Kevin Lachoff, the first red-headed chair of the Chamber of Commerce in decades, stayed up late two nights ago cataloguing accomplishments during his year-long term that ends tomorrow morning.
Before turning over the Chamber chair’s gavel to Colette Moore, owner/strategic-partner of the Pridestaff agency, Mr. Lachoff will review milestone dates.
“We sponsored two economic forums, which are good for local businesses,” he said. “They bring a spotlight to Culver City from others who might not be looking at our community. We had our Fox Hills 2.0 forum in the spring, and in the fall we had a creative economy sponsored by Sony.”
Mr. Lachoff said two main purposes were behind the forums – “Advocacy and trying to grow the brand of Culver City, both within the city and in surrounding communities to grow our brand awareness.”
Wat did they accomplish.
Fox Hills – sleepy Fox Hills? – may have been the site of the Chamber of Commerce’s most intriguing activity. “The Fox Hills forum gave folks deeper thought to the potential for the area,” said Mr. Lachoff, a realtor by day. “I see Fox Hills as one of the few parts of the city that is under-utilized from a land-use standpoint.”
One reason, he suspects, is its placement on the southerly tip of Culver City.
“Geographically it has been that way because it is somewhat on its own,” Mr. Lachoff said. “Fox Hills did not have the organic buildout from Downtown or any of the major commercial corridors.”
Far removed from Downtown, Fox Hills can have the feel of a separate community.
“Fox Hills does not sit on Sepulveda, on Washington, on Culver or close to Venice,” Mr. Lachoff said. “It is something of an island. From a land-use, it never has been in the spotlight.”
No developer or entrepreneur ever seems to have been motivated to meaningfully alter that paradigm.
Not that it has been totally ignored.
“We have the Corporate Pointe office towers definitely make good use of the land there,” said Mr. Lachoff. “Symantec a few years ago created their campus there. But there still are smaller, low-rise business park products with ground-level asphalt parking lots.
“That is something that does not exist elsewhere in Culver City or L.A. in general.”
(To be continued)
