Plan to Trade Away Avenue Defended as Street Smart

Traffic engineers shopping for ways to unsnarl Brentwood’s busiest intersection have come up with an unusual one.

They want to block off a city street and give it to a developer as a site for a mini-mall.

In exchange, the developer of the proposed $27-million mall would widen part of Barrington Avenue at its intersection with San Vicente Boulevard.

“What this project does is help solve the traffic problem,” said developer Bryan Gordon--who wants to build a three-story retail center with three levels of underground parking where a short stretch of Gorham Avenue now exists.

Many in that fashionable section of Brentwood aren’t buying the shopping center solution, however.

“This is a vital public thoroughfare that’s used by more than a million cars a year. It shouldn’t be a gift from the taxpayers of Los Angeles to a developer,” said James Joseph, a writer who lives on the street and dismisses the mini-mall plan as “the Gorham grab.”

The dispute centers on 210 feet of Gorham between Barrington and San Vicente. Since 1926 the short block has created a tiny triangle of land at the northwest corner of Barrington and San Vicente that is isolated from neighboring lots.

Gordon owns the orphaned triangular parcel, which for nearly seven years has been the site of a wedge-shaped Starbucks coffeehouse that is popular with actors, screenwriters and other entertainment industry figures.

He also owns three adjoining lots on the other side of Gorham currently occupied by a flower shop, antique store and parking lot.

According to Gordon, a high-end, 54,700-square-foot shopping center could be built if the short stretch of Gorham were blocked off and his four parcels combined into one.

Such a linkup is possible because Los Angeles traffic planners are willing to trade the short section of street for a new Barrington-to-San Vicente right-turn lane that would occupy part of the current Starbucks site, he said.

“It wasn’t my idea. It was the city’s,” Gordon said of the proposed swap. “They need to widen Barrington. It’s part of a capital improvement project that has been going on for 20 years but is only partially funded.”

In 1993 the city moved to give up the public right of way along Gorham by initiating steps to “vacate” its easement. Gordon’s Pacific Equity Properties Inc. began drawing up plans for a combination of storefront and restaurant space centered on a tree-shaded plaza that would straddle Gorham.

The finished plans depict a three-story, circular building next to the corner of San Vicente and Barrington. The other buildings, one rectangular and the other square, would be built next to it. A 266-space parking garage would go beneath them.

There was a public outcry when word of the proposed street closing surfaced, however. After that, Gordon’s project found itself stalled, much like rush-hour traffic at San Vicente and Barrington.

In 1998 several petition campaigns opposing the street closing were launched. Brentwood’s then-newly elected City Council member, Cindy Miscikowski, called for a formal environmental review of the project and its ramifications for the neighborhood.

The draft version of the city environmental impact report was finished late last year. The final report is expected to be filed in about a month. After public hearings, the City Council will be asked whether Gorham should be given to Gordon.

Miscikowski said she has not decided how she will vote. But she points out that she inherited the controversy from her predecessor, longtime Councilman Marvin Braude.

“Before he left office, he issued a letter saying he was in favor of it, and he actually initiated ‘vacation’ proceedings,” Miscikowski said. “I looked at it and said there are some environmental considerations here. This is one of the smallest projects we’ve ever done an [environmental impact report] for.”

The preliminary version of the report supports the project, concluding that “the removal of this portion of Gorham Avenue is expected to result in safer and less confusing traffic flow” through the area.

According to the report, only about 200 cars use the short stretch of Gorham during the peak morning rush hour and just 300 or so use it during the peak evening rush hour.

Joseph, who has lived two decades on Gorham, said his own traffic count on the street suggests that 3,648 cars use the block daily. He extrapolates that more than a million motorists use it annually.

If Gordon wants to link the Starbucks triangle with his other three lots, he should build a pedestrian bridge over Gorham, maintains Joseph--who said his traffic analysis is accurate because of his lengthy experience as West Coast correspondent for a professional transportation journal called Traffic Technology International.

Gordon, himself a 14-year Brentwood resident, dismisses Joseph’s traffic-analyzing credentials--and the bridge recommendation.

There’s not enough room on the triangular parcel to put a bridge, the developer said, and there would be no need for one if the street remained, because that would render his project unfeasible.

“It wouldn’t work,” he said. “It would be a financial disaster.”

Gordon said that without his project, the intersection of Barrington and San Vicente is headed for “complete gridlock.”

For now, however, opponents say they will settle for a project roadblock.