Meeting Notes and Minutes: The Greater Valley Glen Council will have an agenda item for a Barbara Ann Update at their next board meeting on December 1, 2008. The GVCB meeting will start promptly at 6:30 p.m. and will be held at Los Angeles Valley College's Cafeteria Conference Room. Click Here for a downloadable or printable pdf flyer. Monday, July 21, 2008, 2:30 p.m. Notes by Steven Porus I want to thank the 60+ people that came to support us with our Los Angeles City Planning appeal today We had a tremendous turnout, especially because it was during a work day. Special thanks to Councilmember Wendy Greuel, although she could not attend, she empowered Dale Thrush, Director of Planning and Economic Development to speak on her behalf, Thank you Dale for your major contributions. Thank you to the Greater Valley Glen Council members for their continued support: Judy Price, President; Terry Anderson, Vice President, Ted Gelberg and Doug Breidenbach, Co-Chair for the PLUM Committee. Thanks to Asta Criss, Vice President of the Valley Glen Neighborhood Association. Last, but not least, Rob Glushon, Darlene Kuba and Phillip Kaainoa, our legal/advocacy team. I believe that our side had a great presentation to our hearing officer, Eric Ritter, Zoning Administrator. Rob Glushon and Phillip Kaainoa presented several worthy points. The original variance No. ZA-2000-5437(ZV) granted the conversion, use and maintenance of an existing 3417 square-foot lodge/assembly building into an adult computer software training institution and to permit the continued use and maintenance of parking within the R4-1 Zone with conditions. is not valid because the adult computer software training institution no longer occupies the building in the C1 Zone. If this project was strictly an apartment complex, not trying to allocate commercial parking, it would have been a "Right to Build" development. However, Dan Green, former Zoning Administrator made a mistake when he approved the plans with that incorporated the original variance. Additionally, the building plans allocated the commercial parking in the R3 zone, which made this a discretionary decision. This would have triggered a hearing before anything was built. Rob also discussed CEQA and the Friends of Westwood case. Our hearing officer, Eric Ritter, brought up the issue of co-mingling of Commercial and Residential parking. When he asked the developer Alex Kuiumdjiah, the managing owner of Barbara Ann Street LLC, along with his architect John Lech Barakonski. and Attorney Constance Bessada, they offered that although there were no dividers, the commercial parking would not mix with the residential parking. Eric Ritter asked if it was possible for commercial vehicles to park in the residential parking, and Alex Kuiumdjiah finally conceded that it was possible. During the entire developer presentation, they did not address any of our issues, When it was my turn to speak, I covered the fact that from the time Rob Glushon informed the developer about our appeal, the construction speed escalated. Additionally, I discussed the substandard streets in our neighborhood, our traffic study and how an additional 80+ vehicles would create safety issues. I finished with documented proof of the developer's violations to starting times, quitting times, and blocking traffic and driveways with extremely heavy commercial vehicles. I gave printed maps, photos, and recollections along with a photo CD to be included in the hearing records. Asta Criss gave VGNA's support and presented a letter to be included in the hearing records. Judy Price gave GVGC's support and also presented a letter to be included in the hearing records. Doug Breidenbach gave his input regarding the co-mingling of Commercial and Residential parking in the 2 levels of the subterranean parking lot. Iris Swenson discussed the impact the development project is having on our neighborhood. Dale Thrush overviewed and clarified the points discussed in this appeal and reported that Councilwoman Wendy Greuel requested that our appeal be approved. He also suggested that Eric Ritter forward developer's written rebuttal to Rob Glushon for review and rebuttal prior to any decision being made. Eric Ritter agreed. Rob Glushon gave a final review of the contents of this appeal. When a decision is reached, I will submit a report to everyone as well as put it on the website with an explanation of the next step. A final thanks to Ronnie Piken, Sandy Kaplan, Iris Swenson and their committee for posting the signs in our neighborhood and creating an info/checkin table at the hearing.
Our Hearing is set. Please share this info to neighbors, wee need everybody there! Date: Monday, July 21, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. Monday, April 7, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. 50 Grid 4 Neighbors Attended. The Greater Valley Glen Council Board Members unanimously voted in both items on the agenda regarding the Barbara Ann Apartments (AKA Lighthouse Apartments) Jim Dantona arrived later and shared with Asta Criss that Councilwoman Wendy Greuel will be meating with us along with the heads of LADBS, LADOT and City Planning. I will keep you posted. We will be presenting information and signed petitions at this meeting regarding our issues with the ingress and egress to the apartments accessing Barbara Ann Street. Friday, April 4, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. The City Council meeting for April 4th will be canceled due to the funeral for the LA City Fire Fighter who died in the explosion last week. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I wanted to make sure people don't take time off for a meeting that won't be happening. Council does meet on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday almost every week. Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Notes from meeting by Steven Jay Porus Item 4-A: Review and possible Motion regarding neighbor's concerns about a forty unit apartment building at 13505 Barbara Ann St. that has been permitted and is under construction behind Lighthouse Restaurant on Sherman Way due to traffic and density issues. Motion and Pass to be put on the agenda for Greater Valley Glen Council Board Meeting on April 7, 2008: Letter to LADBS to review R-3 and R-4 Density. How many 1 and 2 bedroom apartments are in R-3 and how many 1 and 2 bedroom apartments are in R-3 areas of lot. Additionally, how many spaces are allocated for the Lighthouse Restaurant and where are they located. Motion and Pass to be put on the agenda for Greater Valley Glen Council Board Meeting on April 7, 2008: Letter to LADOT to review and rescind ingress and egress onto Barbara Ann Street because of added traffic to sub standard streets. Additionally unloading in a residential R-1 neighborhood. The owner/developer of these apartments as well as all Valley Glen residents are invited and encouraged to attend the April 7th meeting. Neighborhood Meeting Minutes March 20. 2008 at 7:30 p.m. Steven Porus opened the meeting by thanking everyone and briefly outlined the situation, then turned the floor over to Jim Dantona. Jim had indicated that he drove the area and understood the immediate problems that would be raised by creating an outlet at Barbara Ann street. He explained that the current property is zoned commercial C-1 in the front ( Lighthouse restaurant & banquet hall ). In the back ( Disputed area ) a small portion of it zoned for R-4 ( allowing higher density residential apartments) and a majority of it R-3 which backs to Barbara Ann street ( allowing apartments but at a lower density). This provided the builder with 30,000 sq ft. 1 unit per 400 sq ft is the 40 unit apartment complex. The Depart of Transport (DOT) has previously implemented a regulation to cut down on high density turn outs onto major streets like Sherman Way; which required the parking entrance and exit openings on Barbara Ann. The builder is using the zoning the current exists so he did not need any variances. Had a variance been required, it would have opened it up to a hearing and then neighbor & council would have the opportunity to present its case against the Barbara Ann opening. Jim is still researching to find any variances on this property – there are two good grounds for an LA Building and Safety Appeal, first is that the design of the apartments evenly distributes the apartments that cross over between a R-3 and R-4 zones - technically, the higher density need to be in the Zone R-4 and the lesser density needs to be in the Zone R-3 - not averaged, which is what it appears the apartment building developer has done. The second is the parking issue for C-1, (the Lighthouse Restaurant and Lodge) To keep the existing building in code, the structure requires 40 parking spaces. The code states that all parking spaces are to be in the same location. According to the site plan on record, the developer allowed 15 spaces in back of the restaurant, which is 25 parking spaces short. The developer is counting on using the 25 required parking spaces out of the underground parking for the apartment complex, but that is not following code and Jim will be researching this issue. Jim will be meeting with a member of DOT management to outline the situation and take that person on a drive-by the location which will visually explain the problem that will occur if 40 additional apartment resident/guest vehicles are added into the already over saturated traffic. Jim also asked Asta Criss (in attendance) to discuss these issues her contacts at Mayor Vilaraigosa's office. Jim will be sending Steven Porus a letter stating that Councilwoman Wendy Greuel supports our neighborhood on this issue. At this point we opened up the meeting to public questions and discussion. Several of the neighbors who have lived in our pocket since the mid 50's and 60's were a wonderful resource explaining the history and growth of this Valley Glen neighborhood. While others who walk the neighborhood daily were able to articulate current threats such as gangs, graffiti, drug dealings, secluded hangouts for drinking, drugs and sex. We all agreed with one thing, we will do what it takes to save our neighborhood from threat. Ted Gelberg explained the LA Department of Transportation has a mandate for apartment buildings to not have parking entrance/exit on main streets like Sherman Way - in the case of the 2 apartment building on Woodman and Gault, that is why they enter on Gault instead of Woodman. Residential streets and alleys are both acceptable. Steven asked neighbors to contribute a few dollars each for the purpose of appealing the building permits of the Apartment Building. $120.00 is the approximate fee and we collected $83.00 was collects and many neighbors said they would stop by with a donation later. Ana Belle Bonds and Steven Porus will file a LA Building and Safety Appeal on Friday, March 21, 2008 (tomorrow) for "Weight distribution of R-4 and R-3 density average." The even density distribution of the apartment complex that crosses over between a R-3 and R-4 zones - technically, the higher density need to be in the Zone R-4 and the lesser density needs to be in the Zone R-3 - not averaged, which is what it appears the apartment building developer has done. Terry Anderson invited Steven to attend the Valley Glen Planning and Land Use committee meeting (date TBD but before GVGC Board Meeting.) All Valley Glen residents are asked to attend the GVGC Board Meeting on April 7th (time and location TBA). Terry will be sending Steven Porus a letter stating that Valley Glen supports our neighborhood on this issue. He will also be sending Steve some press contacts to see if we might get some press focusing our neighborhood's problem. In conclusion, there was a great turn out with 47 signatures collected on our petition. Many folks took blank petitions and information that was provide to gather more signature and share info with other homeowners who couldn’t attend. Note:, We need a signature from every address in our neighborhood by March 31st. Please mail or drop signed petitions to Steven Porus, 7100 Sunnyslope Ave. Valley Glen, CA 91405-3414
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