Sportsmen's Lodge Redevelopment Public Appeal Hearing

Call to Action – Express your opinion at Public Appeal Hearing
POSTED ON MARCH 16, 2015

Dear Neighbors,

A group of Studio City Residents have filed appeals opposing the 97,807 sq. ft. MEGA shopping Center at the Sportsmen’s Lodge property proposed by Richard Weintraub. The development consists of 20 retail stores, 6 restaurants and a 30,000 sq. ft. gym and was recently approved by city planning.

This is a huge project that was NEVER required by the city to have a public hearing.

There are various concerns surrounding this project. Most important is the shortage of parking, underestimated traffic and noise issues for the hotel and the surrounding neighborhoods.
The project has been approved by City Planning with only 445 parking spots when more than 700 parking spots are legally required. This severe deficit of parking is comparable to the total amount of available street parking spots from Laurel Canyon to Woodman on the north side of Ventura Blvd! You know the cars will end up in your neighborhoods.

Secondly, there was no EIR, Environmental Report required by the city for this project. We are concerned what another 5000+ trips per day will do to the already overburdened surrounding streets. Ventura and Coldwater are already a nightmare.

Third there is great potential for noise issues for the surrounding neighborhoods as well as the hotel. The Traffic and Sound studies attached refutes the reports submitted by the developer as inaccurate and incomplete. By the way the Gym will open at 5:30AM and the restaurants will be open until 2AM with the possibility of outdoor seating.

We also found that the city made a deal with the developer to purchase the old fire station on Coldwater Canyon for his project without the property ever coming to the market for competitive bidding.

Amazingly enough Weintraub leases the Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel yet neglected to inform the hotel owners, Ventura Blvd. Associates, of his plans for his 97,807 sq ft. development that uses the hotel’s parking lot for the retail valet station and parking. This project will negatively impact the hotel in many ways. Hotel guests will have a hard time finding parking. That’s one of the reasons why Ventura Blvd Assoc. also opposes Weintraub’s project.

The following link ( —>> http://goo.gl/8tMJQj ) is their letter to the South Valley Area Planning Commission regarding their appeal. Although technical at times you can see how detrimental this project as it stands could be to us all.

The neighbors never objected to this project because they were not aware of it. We do object to squeezing in more than this site can handle. We object to any aspect of the Sportsmen’s project effecting our quality of life here in Studio City in turn for the profits of the developer.

The South Valley Area Planning Commission appeal hearing will be on Wednesday March 25, 2015 at 4:30PM at the
Marvin Braude Civic Center
6262 Van Nuys Blvd. 1st Floor
Van Nuys, Ca. 91401

Those that cannot make the meeting can send an email to: randa.hanna@lacity.org . She is the Commission secretary and will distribute the emails to the commissioners. Also cc your letter to: councilmember.krekorian@lacity.org . Best not to wait until the last minute as the Planning Commission requests you send in your letters seven days prior to the hearing date but letters sent after today will still be submitted to the Planning Commission.

In addition if anyone would be interested in attending a community meeting prior to the Planning Commission Hearing on March 25th, please let us know and we will try to arrange one.

This project could impact our neighborhood for many years to come. This is our last chance to protect our community from this massive project. We have less than two weeks to spread the word.

Please forward this email to anyone that you feel will be impacted and that would share our concerns.

Sincerely,

Patrice Berlin

Studio City Stakeholder