Monday, March 1, 1999
Service center to relocate
CENTER: Moving office
to Broxton will promote visibility, lower rent costs
By Christine Byrd
Daily Bruin Contributor
Plans are in the works to relocate Westwood’s Community Service
Center, which offers crime prevention and information services for
the community, from Westwood Boulevard to Broxton Avenue.
The center is run by community service officers and provides
crime prevention presentations, incident reports, bicycle
registration, a lost and found, tourist information and bus
schedules.
If the lease is approved as expected, the center will move by
late spring to its new location on the ground level of the parking
structure at 1036 Broxton Ave. The new location will place the
community center closer to the middle of the Village and save money
for the Westwood Village Community Alliance (the official name for
the Business Improvement District), which funds the center.
"The location is in the heart of the Village, closer to a lot
more merchants," said Patty Evans, operations director for the
alliance. "Their response and presence should be better there."
The Broxton parking structure, which is owned by the city
department of transportation, has four retail spaces available on
the ground level, one of which will be the center’s new home.
When it was time to renew the three year lease on the Westwood
Boulevard location, the alliance proposed and considered new lease
terms.
"The suggestion came up to move it to the parking structure and
everything just came into place," Evans said.
The lease is currently going through the administrative process.
The city attorney plans to submit a draft by the middle of next
week, at which point the transportation department will review and
approve it before sending it on to the alliance, said Lynne Ozawa,
a transportation department official.
The city is giving the group very favorable terms and the
alliance will be saving a significant amount of money by leasing
from the city, Evans said.
"When you have a city building, then it’s good to have a city
facility in it," said Rochelle Ventura, an official at councilman
Mike Feuer’s office.
Because there is no rent control in Westwood, renting from a
private owner carries the risk of two- or threefold rent increases,
whereas leasing from a city building, such as the Broxton parking
structure, does not carry this risk.
The move to Broxton will be beneficial because it will be a
permanent home for the community center, Ventura said.
The center would occupy 900 square feet of retail space and cost
$1 per month per square foot in rent. The alliance would also be
responsible for paying a small monthly maintenance fee to the city
and installing the heating ventilation and air conditioning, with
the city providing $10 per square foot toward that cost.
The space is only slightly smaller than the current location,
but will still be staffed with one clerk from the community service
center, with one UCPD officer and two LAPD officers periodically
stopping in.
The smaller space will not interfere with the center’s ability
to do a good job, said Nancy Greenstein, director of community
services for university police. In fact, she believes Broxton will
be a better location.
"For us, Broxton is more wide open," she said. "They’re looking
for visibility."
But Broxton has had less traffic lately, since stores such as
Aahs! moved to busier locations and others went out of business.
The relocation of the center is part of the plan to revitalize the
street.
"There is going to be a lot of development in the area in the
future," said Officer Ricardo Bolanos, the UCPD officer who works
at the center.
Broxton was redesigned a year ago for heavy foot traffic as part
of the $4.5 million Westwood streetscape program.
Bollards – posts sunk into the street which can be raised to
close the street off to automobile traffic – were installed just
south of the parking structure and north of Kinross Avenue so that
Broxton could be limited to foot traffic for special events.
"We’re exploring having a second Farmers’ Market there on Sunday
mornings," said Evans, of the community alliance.
The alliance is discussing this option with the fire department
and creating layouts for such a plan.
"If all is successful, we’re looking to start it in June," Evans
said.MICHAEL COOPER
The Westwood Village Community Center is being relocated.
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