Photo: Diane Edwardson. Future site for 15 homes?
(Click on photo to enlarge.)
A developer wants subdivide and sell the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract 3-acre site as a 16-lot subdivision. If approved, almost all of the trees will be cut down and the entire hillside site graded. The "open space lot," lot 16, would be graded and compacted into a 2:1, non-functional slope, even though the developer only plans for homes on the lower portion of the site.
The neighbors learned of the developer's grading plan AFTER the close of public comment in December 2007. The grading plan was approved by the Grading Division of Los Angeles Dept. of Building & Safety in March 2007, but the approval letter was missing from the City Planning case file until a neighbor provided it to the City Planning staff (per staff request) in February 2008.
The public was denied due process since the most important environmental factors, the grading and tree loss, were not made public nor evaluated properly under CEQA.
While anything built on the site should be safe and to current grading standards, the neighbors think the loss of so many mature and native trees combined with a complete reshaping of the hillside is too high a price to pay, especially since the developer has no intention of actually building the site himself.
The neighbors will make their appeal to the City Council Planning & Land Use Management Committee next week:
PLUM
Tues Feb 3, 2009
2pm
City Hall, Room 350
City Council File: CF-09-0082
APCE 2006-8787-ZC
VTT 62900-SL-2A
CD13
