Friday, January 24, 1997
PROJECT:
Leaflets attempt to mobilize student support with promises of
better night lifeBy Loren Colin
The Daily Bruin editorial in support of the Smedra Project in
Westwood does a disservice to the students and residents of our
village. The Village Center Project as proposed will only do
further harm to a recovering Westwood. That is why most residents
and business owners of the village oppose the plan.
On its face, the project violates the Westwood Village Specific
Plan for development. A specific plan sets the rules and
regulations for growth in an area. Moreover, it is law. The current
specific plan caps the number of movie seats at the already
achieved level of over 6,000 and sets height limits for new
buildings at three stories. Ira Smedra’s project violates both of
these restrictions. He wants to add 4,700 more seats to an
inundated Westwood in a building that will be at points as tall as
an eight-story building.
Besides breaking the law, the project will in no way bring life
back to the village. The mall is totally self-contained. No one
will go to the mall and then go to the village proper. If anything,
this project will nail the coffin shut on Westwood
revitalization.
Another misconception of The Bruin editors is that more movie
theaters will help Westwood. This is simply not true. Seventeen
more screens will mean that our own theaters will start competing
for patrons. On this same point, there are not enough movies
released at once to fill all the screens in Westwood with different
films. In the long run, all the theaters will lose out as they show
movies to empty seats.
The editors also assume that just because a mall is new students
will go. Smedra’s mall will only be a shopping mall with high-end
boutique stores. Because of zoning ordinances passed in the late
1980s, no clubs or dance halls can open. The project still fails to
give Bruins somewhere to go on a Friday night.
Indeed, the vacant lot on Glendon needs to be developed.
Currently it is a source of blight in Westwood. And Ira Smedra has
every right to build on the property that he owns. However, his
plans must follow the law. Until he changes his plans to comply
with the law, the project must stop. Students should not be
confused by the fancy literature in support of the mall. This is
being passed out to students in hopes of deluging the city council
office with calls in favor of the project. Smedra and his leaflets
make promises for a Westwood night life that will not come true in
his mall.
Groups like the Friends of Westwood oppose the project for a
reason. It is not the right way to develop the vacant lot. Not only
will the project not deliver the economic good promised, but it
will bring in more crime, pollution and traffic. Not to mention it
will make residential Tiverton Avenue into a commercial street. At
the same time it will close off one of the main entrances to the
UCLA Trauma Center, the only trauma center servicing the
Westside.
The Village Center Project must stop development now in the
planning stages. By law, the project should not have even proceeded
this far. Students, along with residents and business owners, must
openly oppose the current Smedra project for the good of
Westwood.