Council Denies Appeal Challenging Lexus Dealership Expansion

The City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve plans for a new Jim Falk Lexus auto repair and dealership facility. Numerous residents came to the council meeting and declared their opposition to adding an automotive service center so close to a residential zone.

The existing dealership at 9230 Wilshire Blvd. near South Maple Drive will be demolished to accommodate "approximately 28,863 square feet of showroom space within the first and second levels, approximately 81,944 square feet of vehicle parking and circulation areas within levels one through four, and approximately 56,466 square feet of subterranean vehicle service areas," according to a report by Director of Community Development Susan Healy Keene.

The building was originally proposed to have a height of 56 feet, but the Planning Commission approved 45 feet, "which meets the maximum building height set forth in the Municipal Code," Keene reported. "This building height includes four above-ground stories plus roof-level parking."

According to the report, South Maple Associates and 9250 Wilshire, which own properties that neighbor the Lexus dealership, appealed the Planning Commission's Oct. 27 approval of the Lexus revamp because:

• "The project will be detrimental to the surrounding neighborhood [and] intrudes into the [residential] zone."
• Vehicles exiting into an alley adjacent to the dealership and residential properties "will result in conflicts."
• The proposed 23-foot buffer between the Lexus facility and neighboring properties isn't enough space between commercial and residential properties.
• A loading zone that will be located on Wilshire Boulevard "will be detrimental."
• "Rooftop parking will impact surrounding residential uses."
• "Building openings to parking areas are problematic for adjacent uses."
• "Certain conditions of approval are not appropriate and require modification."
• "Approval of the project did not follow procedural due process."

"This is the wrong project adjacent to a residential property," said Stephen Webb, attorney for the appellants. "It's like fitting a square peg into a round hole. … We want a dealership but we don't need 70 service bays and 120 employees working right next to residents."

Webb claimed residents weren't adequately notified of Planning Commission meetings that addressed the project and said that the commission's approval of the development was "a rush to judgment." 

The Planning Commission held four public meetings starting in September 2010 and, in addition to the building height reduction, required the following modifications before recommending the project for council approval:

• "The project originally included a proposal to vacate the existing east-west alley located south of the dealership without providing a replacement alley segment," Keene's report states. "The project was modified to include a 20-foot wide replacement alley segment and a 3-foot wide landscape buffer between the alley and the adjacent apartment building."
• The commission reduced the number of automotive service bays from 72 to 68 and required that they be located underground instead of the original proposal's plan for an above-ground location.
• Commissioners increased the number of on-site parking spaces from 250 to 351.
• The project applicants originally planned for a loading area on South Maple Drive, but it will now move "to Wilshire Boulevard to allow for loading activities to occur on a commercial [rather than residential] street," the report states.
• The commission added a required traffic signal at Wilshire and Maple.
• A barrier will be installed in the middle of the street "to prevent vehicles traveling northbound on South Maple Drive from making a left turn into the dealership … [and] prevent patrons from utilizing the surrounding residential streets for the purpose of accessing the dealership," Keene wrote.

City Treasurer Eliot Finkel, speaking as a resident and not as a city official, said that the large automotive facility will be detrimental to Wilshire Boulevard's nonindustrial image and will result in a "negative long-term financial impact on Beverly Hills."

But not all community members oppose the project.  

"Lexus has brought in millions of dollars to the operating revenue of the city of Beverly Hills and will continue to do that, seven figures every year," resident Robbie Anderson told the council.

Councilwoman Lili Bosse, who served on the Planning Commission when the project was first proposed two years ago, acknowledged the auto dealer's financial clout with regard to city revenue. But she affirmed her commitment to "never make a decision just for the money" at the expense of a neighborhood's quality of life. 

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