So much for the four-month groundswell that steamrolled across the South Sepulveda Boulevard neighborhood last summer, proclaiming that only an orderly redevelopment plan could rescue Sunkist Park residents and merchants from the massive makeover hatched by the feared developer Bob Champion.
Ever since the City Hall-organized Citizens Advisory Committee floated an orderly plan of its own last June — a lightly disguised escape route technically called a Specific Plan — neighborhood support and excitement have been running high.
Opposite Position
By last night, though, the thinking among the decision-makers was sharply different from the expressed populist desires. While the steamroller was accelerating the last 15 weeks, the City Council stood on the sideline, bemused looks on the faces of the four voting members.
Responding vaguely, they gave no hint which way they were leaning.
When they did speak, it was to overwhelmingly reject a Specific Plan for the neighborhood, which would seem counter to popular wishes. Council members are confident, though, they and the community are running in the same groove.
Councilmen Scott Malsin, Gary Silbiger and Mayor Alan Corlin agreed that authorization of a Specific Plan would serve “the wrong purpose.”
Malsin on Options
Adamantly planting his feet in place, Mr. Malsin said that entering into a Specific Plan “now” would be “premature and precipitous.” Reading from a prepared statement, he said “there are better options we have not explored.” He mentioned a Community Plan and an Area Plan as schemes more attuned to the wishes of residents who prefer a natural evolution of their neighborhood. Mr. Malsin spoke of “bringing people together.” He wants to “start a new visioning process.” He said his suggestions were not new. They have worked elsewhere.
The City Council voted not only to reject a Specific Plan but to discourage any activity around South Sepulveda — unless the people themselves generate it.
“We gave the people what they wanted,” Mr. Corlin said triumphantly.
“The people said ‘Leave us alone.’ That is what we are doing.”
The People’s Side
Whether the residents and the merchants are in harmony with this sentiment was unclear this morning.
“A Specific Plan would be a sign to developers that the neighborhood was eager to be redeveloped,” Mr. Corlin said. “It isn’t. That is not what the people want.”
The Council majority were even joined by Dr. Loni Anderson.
She is the Vice Chair of the still-certified Citizens Advisory Committee who introduced the Specific Plan idea in June as an antidote to Mr. Champion, and she has undergone a change of heart.
Wrong Signal
After starting out tentatively — “a Specific Plan might not be the best idea for the neighborhood” — she gathered momentum. “I am concerned that by doing a Specific Plan you will be announcing to the greater development community that the (South Sepulveda) neighborhood is ripe for development,” Dr. Anderson said. “It would be a green light to developers, which residents of Sunkist Park do not want.”
Dr. Anderson said she suggested a Specific Plan at the time because the nine-person Advisory Committee was not prepared to delve into other development options. “My motivation was to get public input,” she said.
Try Something Different
“But, upon reflection sometime later, I realized a Specific Plan probably was not the best choice.” Dr. Anderson urged the City Council to create an alternative to the Specific Plan, without identifying one.
Vice Mayor Carol Gross argued strenuously that she felt just as strongly for the Specific Plan. “Personally,” she said, “I am quite in favor of the Specific Plan process because it is well-suited for this area.”
Letting the people decide the nature and tone of redevelopment is a mistake,
she felt. “If we do nothing, that does not keep the developers away,” the Vice Mayor said. “A Specific Plan allows us to regulate and control the type of development.”
Ending Agreements
Otherwise, the City Council concentrated on closure, the emotional kind and the vaguely emotional type.
As a function of bookkeeping, anticlimactically, they terminated the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with Mr. Champion.
This move was far less dramatic than the ‘way early ending of a long-tortured legal relationship with the independent swim coach Patrick Moran and his popular, successful Edge Swim Team.
Termination came only weeks after their latest arrangement was signed.
It is practically unheard for City Hall to dust off and discuss a sensitive personnel matter in public. Mayor Corlin so noted, and said that he had exhausted all possibilities of coming to terms in private by last Friday afternoon.
Plain Talk
The language in which City Hall described its reasons for ending the deal was uncommonly candid and vivid.
Over the years, the colorful, volatile Mr. Moran and City Hall have tangled over matters small and tall, about personality clashes as often as rules violations.
The present matter covers both.
Bill LaPointe, the Parks and Recreation Director, said that the Edge team has 30 days to clear out of The Plunge, its training site virtually from its formation.
Unusual Demand
This time, the City Hall-Moran deal went sour almost immediately, with the coach telling his landlord he was not to be contacted directly. According to the city, Mr. Moran determined that every contact must be handled through his attorney.
This was an unorthodox position that the city said worsened a relationship that seemed beyond worsening.
The stakes in the stormy relationship often have seemed high because the Edge team has been a consistent winner in the pool.
The List
But the Council concluded that even an impressive accumulation of wins was overshadowed by four generic citations linked to Mr. Moran and his swimmers:
“Repeated un-cooperative nature with the city.
“Interactions with city staff that were perceived as hostile.
“Interactions with city residents, which were perceived as hostile.
“Edge use of the pool is inconsistent with the Agreement.”
The charismatic Mr. Moran, never shy about appearing in public, declined to defend himself in person. By email, he explained he was spending the evening at home with his “loving family.”
