Blueprint Gets Approval for Retail Growth in Reseda

A Los Angeles City Council planning panel Tuesday approved a long-awaited blueprint for development in Reseda that seeks to steer the community’s fading central business district away from reliance on auto-related businesses and toward a new future as a retail shopping area.

The plan still must be approved by the full council.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the area, called the plan adopted 2 to 0 by the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee “a good compromise” devised with the help of local property owners that “sends a message that Reseda is a good place to do business.”

“It’s business-friendly,” Picus said of the plan.

In its original form, however, the plan had been sharply criticized as too harsh by local commercial property owners.

But at Tuesday’s hearing, no one spoke against the revised plan, which has won widespread support from local business leaders since it was unveiled more than a year ago.

Picus, who is seeking reelection next spring, said city processing of the plan, which has been languishing in City Hall for years, has nothing to do with her upcoming reelection. “It’s not tied to politics,” she said.

The plan would discourage the auto-related businesses that have come to dominate Reseda’s commercial core--giving it an unattractive image, according to city planners. The area is now unofficially known as the auto repair capital of the San Fernando Valley.

Proposals to build new auto-related facilities or to expand existing ones by more than 20% will need to be approved first by city zoning officials, said Jim Dawson, Picus’ planning deputy.

The plan also sets a three-story height limit on new commercial projects.

At Picus’ suggestion, the planning committee Tuesday deleted language adopted in January, 1991, by the Planning Commission that was designed to encourage commercial developers to build multifamily residential units in their projects.

Dawson said mixed-use projects are not needed because there is ample property next to the Reseda commercial core zoned for multifamily development.

Also, at Picus’ urging, the committee Tuesday increased to 15 feet the amount of setback required between commercial projects and adjoining residential areas. The Planning Commission had proposed a 5-foot setback, Dawson said.