To attract a crowd, all you once had to say was, “The circus is coming to town.” In Culver City, the corollary is, “The new mixed-use ordinance is on the City Council’s agenda on Monday night.”
With no further encouragement, restless residents from the Hills of Blair, the Hills of Baldwin, the Village of Studio, the Tract of Hayden and nearly every other neighborhood in Culver City will stream into Council Chambers at City Hall for the 7 o’clock meeting.
Could be an historic occasion.
For pure celebratory value, landing a new mixed-use ordinance nearly equals getting a new statue of Harry Culver, this time standing up.
Unattractive Groundswell
All around the town, without abatement, neighbors have been griping that the new development and redevelopment buildings being pitched by City Hall are too tall, too dense, too close to the street.
The cacophony of unrelieved criticism has been so shrill for the last12 months that it almost felt orchestrated. But it definitely was not. In disparate neighborhoods, leaders didn’t even have to organize their residents, although some — in Sunkist Park, for example — did.
Citizen Efficiency
Protests have been efficiently channeled — and impressively effective, too.
Sheer noise, along with a well-timed procedural nudge from Dr. Loni Anderson in her role as a member of a citizens committee, drove the disputed South Sepulveda Boulevard project so far over the horizon nobody has seen or heard of it since last June.
That is a show-window example of citizens taking meaningful action.
Happy Anniversary
One year almost to the day after the creative thinking and enterprising Councilman Scott Malsin began to birth a scheme that would modify the arguably hefty dimensions of the current mixed-use ordinance, a new ordinance is scheduled to come to life.
Standing off to the side, just inside the shadows where no one noticed the flurry of concentrated but fairly secret activity, Mr. Malsin spent months listening and consulting at City Hall and elsewhere.
Gold Rush
Speaking of spiffy timing, Mr. Malsin struck gold, silver and several other minerals at the start of summer with his closely held plan for strongly revising the ordinance.
The synthesizing of community uproar and a degree of Council dissatisfaction with the ordinance looked serendipitous.
Just when residents’ massive unhappiness over a truckload of assertedly outsized redevelopment projects was reaching a crashing crescendo, Mr. Malsin unveiled his plan to revisit — that is, revise — the mixed-use ordinance.
Numbers Game
A 56-foot height limit was too tall, neighbors complained, and the notion of building 65 condos per acre turned community faces purple with raging passion. On Monday, the height maximum will be reduced about 20 percent, to the mid-40s, and density will be diminished close to 50 percent, the Councilman said.
Out of public view, Mr. Malsin was working feverishly with city staffers to craft the infrastructure of a rehabilitated ordinance. On the dais, at the same time, he was emerging as a nifty tactician to keep everything from blowing up. The combination conceived a baby that will debut on Monday night for public and City Council inspection.
Harmony on Both Sides
Chronically upbeat, Mr. Malsin is confident that a satisfied City Council and a contented community will walk out of Council Chambers arm in arm, more or less, both pleased with the reduced limits.
He is confident the customers will go home happy. “I believe people will recognize we have taken extraordinary steps to control development,” said the chair of the Redevelopment Agency.
“I know the nerves of some residents are raw,” he said this morning. “I hope they realize how big of a step we are taking.”
‘Everybody Will Agree’
More optimistic than his Council colleagues, he is predicting a 5 to 0 vote.
“The City Council is committed to insuring that Culver City maintains both its character and its economic vitality,” Mr. Malsin added. There isn’t a choice. “We must come out of Monday night with clear direction,” he said. “We need to be decisive so the community can feel we are moving in a direction it is comfortable with.
“I also am very, very excited, too, about applying the concept of community benefits to the zoning code.”
A Question of Size
Mayor Alan Corlin expressed his views more compactly and more guardedly. “I hope this mixed-use ordinance is strong enough to allay our fears (about building too big) and flexible enough to allow for smart development,” he said.
Confronting the key issue, size, Mr. Corlin said worried residents need to realize City Hall is obliged to be fair to developers, too. “A person buying properties attempts to utilize the space available to the maximum,” he said. “That would mean some projects are going to be big. The question for us is, How big is big enough?”
Caution Sign
Vice Mayor Carol Gross was the most cautious Councilperson polled. What shape would she like the mixed-use ordinance to take? “I want to see whatever the staff brings forward,” she said. “I don’t have many predictions. I do have concerns, though, that we look at potential ramifications before coming to a conclusion.
“Monday could be a landmark decision, but the question is, Will the decision that comes out be the right one?”
