Region : Officials Join Urban Forum

Representatives of five Westside cities will join real estate interests and community activists on the board of directors of the Westside Urban Forum, a developer-sponsored group involved with land use and planning issues.

Westside communities will be represented by Jane Blumenfeld, planning adviser to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley; Beverly Hills City Manager Mark Scott; West Hollywood City Manager Paul Brotzman; Santa Monica Community Development Director Peggy Curran; Culver City Community Development Director Jody Hall Esser and Stephen Lantz, Westside area director for Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

Developer James Watt McCormick, the group’s president, said the Westside Urban Forum was formed “to promote the discussion and dissemination of information on land use issues and real estate development proposals affecting West Los Angeles and the other cities in the region.”

The organization has held two discussions in recent months on the need for neighboring communities to work together to plan for development and avoid the kind of border wars that have arisen over major commercial projects in Culver City and Santa Monica.

Other members of the board of directors include Heal the Bay President Dorothy Green; Santa Monica Planning Commissioner Paul Rosenstein; engineering firm representative Ann Banning; architects Marty Borko, Katherine Diamond and Kenneth Stein; developers Don Brackenbush, Michael Dieden, Marianne Lowenthal, and Daniel Rosenfeld; marketing consultants William Feathers and Molly Hunt; attorneys Barry Fisher and Richard Lawrence; accounting firm representative Paul Garity; public relations consultants Sydney Knott and Richard Lewis; consultant Tom McCarty Jr., and planner Mark Winogrond.