The Public Square: August 20–23, 2012

A brief look at items of interest to Hollywood residents that are on upcoming agendas at City Council, City Council Committees, Neighborhood Councils, various City Boards and Commissions, and County Board of Supervisors. LA City Agendas can be found here and LA County Board agendas can be found here.

As always, the meeting times, locations, and agendas are subject to change, so be sure to check and confirm.

Monday, August 20:

• East Hollywood Neighborhood Council Community Forum & Board Meeting (6:30 PM)
  • Agenda (.pdf)
    • Meeting will be held at L.A. City College (855 North Vermont Avenue) in the Faculty & Staff Center.
  • Item III.5 (East Hollywood Neighborhood Council Candidate Forum)
    • Opportunity for candidates running for seats in the upcoming East Hollywood Neighborhood Council to introduce themselves to the community.
• Hollywood United Neighborhood Council Board (6:30 PM)
  • Agenda
    • Meeting will be held at Seventh-day Adventist Church of Hollywood (1711 North Van Ness Avenue).

Tuesday, August 21:

• Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Council Committee (8:30 AM)
  • Item 13 (Council File 11-1604)
    • Planning Department to report relative to a motion instructing the Planning Department to (1) assist with the implementation of parklet demonstration projects currently under consideration and (2) create a Citywide parklet pilot program similar to San Francisco's "Pavement to Parks" program.
    • Note: This item will also be before the Transportation Council Committee on Wednesday, August 22nd.
• County Board of Supervisors (9:30 AM)
  • No items of note.
• City Council (10:00 AM)
  • Item 2 (Council File 11-1332)
    • Continued consideration of a Planning and Land Use Management Council Committee Report and City Attorney Report and Ordinance (.pdf) relative to amending various sections of the Los Angeles Municipal Code to create a Modified Parking Requirement District, which would allow for the use of one or more of seven specified parking requirement modification tools.
    • Local Media reaction on the proposed ordinance: LA Times, Curbed LA, LA Daily News, and LA Streetsblog.
• Planning and Land Use Management Council Committee (2:30 PM)
  • Item 2 (Council File 11-0776)
    • Communication from the Mayor (.pdf) relative to the reappointment of Mr. Kevin Norton to the Central Area Planning Commission for the term ending June 30, 2017.
• Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council Board (7:30 PM)
  • Agenda (.pdf)
    • Meeting will be held at the Los Feliz Community Police Center (1965 North Hillhurst Avenue) in the second floor meeting room.

Wednesday, August 22:

• City Council (10:00 AM)
  • Item 24 (Council File 11-1339)
    • Continued consideration of a Transportation Committee report relative to the renewal of "Temporary" Preferential Parking Districts (PPD) No. 72 and No. 112 for another 12 months and a change in the parking restrictions for along Gardner Street (PPD No. 112) in order to permit non-resident parking on Sunday.
    • PPD No. 112 is located on the residential streets south and east of Runyon Canyon Park's Vista Street entrance (i.e. Franklin, Sierra Bonita, and Gardner) and north of Hollywood Boulevard. The current restrictions of PPD No. 112 are No Parking Anytime Except; 2 Hour Parking 8AM-7PM Monday to Friday. Due to the fact that the current parking restrictions are negatively impacting a nearby church, LADOT is now recommending that the restrictions on Gardner Street be changed to No Parking Anytime Except; 2 Hour Parking 8AM-7PM Sunday to Friday.
    • Viewpoints: The parking restrictions for PPD No. 112 were changed just a few months ago with restrictions that prohibited non-resident parking on weekends. I note again that I thought the changes would do little to solve the parking problems in this area and would in fact make things worse. I think the same of these new changes as well.
• Transportation Council Committee (2:00 PM)
  • Item 6 (Council File 11-1604)
    • Planning Department to report relative to a motion instructing the Planning Department to (1) assist with the implementation of parklet demonstration projects currently under consideration and (2) create a Citywide parklet pilot program similar to San Francisco's "Pavement to Parks" program.
• Public Works Council Committee (2:00 PM)
  • Item 7 (Council File 12-1156)
    • Motion (.pdf) requesting that the City Attorney prepare and present an ordinance deleting Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 42.00(c)(3), which currently provides an sight-seeing tour operations with an exemption from the City’s prohibition on street-soliciting of goods or services.
    • Per the Motion, “Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 42.00(c)(3) prohibits street-soliciting of goods or services, however, sight-seeing tour operations, regulated by
      the California Public Utilities Commission, are expressly exempted.”
    • Viewpoints: Yes. Do it. Do it now.
  • Item 8 (Council Files 05-1853 and 05-1853-S1)
    • Bureau of Street Services report (.pdf) and City Attorney report (.pdf) relative to a proposed point of sale plan for fixing damaged sidewalks and a proposed ordinance amending the Los Angeles Municipal Code to eliminate the City's responsibility for repairing damage done to curbs, driveways and sidewalks by street tree roots.
    • Per the report, The Bureau of Street Services is recommending that consultants be brought on board to undertake a comprehensive survey and assessment of the condition of all of the City’s sidewalks in order to create a “Comprehensive Parkway Database” that would be used to determine what level of repair is needed. The estimate that the costs to do so could be “well over $10 million” and take up to 36 months to complete.
    • Viewpoints: A database is a good idea, is clearly needed, and frankly should have been done 5 years ago when this topic first came up. That said, good luck finding the $10 million or more needed to pull this off. Seems like more stalling to me. If the City Council really wants to dump this responsibility back on property owners, they should just do so and get it over with. If not, the City Council should get serious about the problem, and start carving out funds in the City budget for sidewalk repairs. Whichever way they go, I just wish they’d hurry up and make a decision already.
• Bel-Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council Board Meeting (7:00 PM)
  • Agenda not yet available on the web. Check here for the Agenda
    • Meeting is scheduled to be held at the Community Magnet School (located at 11301 Bellagio Road).