Home Depot: good or bad?
The Daily News wants to hear your thoughts on The Home Depot store proposed in Sunland-Tujunga. With the Los Angeles City Council decision to revoke the project's building permits, what kind of signal is the city sending to businesses looking to relocate here? Share your thoughts on this controversial project!




Comments
Congratulations to Sunland-Tujunga on our victory today! Thank you Councilmember Greuel for being such an amazing voice for our community!
Today our City government worked, and we are very proud of the City Council for making the right decision!
Posted by: Joe Barrett | August 16, 2007 12:47 AM
Thank you Council Member Greuel for your unwavering support of our community. I think this decision sends an important message to the business community. It sends the message that we do not want to accept business at ANY cost. That you must abide by our laws and rules, work with the community because will not accept being run roughshod over. Home Depot exhibited arrogance and disregard for the community at every step of the process. They did nothing to win community support. They brought in "phony" paid supporters from other areas and high priced lobbyists. They did everything but work with the community. This is the lesson to be learned, the people are tired of being pushed around.
Posted by: Dee Dee | August 16, 2007 5:42 AM
Now I hope that building and saftey will pay better attention to the permits they oversee that are issued in Sunland as we are watching them. I am glad that a big corporation who tried to fast track the building process was taken to task. if HD passes the EIR and the foothill corridor plan I will gladly shop there.
Posted by: Dave | August 16, 2007 8:00 AM
Thanks to the hard working N2HD committee, the S-T community and Wendy Greuel for fighting so hard to make HD play by the rules. This is a wake up call to all city departments to be more diligent in the process of permits. It also shows that communities do have a say it want goes on in their town.
Posted by: Sharon Martin | August 16, 2007 8:40 AM
Home Depot ignored S-T's Foothill Corridor Specific Plan and attempted to piecemeal their project under the radar of City laws. Home Depot is used to getting their way through emotional/financial extortion of elected representatives. The community has been requesting scrutiny of this project for nearly 3 years and we have this victory under our belts for all community plans and those folks who want to ignore them. Home Depot is an industrial retailer stomping on a small bedroom/rural community. Thank you Wendy Greuel, LADBS, Planning Department and City Council for telling Home Depot "NO!"
Posted by: Louise Clarke Stone | August 16, 2007 8:49 AM
As the Daily News editor said "If you want sensible planning, instead of senseless pandering, you need to buy the politicians' votes or scare them to death by organizing your community."
I'm not sure you really meant to be this candid. You guys (you know who you are) can go on buying politician's votes - that's a law enforcement matter. We "locals" will keep pushing for REAL planning. A big thanks to Wendy Greuel and other councilmembers who refused to be "worked".
Posted by: Roberta Actor-Thomas | August 16, 2007 9:58 AM
All this talk about traffic and day laborers. What do you think is in sunland/tujunga . It means more jobs.For the people that live in that area. Hd or lowes or anything else this means a advanceing city economy
Posted by: Nassar ali Siam | August 16, 2007 10:23 AM
What a great day for Sunland. Thank you Council Member Greuel. HD has been trying to bully the local residents all through this process and I'm glad the city isn't going to allow it. NO HOME DEPOT IN SUNLAND!
Posted by: Kirstin | August 16, 2007 10:51 AM
Follow the rules, simple as that. That's what we were asking for and that is what HD must do now. Thank you to the council members who voted that this is a project and especially for Councilmember Greuel for her passion and dedication to our great community of S-T!
Posted by: Paula Warner | August 16, 2007 11:27 AM
The message being sent to other businesses now is "Do your homework". The solution has to work for the community and add to what the locals want it to be. If they get local support, rather than just cursory govt lip service, they will thrive.
Posted by: Kathy Wattman | August 16, 2007 11:52 AM
The focus in this forum should not be on the merits of a Home Depot per se, but instead on the community itself and their meritorious argument that foregrounds a vision for their area. By marshaling their expertise and organizing to exact influence in just the way the neighborhood council is supposed to - within the political sphere – opponents called attention to underlying problems in a planning process that does not always serve them well. They not only successfully fought the permit, but succeeded in challenging an outmoded model of decision making that, as claimed, tends to produce outcomes that depart in spirit and letter from plans. What is to cheer here, whether you like Home Depot or not, is that the community stepped forward to defend its interests, and agencies and policymakers improbably followed.
Posted by: Mark Elliot | August 16, 2007 2:04 PM
having a home deport in Sunland would of been great. It would of meant that I wouldn't have to put up with the drive down to Home Depot on San Fernando rd. I'm next door in La Crescenta so it wouldn't really bother me to much if it was in Sunland. I'm sure there are several people that live in Sunland that feel the same way I do.
Posted by: want to build | August 16, 2007 2:15 PM
The underlying problem with big box stores like Home Depot is the element they attract--Illegal Aliens loitering outside the store and harassing anyone who drives onto the lot in a pick-up truck. The council needs to set up work stations for Illegal Aliens if they are going to condone non-tax paying Illegals. American citizens are fed up with the flood of illegals and denying Home Depot is the result of that.
Posted by: Ray Allen | August 16, 2007 4:24 PM
I live in Torrance and I've never seen illegals hanging out by any of the HD's (Torrance, Carson or Gardena) or Lowes looking for jobs.
Posted by: JD | August 16, 2007 4:35 PM
It goes to show that the system works. Thank you Wendy Gruel and the other Council Members for doing the right thing. This should be a wake-up call to major corporations wanting to establish a business to listen to the concerns of the community first. Rather than deploying decietful and unethical tactics to circumvent the current system. Since the Sunland-Tujunga community has a specific plan, it should not affect the majority of the communities in L.A.
Posted by: Bob Kuehn | August 16, 2007 9:56 PM