Update from CD13 on the vacant Kmart store at 3150 San Fernando Rd
January 30, 2008
In the summer of 2004 Home Depot Corporation announced the purchase of a multi-year lease for the K-Mart store at 3150 San Fernando Road on the same day that K-Mart announced they would be closing the store. By January of 2005, the city had enacted an Interim Control Ordinance (ICO) for the area in Glassell Park bounded by the Metro-link tracks, the commercial strip to the east of San Fernando Road, the city of Glendale, and Fletcher Drive. That meant that no structure within those boundaries could be significantly altered in any way or demolished without a hardship exemption. The former K-Mart site fell within those boundaries. At the time there was lots of speculation in the area as the real estate market had heated up considerably. The ICO provided a tool wherein the city and the community could weigh in more closely on land use decisions that would affect the area for years, if not decades to come. During this time the community organized to make a case against having a Home Depot at that location and Home Depot hired a consulting firm to build support within the community for one of their stores. Several public meetings were held. Some compromise concepts were discussed. Home Depot submitted applications to the city's planning department for improvements and upgrades to the existing building so that when the ICO was lifted, they would be able to build their store.As the ICO was set to expire, we enacted the "Fletcher Square" portion of the Community Design Overlay Zone. This covered the exact geographical area that the ICO covered and it prohibited retail spaces larger than 75,000 square feet. After some initial activity, the site sat quiet for several months. In the Fall of 2007 our office learned that Home Depot may be reconsidering its desire to build a store there and in December this was confirmed.The lease hold is now up for sale and Home Depot is looking for a buyer. We have referred several interested parties their way over the last month and continue to do so. Ideas expressed by the communities of Atwater Village and Glassell Park range from mixed use with retail to a new Police station to affordable housing, to an accessory use for the new LACC college at the Van de Kamps site. We are all very excited to have this new opportunity; to work with someone on a development the community can support that will be in keeping with an improved San Fernando Road corridor.Mitch O'Farrell
District Director, Constituent Services
City Council President Eric Garcetti