After stubbing his toe the first time he walked into City Hall last spring, Korean-born Jin Kwak hopes to write the final — happy — chapter of his classic American Dream saga when he stands before the City Council on Wednesday night.
His case and his cause are familiar to anyone who has studied populist Culver City politics in the past year.
Businessman proposes. Neighbors rise up in voluble opposition, making the kind of noise they claim their target will encourage.
If form holds, residents near his business may walk away clutching a victory. (See culvercity.org.)
With prices rising faster than heat, Mr. Kwak (pronounced KWOCK) wants to expand his pop-and-mom sized business — moderately — in order to return to a modest profit level he formerly knew.
The advisory Planning Commission studied Mr. Kwak’s expansion intentions last May. They told him no.
Oh, how the neighbors against the project turned out for that meeting, and Mr. Kwak thinks their presence, in strong numbers, influenced the Planners’ vote.
Since many of Culver City’s present-day denizens were children, Mr. Kwak has operated a gas station in the mid-Culver Boulevard neighborhood where softly wending Motor Avenue intersects.
Across from the Backstage bar.
Across also from Sony Pictures.
Frustratingly, he has met unneighborly stiff resistance from a knot of nearby residents.
They claim their property values will swing south if Mr. Kwak is allowed to re-arrange his 19,261-square-foot property in order to construct an automated, drive-through car wash and convenience store while still pumping gas.
Not only that, say the opposed neighbors, a revamped corner business will greatly increase the noise level.
Ephemeral, the Kwak team says.
They are wrong, actually was the way Larry Turner, who is Mr. Kwak’s Project Manager, firmly insisted. “We hired an acoustics expert,” he said. “He came up with five mitigation measures. We met them. When we talked with neighbors, they came up with 10 to 12 mitigation measures. We have resolved those.”
Mr. Turner maintains that the Kwak team not only has satisfied City Hall’s standards but has exceeded them.
Based on reams of written evidence, Mr. Kwak is a wildly popular businessman.
David Phillips, one of his strongest supporters, neatly encapsulated the issue in the following email:
“As a resident of Culver City for over 24 years, and a concerned citizen of this city, I am extremely tired of a few troubling neighbors affecting the city I live in.
“There has been controversy over the new car wash that the Valero gas station at Culver and Motor is planning (or hoping) to put in. As a concerned taxpaying citizen, I do not understand the huge issue with a small business attempting to expand its operations.
“The Valero gas station has been in business for many years. The convenience and the kindness when you are there speaks for itself. My largest issue is that there are about 15 homeowners in the direct vicinity who object to the car wash.
“They have learned that the more they complain, even though they are a very small minority, the City Council will do whatever it can to stop a minority-owned business from expanding in Culver City.
“We live in a democracy. The bottom line is that the majority of people want the car wash to be put in.
“It raises money for the city because of increased taxes, does not increase traffic (no one is going to drive out of the way for a particular car wash), and it only helps the community.”
At this near climactic juncture, Mr. Kwak appears to have blanketed all concerns large and small. But internally, he has to be nervous about Wednesday night’s showdown with the City Council.
Precedence abounds for the Council reversing a unanimous Planning Commission verdict.
The Council did just that in its most recent pivotal act.
During the summer, the Council overturned the Planners’ rejection of 9900 Culver Blvd. — after rounds of heavy breathing, gyrations, claims and counter-claims, clandestine decision-making and perhaps painful compromises on both sides of the redevelopment project.
The outlines of Mr. Kwak’s story drip red, white and blue Americana — an immigrant who is seeking to soar.
No Cinch
Going into the City Council meeting, a result worth smiling over is far from assured.
A pessimist might even say worse.
For 34 years, Mr. Kwak has operated a gas station — now flying a Valero banner — in his Downtown-adjacent neighborhood.
In his compact little region, Mr. Kwak, a working man if ever there was one, is better known than the founder of Culver City, and for sure much, much better loved than Harry Culver.
An Immigrant Grows
He may have been a humble 26-year-old immigrant when he arrived in Culver City in 1966 and went to work, quietly, as a chemist, fulfilling his Korean education preparation.
Since taking charge of the gas station seven years later, in 1973, Mr. Kwak and his wife Young successfully have inspired and raised four children, and he has grown into a sophisticated businessman.
He has a website, valerocarwashculvercity.com.
(To be continued)
