Neighborhood Council - notes from March 2012 meeting
Z
Neighborhood Council
Saturday,
March 17, 2012 -- 10 AM -- Ken Edwards Center
Meeting
Notes
Valerie
Griffin compiled the agenda. Albin Gielicz chaired the meeting. Wilmont provided
the refreshments.
1) Dial-A-Ride -- An attendee stated that we should view Dial-a-Ride as “transportation insurance” for the disabled and seniors. There are ways to maximize service – disability awareness and integration of people with disabilities into city life. She stated that WISE and Healthy Aging receives $1.3 million per year from the city, with $250,000 specifically for transportation, but that it’s not spent on Dial-a-Ride. She is very dissatisfied with current Dial-a-Ride service.
Another attendee stated that WISE Connections is a separate wrap-around program, Dial-a-Ride has to be scheduled 6 days in advance. Taxi service has to be called 48 hours in advance, costs $3, and gives priority to city-sponsored meetings.
Councilmember McKeown stated that he’s been asking for taxi vouchers, a deep discount, for spontaneity in travel. It will be reviewed by the City Council in the next couple of months. An attendee suggested that neighborhood groups could ask their members for feedback regarding Dial-a-Ride customer satisfaction.
2) Neighborhood organization updates
a) FOSP – Current issues are the Airport Visioning process (some residents are having trouble registering for the discussion groups, and pilots seem to have organized themselves to “game the system”); the Justice Aviation Groupon ad for Discovery Flights that include people with no flying experience flying the planes and performing “steep turns” over Santa Monica and Malibu; and Common Ground, a social service agency that is moving in Sunset Park and has a 10-year history of being unable to control the anti-social behavior of its Homeless Youth (HYPE) program participants when they’re hanging out in the surrounding neighborhood. One of the attendees who serves on the Social Services Commission will ask the Commission about re-locating the HYPE program.
b) Mid-City Neighbors – The community meeting for the proposed Fresh and Easy store on Wilshire was packed by Mid-City and Northeast Neighbors members. Residents are concerned about insufficient on-site parking (38 vs 50 spaces), delivery truck impacts, selling alcohol, pre-packaged food, and labor issues.
If this site is approved as a supermarket location, that designation will carry over to future businesses. The Planning Commission would have to approve a CUP for alcohol sales as well as a parking variance.
c) Wilmont – The city’s Parking Coordinator, Frank Ching, will speak at their March 19th meeting. Wilmont website updates and innovations are underway. Wilmont and NOMA want to encourage Montana Avenue businesses to join both organizations and are considering designing decals for businesses to place in store windows.
d) NOMA – NOMA is now meeting the first Thursday of the month at Montana Branch Library, the 5,000 households have been flyered, 30-50 residents have attended meetings, and there is a 9-member Board. The focus of the March meeting was the Miramar hotel, with pro and con presentations. The April meeting will focus on zoning, with Jory Phillips, a new planner hired in August 2011, whose main responsibility will be writing the update for the City’s Zoning ordinance.
e) PNA – PNA is currently involved with youth violence prevention programs. A workshop re EXPO Line landscaping is coming up. PNA is supporting residents at Village Trailer Park and Mountain View Mobile Home Park. At VTP, there is great concern about the impacts from trailer demolitions on residents who already need oxygen for breathing problems.
f) Downtown – Councilmember McKeown stated that the City Council study session on the Downtown Specific Plan revealed that there are 3,500 households in the downtown area. It would be helpful to have a neighborhood group to represent that population. It was suggested that Wilmont could form a Downtown Committee until an independent neighborhood group is formed and include information about that in Wilmont’s city mailing.
3) Bergamot Transit Village update – SMCLC organized a press conference at City Hall on March 12th, the deadline for submitting comments on the DEIR. Leaders from various Los Angeles and Santa Monica neighborhood groups spoke before turning in their comments. The SMCLC comment is posted at www.smclc.net. The Wilmont comment questioned the DEIR assumption re 286 sq ft per worker, when research shows that 150 sq ft per office worker is more common, that therefore more than 1,800 parking spaces would be needed, and the traffic analysis would need to be re-done.
244 comments were submitted to the Planning Department. When Hines purchased the Papermate property in 2007, they proposed constructing only 300,000 sq ft, not 750,000 sq ft.
4) Village Trailer Park update – The EIR is still pending and the deadline for appealing the Landmarks Commission decision has passed. The new zoning code has not yet been written so the Council would have to re-zone VTP from R-MH (residential mobile home) to commercial in order for the Development Agreement for a multi-use project to go forward.
The March 17th Q-line responses in the Daily Press focused on VTP. Marc Luzzatto is having the trailers he’s purchased demolished in place, rather than removing them from the park first. This raises dust and contaminants that sickens some of the current 80- and 90-year-old residents who are already on oxygen. The city has stated that the trailers are “vehicles” and therefore demolition permits are not required, but it appears that some of the trailers have been reclassified in the past by their owners.
5) PCD meetings – Since Neighborhood Conservation is scheduled for the April 10th City Council agenda, consensus was reached to try to schedule a meeting of the heads of neighborhood groups and David Martin before April 10th, and for the NC reps to communicate by email to schedule a pre-meeting to discuss the agenda and talking points.
Topics could include reducing scale and massing in order to discourage developers from tearing down affordable housing and building high end condos. Also, the city could discontinue incentives for the construction of units for moderate income, as those are market rate and need no incentives. 60% of the people on the waiting list for affordable housing in Santa Monica are very low income.
6) Santa Monica Airport – At a meeting in West Los Angeles, Rep. Henry Waxman stated that he didn’t know that the City of Los Angeles might have difficulty closing the airport in 2015 if it wanted to.
7) Transportation Impact Fee – The Planning Commission discussed this on March 14th. It would be a text amendment to the zoning code and would not apply to Development Agreements, but could serve as a baseline for DA negotiations. 710 Wilshire is contributing $244,000 towards traffic mitigation. The City Council voted to implement such a fee in the 1990’s, but the staff never brought an action item back to the Council.
8) Community Benefits – The City Council has expressed an interest in maintaining a balance between benefits for the immediate neighbors vs. citywide benefits. One attendee suggested that there are really 3 tiers:
a) communitywide benefits, i.e., transportation
b) neighborhood benefits, i.e., undergrounding utilities
c) site specific benefits, i.e., tandem parking for employees in order to provide more open space
He was asked to develop one-pagers on zoning, community benefits, and neighborhood conservation.
It was stated that if the Planning Commission opposes a Development Agreement, their comments are not passed along to the City Council. However, if they support a DA, then their comments are given to the Council.
9) Future of the Neighborhood Council – The current Neighborhood Council has developed a focus on collaboration and communication. One attendee suggested “Don’t fix what’s not broken.” Valerie Griffin volunteered to continue writing the agendas, which will include an open block at the end, and will make arrangements with guest speakers (Kate Vernez is coming to the April meeting). Albin Gielicz agreed to continue chairing the meetings for 6 months, unless he needs step down sooner. Consensus was reached to revisit the NC Chair topic every 6 months. The NC neglected to select a Vice Chair.
10) 710 Wilshire – This will be on the March 20th City Council meeting. A commitment to a living wage for hotel workers is still an issue. If the hotel workers can’t afford to live in Santa Monica, the problem with traffic congestion caused by commuters will just get worse. Council endorsement of the DISCLOSE law sponsored by Julia Brownley is also on the March 20th agenda.
11) Announcements
An attendee commented on the high quality of the recent choir concert, orchestra concert, and musical theater production (“South Pacific”) at Santa Monica High School. D’Lynn Waldron has set up a new website to announce and archive SMMUSD dance showcases, concerts, plays, and musicals, as well as art exhibits. The URL is http://smmarts.info
LA Marathon, March 18, 2012
Buy Local Day, March 31, 2012 (postponed from March 17)
Next Neighborhood Council meetings: April 21 (FOSP will provide refreshments), May 12, and June 16, 2012