For those of you who were unable to attend Monday night’s City Council meeting — or couldn’t stay up until midnight! — I wanted to give you an update on what’s going on at the City.
One of my first priorities as a City Councilmember is to protect West Hollywood’s neighborhoods. Last night, I worked to protect West Hollywood’s Neighborhoods from the Eastside to West Hollywood West.
Together with my colleagues, we:
- Drew attention to the need for the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation to better communicate with residents on the Eastside about their plans for the properties they have acquired on Detroit Street and include the community in their decision making process.
- Directed the developers of the Sunset/La Cienega Project to include West Hollywood North and WeHo Heights Neighborhood Associations in their community outreach programs.
- Made sure neighborhoods won’t be adversely affected by the noise impacts of the Sunset Strip Half-Marathon the morning of Sunday, April 19th.
Together with my colleagues, we took several steps forward to protect and support the people of West Hollywood.
- Mayor John D’Amico and I worked together to give an update to the City’s Residential Referral List, bringing them into the 21st Century and including the animal-friendly referral list Spike advocated for last February.
- Councilmember John Duran and I worked together to sponsor a screening of Triangles Witnesses of the Holocaust, to support SB 252 (Leno), which will waive GED testing fees for homeless youth, and to start the process of making Harvey Milk Day an official City Holiday.
- Councilmember Horvath and I worked together to empower the City Manager to ban official travel by City Employees to any State which might adopt legislation similar to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
But the big news last night was that the City started moving to take actions on two big ideas for the future of West Hollywood:
- Staff will begin studying the creation of a separate Design Review Commission, taking the aesthetic judgment element away from the Planning Commission; and,
- Staff will be proposing new ways to measure thresholds of significance for impacts to water resources for new developments requiring an Environmental Impact Report.
In addition to these fresh ideas, the City’s Boards and Commissions will have some fresh faces, starting this week. Please join me in congratulating the following new commissioners and board members and welcoming them to the City family!
Arts and Cultural Affairs – Catherine Lee
Business License Commission – Michael King
Historic Preservation Commission – Cathy Blaivas
Human Services Commission – Patrick Shandrick
Planning Commission – Sheila Lightfoot
Public Facilities Commission – Victor Omelczenko
Public Safety Commission – Tory Berger
Rent Stabilization Commission – Stephanie Harker
Transportation Commission – William Doebler
Disabilities Advisory Board - Michael Wojtkielewicz
Eastside Working Group – Steve Martin
Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board - Kate Eggert
Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board – Lucas John
Russian Advisory Board – Raisa Aguf
Senior Advisory Board – Joy Nuell
Transgender Advisory Board – Justine Gonzalez
Women’s Advisory Board – Kelly Alexander
A big thank you to all who expressed interest in serving the City. Starting in May or June, Councilmembers will begin consideration of At-Large appointments, so if you are still interested, please visit WeHo.org to fill out an application!