WHERE WE ARE WITH THE VENICE MEDIAN PROJECT:

  • The Project is now called the “Venice Dell Project” (after Sonya Reese insisted the developers remove her legendary grandfather’s name from the project- it is no longer the “Reese Davidson Project”).
  • The project is often referred to as “The Monster” because of it’s behemoth size and the ill intent and misrepresentation of facts manipulated by former Councilman Bonin, who was determined to desecrate our community in order to push through his political agenda and vanity project.
  • We’ve revealed the project most recently appears to have had its name changed to “Venice Village” by the current owner/holding company of the development, Hollywood Community Housing, who now holds 99.99% of the project.

Venice Median Project

So called non-profit developers Venice Community Housing Corp. and Hollywood Community Housing Corp., seeking to earn multi-million dollar development fees, have been selected by our political representatives to push a project through in a completely unfeasible area. An environmentally sensitive and FEMA designated Flood Zone, with sea level rise in a Tsunami escape route, and built over the nationally historic designated Venice Canals.

Project Overview

Project Overview

  • A mixed-use project of 140 total units for 420+ residents and guests in two campuses—one on each side of Grand Canal.
  • Only 7 units designated as “extremely low income” (4 of which will be required to house evicted residents who will be displaced by the development). 68 Units will be designated as “Permanent Supportive Housing” allowing for the exemption from environmental review through new state law AB1197, which targets only Los Angeles. The remainder of the units can be for those earning up to $90,000/year, with half of those reserved for artists.
  • Twice the size of typical housing projects, but no priority for Venice homeless and no sober living requirement.
  • Project is predominantly a large, mechanical lift, infeasible beach parking tower with conflicting plans not fully disclosed to City Council when they approved the project.
  • Community space and “social enterprise” space for the training and employment of homeless and formerly homeless persons.
  • “Texas-Donut Style” architecture in which all residential units share a wall with a parking tower.

Location

Location

  • Largest remaining parcel of open space in Venice.
  • 2.65 acres, one block off of Venice Beach, situated on either side of Grand Canal, encompassing the 100-year-old historic Short Line Bridge, in the Venice Canals Historic District.
  • FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, with projected flooding 8 feet above sea level.
  • Tsunami inundation zone.
  • High water table creating building and safety challenges.

Mass & Scale

Mass & Scale

  • 68-ft tower with observation deck at the corner of Venice Blvd. & Pacific.
  • 45-foot parking tower.
  • Minimal 5-foot setbacks on ground floor, with no setbacks at all for upper levels.
  • Massive building footprint, which goes to the edge of the lot on all sides, requires:
    • Demolition of four existing units of affordable housing;
    • Destruction of the east apron and west apron of the historic Short Line Bridge;
    • Waiver of developers’ legal obligation to expand surrounding streets and sidewalks.

Parking & Beach Access

Parking & Beach Access

  • Plans available to the public show roughly half the parking spaces required under the Venice Land Use Plan for a project this size.
  • The City is planning to use mechanical lift parking against walls shared with residential units.
  • Existing beach parking will be moved east of Grand Canal, 500 feet further from the beach and parking supply in the area will be frozen for at least 50 years.
  • Streets and sidewalks will be frozen at their current substandard sizes, despite City plans to make the area a “Pedestrian Enhanced District” with extra-wide sidewalks and a “Bicycle Enhanced District” with separate bike lanes.
  • Access to the designated public boat launch to the Venice Canals will be obstructed with no ability to back a trailer down the launch.

Cost

Cost

  • Over $1.2 million per unit (avg size 460 square feet), consisting of project cost per developers of $79.8 million (for residential only, excludes cost of all commercial elements of project), plus replacement of the existing beach parking at a cost of approx. $20 million, plus land value of $70 million, divided by 136 affordable units.
  • To be noted, the total cost of the project is $86.0 million (excluding land value and cost of required replacement of public beach parking(, including the $7.1 million cost of the commercial component, which the developers falsely claim is required for the project.
  • Coalition’s land value estimate–for 40 consecutive lots, along the Venice Canals, a block from the beach–logically uses the price of the last empty lot sold in the canals, $1.75 million, x 40 lots, resulting in a conservative $70 million. In contrast, the most recent project pro forma from the developers includes a wildly understated land value appraisal for the site of $3.3 million
  • Also included in the most recent project pro forma: $7.1 million in combined developer and architect fees.

(See Developers’ project costs in Document Library)