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# Westside Casden Project: Politics (And Corruption) Eclipsing Proper Legal Policy
May 20 2013
Written by Ken Alpern.
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TRANSPORTATION POLITICS - As I mentioned in [my last CityWatch piece](http://www.citywatchla.com/lead-stories-hidden/5094-will-the-lobbyists-drown-out-the-city-attorney-on-the-casden-sepulveda-project), it is now up to Councilmember Ed Reyes, as well as Councilmembers Jose Huizar and Mitchell Englander, to prove that there is such as a thing as rules and proper conduct in the City of Los Angeles.
To date Mayor Villaraigosa, the City Planning Commission and their "Planning Politburo" have shown there are virtually NO rules that need to be followed. Without proper and reasonable notification to the general public, City Planning rubberstamped an oversized and probably illegal Casden Sepulveda development.
To its credit, the City Planning Commission did insist on a 500 foot distance of the residential project from the freeway, but to its discredit left a nebulous and certainly illegal project in the hands of Michael LoGrande (who is on his way to being empowered as a City Planning Czar in charge of several departments) to oversee and move forward to the City Planning/Land Use (PLUM) Committee.
This project IS illegal, and hence the City Attorney has just responded to the request of Councilmembers Paul Koretz and Bill Rosendahl to review the Casden Sepulveda Project, and has now steadfastly demanded to Ed Reyes and his PLUM Committee that the Casden Sepulveda Project be returned to Planning for appropriate environmental review.
Yet this project is on the PLUM Agenda for May 28th, and on the full City Council agenda for June 12th. Pretty obvious money and power politics on the part of the Casden Sepulveda developers, but pretty obvious impropriety (and lawsuit-inviting behavior) on the part of the City Council of Los Angeles.
I realize that this election is tying up the time and attention of just about everyone right now, but May 28th is still a week or so away. One can only hope that the PLUM Committee will either pull the item off the agenda right now, or will take time to address this issue later this week--after tomorrow's elections are behind us.
I am both understanding and infuriated that politics often trump policy and position-taking, but it is hoped that behind the scenes Paul Koretz and Bill Rosendahl (and the City Attorney) are saying the right things to Councilmembers Reyes, Huizar and Englander. It is also hoped that a more public appeal by Councilmembers Koretz and Rosendahl will occur later this week with respect to the Casden Sepulveda Project.
That this project is currently on the May 28th agenda for the PLUM Committee and the June 12th agenda for the full City Council suggests that this will be fast-tracked--and approved by the PLUM Committee--despite any input by the City Attorney.
I'm presuming that the same paid/influenced "testimonialists" will be present at the PLUM Committee as they were at the 2/28/2013 CPC meeting, and that they will lambaste Carmen Trutanich's letter as a political stunt rather than as a proper legal advisory based on the advice of Deputy City Attorneys Jane Usher and William Carter from the City Attorney's office.
It is hoped that Usher, Carter or Trutanich will be there on the 28th, should this travesty appear before the PLUM Committee at all, to explain to the Committee the sort of legal peril they will place the City in if it's allowed to move forward to the City Council.
By the way, fellow Angelenos, did you know that the public has no idea of what this monstrously-oversized project will even look like, because LoGrande and Planning hasn't publicized any Planning Commission-required changes to the project for anyone to review on the 28th?
And the questions should go out for the PLUM Committee: To the Honorable Councilmembers Reyes, Huizar and Englander...do you or your staff even know what this project will look like, and do you feel comfortable even evaluating it, let alone approving it, against the advice of the entire City Attorney department?
*(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [Alpern@MarVista.org](mailto:Alpern@MarVista.org "mailto:Alpern@MarVista.org") He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at [www.fogl.us](http://www.fogl.us). The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)*
*-cw*
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 41
Pub: May 21, 2013
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