Beneath its often quiet sidewalks, Westwood is rumbling, as two
new multi-million dollar developments hope to add business in the
Village. But despite a lengthy city planning process chock full of
public hearings, many students may still be asking what hit the
Village when construction starts.
With over 35,000 attending class at UCLA, students are the
dominant consumer force in Westwood.
But they rarely, if ever, attend public hearings about the
Village, and are “not one of the most active groups in the
community” with respect to planning, said Shana Murphy, a
city employee who works with Westwood’s Design Review
Board.
While home and business owners have loudly decried for the past
several years a $100 million project developer Alan Casden will
build on Weyburn and Glendon avenues, community leaders say
students generally do not give input on planning questions.
Jeff Katofsky, a developer hoping to convert an empty lot behind
Jerry’s Famous Deli into stores, medical offices and a movie
theater, said while he and colleagues have shared preliminary plans
with homeowners and city planners, they won’t reach out to
students until later on in the process.
A quiet voice
Community leaders and developers offer conflicting views on the
extent they believe students should be involved in planning, and
why, in many ways, they’re not.
Sandy Brown, president of the Holmby-Westwood Property Owners
Association, said while students should be active on campus,
Village issues should be left to the veterans.
“A student coming out of the woodwork who just wants to
get involved would be very lost in the process,” she
said.
Following the planning process thoroughly often means poring
through hundreds of pages of documents like ones examining impacts
on traffic and pollution.
Students often leave Westwood in summer and graduate in five or
fewer years, so keeping track of the process is difficult, Brown
said. But what may matter most is that students don’t have a
financial stake in the Village, she added.
“If you had a hearing (on) higher tuition, you would have
students out galore. If you had a hearing on the street closure for
a new project, they wouldn’t come out. It really is very
dependent on where it hits you in the pocketbook,” Brown
said.
Greg Smith, one of Katofsky’s colleagues, says developers
and city planners reach out less to students than to other groups
because young people don’t have political pull with city
officials.
“(City Councilman) Jack Weiss has a very large district to
deal with, and Westwood Village is key. But there are many diverse
business groups and homeowners who have power, and influence and
history,” he said.
Most planning meetings are held downtown, posing an additional
challenge as they conflict with students’ hectic weekday
schedules.
“If they’re willing to take the time, they can
(participate). There is nothing to prevent them, except the time
they’re willing to put in. … It’s just hard for any
citizen,” said Laura Lake, co-president of community group
Save Westwood Village.
Connecting to the Village
Though students are less vocal than other groups in Westwood
planning, some collaborated with community leaders in the past
couple years to reach specific goals in the Village.
Students helped protest Casden’s development in small but
instrumental ways, notably in helping to sign and circulate a
petition asking developers not to close down a portion of Glendon
Avenue during construction. Merchants said the closure would harm
their businesses, many of which students patronized heavily, and
the petition helped lead developers to agree to keep parts of
Glendon open while building.
Taylor Hanan, a third-year cognitive science student studying in
Argentina, Mexico and Spain this year, created and designed
www.gowestwood.ucla.edu after speaking with university
administrators about his desire to strengthen relations between
students, residents and merchants.
The Web site has listings for over 300 Village businesses,
sorted by 14 categories including food, entertainment and arts.
Hanan presented his ideas at a homeowners’ meeting, and
worked with merchants and UCLA Local Government and Community
Relations to get the site on its feet.
“Students do care about the Village, whether it is
directly recognized or not,” Hanan wrote in an e-mail.
He wrote that while he believes students would be excited to
give input to developers, “that has to be a team effort. You
can’t just have students wanting to be involved with Westwood
or vice versa.”
Diana Brueggemann, who oversees local relations for UCLA, said
while she has gotten calls from students asking why there
isn’t a place to dance in Westwood, few who contact her
express interest in the Village.
“There’s no reason … I couldn’t give people
a heads up on Westwood. It’s just never seemed to be a
need,” she said.
But she added it would make sense for students to have a
stronger voice in planning, because while most will move away in
four years, those who replace them will have similar tastes and
concerns.
Smith said though students may not be aware of new developments
being planned, the people moving those projects forward, as well as
Village merchants, cater to what they perceive are students’
needs.
“Trust me ““ the retailers are listening. You have no
idea how closely they listen,” he said, adding that if
students want to take time to contribute, “tell them to jump
in.”
Still, despite recent collaboration between students, homeowners
and merchants, Katofsky believes the community is divided. It
always has been, perhaps because students are transitory, he said,
reflecting on the 1980s when he was a UCLA undergraduate.
“There’s this big wall between campus and the
Village,” he said. “And I’ve never quite
understood it.”
To contact Jeff Katofsky about development plans for the lot
behind Jerry’s Famous Deli, e-mail [email protected].
Information on Westwood planning is available through Shana Murphy
at (213) 978-1207.