November 4, 2015
Councilman Mike Bonin (Councilmember.Bonin@LACity.org)
City Hall
200 North
Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Joey Vasquez (Joey.Vasquez@LACity.org)
Hearing Officer
Department
of City Planning
200 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Re: 1656 South Abbot Kinney Blvd./Case #: TT -72841-REV, ENV-2015-2716-MND, DIR-2015
-823-CDP
Dear Councilman Bonin and Mr.
Vasquez:
I am writing on behalf of our
organization to oppose the proposal to abandon and vacate any portion of the street dedication at 1656 Abbot Kinney Boulevard and 583 Venice
Boulevard, on the northwest corner of Venice and Abbot
Kinney Boulevards.
This land is located at the intersection of two
of the main boulevards in Venice, and is
currently used for important public purposes, providing a significant segment of the
tree lined parkway bordering Venice
Boulevard. This land and
43 other contiguous dedications of land along Venice Boulevard are part of an approved landscaping plan for Venice Boulevard, the “City of Los Angeles Venice Boulevard Planting Plan,” adopted by the City Engineer in May, 1995.
The current
municipal easement for future public uses and landscaping was wisely adopted
many years ago to allow the City to expand the street with transportation and
park improvements. One can easily
imagine this land being used to accommodate future projects such as a light
rail system on Venice Boulevard
and/or the installation of a wide bike lane plus jogging path that would be
physically separate from the boulevard itself.
There are other
alternatives to vacation of the easement that would maintain future public
uses. These include a Public Works
Revocable Permit which would allow private use until such time as the property
is needed for new public transportation uses.
Further, vacation of this easement would set a dangerous precedent for
all the other similar easements along Venice
Boulevard, leading to a significantly diminished
parkway on each side of the boulevard and greatly limit the City’s future
transportation and landscaping options.
We believe it would be shortsighted and improper for the City to relinquish any rights to this land.
Thank you for your consideration of
our thoughts on this matter.
Sincerely,
Mark
Ryavec
Mark Ryavec
President
