Before the Redevelopment Agency meandered to an esoteric decision at 12:30 this morning, foe and friend alike agreed that the futuristic parking structure proposed by the developer Frederik Smith as a panacea for the parking-starved Hayden Tract is a sui generis dazzler.
By the bleary-eyed end of the evening that morphed into today, even though the five Agency members appeared to be wandering down separate paths, each with his own priorities, they voted 5 to 0 to reject an appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval made last spring.
That means the light is green for the controversial Mr. Smith, which was about the only undisputed concept to emerge from the murky, heavily indecisive meeting.
If nearly everybody in Council Chambers thought the mostly underground parking structure with the arresting configuration was terrific, why not stamp it with approval and let the development mavens smooth out the smallish but nagging details?
The answer, raging with complexities, may be a little more personal than that.
Mr. Smith has been a controversial Culver City/Hayden Tract personality for decades, mainly for two reasons. He is reclusive and he is hugely, quietly successful as a land developer.
These qualities endlessly annoy his so-called rivals, whom some think may be more jealous than they will acknowledge.
Back in the late 1940s, Mr. Smith’s father was a founder of the still mysterious, still exotic, still slightly remote Hayden Tract. That, too, troubles some Hayden Tract figures because of the silver spoon-birth aspect.
Mr. Smith’s business acumen, if not perfect, has been close enough to stand him apart from nearly all others.
Was Anyone Snookered
Example:
Four years ago, he acquired the property in question from City Hall for a price that critics — still extremely rankled — claim was hideously below market value, a sweetheart of a gift.
It was the healthcare reform debate of its day.
The hue from persons not named Smith in the Hayden Tract became louder when Mr. Smith had trouble meeting his payment schedule, requested extensions, and they were granted.
Shortly after the Planners rendered their verdict for 8511 Warner Dr., in mid-May — the site is now a surface parking lot — four Hayden Tract property owners, Michael Wellman, Aaron Kay, Greg Toomey Sr. and Scott Martin filed an appeal that listed seven objections.
Mr. Wellman was the only party who spoke last night, and he seemed to concede early that his group was not going to be able to block the structure. But he was insistent that detail-sized measures be cleaned up. In the end, though, it still was not clear whether he had scored small triumphs or even less than that.
Numerous wrinkles inside the parking structure still need to be reconfigured.
Exactly when the newest Hayden Tract attraction will be built, who will be allowed to park there, who will win the bidding for retail businesses within the parking structure, where the present parking customers will go during construction — all of these are merely the opening volleys in a dispute destined to keep brewing, strongly, into the next decade.
At times during last night’s public hearing to appeal a Planning Commission decision, the Redevelopment Agency, Mr. Smith’s team of experts and even an appellant sounded as if they had been given an all-day pass into one of those Cash for Clunkers deal.
Once all of them recovered from the ahhing and oohing, they confronted a central problem:
Mr. Smith’s virtual 25th century dream building, drawn by the ace architect Eric Owen Moss, has more moving parts than a carnival centipede.
For the Agency, this was a temptation to sweet to walk away from.
Putting Mr. Smith’s admittedly unfinished proposal on the table was like throwing a million bogus one-dollar bills at a counterfeiter. He could not resist dropping everything to play with them, either.
Agency members could not resist exhaustively putting a magnifying glass to Mr. Smith’s only partially formed plans for dividing his 775 parking spaces among employees of proposed businesses within the structure, long-term lessees and short-term parking for in-and-out visitors.
