Il Villagio Toscano Project Discussed at Encino Neighborhood Council Meeting

The Encino Neighborhood Council met Wednesday night at the Encino Community Center to discuss the controversial plans to build the project on Sepulveda Blvd., among other issues.

The committee first heard from Sean Bayliss, Field Deputy for Councilman Paul Koretz. Bayliss spoke about a host of issues, including Koretz’s position on the Los Angeles River improvement Overlay.

The councilman essentially supports the project, but has concerns over the sheer size of the overlay, and felt boundaries affected within the district be tightened up. Because portions of that proposed Overlay are miles away from the river, the Councilman felt it was inappropriate for neighborhoods with no connection to the river to be under the overlay, even including portions south of Ventura Blvd.

Koretz has requested that the planning committee tighten up the boundaries so as to apply only to the natural part of the river before moving ahead.  

When Jerry Silver quizzed Bayliss on details regarding the Councilman’s actual agenda, Bayliss said, “Jerry, I can’t think of too many things we have concocted in smoke-filled rooms that we’ve ever slipped past you.”

“I’m gonna be 85 on June 5th,” Silver answered. “I don’t have that much time left, you know.”

Ron Ziff spoke passionately about the need to ease the ongoing traffic problems along Sepulveda Boulevard each, and began by stating statistics about its usage.

“400,000 cars pass through the Sepulveda Pass every day,” he stated. “Three years of research has revealed that there are three main destinations that lead people to travel this corridor: UCLA, the VA and Century City. Of these, Century City is the main one. Though when we think of Century City, we think of high-priced lawyers, there are many thousands of people going there are bus-boys, secretaries, waitresses, janitors and more.”

So as to provide this segment of the traffic jamming population with an alternative means of transit, he said there were two solutions, the first of which would be to construct a subway line. “This, however, would take fifteen years. And we don’t have fifteen years, we need to solve this now.”

A more timely solution, he said, would be to establish a dedicated bus-line  that would extend the existing 734 bus line through the pass to Santa Monica Boulevard in Century City.

The board seemed receptive to this plan, and advised him how best to address Metro about it, as well as bringing it up with their own transit committee.

It was the plan to construct the “immense” Il Villagio Toscano project on Sepulveda Boulevard at Camarillo that received the most time and attention. A presentation about the project by Paul Kruger was planned, but with Kruger a no-show, board member Jerry Silver related his own details about the project, consistently referring to his need to “not say anything negative about it” as insisted on by the City Attorney.

Silver thrice joked about his hope that he wasn’t too negative as he discussed the details of the project.  One of the largest development plans ever proposed for the San Fernando Valley, first proposed in November, 2004, it has gone through a series of changes over the years. Il Villagio Toscano project  is a luxurious, 500-unit apartment building in the style of a Italian villa, with lush gardens and courtyards. The brainchild of developer M. David Paul, it would be built on this expanse of what is considered “blighted property.”

He explained that the developer has sought an RAS4 zoning code, which instills no height regulations on developments.

He also stated the main problems with the project, which came down to three words: “Traffic, density, height.”

“It is simply an out-of-scale project for this area,” he said.

The project would bring in an estimated 5700 cars into this neighborhood each day. Its height would cast shadows over many formerly sunny properties.  Some 147 existing city trees would be destroyed.

It was originally stated in the meeting that the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council’s Land Use Committee has voted to approve the project, but Marshall Long, chair of the SOHA (Sherman Oaks Housing Association) said that wasn’t true, they had simply voted to approve further exploration.

Asked what the logic was behind their decision, Long first explained that he, too, could not say too much, also worried by warnings by Capari Maddox, the City Attorney.  But he then added, “We felt we had to move forward. The developer had been to three meetings, and deserved an answer.”

He said that one board member suggested his motive in approving the project was pure disgust with traffic problems. Figuring this would so intensify traffic density, it would be a good idea to go ahead with it so as to force the city to invent new transit solutions.

The meeting ended with a report by outreach Chair Elliot Cohen about creative approaches to community outreach, which he stressed was “not unpleasant at all.”

That was followed by public comments, including one impassioned soliloquy by a 50-year resident of Encino, who complained, albeit poetically, about the Encino Park going to the dogs.