Planning Commission Approves Village Center Development

After hearing more than seven hours of often fervent testimony on the Village Center Westwood project, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve the retail and theater development.

Opponents vowed that they would file a suit to block the project, which must still earn the City Council’s approval.

A morning crowd of more than 200 people had thinned to a few dozen by the time the three Planning Commission members in attendance approved the 469,000-square-foot project.

Speakers opposed to the project voiced objections to the conversion of Glendon Avenue to a pedestrian mall. They said the development provides inadequate parking, and they questioned whether the project’s below street level main plaza would attract visitors.

Those in favor of the project, including City Councilman Mike Feuer, whose district includes Westwood, said the project would bring valuable services to the village and reinvigorate the area’s drooping commercial sector.

“The project in its current form offers a number of very important benefits to Westwood Village at a moment when Westwood needs the revitalization it promises,” Feuer said after the commission vote. “They can’t do what they want to do,” said Laura Lake of the Save Westwood Village group.