Photos: Downtown Van Nuys, Van Nuys Blvd. at Oxnard: Why not build here instead?
Metro is seeking development proposals to convert the 12 acre parking lot adjoining the Orange Line Busway at Sepulveda Station. But why add density to this already packed location? (SEE MAP ABOVE)
This is a large piece of land, largely hidden from drivers who know the area chiefly as the Costco/Wickes district. But it is an enormous and lucrative parcel, one whose development could bring changes both to Van Nuys and greater Los Angeles.
Just north of the area, between Erwin and Victory, west of Sepulveda, is a quiet, well kept community of houses. These residents are locked into an urban vise that includes the 405 Freeway, Victory Boulevard, and the social laboratory of criminal discontent called Sepulveda.
Many are rightly concerned that Metro will add hundreds of units of housing, laughingly labeled “green” and try to sell it to the community with the idea that cars will be fewer, and bus riders more numerous.
But the truth is that adding a lot of multi-family apartments here will only increase the amount of automobiles and congestion in an already unpleasantly congested environment. There are limited ways to enter and exit this land area which is walled off from the west by the San Diego Freeway.
If Metro really wanted to perform an environmentally friendly act, they would create housing not at Sepulveda Boulevard, but at Van Nuys Boulevard. This would bring new, badly needed redevelopment to old and historic central Van Nuys, and create new retail and residential uses for a pedestrian oriented area.
Metro should not build “pedestrian” housing in an area without “pedestrian” amenities. Bring the apartments to downtown Van Nuys which is screaming for revitalization.
Here in Van Nuys 
Building housing adjacent to transit is fine if it’s targeted at a demographic that would actually use transit–namely, working-class families (what we used to call the “lower middle class”) and the truly poor. However, anyone who can afford new market-rate housing in Los Angeles isn’t going to take transit.
The Universal City situation is different. Metro’s had the problem that most of its station areas outside of DTLA are high on population density but poor in activity (employment, retail) destinations. From an efficiency standpoint it makes sense to have a balance of activity zones at each end of the line.
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I live in the northwest corner of the threatened orange trapazoid on your map. We’ve been hearing a myriad of different stories over the years as to what will become of that area. For a time, we were told that Wickes was going to close down, along with the Wendy’s…but they seem to be holding firm. Our neighborhood committee made a number of suggestions to the MTA as to how the area might be used, including a library, a small shopping center, and/or a senior living facility. Something tells me that everything we said fell on deaf ears.
I will say this to MTA’s credit…they do appear to be maintaining the Sepulveda station. The landscaping is kept tidy, and graffiti removal is swift.
That being said, I cringe to think what a large apartment complex or two will do to the traffic problems that already exist in that area. As you probably know, Erwin is the only way in to the enclave, and the major way out for most of us. Between the flow of traffic going south on Sepulveda, the egress of cars from CVS and Wendy’s, and the boneheads who MUST make that illegal u-turn out of Costco, just trying to make a turn off of Erwin can be a dicey proposition. Of course, one can always strike up a conversation with one of the working girls on the corner while one waits to make a safe and sane exit.
I know. I’ve done it. I leave the house for work at 5:30 AM and, often, there’s a small convention of the ladies on that corner. It’s heartbreaking, really. Many of them are so young. Last time I saw them, I told one of them to, “Be safe.” What else could I do?
-Nancy
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This is such B.S.! This is the same crap that Metro is pulling in Universal City…they are granted land for public use – i.e. transportation, then when all is said and done they develop the area contrary to the best needs of the community.
Where do I sign up? It’s a developer’s dream. Get the land for cheap and turn it into a multi million dollar development at the expense of the community!!
The MTA needs to stick to transportation. Period. No one has empowered this agency to “develop” anything. They were given large chunks of Los Angeles real estate at fire sale prices for the public good. This garbage is FAR from being good for the public.
I gar-un-tee that within the deep dark files in the MTA there exists plans to develop every parking lot along the red, gold and orange lines over the next several years.
The perfect definition of malfeasance.
Rizzo.
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