77 Sunset Strip

UPDATE: THE MOST DANGEROUS STREET IN L.A

77 SUNSET STRIP

Well, it's not actually 77 Sunset Strip, it's Crisler Way and it ostensibly will hook up with Sunset. The 77 I'm referring to are the 77 freaking' houses that can be built on the way down to Sunset if Crisler Way is built.

That's right bunky, there are enough plots available along Crisler Way to build 77 HOMES! 

According to my calculations, at a very conservative two years per house (exclusive of the time to build the actual road) lt will take approximately 150 years to fill this little canyon that sits directly above Sunset Boulevard. 

Of course it won't be that long, but in reality, there could be constant construction going on for the next fifteen to twenty years, Baseline Hillside Ordinance or not.

Just this little 200 foot road. . . er. . . driveway (and 4 spec homes of course) project slated in the building plans for Crisler Way will only entail a paltry five to six years of constant construction, street collapses, equipment falling down the hill, street blockages, damaged homes, lawsuits, loss of the thirteen legal parking spaces available on Grandview & Yucca Trail and assorted crimes and misdemeanors. 

You won't even be able to sell your house if you want to get out while the getting's good because any perspective buyer won't be able to get past the cement trucks.

FYI. Here's the entire Crisler Way street map - as thoughtfully provided by the City of Los Angeles and the Bureau of Engineering. 

Oh yeah, the original accelerated street dedication in 2006 was brought to you courtesy of our former beloved Council member, Jack Weiss.

MEET YOUR NEW NEIGHBOR (sort of)

So the name listed as the developer on the building plans is one Aaron Cohen whose business address is listed as 1504 South Flower Street on the building permit.

Before I show you the photo that one of the neighbors snapped of Aaron's place of business I'd like to remind you this is a very expensive and massive project. 

According to the documents available publicly, he (or his company) have already committed over $500,000.00 to this project and they haven't even begun building yet. One would think that anyone who took on a project of this magnitude would have a nice place of business.

This is the photo of 1504 south Flower Street. As far as the neighbor could tell Mr. Cohen's "office" was vacant and looked like it has been for some time. 

Draw your own conclusions.

SIGNS IN THEM THAR HILLS

This doesn't have anything to do with Crisler Way but I thought that everyone in the hills should know about this and as long as I'm sitting here writing this blog I'm including it.

We have tried to get the city to post new NO SMOKING signs in the hills for years. Last year I designed a series of NO SMOKING signs that we put up along Laurel Canyon Blvd. You may have seen them. We were allowed to put them up on Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy property along LCB.

(The only fine we could find was $250.00 for littering)

In the process of designing the signs, I learned that although there was an ordinance prohibiting smoking in what the city describes as an Extra Hazardous High Severity Fire zone, there was in actuality no fine attached to the ordinance - although everyone believed there was a $1000.00 fine if you were caught. An urban legend. 

(Moral of this story - don't believe anything the city tells you - do your diligence and find out for yourself. It's never what it seems and usually works against the community - and I mean this in the nicest possible way.)

Last June I asked Joan Pelico, Council member Paul Koretz's (CD5) chief of staff if there was a way to attach a fine to the ordinance and have the city create official signage. I tried to have our then council member Tom LaBonge CD4 do it but he wasn't interested in helping us out.  I certainly hope David Ryu, our new council member is more interested in our community than our last great leader.

To make a long story short, Paul Koretz put it up to the Safety Committee last June and after going through the City Attorney's office has now (after last Friday) turned into a reality.

Joan Pelico, the "sign", me and John Novella of LAFD

It's a small win for us here in the hillsides, but it's a win thanks to some folks in the city who actually care about the safety of our city - the hillsides in particular.

I'll be working with John Novella to help tweak the design and look for places to post the signs here in the canyon in the very near future (this week or next), God willin' and the creek don't rise. 

This shows we can get something done when we set our minds to it (and work with people in our city government who care about their constituents) - let's do the same with Crisler Way and any other "paper" streets under assault by over development and "hazy" government oversight.

Signing off until the next time,

Skip of the Canyon

UPDATE: THE MOST DANGEROUS STREET IN L.A

Grandview Drive two houses down from Crisler Way (circa 1979)

Hi all,

These posts are my and my neighbor's real life experiences in dealing with this project (and probably others now). I'll post as situations occur. 

Hopefully, they'll provide some "actionable" information and help you avoid wasting time, money, dealing with red herrings, ineffectual lawsuits and dead ends - of which there are many and devious when dealing with the city and land use issues.

If nothing else, it'll help open your eyes to the wonderful world of city government here in the City of Developers. . . er, Angels

ONWARD & UPWARD!

DID YOU KNOW?

People ask this question, without fail, every time this conversation comes up.

" I don't understand! How in the hell can someone build an entire friggin'' street in the middle of a fragile, overcrowded hillside community with the HIGHEST risk of a major fire in the entire city -  without public hearings!! 

Isn't it the law that you have to be notified?"

The short answer is that's a BIG NEGATORY, good buddy - so don't waste any time and energy on this red herring - at least as far as paper streets go. 

May I briefly elucidate. 

It would appear that those rascals at the Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety have the discretionary power to decide if a project needs a haul route hearing or not- and they can do it behind closed doors without any input from the community! 

How do you like them apples?

If LADBS decides to make the decision to apply this procedure (or whatever it is in actuality) to a project, as they have done with Crisler Way, three things happen:

1. There will be no haul route hearing, or apparently any other type of hearing either.

2. NO hearing ergo NO notice.

3. No one in the neighborhood will know about it until the bulldozers move in. 

This scenario, which we are trying learn more about, so obviously favors developers that it gives the appearance of criminal activity, needs to be investigated and changed. I'll keep you updated on this little procedure as we get more facts - which is another story I'll deal with in later posts. Facts seem to be very difficult to obtain from city departments. I wonder why?

The only way to fix this is to change the city government procedures that allow this to happen. The only way that will occur is if we the people get off our butts and force the change - and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

P.S.

I was going to sign off on this right here, but I just received some information I think I should share with you to let you (who haven't been affected by this city procedure yet) see what this means to the neighborhood - unless, of course you're a developer, then you'' love it.

I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut the city pulled the same thing here. Looks like this could happen on every paper street in the city unless the process is changed.

Our neighbors over on Viewmont have now live with this thanks to LADBS's 

"stealth" policies regarding development.

This was a stand of pine trees and a wildlife corridor three months ago - THREE MONTHS!! This will happen to Grandview drive if the developer's allowed to build Crisler Way.

They're comin'