“Zap the ZIP” Town Hall Brings Mayor Byers To West Hollywood West Tuesday Night

Neighbors in West Hollywood West are hosting a “Zap the ZIP” town hall on Tuesday night, inviting Mayor Chelsea Byers and senior City Staff to talk directly with residents about the City’s Zoning Improvement Program, ZIP, and to hear concerns face to face.

The meeting takes place Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on the third floor of the West Hollywood Aquatic & Recreation Center, 8750 El Tovar Place. It’s being billed as a neighborhood organized town hall, with West Hollywood West residents urging neighbors and residents to turn out in person and “Zap the ZIP” by asking questions and putting their worries on the record.

Mayor Chelsea Lee Byers is scheduled to attend, along with Director of Community Development Nick Maricich and Assistant Director of Community Development Jennifer Alkire. The City team is expected to walk through where ZIP stands in the process, listen to feedback, and respond to questions about what any future zoning updates could mean for single family blocks, renters, and small property owners.

ZIP itself is the City’s long range zoning study tied to West Hollywood’s state mandated Housing Element. City Staff have said it is a planning and feasibility exercise, not a rezoning map, and that no specific zoning changes have been proposed yet. Any eventual recommendations would need environmental review, public hearings, and City Council direction, likely in 2026. You can read more in WEHOonline’s earlier explainer, West Hollywood Officials Clarify What ZIP Is In Light of Residents’ Concerns.

Organizers in West Hollywood West see it differently. Their flyer warns that ZIP will “rezone and up zone” neighborhoods across West Hollywood, opening the door to taller, larger buildings, from quadplexes to multi story apartments, on streets that are now almost entirely one and two story homes. They argue that could overwhelm the area’s scale, cut into privacy and light, and create new traffic and parking pressure on narrow residential streets. Many neighbors also see ZIP as something more fundamental, describing it as government “redlining” their blocks and “a taking of their private property, just disguised as rezoning,” as Jonathan Finstone told WEHOonline on Monday. The West Hollywood West Residents Association laid out many of these concerns earlier this fall in an urgent call to action.

One of the sharpest points of friction is height. Residents’ materials say ZIP could allow up to seven story buildings “right next to and on top of you.” City officials have pushed back on that claim in previous community meetings, saying the tall building examples shown in workshops were illustrative models meant to show a range of housing types, not actual proposed standards for single family blocks. WEHOonline covered that exchange in West Hollywood Officials Clarify What ZIP Is In Light of Residents’ Concerns and in earlier reporting like ZIP Proposal Sparks Outcry in West Hollywood West.

The residents group is framing Tuesday’s town hall as a critical moment to put guardrails in place before ZIP hardens into specific policy. They argue ZIP could hand “a windfall for developers, not residents,” and say the program offers “no protections” for homeowners or tenants if up-zoning moves ahead. They want the City to meet its housing numbers by focusing on commercial corridors and other parts of town instead of the city’s last predominantly single family neighborhood.

Finstone said the stakes feel especially high for long time homeowners he has heard from in recent weeks. “People need to show up and speak out, now. Over 200 residents have personally told me they oppose this up-zoning and rezoning, for many reasons, including they see it as government redlining their neighborhoods and homes,” he told WEHOonline on Monday. “Many long-time, hard-working residents who have invested their life savings into their homes say this is a taking of their private property, just disguised as rezoning. They believe the City is assaulting the value and stability of the neighborhoods they have built and maintained for decades. If our City representatives truly represent us, they will listen and choose a better path. But that only happens if people stand up, say what they want, and refuse to be ignored. This is the moment to make your voice heard.”

City Staff have said in other forums that ZIP is meant to balance new housing with neighborhood character, add affordability requirements, and keep anti displacement policies in place, including the City’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance and state “no net loss” rules.

For residents who want to review the underlying documents before the town hall, the City has posted FAQs, workshop boards, and background reports on the Engage WeHo ZIP page. WEHOonline has been tracking the debate all year, from early commission presentations to packed community workshops. If you want more background before you go, you can browse our full ZIP archive here.

For Tuesday’s town hall, the message from organizers is straightforward. If you live or own property in West Hollywood, or you care about how ZIP could shape future development in the City, showing up and speaking up is the most direct way to influence what happens next. As Finstone put it, “this is the moment to make your voice heard.”