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Land Use issues
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I've done worse.Registered User regular
I've done worse.Registered User regular
Hi folks!
In the open plot of land across from my place, a crew just planted down a Notice of Intent for construction. They're intending to develop a 9 luxury home gated community there.
The problem is that this street is a pretty historic area, so it has a barely sufficient sewage/rain runoff system, and they're going to open up an extra street facing a already dangerous three-way fork right in front of my home.
What can we as a community do to stop this? Apparently back in 2007 there was a city council meeting to discuss construction there, and the neighborhood overwhelmingly showed up to defeat it, with over a hundred people participating. But flash forward to today where we just realized that the council approved an ammended proposal right after that one in 2007, possibly without us knowing. The approval seemed to have been passed from developer to developer until it landed in the hands of one which proposed an amended plan. A few of us got notices in the mail about that plan proposed by an advisory committee but due to confusion of the addressee on the letter we had no idea if we were supposed to appeal it or whether it was addressed to the developer. We had less than 10 days to figure it out and the period passed.
Is there any advice on what we can do now to stop/delay the construction? Thanks.
In the open plot of land across from my place, a crew just planted down a Notice of Intent for construction. They're intending to develop a 9 luxury home gated community there.
The problem is that this street is a pretty historic area, so it has a barely sufficient sewage/rain runoff system, and they're going to open up an extra street facing a already dangerous three-way fork right in front of my home.
What can we as a community do to stop this? Apparently back in 2007 there was a city council meeting to discuss construction there, and the neighborhood overwhelmingly showed up to defeat it, with over a hundred people participating. But flash forward to today where we just realized that the council approved an ammended proposal right after that one in 2007, possibly without us knowing. The approval seemed to have been passed from developer to developer until it landed in the hands of one which proposed an amended plan. A few of us got notices in the mail about that plan proposed by an advisory committee but due to confusion of the addressee on the letter we had no idea if we were supposed to appeal it or whether it was addressed to the developer. We had less than 10 days to figure it out and the period passed.
Is there any advice on what we can do now to stop/delay the construction? Thanks.
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Don't rule out the possibility of a settled agreement, though. Flooding and traffic safety are serious concerns and you could conceivably use a meeting like that to strike a bargain that would upgrade your water management and maybe get a traffic light in the intersection in exchange for allowing the construction.
In the mean time, however, you could really use a land-use attorney. I'm afraid I don't have any tips on how to pay for something like that, outside of asking your neighbors if they would be willing to pool their funds.
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Yeah, they just started construction right now, bulldozering the grassland.
I figured a land use attorney would be the key but I was hoping for a less costly alternative. We tried the local council route and talked with a representative but they weren't helpful.
I'll try sending an email out to the mayor, but given that this is Los Angeles and the Mayor is Villiagrosa, I don't expect a speedy reply.
Yeah, the only hope I see is if that rushed approval causes it to violate the Brown Act (but this may just be internet lawyering). Last we checked they only had a permit for land grading, not for construction.
Do you think a signed peition for the neighborhood would help? I'll probably have to walk into the Land Use offices and see what I can dig up.
I think MrMonroe's got the best idea: Try to get a traffic light and a sewer upgrade (if the flooding is bad, the rich new residents of that gated community will also probably lobby for this) to offset the impact, but actually stopping these things is usually money vs. money, and the other side consists of a developer who probably has money all over the city and nine hypothetical future rich residents who'll pay more property taxes than you.
Most legal moves are anticipated in the local zoning master plan. Unless the construction is in violation of it, which never happens because companies aren't dumb, you have little wiggle room. Especially as they are luxury developments, and thus likely going to bring more tax revenues for the municipality, you really need a some hundreds against it in order to make any impact on the council.
If all they're doing so far is bulldozing the grass, that likely IS just land grading.
Thanks for the detailed info. Right now the plan is to get a giant petition signed just to make sure the neighborhood is aware of the effort to stop this, then go with the shotgun approach of making copies of that petition and sending it out to the mayor, city council members, city planning minicipalities, and land use offices. After that we can organize a plan to show up at a session in mass numbers and show that we've got the numbers to back us up.
Thanks again for the ideas.
However there are things that are still productive. If you make a big enough stink. It is possible to get some concessions out of the developer. Water rights, redoing major sewage lines (which is something they should do and they'll have to tie in anyways), making a private rd as a bypass, are some things that are posible inclusions if pressure is put on them. 9 luxery homes in a gated community is worth milions. They are not going away. They may do it piece wise but the will put those buildings up, so with enough support you can get some stuff out of them when they are still looking at all the money at the begining.
I don't think they have a full permit yet. Based on research they only seem to have a land grading permit, so Daenris could be right on that count.
Still, there were other developers that were defeated before which eventually dumped the project after a big enough fight, so we'll keep going as far as we can.
For example, If you are concerned about sewage/runoff issues, you shouldn't be petitioning to cancel the whole shebang, you should find or generate reports from an engineer that supports your concerns and petition the city to force the developers to upgrade the infrastructure before they begin. If you are worried about traffic patterns, then you should present evidence that traffic patterns will be negatively affected and demand a solution before work begins.
You may have already considered these things, or you may not have, but your OP comes off a bit as being against development for the sake of being against development with the other stuff thrown in there as an afterthought. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's also more or less legally inactionable. Clearly defining the reasons you oppose this (and I don't feel you were very clear about this in the OP, although you may have been in other venues) will help you win your battle, will help you address the most glaring problems with your new neighbors, and will help you decide for your own benefit how much it will harm you personally if worse comes to worse and the thing gets finished (It probably will).