PRB Report
– Florence Blecher
PRB is the acronym for Plan Review Board. That’s the group of individuals, appointed by the mayor and relevant council people, who sit on an advisory board that helps oversee the administration of the Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan. The Specific Plan set forth design and other guidelines for the seventeen odd miles of Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard from Woodrow Wilson/Mulholland Drives out to Woodland Hills.
Another aspect of the Specific Plan is the five community/neighborhood streetscape plans that are part of the most recent amendment to the Specific Plan (just approved by City Council 6.19.01). Our area falls under the ‘Streetscape Plan and Design Guidelines for the Neighborhoods of Studio City and Cahuenga Pass.’ This Streetscape Plan is ‘administered’ by two local Design Advisory Committees (DACs) – one for the Cahuenga Pass and one for Studio City – comprised of interested business owners, property owners, and design professionals who live/work in our community. Our DAC has the opportunity to comment on and influence the designs of projects in our area (from Mulholland/Woodrow Wilson to Lankershim). Two recent projects that our DAC has worked on recently are a proposed renovation and new parking structure to be uilt by Universal Nissan (on the site of the small office building south of the Nissan dealership), and just beyond our borders, a new MTA parking lot at the corner of Ventura and Lankershim.
Universal Nissan -
As a group, The DAC met twice with the City Planning officials and with Universal Nissan and their representatives, as well as several additional times in smaller groups. Some issues discussed were: the design of the structure, as well as the remodeling of the existing buildings; the landscaping of the entire site; circulation on and off the site; noise and light ‘pollution’; traffic impacts; signage, employee/staff as well as guest parking; vehicle storage, and so on. Other issues, such as cellular antenna, will be addressed at separate public hearings. The final plans for the project have not yet been received, but the understandings to which we have come are very promising.
MTA parking lot (corner of Ventura and Lankershim) -
While this site technically falls within the boundaries of Studio City Streetscape guidelines, Cahuenga Pass DAC members were included in these discussions. As this intersection is very heavily traveled, our request for street trees along this site met with resistance from the MTA and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LA-DOT) for safety/visibility reasons. Also affecting this site are the Cal-Trans guidelines for plantings adjacent to freeways. A compromise was reached whereby the designated Studio City canopy tree, the Chinese Pistache, will be planted in the parking lot itself along with other landscaping on the freeway slope. We’re still pushing for more design features, but we’ve made a very good start on this problematic site. Another opportunity that the PRB provides is a chance to speak directly with City officials and departments regarding issues that affect Ventura /Cahuenga Boulevard. One recent discussion was with Irwin Chodash, East Valley District Engineer for LA-DOT.
Landscaped Median Islands -
We’ve all happily been seeing more planted medians springing up all over the city from Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood to Wilshire Boulevard downtown. The PRB feels that such medians not only serve to beautify an area but also help slow/calm traffic. We’d like to see medians along Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard. In the past, LA-DOT has always given us a blanket ‘no’ whenever we’ve raised this matter. Given the new medians mentioned above, we felt that it was an opportune time to bring this up again. Irwin’s response on this matter was, ‘We (LA-DOT) have to review each request for landscaped median islands on a case-by-case basis.’ We look at their impact on traffic visibility, access to cross streets and adjacent driveways.’ This at least indicates the inklings of a new openness to the topic, so we’ll keep pushing.
Downgrading Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard -
In the past, we’ve been told that Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard is a state highway, and that that designation precluded things like planted meridians, community-friendly diagonal parking, and so on. We asked again. Irwin’s response was, ‘Venture Boulevard is currently designated as a Major Street under the Street and Highway Designation Map. It is not feasible to re-designate the street, as it could result in the loss of Federal and or State funding. As a practical matter it serves as a major east-west corridor in the valley with substantial traffic volumes and it would not be practical to reroute much of this traffic, since there are no viable alternative east-west routes that are currently under-utilized.’ This sounds rather vague to us, so we have asked for specific elaboration as to which Federal and State funds we currently receive and might lose were the boulevard to be downgraded. We’ll get back to you once we have a satisfactory answer. There are additional bits of information that we’ve gleaned from Irwin, but you’ll have to read further in Password to find them.
