The West Hollywood City Council's decision to allow the corner of Crescent Heights and Santa Monica Boulevard to become a Walgreen's is a big mistake for the area.
Why does City Hall keep approving these "multi-purpose" projects by building more and more store fronts that will be almost impossible to rent out? The traffic problem alone should be a major concern. Obviously the city doesn't care about the traffic issues ANYWHERE in the city!
I moved into a cheap apartment ($275.00/mo!!) at 1030 N Crescent Heights Blvd in July, 1985. Rock Hudson was in the news the week I moved in due to a "mystery illness" he had and everyone was speculating he had AIDS.
It was a perfect apartment to live in because it was close to everything. There was a Chinese restaurant on the corner of Crescent Heights and Santa Monica, along with a donut shop, dry cleaners, beauty supply business and a Pioneer Chicken.
The layout of the mall was perfect for neighborhood walkers and it was always fun to go walk up to the corner and get something quick and cheap to eat at Pioneer Chicken. The entire block had a nice,neighborhood feel to it, despite being on the corner of a major blvd.
The living room window of my apartment faced Crescent Heights and every afternoon around 3pm the backup of cars traveling north toward Sunset would build up and sometimes get backed up all the way down toward Melrose! Street parking was next to impossible and all that traffic made it nearly impossible to find a parking spot and get home before 8 p.m.
And that was in 1985! 27 years later it is even worse than before and that intersection is very difficult to get through going north on Crescent Heights Blvd. This new development will cause so many problems regarding traffic that none of it makes sense.
I am just as interested in change as the next person, but why this particular corner? This has been going back and forth for years because all the businesses (except the donut store) were ran out years ago and the entire block is empty now.
The city should have left it alone and found another place for this type of development. I could think of several parts along Fairfax between Sunset and Melrose where this would have made more sense. The City Council is slowly destroying everything that makes West Hollywood such a special place to live. All this development is going to come back to haunt us.
The traffic has been bad on Santa Monica Blvd ever since I started driving in 1976. Crescent Heights northbound crossing SMB has always been bad because (1) it leads directly to Laurel Canyon and (2) it narrows to only one lane south of SMB. The City can't stop development if the owner wants to develop it, within the limits of the zoning codes. This thing was delayed long enough that it should have died because (1) Walgreens just opened at SMB and Highland and (2) Walgreens purchased Bio-Script Pharmacy (the whole chain) which has a store at SMB and La Cienega. But no, Walgreens wants a full store in WeHo proper. There must be big money in it. I will miss Tasty Donuts. But I too fear for even more jammed intersections, if that's possible.
I like the idea of a scaled down Walgreens and a couple of other neighborhood serving businesses on that corner within easy walking distance. But the City’s doesn’t take ”traffic” into account and barely considers the impact on the immediate residential neighborhood. John Heilman actually said, incredulously, about traffic complaints, that it’s not the project’s job to fix traffic. Well, perhaps not, but it’s certainly the City Council’s job. If intensification of the existing use is sought, the two main City priorities should be: 1) take the opportunity to improve existing traffic circulation to the extent that the intensified use will not further degrade circulation but improve it; 2) minimize the impact on adjacent residential neighbors with set-backs, buffer zones and height similarity. The long-term dilemma is that once big projects are in place, potential opportunities for traffic mitigation at that location are lost.
1. It's across the street from a Rite Aid and Bristol Farms; both of which sell consumables (and drugs in the case of Rite Aid). Another drugstore or market would over-saturate that intersection and have a negative impact on sales for all three locations. 2. While Sunset Blvd is busy, Orange Grove is not, and you cannot access the building from busy Fairfax. Thus, this intersection is inferior to the prime SMB/Crescent Heights intersection. Even though Blockbuster is struggling, it has kept its best locations open. The fact that they left this building is further evidence that this may not be a prime location for retail. 3. Walgreens has owned the property on SMB/Crescent Heights for over 10 years and it would likely be more expensive for them to LEASE the former Blockbuster building than to remain at their own property on SMB. It would not make business sense for them to pay more for an inferior location.
This Walgreens project can not be stopped because (I believe) it is the last (or close to) mixused-development that is being funded by the States now defunct/closed Redevelopmemt Agency/Funds. They have to be spent on this project. My recurring suggestion is that if there is no stopping this big neighborhood wrecking project, at least do what is best for both the developer and the local residents and whipe the design plate clean and make a new design based on what is now fixed in terms of sq footage and number of units. HERE IS A NEW CONCERN & SUGGESTION: The noise and affects on traffic flow of the daily delieries of merchandise to restock Walgreens is more significant than one may know. I suggest anyone interested/concerned just go look, see and listen to the parking lot between 9-10pm every day at the west Trader Joe's next to supersized starbucks. part 1 ...
It is a unique situation in that they close and 9 and have 1-3 semi-trailor trucks come and TJ's ... No matter what, must complete the unloading and putting inside everything before 10pm due to the neighborhood residents proximity and the noise. Credit needs to be given to TJ's staff for getting it done each night. Great employees at TJ's There is one part of the walgreens project that has been unable to voice concerns about the noise & traffic an operating large commercial drug store will have on their homes. All of the tenants of the walgreens project will be affected by the lack of adequate loading dock planning of a project that has been revised countless times over the years, but based on the initial design. Bad idea to use that design. If is going to be built, at least start from blank canvas and design a loading dock that can have easy ingress and egress whil being able to drive in, close a garage door and have silent and invisible dekivery, then pull forward to an opening garage gate fr easy anf fast exit. Once this 'loading diock' is designed, THEN design both retail and residential (and parking) around the critical and most disruptive element of the completed project. I believe the New Pavilions incorporated this type of drive in loading dock design.
It will be hard enough to find tenants who want to pay top dollar to live 1 story above such a busy intersection. Add the loading dick noise problem and anyone who might actually move in will be movung out ASAP one they spend a night or two over a loading dock and the necessary evils of the semi-truck delivery method that is just the way we do it ... Everywhere. A terrible bu necessary evil that can be mitigated by designing for it.
Just copy what was done there is the old buildings are that offensive to the people and business nearby. It will give everyone time to make a proper decision rather than a hasrty approval due to the clock ticking down on the neighborhoods patients with this acutual real problem in the middle of our city.
I didn't mean to suggest it as a model. Just a place concerned locals could go (at an early hour) and see for themselves what to expect when there are deliveries made to the finished Walgreens. I think everyone knows how much noise is involved. I think they may be underestimating the noise and traffic disruption that will be coming from the new walgreens regular deliveries, especially at that intersection and the design that has been approved.