Mike Gatto, Assemblyman from the 43rd district attended. He gave details on his boundaries and they are quite extensive going from Silverlake to and including Angeles National Forest.

State representatives are the Congress for the State of California. They create laws like cellphone usage in cars to actual State legislature.

State law overrides local laws. If and when local authority doesn't or can't resolve our issues, he won't hesitate to step in.

Mike grew up in the area, lives in Silverlake and owns a house on Canyon Dr.

California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) provides people a way to have input on local projects.

George asked about traffic impacts in CEQA Law. Mike has seen Franklin traffic get worse every year. He's watched his own neighborhood get extremely traffic impacted. He said that CEQA law changes are dead for this year. He opposes removing traffic impact as a CEQA cause of action.

One neighbor asked about the CEQA process as it relates to The Hollywood Classic vineyard. He mentioned hearing about a proposal to build a large structure on the property. (Here's the vineyard's website: http://www.hollywoodclassicwine.com/main.html)

The neighbor referred to this hotel-sized residence and asked if it could be built in such an environmentally sensitive spot without public comment or environmental review.

Gatto said that he would need more information but that a notice is usually extended to residents within a specified area around the project. This is an opportunity to attend and speak at a hearing. He doesn't think that this is a project unless that notice has been given to neighbors.

When asked about the Millennium project, he said that local agency approvals kept being given without checking in with the State. It got rather far along in the process before the state was brought into the process. They are trying to catch up.

George mentioned that Caltrans had been sending notices and reactions to the Millennium project to the city for years.

Mike said he would check into the matter with Caltrans and with the State Geologist. Fran asked him to apply pressure to those departments to step up since local authority had failed to be responsive to the State or the people in this regard. George shared that the window for Caltrans to sue the city and the developer has been extended but only for the next few weeks. Gatto acknowledged that time is of the essence and that he would get on it.

He is on many committees including the Banking and Finance Cmte,

Chair of the Appropriations Cmte and on the Transportation Cmte.

Gatto was responsible for pushing a measure that prohibits the city from ticketing cars that are parked at broken parking meters.

Missy wants no ticketing on cars on street cleaning days when no street cleaning is being done.

George asked about prisons - why are felons appearing on the streets?

The State hasn't let one prisoner go. Nobody is letting felons out of jail but County Sheriffs are letting prisoners out of County jails early because they are overcrowded.

Peter Zarcone, Hollywood Area Commanding Officer:

Captain Zarcone's history is mostly in Rampart and Olympic divisions of the LAPD.

He said that, for the most part, we have a safe neighborhood. There have been some recent burglaries. Arrests took place linked to six burglaries locally but the male suspect got bailed out. He asked that anyone having stuff taken, let him know. Remy, Durand neighbor, had items stolen and needs to inquire if anything has been recovered. (More on this issue below in Maggie's report)

West Traffic Officer Pete Cordero:

Martin, Deronda neighbor, wanted to know about cars parked in front of driveways and front gates. Can they be towed? Department of Transportation (DOT) can impound the vehicle if it's in the public right of way. These offenses should be addressed case by case. Each is unique.

Martin mentioned residents in Malibu that are allowed to have the power to write tickets. If that were in place, the news would go viral and parking violations would drop.

Martin was referring to this article in la.curbed.com:

 http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/07/malibu_residents_can_now_go_around_issuing_parking_tickets.php 

Officer Cordero hadn't heard about this but Fran promised to send him the article.

Cordero has been diverted to other areas like LAX for the past month, but will start coming up here.

Councilmember Labonge's 4th district deputy, Daniel Halden (daniel.halden@lacity.org) and CD4 staff member, Tracey James (tracy.james@lacity.org):

CD4 has been working with the neighborhood leadership in a Working Group format. This Working Group includes neighborhood leaders around the Hollywood Sign plus the Friends of Griffith Park on tourism issues.

Preferential Parking Districts (PPDs) are being proposed for the Beachwood Canyon. But, it's not just proposed for Beachwood Drive as that would cause chaos for the small connecting streets. He is working on putting together a proposal. Fran (BCNA) and Alex (HHA) will be working with the community to get a sense of the needs of each impacted area. A traffic count was conducted at 7 locations during Labor Day weekend. It was less than normal traffic due to the holiday and the high heat but they did get some numbers.

Daniel is working with DOT on a comprehensive traffic study for the area.

The next group at the Working Group table is the Rec and Parks to discuss the Hollyridge trailhead, the fence and parking at the Stables, the Park in general and access to the Hollywood Sign.

Martin asked about the traffic survey. There were several locations counted. What was the reaction to the count? Daniel said that there were no official reactions but just aggregating the data. Aram Sahakian, Engineering Department, is working on this. Daniel says that it would have been great to get some traffic data from June or July to compare this to. He says that Jim VanDusen, Beachwood neighbor, has made his own valuable but informal study, suggesting that Martin speak to him. Daniel will email a copy of the traffic count report to Martin and to the other Working Group leaders.

Daniel wants to look at more than just numbers. He wants to take into account the foot traffic, the trailhead, the safety issues around all the hotspots all in concert.

Beachwood has been restriped up to the Market and will be adding to those areas that have not yet been painted. They are going to restripe the limit lines as well at the stop signs.

Mike Fuller asked about the safety aspect of the Village intersection. He asked why we can't have a Smart Crosswalk to protect the foot traffic crossing Beachwood.

Daniel says that he will consult with someone in the light synchronization section of the DOT. He is an engineer and Daniel would like to meet with him and Fran in the Village.

Fran shared that the DOT had done a study of the intersection concluding that it was not safe but not taking action without buy-in from the local businesses. That letter is on file. Fran will try to locate it and send to Daniel.

Michael Morrow was thinking of this intersection - there wasn't always parking within this intersection. This blocks the view so maybe we can have limited parking within this intersection.

Daniel says when you take parking away, you need to get a petition of the local areas before this change could happen.

Daniel and Officer Pete both agree that removing parking can cause the traffic to speed up.

Mary Geary saw three cars speed through the intersection without stopping. Michael Fuller wants a signal.

Len, says: The park ranger said there was no sense writing a ticket if the offender is a tourist. Officer Pete says he will even write tickets on cars from out of the country.

When a tourist gets a ticket in a rental vehicle, they get charged through the rental company. Pete says that tourists sometimes don't care.

One neighbor expressed gratitude for the no parking sign on Vista Del Mar.

The city stairs are becoming a destination for kids partying at night on Vista Del Mar. CD4 has a beautification section that can come out and see if they can clear it or clean it - he would like to explore it for a community clean up.

Daniel referred to the triangular property at Beachwood and Rodgerton. He will be asking the owner if the city can trim that back to provide a better line of sight.

Senior Lead Officer, Maggie Dillard:

Beachwood, Oaks and Dell were hit with burglaries. They arrested 2 suspects that were apprehended fleeing in a stolen car. They were part of a crew. They had a lot of electronics and mail. The male was involved in a lot of these thefts. His house was searched and several duffle bags of mail were recovered. Maggie went through every single piece of mail recovered. 100 - 150 different victims from hillside neighborhoods.

The mail was taken from boxes that were not locked. Buy locking mail boxes. Shredders are a must. Criminals are going through our trash.

Also, don't leave things in parked cars. Some tourists are getting hit but also residents are having ipods and computers taken from their cars. Write down your serial numbers so you can get them back in recovery.

Jeff Childs is in charge of the burglaries 213-972-2926

Hollywoodland didn't get hit by burglaries much because most have alarms. Two suspects were arrested from 2100 block of Cahuenga while squatting. When the house was sold, the new owner discovered these people. We have foreclosures and abandoned homes in this canyon. Keep your eyes open and watch to make sure that this isn't happening. Call or email Maggie to get extra patrol if you're on vacation.

LAPD works with public entities to get empty or abandoned homes secured. Make sure you let Maggie know of these addresses.

Open windows and open doors are how the burglars gain access.

Always report the crimes.

The criminals in the Durand case were from the south side.

Carla wanted to know if large mobile homes get to park on the street? Canyon Cove has a very large motor home parked on the street. Maggie said that, it can be towed after 72 hours.

Remy asked about the recovered mail. Maggie says that the postal inspectors take over on the mail theft. They need to file felony charges and Maggie will make sure that the Postal Inspector will do that. She will send a list of the streets that had mail stolen and the presidents of the organizations will let the community know. She will also provide the contact info for the postal inspectors so people can demand to get their mail back.

Gigi said that we had a surge of mail thefts a few years ago and the post office sent a great card out to all residents.

Annual Meeting Ideas: Jan 6th Monday at 7 p.m.

Webtraker - See flights over the canyon 

Parking Enforcement