Safety Improvements

Posted by Antoine Durr on July 28, 2007
Posted in: Traffic. Leave a comment
Have you noticed the red paint on the curbs up and down Ranch?  True to his word, Gabe Garcia, the City Traffic Engineering Manager, has begun the agreed upon safety improvements along the hill.   New paint, center striping, new signs and some of those cool center street reflectors will make it easier to navigate the curves and hopefully slow down the cars dangerously speeding this street.  Please advise your neighbors and watch your own speed.  Please slow down when traversing the hill.
 
The City is continuing to study improvements for Crest traffic and will do the work in stages. The next area under consideration is the intersection of Ranch, Kelmore and Overland.  While the City gears up for the study, please consider what changes you might wish to see at this intersection and email them to us at culvercity99 (at) aol (dot) com.   Your input will be invaluable.  Watch for a notification of when the City will be asking for resident input.

Moratorium Extended / EIR

Posted by Antoine Durr on July 28, 2007
Posted in: PXP Oil. Leave a comment
Way to go Culver Crest Neighborhood Association!!   It is generally acknowledged (and yes, we are tooting our own horn here) that our involvement was one of the key factors in the County of Los Angeles’ extending the moratorium on all new drilling and expanded drilling until May 27, 2008.  During this time, the County will be conducting a full scope Environmental Impact Report (EIR) with personal supervision by L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Burke.  To say the least, we have been extremely successful due to the diligent efforts of your board and with the immense help of Ken Kutcher.
 
On June 28, 2007, the County mailed to interested parties a notice of their intent to conduct the EIR and involve the community in a series of scoping meetings in order to obtain input from interested parties.  Your CCNA Board Member Antoine Durr hosted such a meeting in April where more than 20 of your neighbors appeared to identify areas of concern.
 
A Community Standards District (CSD) has been proposed by the County to update and regulate the activities of the PXP oil fields including development standards, operating requirements and procedures for all oil and gas operations in the Baldwin Hill.
Are we done?  Is it over?  Not even close!  Next for us is to monitor the progress of the EIR.  To that end, you are urged to attend the Scoping Review meeting, to be held at the Veterans Auditorium on July 24th.   This is a public meeting to examine if the scope of the EIR is complete, or if there are any additional unaddressed concerns.  We already know that some of the odor issues have been significantly downplayed, so please attend that meeting and make sure that your concerns make it into the Scoping Review process.
 
The County’s website for the EIR process is: planning.co.la.ca.us/spBH.htm.  It describes all the various stages and schedules, and has a history of the issues.  Additionally, the process has been covered in depth by Gary Walker of the Culver City  News, highlighting CCNA board members for the past several months.

Burglary on Flaxton

Posted by Antoine Durr on July 28, 2007
Posted in: Block Captains. Leave a comment
Unfortunately, we had a rarity on the Crest recently.  There was a burglary on Flaxton.  The police interviewed two witnesses and this is a synopsis of their account of the incident.  The burglary took place at around 9:30 am when the owner took the kids to school and ran some errands, retuning at about 12:30 pm to find her house had been ransacked.  Miscellaneous jewelry and a laptop computer were stolen.  Although the doors and windows were locked from the inside, the burglar figured out a way to jimmy open the sliding glass door at the rear of the home.  The perpetrators have not been apprehended.
 
We all have a duty to report suspicious activities in our neighborhood to help prevent these types of crimes.  Many of our neighbors have called the police when they see suspicious activities and the police encourage us to do so.  They have no problem investigating a false alarm.  It’s much better than having apathy from the neighbors while possibly a real crime is taking place.  The police department will be more than grateful that you take an active role.  So will your neighbors!

Significant Change in Plans

Posted by Antoine Durr on July 28, 2007
Posted in: West L.A. College. Leave a comment
There has been a significant change in the plans of the College.  Its agreement to build a berm to shield our neighborhood, both during and after the College’s construction projects, have been stymied by Southern California Edison, which will not allow the College to use any portion of the dirt area between Stocker Road and Culver Crest. This means the College may not be able to construct the berm which, pursuant to the terms of our 2005 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), must be built concurrently with both the new parking structure at the top of Stocker and the second access road connecting the College to Jefferson, of which both projects are almost ready to begin.
 
A new subcommittee consisting of Board Members Mark Salkin, Howard Lichtman and Marlene Rose will review alternate mitigation measures that the College has advised it is in the process of preparing.

Hillside Damage on Tellefson

Posted by Antoine Durr on July 28, 2007
Posted in: Hillside. Leave a comment
GOOD NEWS- PART 2.  The last time you read “Good News” in this column, it was a false alarm.  The City didn’t anticipate the complexities of the lawsuits that were flying around at the time that put a halt to any activity to repair the hill.  Now, though, it appears everything is in order to commence with this project.  The City has completed the plans for the repairs needed to make the hillside above Tellefson safe again.  These plans are out for bid and proposals to fix the hill should be back in the City’s hands by July 12, 2007.  We are then on track for a contract bid to be awarded on July 23 with the work to commence around August 13, 2007.  The completion date is due by the end of November, hopefully before any significant rains show up.  We have never heard the City officials so confident about this project and actually gave us a specific timetable that they plan to follow. 
 
One of the homes atop Cranks has been purchased by the City and will possibly be torn down for use as construction staging (storing equipment and the like). When the project is complete, the City will re-sell the property and return it to private hands.  A second home, owned by the Vendeweghe family, may also fall under this provision depending on necessity.  Before Thanksgiving, we will all again be allowed to traverse Tellefson.  Your Culver Crest Neighborhood Association appreciates your continued patience during this trying inconvenience.  

Howard Lichtman Appointed to Advisory Group

Posted by Antoine Durr on April 28, 2007
Posted in: Development. Leave a comment

Congratulations to Howard Lichtman, a Culver Crest Neighborhood Association Board Member, for being appointed to the Sepulveda Redevelopment Citizens Advisory Committee.  This is a group of 9 residents and business people who are assigned to review the Champion Realty’s proposal to develop the west side of Sepulveda Boulevard between Sawtelle Boulevard and Slauson Avenue.  They will report their findings and make recommendations to the Culver City Redevelopment Agency.  Howard, who is an architect and well qualified to provide valuable input to the Committee, will represent Culver Crest and the Blanco Park neighborhoods.

Small Dog Reunited

Posted by Antoine Durr on April 28, 2007
Posted in: Block Captains. Leave a comment
Now here’s how the Neighborhood Watch should work!  Last week,  Ilana Ostrin, a Ranch Road resident, found a small dog wandering the neighborhood.  Her husband Ron Ostrin, a former CCNA Board Member, immediately sent information about the dog with the dog’s picture to Rich Kissel, who posted the picture on the internet using the Culver Crest Neighborhood Association email list.  Another good neighbor, Charlie Stephens, after reading the email notice, saw the dog and directed the owners to where the dog was last seen.  Lo and behold, a family and dog reunion.  A great ending to this trauma as a result of great communications between our neighbors.  
This is a good example why it is good to be on the Culver Crest email list.  Please provide your email address to Mike Bauer at culvercity99 (at) aol (dot) com. 

EIR to be done

Posted by Antoine Durr on April 28, 2007
Posted in: PXP Oil. Leave a comment
In our last newsletter, we ended the Oil Field section stating that the Initial Study/Negative Declaration was fatally flawed and that the Initial Study should be withdrawn and a new study be conducted, and that our protest letter would hopefully get the State to reconsider this issue.  Much more to follow.
 
Well, look what we stirred up!  
 
First, a little history.  Initially, the CCNA board found out that the Crest residents weren’t notified about the result of the study and the resulting Negative Declaration by the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) regarding the 24 new wells that PXP was requesting to drill.  Once we accidentally found out about the ruling, our Board wrote a letter of protest and called for an independent EIR to be performed, eventually threatening a lawsuit as the last resort to assure proper procedures were followed in approving PXP’s request.  Then, as a result of our rattling a few cages, Culver City, Los Angeles County and the State of California have entered the fray.
 
Now, not only is there going to be a complete and thorough EIR performed, personally conducted by L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke’s office, but a full criminal investigation has commenced looking into the conduct of certain DOGGR employees with regard to oil companies past requests which have historically been approved with little scrutiny.  These employees are directly connected with approval of oil field activities for the State of California.  It appears that there are a lot of suspicious activities between the oil companies and these employees that have already been uncovered and two managerial employees have been put on leave pending the result of this inquiry.
 
It seems that one of these employees owns stock in one of the oil companies for which he approved additional drilling and that he solicited donations for a charity for which his wife works, both violations of State law.  There are also emails that were sent from this employee to the oil company that will prove incriminating.
A big thanks to the work done by John Kuechle. Mark Salkin and especially Ken Kutcher regarding the major effort they did regarding this issue.  It appears we now just have to wait for the EIR to be completed to find out just what activities PXP will be allowed to engage.  However, we could rest assured we have some major hitters on our team that will give us more comfort that whatever action does occur, our safety will be a major consideration.  Even Governor Schwartzenegger has entered the arena and indicated his office is very interested in finding out about any irregularities by DOGGR and will monitor the progress of this situation very closely.  
 
You can rest assured…SO WILL WE!

WLAC Track

Posted by Antoine Durr on April 28, 2007
Posted in: West L.A. College. Leave a comment

There are some hiccups that have occurred recently with regard to the use of the West Los Angeles College track.  The basic problem is that the track is being damaged by heavy use from a number of groups who train with their coaches.  The College wants to require these groups to obtain permits before using the track, which has been the district’s policy for many years.  Apparently the College is unable to get the sheriff to remove these people from the track unless they post a sign that clearly requires a permit for any outsiders to use the track.  We, however, negotiated in connection with the EIR that neighborhood residents should be able to use the track (and other facilities) so long as this use does not interfere with College activities.  Our current proposal to the College specifically states that neighborhood residents will have approval to use the track, but goes on to agree that “coached training” will require a permit.  Since we don’t believe anyone from Culver Crest employs a coach to help them with their morning walks or jogs, this proposal should be acceptable to all.