"The community-at-large perceives a crisis," he said. "The streets are completely gridlocked at certain times of day."
Barry Kurtz, a transportation engineer who is a consultant to the county, said planned improvements to some Marina del Rey intersections and a proposed extension of the Marina Freeway would ease the area's traffic problems but wouldn't fix them.
"Unless the city wants to shut down" development, he said, "we are definitely looking at more traffic, more congestion. The transportation picture on the Westside doesn't look good."
Developer Planting acknowledged that "people are anxious about having another shoe drop" when they hear about development plans, but he insisted that redevelopment of his company's marina centers would not turn them into a regional attraction or overwhelm the sites.
"It is meant to serve the local community, and our leasing efforts will reflect that," he said.
Apartment landlord Douglas Ring, one of Marina del Rey's largest property leaseholders, offered support for the developer in the face of potential "not in my backyard" activists.
"NIMBY-ism says we should change nothing in my neighborhood," he said "The fact of the matter is that society keeps changing and growing. If everyone who developed was of Jerry Snyder's quality, we would be much happier."
Ring said Snyder "takes the time to do it right."
Stafford of the Del Rey Neighborhood Council has some concerns about the direction the Westside is taking. He finds many new stores overpriced but said he understood why things change.
"Some people would like progress to leave them alone until they die," he said. "But when it stops, it means this area is going septic."
--
roger.vincent@latimes.com
