The latest events related to the Venice Dell project have made it abundantly clear we must file an appeal for our CEQA case!
A new lawsuit just filed by a group comprised of plaintiffs with various relationships to the Venice Dell developers, accuses the City (our City Attorney and Councilwoman in particular) of a deliberate attempt to “covertly thwart” the Venice Dell project.
Make no mistake, these are actors working on behalf of the developers, biting the hand of the City that has spent years trying to gift them 3 acres of primo Venice Beach property (at a dollar a year for 99 years), while determined to complete Mike Bonin’s mission to build the most inconceivable project in the most inappropriate location in the City!
One of the plaintiffs is a longtime supporter of Venice Community Housing Corporation and former board member. Another plaintiff, Nisha Vyas, actually initiated a request to the State Housing Department for intervention on the project through her position at the Western Center on Law and Poverty (without revealing her role as Vice President of the board of Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, the developers holding 99.99% ownership of the project).
This new lawsuit’s attack on the City for exercising it’s due diligence (and indirect attack on the community) is exactly why we need to continue our legal actions by filing an appeal!
The developers are scrambling after the Coalition’s last DDA lawsuit challenging the giveaway of the 2.7 acres of taxpayer owned land. Judge Chalfant made it clear that city code requires the project go back to Council for approval of the property’s value being discounted to zero, before “conveying” the final lease. And yet, the plaintiffs do not mention that in their lawsuit.
It seems the developers would like to avoid this required step of returning to Council which would show the study purporting to support the land lease value. The study will expose funding and safety issues and other risks associated with the project along with the highly questionable appraisal of $3.4 million for 40 lots a block from the beach, which we identified in our lawsuit as never having been shared with Council or the pubic.
Instead, the plaintiffs are accusing our elected officials of acting “covertly” to block people of color from living in Venice Beach- yup, they went there. It’s not the first time— Becky Dennison, Executive Director of Venice Community Housing is quoted by reporters calling those who opposed the project “segregationists”. It seems these developers and related parties are ready to slander any City official or member of the public as being racist, simply for scrutinizing or objecting to a project that is loaded with environmental issues and excessive costs.
This is a pathetic maneuver to try to block our democratically elected councilwoman from representing her constituents when the project does go back to Council and when the parking component goes to the Transportation Commission- both actions clearly flagged in our court case as steps not yet completed in the approval process.
Again, it was the Coalition’s lawsuit that highlighted the need to go back to City Council- and not driven by our city officials, who are being falsely accused.
It’s mind blowing that these developers, entrusted with hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to build this project, would be anything but respectful to the City of Los Angeles.
This is a blatant attempt to prevent Traci Park from representing her constituents and making conscientious decisions before adding a massive development to our 3.1 square miles of Venice, already hosting 14 “affordable projects”.
The parties pushing this project are clearly desperate, and until the City cuts their losses from these reckless, disrespectful developers we must continue to challenge this project in court.
We are currently on deadline to file our appeal for the CEQA case. Please make a donation for our legal fees now to help make this happen!
With appreciation,
The Team at Safe Coastal Development