The Fox Hills Neighborhood  Association invites you to attend a FREE

Disaster Resiliency Workshop

SATURDAY, JULY 29, 2017

2:30pm to 3:30pm

Fire Station #3, 6030 Bristol Pkwy, Culver City

(Metered parking available on Uplander & Hannum or it’s a nice walk!)

PLEASE RSVP TO: aboutfoxhills@yahoo.com

“Speed Training”

Table 1            Hands-only CPR – Culver City Fire Department

Table 2            Disaster Prep – Christine Parra, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Culver City Fire Dept.

Table 3            First Aid – Stephanie Benjamin from CERT, Emergency Management/Preparedness Specialist

Table 4            CERT, gas/utility shut-offs

Table 5            Fox Hills Neighborhood Watch

Take a tour of our newest fire station

Lots of great information and insight on how to keep your family safe WHEN the “big one” strikes.

Letter from Gabe Garcia, Culver Traffic Engineer regarding reason for postponement:

Hello, everyone.

At a Weekly Development Meeting with the City Manager, several department heads, and staff, I presented the concepts of the bike lanes on Buckingham Parkway and on Green Valley Circle, as well as the reduction to one traffic lane in each direction on a segment of Green Valley Circle, where there are currently two lanes, plus the creation of new parking where there currently isn’t any parking.  I informed the group that I have been working with the Fox Hills Neighborhood Association board, and that we had planned a community meeting for Thursday, July 20^th, at 7 pm, to present the project, inform residents and businesses in the Fox Hills neighborhood, answer questions, and receive input.

During our discussion, the Community Development Department informed the group that their Reimagine Fox Hills project will have a milestone about a month from now, when 25 business property owners will elect to contribute or not, $10,000 towards the development of plans for the Reimagine Fox Hills concept.  I was directed to postpone our community meeting to a future date, after this milestone.  There are two scenarios for postponement:

1.    If the 25 business property owners DO NOT contribute towards the development of the plans by the end of July, or so, then the Reimagine Fox Hills concept WILL NOT proceed.  In this case, our community meeting can be held subsequently; or

2.    If the 25 business property owners DO contribute towards the development of the plans by the end of July, or so, then the Reimagine Fox Hills concept WILL have plans developed.  In this case, it may be determined early on during the plan development for the Reimagine concept, that our plan for new bike lanes, lane reduction on Green Valley Circle, and new additional parking align well with the Reimagine concept, and we may proceed with our community meeting at that time; OR it may be determined that our plan will need to be evaluated in the context of plan development for the Reimagine concept, and we may need to wait until the conclusion of the plan development, about one year out.

To summarize, we need to postpone our community meeting either approximately one month or approximately one year out, depending on the above.  Please share this information with those who have heard about the community meeting from you.  When the community meeting has been rescheduled, I will continue to coordinate with the Fox Hill Neighborhood Association board, and will mail out written notices to the entire Fox Hills Neighborhood, including residents, property owners, and business owners.

Thank you, Fox Hills Neighborhood board, for your help; I look forward to continuing our work together.

Gabe

We had our best turn out ever this year to our 14th Annual Park Cleanup Event.  We want to thank Patrick Reynolds (Culver City Parks Manager), Gary, Thomas Small (Culver City Vice Mayor), Jim Clark (Culver City Council Member), the Helpful Honda Guys, and all of our neighbors who came.  Our volunteers planted Juniper plants, weeded and helped clean up trash in the park.  It was great meeting new neighbors and bringing the community together.  Check out our Photos section to see more pictures.

MAY 4 2017  4pm

BOARD MEMBERS PHONE CALL WITH GABE:  R. Bayley, L. Johnson, J. Sherman, D. Wallace

Plan for the traffic lanes/bicycle lanes on GVC and Buckingham Parkway 35% completed with plans to complete it by May 8^th and proceed to present to City Council for approval on or around June 12^th.

The plan is as follows:

• On GVC from Bristol to Buckingham Parkway traffic lanes will be reduced to one lane from two with an addition of bicycle lane and a buffer lane. There will be an 8′ parking lane/ 5′ bicycle lane, 4′ buffer lane, 10′ driving lane in each direction and middle lane.  Having a reduction to one driving lane is a traffic calming measure as people tend to decrease their speed on a narrower road.
• On Buckingham Parkway , bike lanes and buffer lanes will be added in each direction.
• There will be a resurfacing seal placed in these areas to strengthen the road and since it is tar, it will be darker resulting in more of a contrast with the roads’ white stripes.
• Addition of 4 speed feedback signals to be located on GVC to Buckingham and from Buckingham to Bristol.
• Three to six months after these changes are made; there will be a speed study, which hopefully will yield results showing a reduction of car speeds.  If there is a reduction then the speed limits will be lowered to 25 mph.

• High visibility white strips will be painted across several intersections to include Doverwood across Doverwood, GVC across Bristol (already a light there),  across Fox Hills Driveway leading into Westfield,  Buckingham across Hannum,  Centinela right hand turn lane and Canterbury across Canterbury near GVC.
• As a result of the decrease in traffic lanes there will be 60 new parking spaces created on GVC (from Buckingham Parkway to Bristol).

1. Garcia is planning to hold a community meeting to discuss all these plans! TBA

• “The Bad News”: Continued delays in putting in a signal Crosswalk from Doverwood across Bristol.  Neighbors have been consistently asking for a signal crosswalk at this intersection for a very long time.  Yet another traffic study was done at that area. The California criteria for getting a signal or stop sign is 300 cars passing through over each hour for an 8 hour time period which was not reached.  That criteria is a high bar to reach and when asked about it being so high, Gabe explained that there is another local criteria used by LA that has a lower criteria.  To implement that criteria takes more staff, which he does not have.  He suggested urging our City Council to budget for more staff. He stated that the 2017-2018 budget does not include a staff item …. the proposed budget is being presented by each city department on May 30^th at 4pm at City   I plan to be there to urge this additional item.  I am not sure when the budget is finally approved so I urge you all to communicate with City Council. 

ALSO:

CITY COUNCIL MEETING:  MAY 30^TH AT 7PM:

ATTEND OR SEND WRITTEN COMMENTS  (SUBMIT WRITTEN ONES BY 4PM)

OTHER: 

• Repaving of Hannum due to building construction:  Gabe will follow-up with Matt Gaspar of the Engineering Division as to who/when will do the repaving.

Mark your calendar it’s our “Annual Fox Hills Park Clean-up”

• When: Sat. June 10th  9:30am – Noon
• Where:  Fox Hills Park (meet at the park benches by the playground)
• What else: Come help plant or clean up the park.  Pizza lunch will be provided after.  If you would like to bring travel toiletries we will be donating them to the Culver City Homeless Commission

park cleanup flyer 2017

May is Bike Month!  Learn about the activities going on this month. – link

Congratulations to Summer McBride!!  She was recently appointed to Culver City School Board Member. 

McBride said she was looking forward to working collaboratively with the current board and superintendent to establish policies and procedures to guide district actions while representing the interests of the district’s diverse community, recently ranked the fourth most diverse in the United States.

 

To learn more read – link

The City Clerk’s Office is pleased to announce the application period for 2017 Culver City Commission, Committee, and Board appointments. Applications will be accepted by the City Clerk’s Office through Thursday, May 25, 2017 at 5:00 PM.  Late applications may not be accepted.

Eighteen (18) openings are available on the following bodies: Civil Service Commission (1); Committee on Homelessness (4); Cultural Affairs Commission (2); Fiesta La Ballona (1); Landlord Tenant Mediation Board (1 Tenant, 2 Landlord, and 1 Member-at-Large); Los Angeles Airport (LAX) Area Advisory Committee (1); Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission (2); Planning Commission (2); and West Los Angeles Vector Control Board (1).

The City Council plans to interview applicants at a special meeting on Tuesday, June 6, 2017. Appointments for these openings, are tentatively scheduled to be considered by the City Council on Monday, June 12, 2017. New appointees will be required to attend a Brown Act /AB1234 (Ethics) training on Thursday, June 29, 2017 between 6-9pm. Please save these dates if applying. The City Clerk’s Office encourages all interested persons to apply for all positions in which they have an interest.

For more information and to apply, please go to www.culvercity.org/serve.

The Fox Hills Plaza’s sale is presently pending escrow and it will be a while until escrow is completed and plans are submitted to the city by HSH Management.  After conversing with the HSH Management representative on March 28th, he explained that the plans he presented to the FHNA board were meant more as a conceptual plan and not something definite as of yet.   I am glad that I was able to clarify that with him.  He further went on to explain that he listened carefully to D. Wallace and myself at the previous meeting when we explained the impact that building multiple housing units would have on our neighborhood because of the multiple building projects in and around Fox Hills.  As many of you know, the planning process takes time and there will be opportunities for community input regarding any building plans, which is part of the process with development in Culver City.   

Please feel free to give us your input and we will be in touch with HSH in the next several weeks for updates.

Thank you.

Judi Sherman, President

Fox Hills Neighborhood Association

• NEW OWNERS FOX HILLS PLAZA:  PLAN FOR A FEW HUNDRED HOUSING UNITS!

Since the Community Forum meetings held by Culver City’s Community Development Department the FHNA has been in contact with them for any new updates.  According to the Culver City Community Development Department, as of March 16, 2017, no plans have been submitted by the new property owners of the Fox Hills Plaza.    The HSH Management Company, the new owners, did reach out to the FHNA and wanted to set up a “focus group” meeting to be comprised of around 10 people from our community to obtain input as to what they would like for the property.   D. Wallace and J. Sherman met with the new property owner from HSH and their architect on March 15thto plan this meeting.  They proceeded to show us what they are proposing and are as follows:

• Community Room
• Some retail
• A few hundred housing units
• Approximately one parking space per unit to discourage car use  (He was informed by FHNA that the people would then just park on the streets with their extra cars and that we have been working for a long time with the Traffic Engineer to increase parking for our present residents)
• Possible zip cars and possible shuttles

(The new owner also stated that CVS and Marshall’s “were not doing well”, which surprised us.  On a follow-up by D. Wallace with CVS, she was told that in fact CVS is very busy.)  

Although these plans have not been submitted as of March 16th we felt that it was important to bring them to the attention of our neighbors and to get your ideas, impressions and any input you have as we move forward.

Wallace and J. Sherman outlined the impact of developments surrounding our area to include:

• Altitude Apartments ( off Howard Hughes Pkway)- 545 units
• Milcreek ( off Howard Hughes Pkway)  – 375 units
• Sheraton Planned Extended stay – 163 units
• Doubletree Hotel- 4 story office building plan

The new owners were also informed that Fox Hills has the most density of housing in Culver City with 26 complexes/over 2800 housing units.  

• CROSSWALKS/SIGNALS FOR DOVERWOOD/BRISTOL AND GVC/FOX HILLS DRIVE IS STALLED AGAIN

On March 9th, a conference call with Gabe Garcia, Culver City Traffic Engineer, and the FHNA board yielded little progress on getting crosswalks in the above areas mentioned due to the latest data obtained on the traffic flow in these areas.   According to Gabe the decision makers in his department are strictly “data driven” and look at only the data.   The fact of accidents and continued requests from residents are left out of the mix when it comes to decision making.  According to him if the data does not support such crosswalks, his hands are tied due to CA law.   They do plan to re-do the traffic count in September.  He did feel that with future redevelopment in the area, the traffic and pedestrians would increase.  End result, need more congestion for crosswalks to go in.

• BIKE LANES /DECREASE LANE BETWEEN BRISTOL AND BUCKINGHAM on GVC

There is a plan to remove traffic lanes in both directions between Bristol and Buckingham on GVC, which would yield more parking, add bike lanes and calm traffic.   Calming traffic is needed because Fox Hills is being used as a short cut to get to Centinela and Slauson.    Gabe mentioned that if the new developer felt that the lanes we have now would be needed, removal of the lanes would be reversed as well.  Possible Result:  voiding of FHNA work with Traffic Engineer to gain parking for the neighborhood.  

• RE-IMAGINE FOX HILLS  

According to Elaine Gerety-Warner of the Culver City Economic Development Department, talks are continuing with the property owners for this project, which is between GVC and Hannum on Bristol.   She promised to get back with us with any progress.

*** Might want to read the article from LA Times, March 2, 2017:  “LA Keeps Building Near Freeways Even Though Living Makes People Sick” – link

THAT’S ALL FOR NOW…. YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM US VERY SOON!!!!! And WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!

Compiled by J. Sherman with FHNA Board.