CULVER CITY FOR MORE HOMES
Fighting for more housing, renters' protections and rights, and the end of segregation in the suburbs.
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monday february 26: City Council Needs to hear from you on housing!
CULVER CITY CAN DO BETTER IN ADVANCING FAIR HOUSING
On Monday, February 26, City Council will hear an update on the draft General Plan and Zoning Plan. As you know, most residential property in Culver City is zoned exclusively for single family homes, and the current majority on our City Council has refused to allow more than the state-mandated amount of housing in these areas: a maximum of one single family home, 2 ADUs, and 1 Junior ADU. This limits the areas where higher density housing can be built to house more neighbors and meet our RHNA assessment of 3,341 additional housing units by 2029, 68% of which must be for households with extremely low to moderate incomes. In the draft zoning map, all proposed high density multifamily housing is located in Fox Hills, as well as nearly all medium density multifamily housing. In addition, the Fox Hills areas formerly zoned Regional Business Park are proposed to be Mixed Use-High Density.
Even residents who want to preserve single family neighborhoods agree that more housing should be located along our existing commercial corridors, Washington Boulevard and Sepulveda Boulevard, which are already well served by transit. But while the parcels along Washington Boulevard are proposed to become mixed use, they are designated as MU-1, low density (35 dwelling units per acre (du/ac). Meanwhile, properties along Jefferson Boulevard on the east side of Ballona Creek are designated for medium density in Mixed Use Corridor 2 (50 du/ac) or Mixed Use-Industrial (65 du/ac). This area lacks public transit and amenities.
REGISTER TO SPEAK AT THE MEETING:
Click here to register and select Action Item A-2. (These are relevant to both A-2 and A-3, but A-2 will come up first and it seems likely all relevant issues will be resolved with A-2.)
Talking point #1: The mixed use areas along Washington, Culver, and Sepulveda Boulevards should be zoned for medium density housing (MU-2).
It’s almost as though the proposed zoning plan intentionally places all new multifamily construction in areas where it’s difficult to access the amenities of downtown Culver City, and the people who live in single family neighborhoods can pretend these developments – and their residents – don’t exist. Multifamily construction is needed and welcomed in Fox Hills and former industrial areas. In addition, our obligation to affirmatively further fair housing requires us to locate higher density housing throughout Culver City’s neighborhoods by allowing it along the major commercial corridors.
At its meeting on February 14, a majority of Planning Commission members recommended that the base density of the Mixed Use Corridor 1 land use designation should be increased from 35 dwelling units per acre.
Talking point #2: The Culver City portion of the Inglewood Oil Field should be retained as open space after oil-producing activities have been terminated.
The draft Zoning Map showed the undeveloped Culver City property in the Inglewood Oil Field as being zoned for single family homes. Although it may be uncertain exactly when the oil company vacates this property, the zoning plan should leave no doubt that it will be preserved as open land and not become a neighborhood of single family homes.
Tomorrow (Monday 2/26), attend the meeting remotely using this link. The meeting begins at 7pm but Action Item A-2 will come up later in the meeting.
Do you think Culver City's homelessness crisis is over?
At its meeting on January 8, the City Council majority voted to receive updates about the homelessness emergency at 60 day intervals instead of at every meeting (usually every 2 weeks). The 60 day reports are the minimum required to maintain the declared emergency.
Read the editorial view of the Westside Voice, "Do Culver City Staff and Council Majority Think the Homeless Crisis is Over?"
We have questions.
- How many people are being housed at Project Homekey transitional housing? How many in permanent supportive housing?
- How many people are accommodated in the Safe Sleep tents?
- How many people are housed in motel rooms under the master lease?
- How many people are approved and on a waiting list for temporary Culver City shelter or permanent supportive housing?
- How many people have moved to permanent housing from the Culver City programs? Where did they move?
- How many people have left these Culver City sites without obtaining permanent housing?
- Were any of these people asked to leave? If so, why?
- How many times has the Mobile Crisis Team or CCPD responded to an unhoused person in a tent/makeshift shelter, temporary housing, or permanent supportive housing, and what were the outcomes?
- How many times has CCFD responded to an unhoused person, whether in a tent or temporary housing?
And also:
- When is Culver City going to implement a Safe Parking program?
- What is Culver City doing to speed up the process of building more housing at every income level?