LET’S HEAR FROM YOU VENICE!
Thursday, September 8th, after 9:00AM
Coastal Commission will be taking comments on a motion impacting the future of Venice!
The Motion, item 15a on the Agenda, asks for an extension of the consideration period for Coastal to review the Venice Median project land use plan amendments beyond the normal 90 day period. This would give the Commission up to a year to properly evaluate the dramatically out of conformance mess of a project dropped in their laps by City officials and the developers, who have ignored our pleas to address the project’s serious environmental issues and violations of the Coastal Act.
Yes please! We need the Coastal Commission to properly evaluate the extensive list of environmental impacts and what it would mean to combine 40 lots at the entrance to Venice Beach and change all zoning laws to accommodate this one monstrous development now called the Venice Dell Project. Please call in and support this motion!
Coastal Commission meetings are different from City Council meetings in that you are encouraged to file a “speaker card” by 5 pm the day before the hearing to insure you get a chance to comment (if you wait to submit your “speaker card” until the day of the meeting you may be able to speak but it’s not guaranteed):
Use this link to go directly to a request to speak on Thursday, the 8th- Item #15a.
https://www.coastal.ca.gov/meetings/request-testimony/thursday/
A zoom link will be emailed to you as confirmation. You MUST use that link to log onto the meeting. “Raise your zoom hand” when the agenda item starts.
NOTE: We don’t know exactly what time Item 15a will be heard on Thursday. You are advised to log on to the meeting at its start, 9 am. Any agenda changes will be announced. And then follow along (or keep checking in) until item 15a. It’s possible it won’t be heard until the afternoon, so please hang in there!
To call in by phone, or for further virtual hearing instructions, visit this link:
https://documents.coastal.ca.gov/assets/virtual-hearing/VIRTUAL-HEARING-PROCEDURES.pdf
And while commenting, you might want to let Coastal know that shutting down the project now by denying the outrageous proposed land use plan amendments, rather than continuing to prolong this agony by extending the deadline, would save everyone’s time and energy, including important Coastal Staff resources, from continued, drawn out analysis of what does not appear to be a feasible project.
A few of the many reasons to object to the project:
- This site never should have been chosen, in this environmentally sensitive coastal area, a block from the beach, in a flood zone, tsunami inundation area and escape route, with sea level rising.
- Venice’s last open space (by definition, a “median” is a pedestrian refuge) should not be given away to developers who are going to collect multi-million dollar fees and then pass on the ownership of the project to wealthy investors who need the tax benefits to offset their high income.
- Current land use laws in place that do not allow 2 lots to be merged, much less 40, must be observed in order to protect Venice as a Special Coastal Community.
- If this is an underutilized parking lot as designated by our City officials, why are we replacing it with a 4-story, beach parking garage at a cost of 20-million dollars? The fact is, this is heavily used beach parking that City Council was swindled into thinking was underutilized to allow the project. New nonsensical tandem “mechanical lift parking” proposed to replace the current parking lot will NOT be usable for beach goers, and will be 500 feet further from the beach than the existing beach parking.
- The two massive towers will block pedestrian and bike access over the 100-year old historic Bridge. Developers will demolish the apron of the bridge and make it a design feature of the project, rather than a part of Venice History to be shared by all.
- Access to the Public Boat Launch would be greatly diminished with no ability to back a trailer to the launch. The Coastal Act does not allow reduced coastal access.
- Traffic and congestion would be increased due to delays caused by the proposed parking plan and would make the beach going experiences miserable, as well as compound an already low parking space inventory for residential and visitor parking in Venice.
- A 68-foot lookout tower over Pacific Ave and the ocean is not in keeping with the character of our community or in furtherance of supportive housing.
And the fact that the City bypassed a full environmental review in order to fast track this project? The “CEQA Initial Study” performed by the City in 2018 identified numerous potentially significant impacts of the project. These impacts must now be studied. From the City’s own study that was started but never completed:
“Based on the analysis contained in this Initial Study, the Project could result in potentially significant environmental impacts with regard to the following topics: aesthetics; air quality; cultural resources; geology and soils; greenhouse gas emissions; hazards and hazardous materials; hydrology and water quality; land use and planning; noise; public services (fire protection, police protection, schools, parks, and other public services); recreation; transportation/circulation; tribal cultural resources; and utilities (water, wastewater, and energy). As a result, these potential effects will be analyzed further in the EIR.”
We could go on… there are endless reasons why this project should be stopped!
Thanks for taking the time to call in on the 8th!
With appreciation-
The Team at Safe Coastal Development