Pending FPPC Referral Shadows Chelsea Byers at Today’s SCAG Meeting

West Hollywood residents have one more chance to weigh in today. In person, on Zoom, or by written comment.

The Southern California Association of Governments holds its Regional Council meeting at 11:30 a.m. at 900 Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles. On the agenda: the final vote on the SB 79 transit map. The one that now includes West Hollywood.

SB 79 kicked in yesterday; the map vote today locks it in and makes it official. The map above was shared by the West Hollywood West Residents Association. The “modern-day redlining” reference is the group’s characterization and was called racist by Councilmember Erickson at the May 18 City Council meeting. “Redlining was used to ensure communities of color cannot get homes,” he said. “Please stop using racist tropes to combat your understanding of what that even looks like. It is offensive to the history of redlining in this country, and the severe racial harm it has caused millions of Americans.” Mayor Heilman saw it differently. He agreed redlining had historically been used to exclude people of color — but said the term had expanded over time. West Hollywood knew that firsthand. In the City’s early years, insurers had redlined West Hollywood itself, driving up rates. “The term redlining has been expanded, and it’s been used in other ways as well,” Heilman said. “I don’t want any racist tropes being utilized. I don’t think the intent was to use it in that way.”

Heading into this morning’s meeting, there is an unresolved conflict of interest question over who speaks for West Hollywood. Councilmember Chelsea Byers has served as West Hollywood’s representative on SCAG housing matters. She is also the subject of a pending FPPC referral — submitted over her paid outside employment with a housing advocacy organization whose mission intersects directly with the policies before both the City and SCAG. Alan Strasburg, a longtime West Hollywood resident, sent a letter to SCAG leadership Tuesday asking the agency to sideline Byers on SB 79 matters until the FPPC completes its review. “It is equally inappropriate to proceed as though no legitimate questions exist,” the letter states. The referral was not made by a political opponent. It was initiated by the City.

Byers voted at the June 4 SCAG committee meeting against the preliminary map that had kept West Hollywood’s K Line stations off the upzoning list. She has said on the record that a seven-story baseline near transit makes sense citywide. City Staff confirmed directly and on the record that ZIP cannot override SB 79. They are not the same instrument.

Here’s how West Hollywood ended up back on the map. Three weeks ago it wasn’t on it. SCAG had taken the position that unbuilt transit projects didn’t qualify. Residents exhaled. Some Council members pointed to the map as a reason not to pursue a local plan.

Then the California Department of Housing and Community Development stepped in. HCD told SCAG its methodology was wrong. Planned transit projects with an approved route belong on the map. The K Line got its route approved March 26. That was enough. West Hollywood’s three future station areas — Santa Monica and San Vicente, Santa Monica and Fairfax, and Santa Monica and La Brea — went back on.

City Manager Jackie Rocco confirmed it Monday night at City Council. “Mapped areas here in West Hollywood are now expected to be subject to SB 79 beginning July 1,” she said. She outlined four options for the City — allow SB 79 to apply as written, adopt a TODAP, adopt a delayed implementation ordinance, or adopt local objective development standards consistent with SB 79.

No action was taken. Councilmember Lauren Meister pushed for an emergency session. City Attorney Lauren Langer said it would need to come back at the next meeting. There is no extension provision in the statute. Moving the deadline would require a legislative change from Sacramento.

On the population question, Maricich confirmed the State Department of Finance numbers — more current than the 2020 Census — will be used for annual map updates. The 2020 Census put West Hollywood at 35,757, just over the 35,000 threshold that determines whether the upzoning radius is a half mile or a quarter mile. Whether the current DOF figure puts West Hollywood above or below that line hasn’t been confirmed. If it comes in under 35,000, the radius shrinks. That question is still open.

Residents showed up to Monday’s meeting. City Council candidate Kody Christiansen, a West Hollywood renter, said what a lot of people in the room were thinking. “People don’t want seven story buildings next to the houses that they spent their lives earning,” he said. “Most residents of West Hollywood are not anti housing. They are pro housing. They just want a plan.”

Councilmember John Erickson pushed back from the dais. “You all come here every week, every other week, first and third Monday, and say, we, the residents,” he said. “We also hear from residents who do not have the luxury to come to a council meeting, because they are working, because they’re hourly employees, because they’re stuck in traffic. They’re renters, they’re everywhere else.” Erickson said those residents reach out too — workers who can’t make a 6 p.m. meeting because they’re on shift at a restaurant, parents with childcare issues. “They’re residents, and their views are very valid as well.”

It’s a fair and accurate point, but it’s also incomplete. The residents Erickson is referring to in his comments also aren’t just speaking for themselves. Much like the councilmember, they too are standing in for neighbors who share their views but face the same constraints Erickson described — late shifts, kids, traffic, long days, simply being too busy or sometimes just too tired to make it down. Not to mention, all speakers deserve a badge of courage since most people would rather die than speak in public, let alone in front of a sitting city council. It’s also true Councilmember Meister and Mayor Heilman were elected by many of those constituents too. The room Monday wasn’t ten people. It was a cross-section of West Hollywood homeowners, renters, long-timers, and newer arrivals who made the time. Their presence doesn’t cancel out the voices of those who couldn’t be there. Neither does their absence cancel out the ones who showed up. So in this case, while Councilmember Erickson makes a great point, it comes down to a draw.

Others called on the Council to prepare an emergency TODAP, arguing that West Hollywood was founded on local control and that residents deserve more than the opportunity just to speak.

Today’s meeting starts at 11:30 a.m. Public comment on SB 79 map items begins at 11:45 a.m. Attend in person at 900 Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles or join via Zoom at scag.zoom.us/j/83115565458. Written comments can be submitted in advance.

WEHOonline will update this story as today’s vote results become available.