South Hollywood Neighborhood Association General Meeting Minutes 5-11-2015
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association General Meeting 01-12-2014 Minutes
1. CALL TO ORDER:
The meeting was called to order at 6:34PM at the Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave.
Present were Board members: Don Hunt, Uschi Wilson, Felice Levine, Sallie Higgins, Nadia Villarreal, Luis Miranda, Debra Rosenbaum, Laura Whipple, Lucretia Miller, and neighbors Aaron Arnston, Elizabeth Barrat, Gerard Jacob, Mike McCadden, George Lukan, Brian Groh and Leny Hayag.
Don had previously e-mailed the minutes from the last board meeting (December 2014) to the members of the board.
MOTION by Laura Whipple , seconded by Uschi Wilson to pass the board meeting minutes. Passed unanimously by voice vote.
2. Voting for 2015 Board Members:
Tonight was election night. This is our first election. Don asked if anyone was interested in serving on the board and wanted to nominate someone or self-nominate. No one wanted to nominate someone or themselves. No one had any questions for the board. Don handed out ballots and envelopes to all meeting attendees. Felice Levine, treasurer, and 2 volunteers counted the ballots at 7PM.
The nominated officers and block captains were: Nadia Villarreal for 800 Block of McCadden, Laura Whipple for 700 Block of McCadden, Felice Levine for Treasurer, Sallie Higgins for the Block of 800 Block Cherokee , Uschi Wilson for Secretary and Block Captain of 700 Block of Las Palmas, Don Hunt for President, Jim Altschuler for Vice President, Debra Rosenbaum for the 800 Block of Las Palmas, Luis Miranda for the 700 Block of June Street, Lucretia Miller for the 700 Block of Cherokee – were all voted in unanimously for 2015. One vote was by absentee ballot by Jim Altschuler.
3. Board Member’s report:
Nadia Villarreal, 800 McCadden: A previously seen suspicion person had been seen again recently in the alley to the west of McCadden Pl. This is the same person several of us have seen in the past and were suspicious of. He was creepy. Elisabeth Barrat reported that her neighbor Jack Armenian has called the police the last time he was seen.
Laura Whipple, 700 Block of McCadden: Nothing to report.
Sallie Higgins, 800 Block of Cherokee: Mario Divito’s house which sold recently is ready to be torn down. There is some activity going on. She also talked to the neighbor who is building a large/tall structure on the rear of his property which is next door to Sallie. He and his contractor have assured her that they are within the height limits. She will keep on top of it. She wants to also see the inspector next time he is coming out.
Don noticed that the gate at Mario Divito’s former property was not locked when he walked by last night. He wants her to check it out and call the developer as we have been having a lot of issues with transients. Sallie says that the developer has personal stuff stored in the back.
Uschi Wilson, 700 Block of Las Palmas: The only news is that the property at 742 is in Escrow. Listing price was $ 1,299.000. We are waiting to see what it sold for.
Felice Levine, Treasurer: We have $ 683.00 in the bank.
Lucretia Miller, 700 Block of Cherokee:
Lots going on with construction on her block of Cherokee. The mansions are going up. The large construction on Seward has put air conditioning units on the roof, which has taken her view of the Hollywood sign away.
753 Cherokee sold to Danny and Amy, a couple who lived across the street. We are happy about this, since they are involved in our area and love it here. Danny is the one who took the picture of the person suspected of stealing bicycle tires.
736 Cherokee received their building permits. The project next to her is still being built. It’s been over a year. They have made many mistakes, so they had to redo several aspects. She met with the inspector several times who gave her information. The owners want to get as much space as possible and she was told that she had to remove part of her garage roof, in order to comply. Her roof hangs over their property by about 4 inches. Don suggested she talk to an attorney about possible options including getting an easement, so she doesn’t have to cut part of her roof.
Nothing new with the Comedy Club.
There are also complaints about all of the construction parking. Cars are parked all over the street and the lawns. It was suggested that she and her neighbors call the parking police.
Debra Rosenbaum, 800 Las Palmas: She is talking to her neighbors about Bob Eisenstein’s (806 Las Palmas) possible Small Lot Subdivision project. They are upset and Debra is trying to fight it. She wants to have a meeting with Bob. The tenants living at 806 Las Palmas are still interested in buying the house, but don’t have the funds. Don suggested that she introduces them to one of our realtor board members (Nadia or Sallie) who could figure out if they can qualify for a loan with a bank. Bob will have to charge a higher price as he had expenses on top of the purchase price.
Luis Miranda, 700 June Street: Nothing to report. Don said that they took down the huge crane in Seward. The property behind his property is still growing. He asked Lucretia (it’s on her block) if she could investigate the height. Lucretia said that she already did. It seems that the lots themselves are a bit higher and therefore it looks like the mansions are higher than they are.
4. President’s Report:
The Interim control ordinance was not approved yet. It stalled and the city said that it will take a few more weeks. There are 12 areas that fall under this ordinance. The process has to go through several offices before it can be completed.
Bob Eisenstein had sent Don an e-mail: He said that he has schematics for his proposed development at 806 Las Palmas and that he will send them to Don. Don has not received the e-mail yet. Bob said that he is trying to maximize setbacks and limit heights. He is planning on building a craftsman-style home in the front. After Bob sends the plans to Don we will be able to see them. Don will email them to all of us, but at this point we do not know what he is planning.
Newsletter: Nadia needs legal size paper for the newsletter. Her office is limiting the legal size paper, so she won’t have access to it anymore. We have been sending out the newsletter for a while and everyone knows about us. Maybe we should change the newsletter to twice a month or quarterly. We can ask people for e-mails. Most people have e-mails. Aaron offered to buy the paper for us. We felt that quarterly would be best. It will also eliminate a fair amount of work.
Motion by Uschi Wilson and second by Felice Levine: We will print the next 2 newsletters focusing on notifying neighbors of the need to have their e-mails addresses. After this period we will go to a quarterly printed newsletter. Passed unanimously by voice vote.
5. Crime Prevention:
Nadia Villarreal called several security patrol companies and was told that they do not patrol neighborhoods. They only come out when they are called. SSA is the only company that patrols and they charge $ 213.00 per month for each neighbor who signs up. She will investigate more. Don asked her to invite the representative of a company that would be good for us to the next meeting, so they can tell us about their services.
Debra had no information on BID
Aaron said that NextDoor is working and at this point about 50 neighbors have signed up. There are 61 people on our Facebook page. We have not fully committed to, or promoted this media. We will put a blurb in the newsletter about NextDoor.
6. Fundraising efforts:
Little had been done recently about fundraising. Debra was talking about a burger place on Larchmont. She wants to talk to them about fundraising.
Don asked the fundraising committee if they can get together in 2 weeks at 6:30PM for a meeting. Don will make an appointment with the library.
Aaron suggested that they talk to “Mudhen” – he knows them. Debra had talked to him in the past and they weren’t interested, but he will try again.
7. Fruit Sharing
Brian Groh proposed putting together a plan to collect and distribute extra fruit to our neighbors and also bringing some to meetings for neighbors to pick it up. That way we can entice neighbors to come to our SOHO meetings. We can offer the fruit to our neighbors first through our newsletter, Facebook page and he will go to several organizations that will be happy to take the fruit. We will not officially list where the fruit is going. We all really liked the idea to bring the fruit to the meetings as an incentive. The library has no problem with food as long as it is not spill-able. We will put this info into the next newsletter. Aaron and Brian will also post it on Nextdoor.
We discussed starting the meeting earlier and do some networking before the meeting, however most people can’t make it before 6:30PM.
Sallie talked about Tomas O’Grady, who is running for Tom LaBonge’s job in March. She went to a fundraiser and talked to him. She is going to endorse him. We as an organization don’t believe that we can support political candidates. We are not sure if we are a C3 or a C4 yet, therefore we need to be sensitive. We could educate members on several of the candidates, but we cannot pick one candidate. We suggested that she post her opinion on our Facebook page as a private person and neighbor.
8. Election Results:
We had 17 votes and each candidate had 17 votes. Sallie had nominated Mike McCadden for the vacant June street position but he declined.
9. Goals for 2015
1.Continue to fight the small lot subdivisions
2.Continue to fight crimes
Debra and Don went to an anti-mansionization meeting. Councilman Koretz was there and proposed to take the green incentives out of the current law which developers are using to get around density limitations. The city will have to go through several stages before it can pass it into law. It was an interesting meeting, but there wasn’t anything we haven’t discussed before. The council voted to increase the staff at the planning department to be able to manage this, but it takes time to do so. We have 17 neighborhoods officially requesting some kind of special zoning. New Planning Department employees need to be hired and trained and at this time they are not ready. Therefore, they proposed an Interim Control Ordinance to restrict building which will affect our area.
But, recently we did not get good news regarding the Interim Control Ordinance (ICO) proposed for both our R1 and RD1.5 zoned properties. The ICO will cover the R1 lots, however, there is a state law that restricts an ICO in multifamily areas. Small lot subdivisions will not be stopped.
Regarding previous discussion about a community patrol; it did not happen. Even though we had some members volunteer, they didn’t step up to act. Also, the police are not supportive of the idea as people could get themselves into dangerous situations. At this point it’s off the table.
10. ADJOURN
The meeting was adjourned at 7:50PM
The meeting was called to order at 6:34PM at the Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave.
Present were Board members: Don Hunt, Uschi Wilson, Felice Levine, Sallie Higgins, Nadia Villarreal, Luis Miranda, Debra Rosenbaum, Laura Whipple, Lucretia Miller, and neighbors Aaron Arnston, Elizabeth Barrat, Gerard Jacob, Mike McCadden, George Lukan, Brian Groh and Leny Hayag.
Don had previously e-mailed the minutes from the last board meeting (December 2014) to the members of the board.
MOTION by Laura Whipple , seconded by Uschi Wilson to pass the board meeting minutes. Passed unanimously by voice vote.
2. Voting for 2015 Board Members:
Tonight was election night. This is our first election. Don asked if anyone was interested in serving on the board and wanted to nominate someone or self-nominate. No one wanted to nominate someone or themselves. No one had any questions for the board. Don handed out ballots and envelopes to all meeting attendees. Felice Levine, treasurer, and 2 volunteers counted the ballots at 7PM.
The nominated officers and block captains were: Nadia Villarreal for 800 Block of McCadden, Laura Whipple for 700 Block of McCadden, Felice Levine for Treasurer, Sallie Higgins for the Block of 800 Block Cherokee , Uschi Wilson for Secretary and Block Captain of 700 Block of Las Palmas, Don Hunt for President, Jim Altschuler for Vice President, Debra Rosenbaum for the 800 Block of Las Palmas, Luis Miranda for the 700 Block of June Street, Lucretia Miller for the 700 Block of Cherokee – were all voted in unanimously for 2015. One vote was by absentee ballot by Jim Altschuler.
3. Board Member’s report:
Nadia Villarreal, 800 McCadden: A previously seen suspicion person had been seen again recently in the alley to the west of McCadden Pl. This is the same person several of us have seen in the past and were suspicious of. He was creepy. Elisabeth Barrat reported that her neighbor Jack Armenian has called the police the last time he was seen.
Laura Whipple, 700 Block of McCadden: Nothing to report.
Sallie Higgins, 800 Block of Cherokee: Mario Divito’s house which sold recently is ready to be torn down. There is some activity going on. She also talked to the neighbor who is building a large/tall structure on the rear of his property which is next door to Sallie. He and his contractor have assured her that they are within the height limits. She will keep on top of it. She wants to also see the inspector next time he is coming out.
Don noticed that the gate at Mario Divito’s former property was not locked when he walked by last night. He wants her to check it out and call the developer as we have been having a lot of issues with transients. Sallie says that the developer has personal stuff stored in the back.
Uschi Wilson, 700 Block of Las Palmas: The only news is that the property at 742 is in Escrow. Listing price was $ 1,299.000. We are waiting to see what it sold for.
Felice Levine, Treasurer: We have $ 683.00 in the bank.
Lucretia Miller, 700 Block of Cherokee:
Lots going on with construction on her block of Cherokee. The mansions are going up. The large construction on Seward has put air conditioning units on the roof, which has taken her view of the Hollywood sign away.
753 Cherokee sold to Danny and Amy, a couple who lived across the street. We are happy about this, since they are involved in our area and love it here. Danny is the one who took the picture of the person suspected of stealing bicycle tires.
736 Cherokee received their building permits. The project next to her is still being built. It’s been over a year. They have made many mistakes, so they had to redo several aspects. She met with the inspector several times who gave her information. The owners want to get as much space as possible and she was told that she had to remove part of her garage roof, in order to comply. Her roof hangs over their property by about 4 inches. Don suggested she talk to an attorney about possible options including getting an easement, so she doesn’t have to cut part of her roof.
Nothing new with the Comedy Club.
There are also complaints about all of the construction parking. Cars are parked all over the street and the lawns. It was suggested that she and her neighbors call the parking police.
Debra Rosenbaum, 800 Las Palmas: She is talking to her neighbors about Bob Eisenstein’s (806 Las Palmas) possible Small Lot Subdivision project. They are upset and Debra is trying to fight it. She wants to have a meeting with Bob. The tenants living at 806 Las Palmas are still interested in buying the house, but don’t have the funds. Don suggested that she introduces them to one of our realtor board members (Nadia or Sallie) who could figure out if they can qualify for a loan with a bank. Bob will have to charge a higher price as he had expenses on top of the purchase price.
Luis Miranda, 700 June Street: Nothing to report. Don said that they took down the huge crane in Seward. The property behind his property is still growing. He asked Lucretia (it’s on her block) if she could investigate the height. Lucretia said that she already did. It seems that the lots themselves are a bit higher and therefore it looks like the mansions are higher than they are.
4. President’s Report:
The Interim control ordinance was not approved yet. It stalled and the city said that it will take a few more weeks. There are 12 areas that fall under this ordinance. The process has to go through several offices before it can be completed.
Bob Eisenstein had sent Don an e-mail: He said that he has schematics for his proposed development at 806 Las Palmas and that he will send them to Don. Don has not received the e-mail yet. Bob said that he is trying to maximize setbacks and limit heights. He is planning on building a craftsman-style home in the front. After Bob sends the plans to Don we will be able to see them. Don will email them to all of us, but at this point we do not know what he is planning.
Newsletter: Nadia needs legal size paper for the newsletter. Her office is limiting the legal size paper, so she won’t have access to it anymore. We have been sending out the newsletter for a while and everyone knows about us. Maybe we should change the newsletter to twice a month or quarterly. We can ask people for e-mails. Most people have e-mails. Aaron offered to buy the paper for us. We felt that quarterly would be best. It will also eliminate a fair amount of work.
Motion by Uschi Wilson and second by Felice Levine: We will print the next 2 newsletters focusing on notifying neighbors of the need to have their e-mails addresses. After this period we will go to a quarterly printed newsletter. Passed unanimously by voice vote.
5. Crime Prevention:
Nadia Villarreal called several security patrol companies and was told that they do not patrol neighborhoods. They only come out when they are called. SSA is the only company that patrols and they charge $ 213.00 per month for each neighbor who signs up. She will investigate more. Don asked her to invite the representative of a company that would be good for us to the next meeting, so they can tell us about their services.
Debra had no information on BID
Aaron said that NextDoor is working and at this point about 50 neighbors have signed up. There are 61 people on our Facebook page. We have not fully committed to, or promoted this media. We will put a blurb in the newsletter about NextDoor.
6. Fundraising efforts:
Little had been done recently about fundraising. Debra was talking about a burger place on Larchmont. She wants to talk to them about fundraising.
Don asked the fundraising committee if they can get together in 2 weeks at 6:30PM for a meeting. Don will make an appointment with the library.
Aaron suggested that they talk to “Mudhen” – he knows them. Debra had talked to him in the past and they weren’t interested, but he will try again.
7. Fruit Sharing
Brian Groh proposed putting together a plan to collect and distribute extra fruit to our neighbors and also bringing some to meetings for neighbors to pick it up. That way we can entice neighbors to come to our SOHO meetings. We can offer the fruit to our neighbors first through our newsletter, Facebook page and he will go to several organizations that will be happy to take the fruit. We will not officially list where the fruit is going. We all really liked the idea to bring the fruit to the meetings as an incentive. The library has no problem with food as long as it is not spill-able. We will put this info into the next newsletter. Aaron and Brian will also post it on Nextdoor.
We discussed starting the meeting earlier and do some networking before the meeting, however most people can’t make it before 6:30PM.
Sallie talked about Tomas O’Grady, who is running for Tom LaBonge’s job in March. She went to a fundraiser and talked to him. She is going to endorse him. We as an organization don’t believe that we can support political candidates. We are not sure if we are a C3 or a C4 yet, therefore we need to be sensitive. We could educate members on several of the candidates, but we cannot pick one candidate. We suggested that she post her opinion on our Facebook page as a private person and neighbor.
8. Election Results:
We had 17 votes and each candidate had 17 votes. Sallie had nominated Mike McCadden for the vacant June street position but he declined.
9. Goals for 2015
1.Continue to fight the small lot subdivisions
2.Continue to fight crimes
Debra and Don went to an anti-mansionization meeting. Councilman Koretz was there and proposed to take the green incentives out of the current law which developers are using to get around density limitations. The city will have to go through several stages before it can pass it into law. It was an interesting meeting, but there wasn’t anything we haven’t discussed before. The council voted to increase the staff at the planning department to be able to manage this, but it takes time to do so. We have 17 neighborhoods officially requesting some kind of special zoning. New Planning Department employees need to be hired and trained and at this time they are not ready. Therefore, they proposed an Interim Control Ordinance to restrict building which will affect our area.
But, recently we did not get good news regarding the Interim Control Ordinance (ICO) proposed for both our R1 and RD1.5 zoned properties. The ICO will cover the R1 lots, however, there is a state law that restricts an ICO in multifamily areas. Small lot subdivisions will not be stopped.
Regarding previous discussion about a community patrol; it did not happen. Even though we had some members volunteer, they didn’t step up to act. Also, the police are not supportive of the idea as people could get themselves into dangerous situations. At this point it’s off the table.
10. ADJOURN
The meeting was adjourned at 7:50PM
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association Meeting 07-28-2014
1. CALL TO ORDER: at 6:55pm at the Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave., with Board Members, Don Hunt, Nadia Villarreal, Felice Levine, Jim Altschuler, Sallie Higgins, Meg Russett, Laura Whipple, Debra Rosenbaum and Lucretia Miller. Also attending were members Mike McCadden, Elisabeth Barat, Kat Connelly, Greggory Gannon, Gerhard Jacob, Robert Eisenstein.
Don began by discussing the results of two motions regarding Small Lot Subdivisions that had been passed by the City Council earlier in the day.
2. ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION: Don had emailed copies of a non-profit status rejection letter that stated that we had made some simple mistakes in our Articles of Incorporation. The letter and newly revised articles had been emailed to all members and there were copies available at the meeting. Don asked for discussion and there was none.
MOTION by Meg Russett, seconded by Felice to adopt the new Articles. Passed by unanimous voice vote.
3. BYLAWS. There were a number of mostly clerical changes proposed for the Bylaws. Copies had been sent to members by email and copies were available at the meeting. Don asked for any discussion and there was none.
MOTION by Jim Altschuler, seconded by Laura Whipple to adopt the amended bylaws. Passed by unanimous voice vote.
4. 806 LAS PALMAS: Don had emailed Board and Committee members copies of proposed plans that had been submitted by the developers . Hard copies of the plans were provided to everyone at the meeting. These proposed changes to the development had been made based on discussions the 806 Las Palmas Committee Chairs, Don Hunt and Bob Eisenstein, had had with our attorney and representatives from the developers. Don explained that our agreement with the attorney only allows 2 people from our group to be in contact with the Attorney. As the committee chairs, Don and Bob had attended the meeting and had explained at the meeting that the suggestions they made could not be binding on the association and were just “best guesses” as to what the group might agree to.
The developers came back with two options in a written offer. The first being that our member Bob Eisenstein could purchase the property for a price of $1,100,000. Bob has said that he would never build that kind of project on that lot. Therefore, his purchase would end this proposed development. Bob was asked if the first option was a possibility and he said that that they were still working on it and it was possible. He felt they would reach a conclusion on it by Friday.
There was a substantial discussion about whether the neighborhood association was in a position to, or if there was value in stating our support for option 1 officially.
MOTION by Laura Whipple, seconded by Meg Russett, that the neighborhood association supports whatever actions Bob chooses to take regarding acquiring the property. Passed by unanimous voice vote.
There was a great deal of discussion about option 2, with members generally feeling like there was not sufficient information to render a decision. The following questions were put forth:
The style and materials of the proposed buildings are not clearly defined. We would like to see more detailed elevations showing the materials and “Spanish Style” of the front building and giving us a clearer vision of the style and materials to be used in the proposed rear building(s).
We would like to have a more detailed explanation of where their roof measurements and any additional structures, such as chimneys, stairwells, air conditioners, etc that might be placed on the roof.
We would like a clear understanding of how their double driveway will affect the street. Will this remove an additional parking space from the street?
Exactly where and how is the trash bin going to be situated?
Can they provide us with documentation as to how they came up with their average for the front setback.
After discussion, it was decided that the position we should take will incorporate the questions and concerns we have discussed with the following preface:
Regarding option 1, the neighborhood association supports whatever actions Bob chooses to take regarding acquiring the property.
Regarding option two, we are undecided and we request the following information, so that we could consider option 2, should option 1 not come to fruition.
Motion by Kat Connelly, seconded by Meg Russett to put forth the above statement and questions to the developers. Unanimous vote in favor.
4. ADJOURN 7:50.
Don began by discussing the results of two motions regarding Small Lot Subdivisions that had been passed by the City Council earlier in the day.
2. ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION: Don had emailed copies of a non-profit status rejection letter that stated that we had made some simple mistakes in our Articles of Incorporation. The letter and newly revised articles had been emailed to all members and there were copies available at the meeting. Don asked for discussion and there was none.
MOTION by Meg Russett, seconded by Felice to adopt the new Articles. Passed by unanimous voice vote.
3. BYLAWS. There were a number of mostly clerical changes proposed for the Bylaws. Copies had been sent to members by email and copies were available at the meeting. Don asked for any discussion and there was none.
MOTION by Jim Altschuler, seconded by Laura Whipple to adopt the amended bylaws. Passed by unanimous voice vote.
4. 806 LAS PALMAS: Don had emailed Board and Committee members copies of proposed plans that had been submitted by the developers . Hard copies of the plans were provided to everyone at the meeting. These proposed changes to the development had been made based on discussions the 806 Las Palmas Committee Chairs, Don Hunt and Bob Eisenstein, had had with our attorney and representatives from the developers. Don explained that our agreement with the attorney only allows 2 people from our group to be in contact with the Attorney. As the committee chairs, Don and Bob had attended the meeting and had explained at the meeting that the suggestions they made could not be binding on the association and were just “best guesses” as to what the group might agree to.
The developers came back with two options in a written offer. The first being that our member Bob Eisenstein could purchase the property for a price of $1,100,000. Bob has said that he would never build that kind of project on that lot. Therefore, his purchase would end this proposed development. Bob was asked if the first option was a possibility and he said that that they were still working on it and it was possible. He felt they would reach a conclusion on it by Friday.
There was a substantial discussion about whether the neighborhood association was in a position to, or if there was value in stating our support for option 1 officially.
MOTION by Laura Whipple, seconded by Meg Russett, that the neighborhood association supports whatever actions Bob chooses to take regarding acquiring the property. Passed by unanimous voice vote.
There was a great deal of discussion about option 2, with members generally feeling like there was not sufficient information to render a decision. The following questions were put forth:
The style and materials of the proposed buildings are not clearly defined. We would like to see more detailed elevations showing the materials and “Spanish Style” of the front building and giving us a clearer vision of the style and materials to be used in the proposed rear building(s).
We would like to have a more detailed explanation of where their roof measurements and any additional structures, such as chimneys, stairwells, air conditioners, etc that might be placed on the roof.
We would like a clear understanding of how their double driveway will affect the street. Will this remove an additional parking space from the street?
Exactly where and how is the trash bin going to be situated?
Can they provide us with documentation as to how they came up with their average for the front setback.
After discussion, it was decided that the position we should take will incorporate the questions and concerns we have discussed with the following preface:
Regarding option 1, the neighborhood association supports whatever actions Bob chooses to take regarding acquiring the property.
Regarding option two, we are undecided and we request the following information, so that we could consider option 2, should option 1 not come to fruition.
Motion by Kat Connelly, seconded by Meg Russett to put forth the above statement and questions to the developers. Unanimous vote in favor.
4. ADJOURN 7:50.
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association General Meeting
4-28-2014
1. CALL TO ORDER:
The duly noticed meeting was called to order at 6:18PM at the Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave.
Board Members present: Don Hunt, Jim Altschuler, Felice Levine, Uschi Wilson, Block Captains Sallie Higgins, Nadia Villarreal, Debra Rosenbaum, Meg Russett, Laura Whipple and Luis Miranda. There were 7 regular members attending and guests: Ben Seinfeld, Councilman Tom LaBonge’soffice, and Josh Kurpies, field representative for the 50th Assembly District.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Meeting Minutes from the General meeting held 3-24-2014 were e-mailed to all members. There are some minor changes, (one regarding Emergency preparedness and one regarding the petition) which will not affect the notes.
MOTION to approve minutes by Jim Altschuler, seconded by Uschi Wilson. The minutes were approved by unanimous voice vote.
3. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS: Jim Altschuler reported we are still low on crimes, but we did have several car break-ins. One person left items in her car, ran back into the house, and returned just a few minutes later to find her items were stolen. Another issue right now is precious metal -- Cars have precious metal in the catalytic converters. Thieves take the converter in a few minutes. Another crime was the invasion of the school where young adults tried to steal the backflow devise. Jim called the cops, who came out with the fire department and the thieves were caught. A backflow devise costs about $ 1,200 and thieves can sell it for about $200. Ben Seinfeld talked about the city’s experience with this type of crime.
A neighborhood watch committee was discussed because we are the only ones that look out for us. Individually we can’t see everything so you need to look around and be vigilant: call crimes in to 911; if you can, shoot a photo but don’t endanger yourself. We are looking for volunteers – this is not even a part-time job. Volunteers can do most of it by e-mail; -we also really need a lead person – it’s in everyone’s best interest. Justin will think about it and maybe become the lead person; since he works in production he is concerned that he is not always available. The position will also coordinate with the block captains and the police department.
Uschi -- 700 block of Las Palmas: reported that construction is still going. The trees are still standing. She also looked into the neighborhood watch sign and found a company on-line for about $30 per sign. We could design our own logo, but are still hoping to get some for free. They are regular street signs and can be easily mounted.
Meg – 800 block of June: SOHO got a call from a reporter from The Beverly Press interested in an interview about the small lot division. Meg sent him an e-mail, but never heard back.
There is a huge crane on Seward for the new office building/ production space. The development will be large per Ben Seinfeld. It’s a business zoned area.
4. COUNCIL OFFICE REPORT BY BEN SEINFELD: Note: that due to Ben needing to leave early, we interrupted the Board Reports.
McCadden still has the original concrete topping from the 1920’s and has never been repaved. Ben explained that there is a fiscal budget (in July) when the city decides what streets will be resurfaced. Last year they focused on larger streets. This year they will focus on residential streets. McCadden is on the list. He doesn’t know which street will be resurfaced until July.
4-way stop on Cherokee and Waring: Ben e-mailed Jeanne Schenn and is waiting for response.
Comedy Club: Ben researched the club and couldn’t find anything wrong as they are not charging. They are claiming the money is going to a charity. Ben suggests getting permit parking as it would deter the guests. They are also serving liquor by donation. Ben said he would look into it some more and talk to the City attorney’s office and Building and Safety. Concern was raised by neighbors about noise, bad language, a visiting taco truck, parking and other nuisances. We should also get the fire department involved to see if there are any violations, like too many people in the home. Ben did research on their website but will find out more details and get back to us. Sally suggested working with the promoters and coming up with a more peaceful solution. The question of a curfew was also raised, but a neighbor stated that she had called the police but they didn’t arrive until late. We will also talk more about those issues with our police liaison. Ben also asked for photos if possible so he has some proof. He will also ask parking enforcement to be more vigilant on those party days.
BOARD REPORTS CONTINUED
Nadia – 800 block of McCadden: We passed out a flyer about the new smoke detectors which need a 10 year warranty battery after July 1st. Even if they are electric they need to be backed by a battery. It is not a tenant’s responsibility so owners have to make sure that it’s done. Nothing else new.
Laura: Nothing new on 700 McCadden
Sallie 800 block of Cherokee: They have not been impacted with the comedy club. She thinks we might be able to talk to the owners and see if they want to contribute to SOHO. She’d like to find a resolution rather than fighting them. She will approach them. Don reports that he talked to several people and it’s a split between positive and negative comments. Don asked the affected parties to get together with him and find a solution. Hopefully we can negotiate with them to come up with a good solution. Justin says that it would be easy for them to find another venue, especially on a Tuesday night.
Sallie also reports that there is a dead squirrel/rat problem. It looks like someone is poisoning them. We need to call and report this if that’s the case. Don asked Sally to contact Ben with this issue. It’s also not OK to kill possums as they eat rats and help the environment. We need to start educating the people. We could post those articles on the blog or in the newsletter.
Debra – 800 block of Las Palmas: She wants to continue to get the parking permits, but only has 38 signatures. She needs 70% and we have to find out how many people live on her block. Jacob reiterated the issue with the catalytic converter being stolen in this block as it was told to him by another neighbor.
Louis: Nothing to report on 700 block of June
Josh Kurpies: Josh will touch base with Ben Seinfeld and make sure the ABC rules are followed by the comedy club. He also wants us to report the dead rodents at least once a week, since it’s a public health issue. Josh is available for members if they have any questions. His number is on our website.
5. PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
The Hollywood injunction has been lifted; building in Hollywood can continue. The city went back to the 1988 master plan. They are trying to come up with a new plan, late summer, and we are trying to get our overlay into this proposal.
Also, Don needs to know about building on June and Cherokee as he is outside of the (mailing) range.
LAWSUIT against city of LA: We are suing them as they did not give us a decision on our appeal. It was a failure to act and we want them to hear our case again. We also want them to follow the guidelines. There is a new set of guidelines, which have much stronger language.
STREET WIDENING: Don passed around the petition against street widening for the 800 blocks of June and Cherokee. He wants the members to also send e-mails. It will create less parking.
Another issue regarding the small lot subdivision, it requires a variance for early start. They are trying to take away this feature. If they wait a full year they can still start the project and get a permit for an apartment building. Then they can split this apartment building into a small lot division. The variance gives us a greater opportunity and power for negotiation. They are going to have a committee hearing tomorrow. Don is asking if anyone could go to the meeting. Jason might be able to go.
Motion: Don to speak at this meeting if he’s able to go. Motion by Laura Whipple, second by Gerhard Jacob. Unanimous voice vote in favor.
6. DORIAN SHAPIRO; Did not attend.
7. CROSSWALK ON MELROSE AT LAS PALMAS: Last agenda had an item regarding the crosswalk. Neighbors have complained about the danger. However, a member who was to speak on this matter didn’t show up. Don looked at the situation and talked to the board in the last meeting. By the decision at that time a letter was written to the director of the MTA with copy to the Superintendent of the school . The bus stop didn’t make sense, since there are bus stops 2 blocks away. The City came out and removed the bus stop within a week.
8. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS. Vice President, Jim Altschuler reported about: CERT MEETING and Emergency preparedness: A while back we started this project and Jim and Don Hunt took the classes. We talked about what to do in an emergency. We were hoping to have more attendees, since this helps all of us. Jim handed out papers that show what we should have in case of an earthquake. He reiterated how important it was for us all to be prepared. He asked how many had an emergency kit and we went through the list of items needed. This class will be taught for 10 minutes of each future meeting for the next several months. We also handed out a sign in sheet to find out who has a pool, generator or a special skill that can help in an emergency, like training as a nurse. Helpful suggestions like having a crowbar for window bars, or an emergency kit in the trunk of your car, shoes, and gloves, were added to the list.
9. NEWSLETTER. Jim will be putting together a newsletter which will have lots of information and get delivered electronically. If you need a hard copy we can get you one.
10. FUNDRAISING. We are still waiting for the 501(C)3 which will allow contributions to be deductible.
Nadia made us an offer regarding fundraising. She offered 30% of her commission if we get her leads that lead to a property sale. She is an experienced realtor that has served the community from Eagle Rock all the way to the Ocean. This is a generous offer and we are extending it to all other realtors in the neighborhood, or any other business that would be interested in participating to help us raise fund. (Contractors, etc.)
Uschi sent an e-mail to Grub Restaurant asking for a meeting to plan a fundraising event. She has not received a response. Don walked over to the restaurant and got the day managers e-mail. Uschi will stay on top of this fundraiser. The restaurant STREET has a 10% discount for neighbors, but is very expensive. Grub is more affordable for all neighbors. Sally suggested that the Comedy Club might be open to a donation, too. Sally will look into it.
11. OTHER BUSINESS. Don: At one point we had planned the Block Party; this now results with a garage sale. Don still has several boxes stashed and needs storage for the items until we have another sale. Felice offered to store it for him as we can sell it at the next event. Jacob is still thinking of another large yard sale. We had discussed in the last board meeting to create a neighborhood sale which would be huge. Many people still will want to make their own money and we have to figure out how to get a percentage. The concept has to be thought through and we’ll need some advertising money. A spring cleaning event would be great.
12. ADJOURN: The meeting was adjourned at 7:46PM
The duly noticed meeting was called to order at 6:18PM at the Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave.
Board Members present: Don Hunt, Jim Altschuler, Felice Levine, Uschi Wilson, Block Captains Sallie Higgins, Nadia Villarreal, Debra Rosenbaum, Meg Russett, Laura Whipple and Luis Miranda. There were 7 regular members attending and guests: Ben Seinfeld, Councilman Tom LaBonge’soffice, and Josh Kurpies, field representative for the 50th Assembly District.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Meeting Minutes from the General meeting held 3-24-2014 were e-mailed to all members. There are some minor changes, (one regarding Emergency preparedness and one regarding the petition) which will not affect the notes.
MOTION to approve minutes by Jim Altschuler, seconded by Uschi Wilson. The minutes were approved by unanimous voice vote.
3. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS: Jim Altschuler reported we are still low on crimes, but we did have several car break-ins. One person left items in her car, ran back into the house, and returned just a few minutes later to find her items were stolen. Another issue right now is precious metal -- Cars have precious metal in the catalytic converters. Thieves take the converter in a few minutes. Another crime was the invasion of the school where young adults tried to steal the backflow devise. Jim called the cops, who came out with the fire department and the thieves were caught. A backflow devise costs about $ 1,200 and thieves can sell it for about $200. Ben Seinfeld talked about the city’s experience with this type of crime.
A neighborhood watch committee was discussed because we are the only ones that look out for us. Individually we can’t see everything so you need to look around and be vigilant: call crimes in to 911; if you can, shoot a photo but don’t endanger yourself. We are looking for volunteers – this is not even a part-time job. Volunteers can do most of it by e-mail; -we also really need a lead person – it’s in everyone’s best interest. Justin will think about it and maybe become the lead person; since he works in production he is concerned that he is not always available. The position will also coordinate with the block captains and the police department.
Uschi -- 700 block of Las Palmas: reported that construction is still going. The trees are still standing. She also looked into the neighborhood watch sign and found a company on-line for about $30 per sign. We could design our own logo, but are still hoping to get some for free. They are regular street signs and can be easily mounted.
Meg – 800 block of June: SOHO got a call from a reporter from The Beverly Press interested in an interview about the small lot division. Meg sent him an e-mail, but never heard back.
There is a huge crane on Seward for the new office building/ production space. The development will be large per Ben Seinfeld. It’s a business zoned area.
4. COUNCIL OFFICE REPORT BY BEN SEINFELD: Note: that due to Ben needing to leave early, we interrupted the Board Reports.
McCadden still has the original concrete topping from the 1920’s and has never been repaved. Ben explained that there is a fiscal budget (in July) when the city decides what streets will be resurfaced. Last year they focused on larger streets. This year they will focus on residential streets. McCadden is on the list. He doesn’t know which street will be resurfaced until July.
4-way stop on Cherokee and Waring: Ben e-mailed Jeanne Schenn and is waiting for response.
Comedy Club: Ben researched the club and couldn’t find anything wrong as they are not charging. They are claiming the money is going to a charity. Ben suggests getting permit parking as it would deter the guests. They are also serving liquor by donation. Ben said he would look into it some more and talk to the City attorney’s office and Building and Safety. Concern was raised by neighbors about noise, bad language, a visiting taco truck, parking and other nuisances. We should also get the fire department involved to see if there are any violations, like too many people in the home. Ben did research on their website but will find out more details and get back to us. Sally suggested working with the promoters and coming up with a more peaceful solution. The question of a curfew was also raised, but a neighbor stated that she had called the police but they didn’t arrive until late. We will also talk more about those issues with our police liaison. Ben also asked for photos if possible so he has some proof. He will also ask parking enforcement to be more vigilant on those party days.
BOARD REPORTS CONTINUED
Nadia – 800 block of McCadden: We passed out a flyer about the new smoke detectors which need a 10 year warranty battery after July 1st. Even if they are electric they need to be backed by a battery. It is not a tenant’s responsibility so owners have to make sure that it’s done. Nothing else new.
Laura: Nothing new on 700 McCadden
Sallie 800 block of Cherokee: They have not been impacted with the comedy club. She thinks we might be able to talk to the owners and see if they want to contribute to SOHO. She’d like to find a resolution rather than fighting them. She will approach them. Don reports that he talked to several people and it’s a split between positive and negative comments. Don asked the affected parties to get together with him and find a solution. Hopefully we can negotiate with them to come up with a good solution. Justin says that it would be easy for them to find another venue, especially on a Tuesday night.
Sallie also reports that there is a dead squirrel/rat problem. It looks like someone is poisoning them. We need to call and report this if that’s the case. Don asked Sally to contact Ben with this issue. It’s also not OK to kill possums as they eat rats and help the environment. We need to start educating the people. We could post those articles on the blog or in the newsletter.
Debra – 800 block of Las Palmas: She wants to continue to get the parking permits, but only has 38 signatures. She needs 70% and we have to find out how many people live on her block. Jacob reiterated the issue with the catalytic converter being stolen in this block as it was told to him by another neighbor.
Louis: Nothing to report on 700 block of June
Josh Kurpies: Josh will touch base with Ben Seinfeld and make sure the ABC rules are followed by the comedy club. He also wants us to report the dead rodents at least once a week, since it’s a public health issue. Josh is available for members if they have any questions. His number is on our website.
5. PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
The Hollywood injunction has been lifted; building in Hollywood can continue. The city went back to the 1988 master plan. They are trying to come up with a new plan, late summer, and we are trying to get our overlay into this proposal.
Also, Don needs to know about building on June and Cherokee as he is outside of the (mailing) range.
LAWSUIT against city of LA: We are suing them as they did not give us a decision on our appeal. It was a failure to act and we want them to hear our case again. We also want them to follow the guidelines. There is a new set of guidelines, which have much stronger language.
STREET WIDENING: Don passed around the petition against street widening for the 800 blocks of June and Cherokee. He wants the members to also send e-mails. It will create less parking.
Another issue regarding the small lot subdivision, it requires a variance for early start. They are trying to take away this feature. If they wait a full year they can still start the project and get a permit for an apartment building. Then they can split this apartment building into a small lot division. The variance gives us a greater opportunity and power for negotiation. They are going to have a committee hearing tomorrow. Don is asking if anyone could go to the meeting. Jason might be able to go.
Motion: Don to speak at this meeting if he’s able to go. Motion by Laura Whipple, second by Gerhard Jacob. Unanimous voice vote in favor.
6. DORIAN SHAPIRO; Did not attend.
7. CROSSWALK ON MELROSE AT LAS PALMAS: Last agenda had an item regarding the crosswalk. Neighbors have complained about the danger. However, a member who was to speak on this matter didn’t show up. Don looked at the situation and talked to the board in the last meeting. By the decision at that time a letter was written to the director of the MTA with copy to the Superintendent of the school . The bus stop didn’t make sense, since there are bus stops 2 blocks away. The City came out and removed the bus stop within a week.
8. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS. Vice President, Jim Altschuler reported about: CERT MEETING and Emergency preparedness: A while back we started this project and Jim and Don Hunt took the classes. We talked about what to do in an emergency. We were hoping to have more attendees, since this helps all of us. Jim handed out papers that show what we should have in case of an earthquake. He reiterated how important it was for us all to be prepared. He asked how many had an emergency kit and we went through the list of items needed. This class will be taught for 10 minutes of each future meeting for the next several months. We also handed out a sign in sheet to find out who has a pool, generator or a special skill that can help in an emergency, like training as a nurse. Helpful suggestions like having a crowbar for window bars, or an emergency kit in the trunk of your car, shoes, and gloves, were added to the list.
9. NEWSLETTER. Jim will be putting together a newsletter which will have lots of information and get delivered electronically. If you need a hard copy we can get you one.
10. FUNDRAISING. We are still waiting for the 501(C)3 which will allow contributions to be deductible.
Nadia made us an offer regarding fundraising. She offered 30% of her commission if we get her leads that lead to a property sale. She is an experienced realtor that has served the community from Eagle Rock all the way to the Ocean. This is a generous offer and we are extending it to all other realtors in the neighborhood, or any other business that would be interested in participating to help us raise fund. (Contractors, etc.)
Uschi sent an e-mail to Grub Restaurant asking for a meeting to plan a fundraising event. She has not received a response. Don walked over to the restaurant and got the day managers e-mail. Uschi will stay on top of this fundraiser. The restaurant STREET has a 10% discount for neighbors, but is very expensive. Grub is more affordable for all neighbors. Sally suggested that the Comedy Club might be open to a donation, too. Sally will look into it.
11. OTHER BUSINESS. Don: At one point we had planned the Block Party; this now results with a garage sale. Don still has several boxes stashed and needs storage for the items until we have another sale. Felice offered to store it for him as we can sell it at the next event. Jacob is still thinking of another large yard sale. We had discussed in the last board meeting to create a neighborhood sale which would be huge. Many people still will want to make their own money and we have to figure out how to get a percentage. The concept has to be thought through and we’ll need some advertising money. A spring cleaning event would be great.
12. ADJOURN: The meeting was adjourned at 7:46PM
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association General Meeting 3-24-2014 Minutes
1. CALL TO ORDER:
The duly noticed meeting was called to order at 6:17PM at the Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave.
Board Members present: Don Hunt, Jim Altschuler, Felice Levine, Uschi Wilson, Block Captains Sally Higgins, Debra Rosenbaum, Lucretia Miller, Meg Russett and Luis Miranda. There were 12 regular members attending and guests: SAVE HOLLYWOOD George Abraham and Annie Kragen, Doug Haines from La Mirada Neighborhood Association, Alex Rose from SAVE SUNSET BLVD.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Meeting Minutes from the General meeting held 2-24-2014 were e-mailed to all members. For members who didn’t get them and wanted them, Don had copies. Don asked for discussion; there was none.
MOTION to approve minutes by Joyce Wessel, seconded by Meg Russett. The minutes were approved by unanimous voice vote.
3. CONFIRM USCHI WILSON AS SECRETARY:
The Board position of secretary needed to be filled. Uschi volunteered to fill the position. The Board did an e-mail vote and approved unanimously.
MOTION to confirm Uschi Wilson as Secretary by Jim Altschuler and seconded by Felice Levine. Uschi Wilson was unanimously confirmed as Secretary by voice vote.
4. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS:
VICE PRESIDENT Jim Altschuler reported about:
Our efforts to gain a 501(C)3: It was reiterated that a 501(C)3 will allow contributions to be deductible. This requires, however, being educational in nature, so we will be focusing on this aspect of education. Paperwork has been started for state and federal approval, and we are waiting for the non-profit status.
Emergency preparedness: A while back we started this project and Jim and Don Hunt took the classes. People were asked if they want to get a reader’s digest version of these classes. 6 people wanted to attend and Jim will put together a 10 minutes overview of the classes.
Low Crime report: On the website we posted the crime reports and it was confirmed that we still are in a very low pocket of crime, despite having some issues over the last couple of months. Jim talked to a couple of officers on the street, and at the station, and they reconfirmed that we are living in a safer area. Some homeless are still walking around and so forth, but mostly this is all they are doing.
TREASURER:
Felice Levine reported that we still need money and we need to talk about fundraising.
BLOCK CAPTAINS:
Uschi: reported that on the 700 block of Las Palmas construction is still going strong and 2 of the large London Plane trees will be cut down to make room for new driveways.
Debra: talked about the 806 Las Palmas code violations. The water heater was illegally placed on the ground and is not sitting on a pad. She doesn’t want to turn them in, but who would take care of that? She also pointed out that there were more building moratoriums going on in West Hollywood.
She also mentioned that she had a guest house (single) for rent for $ 1,250 per month.
Lucretia: reported that the comedy club is tomorrow, Tuesday, and parking will be an issue. The construction on Cherokee is moving slowly and it was the first day with radios. She observed trash issues on the construction site. If it’s an ongoing problem we should call the trash people and they will pick it up on regular trash day.
5. PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
Petition update: Don Hunt’s presentation included “passing around a petition” for 851 Cherokee and June Street. The City requires Street widening on new construction and we signed a petition at the last General meeting. When Don went to the meeting it had been cancelled, therefore giving us additional time to get more signatures. We are also sending a letter to all of our members, asking to send a letter to the city. There is no rush.
Scam alert: Apparently there was someone coming around our neighborhood, saying that he was trying to “save the Palladium”. He really wants to build a 750 unit complex next to it. He is a developer. Be aware it’s a scam, he is not being honest, and is doing this to get signatures.
Motion: to alert members of this scam by e-mail by Meg Russett and second by Dorian Shapiro. Unanimous voice vote in favor.
Fundraising: We need to do fundraising badly. We need a Committee. If any of you have ability in this field of expertise, it would be great to have a committee. Don passed around a sign-up sheet. Felice Levine had some ideas and thought a new idea was to do a raffle. She suggested going to businesses and get donated items and raffle them off for money. She also said that we should go to the businesses and ask them for support, since most of them have a budget for this kind of purpose.
Street Paving: We have an issue on McCadden, which never has been repaved in all the years. All other streets in our area have been updated, but McCadden. Elisabeth Barat volunteered to get the information on who to call and what to do to make this happen.
6. PROTECTED TREES:
Lucretia Miller: talked about CICLAVIA, the community event that will be held Sunday, 4/6 from 9AM to 4PM. It will be held on Wilshire Blvd., from Downtown to Fairfax Blvd. The street turns into a park and walk way. You can walk, skate board, roller blades, etc. There is music and entertainment, and thousands of people.
For more info visit: http://www.ciclavia.org/
Trees: The trees on our streets (visit - http://www.southhollywoodnha.org/blog.html) are worth saving! All the information is on our website. We should plant more trees in our neighborhood. Homeowners will need to get involved, and need to plant trees since the city won’t be able to help. Lucretia will continue to get information.
Don stated that we have an issue on 806 Las Palmas – we had filed to dispute the Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) many weeks ago. Normally this would have been heard by now, but because of the building injunction in the Hollywood area, our appeal of this MND has not been heard yet. A second component of this dispute would involve filing a lawsuit and we have a deadline for filing that will be prior to the MND hearing. Normally we would consider filing the lawsuit if we are not satisfied with the results of the MND hearing. This issue will take more research. The board needs to approve this motion and Don will e-mail the request to the board after the 806 Las Palmas committee decides on a recommendation.
7. CROSSWALK ON MELROSE AT LAS PALMAS:
Since our guest speaker James was not available for his presentation, Don mentioned the concern about the dangerous corner on Melrose and Las Palmas. School children are constantly crossing the street without a walkway. We will address this issue in a later meeting.
8. DORIAN SHAPIRO:
RUNNING FOR NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL - The election will take place at John Burrows Middle School. Dorian passed out hand-outs with information. He is running against Jeff McMannus (the incumbent) who never has attended one of our meetings. Dorian hopes that members will get behind him and vote for him. Don will send out an e-mail to our members with Dorian’s Flyer and information. Make sure to bring ID when you vote.
Voting in other neighborhoods: Don asked Doug Haines about voting at other Neighborhood councils.
Doug explained: The system is a broad definition. Generally if you own, live, work, shop, go to church in the area, you can vote in that area for the neighborhood council representative. You just need to show proof. (example: someone goes to Starbucks or Ralph’s Supermarket regularly and says he/she is a stakeholder… it is not that strict; he doesn’t think you would be denied.) Bring lots of receipts from the stores as proof. The Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council is very pro-development and has many lobbyists as representatives. If you are interested in being engaged in the elections you can do so. (Note: We live in the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council District).
Don asked if there was a list of candidates for Central Hollywood as we are not familiar with Central Hollywood. We need more names to know who is not pro-development. We need to know who to vote for and need to educate ourselves.
9. SAVE HOLLYWOOD PRESENTATION:
Guests: GEORGE ABRAHAMS, DOUG HAINES, ALEX ROSE and ANNIE KAGEN
The group talked about the developments and construction going on in Hollywood.
Alex Rose spoke about her association’s efforts (an organization newly formed because of inappropriate development projects) to influence the proposed 22 story project at Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights.
Their neighborhood’s attorney, Robert Silverstein, has forced a judgment on the city council, providing that the existing density numbers used by the city to define project standards for density construction are wrong, illegal and fraudulent. A judge ruled on her association’s behalf. Because of this, the Planning Department is stalled in Hollywood until the city re-defines the standards by re-implementing the 1988 Master Plan. The city council has done nothing at the moment.
George Abrahams talked about how his group, the Beachwood Canyon Neighborhood Association (north end of Hollywood) in cooperation with Doug Haines of the La Mirada Neighborhood Association (east end of Hollywood), Alex Rose of Save Sunset Boulevard (west end of Hollywood) and Annie Kagen of Whitley Heights (north end of Hollywood) had been working together to restrict inappropriate development that was not consistent with Hollywood.
He stated that some developers will put together a major project, get investors to finance it, and the developer will get paid to construct the project. If the project is not successful, the ones that get hit with the losses are the investors. The developer often walks off with the proceeds. He mentioned examples of this, including the Hollywood/Highland Center.
He also talked about transportation-oriented development in which huge projects are developed near transit centers with the hopes that people will use public transit. However, since public transit is not efficient or popular, people still don’t use it and we are left with very dense living areas that now have greater traffic congestion.
George talked about how their lawsuit argued that the city’s master plan had allowed for huge increases in density based on flawed estimates of population increase in the area. He said that the area’s population had actually decreased and therefore (according to the city’s theory) the area should have been down-zoned instead of up-zoned. He also mentioned that there were inconsistencies in how money was distributed from the state to the city and how it is being spent on redevelopment projects instead of repairing the city infrastructure.
Annie Kagen talked about how important it is to keep informed about the projects affecting our neighborhoods. Since the notification requirement only extends to neighboring properties within 500 feet, a new project can get approved without a substantial portion of the affected neighborhood ever knowing about it.
Doug Haines was asked by Don to explain some changes being proposed to the Small Lot Subdivision Act. Doug began by explaining a bit of history about Small Lot Subdivision hearing he had attended. There was a specific case in which, due to time limits, a case of his was not heard and he filed a lawsuit saying that he was denied due-process and won. (This is similar to what happened to us with the 806 Las Palmas hearing).
Regarding Small Lot Subdivisions; he explained that when a developer wants to construct a Small Lot Subdivision, he must get the project approved and then wait until the State records the sub-lot map. If he wants to begin construction prior to the State issuing the subdivision map, he must get a variance. The city is now trying to eliminate the variance and allow the developer to do the construction prior to actually having the sub-lot recorded by the state. There are numerous reasons why this is not good for us including that the State might not approve it, or may add unexpected conditions to it. He suggested that we may want to submit a letter objecting to this.
MOTION by Aaron Arnston, seconded by Debra Rosenbaum to have Don write and submit a letter to the proper agencies, objecting to the city council motion that removes the requirement for a variance to begin a Small Lot Subdivision prior to the recordation of the final sub-lot map. Unanimous voice vote in favor.
It was mentioned that members wanting more information on the issues our speakers discussed should visit www.stopthemillenniumhollywood.org, http://savesunsetboulevard.com and www.savehollywood.com.
ADJOURN: The meeting was adjourned at 7:55PM
The duly noticed meeting was called to order at 6:17PM at the Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave.
Board Members present: Don Hunt, Jim Altschuler, Felice Levine, Uschi Wilson, Block Captains Sally Higgins, Debra Rosenbaum, Lucretia Miller, Meg Russett and Luis Miranda. There were 12 regular members attending and guests: SAVE HOLLYWOOD George Abraham and Annie Kragen, Doug Haines from La Mirada Neighborhood Association, Alex Rose from SAVE SUNSET BLVD.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Meeting Minutes from the General meeting held 2-24-2014 were e-mailed to all members. For members who didn’t get them and wanted them, Don had copies. Don asked for discussion; there was none.
MOTION to approve minutes by Joyce Wessel, seconded by Meg Russett. The minutes were approved by unanimous voice vote.
3. CONFIRM USCHI WILSON AS SECRETARY:
The Board position of secretary needed to be filled. Uschi volunteered to fill the position. The Board did an e-mail vote and approved unanimously.
MOTION to confirm Uschi Wilson as Secretary by Jim Altschuler and seconded by Felice Levine. Uschi Wilson was unanimously confirmed as Secretary by voice vote.
4. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS:
VICE PRESIDENT Jim Altschuler reported about:
Our efforts to gain a 501(C)3: It was reiterated that a 501(C)3 will allow contributions to be deductible. This requires, however, being educational in nature, so we will be focusing on this aspect of education. Paperwork has been started for state and federal approval, and we are waiting for the non-profit status.
Emergency preparedness: A while back we started this project and Jim and Don Hunt took the classes. People were asked if they want to get a reader’s digest version of these classes. 6 people wanted to attend and Jim will put together a 10 minutes overview of the classes.
Low Crime report: On the website we posted the crime reports and it was confirmed that we still are in a very low pocket of crime, despite having some issues over the last couple of months. Jim talked to a couple of officers on the street, and at the station, and they reconfirmed that we are living in a safer area. Some homeless are still walking around and so forth, but mostly this is all they are doing.
TREASURER:
Felice Levine reported that we still need money and we need to talk about fundraising.
BLOCK CAPTAINS:
Uschi: reported that on the 700 block of Las Palmas construction is still going strong and 2 of the large London Plane trees will be cut down to make room for new driveways.
Debra: talked about the 806 Las Palmas code violations. The water heater was illegally placed on the ground and is not sitting on a pad. She doesn’t want to turn them in, but who would take care of that? She also pointed out that there were more building moratoriums going on in West Hollywood.
She also mentioned that she had a guest house (single) for rent for $ 1,250 per month.
Lucretia: reported that the comedy club is tomorrow, Tuesday, and parking will be an issue. The construction on Cherokee is moving slowly and it was the first day with radios. She observed trash issues on the construction site. If it’s an ongoing problem we should call the trash people and they will pick it up on regular trash day.
5. PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
Petition update: Don Hunt’s presentation included “passing around a petition” for 851 Cherokee and June Street. The City requires Street widening on new construction and we signed a petition at the last General meeting. When Don went to the meeting it had been cancelled, therefore giving us additional time to get more signatures. We are also sending a letter to all of our members, asking to send a letter to the city. There is no rush.
Scam alert: Apparently there was someone coming around our neighborhood, saying that he was trying to “save the Palladium”. He really wants to build a 750 unit complex next to it. He is a developer. Be aware it’s a scam, he is not being honest, and is doing this to get signatures.
Motion: to alert members of this scam by e-mail by Meg Russett and second by Dorian Shapiro. Unanimous voice vote in favor.
Fundraising: We need to do fundraising badly. We need a Committee. If any of you have ability in this field of expertise, it would be great to have a committee. Don passed around a sign-up sheet. Felice Levine had some ideas and thought a new idea was to do a raffle. She suggested going to businesses and get donated items and raffle them off for money. She also said that we should go to the businesses and ask them for support, since most of them have a budget for this kind of purpose.
Street Paving: We have an issue on McCadden, which never has been repaved in all the years. All other streets in our area have been updated, but McCadden. Elisabeth Barat volunteered to get the information on who to call and what to do to make this happen.
6. PROTECTED TREES:
Lucretia Miller: talked about CICLAVIA, the community event that will be held Sunday, 4/6 from 9AM to 4PM. It will be held on Wilshire Blvd., from Downtown to Fairfax Blvd. The street turns into a park and walk way. You can walk, skate board, roller blades, etc. There is music and entertainment, and thousands of people.
For more info visit: http://www.ciclavia.org/
Trees: The trees on our streets (visit - http://www.southhollywoodnha.org/blog.html) are worth saving! All the information is on our website. We should plant more trees in our neighborhood. Homeowners will need to get involved, and need to plant trees since the city won’t be able to help. Lucretia will continue to get information.
Don stated that we have an issue on 806 Las Palmas – we had filed to dispute the Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) many weeks ago. Normally this would have been heard by now, but because of the building injunction in the Hollywood area, our appeal of this MND has not been heard yet. A second component of this dispute would involve filing a lawsuit and we have a deadline for filing that will be prior to the MND hearing. Normally we would consider filing the lawsuit if we are not satisfied with the results of the MND hearing. This issue will take more research. The board needs to approve this motion and Don will e-mail the request to the board after the 806 Las Palmas committee decides on a recommendation.
7. CROSSWALK ON MELROSE AT LAS PALMAS:
Since our guest speaker James was not available for his presentation, Don mentioned the concern about the dangerous corner on Melrose and Las Palmas. School children are constantly crossing the street without a walkway. We will address this issue in a later meeting.
8. DORIAN SHAPIRO:
RUNNING FOR NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL - The election will take place at John Burrows Middle School. Dorian passed out hand-outs with information. He is running against Jeff McMannus (the incumbent) who never has attended one of our meetings. Dorian hopes that members will get behind him and vote for him. Don will send out an e-mail to our members with Dorian’s Flyer and information. Make sure to bring ID when you vote.
Voting in other neighborhoods: Don asked Doug Haines about voting at other Neighborhood councils.
Doug explained: The system is a broad definition. Generally if you own, live, work, shop, go to church in the area, you can vote in that area for the neighborhood council representative. You just need to show proof. (example: someone goes to Starbucks or Ralph’s Supermarket regularly and says he/she is a stakeholder… it is not that strict; he doesn’t think you would be denied.) Bring lots of receipts from the stores as proof. The Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council is very pro-development and has many lobbyists as representatives. If you are interested in being engaged in the elections you can do so. (Note: We live in the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council District).
Don asked if there was a list of candidates for Central Hollywood as we are not familiar with Central Hollywood. We need more names to know who is not pro-development. We need to know who to vote for and need to educate ourselves.
9. SAVE HOLLYWOOD PRESENTATION:
Guests: GEORGE ABRAHAMS, DOUG HAINES, ALEX ROSE and ANNIE KAGEN
The group talked about the developments and construction going on in Hollywood.
Alex Rose spoke about her association’s efforts (an organization newly formed because of inappropriate development projects) to influence the proposed 22 story project at Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights.
Their neighborhood’s attorney, Robert Silverstein, has forced a judgment on the city council, providing that the existing density numbers used by the city to define project standards for density construction are wrong, illegal and fraudulent. A judge ruled on her association’s behalf. Because of this, the Planning Department is stalled in Hollywood until the city re-defines the standards by re-implementing the 1988 Master Plan. The city council has done nothing at the moment.
George Abrahams talked about how his group, the Beachwood Canyon Neighborhood Association (north end of Hollywood) in cooperation with Doug Haines of the La Mirada Neighborhood Association (east end of Hollywood), Alex Rose of Save Sunset Boulevard (west end of Hollywood) and Annie Kagen of Whitley Heights (north end of Hollywood) had been working together to restrict inappropriate development that was not consistent with Hollywood.
He stated that some developers will put together a major project, get investors to finance it, and the developer will get paid to construct the project. If the project is not successful, the ones that get hit with the losses are the investors. The developer often walks off with the proceeds. He mentioned examples of this, including the Hollywood/Highland Center.
He also talked about transportation-oriented development in which huge projects are developed near transit centers with the hopes that people will use public transit. However, since public transit is not efficient or popular, people still don’t use it and we are left with very dense living areas that now have greater traffic congestion.
George talked about how their lawsuit argued that the city’s master plan had allowed for huge increases in density based on flawed estimates of population increase in the area. He said that the area’s population had actually decreased and therefore (according to the city’s theory) the area should have been down-zoned instead of up-zoned. He also mentioned that there were inconsistencies in how money was distributed from the state to the city and how it is being spent on redevelopment projects instead of repairing the city infrastructure.
Annie Kagen talked about how important it is to keep informed about the projects affecting our neighborhoods. Since the notification requirement only extends to neighboring properties within 500 feet, a new project can get approved without a substantial portion of the affected neighborhood ever knowing about it.
Doug Haines was asked by Don to explain some changes being proposed to the Small Lot Subdivision Act. Doug began by explaining a bit of history about Small Lot Subdivision hearing he had attended. There was a specific case in which, due to time limits, a case of his was not heard and he filed a lawsuit saying that he was denied due-process and won. (This is similar to what happened to us with the 806 Las Palmas hearing).
Regarding Small Lot Subdivisions; he explained that when a developer wants to construct a Small Lot Subdivision, he must get the project approved and then wait until the State records the sub-lot map. If he wants to begin construction prior to the State issuing the subdivision map, he must get a variance. The city is now trying to eliminate the variance and allow the developer to do the construction prior to actually having the sub-lot recorded by the state. There are numerous reasons why this is not good for us including that the State might not approve it, or may add unexpected conditions to it. He suggested that we may want to submit a letter objecting to this.
MOTION by Aaron Arnston, seconded by Debra Rosenbaum to have Don write and submit a letter to the proper agencies, objecting to the city council motion that removes the requirement for a variance to begin a Small Lot Subdivision prior to the recordation of the final sub-lot map. Unanimous voice vote in favor.
It was mentioned that members wanting more information on the issues our speakers discussed should visit www.stopthemillenniumhollywood.org, http://savesunsetboulevard.com and www.savehollywood.com.
ADJOURN: The meeting was adjourned at 7:55PM
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association 2-24-2014 General Meeting
1. CALL TO ORDER. A duly noticed General Meeting of the South Hollywood Neighborhood Association
was held on Monday, February 26, 2014 in the John C. Fremont Library, 6121
Melrose Avenue. Meeting was called to
order at 6:17 by President Don Hunt
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES. Proposed General Meeting Minutes from 1-21-2014 had been emailed to members prior to the meeting and copies were available for those who wanted them.
MOTION by Meg Russett, seconded by Uschi Wilson, to adopt the minutes. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
3. APPROVAL OF BYLAW CHANGES. Written copies of proposed amended bylaws were available at the meeting and had been emailed to everyone on the email list. Jim Alts chuler discussed how the changes would make the bylaws more specific and that a few new items had been added. There were questions which Jim and Don Hunt answered.
MOTION by Laura Whipple, seconded by Jim Altschuler, to adopt the Bylaws as modified. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
4. CONFIRM LUCRETIA MILLER AS BLOCK CAPTAIN. Don Hunt explained that our bylaws allow for the Board to appoint members to positions that have been vacated. Treasurer Dorian Shapiro had resigned and the Board had appointed Felice Levine to take his place. The association has never had a block captain for the 700 block of Cherokee. Member Lucretia Miller volunteered to take on that position.
MOTION by Jim Altschuler, seconded by Meg Russett to affirm Lucretia Miller as the 700 Cherokee Block Captain. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
5. OFFICER GALLEGOS. Art Gallegos, who is covering for Officer Cordova (our current senior lead police officer) began by introducing himself and by providing handouts with maps of policing areas and where crime has taken place. Art mentioned that we should sign up to receive emails alerting us of crimes in our neighborhood from E-policing at http://www.lapdepolicing.org/. He also said that LAPD can be followed on Facebook and Twitter. Art’s cell phone number is 213-473-0476 and his email is 35849@lapd.lacity.org. Art stated that the majority of crimes in the area are property theft and most were the result of victims not locking doors or windows. Dog doors are also easy access points. Popular theft targets are Apple products such as I-pads and I-phones. Regarding Neighborhood Watch, there is no formal structure to creating or running one. In general, you post signs, have an email tree and a website to disseminate information. Homeless problems affect the neighborhood; however there is not much that can be done unless they are committing a crime. It was mentioned that the homeless food program, that is currently operating at Romaine/Sycamore, has increased the problems for our neighborhood. Prior to reporting an incident, it is helpful if you can inconspicuously photograph suspicious persons and email them to the senior lead police officer directly.
6. JOSH KURPIES FROM ASSEMBLYMAN RICHARD BLOOMS OFFICE. Josh began by introducing himself and providing pamphlets with access information and described the area that Assembly District 50 covers. He gave an overview of some of the state legislation that may affect us this year. There was a lively discussion about the homeless feeding center at Romaine/Sycamore and how his office has also been involved in trying to change it.
7. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS, V.P. Jim Altschuler mentioned that our general meeting in May will need to be rescheduled as it currently falls on Memorial Day. The board will set a new date and members will be notified by email. It will also be posted on our web page.
Treasurer, Felice Levine provided a written report detailing our current finances. She stated that we currently have no money in our legal fund and general fund has $93.40. Felice suggested that we try approaching local businesses to donate to us. Felice will further investigate and let us know how to proceed.
Uschi Wilson, 700 Block Las Palmas stated that there is still a lot of construction on her street.
Laura Whipple, 700 Block of McCadden said that the newly completed house on her block will be having an open house on the Tuesday and again on the Sunday. The developer is expecting to list the property in the high 2 million dollar range.
Debra Rosenbaum, 800 Block of Las Palmas mentioned that the rental sign at 806 Las Palmas had been removed and it is surmised that it has been rented. Don Hunt passed out a rental listing sheet, from Westside Rentals, showing the rental terms. Don also said that there was nothing new to report regarding the 806 Las Palmas appeal.
Luis Miranda, 700 June Street updated us on a renovation project on his street. The developers have torn down a substantial part of the existing house, however they are not taking over extra space when rebuilding. Also, Luis got two more Overlay Petitions signed and he got 50% of his block to sign a petition approving of having the block party on their street.
Lucretia Miller, 700 Block of Cherokee mentioned that she had worked with a neighbor to find a solutions to specific issues that the neighbor had raised about a comedy club that holds parties on their block. She also had found that the comedy club is charging for their parties and they may be having them more frequently than once a month. She will let us know if this is of concern to her neighbors. Regarding the new construction at 727 Cherokee; there was a problem that required jack hammering for a week.
8. COUNCIL OFFICE REPORT. Don Hunt reported that Ben Seinfeld had emailed him to let him know that Councilman Labonge is trying to expedite the process of putting in stop signs at Cherokee and Waring.
9. PRESIDENT’S REPORT. Don Hunt stated that the block party will be postponed indefinately as there has not been enough participation from volunteers at this time to insure a successful party. Uschi Wilson, Block Party Chairperson detailed the outreach to volunteers and the lack of response.
Don said that our request for an Overlay is in process. Our Board decided to continue to get petitions signed with the goal of submitting more and requesting a moratorium on development while the Overlay is in progress.
Don said that a number of projects we had been working on were coming to an end and asked that the members give a show of hands for those who wanted general meetings once a month versus every other month. An overwhelming majority wanted to continue monthly meetings.
10. OPEN FACEBOOK PAGE. Uschi Wilson, told the members that there was originally strong concern from one of our members about having an open Facebook page and Uschi made it a private page, which is much harder to access. We believe this has placed strong limits on the access to our page. Don asked that anyone with a reason to continue to keep the page closed, to please tell us of their concern. Nobody responded.
MOTION by Dorian Shapiro, seconded by Chris Monaco to open the Facebook Page. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
11. DORIAN SHAPIRO RUNNING FOR NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL. Dorian explained that he would like to represent our neighborhood at our neighborhood council, which is an advisory group of concerned citizens. There is an election on March 30th and he asked that we let our members know that he is running. Dorian will provide us with all of the information and will remind us a week before and then again 2 days before so that the information can be emailed to our members. Should Dorian become our representative, he has promised that he will be reporting on the events of the Neighborhood Council and their Land Use Committee at all of our General Meetings.
MOTION by Laura Whipple, seconded by Felice Levine to support Dorian as our representative to our neighborhood council. Voice vote, no one opposed, Dorian abstained and all others voted in favor.
12. 851 CHEROKEE SMALL LOT SUBDIVISION. Bogdan Tomalevski, the architect for the project, explained that the original height, that our neighborhood approved, needed to be changed slightly since there were some unexpected drainage issues that would require grading. Since the new grade will be higher than the lowest adjacent grade, the overall height of the project will be higher when measured from the lowest adjacent grade. Neighbor’s expressed concerns about the construction noise and the neighbor to the north expressed a desire to insure that the wall separating their properties would be 8 feet tall. The developer agreed that he would install an 8 foot wall. He also agreed to not have his construction workers arrive on site until 7:30 am, not begin construction noisy construction until 8 am, and not to allow radio noise until 9 am.
MOTION by Uschi Wilson, seconded by Jim Altschuler to continue to support the project as modified by the new grading. Such support is contingent on the developer’s agreement to not have workers arrive until 7:30, not beginning noisy construction until 8 am and no radio noise until 9 am. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
13. 816-828 JUNE STREET. Don Hunt stated that the city is requiring that the developers for both the 816-828 June Street project and the 851 Cherokee project widen the street in front of their new developments. This will create an unattractive dimple in the streets affected and will reduce street parking. Don asked for authorization from the members to attend the hearings for both properties, to express our support of the projects (which had previously been voted on) and to request that the city lift the street widening requirement.
MOTION by Jim Altschuler, seconded by Luis Miranda to grant the above authorization to Don. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
Don mentioned that he had placed petitions for both properties asking the city to waive the street widening requirements for the developments on the counter. It appears that everyone in attendance signed both petitions.
14. ADJOURN 8:00 pm
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES. Proposed General Meeting Minutes from 1-21-2014 had been emailed to members prior to the meeting and copies were available for those who wanted them.
MOTION by Meg Russett, seconded by Uschi Wilson, to adopt the minutes. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
3. APPROVAL OF BYLAW CHANGES. Written copies of proposed amended bylaws were available at the meeting and had been emailed to everyone on the email list. Jim Alts chuler discussed how the changes would make the bylaws more specific and that a few new items had been added. There were questions which Jim and Don Hunt answered.
MOTION by Laura Whipple, seconded by Jim Altschuler, to adopt the Bylaws as modified. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
4. CONFIRM LUCRETIA MILLER AS BLOCK CAPTAIN. Don Hunt explained that our bylaws allow for the Board to appoint members to positions that have been vacated. Treasurer Dorian Shapiro had resigned and the Board had appointed Felice Levine to take his place. The association has never had a block captain for the 700 block of Cherokee. Member Lucretia Miller volunteered to take on that position.
MOTION by Jim Altschuler, seconded by Meg Russett to affirm Lucretia Miller as the 700 Cherokee Block Captain. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
5. OFFICER GALLEGOS. Art Gallegos, who is covering for Officer Cordova (our current senior lead police officer) began by introducing himself and by providing handouts with maps of policing areas and where crime has taken place. Art mentioned that we should sign up to receive emails alerting us of crimes in our neighborhood from E-policing at http://www.lapdepolicing.org/. He also said that LAPD can be followed on Facebook and Twitter. Art’s cell phone number is 213-473-0476 and his email is 35849@lapd.lacity.org. Art stated that the majority of crimes in the area are property theft and most were the result of victims not locking doors or windows. Dog doors are also easy access points. Popular theft targets are Apple products such as I-pads and I-phones. Regarding Neighborhood Watch, there is no formal structure to creating or running one. In general, you post signs, have an email tree and a website to disseminate information. Homeless problems affect the neighborhood; however there is not much that can be done unless they are committing a crime. It was mentioned that the homeless food program, that is currently operating at Romaine/Sycamore, has increased the problems for our neighborhood. Prior to reporting an incident, it is helpful if you can inconspicuously photograph suspicious persons and email them to the senior lead police officer directly.
6. JOSH KURPIES FROM ASSEMBLYMAN RICHARD BLOOMS OFFICE. Josh began by introducing himself and providing pamphlets with access information and described the area that Assembly District 50 covers. He gave an overview of some of the state legislation that may affect us this year. There was a lively discussion about the homeless feeding center at Romaine/Sycamore and how his office has also been involved in trying to change it.
7. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS, V.P. Jim Altschuler mentioned that our general meeting in May will need to be rescheduled as it currently falls on Memorial Day. The board will set a new date and members will be notified by email. It will also be posted on our web page.
Treasurer, Felice Levine provided a written report detailing our current finances. She stated that we currently have no money in our legal fund and general fund has $93.40. Felice suggested that we try approaching local businesses to donate to us. Felice will further investigate and let us know how to proceed.
Uschi Wilson, 700 Block Las Palmas stated that there is still a lot of construction on her street.
Laura Whipple, 700 Block of McCadden said that the newly completed house on her block will be having an open house on the Tuesday and again on the Sunday. The developer is expecting to list the property in the high 2 million dollar range.
Debra Rosenbaum, 800 Block of Las Palmas mentioned that the rental sign at 806 Las Palmas had been removed and it is surmised that it has been rented. Don Hunt passed out a rental listing sheet, from Westside Rentals, showing the rental terms. Don also said that there was nothing new to report regarding the 806 Las Palmas appeal.
Luis Miranda, 700 June Street updated us on a renovation project on his street. The developers have torn down a substantial part of the existing house, however they are not taking over extra space when rebuilding. Also, Luis got two more Overlay Petitions signed and he got 50% of his block to sign a petition approving of having the block party on their street.
Lucretia Miller, 700 Block of Cherokee mentioned that she had worked with a neighbor to find a solutions to specific issues that the neighbor had raised about a comedy club that holds parties on their block. She also had found that the comedy club is charging for their parties and they may be having them more frequently than once a month. She will let us know if this is of concern to her neighbors. Regarding the new construction at 727 Cherokee; there was a problem that required jack hammering for a week.
8. COUNCIL OFFICE REPORT. Don Hunt reported that Ben Seinfeld had emailed him to let him know that Councilman Labonge is trying to expedite the process of putting in stop signs at Cherokee and Waring.
9. PRESIDENT’S REPORT. Don Hunt stated that the block party will be postponed indefinately as there has not been enough participation from volunteers at this time to insure a successful party. Uschi Wilson, Block Party Chairperson detailed the outreach to volunteers and the lack of response.
Don said that our request for an Overlay is in process. Our Board decided to continue to get petitions signed with the goal of submitting more and requesting a moratorium on development while the Overlay is in progress.
Don said that a number of projects we had been working on were coming to an end and asked that the members give a show of hands for those who wanted general meetings once a month versus every other month. An overwhelming majority wanted to continue monthly meetings.
10. OPEN FACEBOOK PAGE. Uschi Wilson, told the members that there was originally strong concern from one of our members about having an open Facebook page and Uschi made it a private page, which is much harder to access. We believe this has placed strong limits on the access to our page. Don asked that anyone with a reason to continue to keep the page closed, to please tell us of their concern. Nobody responded.
MOTION by Dorian Shapiro, seconded by Chris Monaco to open the Facebook Page. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
11. DORIAN SHAPIRO RUNNING FOR NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL. Dorian explained that he would like to represent our neighborhood at our neighborhood council, which is an advisory group of concerned citizens. There is an election on March 30th and he asked that we let our members know that he is running. Dorian will provide us with all of the information and will remind us a week before and then again 2 days before so that the information can be emailed to our members. Should Dorian become our representative, he has promised that he will be reporting on the events of the Neighborhood Council and their Land Use Committee at all of our General Meetings.
MOTION by Laura Whipple, seconded by Felice Levine to support Dorian as our representative to our neighborhood council. Voice vote, no one opposed, Dorian abstained and all others voted in favor.
12. 851 CHEROKEE SMALL LOT SUBDIVISION. Bogdan Tomalevski, the architect for the project, explained that the original height, that our neighborhood approved, needed to be changed slightly since there were some unexpected drainage issues that would require grading. Since the new grade will be higher than the lowest adjacent grade, the overall height of the project will be higher when measured from the lowest adjacent grade. Neighbor’s expressed concerns about the construction noise and the neighbor to the north expressed a desire to insure that the wall separating their properties would be 8 feet tall. The developer agreed that he would install an 8 foot wall. He also agreed to not have his construction workers arrive on site until 7:30 am, not begin construction noisy construction until 8 am, and not to allow radio noise until 9 am.
MOTION by Uschi Wilson, seconded by Jim Altschuler to continue to support the project as modified by the new grading. Such support is contingent on the developer’s agreement to not have workers arrive until 7:30, not beginning noisy construction until 8 am and no radio noise until 9 am. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
13. 816-828 JUNE STREET. Don Hunt stated that the city is requiring that the developers for both the 816-828 June Street project and the 851 Cherokee project widen the street in front of their new developments. This will create an unattractive dimple in the streets affected and will reduce street parking. Don asked for authorization from the members to attend the hearings for both properties, to express our support of the projects (which had previously been voted on) and to request that the city lift the street widening requirement.
MOTION by Jim Altschuler, seconded by Luis Miranda to grant the above authorization to Don. By voice vote, unanimous in favor.
Don mentioned that he had placed petitions for both properties asking the city to waive the street widening requirements for the developments on the counter. It appears that everyone in attendance signed both petitions.
14. ADJOURN 8:00 pm
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association - General Meeting 1-20-2014 Agenda
Board members (8) present: Don Hunt – President/ Jim Altschuler – VP/
Block Captains: Uschi Wilson, Nadia Villarreal, Meg Russett, Debra Rosenbaum, Luis Miranda, Laura Whipple
(30) Members in attendance: Aaron Arntson, Zoe Foros, Elizabeth Baron, Jill Franklin, David Blum, Gregory Gannon, Susan Brownstein, Gerhard Jacob, Vanessa Carmichael, Rick Kleinsmith, Vina & Sylvie Chin, Brian Levine, Dennis Corsino, Felice Levine, J. Curchod, George Lukan, Anita D’Aguilar, Kimberly Lycott ,Ronald Dennis-Watson, Mike McCadden, Steven & Jennifer Dersh, Ed MacDonald, Frank Dungan, Raoul & Lucretia Miller, Jessica Edelstein, Chris Monaco, Robert Eisenstein (806 Las Palmas Project, Shmuel Raigorolsky, Committee chair) Jamie Elliott, Jeff Smith
Others in attendance (from our Councilman’s office): Councilman Tom LaBonge, Chief of Staff Carolyn Ramsey, Field Deputy Ben Seinfeld
1. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 6:17 in the auditorium at Bancroft Middle School at 929 Las Palmas Ave. A change to the posted agenda was noted.
2. ADMINISTRATIVE
A motion was made to approve the Board Meeting minutes of 1-13-2014 by Meg Russett, Uschi Wilson seconded. No discussion. The board minutes were approved by unanimous vote of board members present.
A motion was made to approve the General Meeting Minutes of 12-16-2014 by Mike McCadden, Laura Whipple seconded. No discussion. The minutes were approved by unanimous voice vote.
3. PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Don Hunt announced that the South Hollywood Neighborhood Association has been registered as a non-profit 501C.4 corporation (“a mutual benefit non-profit corporation”) with the California Secretary of State. NOTE: this class does not allow donations to the association to be tax-deductible. We had hoped for a 501C.3 designation.
Don Hunt announced that SOHO did not win its appeal of the 806 Las Palmas subdivision. Our attorney advised that the group didn’t lose; there was a failure to act by the Planning Commission. Therefore, no action was taken and the previous decision by Planning stands. Also, SOHO can fight another part of the Planning decision which is based on a “mitigated negative declaration” (MND) report which has been started. If we fail in that we have the option to file a lawsuit against the city for not hearing one of our cases and not rendering a decision on the other.
The MND was written by one individual in the city planning dep’t. in which he indicated that the impact of the proposed construction project would be negligible. SOHO disagrees. This can and will be appealed to the Plum Committee of the City Council. This committee strongly considers the opinion of the local councilman, and we believe he will be supportive.
None of this is free. Our first appeal that ended in a failure to act cost us $5,000. To appeal the MND will cost another $2,500; more money is needed. A donation bucket was passed around and $180 was collected.
Re 816-828 N. June Street: Previously approved by the June Street Committee and subsequently by the General Membership. The developer is waiting for a planning hearing date hopefully in February; the project is currently on hold. The house at the site is vacant, but a neighbor is parking there to make it look occupied to keep transients away.
Fund raising: Film crews sometimes donate to neighborhood associations when they film in the area. If members are contacted, notify your block captain so the organization will ask for a donation. A proposed letter was given to block captains to fill in when such notices are received. Film companies get permits from the city before putting up their notices. “Film LA” controls this. Film LA will cite the group if filming is not legitimate. Jim Altschuler indicated that if they want to film in your yard or in your house, you can control that.
Overlay petition: 50% of the neighbors have signed it, 70% of owner-occupants have signed it. A question was asked about the petition and it was explained in detail.
Re 851 N. Cherokee: This was approved by the general membership at a previous meeting. Don stated that the developer had made a number of concessions (including only building 3 houses not 4 and 2 stories in the front and back houses with 3 stories only for the middle house. A concession of 18 inches over the height limit was allowed for the middle house. Parking law requires two spaces per house.
An acting secretary has agreed to participate, but was unable to attend in person due to health concerns but hopes to attend future meetings. Dorian Shapiro resigned as treasurer, so we are looking for a new treasurer.
Election for neighborhood council is on the 30th March. Register by February 13th. Dorian Shapiro plans to run. If anyone else is interested, please volunteer.
3. INTRODUCTION OF COUNCILMAN TOM LABONGE
Don Hunt introduced and welcomed the Councilman who indicated that his office got fees waived for use of the school auditorium. His Field Deputy, Ben Seinfeld, has helped by getting us use of the library facilities. He was also thanked for his help in establishing the association. Don indicated that the councilman and Ben Seinfeld also waived the fees for the proposed block party. Don was thanked by the councilman.
Don provided background pointing out that the neighborhood was originally built in the 1920’s bounded by Willoughby on the North and Melrose on the South. There have been many changes in the 18 years that he has lived here. For example, the Small Lot Subdivision Act allowed a massive three story complex on McCadden and that has caused some problems. During the recession, things got quiet. Now things are picking up again. We are working to preserve the character of the neighborhood.
Renee Weitzer of Councilman LaBonge’s office had set up a meeting with between our association and Alan Bell, Assistant Director of Planning. They decided that to, conserve our neighborhood, the best option would be to obtain a Q-qualified Zoning Overlay. We came up with a plan that will work in the neighborhood and had petitions signed by owners who supported it. 70% of owner occupants and 50% of total lot owners signed. Tom Labonge indicated that he would support the Overlay.
4. COUNCILMAN LABONGE SPEECH
Tom LaBonge greeted the group. He thanked his staff for their help. He put emphasis on neighborhoods, and the face of our neighborhood.
“The neighborhood is diverse and that’s a good thing. Developers don’t see the value, though. Not everyone in the city government lives in the city. We need density in the city, but within limits. Villages like this are like an alcove and they should be maintained.” He started in 1974 in the youth program.
“Involvement in his community was always important.” He gave historic examples. “Involvement of neighbors is important. But bureaucracy can create problems. They are concerned with making money to support city services. It’s important to say what you want in your neighborhood. We’re dealing with a city issue and a neighborhood issue and I want to make sure others understand the value of the neighborhood.”
“The West Hollywood food coalition used to feed people out of Plummer Park, but was forced out and is now in L. A. It’s still important, but it has created some real problems here. We understand that you are impacted by this as it has increased homeless people wandering the neighborhood. Their issues are a problem. I want to try to help them, and we are looking for another place to feed them.
Traffic is an issue, like Highland through the pass. It’s not going to change. Highland is a backbone – La Brea is a big street, as are others, but it ends at Franklin.
I want to make people believe in the city. You’ve got to fight for neighborhoods. It’s important for everyone to get involved to make a difference. I am not for the Small Lot Subdivisions. It’s easy to tear down buildings, but it affects how people feel about their neighborhoods. We have a yellow truck that goes around the city to clean up trash. “Broken Window Concept”, written by James T. Wilson; it talks about “if you show that you care about the place, good things will happen.” It’s a good thing. The old houses are built well and are worth preserving.”
Tom opened the floor up for questions:
Q1. Stop signs at the corner of Waring and Cherokee (child safety). We’ve been told it will happen. What can you do?
TL. There are two signs, you need two more. He will go see the Dep’t of Transportation next week with Ben to get this taken care of.
Q2a. Transients trespassing. Had to install security cameras, but the problem still exists. I agree we need to take care of mentally ill people, but what are we to do?
TL: (He) Doesn’t have an answer other than I want you to feel comfortable in my home, too. Maybe survey the street lighting? People migrate from Wilshire to Hollywood and back and use our streets.
Q2b. Member interrupted and said the problem is related to the street walkers and transgendered who now frequent the neighborhood.
TL: It used to be worse. If you were involved in prostitution or soliciting prostitution, they impounded your car. The courts ruled against it, but we’re trying to get it back. I believe what you do is your business but what happens in the street affects everyone. We don’t want them in the neighborhood. We’ll look into the former proposal relating to seizing cars. They used to have policewoman helping trap the men. Not sure if marijuana is good for us, but we don’t want it all over the place. We will follow up.
Jim Altschuler: Senior Lead Officer Art Gallegos will attend our next meeting. He wants all who have had these problems to attend the next meeting 2-24-2014 at Fremont library.
TL. Please email your questions for Art to Ben Seinfeld in advance of the meeting so he can come prepared to answer any questions.
Q3. Been here 15 years. The neighborhood is short on public greenspace. We heard a rumor that the city was looking for adjacent lots that could be developed into a pocket park. Is that more than a rumor?
TL: Haven’t heard of it. They are looking at small lots for that but they need an affordable one. We’ve done other similar projects. They are looking at a price tag of $1,000,000.
Q4. Wanted to know about when she can get her sidewalk fixed.
TL: Los Angeles got a lot of money under President Nixon and for a while sidewalks got fixed. They’re important. Sadly, Prop 13 made property tax for commercial and residential taxes the same.
Q5. Heard government grants for five large cities including Los Angeles. If we do get one, it looks like a lot of the money will go to Korea town. Can we get some of that money?
TL: It’s more for the impoverished areas such as east Hollywood and Koreatown. Places like Watts got nothing from this but they are on a different track.
Q6. Can any of the money go toward our area?
TL: No, the area does not qualify.
Q7. What about fixing the potholes in the street?
TL: Ben will survey the streets to see what can be done.
Q8. Our car has been broken into three times with nothing in it. Is there something we can do?
TL: Lighting, park off the street.
Q8a. Do I report it?
TL: Yes. Report to non-emergency.
Q9a. Bought my house 10 years ago and tried to get some permits for improving it, but was unable?
TL: Contact Renee Weitzer from my office and have her look into it
Q9b. I did, but she was the one who denied the permit.
TL: Then start over again. Sometimes things change and if you start over again, you might get a different response. I don’t know the details of the project, so I can’t speak to the issues now.
Q10. What is being developed across the street from “Grub” on Barton?
TL: Our office will brief Don on it. The developer did a lot on the Miracle Mile. Instead of building towers, they built low-rise.
Q11a. There is development happening all over the city. What is the big vision of this city with all the development now taking place? There is a huge apartment going up on Wilcox.
TL: What you have is Hancock Park where there are big houses. There is a need for complimentary housing like on the Rossmore corridor. Most people don’t know what their zoning is. It is part of the community planning process and of state laws, like to protect neighborhoods that exist. What is taking place on Wilcox is good transformation. It is a full width street. You will see changes. There is increasing population.
Q11b. That’s not what I am talking about. There are development projects such as high-rise apartments within the Highland community. Will we be kicking ourselves for having developed these projects years down the road? Another thing I want to say is that I was burglarized. I don’t see the problem being streetwalkers. What can we do to patrol the neighborhood?
TL: Well don’t shoot anyone. We need more police patrols. Community lead meetings.
Q12. I am seeing development everywhere. Two-bedroom, one bath houses are being replaced with large complexes. Where is the water for these units coming from? Steinbeck said in 1930 that we would run out of water.
TL: Water comes from the Colorado River and the Owens Valley. We are designing new developments near the new subway station. It could have had better setbacks. Need to participate and provide feedback. Encourage new appliances that save water. Using less water can have an impact. It is not perfect, but it has impact. Carolyn will talk about a couple of things.
Carolyn Ramsey: On the crime issue, the crime rate is the lowest it has been since 1966. Even though it’s a drag, you shouldn’t feel unsafe. It’s the safest big city in America.
Member: I don’t feel safe.
TL: Do you have dog? If you talk to a police officer….
Member: I am not going to get a dog. This area is being treated like a Dumping Zone.
Carolyn Ramsey: No one is saying it’s a dumping zone. We care about your neighborhood and we’re listening to you on the small lot subdivisions. That’s why we’re here.
TL: Carolyn needs to get to the next meeting.
Q13. Regarding upgrading the Small Lot Subdivision guidelines – Why are they just guidelines, not regulations? Why are there guidelines if they don’t have to follow them?
TL: That should be articulated in another meeting. It should be clear to you. I want our community planners to be like the senior lead officers. They should know what is going on in your area. They allow projects and they want to be away from the affected people. They should speak to people in the neighborhood.
TL: One more thing. I want to remind everyone to be prepared for earthquakes. Have water and a wired phone. Salute to Don and the association.
5. BLOCK CAPTAINS, COMMITTEE CHAIRS, AND VP REPORTS
Debra Rosenbaum, Block Captain for 800 N. Las Palmas: a garage sale will be held to help fund the legal fees to fight the developer next door for the 806 Las Palmas project
Gerhard Jacob: We need usable things for the garage sale. Drop them off. If you have anything of great value you want to donate, we can take them on consignment. If they don’t sell, you can pick them up afterwards. He can help with appraisals. The battle to fight the developers isn’t cheap. Stuff you think is junk might be someone else’s gold.
Uschi Wilson, Website Coordinator, Block Party Committee Chair: We do have a web site. On the website, we post all the information you need – Emergency preparedness, Meeting notes, etc. We keep it current, so please don’t forget. www.southhollywoodnha.org We also have a Facebook page. We made it a closed group because some people were uncomfortable with an open Facebook page. We would like to ask if we could vote to open it up.
We’re having a block party on the 700 block of June St., starting at the library. We will have to close the street. The city paid for the permits, which was great, and is providing tables and chairs. The fire dep’t. and Police dep’t. will be there so kids can see a fire truck and police car up close. The library will do a book sale. We want to get vendors and food. However, we have to get petitions first. Don passed out a survey and Uschi asked that everyone fill it out. We need your input to see how you feel about the block party. We’re hoping to be able to charge something like $5. Maybe we’ll have some vendors from the area. We hope it will be fun.
All of the neighbors on the 700 Block of June (who are in attendance) need to sign the petition to approve the block party. It will be a Saturday afternoon, 4/5, 3-6 PM. Driveways will not be blocked. We still need your permission to move forward.
Jim Altschuler: Regarding the senior lead officer who will be at the Feb 24th meeting, I know there are a number of things going on in the last month and a half – break-ins, thefts, going through trash. Police need to know about it. We have been working with them and have gotten them to do some extra cruising in the area. The Police Dep’t works on statistics. You don’t call them, they don’t act. If you see something suspicious, call the police.
There was an unrelated question about the duties of a treasurer and Don explained that it involved keeping the books, co-signing the checks, check the bank statements and do a monthly report of how much money came in and how much went out. It is a board position, so the Treasurer is expected to come to all of the meetings. Felice Levine volunteered to be Treasurer and Don asked that she meet with him after the meeting.
6. CONFIRMATION OF BLOCK CAPTAIN.
Don stated that Vanessa Carmichael had resigned as the Block Captain for 800 June and that Meg Russett had volunteered to take the position. Don, as President, appointed Meg to that position, but still asked for a confirmation motion. A motion was made to confirm Meg Russett as Block Captain for the 800 Block of June by Jim Altschuler, seconded by Uschi Wilson. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote.
7. BY-LAW CHANGES:
Jim Altschuler proposed some minor By-law changes, most of which were clerical. The proposed by-law changes had been sent to members by email and copies were available at the meeting. Jim read the changes. Don Hunt asked if there were any questions – there were none. A motion to approve the By-law changes by Ron Dennis, seconded by Don Hunt. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote.
8. BLOCK PARTY SURVEY RESULTS:
Uschi Wilson announced that 27 people had responded to the survey and that all 27 were in favor of the party. 23 said they would spend $5.00 as an entry donation. 22 were okay with a street closure. 17 said they would bring friends. Uschi will more carefully tally the results and provide them at the next meeting.
9. NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH:
Don mentioned recent crimes on Willoughby (briefcase), thefts on June and Las Palmas. Most of the crimes have been opportunistic crimes. This is probably related to crime information being disseminated by the neighborhood association. A lively discussion of crime and possible solutions ensued. Don stated that we need a neighborhood watch committee and a chairperson to lead it. Aaron Arnston volunteered to be the committee chairperson and 3 others had signed up on the sign-up sheet to participate. Don accepted Aaron as committee chairperson.
10. OTHER BUSINESS: There was no other business.
11. The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 pm.
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association 12-16-2013 General Meeting
Don asked for volunteers to be Vice President, Block Captain for the 700 Block of Cherokee, Secretary, and a backup for our liaison to the Neighborhood Council Land Use Committee.
Jim Altschuler volunteered to be Vice President.
MOTION by Uschi Wilson, seconded by Meg Russett, that Jim Altschuler be affirmed as Vice President. Unanimous voice vote in favor. No one opposed or abstained.
5. 806 LAS PALMAS. Don began my giving an overview of Small Lot Subdivisions as there were some new people in the room. He also mentioned that we had gone to the initial hearing and had gotten a few concessions, but those did not make the project appropriate for this area.
Committee Chair Robert Eisenstein mentioned that at our appeal hearing, the Variance (which would allow for an early start) did not get heard, and will now not be heard, due to a clerical error. We requested an extension to January, however the developer would not grant that. For the subdivision part, we were only heard by 3 commissioners, and we needed 3 votes. We only got one vote in our favor.
Don added that in the preceding cases, the Zoning Administrators had presented their reasons for their decision at the beginning of the hearing. When it came to our case, the Zoning Administrator spoke last and no one was able to dispute anything he said. He spoke for quite a while, but in the end, he essentially told the commissioners that they did not have the authority to reverse his decision, based on our arguments. And, two commissioners believed that.
The attorney had told us that these cases would be difficult; however, he felt he had much better arguments for the Variance case that ultimately did not get heard. Don was asked to re-explain the Small Lot Subdivision, which he did.
Don had been told by a reliable source that a new legal decision could require that our case be heard. We are looking into that. However, if it is not a simple process, then our only other option is to file a lawsuit against the city. That would be very expensive.
At this point, our next most logical step would be to dispute the Mitigated Negative Declaration. This is one of the foundations upon which the subdivision decision is based. It says that Negative results of the project are mitigated to a negligible degree. Included in this are aesthetics, light, shade, airflow, etc.
If we pursue this, it would be heard by a committee of 3 City Council Members. Tom Labonge is not on the committee; however, if his office supports us, it is highly probably that we will get their support. With their support, the issue goes before the full City Council, and these are almost always “rubber stamped” supporting the committee’s decision. At this time, Councilman Labonge’s office supports us.
This is going to cost money, so Debra Rosenbaum and Gerhard Jacob have volunteered to do some fundraising. Their first proposal is to have a garage sale with stuff donated by our community members. They will show posters of the proposed project, so that buyers will know that their money goes to support the opposition of this project. They propose doing it on Saturday, January 25.
A “Donation Can" was set on the counter so members could donate to the legal fund. $100 was collected. It was mentioned that only those who can afford to donate, should do so. Those who are not financially able to help, can assist in other ways.
Don stated that since much of what needs to be done with the appeal process is time sensitive, we need our committee to be in a position where they can act without coming to the board or general membership to approve decisions. There are also issues regarding filing documents and other items that will need to be done quickly due to these time restraints.
MOTION by Uschi Wilson, Seconded by Jim Altschuler to give the 806 Las Palmas Project Committee autonomy to make the necessary decisions related to this project.
By voice vote the motion was unanimously approved. No one objected and no abstentions.
Don also mentioned that many of us have spoken about needing to bring in the press at the appropriate time. We would need a person to act as spokesperson for our group. Don mentioned that he had floated Meg Russett’s name at some other meetings as his first choice. When asked, Meg agreed to be our Spokesperson.
MOTION by Don Hunt, Seconded by Jim Altschuler to have Meg Russett act as spokesperson for our group. Unanimous vote in favor, nobody objected and no abstentions
6. OVERLAY. Don explained what a Zoning Overlay is, for those who were new to our meeting. This is a multi-stage process in which we show our Councilman that our neighborhood supports the Overlay with petitions. The council office then makes a motion to the Planning Department to investigate this. The Planning Department returns their results to the Council Office, who uses that information to make a motion to the entire City Council. If passed, we have our Overlay Zone. Don mentioned that he wants to get enough petitions signed by the time Tom LaBonge attends our next General Meeting on January 21, at the Bancroft Middle School at 6pm. He mentioned the process would include getting neighborhood owner’s addresses, imputing them into the computer, sorting that so that each Block Captain has their blocks information so that the Block Captains can obtain those signatures for those who have not yet signed.
7. BLOCK PARTY. Uschi mentioned that she has all of the information regarding the Block party on our website at www.southollywoodnha@gmail.com. It will be held on Saturday, April 5th on the 700 block of June Street. She is going to try to get the police and fire departments to send representatives. We need ticket sales. We need to sell tickets to people other than those on the block. We need ticket takers, ticket sellers, raffle ticket sellers, food venders, DJ for music, other entertainment, caterers, possible venders such as Anawalt bringing some stuff in to give away, and some of the local restaurants such as Mossa or Grubb. Uschi will set up a committee meeting sometime in early January for more planning. It was suggested that some of our local artists bring some art. There was some discussion about someone bringing in a food truck. It was stated that any for profit vendor has to split any profit with our organization.
8. ADJOURN: 7:30 pm
Jim Altschuler volunteered to be Vice President.
MOTION by Uschi Wilson, seconded by Meg Russett, that Jim Altschuler be affirmed as Vice President. Unanimous voice vote in favor. No one opposed or abstained.
5. 806 LAS PALMAS. Don began my giving an overview of Small Lot Subdivisions as there were some new people in the room. He also mentioned that we had gone to the initial hearing and had gotten a few concessions, but those did not make the project appropriate for this area.
Committee Chair Robert Eisenstein mentioned that at our appeal hearing, the Variance (which would allow for an early start) did not get heard, and will now not be heard, due to a clerical error. We requested an extension to January, however the developer would not grant that. For the subdivision part, we were only heard by 3 commissioners, and we needed 3 votes. We only got one vote in our favor.
Don added that in the preceding cases, the Zoning Administrators had presented their reasons for their decision at the beginning of the hearing. When it came to our case, the Zoning Administrator spoke last and no one was able to dispute anything he said. He spoke for quite a while, but in the end, he essentially told the commissioners that they did not have the authority to reverse his decision, based on our arguments. And, two commissioners believed that.
The attorney had told us that these cases would be difficult; however, he felt he had much better arguments for the Variance case that ultimately did not get heard. Don was asked to re-explain the Small Lot Subdivision, which he did.
Don had been told by a reliable source that a new legal decision could require that our case be heard. We are looking into that. However, if it is not a simple process, then our only other option is to file a lawsuit against the city. That would be very expensive.
At this point, our next most logical step would be to dispute the Mitigated Negative Declaration. This is one of the foundations upon which the subdivision decision is based. It says that Negative results of the project are mitigated to a negligible degree. Included in this are aesthetics, light, shade, airflow, etc.
If we pursue this, it would be heard by a committee of 3 City Council Members. Tom Labonge is not on the committee; however, if his office supports us, it is highly probably that we will get their support. With their support, the issue goes before the full City Council, and these are almost always “rubber stamped” supporting the committee’s decision. At this time, Councilman Labonge’s office supports us.
This is going to cost money, so Debra Rosenbaum and Gerhard Jacob have volunteered to do some fundraising. Their first proposal is to have a garage sale with stuff donated by our community members. They will show posters of the proposed project, so that buyers will know that their money goes to support the opposition of this project. They propose doing it on Saturday, January 25.
A “Donation Can" was set on the counter so members could donate to the legal fund. $100 was collected. It was mentioned that only those who can afford to donate, should do so. Those who are not financially able to help, can assist in other ways.
Don stated that since much of what needs to be done with the appeal process is time sensitive, we need our committee to be in a position where they can act without coming to the board or general membership to approve decisions. There are also issues regarding filing documents and other items that will need to be done quickly due to these time restraints.
MOTION by Uschi Wilson, Seconded by Jim Altschuler to give the 806 Las Palmas Project Committee autonomy to make the necessary decisions related to this project.
By voice vote the motion was unanimously approved. No one objected and no abstentions.
Don also mentioned that many of us have spoken about needing to bring in the press at the appropriate time. We would need a person to act as spokesperson for our group. Don mentioned that he had floated Meg Russett’s name at some other meetings as his first choice. When asked, Meg agreed to be our Spokesperson.
MOTION by Don Hunt, Seconded by Jim Altschuler to have Meg Russett act as spokesperson for our group. Unanimous vote in favor, nobody objected and no abstentions
6. OVERLAY. Don explained what a Zoning Overlay is, for those who were new to our meeting. This is a multi-stage process in which we show our Councilman that our neighborhood supports the Overlay with petitions. The council office then makes a motion to the Planning Department to investigate this. The Planning Department returns their results to the Council Office, who uses that information to make a motion to the entire City Council. If passed, we have our Overlay Zone. Don mentioned that he wants to get enough petitions signed by the time Tom LaBonge attends our next General Meeting on January 21, at the Bancroft Middle School at 6pm. He mentioned the process would include getting neighborhood owner’s addresses, imputing them into the computer, sorting that so that each Block Captain has their blocks information so that the Block Captains can obtain those signatures for those who have not yet signed.
7. BLOCK PARTY. Uschi mentioned that she has all of the information regarding the Block party on our website at www.southollywoodnha@gmail.com. It will be held on Saturday, April 5th on the 700 block of June Street. She is going to try to get the police and fire departments to send representatives. We need ticket sales. We need to sell tickets to people other than those on the block. We need ticket takers, ticket sellers, raffle ticket sellers, food venders, DJ for music, other entertainment, caterers, possible venders such as Anawalt bringing some stuff in to give away, and some of the local restaurants such as Mossa or Grubb. Uschi will set up a committee meeting sometime in early January for more planning. It was suggested that some of our local artists bring some art. There was some discussion about someone bringing in a food truck. It was stated that any for profit vendor has to split any profit with our organization.
8. ADJOURN: 7:30 pm
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association General Meeting - 11-19-2013 Minutes
1. CALL TO ORDER. A duly noticed General Meeting of the South Hollywood Neighborhood Association Meeting was held on Tuesday, November 19th in the community room of the John C Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Avenue. President Don Hunt called the meeting to order at 6:30pm.
2. BLOCK CAPTAINS REPORTS. None of the attending Block Captains had anything to report.
3. PRESIDENTS REPORT: Anyone not getting emails should check their spam folder and/or send us a meeting at southhollywoodnha@gmail.com
At our January 21 General Meeting Tom Labonge will join us at the Bancroft School Auditorium.
Committee Chairs can use the library for any meetings. These can be set up by the Committee Chair. Committee Chairs will be given a list of all Committee Members. Committee Chairs not skilled in computer use, can forward emails to our webpage manager Uschi Wilson and she will forward them to the Committee Members.
Neighborhood Council is having elections in March and any member can run to represent the district in which we are a part. Our member, Dorian Shapiro has expressed an interest in running and is asking our support when the elections come. He will keep us informed.
At a previous Board Meeting it was decided that our General meetings would be on the 4th Monday of the month and Board Meetings would be on the 2nd Monday of the month. At our last Board Meeting, there was a discussion related to the possibility of reducing the frequency of our meetings, and having Board meetings and General meetings on rotating months, however, nobody made a motion in favor of doing that.
4. BYLAW CHANGES. It was brought up that there is a problem with the bylaws related to a quorum of board members. Currently we must have 8 board members out of our total of 12 to be a quorum. However, since we have vacancies on the board, we do not have a total of 12 board members. All members had received an email with the suggested changes, and those attending the meeting received a hard copy to review. President motioned that in Article 8, Section 2, sentence 1, “meeting” be changed to “general meeting”; Article 9, Section 3, sentence 2, that “Eight of the Twelve Board Members” be replace with “51% of the active Board Members”; Article 10, Section 5, sentence 1, that “Board of Directors” be replaced with “active members of the Board ” and that in Article 14, sentence 2 “in the following meeting” be deleted.
MOTION to change the bylaws, seconded by Laura Whipple. Unanimous, 21 voted in favor.
5. CODE OF CONDUCT. A copy had been emailed to membership and hard copies were provided at meeting was reviewed and briefly discussed.
MOTION to adopt the Code of Conduct by Don Hunt, Jim Altschuler 2nds the motion. Unanimous, 21 voted in favor.
6. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS. Ben Seinfeld discussed the benefits of Emergency Preparedness. An Emergency Preparedness committee with Jim Altschuler as chair, was formed to put together a neighborhood plan and bring back information to the membership.
7. 816-828 N. JUNE STREET SMALL LOT SUBDIVISION. The developers for the project attended the meeting to describe the changes they made in their project. After which Chairperson Meg Russett explained the reasons why the June Street Project Committee (after numerous meetings) had passed a motion to support the project. Don Hunt also spoke in favor of supporting the committee motion. After which, Don Hunt asked that anyone with an opposing view please state their position. Nobody responded. Members had been given copies of the motion and the motion was read to the membership. There were a few questions and some discussion.
MOTION by Don Hunt, seconded by Zoi Fovos to adopt the “816-828 June Street Project Committee” motion.
24 in favor, 2 abstentions, 0 opposed.
A further amendment to the motion was added that the president could include additional language in the letter of support, which would also include the neighborhoods opposition to street widening among other things. There was a unanimous vote in favor.
8. OVERLAY PETITION, Copies of the proposed petition had been given to the membership. At a previous meeting the language of the petition had been approved, however, Don clarified that there were issues related to using the word setback versus front yard and rear yard instead. It was further recommended that the rear yard be changed to 16 feet and that the definition of our neighborhood association be clarified to mention that they are all north. There was an active discussion regarding the positioning of garages.
MOTION to accept petition language by Don Hunt, Jim Altschuler 2nded the motion.
Unanimous, 24 in favor.
9. 806 N. Las Palmas. Don Hunt asked about approving getting an attorney to help with the Zoning Administrator’s Appeal. Also, he mentioned that someone needs to prepare a full presentation. Therefore Don asked that more people get involved in the Las Palmas Committee. Don passed around a sign-up sheet for the Las Palmas Committee. Robert Eisenstein will chair the committee.
10. BOARD VACANCIES, The organization is missing a Vice President, Secretary and 700 Block Captain of Cherokee. Nobody volunteered for the vacant positions.
11. BLOCK PARTY FUNDRAISER, Uschi Wilson had volunteered to be the Chair of the committee. A summary of what would be needed to have a block party was passed around. There were some questions regarding which street to use and regarding the necessity of making those decisions at this meeting. There was further discussion about volunteers. It was explained that if a motion was passed at this meeting, we could pass around a volunteer sign-up sheet at this and future meetings. It was further discussed that Uschi should have autonomy in making the decisions about the party.
MOTION by Meg Russet to support having a block party. 2nded by Jim Altschuler and Zoi Fovos, Amendment by Don Hunt to give the Committee Chair autonomy.
22 in favor, 2 Abstentions
12. NON PROFIT STATUS, Our organization needs to become a 501 C3 or C4. Some questions were answered about fees for getting the status. Jim Altschuler offered to be part of a the Committee Chaired by Don Hunt to obtain Non-profit status.
MOTION by Laura Whipple 2nded by Jim Altschuler, that we form a non-profit corporation and that the committee for doing so, have autonomy in making the decision and getting the paperwork filed.
Unanimous, 24 in favor.
Next meetings 12/9 for Board and 12/16. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:00 PM.
2. BLOCK CAPTAINS REPORTS. None of the attending Block Captains had anything to report.
3. PRESIDENTS REPORT: Anyone not getting emails should check their spam folder and/or send us a meeting at southhollywoodnha@gmail.com
At our January 21 General Meeting Tom Labonge will join us at the Bancroft School Auditorium.
Committee Chairs can use the library for any meetings. These can be set up by the Committee Chair. Committee Chairs will be given a list of all Committee Members. Committee Chairs not skilled in computer use, can forward emails to our webpage manager Uschi Wilson and she will forward them to the Committee Members.
Neighborhood Council is having elections in March and any member can run to represent the district in which we are a part. Our member, Dorian Shapiro has expressed an interest in running and is asking our support when the elections come. He will keep us informed.
At a previous Board Meeting it was decided that our General meetings would be on the 4th Monday of the month and Board Meetings would be on the 2nd Monday of the month. At our last Board Meeting, there was a discussion related to the possibility of reducing the frequency of our meetings, and having Board meetings and General meetings on rotating months, however, nobody made a motion in favor of doing that.
4. BYLAW CHANGES. It was brought up that there is a problem with the bylaws related to a quorum of board members. Currently we must have 8 board members out of our total of 12 to be a quorum. However, since we have vacancies on the board, we do not have a total of 12 board members. All members had received an email with the suggested changes, and those attending the meeting received a hard copy to review. President motioned that in Article 8, Section 2, sentence 1, “meeting” be changed to “general meeting”; Article 9, Section 3, sentence 2, that “Eight of the Twelve Board Members” be replace with “51% of the active Board Members”; Article 10, Section 5, sentence 1, that “Board of Directors” be replaced with “active members of the Board ” and that in Article 14, sentence 2 “in the following meeting” be deleted.
MOTION to change the bylaws, seconded by Laura Whipple. Unanimous, 21 voted in favor.
5. CODE OF CONDUCT. A copy had been emailed to membership and hard copies were provided at meeting was reviewed and briefly discussed.
MOTION to adopt the Code of Conduct by Don Hunt, Jim Altschuler 2nds the motion. Unanimous, 21 voted in favor.
6. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS. Ben Seinfeld discussed the benefits of Emergency Preparedness. An Emergency Preparedness committee with Jim Altschuler as chair, was formed to put together a neighborhood plan and bring back information to the membership.
7. 816-828 N. JUNE STREET SMALL LOT SUBDIVISION. The developers for the project attended the meeting to describe the changes they made in their project. After which Chairperson Meg Russett explained the reasons why the June Street Project Committee (after numerous meetings) had passed a motion to support the project. Don Hunt also spoke in favor of supporting the committee motion. After which, Don Hunt asked that anyone with an opposing view please state their position. Nobody responded. Members had been given copies of the motion and the motion was read to the membership. There were a few questions and some discussion.
MOTION by Don Hunt, seconded by Zoi Fovos to adopt the “816-828 June Street Project Committee” motion.
24 in favor, 2 abstentions, 0 opposed.
A further amendment to the motion was added that the president could include additional language in the letter of support, which would also include the neighborhoods opposition to street widening among other things. There was a unanimous vote in favor.
8. OVERLAY PETITION, Copies of the proposed petition had been given to the membership. At a previous meeting the language of the petition had been approved, however, Don clarified that there were issues related to using the word setback versus front yard and rear yard instead. It was further recommended that the rear yard be changed to 16 feet and that the definition of our neighborhood association be clarified to mention that they are all north. There was an active discussion regarding the positioning of garages.
MOTION to accept petition language by Don Hunt, Jim Altschuler 2nded the motion.
Unanimous, 24 in favor.
9. 806 N. Las Palmas. Don Hunt asked about approving getting an attorney to help with the Zoning Administrator’s Appeal. Also, he mentioned that someone needs to prepare a full presentation. Therefore Don asked that more people get involved in the Las Palmas Committee. Don passed around a sign-up sheet for the Las Palmas Committee. Robert Eisenstein will chair the committee.
10. BOARD VACANCIES, The organization is missing a Vice President, Secretary and 700 Block Captain of Cherokee. Nobody volunteered for the vacant positions.
11. BLOCK PARTY FUNDRAISER, Uschi Wilson had volunteered to be the Chair of the committee. A summary of what would be needed to have a block party was passed around. There were some questions regarding which street to use and regarding the necessity of making those decisions at this meeting. There was further discussion about volunteers. It was explained that if a motion was passed at this meeting, we could pass around a volunteer sign-up sheet at this and future meetings. It was further discussed that Uschi should have autonomy in making the decisions about the party.
MOTION by Meg Russet to support having a block party. 2nded by Jim Altschuler and Zoi Fovos, Amendment by Don Hunt to give the Committee Chair autonomy.
22 in favor, 2 Abstentions
12. NON PROFIT STATUS, Our organization needs to become a 501 C3 or C4. Some questions were answered about fees for getting the status. Jim Altschuler offered to be part of a the Committee Chaired by Don Hunt to obtain Non-profit status.
MOTION by Laura Whipple 2nded by Jim Altschuler, that we form a non-profit corporation and that the committee for doing so, have autonomy in making the decision and getting the paperwork filed.
Unanimous, 24 in favor.
Next meetings 12/9 for Board and 12/16. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:00 PM.
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association - Urgent General Meeting 11-13-2013
1. CALL TO ORDER. A duly noticed General Meeting of South Hollywood Neighborhood Association was held on Wednesday, November 13 in the community room of the John C Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Avenue. President Don Hunt called the meeting to order at 6:17 pm.
2. PRESIDENT’S REPORT ON OVERLAY COMMITTEE. Don Hunt reported on a meeting the Overlay Committee had recently held with Alan Bell (Assistant Director of Planning), Renee Wietzer and Simon Pastucha of Councilman Labonge’s office. They indicated that we should be able to get a zoning overlay for our area that would limit future development projects to be more consistent with current buildings. This process will likely take over a year.
3. DISCUSSION OF PETITION. Don Hunt presented language for an Overlay Petition that stated:
“SoHo Neighborhood Petitions to obtain a Q-Qualified Zoning Overlay. We the undersigned owners of properties on the _______ Block of _______support having a Zoning Overlay which would restrict new construction to maximum of 30ft in height and up to 2 stories, require a front setback of 25 feet and a rea setback of 15 feet and allow for a total floor area on all building not to exceed (.05) times the building area of the lot, regardless of the lot size. We support this for our block as well as for the SoHo Neighborhood, which consists of all properties located within the 700-800 blocks of June St, Cherokee Ave, Las Palmas Ave and McCadden Pl. Also included are properties associated with those blocks on the south side of Willoughby Ave, both sides of Waring Ave and the north side of Melrose Ave.”
There was a detailed discussion involving many members about the setbacks, building density how it affected the R1 versus RD1.5 Zones.
MOTION by Don Hunt, seconded by Laura Whipple, that the language for the overlay petition be adopted
There was further discussion about overlay petition details and concerns about having rear setback or required rear garages. 4 voted in favor of adopting motion with no rear setbacks but to require garages. 6 voted in favor of adopting the motion as written requiring a 15 foot rear setback. Renters chose to abstain from the vote.
4. PRESIDENT’S REPORT ON 806 N. LAS PALMAS. Don Hunt began a discussion regarding the 806 Las Palmas appeal, and an offer from the developer was passed around and read aloud.
5. DISCUSSION OF DEVELOPER’S OFFER & WHETHER TO COUNTER OFFER. A discussion ensued as to the benefits of the offer and the majority seemed to feel that the offer was not acceptable.
1ST MOTION by Don Hunt to accept the offer. 1 favored, 15 voted opposed and 3 people abstained.
2ND MOTION by Don Hunt to write a counter offer. There was much discussion about the balance between whether we were too far away from the developers to make a counter worthwhile. 4 people voted to offer a counter offer, 3 voted not to. With the rest abstaining. Due to the high number of abstentions, more discussion ensued. This time the primary discussion involved the feasibility of writing a counter offer within the time frame needed. Another question was who would write the counter offer and how would the group be able to approve such an offer.
3RD MOTION by Aaron Arnston, seconded by Meg Russett to not offer a counter offer and continue the appeal. Motion was passed unanimously.
6. PREPARATION FOR APPEAL. Since the group had voted to continue the appeal, Don Hunt discussed the need for a legal fund to assist in the appeal process.
Motion by Aaron Arnston to start a legal fund. Aaron offered to donate $50.00 and suggested everyone should. President made a Donation Pledge sheet which was passed around the room and everyone signed and pledged $50.00. This totaled $800. Motion passed unanimously by virtue of the fact everyone donated money.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:00 PM.
2. PRESIDENT’S REPORT ON OVERLAY COMMITTEE. Don Hunt reported on a meeting the Overlay Committee had recently held with Alan Bell (Assistant Director of Planning), Renee Wietzer and Simon Pastucha of Councilman Labonge’s office. They indicated that we should be able to get a zoning overlay for our area that would limit future development projects to be more consistent with current buildings. This process will likely take over a year.
3. DISCUSSION OF PETITION. Don Hunt presented language for an Overlay Petition that stated:
“SoHo Neighborhood Petitions to obtain a Q-Qualified Zoning Overlay. We the undersigned owners of properties on the _______ Block of _______support having a Zoning Overlay which would restrict new construction to maximum of 30ft in height and up to 2 stories, require a front setback of 25 feet and a rea setback of 15 feet and allow for a total floor area on all building not to exceed (.05) times the building area of the lot, regardless of the lot size. We support this for our block as well as for the SoHo Neighborhood, which consists of all properties located within the 700-800 blocks of June St, Cherokee Ave, Las Palmas Ave and McCadden Pl. Also included are properties associated with those blocks on the south side of Willoughby Ave, both sides of Waring Ave and the north side of Melrose Ave.”
There was a detailed discussion involving many members about the setbacks, building density how it affected the R1 versus RD1.5 Zones.
MOTION by Don Hunt, seconded by Laura Whipple, that the language for the overlay petition be adopted
There was further discussion about overlay petition details and concerns about having rear setback or required rear garages. 4 voted in favor of adopting motion with no rear setbacks but to require garages. 6 voted in favor of adopting the motion as written requiring a 15 foot rear setback. Renters chose to abstain from the vote.
4. PRESIDENT’S REPORT ON 806 N. LAS PALMAS. Don Hunt began a discussion regarding the 806 Las Palmas appeal, and an offer from the developer was passed around and read aloud.
5. DISCUSSION OF DEVELOPER’S OFFER & WHETHER TO COUNTER OFFER. A discussion ensued as to the benefits of the offer and the majority seemed to feel that the offer was not acceptable.
1ST MOTION by Don Hunt to accept the offer. 1 favored, 15 voted opposed and 3 people abstained.
2ND MOTION by Don Hunt to write a counter offer. There was much discussion about the balance between whether we were too far away from the developers to make a counter worthwhile. 4 people voted to offer a counter offer, 3 voted not to. With the rest abstaining. Due to the high number of abstentions, more discussion ensued. This time the primary discussion involved the feasibility of writing a counter offer within the time frame needed. Another question was who would write the counter offer and how would the group be able to approve such an offer.
3RD MOTION by Aaron Arnston, seconded by Meg Russett to not offer a counter offer and continue the appeal. Motion was passed unanimously.
6. PREPARATION FOR APPEAL. Since the group had voted to continue the appeal, Don Hunt discussed the need for a legal fund to assist in the appeal process.
Motion by Aaron Arnston to start a legal fund. Aaron offered to donate $50.00 and suggested everyone should. President made a Donation Pledge sheet which was passed around the room and everyone signed and pledged $50.00. This totaled $800. Motion passed unanimously by virtue of the fact everyone donated money.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:00 PM.
South Hollywood Neighborhood Association Letter/Summary of recent Events
Summary of recent events:
1. I spoke with our Police Liaison, Officer David Cordova, (213-793-0650) about his role is in our neighborhood. Essentially, he is the one who will coordinate and focus the police efforts based on the kinds of crimes that we are encountering. He said that if neighbors are ever
facing any kind of immediate emergency, call 911 first. If someone is encountering lesser issues (such as late night noise) they should call the non-emergency number 877-ASK-LAPD. After you have made your first priority call to the police, you should contact him. That way, he can focus on a plan of action to prevent that kind of event from happening in the future.
2. Neighbors reported that there were transients living in the abandoned houses on Las Palmas. Block Captain Uschi Wilson was able to notify the developer of 835 Las Palmas. He immediately eliminated the problem. Uschi also found an address for the owner of the other 2 properties, and I delivered a letter to his address. His properties are now secured.
3. Block Captain Laura Whipple and I happened to gain brief access to the plans for the proposed property at 835 N. Las Palmas. It will be a 2 story building with each story having a footprint of approximately 38 ft X 78 ft. This means each floor will be almost 3,000 sqft. or a total of almost 6,000 sqft. for both. It is interesting to note that we had spoken with the developer last week and he said that he is building a 2 story, possibly four bedroom house of about 3,200-3,400 sqft.
4.Block Captain Laura Whipple spoke with the developer of the property at 711 N. McCadden and was told that he is building a 2 story house, with garage access from the alley into the garages in the back. Although larger than most, that house will not be a mega structure.
5. An appeal that was written by our 806 Las Palmas Committee was filed which opposes the Zoning Administrator’s project approval. We have not yet received a hearing date. Arguments can be added to the appeal up to 10 days before the hearing. I will email any members copies of the appeal and would encourage those interested to write additional amendments that can be added.
Our Committee had initiated meetings with the developers to try and negotiate a more acceptable project, or possibly the sale of the property. However, since the last meeting, a few weeks ago, we have not heard from them. I have also not had a response from an email I sent them last week. It appears as though the developer living at 806 N Las Palmas has moved out of the house.
It was recommended that someone from our group go down to a Central Area Planning Commission hearing to see what the process is and how favorably the commissioners are deciding the cases that come before them. Do we have any volunteers? Email me if you would be able to do that.
6. The developer for the property at 816-828 met with the 816 June Street Development Project Committee for the second time and presented greatly improved plans. Instead of building 4 rows of small, tall houses on the 3 lots, totaling 12 houses; they now propose building 2 rows of wider houses with 8 ft setbacks between the neighbors. The front part of the houses will be 2 stories and will step up to 3 stories. The total number of houses will be 10. They are still asking for a height variance of 4 ½ feet. They will be submitting detailed plans at a meeting to be scheduled for next week. Meg Russett chairs this committee and I co-chair.
7. At our first Board meeting, we spoke with Carolyn Ramsey, deputy to Tom Labonge about our concerns with Small Lot Subdivisions. She was very sympathetic, but did say that we should do the best we can do to curb the construction on the current proposed developments, but to expect that we were going to have buildings we are not happy with being built there. In the meantime, we need to get an overlay for our area so as to eliminate this problem in the future. She subsequently forwarded some information about Single Family Residential Overlays, but those probably won’t be supported in this neighborhood. And, they didn’t apply to Small Lot Subdivisions.
8. We also decided that we will be scheduling our regular monthly Board Meetings on the 1st Tuesday of every month and the General Meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. Any member can attend any Board meeting and can submit (in advance) Agenda items to be discussed. Once some of the larger issues we are facing are behind us, we will be having general meeting less frequently. There will probably be between 2-4 general meetings per year.
9. Sadly, we had tried to schedule a meeting for next Tuesday which was to include Councilman Tom Labonge. However, we were not able to arrange to have that meeting at Bancroft Middle School. We felt the library space would be too small, and they close at 7:45, with really limits our time there. Ben Seinfeld is still working on making arrangements so that we can have larger meetings at the school, but those have not been settled yet.
10. We had our first meeting with the Overlay Committee. This meeting was mostly to give committee members an overview of what has already been done and to begin planning for the next steps. Subsequently, Meg Russett and I will be having a conference call on October 30th with Kevin Keller, formerly of the planning office but now working in the mayor’s office, who is supposedly the expert in this area. I have an appointment which with Alan Bell, the Deputy Director of the Los Angeles Planning Department on November 4th at 3:30pm in City Hall. Renee Weitzer will also be attending and I invite any interested neighbors to attend. Please RSVP if you plan on joining us.
11. I have also had discussions with neighbors about beginning a letter writing campaign and possibly getting the press involved. I am all for this. The reason we are hesitating is because we are hoping to find out more information from the Planning Department that will assist us in better directing the content of the emails. If we choose to involve the press, we will need to elect a Spokesperson who can calmly, intelligently and accurately express the point of view of our neighborhood.
12.FYI. The Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources is looking for volunteers for Board positions on the Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZ) committee. These are the people who decide what area will be granted the HPOZ overlays. If you are interested, visit www.preservation.lacity.org
13. Treasurer Dorian Shapiro attended the last meeting of the Greater Wilshire Land Use Committee and reports that Starbucks is looking into taking over the old Gas Station on Highland/Willoughby and renovating it for use as a Starbucks. The building is an historic landmark, so whatever renovations they would make would have to maintain the integrity of the property.
14. Webpage and Facebook Coordinator & Block Captain, Uschi Wilson, has put together a great Facebook page. Please send her friend request so she can add you to our 'closed' group. She also purchased the domain name southhollywoodnha.org and has put together a beautiful web page. We need pictures and short Biographies of all of the Block Captains and Committee Chairs for our web page. Please email those to us. Regular members should send in pictures of interesting houses or other sites in the neighborhood. Let’s make our web page look great by sharing how great our neighborhood is. We will be posting more information on our Web Page and Facebook Page and we will continue to send meeting updates and information via emails. Help make our neighborhood great by joining us at our next meetings.
1. I spoke with our Police Liaison, Officer David Cordova, (213-793-0650) about his role is in our neighborhood. Essentially, he is the one who will coordinate and focus the police efforts based on the kinds of crimes that we are encountering. He said that if neighbors are ever
facing any kind of immediate emergency, call 911 first. If someone is encountering lesser issues (such as late night noise) they should call the non-emergency number 877-ASK-LAPD. After you have made your first priority call to the police, you should contact him. That way, he can focus on a plan of action to prevent that kind of event from happening in the future.
2. Neighbors reported that there were transients living in the abandoned houses on Las Palmas. Block Captain Uschi Wilson was able to notify the developer of 835 Las Palmas. He immediately eliminated the problem. Uschi also found an address for the owner of the other 2 properties, and I delivered a letter to his address. His properties are now secured.
3. Block Captain Laura Whipple and I happened to gain brief access to the plans for the proposed property at 835 N. Las Palmas. It will be a 2 story building with each story having a footprint of approximately 38 ft X 78 ft. This means each floor will be almost 3,000 sqft. or a total of almost 6,000 sqft. for both. It is interesting to note that we had spoken with the developer last week and he said that he is building a 2 story, possibly four bedroom house of about 3,200-3,400 sqft.
4.Block Captain Laura Whipple spoke with the developer of the property at 711 N. McCadden and was told that he is building a 2 story house, with garage access from the alley into the garages in the back. Although larger than most, that house will not be a mega structure.
5. An appeal that was written by our 806 Las Palmas Committee was filed which opposes the Zoning Administrator’s project approval. We have not yet received a hearing date. Arguments can be added to the appeal up to 10 days before the hearing. I will email any members copies of the appeal and would encourage those interested to write additional amendments that can be added.
Our Committee had initiated meetings with the developers to try and negotiate a more acceptable project, or possibly the sale of the property. However, since the last meeting, a few weeks ago, we have not heard from them. I have also not had a response from an email I sent them last week. It appears as though the developer living at 806 N Las Palmas has moved out of the house.
It was recommended that someone from our group go down to a Central Area Planning Commission hearing to see what the process is and how favorably the commissioners are deciding the cases that come before them. Do we have any volunteers? Email me if you would be able to do that.
6. The developer for the property at 816-828 met with the 816 June Street Development Project Committee for the second time and presented greatly improved plans. Instead of building 4 rows of small, tall houses on the 3 lots, totaling 12 houses; they now propose building 2 rows of wider houses with 8 ft setbacks between the neighbors. The front part of the houses will be 2 stories and will step up to 3 stories. The total number of houses will be 10. They are still asking for a height variance of 4 ½ feet. They will be submitting detailed plans at a meeting to be scheduled for next week. Meg Russett chairs this committee and I co-chair.
7. At our first Board meeting, we spoke with Carolyn Ramsey, deputy to Tom Labonge about our concerns with Small Lot Subdivisions. She was very sympathetic, but did say that we should do the best we can do to curb the construction on the current proposed developments, but to expect that we were going to have buildings we are not happy with being built there. In the meantime, we need to get an overlay for our area so as to eliminate this problem in the future. She subsequently forwarded some information about Single Family Residential Overlays, but those probably won’t be supported in this neighborhood. And, they didn’t apply to Small Lot Subdivisions.
8. We also decided that we will be scheduling our regular monthly Board Meetings on the 1st Tuesday of every month and the General Meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. Any member can attend any Board meeting and can submit (in advance) Agenda items to be discussed. Once some of the larger issues we are facing are behind us, we will be having general meeting less frequently. There will probably be between 2-4 general meetings per year.
9. Sadly, we had tried to schedule a meeting for next Tuesday which was to include Councilman Tom Labonge. However, we were not able to arrange to have that meeting at Bancroft Middle School. We felt the library space would be too small, and they close at 7:45, with really limits our time there. Ben Seinfeld is still working on making arrangements so that we can have larger meetings at the school, but those have not been settled yet.
10. We had our first meeting with the Overlay Committee. This meeting was mostly to give committee members an overview of what has already been done and to begin planning for the next steps. Subsequently, Meg Russett and I will be having a conference call on October 30th with Kevin Keller, formerly of the planning office but now working in the mayor’s office, who is supposedly the expert in this area. I have an appointment which with Alan Bell, the Deputy Director of the Los Angeles Planning Department on November 4th at 3:30pm in City Hall. Renee Weitzer will also be attending and I invite any interested neighbors to attend. Please RSVP if you plan on joining us.
11. I have also had discussions with neighbors about beginning a letter writing campaign and possibly getting the press involved. I am all for this. The reason we are hesitating is because we are hoping to find out more information from the Planning Department that will assist us in better directing the content of the emails. If we choose to involve the press, we will need to elect a Spokesperson who can calmly, intelligently and accurately express the point of view of our neighborhood.
12.FYI. The Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources is looking for volunteers for Board positions on the Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZ) committee. These are the people who decide what area will be granted the HPOZ overlays. If you are interested, visit www.preservation.lacity.org
13. Treasurer Dorian Shapiro attended the last meeting of the Greater Wilshire Land Use Committee and reports that Starbucks is looking into taking over the old Gas Station on Highland/Willoughby and renovating it for use as a Starbucks. The building is an historic landmark, so whatever renovations they would make would have to maintain the integrity of the property.
14. Webpage and Facebook Coordinator & Block Captain, Uschi Wilson, has put together a great Facebook page. Please send her friend request so she can add you to our 'closed' group. She also purchased the domain name southhollywoodnha.org and has put together a beautiful web page. We need pictures and short Biographies of all of the Block Captains and Committee Chairs for our web page. Please email those to us. Regular members should send in pictures of interesting houses or other sites in the neighborhood. Let’s make our web page look great by sharing how great our neighborhood is. We will be posting more information on our Web Page and Facebook Page and we will continue to send meeting updates and information via emails. Help make our neighborhood great by joining us at our next meetings.
South Hollywood (SOHO) Neighborhood Association Meeting
1. Call to Order
A duly noticed meeting of the SoHo Neighborhood Association was held on Tuesday, October 2, 2013 at John C. Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave. President Don Hunt called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m.
2. Roll Call and Approval of the Minutes
SoHo Neighborhood Association Block Captains in attendance were: Debra Rosenbaum, Laura Whipple, Luis Miranda, Melinda Blum, Nadia
Villarreal, and Sallie Higgins. Block Captain absent: Vanessa Carmichael. Seven of the eight block captains were present. Also in attendance was President Don Hunt and Ben Seinfeld from the City Council. Approval of the minutes was non-applicable since our first meeting was to see if the neighborhood wanted to form an association. The October 2, 2013 meeting is the first official meeting as the SoHo Neighborhood Association.
3. New Business
a. Block Captain Reports: Luis Miranda reported that the owner of the home directly next to the June development was in attendance at todays meeting so that we can hear how this has affected her. Melinda Blum reported that she attempted to go to all the neighbors on her block but was not able to get all the emails.
Sally Higgins reported that on the 700 block of Cherokee there are loud party noises. The house in question is rented and they have comedy night parties on
Tuesday nights (once a month). 200-300 people attend and it goes on until 11:00 pm. Ben Seinfeld suggested that Dave Cordova, a police officer, be contacted for all LAPD questions. If the house is being turned into a business, then we can get LAPD and the Office of City and Safety involved. The residents are allowed to have a certain amount of people to conduct business but there are rules in the municipal codes against customers coming in and out of the home all day long. The issue will be followed up. Sally also brought up the issue of there being a cost to permit parking, which a lot of people have inquired about getting on their streets. Ben reported that our neighborhood is in Preferential Parking District No. 40. We would need a petition with signatures from 2/3 of the homeowners and 2/3 of property
frontage. He recommended we apply for the No Parking 6pm to 8am nightly; 2 hour parking 8am to 6pm Monday – Saturday; Vehicles with District No. 40 permits exempted. Ben explained that residents can park anywhere there are these restrictions if they have a permit. The price is $35 a year for one permit. $22.50 every four months for two visitor permits. Guest passes for parties are $1 and good for 24 hours. The guest passes are only good for the block that the resident lives on. Sally then reported that a house on the 700 block of Cherokee sold and that it’s a tear down and even though the 700 block doesn’t have to worry about sub-division homes they should worry about a huge mansion being built next to their home. Raul, a resident, asked what can be done to prevent a huge home from being built and Ben answered that there isn’t much than can be done but suggested he could go on ZIMAS website, which handles zoning and permits, and check to see if the person building is doing so legally. Don mentioned another zoning site, that shows what permits have been pulled and history, and said he would send the link to
the group. I they don’t have a permit, then we need to go to the Department of Building and Safety website and report a violation. Once we get the reference number, Ben said to email him with the address, reference number and short description of the violation and he will get someone to issue a stop work order.
MOTION brought up that we should have any developer that is seeking our approval at our meetings to leave the room while the association discusses and
votes if they want to support or not support the developer. MOTION PASSED by majority hand vote. Debra Rosenbaum reported that she already started a parking
permit petition for the 800 block of Las Palmas and if anyone was interested in signing it to please see her after the meeting.
b. Name the Organization: Ballots with prior names submitted were handed out to everyone at the meeting. Additional names were added to the ballot during the meeting before the vote. There was a three-way tie between South Hollywood, June-McCadden and Hancock Media District. A vote was taken by a show of hands for all three names. MOTION to name our association South Hollwood (SoHo) Neighborhood Association. MOTION PASSED by a majority show of hands.
c. Bi-Laws/Affirm Officers: Don reported that every neighborhood has bi-laws and that he handed out and emailed everyone a copy of one that he put together. He stated that he wrote a neighborhood bi-law (taken from another neighborhood) and put all the neighborhood block captains in it. He also stated that he noticed that all bi-laws have a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary. A block captain can be both. In our first year, volunteers that are not opposed and are then affirmed will be accepted in that position that they have volunteered for. Don reminded us that we still need a block captain for the 700 block of McCadden and the 700 block of Las Palmas. Laura Whipple volunteered to do the 700 block of McCadden. Don reported we need officers too. He nominated Dorian Shapiro for
Treasurer who has a background in Finance. Still need a Vice President and Secretary. MOTION to affirm the following block captain volunteers: Debra
Rosenbaum 800 Las Palmas, Laura Whipple 700 McCadden, Luis Miranda 700 June, Melinda Blum 800 Cherokee, Nadia Villarreal 800 McCadden, Sallie Higgins 700 Cherokee, Vanessa Carmichael 800 June.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
MOTION to affirm Dorian Shapiro as Treasurer.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
MOTION to affirm Don Hunt as President.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
MOTION to adopt the by-laws that Don handed out.
MOTION PASSED by a unanimous hand vote.
d. Database open for all Block
Captains:
MOTION for a privacy policy that all of our contact information in the block captains database be strictly for use of the SoHo neighborhood association and
not to be shared with any external organization.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
e. Update on 806 N. Las Palmas Small Lot Subdivision: A motion was passed that we are doing an appeal on this project. The appeal will be put it in on Monday. We are hoping to get as many concessions on 806 N. Las Palmas that we can get. This cost money, $218, for two appeals. A can was passed around to collect money to help pay for it. We were advised if we went over it would go to our neighborhood association and Dorian would set up a bank account for us. $342 dollars was raised at the meeting.
MOTION We need $218 to make 2 appeals and the rest will be used to open a non-profit organization bank account for our neighborhood association.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
f. Update on 851 N. Cherokee Small Lot Subdivision
MOTION to support this project based on the discussion below. DISCUSSION The developer made a lot of concessions along the way and worked with us for their approval. They filed to build 3 homes instead of 4 and made the front and back homes 2 stories, with the front set back matching the other homes and revising the height allotment to exceed by only 18 inches.
MOTION PASSED by 28 in favor, majority hand vote.
g. Special Overlay Ordinance for our neighborhood: We are going to continue to fight developers unless we can get a special overlay ordinance passed for our area. We will be asking to reduce the limit height to 25 feet, to match actual front set back in neighborhood (approx. 25 feet) and still have to have a backyard footage of 15 feet. A sign up sheet went around for those who wanted to be on this committee.
h. Facebook (Uschi Wilson): Uschi is creating a FB page and also a website for our association.
i. Emergency Preparedness (Brian Groh): Brian was absent from the meeting so this was not discussed.
j. Presentation by Developer on 816-828 N. June Street: The developer showed us other developments they have done in the past but they were not anything that would fit in our neighborhood. He showed us what he proposed and advised that it was all permitted in their plan: 12 small
lots, 3 stories, 2 parking spaces for each unit, open space, density and set back except for height which they are asking for additional height. It seemed
unanimous that we were all opposed to the project. We gave our suggestions and it was decided that the developer would come back with changes and that
we would form a committee to work with developer in trying to come up with a project acceptable to the neighborhood.
4. Other Business: Ben was asked if there was any update on the proposed 4 way stop sign at Cherokee and Waring. He advised there are different criteria to get a stop sign approval and that the city is back-logged. We need the city to come out and evaluate the situation. We discussed getting a petition signed to help our case with DOT. Also brought up was a van speeding on Waring that belongs to one of the businesses in the area. Ben suggested we contact West Traffic Division and write a letter to the business letting them know that we are working with the police to see if it fixes the problem. Ben also suggested that we change the parking restrictions on Waring to no parking nightly.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.
1. Call to Order
A duly noticed meeting of the SoHo Neighborhood Association was held on Tuesday, October 2, 2013 at John C. Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave. President Don Hunt called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m.
2. Roll Call and Approval of the Minutes
SoHo Neighborhood Association Block Captains in attendance were: Debra Rosenbaum, Laura Whipple, Luis Miranda, Melinda Blum, Nadia
Villarreal, and Sallie Higgins. Block Captain absent: Vanessa Carmichael. Seven of the eight block captains were present. Also in attendance was President Don Hunt and Ben Seinfeld from the City Council. Approval of the minutes was non-applicable since our first meeting was to see if the neighborhood wanted to form an association. The October 2, 2013 meeting is the first official meeting as the SoHo Neighborhood Association.
3. New Business
a. Block Captain Reports: Luis Miranda reported that the owner of the home directly next to the June development was in attendance at todays meeting so that we can hear how this has affected her. Melinda Blum reported that she attempted to go to all the neighbors on her block but was not able to get all the emails.
Sally Higgins reported that on the 700 block of Cherokee there are loud party noises. The house in question is rented and they have comedy night parties on
Tuesday nights (once a month). 200-300 people attend and it goes on until 11:00 pm. Ben Seinfeld suggested that Dave Cordova, a police officer, be contacted for all LAPD questions. If the house is being turned into a business, then we can get LAPD and the Office of City and Safety involved. The residents are allowed to have a certain amount of people to conduct business but there are rules in the municipal codes against customers coming in and out of the home all day long. The issue will be followed up. Sally also brought up the issue of there being a cost to permit parking, which a lot of people have inquired about getting on their streets. Ben reported that our neighborhood is in Preferential Parking District No. 40. We would need a petition with signatures from 2/3 of the homeowners and 2/3 of property
frontage. He recommended we apply for the No Parking 6pm to 8am nightly; 2 hour parking 8am to 6pm Monday – Saturday; Vehicles with District No. 40 permits exempted. Ben explained that residents can park anywhere there are these restrictions if they have a permit. The price is $35 a year for one permit. $22.50 every four months for two visitor permits. Guest passes for parties are $1 and good for 24 hours. The guest passes are only good for the block that the resident lives on. Sally then reported that a house on the 700 block of Cherokee sold and that it’s a tear down and even though the 700 block doesn’t have to worry about sub-division homes they should worry about a huge mansion being built next to their home. Raul, a resident, asked what can be done to prevent a huge home from being built and Ben answered that there isn’t much than can be done but suggested he could go on ZIMAS website, which handles zoning and permits, and check to see if the person building is doing so legally. Don mentioned another zoning site, that shows what permits have been pulled and history, and said he would send the link to
the group. I they don’t have a permit, then we need to go to the Department of Building and Safety website and report a violation. Once we get the reference number, Ben said to email him with the address, reference number and short description of the violation and he will get someone to issue a stop work order.
MOTION brought up that we should have any developer that is seeking our approval at our meetings to leave the room while the association discusses and
votes if they want to support or not support the developer. MOTION PASSED by majority hand vote. Debra Rosenbaum reported that she already started a parking
permit petition for the 800 block of Las Palmas and if anyone was interested in signing it to please see her after the meeting.
b. Name the Organization: Ballots with prior names submitted were handed out to everyone at the meeting. Additional names were added to the ballot during the meeting before the vote. There was a three-way tie between South Hollywood, June-McCadden and Hancock Media District. A vote was taken by a show of hands for all three names. MOTION to name our association South Hollwood (SoHo) Neighborhood Association. MOTION PASSED by a majority show of hands.
c. Bi-Laws/Affirm Officers: Don reported that every neighborhood has bi-laws and that he handed out and emailed everyone a copy of one that he put together. He stated that he wrote a neighborhood bi-law (taken from another neighborhood) and put all the neighborhood block captains in it. He also stated that he noticed that all bi-laws have a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary. A block captain can be both. In our first year, volunteers that are not opposed and are then affirmed will be accepted in that position that they have volunteered for. Don reminded us that we still need a block captain for the 700 block of McCadden and the 700 block of Las Palmas. Laura Whipple volunteered to do the 700 block of McCadden. Don reported we need officers too. He nominated Dorian Shapiro for
Treasurer who has a background in Finance. Still need a Vice President and Secretary. MOTION to affirm the following block captain volunteers: Debra
Rosenbaum 800 Las Palmas, Laura Whipple 700 McCadden, Luis Miranda 700 June, Melinda Blum 800 Cherokee, Nadia Villarreal 800 McCadden, Sallie Higgins 700 Cherokee, Vanessa Carmichael 800 June.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
MOTION to affirm Dorian Shapiro as Treasurer.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
MOTION to affirm Don Hunt as President.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
MOTION to adopt the by-laws that Don handed out.
MOTION PASSED by a unanimous hand vote.
d. Database open for all Block
Captains:
MOTION for a privacy policy that all of our contact information in the block captains database be strictly for use of the SoHo neighborhood association and
not to be shared with any external organization.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
e. Update on 806 N. Las Palmas Small Lot Subdivision: A motion was passed that we are doing an appeal on this project. The appeal will be put it in on Monday. We are hoping to get as many concessions on 806 N. Las Palmas that we can get. This cost money, $218, for two appeals. A can was passed around to collect money to help pay for it. We were advised if we went over it would go to our neighborhood association and Dorian would set up a bank account for us. $342 dollars was raised at the meeting.
MOTION We need $218 to make 2 appeals and the rest will be used to open a non-profit organization bank account for our neighborhood association.
MOTION PASSED by no one opposing.
f. Update on 851 N. Cherokee Small Lot Subdivision
MOTION to support this project based on the discussion below. DISCUSSION The developer made a lot of concessions along the way and worked with us for their approval. They filed to build 3 homes instead of 4 and made the front and back homes 2 stories, with the front set back matching the other homes and revising the height allotment to exceed by only 18 inches.
MOTION PASSED by 28 in favor, majority hand vote.
g. Special Overlay Ordinance for our neighborhood: We are going to continue to fight developers unless we can get a special overlay ordinance passed for our area. We will be asking to reduce the limit height to 25 feet, to match actual front set back in neighborhood (approx. 25 feet) and still have to have a backyard footage of 15 feet. A sign up sheet went around for those who wanted to be on this committee.
h. Facebook (Uschi Wilson): Uschi is creating a FB page and also a website for our association.
i. Emergency Preparedness (Brian Groh): Brian was absent from the meeting so this was not discussed.
j. Presentation by Developer on 816-828 N. June Street: The developer showed us other developments they have done in the past but they were not anything that would fit in our neighborhood. He showed us what he proposed and advised that it was all permitted in their plan: 12 small
lots, 3 stories, 2 parking spaces for each unit, open space, density and set back except for height which they are asking for additional height. It seemed
unanimous that we were all opposed to the project. We gave our suggestions and it was decided that the developer would come back with changes and that
we would form a committee to work with developer in trying to come up with a project acceptable to the neighborhood.
4. Other Business: Ben was asked if there was any update on the proposed 4 way stop sign at Cherokee and Waring. He advised there are different criteria to get a stop sign approval and that the city is back-logged. We need the city to come out and evaluate the situation. We discussed getting a petition signed to help our case with DOT. Also brought up was a van speeding on Waring that belongs to one of the businesses in the area. Ben suggested we contact West Traffic Division and write a letter to the business letting them know that we are working with the police to see if it fixes the problem. Ben also suggested that we change the parking restrictions on Waring to no parking nightly.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.
South Hollywood Neighborhood - Association General Meeting regarding Las Palmas Project 9-30-2013 Minutes
1. CALL TO ORDER. A duly noticed meeting of the June-McCadden Neighborhood Association was held on Monday September 30, 2013 at the John C. Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Avenue. President Don Hunt called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.
2. President’s Message. This was a special general meeting to address issues regarding the Zoning Administrator’s decision in a case related to the proposed Small Lot Subdivision at 806 N. Las Palmas Avenue. Don Hunt began with an explanation of related past events which included issues that we have gotten, such as a reduction in height, minor changes to the architecture, and type of trash pickup. He went on to mention that there were many items that should have been granted per the Small Lot Guidelines, but had not. These included number of stories, better architecture improvements and setbacks.
He explained that if our neighborhood is not happy with the decision, the next step is to appeal the decision to the Central Area Planning Commission. Commissioners are residents appointed by the mayor to be volunteers on the commission. Each appeal will cost $107 each or $214 for both. Don explained that if we choose to proceed, we need to form a committee and get it started.
There were only a few questions as most of the members had already been involved in the hearing or previous letter writing campaign that took place before the formation of the neighborhood association.
MOTION FOR NEXT STEPS. MOTION by Don Hunt, seconded by Laura Whipple, for the neighborhood to support appealing the Zoning Administrators decision regarding the property at 806 N. Las Palmas. Vote 23 in favor, Unanimous.
A committee was formed with Don Hunt as the chair. Members Melinda Blum, Debra Rosenbaum, Dorian Shapiro, Nadia Villarreal, Steven Dersh, and Angela Bradshaw.
3. Adjourned at 7:45 pm.
2. President’s Message. This was a special general meeting to address issues regarding the Zoning Administrator’s decision in a case related to the proposed Small Lot Subdivision at 806 N. Las Palmas Avenue. Don Hunt began with an explanation of related past events which included issues that we have gotten, such as a reduction in height, minor changes to the architecture, and type of trash pickup. He went on to mention that there were many items that should have been granted per the Small Lot Guidelines, but had not. These included number of stories, better architecture improvements and setbacks.
He explained that if our neighborhood is not happy with the decision, the next step is to appeal the decision to the Central Area Planning Commission. Commissioners are residents appointed by the mayor to be volunteers on the commission. Each appeal will cost $107 each or $214 for both. Don explained that if we choose to proceed, we need to form a committee and get it started.
There were only a few questions as most of the members had already been involved in the hearing or previous letter writing campaign that took place before the formation of the neighborhood association.
MOTION FOR NEXT STEPS. MOTION by Don Hunt, seconded by Laura Whipple, for the neighborhood to support appealing the Zoning Administrators decision regarding the property at 806 N. Las Palmas. Vote 23 in favor, Unanimous.
A committee was formed with Don Hunt as the chair. Members Melinda Blum, Debra Rosenbaum, Dorian Shapiro, Nadia Villarreal, Steven Dersh, and Angela Bradshaw.
3. Adjourned at 7:45 pm.
AGENDA:
1.Introductions
2. Overview of recent neighborhood problems and need for Neighborhood Association
3. Formation of the Neighborhood Association
4. Possibilities for limiting construction in our area
5. 806 N. Las Palmas project and plans for appeal of Zoning Decision, if necessary
6. 851 N. Cherokee project and vote to approve, stay neutral, or oppose project
7. 816-828 N. June project and vote to approve, stay neutral or oppose project
8. Speed Bumps, Stop Signs and Speed Limit Signs on Waring.
9. Parking enforcement issues in the area
10. Road improvement needs in the area.
11. Other issues from neighbors
Dear Neighbors,
First, I would like to thank everyone who has supported forming a Neighborhood Association. Last night’s meeting was co-chaired by Ben Seinfeld from Councilman Labonge’s Office and me. We had over 40 neighbors in attendance. At the meeting we voted in favor of forming a Neighborhood Association and began the process of organizing the group by getting volunteers from each block to act as Block Captains. Their jobs will be to meet with the neighbors on their blocks and get contact information. They will also act as the contact persons for their blocks. Those at the meeting also felt that I should continue to coordinate the Neighborhood Association in the capacity of President. There is a lot to be done, so we have scheduled another Neighborhood Association meeting for Wednesday, Oct 2 from 6 pm to 7:45 pm, at the Fremont Library on the corner of June/Melrose. Although, we will probably not be having meetings this often on a regular basis, we need to follow up on the naming of the association, gathering more information as to how to put in a local ordinance to limit future construction, put together a plan to oppose those construction projects that neighbors don’t feel are appropriate, determine the need for preferential parking in those areas that don’t have it, and discuss how to get on the list for street re-paving. Neighbors wishing to bring up issues in our meetings should contact me, and I will put the issue on the agenda.
We discussed the importance of attending the next Neighborhood Council Land Use Committee Meeting this coming Tuesday, September 24, at 6:30 pm in the Wilshire Methodist Church at 4350 Wilshire Blvd, so as to voice our opinions on two proposed Small Lot Subdivisions. One is at 851 N. Cherokee and the other is located at 816-828 N. June Street.
At last night’s meeting, we had the developer for the project at 851 N. Cherokee; speak on behalf of his project. His project is the most reasonable of those that I have seen. It is a Small Lot Subdivision in which he plans to build 3 units (instead of the 4 he is entitled to). The units in the front and back are 2 stories and the one in the center goes up to 3 stories. He is asking that we approve a height variance to exceed 30 feet for his center house. It seemed that this project needed a lot more time for discussion but, since we were running out of time, it was suggested that we could vote to not render a decision at that time. I stated that I would email copies of the plans for that project to everyone on our list. Then individuals would have the opportunity to review the plans, decide what they feel is best and state their opinions at the Neighborhood Council Land Use Meeting this Tuesday. We voted with 9 people in favor of the project and 20 who want to review the plans before making a decision. Those plans are attached to this email.
The project at 816-828 N. June did not fare so well. I have attached a file with pictures of that project and there was a unanimous vote to oppose that project. I will represent our group and oppose that project on Tuesday. Others are encouraged to speak on their own behalf, as neighbors of the project and state their opinions.
As to the proposed project at 806 N. Las Palmas, we are still waiting for the Zoning Administrator’s decision. I am assuming that there is a very good chance that we will not like his decision and will have to file an appeal. We discussed the possibility of a general neighborhood appeal, with multiple people signing it, and how an urgent meeting will have to be organized, as the appeal has to be filed in a very limited amount of time.
With regard to speed bumps on Waring, Ben stated that the city is discouraging speed bumps as they slow down emergency police and fire departments vehicles.
As to a stop sign at Cherokee and Waring, I asked that Ben bring in someone from Department of Transportation to assist us in obtaining that.
There was some discussion on Permit Parking for those areas where it doesn’t already exist. Ben said that he would be happy to assist in helping us with that.
However, there seemed to be some disagreement between some of the neighbors as to whether they wanted it or not. This too is an item that will need further discussion. Road improvements were also discussed, however since we were just about out of time, we only learned that they are scheduled for different areas
every year, and we are not on the list for this year.
The people who volunteered for Block Captains are:
800 Block McCadden Place: Nadia Villarreal, Nadia.Villarreal@Sothebyshomes.com
700 Block McCadden Place: Vacant
800 Block Las Palmas Ave: Debra Rosenbaum, debra@rosenbaumdesign.com
700 Block Las Palmas Ave: Vacant
800 Block Cherokee Ave: Melinda Blum, mgblum@mac.com
700 Block Cherokee Ave: Sallie Higgins, jhcontack@aol.com
800 Block June Street: Vanessa Carmichael, vkcpersonal@yahoo.com
700 Block June Street: Greater Land Use Committee Representative: Dorian Shapiro, dorianshapiro@gmail.com
We are missing 2 blocks, so if you want to volunteer, we need someone.
I encourage everyone to try to attend the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council Land Use meeting this Tuesday. Also join us at our next Neighborhood Association meeting on October 2.
Thanks, Don Hunt
1.Introductions
2. Overview of recent neighborhood problems and need for Neighborhood Association
3. Formation of the Neighborhood Association
4. Possibilities for limiting construction in our area
5. 806 N. Las Palmas project and plans for appeal of Zoning Decision, if necessary
6. 851 N. Cherokee project and vote to approve, stay neutral, or oppose project
7. 816-828 N. June project and vote to approve, stay neutral or oppose project
8. Speed Bumps, Stop Signs and Speed Limit Signs on Waring.
9. Parking enforcement issues in the area
10. Road improvement needs in the area.
11. Other issues from neighbors
Dear Neighbors,
First, I would like to thank everyone who has supported forming a Neighborhood Association. Last night’s meeting was co-chaired by Ben Seinfeld from Councilman Labonge’s Office and me. We had over 40 neighbors in attendance. At the meeting we voted in favor of forming a Neighborhood Association and began the process of organizing the group by getting volunteers from each block to act as Block Captains. Their jobs will be to meet with the neighbors on their blocks and get contact information. They will also act as the contact persons for their blocks. Those at the meeting also felt that I should continue to coordinate the Neighborhood Association in the capacity of President. There is a lot to be done, so we have scheduled another Neighborhood Association meeting for Wednesday, Oct 2 from 6 pm to 7:45 pm, at the Fremont Library on the corner of June/Melrose. Although, we will probably not be having meetings this often on a regular basis, we need to follow up on the naming of the association, gathering more information as to how to put in a local ordinance to limit future construction, put together a plan to oppose those construction projects that neighbors don’t feel are appropriate, determine the need for preferential parking in those areas that don’t have it, and discuss how to get on the list for street re-paving. Neighbors wishing to bring up issues in our meetings should contact me, and I will put the issue on the agenda.
We discussed the importance of attending the next Neighborhood Council Land Use Committee Meeting this coming Tuesday, September 24, at 6:30 pm in the Wilshire Methodist Church at 4350 Wilshire Blvd, so as to voice our opinions on two proposed Small Lot Subdivisions. One is at 851 N. Cherokee and the other is located at 816-828 N. June Street.
At last night’s meeting, we had the developer for the project at 851 N. Cherokee; speak on behalf of his project. His project is the most reasonable of those that I have seen. It is a Small Lot Subdivision in which he plans to build 3 units (instead of the 4 he is entitled to). The units in the front and back are 2 stories and the one in the center goes up to 3 stories. He is asking that we approve a height variance to exceed 30 feet for his center house. It seemed that this project needed a lot more time for discussion but, since we were running out of time, it was suggested that we could vote to not render a decision at that time. I stated that I would email copies of the plans for that project to everyone on our list. Then individuals would have the opportunity to review the plans, decide what they feel is best and state their opinions at the Neighborhood Council Land Use Meeting this Tuesday. We voted with 9 people in favor of the project and 20 who want to review the plans before making a decision. Those plans are attached to this email.
The project at 816-828 N. June did not fare so well. I have attached a file with pictures of that project and there was a unanimous vote to oppose that project. I will represent our group and oppose that project on Tuesday. Others are encouraged to speak on their own behalf, as neighbors of the project and state their opinions.
As to the proposed project at 806 N. Las Palmas, we are still waiting for the Zoning Administrator’s decision. I am assuming that there is a very good chance that we will not like his decision and will have to file an appeal. We discussed the possibility of a general neighborhood appeal, with multiple people signing it, and how an urgent meeting will have to be organized, as the appeal has to be filed in a very limited amount of time.
With regard to speed bumps on Waring, Ben stated that the city is discouraging speed bumps as they slow down emergency police and fire departments vehicles.
As to a stop sign at Cherokee and Waring, I asked that Ben bring in someone from Department of Transportation to assist us in obtaining that.
There was some discussion on Permit Parking for those areas where it doesn’t already exist. Ben said that he would be happy to assist in helping us with that.
However, there seemed to be some disagreement between some of the neighbors as to whether they wanted it or not. This too is an item that will need further discussion. Road improvements were also discussed, however since we were just about out of time, we only learned that they are scheduled for different areas
every year, and we are not on the list for this year.
The people who volunteered for Block Captains are:
800 Block McCadden Place: Nadia Villarreal, Nadia.Villarreal@Sothebyshomes.com
700 Block McCadden Place: Vacant
800 Block Las Palmas Ave: Debra Rosenbaum, debra@rosenbaumdesign.com
700 Block Las Palmas Ave: Vacant
800 Block Cherokee Ave: Melinda Blum, mgblum@mac.com
700 Block Cherokee Ave: Sallie Higgins, jhcontack@aol.com
800 Block June Street: Vanessa Carmichael, vkcpersonal@yahoo.com
700 Block June Street: Greater Land Use Committee Representative: Dorian Shapiro, dorianshapiro@gmail.com
We are missing 2 blocks, so if you want to volunteer, we need someone.
I encourage everyone to try to attend the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council Land Use meeting this Tuesday. Also join us at our next Neighborhood Association meeting on October 2.
Thanks, Don Hunt