By Jon Nahhas
February 25 at 9 am there will be a very important public hearing downtown at the Regional Planning Commission. There are two items that relate to Marina del Rey:

Item 6: The County is continuing to tinker with what constitutes a “dwelling unit” – based on heavy lobbying from developers (many of which are in the Marina). They are trying to skirt protective laws that ensure fair housing practices and responsible development requirements like parking/traffic studies. For example, the Luxury Senior Living Facility that has been scheduled to be developed next to Oxford Basin (parking lot between the Basin & the Hilton Inn across from Killer Shrimp) has bypassed many laws because the County/developers have deemed the living units “non-dwellings” because they do not have full kitchens.

Item 7: The Venice Dual Force Main Project hits another CEQA speed bump at the RPC. This is a two-year project that will close Via Marina down to a single lane in each direction. The microtunneled 54″ pipe proposed to run underneath Via Marina would come dangerously close to 14 leaking gas/oil wells, cost the taxpayers considerably more money than the alternative route, have more environmental impacts, and would hinder access (including emergency first-responders) to 12,000 residents & thousands of recreational users of the harbor. The County & City have spent several years in litigation and millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money for an Appellate Court to rule on a technicality (an old, obsolete law) where thTis e City was allowed to proceed with the path through the Marina because it was considered “the City’s discretion.” The Superior Court held that the Marina was not the best route for the project. The Supreme Court would not take the case.

The hearing will be at:
Room 150 Hall of Records
320 W. Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Time: 9AM

Link to agenda is here: http://planning.lacounty.gov/assets/upl/agenda/rpc_20150225-agenda.pdf