HANNAH HEINEMAN, Mirror Contributing Writer
Stonehenge Holdings Incorporated is proposing to build an 11.5-acre project on two parcels that face both Olympic Boulevard and Bundy Drive, called Bundy Village and Medical Park. West Los Angeles residents are concerned that this project would bring additional traffic congestion to an already congested area and negatively impact traffic in the surrounding residential neighborhoods.
The developer is proposing to build a mixed-use project which would be located at 1901, 1925, and 1933 South Bundy and 12333 Olympic Boulevard in the City of Los Angeles. The project would consist of medical facilities, retail/commercial space, and market-rate and affordable senior housing residential units. About forty percent of the project would be open and green space.
The project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) calculates that the project would create over 20,000 additional daily car trips in the area. It also notes that 15 out of 25 intersections within or bordering on the City of Santa Monica will suffer significant traffic impacts from the project. Among them are intersection of Olympic Boulevard with 20th Street, Cloverfield Boulevard, 26th Street, Stewart Street, Centinela Avenue, and the intersection of Pico Boulevard with Cloverfield Boulevard, the I-10 Off-Ramp, Centinela Avenue, and 23rd Street. The others are Colorado/Stewart Street, Centinela Avenue/I-10 Westbound On-Off-Ramps, Centinela Avenue/I-10 Eastbound Ramp, Ocean Park Boulevard/23rd Street and Ocean Park Boulevard/Centinela Avenue.
According to the developer’s website they have “conducted an extensive traffic analysis” and have developed a traffic enhancement program to benefit the surrounding community. At the January 26 meeting of the West Los Angeles Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM), the developer’s representatives stated that the developer would give $7 million for traffic improvements to help mitigate the traffic impacts from the project and $200,000 of that would deal with neighborhood traffic mitigation. They also would scale back the retail component by 5 percent.
The committee suggested that the traffic mitigation include widening of the I-10 freeway Eastbound On-Ramp, widening of the Bundy Northbound ramp, other modifications to improve traffic flow on and off the I-10 and Bundy Drive, making sure Missouri is not accessible from the project’s exit, giving Nebraska traffic limited access to residential areas, reducing 5 percent of the retail area, and tying senior housing to the project’s overall housing.
The committee also heard from the community which was mainly against the project. Amherst resident John Williams was concerned that this project and others being proposed for Olympic Boulevard “will be turning Olympic into another Wilshire Boulevard.”
Another Amherst resident, Thomas Hinebush stated, “the traffic in the area is already atrocious” so the project should not go forward until the needed mitigations are solidly in place.
Contact Hannah Heineman
hannah@smmirror.com
