The Players In Our Local Upzoning Conversation

This publication first appeared as a Concerned For Westchester Playa newsletter.

So Many Voices 💪

Dear Fellow Concerned Neighbors,

There are a lot of people in our community talking about our Community Plan Update and density issues, and I wanted to take a minute to explain all the players to help you understand what you might be hearing from each.

In the beginning, there was just me and Lisa under the name Concerned For Westchester Playa. We were out in the community and on social media working our tushies off to get the word out about Draft #2 and all the problems with it as fast as humanly possible. We printed flyers, we printed signs, we put up a website, we drafted a petition, we pushed for a community meeting, we rallied the press, we hit all the community group meetings and we were very, very busy on social media.

During that time, smaller groups started emerging. Initially we all came together under the name Alliance Concerned For Westchester Playa. These groups included Preserve Westchester, Concerned for Kentwood, Save Osage and Concerned for Westport Heights and a couple of others. We all worked together to create the Peripheral Plan and the One Voice Letter to Traci Park.

Later, two of the small groups, Concerned for Kentwood and Save Osage broke off from the Alliance and rebranded as “One Voice Westchester.” Clever marketing, but clearly not the “one” voice. We liked the Alliance as different groups coming together to support our community, and we still feature it on our website. The One Voice group, on the other hand, not so much of a team player. Instead of working collaboratively, they’ve been out in the community recently using their platform to criticize me and some of my work. It is a sad turn of events.

Another group that you might hear about is Build A Better Westchester. This group is all about high density everywhere. They passionately believe in the theory that we can’t build enough units fast enough. They pop up here and there in the community meetings.

Recently, there is another voice emerging from Ladera focused primarily on the Ladera and NE portion of our Community Plan Update. I expect to see them turning up more and more at our community meetings and they’ve been busy on social media. They brought out sizable groups to our last two NC Community Plan Ad Hoc Committee meetings.

Kentwood Home Guardians, the HOA for the 3400 member Kentwood community, has also used its voice to educate and advocate on the density issue for its sizable community.

And then we have the Neighborhood Council Community Plan Ad Hoc Committee. I am an active member of this committee and I drove the charge to turn our One Voice Letter into a supporting Neighborhood Council Letter. We drove that letter up through committee to the full council in record time.

The Committee is very active in the community with a big voice on our Community Plan Update, Housing Element and other density issues. They asked me last week to write an article on the Housing Element for The Hometown News. They are busy getting the word out. They also sponsored other recent articles by Cory Birkett, my highly regarded Alliance colleague and fellow CPU Ad Hoc Committee member.

Finally, we have our councilwoman’s office. Traci and her team (primarily Sean Silva and Jeff Klau) have worked tirelessly to receive community input and use their voice to influence city planning. We thank them for their continuing leadership in the density conversation.

So, as you can see, we have many important voices in our community on density and other lifestyle issues. I hope my quick summary helps clarify who all the players are. It take a village!! Hit me up with any questions.

ICYMI - This Is What We’re Up Against

The image above depicts the number of housing bills working their way through our state legislature right this minute. 😱 Why do we need five new ADU laws?

And that is only the housing bills.

This situation is unacceptable. No representative could possibly be reading all those bills. They end up horse trading votes without even knowing what they’re voting for. Sadly, the burden is on us to track all of this and do our best to shine a light.

I’d like to say we can vote the worst offenders out of office, but they are not even our own representatives. But they definitely push bad laws making our lives more untenable.

Find the bill descriptions from the graphic at this link. And please consider throwing a few dollars at LivableCA, a statewide group that has been hard at work for several years trying to keep us all in the know on these mostly terrible bills.

Another worthy group to support is Our Neighborhood Voices. They are the group behind the initiative to bring land use planning and legislation back to local control where we, the voters, can keep a closer eye on it. If they prevail, we won’t have to watch the State Legislature and their housing policy shenanigans so closely.

Both groups are pushing out expensive public awareness campaigns and hiring lobbyists to fight for us. Please help support them if you can.

The Peripheral Plan

The Peripheral Plan is a plan we’ve championed since the beginning to keep upzoning out of our single-family neighborhoods and prevent gridlock on our LAX boulevards. The plan was supported by thousands of voices in our community and endorsed by our Neighborhood Council.

The Plan map is shown below. Some are saying that new Draft #3 impacts to Ladera were pushed by our Plan. High density impacts to Ladera were never our intention in the least. We still believe those commercial lots in #4 are prime candidates to mix retail with housing, but we never ever suggested the City should upzone that area to a Regional Center with unlimited height. We stand with our Ladera neighbors in opposing a Regional Center designation in that area.

Next Steps

• Watch for the scoping and launch of the EIR process for our CPU

• Watch for us to initiate community dialogue about the Housing Element in process and its implementation (this is different from the CPU)

• Watch for us to get to the bottom of L-4 and organize a campaign to make our community aware of what the City is up to

• Watch for us to initiate community dialogue about the pressures of other recent state legislation on housing policy and Sacramento continuing to co-opt our local planning processes

🚨 Please take a minute right now to forward this email to 3 neighbors or local friends. 🚨

Have you signed our petition?

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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