Unique Planning Process Can ‘Trip’ Savvy Developers

0

So, want to build in Century City?


You’ve got the money, political will and homeowners’ groups on your side if that weren’t difficult enough but you’ll still need “trips.”


In the strange world of Century City development, where developers face a well-organized coalition of homeowners and a generally development-wary Westside, a unique factor in the equation requires builders to account for the traffic their projects will generate by allocating “trips” for a project.


The 1981 Century City North Specific Plan, which covers a 190-acre area that includes the core business district, limits “daily arrivals at and daily departures from a building or structure by motor vehicles” but allows such “trips” to be traded among developers.


And because there were a finite number of trips allocated when the plan was created about 30,000, according to the Los Angeles City Planning Department these development rights have been monetized, creating a secondary market for them. (The value of these development rights is hard to discern because it is often agreed upon in private discussions.)


When the specific plan was written, there was a hope that it would create a framework for responsible development in the area. But, with a slate of new residential projects expected to open over the next several years joining prominent new office projects Constellation Place and 2000 Avenue of the Stars there is concern that the area is ill-prepared for increased traffic and that old ideas are no longer viable.


“The original purpose of the trips was to set a development cap for Century City, so to that extent we see it as useful,” said Mike Eveloff, president of the local Tract 7260 Homeowners Association. “But, it is very cumbersome. It is very difficult to track because there are ambiguities.”



Tripped out

One of the reasons for the complexity is tear downs.


Jeff Pool, a city planner who oversees Century City, said there are only about 1,700 of the original specific plan trips left. However, additional replacement trips have been created when projects have been torn down or when changes of use at properties have occurred.


For example, when the St. Regis Hotel was demolished earlier this year, developer Related Cos. was left with excess trips, because the company’s new Century condominium tower is expected to generate about 1,600 fewer trips than the hotel, with its guests constantly coming and going.


As a result, there are actually about 12,000 total trips available for developers to use in upcoming projects. Most of the remaining original trips are proposed to be used when the new condo projects are built. JMB Realty Corp. has more than 1,500 trips to use for its development at Avenue of the Stars and Constellation Boulevard, and Westfield Group also has a number of trips for its condo project adjacent to the Westfield Century City mall.


But even when all the currently available trips are allocated both original and replacement it doesn’t mean that development will grind to a halt. “Potentially more buildings could be demolished in the future and create more trips so I don’t think we’ve seen the last of development. If the market will be conducive to it, people will continue to come in to propose new things,” Pool said.


That prospect of unending development is what bothers residents. It’s also what prompted Los Angeles Councilman Jack Weiss to ask a group of developers to commission a report last year that maps out a new development vision for the area.


“One day I literally decided I was going to throw all the property owners together in a room and say, ‘Guys I want you to do something you’ve never done before. Share and cooperate with each other and work with the city on a new vision,'” Weiss said.


Developers JMB, Related, Westfield, SunCal Cos. and Trammell Crow Co. funded the study, which was conducted by local environmental design firm Rios Clementi Hale Studios. Completed in April, the report was submitted to Metropolitan Transportation Authority, because it calls for various short-term pedestrian improvements. It also envisions upgrades to beautify Avenue of the Stars, something that some local property owners have said they would be willing to help pay for.


In the longer term, the plan calls for transportation linkages between Century City and the rest of Los Angeles, including possibly building a transportation center at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars. There workers and residents could take buses or even link to the proposed Purple Line subway to the sea.


It’s unclear whether this will ever come about and some homeowners like Eveloff wonder about its viability, saying they want concrete improvements now. But report author Bob Hale, principal at Rios Clementi Hale, said it’s imperative bold steps are taken. “We can either do it intelligently in coordinating land use and transportation or put our heads in the sand and do nothing and it will get worse,” he said.

No posts to display