Residents of Westlake Village were recently deluged with a slick public relations piece touting the Town Center project, also known as the Lowe’s home improvement store. The propaganda piece also asks residents to petition the City Council to approve the project. The problem is the mailing badly misrepresents the project.
The four-color glossy mailing waxes poetic about the shops and greenbelts while devoting a scant four words to Lowe’s. The lovely artist renderings would lead one to believe this project is the next Westlake Promenade. The problem is the picture painted of this project is badly at odds with the facts as reported Aug. 18:
“Along with several upscale restaurants and boutique shops, the dealership will be part of a $45 million project that includes a 168,000-square-foot Lowe’s home improvement store with an adjoining 31,000-square-foot garden center. In addition to the Lowe's, Rotkin Real Estate Group plans to develop 62,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.”
Do the math: 199,000 square feet for Lowe’s and its garden center (try finding any hint of that monstrosity in the public relations piece) and less than a third of that for the retail shops and restaurants touted by the mailing.
Ask yourself why such a project that appears to be so wonderful is encountering so much resistance that it requires an expensive public relations campaign that attempts to snooker the residents of Westlake Village.
Here’s my suggestion to the people of Westlake Village interested in retaining the charm and property values of our lovely city: Take that postage-paid postcard that the developers would like you to return to them pledging your undying support for their misguided and misrepresented project and send it to the Westlake City Council, 31200 Oak Crest Drive, Westlake Village, CA 91361. Mark it with a big red “No!”
— Heidi & Larry Dutra, Westlake Village
Thank you for seeing through this smoke and mirrors trick they would like us to believe. We need to stick together as one and oppose this project. We have amended the city plan enough. Let the office building be built and keep small local businesses in Westlake open. I plan on bringing the post card into City Hall myself.