Critics Balk at Stacking Retail Giants
Residents of the Mid-City section of Los Angeles have long wanted more local shopping opportunities.
Now, some may be getting a lot more than they bargained for, with an unusual multilevel proposal that would stack a Home Depot hardware giant above a Costco warehouse store and a major bus station.
That ambitious plan, which also would include restaurants, a rental storage facility and a 1,478-space parking structure, is proposed for a triangular 12-acre plot between Pico, San Vicente/Venice and West boulevards.
Project developers and supporting city officials laud the plans for a mammoth shopping center, which they say would generate $1.9 million in annual taxes and about 600 jobs.
Many local residents initially welcomed the $80-million project, which would be dubbed “Pico Plaza.” But the enthusiasm of half a dozen neighborhood groups has chilled after more than a year of difficult negotiations with the developer over such issues as scale and traffic.
They have requested that the developer, LCOR Public/Private Inc., reduce the building’s height from the proposed 71 feet at one section, replace the rental storage facility with businesses more suited to community needs, and more aggressively limit the effects of traffic. They contend that the developer has largely ignored those concerns.
“We certainly welcome them to our neighborhood,” said Ron Johnson, president of the Lafayette Park Neighborhood Assn.--one of five such groups that formed a Pico Plaza coalition in response to the project. “But they seemed bound and determined to put a store in that meets their needs, not ours.”
For LCOR, Pico Plaza is a chance to build a discount retail island in a residential sea that has no large-scale name-brand stores within walking distance.
About $8.9 million in city redevelopment grants and loans is earmarked for the plaza, which is only the second attempt in the nation to stack the two superstores in a single building. The first was approved by New York City officials three years ago for Harlem but extra funding needed for a parking garage has kept it on hold.
The development would provide more than 275,000 square feet for the two big stores, plus room for a McDonald’s and a spot for what residents hope will be the area’s first full-service restaurant in years.
An MTA bus transfer station, which now sits on part of the otherwise vacant property and is a major transfer point between Santa Monica and Los Angeles bus lines, also would be incorporated into the plaza in a manner yet to be determined. A separate three-story storage facility would also be built.
Experts say the plan’s size and scope are bold for an urban project.
“Without a doubt, this is a large project for an urban in-fill site,” said Larry Kosmont, a real estate and land policy consultant not connected to the plan. “Retail urban in-fill sites are usually two to five acres.”
The builders say they are dismayed by neighbors’ criticism.
“I think there’s mostly either a lack of knowledge of the [development] process or of what development can do for a community,” LCOR Vice President Howard Samuels said of the impasse in talks with the coalition.
To many residents in and around the neighborhoods of Victory Park, 16th Place, Longwood, Lafayette Square and Wellington Square, the plaza would bring the kind of prices and variety that the pawnshop, printer and other small stores in the area lack.
But concerns about traffic and the effects on the quality of local life have been the subject of several meetings between LCOR and residents over the last year. More recently, city officials have started hearings on the plan.
“People have gone to quite an extent to try to sway decision makers,” city zoning official Dan Green said.
In February, at a packed four-hour public hearing, about 100 people spoke of concerns ranging from billboards to business hours, Green said. And the city planning office has received as many as 70 letters and e-mails detailing concerns.
On Monday, Green is scheduled to make his recommendation to the city Planning Commission about the project. After another public hearing 10 days later, the panel will decide to accept, reject or amend the plans.
At the center of the debate is the $350,000 that resident groups said LCOR should deposit into a Neighborhood Traffic Protection Plan fund to finance traffic signals, stop signs and speed bumps to help regulate the expected surge of vehicles.
Residents say the figure was derived by surveying protection plans for similar city projects
But Samuels said that the amount is arbitrary and that $75,000, plus other available funds in city coffers, will be enough to pay for four speed bumps, a blinking red traffic signal and a traffic island, which he described as all that’s needed.
Residents of nearby Rimpau Boulevard, fearing that their quiet street would become a feeder into the mall’s Pico Boulevard entrance, formed the Rimpau Neighborhood Alliance earlier this month.
“Our main stance now is we don’t want the traffic on Rimpau,” said alliance member Maggie Parr.
According to John German, president of the Victory Park Neighborhood Assn., the traffic concerns also include LCOR’s plan to a use West Boulevard entrance as a delivery truck route. Green in February suggested that LCOR change that portion of the plan.
Alliance and coalition members also criticize the project’s 71-foot height at one section at the lower western slope of the property.
Samuels said it would be financially unfeasible to reduce the buildings’ size or design much.
After the April 12 hearing, either side can appeal the commission’s decision to the City Council.
Councilman Nate Holden, who represents the area, generally supports the project, which involves one of 21 sites targeted by the Genesis L.A. redevelopment initiative.
