UN4LA News - August 2023
A monthly newsletter published by United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles.
UN4LA's mission is to bring communities together to plan for a sustainable future. Growth must be shaped by community engagement, not developer dollars.
CITY OF L.A. MOVES TOWARD APPROVING SCORES OF DIGITAL BILLBOARDS
A new ordinance could allow the construction of more than 80 digital billboards at locations throughout the City of LA. The Final Draft Ordinance for the so-called Transportation Communication Network (TCN) has been posted by LA City Planning, and the City Planning Commission is scheduled to consider it on August 17.
The billboards would actually be located on properties owned by LA Metro, and the City of LA is relying on Metro's Environmental Impact Report rather than prepare its own environmental assessment. Unfortunately, Metro's EIR doesn’t consider cumulative impacts resulting from the addition of 80+ digital billboards to the existing digital billboards within the City of LA’s boundaries, along with those in surrounding cities (West Hollywood, Inglewood, Long Beach, Downey). The City and Metro have also insisted that the installation of scores of digital billboards, some as large as 1,200 square feet, will not lead to an increase in distracted driving. And there are serious privacy concerns.
Over two hundred persons submitted comments to the council file, and all but three are opposed. Amazingly, the City has chosen to ignore the public's overwhelming opposition to digital billboards and is pressing ahead with approval of the ordinance. Coalition for a Beautiful Los Angeles has released an action alert, asking for the postponement of the City Planning Commission hearing. Click on the link for details.
Action Alert from Coalition for a Beautiful Los Angeles
ETHICS QUESTIONS ABOUT PROPOSED LUXURY HOTEL IN BENEDICT CANYON
The group Save Our Canyon (SOC) has raised a number of questions about the controversial Bulgari Hotel project. The proposed project is located in Council District 5, and the application was filed when former Councilmember Paul Koretz represented the area. SOC reports that Koretz' Planning and Land Use Deputy, Shawn Bayliss, made an unsuccessful run for California Senate, and that his campaign received $8,400 from the developer behind the hotel project. Subsequently, Bayliss' wife, Stacey Brenner, registered as a lobbyist for the developer, and met with city officials to promote the project while her husband served as CD 5 Planning Deputy.
SOC notes that on October 11, 2017, Brenner submitted the application for the initiation of a General Plan Amendment which would be necessary to realize the project. The initiation of the GPA was approved on October 12, 2017, one day after Brenner submitted the application. According to SOC, department policy required Planning Director Vince Bertoni to convene an internal staff meeting to review the developer's request for an amendment to the General Plan, but the group alleges that the internal meeting was never held.
UN4LA reached out to Director Bertoni to ask for his comment on SOC's allegations. We received the following response from a City Planning spokesperson:
"This General Plan Amendment request did not deviate from the normal process. The request came directly from the project applicant to the Department of City Planning. The request to initiate the General Plan Amendment followed the City's normal planning procedures at that time, which is more than 24 hours. After the application went through the evaluation process, which took several months of discussion with Planning staff, the General Plan Amendment Initiation Request was presented to the Director of Planning for his consideration and signature. This signature was not an approval of the project, but rather a form that only allowed for an application to be filed. Ultimately, the decision on whether this project is approved lies with the City Council."
The proposed project, which would occupy a 33-acre site in Benedict Canyon, includes a 58-room hotel, eight private residences, a restaurant, spa and parking structure. You can learn more about the questions raised by SOC by clicking on the link below.
Save Our Canyon, Questions Re Bulgari Hotel Project
L.A. LANDLORDS TURNING HOUSING INTO HOTEL ROOMS
By the end of the last century, many of LA's older hotels had turned into long-term housing for low-income individuals. These "residential hotels" provided shelter for thousands of people living on limited incomes, many of them seniors. Around the beginning of this century, it became clear that real-estate investors were buying up these buildings and evicting the tenants, hoping to profit by renovating them and turning them back into hotels geared toward a more affluent crowd. In order to prevent a massive loss of low-income housing, in 2008 the LA City Council passed an ordinance to put strict limits on these conversions.
Unfortunately, in recent years the City of LA hasn't made much of an effort to enforce this ordinance. An investigation by Capital & Main shows that landlords are freely turning low-cost housing into hotel rooms.
How L.A. Failed to Stop Landlords from Turning Low-Cost Housing into Tourist Hotels
After the publication of Capital & Main's report, the LA Housing Department said it would immediately start investigating the conversions.
Los Angeles Housing Department Will Investigate Residential Hotels
The loss of low-cost housing is especially alarming given the fact that LA's homeless population continues to grow. Most Angelenos are probably hoping that Mayor Karen Bass will be able to keep her campaign promise to house 17,000 homeless citizens by the end of 2023, but the Mayor is finding out how difficult it's going to be to keep that promise.
MEANWHILE, THE CITY OF L.A. TURNS HOUSING INTO STORAGE SPACE
It's bad enough that landlords are turning housing into hotel rooms and the City of LA doesn't seem to notice. Even worse, the City Planning Commission recently voted UNANIMOUSLY to approve the demolition of 8 rent-stabilized apartments at 6839 N. Woodley to make way for a self-storage and truck rental facility. You might think the CPC would have considered that one of the priorities of the recently adopted Housing Element is to:
"Protect Angelenos - especially persons of color and the disabled - from indirect and direct displacement, and ensure stability of existing vulnerable communities."
Apparently, the CPC feels that Angelenos need storage space more than they need housing.
Determination Letter for 6839 N. Woodley Avenue
710 EXTENSION IS DEAD, VACANT HOMES GET NEW LEASE ON LIFE
Scores of homes in Pasadena have been sitting vacant for decades, casualties of the protracted battle over the construction of the proposed 710 Freeway extension. Now that the 710 extension is definitely dead, the State agency that owns the homes is making them available for purchase. Seventeen of these vacant houses will be acquired by the City of Pasadena, which will sell them and use the proceeds to build affordable housing.
17 Vacant Homes in Old 710 Freeway Route to Be Bought by Pasadena, Sold to Public
