PREVIOUS CITY ACTIONS & COALITION RESPONSES:

6/22/22 – City Council approved the Project for a 2nd time (after being tied up for 6 months correcting errors in land use plan and from a faulty hearing process). Council blindly followed Mike Bonin’s lead and voted 10-2 to approve his Venice Median Project, even with extensive evidence presented by Safe Coastal’s legal team showing Mike Bonin and the developers are hiding costs and misrepresenting facts about the project. Disappointing, but completely expected.

6/17/22 – Full Council hearing vote to approve the PLUM Vote. Coalition legal team filed a letter objecting to the item filed as “already heard” with no opportunity for public comment. The project was brought up quickly with Councilman Joe Buscaino as the only “no” in the 9-1 vote. In a stunning turn of events- after general comment when several of our supporters drew attention back to the project, Paul Koretz surprised us by asking to change his vote to a “No”. With less than a 3/4 majority of full council (4 absent, 1 recused, 2 no’s) the item was ordered to be reheard on 6/22/22.

6/15/22 – Full council approved the Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA). Even with the Coalition filing a damning analysis in an expert study pointing out serious geotechnical issues that have been ignored for years by the developer. The report showed there is not substantial evidence the Project is feasible on the ground or economically with this revelation of deficient health and safety reviews of the project.

6/14/22 – The PLUM committee didn’t seem interested in responding to our submission of a new geotechnical expert’s damning soils report.

Through a report we recently obtained in public records, we found a 4 ½ year old (2017) Soils Report relied on by Mike Bonin and others last December when the project was approved. Funny thing–the City’s consultant states in the report that it is not to be relied on after 3 years and yet Council relied on the outdated report. Our experts called out the liquefaction risks due to sea level/ground water rise and the pesky fact that the project may not survive even the first 55 years of its 99-year lease.

Still, PLUM ignored all this and, with no questions or deliberation, voted to move the project forward.

6/9/22 – Homelessness & Poverty, by a vote of 3-1, approved a Disposition and Development Agreement prematurely without approved entitlements or Coastal permits. Joe Buscaino was the only Councilmember opposing on our behalf. The Coalition’s legal team wrote a robust letter pointing out the City had no intention of building the parking plans that were on file along with several other legal flaws. Councilman Blumenfield questioned the City Attorney about these issues during the hearing and was told they would not be discussed in a public forum. Blumenfield shockingly went ahead with an “aye” vote trusting he would be filled in later on why he shouldn’t be troubled by our legal concerns.

3/3/22 – Coalition filed amended complaint w/ Native Americans Los Indios de San Gabriel added as petitioners (Their rights to environmental review also stripped by new state law AB1197 targeting only LA and this project).

2/28/22 – Coalition filed “Brown Act Cure and Correct” for City’s lack of due process for hearing and called attention to back dating documents in the council file documents.

2/28/22 – Coalition wrote complaint to City Planning Commission

1/13/22 – The Coalition for Safe Coastal Development formed to file legal action to stop the insanity. We now look to the Courts for justice to put order back into this reckless plan for coastal development.

12/1/21 – LA City Council voted to follow Mike Bonin’s lead and approve the Venice Median Project (previously the “Reese Davidson Community”, otherwise known as “The Monster”), bypassing all environmental and zoning laws, with incomplete information and without proper review by City Planning.