Minutes
PALMS NElGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
Twentieth meeting of the Council and its
REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2006
IMAN Center, 4636 Motor Ave., Palms, California, U.S.A.

(Note: The figures in parentheses reflect the number of minutes after the voice recorder was turned on and serve to indicate the chronological order in which the items were considered.)

1. Call to order. Facilitator Lori Donahoo called the meeting to order at 7:20 p.m.

Stakeholder Milton Sidley objected to the holding of the meeting because of his perceived violation of the Brown Act concerning agenda item 5-D-1 on the grounds that the item did not list the specific address of the property in question.

The Secretary called the roll and a quorum was established:
Pauline Stout President Present
Todd Robinson Vice President Present
George Garrigues Secretary Present
June I. LaMoy Treasurer Absent
Billie Silvey Nonprofit representative Present
Willie Bell Palms West Residential A Present
Mate (Matt) Gaspar Overland Residential B Present
Mario Bruhwiler Motor Residential C Present
Vacant Studio Residential D —
Ingeborg Prochazka Exposition Residential E Present
John Riordan Pacific Electric Business 1 Present
Lori Donahoo Charnock Ranch Business 2 Present
Neal James Anderberg Palms Depot Business 3 Present

The Facilitator announced that speaker cards will be used during the meeting. (0.01:33)

3. Public forum: (0:13:00) John Brady of Mayor Villaraigosa's office,; Liz Carlin of Council Member Herb Wesson's office; Reza Akef of Congress Member Jane Harmon's office.

4. Report to community by the President (Pauline Stout). (0:21:00)
A. Certificates for outgoing Assembly members presented to Todd Robinson and held for Alejandro Soschin, Danny Monempour and Asad Yavari.
B. Representation for Studio Residential Area (D). No applicants. Still searching. (0:22:00)

5. Committee reports.
A. Projects (Stout). No report.
B. Transportation (Prochazka). (1) Public comment was made by Ken Alpern of the Friends of Expo organization. (0:29:00) Metro Aqua light-rail line motion adopted as follows:  “The Palms Neighborhood Council endorses the Metro Board’s Executive Management and Audit

Minutes, August 2, 2006, Page 2

Committee staff recommendation for naming the light rail line from downtown to Santa Monica the Metro Aqua Line.” (0:31:21)

(2) (0.25:47) Street furniture: Stout reported that the committee approved bus shelters as follows: Venice and Bagley (NE and SE corners), Venice and Clarington (both corners), Palms and Overland (SE corner), Palms and Motor (S side, there being a bench already on the north side), and kiosks as follows: in front of Palms Middle School. Venice and Clarington, Bagley south of Venice just north of the alley and Venice east of Overland.

C. Outreach (Bruhwiler): All items postponed to special meeting to be held August 9, 2006.

D. Land-use and Development (Todd Robinson):

(1) Palms-Motor commercial-residential variance and other approvals (C-R Management).. (0:31:50) Todd Robinson gave a report on the project as considered by the Land Use Committee (ended 0:47:20) and moved to adopt it.

Public hearing: Participants were Milton Sidley (not recognized by the Facilitator), adjacent property owner, objecting to the consideration of the item because of improper notice; Claire Heron, developer (0:48:00), Jim Norris (0:49:50), Joanie Mitchell (0:52:37), Chuck Ross (0:55:50), Lucie Bava (0:59:48), Terry Robinson (1:03:24), Nancy Samovar of the Westside Neighborhood Council traffic committee (1:05:16); Courtney Heron (1:07:10), Joshua Wilkinson (1:10:15), David Metzler (1:12:50), Rod Rodriguez (1:14:38), John Manulis of the Motor Ave. Improvement Assn. (1:15:30),
The motion, including the following stipulations, was carried by a vote of 8 (Anderberg, Bruhwiler, Garrigues, Gaspar, Prochazka, Robinson, Silvey, Stout) to 3 (Bell, Donahoo, Riordan).

------------------------

Palms Neighborhood Council
Land Use and Development Committee
Report – C-R Development, NE Corner of Palms and Motor

Main Benefits
The quality of the development will encourage improvement in the area.
This lot (and Motor in general) was zoned commercial by the city to satisfy commercial needs of the area.
The local neighborhood has a need for additional services.
Palms is currently at approximately 97% occupancy - additional rentals are beneficial.
Encourage foot traffic.

Concerns and Issues
Business Restrictions
No Bar, No Club (restriction built into RAS4)

Increase In Traffic
City trip report shows reduction in trips

Minutes, August 2, 2006, Page 3

Open Courtyard Safety
Developer will add gate to restrict access into the center courtyard on a TBD schedule.

Alley Condition
Developer agrees to sponsor alley repair, negotiations are ongoing to determine an equitable portion of the alley.  At a minimum, the developer will refinish the alley directly adjacent to their development.

Alley Ingress/Egress Safety
It was agreed in Committee that a primary issue was that the curb directly to the left when exiting the alley south onto Palms was a danger.  Committee felt that asking the city to red curb that existing spot was a good solution.  The spot would be replaced by the removal of curb cuts on Palms and Motor in front of the development.
Delivery Concerns
Developer has agreed to set commercial delivery schedules.  All deliveries will be in the alley.  Delivery times are TBD but will be non rush-hours Monday through Friday.

Parking Concerns
The development complies to city code.  Committee felt that the residential parking was sufficient due to several factors.  First, the size of the units are as follows:

(11) 520 sq ft singles
(11) 714 sq ft. singles w/loft
(10) 707 sq ft. one bedrooms
(8) 940 sq ft. 2 bedrooms

Due to the unit size compared to likely occupants, we feel the city code requirements are sufficient to park these units.

Second, curb cut removals should provide an additional 4 or 5 spaces on Motor and 3 spaces on Palms.

Currently, the building is to code for parking and has 5 additional parking spaces to allocate as needed.

Commercial Parking Concerns
Developer will dictate lessee employee parking in lease agreements as follows:

Lessee must acquire commercial parking sufficient for its employees.  Employees can not park within 1 city block of building on Motor or Palms unless the lessee has leased a parking spot within the building for the employee.  Restaurants are limited to using no more than 2 employee parking spaces within the building.

Developer or designated lessee is allowed to appeal this to the Neighborhood Council and, at the developers or lessee's option, must be placed on the Agenda no fewer than 1 time per year.

Large Restaurant Parking Concern
The following city code applies to this issue.

5 parking spaces for a restaurant under 1000 sq. ft.
Over 1000 then 1 per 100 sq. ft. based on the total square footage

Minutes, August 2, 2006, Page 4

(example, 11 for an 1100 sq ft restaurant)

Currently, the building is to code for parking and has 5 additional parking spaces to allocate as needed.

In the case the developer leases to a restaurant over 1000 sq ft the on site parking will not be sufficient.  City code requires the lessee to acquire sufficient off site parking to fulfill the code.  Developer has identified multiple off site parking locations including Palms Elementary, IMAN Center, and County space by Motor.

Parking Meters
Parking situation will be evaluated on a need basis and Neighborhood Council will assist with petitioning city if determined to be a need.

Safety of Park Access From Alley
Committee does not recommend developer address issue – Committee requests Transportation Committee evaluate issue.

Area Look And Feel
Developer will make their best effort to match curbside landscaping (may include trees, shrubs, exterior lighting, etc) of local area and in particular, the development under proposal across the street.

Motion
Committee recommends to the Palms Neighborhood Council to support this project with the restrictions listed above.

Committee voted 3-0 to recommend support.  One absence.

------------------------

(2) Invitation from Mar Vista and Del Rey Councils to join with them in reviewing and updating the current neighborhood plan which includes all three Neighborhood Districts (Stout). (1:33:45}. Public comment: Ken Alpern of the Mar Vista Community Council. No action.

6. Clean Money Initiative. A. Report on Town Hall meeting B. Motion to rescind item adopted on May 3, 2005. All postponed to special meeting to be held August 9, 2006.

7. Secretarial report. A. Approval of minutes of the meeting of July 5. B. Nonfunctioning decisions. Postponed to special meeting to be held August 9, 2006.

8. Treasurer: Report. Postponed to special meeting to be held August 9, 2006.

9.  Assembly business. Postponed to special meeting to be held August 9, 2006.

10. Adjournment at 9:02 p.m. (1:43:55)