Development Plan for Reseda Is Long Overdue : Call for Moratorium in Business District Has Familiar Ring

Just last week, new 3rd District Councilwoman Laura Chick called for a reinstatement of a moratorium on certain types of development in the ailing Reseda Central Business District. The moratorium would hold until the council could approve a specific plan that would serve as a blueprint for development for the area. Her hope is that such a plan can be approved within six months.

Sound familiar? It ought to.

On April 13, 1988, then 3rd District Councilwoman Joy Picus was asking her City Council colleagues to--you guessed it--declare a moratorium on certain types of development in the Reseda district until a specific plan could be developed.

This is an example of just how slowly our city government moves in such matters. It’s also an example of what can happen when planners and bureaucrats are heavy-handed in dictating what kind of development an area ought and ought not to have. It’s a situation laced with the irony of recurring moratoriums on development, repeatedly enacted because no one could agree on the type of development that they wanted. As such, there are lessons to be learned.

In the 1950s, the Reseda business district was the premier shopping area for the West Valley. But the times, and enclosed shopping malls, simply passed it by. The fashionable stores bypassed Reseda in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and shoppers followed. New-car dealerships disappeared, replaced by the muffler shops, repair bays, parts stores and smog inspection stations that earned Reseda the new title of car repair capital of the Valley.

By the ‘80s, the 24-block area extending along Reseda Boulevard between Kittridge and Lull streets and Sherman Way between Hesperia and Wilbur avenues was a mishmash of auto-related businesses, trade schools, pawn and thrift shops, adult bookstores and fast-food restaurants. By the ‘90s, there were empty storefronts and a distinctly run-down appearance. Remaining business owners said that sales were down because few potential shoppers ever got out of their cars.

The first revitalization plan for the area was shot down in 1990 as too extreme, and rightly so. Under it, many of Reseda’s existing businesses (car repair, parcel delivery services, taxicab companies, trade schools) would not have been allowed to expand, and similar businesses would not have been allowed to open.

The problem was the grossly unrealistic hope that Reseda could somehow regain its formerly upscale retail splendor and compete successfully with sites in Canoga Park, Northridge, Woodland Hills and Sherman Oaks. That was not very likely.

The next development plan, OKd by the Los Angeles Planning Commission, was much more reasonable. No longer was its wording so intolerant of the businesses that have located in Reseda. It allowed, for example, the expansion of certain auto-related businesses, subject to a community review process. It also allowed for the construction of apartments in commercial areas. Unfortunately, that was in January, 1991. Some 15 months later, it was still “under review” at the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

Councilwoman Chick is right when she says that this overly long process ought to come to an end and that the city should get on with finally approving a specific plan for Reseda, without extreme restrictions and excessively lofty expectations.

“I just want to see filled storefronts and more fully occupied office buildings, more pedestrians. I believe that there are merchants and businesses that will find this an attractive place if we get on with it,” Chick said.

On Monday, she plans to begin meetings with planning officials and economic development experts to determine what kind of economic revitalization effort could be added once the specific plan has finally been approved. Reseda has waited too long for just that kind of attention.