Pedestrian Area Still on Its Feet : Development: Despite planners’ rejection of the idea two months ago, the proposed district hasn’t gotten its walking papers.

Two months after the City Planning Commission voted not to recommend a pedestrian-oriented district (POD) for West Los Angeles, opponents and supporters of the plan are quietly hammering out an agreement to implement it.

The turnaround comes after Councilwoman Ruth Galanter’s stated intention to try and persuade the Planning Land Use and Management Committee to reverse the Planning Commission’s decision and recommend the pedestrian district to the City Council.

The original plan was rejected out of hand by commercial property owners who balked at land-use restrictions that would be applied to new businesses on Pico and Westwood boulevards and along Overland Avenue. But, sources say, after it became known that Galanter would continue supporting the pedestrian plan, consultants to the property owners approached the councilwoman’s office offering to negotiate changes to the original proposal.

“The POD was going to move ahead, and they decided to be part of the process,” Galanter spokesman Jeff Prang said. “The councilwoman has been very consistent all along that she wants to move forward on this and turn the decision around.”

The Pico Westwood pedestrian area, which has won support from several homeowners groups, would be the city’s first since the City Council passed an ordinance in July, 1992, to allow the creation of the districts, which are designed to create a pleasant environment for pedestrians by promoting outdoor dining, plazas and arcades.

Previous opponents of the plan don’t deny that it was Galanter’s statement that hastened them back to the bargaining table, but they maintain they were not surprised by her resolve.

“It was always made clear that the councilwoman was going to appeal,” said Julie Gerlter, president of Consensus Planning, which has been a consultant to the Pico Westwood Property Owners Assn. “And if she was going to appeal, it made sense to see how to make it work.”

Meetings between Galanter’s office, commercial property owners and homeowners have been ongoing for more than two weeks and have resulted in several proposed modifications to the original plan. Some of the discussed changes could allow for a greater variety of businesses in one-story buildings, but may also place more design and building restrictions on new businesses.

As proposed, the district would stretch along Westwood Boulevard from Pico to Santa Monica boulevards, along Pico from Sepulveda Boulevard to Fox Hills Drive, and on Overland Avenue from Pico to Ashby Avenue. Some of the earlier provisions of the plan called for required pedestrian entrances and views into new businesses, shade trees along streets, and the prohibition of new theaters, movie houses and nightclubs.

Despite the greater harmony between the once-opposing camps, there is some disagreement over how the rapprochement occurred. Ben Reznik, legal counsel for Pico Westwood Property Owners Assn., said his group was moved to reopen talks out of a spirit of cooperation, not under the threat of the Planning Commission’s ruling being overturned.

“We didn’t have to negotiate,” said Reznik, who said that the proposed changes to the pedestrian plan have considerably altered the original proposal. “This is not about a political win, all or nothing, drawing lines in the sand.

“My clients don’t mind having rules and regulations as long as they can do business under them.”

Yet Terri Tippit, a board member of the West of Westwood Homeowners Assn., said the area’s commercial property owners were prodded toward dialogue only after realizing that the plan for the pedestrian district was not dead.