The Assassination of Lincoln Blvd.
By Jim
Smith
In the Middle Ages, towns - such
as there were - could be spotted a long way off. They contained streets of
primitive huts with a big castle in the middle. Venice may be getting its own
castle, if the promoters of the “Lincoln Center project” have their
way. A seven-story, two-block-long behemoth would dwarf everything in our little
low-rise town.
To accommodate the extra traffic, all
street parking on Lincoln between Venice Blvd. and Rose Avenue would be severely
curtailed or eliminated. In the mornings, there would be three lanes going north
and in the afternoon, three lanes going south. How many small businesses could
afford to stay in business without street parking is anyone’s guess. Most
of them don’t have any other parking for customers, who might decide to
park and shop instead at the Lincoln Center shopping center’s two floors
of commercial establishments.
It seemed
curious that none of the small business owners on Lincoln came to the hearing to
protest the loss of parking. Then it was discovered that the businesses had not
been notified. Still it seems odd that none of them read about the project in
last month’s Beachhead.
In their
second appearance, Feb. 17, before the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood
Council’s Land Use and Planning Committee (LUPC), the proponents,
developer Samuel Adams and Jai Pal Khalsa of the architectural firm Khalsa and
Associates, found an audience of about 50 Venetians, who had come out on a
holiday, decidedly hostile to the whole idea. Although the Committee allowed
only limited public input (one minute or less per speaker), it was clear that
almost no one felt the project was appropriate to the neighborhood.
Initially, many people were impressed
with the 56 units of affordable housing (20 percent of the total) that would be
provided. However, at the hearing, the developers acknowledged that there was no
specific duration for the affordability of the units. In the worst case, the
affordable housing could disappear on the first day the project was opened.
Additionally, the affordable housing that was proposed is not low-income
housing. A one-bedroom unit would rent for $1,212 per month, and a two-bedroom
apartment would cost $1,364.
The main
complaints of Venetians were that the project is too big (or, way too big),
there is no guarantee of affordable housing, and traffic would increase. The
project’s own traffic engineer, Wes Pringle, reported on a study of a
couple of intersections on Lincoln Blvd. which indicated that the project would
not increase traffic delays. Under astute questioning by Committee member DeDe
Audet, he admitted that the study was more than three years old and did not
include other affected intersections in the
area.
Marvin Klotz told the LUPC (in
less than one minute) that while the east side of Lincoln is not included in the
Venice Specific Plan (VSP), and is not under the jurisdiction of the Coastal
Commission, the VSP does say that similar development standards should be
applied to the east side of the street. The height limit on the west side of
Lincoln is 35 feet, but it is 75 feet on the east side (if the VSP is
disregarded). The developer maintains that there is no height limit for the
Lincoln Center plots. The sky’s the
limit!
The Chairperson of the Land Use
Committee, Darryl Dufay, delivered an impassioned soliloquy against the project.
The stage was set for a vote against the castle. That thought seemed to hang in
the air above the committee, almost tangible, while the anticipation grew for
one brave soul to make the motion. Then in a flash, the moment was gone and the
committee was asking the developers to come back once more to offer more
clarifications.
In their second item of
the night, the LUPC approved a development at 1511 Abbot Kinney Blvd., next to
Brandelli’s Brig. It is to be an “artist-in-residence,”
single-unit, three-story, 3,820-square-foot building. The developer lamented
that he couldn’t build a mixed-use (commercial downstairs, residence
upstairs) project, blaming it on the amount of parking he would have to
provide.
Instead of a small business,
there will be a “dead zone” with a six-foot wall, behind which an
“artist” will wander a residence equal in size to the small homes of
five or six Venice families.
Posted: Sat
- March 1, 2003 at 06:49 PM