An L.A. zoning administrator sent officials at Wal-Mart back for a second review of the traffic study the retailer prepared for its proposed store at Nordhoff Street and Tampa Avenue in Northridge. The official also required the retailer to return to the neighborhood council for further discussion. The determination came following a two-hour hearing attended by about 40 neighborhood residents and a handful of supporters sporting “I Heart Wal-Mart” badges in Van Nuys. Officials representing the retailer pre-empted a number of objections to its proposal by announcing on the spot several changes to its original plan, including withdrawing its request to be open 24 hours and reducing its non-holiday hours of operation. Wal-Mart also agreed not to sell alcohol at the store. But officials stood by what they said was an independent traffic study which showed that their mitigation measures would suffice to handle the traffic the store would bring. Wal-Mart is proposing to build a 156,000-square foot store on a site that once housed a now-defunct Best Co. store. Opponents include the Northridge West Neighborhood Council, recently elected on a slate promising to keep Wal-Mart from moving forward, and Tampa Plaza Partnership LLP, the developer that owns an adjacent shopping center that shares parking rights with the proposed Wal-Mart. Wayne Avrashaw, an attorney representing Tampa Plaza, called Wal-Mart’s traffic study “faulty,” and asked the city to require the retailer to prepare an environmental impact report. The Northridge West N.C., which claims jurisdiction over the site (a claim disputed by representatives of L.A. City Councilman Grieg Smith, whose district includes the site), also raised questions about the retailer’s traffic study, noting that several other developments were underway in the immediate area, contributing to increased congestion. Residents said there were insufficient police resources to patrol the area at night and claimed that the neighborhood has little need for a new Wal-Mart with an existing store a little more than three miles to the north. Among the supporters, the Winnetka Neighborhood Council said it was behind the store, its plan to sell alcohol and its plan to stay open around the clock. Wal-Mart officials said they had collected some 7,000 signatures supporting their project, but it turned out that only 25 percent of those signatures came from residents within the city council district boundaries. “We have well over 1,000 signatures, and they’re all directly from people who would be impacted,” said Sherry Ramshead, a vice president of the Northridge West N.C. “We did not collect them at store sites. We went door to door.”
