Planning Committee

Despite opposition from some local homeowners, the Los Angeles City Council's planning committee gave the go-ahead Tuesday to a massive renovation of the Valley's signature shopping center--the Sherman Oaks Galleria. After nearly 90 minutes of testimony, the three-member Planning and Land Use Management committee signed off on the proposed $30-million renovation that would decrease overall retail space while adding 13 movie theaters to the mall, for a total of 18.

A new way to raise money for bus benches, trees and more parking on Ventura Boulevard will be discussed at a community meeting Thursday in Woodland Hills. The city Planning Department will sponsor the meeting, which will present information on how community leaders and the city can form so-called business improvement districts along the boulevard.

Local residents appear to have won a round in their fight against a proposed carwash at Balboa Boulevard and Rinaldi Street on land that is next to their homes. The neighbors say the carwash would ruin their quiet neighborhood because of the noise and traffic it would generate.

A proposal to fix a flawed plan for growth along Ventura Boulevard is more than three months behind schedule, stalled in the city attorney's office, a Los Angeles city planning official said this week. Deputy Planning Director Bob Sutton said the city attorney's review of his department's proposed changes to the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan has been delayed because it is behind higher-priority cases and is now being edited to legal standards.

Declaring that further study is needed, a committee of the Los Angeles City Council rejected a proposal Monday to put a $100-million bond measure before voters in June to build new police stations in the San Fernando Valley and the Mid-Wilshire area. Despite testimony from residents in support of the plan, the council's Public Safety Committee voted against it until a citywide study of the Police Department's building needs can be completed.

The City Council dismissed Planning Commissioner Art Davis, accusing him of misrepresenting the city in negotiations between Inglewood and Bo, a city in the West African country of Sierra Leone. Councilman Garland L. Hardeman, who appointed Davis to the Planning Commission, asked the council to remove him. Hardeman said Davis, also the president of the Bo sister-city committee, used his title of planning commissioner to promise Bo delegates development projects without permission of the council.

Applications are being taken for positions on three new neighborhood planning committees for the Palos Verdes Library District. Each committee will have nine residents, five chosen for two-year terms and four for one-year terms, library spokeswoman Nancy Mahr said. "It's an effort to involve more community members in the libraries' activities and to get better communication between various segments of the community and the library board," Mahr said.

The first step toward the reconfiguration of California's high school athletic sections will be presented to the State Federated Council at its May meeting. A CIF planning committee has devised three plans, according to committee member Jim Fleming, the superintendent of Placentia Unified School District. The plans, two of which include a separate Orange County section, call for regrouping the state's 10 sections. The council will be asked for input but will not act on the plans.

Too few residents have signed up for a series of planning committees in four adjoining Burbank neighborhoods, city officials said Monday. "We haven't received a whole lot of applications yet," Assistant City Clerk Mike McIninch said. Today is the last day to sign up for the committees, which will tackle planning issues in the newly formed Burbank Center Planning area. The planning area is bounded by Burbank, Glenoaks and Victory boulevards along with the Glendale city limits.