The San Vicente Design Review Board is mentioned several times in this month’s Brentwood News. This group, which has been around almost three decades now, advises the city on proposed changes to what we see and encounter on San Vicente Boulevard, Brentwood’s main drag.
Topics include architecture, signage, outdoor furniture, open space, building height, parking and other matters. San Vicente is part of a protected “scenic corridor,” which is the primary reason we don’t have billboards in Brentwood.
Some far-sighted community leaders – many of whom are still active with the Design Review Board – deserve a lot of credit for the “village feel” we enjoy today.
The Design Review Board (DRB) keeps everything up to snuff by reviewing proposals any time someone wants to build a new building or change the exterior of an existing building.
Close observers agree: The DRB represents the best in long-term thinking and planning.
It seems like the ongoing debacle surrounding the Charlie Munger project (“Green Hollow Square”) represents the opposite end of the spectrum.
Short-term thinking on the part of many led to a sub-optimal outcome that might be with us for years to come.
Because of seismic issues, tenants of the Barry Building have been told by Charlie Munger to vacate the property by the end of the year. Presumably the place will be boarded up and left to rot.
Until something gives, the open land directly to the west of the Barry Building will remain a big patch of dirt.
Is this the victory opponents of Green Hollow Square had in mind when they successfully blocked the project?
I remember asking opponents, back when the proposed Green Hollow Square project was a white-hot issue, what kind of use would be acceptable for the property, in their minds, if they considered Green Hollow Square to be no good.
They could or would never answer that question; they just seemed to take an attitude of “that’s not our problem.”
But it’s the whole community’s problem, now.
That whole chapter, in my view, represented a lot of very short-term thinking – maybe on everyone’s part.
I’m not convinced Brentwood needed another shopping mall, but to simply block the project and abandon the carcass didn’t accomplish much.
I’ve suggested a few times in this column that a good long-term solution to the issue would be to build a retirement/assisted living facility there. Such a use for the property is needed in Brentwood and a retirement facility would create few traffic impacts.
Every time I suggest this, I get tons of favorable responses from my fellow aging Brentwoodians. There would be a waiting line to get into the place, I do believe.
Tom Safran, at a recent meeting describing the genesis of the Design Review Board, said he had been in touch with Charlie Munger about just such an idea.
Alas, Tom reported that Charlie Munger is still pretty upset with Brentwood, and he’s in no hurry to do anything.
This is a real shame. Maybe next time, opponents to whatever is proposed in Brentwood can at least be civil in their opposition.
What goes around comes around, and all that.
And if a project’s opponents really don’t like an idea, perhaps they could propose something better.
I hold out hope that a retirement facility will get built in my lifetime – maybe just in the nick of time!
If Charlie hurries up, he can live there, too!
While we cross our fingers and hold our collective breath, Brentwood resident Irwin Zim had a really interesting idea that he proposed toward the end of a recent Brentwood Community Council meeting.
While others figure out a long-term solution to the Munger property, he suggested, why not turn the big dirt patch next to the Barry Building into a community garden?
Wow. Way to go, Irwin.
Irwin’s idea probably doesn’t represent a long-term solution, but it beats the hell out of what we have now.
