SHERMAN OAKS : Galleria Plan Criticized by Homeowners

Representatives of the Sherman Oaks Galleria got an earful this week from Sherman Oaks and Encino residents who are opposed to a proposal to turn part of the mall into an entertainment center.

At a joint meeting of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. and Homeowners of Encino, residents blasted Galleria Joint Venture’s plans to convert space in the mall and an adjacent building into 17 additional movie theaters, and possibly an IMAX theater and video arcade.

“I think they (residents) stated their opinions very strongly about what they disliked about the proposed project,” Joy De Backer, mall general manager, said Thursday.

The multimillion-dollar project would convert 299,200 square feet of existing office and retail space into the proposed entertainment and restaurant facilities.

The project also would entail tearing down a portion of the existing mall to create an open plaza.

The changes would mean an overall 7% reduction in the mall’s size, now 999,000 square feet.

According to people who attended the meeting Wednesday night in Sherman Oaks, more than 100 residents squeezed into the small meeting space at the Union Federal Savings Bank to listen to a presentation on the proposed project from mall officials. Afterward, audience members voiced their concerns that the project would attract teen-age loiterers, worsen traffic congestion in the area and send overflow parking into nearby residential streets.

“The ball is in their court,” said Gerald A. Silver, president of the Encino group. He said he told De Backer and Lucinda Starrett, the attorney representing the project, “This project is, on its face, unacceptable. Stop wasting your time, money and P.R. on it.”

Silver said he asked mall officials to meet with local residents in small focus groups so that mall neighbors can describe what type of attractions they would like to see at the mall, situated on the northwest corner of Sepulveda and Ventura boulevards.

“We’re willing to sit down with the community groups and listen to how they would like the project to be changed,” De Backer said, adding that if she did not get a call from homeowner leaders by next week, she would call them to set up a meeting.

The project has the blessing of at least one high-profile community leader.

Barry Wegman, president of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce, said the designs for the project look “beautiful.” Wegman, who said the chamber has not yet taken a position on the proposal, brushed off homeowners’ fears that the renovation would attract gangs and drug use.

“Kids go there now,” Wegman said. “They don’t have problems there.”