Score another victory for community activists: The City Planning Department has rejected Home Depot’s request for an exemption from conducting a full environmental assessment about the impact of converting a closed K-Mart store in Sunland-Tujunga into another giant home improvement center.
Here’s the ruling issued today homedepoteir.pdf What city planners decided is that an exemption from the environmental study process is not appropriate because quite simply the store conversion is not “negligible” as Home Depot — a decision that will require a lengthy study and public debate.
The company has spent millions of dollars and used all its clout and gotten a lot of help from some city officials to ram this down the community’s throat.
It has sued the city and the City Attorney’s Dispute Resolution Program has lost its credibility trying to run roughshod over opposition.
Yet, all that’s happened is that Sunland-Tujunga has become a model of what residents can achieve when they organize.
Hundreds of people have gotten involved, taken action and raised their consciousness about the issues they face throughout the Sunland-Tujunga area. They have won battles to protect the historical nature of some neighborhoods and gotten special protections against mansionization among other victories.
But none is sweeter than than the long fight to make Home Depot comply with the law.
Home Depot got a building permit with no questions being asked three years ago, with no input from the community. A long and often vicious campaign followed as the community mobilized, set up When local residents found a websute and created enough political pressure to force the City Council to call the Planning Department to review the situation
Home Depot sued and then put it on hold while the city’s mediators trying to get around opponents and the planner went about the process of analyzing the company’s claims that the store conversion was just a simple remodel with new signs and security lights.
The “No Home Depot” campaign focused on traffic impacts, toxic chemicals near schools, local businesses that would be harmed and many other issues. What they really wanted was a general merchandise store and a community center that would meet their needs.
Home Depot’s response was to accuse the community of being racist and opposing day laborers hanging around the store as they do at most of the company’s home improvement centsrs.
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YAY! Home Depot now has to submit an EAF (environmental assessment form) to determine what level of environmental review they must undergo.
An EIR is a real possibility at this point, and the
community and the STA will be fighting for that!
Congrats Sunland-Tujunga and thank you City Planning for doing the right thing!
Wahoo! Thank you City Planning for recognizing the Home Depot project in Sunland-Tujunga can’t proceed without some level of environmental reveiw. What level will be determined after HD sumbits their completed Environmental Assessment Form for City Planning review. We’ll keep working toward a requirement for a full Environmental Impact Review and to working Joe, Abby and the STA to make that happen.
Congratulations to the Sunland/Tujunga folks for
not accepting the short-sighted development of Home Depot in their area.
And congratulations to our friend Ron Kaye for the tremendous job he is doing in letting all know what is actually taking place in the Mayor’s office and the City Council and the DWP, never mind Griffith Park and the gang situations and so very much. I see where SLAP is making a dent in the tremendous status quo that developed in a matter of years because we trusted the people who ran for office to work for us only to learn that they were feathering their own nests at our expense and inconvenience. TH
First congratulations to the activists on at least slowing down H-D I grew up in Tujunga. Lived there my first 16 years. I still think that Tujunga wants to be a small town and would not have annexed with L.A. in the 20′s if it was not for the depression.
When we lived there, we got our hardware from Foothill Hardware or Merrithew’s. I hope I spelled their name right. If they did not have what we needed, it was off to La Cresenta or Van Nuys to Builder’s Emporium. That’s always how things have been. I think a new H-D would kill off both small hardware stores in the area and add boatloads of truck traffic, day laborers and noise to the area.
I would like to see the Council and H-D shift it’s focus from Tujunga to an area near Tujunga perfectly suited for a large builder’s supply…Sun Valley.
Why?
1. SV is already LOADED with building supply outlets especially rock products. The contractors are already in Sun Valley!
2. SV is poor and in need of better paying jobs. Something I would hope Coucilmember Alarcon would support.
3. Boatloads of truck traffic, day labor, dust, noise all ready there. H-D would be an improvement.
4. Built in industrial base of customers needing tools and supplies. Some firms run 24 hous down there. It would be closer to the City’s own operations including DWP, Sanitation and Street Services. The proposed H-D at the old K-Mart would be the only one I know of in a SOLIDLY residential area. Think about where you see Home Depot’s.
A. Roscoe and Balboa is near the airport and a rail line near an old national guard base and other building supply outlets.
B. Sherman Way near Coldwater is in a commercial industrial area.
C. The Plant is at the old GM site. That’s largely industrial with big commercial stores.
D. Fullerton is near rail road tracks and in an industrial area of Fullerton.
5. The new H-D would still in the City of Los Angeles. L.A. still gets sales tax and permit revenue.
6. Residents in Sunland and Tujunga have ALWAYS traveled out of the area for whatever they want. If they want H-D they go down the hill to
Sun Valley. Business as usual.
7. Residents of Burbank’s north side would now have another option to Lowe’s.
8. H-D would get to keep customers it will make enemies out of by building in Tujunga.
Any other views for or against Sun Valley?
By the way, what would be a good use for the old K-Mart site? Someone is going to do something with it. And sorry to say I don’t think they will turn it into a drive in theater again.
Too bad I missed this news yesterday. I hope the backslapping has stopped now and a bit of reality has set in. If not, then let me offer some words of caution.
Environmental Impact Reports are great – in theory. The problem is that they are prepared by the developer’s consultants and not by impartial parties. In fact, long before pen is put to paper, city planners will have told Home Depo what exactly they want and how to get environmental clearances. And, therein lies the rub. Instead of an impartial process, the entire report will be faulty from the beginning and open to question by a knowledgeable community that will demand valid explanations only to be eventually learn from city planners that “all impacts will be mitigated to insigificant levels.” That means all of the existing problems will still be allowed, and will be classified under some sort of weird environmental policy that allows same. Seriously. I don’t dream this stuff up. I’ve just seen it happen time and time again with these documents.
My strong recommendation is that the ST activists start raising big monies to retain their own consultants to go toe to toe with HDs. That doesn’t guarantee any victories, but will challenge city planners sufficiently not to go on automatic approval pilot. Otherwise, the community is going to sit through hours of meetings preparing a response that they will think the city will actually consider when it truly won’t in the ways they envision.
This is as good as opportunity as there is to raise public awareness about a flawed system that has been passing as good for our communities. If you don’t believe me, then read a EIR for yourself.
Ellen,
Thank you for your words of wisdom. We understand the limitations and faults within the current EIR process, and without saying too much, I will say we are prepared to deal with the scenario you describe.
Neighborhoodwatchbear,
Great post! I hope Home Depot & Alarcon take note.
Thank you, City Planning, for seeing the weaknesses in Home Depot Corporation’s call for exemptions that wouldn’t hold water with CEQA regulations.
Truth is the Sunland-Tujunga location has a myriad of environment issues that need to be addressed. A few of them might be mitigated in one degree or another, most likely still negatively impacting the community. There are many more issues that simply can not be mitigated in any significant way.
Ellen V.’s observations are to be heeded.
Good luck Sunland-Tujunga!
PS…mitigation doesn’t do a community any good if it isn’t completed. Developments such as Circuit City in the SFValley, and Angeles National Golf Course in Lakeview Terrace/Sunland, should never have opened until all mitigation issues were resolved in advance.
PS…neighborhoodwatchbear, that sounds like an something worth exploring. Each community is different. That’s why these kinds of developments need to be examined case by case.
The effort to use multiple Categorical Exemptions was the work of Latham & Watkins.
For the time being, City Planning has doused the Latham & Watkins schemes with some “sunshine.” There is nothing like the sunshine afforded by a more complete environmental review.
It is true that the EIR process can be preverted by Latham & Watkins and the Home Depot’s EIR consultant. However, an alert community can respond to any and all claims in the EIR’s that are not supported by evidence in the EIR. In so doing, the community can defeat or substantially change the Home Depot assault on Sunland Tijunga.