Even Bigger Developments on the Way!
By Sheila
Bernard
On Thursday, January 23, a
hearing was held by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission on an amendment to
the Venice Coastal Specific Plan to make it consistent with the Venice Coastal
Land Use Plan. A number of Venetians attended this hearing, because one item in
the amendment would permit three-lot consolidations in Oakwood and in the Marina
Peninsula.
This means developers would be able to buy
three lots and build one large building, like the project at Abbot Kinney and
San Juan, which is being appealed by GRVNC board member and Oakwood resident
Lydia Ponce. Three-lot consolidations are not permitted anywhere else in
Venice.
Kristin Montet, planning deputy
for Councilwoman Miscikowski, said that the amendment should be approved so that
all the planning documents would be consistent. Once that is accomplished, it
will be easier to amend the entire set of documents with less hearings required.
Kristin suggested that tougher design standards could be incorporated into the
Land Use Plan and the Specific Plan, so that any buildings resulting from
three-lot consolidations would have to conform to the character of the rest of
the neighborhood.
Five Venetians spoke
regarding three-lot consolidations. Phil Raider, a member of the Grassroots
Venice Land Use Committee (LUPC) who first pointed out that Oakwood and the
Marina Peninsula were being singled out for these lot consolidations, spoke
against the consolidations, and expressed doubt that even higher design
standards could really protect Oakwood from out-of-scale development.
DeDe Audet, Grvnc area rep for the
Oxford Triangle and member of the Grvnc LUPC, said that the overdevelopment that
would result from three-lot consolidations would threaten Venice’s status
as L.A.’s number one tourist attraction, thus hurting all of Los Angeles,
not just Venice.
I spoke of the
singling out of Oakwood and the Peninsula as blatantly discriminatory, and I
called upon the Planning Commission and the Planning Department hold extra
hearings and use extra time, to give Oakwood and the Peninsula the same
protections from overdevelopment accorded the rest of Venice.
Darryl Dufay, chair of the Grvnc LUPC,
expressed gratitude to the Commissioners for not permitting three lot
consolidations in the Canals, where he lives.
Finally, another gentleman from
Oakwood told the Commissioners that any structure that would be built on three
lots would definitely be out of character with the single family homes in
Oakwood, which are quite big even when they are built on two lots, and would be
extremely large in comparison with the rest of the neighborhood when built on
three lots.
The Planning Commission
ended up adopting the amendment, with three-lot consolidations still included.
It is now up to us to figure out by what process we can amend all the planning
documents in order to protect Oakwood and the Marina Peninsula from three-lot
consolidations.
Posted: Sat
- February 1, 2003 at 08:01 PM