News and Upcoming Events
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE:
2009 and Beyond
2009 was a busy year for the Hillside Federation and for the issues important to protecting and preserving our hillside communities -- and to improving the quality of life for all of Los Angeles. 2010, also promises to be a crucial and productive year for us. Thank you to all of our members and supporters for all of your work – and for your continued involvement in the vital work of our Hillside Federation.
Here are some highlights of the year that was – and the year to come:
Baseline Hillside Ordinance
Draft Language is still being worked on. We will continue to push for a timely enactment of appropriate guidelines and limitations for hillside development.
Cultural Heritage Ordinance
The L.A. City Planning Commission (CPC) on September 10 voted 7-1 to approve significant amendments to the City's major preservation law, the Cultural Heritage Ordinance.
Billboards
On August 7th, the L.A. City Council unanimously approved an ordinance banning all new off-site Billboards and Digital signs. Enforcing the laws on the books and limiting the proliferation of billboards remains a problem.
Hillside Redefinition Mapping
A Hillside Area Amendment was adopted, removing about 51,000 single-family zoned lots from the Hillside Area designation.
EAHCLA
The Environment and Housing Coalition and the Hillside Federation participated in a challenge of the City of L.A.’s SB 1818-related ordinance authorizing density bonuses. The court ruled that the City is prohibited from providing incentives that exceed the SB 1818 mandate through ministerial procedures, but not those bonuses that underwent environmental review commensurate with discretionary actions.
Marijuana Dispensaries
The L.A. City Council voted to cap the number of dispensaries at 70 – but as a practical matter many additional existing dispensaries would be allowed to continue operating. The Council plans to revisit its decision in 2010.
LA City Budget Crisis
In May a $7.1 billion budget was approved for the 2009/2010 fiscal year, with cuts in staffing and services. Early retirement and pensions fund liabilities remain unresolved. Significant deficits are forecast for the coming years – and tough choices will have to be made.
Projects We Have Been Following
Hillside projects and issues keep coming. We are continuing to follow and advocate for residents on a variety of projects, including: Proposed 405 widening, school expansions on the Mulholland Corridor, and the NBC / Universal project.
Events
The Hillside Federation hosted panoply of speakers and successful meetings and events in 2009, including a town hall meeting with City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and two CD5 candidates in a runoff forum.
Look for the Hillside Federation to continue and build on our successes in 2009, and for us to remain vigilant and at the center of issues impacting our hillsides and all of L.A.
Joan Luchs
President
DWP needs Independent Citywide Ratepayer Advocate
“Pretty soon, my DWP bill is going to be more than my mortgage.” 2009 was marked by an unprecedented increase in our water and power rates. Water and power rates are projected to increase by 28% and 13%, respectively. These increases are even higher for single-family homeowners because of the Rate Restructuring Plan and the Shortage Year Water Rates.
And if the Department of Water and Power has its way, our rates will go up even more. The costs associated with Measure B and the motion to essentially eliminate the cap on the Energy Cost Adjustment Factor (“ECAF”) would have the potential to increase rates by billions. 2009 was also marked by deteriorating infrastructure, captured by internationally distributed front-page photo of a fire truck being swallowed by a massive pothole.
Other costs will also be increasing:
As a result, DWP is contemplating an 18% and 10% increase in the Base Rates for power and water in 2011. But 2009 also saw the defeat of Measure B despite the expenditure of millions by the IBEW union, the Mayor and his friends, sending a strong message to City Hall.
In September, the City Council followed the recommendation of the City Administrative Officer and rejected a motion rubber stamped by the politically appointed Board of Commissioners that would essentially eliminate the cap on the ECAF. DWP failed to provide the necessary information that could be reviewed on a timely basis.
At the same time, City Council also rejected a 30% and 62% increase in Tier 2 and Tier 3 summer power rates and 30% for the new winter Tiers. As a result of the increasing frustration with DWP on the part of the City Council, three motions for an Ombudsman, Inspector General, or Ratepayers Advocate (together, the “Ratepayers Advocate”) have been endorsed by a majority of the City Council.
On December 15, the Energy and Environment Committee directed the DWP to prepare a written report regarding its views on the Ratepayers Advocate. The Committee also directed the Chief Legislative Analyst, and City Attorney to prepare a more detailed report. In the beginning of 2010 the Committee will hold hearings on the Ratepayers Advocate.
In addition, the City has the opportunity to appoint an experienced executive to be the new General Manager. This would also begin to restore the DWP’s credibility. The right General Manager would also have a positive impact on DWP morale. However, the appointment of an unqualified person would be disastrous.
This year the DWP must prepare a comprehensive Renewables plan that details the cost and the impact on rates of the mayor’s “No Coal by 2020” directive as well as the implications of 20% Renewables by 2010 and 40% by 2020. This will have a significant impact on rates.
Finally the DWP must also implement the recommendations of the IEA Survey, especially those related to its operations against other municipal and investor owned utilities in order to get a better understanding of DWP’s efficiency.
While there is considerable optimism about the Ratepayers Advocate, there are some dark clouds on the horizon:
DWP’s new solar plan, the Son of Measure B, (the “SOB”) fails to disclose the costs of the plan and the impact on Ratepayers. The SOB envisions that inexperienced DWP management and its notoriously inefficient work crews will construct and install the 400 megawatts of in basin solar power.
This exclusive, no bid, “Utility Built” arrangement is a payoff to the IBEW and will cost you … the Ratepayers … billions more than if the work was competitively bid out to bonded private contractors using skilled members of the Building Trades. This overage is essentially doubled because of interest expense, the 8% transfer fee, and the 10% City Utility Tax.Needless to say, the proposed Utility Built alternative needs to be rejected because of the financial consequences and its failure to create as many jobs as possible.
Another dark cloud is that the City may again raid DWP to help alleviate its chronic financial problems. This could result in special payments like the $60 million payment in 2005, the “outsourcing” of services to DWP at low rates, the dumping of more politically connected City employees onto the DWP payroll, the merging of DWP’s pension plan with the two underfunded City pension plans, and the continuing financing of Mayor Villaraigosa’s junkets and private jets.
If there is reason for optimism in 2010, it will come from Ratepayers and Neighborhood Councils becoming even more vigilant and developing even more efficient methods of communication with each other, the public, the City Council, the Controller, the City Attorney, the Mayor, and DWP. That could be the sunshine that parts the clouds and leads to the well-run, efficient, and transparent DWP that provides reliable service in an environmentally sensitive … in an affordable manner … that Los Angeles Ratepayers desire. And deserve.
Jack Humphreville
President of the DWP Advocacy Committee |
Community Leaders meet with Controller Greuel to discuss Audit Findings
“The City of Los Angeles has not established an adequate process for reviewing, approving, and overseeing development projects that ensures that the final project conforms to the intent of the decision maker.” That’s the conclusion of a recent Audit conducted by a consulting firm hired by the City Controller to conduct an audit of planning and development in Los Angeles.
Three dozen neighborhood council members and neighborhood advocates – including the Hillside Federation -- attended a November 14 Land Use Stakeholder Meeting to discuss the findings of the Audit, to get the input of grass-roots leaders, and to plot a course for fixing the current mess. The meeting, hosted by City Controller Wendy Greuel, featured representatives from Harvey M. Rose Associates, LLC, the firm that conducted the audit, along with Michael LoGrande of the L.A. Planning Dept. and John Biezins of the Dept. of Building & Safety.
The Audit report was released in March, just before the departure from office of former City Controller Laura Chick. Recently elected Controller Greuel is now in the process of calling attention to, and getting action on, audits that haven’t been acted upon. Controller Greuel announced that a staggering 46% of Controller audits conducted between 2004 and 2009 hadn’t been heard by the City Council or any of its committees. Moreover, while city departments are required to reply to the Controller’s audits within 30 days, it has often taken nine months or more to begin getting responses. “We need to push and nudge,” said Controller Greuel. By bringing more public attention to the audits – and to departments that don’t timely respond – Controller Greuel wants to make sure that the audits, along with suggestions for reform, don’t merely get shelved.
Among the findings of the Audit: “No single City department manages development projects from the project review through project construction and completion. The Department of City Planning does not manage other City departments’ review of proposed projects, and does not actively monitor compliance with the projects’ conditions of approval once the building permits have been issued. In the absence of a single point of management, development projects can materially change during the project plan review and project construction and completion, resulting in the final project being different from the project as it was approved by the decision maker.”
Other key findings:
- The City of Los Angeles’ community plans, which represent the Land Use Element of the General Plan, are outdated and not specific enough to consistently and predictably direct the development project approval process.
- The Department of City Planning recommends conditions of approval that are not clear or specific.
- The Department of City Planning does not actively manage other City departments.
- Department of Building and Safety’s modifications can materially alter the project from the initial plans that were submitted to and approved by the decision maker.
- The Department of City Planning lacks department-wide documentation standards for clearing conditions on development project plans and maintaining records.
- The Department of City Planning does not actively monitor project compliance with the determination letter’s conditions of approval once the building permits have been issued.
- None of the City departments directly involved in the development process have adequate controls to ensure that the project complies with the conditions of approval.
- The Department of City Planning’s new data management system (Condition Development and Management System, or CDMS) automates many of the Department’s manual processes but the system alone does not fully address processes for managing development project conditions of approval in an adequate manner.
- City departments do not consistently track, plan or budget for maintenance of public improvements installed as a result of conditions of approval for development projects. In addition, Some City departments do not collect sufficient fee revenues to cover the costs of maintaining public improvements.
These and other problems were discussed at the Nov. 14 meeting, along with issues raised by Hillside Federation President Joan Luchs in a letter to Controller Greuel. Among the President’s points to the Controller:
“Discretionary applications should not be approved unless the impacts are fully identified and mitigatable with the City's current infrastructure…. approval of any discretionary application must be based on the merits of the project and not any outside influences. If projects continue to get approved without adhering to existing codes as the current climate process has been permitting and looking the other way... more and more residents and businesses will be exiting Los Angeles due to the continued deterioration of quality of life in this city.”
Adding to the problems of process, are the problems of increasingly limited resources. Everyone at the meeting expressed concern about the impact that staff cuts and retirement could have on the already over-burdened planning, approval, and enforcement process. Building and Safety could lose more than 10 percent of its staff, and many of the Planning Department’s most seasoned employees have signed up for early retirement. All this is happening at a time that Zoning Administrator cases are near an all-time high.
What’s next? The Controller pledged to follow up with those in attendance, and the groups they represent – including the Hillside Federation – with dates that the Audit will be heard in the Council’s Audits & Governmental Efficiency Committee, the Planning & Land Use Management Committee, and the full City Council. The Controller’s website has detailed recommendations for addressing many of the problems, and the responses (or non-responses) of the departments will be posted on an ongoing basis. The Planning and Building & Safety Departments also promised to create a task force to better cooperate with each other, and to include community representatives.
As it always has, the Hillside Federation and all of our stakeholder members, need to be vigilant in making sure we see the timely implementation of much-needed changes and reforms.
Ron Galperin
President
Crests Neighborhood Association
Big Changes for the Future of Autry/Southwest Museums
Change rapidly occurred this summer. The significant culminating event occurred on August 11th when the Autry National Center notified the City, via the media, that it was withdrawing its request to seek the City’s approval of their proposed Griffith Park project. Autry effectively killed their own project before the City had any chance to vote “yes” or “no” and then used the media to lay inappropriate blame for their decision upon the City.
Autry had filed the official project application with the City in 2008. The LA Board of Referred Powers Committee was the first official approval in a multi-stepped entitlement process and the project was agendized for consideration on June 30, 2009. Hillside Federation, as an organizational member of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, helped organize a significant turnout that day to ask the City not to approve Autry’s project without a condition that protected the ongoing museum operation at the Southwest Museum and Casa de Adobe.
A reasonable request considering the stated intent of the 2003 Merger was to create two independent museums and Autry’s own study concluded that the Southwest Museum was viable as a museum. That merger promise has been broken by Autry since 2005 when they announced their plans for relocating the Southwest Museum to Griffith Park as one supersized Autry museum -- the main purpose for their proposed $175 million project.
At this meeting, in a surprise to the Coalition, Councilmember Jose Huizar asked the Committee to delay a vote and give him time to negotiate with Autry a protection for the first museum in Los Angeles. Coupled with this request and the overwhelming turnout, the five-member Committee agreed unanimously. Through its lobbyist, Latham &Watkins, Autry indicated it would not negotiate going forward (and that proved to be absolutely true).
Councilmember Huizar proceeded to open a negotiation with Autry and was the first elected official to be granted a meeting with the Autry Board of Directors. As he recounted, it was clear that the Southwest Museum wasn’t a priority. Even Autry’s 2007 promises to him to convert the museum to a cultural center (which the Coalition opposed) would not be acceptable to them as a condition of the city’s approval for their proposed project and lease amendment with the City. Instead of finding a workable compromise, Autry pulled out, refused to modify their project or fulfill the original intent of the merger.
The result of their project withdrawal is two-fold:
1) the open space and parkland in Griffith Park will no longer be impacted by more buildings (nearly 300,000 sq ft was proposed)
2) the Southwest Museum still has a uncertain future as it has since Autry closed the majority of exhibition space years ago to utilize the building as a warehouse for artifacts.
Nicole Possert
Chair of Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition
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Defeat of Las Lomas Mega-Development Reaffirmed by Courts
The California Supreme Court has denied the final appeal of the Las Lomas mega-development and upheld the Lower Court's ruling in favor of the City of Los Angeles. This move finally exhausts Las Lomas' ability to move forward with their project, which proposed building 5,500 homes, a 300-room hotel and 2 million square feet of commercial space in the north San Fernando Valley where the 5 and 14 Freeways converge.
The project site is in an environmentally sensitive and seismically active area that is a huge traffic bottleneck for the region. Our office led the fight to defeat this project together with a large, diverse coalition of opponents including hundreds of community members and groups including the Hillside Federation, Neighborhood Councils, environmental advocates, elected officials, public safety officers and many others.
Councilman Greig Smith
Council District 12
www.CD12.org
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