Take Action Now –
USE THE FORM BELOW TO STAND UP NOW FOR OUR KIDS. WE HAVE TO STOP THE OVER-CONCENTRATION OF OVERSIZED, OVERPRICED AND DANGEROUS HOUSING PROJECTS IN VENICE
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The email below — including the subject line — will be sent to the distribution list at the bottom on your behalf, and you will receive a copy!
Let’s Fight Back, Venice!
Subject Line: Put Venice’s School-Age Children First and Vote Against the Lincoln Apartments
Email Body:
Dear LUPC Members:
I write to urge you to vote against the Venice Community Housing Corporation’s Lincoln Apartment Projects as proposed.
I oppose this project for three reasons.
First, it is grossly unfair to Venice’s most vulnerable and most important residents: school-age children.
As you can see from these short videos – link and link – the Lincoln Apartments Project is immediately adjacent to St. Mark’s School, and in close proximity to Couer d’Alene Elementary School and Young Minds Pre-School, which collectively account for 800 students below the age of 14.
Lincoln Apartments has been positioned as housing for youth between the ages of 18 and 24, but City records show not only that half of the units are for adults, but that Venice Community Housing is seeking Prop 2 funds for half the units.
As a matter of state law, all Prop 2 units must be used for persons with “serious mental illness,” including, for example, persons with symptoms of “psychosis, suicidality or violence.”
Further, the Project will be a service center for the homeless community at large, and there is no sober living requirement, no exclusion based on criminal history and no requirement as to counseling for treatment.
Mike Bonin and Venice Community Housing would have you believe that the homeless (75% of who are working-age males) are Venice’s most important and deserving population.
Nonsense. Venice’s children must come first and it is high time that our elected leaders start standing up for them.
Second, I am tired of Venice Community Housing Corporation ignoring rules that apply to the rest of us.
As set forth in the videos referenced above, the Lincoln Apartments project is twice the applicable height limit and twice the applicable density limit in the Venice Specific Plan.
Further, despite the size and density of the Project, there is absolutely no parking for residents, and Venice Community Housing is seeking waiver of: (i) environmental review; (ii) step-back provisions applicable to oversized buildings; (iii) commercial loading zone requirements; and (iv) its obligations to improve surrounding streets to support increased use.
We have rules for a reason. Please enforce them.
Finally, I am deeply concerned about the overconcentration of oversized, overpriced and dangerous projects like these in Venice.
This topic, too, is addressed in the videos I have asked you to view, so I will not rehash the details here.
It is high time, however, that our leaders take stock of what is happening in Venice and take action to protect our ailing, beleaguered and overwhelmed community.
Thank you for voting against the Lincoln Apartments project as proposed.
[NAME]
[ZIP]
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