Home Store to Present Scaled-Back Plans

In response to criticism from residents, Home Depot has scaled back plans for a new store to be built on Roscoe Boulevard at Woodley Avenue.

At a meeting of the Los Angeles Planning Department to be held Monday in Sherman Oaks, company officials will present a more modest plan, said spokeswoman Amy Friend. Revised plans call for the store’s proposed square footage of 121,000 to be reduced to 105,000. Developers also said they have dropped plans to invite other retail businesses such as gas stations and fast-food restaurants to occupy adjacent storefronts.

The company still intends to relocate its existing store at Roscoe and Balboa boulevards to the new site, which they say will offer more parking and modern amenities than the present, 8-year-old location.

Home Depot is in escrow on the new site, pending city approval of the project. After consideration by the Planning Department, the proposal will be brought before the City Council.

Many residents have voiced opposition to the development, saying a larger store with adjoining retail services will snarl traffic and attract crowds of day laborers soliciting work from customers and contractors.

The change in plans “was, in part, in response to what some of the residents are saying,” Friend said. “But the [existing] store, just by virtue of being old, isn’t as efficient as we’d like it to be.”

Dex Morris, a North Hills resident and organizer of people opposed to the project, expressed little relief over the changes.

“If you look at it, you’re still looking at pumping a lot of traffic into an area that already can’t handle it,” he said. “Traffic is still the key issue.”

Morris said he plans to pursue legal action if the store’s plan is approved.

“I told [Home Depot real estate manager] Greg George that if we have to, we’re going to get bloody on this,” Morris said.

Monday’s meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Sherman Oaks Woman’s Club, 4808 Kester Ave.