The Planning and Land Use Management Committee started late and adjourned before the Tramonto landslide project was addressed.
At the City Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee meeting on December 3, the four homes proposed to be built on the Tramonto landslide were not discussed.
The Pacific Palisades Residents Association’s (PPRA) lawyer told President Jessica Rogers the item will be moved without a recommendation, and go directly to the full City Council.
Despite community opposition, including the Pacific Palisades Community Council, Demos Development had received approval from the West L.A. Planning Commission in November to build four large homes on the active Tramonto Landslide. The largest house proposed is 9,051-sq.-ft. with a 5,887-sq.-ft basement, a pole/spa, garage, decks and two retaining walls.
The developer has said there are plans to stabilize the hillside—but only where the homes will be built—which means only a portion of the slide would be remediated. Neighbors in this Castellammare area worry that unless the hill is stabilized, surrounding homes will be affected.
Caltrans was also concerned because of issues with the slide on Pacific Coast Highway, and has threatened a possible lawsuit unless L.A. City takes care of the landslide.
Councilmember Traci Park met with residents after the Planning Commission gave approval in November, and on December 2 sent a letter to PLUM, whose committee includes Councilmembers John Lee, Heather Hutt, Katy Yaroslavsky, Imelda Padilla and Kevin De Leon.
Park wrote: “After consulting with community members, different agencies, including our review of the existing record in this matter, our office believes that a fair argument of a potential significant impact from this proposed project exists related to the items we discussed above.
“Therefore we recommend this project be remanded back to the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission (WLA APC) to ensure the proposed project be reviewed with the benefit of a new CEQA clearance,” Park said. “We further recommend that City Planning be instructed to require that a new CEQA clearance be prepared in light of our concerns that complies with CEQA and is supported by substantial evidence and transmit it to the WLA APC for its consideration along with its reconsideration of the project in light of any new CEQA clearance prepared for the project.”
The project then went before the Planning Land Use Management Committee (PLUM), on December 3.
There were 19 items on the agenda: the Tramonto project was 12. The hearing was supposed to start at 2 p.m., but one member was late, so the start was delayed to 3:30 p.m.
People addressed the Plum Committee for an hour and a half.
One resident reported, “Mr. Lee, the chair, asked all those who signed up for a one-minute speech related to any project to join a line up when their names were called. He then proceeded to call each speaker up to the microphone, one by one on one of the 19 cases. This happened prior to ANY cases being reviewed by the Committee.
“The Committee wasn’t listening. I think Mr. Lee was simply allowing the audience to exercise their right to free speech because he had to.”
After an hour and a half of comments, PLUM then went to the agenda and heard about a project near Beverly and Fairfax. The project was in Katy Yaroslavsky’s district and she read a decision she had obviously made days or weeks ago. The Committee then denied all appeals.
At 5:40 p.m., two of the PLUM Committee left and there was no longer a quorum. The Castellammare attorney did not have an opportunity to speak.
Stated on the city agenda, it said there was no community impact statement against the Tramonto project, which is untrue.
Rogers said “It would be absolutely horrifying if they were to pass this project without first calling for major environmental studies proving the hillside to be safe given the pleas from the Councilwoman, the obvious danger of the location and the massive landslide that occurred after the project was approved by the planning commission.
CTN reached out to Councilmember Parks to ask if it is routine to send a project back to the Planning Commission.
CTN reached out to the Castellammare residents to see if the community objections would be read into the file.
This story will be updated.
I attended the PLUM committee meeting and was completely disgusted with our City officials. There are six members of the committee, Lee, Yaroslavsky, Padilla, DeLeon, Rosales, and Luna. Lee, Yaroslavsky, and Padilla showed up at the scheduled 2:00 PM start time but that didn’t constitute a quorum. For the next hour and a half we waited and listened to a harangue by three “gadflies” who yelled profanities at the councilmembers and the audience. One character marched around yelling “sieg heil” while making a Nazi salute. Police officers present told us that they couldn’t prevent these people from exercising their free speech rights. Finally at 3:30 DeLeon showed up and the poorly organized meeting that you described began. Rosales and Luna never appeared. The dozen Castellammare residents who came to express their concerns were each given one minute to speak but the PLUM committee members present didn’t listen. Not a single question was asked. All this occurred in the magnificently decorated City Council meeting room. What a sad travesty. But the real tragedy is that the decisions reached by those unresponsive, uninterested, unconcerned, and rude members of the PLUM committee have a great impact on all the residents of Los Angeles. I know that DeLeon has been voted out of office. I’d like to believe that the other members of the PLUM committee would be voted out of office if the residents of the Districts they represent could see what I saw on December 3rd. They should be replaced by individuals who care, show up on time, and conduct a meeting with decorum and respect for the residents of Los Angeles who elect them.
Murray – thank you for your observations….the corruption in our city has now spread exponentially. So sad. such a travesty!
Sue, thanks so much for the reporting.
barbara