STEP ONE: COPY & PASTE THE INFORMATION BELOW TO SEND AN EMAIL TO OUR COUNCIL MEMBERS KATY YAROSLAVSKY AND HEATHER HUTT
*DON’T FORGET TO SIGN YOUR NAME/ADDRESS AT BOTTOM OF EMAIL BEFORE SENDING
TO:
Councilmember.Yaroslavsky@lacity.org, heather.hutt@lacity.org
SUBJECT:
SUPPORT APPROACH C-1 TO IMPLEMENT SB79
EMAIL MESSAGE:
Dear Councilmembers Yaroslavsky & Hutt,
As you know, the Miracle Mile now stands at ground zero for the damaging upzoning permitted by SB 79. By a twist of fate, our neighborhood may, in fact, be the single most hard hit by the wrecking balls that will destroy our historic single-family and multi-family homes, converting them into five-, and six-, and even nine-story, principally market-rate residential towers. These out-of-scale, featureless boxes will sit side-by-side with historic homes – in a city-approved HPOZ. Nothing could be more harmful to our city’s heritage.
The irony is, as you know, SB 79 barely even mandates affordable housing. Any building with ten or fewer units won’t have to build a single affordable unit. It’ll be 100% market-rate. To add further insult to injury, SB 79 will permit the destruction of literally hundreds of historic, rent-stabilized duplexes, perhaps the single highest concentration of housing type in the Miracle Mile. Many of these are owner-occupied, mom-and-pop owned. Because they are rent-stabilized, they provide one of the largest pools of affordable housing the city has to offer. These would disappear if the city doesn’t enact the (admittedly imperfect) guardrails at its disposal.
That’s why, as a Miracle Mile resident, I am urging you to choose option C-1 as the way forward for Los Angeles to implement SB 79. It is the least bad choice. At least building heights will be limited to three stories and, perhaps, most of the affordable housing in our neighborhood will avoid destruction.
I’m also urging you to ensure that every HPOZ in Los Angeles, without exception or exclusion, be given the full protections offered by option C-1. As you also know, Council Member Robert Blumenfield has proposed a carve-out of post-2015 HPOZs, which would mean that the Miracle Mile would be left entirely unprotected. I urge you to stop Blumenthal’s carve-out. If adopted, it would not only mean the destruction of a wide tract of intact 1920s residences, important early Modernist architecture, Zig-Zag Moderne, and Art Deco monuments, but a reservoir of all-too-necessary rent-stabilized, affordable housing.
Thank you for standing up for our city’s history and for the idea that good city planning doesn’t have to destroy the city in the name of making it more affordable.
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
Miracle Mile Residential Association 