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Summertime means concerts, food and community events! Our team has visited many Southeast Valley neighborhoods to speak with community members, explain the Community Plans Update work program, and promote our Concepts Workshops. We hope this will inform people and get more folks involved in our process. In addition to visiting Neighborhood Councils in the area to announce our workshops, we have attended 6 public events in the Southeast Valley this month. Did you happen to catch us at an event near you? Events we’ve attended include:
Thank you to the Valley Cultural Foundation, Councilmember Paul Krekorian, LA City Department of Rec & Parks, The GRYD Foundation, the Valley Village NC, the Studio City NC and the Sherman Oaks Hospital Farmers Market for hosting us. To find out where we’ll be next, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. To invite us to an event you’re hosting, email planning.southeastvalley@lacity.org
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Kicking off the “Share” phase of the Southeast Valley Community Plans Update, our team visited several Neighborhood Council land use committees during June and July. These meetings were opportunities for us to share neighborhood-specific feedback we’ve gathered, provide an update on our work program and gather further input that will inform the initial concepts for the new plans. At each committee meeting, planning staff presented a packet of information that highlighted the outreach we conducted so far and a summary of feedback specific to individual communities in the Southeast Valley. Check out the link below to review the materials from these meetings! Thanks to the Neighborhood Councils for making time to talk about community priorities. We look forward to continued discussions about the future of the Southeast Valley! The Southeast Valley Community Plan Update team has been working hard to update the community plans in the Southeast Valley for the first time in 20 years! We are finally ready to present our proposed ideas and guiding principles for the three plan areas based on what we’ve heard from local stakeholders over the last ten months and our own technical analysis. Join us at our concept workshops this summer to see what we have come up with and share your thoughts on our initial thinking. The workshops will be open house style events, so feel free to stop by for an hour or two to see what is happening in your communities of interest and how you can help shape the future of those neighborhoods. Staff from all three plan areas will be at all four workshops, so if you are unable to make one event, the same materials will be available at another . We look forward to seeing you soon! Check out the flyer below for dates and locations.  June 22 was a busy day for the Southeast Valley team! During outreach activities at Studio City’s Totally Awesome Summer Kickoff Event and Valley Pride in Van Nuys, we talked to stakeholders about the Community Plan update and our upcoming concepts workshops. The Totally Awesome Summer Kickoff at Moorpark Park was a family-friendly event hosted by the Studio City Neighborhood Council with games, inflatable jumpers, piñatas, and catering from In-N-Out. Later in the day we celebrated family love and acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community and talked to many stakeholders who want to get involved in the Community Plan Update! Hosted by Council District 6, the event was held at the Van Nuys Civic Center, drawing attendees from all over LA and beyond with live music, food trucks, interactive art and resources. The topics we heard about most frequently from stakeholders at both events included:
We really appreciate being able to interact with people from throughout the Southeast Valley and are especially grateful to the Studio City Neighborhood Council and Council District 6 for the opportunity to do so! The Southeast Valley Community Plans team has reached a major milestone by completing our initial “Listen” phase of outreach activities. From Fall 2018 to Spring 2019, the project team has spoken with hundres of people. We visited 9 Neighborhood Councils, hosted 4 public open house meetings, met with neighborhood and business groups, spoke with immigrant community leaders, met with over 100 youth and attended numerous public events. We love getting to know the diverse communities of the Southeast San Fernando Valley. Our team thanks all the residents, business owners and community leaders who have shared their ideas with us. If you want to see photos, presentations and summaries of past events check out the posts on the Updates page of our website. We’re now moving on to the “Share” phase of our outreach process. In June and July, we’ll be visiting the Neighborhood Councils in the Southeast Valley to present what we’ve heard over the last eight months. We hope you’ll join us! These meetings are a temperature check for us as we develop initial ideas for the plan update. What are the key land use issues in each Southeast Valley community and how can they be addressed locally? Come discuss this with us and your Neighborhood Council.  If you can’t make it to the NC meeting in your area, you can always submit comments on our website or email us directly at planning.southeastvalley@lacity.org. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for notices about upcoming events. PS: Save the dates for our Concept Workshops, coming this summer! We’ll report back on what we’ve heard, explain some of the technical work we’ve been doing, and share initial land use concepts. Each workshop will have information about all three Community Plan Areas, so you can attend any that you like. Saturday 7/27 - 9 am - 2 pm Harmony Toluca Lake Church 4301 Cahuenga Blvd, Toluca Lake, CA 91602 Saturday 8/17 - 9 am - 2 pm Marvin Braude Civic Center Community Room 6262 Van Nuys Blvd. 1st Floor, Van Nuys, CA, 91401 Saturday 8/24 - 9 am - 2 pm East Valley High School 5525 Vineland Ave, North Hollywood, CA 91601 Thursday 8/29 - 3 pm - 7 pm Marvin Braude Civic Center Community Room 6262 Van Nuys Blvd. 1st Floor, Van Nuys, CA, 91401 Throughout the Listen phase of the Southeast Valley Community Plans Update, our team has engaged with the public at events throughout the Community Plan Area. We have partnered with neighborhood organizations as well as Council Districts 2, 4, and 6 to attend local events, with a focus on informing local stakeholders about our work program and gathering community feedback. We appreciate every opportunity to engage with stakeholders and plan to continue to have a presence at future community events. Over the past eight months, our team engaged with the community at these public events: 9/28/2018 – Van Nuys Art Fest, hosted by CD 6 10/21/2018 – Sherman Oaks Street Fair, hosted by the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce 01/17/2019 – Renter’s Rights Workshop, hosted by Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian 03/09/2019 – Van Nuys Arbor Day Celebration, hosted by CD 6 04/07/2019 – Taste of Toluca Lake, hosted by the Greater Toluca Lake NC 04/27/2019 – Earth Day LA at Woodley Park, hosted by LA Bureau of Sanitation 05/18/2019 – Whitsett Sports Complex Community Fair, hosted by CD 2 If you know of any upcoming community events that we should attend, please contact us at planning.southeastvalley@lacity.org! The Southeast Valley Community Plans Update team paid special attention to dialoguing with youth in the three Plan Areas. This constituency is not typically involved or represented in planning efforts, but will hopefully thrive in these neighborhoods for decades to come. During our Listen phase, we have talked with over 100 young people from Grant High School, Van Nuys High School, East Valley YMCA, and Harvard-Westlake School. The youth participants described the challenges they currently face and dynamic visions for the future of their communities. Many of the issues we heard about were related to housing. Youth expressed concern about being priced out due to high rents, increasing homelessness in the city, and the lack of new affordable housing and apartments. They also discussed solutions and strategies that we can include in our Community Plan Updates to make their neighborhoods more livable, including:
Among the stakeholder groups our team has reached out to over the past few months is the business community, including the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA), Southeast Area Realtors Group, and the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce. These meetings have been a chance for us to familiarize business owners with the Community Plans Update process and gather feedback we can use as we develop the initial ideas for the plan update. To encourage businesses to stay in the Southeast Valley, they suggested a range of actions, including flexibility with parking requirements and increasing the diversity of housing types, both for rent and for purchase. Thank you to the groups that took time to host us and share their ideas. If you are part of a business group that would like to talk to us, email us at planning.southeastvalley@lacity.org. Aside from the Neighborhood Councils, the Southeast Valley Community Plans Update team has reached out to other neighborhood groups, including Van Nuys Neighborhood Watch Captains, Van Nuys Civic Center West Neighborhood Group, the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association and the Toluca Lake Homeowners Association. Participants shared ideas about different issues in the community such as housing, mobility, access to open space, and commercial spaces. In Van Nuys, community stakeholders told us that they value the history and character of Van Nuys, from cruising along Van Nuys Boulevard, to the unique home designs that exist throughout the community. There is an overall feeling that this area could accommodate more green space, employment centers, and new businesses like cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, and movie theaters. Residents in Toluca Lake and Sherman Oaks also shared their support for existing local businesses and the need to grow jobs in the area. Additionally, people voiced that they would like to see more solutions for addressing homelessness, pedestrian-friendly spaces close to accessible public transit, street repair and maintenance, and thoughtful design, height, and density requirements for future development. Thank you to the groups that took time to host us and share their ideas. If you are part of a neighborhood group that would like to talk to us, email us at planning.southeastvalley@lacity.org. On January 31, the Southeast Valley team conducted focus groups with more than 20 Latino community leaders from the San Fernando Valley, part of a targeted effort to reach out to groups that were underrepresented at our Open House events. Like the Open House listening sessions, these focus groups were an opportunity for community members to talk about key issues of concern to them such as housing density and design, the perception of safety when walking or using public transit, traffic and parking, and the need for more green and open spaces. The focus groups were organized in conjunction with COFEM (Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas), a nonprofit whose mission is to promote civic engagement in immigrant communities. Our deepest appreciation to COFEM’s leadership for helping make these focus groups happen. If you know of a Southeast Valley stakeholder group that would like to participate in our targeted outreach efforts, please email us at planning.southeastvalley@lacity.org.
Small group discussions during COFEM outreach event |
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Southeast Valley Community Plan Update
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Actualización de los Planes Comunitarios del Sureste del Valle
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