Planning and Land Use

The Costco Business Center opened on August 9 at 11428 Tujunga. Our Planning and Land Use Committee weighed in on this project early on.

NHNENC carefully reviewed and approved a five acre parcel on Lankershim for 99 small lot homes and a 64 unit apartment building.

Find out about proposed changes to Lankershim as part of the Great Streets Initiative. Attend a public meeting April 5th or 12th or read up online and share your opinion.

LOS ANGELES – On Wednesday, February 8, 2017 the LA City Council voted to require regular updates of the city’s community plans. As a result, the Department of City Planning will build a framework that accelerates updating the city’s 35 community plans to once every six years.

Community plans direct what can and cannot be built in neighborhoods and allow residents to weigh in on what they want their community to look like. Currently, the majority of the city’s community plans have not been updated in more than 15 years.

LOS ANGELES — The City of Los Angeles launched “Safe Sidewalks LA” –its comprehensive 30-year sidewalk repair program, an unprecedented City investment of $1.4 billion to fix its sidewalks, making them accessible to everyone and renewing them as a center of civic life and pride.

The program was approved unanimously by the Los Angeles City Council after nearly three years of public dialogue, led by the Council’s Budget and Finance and Public Works and Gang Reduction Committees in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office, and bolstered by input from hundreds of residents from across the City. Safe Sidewalks LA is spearheaded by the City’s Bureau of Engineering (BOE) in close coordination with many departments and agencies, notably the Department on Disability, which will play a vital role in the program’s implementation.

“Safe and restored sidewalks make our neighborhoods more livable and our city more beautiful,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “Working with the City Council, we took on a 40-year-old challenge to repair our broken sidewalks. We can now redouble those efforts, and I encourage all Angelenos to take advantage of this historic program. Together we are going to improve access and safety, boost property values and give people across Los Angeles reason to feel good about our public walkways.”

While repairs surrounding City facilities, such as fire stations, police stations, parks, libraries and recreation centers, are currently in progress, this next phase is an expansion of the repair program that will address broken sidewalks and will prioritize repair requests from people with disabilities, their families and caretakers. Through a cost-sharing initiative, this next phase will also offer a limited number of rebates to property owners who are willing to fix their own sidewalks.

“For decades, the City of Los Angeles lacked a coherent plan to deal with crumbling sidewalks in our neighborhoods,” said Councilmember Paul Krekorian, chair of the City’s Budget and Finance Committee. “That’s all changing with Safe Sidewalks LA, an equitable and sustainable plan to repair every sidewalk in the city that needs it. The plan makes good on the city’s promise to improve our neighborhoods and make walkways safe and accessible to everyone, while also offering a limited rebate to home and business owners who want the freedom to initiate repairs themselves. It’s going to completely renew our sidewalk infrastructure in the years to come.”

“Today we are moving one step closer to efficiently and effectively fixing every sidewalk in LA,” said Councilmember Joe Buscaino. “The Sidewalk Rebate program is a limited opportunity for LA property owners to accelerate their sidewalk repair by completing the work themselves and receiving a 50% rebate from the City as well as a warranty on the work.”

“In leading the public-private partnership that is implementing the City’s Sidewalk Repair Program, we are delivering these improvements to the highest standards possible as we work together to make sidewalks accessible to everyone in Los Angeles” said Gary Lee Moore, City Engineer.

Specifically, Safe Sidewalks LA includes:

*Access Request Program: People with a mobility disability who encounter physical barriers due to broken sidewalks, missing curb ramps or other barriers in the public right of way can request a repair.

*Rebate Program: A limited-time rebate for eligible property owners willing to pay for their own sidewalk repairs and get them fixed in an accelerated time. Owners can receive up to $2,000 for a residential lot or $4,000 for a commercial lot. The rebate program will be available for three years.

*Also, the general public can report a sidewalk in need of repair.

To submit a sidewalk repair request and for more information on Safe Sidewalks LA, go to www.sidewalks.lacity.org or call 3-1-1.

For 61 years, it stood as a symbol of the postwar building boom.

The freestanding May Co. department store, which would later serve as the anchor for North Hollywood’s Laurel Plaza shopping center, was in its early years a popular destination for San Fernando Valley residents who wanted to escape the heat and have a little fun.

The department store marketed itself as one of the biggest in the country, advertising air conditioning and parking for 3,000 cars.

Now the store, which was converted to a Macy’s in 2006, is shutting its doors for good.

Read the full article on LA Times.com

Article and image from the LA Times

The Neighborhood Council LAND USE COMMITTEE is focused on the conditions on the actual Land within the boundaries of our Neighborhood Council.

We are proud that one of our projects has been the study of plans to partially demolish, refurbish, and to develop the interior of the existing large warehouse structures now located on the SouthWest corner of Sherman Way and Tujunga Avenue in North Hollywood. The actual addresses involved are: 11400-11452 Sherman Way, and 7131-7145 Tujunga Avenue in the La Tuna Canyon Planning Area of the City of Los Angeles. The corner land mass is bounded by Sherman Way on the North, with Tujunga Avenue on the East, railroad tracks with the spur on the South.

Costco Business Center will go into refurbishment of the existing 310,991 square-foot warehouse, with office space, and with interior upgrades to fit the business plan for the Business Center.  The Business Center will not be open to the general public.  Business hours will be Monday through Friday, from 7:00AM to 7:00PM. Saturdays the hours are from 7:00AM to 4:00PM. Despite the posted business hours, there will always be work going on the full 24-hours.

Project work begins this year 2016, with completion expected in 2017.  It will be much larger than the local Costco Shopping Stores. The Business Center will be one of twelve Business Centers in the United States. The product inventory will also have some upgraded items that are not for sale in the local Costco Stores. They will cater to businesses such as restaurants and offices. A great percent of the sales will be generated by phone and online orders for products to be sent to locations both near and far from North Hollywood.

Part of the good news is the employment opportunities that will come to our community with the Costco Business Center.  There will be opportunities for some 200 full-time jobs. There will be some 180 part-time jobs available. The good news increases with job opportunities for advancement in the company.  And there will be full health benefits.  It all sounds very good for the economy in our community.

The Land Use Committee entertains many resources of information before making its recommendation to the full board for consideration and a vote.   On November 19, 2015 the full board voted to accept the recommendation of the Land Use Committee to support the Costco project.
The next step was for the Committee Chair to compose a summary letter of the Costco plans and send it to Oliver Netburn, the City Planner on this project. Our letter included some of the reasons for our support.

The City Planning Dept. scheduled a Hearing of the Area Planning Commission which was held on January 5, 2016.  As the Land Use Committee Chair, it was the chair’s duty to attend the hearing and speak for our community and for our Neighborhood Council with its decision of support for the project of the Costco Business Center.  This writer did attend the hearing, and the Planning Deputy Karo Torossian for CD#2, City Council Member, Paul Kerkorian, did speak to support the Costco Business Center.

The Hearing Officer, was Fernando Tovar, the Associate Zoning Administrator.  He listened very carefully to everything that we and the stakeholders had to say on this case. Then he generated a seventeen page letter which stated his Approval for the project with his reasons and findings based on his studies and research.  The process is most interesting and makes all efforts to be business friendly for the applicant, and to have benefits for both the potential full-time and the part-time employees from the community, in our Neighborhood Council area.

A total of some 65,720 square feet of space will be demolished on the South side of the warehouse and delivery docks near the tracks of the railroad spur, to create additional parking space for large delivery trucks to be the loaded and unloaded.

Below is one reason that the Committee considered for the Costco file #ZA-2015-28990 CUB, CU, SPR.  We considered the security lighting around the entire building, and we emphasized the need for lighting on the South side where encampments may be deterred along the railroad spur.

After the demolition of some of the Southern portion of the building, the remaining approximate 144,065 square feet will have interior remodeling to fit the requirements of the Business Centers in the United States.  The on-site existing wholesale wine importer has no connection with Costco and will continue in his specific space.   Costco will not be selling any alcoholic beverages.

Today when you observe the land and buildings that do exist, you also see an unattended amount of wind-blown and settled debris, which might be expected where limited activity occurs.  When Costco completes its work they will reverse the unattended condition with a cleaner parking area, and with the beautification by planting some 61 parkway trees, plus the planted areas in the parking lot.  There may also be changes in the curb cuts for vehicle access.
Below is a photo of the South West corner of the intersection at Sherman Way and Tujunga Avenue where the existing large warehouse structures will become the Costco Business Center. Watch for the results in 2016 and 2017.  Jobs will be available.

All in all, our community looks forward to a great visual and economic improvement in this property, and we look forward to employment opportunities for our residents.

Respectfully Submitted on March 20, 2016
SARAH RAMSAWACK
LAND USE COMMITTEE CHAIR
NORTH HOLLYWOOD NORTH EAST NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL

Our November 20 Board meeting saw the largest turnout we’ve had in a long time. Dozens of our neighbors came to the meeting to speak and hear about a potential development at this corner of Saticoy and Tujunga shown below in a picture from Google Maps. The Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, which provides services and support to the homeless community in the Valley, is considering the construction of a new shelter facility at 11350 Saticoy.

The issue was first raised in our Council at our Land Use Committee meetings, with an extensive discussion at the October 23rd meeting. The minutes for that meeting, including a very thorough description of the information presented there are available here in this Land Use Minutes Link, while our Committee pages are under construction. The Land Use Committee will be taking a break for November and December, but will return to meet again on January 6th.

The proposed shelter location is located in the Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Council boundaries. People can follow their actions on the issue through their website athttp://www.svanc.com/. They also have an upcoming combined special meeting of both their Board and Planning and Land Use Committee on November 24th.

You can learn more about the Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission at their website,http://www.hopeofthevalley.org/. They have information about their existing facilities and other programs to help the needy people in our area. The Mission will also be holding their Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday and is looking for volunteers and supporters.

The Van Nuys Neighborhood Council will also be holding a special summit meeting with host Councilman Paul Krekorian, of Council District 2, on December 17th in the Council Chambers at 6262 Van Nuys Boulevard. The focus of the meeting will be “Homelessness & Mental Illness”.

Council President Ernie Moscoso joined City Council Member Paul Krekorian to turn on the new traffic signal at the intersection of Lankershim and Valerio. As a popular pedestrian crossing, this intersection has long been a dangerous place to walk or drive, but that all changed on November 5th.
President Moscoso and Councilman Krekorian at the control box for the new signal at Valerio and Lankershim.