UN4LA News - August 2021
A monthly newsletter published by United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles.
UN4LA's mission is to bring communities together to plan for a sustainable future. Growth must be shaped by community engagement, not developer dollars.
COURT REPORT ON CITY ATTORNEY & DWP LAWSUIT
After years of litigation, the fallout from the LADWP billing debacle is still making headlines, and the latest developments raise serious questions about the LA City Attorney’s office. Last October, Superior Court Judge Elihu M. Berle slapped the City of LA with a $2.5 million fine, saying the City and its counsel were guilty of “serious abuse of discovery”. The judge also ordered an investigation, and the report was released last month. It’s not a pretty picture.
To recap briefly, in 2013 LADWP launched new customer information and billing systems, and the results were a chaotic mess. Outraged ratepayers received sky-high bills and the situation dragged on for many months, with the Department apparently unable to resolve the problems. By the end of 2014, the problems had cost the City hundreds of millions of dollars, and multiple parties were filing class action lawsuits. How would the City deal with this mounting crisis? According to the report released in July by the court-appointed special investigator, lawyers working for the City Attorney’s office colluded to orchestrate a competing lawsuit, “filed by a ratepayer client who had unknowingly retained the City’s Special Counsel”. Among other things, the report concludes that these lawyers “violated the ethical rules against dishonesty, deceit, and collusion and violated their ethical duties to the Court in violation of Rules of Professional Conduct.” Apparently a criminal investigation is underway.
City Attorney Mike Feuer has strongly criticized the report, stating that its conclusions are not founded on fact. The LA Times has been following this story closely, and you can read the latest below.
Under Fire, Feuer Defends His Office’s Handling of DWP Billing Litigation
And here’s the full report. If you don’t have time to read all 595 pages, the Introduction to the Report offers a concise summary.
Special Master's Report on LADWP Lawsuit
IT’S TIME FOR CITIES TO UPDATE THEIR HOUSING ELEMENT
Housing is obviously a hot issue, and it’s going to get even hotter as LA-area cities go through the process of updating their Housing Elements. The State of California mandates that each municipality regularly update the Housing Element of its General Plan, the basic idea being that everyone should have access to some kind of shelter. While this used to be a fairly mundane bureaucratic process that didn’t create much controversy, in recent years it’s become incredibly polarized and contentious.
Because California law requires that jurisdictions certify their updated housing Housing Element by October 15, 2021, some cities seem to be in a mad dash to finish the process. Interestingly, there are other cities that don’t appear to have even published a draft document yet. The process will be more challenging for everybody this time around, since the State has jacked up the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) quotas to unprecedented levels. Below is a brief list showing where some LA-area municipalities stand.
The City of Los Angeles
LA is one of the cities making a mad dash for the finish line. Even though City Hall has known for a long time that they were facing the October 15 deadline, key documents were only released last month. The Draft Housing Element wasn’t published until July 1. The Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) wasn’t published until July 22, and comments are due by September 7. So if you live in the City of LA, you have six weeks to plow through a Draft EIR which runs several hundred pages (not counting appendices) and write up your comments. Better get started now.
City of Burbank
The City of Burbank published their Draft Housing Element on April 27, over two months before the City of LA, but it is a much smaller city. It also faces far fewer challenges than LA, with a more affluent population and lower poverty levels. The problem for Burbank, as for most other California cities, will be meeting those State RHNA quotas.
City of Glendale
It doesn’t seem that Glendale has posted any documents for the latest update yet. Their Planning Division web page only displays the Housing Element from the last cycle.
City of Inglewood
Inglewood doesn’t appear to have any current documents posted either. The Housing Element posted under their General Plan is also from the last cycle.
City of Long Beach
Like the City of LA, Long Beach also seems to be making a mad dash for the finish line. The Draft 2021-2029 Housing Element plan was made available to the public on July 9, and residents only have until August 13 to submit comments. No EIR seems to be available yet.
City of San Fernando
San Fernando hasn’t yet published a draft document, but it started the process with a public presentation earlier this year.
San Fernando Housing Element Update
City of Santa Monica
The City of Santa Monica is also racing toward the finish line. They published their Draft Housing Element in July, and the EIR in June. Earlier this year the City Council asked planners to explore a range of options to increase access to affordable housing, including the creation of a 100% affordable housing overlay zone. This could mean increased density in some neighborhoods, with the requirement that all new units be restricted to affordable housing. The concept is controversial, but strict affordability requirements could prevent unwanted speculative development while increasing supply for moderate-income and low-income households.
Santa Monica Housing Element Home Page
COURT UPHOLDS USE OF T.O.C. GUIDELINES FOR DENSITY BONUS PROJECTS IN CITY OF L.A.
In a tentative decision published this week, Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff upheld the use of the Transit-Oriented Community (TOC) Guidelines adopted by the City of LA after the passage of Measure JJJ. Petitioner Fix the City had argued that the TOC Guidelines offered development incentives beyond what voters had approved in the ballot measure. The court disagreed, writing….
“Based on the foregoing, the court cannot find the TOC Guidelines provision allowing for up to two Additional Incentives where a developer meets Section 5’s workforce standards conflicts with, is inconsistent with, or exceeds the scope of Measure JJJ.”
Fix the City’s suit had challenged the City’s approval of two TOC projects, one located on Santa Monica Blvd. and the other on Olympic Blvd.. The court did grant relief on a separate issue related to the Santa Monica Blvd. project. The site is in close proximity to an earthquake fault, and Judge Beckloff found that the City’s approval failed to comply with the Alquist-Priolo Act.
Click on the link below to read the tentative decision.
HILLSIDE FEDERATION FILES LAWSUIT OVER NEW “GUIDANCE” ON MULHOLLAND SPECIFIC PLAN
It may be you’ve never heard of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan (MSPSP), but it’s at the center of a lawsuit filed against the City of LA by the Hillside Federation. The MSPSP covers about 20 square miles within the Santa Monica Mountains, including many environmentally sensitive areas. Up until this year, projects proposed for the Plan area had to go before the Mulholland Design Review Board (MDRB). Director of Planning Vince Bertoni decided to change that. In March, City Planning published a memo from Bertoni saying that the MDRB would no longer review projects that weren’t visible from Mulholland Drive. This may sound like a small thing, but it’s not. In recent years this part of the Santa Monica Mountains has been severely degraded by new development, with trees being removed, hillsides carved up and habitat destroyed. If Bertoni’s “guidance” is allowed to stand, City Planning will be able to approve new projects in the area with no public review.
Many groups have decried this change, including the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter and the Center for Biological Diversity. If you’d like to learn more, Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife (CLAW) gives a breakdown of the situation on their web site. They also included a link to the Hillside Federation’s petition.
L.A. COUNTY SHOWS IT’S POSSIBLE TO BUILD HOMELESS HOUSING QUICKLY
With the opening of the Hilda L. Solis Care First Village, LA County has shown it’s possible to build housing for the homeless quickly and efficiently. Located in Chinatown, the campus offers 232 new units, along with a full-service kitchen, a dining area, landscaped courtyards and other amenities. Completed on a budget of $57 million, the per unit cost comes out to about $250,000, far lower than many comparable projects. This article from the Downtown News gives the details.
County Unveils Temporary Housing Village in Chinatown
HARBOR & WILMINGTON PLAN UPDATES
Most people might think that to create an environmental assessment for a project, you’d have to actually know what the project entailed. Not the City of LA. In May of this year, the Department of City Planning released the Wilmington-Harbor City Community Plan Update. In July they published the Harbor Gateway Community Plan Update. The problem with this is that the City has been working on the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for these plans since 2019. How the City can assess the impact of these Plans when they hadn’t even published draft versions is quite a mystery. It will be interesting to see the EIR.
Harbor Area Community Plan Updates
