Dear Neighbor:

Are you annoyed by all the traffic in West LA?

Are you sick of big developers cramming tall, zero-lot-line buildings onto tiny footprints?

Are you tired of the shrinking number of free, relatively unrestricted parking spaces here?

PLEASE READ!

A couple weeks ago, letters went out to everyone within a 500-foot radius of 11407 W. Santa Monica Blvd. (that’s the empty lot at the NW corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Purdue Ave where Dolores Restaurant and its free parking lot used to sit) with details of a proposed 44,026 square foot building project that sounds like a bad idea to me.

This small lot (less than half an acre) is only permitted for buildings up to 3 stories tall... Yet the developer plans a 5-STORY BUILDING, which would be totally out of character with the intersection, towering over the 1-story public library and post office at the foot of the municipal area that forms the heart of West LA.

And that’s not all. The plan is for it be “mixed use,” which means the bottom floor will be mostly retail, while the upper four floors will be residential units. That’s fine but what’s NOT is that the developer plans on cramming 51 RESIDENTIAL UNITS—with as many as three-bedrooms each—onto the remaining floors. That’s a lot of people (and a lot of cars) to add to our already congested neighborhood.

Speaking of cars, the project calls for 80 parking spaces to be built, which sounds good in theory. The problem is that only one parking space will be “allowed” (not guaranteed but “allowed” it says) for each studio or 1-bedroom, while two parking spaces will be “allowed” for the 2- and 3-bedroom units.

What about all the couples sharing a bedroom? What about all the 3-bedrooms with one or more extra cars? Guests? They’ll park on the street. And what happens when we all run out of street parking? We’ll end up in the city-owned pay lots paying $1/hour from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. DAILY, where Parking Enforcement will suck us dry for every infraction.

IF YOU DISLIKE THIS PLAN AS MUCH AS I DO

1- Come to the hearing at 1pm, THIS WEDNESDAY, April 1 in Room 1020 at City Hall -- 200 N. Spring St. Los Angeles, CA 90012

2- Complain to the hearing officer, Oliver Netburn, by writing Oliver.Netburn@lacity.org or calling 213-978-1382 (re. case# CPC-2014-4780-DB at 11407 W. Santa Monica Blvd)

3—Sign my online petition here

Thanks for reading this!

Liam Gowing

UCLA grad & 15-year West L.A. resident

ex-LA Times, LA Weekly and Onion/AV Club LA writer

*Dolores image credit: http://urbanize.la/post/more-apartments-and-retail-santa-monica-boulevard