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Replace Strip Malls With 'Lifestyle Centers'? City Councilman Says It's Time

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A Los Angeles City Councilman wants to eliminate strip malls that dot many of the city's street corners and replace them with multi-use "lifestyle centers".

KNX 1070's Ed Mertz reports City Councilman Felipe Fuentes wants to create incentives that will lure more developers to create places for shopping, leisure activities and housing all on one site.

Replace Strip Malls With 'Lifestyle Centers'? City Councilman Says It's Time'

Fuentes introduced a motion (PDF) in June calling for the city Planning Department to report on the number of mini shopping and commercial corner centers that have been developed citywide since the enactment of the Mini Shopping Center and Commercial Corner Ordinance in 2003.

"[Mini malls] are outdated, they're not very friendly, they don't make themselves easy for pedestrians," said Fuentes.

Under the 2003 ordinance, the City Council sought to encourage owners to convert existing buildings into mini shopping centers by allowing them to forgo obtaining a conditional use approval if a project complied with certain requirements and conditions of operation.

But Fuentes said due to the downturn in the national economy, the city must explore every opportunity to boost sustainable economic development, increase property values, and enhance tax revenues while creating neighborhoods where commercial and mixed-use development thrives.

"We have to figure out a way for us to revitalize open, public and retail space in a way that we limit people's need to have to travel from, say, Northridge to Burbank or from the Westside to Central City," he said.

The Council voted Tuesday in favor of further study of the proposal by the Planning Committee.

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