URGENT:
This is to alert you to an action the City Council will be considering at Monday’s City Council Meeting which will negatively impact all WeHo residents.
We are requesting you forward this email to [email protected] to ask the City Council to vote AGAINST Staff recommendation for ITEM F6.
The City Council will be voting to eliminate the current Discretionary Review of new housing projects and approve Ministerial Housing Permitting – fast-tracking the approval process and eliminating the Public Process.
Bottom Line What This Means To You:
You will no longer be notified or have input when a new residential project is proposed for your neighborhood. Opportunity to appeal will be limited.
Real Life Example:
A couple of recent projects were proposed for WeHo Heights that would change with this new Ministerial Permitting Process –
In the past two years, two separate six-story projects were proposed on Larrabee, a street where almost all the buildings are two to three stories. One project proposed 24 units and 12 parking spaces. The other, 30 units and 14 parking spaces. No guest parking in either building.
The buildings were massive and would have blocked natural light to neighboring structures. Larrabee has 25 parking spaces for a street with over 500 residents. The developer suggested those units without parking spaces could use Zip cars, not a realistic solution. With Larrabee the steepest street in WeHo, only the most fit routinely use bicycles. Even walking up Larrabee is a struggle.
The neighborhood is zoned for three stories, going up to four with affordable units on site. Not six stories. Aggressive new state housing laws have overridden city zoning codes so there was nothing the residents or the city could do to scale back these structures.
In both cases, neighbors met with the developers to express valid and reasonable concerns. The neighbors requested the developers modify their proposals to be realistic about the impacts for everyone, including the future residents of these projects.
In both cases, the developers listened to the concerns and, to our knowledge, are reworking the plans.
Under Ministerial Permitting, this would not happen. There would be no meetings between developers and residents. The projects would be automatically approved as long as they met regulations and code. Neighbors would not be notified about new projects, nor would they be able to voice their concerns.
Summary:
If you do not support Ministerial Permitting, please submit a letter for the public record before Noon, Monday, May 5th. If you can also attend the meeting in person to protest this change, it is welcome.
Thank you,
Elyse Eisenberg
This is outrageous! I am only just now seeing this so I’ve missed the opportunity to provide any input. What in the world are they thinking?
This is what happens when you vote for inexperienced, ultra far left progressive extremists that are owned by the union. These people are going to destroy this city. Wake up. Vote them out.
I wrote a letter in support. Thanks for providing the email to do so
Any weho council member who has connections with developers should recuse themselves from voting on this initiative, which is aimed to expedite, with no supervision from the planning department or residents, projects of expensive units with no increase of affordable housing and with no concern for the integrity of West Hollywood. The fact that it’s even discussed it’s an abomination.
What on earth?? Very concerning!
The proposed initiative is a power grab from the City that will give the keys to the city to greedy developers who are salivating at the idea of building expensive units without any supervision from the Planning Commission or any feedback from residents. Developers are asking Council members for payback after financially supporting their campaigns. THIS IS SIMPLY OUTRAGEOUS AND IT WILL DESTROY WEST HOLLYWOOD, WITHOUT ANY INCREASE IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE PROCESS. This can’t happen in a progressive city that prides itself on championing civic participation. STOP THIS INITIAIVE!