'Great Streets' focus of workshop in Woodland Hills
From the Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighbood Council's Web site -
The Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council held its "Panel of Visionaries" recently and challenged a full house crowd to partner in establishing a "Great Streets!" vision.
Joyce Pearson, chair of the Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council, opened the session by defining "Great Streets!" as "streets that connect us, that get us where we need to go and that are destinations, places that bring us together and create a Great Community."
Paula Daniels, Public Works Commissioner, presented the city's Green Streets program and challenged the community to partner with the City in applying new technologies and skills to the opportunities that face us in improving the quality of life through street design.
Doug Failing, Director of Caltrans District 7, spoke enthusiastically of the Caltrans commitment to local issues and his commitment to addressing the whole system, not simply the streets. "Anything you do, do comprehensively. Nothing happens in a vacuum," he said.
Mott Smith, a self-proclaimed "greedy developer," offered examples from Pasadena to Eagle Rock to Atwater Village on how communities have worked with developers to bring in the "good" partners by addressing parking code, the planning process and the rules regarding parcels.
Rick Cole, city manager of Ventura, gave a presentation of "Great Streets!" that was humbling, inspirational and challenging. "People have been building "Great Streets!" for ages, they're nothing new!" Cole pointed out "We get what we ask for. It's all about the rules."
Through it all, a recurring message was that there is a "Gestalt Shift" looming on the horizon and that it is imperative that the community establish solid partnerships and "It helps to know what you want!"
To that end, the session concluded with a "Great Streets!" workshop that was so successful that the public will have two more opportunities to participate in the "Great Streets!" workshops.
The next workshops will be from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, and 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, Sept. 6, in the auditorium at Kaiser Permanente, 5601 DeSoto Ave., Woodland Hills.
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