L.A. city attorney blasts Planning Commission vote on billboards, issues stern warning to members

Newly-elected Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich sent a blistering letter to city planners who approved a billboard plan over his objections last week -- stating that by “acting in haste, for no apparent reason,” they “undermined and jeopardized” the work of his office.

Trutanich sent the letter to members of the city Planning Commission on Friday, the day after the panel approved a plan for placing 40,000 square feet of billboards and other outdoor signs on the Los Angeles Convention Center near the congested interchange of the 10 and 110 freeways downtown.

Trutanich, who took office July 1, promised during the campaign that he would immediately crack down on illegal billboards and revamp the city’s sign regulations. The day before the commission meeting, Trutanich sent a letter to members asking for a two-week delay on decisions about the Convention Center billboards so that he would have time to review the policy.

Their decision to ignore his request, Trutanich wrote Friday, amounted to “an unfathomable lack of courtesy” for his administration and granted new billboard rights at a time when the city is trying to reduce the number of signs.
 
The City Council passed a 2002 ban on billboards, which has been the focus of a number of successful legal challenges by outdoor advertising companies. One of the ban’s weaknesses, Trutanich noted, was that the council approved numerous exceptions to the restrictions.

In his letter, Trutanich said the city had not been able to enforce its billboard ban due to its practice of “authorizing exceptions much like the ones you purported to authorize Thursday.”

Museum of Tolerance expansion approved in contested Westside neighborhood

The Los Angeles City Council voted today to approve an expansion sought by the Museum of Tolerance, rebuffing requests from neighbors who wanted the project to receive additional review from Westside Councilman-elect Paul Koretz.

On a 15-0 vote, the council agreed to allow the museum to add nearly 28,000 square feet, making it possible to host more events and receptions.

Supporters of the project said the museum had been a good neighbor and had agreed to spend up to $100,000 on traffic improvements to address congestion caused by its activities. Opponents said that the expansion would enable the museum to rent out its space for parties of up to 800, exacerbating traffic and parking woes in the neighborhood.

The project is one of at least five high-profile developments proposed for the district represented by Councilman Jack Weiss. All have been scheduled for a council vote in the final month before Weiss leaves office. Weiss decided not to run for a third term and instead mounted an unsuccessful bid for city attorney.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl said he spoke personally with Koretz, who will replace Weiss on July 1, and learned that the councilman-elect did not want a delay as long as there is a review of the museum’s activities in six months.
 
“He said ‘No, don’t hold up the project. Go forward with the project, and in six months we’ll review where we’re at,’ ” Rosendahl said.

-- David Zahniser at L.A. City Hall

L.A. Council delays vote on residential project in Weiss' Westside district

As expected, Los Angeles officials moved this afternoon to delay a vote on a 14-story residential project planned for 3rd Street near Beverly Hills. But City Councilman Ed Reyes did pull out something of a surprise -- by postponing the matter only one week.

Because the 95-unit project would be in his district, Councilman-elect Paul Koretz had asked for the opportunity to review it after July 1, when he takes office. Earlier this week, Koretz said the proposal was being rushed to the council in the final days before Councilman Jack Weiss leaves office.

The condominium plan is one of at least five in Weiss’ Westside district that are scheduled for a council vote during his final month as a councilman. Instead of seeking re-election, Weiss ran for city attorney and lost last month.

Reyes said he still wants to give Koretz a chance to review the matter and would probably postpone the issue again next week. Waiting a week, however, does allow the city to keep its options open, he said.

-- David Zahniser at L.A. City Hall

'Dodgertown' gets a ZIP Code

Only time will tell whether baseball fans will stop calling the home of Dodger Stadium "Chavez Ravine" and star calling it "Dodgertown." But the marketing effort by the Dodgers to push the new name got a boost when Dodgertown got its own ZIP Code: 90090. It's the first baseball-stadium complex to get its own ZIP Code. More details from KTLA News.

Senate majority leader no longer aboard plan for maglev train to Vegas [Updated]

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader and an ardent supporter of high speed rail systems, said today he no longer favors construction of a maglev -- or magnetic levitation -- train between Anaheim and Las Vegas.

Instead, the Nevada Democrat said he now favors a conventional high speed train between Victorville and Las Vegas -- a privately funded venture that is farther along in the planning process and cheaper to build than the maglev proposal, which has been studied for almost three decades.

“I”ve been working on this for 30 years," Reid said. "We’ve gotten nowhere. Maglev projects have been abandoned around the world. It’s time to stop talking and start doing something.”

Yaroslavsky warns L.A. Council candidates of voters' 'anti-development' mood

Here’s a warning for candidates looking to replace Los Angeles City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel in the Sept. 22 special election in the San Fernando Valley: pay attention to real estate development – and the fury it inspires among neighborhood groups.

That was the advice offered this morning by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who picked the winning candidate in last month’s election for his own onetime Westside council seat.

Yaroslavsky backed former Assemblyman Paul Koretz, who won by a 51-49 margin. Appearing at the Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum, Yaroslavsky pointed out that the race, which started out with six candidates, went down to the wire as a nail biter between the two who were most skeptical of real estate projects.

“This was an anti-development electorate,” Yaroslavsky told the breakfast crowd. “Nobody in that electorate said, ‘I want to double the density [of buildings] on Fairfax Avenue or on Westwood Boulevard.’”

Weiss gives tart advice to L.A. City Council on his way out

The Los Angeles City Council voted today to approve La Brea Gateway, a hotly contested seven-story apartment building planned for La Brea Avenue and backed by Councilman Jack Weiss.

But there were some fireworks leading up to that unanimous vote. Weiss, who will soon leave the council after a bruising and unsuccessful bid for city attorney, offered some tart advice for his colleagues. And Councilwoman Janice Hahn fired a few choice words back at him.

City Council approves Century City high-rise without debate

The Los Angeles City Council gave the go-ahead today to a 39-story retail and residential complex in Century City planned by the shopping mall company Westfield U.S. Holdings.

Under the proposal, Westfield plans to reconfigure its shopping and dining areas while adding a high-rise that would house 262 condominiums and up to four stories of shopping – primarily Bloomingdale’s, which will be relocated from another part of the mall.

Westfield also plans to raze two existing office buildings.

Environmental documents prepared by the city’s planning department estimated that the $800 million project, when completed, will generate up to 5,922 additional car trips per day on weekdays and up to 7,466 extra car trips per day on weekends.

To address some of the project’s impacts, Westfield agreed to an array of concessions – upgrading intersections,  encouraging greater use of public transit and creating a “parking ombudsman” to regulate parking by mall employees.

The council approved the project without discussion.

-- David Zahniser

Photo: L.A. Times

MTA grants Italian rail car builder more time in contract negotiations

Los Angeles County’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority board delayed a decision today on whether to hire an Italian rail manufacturer to build 100 cars needed for Metro’s light rail line extensions.
 
The delay -- the second since March -- would give MTA officials more time to work out the details of a new offer by the firm, AnsaldoBreda, for a $300-million financial guarantee on the potential 100-car contract. The company says the guarantee would ensure that they deliver the cars on time and to Metro’s specifications.
 
The decision on whether to go forward with AnsaldoBreda’s contract options or seek bids from other rail companies has been topic of intensive debate at the 13-member MTA Board for months.

Earlier this week, Metro’s new Chief Executive Art Leahy recommended declining AnsaldoBreda’s contract options for 100 additional cars, which were to expire at the end of the month. His predecessor, former Metro Chief Executive Officer Roger Snoble, made a similar recommendation after concluding that AnsaldoBreda’s performance under its current 50-car contract did not merit a new order.
 

Future of 1927-era East L.A. theater in question

Preservationists and developers are wrangling over the future of an abandoned theater in East Los Angeles that is historically significant and represents a Spanish-baroque style rarely found in the city.

Activists, developers and local business people presented two starkly different visions Wednesday of what could be done with the abandoned Golden Gate Theater near Whittier and Atlantic boulevards.

At a hearing before the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, some advocated converting the building into a CVS pharmacy, complete with alcohol sales and a drive-through pharmacy window. Others want to return the theater, built in 1927, to its original purpose.

The theater's entrance replicates the portal of the University of Salamanca in Spain and is built in the Churrigueresque style, a Spanish baroque form of architecture. The theater is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

College district abandons plans for campus at bakery site

Los Angeles City College has abandoned plans to open a satellite campus at the renovated Van de Kamp’s bakery site in Glassell Park, the site of a ferocious preservationist fight almost a decade ago.

The Los Angeles Community College District adapted the building and its 16th century Dutch townhouse facade for the college’s use. Because of budget problems, however, the district will now turn the property over, most likely, to the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools for a charter high school, said Larry Eisenberg, the district’s executive director for facilities planning and development.

"We would have loved to offer a satellite campus, but the budget constraints -- nobody could have anticipated that," Eisenberg said Wednesday.

The property will have a workforce development center and a community gym, Eisenberg said. The district will review the arrangement in five years, at which point the idea for a satellite campus could be revived, he added.

To honor the bakery heritage, Eisenberg said he had investigated festooning a security fence with decorative cupcakes, rolls and other goodies, but it turned out to be expensive. Eisenberg said he hopes to come up with a reasonably priced alternative.

The high school is expected to open in September.

-- Gale Holland

Trutanich withdraws from debates, claims Weiss is using 'smear tactics'

Los Angeles city attorney candidate Carmen Trutanich has withdrawn from his planned Tuesday debate with City Councilman Jack Weiss. And all future debates, for that matter.

Former Los Angeles Planning Commission President Jane Usher, now a campaign volunteer for Trutanich, broke the news in an e-mail today to event sponsors Town Hall Los Angeles.

West L.A. sees building boom on Federal, Sawtelle

Despite the housing downturn, the Westside mid-rise condo/apartment market continues to attract builders. Curbed L.A. has detected a building boom on both Sawtelle Boulevard and Federal Avenue in West L.A. Some new additions to Federal have a decidedly old-school feel:

West LA's Federal Avenue -- a hop, skip, and a jump from the numerous condo projects on Sawtelle Boulevard -- has two housing structures quickly coming to fruition just south of Santa Monica Boulevard. Signage is poor, so it's hard to tell what exactly is going on, but with a little detective work we discovered the interesting looking structure (first three pics) is 19 condos (not a Medieval Times) and is supposed to be available in a couple months.

Curbed also has a cool photo of the new Century City skyline, as seen from Mar Vista.

 

Is L.A. housing density decision the revenge of Jane Usher?

To planning nerds, a court ruling that struck down a new housing density law in Los Angeles Tuesday was a small earthquake, throwing into question the legality of an unknown number of real estate projects approved by the City Council over the last year.

But political types had another urgent question about the decision: Is it the revenge of Jane Usher?

L.A. Planning Commission calls for smaller Ponte Vista for San Pedro

The Los Angeles Planning Commission today rejected a 1,950-unit housing project for a 61.5-acre site in San Pedro, but it directed its staff to continue to work with the community and developers of the proposed Ponte Vista to come up with a smaller project.

Planners will have six months to try to forge a compromise between the staff recommendation of about 775 to 885 units and the developer's latest proposal of 1,395 units. Developers originally wanted 2,300 homes on the site of surplus Navy housing but then dropped the number to 1,950 in the face of community opposition.

Proponents say the project would provide much-needed affordable housing and jobs, but opponents cited congestion and already terrible traffic problems along Western Avenue.

"We're giving one more shot at coming up with a compromise," Councilwoman Janice Hahn said after the meeting.

The project has split the close-knit portside community. People on both sides of the issue packed the City Council chambers today and some participated in the proceedings from a remote TV feed in San Pedro.

-- Jean Merl

Photo: Councilwoman Janice Hahn, 15th district, listens to debate during the Los Angeles Planning Commission at Los Angeles City Hall. Developers proposed a somewhat-scaled-back housing development for a 61.5-acre site in San Pedro. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / LA Times

Mall developer Caruso throws support to Weiss in L.A. city attorney race

When shopping mall developer Rick J. Caruso flirted with the idea of a mayoral run last year, he was the challenger most feared by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s camp, in part because of his reputation as a formidable fundraiser and his ability to finance his own campaign.

But the man who built the Grove and the Americana at Brand in Glendale is now lending a hand to one of Villaraigosa’s closest allies on the City Council -- Los Angeles city attorney candidate Jack Weiss.

Weiss, who currently represents the council district that includes the Grove and upscale neighborhoods such as Bel Air, Cheviot Hills, Century City, Encino and Westwood, drew 36% of the votes in the March primary. He faces a May 19 runoff with attorney Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich of San Pedro, who finished second with 27% of the votes. Because of city rules, both candidates’ campaign accounts were zeroed out when they began the general-election phase.

Caruso, former head of the police commission, sent a letter to potential Weiss contributors last week inviting them to an April 30 fundraiser at his home and urging them to contribute the maximum of $1,000 to Weiss’s campaign. Caruso touts Weiss’s endorsement by Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, who is mentioned in the fundraising letter three times.

Villaraigosa, boss of Korean Air plant Chinese elms

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's effort to put his Million Trees program back on track received some major help today from Korean Air, which will donate $160,000 over the next four years to help plant trees across Los Angeles.

The airline’s chairman and chief executive,Yang-Ho Cho, flew across the Pacific to join Villaraigosa at John H. Liechty Middle School just west of downtownLos Angeles to kick off the partnership and plant a couple of Chinese elms.

Million Trees  was a cornerstone of Villaraigosa’s environmental agenda but ran into criticism  last year because it relied so heavily on tree giveaways -- primarily the distribution of seedlings, which have a high mortality rate.

So far, just 200,000 trees have been planted.

Cho, a USC graduate, said Korean Air’s donation commemorates the airline’s 40th anniversary and builds on the company's successful tree-planting program in China and Mongolia. Los Angeles is home to the largest population of people of Korean descent outside  Korea.

Cho also vowed to make L.A.’s annual Environmental Youth Conference a global event.

-- Phil Willon

NFL stadium plan in Industry ignored large Asian community, suit says

The city of Walnut filed a lawsuit hoping to block a proposed NFL stadium in nearby Industry, arguing in part that the developer’s campaign failed to reach the city’s large Asian population.

Walnut is a predominantly Asian suburb about 30 miles east of downtown L.A., and city officials said in their lawsuit that many residents in the city don’t speak English. The suit claims that the city of Industry did not properly inform Walnut residents in their native language about the potential impact of the $800-million stadium.

“Although Industry knew that the stadium-entertainment complex would impact large Chinese-, Korean-, Tagalog- and Spanish-speaking populations in Walnut, it failed to provide notices for the project in any language other than English,” according to the suit.

Billboard regulations would ban most digitals and restrict supergraphics

The Los Angeles Planning Commission voted this morning to approve a dramatically reworked billboard law that would ban digital billboards in most parts of the city and place new restrictions on supergraphics -- vinyl signs placed on the sides of buildings.

On a 6-3 vote, the commission forwarded the new sign ordinance to the City Council, which hopes to vote on it by June, when a sign moratorium is set to expire.

The three opponents of the measure were commissioners Michael Woo, Cindy Montanez and Father Spencer Kezios. Last week, all three voiced dismay that the plan provided too many exceptions for new signs. Outdoor advertising companies have used such exceptions to strike down the city’s 2002 billboard ban in court.

Commissioners Sean Burton and William Roschen disagreed, saying the new law would result in a significant reduction in billboards and outdoor signs.

Although the measure would still allow the council to create as many as 21 sign districts in neighborhoods such as Encino, Westwood and Boyle Heights, the commission voted to require that for each new sign erected, another one of equal or greater size would have to be taken down in the surrounding area.

-- Phil Willon

$6-million donation to aid families plagued by violence

The Children's Institute Inc., a nonprofit organization that aids families plagued by violence, received a $6-million gift from the Booth Foundation that will help fund the development of a new center in Filipino Town, near downtown Los Angeles, officials announced today.

"How stunning and wonderful this is, considering the economic times," said Nina Revoyr, the institute's vice president for external relations and director of its capital campaign.

The donation secures $15 million of the $20 million the agency sought for the project and is the largest sum it has received so far, Revoyr said. The new center will be named after the foundation's founder, philanthropist Franklin Otis Booth Jr., who was the great-grandson of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, former owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Times. Booth died in June.

Jordan Downs residents meet over their future

About 40 Jordan Downs housing project tenants gathered this afternoon to hear about city plans that could dramatically change their lives: tearing down the notorious Watts project and transforming it into a modern "urban village" with apartments and retail outlets.

Residents gathered in a meeting room to hear about the ambitious $1-billion city proposal that could include as many as 2,100 units, with both low-income and market-rate apartments. Financing would come from federal redevelopment money, state tax credits and private investment.

The meeting was the first in a six-month brainstorming process where residents can speak out about their needs and voice concerns about the development, said Larry Goins, director of development for the Los Angeles Housing Authority.

On Saturday, the group focused on how a new housing development could improve their lives. Residents said they are concerned about safety, need better transportation to and from the site, and the future needs to be cleaner. They complained that there are not enough dumpsters, causing garbage to overflow in lots.

They said they want a future that includes a gym for residents with diabetes, a grocery store on site that features healthy food and a greenhouse where they could grow their own vegetables.

"I can't wait," said Sylvia Gallager, who has lived in the project for 27 years. "I hope it comes to fruition."

Some experts said that a project of this magnitude, which would be among the largest in the city, would face formidable challenged in the current recession, and that the Housing Authority may have difficulty executing such a complex development.

Officials at the Saturday meeting said they hope that as word gets out about the plan, attendance at community meetings will grow. About 2,300 people live in the project. The next meeting is April 16 at the Jordan Downs recreation center.

--Ruben Vives

For the record: In a previous version of this post, Larry Goins' name was misspelled as "Goings."

Ed Reyes wants answers on collapsed building

Los Angeles City Councilman Ed Reyes said he wants an explanation for how an apartment building in his district that collapsed Sunday could have appeared to have passed inspection by the city’s Housing Department just nine months ago.

“It’s very upsetting,” Reyes said today. “These types of oversights can’t be allowed … it’s very dangerous.”

It’s unclear from city records exactly what kind of inspections took place at 1624 S. Westmoreland—another thing Reyes criticized. It appears that complaints were filed in December  2007 alleging that the building’s concrete masonry was not structurally sound and that its vertical supports were unstable.

Owner of collapsed building had history of problems [UPDATED]

The owner of an apartment building that collapsed Sunday in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, injuring four people, was convicted last fall of numerous fire and health code violations and agreed to sell all of his roughly 150 rental properties as part of a plea agreement that allowed him to avoid jail time, records show.

Frank McHugh, 82, of Marina del Rey, was given three years to sell his apartment buildings in an agreement approved by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Spurgeon Smith. McHugh had pleaded no contest to 15 misdemeanor criminal counts involving buildings he owns on Olympic and James M. Wood boulevards.

Region divided as city of Industry prepares to vote on NFL stadium bond

When Mayor David Perez of the city of Industry looks out over a rolling, 600-acre site on his city’s eastern edge, he sees the future home of an NFL stadium and an economic engine that would bring jobs and tax revenue for the entire region.

When Joachin Lim, the mayor of nearby Walnut, imagines a stadium there, he sees a potential disaster: Traffic, noise and “passionate, emotional” football fans.

The eastern San Gabriel Valley has become the latest battleground in the decades-long -– and some say quixotic -– campaign to bring pro football back to the Los Angeles region.

The city of Industry, a city of more than 1,800 businesses and fewer than 800 residents, believe it has what Irwindale, Pasadena, Los Angeles and Carson lacked. Skeptics abound. But the city is taking a first step Tuesday, when its 84 registered voters will consider a $500-million bond that would pay for stadium-related infrastructure projects. And two days later, the City Council is scheduled to certify the project’s environmental impact report.

Las Lomas might not be dead

Many people declared Las Lomas -- the controversial mini-city at the Newhall Pass -- dead. But could there be twitches of life? From the Daily News:

Las Lomas Land Co. announced Friday that it will appeal a court ruling that blocked the developer from building a controversial 5,500-home mini-city in the Newhall Pass.

A statement from Las Lomas spokesman Edward Park said the company had filed its intent to appeal a decision by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe dismissing its lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles.

The lawsuit said the city erred in refusing to complete a review of the project that was necessary for the development to continue.

-- Shelby Grad