Plastic bags will no longer be an option for shoppers in West Hollywood after a unanimous vote by the City Council on Tuesday night.
The council voted 5-0 during its four-and-a-half-hour meeting to ban single-use plastic bags at area businesses. The city will model their ordinance after one designed by Los Angeles County for use in the unincorporated portions of the county.
In an effort to encourage customers to bring their own reusable shopping bags, the council will allow Weho businesses to charge 10 cents for paper bags.
Councilman John Heilman noted that in Europe, shoppers are expected to bring their own bags, adding that shoppers there are accustomed to the extra fee for store-provided bags.
Hayworth Condominum
Council also denied the petition for a four-story, 17-unit condominium building proposed for 1350 Hayworth Ave. The project will demolish an existing two-story, 16-unit 1940s era apartment building. Council members said the ultra modern building did not fit in with the rest of the block.
Hayworth between Sunset and Fountain is chiefly comprised of one- and two-story apartment buildings built between 1910 and 1950. The block is also home to the historically designated Hollywood Riviera designed by renowned architect Edward Fickett.
“This is a flat-footed response to an opportunity presented by being next door to the Hollywood Riviera,” said Councilman John D’Amico of the proposed building.
Councilman John Heilman agreed, saying he did not think the building was well designed. “I don’t find this particularly creative,” he said. “Given the character of the street, maybe a modern design is not the most appropriate for this location.”
Mayor Pro Tempore Jeff Prang said he considered the building out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood. He felt three stories was the highest it should go. “This is not superior architecture,” Prang added.
The council voted 5-0 to continue the item to an undetermined future date, whenever the architect wants to return with a new design.
Go-Go Dancer Appreciation Day
The council voted 5-0 to designate Saturday, Oct. 29 as Go-Go Dancer Appreciation Day. A celebration will be held on Larrabee Street at Santa Monica Boulevard with nearby clubs and participating. Several Sunset Strips clubs have also agreed to be a part of the celebration.
D’Amico, who sponsored the item, noted that go-go dancing originated in West Hollywood in the early 1960s. The first female go-go dancers were at the on Sunset, while male go-go dancers soon followed at Ciro’s (now ).
D’Amico said he wanted to bring some fun to the city for a day, to give locals a chance to celebrate before the Halloween Carnival two days later. The Halloween Carnival traditionally draws 500,000 people.
General Plan
In continuing their discussion of the proposed General Plan, which will guide development in the city for the next 25 years, the council again discussed the maximum height of buildings. At an , residents made it clear they did not want to see buildings go any higher than four stories.
D’Amico requested that staff change the designation of 45-foot maximum height along Santa Monica Boulevard between Crescent Heights and Fairfax to 35-foot maximum height. With that change, virtually all of Santa Monica will have a 35-foot maximum height.
However, “bonuses” are still in place, which allow developers to go higher. Under state law SB1818, if a project includes affordable housing, it can go 10 feet higher. Under city ordinances, if the project is mixed use (retail and residential), it can also go 10 feet higher.
With these bonuses, even buildings designated as a maximum 35 feet height can reach 20 feet higher. The state-required affordable-housing bonus can not be eliminated, but the city-sponsored mixed-use bonus could be removed. However, the council does not seem inclined to remove that bonus since they want to encourage mixed use.
Heilman also addressed the repeated concerns from residents speaking during public comment about the development allowed by the General Plan, noting not all of the approved potential development under the General Plan will occur. He pointed out that even under the current General Plan, there has not been a drastic amount of development.
“When people say there’s been so many changes and so much development, they’re really overstating what has occurred over the history of the city,” Heilman said. “Not everything that is approved is actually built. I think that’s likely to be the case going forward.”
Faith Plating
The city did agree to allow extra height at the proposed mixed-used development intended for the site at 7141 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Formosa). A new buyer intends to close on the property within 30 days, but is faced with a $1.5 million price tag for cleaning up the toxic chemicals in the soil from the chrome plating for car bumpers that Faith Plating does.
The new buyer is requesting to go up to 70 feet at the rear of the property to make up that cost. Council members said the site must be cleaned up, and agreed to include the extra height for the Faith Plating site into the General Plan.
Plummer Park
With renovations to Plummer Park due to start by the end of this year, a half-dozen speakers during public comment spoke against these renovations. Several said they had only just recently heard about the plans and complained that they did not receive earlier notification.
Prang, D’Amico and Councilwoman Abbe Land all said more outreach to residents was needed and suggested the city schedule more meeting on the topic. Mayor John Duran noted they needed to make sure the residents who were originally involved with the park plans were advised of the new meetings.
City manager Paul Arevalo said there was still time for more meetings, “even though we are 95 percent into developer drawings," he said.
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dear council: what ever happened to that new street furniture you promised to replace the ugly cobalt blue street lights with the broken globes on top and nasty trash cans???....and how many more years must we see the tired holiday decorations that are only 1/2 lit because the solar component doesn't work???
But people in my opinion won't buy the expensive plastic bags that are more "green" So the point again in my opinion is you will just have a surge in sales of plastic garbage bags. But not the greener ones. I'm not completely against the ban, people go back and forth about the paper, but charging is not right. I try to put half in the recylce bin if double bagging. Be sure to wash the recylable ones as having food products can contaminate them. So more wash, or driving to Rock and Roll Ralphs....
Let me Clarify the Needs of those We Don't Know or See: The Westside has been a strong City Supporter based primarily on the Gay Nightlife. After the last Election John Heilman was yet again re-elected, but from what I've heard, not by majority for the first time and was very upset about it (despite keeping his seat on the board) - but a now forgotten old man the gay you have never heard of. PURELY TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF THOSE UNDER SERVED, IT WAS IMPERATIVE FOR HEILMAN TO PUT DOWN THE RUSSIA LANGUAGE LESSONS AND ADDRESSES 'HIS PEOPLE'. Thus, THE CELEBRATION OF GO-GO-DANCERS WAS NECESSARY TO HELP THE UNKNOWN NEED AND TERRIBLE LOSS OF SUPPORT OF POOR OLD LONELY JOHN HEILMAN HAS THAT HAD SECURED 'THE GAY VOTE' FOR HIM, BUT NO LONGER. Thus to address Poor Heilman's Need to get that voting block back, and given his age and lack of appeal to the younger gay community, THROWING A PUBIC NEAR NAKED STREET PARTY (and the offensive attempt to officially call the Westside "BOYS TOWN" were there to help recover the tiny unknown suffering minority ... Known as John Heilman and his NEED TO KEEP POWER and get back the gay vote.
----------------- The health consequence of contamination and cross-contamination have been highlighted today by Dr. Oz when an expert was on his show and explained the actual studies done about the contaminants that are already on and part of the moving belt we load groceries onto at checkout in supermarkets. We live daily with so many potential places to pick up every kind of bacterial or other potentially dangerous invisible yet dangerous to our general health contaminants, to ban the plastic bag and mandate everyone bring used bags back and forth will unquestionably lead to increased numbers of people catching 'cold' and other moderate and temporary illness. But the bigger serious risk is the very real possibility of an outbreak of a potentially fatal condition which would first hit and affect the elderly community and children, but once it starts to spread could become an epidemic. The listeria in cantaloup last year is just one example. Just the outside of the melon carried and spread the listeria that lead to several actual deaths. That outbreak would have been much worse had the listeria contaminated everyone reusable grocery bags and brought it back and forth exposing everyone else, even to people who never ate or touched cantaloup (for example).
People may wash their bags, that's irrelevant. The issue is the effects on the most vulnerable people in society. The elderly, poor, ill and many others you don't see in your life, who would have impacts from the serious potentials of not having a clean sanitary means of bringing food and health care purchases into their home. In a city with so many elderly and people living with compromised immune systems, your callous disrespect towards me, includes a lack of any awareness of the society we live and share with everyone.
Your fixation on me, and anything I comment on (check your own writings) is spiraling out of control, and having no affect of me. You may need to seek psychiatric assistance.