Statement re Recent CUB Applications
Land Use Committee (LUC) Information and LUC Policies and Procedures

Message from the Chair, Maryam Zar

Dear Palisadians:

I hope your summers were wonderful, and that as you prepare to delve back into Fall, with schools starting and vacations winding down, you will engage with us more than ever.

In the fall, our Organizational members will rotate, and aside from the few standing seats which do not rotate (Historical Society, Temescal Canyon Association, the Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce & Pacific Palisades Residents Association), our organizational members will take new their seats in October. Among them will be new representatives in the Culture & Aesthetics, Education, Civic, Recreation and Service Club categories. We hope to add some new organizational members that do important, community-wide work to benefit our unique and wonderful Palisades, and we plan to collaborate where we can with organizations that need our assistance or support in achieving their goals.

We have also formed, or will soon be forming, new committees to tackle some of the most important issues Palisadians are concerned with. Most recently we formed and convened our PPCC LUC, which has heard from Ezra Gale, Sr. Planner for Councilmember Mike Bonin at CD11, and will in the coming months review ordinances for Secondary Dwelling Units, Short Term Rentals, localized Marijuana regulations as applicable to the Palisades, and hopefully collaborate with our WRAC allies to fine-tune a request for more specific bulletins from the Department of City Planning to help keep us informed and abreast of looming hearings and deadlines. We will also be forming the Safety Improvements Committee to broadly monitor safety and quality of life issues and ensure local compliance or suggest action by the Board where appropriate.

Over the summer, we introduced Lisa Cahill, CD11’s new Field Deputy for Pacific Palisades and Brentwood. We’d like to acknowledge the quality of her work so far, and thank her for the support she’s offered our community and our board members on the issues that they’ve brought to her attention. Her proactive style has been greatly appreciated.

Finally, an issue that was often discussed over the summer, and culminated in the appearance by City Attorney Mike Feuer, in response to PPCC pressure, was the Palisadian Post building identity sign. The sign had been disapproved by the DRB, but the Department of City Planning neglected to issue a Determination Letter in a timely fashion, and the application was approved by operation of a statute called the Permit Streamlining Act, which was affirmed by the Superior Court of Los Angeles to be lawful.  The sign has since been legally installed.

Although chagrined at the failure of the Palisadian Post administrative leadership to acknowledge the community outcry as reflected at the PPCC, in objection to the operation of law to approve the sign which was disfavored by the Palisadian institutions that reviewed it, we acknowledge that it is a legally installed sign that is surprisingly tasteful and unobtrusive. Our focus now will be to continue to press the City to effectuate safeguards ensuring that this kind of oversight does not occur again. We will be meeting with leaders at the Department of City Planning, and have enlisted our allies at WRAC to help us fight for better safeguards to protect Home Rule and sustain the input of communities in local land use issues.

Thank you all for staying engaged with us and I look forward to seeing you at our public Board meetings on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month – with exceptions in July, Aug, Nov & Dec.

Best, Maryam
PPCC Chair