Northridge Neighborhood Council 9-16-03 Update |
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LA City more the doubles Neighborhood density | School traffic | This is what's known as democracy inaction | Calm on neighborhood council | West Hills council threatens to quit
It's all about development
Opinion by Charles Brink, Vice President.
LA City approvals without objection zone changes to more than double the number on home in two projects on Northridge and Chatsworth. And after the Zone change why want to reduce to yard sizes and setbacks to cram more building on the lots.
The "advance early warning" was sent Tue 9/16/2003 10:04 AM. That's two days and 6 hours. plenty of time to convene a council meeting under the Brown act and meet.
Just the same treatment of the community and the automatic approval by Greg Smith of development that increases traffic and urban congestion.
NORTH VALLEY AREA PLANNING COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2003, 4:30 P.M.
MARVIN BRAUDE CONSTITUENT CENTER
6262 Van Nuys Boulevard, First Floor Meeting Room, Van Nuys, California 91401
3. APCNV 2002-5714-ZC-ZAA
CEQA: ENV-2002-5716-MND
Plan: Northridge Council District: 12
Location: 17800, 17810 & 17820 Fullerfarm Street
Appeal Status: ZC appealable, if disapproved
ZAA not further appealable
Public Hearing completed March 27, 2003
ZONE CHANGE, pursuant to Section 12.32 of the Municipal Code, to permit a zone change incident to Tentative Tract 53919, from RA-1 to (T)(Q)RE9-1 Zone; and
ZONING ADMINISTRATOR’S ADJUSTMENT, pursuant to Section 12.28 A of the Municipal Code, to permit a front yard setback from 15 feet for Lot Nos. 2, 3, 4 & 5 in lieu of the required 25 feet and to permit a rear yard setback from 15 feet for Lot Nos. 1 & 6 and 20 feet for Lot Nos. 2, 3, 4 & 5 in lieu of the required 25 feet requirement in the RE9-1 Zone.
For a proposed subdivision for a maximum 6-lot single-family development on a 1.69 net acre site. (13,114 square foot per lot)
STAFF RECOMMENDS APPROVAL OF (T)(Q)RE9-1 AND ZONING ADMINISTRATOR’S ADJUSTMENT
Emily Gabel-Luddy (213) 978-1327
APPLICANT: Hugh Finkle Enterprises
North Valley Area Planning Commission 3 September 18, 2003
4. APCNV 2003-0761-ZC
CEQA: ENV-2003-0762-MND
Plan: Chatsworth-Porter Ranch Council District: 12
Location: 20936 Chase Street
Appeal Status: Appealable, if disapproved
Public Hearing completed May 22, 2003
ZONE CHANGE, pursuant to Section 12.32 of the Municipal Code, to permit a zone change incident to Tentative Tract No. 54071, from RA-1 to (T)(Q)R1-1 Zone, for a proposed subdivision for a maximum 6-lot single-family development on a 0.87 net acre site. (that's 6316 square feet per home)
STAFF RECOMMENDS APPROVAL OF (T)(Q)R1-1
APPLICANT: Lexington West Homes
. Re "School's in session and city traffic shows it" (Sept. 6):
9-12-03 If only traffic engineer Ken Firoozmand could see the daily congestion around private schools. Hillcrest Christian School hired traffic consultants to develop a pie-in-the-sky traffic-demand management plan to show city officials how they supposedly might mitigate traffic problems near the school to insignificant levels.
The Hillcrest School expansion plan is opposed by the Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council and hundreds of Granada Hills residents, and the city Planning Commission also disapproved it. Expansion is proposed for an intersection already overwhelmed by commuter-traffic problems that cannot be mitigated. The site is increasingly dangerous to children and motorists alike.
Joy Ming Granada Hills
9-3-03 Since the Los Angeles city clerk resolved the community's festering dispute over the {Van Nuys} council's questionable elections -- by removing two representatives from office but letting the others stay -- both sides have grown disillusioned with the whole process.
So there have been no meetings, and no schedule of meetings to come.
What's left is a neighborhood council in name only, one not even worthy of the patronizing "advisory" title because it doesn't even pretend to advise.
Surely such pointless symbolism is not what Los Angeles residents had in mind when they voted to create the councils in 1999. But as far as City Hall is concerned, it couldn't have turned out any better.
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1603779,00.html
Distrust, inaction remain after city clerk's removal of panel members
By James Nash Staff Writer
9-1-03 Six months after activists squabbled bitterly over the election of the Van Nuys Neighborhood Advisory Council, peace has come to the panel -- and inaction along with it.
Much of the civic energy unleashed during the disputed election has been directed into two separate groups: one striving for more ethnic diversity on city advisory panels, the other hoping to represent San Fernando Valley neighborhood councils in battles with Los Angeles City Hall.
The Van Nuys Council hasn't met in the month since the City Clerk's Office settled the long-festering election dispute by removing two of the nine panel members who faced election challenges. No meeting schedule has been adopted and no projects undertaken to improve the quality of life.
"There's no cohesiveness," said Victoria Davidson-Castillo, who replaced a board member ejected by the city clerk. "I'm not looking for a social club, but there's not anything to do right now other than show up at a board meeting."
Van Nuys was the flash point in the quest for neighborhood empowerment. A group of activists, who are white and who include several founders of the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council, accused the city's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment of colluding with a predominantly Latino "diversity slate" to get its members on the neighborhood council. Most of them won in the Feb. 8 election.
The election brought a flurry of protests. At public meetings, losing candidates and their supporters angrily accused DONE of backing a "secret slate" and later suppressing a report from the League of Women Voters that called for a new election.
Since the city clerk's split decision, emotions have cooled on both sides, but so has enthusiasm.
Carolyn Ferritto, who filed one of the five election challenges, said she doesn't believe the council will be as effective as it could have been.
"I'll do what I've always done -- work with the community and the neighborhood," Ferritto said. "I've started outreach with people who will represent our community, and I'll mobilize people for the next election."
None of the five people who filed formal challenges to the Van Nuys election said they would continue to press their challenges. At the same time, they said they weren't completely satisfied with the outcome, characterizing it as a political decision by the city clerk.
And many in Van Nuys said they remain distrustful of DONE, which city officials created to administer the neighborhood councils created by a 1999 charter reform measure.
"It's left a very bad taste in my mouth -- not the resolution, but the whole process," said Malcolm Gibson. "That relationship (with DONE) is pretty much soured. I don't see that changing."
The Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils, which formed during the Van Nuys impasse, has been pushing for more uniform rules in elections to the advisory bodies. The alliance also has advised other neighborhood councils on how to avoid Van Nuys' pitfalls. Other neighborhood councils have attempted to adopt Van Nuys' lessons, from more strictly enforcing no-campaigning zones around polling places to requiring neighborhood council voters to register beforehand. [Registering to vote is a requirement that DONE demanded we remove for the NNC bylaws]
"Van Nuys has haunted a lot of councils," said Laurie Lavine, vice president of the Valley Glen Neighborhood Council. "I think it has hurt their credibility in that it took the city six months to straighten out these problems. It should have taken a month at most."
DONE General Manager Greg Nelson said the Van Nuys dispute lasted as long as it did in part because the city did not dictate a solution. Nelson said his department is considering more uniform rules for neighborhood council elections, but that the changes were raised even before the Van Nuys dispute.
The dispute also drew attention to the need for more ethnic diversity on neighborhood councils, according to members of another group formed during the spring. The group Urban Diversity includes members of the "diversity slate" and their supporters
By James Nash Staff Writer
WEST HILLS -- Frustrated by bureaucratic roadblocks to their effort to get an office and city funding, members of the West Hills Neighborhood Council are considering the unprecedented step of dissolving their advisory body.
The West Hills Neighborhood Council was the first of 26 panels in the San Fernando Valley certified under a 1999 charter-reform measure to bring more power to Los Angeles communities. If West Hills Neighborhood Council members vote to disband at their meeting Sept. 3, it would be the first of about 100 neighborhood councils citywide to vote itself out of existence.
Members said they are fed up with two years of delays by city officials in securing them an office. They said they've also been frustrated in their attempt to tap into $50,000 of promised city funding and over their inability to rent even a post office box.
"It's a long time to be listening to the promises of what it can and should be versus what it really is," said neighborhood council board member Ed Youngblood.
Los Angeles Councilman Dennis Zine, who represents much of West Hills, expressed sympathy for the members' concerns but said disbanding would deprive the community of representation in the citywide network of neighborhood councils -- and of its $50,000 cut of city funds.
"There's great frustration with neighborhood councils throughout the city, and I share that frustration," Zine said. "It's been a very trying, difficult, frustrating red-tape experience for people in the community who give their time to set up a neighborhood council operation."
Neighborhood council members are not paid. And those in West Hills said they've sacrificed not only their time but, because they have no office, they have to give up space in their homes and workplaces for neighborhood council functions.
"You can't conduct city business this way," said Stephen Lenske, interim president of the West Hills Neighborhood Council. "This is a problem that should have been resolved two years ago when it was brought to the city's attention."
Lenske has headed the West Hills group since the Aug. 15 resignation of Charles Gremer, who helped establish the panel in 2001. Gremer said he stepped down for many of the same reasons the remaining neighborhood council leaders have cited in deciding whether to dissolve the panel.
"I do not want West Hills left up in the air," Gremer said. "I really am disappointed in the actions of the city."
Greg Nelson, general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, which oversees neighborhood councils, said his staff has already offered the West Hills group temporary quarters in city buildings in Reseda and Panorama City. Lenske, however, said the offices should be in or near West Hills.
Nelson said few neighborhood councils have their own offices but that the city's Department of General Services has been working to identify buildings that could house the advisory panels.
"For the ones who want office space, they're either understanding of our attempt to streamline the process or willing to accept our offer of temporary space," Nelson said. "Is that enough for me? No. All we can do is give it the absolute best that we can."
Although the board of the West Hills Neighborhood Council could resign en masse, it could not eliminate the neighborhood council without approval from the city's Board of Neighborhood Commissioners or the City Council, Nelson said. [Showing DONE controls the councils not the community]
No neighborhood council has attempted to eliminate itself, he said.
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