Ventura Boulevard Plan Finally Brought in Balance : Revisions help entice businesses and protect residents

It took nearly a decade, but Ventura Boulevard finally has a sensible plan to handle growth along a 17-mile stretch between Studio City and Woodland Hills. Five years after it was initially adopted, the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan was revised last week by the Los Angeles City Council--making it friendlier to businesses but no less protective of the residential neighborhoods that abut the Valley’s “Main Street.”

Begun during the building boom of the 1980s, the plan was envisioned as a way to control the kind of inappropriate development that overwhelmed the boulevard’s neighbors and overloaded its intersections. Optimistic planners and residents assumed that developers would still flock to the boulevard in spite of the restrictive limits on building sizes and exorbitant traffic fees established by the plan.

But even before the City Council passed the plan in 1991, the economic engine driving growth on the boulevard began to sputter. By the time it took effect, few were prepared--or even able--to foot the bill for the $222 million in improvements called for by the plan. Property owners and developers sued to keep from paying fees that ran as high as $800,000.

Just as the backlash against the plan hit its most furious point, city officials acknowledged that the plan included errors that overestimated the cost of improvements by as much as $74 million. About the same time, it became apparent that the old strategy of forcing eager developers to pay for public improvements would no longer work. Speculative financing dried up and the boulevard no longer looked as attractive as it had just a few years before. Instead of simply waiting for developers to come and pay, city officials were out courting business.

All the while, the boulevard foundered.

The revised plan recognizes this new economic climate. It takes a middle course that both protects the character of Ventura Boulevard and ensures that it will remain one of the Valley’s most economically vibrant strips. The vision of the plan was scaled back to accomplish more modest--but nonetheless important--projects such as the widening of intersections and the construction of new parking.

Consequently, the building fees charged developers have been cut--from an average of $11.43 per square foot to $2.75 per square foot. Additional improvements are to be funded by assessment districts established by the business and property owners themselves, which gives them more say over how to spend it. At the same time, the plan stands firm on limits of building height and bulk, capping buildings at three or four stories.

Neighbors, developers and city officials all helped draft the revisions, and their influences surface throughout. Such compromise and cooperation were the critical ingredients missing from earlier versions of the plan. But as Councilwoman Laura Chick said at the plan’s passage: “This represents a true and good compromise and a good plan for Ventura Boulevard.” Indeed it does. Now it’s time to make it work.