Northeast Los Angeles
Support of the No Home Depot Coalition!
The No Home Depot Coalition – Northeast Los Angeles is a grass roots
organization of concerned local residents, businesses and community
groups opposed to locating a Home Depot Store at Fletcher Drive and San
Fernando Road in Glassell Park. We believe that a third Home Depot on a
four-mile stretch of San Fernando Road is not in the best interest of the
community. We further believe a Home Depot in this location is contrary to
the spirit and intent of the Northeast Community Plan and the initial
language of the proposed Community Design Overlay Zone being
prepared by the L.A. Planning Department.
OUR REASONS:
We believe that there are compelling reasons to fight the Home Depot
planned for this site. They are:
1. INCREASE IN TRAFFIC: Our first and foremost concern is the increase
in traffic to an already congested intersection that a Mega-retailer like
Home Depot would bring with it. Frequent deliveries from eighteen-
wheeled trucks and customers’ cars and trucks would be constant. When
the Los Angeles City College Northeast Campus is built across Fletcher
Drive from this site, that will add additional traffic as well. At least that
traffic will provide the benefit of an education.
2. SQUANDERED OPPORTUNITY: Another Home Depot would squander
an opportunity to develop something that the community really needs and
wants. We don’t need another Home Depot here when one exists two
miles in either direction on San Fernando Rd.
3. INCOMPATIBILITY: A development here needs to be compatible with
the new Northeast Campus of Los Angeles City College being built across
Fletcher Dr. at the old Van De Kamp’s Bakery. Our community needs to
urge the city to court a developer who is willing to design and plan a
project that makes total sense for this area. Perhaps a mixed-use
development that takes into account the traffic problems; the student
population at LACC; the proximity to the metro rail line; and the need for
affordable housing and services that residents really need: a decent
restaurant, a few retail shops, a fitness club, a movie theater. Why should
the residents of Mt. Washington, Cypress Park, Glassell Park, Silver Lake
and Atwater Village always have to go to Glendale, Pasadena or Burbank to
shop and dine? Wouldn’t it be great to have some of those things, on a
smaller scale, here in the Northeast, as long as the traffic flow could be re-
engineered effectively.
4. SQUEEZING THE LITTLE GUY: Home Depot, like Wal-Mart, can have a
drastic effect on small and family businesses and often forces them to
close. Home Depot offers contracting services that will put the squeeze on
flooring businesses, general contractors, plumbers, etc. Local suppliers
of window blinds, sprinkler/irrigation, electrical, tile, carpeting, marble,
glass, screen, windows, doors, etc. will all be hurt by another Home Depot
in the area.
5. CRIME: The Northeast Police Division have continually listed the Home
Depot store in Cypress Park as a hot bed of criminal activity. Break-ins
and auto thefts have been high. Home Depot has not addressed the high
incidence of crime with any effective increase in security. Why should we
believe the situation would be different in a Glassell Park location?
Atwater Griffith Park Chamber of Commerce
Atwater Village Neighborhood Council
Atwater Village Residents Association
Friends of Atwater Village
Glassell Park Improvement Association
Glassell Park Neighborhood Council
Silver Lake Neighborhood Council
Silver Lake Residents Association
Atwater Florist
Bedrosian Iron Works
Bigfoot Lodge
Caravella Properties
Cosmo Auto Parts
Luis Lopez Automotive
Mortarless Building Supplies
Netty’s
Richardson Equipment Rental, Inc
Tony's Auto Care
Verdugo Hardware
supporters! Click here for our online form
Over 2000 people have already signed our
petition in support of the Fletcher Square ICO
and against another Home Depot store!
Help get signatures for our petition...
click here to download.
1973 - Kmart opened it’s doors in Glassell Park offering a variety of goods and services for our communities.
January 2002 - Kmart files for Bankruptcy and announces that stores with low profit earnings will be closed.
Summer 2004 - Sears buys Kmart, states it will keep certain Kmart stores open, introduce Sears merchandise and liquidate stores that are
leased like the one on San Fernando Road and Fletcher Drive.
Fall 2004 - It is announced that K-mart will close its doors in December 2004. Community activists attempt to contact Kmart’s corporate
office in hopes of working with either K-mart or developers to bring something the community wants and needs to the site.
December 2004 - Home Depot signs the lease with the property’s owners. Kmart is closed.
December 2004 - Fletcher Square Interim Control Ordinance introduced by Councilmember Eric Garcetti to the City Council and passed.
This Ordinance restricts developers to dramatically change any structures in the Fletcher Square area bordered by Delay Drive to the
North, the Glendale border to the West, the 2 Freeway to the East, and the Railroad tracks to the South. Council District 13 has
recognized the potential for a vibrant community center in this area with the new City College campus being built, its proximity to the L.A.
River, and possibilities for a mass transit stop here. The ICO was introduced as a way to slow down any radical or large-scale changes in
commercial buildings here. Council Districts 13 and 1 (Ed Reyes) were already working with City Planning on a Community Design
Overlay Zone for Glassell Park and Cypress Park that would create design guidelines for our communities, which would give the
community leverage when a developer wanted to come in and radically change any structures.
June 2005 - Home Depot Representatives request to address the Glassell Park Neighborhood Council Land Use and Planning Committee
about their plans to build a new store. Addressing the committee and well-attended audience, Richard W. Green, Real Estate Manager,
stated intentions to put a Home Depot at the vacant Kmart lot. If the city would not let them demolish the current building and construct a
bigger building, they would use the existing building.
July 2005 -Home Depot presents their plans for the K-mart site at Atwater Village Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use
Committee, to a boisterous audience. The message was clear, Atwater Village does not want a Home Depot on this site.
November 29, 2005 - Glassell Park and Atwater Village Neighborhood Councils hold a joint forum with Home Depot at the Glassell Park
Community/Senior Center. Home Depot presents plans for a mixed used residential/retail complex. Apartments and small retail stores
would face San Fernando Road, parking lot structure in the middle, and Home Depot Center in the back. Except for a two people out of
nearly 100, the message was clear, the community does not want a Home Depot. Our community deserves better.
November 29, 2005 - Glassell Park and Atwater Village Neighborhood Councils hold a joint forum with Home Depot at the Glassell Park
Community/Senior Center. Home Depot presents plans for a much larger big-box store, plus a mixed-use residential/retail complex.
Apartments and small retail stores would face San Fernando Road, with a parking lot structure in the middle, and Home Depot store in the
back. Except for 2 people out of nearly 100, the message was clear, the community does not want a Home Depot on this site. Our
community deserves better.
January 2006 – L.A. City Council votes to extend the Fletcher Square ICO for another six months
January 2006 - Residents and business owners from the communities of Glassell Park and Atwater Village form the No Home Depot –
Northeast L.A. Coalition. The coalition formed to give voice to residents and business owners who feel that building another Home
Depot in our neighborhood would be highly detrimental to our quality of life and a missed opportunity of tragic proportions to develop
something of lasting value on the site.
January 2006 –Citizens To Protect Northridge defeat a proposed WalMart at an already congested area by hiring an attorney and forcing
Wal-Mart to pay for a full environmental and economic impact study. Wal-Mart walks away from the deal saying the study would delay
the project and be too costly. We can do the same with Home Depot.
3516 Eagle Rock Blvd
Glassell Park, CA 90065
323.665.0166
nohomedepot@sbcglobal.net
