Culver City to Hold Forum on Renewal

Culver City will hold a “Downtown Charette” at the end of March in which residents and community representatives will explore ways to revitalize the city’s downtown.

As used by modern urban designers, the term charette describes an intensive, community-oriented design process. A French word meaning “small cart,” it refers to a vehicle that in earlier times carried groups of architects to rural villages, where they would help design town squares and other public facilities.

The Culver City event will be a three-day session attended by about 100 representatives of City Hall, downtown businesses, community organizations and residents.

The weekend will begin with a dinner March 22. The next day, participants will take an “awareness walk” through downtown before breaking into small discussion groups. On the final day, a Sunday, outside experts in land-use planning, architecture, traffic analysis and real estate market analysis will evaluate the previous day’s proposals and present recommendations to the Redevelopment Agency.

Those interested in attending the session should contact the Redevelopment Agency at 9696 Culver Blvd., Room 308, or call (213) 202-5776. The deadline to register is March 13.