A grassroots group advocating for Sawtelle Japantown is ?? ??urging the public to learn about the new West L.A. Community Plan on Tuesday, Dec. 19, at 6:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Fire Department Station 59 Training Facility, 2117 Butler Ave. at Mississippi Avenue, one block north of Olympic Boulevard.

Limited parking is available. Enter through the north gate and park against the walls on either side. Street parking is available, but read the signs and do not park in PPD49 without a permit or disabliity placard.

RSVP to [email protected].

The group released the following statement on Dec. 11.

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Every eight years the city must submit an update to the state of its Housing Element, a plan that shows how enough land will be rezoned for new housing. The city updates its community plans every 20-30 years for local areas within L.A.

Ours is the West Los Angeles Community Plan, which includes the neighborhoods of Sawtelle, Sawtelle Japantown, West Los Angeles, Cheviot Hills, Beverlywood, Rancho Park, and Century City.

Currently, both housing and community plans coincide and will implement the state’s rezoning requirements that prioritize additional housing units eliminating single-family home zoning in the Sawtelle area.

The city failed in November 2021 to submit a compliant Housing Element Update, which threatened the city’s state and federal funding. By April 2022, the city submitted a compliant proposal by which the state certified the city’s housing allocation.

The current draft proposal for the WLA Community Plan Update increases housing by an estimated 7,000 units in the residential cultural core of WLA-Sawtelle Japantown.

? The state mandates prioritizing the densification of affluent areas, free from environmental hazards, and with abundant opportunities for upward mobility (jobs and schools). The city can no longer prioritize density for affordable housing in low-income areas. Cities are assigned a fair share of affordable housing. The state created a Housing Enforcement Unit that monitors compliance.

? The City’s Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program allows by-right incentives that increase housing units and heights by 30%-70% for properties within ? mile of any Metro Rail station. The TOC incentives apply to land zoned for 5+ units per lot and impact nearly every R1/R2 neighborhood in Sawtelle. The future Metro Rail Sepulveda Line will only increase the impact.

Properties capped at 4 units per lot are NOT subject to TOC incentives. Unfortunately, the WLA Sawtelle Neighborhood Council failed to take advantage of an opportunity to cap its density at 4 units per lot, which now leaves these neighborhoods vulnerable.

? Approximately 78% of the estimated units for multi-family zoning are in the cultural core of Sawtelle’s Japantown, a community that has long suffered injustices before, during and after World War II — and continues to this day. The city is aware of those injustices, including the restrictive land covenants that forced the Japanese community to settle in the WLA-Sawtelle Japantown area, and should not have targeted these neighborhoods for over-densification.

Single-family houses would be surrounded by 4-6 story apartment/condo buildings “BY-RIGHT” without ANY further city approval.

The WLA Sawtelle Neighborhood Council’s DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) and PLUM (Planning, Land Use & Management) Committees developed an alternate plan that:

? Prioritizes preserving the current density in the discriminated Sawtelle Japantown areas to protect those neighborhoods from the TOC incentives that result in excessive densities (the other half of the WLA community, east of the 405 Freeway, already self-protected virtually all of their neighborhoods by capping the densities at 4L);

? Redirects the state-mandated housing density to underutilized industrial areas that are better able to absorb the density. The city introduced Hybrid Industrial Zoning, which allows for residential use in traditionally industrial areas. Hybrid Industrial also provides for open space as a non-residential community benefit.

By leveraging this zoning in Sawtelle, our community is able to meet state mandates while increasing green and open space in our area. Future projects need not proceed as per the TOC, which incentivizes a reduction of open space, in exchange for added density.

? Protects the cultural resources of WLA-Sawtelle Japantown, the ONLY officially recognized ethnic enclave on the Westside, while helping to provide essential services for our diverse communities. Our WLA-Sawtelle communities have been here for generations and we hope will continue for generations to come.

City planners did not consult with WLA-Sawtelle Japantown prior to releasing the city-proposed WLA Community Plan to the community in August 2023 — and which has a deadline of December 2023 for feedback.

The SAVE WLA-Sawtelle Japantown ALTERNATIVE Community Plan petition has the support of WLA Holiness Church, one of the pillar community institutions of Sawtelle Japantown, and Bill Watanabe, founder of Little Tokyo Service Center.

The state mandates have set the timeframe by which the city must comply with the rezoning. We have this time-sensitive opportunity to rectify the situation. Please join us in advocating for a better WLA-Sawtelle Community Plan.

For additional information, please email [email protected].

EDITOR’S NOTE: Our original report mistakenly stated that the meeting is being called by the West L.A.-Sawtelle Neighborhood Council. The meeting is being organized by a separate community group.

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