One Facial, Please
Or should I say the city received a crude, hot oil facial treatment that left its officials quite red in the face?.
Oops.
The staff’s omission could be viewed as just a simple out-of-sight, out-of-mind mistake.
But this is pretty hard to believe.
Because in a letter produced by a Sunkist Park resident/activist, Exxon-Mobil wrote that it was currently paying Culver City $1.2 million annually (over $3,200 daily) to run its crude under our city.
With this kind of lack of candor with its citizens, I’m starting to really wonder what other possible hazards might there be lurking below ground that city officials are not wanting or willing to disclose.
Revelation Turned Revolution
The Sepulveda Gateway, once developer Bob Champion’s vision/revelation, turned into a People’s Revolution as Sunkist Park residents turned against city officials who were helping to force-feed them Mr. Champion’s ideas of the best mixed-use redevelopment in their neighborhood.
Pay No Attention to Us
Members of the Redevelopment Agency, saying they were there “only to observe,” actively offered “guidance” to key members of the Citizens Advisory Committee by calling them outside the auditorium and holding a series of impromptu, one-on-one meetings out of public view.
Mr. Champion sat there, looking rather stoic, as he saw what little, half-hearted support he had on the committee become undercut, and finally it unraveled.
In this fifth and maybe final meeting, as well as the other previous four meetings, Committee members endured the local neighborhood’s well-organized and seemingly unrelenting attack and criticism about the size and scope of the project.
It seemed that members finally had heard enough and decided to pull the rug out from under the project.
Understanding String Theory
But it was actually Agency members who were really pulling the strings. And, following the Agency members’ “advice,” the Advisory Committee puppeted back with a resolution asking the city to write a Specific Plan for the South Sepulveda Corridor.
This request pretty well ended the chances for a continuation of Mr. Champion’s project.
Opportunity Lost
In its request, the Committee had the opportunity to officially give the Redevelopment Agency some hard-earned advice on what local citizens need and want during future redevelopments:
The surrounding neighborhood want and need to be involved in the process from the very beginning.
They also want to see something smaller in scale, shorter in height and with less density. But the Committee members could only agree to send a quite simple, nondescript request for a new plan.
Soliloquy or Swan Song?
In seeing his project’s support slipping away, Mr. Champion reminisced about the past seven-month public process turned ordeal.
He reminded the audience that he had been invited by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency to design the best mixed-use redevelopment project for the Sepulveda Corridor and that he had to work within the confines of the city’s existing zoning laws.
He felt that many of the onerous comments he had heard were related, not so much to him personally or to his project, but had to do more with the existing zoning laws.
He related how he later found himself in a very difficult situation due to our capitalistic way of life and that under capitalism, property should be developed to the highest and best use.
These use parameters are limited only by the local zoning ordinances.
He proudly stated that he felt that he had accomplished the original objective.
He again warned residents that if change did not occur, that their quality of life would worsen, and that its better to control change by working together.
He closed by reminding the audience that when cities and developers work together, a city could use the monies generated by such projects to better the quality of life for all its citizens in ways a city could not ordinarily accomplish by itself.
Poor Bob, We Hardly Knew Ye
After listening to Mr. Champion’s soliloquy, it might have been a quite fitting gesture for the Committee to have adjourned its last meeting in memory of Mr. Champion’s now- defunct Sepulveda Gateway Project.
May it rest in peace
Try and Try Again
I hope the city takes the time (and the money) to restart this much needed process. That they do it right this time.
That they find out what kind of redevelopment the locals the residents, the business owners and property owners want in their neighborhood and that a new Specific Plan be completed.
Based on the up-dated plan, I suggest to the city that it once again ask Mr. Champion to develop another wonderfully unique project. But this time, it would reflect both his and the neighborhood’s vision of Sunkist Park’s future.
