Shell Owner Withdraws Appeal

Owner to explore other options available under Specific Plan

In a letter written last Friday to the City Planning Department, Shell Station owner Jin Kwak announced his intention to withdraw his appeal to replace his garage with an automated, drive-thru car wash and a 24-hour mini-mart at the station on Sunset Boulevard at Via de la Paz. The decision was expected to be finalized during a City Planning Department hearing after the Palisadian-Post’s press deadline Wednesday morning. Kwak spokesman Larry Turner told the Post that the owner withdrew the appeal for the conditional use permit ‘because the community did not support it.’ Success of the appeal was ‘highly unlikely,’ according to city planning officials. In September, Associate Zoning Administrator Dan Green categorically rejected Kwak’s original application. The administrator argued that the Palisades Specific Plan, which regulates commercial development here, prohibits the construction of ‘wash racks'(a blanket term, he said, for car washes). And his decision often relied heavily on the community’s strong opposition to the project. Residents feared a sweeping array of consequences. They said that the car wash and mini-mart would add congestion to an already crowded residential street; the wash would bring burdensome noise levels to an adjacent 107-unit condominium complex and other nearby residences; car wash run-off would pollute the beach; and the around-the-clock mart would attract ‘criminal activity.’ The Palisades Community Council, the Pacific Palisades Residents Association and the adjacent condo’s residents association all opposed the plans. If approved, the 24-hour mini-mart would have occupied 1,640 sq. ft.; and the car wash, operating from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., would have been 756 sq. ft. Increased lighting would have been used, but the station’s eight gas pumps would remain. The mini-mart would not have sold alcohol. Kwak’s withdrawal has not ended the prospect of development there. To make ‘optimal use of the property,’ Kwak is looking for alternative solutions for the property, Turner told the Post. ‘The existing facility is approximately 45 years old and is considered obsolete by industry standards,’ the owner wrote. ‘In order to remain competitive in the service-station business, we will have to make a sizeable capital investment between $500,000 and $1 million to modernize our business.’ One option Kwak is exploring is to rezone the property as C-4, a much less restrictive zoning code, according to Kwak’s letter. (Of all city planning codes, C-4 is the most broad commercial zone, allowing everything from ‘adult motels’ to ‘yarn shops.’) ‘He’s trying to make a veiled threat,’ one West L.A. city planning official, who read the letter, told the Post. ‘He’s saying, ‘If you don’t like this as a gas station, [then] we might rebuild it as an office building or something else.” But Turner says that future plans for the property will be made in consultation with the community. Also, converting the gas station into anything else could be prohibitively expensive. Kwak would have to ‘pay a large penalty’ to Shell Oil, which previously owned the property, if he stops selling gas. ‘We’d like to start over and discuss where we can go,’ Turner said. ‘We want to meet in January with community leaders and discuss our options.’ Community groups, which had opposed Kwak’s plans, applauded his decision to withdraw the application; and they welcomed the owner’s more conciliatory approach. ‘I’m not taking [Kwak’s letter] as a veiled threat,’ said Barbara Kohn, president of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association, which had fought against the proposal. ‘I’m pleased that he’s willing now to open a dialogue with the community and with neighbors.’ Steve Carroll, president of the Via de la Paz Homeowners’ Association, said: ‘We were very, very pleased that he chose not to pursue the appeal. Basically, as near as I can tell, our issue is noise and traffic. What we don’t care that much about what is there as much as we do how much noise and traffic it creates.’ —– To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call (310) 454-1321 ext. 28.