If You're Not Mad, Read This
This post originally appeared on ConcernedForWestchesterPlaya.com
If you're not mad about our Community Plan Update and how it's rolling out, I daresay you don't know about these 10 things:
1. Our Housing Target Is A Mystery
Every planner you talk to at the city thinks we have a dire housing shortage that will only be solved by adding almost 500,000 housing units in the city of LA, a 35% increase for a housing cycle that spans only seven years (June 2022 through December 2030).
In fact, the city of Los Angeles has cooked up a plan to add 3x this number.
I and other members of our Alliance have been in meeting after meeting with city planners and asked how many of these units Westchester Playa is expected to take. Nobody will give us a number. How can we even have a meaningful community dialogue about our plan if we don't know what we're planning for?
2. The Draft Maps Are A Secret
Our CPU process started in 2018 or so. I worked with a private community group to produce a detailed report in response to the first draft plan. We thought the city was already being aggressive in its density plans.
Then came the 2nd draft, except that it wasn't really a draft report. It was a series of maps rolled out in relative secrecy to the city's handpicked Advisory Group.
The first map was titled "residential" and we all came unglued when we saw it, with its dramatic upzoning on all four quadrants around Manchester/Sepulveda and north up into Osage.
Then came the second map titled "commercial." It took several reads before most of us figured out that the "commercial" map meant more residential units but in mixed use format.
Then came the third map titled "industrial." We're getting more savvy and it only took us three reads to figure out this was yet another residential unit proposal, but in live/work loft style.
Why does it take three maps on a mystery website to give us a plan? Because the plan is way too scary to show on one map.
Did I mention that the separate maps are virtually unreadable without a separately provided key? If you don't have the key handy, you have no idea what the pretty colors mean.
Oh and there is a totally different key called a "correspondence table" to show the number of stories proposed and some in the commercial map are "unlimited stories."
Oh and the maps aren't on the website that we were all told about during initial outreach. They are being dribbled out on the Advisory Group website and mere mortals like us were left to find them on our own with no announcements or outreach by the city.
3. And About That Advisory Group
The first draft of our plan was the subject of many in person outreach events and multiple ways for the public to provide feedback.
When the city was ready to produce the next version of the plan, instead of public meetings, they invited the public to apply to join an Advisory Group.
I know at least two people who were highly qualified to sit on this Advisory Group and they didn't get so much as a "thank you for applying." Instead, the Advisory Group, formed in late 2022, is made up of primarily special interest representatives.
Although Westchester Playa makes up 1/4 of the four plan groups, we got five people out of 52 who live in our plan area, and four of them are there to represent special interests, not ours. In fact, there is not one Westchester resident representative on the Advisory Group who is sitting at the table for our single family homeowners.
And the Advisory Group is the only stakeholder in the conversation with the planners. We are utterly under-represented by that group. More recently, members of our community have been arranging private meetings with the planners, but the city didn't solicit our input and we have no idea whether we're being heard in those private meetings.
4. Upzoning & High-Rise Buildings Do Not Mean Affordable Housing
There are no mandates that entire buildings be made affordable. In fact, the current scheme contemplates that market rate developers build their market rate projects with 10% of units set aside for affordable housing.
The city's answer? Well we have to hit our RHNA numbers for affordable units, so we better massively overbuild to make sure that paltry 10% hits the right mark. I almost fell out of my chair when I heard our assigned planner say that in a meeting recently.
5. Why Aren't Brentwood & Pacific Palisades Taking Units?
Currently four plan areas in CD-11 are undergoing Community Plan Updates. CPUs are one of biggest hammers in the city's toolbox for allocating high-rise density.
Venice, Palms-Mar Vista, West LA and Westchester Playa were tapped for concurrent CPUs under the cutesy name "Planning The Westside."
But Brentwood and Pacific Palisades are also westside communities in CD-11 and they weren't tapped. They will presumably get CPUs eventually, but it will be later in the RHNA Cycle and possibly after most density goals are met.
Inquiring minds really want to know if they were left out because they have a demonstrated propensity for hiring lawyers to push back on government overreach. Time will tell, but for now, they are not at the table looking down the barrel of 15 story high-rises like we are.
6. Westchester Is Diverse Already
Westchester is pretty diverse and actually really closely reflects the demographics of the greater city of LA. There is nothing to rebalance here in terms of ethnic diversity. We also have some of the lowest home values in CD-11, so why would we need any economic rebalancing? Leave us alone.
7. Westchester's Population Is Projected To Decline
SCAG's own numbers show that unlike the other three westside communities, our population is projected to decline, yet the city thinks we need to add thousands and maybe tens of thousands of new units? Why? So they can sit empty and blight our communities?
8. Zero Thought By The Planners For LAX Implications
LAWA is forecasting 250K additional flights added in the next 25 years. We can't drive our surface streets at Christmas as it is right now. How are thousands more units we don't need going to square with increased traffic in to and out of LAX?
And don't forget we are virtually landlocked by the airport on the south and by the ocean on the west. Traffic is a problem and unneeded units is not going to help.
And speaking of LAX, the Northside Project is still to come with its nearly 2M square feet of commercial uses and the related boatload of traffic implications.
9. The City Is Pushing Units On Us For Changes That Won't Happen For 25 More Years
When the residential map dropped and we were all choking on our coffee, I couldn't figure out why the city did what it did in focusing 2/3 of the new density on the quadrants of Sepulveda/Manchester.
Then we started looking at the crazy Metro line shown bisecting Westport Heights on the CPU maps and that started us looking at the proposed Sepulveda Corridor project intended to connect the Valley with LAX.
Low and behold, our research found that a metro stop is proposed for Sepulveda/ Manchester ... in 25 years! Do we need to disrupt our communities now because a municipal project is planned in two and a half decades??
What could possibly change in that timeframe?? I'm looking at you Crazy Train!
10. Rezoning Not Eminent Domain
The city plans to rezone, not take your property in exchange for fair market value and develop a coherent, cohesive vision now.
No, rezoning simply means that any random developer can buy the lot next door to you and build whatever crazy project the new zoning will allow, whether we need it or not, and without community input.
This is worse than eminent domain. We'll all be tripping over each other to be the first to sell before our property is diminished in value by the 5-story monstrosity next door. Yuck!
Bonus Reasons To Be Mad
The city's target unit count for us (a mystery number) takes zero account of the fact that SB-9 can turn lots into four units and ADU laws can turn lots into 2-3 units (with Junior ADUs). We simply do not need the high-rises we're seeing on the maps rolled out to the Advisory Group.
Still Not Mad?
Still not mad after I gave you 10 reasons and a huge bonus reason to make your blood boil? Then you sleep better at night than I do, but do not under any circumstances come crying to me when a monster project goes up next door to you.
I'm here jumping up and down trying to make you understand the implications of what is going on. The rest is up to you.
Think it can't happen? Ask our friends at Preserve Westchester who came into existence over an SB-9 project being built at Georgetown/83rd with a 3-story duplex and two 2-story ADUs on a 6,000' lot. Goodbye street parking, hello noise and congestion.
What Next?
I hope you're as mad about all of this as I am. Please head over to our help page and tell us how you can help us get the word out.
If you're curious about implications for your own home, use our contact page to send me your address and I'll look it up on all three maps and let you know what you and your neighbors are facing if we don't successfully pushback on the absurdity of the draft CPU.
Tracy is active in a number of local community organizations including the Neighborhood Council PLUC, Neighborhood Council Ad Hoc CPU Committee, Kentwood Home Guardians and Emerson Ave Community Garden Club. The views expressed in this post are Tracy’s alone, and should not be construed in any way as an opinion of any other group. Are you planning a meeting with the planners? Have Tracy along to make sure you get the same information other community members get. Are you willing to host a group of your neighbors for a talk? Tracy would be happy to join you.
About Tracy Thrower Conyers
Tracy Thrower Conyers is a long-time resident of Westchester 90045. Tracy closely follows local politics, political players and social chatter relevant to Westchester. You’ll frequently find her at Neighborhood Council meetings, as well as on all the social platforms where 90045 peeps hang out. Tracy is a real estate broker and founding principal in Silicon Beach Properties. She is a recognized expert on Silicon Beach and its impact on residential and residential income real estate, and has been featured by respected media outlets including the LA Times, KPCC and KCET. Tracy is also a licensed attorney and accidental housing policy junkie.