[Editor’s Note: Here was the speech neighborhood activist David Voncannon intended to give yesterday but was unable to because of circumstances outside of his control.]
Today’s groundbreaking for the Tilden Terrace affordable housing and retail project, marks beginning of construction but project planning has been under way for almost two years.
The first community meeting for Tilden Terrace, Sept. 16, 2010, was loud, and anything but supportive of a new three-story building being proposed by Los Angeles Housing Partnership and Culver City’s Redevelopment Agency. The residents of the area were upset with the prospect of additional traffic congestion and intrusions on parking from services at the nearby mosque.
Parking was especially congested during Friday noon services, which coincided with street sweeping in the area, closing half the street from 10 a.m. until 2.
Two residents, Desmond Burns and George Marsh, were selected to represent the neighborhood in talking with city representatives and the Housing Partnership. Shortly after the meeting, Mr. Marsh had to drop out to deal with family issues and asked me to replace him. To address the traffic issues, Mr. Burns and I participated in a series of meetings with city representatives.
The lead person from the city was Mr. Gabe Garcia of Traffic Engineering and Ms. Tevis Barnes from the Redevelopment Agency.
As residents, we had three issues to address, 1) parking, 2) traffic congestion, 3) building appearance
Working with Mr. Garcia, we developed a three-part approach to parking and traffic congestion:
1. Ask the City Council to approve a parking district for the area impacted by the proposed building. The parking district was approved in March 2011. A parking district gives residents the ability to implement permit parking without requiring additional approvals from the city.
2. Mr. Garcia worked with other city staffers to negotiate a change to the street sweeping schedule, moving the times from the 10 to 2 slot to 8 a.m. to 11. This change, implemented in April 2011, both shortened the sweeping window and moved it out of the most congested time period. This change resulted in an immediate and substantial parking relief for both residents and mosque attendees.
3. The final step was a complete redesign of the Tilden Avenue, WashingtonBoulevard, Washington Place intersection. The new design will greatly ease traffic flow through the intersection while enlarging turn lanes.
Construction on the revised intersection will be timed for completion along with the building. During the second community meeting, Mr. Burns and I were able to report much of the progress to the residents. Not everything was in place yet, but there was substantial progress and city representatives had been extremely cooperative.
During this meeting, Los Angeles Housing Partnership representatives wanted to begin discussing building colors and materials. But residents were not ready for that step just yet.
There were substantial concerns about the type of proposed housing, how large the retail space would be and building appearance. Housingh Partnership and Redevelopment Agency representatives took extensive notes and promised changes.
Tevis Barnes from the Redevelopment Agency led the way for the residents. From the beginning, Ms. Barnes had pledged to us that “if the residents are not happy, the city’s not happy.” Meaning that the developer had to be willing to listen and make changes to better fit the neighborhood.
By the third community meeting, Mr. Burns and I were able to report on all the changes to parking and traffic being made. But most significantly, the Housing Partnership had listened to the residents and the city. Substantial changes had been made to the building plan, including new setbacks from the street allowing for more walking area in front and helping to hide residences from street view.
More mature tree plantings had been incorporated to help shield the closest houses from view. There was also the incorporation of a Community Room for use by building residents and neighborhood members. During this meeting, community members not only praised the revised design but were happy to participate in a discussion about colors and materials to be used on the building.
How did we move from a community adamantly opposed to the building to actively supporting the development?
I believe there were several important points to the evolution:
1. As residents, we never took the approach that we wanted to completely stop the project. The location chosen for Tilden Terrace had been a sore spot for many years. It needed to be redeveloped.
2. City and Redevelopment Agency staff listened and responded to resident concerns. Both points are vitally important. Being heard is important, but actually making changes to address the concerns demonstrates genuine concern for the residents.
3.Los Angeles Housing Partnership also listened to city staff and residents. Substantial changes were made to the building design to address concerns.
4. Finally, the residents were reasonable in their requests. Demanding too much would have resulted in either the building not being built or built despite resident requests. Neither outcome would have been ideal, but that is what often happens in similar circumstances. I want to take a moment to recognize the individuals we worked with on putting the project pieces together:
Gabe Garcia, Culver City Traffic Engineer.
Charles Herbertson, Culver City Director of Operations.
Tevis Barnes, Culver City Redevelopment Agency.
Sol Blumenfeld, Director of the Community Development Dept.
Los Angeles Housing Partnership, staff and management
Desmond Burns, Tellefson Park area resident and my partner in project discussions.
My sincere thanks to all and the many others who contributed whom I have not mentioned.
Mr. Voncannon may be contacted at dvoncannon@pacbell.net
