Woodland Hills

Mega Mall Wants Your Comments (Well, maybe not your comments…but it does want someones comments.)

The Woodland Hills/Warner Center Neighborhood Council wants your feedback on the expansion of its mega-mall in the valley. Paradox Unbound has the best description of the Warner Center Deverlopment Project I could find online:

By Damien Newton

7:33 PM PST on December 14, 2007

The project will link the adjacent Westfield Topanga and Westfield Promenade malls, creating a massive shopping and entertainment district that will be the undisputed hub of the western San Fernando Valley. At 3.8 million square feet in combined size, the three centers will rival Orange County’s South Coast Plaza for regional prominence.

Unlike its neighbors Westfield Topanga and Westfield Promenade, The Village in Warner Center will not be a traditional enclosed mall with department store anchors. Instead, it will offer an outdoor environment organized around internal streets, a format commonly referred to as a “lifestyle center.” The company has not decided on how it will connect the two indoor malls and the proposed outdoor village.

If you look at the survey, you’ll see that there is some area for transportation/related comments. I thought I would share some of them with you.

“I live within walking distance of The Grove to the West, just North of Beverley. The Grove has a very nice indoor street pattern with a trolley system integrated with wide, clean sidewalks. It’s not a bad place to visit. However, the design of the street grid around The Grove is decidedly pedestrian unfriendly. If I want to park a bike or have a pleasant walk to get to The Grove I actually have to travel east past The Grove and park my bike/enter through the Farmer’s Market. It doesn’t make sense to me to try and create a great pedestrian environment that is difficult to travel to as a pedestrian.

You should also make certain that all transit stops near the new mall area have safe and attractive features to encourage people to take transit to the outdoor mall.

3.8 million square feet is a lot of retail space. If you want to be a good neighbor, you should do your best to make sure you’re not inducing thousands of new car trips onto local streets.”