Voice your opinion on the Harvard Westlake Expansion Proposal Thursday Nov. 7th 6:30 PM

We urge you to attend this special Studio City Neighborhood Council (SCNC) meeting on Thursday November 7th 2013 @ 6:30 PM and speak out regarding this proposal! The location is CBS Studio Center (MPR-9), 4024 Radford Ave., Studio City, CA 91604 

We don't buy this private school's arguments as to what irreversible impact their outrageous proposal to build a completely unnecessary and massive 750-car concrete private parking garage, with a lighted sports field on top and private bridge across Coldwater will have on Coldwater Canyon's wildlife, residents and community.

For those of you who missed it, here's yesterdays CBS news report on the subject http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/10/29/some-studio-city-residents-outraged-over-harvard-westlake-...

also here is this weeks LA Times article on the same subject http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-harvardwestlake-parking-20131028,0,3873666.story#axzz2jF...

As the City released the Draft EIR this week, Save Coldwater Canyon! Inc is busy getting out the word about the many inadequacies of this report which can be reviewed here: 

http://cityplanning.lacity.org/eir/Harvard_WestLake/HarvWestlakeFrontpg.htm

HELP US show the City we know the difference between Fact and Fiction!

(Here are just a few examples -- there are too many to include them all...) 

DEIR FACT vs FICTION 

FICTION:

The DEIR says the project's land use is consistent with surrounding land uses, applicable plans and policies.  

FACT:

This project is a non-residential use, in an exclusively residential area.  This land on the West side of Coldwater is zoned for "very low", and "minimum" residential use.  Neither schools, parking lots, nor athletic fields are permitted.  Land owners have to follow the LAW - even wealthy private schools that buy up residential property in quiet hillside neighborhoods in an effort to expand their campus footprint.

Two-thirds of land on the project site has been designated "desirable open space."  It's hard to think of any use more inconsistent with the "open space" designation than a parking garage of this size.  The only way the project could be allowed is by being granted exceptions to numerous City laws and ordinances, including zoning restrictions, setback restrictions, retaining wall restrictions -- all for a project with no community benefit.

FICTION:

Any biological impact can be mitigated.

FACT:

Hundreds of bird, bat and butterfly species call the project site home, including 7 species of "serious concern", "threatened" or "declining."  (E.g., Cooper's Hawk, Nuttall Woodpecker, Rufous Hummingbird, Oak Titmouse)  Construction could lead to permanent displacement of bird and animal species, yet the DEIR concludes as long as they're not nesting when the School builds... the birds can just go somewhere else.  The destruction of this recognized and protected oak and walnut woodland cannot be mitigated by planting 7-ft high, one-inch diameter replacement trees.

The Biological Report concedes that this habitat site is crucial in providing "land vertebrate species diversity".  The land is currently part of a wildlife corridor adjacent to Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy land.  The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (an independent, government agency) says the project would create a "multi-acre disturbance zone" and "human-intolerant mammal and bird species would permanently decline".

FICTION:  

The project would solve "school-related parking (buses and cars) along Coldwater Canyon Ave and in surrounding residential neighborhood".

FACT:

The School has argued to the City for over 10 years that it has ample parking for their current enrollment.  Neighborhood streets have parking restrictions, the school's own website tells students that they are not to park on nearby streets. The DEIR Traffic Report shows an average of only 48 cars in the entire neighborhood North of campus, none of which they have actually proven are even Harvard-Westlake cars.

FICTION:

None of the proposed alternatives would work.

FACT:

The DEIR dismisses offsite parking, yet any number of feasible satellite lots are not explored.  The DEIR dismisses subsurface parking on this site or any other of the existing campus parking lots, yet the nearby shopping center has underground parking, and the Geological Report states that "ground water was not encountered at depths of 71 feet below grade".  The DEIR dismisses a smaller garage and increasing parking on their existing lots because they wouldn't get to have a field.  The DEIR dismisses having only a field because they wouldn't get to have more parking.

The DEIR dismisses any alternative that doesn't meet BOTH the goal of a practice field and a parking structure, yet the school has not proven any need for 750 parking spots nor a need for another football field -- they simply "want" it.  

Please attend this important SCNC Meeting on Thursday November 7th,

Thank you,

www.SaveColdwaterCanyon.com