Culver City Council Considers New Museum, Market

Culver City residents could potentially see a new motion picture museum, a marketplace to take the place of the empty lot on the corner of Washington Boulevard and Centinela Avenue and advertising on city buses as councilmen considered these items and more at Monday’s City Council meeting.

The prospective museum came up early during a public comment period, when eight people spoke in favor of putting an exploratory committee on a future council agenda.

"I promise not to apply for this committee," joked Steven Gourley, a current school board member speaking as a private citizen.

Nonetheless, Councilmen Christopher Armenta, Andrew Weissman and Jeffrey Cooper all remarked that putting the item on the agenda would be a good thing and later directed city staff members to do so.

"We've long talked about this," Armenta said.

Later, while approving the purchase of digital projection equipment for the Pacific Theatre located on Culver Boulevard, Armenta asked what would be done with the old equipment.

"Would it be old enough to put in the museum?" quipped .

However, things got serious again as Armenta expressed concerns over term limits for city commissioners, favoring a two-year waiting period between terms, even on different commissions.

Currently, commissioners serve two-year terms and must wait two years before serving on the same commission again, but can serve on a different commission immediately after terming out of one.

Armenta expressed concerns about "creating professional commissioners." However, the other council members felt that they could prevent this problem by focusing on each applicant's qualifications for a specific commission, and the item passed with only Armenta voting no.

In other city council news, numerous residents in the neighborhoods adjacent to Washington Boulevard and Centinela Avenue turned out to express concern about the development of the empty lot there as a market hall, which would house a variety of stalls for produce and other small businesses. This project that also includes the construction of a parking garage.

"We're just going to be attracting more traffic to an already overburdened area," said Jean Ballatine, who lives on Colonial Avenue.

In addition to worries about increased traffic in the neighborhood, others also expressed concern that they had not heard about the project and didn't have the opportunity to express their views on it.

"This is really the beginning of the process, not the end," said Community Development Director Sol Blumenfeld, adding that he expected to have as many as six public meetings on the project.

Vice Mayor Scott Malsin pointed out that earlier plans for the space included a Walgreens drug store.

"I think that this is a fabulous thing for the neighborhood," he said about the market hall alternative.

While the other councilmen agreed that the neighbors' issues needed to be taken into account, the council voted unanimously to begin the development process with a Request for Qualifications for potential developers.

The council also agreed to introduce traffic calming measures along Lenawee Avenue in Blair Hills and to create a cul-de-sac at Irving Avenue and A Street, as well to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus system to solicit advertising for both the Santa Monica system and the Culver City Bus systems.