Our March 2016 meeting was lively, but not exactly as planned.
We had a large group of stakeholders who showed up with a letter we didn’t create, inviting them to come and complain about a situation that has developed on the streets around a construction site on Rosco Blvd. (20600, the “Ashton” Project). Apparently since the demolition of the site, and the lack of use (it used to be a church), there has been an influx of people living in cars, using the street (Lanark) as a parking area for drugs and sex, and general decline of the area affecting the residents, and they want something done.
Unfortunately, the letter wasn’t sent to the WNC. Therefore the topic was not agendized, and we could not take action or vote on it. Fortunately, Jenny Portillo of Councilmembmer Blumenfield’s office was on hand. She took note and will advise LAPD and the Councilmember and hopefully trigger more immediate action. We may be able to consider it at the next PLUM meeting.
We invited a representative from SoCal Gas, who attended, and we had representatives from “Food & Water Watch”, and a group supporting the moratorium on using the Aliso Canyon Storage Facility (Senate Bill – SB380), as well as asking WNC to support a letter to Governor Brown requesting a full, permanent shut-down of the facility.
There was a lively, but polite discussion with a lot of information from both sides and interest from the stakeholders. The discussion took so long that we had to postpone some other business to a “Special Meeting” to be held on March 22. No decision was made because the members of the Board felt that a great deal of information needs to be produced (there are several investigations in progress, and reports to be generated), before any group as non-technical as ours could weigh in with an opinion on anything as critical as this issue. Both sides have valid, important concerns about the issue, as does virtually all of LA.
Stakeholders with concerns about an issue they would like to see addressed at a meeting, should email the board a week prior to the meeting to ask that the item be agendized so that the board may take action.