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VICTORY FOR SPIRITS OF VENICE!

The Venice Action Alliance lauded the decisive 6-3 vote by the California Coastal Commission to reject the City of Los Angeles' second attempt to impose overnight permit parking districts on Venice. The group, part of a broad coalition of Venetians supporting solutions instead of restrictions, called it a triumph of wisdom and good policy.

"The Coastal Commission once again recognized and carried out its mandate to protect coastal access against attempts to make the beach less available to the general public," said Chris Plourde of Venice Action.
“The problems created by homelessness in Venice are real," added Plourde, "and we look forward to working with all Venetians to put a real solution that addresses the needs of all–a Safe Parking program–into place.”

The decisive vote followed a 4-1/2 hour hearing at the Commission's meeting held at the Marina del Rey Hotel in Marina del Rey, the same site where overnight permits were rejected the first time almost exactly one year ago. As many as 99 people signed up to testify, more than three-quarters of them in opposition to the permit scheme. Presentations by the City of Los Angeles, the Venice Stakeholders Association and the Venice Action Alliance set the stage for the long public session. More

California Coastal Commission rejects Venice parking restrictions

By Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times

The panel denies for a second year in a row a request from residents for limits on overnight parking and scuttles a proposed settlement to resolve the debate over recreational vehicle dwellers.

June 12, 2010

For the second year in a row, the California Coastal Commission has denied a request for overnight parking restrictions by Venice residents who have complained about people living in campers and cars on the streets.

The panel's 6-3 vote Thursday also quashed a proposed settlement that the city of Los Angeles had hoped would resolve the divisive issue over how to deal with recreational vehicle dwellers, who some Venice residents contend bring noise, public inebriation, crime and litter.

Under the proposed settlement, residents could have asked the city to post signs prohibiting oversize vehicles. If, after six months, residents were not satisfied with results, they could have applied for overnight parking restrictions. The settlement had been negotiated by the coastal panel's staff, the city and the Venice Stakeholders Assn., a group that had challenged the coastal panel and the city in court.

Mark Ryavec, president of Venice Stakeholders, called the commission's action a " 'bait-and-switch' trick that is reprehensible in a public body." He added that "our only recourse is to remove overnight parking in Venice from this arrogant body's jurisdiction by renewing our litigation."

But Commissioner Sara Wan said the commission's vote was justified.

"We were essentially rehearing the original permit requests," Wan said. "What the city was trying to do was use preferential parking to solve their social problems. They need to deal with their own social problems."

The commission raised the same argument a year ago when it voted against preferential parking.

Despite its staff's role in helping to devise the proposed settlement, Wan said, the full panel had the discretion to reject it — and did so.

Some middle ground exists.

Linda Lucks, incoming president of the Venice Neighborhood Council, said that group "supports the adoption of an over-height limit ordinance in tandem with a safe overnight parking program."

Such a program would be modeled on a successful effort in Santa Barbara, which provides secure overnight parking in church or other lots for RV dwellers who agreed to avail themselves of social services.

Karen Wolfe, a 12-year Venice resident and a member of Venice Action Alliance, a group seeking solutions to the community's problems, said she was "thrilled" by the commission's vote because she objected to the prospect that residents would have to buy preferential parking permits. "I think they're a regressive tax," she said.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the area, said he was disappointed by the commission's rejection of the proposed settlement. But he said he hoped that the full City Council soon would approve his proposal that oversize vehicles be defined as those taller than 7 feet or longer than 22 feet.

If approved, he said, that new law could be in place by Sept. 1 and the city could post "No Oversize Vehicles" signs where needed by November.

martha.groves@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Special Meeting of the Venice Neighborhood Council Board to Consider Request of St. Joseph Center to Modify Conditions of Operation

The meeting will be held on Monday, June 14th from 7pm to 9pm at the Oakwood Rec Center,767 California Avenue. Details can be found at here

LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl to Swear-In New VNC Board at Meeting on Tuesday, June 15th

The meeting will be held at Westminster Elementary School, 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd. See here for more information or http://www.venicenc.org/node/1388 for complete agenda.

LA City Council ratifies agreement settling Lincoln Place Litigation! See announcement here

Proposed Settlement to Overnight Parking District Law Suits Denied by California Coastal Commission

The vote came at the CCC meeting on June 10th and was 6 against, 3 in favor. Details of the proposed settlement can be found at http://venicenc.org/node/1462

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KEEP OUR PUBLIC STREETS FREE

RESTORE FREE SPEECH @ VENICE BEACH

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Settlement for Lincoln Place paves way for return of evicted tenants, renovation of existing units and construction of new homes

BY VINCE ECHAVARIA, Argonaut

(Created: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 4:16 PM PDT)
Sheila Bernard is looking for-ward to the day when her Venice complex won’t be so quiet anymore.

For more than four years, Bernard has lived in one of only nearly a dozen households that have continued to remain at Lincoln Place, a 38-acre garden style apartment complex just east of Lincoln Boulevard. Most of Bernard’s neighbors were evicted in a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department lock-out in late 2005 as the property owner sought to redevelop the property that was built shortly after World War II and once housed 795 units.

As tenants and preservationists fought the evictions in recent years and continued their nearly 20-year-long battle against redevelopment to preserve the property’s historical significance, Bernard noted how life for remaining tenants was “too quiet.” But Bernard, president of the Lincoln Place Tenants Association, doesn’t expect the complex to be too quiet much longer now that the City of Los Angeles and property owner AIMCO Venezia LLC have come to a settlement agreement for Lincoln Place.

The settlement, which was ratified by the Los Angeles City Council Wednesday, May 26th, ends litigation and will allow for the return of up to 83 former households, including the 11 current households, as well as the remodeling of nearly 700 existing apartment units. The agreement was reached May 7th after 18 months of negotiation under the supervision of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman.

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