WESTLAKE : Rezoning Urged for 2 Commercial Areas

Blaming inconsistent zoning for hampering economic development, a committee of local residents and property owners have persuaded city planners to consider a zoning change along the Alvarado Street and Wilshire Boulevard commercial corridors.

Some blocks along both streets are zoned for four or five uses, including residential, despite a 1973 community plan for Westlake that designates the areas as retail/commercial, said Tom Coyle, co-chairman of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee for the redevelopment area.

The designation has been an expensive obstacle for potential developers who must apply and pay for a zoning change and sometimes even pay for their own environmental impact statement if all or part of the property is zoned for use other than that of the intended project.

“If we want developers to even take a look at us, we can’t add onto their burden an extra year of processing,” Coyle said. “If we’re going to be friendly to their needs, we can’t stick them with the cost of an EIR up front.”

City Planning Department staff will zone both corridors for commercial use, guided by an environmental impact report now in progress for the Westlake Project Area of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

City planner Roque Nino said Westlake is dotted with small lots. The zoning change would allow developers who need larger properties to group the small lots together without the need for additional expenses and paperwork.

Coyle and his committee believe that attracting commercial developers to Westlake could provide the area with additional jobs and a much-needed economic boost. Although parts of both corridors--such as the stretch of Alvarado adjacent to MacArthur Park--bustle with activity, other stretches lack the retail services needed by the area’s burgeoning population.

“Westlake is the most densely populated neighborhood west of Manhattan Island,” Coyle said. “Its services don’t accommodate the needs of all the people who live here.”

Nino said that a 1989 State Assembly bill required cities with more than 1 million in population to adjust zoning to comply with general community plans. Although much of this has already been done throughout the city, he says some adjustments are still needed.

The Alvarado and Wilshire corridors will likely be zoned to either C4--high-density commercial and retail use allowing for construction up to six stories but not excluding residential use--or C2, similar to C4 but also allowing for automotive-related businesses, such as gas stations or garages, Nino said.

The changes will be considered after the environmental impact report is complete in spring, 1996, he said. The project area being studied encompasses the area bounded by Third Street to the north, Olympic Boulevard to the south, Union Avenue to the east and Lafayette Park Place to the west.