Traci Park Explains Her Recent Housing Motion

https://youtu.be/CxjvdE_5aNA?si=Pwu37TVa4qLUfbQF

Traci turned up at last week’s Neighborhood Council meeting to give a personal Government Affairs update from her office. During her remarks she came out strong on her commitment to support us in defining our own community in connection with our Community Plan Update (CPU).

She also explained the misinformation being circulated about her recent motion to the City Council asking for a letter regarding SB 423, exempting coastal zone and extreme fire hazard communities from that state law. As you’ll hear in the video, that motion has nothing to do with housing unit allocations like we’re discussing with our CPU.

The audio sucks, but I know how to find video transcripts on youtube. 😎 Please understand that this transcript is computer-generated and probably hasn’t been corrected by her team.

Traci’s remarks specifically about her motion start around the 5 minute mark, but the whole video is worth a watch.

0:00
board this evening we often have your
0:03
field Deputy Sean Silva here to give you
0:07
these updates but it was really
0:09
important for me that you all hear from
0:13
me directly this week so I am here to
0:16
give you your government update I have a
0:19
number of things that I want to talk to
0:21
you about I want to start with our
0:24
updates on the Community Plan update
0:26
that I came in just as I was catching
0:28
the tail end of the summary from last
0:31
week’s ad hoc committee meeting I think
0:34
we were all really excited to see the
0:37
level of Engagement and I was personally
0:40
really glad to have been invited and for
0:43
my team and I to have had the
0:44
opportunity to attend the meeting and to
0:47
hear from the community directly during
0:50
both public comment as well as the
0:53
community presentations
0:54
I am a little bit concerned however
0:57
about some misinformation that was
1:00
circulated both before and since about
1:05
the process
1:06
I think you on the board all know but
1:11
many members of the public didn’t know
1:14
and were not told this when they were
1:17
advised to attend the ad hoc team and
1:20
that is the community plan updates all
1:23
over the city have been underway for
1:26
many years now and I want to be very
1:30
clear about this my office was not
1:33
involved in the preparation of those
1:37
plan updates we received the drafts at
1:41
the same time they were released to the
1:43
public a couple of months ago since then
1:46
we have reviewed the plans and we have
1:49
met with community members and
1:51
stakeholders to discuss them we also met
1:54
with planning staff to advise them that
1:57
we were not satisfied with the current
2:00
drafts and the current proposals and
2:03
that further Community feedback needed
2:05
to be obtained and Incorporated
2:08
I was very clear throughout my campaign
2:12
and I hope and I believe that I have
2:14
been very clear since that local land
2:17
use decisions should be made at the
2:20
local level not by bureaucrats in
2:22
Sacramento
2:24
and my top priority is ensuring that
2:27
every Community has a voice in the
2:29
future development of their neighborhood
2:32
and that is why I directed planning to
2:35
go back to the neighborhood councils and
2:38
present again on their Draft plans
2:42
um and it’s also the reason that my
2:45
office is going to be leading our own
2:47
listening sessions to solicit feedback
2:50
directly from the community so that we
2:53
can make decisions as a community about
2:57
what is going to go into those updates
2:59
so uh CD 11 is hosting Westchester Playa
3:04
listening sessions uh from September
3:08
25th through October 6th
3:11
so you can look for an update in our
3:14
Weekly Newsletter on Saturday our
3:16
federal 11 updates you can sign up there
3:19
you can also go directly to the cd11
3:22
website and sign up through our website
3:26
to get a slot the feedback that we
3:29
obtain both through the neighborhood
3:32
Council process and through the
3:34
listening sessions that we will be
3:36
hosting as the cd11 office will be
3:39
passed back to the planning department
3:41
so even though I share your concerns and
3:45
I am going to do everything in my power
3:48
to make these changes for you
3:52
the fact remains that many dozens of
3:54
housing laws have come out of Sacramento
3:57
in the last several years and I want to
4:00
be very clear I did not vote on sb9 or
4:04
a 10. and like many of you and like many
4:07
of the people that we heard from in
4:09
public comment last week
4:11
I share concerns about the impacts on
4:14
our existing residential neighborhoods
4:16
and traffic and our infrastructure
4:20
and some of the very images that we were
4:23
shown in the ad hoc committee meeting
4:25
last week show us in real time what the
4:28
impacts of s b 9 and 10 look like
4:31
now those are state laws that we are
4:34
currently stuck with
4:37
and our best case scenario is to use the
4:41
Community Plan update process to make
4:44
responsible Collective and collaborative
4:47
decisions about where densification
4:51
should go and what strategies we can use
4:53
to preserve our single-family
4:55
neighborhoods
4:57
in the meantime I highly highly
5:00
recommend to you that you reach out to
5:03
your State Assembly members and make
5:06
your positions on densification and
5:09
state housing laws known directly to
5:11
them
5:13
there were also some comments that were
5:16
made
5:16
during last week at Hawks committee
5:19
meeting that I wanted to address because
5:21
they’re not accurate
5:24
one of the things that we heard that was
5:26
not true was that certain communities
5:29
are being Exempted from the community
5:32
plan update process
5:34
so let me be very clear on the record
5:37
about this now every community in CD 11
5:41
every community in Los Angeles is going
5:45
through a community plan update process
5:49
they’re in different phases depending on
5:52
when their plan was last updated
5:55
currently the communities in the
5:58
southern end of council District 11 are
6:02
going through their plan updates
6:04
the communities in the northern end of
6:06
the district will be next
6:09
another very important clarification
6:12
that I want to make relates to sb423
6:16
this is another state housing law
6:20
authored by the very same assembly
6:23
member who brought us sb9
6:26
SB 423 pushes densification across the
6:30
entire State of California and the city
6:32
of Los Angeles Los Angeles with limited
6:35
or no review
6:37
IT addresses how projects are reviewed
6:40
not where they can and can’t go
6:44
densification in our sensitive
6:47
environmental areas like our coastal
6:49
zone and our high fire severity zones
6:52
are huge concerns for obvious reasons
6:57
that’s why I introduced a motion and
7:00
counsel seeking a modification to s b
7:03
423 that would continue to require State
7:07
mandated review of multi-family housing
7:09
in those Hazard areas
7:12
and I want to be very clear about this
7:14
in no way does that exempt the coastal
7:17
zone or the high fire severity Zone from
7:19
contributing to affordable housing or
7:23
multi-family housing
7:25
it simply means that environmental and
7:28
fire mitigation efforts have to be
7:30
assessed and mitigated that’s all it
7:33
means
7:34
I also want to be clear that my
7:37
resolution is not based on economics or
7:40
any other demographics
7:42
the coastal zone actually includes parts
7:45
of Playa del Rey and some of the most
7:47
economically diverse portions of Venice
7:50
and all of council District 15.
7:53
our high fire severity zones do cover
7:56
neighborhoods in the Santa Monica
7:58
Mountains but they also include much of
8:01
the socio-economically diverse
8:03
communities near the sound of Susanna
8:05
Mountains and the San Gabriel mountains
8:08
and with tragic incidents like what
8:10
happened recently in Maui and the
8:13
paradise Fire or the Woolsey fire and
8:15
countless other examples
8:17
densification and commercialization in
8:20
those areas is something that we have to
8:22
be concerned about
8:24
and my resolution seeks basic review for
8:28
multi-family housing projects in those
8:30
zones so that motion has been continued
8:35
on the council agenda to September 12th
8:38
and so if anybody has any additional
8:40
feedback or questions or comments or
8:43
clarifications they would like about any
8:45
of the above please feel free to reach
8:47
out
8:48
and I would also just suggest that if
8:50
any of you members of this board or
8:53
members of the public hear something
8:55
that doesn’t sound right to you
8:57
something on social media you get a
8:59
flyer in your mailbox and it doesn’t
9:01
seem like it came from my office or it
9:04
came from me it probably didn’t
9:07
so please feel free to reach out
9:09
directly to me and my team if there is
9:12
ever a question or a concern whether it
9:15
relates to local development issues or
9:18
any other local issue
9:20
issue we are here to help we are here to
9:22
partner with you I am here to advocate
9:25
for Westchester Playa del Rey in this
9:28
in this land update I have heard these
9:30
concerns loud and clear I share them and
9:33
my task in this is to take the feedback
9:35
and make sure we end up with a final
9:38
product
9:39
that is what the community wants because
9:42
I do believe that we should be making
9:44
these decisions here as a community
9:48
so with that I would like to move on to
9:51
a couple of other updates from City Hall
9:53
uh there have been some

If you have questions about her motion, drop a comment. I understood the motion and have been trying to explain it to others, but some continue to insist the motion is to protect wealthy neighborhoods from the same densification we’re facing with our Community Plan Update. The motion does not do that in the least. The tsunami of housing laws are confusing. I get that.

Please sign and share our petition!

 

Tracy is active in a number of local community organizations including the Neighborhood Council PLUC, Neighborhood Council Ad Hoc CPU Committee, Kentwood Home Guardians and Emerson Ave Community Garden Club. The views expressed in this post are Tracy’s alone, and should not be construed in any way as an opinion of any other group. Are you planning a meeting with the planners? Have Tracy along to make sure you get the same information other community members get. Are you willing to host a group of your neighbors for a talk? Tracy would be happy to join you.

---

About Tracy Thrower Conyers Tracy Thrower Conyers is a long-time resident of Westchester 90045. Tracy closely follows local politics, political players and social chatter relevant to Westchester. You’ll frequently find her at Neighborhood Council meetings, as well as on all the social platforms where 90045 peeps hang out. Tracy is a real estate broker and founding principal in Silicon Beach Properties. She is a recognized expert on Silicon Beach and its impact on residential and residential income real estate, and has been featured by respected media outlets including the LA Times, KPCC and KCET. Tracy is also a licensed attorney and accidental housing policy junkie.