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7/1/13 Casden agrees to downsize West L.A. development - latimes.com
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-casden-project-20130626,0,1459058.story 1/4
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Developer Casden West L.A. drops plans for a grocery store and Target and reduces number ofhomes after critics complain about expected new traffic.
By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times
June 26, 2013 , 12:23 a.m.
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Casden agrees to downsize West L.A.development
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Real estate developer Casden West L.A. has agreed to chop
down the size of its hotly contested commercial and
residential project on the Westside, following two weeks of
negotiations with neighborhood groups, a company official
said Tuesday.
With a City Council vote on the project set for Friday, Casden
abandoned plans for both a supermarket and a Target, moves
that are expected to dramatically decrease the amount of
automobile traffic that the project generates.
The reworked project, planned next to an Expo Line light rail
station, will have just 15,000 square feet of commercial
space, instead of the previously proposed 160,000, said
company spokesman Brian Lewis.
Casden also is reducing the number of homes planned within
the project near the congested corner of Pico and Sepulveda
boulevards, from 638 homes to 595.
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7/1/13 Casden agrees to downsize West L.A. development - latimes.com
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-casden-project-20130626,0,1459058.story 2/4
Comments 1 0 Email Share TweetTweet 20 1
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The Casden development had major support from Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa, who had portrayed it as "quintessential
smart growth" — the concept of clustering homes, shops and
restaurants around transit stops. But an array of
neighborhood groups had threatened legal action, saying that
Casden illegally used property owned by the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority to calculate the development's
size.
Lewis said his company responded to neighborhood concerns
about traffic and would no longer rely on the MTA land to
make its calculation.
"While we continue to believe that a transit-oriented
development is the type of smart growth that the Westside
needs, it is infeasible to build such a project with extensive transit amenities on just four acres of
land," he said.
Jay Handal, chairman of the West Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, said the changes represented
"a serious, serious victory for the community." By downsizing the project, Casden significantly cut
the projected number of new car trips from the development to no more than 3,000 per day, Handal
said.
"This agreement will eliminate lawsuits and stalling and actually bring the project to fruition in the
very near future," said Handal, one of several neighborhood leaders who took part in the talks with
Casden.
Casden West L.A. has been looking to strike a deal before the 15-member City Council undergoes a
dramatic changeover. Next week, six new council members will take office.
Still, one neighborhood leader said she was worried that community groups would not have enough
time to understand all of the project's changes.
Hilary Norton, executive director of the group Fixing Angelenos Stuck in Traffic, said she was happy
the scaled-back project would produce less traffic but disappointed that fewer amenities would be
near the rail station. "It's a shame to lose the opportunity for people to walk and bike and [take a] bus
and train to a grocery store and a Target," she said.
Tuesday's announcement comes one week after another developer offered its own concessions in
response to heated neighborhood opposition. Millennium Partners agreed to reduce the height of
two skyscraper towers planned in Hollywood, taking one from 55 stories to 39 and the second from
45 stories to 35.
Casden's tallest building will be 10 stories, not the previously proposed 17, Lewis said. Other
buildings will not exceed six stories, he said.
Casden West L.A. and its principal, Alan Casden, are well known at City Hall. The company
contributed $100,000 last year to Villaraigosa's failed campaign to extend a half-cent countywide
sales tax by 30 years, and $100,000 in March to the council's unsuccessful bid to hike the city sales
tax.
The company also retained former Gov. Gray Davis, now a private lawyer, to represent it in talks
with city officials.
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