Nth Degree of NIMBYism

From all the ruckus, you’d think that the separate projects being protested in Malibu and West Los Angeles were malls full of big-box discount stores with acres of asphalt and tons of traffic--or worse.

Actually, the anger of Malibu neighbors of the Getty Villa is directed at blocking renovations that include adding a small hillside amphitheater where Greek and Roman dramas would be staged in the summers. No fireworks, no rock ‘n’ roll. And in West Los Angeles, nearby homeowners are objecting to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s plans to install two donated jungle gyms on its play yard for the 180 children of the temple’s elementary school.

What’s going on here? That these two projects could fuel strong, vocal opposition speaks volumes about the failure of meaningful urban planning in Los Angeles, a failure that has spawned knee-jerk resistance to even worthy changes.

For years in Los Angeles, developers did essentially what they pleased. Another strip mall? Go right ahead, zoning officials said from their distant perches in City Hall. A humongous discount store? Certainly. More billboards? No problem. Neighbors often got their say late in the game, if at all.

The new city charter tries to bring land-use decisions closer to the ground, through advisory neighborhood councils and seven area planning commissions staffed by local residents. The councils will encourage residents to air their concerns long before the bulldozers arrive and the now-operating area planning commissions actually pass on projects. But it’s little wonder that many homeowner groups have organized and lawyered up; they’ve learned to petition and fill hearing rooms, and, when that fails, they aren’t shy about suing, stopping worthy projects along with the ugly and out-sized ones.

The Getty Villa is a sad case in point. Closed since 1997 when the Getty Center in Brentwood opened, the Villa was slated for a $150-million make-over to shore up the old building, better display the museum’s famed antiquities collection, add needed office space and increase visitor parking. The modest amphitheater, already downsized from the original plan, would allow staging of classical dramas to complement the antiquities inside. But neighbors are worrying about noise and traffic.

After months of hearings, negotiations with homeowners and many changes, the City Council last December approved the Villa’s plan, including the theater. That’s when the Malibu neighbors filed suit, contending that the amphitheater would violate area zoning. Earlier this month, a Superior Court judge agreed, essentially stopping the project cold, pending appeal. In the meantime, one of this city’s major cultural resources stays shuttered.

The Wilshire Boulevard Temple is an even stranger case of NIMBY (not in my backyard) sentiment. There, neighbors object to the installation of jungle gyms on already existing playgrounds for children already attending the school. The jungle gyms are obviously the focus for broader frustration over increased noise in the neighborhood, some of which emanates from the school and some, no doubt, from the roaring traffic along Olympic Boulevard and Barrington Avenue, bordering the school. The school, already surrounded by an 8-foot-high sound fence, is willing to do more to cut noise, and zoning officials are expected to rule on the jungle gyms in the coming weeks.

Los Angeles long ago ceased to be the quiet suburbia of the 1950s, where wide lawns insulated ranch houses. As we rub elbows with our neighbors in this increasingly noisy, crowded and too often poorly planned city, residents are losing the ability to distinguish between thoughtful projects with benefits beyond their neighborhood and those that truly do erode the quality of life. The hope is that the new area planning commissions and the neighborhood councils now forming will begin to generate the trust and constructive dialogue that this city badly needs.