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The 1984 edition of the General Plan

spawned over 9 million square feet of new commercial development.

As work began on the 2004 revision of the land use and circulation elements of the General Plan (LUCE), which were touted as  the residents’  Constitution and means of “determining their destiny,” the prevailing sentiment among residents seemed to be “Let’s not do that again.”

It’s now 2010.  The LUCE is unfinished. The  Environmental Impact Report on the draft LUCE is behind schedule.  And residents have been reduced to “stakeholders,”

Developers from other places are determining our destiny now – with the enthusiastic support of  City Hall. And they are currently collaborating  on a mad muddle of mixed up uses (scroll down to “Our Town, Our  Call” and “Monsters At the Gate” for   details).

Well over one million square feet

of new commercial mega-developments will soon rise in the  area bounded by Exposition, Colorado, Cloverfield and  Centinela,  a relatively small area with world class traffic  problems now. If all the proposed projects are built, it will become a world class nightmare for residents and visitors alike.  And it’s just the first wave.

Some years ago, in one of the firth iterations of the LUCE, something called “uptown downtown” was proposed.  Residents were wildly unenthusiastic, and it was killed, but it’s back.

A month or so ago, the Bergamot Transit Village Center, nearly one million square feet of offices, apartments and stores, was unveiled  at a hastily called meeting. Wednesday night, the Planning  Commission will review the  City’s development agreement with Hines,   the Texas developer who brought us Lantana.

The LUCE revision, our Constitution, has taken five years,  and still isn’t finished, but the development agreement, Hines’ bill of rights,  apparently moved at the speed of light.