BACK TO THE FUTURE NOHO'S BURGEONING PEDESTRIAN-FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD HARKENS TO ANOTHER ERA, AND IS ON ITS WAY TO BECOMING A DESTINATION.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Young, hip and an aspiring urbanite, Brian Jones surveys his North Hollywood neighborhood with impatient optimism.

By summer, tall wooden skeletons off Lankershim Boulevard will become apartment buildings. New residents will spill out onto the now wide, empty sidewalks. Red and Orange Line commuters won't always hurry to their cars and drive away - there will be more funky shops, chic restaurants, coffeehouses, perhaps a movie theater, enticing them to stop and stay awhile.

And a night on the town won't mean driving to some other town.

``I want to see more of a young, urban type of area and less of a bedroom community and less suburbia,'' said Jones, 34, who bought a house near the Red Line station, takes the subway to his computer programmer job downtown and fully embraces the metropolitan vision of NoHo.

``I want to go out and have a good time and just hang out after dinner For me, to get into my car to go to Hollywood and West Hollywood is a drag.''

Six decades after its heydey as the Valley's commercial center, there is a buzz around North Hollywood and a hope that this 'burb will once again be the bustling town it once was.

From the 1930s, so many new homes and businesses were built over farmland that the area became the first in the region to have number addresses. The Post Office declared North Hollywood the fastest-growing community in the nation.

Business was booming, too. Rathbun's department store on Lankershim was among the busiest independent retailers in the nation and plans were in the works for the nation's biggest shopping center west of the Mississippi River.

But by the mid-1960s, residents, business and investment began moving west to newer communities. Property values were less than half what they were in 1945. North Hollywood's businesses began to close and the once-lively neighborhoods deteriorated.

Now a long-stalled redevelopment effort is coming to fruition and a hot real estate market is fueling the NoHo renaissance.

In the last two years, nearly 1,600 new residential apartments and condominiums have been built or are under construction within a half-mile of the Red Line subway station and the Orange Line busway.

Some 88,000 square feet of commercial space has been built in the same area, with a new grocery store, coffee shops and restaurants planned.

Private investors have spent an estimated $350 million in the community.

``I am elated to see North Hollywood finally have its turn to shine,'' said Robert ``Bud'' Ovrum, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development.

``It's the classic case study of an urban village and a transit oriented development. You look at the great cities of Europe and its residential on top of retail. It's clearly new for Southern California sprawl, but it's existed in other places for hundreds of years.''

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has singled out North Hollywood as a model for the kind of ``smart growth'' he wants the city to adopt to accommodate roughly 500,000 additional Angelenos that the Southern California Association of Governments predicts will inhabit the city within two decades.

Think high-rise apartments, condominiums and lofts above shops. Grocery stores and movie theaters within walking distance. And public transit to whisk residents to work.

The goal, planners say, is to create a community where residents can live, work, shop and socialize; where they can leave the car in the garage, forgo the backyard and use public transportation.

If it works in North Hollywood, then Reseda, Canoga Park, Studio City or Panorama City could be next.

``In limited areas, this is the future of the Valley,'' said Cliff Goldstein, a managing partner of JH Syder, which is developing more than 740 new apartments in North Hollywood.

``We're not convincing everybody to give up their single-family home and giving up their car. We're only looking for a small percentage of people that this lifestyle is attractive to to have an impact.''

The test of North Hollywood will be how it can accommodate an urban, high-rise core capable of accommodating thousands of new residents while preserving the surrounding suburban, single-family home neighborhoods of back yards and swimming pools that defined the Valley for much of the last 60 years.

That balance is important to people like Cary Adams, who grew up in North Hollywood and owns a home on a quiet street there today. The Midtown North Hollywood Neighborhood Council President hopes to maintain that suburban feel he feels is threatened by encroaching apartments and traffic congestion.

``We need to concentrate the development at the transportation hubs. This is exactly what we should have. We need high-density housing around the subway station to retain the funky nature of the rest of the community.''

Adams also wants NoHo to have a center, like old Pasadena or Studio City, with shopping, theater, nightlife and a park that gives North Hollywood an identity and a sense of community.

``People are looking for centers. People want to be back together in communities. There's that tendency as you get bigger, you want to be smaller,'' Adams said.

Look at the some of the densest cities - such as New York or Paris - they have distinct neighborhoods, each with their own center. That helps keep large cities livable and on human scale, says Julianna Delgado, a professor of urban studies and planning at California State University, Northridge, and a San Fernando Valley native.

``Human beings are advanced, but socially we haven't evolved much. We're emotional and social. We like to gather,'' Delgado explained. ``Los Angeles grew so quickly that we lost the public realm. The Valley is almost two million people now, and we like to be able to walk, hang out and people watch.''

But that comes at too great a cost, for some. Mona Gruzdis is watching her single-family neighborhood get swallowed up by apartment and condo complexes. Her corner of North Hollywood is losing the qualities that made it flourish in the 1940s - its quiet residential streets, classic homes and mature trees.

In front of her 1929 Spanish-style home on La Maida Street, she points to three similar houses - all slated for demolition, including her own. In their place, a developer is planning to build condominiums.

``I prefer the charm of the older houses. When they're done, it's going to be a big city - more traffic, less charm and more crime,'' Gruzdis said.

Another test of North Hollywood will be whether these new residents embrace public transportation.

The urban North Hollywood model puts the subway and the Orange Line at the center, with shoppers, residents and workers able to step off transit and walk to their destination, just as people did using the Red Car trolleys before the automobile became affordable and ubiquitous.

NoHo is not there yet.

``I haven't had anybody walk in and say I took the subway here. I don't see a lot of foot traffic and I don't see a lot of people coming to North Hollywood to shop,'' said Taree Harrington, who owns the vintage clothing shop Age of Innocence on Magnolia Boulevard.

But she's hopeful. From her front window, she can see the skeletons of new apartment towers, adding some 200 units. More residents bring more services, more restaurants, more nightlife and more foot traffic.

``I welcome it. It's nice to have these things on this side of the hill.''

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) NoHo resident Brian Jones stands in front of one of his favorite spots, the Eclectic Cafe off of Lankershim Boulevard.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(2) This photographic postcard shows North Hollywood's Lankershim Boulevard at night during the 1950s.

Photo courtesy of CSUN, University Library