Neighborhood rallies to keep Larchmont Bouelvard parking lot
BOARD OF TRANSPORTATION commissioners ask questions about Lot 694 on Larchmont Boulevard.
The room on the 10th floor of City Hall was filled to its 90-person capacity on Nov. 13. Attendees were there to plead their case to the volunteer board of Transportation Commissioners to keep lot 694, also known as the Larchmont Farmers’ Market lot, as it is. The audience was a veritable who’s who of Larchmont.
The issue at hand was that the city was planning to sign a long-term lease with Ron Simms, real estate developer and owner of the former Rite Aid building across the street. Simms intended to develop the parking lot with retail and office space. Over 60 residents, including apartment dwellers, homeowners, block captains representing their entire block, families who have lived in the area for multiple generations, retail shop owners, and newcomers waxed poetic about the parking lot. One speaker referenced the Joni Mitchell lyric “They paved paradise, put up a parking lot,” and continued by saying we want to keep our paved parking lot.
The meeting allotted each speaker one minute to make his or her case. Everyone who spoke at the meeting was in favor of keeping the lot as is.
THE MEETING ROOM IN City Hall was filled with neighbors concerned about the Farmers Market parking lot.
One might think that each person would have the same comment about the parking lot, but that wasn’t the case. Throughout the hour-plus of personal statements, members of the community talked about the legal aspects of the situation, the loss of faith in the city for trying to sneak this transaction past its residents, the impact on the neighboring streets (with 34 fewer parking spaces), and the consequences less parking would have on the block, both to nearby residents and retail shops. Some spoke of the loss of the Farmers’ Market as their go-to for fresh fruits and vegetables and worried where they would shop for them if the market wasn’t there. One person mentioned this is the town for the mayor’s house—how would Karen Bass feel about this?
But the majority relayed the intangible sense of community derived from the parking lot as a town square, the heart of a village with its small town feel in the middle of Los Angeles. Gary Gilbert, of Windsor Square, said, “It’s far more than a parking lot.” Many referred to it as a treasure in a rare single block of community. New residents who moved from Washington, D.C. said, “We hit the jackpot.” Georgea Fenady, a Larchmont Village resident of more than 60 years, said, “[Larchmont] is a gem in the middle of Los Angeles and needs to remain that way.”
Speakers mentioned the necessary sunshine and open air the lot provides for the rest of the Boulevard, the multiple charitable and community events hosted there, the ability of kids to wander without supervision along the street. With a smile, Charles D’Atri, president of Larchmont Village Neighborhood Association said, “I commend the developer [Simms] for bringing the entire community together. We’ve never been so completely united for anything in the neighborhood.”
After the meeting, Patti Carroll, a resident of St. Andrews Square and board member for Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council (GWNC), said, “I was so proud of our community. The comments were so inventive and it never got boring.”
What is the outcome?
PREPARING FOR THE meeting, (from left) Sam Uretsky, president of LUNA; Larry Guzin, president of Windsor Square Association; Todd Warner, LBA board member; and LBA President Romi Cortier.
The night before this meeting, the GWNC took the advice of its Land Use Committee and voted unanimously against granting a lease to Larchmont Properties, owned by Simms. That same night, Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez of Council District 13 sent a letter to the Board of Transportation Commissioners vehemently opposing the transaction.
According to the Transportation Board, they received 440 emails. All except for two opposed the possible development of the lot. Additionally, Sam Uretsky, president of LUNA, collected 1,686 signatures, all in favor of keeping the lot the way it is.
Ken Husting, the representative from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, provided a few alternative locations for the Farmers’ Market. After his presentation, he wasn’t able to answer the limited questions from the board since opposition to the proposal came the previous night, which changed the scenario to the board was that he “needed to check with his city family.”
Because the agenda item was labeled informational, there wasn’t a vote for the outcome of the parking lot. Emma Howard, community development and planning director for CD13, spoke to the board at the meeting and asked for it to “close out this item.”
After the meeting, attendees felt confident the proposal would die in committee. Howard told the Chronicle via email, “If they [the Board] take no action then that means there’s no ground lease, but our office is still looking for something a bit more formal and definitive to ensure the Larchmont community has an answer.”
Category: News
