GM Site Deal Deserves Support
For many, the big question about plans to develop the site of the old General Motors plant in Panorama City has been safety. The ambitious $100-million project sits in one of the most notorious neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley, a place plagued by gangs and drugs. Although still not answered completely, the safety question eased last week with the unveiling of plans to build a $10-million police and fire complex amid the project’s shops and offices.
In addition to boosting a project that promises to revitalize the heart of the Valley, the complex should alleviate crowding at the Van Nuys police station, provide better Fire Department coverage for nearby neighborhoods and set the stage for a possible reorganization that could deliver better police protection from Woodland Hills to Pacoima. And it may help stifle the persistent gripes of secession leaders that the Valley never gets its fair share of city services.
In other words, it’s difficult to find a downside to the complex, which will be built with private money and leased back to the city for 30 years at an annual cost of $250,000. After that, the building would revert to the city. Developers Robert Voit and Dan Selleck rightly recognize the importance of having a police presence in the project--and of helping the city develop a top-notch facility it cannot afford on its own.
The deal requires the blessing of the City Council, which should grant it as a way to help right a number of wrongs. At the very least, it gives a little breathing room to police officers who now sometimes get stuck in the Van Nuys station parking garage because it’s too full. Or it shaves a couple of seconds off fire crew response times in Panorama City, Arleta and Van Nuys. But it also gives the Los Angeles Police Department breathing room to mull a plan by Chief Bernard Parks to split the administrative duties of the overburdened Valley Bureau--a proposal that could give greater flexibility to division captains and field sergeants. With additional space, the plan has a better chance of working.
Ultimately, though, the public safety complex would be the capstone of efforts to turn around the neighborhoods along what was once the Valley’s main commercial drag--Van Nuys Boulevard. Together with a plan to refurbish the Van Nuys Civic Center and the opening of a new Wal-Mart at the Panorama Mall, the redevelopment of the old General Motors plant is a sign that the area’s long-sputtering economic engine is slowly revving back to life.
