The battle of the Westwood Village multiplexes has escalated once again.
Councilman Mike Feuer, whose district encompasses the Village, has been conducting an unusual door-to-door campaign to drum up community support for the controversial Village Center Westwood mall, which includes a Pacific Theatres multiplex.
The move has left Mann Theaters topper Jeff Lewine, who is backing Regent Properties' competing Westwood Marketplace complex, scratching his head.
"I've worked all around the world and never heard of a councilman going around endorsing a developer," said Lewine, who recently led a leveraged buyout of Mann/Cinamerica. The circuit currently operates all of the Village's movie theaters.
Even more disturbing to Lewine was a two-page "Status Report & Fact Sheet," distributed on Feuer's official letterhead which states that "Many of Westwood's existing movie theaters are obsolete (except for the Bruin and the Village) and likely to close by the time (the Village Center Westwood) is built."
Lewine said the statement came as news to him: "I intend to invest huge sums of money in my theaters in Westwood and have no intention of closing any theaters unless it's to build new ones."
But Feuer defended the flier and his door-to-door campaign. "The owner of the property at the Regent site submitted an application to the city, which indicated that they would be closing the existing theaters, and looking to put those theater seats into the new development," said the councilman.
He added that he was not supporting one rival project over the other. "I want projects on both sides of Westwood bookending the Village. However, because the Regent project hasn't been submitted to the City Planning Dept. in a form specific enough to start the review process, I cannot say I support the project. "
But community and land use groups claimed that Feuer has long been wedded to the Village Center project. Some members of a working group set up to review the plans complained that Feuer had already made up his mind about the project and never listened to their concerns.
Feuer asserted that he had spent two years scrutinizing the Village Center project and hadn't thrown his weight behind it until shortly before he announced his support of the project last December.
A review of Feuer's files under the Public Records Act last June revealed a document entitled "Master Plan" which appears to outline Feuer's and his staff's day-to-day strategy for gaining public support for the project.
One entry, dated April 18, reads: "Meet with (developer) Ira (Smedra) and (Smedra's publicist) Tom Tomlin re: press for kiosk alternative." Another, dated April 24, states "Review packets to be mailed to Working Group from Mike with Ira."
A coalition of residents and business owners oppose the Smedra project because it would require a major overhaul of the Westwood Specific Plan which regulates development of the Village.
"You don't have to do a sweetheart deal for a single property owner at the expense of all the other property owners," said Laura Lake, president of the land use group, Friends of Westwood.
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