No On HLA & CPU Update
This publication first appeared as a Concerned For Westchester Playa newsletter.
Two Big Things On Our Mind This Month
Dear Fellow Concerned Neighbors,
This month we are concerned about HLA on the ballot and we’re cautiously optimistic about our Community Plan Update (“CPU”).
HLA is a very time sensitive issue. If you find this email helpful, please forward it to 5 friends, neighbors and relatives here in Los Angeles.
We Are A Firm No On HLA
Measure HLA, also referred to by proponents as “Healthy Streets LA,” asks voters to require the city to redesign streets to be safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Sounds like a good thing, right?
What isn’t readily apparent is that the law will be tied to an old Mobility Plan, a plan so controversial and expensive, our city council has all but ignored it since adoption in 2015.
The Mobility Plan, a Mike Bonin legacy project, prioritizes bike lanes over car lanes. That and the fact HLA is being pushed by the same guy who wants to do away with the 90 Freeway. ❌❌❌
If approved, Measure HLA will require the city to implement street modifications from the Mobility Plan whenever there’s any improvement to as little as 1/8 mile of a road or sidewalk. Even simple resurfacing will trigger the law. Effectively, this measure will result in either unimproved streets or road diets. We call this measure “Hello Road Diets.”
Read more about the disruption and expense related to HLA on Tracy’s personal blog. Hint! Our councilwoman thinks this measure will cost us a bundle, in a time when our city is already crying poverty.
We Are Cautiously Optimistic About Our
Community Plan Update
We were invited to a meeting just before the holidays with Traci Park’s staff to talk about new developments with our CPU. Catch up on the CPU history on our website here.
First, we got a nice surprise when Traci herself broke away from another meeting to pop in and say hello. She acknowledged there was too little community engagement in the CPU process this past year and she said again “I want to get this right for our community.” She also complimented our community on all our hard work getting the word out about our unique challenges as a community.
The big news is tentative and we won’t have confirmation until we see the new maps (hopefully this month), but we were told to expect significant changes to the next maps when they are disseminated.
The changes we’re being told to expect are the direct result of our community’s hard work. We banged the drum long and hard about:
our unique role as gateway to LAX
how LAX arterial densification will burden LAX ingress and egress
how many of our neighborhoods are landlocked by LAX arterials
how the draft plan would encourage displacement of our rent-stabilized population
contributions our community has already made to bringing new units online in the last 10 years
the secret rollout of Draft 2 maps to a handpicked Advisory Group being a travesty
We were also told the tour our Neighborhood Council hosted in mid-November (Lisa & Tracy were both in attendance) was instrumental in educating the planners about our unique challenges.
Your emails, attending meetings and rallies, support with banners and yard signs and willingness to come together as a community, made and will continue to make a huge difference. Congratulations neighbor! We’ll know soon for sure what the total picture is, but it is readily apparent that together we can do great things to keep our community a great place to live, work and play.
From our families to yours!
The Peripheral Plan
The Peripheral Plan is a plan we’ve championed since the beginning to keep upzoning out of our single-family neighborhoods. The plan was supported by thousands of voices in our community and endorsed by our Neighborhood Council. We still stand by this plan and believe the recent developments reported above align with the plan.
The plan map is shown below. These are the benefits:
No upzoning for any residential lots;
No upzoning for multi-unit lots along our corridors with high RSO and Section 8 housing (to preserve the affordable housing we already have in our community);
Reuses existing office buildings for mixed use housing (close to transit and environmentally preferred);
Provides new affordable housing in areas on the periphery where affordable high density housing can easily be developed without impacting residential zoning and our gridlocked corridors; and
Prevents the further demise of “F” rated intersections from high density housing in communities close to these corridors. Sepulveda, La Tijera, Lincoln and Manchester are used by the 65 million Los Angeles World Airport passengers (expected to double in the next ten years).
We will continue to fight for this plan to minimize impacts to our LAX arterials and single-family home neighborhoods. Please continue to talk up the plan in our community.
Next Steps
VOTE!! The Pro-HLA movement is well financed and very organized. So many people don’t see the harm in a few bike lanes. We wish it was just about a few bike lanes. If you share our concerns about Road Diets and budgeting, please vote NO!
Tell 10 friends about your concerns with HLA (forwarding this email is easy!)
Watch for final CPU maps this month
Watch for us to initiate community dialogue about the Housing Element in process and its implementation (this is different from the CPU) (get a head start by reading about the Housing Element on our blog here)
Watch for us to initiate community dialogue about the pressures of recent state legislation on housing policy and Sacramento trying to co-opt our local planning processes
Watch for the scoping and launch of the EIR process for our CPU following publication of the final draft maps (rescheduled to Spring)
Please take a minute right now to forward this email
to 3 neighbors or local friends.
Concerned For Westchester Playa - Sharing upzoning and housing policy information and guidance to residents in Westchester, Playa del Rey, Ladera and Playa Vista
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