News
City to Present Design Plan for Lincoln Boulevard
Venice, CA--March 21, 2007--Could Lincoln Boulevard be an urban boulevard of the future, encompassing light rail, pedestrian friendly walkways, gentle benches, dynamic landscaping and a mix of commercial, market rate and affordable housing to provide both consumers and employees?
Those were some of the hopes of a conference featuring a broad array of Venetians who met to discuss the street in 2003. But, there’s been a rumor that the City of Los Angeles planner who was initially responsible for drafting a “Community Design Overlay” to codify the group’s proposals scaled back the vision to its most superficial design-oriented elements, leaving behind a host of items that could truly modernize the street while also making it more beautiful. In addition, the planner handpicked focus groups for the Design Overlay, rather than putting out a public call for input or allowing the group that an originated the premise to drive the process. (All the while expending study funds that came from a capital improvement fund for Venetians only.)
Now, with a different planner running the process—the city’s Shana Bonstin—Venetians finally have an opportunity to attend a workshop on the first draft of the Lincoln Boulevard overlay, be given the tools to provide comments on it and afforded a time frame that allows them to adequately ingest the plan before giving the city their opinion.
Thursday night, March 22 from 6 pm – 8 pm, Bonstin and a group of city of Los Angeles planners will present the plan as it is now, give background on it and breakdown into smaller discussion groups designed to allow Venetians to ask questions on the details of their choosing. VenicePaper will post a PDF of the draft plan on our website after the meeting. The meeting takes place at the Boys & Girls Club of Venice, 2232 Lincoln Boulevard.
According to Bonstin, Venetians will be given approximately two and half weeks to submit their comments after Thursday. Then the plan will be re-drafted and re-presented at an Open House & Public Hearing approximately a month or two afterwards later. That Public Hearing will take a second round of comments. Bonstin said that the dates for this second round of comments have not been selected so that planners can dedicate the time to redrafting which public notes demand.
If a Community Overlay Design District is approved by the City of Los Angeles it will set guidelines and standards applicable to all development projects requiring a building permit and located within the Lincoln CDO boundary area.
Venetians and property owners are encouraged to RSVP care of
shana.bonstin@lacity.org, but walk-ins are welcome.
