Brakes slammed on growth

Here's another campaign in the development wars that have hit the Westside. West Hollywood has imposed strict limits on new development for 45 days as a new general plan is written. It's the latest effort by officials to get a handle on rapid growth -- and the corresponding traffic gridlock -- in the area:

An interim ordinance approved by the West Hollywood City Council places new standards on the construction of multifamily housing in medium- and high-density areas. "The interim ordinance will give us the breathing room we need to discuss and decide our future housing plans for the city," West Hollywood Mayor John Duran said. "It is impossible to strategize long-term when new construction applications continue to be filed with projects inconsistent with our housing goals." According to the interim ordinance, multifamily developments must not exceed 600 square feet for a studio, 800 square feet for a one-bedroom unit and 1,250 square feet for a two-bedroom unit. Buildings cannot exceed three stories. (CNS)

Comments

[Setting the record straight on WeHo]

We Ho a model for slow-growth? What a sad joke, when you look at the magnitude of their "Sunset Specific Plan" which has received the city's full approval despite years of opposition from H A's and indiv. residents in We Ho, especially the residents of the hills due north, IN L A even Bev Hills H A's have strongly weighed in against it. What is this "slow-growth" Plan?

It centers around a couple of high-rise twin towers, 10-stories each in the last plan approved, which include massive retail/ condo/ hotel/ even a convention center is allowed. Yes, that's right... all with pitifully inadequate parking, whose need is grossly underestimated by alleging far more turnover use per space, way overestimating people who will arrive to these upscale facilities by public transport (i.e., an overcrowded bus -- yeah, that's how they'll come from Bev. Hills and Brentwood), even -- this is especially funny -- bicycles. During construction, which will take at least two years, at least one lane would be closed -- with every intersection at gridlock/ beyond F-level for years past already. The city and developers admit there are no possible mitigations or alternate routes victims trapped in their cars will be able to use.

But why should they care? Those most affected will be residents and homeowners of L A/ the hills, who have no other choice of egress and are literally hostage to this one boulevard. We Ho officials have expressly admitted they don't care: they even brush off outrage that these massive towers would include "view terraces" for the express purpose of letting anyone peer into the homes of the unfortunates above in the hills, whose privacy and property values they are eroding, (The city recently even told Johnny Depp to go back to France, if he doesn't like the noise and privacy invasion from a club on Sunset just beneath his house.)

So We Ho allows anything however big and inappropriate to the area as long as the monstrosities max out the tax revenue potential, but they make their "statement" on size by limiting their limits to private residences. They ban smoking at sidewalk cafes to show how concerned they are for their residents, but plan to add far more egregious exhaust fumes to dine by.

We Ho already is the densest city in the west, -- per a study mentioned in the LAT some 5 years ago -- Manhattan without public transportation. If sanity actually reigned, they would put a moratorium on large commercial projects as well. There's no end to the hypocrisy of this city.

[TrafficBulldog_org]

Did you know that a company with 250 people has to carpool to the tune of 1.5 people per car? Doing the math ... 3 people for every 2 cars ... or 2/3 of their people are carpooling.

Wow! 67% carpooling.

That is a dramatic shift from 0% requirement at 249 and less employees.

Maybe it is time to institute some sort of limit to empty cars being allowed in such an impacted area.

There is an interesting thing that has happened in DC. They mandated carpooing on some main freeways , 3 people per car to get on the Freeway at rush hour. You know what happened? There is a practice now of semi organized carpooling. People stand in line near freeway entrances. It has worked so well, the Bush Administration dropped the requirement down to 2 people for HOV access.

Everywhere we turn, polliticians are telling us they have grand plans for building new infrastructure, yet at the same time we are having budget crunches.

The government is stuck in a catch 22.

If they really want to solve traffic congestion and Global Warming at the same time, they would allow incentives for carpooling like the ones listed here

http://trafficbulldog.org/news.php?nid=19

But the problem is, new cars are 20% of sales taxes. And Gasoline is the tax gift that just keeps on giving.

We are litterally choking on the air and congestion cause by our governments inability to keep itself under control.

It is amazing how much money we spend to

1. buy the gas that funds the terrorists
2. pay for the army that fights the terrorists
3. pay for new cars to be more "carbon friendly" admittedly maybe only 10% and the ozone could kill us
4. pay for all the government administration that is going on for all of the above

all of this because our politicians are unable to control the spending, and waste.

And so instead...... they help sell cars.....

And that is why we have congestion.

If they dont want to adress it, then it is time to sandblast the carpool lanes.

And leave the poor people doing development alone. As long as they include a parking spot, who cares about the traffic.

http://trafficbulldog.org is a commuter advocacy group committed to helping people form carpools and get the roads cleared so we can all have fun on Friday night again!

[Shaun]

If we had some real public transit we could continue to grow in our inner core areas and actually become a realy city with some real density. LA is not going to stop growing and not allowing development in places like West Hollywood or anywhere on the Westside will just push development farther out towards Vegas, Palm Springs, and Bakersfield. Land Use and Transportation go hand in hand, we need density to fit more people in and we need GOOD public transit to move those people around.