First of two parts
[img]2451|right|Micky Lloyd||no_popup[/img]The chief executive of Planet Granite, the new lessee on the Culver City Ice Arena site, told the newspaper yesterday that he was as taken aback as other principals were when the ice rink-only variance was suddenly found last week at City Hall.
In a candid interview, Micky Lloyd said that Planet Granite is unsure of its next move.
While thousands of Culver City area families that are dedicated ice skating partisans are hoping that recent legal developments will discourage the company that plans to bring in a rock climbing-yoga-fitness center enterprise, there is no sign it will surrender and go away.
Not the Time to Quit
Having spent 10 frustrating years trying to find exactly the right property in Southern California, the Bay Area group has no intention of giving up Culver City.
“We are still trying to understand (the use variance document),” Mr. Lloyd said. “We are having conversations with the landlord (Fresno attorney Mike Karagozian), trying to figure out what it means for us.”
Planet Granite officers were unaware of the variance’s existence – signed in 1960 by Mr. Karagozian’s parents, Sam and Julia – until everyone else was informed in the middle of last week.
“Neither (Mike Karagozian), nor apparently anybody at the city, nor anybody at the ice rink remembered it,” Mr. Lloyd said. “We are trying to understand it. It is new to us.”
When Will They Decide?
How soon can Planet Granite be expected to make a decision?
“We remain enthusiastic to try and build a facility at this site,” the CEO said. “We’d like to do that. We don’t (yet) understand the implications of this document. It is new to us.
“I don’t know how long it will take us to understand its implications. But we are working on that at the moment.”
In view of the variance document, City Hall sources have projected that a year could pass before the legal matters are settled and the site is ready for occupancy.
Mr. Lloyd said that Planet Granite understands there will be a considerable delay.
“As you are trying to understand (the legal intricacies), so am I.”
The latest turn – an unconfirmed report that if the site remains dark for 12 months, the variance expires – was also news to the Planet Granite owner. “This is an area of the law I am not familiar with,” Mr. Lloyd said.
“The issue here is the discrepancy between the General Plan and the Zoning Plan.”
Here is ticklish, densely legal, territory for both the new lessees and the heartbroken 15,000 persons who have signed a petition to keep the 52-year-old rink alive.
How easily or how swiftly can regulations be changed? No immediate answers are apparent.
“Changing the General Plan, a much more exhaustive document than the Zoning Plan, as I understand it, is a very difficult process, with a great deal of public feedback,” Mr. Lloyd said. “The Zoning Plan is more amendable to change. But the General Plan has intended this site for general commercial (usage), and that’s many decades old.
“In a way, it hasn’t been translated into a Zoning Plan change yet. The Zoning Plan is something the City Council can change, but they haven’t yet taken up that business. It is obviously up to them whether they wish to change the Zoning Plan or not.
“The site has been used for over 50 years as commercial, and it never has been used for anything other than commercial. It would seem there is a reasonable case to be made for it to be commercial, even if not an ice skating rink.”
(To be continued)
