Thank you to everyone who has responded to join us downtown for the City Transportation Commission hearing on the public beach parking structure for the Venice Dell project:
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10th, 10:00 AM
LA CITY HALL, 200 N. SPRING STREET, ROOM 1070
If you missed the first email on this critically important hearing, please read it at this link on our website.
Our primary focus is getting people to City Hall to represent our opposition to the proposed infeasible City parking garage that our lawsuit called out as never having been taken to the Transportation Commission, the City entity that has oversight of all off street parking. We’re grateful this step is finally being taken!
Please respond to this email with your contact phone number (if you haven’t already) to let us know you can join us in person on December 10th. We’ll be organizing transportation for those not driving on their own, so please get back to us ASAP if you’ll be needing a ride. We’ll respond shortly with additional directions and talking points as we have more information.
Transportation Commission’s decision is key and they need to hear from us with our specific concerns about the costly replacement parking, 500 ft further from the beach, wrapped in tiny residential units and hidden from the street… the list goes on and we’ll provide more details for comments as we learn what is actually being proposed by the Department of Transportation.
Regardless of whether you can attend in person (and we truly hope you can), we ask that you take a minute to send this easy one-click email to the City Transportation Commission voicing your opposition to the public parking garage as proposed:
City of Los Angeles Transportation Commission
c/o Jasmin San Luis
Executive Assistant
jasmin.sanluis@lacity.org
Re: Special Meeting -12/10/24
Honorable City of Los Angeles Transportation Commissioners:
I understand it is your responsibility to provide oversight of all off-street parking facilities, including the approval of a new replacement public parking garage proposed at lot #731 for the densely populated and highly visited community of Venice Beach.
There has been an eight year discussion on replacing a heavily utilized public beach surface parking lot, used to access many recreational opportunities at Venice Beach and the Venice Canals in conjunction with the Venice Dell affordable housing project that, incredulously, has not included you. We’re grateful for this special hearing you have called on December 10th, in order to have a hearing prior to the Coastal Commission’s hearing for the project which they scheduled on December 11th. This is a project that is dependent on the demolition of existing public beach parking, with DOT to own, fund, and operate a new parking structure at the center of the residential development, both literally and figuratively.
All garage plans to date provided by the developers have been infeasible, including the most recently submitted November 4th plans with substantial changes never approved by your Commission or City Council. This is a valuable lot and it defies common sense and good judgement to give it away to a Hollywood developer in a 99-year lease for $1/year, when there are many other viable locations for 113 units of affordable housing (120 total less 3 manager units and less 4 replacement units for affordable units on the site to be destroyed).
The current parking garage design will limit the future parking expansion promised in the Venice Land Use Plan for this lot. The questionable “Texas Donut” configuration will deter visitors from using the lot, with the parking no longer visible from the street and wrapped within the tiny residential units. Some of the public parking will be mixed with the residential community’s private garage, creating more confusion and deterrence.
Access is also impeded as the garage will move visitors 500 ft. further from the beach and will require walking through the new, private residential premises and on substandard sidewalks to access the beach— all while carrying bulky beach gear including coolers, boogie boards, umbrellas, beach chairs etc. and wheeling strollers and bikes. Small garage elevators and stairwells not designed for the beach are impractical and exit directly into the line of traffic.
There is an unusually high percentage of parking spaces for electric vehicles and compact cars, reducing spaces for families with larger SUV’s and standard size vehicles, also deterring access.
The cost to taxpayers must be assessed with a reevaluation of the appraisal for this land using a true value significantly higher than the $3.3 million appraisal for 40 lots a block from the beach.
I urge you not to convey this lot to the developer for this project and immediately begin reevaluation of potential uses including affordable housing, but with a priority on transportation and coastal access for all, not just a select few.
This parking needs to be reevaluated to accommodate the masses that visit Venice and also provide affordable housing in a manner that works with Venice, its businesses and its millions of visitors, particularly as we face an increasing parking shortage due to the impacts of AB 2097 reducing parking supply, the loss of parking due to Al Fresco dining, and with the Olympics coming and bringing even more visitors. Parking lot #731 is critical to Venice’s future economic development, as significantly expanded parking is so desperately needed in our beach community.
Thank you for the opportunity to bring all of this to light.
Sincerely,
cc: Karen.Bass@lacity.org, Hydee.FeldsteinSoto@lacity.org, Traci.Park@lacity.org, Ken.Husting@lacity.org, David.Cataldo@lacity.org, laura.cornejo@lacity.org
Please remember to respond to this email with your contact phone # and let us know if you can join us for Tuesday’s hearing. Also, let us know if you plan to be there on your own, as we’ll be arranging a short zoom call prior to the hearing to discuss talking points.
Again, this is your last chance to influence the outcome of the Venice Dell debacle!
Let’s do this Venice!
With appreciation-
The Team at Safe Coastal Development