UNDERSTANDING NITHYA RAMAN ON THE HOLLYWOOD COMMUNITY PLAN

For Immediate Release: February 17, 2021

NITHYA RAMAN RELEASES STATEMENT ON THE HOLLYWOOD COMMUNITY PLAN

LOS ANGELES– Councilmember Nithya Raman released a letter today stating the position of her office on the Hollywood Community Plan. The Hollywood Community Plan will go before the City Planning Commission on Thursday, February 18. The Councilmember’s full statement, contained within her letter to the City Planning Commission, is as follows:

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the forthcoming update to the Hollywood Community Plan. The advancement of this draft plan marks an important accomplishment for Hollywood after decades of labor, and we are deeply appreciative of the Department of City Planning’s work in this arena.

Council District 4 is committed to advancing tenant protections and expanding affordable housing in Los Angeles, and we believe there are several areas within this plan that can be strengthened to ensure equitable and affordable development in Hollywood. Namely, we believe the plan can enshrine more robust protections against tenant displacement, be more ambitious in its offering of affordable housing incentives, and take additional steps to protect open space in the Santa Monica mountains. We’ll expound upon each of these priorities one at a time.

Council District 4 shares and supports the priorities of the Just Hollywood Coalition around developing a more robust set of anti-displacement tools for the residents of Hollywood. We believe that replacement RSO units in redeveloped properties should not count towards the affordability requirements therein, but rather should be preserved in addition to new affordable units. We believe that new affordability covenants in Hollywood should follow in the lead of Santa Monica, New York City, and other cities and extend in perpetuity, not their current 55-year time horizon. We further support the Just Hollywood Coalition’s demand for increased public input on hotel projects, requiring conditional use permits appealable to the City Council and restricting the conversion and demolition of housing for the development of hotels.

On the issue of affordable housing, CD4 believes strongly that the Hollywood CPIO’s incentives should go further than those within the City’s Transit Oriented Communities Program, and thereby serve as a model for incentivizing affordable housing in high-opportunity neighborhoods across Los Angeles. To achieve this, we support more ambitious affordable housing percentages within incentive programs that allow for increased density, as well as the removal of parking requirements for 100% affordable projects. We oppose the proposed height limits on Sunset Blvd. in Corridor 5 and the proposed height reductions on Hillhurst Ave. in Los Feliz and support opportunities for increasing allowable height along these corridors only for projects that demonstrate a substantial commitment to affordable housing. 

Finally, we believe that the Hollywood Community Plan can go further in preserving our fragile and unique ecosystem in the Santa Monica Mountains. To forever protect gains made in this arena, all lands acquired by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) and Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) should be rezoned to open space as part of the update. In addition, city-owned land in the Santa Monica Mountains that exists within the Hollywood Community Plan should be rezoned as open space as well, as part of the implementation plan for “open space preservation” set out in the Draft Plan.

We understand that this will not be the last opportunity to contribute to the Hollywood Community Plan Update, and we will continue to work with the Department of City Planning and other associated departments to incorporate comments from the City Planning Commission and the public in the coming weeks. Thank you once again for your indefatigable work in updating our city’s Community Plans. We hope that our comments are constructive in furthering this work, and look forward to working closely alongside you as this draft plan is finalized.

Commentary:  Raman Recall Remorse, Dick Platkin, June 24, 2021

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