Valley VOTE July 16, 2007 Meeting Report
by
David DeVoss

Neighborhood Council Growing Pains

Dr. Raphe Sonenshein, professor, political scientist and published author, presently presides over the Neighborhood Council Review Commission (NCRC), an organization tasked with assessing the performance of Neighborhood Councils throughout the city. He appeared at our July meeting and his message was decidedly mixed.

“The Neighborhood Council system, to be perfectly blunt, has been mired in bureaucracy, mired in process, mired in rules and mired in things that range in everything from running elections day after day to getting a pizza for the meeting to getting a room to putting up the agenda,” said Sonenshein. “It would be wonderful if all we had to do was discover the perfect answers that would mobilize everybody on the same side, but that’s probably not going to happen.”

Neighborhood Councils were created in 1999 in the belief that neighborhood groups are closer to their communities than downtown politicians. The City Charter was amended to create a structure to gather local input. The problem has been what input should be gathered. Defining just who is a “stakeholder” is an issue. Should illegal aliens have a vote? He argues that everybody living or working in a community should be allowed to attend and speak out at NC meetings. “Participatory democracy is not representative democracy,” he says, sounding very much like the Cal State Fullerton political science professor that he is.
Dr. Sonenshein indicated that a set of Preliminary recommendations have been developed by the NCRC Commission intended to improve the efficacy of the neighborhood council system. They can be found on the Commission web site; www.ncrcla.org. Everyone is encouraged to review the recommendations and submit their comments ASAP to the Commission. After consideration of the public input at the 7 Public Hearings throughout the city and the written comments submitted to the commission a final report will be presented to the L.A. City Council in late September of this year.

Property Rights. And Wrongs
Rental housing is a prime example of who loses when property rights are attacked, argues Valley VOTE Treasurer Vic Viereck. Everybody needs shelter, but nobody has an obligation to provide shelter to non-relatives. Although unrestrained illegal immigration increases the demand for housing, it has been government at federal, state, and local levels that is responsible for the failure to meet the demand. The 1986 Federal Tax Reform Act caused a 44.8% reduction in depreciation deductions by spreading depreciation over 27.5 years, and eliminated rental loss deductions for people with over $100,000 other adjusted gross income. The State of California does not have a reduced tax rate for long-term capital gains. The Los Angeles Rent Stabilization continues that gauntlet. Now that government has squelched investment incentive, they want the taxpayers to subsidize housing.

Last year’s Measure H, other such ballot measures, and the Los Angeles Affordable Housing Trust Fund attack everybody’s right to profit from what they have worked hard to earn. Violation of the public’s property investment rights deprives lower income people of shelter, resulting in additional attacks on property rights.

Mixed Signals for LAX
After years of false starts, there finally are two United Airlines flights a day out of Palmdale. This is good for all of Southern California, says Denny Schneider, who monitors Los Angeles World Airports for Valley VOTE. LAX may be the fifth largest airport in the country, but with 3,500 acres its space is limited, Schneider notes. Palmdale has 17,000 acres making it the airport of the 21st Century.

As for LAX, the saga continues. Rather than moving to make LAX safe, secure, and convenient for all, LAWA has resurrected an old, rejected proposal to lengthen the northern runways. This will result in the rerouting of Lincoln Boulevard and the removal of one-third of the businesses on Sepulveda Blvd. from La Tijera to the airport.

The bottom line, says Schneider, is that we need to make LAX into the world class airport Los Angeles deserves, and stop the political moves designed to expand LAX. For more information go to the website www.regionalsolution.org.

Mansion or Monstrosity?
A proposed Baseline Mansionization Ordinance has been given to the City Council for approval, says Pauline Tallent, chairman of Valley VOTE’s land use committee. This ordinance only applies to 304,410 single-family lots, not Hillside or Coastal Zones. Mansionization pertains to new construction, additions and remodels. The purpose was to find a fair solution to the demands of property owners and the views of the surrounding neighbor property owners, who were objecting to the “big boxes.”

Under the old zoning laws FAR (Floor Area Ratio) was 3:1. This was based on the building area of a lot after taking into account the setbacks. In other words a 5,000 square foot lot could potentially support a 7,500 square foot structure, or more, hence the “boxes.” Under the proposed change in the zoning regulations, the ratio (FAR) will be 1:1 and be based on the lot size. This would place a cap on the maximum square footage that a 5,000 square lot could support would be 2,500 square foot structure. Also there will be height restrictions, particularly pertaining to flat roofs. This is an incredibly well thought out and fair solution, Tallent argues. This means that we now have hard and fast rules for what can and cannot be built on a particular residential property. This could also potentially throw out “variances,” “conditional uses,” and “Q conditions,” and the delays of having to meet with both the Neighborhood Council and the City Council.

Subway to the Sea.
If you live in the San Fernando Valley chances are you are ambivalent about the proposed “subway to the sea” from Western to the ocean along Wilshire Blvd. But you should monitor discussions closely, advises Bart Reed, executive director of The Transit Coalition since the $5 billion the subway is expected to cost means less money for other areas in the city.

Last year, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called the Subway to the Sea crucial to the city’s future and made it part of his fanciful list of “top priorities.” Villaraigosa quietly proposed a Wilshire Corridor tax assessment district to pay for a portion of the cost but – surprise! – residents there prefer Valley taxpayers to foot the bill via the general property tax.
Of course, the Wilshire subway is not a bad idea. A Venture Blvd. subway also would be a good idea.  Stay current with events by visiting www.transitcoalition.org regularly.

The Good Guy Lost .
Remember Measure R, the written in secret-passed in haste ballot initiative that increased from two to three the number of terms city council members can serve? Voters mistakenly approved last year believing they were getting tougher ethics rules only to discover the measure’s real purpose was to give city politicos a triple dip in the honey pot. Republican activist David Hernandez challenged the measure in court, arguing that combining ethics reform with term limit extensions on the same ballot is illegal.

The city attorney countered that the measure was a charter reform, not an initiative, so the normal rules of syntax don’t apply. The judge bought the argument. Hernandez says he’ll appeal but the situation looks bleak.

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