Updated Community Plan to Be Unveiled

Area residents will get their first look at a completed update of the Van Nuys-North Sherman Oaks Community Plan when it is unveiled today at a meeting of the city Planning Commission.

The Community Plan update is designed to identify outdated land-use issues, correct inconsistent zoning designations and revise plan descriptions and plan maps.

The Planning Department’s goal in updating the plan--adopted in 1977--is to ensure that it reflects development patterns already existing, city planner Ron Maben said, and not to arbitrarily change existing zoning designations.

A cluster of commercial businesses at Van Nuys Boulevard and Oxnard Street, for instance, are operating in an area now zoned for industrial manufacturing, Maben said. Under the proposed updated plan, the zoning designation would change to community commercial to reflect the current use.

But that recommendation has drawn fire from residents who complain that more commercial development would only add to the blight along Van Nuys Boulevard.

“The general consensus of residents is that there is an industrial base already in the area that needs to be supported,” said Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners’ Assn.

“The industrial area is close to single-family homes,” Schultz said. “Commercial businesses like bars, strip malls and restaurants will leave residents [vulnerable] to late-night noise. That’s not something you generally get with industrial businesses.”

Schultz also complained the Community Plan does not address the central problems contributing to the demise of the boulevard: swap meets, pawn shops and adult bookstores that he said line the thoroughfare and attract drugs, crime and gangs.

Staff members will present their recommendations to the Planning Commission when it meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sherman Oaks Woman’s Club, 4808 Kester Ave.