In January, Vons announced plans to remodel its store on Sunset Boulevard at Pacific Coast Highway starting in March. The Palisades Design Review Board approved the 10-week project as long as Vons continued to work with the Department of Transportation (DOT), but the Pacific Palisades Community Council opposed the current parking lot entrance/exit and asked that it be realigned. The Council announced that it would press the City of Los Angeles to insist that the Vons driveway on Sunset Boulevard be realigned with the light at the corner of Castellammare Drive. Currently that is not possible because of an underground electrical vault. Norm Kulla, senior counsel for City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, extracted a promise from the L.A. Department of Water and Power that they would move the vault. According to DWP spokesperson Carol Tucker, the most likely timeline for the move would be in 2014. At last Thursday’s Community Council meeting, Chairman Richard Cohen noted, ‘Mr. Kulla is seeking an agreement of the parties, which would compel Vons to fund the relocation of its driveway in accordance with the community’s wishes, once the vault is relocated.’ Cohen told the Palisadian-Post on Tuesday, ‘We think that intersection is inherently unsafe and should be realigned. We don’t care how the cost is allocated between the City, Vons or the landlord.’ Vons does not own the property. Carlos Illingworth, Vons’ manager of public affairs and government relations, wrote in an e-mail to the Post on Tuesday: ‘We do not consider it our responsibility to solve the issue with the intersection. We have made every effort to be engaged with the City and DOT in looking for possible solutions.’ A nearby neighbor to Vons, Carol Bruch, who initially raised parking-lot safety concerns when the remodel was announced, asked at Thursday’s Council meeting how Vons would be held responsible for the cost of a future realignment if they were given the go-ahead to start the remodel. ‘We would allow them to grade it now and put the money in an escrow account,’ said Councilmember Paul Glasgall. ‘Is it even feasible that they will be able to grade it?’ resident Todd Sadow asked. Councilmember Barbara Kohn said that a 1992 study showed it would be possible to grade from the parking lot to the street, but another Council member said he thought there was a problem with the old study. According to Illingworth, ‘Vons was presented with a plan from the DOT to align the intersection’that was not’feasible’due to the fact that it did not take our building into account.’Vons has presented an’alternative to the City Council office and DOT for the relocation of our driveway. It is up to’them to determine’what street improvements’can be’made’to achieve the goal that the community would like to see.’ Nate Kaplan, a spokesperson for Rosendahl, sent an e-mail on May 11 to the Post, saying that ‘Kulla and field deputy Jessyca Avalos met with’Vons and DOT on May 6 and reviewed the 20-year history of the Vons-Sunset driveway misalignment with Castellammare. They discussed alternatives to realignment, such as modification to the existing entrance and the proposed remodel.’ ’From that meeting, there are various concerns that both DOT and our office are checking up on,’ Kaplan continued. ‘This project, although only a remodel, is one that the Pacific Palisades community feels is an integral part of Vons’ future development/improvements and is monitoring it closely, particularly as it may impact the future realignment, the intersection of PCH/Sunset (as an entrance to Palisades), and the effect upon surrounding residents.’ During the remodel, Vons initially planned to install an energy-efficient refrigeration system, move the loading dock from the south side to the opposite side of the store, install a Starbucks and patio on the south side, and rearrange the interior space to increase the sales-floor size to 24,542 square feet (about half the size of a prototypical Vons).
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