In the spirit of Las Vegas, what is dead remains dead.
The obituary of the storied half-century Culver Ice Arena, tentatively written a year ago last February when John Jackson departed as executive director and fatal operational problems instantly, mysteriously were discovered, is on the brink of confirmation.
The advisory Planning Commission, chaired by Kevin Lachoff, voted unanimously on Wednesday evening to approve a zoning change that will allow a nationwide discount tool company, Harbor Freight, to move onto the empty/abandoned property at the once magical address of 4545 Sepulveda Blvd.
Formal confirmation of the recommendation by the City Council is only slightly less certain than Sunday directly following Saturday.
The hearts of diehard rink fans, unlike diehard batteries, quit beating and reluctantly accepted reality some months ago.
By Wednesday’s meeting, they had morphed into ghostly invisibility.
Twenty months ago on the first Sunday in February 2014, the Ice Arena’s allegedly temporary Closing Day, would anyone have believed it would step into its grave without resistance?
Mr. Lachoff wondered if the once voluble ice rink proponents participated in either of Wednesday’s other major events, the School Board candidates’ forum at West Los Angeles College or the Culver City Democratic Club meeting.
Where were they?
“I can tell you where they weren’t,” he said. “They weren’t at the Planning Commission meeting.
“It was still a hot topic on Facebook as of Wednesday afternoon.
“Back in April when they had a community presentation for the project, a dozen or so (in a crowd of 30) were there on behalf of preserving the ice rink. While a dozen were focusing on the ice rink, another dozen were saying ‘We live in the immediate vicinity. We want to know what is going to happen. Are you going to have trucks making deliveries in the middle of the night? Are you going to put up trees so we don’t have to look at the back of the parking lot?’
“The other one-third,” said Mr. Lachoff, “was there to take it all in.”
By surprising/disappointing contrast, a scant six persons addressed the commissioners two evenings ago.
The leadoff speaker, Steve Newton, established the prevailing tone by saying he welcomed Harbor Freight as the new tenant in owner Mike Karagozian’s building.
Steve Rose, president/CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, said his group supports the zoning change to allow the building to be retail space or for recreational use.
Steve Weinberg and Walter Lamb were the only voices who endorsed the ice rink.
The Planning Commission supported two further Conditions of Approval matters:
- To address concern over employee parking and
- A requirement that the tenants participate in the local business association and/or a BID (Business Improvement District) to benefit the commercial streetscape.
