Wednesday, October 29, 1997
Struggle for Westwood’s soul
WESTWOOD: Can distinct visions of Westwood coexist, or will the
Westwood Marketplace and
Village Center Westwood have to battle it out
for profit?
By Rachel Munoz
Daily Bruin Contributor
Coming soon (maybe!) to the east side of Westwood: The Village
Center Westwood. It includes a grocery store, lots of parking, a
public library, restaurants and movie theaters. That is, if its
developers can get past outraged community organizations and the
City Council.
But a big step in that direction has been the recent signing of
Pacific Theatres as the official movie operator for the project.
After working with a variety of other theatre companies, managing
partner Ira Smedra recently chose Pacific Theatres to come to the
Village Center because of its Los Angeles base and "fantastic
work."
The decision to work with Pacific Theatres has been finalized,
but it wasn’t the first theatre company looked at when selecting
the project’s movie component. Mann Theatres, the company behind
the largest chain of theatres in Westwood, might have seemed like
the obvious choice for the project, but negotiations with the
company proved fruitless.
"The primary reason we didn’t go with Mann is because the
company is for sale," explained Smedra. "They were unwilling to
provide us with guarantees to assure us with a quality
project."
The quality they are interested in attaining includes high back
plush seating, state of the art sound systems and a concierge that
can provide silent beepers, explained Maureen Ladley, the senior
account executive with the public relations firm for Village Center
Westwood.
Smedra feels that he is taking part in building a first class
project and the theater would have to adhere to that
expectation.
Standards are definitely something Smedra has experienced since
proposing the project to the community over two years ago. With
constant pestering from many community organizations, Smedra has
agreed to downsize the project as well as add a suggestion put
forth by the community — a library.
"There has never been a project of this type to incorporate a
public library. It’s a first for the entire city," Smedra said.
Allen Abshez, the attorney for the project, calls the project
pioneers for bringing the very first library to Westwood.
"There has never been another private community project that
gives that amenity to the public," he said. "It’s quite a
significant amenity."
In a full-circle effect, Pacific Theatres has announced that it
will donate books to stock the library, Smedra said.
Even after hundreds of community meetings, studies, and reports
on the project, a long road still lies ahead of Village Center
Westwood.
"We have submitted to the Planning Department the draft of the
final environment report," Smedra explained. The next major event
will happen in December when the first principal hearing will take
place in a public hearing process.
Then the project faces city council. "There are many tiers of
decision- making that are within the city council," Abshez said. If
all goes well, the project could be approved by March and completed
30 months later.
One hurdle the project must overcome to gain approval is the
number of movie seats it will offer.
Because of the Specific Plan written for Westwood almost 15
years ago, only 3,400 movie seats are permitted in the village. The
plan will have to be altered if the project adds more movie seats
to that total.
"We’ll be asking for the cap to be amended," Abshez said. "Our
message has been that the reason that the cap has been placed has
changed."
Frank Ponder, the co-president of Westwood 2000, a support group
for the Village Center Westwood project, and general manager of Bel
Air Camera, compares the movie seat cap to the fashions of the
seventies. If everything were meant to be the same, he says, people
would still be wearing bell bottoms and the floors in our houses
would be covered with avocado green shag carpet.
"The Specific Plan shouldn’t be that specific. It was written
for a different time period," he said. "Things change and have to
be revisited."
People involved with the Village Center Westwood project might
also be revisiting the project on the other side of town. With the
recent purchase by Regent Properties of a large portion of land on
the west side of Westwood, competition might be the first thing
that comes to mind.
"We don’t consider it competition," Smedra said. "Our project
has many more amenities than theirs does."
Ponder believes that there is room in the village for both
projects. "I’m in favor of putting in all the projects we can, as
long as there are adequate facilities for parking," he said.
However, he added that the original plan he saw of the Marketplace
didn’t really have "enough parking."
Abshez explains that Pacific Theatres knew Mann Theatres would
stay in the village, but has focused on providing on-site parking
for its movie goers.
"We want to see Westwood revitalized and part of that is
parking," Ladely said.
Outside of parking, Abshez explains that he would like to focus
on involving UCLA students with the project.
"The residents have dominated. The amenities that students want
to see are opposed to. We really want students involved to speak up
about what they want (in the project)," Abshez said, adding that
students would be more prone to be pedestrians.
In educating the community over the summer, project participants
felt as though there has really been an increase in the support for
the project.
"In the last few months the project has built a strong
momentum," Smedra said.
Abshez shared the same sentiment. "We are building a lot of
public support for the project," he said. "There is a tremendous
amount of support from the merchants and the residents."