RUSS REPORT - Last March the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization (WHHO) filed a lawsuit against Westfield LLC that, they say, violates both the Warner Center Specific Plan and the Woodland Hills Community Plan.
WHHO maintains in their lawsuit that the City’s actions were contrary to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and cites several alleged violations to include Land Use Impacts, Transportation Impacts, Geology and Soils (Groundwater) Impacts and Air Quality.
The project seeks to build a 20- pump gas station, a 165,759 sq. ft. Costco store with no ingress/egress on to streets, and a 2.8 acre parking lot with an entrance from Owensmouth and all with expanded hours of operation not allowed by-right under the current zoning.
The Warner Center Specific Plan (WCSP) designates that the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Owensmouth Avenue and both north and south of that intersection for Owensmouth Avenue be pedestrian friendly but does not include any pedestrian amenities and is adjacent to nearby residential use and the Owensmouth Parkway.
WHHO President Gordon Murley said, “We decided that if no action was taken on the violations, it would make it easier City wide to ignore Specific Plans and Community Plans and virtually render them useless to protect communities from negative impacts from inappropriate development. So, to protect all of the City from the Planning Department and Council Districts ignoring that the zoning, Community Plans and Specific Plans, the WHHO did what needed to be done.”
On August 1, 2011, The Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council’s Planning, Land Use and Mobility Committee (PLUM) unanimously passed a Motion in opposition to the project for several reasons that were ignored by the City and Westfield. (Link) [[link to Word doc “Woodland Hills Lawsuit One)
Central to their many concerns as stated in their Motion was an observation that, “The Village at Westfield Topanga project has changed significantly from the Notice of Project (NOP) initially presented to the community.
The EIR used the comments solicited through this stage of the process. It is PLUM’s observation that the goals of the project were then changed extensively from the initial project presentation to include the large plate anchor retailer.
Accompanying that change was the inclusion of a massive gas station for which PLUM has not found any consistent demand related to the EIR NOP for their inclusion either from the community or surrounding neighborhoods.”
Also noted was the fact that the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) failed to address the cumulative effects of three other potential major projects considered for that area, notably the conversion of the Rocketdyne site, the high rise Farmers Insurance parking structure and the educational facilities near Pierce College.
Murley founded a non-profit organization called the Community Rights Foundation Los Angeles (CRFLA) in an effort to give all persons a stronger voice within their community.
The Organization is accepting donations to defer legal expenses for this lawsuit that can be sent to WHHO, P.O. Box 6368, Woodland Hills, CA 91365.
(Katharine Russ is an investigative reporter. She is a regular contributor to CityWatch and to the North Valley Reporter. Katharine Russ can be reached at: [email protected] ) –cw
Tags: Russ Report, Katharine Russ, Woodland Hills, Warner Center, Westfield, Community Plan, Specific Plan
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 53
Pub: July 3, 2012
