Repairing Wilshire Boulevard

Curb-Lane repair work continues this weekend (April 30 and May 1) on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile area. Crews will be in these locations.

1. Wilshire Bl, from Windsor Bl. To Lorraine (north side of street) - they'll remove and replace asphalt in the gutter lane.

2. Wilshire Bl. @ Saint Andrews Pl (south side of street) - they'll remove and replace asphalt in the gutter lane.

A new name for Hollywood Boulevard ... at least for the month of May

During the month of May, Hollywood Boulevard will be known as "Half off Hollywood Blvd." in honor of Half off Hollywood Month. It's a chance to be a VIP in your own community, with 50% off at the Guinness World Records Museum, The Hollywood Wax Museum, LA City Tours, Ripley's Believe it or Not!, Madame Tussaud's Hollywood and Starline Tours.

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Redistricting Workshop comes to Los Angeles City Hall

Every 10 years, after the U.S. Census figures have been released and digested, political boundaries are re-drawn to more accurately reflect the constituency at the Federal, State, and Municipal level. The process is getting underway here in Los Angeles. On Thursday, April 28 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street, 3rd floor, Los Angeles, Ca. 90012, there will be a redistricting workshop where you can participate in the process. Click here for more information on Redistricting Workshops

Breaking ground on a new address in the heart of Hollywood

from left Councilman LaBonge, Architect Jan Van Tilberg, Jason Schreiber CIM Group Project Manager and Developer Shaul Kuba, Founder of CIM-group

HOLLYWOOD — April 25, 2011 – Councilmember Tom LaBonge and CIM Group broke ground April 25 on 1800 Whitley Avenue, marking the beginning of construction on a five-story, 32-unit, 32,553 square-foot, boutique luxury residential development. CIM executives and local business, community and government leaders gathered for the event at the site, located just steps from Hollywood Boulevard. The $20 million development, designed by Van Tilburg, Banvard & Soderbergh, will offer boutique luxury apartments built to Class A condominium standards. The residences feature floor to ceiling windows, commercial-grade kitchen appliances, in-unit washers and dryers, as well as other stylish appointments and premier finishes. Ground floor residences facing the interior will have patios opening on to lush gardens, and upper level units will have balconies with expansive views of Hollywood. In addition, the building has other premier amenities including a courtyard pool, full-sized gym and a lounge area as well as one level of above-grade parking with an additional level underground. Located at the northeast corner of Whitley and Yucca and one block north of Hollywood Boulevard, 1800 Whitley is in the heart of a mature neighborhood of multifamily dwellings and is walking distance to some of the area’s most popular shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. "This beautiful complex will be a landmark gateway to the new Hollywood, embodying its thriving energy. 1800 Whitley Avenue is a prime location, a great address ... and I wish you success," said Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge.
CIM Group acquired the 1800 Whitley property in the Fall of 2010, and construction is expected to be completed by summer 2012. In 1998, CIM Group identified Hollywood as an emerging urban district that meets the firm's strategic investment guidelines. Since then, it has acquired and developed a portfolio of properties that include office, hotel, retail, multifamily residential and mixed-use properties. Click here to see more photos of this event

Los Feliz and Franklin are no longer de-facto used-car lots

Proposed sign that will go up along Los Feliz Blvd. and Franklin Ave. to prohibit parking vehicles for sale.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved, and the Mayor has signed an ordinance introduced by Councilmember LaBonge to ban the practice of parking vehicles for sale on a stretch of Los Feliz Blvd. and a section of Franklin Avenue. To quote the ordinance, "It shall be unlawful for any person to park any vehicle on the streets or public lands in the City of Los Angeles ... on Los Feliz Boulevard between Interstate 5 and Western Avenue (and) ... on Franklin Avenue between Hillhurst Avenue and Western Avenue. The City Council may amend this Section, after conducting a public hearing, to include additional streets or public lands.". Look for signs going up on Los Feliz and Franklin in the coming weeks.

2011 Hike for Health

We had a great time on our annual Hike for Health, escorting groups of fourth and fifth grade students up the 1600 foot peak of Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park. The kids came from six elementary schools in our district -- Frances Blend Elementary, Ivanhoe Elementary, Lankershim Elementary, Charles Kim Elementary, Third Street Elementary and Wilshire Crest Elementary. More than 300 students got the chance to hike in Griffith Park (some of them for the first time) and get a different perspective on the city in which they live. We conduct the hike every year to encourage kids to get out in nature and enjoy healthy activities like hiking. We hope that for some, it will be the start of a lifelong love affair with Griffith Park.Click here to see more photos

No more "Mansionization" in the City of Los Angeles

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signs the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, flanked by Councilmembers LaBonge, Reyes and Koretz as well as community members at a City Hall ceremony.

(April 06, 2011; Los Angeles) – The City of Los Angeles is putting reasonable limits on the footprint and height of single-family, residential-zoned homes. The idea is to protect neighborhood character and integrity from out-of-scale development and renovation – the so-called “mansionization” of Los Angeles on the slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains. Councilmember Tom LaBonge, who introduced the Mansionization Motion in June, 2006 said, “The passage of the Los Angeles Baseline Hillside Ordinance, along with the 2008 Baseline Flatland Ordinance, marks the end of huge homes on small lots.”

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s signing of the Baseline Hillside Ordinance marks the end of a nearly five-year process that began with concerns voiced by various neighborhood organizations that “McMansions” were ruining the character of their street, blocking their view, robbing them of privacy or creating an eyesore. There’s even a whole Facebook page devoted to following the twists and turns the Mansionization Ordinance has taken on its way to passage and implementation.

Councilmember LaBonge applauds the Mayor, his Council colleagues, the City Planning Department and community activists for making the Baseline Hillside Ordinance a reality. “This is a long overdue step in halting the ‘mansionization’ of our hillside and canyon neighborhoods. These new limits and regulations make sure architects design to the contour of the land, and don’t overpower the landscape with a home that’s too big for its lot.” The Los Angeles City Council unanimously adopted the Baseline Hillside Ordinance on Friday, March 18th, 2011. Now that the Mayor has signed it, the new regulations will take effect on May 9th, 2011.

“The Baseline Hillside Ordinance is a major step towards the protection of our City’s hillsides, and ensures that development conforms to the land, instead of the land conforming to the development,” said Michael LoGrande, Director of City Planning. Any property zoned for singlefamily homes and designated as being in a Hillside Area will be subject to the new regulations.

The Ordinance was part of a response to a 2006 City Council motion by Councilman Tom LaBonge, seconded by Councilmembers Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti, Janice Hahn, Ed Reyes, Bill Rosendahl, and Herb Wesson, Jr. aimed at addressing the issue of “mansionization”. The Baseline Hillside Ordinance (sometimes referred to as the Hillside Mansionization Ordinance) is the final step in a three-part initiative aimed at preventing out-of-scale single-family development in the City of Los Angeles.

The first part became effective in June 2008 with the adoption of the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance that established new regulations for the City’s flatlands that focused on structure size and height limits. The second part became effective in May 2010 and involved the creation of a new Hillside Area Map that more accurately reflects the City’s true hillsides. In order to diminish out-of-scale developmentIn order to diminish out-of-scale development in the City’s hillside neighborhoods, the regulations address Floor Area Ratios (FAR – building size to lot size ratio), Height, and Grading. Like the BMO, this Ordinance also creates an overlay tool that will allow individual neighborhoods to adjust the baseline limits to better fit their community’s character and scale. The Baseline Hillside Ordinance will determine the maximum amount of development for a property based on lot size, zone, and steepness of slopes on a property. This approach takes into account that there are many differences in hillside lots, and that the Code needs to consider the varying hillside conditions when determining size limits.

While the new regulations establish a maximum amount of development, they also establish a minimum unit size that guarantees a base level of development, regardless of lot size and topography. The new regulations change the way height is measured to a method which follows the slope of a lot, and allows for buildings to step up/down a hillside and result in more aesthetically pleasing development. This will remove a major design constraint that has been in place for many years and resulted in large and tall box-like structures that many communities have specifically identified as a problem. The new regulations also establish new grading limits for areas outside of the footprint of a house, and will help to reduce the amount of site alteration and protect the existing hillsides.

The Baseline Hillside Ordinance is one of the most supported Zoning Code amendments in recent history. In the development of the Ordinance, the Department of City Planning sought to obtain an unprecedented level of public involvement. Since February 2009, Planning staff conducted 13 separate public meetings, and the new regulations were reviewed, amended and approved by the City Planning Commission, Planning & Land Use Management Committee, and the City Council. The public was kept up-to-date each step of the way through the use of: an interested parties list that has grown to nearly 1,000 individuals, groups and associations; detailed handouts/updates highlighting the changes and process/procedures; and a Facebook™ page where regular status updates and links to useful information were posted.click here to see more photos

North Central Clean Fuel Dispensing Station Dedication

Councilmember LaBonge, Mayor Villaraigosa, Council colleagues Ed Reyes and Jan Perry, as well as officials from the Department of Public Works, the Bureau of Street Services, the Department of General Services and the Bureau of Sanitation cut the ribbon on the new LNG refueling station on San Fernando Road.

Councilmember Tom LaBonge, Mayor Villaraigosa and Counilmembers Ed Reyes and Jan Perry were on-hand on Monday, April 4th, 2011 as the City of Los Angeles' Bureau of Sanitation announced the grand opening of its fifth Clean Fuel Dispensing Facility at the North Central Consolidated Yar at 452 North San Fernando Road in Los Angeles. The state-of-the-art dispensing facility, which will be shared with the Bureau of Street Services and the Department of General Services, provides vehicles with clean-burning Liquefied Natural Gas and Compressed Natural Gas -- the same fuel that most of us use to heat our homes and cook our food. The North Central Facility is the fifth such station currently in operation. The Bureau of Sanitation has the largest municipal fleet of Clean Fuel, Heavy Duty Solid Resources Collection vehicles in the nation. These clean-fuel vehicles reduce greenhouse gas-emissions by 20%; and particulate matter by 90%.click here for more photos