The Crest View Spring 2008 Newsletter
The EIR (Environmental Impact Report) release date has yet been moved again, this time to June of 2008. Mike Bohlke, County Supervisor Yvonne Burke’s “right hand man” promises that it will be “enormous!”
I spoke with the Culver City Public Works Department to find out the status of the repair of the Tellefson hill and why there appeared to be inactivity until very recently. It seems that the City of Los Angeles wanted to review the plans and has required the City of Culver City to obtain a permit to continue to repair the hill. This is a result of the concern L.A. has that the sewer line running under the hill will be damaged by drilling into the hill if the line is not specifically located. Culver City has not obtained this permit as yet but is proceeding with the work and assuring that they are not doing any work within 8 feet of where they believe the sewer exists and is avoiding areas where the line may exist. They are very close to getting approval but further analysis has to be completed.
Culver City is very comfortable with the design and not delaying their activity. They are presently preparing the site by removing dirt and making it safer to do their construction in the future. Once L.A. is satisfied, which should be in the very near future, the permit will be granted and C.C. can proceed full force. The estimated completion date now, however, has been pushed up to June.
In the meantime, Tellefson will remain closed.
EIR is short for an Environmental Impact Report. It is a document which states what the potential impact would be of a given project. Each project has its own particular set of impacts on the neighboring environment, but the impacts most often looked at include noise, air quality, visual impact, traffic, etc.
The EIR will also contain mitigation measures to constrain the impacts to tolerable levels. When an EIR is released to the public, it is called a Draft EIR. The public then has a finite period of time to comment on it. These comments are then reviewed and (hopefully) reworked into the next draft of the EIR, called the Final EIR. The spacing and timing of the drafts and comment periods of an EIR are legislated by the California Environmental Quality Act, also known as CEQA (pronounced “see-kwah”).
Finally after preparation of the Final EIR and preliminary hearings by the Planning Commission, the EIR is wrapped up and presented before the County Board of Supervisors for approval. It is at this presentation that the public has one last chance to comment on the EIR’s contents and adequacy.
It is important to remember that the EIR is just a study document. Its purpose is to inform the public and the decision makers of the ramifications of their proposed decision. It has no teeth after the project is approved. The EIR informs the public about what special individualized changes should be made to better regulate a proposed project. When a project is proposed, the project’s plans, whether they be for the expansion of a college, the development of a building, or the formulation of zoning laws for future oil drilling, are first studied in the EIR to determine what kinds of impacts should be anticipated and how to reduce those impacts to tolerable levels. Thus, if no one comments or complains about what the EIR reveals, then the plans which have been studied will seem ready for approval. This is why an EIR is so important: it is your opportunity to influence the scale and scope of a particular project.
Elections are held at the last general meeting of the year. Anyone can nominate you, as long as someone ‘second’s your name. Elections are always for all nine board seats, though lack of nominees may result in a vote for the slate of candidates.
The CCNA has general meetings about once per quarter. Our Fall/Winter meeting usually has elections for board members. Click here for our calendar.
Thanks to all of you who sent voluntary membership dues to the CCNA for the coming year. The response was overwhelming and much appreciated by your Board of Directors. If you planned to give and just didn’t get to it, here’s a reminder. Again, it’s voluntary. Just complete the Application for Membership below and send it or bring it to Mike Bauer, 10676 Esterina Way, Culver City, CA 90230.
Your Board of Directors and residents of Culver Crest thank you very much.
The College notified your Board that they will not pursue obtaining rights to the dirt portion of Stocker Road and therefore have the right to construct what they want on that property. This is, so the College says, due to the lack of cooperation they received from Edison who obtained ownership of this parcel when the Stocker Street expansion (over the hill to La Cienega) was scaled back and removed from the Los Angeles Master Plan. Too bad we didn’t know about that because our ironclad (or what we thought was ironclad) written agreement with the College called for an earthen berm, which was to have been landscaped and managed by the College, was a pre-condition to the construction that the College so far has not been able to get started. Without the consent of Edison, the College says no place to put the dirt from their excavations so no berm. Your Board heavily contested the College’s position. While we are looking at alternatives, see below, the College is poised to start construction on its new parking lot anyway.
In addition, the College recently announced their next phase of expansion including an expanded football stadium and a new baseball stadium. They also want to expand into the 10100 Jefferson site that they acquired from the City to be developed in a public/private for profit partnership. This portion of the campus will be within the confines of the City of Culver City. They also want to enlarge the access and entrance on Overland. This plan includes a second multi-story parking lot.
As an alternative to the berm, the College is proposing various forms of both temporary and permanent sound walls. While placement of these walls is problematic, the walls ignore other goals sought when the berm was proposed by the College. These include neighborhood beautification, reduction of intrusions into the Crest from the College grounds along Stocker, noise and dust reduction and an open green space which could continue to be utilized by the neighbors. Alternately, the College proposed to close Stocker permanently and turn it all, including the asphalt portion, into a green belt, to erect a few minor small sound walls and to place some signage there. So right now discussions are being held with no really good alternatives in sight. Could litigation be a possibility? Come to the General Meeting on Wednesday, September 19th and have your say.
Culver Crest Neighborhood Association 