Hollywood United Neighborhood Council

Hollywood United Neighborhood Council Board Meeting Minutes
June 18, 2007
6:30 PM
Community Room, First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood
6054 Yucca St, Los Angeles, CA 90028

1---Welcome & Roll Call.
Present: Robert Abrahamian, Jordan Birnbaum, Maurece Chesse, Andrew Ettinger, Viktoria Gaw, Bree Long, Rodney Hargrove, Hilary Royce, Erik Sanjurjo, David Schlesinger, Susan Swan, Charles Suhayda, Gary Slossberg, Ryan Hass, Norma Foster, Scott Larson. Excused: Bechir Blagui.

2. Approval of Minutes from May Board meeting.

Motion: Scott Larson, “To approve the minutes of the HUNC Board Meeting of April 19, 2007.” Second: Bree Long. Vote: Yes—15 No—0 Abs---0.

3. LAPD Police Reports.
Senior Lead Officer (SLO) Paula Davidson introduced her partner, SLO Joe Pelayo. SLO Pelayo’s area covers the area: Hollywood Blvd to Normandie to Melrose to Western Ave. SLO Davidson reported:

The Conference of Mayors is being held in Hollywood
There will be a big demonstration on Sunday, June 24th in Hollywood. The March starts at 12 Noon. There will be street closures beginning in the early morning. The March Organizers have permits to hold the event until 6 PM. The organizing group is Answer LA. For more information check the LAPD website. The March will begin at Hollywood & Ivar move west along Hollywood Blvd to Schrader, south to Sunset and ending at the Hollywood & Highland complex.

11 D-3—Oaks/LAFD Evacuation Drill: support and funding needs.
Chief Fry – LAFD reported that Captain Mike Greenup (from station 27) was just promoted to Chief and will serve from Station 5 in Battalion 4.
Chief Fry emphasized the linkage between community involvement and community safety. The most recent problem was the Griffith Park fire. We haven’t lost a single home due to brush fires in the last 30 years. This year we have the worst conditions for fire in 30 years.
            We need to educate our residents in what to do when a brush fire starts. LAFD will do a simulation of a fire (starting in Griffith Park) and evacuate the Oaks. The date for this evacuation drill is July 28th. Beginning at 9:30 AM smoke generating machines in Western Canyon will begin producing smoke. Then smoke will also be generated from a second site. At this point they will begin the evacuation.
            LAFD has produced a guide to educate people on what to do when you have: 1 hour, ½ hour, or no time to evacuate from an oncoming fire. Fires can move fast i.e. – The Esperanza fire was moving at 30 MPH. The evacuation site is Cheremoya Elementary School. There will be a fair and a social event at this site for those evacuated from the Oaks. Chief Fry will be working with Susan Swan and others on the program at Cheremoya. Hilary Royce and the Church of Scientology will have trained CERT volunteers at Cheremoya. Chief Fry needs help from volunteers who are willing to talk to residents, pass out information, etc. Chief Fry will have the info packet in an electronic format soon. It will also be prepared into different languages. The social event will be a community event. There will be raffles for theater tickets, dinner. LAFD could use additional donations of prizes for the raffle. There will also be a             Press conference with the Mayor and CD13’s Eric Garcetti.
            The evacuated area: Everything on the Eastern Border of the Oaks. We’re dealing with about 300 homes. Other information:

Susan Swan and Scott Larson will be District 3 Representatives; Maurece Chesse is a Disaster Preparedness ambassador.
Chief Fry is also compiling a list of people with contact information for an evacuation list.
They are also working on short instructional video clips: How to prepare your house, Brush clearance, What to do with flying embers, What papers you need when you evacuate. They need some houses where they can film these short videos.

4- Council District and Mayoral/City Updates:
CD 13 Helen Leung

Thai Town Gateway dedication was attended by HUNC reps. The second Angel (Apsonsi) will be installed in the next 2 weeks.
Hollywood & Vine and W Hotel, and the Clarrett Project. There will be monthly meetings at CRA offices on Sunset Blvd.
CD 13 continues to offer workshops on planning. The last workshop was--Planning 101. She can email the powerpoint to anyone who is interested and was unable to attend the workshop.
Street Closure Committee of CD 13 meets on the second Thursday of each month at 9 AM. This is for special events for Hollywood Blvd.

Gary Slossberg: Did Eric Garcetti. take a position on the MTA fare hike? Helen: She’ll have to check with the CD 13 Transportation Deputy.

     CD 4 Doug Mensman
            Announced these key upcoming events for CD 4:

The Griffith Park Resource Board meeting will be on Wednesday, June 20th in Friendship Auditorium at 5 PM. A Community Congress will be held at 6 PM at the same location following the GP resource Board meeting.
Tom LaBonge’s Annual Summer Solstice Hike (and pot luck) saluting the Sister Cities of Los Angeles will be held on Thursday, June 21st at 6 PM; meet at Los Feliz & Fern Dell.
Doug also announced a new Field Deputy at CD 4 – Dennis Litton who will take over for Patty.

Susan Swan: Tom LaBonge wants the 3 top priorities of HUNC Board members. Parking, Traffic, Land Use, Education? Tom LaBonge has hired an Education Liaison to deal with LAUSD issues. With traffic, CD 4 will need the help of CD 13 because CD 13 has the big projects.

5 – Public Comment on Items not on the agenda.

6 – Mark Lewis – DONE, A Election Procedures and Bylaws Amendment Submission Update including 1) Eastern Boundary Change Petition, 2) Bylaws Amendments Submission including Article I Purpose and Intent.
Mark Lewis is Senior Project Coordinator with DONE. HUNC and 30 other Neighborhood Councils fall under his area of responsibility. Regarding the Bylaw submissions things are pretty much squared away. Clarification of the eastern boundary issue will be a process. Charles Suhayda will work with Mark Lewis on grievances being reviewed by the Ad Hoc Committee.

8 – HUNC financial support of Griffith Park Natural History Survey Project up to $3,000.

Presentation by George Grace:
George serves on the board of the Franklin Hills Residents Association. He joined PROS Committee, also attended Sierra Club Meetings. He’s on Griffith Park Master Plan Committee.
He discovered there’s not much information on the wildlife in Griffith Park. He and Albert decided to begin to inventory the birds that inhabit the Park. He has been partnering with Dan S. Cooper (Cooper Ecological Monitoring, Pasadena, CA). Dan suggested an ecological study. They started a bird list in March then came the first Griffith Park fire.
The ecological study will be financed in these phases:

Phase 1- Brought together existing information on Griffith Park wild life. It was financed by Greater Griffith Park NC at a cost of $3,000.
Phase 2 – Web site development will cost $4,600.

The Franklin Hills Residents Association is a 501 C3 and has given $5,000. The Oaks HOA has given $2,800 to finance the Griffith Park Natural History Survey. At present they have have collected $11,000.
George Grace is asking HUNC for $2,800 to support the wildlife monitoring study in Griffith Park.
Motion: Maurece Chesse, “That HUNC support a wildlife study of Griffith Park natural survey.” Second: Bree Long. Vote: Yes – 7 No – 0 Abs – 7

Public Comment:
Tyrone Roy – NC’s shouldn’t fund this. It’s a 501 C3 it should go to others for donations, not NCs.

Gary Slossberg: We can use the $$ for 3 purposes: 1) Outreach, 2) Operation, and 3) Neighborhood Development
Charles Suhayda: Recommends that Tom La Bonge look for a partnership between local Universities and the City to study the ecology of Griffith Park. This would be suitable for a number of Ph.D. dissertations.

11-C. 2) PLUM: Letter regarding Cerrell Project (Argyle/Yucca project on the KFWB building site) to be sent to Zoning Administrator hearing their case, possible presentation.
Presenters:

David Jordan – 2nd St. Ventures (www.secondstreetventures.com).
Amit Thakkar–Cerrell Associates (PR Consultants).

David Jordan: 2nd St. Ventures is owner of 6230 Yucca Property. The Hollywood Dell and the Argyle Civic Association have already reviewed the project. Based on community feed back, the project was modified; it is now minus the large sign at the top of the building. Some Project details:

Mixed-use project with ground floor (Yucca St.) with 10 live/work units (4-5 on Yucca 4-5 on Argyle); 2 floors for work, 1 floor for living.
1 floor of offices. It effectively replaces the KFWB office space. The office space is designed for small tenant base.
Tower will have 85 residential units.
Parking—there will be 242 parking spaces (30-35 will be designated for commercial office use). There will be 2 levels of below grade parking and 2 levels above grade parking, this will be covered.
Building has been pushed to the north and east. This will take it away from Capital Records building.
The sign at top – there will not be a sign at top of building. There will be an identification logo on the west side.
There is no hearing date set. The final EIR should be available any day now.

Motion: Scott Larson , “To approve the letter of support for this project.” Second: Bree Long
Vote: Yes – 13 No – 0 Abs – 0

Gary Slossberg – What are rental rates for housing? Are there affordable units?
David: This is for sale housing, offices – both are market rate.

Robert Abrahamian – The only concern for him is that exit from property is toward Hollywood Blvd only.
David Schlesinger – Come back to logo. I think we ought to agree on the size of the logo. How high is the logo? 10 feet? 20 feet high? I didn’t realize it was lighted.
Stephen Erlicts (Architects) – The original sign was 1250 square feet. The logo will be smaller say, 250 square ft. The CD13 design committee will have to clear approval of the sign

Terry Siboleski – (Board Member for Argyle Civic Association). Once the large sign was removed from the project, they approved the project. They don’t want signage going toward or facing the North. West facing is OK.

9-AFI (American Film Institute) presentation for HUNC’s possible financial sponsorship in the upcoming AFI Festival in October/November 2007.

Tabled

10-HUNC participation and support of upcoming LACC Gala October 20th (purchase of Bronze Level Table @ $5,000).

Tabled

11- D. – 2) Hollywood Beautification Team: Proposal for up to $1,500 for Graffiti Eradication Program.

Tabled

11- C.-1) Update on the Griffith Observatory—Puck’s ZV request, motion to support GGPNC’s suggested rules, HUNC Letter for Rec and Parks meeting.
David Schlesinger: There will be a hearing on June 20th (Wed) at 9:30 am. We don’t have any new updates. There is still no decision.
Doug Mensman: Zoning Administrator Landini has made a decision, but it’s got to go through a process and we won’t hear until the end of next month.

Motion: David Schlesinger, “That HUNC write a letter to Rec and Parks urging that they incorporate the guidelines of GGPNC.” Second: Ryan Hass
Vote: Yes – 10 No -0 Abs- 2

7 – B. Treasurer’s report.
Gary Slossberg:
1- See packet for monthly budget report

2- approval of 2007 – 2008 fiscal yr. budget

Position of Assistant Treasurer was approved
Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service: David Martinez, City Attorney, said we can’t consider this matter this year. It was brought to us by Norma. There is the issue of conflict.
2007-2008 Budget

Motion: Gary Slossberg, “Move to approve budget as amended with a new line item of $600.00 for gas expenditures.” Second: Rodney Hargrove. Vote: Yes – 11 No – 0 Abs -0

11- D.-1) PS&T Update on the progress of the City to acquire the CalTrans lot at Ivar/Franklin, possible action to urge the City to purchase it.
Erik Sanjurjo He had a meeting with Dell HOA and they agreed it was a good idea to purchase this property
Motion: Erik Sanjurjo, “That HUNC goes on record urging the City to acquire Ivar/Franklin lot for use as a park.” Second: Ryan Hass. Vote: Yes – 12 No – 0 Abs – 0.

Erik Sanjurjo: ? has 200 trees to plant at private residences.

11- A – Education and Youth –Update on the Cheremoya Beautification Grant Project.
Gary Slossberg: The Project is done. Still need to add anti graffiti coating. The mural is on the west side of Cheremoya Elementary. There photos available for use on our website.

11- E—PS&T: Villas at Gower.
Erik Sanjurjo – CRA had a walk-around around the project on Monday, June 11.
Architect selected – Michael Maltzan. Talked about features of the area and homeless issues because the population.
11--Old Business--none
12 – New Business--none

Announcement – Social Service and Faith Based Agenda needed
Gary Slossberg has a new legal job at Center for Law and Justice

Gary won’t run for Education and Youth seat next year.
Adjourned

Charles Suhayda
Recording Secretary, HUNC