Think of a couple dating for 30 years, and you will have a portrait of Parcel B, the most romanced, the most talked-about Downtown property in modern Culver City history.
Breathlessly, the confident third team of developers in this eternal saga proposed last evening.
Demurely, the City Council fluttered its eyes, shuffled its feet, looked askance and voted.
Naturally after three decades of courting, the vote was un-unanimous.
The call was just 4-1 in favor of ploughing ahead with what, so far, has been unploughable land in the foreground of The Culver Hotel.
Is the long-awaited wedding of the city to Parcel B a shrugging afterthought? Or cause for an authentic celebration?
Those questions will be forced to beg for responses until deeper into the less skeptical future.
Have we been this far before?
Or are we standing on virgin land?
A groundbreaking for four-level, fancy pavement Parcel B is expected in June.
That, however, is no reason for an accelerated heartbeat.
Already there have been two groundbreakings, and not one brick of the 115,000-square foot showpiece of a complex yet has been laid.
Over the negative vote of Meghan Sahli-Wells, the City Council breezily approved of the presumed final hurdle ahead of the building process, a two-level underground parking garage accommodating south-bound traffic from Main Street.
Former City Councilman Steve Rose, dedicated amateur hometown historian, was among the many who last evening experienced a sentimental lump in their sentimental throats.
He remembers when the unborn baby called Parcel B was conceived.
“The vacant lot in front of The Culver Hotel was created in the early or mid-1980s,” he said while perched in his favorite aisle seat toward the rear of Council Chambers.
“For a little over 30 years, there has been discussion of one sort or another on what to put on Parcel B.”
Mr. Rose was asked why three decades have been allowed to slip by.
With a laugh, one of Culver City’s rare conservative politicians replied, “the bureaucracy of government.” Then Mr. Rose took it back.
“The economy, the charrette (or planning) process, failed developers – a whole series of reasons,” he said. Not a single culprit.
“This is the type of project that always is going to take time,” said Mr. Rose, long the CEO and president of the Chamber of Commerce. “The economy dies – or something else happens.”
Mr. Rose, a two-term City Councilman, 2000-2008, once entertained lofty hopes of participating in an historic scene.
“In the middle of my time on the Council, I told a developer: “My goal is to have your building dedicated before I leave the Council.
“Here we are, eight years later,” Mr. Rose said, “and we haven’t turned a spade of dirt yet.”
He may only have to hold his breath a few more months.
Maybe.
