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The Palms–Village Sun
News, opinion and features about Historic Palms,
including Westside Village
www.PalmsVillageSun.info
This site is not affiliated with any group. Opinions are those of the writers.
Land use & development / May 2006
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Opponents dominate hearing on Motor-Palms development proposal
Apartments, shops and restaurants selling liquor are planned across from Palms Elementary School
The Pacific Television Center, above, would be hidden from this perspective if a six-story building is constructed on the northeast corner of Palms and Motor, as planned. The mixed-use structure would be on a vacant lot (behind the chain-link fence) which for many years was the site of an automobile service station. The drawing below is by the applicant's architect.

Opponents of a proposed apartment-commercial project on the northeast corner of Motor and Palms were out in force Friday morning, May 12, in the West L.A. Municipal Building.

Hearing officer Madhu Kumar took testimony on the planned 65-foot-high building across Palms Blvd. from Palms Elementary School.

She asked that opponents get together with the developer at the office of City Council Member Jack Weiss to go over the plans and attempt to get their questions answered.

The matter will be on the agenda of the West L.A. Planning Commission at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, in the Medina Building at Exposition and Sepulveda Blvds.

Most of the opponents were from Rancho Park, the upscale residential area just north of Palms.

Ingeborg Prochazka, Neal James Anderberg and George Garrigues were present from the Palms Representative Assembly.

The Assembly, which is the governing body of the Palms Neighborhood Council, approved the project on Sept. 7 last year.

The application envisions about six floors from ground to roof line. There would be two underground parking levels for 102 cars. Forty apartment units are planned.

The application by Claire Heron of C-R Management Co. envisions a master alcohol permit for on-site sale and consumption in three future restaurants.

Besides the variance that would permit a liquor license, the applicant is asking for a zone change from commercial to a residential zone to allow for mixed use.

Heron also seeks a variance from the city's sign ordinance and a temporary variance in parking requirements.

As well, she wants a variance from a requirement that buildings be set back five feet from the sidewalk along Motor Ave

Much of the opposition centered on a proposed automobile exit from the alley east of Motor onto Palms Blvd. on the south or Woodbine on the north.

But the city Traffic Department has found that there would be some 100 fewer trips

per day from the property than there were when it was an automobile service station (above, photo from Amazon A9), according to John Spohrer, the project architect.
'BEGINNING OF THE END OF MOTOR AVE.,'
PROPERTY OWNER TELLS NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL;
NO ACTION TAKEN

A proposed six-story building on the northeast corner of Palms and Motor is the "wrong project at the wrong time in the wrong place," the owner of the Pacific Television Center property just to the north told the Palms Neighborhood Council at its meeting on May 3.

In the public-comment section at the beginning of the meeting, Malibu real estate owner Milton Sidley said the project proposed by Claire Heron (story above) would be the "beginning of the end of Motor Ave. as we see it in Palms."

The Representative Assembly took no action because the matter was not on the agenda. It had approved the project by a show of hands at the council's Sept. 7, 2005, meeting.

Go to the Opinion Page for a statement by Sidley to the city's Planning Department.