Re: “Open House Thursday on Freeway Signage”
Before breakfast this morning, Steve Rose, in his second century as president/CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, was remarking how differently denizens of Culver City and of Los Angeles respond to latter-day property development proposals.
A noisy flap in Culver City, barely a whimper in Los Angeles even though their designs are far more flamboyant.
Take Thursday evening’s community open house that will include assessment and critiquing of plans for billboard-type signage where the 405 and 90 freeways exchange wedding vows.
Four years after Gov. Brown killed off the perhaps underappreciated Redevelopment Agencies, municipalities still are trying to devise methods for replacing them.
“Billboards are just one manner of getting the public infrastructure paid for,” Mr. Rose said.
The former City Council said that the Culver City Redevelopment Agency “put well over $70 million into Downtown.
“Since the governor took away the Redevelopment Agencies, cities have to come up with new ways of funding economic development.”
One caveat is that such a new payoff may have slightly slower than molasses.
Returning to the neighborhoods where the 405 and 90 freeways flirt with each other, one panacea may be instituting signage on the sides of buildings to replace traditional and strongly unpopular billboards.
“Over 20 to 30 years, such a project could pay off,” Mr. Rose said.
More massive change is on the way.
“Along with that, the city is spending half a million dollars a year in keeping the parking lots in Downtown free,” Mr. Rose said. “In this new development (in the area of the 405 and 90 freeways), the developers will build parking structures, and people using them will have to pay.
“A lot of the methods of financing have changed.”
(To be continued)
