Panorama City : Meeting to Discuss Plans for Wal-Mart

Possibly coming soon to a drive-in theater near you: Wal-Mart.

A community meeting will be held Monday to discuss plans for building a Wal-Mart discount department store on the site of the Van Nuys Drive-In.

Wal-Mart asked Los Angeles city planners in June to change the zoning for the 14-acre drive-in at Roscoe Boulevard and Noble Avenue. If the project is approved, it would be the first Wal-Mart store in Los Angeles.

The drive-in site is currently zoned to allow construction of apartments and single-family houses and abuts a residential community. To build a retail store there, Wal-Mart would need the city to change the zoning from residential to commercial.

Residents and elected officials have expressed reservations about the plan, saying a 150,000-square-foot department store would increase traffic in a congested area and pose safety concerns for children traveling to and from Noble Avenue Elementary School, about a block away.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Mission Community Hospital conference room, 14850 Roscoe Blvd., Panorama City.