Dear Westchester Playa neighbors,

As of September 30, 2023, we have reopened the Concerned Residents of Westchester Playa Legal & Advocacy Fund to reach our goal of $15,000. Your donation will cover costs associated with lobbying, advocacy, and community outreach work prior to the Community Plan Update going to environmental review (EIR). Once the plan goes to EIR, your donation will also be used to cover legal work and litigation. Please see below for details.

Our Plan for Lobbying & Advocacy through 2023

The Westchester Playa Community Plan Update is expected to go to EIR in January - March 2024. This is our plan for lobbying and advocacy through December 2023.

We have consulted with an attorney who is experienced in land use and zoning issues (paid from our earlier fundraising efforts in August 2023) and a Los Angeles County-based lobbyist with expertise in government policies and practices (pro bono). Our strategy at this time is to stay true to our grassroots foundation by continuing to run our own lobbying and advocacy efforts, relying on each of you to raise your voice and join our chorus, while also paying key professionals with highly specialized skill sets to help us with special projects when the need arises.

As such, we have identified a need for professional support in October 2023: Based on advice from the lawyer and the lobbyist mentioned above, we need to hire an experienced land use expert to analyze, update, and confirm the viability of the alternative map of acceptable sites for upzoning (The One Voice Plan) that we have presented to Councilwoman Traci Park. Because Traci Park has said that City Planning does take direction from her office, we want to ensure that we put an accurate and sensible plan in front of her that she can confidently endorse and pass along to City Planning. We expect the land use expert fee to be approximately $10,000 total.

We also anticipate that this issue may lead to litigation. This fund will be used to contribute towards legal work and future lawsuits.

In addition, we have many costs associated with community advocacy and outreach efforts. For example, printing flyers to inform residents about upcoming meetings, rallies, and crucial dates is costly, but extremely effective at reaching our community’s seniors. Please note that approximately 10% of your generous contributions to this fund will cover these and other community advocacy and outreach costs. This allocation will help us ensure that our community stays informed and engaged.

No more than 5% of donations will be used for administrative expenses, like tax preparation if needed.

Please consider donating by cash, check, Venmo @concernedforkentwood, or GoFundMe. (Cash and checks avoid processing fees and can be dropped off in Kentwood or Osage. Checks can be made out to Jolie Delja or Sarah Howard.) A Certified Public Account (CPA) is doing the fiduciary monitoring of this fund (pro bono).

Thank you for helping us send a strong message to Traci Park and the City that aggressive upzoning and density districts in Westchester Playa are a non-starter.

Jolie Delja, Kentwood resident - [email redacted]

Sarah Howard, Osage resident - [email redacted]

Please email for physical address to drop off cash or check donations.

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BACKGROUND ON THIS ISSUE

The City is proposing high-density housing plans for Westchester, including upzoning thousands of single-family and du/tri/four-plex homes. In some areas, buildings of 5 to 15 stories with 6 to 100+ units would be permitted on one residential lot next to single-story homes.

The City's proposal to establish "density districts" within Westchester is poised to undermine specific neighborhoods. This approach involves introducing low-income housing and multiple layers of incentives for excessive construction in targeted, established, socioeconomically diverse single-family and du/tri/fourplex areas. While the intention is to integrate low-income housing into "high opportunity areas," there's a risk that this strategy could backfire, particularly if neighborhoods are rezoned into density districts to contain affordable housing projects in segregated zones. This would lead to these areas losing their status as higher opportunity locations. The City's actions appear to contradict the stated mission of the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), which emphasizes enhancing housing affordability and equality. The pursuit of low-income density districts, in this context, is laden with concerns of discrimination and error.