Culver West Neighborhood Association
Update - January 3, 2008 |
|
Topics:
- New Year's Greetings!
- Washington Blvd/Centinela Project on Agency Agenda Monday, January 7
- Council to Hear of Appeal of Upward Bound House Approval January 14
- CWNA on the web
| New Years Greetings to Culver West! |
|
This year promises to be a very exciting one for residents of Culver West and the area. The two Redevelopment Agency projects in our neighborhood - at Washington and Centinela and on Washington between Moore and Meier - should hopefully be under construction during 2008, and the developments proposed for those sites are very exciting. Compared to earlier proposals, they are more modest in size, more interesting in design, and more oriented towards providing desirable amenities and services to our neighborhood. The Redevelopment Agency will be discussing those projects in January, so if you want to learn more, keep your eyes peeled! In addition, CWNA should be having a meeting in the near future devoted to a presentation of the Washington/Centinela project.
We will hopefully see Culver West Park improvements implemented this year. Long planned, they have been delayed for a variety of reasons over the past four years, but the City should be able to move forward with them during the first part of '08.
The City's Community Development Department is proceding with the design and implementation of a streetscape improvement project in the area. We will finally see medians and trees along Washington Blvd! A number of residents, business- and commercial property owners turned out to speak in favor of those improvements along Washington Blvd. at a December Redevelopment Agency meeting.
There are many individuals who have been true leaders in our neighborhood, and they have really helped make a difference. In addition to their leadership, each and every person who attends a neighborhood or City Council meeting is an important part of the neighborhood advocacy process. Thanks for taking the time to make our neighborhood a better place!
I hope you, your friends and your families have had great holidays. Best wishes for '08!
| Washington Blvd/Centinela Project on Agency Agenda Monday, January 7 |
|
Council Chambers, City Hall
9770 Culver Blvd
Monday, January 7 @ 7pm
This Monday evening the Culver City Redevelopment will consider the selection of a developer for the two north corners of Washington Blvd and Centinela Avenue. It is item A-1 on the evening's agenda. Regarding the recommended project, the staff report reads in part:
[The recommended developer is a partnership called "Washinela L.P."]
Washinela L.P. is 50% owned by David Paris and 50% owned by David Reiss. Their experience includes creation of unique and popular restaurants and night clubs such as The Alibi Room, The Del, The Brig, and Beechwood. Washinela L.P. has hired Dex Design Studio as their architect for the Sites and has employed them for a number of their other retail and restaurant projects, including Beechwood and The Alibi Room.
Project: A low-density, neighborhood friendly multi-use project comprised of separate residential and commercial buildings. Five 3-story Townhomes (rental), 2-story commercial with ground floor retail/restaurants and upper floor offices (for lease). 14K square feet of ground floor restaurant, 11K square feet of ground floor retail and 23K square feet of upper floor office space.
Tenants: Coffee house (Site B), one or two unique full-service restaurants (note Beachwood/Alibi Room/The Brig/The Del examples) on Site A, and quality retailers.
-
Staff believes the neighborhood will welcome their proposed project since it is low in height and density, and will contain desirable neighborhood-serving businesses, including a coffee house and one or two unique restaurants that offer outdoor dining.
-
In addition to the five townhomes along Colonial Avenue that will create a transitional buffer between the adjacent single family homes and the project on Site A, the location of the at-grade parking areas on both corners creates a set back to the buildings footprint. These setbacks will act as a buffer to adjacent residential uses.
-
The project will be LEED Gold or Platinum certified, and will promote green building principles, including a “green” roof and pervious paving.
-
Their project includes upper floor plazas, dramatic public art elements along with large, opposing corner plazas designed for outdoor dining and as public open space.
-
The Developer has a history of creating unique, high-quality restaurants that attract desirable retailers and coffee houses who want to be near them.
-
The Developer has prior experience in partnering with cities and agencies on large scale projects.
-
The Development Team has a good track record of implementing successful redevelopment projects.
-
Staff believes their proposed project will become the catalyst that stimulates private redevelopment activities in the area.
-
Dramatic evening lighting will highlight the project roofline and landscaped plazas.
Washinela L.P. is offering $8,500,000 for the land that comprises the Sites. In addition to the land sale proceeds, future revenue to the Agency through incremental property tax revenue generated from the two Sites are estimated at $57,500 in the first year, which are anticipated to grow at a minimum of 2% per year thereafter.
Revenues to the City’s General Fund are harder to predict at this early stage, but sales tax, business gross receipts tax, and utility user’s taxes are estimated to be
$63,000 for the first year.
Click here to read 1) the staff report and 2) attachments for this item.
|
Council to Hear of Appeal of Upward Bound House Approval January 14
|
|
Council Chambers, City Hall
9770 Culver Blvd
Monday, January 14 @ 7pm
On Monday, January 14 the City Council will hear an appeal of a Planning Commission approval of an emergency housing facility on West Washington Blvd.
Upward Bound House is a non-profit social service agency based in Santa Monica, where it operates a transitional housing facility for homeless families and an affordable housing facility for very low income seniors. They are proposing to turn the Sunbay Motel (corner of Beethoven and Washington) into a short-term (90 days) emergency housing facifity for homeless families.
Information on this item will be available on the City's website next week.
http://culverwest.org
Contact
CWNA by email if you'd like to participate in organizing neighborhood
activities or be a "block captain." Be in touch if you've
got suggestions for meeting topics or ideas for events.
| Thanks for caring about our neighborhood |
|
|
