Altadenablog is catching up after the holidays:
PSN tells the tale of the Lincoln Crossing Project Area Committee and Town Council both voting to lop off 1/7th of Lincoln Crossing’s parking. Developer Dorn Platz is looking at valet "scrunch" parking for peak hours at the Magic Johnson 24 Hour Fitness. A shouting match erupts at the Town Council meeting over who will be their representative to the Project Area Committee: local councilman Gene Campbell or Michele Zack, who’s been to the PAC meetings. Winner: Zack.
Michele Zack said…
As a private citizen who has attended most Lincoln Crossing PAC meetings the past 4 years: The long and convoluted tale of Lincoln Crossing cannot be reduced to 5 lines without creating even more disinformation and anger — of which there is already enough to go around. For starters, the Town Council and PAC did not vote to “lop off 1/7″ of the parking: the originally approved Conditional Use Permit (2004?) would have reduced spaces even more — county law required the developer to re-calculate required spaces and apply for a new CUP because of other changes, including addition of a Subway Sandwich Shop and width change in the street (due to different county requirements). The result is closer to a wash than a reduction in parking — a big to-do about very little since it was slightly under-parked from the beginning and remains so. The different hours of business will supposedly take care of parking problems most of the time — when and if they don’t, the scrunching will begin on the top floor of the parking stucture, at no cost to customers.
Now at least, phase I of the development can more forward, and hopefully reach critical mass so that all businesses, including small and locally owned ones, will gain a larger customer base. Shop Farm Fresh! Eat at Bessies! Get your copies at BJR! Lincoln Crossing is a boon to Altadena and needs our support.
As for the shouting match, for those who didn’t read the Star News story link, rest assured I was not among the shouters, and in fact was the 4th nomination (choice?) for TC rep. While it is true I was the only one who has regularly attended PAC meetings, I accepted not with joy or delusions about what I can accomplish, but because this development is so important to Altadena, and I’d like to try to bring both more openness and civility to the process of finishing up Phase I.
Many of us have been disappointed by several aspects of this project, but we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is a much nicer shopping center, with better parking (so far) than anything else around. Just remember what used to be there before you start calling it ugly.
Monday, December 31, 2007 at 10:38 AM
Altadenablogmaster said…
Thanks for your comments, Michele. It’s true that “[t]he long and convoluted tale of Lincoln Crossing cannot be reduced to 5 lines,” but we weren’t even attempting that — we were offering a summary of the full PSN story we linked to, which in turn summarized two meetings. We also think it’s fair to say that starting with 281 parking spaces on one end and ending with 244 at the other is a roughly 1/7 reduction, even when there are good reasons for it.
Don’t know where you go the idea that you were identified as a “shouter,” as we don’t state that in the summary nor does PSN in the story linked to, but if anyone got that impression from us, we sincerely apologize for the confusion.
And nobody’s ever called Lincoln Crossing “ugly” at Altadenablog: in fact, we feature lots of positive coverage in our enterprise stories about what’s going on there (Sheriff’s community campout, SGV Black Business Assn. “Ring the Register” event, for starters). And we love Bessie’s beef taco!
Monday, December 31, 2007 at 07:28 PM