Culver City OKs Zoning for Mall

The Culver City Council has approved zoning changes that would allow Prudential Insurance Co. to build the first regional shopping center in the Marina del Rey area.

During five hours of public testimony and discussion Monday night, the council heard arguments from some of the nearly 200 Los Angeles residents who attended the meeting to protest the project’s impact on traffic.

The council’s 4-1 vote would allow a Westside Pavilion-sized mall to be built at the city’s eastern tip near the intersection of Washington and Lincoln boulevards. Councilman Steven Gourley opposed the project.

Despite the existence of competing malls in West Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Fox Hills, developers believe that the high-income area around the marina would support another large-scale shopping center.

The Marina Place mall would feature two department stores, Macy’s and Nordstrom, 125 to 150 shops and restaurants, and a 6-screen theater complex. Two other developers are proposing projects similar to Prudential’s on sites less than a mile apart along Lincoln Boulevard just northeast of Marina del Rey.

These and other nearby projects are expected to have a major effect on traffic in the area around Venice and the marina.

Those opposing the Prudential plan at the council meeting Monday night included Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter. About 100 Culver City residents who favor the project also attended.

Galanter, who was elected to the council last year on a slow-growth platform, asked the Culver City Council to reject the project because of its potential impact on local merchants, traffic and pollution.

“I really question, from a public policy point of view, if we really need another regional shopping mall in the area, whether in your district or mine,” she said.

Culver City Councilman Richard Alexander, however, outlined the city’s past difficulties in dealing with development in Los Angeles.

Alexander said he would have abandoned the Marina Place project if Galanter and her fellow council members had agreed to cancel developments in Venice and Playa Vista that will have an impact on Culver City. “But she doesn’t have the votes to do it,” he said.

But Elizabeth Stevenson, who lives on Glyndon Avenue across the street from the mall site, said it was not fair for the Culver City Council and residents to take their “anger out on a small group of victims who live next to Marina Place.”

“To line someone else’s pockets by degrading our quality of life is nothing less than stealing,” Stevenson said.

Culver City resident Al Friebert, however, said Prudential did a good job of scaling down the proposal, its fifth since it bought the property in 1980, and that he did not like Los Angeles trying to tell Culver City what to do.

“I think it’s about time the big city let the little city have some fun,” he said.

Councilmen Gourley and Jim Boulgarides, who were elected in April on slow-growth platforms, tried to extract additional concessions from developers Monday.

Gourley, using the recently approved Water Garden commercial project in Santa Monica as a model, said the council should ask the developer for millions of dollars in unrestricted cash payments in exchange for its approval of Marina Place.

“If you’re going to sell the future of Culver City, let’s not sell it cheap,” he said. His motion to negotiate with developers for more money failed by a vote of 4 to 1.

Boulgarides wanted the developers to eliminate the mall’s theaters, build a park on the site and guarantee that the city receive a profit from the project each year, but he later withdrew his motion after finding little support.

Development spokesman Gregory R. Glass, telling council members that “this is the moment of truth,” said it would be this project or no project at all. The developers, however, agreed to guarantee that the city’s additional police and fire costs would be covered.

Boulgarides, Councilwoman Jozelle Smith and Mayor Paul Jacobs joined Alexander in voting for the project.

“I’m convinced that this is the best proposal that we’re going to see,” Jacobs said. “We’re not blessed with ideal circumstances. Any use of that land is going to have a significant negative impact on the neighborhood.

Culver City would have to add nine police officers and four firefighters to service the mall if it is built, but the city is expected to net about $2.5 million in business license fees and sales and property taxes each year, Prudential spokesman Carl Haglund said.