Granada Hills at the corner of Chatsworth Street and Zelzah Avenue has been scuttled.
Property owner Coast Federal Bank announced Thursday that it had halted negotiations to sell two-thirds of the site to Home Depot. The chain would have been the anchor store in a proposed shopping center.
In a written statement, bank Chairman Ray Martin said, “While we believe that Home Depot would have been an excellent choice for the property and a good neighbor to Granada Hills residents, we were unable to come to terms on some important contract issues, as well as some significant concerns expressed by Councilman Hal Bernson regarding the Home Depot use.”
Martin added that the bank will honor Bernson’s request that it not sell or lease the land to a “Home Depot/Home Base type store.”
Neighbors had complained that the proposed project would clog nearby roads, create traffic hazards for students at Granada Hills High School and attract crowds of loitering day laborers.
The property owner’s proposal to divide the land into four parcels for future retail development remains alive, however, and will go before the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee on Tuesday.
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