GRANADA HILLS : Neighbors Still Fear Development at Site

Plans to build a Home Depot on Chatsworth Street are dead, but nearby residents say they still fear development of the site could clog the area with traffic.

Those concerns were raised Friday as the City Council approved a zone change that allows Coast Federal Bank, owner of the property, to divide the 16.5-acre site into four parcels to sell to retail businesses.

Last week, Coast announced it was dropping its plans to sell two-thirds of the property to Home Depot, a business that community activists complained would clog nearby streets and increase traffic danger for students at nearby Granada Hills High School.

However, the bank went ahead with its plans to sell its land, site of its administrative headquarters since 1981. The City Council’s decision to rezone the property from commercial and parking uses to just commercial uses cleared the way for Coast to sell its land to as many as four retailers. The site is at the corner of Chatsworth Street and Zelzah Avenue.

Members of the Granada Hills Community Action Committee, a local group formed in December to fight the Home Depot proposal, asked the City Council to put off approving the zone change until an extensive environmental review and a new traffic study are conducted.

“The traffic count was 100% done incorrectly,” claimed William Haas, a member of the committee.

Haas and seven others wore yellow badges that read “Save Granada Hills,” while almost 40 people on the other side of the aisle wore stickers that said, “Retail Center--Yes.” A woman who identified herself as a Coast employee said some of the project’s supporters were Coast employees who live in Granada Hills.

Cindy Sterritt, an attorney representing the project, said the traffic study conducted by Coast was “fully adequate,” as was the city’s finding that the project would not do significant harm to the environment.

Under the zone change approved Friday, developers will be allowed to build structures totaling 210,000 square feet across all four parcels. Previously, the property was zoned for more than 270,000 square feet, according to Coast, of which its headquarters took 195,000 square feet.

Also Friday, the City Council restricted the opening time for shopping center tenants to 8 a.m. or later to limit the impact on early morning school traffic. It did not set a limit for closing time--unlike the council’s Planning and Land Use Management committee, which had recommended that all stores close by 10 p.m.

Councilman Hal Bernson said the city will take another look at the project before granting building permits, and may choose to set a closing time then.