Dear Editor – Grace Lutheran Church and the Parking Problem

Dear Editor,

I read Michael Gotz’s recent letter to Culver City News with growing frustration. How can it seem reasonable for anyone to say because they own Culver City property at 4227 Overland Avenue, 4279 Le Bourget Avenue and 10714 Franklin Avenue they have the right to demand the use of the 10700 residential block of Farragut Drive as a parking lot?!?! Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church obtained a zoning variance to avoid have the 40 stall off-street parking customary for a structure like the one that is now described as the “Parish Hall Cafetorium” in the Venyooz rental advertisement- http://www.venyooz.com/venues/grace-evangelical-lutheran-church-culver-city for the entire facility, Using the max capacity Venyooz figures, my thought is that the City of Culver City should have required off-street parking for upwards of 500 people as the tiny chapel evolved into a massive complex stretching from Franklin Avenue to Farragut Drive on Overland Avenue — all without a single stall of off-street parking. Off-street parking, which I will add, is available at the Culver City Senior Center, Veterans Memorial Building, and, if I read Google Map correctly, at Temple Akiba..

We are trying to avoid having the same situation on Farragut Drive as currently exists on Franklin Avenue as described by Kathleen Bunker in her recent letter to the Culver City News.. Like the Carlyle Group’s Proposed “Hospitality & Entertainment District Specific Plan” (Including a Sign District Component) Along Commercial Frontage Adjacent to the 405 Freeway Between the Northern and Southern City
Boundaries, it seems obvious that if we give an inch, they will want 10 miles in the future.

How would you DEFEND your home Mr. Gotz from being used as the most convenient 7-day a week parking for an institution that chose not to have any off-street parking of its own? CCPD Lt. Jason Sims advised the Culver City Council that the citation rate on the 10700 block of Farragut Drive is 800% of any other street in Culver City. What would the street you live on look like with those kinds of numbers?

John L. Heyl