The Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council (ERNC) voted to redraft a letter expressing opposition to building a Home Depot in the Eagle Rock Plaza, during a meeting Oct. 7. The Home Depot would replace the Macy’s that currently occupies the building. The letter will be sent to the Eagle Rock Plaza, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles City Planner’s office.
Evan Lieber (senior) serves on the Outreach Committee for the ERNC.
“The reasons we don’t support the development of Home Depot in the Eagle Rock Plaza include public safety for undocumented neighbors, traffic including trucks from Home Depot, small business impact, Colorado Boulevard site plan signage issues and the development being a major construction project,” Lieber said.
During the meeting, Talha Aamir, a board member on the ERNC, opposed the building of Home Depot in the Eagle Rock Plaza.
“Home Depot likes to come in and rebuild these buildings completely,” Aamir said. “So they would most likely tear down the Macy’s and rebuild it all, which would have other impacts on construction in the neighborhood.”
According to Aamir and Lieber, the developers have signed a contract with Home Depot, and the space would include truck equipment rentals, a load-and-go area, trailer and shed displays and a 20,231-square-foot garden center. If Home Depot officially moves to the Eagle Rock Plaza, the activity created would contribute more noise and disruption to the neighborhood due to developments such as the truck equipment rentals and load-and-go zone, Lieber said.
“I know this is going to be an ongoing issue for not just this month, but probably years to come,” Lieber said. “This will keep garnering community engagement.”
Earlier this year, a survey was developed to ask community members what they wanted to see in the Eagle Rock Plaza space; however, there are still many community members who have not voiced their opinion, Lieber said. Lieber said the ERNC board stated the survey was limited in its scope and did not reach everyone who would likely have feelings about the development of Home Depot.
“[Based on] the survey, the most popular option was a movie theater, though there’s not currently a movie theater that wants to build in that space, and we have Vidiots already in the community, and the Americana is pretty close,” Lieber said.
Flor Chaidez, president of the ERNC, made a motion to change the letter to say community members and the board do not want Home Depot, and would like to look for other tenants, citing traffic concerns and public safety concerns.
“It’s a matter of dollars and cents, we should advise neighbors and speak up as a board,” Chaidez said. “The development signage doesn’t fall in line with the Colorado site plan, and goes against Colorado Boulevard community members.”
According to Lieber, there are ways that the parking lot of the Home Depot could be made private, so Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) couldn’t be there, yet, if Home Depot is required to make their parking lot private, the question arises whether all businesses in Eagle Rock should be required to make their parking lots private.
“There are other models that we could take from neighborhood councils, such as the Reseda Neighborhood Council, who went around to every single small business in the neighborhood to give out Red Cards, which are ‘know your rights’ cards,” Lieber said.
Contact Olivia Correia at ocorreia@oxy.edu.
