West Hollywood is growing bigger and taller, faster -- something Mayor John D'Amico warned about four years ago.

Bigger and taller buildings add traffic congestion to neighborhoods, cause parking problems, tax our infrastructure and cast shadows on our communities.

We love West Hollywood for its sunshine and its soul, its creativity and its community.

Why would we want to lose that?

As your City Councilmember, I will be a reliable partner for our residents, standing up to developers to let the sunshine in!

West Hollywood has a General Plan and a Zoning Code.  These documents were developed with input from residents and businesses and should serve as our guiding path for the next two decades.

Yet it seems most proposed development in our City doesn't fit the plan we have laid out.

Developers want exemptions, variances and bonuses and too often get them.

I support property owners' rights to do what the zoning code allows, but if they want something from the City in the form of a variance, exemption or bonus, they'll have to give something back.

Too often past city councils have accepted six- and seven-figure checks to the City as the "public benefit" in exchange for allowing variances, exemptions and bonuses, but I believe we should expect more.

If you want to build a bigger commercial project than what zoning allows, we should ask that you provide more parking spaces than the code requires and open that parking up to the public at reasonable prices.

If you want a variance or bonus to build a bigger housing project, you should set aside a substantial percentage of those units in a workforce housing covenant for people making median incomes, without a waiting list. 

And, in all cases, we should ask that you have broad community support.

This is the least we can ask for.