CommentsDEEGAN ON LA-“Neighborhood Councils were slighted … they were not given a chance to speak at a public hearing,” alleges Robin Greenberg, President of the Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council which advocates for more than 27,000 residents representing hillside communities stretching from Laurel Canyon to Sepulveda Boulevard, and from Sunset Boulevard to Mulholland Drive. It also speaks for 35 residential associations, local schools, businesses, and faith-based institutions.
The council she represents has a huge and influential constituency, and their voice was potentially silenced when Greenberg was shut out of the city council’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) committee a few days ago. The committee was holding a hearing on proposed regulations for short-term property rentals, a topic about which the Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council has very strong feelings.
An overflow crowd, heavily tilted toward organized Airbnb supporters in their bright green t-shirts promoting their cause, packed the council chamber. Once the chamber was full, doorkeepers barred everyone else, including Greenberg, from entering the room.
But Greenberg was there to present an official Community Impact Statement from the Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council.
It did not matter that Greenberg was an NC president -- she could have been anybody. But she was there in an official capacity, which she explained to the doorkeepers. That should have made a difference in allowing her to enter and submit her NC board’s vote into the public record, as she is required to do, if that is what her board has voted on.
Greenberg told CityWatch that even the attempted intercession of a council member's chief-of-staff to open the door and let her in to use a public comment microphone was unsuccessful. According to a spokesperson for the council office, “The Fire Marshall came down and told them they were over capacity and not to let anyone else in. The chief of staff did try for more than an hour but the Sergeant of Arms was following orders, so she respected his instructions, but did get their letters to the City Clerk for filing.”
The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) -- the city agency that oversees the publicly elected Neighborhood Councils -- explains it this way: “A Community Impact Statement is an official statement or position adopted by a Neighborhood Council used to express the position of a Neighborhood Council as a whole, on issues pending before the City’s decision makers. The process was created specifically for Neighborhood Councils so they can publicly express their support, opposition, or suggestions about any matter pending before the City Council, its committees, or City commissions. Submitting a CIS expresses a serious and committed position on an issue by a Neighborhood Council, and demonstrates community interest and support of the issue. This process allows you to communicate collectively as a Neighborhood Council and as a community.”
Most legislative bodies use a Sergeant-at-Arms to control situations exactly like this. Maybe Council President Herb Wesson (CD10) would consider working with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) to provide a door list to the Sergeant-at-Arms to be sure any Neighborhood Council officer there is provided entry and access to make public comment and/or submit a Community Impact Statement into the public record.
“The people at the door making decisions about letting people into the room had no duty except to keep the room from overflowing,” claimed Greenberg. Her proposed solution: “NCs with a Community Impact Statement or other board-approved motion should be saved seats.” Greenberg said, “There were too many people from Airbnb that took up all of the seats and caused the rest of the public to be shut out of the hearing. We couldn’t get in.”
It’s no surprise that the sharing platform packed the house: there’s lots at stake in the proposed short-term property rentals ordnance.
Every issue has two sides, and the Airbnb supporters got there first, far outweighing everyone else. The Larchmont Buzz reported that about 2/3 of the stakeholders in attendance Tuesday spoke in favor of rules less restrictive than the city is currently proposing, while only about 1/3 spoke in favor of the proposed, or even more restrictive, regulations.
Some see Airbnb as a boon to their personal economic situation by either providing them with income or saving expenses; others see it as a threat to their communities because of the constant transition of strangers booking rooms in the neighborhood for very short periods of time. Canyon dwellers -- and this is one of the arguments that Robin Greenberg was not able to present in the hearing room -- fear that strangers to canyon communities have no knowledge of narrow road systems, parking problems, or the dangers of carelessly flicking a cigarette out the window, causing the maximum hazard imaginable by burning down a canyon. “Enforcement is necessary,” says Greenberg. “Neighbors will suffer if a canyon is burned down.”
Anyone who has lived in a canyon -- one of the most coveted domiciles in the city -- knows how tinder-dry that environment is, and how in seconds a spark can become a conflagration. While the PLUM committee is considering the proposed ordinance -- they did not vote on it. They pushed it to another time, so they may think about including a provision that prospective Airbnb canyon-home renters should sign an acknowledgement of “rules of the canyons,” including a ban on smoking outside the home, as well as instituting traffic and parking restrictions.
But first, the City Council has a chance to “come to order” and resolve who should be entitled to reserved seats at hearings when they are there as elected city officials on official business -- which Neighborhood Council officers and board members are when they attend a hearing with a motion from their boards. The Councilmembers and their staffs along with the planning deputies and their staffs have guaranteed access to the microphone at these hearings. Neighborhood Council representatives must be given the same opportunities.
(Tim Deegan is a long-time resident and community leader in the Miracle Mile, who has served as board chair at the Mid City West Community Council and on the board of the Miracle Mile Civic Coalition. Tim can be reached at [email protected].) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
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