Valley Business Districts May Get Themed Make-Overs

NORTHRIDGE — Imagine conveniently hopping from trendy coffeehouse to movie theater and classy restaurant, all during a Sunday-evening stroll through a pedestrian shopping village in this land of tract homes and malls.

Traditionally, residents of the north San Fernando Valley have traveled in excess of 20 miles to such places as Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade or Old Town Pasadena to enjoy that kind of ambience.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, say local business leaders hoping to create such pedestrian-friendly shopping areas in the Valley, better known for residential neighborhoods and busy thoroughfares filled mostly with fast-food restaurants and convenience stores.

“There’s the potential for the Valley to be drastically different in a good way,” said Terry Wolfe, an assistant business professor at Cal State Northridge who is working with the local chamber of commerce to develop a business improvement district on Reseda Boulevard, possibly with a “college town” theme.

Along with Northridge, the chambers of commerce in Granada Hills and Chatsworth are the latest in the city to receive $75,000 grants for feasibility studies to establish business improvement districts. The grants are doled out by the city with funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Business leaders hope each of those communities might be able to cultivate distinct traits that could be used as themes to help keep more shoppers at home and revitalize economies that have yet to fully recover from the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

“We have the most beautiful scenery in the Valley and probably the best or second-best demographics as far as disposable income,” said Dick Pearson, chairman of the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce. “But we have one of the oldest and least attractive business districts.”

The first business improvement districts, or BIDs, in California formed in the early part of this decade. (Such districts first appeared on the East Coast in the 1980s.) In Los Angeles, many neighborhoods, especially in the San Fernando Valley, joined the program after the Northridge earthquake severely set back businesses, using start-up money provided by FEMA.

BIDs must be approved by city councils after organizers gather signatures from 51% of property owners in the proposed district. Members of the districts assess themselves fees to be used for a variety of improvements, from simple graffiti-removal programs to construction projects. They choose committees to decide how much money to assess and how to spend it.

Currently, the 18 BIDs in Los Angeles are in different stages of development, few of them fully established. In the Valley, they are in Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Encino, Woodland Hills, Reseda and Canoga Park.

In the last few months the north Valley chambers of commerce have worked with consultants to do research and begin signature campaigns.

“We’d like to see flags or signs by February or March letting people know they’re coming into the College district,” said Richard Hardman, president of the Northridge Chamber of Commerce.

The districts would be on Reseda Boulevard between Roscoe Boulevard and Devonshire Street in Northridge; on Chatsworth Street between Zelzah and Encino avenues in Granada Hills; and on Devonshire Street from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to Mason Avenue in Chatsworth.

A theme unifying the improvement projects would make the districts more competitive, CSUN’s Wolfe said.

“How do you differentiate yourself? That’s where the theme becomes important,” he said.

In Northridge, Wolfe has worked with another consultant and about 300 of the university’s business students, who have performed much of the initial research into whether existing businesses will cooperate.

The students helped produce a marketing video titled “Rediscover Northridge,” which, among other things, shows off artists’ renditions of a shopping village with trendy stores, water fountains and pedestrians browsing through a farmers’ market.

The district would try to capitalize on the nearly 30,000 students and faculty members who attend the commuter campus, but who, surveys show, rarely shop in the area, Wolfe said. Surveys show further that about 80,000 vehicles use Reseda Boulevard each day without stopping at its many businesses.

Record and clothing stores, coffee shops and movie theaters would prevail among the new businesses hoping to attract young customers. The water fountains would emanate from a bit of Northridge history: an old spring near Reseda Boulevard and Parthenia Street that was used by the Gabrieleno Indians. The Indians called the spring “Zelzah,” meaning oasis.

Chatsworth has equally underexploited features, said Randy Witt, president of the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce.

Its rugged, rocky landscape, once the backdrop to many a western, now is a haven for recreational horseback riders and rock climbers, who have become a part of the local lifestyle.

“On a given day, there are numerous climbers on Stoney Point,” Witt said.

There, outdoor-oriented businesses selling such things as bicycles and backpacks would seem fitting, Pearson said, adding that the area’s history of ranching and farming could be represented in periodic farmers’ markets. The district could also organize seasonal events to attract foot traffic.

In fact, he said, the community got a head start this year by bringing back the local Christmas parade, which had not been held the last few years.

The land surrounding Chatsworth’s Metrolink station also has development potential, he said.

Granada Hills, meanwhile, hopes to mine its Spanish ties, inspired not only by the Valley’s Spanish missionary roots, but by its sister city of Granada, Spain.

Business district organizers in Granada Hills already have acquired artists’ renderings to show property owners how the buildings on Chatsworth Street would look with new architecture.

Proponents say the north Valley’s move to try to keep shoppers at home is necessary to compete with other Los Angeles districts that are doing the same. “The communities that don’t participate,” said Witt, “will be left behind.”