Parking lot could be a nice apartment. 
The former Pacific Cinema site at Van Nuys Boulevard and Milbank is the scene of an ongoing fight between homeowners and others who want to prevent Best Buy from erecting an enormous and traffic clogging store on this land.
Aside from the ugliness and needlessness of yet another electronics emporium, the area is home to many older people. They walk to Gelsons, banks, medical offices, the library, and take the bus. Future development should focus on pedestrian friendly, sidewalk utilizing structures. Why not construct an apartment with easy access to Gelsons, and underground parking here?
The new theme of Sherman Oaks is “the Village at Sherman Oaks”. A small town should be a walking paradise, not an enormous parking lot for angry, honking speeding SUV’s and aggressive big box stores peddling the latest audio/digital/amplified garbage.
The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association has more to say on this issue and others affecting the quality of life.
Here in Van Nuys 
The SOHA has a point and they have a right to make it, they just don’t have the right to tell other people what to do with their land.
They are also hypocrites. I know realtors in Sherman Oaks who have been cited for putting out signs because of complaints from SOHA. However, one of their leaders is a local realtor whose signs are all over the corners on Ventura. Lousy hypocrite. Also – if you went and told those people how to decorate, remodel their homes they would have a fit.
They are primarily busybodies run by the same small group of people for decades. They do not represent nor even care about the larger community, just like most of the HOA groups in the Valley.
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You’re right in the respect that the homeowners groups sometimes prevent needed development. In Encino, one group wants to preserve single family houses and prevent multi- story apartments on Ventura even when 20 story offices exist there already. The Best Buy situation might attract cars, but no more than visited the movie theaters. However, the use of land is the issue and how to best blend the development with the surroundings and in that case I think the SOHA has a good point.
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I disagree. If the people who own the property and the Best Buy people want to put up their money and property to do this, its their right. We have private property rights in America no matter what the Sherman Oaks Homeowner Association says. Bunch of Busybodies if you ask me.
If there was an financial value in putting apartments there, then someone would. Truth is, there are a plethora of apartment projects going on all over Sherman Oaks.
If it turns out no one wants to shop at the Best Buy, oh well. I would prefer to see more movie theatres, but it ain’t up to me any more than the SOHA.
And sure there are old people who live in the neighborhood, but a lot of young people do too. They have a right to their lifestyle as well.
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