Land Use and Planning (LUPC) met Tuesday morning at Beyond Baroque in lieu of their first Tuesday, which in this case, was Election Day. LUPC meets first and fourth Tuesdays of the month.

Robin Rudisill, chair of LUPC, explained the new system of assigning two people to each subarea as explained in 30 October Update. Tuesday she said one person in each subarea would rotate each month, giving members an opportunity to learn the Venice area.

Mike Newhouse, president of Venice Neighborhood Council, attended the meeting and announced that Sue Kaplan, chair of the Mass, Scale and Character committee, was working or objective criteria.

Group is looking for a place to hold meetings and at present is thinking of Extra Storage Space at 658 Venice Blvd.

450 Sherman Canal, a single-family home, and 26 30th Avenue, demo and single family home were both approved.

258 Lincoln

258 Lincoln Blvd, a Chevron gas station with a convenience store, was approved with conditions. The gas station is the northwest corner of Lincoln and Rose where there is one now.

David Ewing had this to say regarding the gas station.

This morning LUPC heard the case for an 1800′ convenience store to be added to the Chevron station on the corner of Rose and Lincoln, in place of the empty Tom’s Burgers.

The owner requested an exemption from a Cirecycling area either in the building or outdoors, as well as two exceptions to Lincoln Blvd. Community Design Overlay (CDO). One was the prohibition on pole signs. There is an existing, grandfathered sign, but a new one would lose that status. The other exception was to the requirement that the store entrance face Lincoln Blvd.

Robert Aronson staffed the project for LUPC. His motion proposed holding firm on the pole sign prohibition but allowing the store entrance to be set back to better address business from the pumps.

Public comments were made by me and Laura Silagi to uphold the terms of the CDO, a long-term, incremental program to make Lincoln more pedestrian friendly. We also raised concerns that the unusual height of the building for a single story structure, at 24 feet, would provide a very
tempting venue for CDO-prohibited signage.

The owner said he has already agreed to a covenant prohibiting window signage. He also agreed to a suggestion by LUPC member Kathleen Rawson to turn the unglazed surface of the north wall into a “green wall,” with vegetation on a trellis. This and the window signage covenant were added to the motion as a friendly amendment by the applicant.

The committee found a compromise on recycling issue, recommending the project be allowed to eliminate the space as long as recycling containers accompanied trash containers at the pump islands.

The only signs recommended under the motion are two small signs on the canopy over the gas pumps and a Santa Monica-style “monument” sign with the Chevron logo and gas prices. There was some question about whether the monument style would be allowed by the Department of Transportation due to sight line considerations, so a clause was added recommending DOT review. The entrance remained where it was. There were compliments on the architecture from several on the panel. The owner, whose family has had the property since before the 1920s, seemed pleased with the outcome.

204 Hampton, which is St. Joseph’s, proposed a sound barrier wall dividing the neighbors from a nursery school on St. Joseph property. It was determined that St. Joseph’s group should get with the neighbors to work out the particulars of the wall.