Bundy Village Community Advisory Committee
For Immediate Release
February 24, 2010
Media Contact: Peter Brown
(213) 486-6560 ext 320
(213) 321-8107 cell
Bundy Village Developer Refuses LA Councilman and LA Planning Commission Request for Continued Talks with Westside Community Members
Community Advisory panel set up by Westside LA Councilman says developer refuses to meet with them despite the Councilman and City Planning Commission requests.
Los Angeles, CA, February 24, 2010 – The developer for the massive Bundy Village and Medical Park has turned down requests to meet with a committee of community representatives hand-picked by Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl to try to help work out a compromise on the project, which threatens to overwhelm intersections throughout the Westside with traffic. The Bundy Village project was heard at the Los Angeles City Planning Commission on February 11, 2010, but despite pleas from the developer’s lawyer, Dale Goldsmith, the Commission refused to approve it, delaying action for at least four weeks so that serious questions regarding the project’s impacts could be resolved.
“We very disappointed that the developer, Mr. Michael Lombardi, has simply rejected the requests of both the Planning Commission and Councilman Bill Rosendahl to meet with us,” said Sara Melzer, a nearby resident and member of the committee. “Mr. Lombardi’s refusal to meet with us is a slap in the face to Westside residents. He apparently believes that he is above the process.”
The group Lombardi is refusing to meet with is the Bundy Village Community Advisory Committee, an ad hoc committee established by Councilman Bill Rosendahl after the Planning Commission’s February 11th hearing. Refusing to approve the project, commissioners expressed concerns about the impacts of Bundy Village on the neighborhood. They asked that the developer meet with residents to address their concerns.
Commissioner Kezios stated that he thought the Commission “owes it to the people that have come here, that made the appeal – for them to have an opportunity to interact with the developer.” He added that he could not “in good conscience support abrogating the responsibility” of the Commission by approving the project.
Prior to the Planning Commission hearing, Councilman Rosendahl met with local residents and business leaders to hear their concerns about the project. Rosendahl agreed that the impacts were too significant and that the project needed to be scaled down before it could move forward. He then selected representatives for the Bundy Village Community Advisory Committee and asked that they work with the developer to address traffic, air quality and other impacts.
Lombardi’s refusal to meet with the community is part of a pattern of bait and switch he has engaged in for some time. Several weeks ago the developer promised the community and the Councilman that he would conduct a “time delay study” to analyze the potential delays in emergency response that the Bundy Village Project would cause. Lombardi later refused to follow through on that promise as well.
“Mr. Lombardi’s refusal to meet with our committee is in direct contradiction to his stated commitment to work with the community and Councilman Rosendahl and is simply unacceptable. He shows no signs of determining or resolving community concerns,” said committee member and Chair of the Brentwood Community Council Ray Klein. “We hope that Mr. Lombardi and his lawyers will see that stonewalling and breaking promises are not tactics that demonstrate good faith nor will they help reach solutions to resolve the impacts his project will produce for the Westside.”
The Committee held a formal meeting with Rosendahl last Tuesday and discussed ways to reduce the significant community impacts. After the Committee learned yesterday that the developer would not meet with them, they notified Councilmember Rosendahl. The Committee expressed its continued desire to work with the developer but pointed out his refusal seems to suggest he has no interest in working with the community or addressing his project’s substantial traffic and air quality impacts.
The Bundy Village and Medical Park would, if approved as proposed, add 21,000 traffic trips to one of the most congested areas of Los Angeles. The developer’s own traffic study indicates that 31 Westside intersections would be severely impacted and could not be fixed. Community opposition to the project in its current form has been strong, and a number of local community groups, neighborhood councils, and homeowners associations have formally opposed the project.
#######
