We all know the importance of location when deciding where to live in a city the size of Los Angelesãit is paramount when choosing a home. Convenience, desirability, safety and affordability are all part of the picture. Cheviot Hills is one of the most desirable communities on the Westside because of its proximity to major employment centers, good schools and universities, hospitals, shopping centers and freeways. But its location is also the source of its greatest vulnerability.

Nestled between Century City, Beverly Hills and the 10 and 405 Freeways, Cheviot Hills has become the cut-through for an ever-increasing number of commuters to and from Century City and other Westside locations. Unfortunately, despite community meetings, traffic studies, and Neighborhood Traffic Management Plans (NTMP), the reality is that over the last 30 years the Los Angeles Department of Transportationπs (LADOT) response to major new developments in Century City and the Westside has been to run more traffic on Santa Monica, Olympic, Pico and Overland Boulevards (the ≥arterials≤) and, unfortunately, through the residential community of Cheviot Hills until all major routes are at or near gridlock. When major arteries become clogged in the human body, the result is a stroke or fatal heart attack. Cheviot Hills, in the heart of the Westside, is virtually on life support.

During this period, a variety of measures were promised with the intent of mitigating the adverse effects of this traffic volume in our community. In order to better understand this decades long developing problem, this brief history is offered.

Century City South Specific Plan

Many years ago, after the initial development of Century City, the Century City South Specific Plan (CCSSP) was enacted by the City of Los Angeles to set forth the zoning and land use law governing new development in Century City. Limitations were imposed on, among other things, building heights and size, density, and car trips in and out of the area. The City assured Westside residents that this plan was to be used as a guide for future projects in Century City and was an attempt to balance development and quality of life issues for the residential areas adjacent to Century City including Cheviot Hills.

Fox Studio Expansion

In 1993, Fox Studios announced an intention to expand its facilities adding more than 770,000 square feet of new space (Phase 1) as well as a large number of new employees to occupy its new offices. This expansion conflicted with the CCSSP.

The Cheviot Hills Homeowners Association (CHHA) made every effort to protect our community from the projected traffic increases generated by the Fox project. Rather than adhere to the strict, protective guidelines of the CCSSP, the Los Angeles Planning Commission simply amended the CCSSP, ignoring some of the protections for Cheviot Hills and other adjacent communities, and approved the Fox Expansion without community support.

In approving this project and eliminating many of the traffic and other protections for residential communities contained in the CCSSP, the City, guided by then Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, promised that it would protect residents of communities adjacent to Century City from the additional traffic resulting from the Fox Studio Expansion with its own set of guidelines.

A major component was a requirement that Fox deposit $500,000 into a mitigation fund to be used by LADOT to install mitigations to divert traffic away from residential communities and direct commuters to the arterial streetsãSanta Monica, Olympic, Pico, Robertson, Overland, and Westwood Boulevards. A second requirement was implementation of a Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan (NTMP) to keep traffic out of Cheviot Hills. LADOT used this opportunity to create a comprehensive NTMP that they claimed would be ≥a model for the city≤ãan example of how smart planning coupled with traffic mitigation could benefit residential communities in the future. Unfortunately, the mitigation fund was inadequate and implementation of the NTMP was never fully implemented.

After extensive input from community members, including a Traffic Task Force comprised of residents, LADOT and the council office, the first NTMP was finally adopted in 1998[1] with a number of mitigation measures designed to keep commuters on the major arterials and off our residential streets. With careful attention to residential impacts, these mitigations were designed to be implemented in phases. There were three important principles of the first NTMP:

∑ That it not shift traffic from one neighborhood street to another

∑ That it would be a ≥work in progress≤ to be adjusted as needed to achieve its objective of keeping traffic out of Cheviot Hills

∑ Mitigations were to be implemented in phases

Unfortunately, LADOT failed to fully honor these principles.

Mitigations were to be implemented in Phases

Phase I-Keep commuter traffic out of the community

∑ Peak Hour turn restrictions

∑ Guide signage on arterials

∑ Freeway signage to Century City

Phase II-Internal mitigations

∑ Stop Signs

∑ Speed Humps

∑ Narrowed roadways

∑ Additional Traffic calming measures

Despite these goals and a holistic implementation plan, mitigations were installed in a piecemeal fashion, often shifting traffic from one street to another rather than keeping it out of Cheviot Hills. For example, a string of speed humps and stop signs on Beverwil in Beverlywood diverted traffic to the west, particularly to Motor Avenue, the only other North/South street in the vicinity. The immediate effect of these speed humps and stop signs was a diversion of traffic by almost 20% from Beverlywood to Cheviot Hills.[2]

During this phase, LADOT focused its attention on streets carrying fewer cars rather than on the most heavily impacted streets. LADOT refused to install mitigations on the most severely impacted streets saving them for the last phase of the plan. By using this tactic, LADOT could appear to be implementing the NTMP while keeping traffic flowing through Cheviot Hills via Motor and Manning Avenues. As a result of this random implementation plan, Cheviot Hills was hit with a double whammy--increased traffic volumes created by the Fox Studio Expansion and other Westside development projects, and increased traffic volumes diverted from other communities into Cheviot Hills. Manning and Motor Avenues were hit with a triple whammyãthe two increases affecting all of Cheviot plus increased traffic volume diverted from streets within Cheviot (e.g. Queensbury turn restrictions, Patricia turn restrictions; streets with speed humps throughout the community diverting traffic to those without them). The addition of speed humps also diverted all emergency vehicle traffic to streets unencumbered by these traffic calming devices. All fire trucks and ambulances needing to go North/South now use Motor Avenue as they can no longer negotiate Beverwil in Beverlywood.

In addition to sporadic and incomplete implementation of the NTMP, LADOT spent a great deal of the $500,000 Fox mitigation fund for staff overtime allegedly spent in community meetings during the design phase of the NTMPãrather than for installation of actual mitigations. Before long the fund was depleted, LADOT claimed poverty, and many of the promised mitigations were left unaddressed, most significantly the Overland Avenue bridge widening project at the 10 freeway and widening the EB 10 freeway off-ramp at National Blvd. These mitigations, critical to the success of the comprehensive NTMP, have never been implemented.

The Fox Studio Expansion project was completed and the expected traffic, thousands of additional cars, was added to Cheviotπs already busy streets as well as to Pico, Overland, Olympic, and Santa Monica Boulevards.

It quickly became apparent following Foxπs Expansion that LADOT looked upon Cheviot Hills generally, and Motor and Manning Avenues in particular, as a default solution to the increased traffic resulting from new development on the Westside. The arterials could no longer accommodate the additional commuters who were now spilling into surrounding residential communities. But the City Planning Commission and LADOT continued to approve extensive new developments in Century City in spite of traffic gridlock. Though the City has continued to expand its tax base with a modern and sophisticated Century City, it has been unable to create the infrastructure this 21^st Century business center requires.

In reaction to Councilman Zev Yaroslavskyπs support of every major new development on the Westside with no effective solution for the resulting traffic, many residents of Cheviot Hills became frustrated with his lack of attention to Cheviotπs serious traffic problems. Lawn signs dotted the community landscape calling for his help. This community angst resulted in the splitting of Cheviot Hills into two separate council districts.ãthe 5^th and 6^th--by Yaroslavsky before he moved on to the Board of Supervisors. His anger with Cheviot Hills for expressing its concerns resulted in a bare knuckled political act designed to weaken Cheviotπs political voice.

In summary, the Cityπs response to the Fox Studio Expansion, not only eliminated the protections of the CCSSP, but it also failed to implement the protections spelled out in the NTMP, adopted in connection with the Fox Studio Expansion. Instead, it merely shifted increased traffic volume from one community to another.

Constellation Place Development Project (MGM Tower)

With the Fox Studio expansion nearing completion, increased traffic, and an incomplete implementation of the NTMP, a new and very large project in Century City was looming on the horizon. The Constellation Place 38 story office tower, now known as the MGM building, was approved with more promises for effective traffic protections from the developer, LADOT, the LA Planning Department and our then newly elected City Councilman Mike Feuer.

Constellation Place was approved by all City departments and the City Council with the promise of a new traffic system called ATCSãAutomatic Traffic Control System. ATCS[3] was advertised as the answer to the Cityπs traffic gridlock. A virtually untested system, it was designed to keep the traffic moving by adjusting traffic light timing on the arterials adjacent to Century City as traffic volume demanded. Los Angeles was going to be the first large city in southern California to install such a system. Concerned communities, including Cheviot Hills, were assured by LADOT that ATCS would be able to handle additional traffic on streets such as Pico and Olympic and redirect it away from residential communities. Cheviot Hills Homeowners Association (CHHA) and its eastern neighbor, California Country Club Homes Association (CCCHA) were both skeptical of these promises, and opposed the Cityπs approval of this new project.

In approving this new building, the City made additional promises to deal with the increased traffic resulting from this development. In addition to the highly touted ATCS, a new Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan was funded by the developer with a $1 million fund. Approval mandated that the NTMP was to finish the uncompleted traffic mitigation measures promised in the original Fox NTMP[4] south of Pico Boulevard. Any unspent funds could then be used for other neighborhoods in close proximity to Century City. The success of ATCS was to be measured by LADOT within 60 days of its installation. Unfortunately, as of today, this data has never been disclosed to the public despite the completion and occupancy of Constellation Place. Current gridlock on Pico, Olympic, Santa Monica Boulevards and other arterials is due, in large part, to the increased number of commuters going to work in the newly expanded offices in Century City and the ineffectiveness of ATCS. In addition, the current Santa Monica Boulevard widening project, which will continue for another 1 1/2- 2 years, is also causing excessive gridlock on Pico and Olympic Boulevards.

As was our experience in connection with the Fox Studio Expansion, Constellation Place established what has now become a predictable pattern by the City of Los Angeles:

∑ An owner or developer applies for permission to build a new project on the Westside with promises of new jobs or the threat of moving existing jobs elsewhere.

∑ Existing planning protections contained in regional or neighborhood protection plans, such as the CCSSP, are eliminated through the granting of variances or exemptions. Approvals are also granted for ≥overriding considerations≤ a term which means the City wants it to happen!

∑ To mollify angry residents of adjacent residential communities who will bear the burden of additional traffic volumes, protection plans to be installed after the projects are built are promised, but are rarely, if ever, completely installed.

∑ The City maintains control of the actual implementation of promised plans and measures by pitting one community and one street against another and then does what it wants in the resulting chaos.

Despite completion of the Fox Studio Expansion and Constellation Place projects, significant promised traffic mitigations are still awaiting installation. These include:

The bridge widening project on Overland Ave. over the 10 freeway; and
The widening of the National Blvd. (eastbound) off-ramp at the 10 Freeway.

2000 Avenue of the Stars-- ABC Entertainment Renovation

Before the Constellation Place project was completed, Trammell Crow, owner of the ABC Entertainment Center, began the city approval process to ≥renovate≤ its propertyãThe Shubert Theatre and ABC Entertainment Center. This new project represented one of the largest expansion projects in the already traffic choked Century City area.

CHHA has learned to be proactive rather than reactive to vague promises made by the City as a result of experience with Fox and Constellation Place. Consistent with the Cityπs well-established development pattern, CHHA determined that the City would likely approve this project in substantially the form and size requested by the developer. The association asked the council office to ensure that a thorough Environmental Impact Report (EIR) be conducted even though the Planning Department had already declared that an EIR was unnecessary. The public was notified that the two new 15 story office towers replacing the ABC Entertainment Center would have no impact on any of the surrounding communities. After reviewing the developerπs plans, the City announced this new development was ≥replacing apples with apples≤ã movie theatres and the Shubert Theatre were identical (from a planning perspective) to two 15 story office towers.

Knowledgeable residents and CHHA were astonished at this declaration given that the former entertainment center operated primarily at night with insignificant traffic generated during peak rush hours. CHHA also learned that the City supported the Planning Commissionπs negative declaration by adopting the developerπs claim that the McDonaldπs restaurant across from the Shubert Theatre, as well as other fast food restaurants close by, generated more than 5,000 car trips per day. In plain terms, the developer and the Planning Department wanted us to believe that thousands of people drove to Century City and paid $16 per hr. to park in order to enjoy a $2 lunch! Focusing on this absurd claim, CHHA demanded a proper EIR be completed to determine the real impacts of this new project. Through an extensive Scoping Meeting presentation made by CHHA, our EIR request was granted and our new City Councilman, Jack Weiss, demanded that Trammell Crow do a complete and thorough EIR. During this project approval process, CHHA negotiated with the developer and the City with the goal of ensuring completion of mitigations promised in connection with all previous projects.

Approval for this project was conditioned on installation of very specific traffic measures and funding of $2.2 million that was to be earmarked only for installation of these measures. In addition, the money would be held in a separate account unavailable to LADOT for staff time. Most of these measures agreed to by the City and Trammell Crow re-adopted measures that had been promised and incorporated in earlier NTMPs developed in connection with Fox and Constellation Place, but never installed. Public community meetings were held during the approval process where renderings and other details of the planned mitigations were reviewed by and comments received from residents. The resulting measures affecting Cheviot Hills were contained in a written agreement between CHHA and Trammell Crow, which in turn was incorporated into the Conditions of Approval adopted by the City Council.

As reviewed during community meetings, the new NTMP is to be built in two phases.

Phase I

∑ Stop signs

∑ Crosswalks

∑ Lane reductions

∑ Traffic Calming measures including bump outs

∑ Light timing adjustments

The first phase has been nearly completed though CHHA is still awaiting early Fox related mitigations still not implemented. This first phase of the 2000 Avenue of the Stars NTMP was intended to implement many of the improvements designed to ≥stem the flow of arterial traffic≤ into Cheviot Hills.[5] It also included a vast number of new stop signs, crosswalks, and other traffic calming and safety measures throughout the interior of our community as well as on the more highly impacted streets such as Manning and Motor Avenuesãmeasures that were promised as far back as the Fox project and remade in connection with every subsequent major development in Century City. With the NTMP from Trammell Crow, these long promised, but never completed measures were finally installed, and traffic was encouraged to use the arterials designed to carry commuters.

Unfortunately the ATCS system, highly touted by LADOT and installed in connection with Constellation Place, currently is not working as efficiently as LADOT represented that it would. As all adjacent community representatives predicted, the Cityπs dependence on this system was much too premature. As a result of this mistake, two large projects bringing thousands of additional cars into our area have been built (with one to follow) without the infrastructure to handle the load. That said, the currently installed mitigations, including those on Motor Avenue, are working as LADOT predictedãthey are discouraging commuter traffic from entering Cheviot Hills and, as a result, are lightening the load on all other residential streets in Cheviot as well. Though residents may experience a slightly longer commute into and out of Cheviot from Pico, the positive and long overdue improvements have brought a large decrease in speeds and volumes to the entire community. A few residential collector streets that transferred traffic with early mitigation installations may experience slight increases as some of that previously shifted traffic returns, but most counts seem to indicate far fewer commuters and significantly reduced speeds on our neighborhood streets. Due to the continuing construction on Santa Monica Boulevard, it is impossible to determine the effectiveness on all streets at this time given the currently overburdened Pico and Olympic Boulevards.

Phase II

∑ Landscaped medians

∑ Small traffic medians

∑ ≥Welcome to Cheviot Hills≤ Monuments at the North and South end of Motor Avenue

Phase II is to be built entirely by the developer, Trammell Crow, during the construction phase of 2000 Avenue of the Stars. CHHA is still awaiting drawings and renderings of these hardscape additions to Cheviot Hills.

LADOT and the Planning Department

The LADOT has had a long history with residential and commuter traffic in Cheviot Hills. In the early 1970s, residents of Motor Avenue asked that a stop sign be installed at Dunleer Drive after the death of a speeding motorist at Motor and Cheviot Drive. LADOT strenuously opposed any impediments to traffic on Motor and refused the communityπs many requests. Councilman Ed Edelman, then seeking re-election, listened to the pleas of the CHHA Board of Directors and directed LADOT to install the stop signs citing safety as the primary purpose. Shortly after the installation of these safety measures, it was reported that an LADOT official removed the signs during the dark of night. Soon thereafter, Councilman Edelman again directed the signs to be replaced, which they were, and they remain there today.

During the 1980s residents along Motor Avenue complained they were unable to safely enter and exit their driveways. A long and extensive struggle to add a turning lane to Motor began. Not only was it extraordinarily dangerous for residents to turn into private driveways due to excessive speeding, drivers had difficulty accessing side streets for the same reason. CHHA worked for many years attempting to install this turning lane, which was finally approved and added during the 1980s.

Over the years, LADOT has opposed every safety and traffic calming measure proposed for the streets carrying traffic in Cheviot Hills. During the NTMP discussions, LADOT, an advisory agency only, has impeded every attempt at traffic calming and volume reducing measures. Only with the strong help of our council office(s) has our community received any relief from commuter traffic.

During the long and contentious Traffic Task Force meetings with LADOT, it became apparent to many residential participants, that this advisory agency viewed Motor Avenue as the solution to traffic burdens on the Westside despite the fact that Motor is legally designated as a residential collector street, the same legal designation as Manning, Patricia, Northvale, Butterfield, sections of Cheviot Drive, Dannyhill, McConnell, Lorenzo Place, Monte Mar, and Club Drive[6]. Each street of this designation is intended to carry similar traffic flow. Only with the support of the Councilman Weissπ office, the Mayorπs office and extensive lobbying by Trammell Crow on our associationπs behalf, did Motor Avenue finally receive attention to the serious safety and traffic concerns long anticipated by CHHA and only after the same concerns had been addressed by the installation of mitigations on most other streets in our community. Only this year was pedestrian safety finally addressed with the addition of new crosswalks located at bus stops along Motor Avenue.

In addition, LADOT has spearheaded a number of community meetings whose sole purpose was to pit one community against another in an attempt to dilute any significant traffic improvements in all affected communities. This ≥divide and conquer≤ approach seems to exemplify LADOTπs style over the last decade and has been very divisive throughout the 5^th District.

Its Not Over Yet

With little fanfare or notice to Cheviot Hills, the Westfield Shopping Plaza in Century City is currently receiving an extensive facelift along with an additional 70,000 square feet of new space. This project will have significant impacts on traffic in and around Century City.

Even closer to our community, Fox Studios has now begun demolition for Phase II of its expansion with a significant amount of new space to be added to its property. This expansion was approved during the original Fox approval process and the City is responsible for ensuring that the company adhere to the strict guidelines of their agreement with the City. It is important for our community to be vigilant to ensure these guidelines are followed.

JMB Condo Project

In the December 20, 2004 edition of the Los Angeles Business Journal, it was reported that JMB, developers of the Constellation Place Project, have applied for a permit to build a massive condominium project in Century City. Consisting of two 47-story buildings and one 12-story loft, this project will bring at least 1,000 new residents to Century City on Constellation Blvd. directly across the street from 2000 Avenue of the Stars. After promises to residential communities adjacent to Century City that 2000 Avenue of the Stars was the last permissible development project, it cannot be overstated that the land use rules are not worth the paper upon which they are written. This proposed project will be touted as bringing the workers in Century City closer to their offices, but at $800 a square foot, there are few employees in Century City who could afford these extravagant condominiums. This project will be promoted with the promise that condominiums bring fewer car trips, and therefore, less traffic to the area than an office complex. What the developer is not going to reveal is that under the current guidelines, it is highly unlikely that another office tower will be permitted in Century City. JMB has filed a request to build 483 condominiums as well as an exemption from the Century City master planãa guideline for the mix of retail, office and residential uses.[7]

Lessons Learned

Many lessons can be learned from the history of Westside development over the past 25 years. Some are obvious. Just as the human body cannot remain healthy on a diet of Big Macs and fries, a city cannot gorge on high-density development in a concentrated area without clogging its streets and endangering the adjacent ecosystem. Moving the resulting increased traffic from one community to another and from one street to another is no real solution. It aggravates the problem by pitting community against community[8] and street against street. Regrettably this ≥street fighting≤ brings out the worst in human nature, as residents feeling out of control and under attack lash out, sometimes viciously, at their neighbors and their elected representatives.

Other lessons learned are more subtle and profound. The history of Westside development is more than the history of traffic. It is about how elected officials and professional staff reconcile, or donπt, the conflicting interests between needed economic development and job creation and the adverse consequences of such development and job creation. Unfortunately, our experience with the City has taught us that development and job creation have been accommodated, without an equivalent accommodation to the resulting adverse effects of such development. Carefully thought out plans that balance these conflicting interests, such as the CCSSP and Neighborhood Traffic Management Plans, are in reality no protection at all. All major recent developments in Century City have been built and will be built with variances to and exemptions from these plans. No creative, balanced, or integrated solutions to the threatening effects of this development to adjacent communities have been developed in 25 years by either the private or public sector. Building up rather than out does not solve traffic problems. In fact, without other solutions, it may aggravate existing conditions.

What can be easily missed in the noise and emotion in reaction to specific developments is that there is no vision or plan for the Westside that allows wise development without creating traffic gridlock or destroying the quality and character of adjacent neighborhoods. Instead, the City has reacted to what has been put in front of them by developers. Los Angeles has a long record of ad hoc decisions and stop-gap solutions that neither encourage economic development nor address root causes to enduring and growing problems. A fresh review of future development, residential and transportation needs for the entire Westside by businesses, residents, and the City with the goal of developing an integrated plan with vision for the 21st Century should be an attractive project for any City leader with the courage and fortitude to implement it.

The fundamental aspect of any legitimate governmentãtrustã has been eroded by the way the City has dealt with communities adjacent to Westside development. When the City routinely grants variances and exemptions to regional plans, the community can take no comfort that the protections set forth in the plans will ever be realized. When the City develops specific neighborhood plans, but never completes them, trust is eroded that any plan will ever by implemented. When LADOT manipulates traffic counts by measuring on legal holidays or peak hours depending on the result it wants to achieve, instigates conflict between communities to create the freedom to act as it wants in the ensuing chaos, and depletes funds intended for installed traffic mitigations on overtime salaries, trust is eroded. When City officials and staff dismiss the concerns of adjacent communities as purely self-interested, trust is eroded.

There is no question that community opposition to

Westside development is inspired in part by a healthy dose of self-interest. But because of the Cityπs sorry record, and the resulting erosion of trust, adversely

affected communities are left with no choice but to fight all development, even those in the best interest of the community, and to fight for their streets. If developers and the City want adjacent communities to support new development, they have to deliver on what they promise. Unfortunately promises alone, however well intentioned or formally adopted, cannot be trusted. Without performance, the trust that is essential for good government and peace will never be restored.

CHHA Board of Directors

The CHHA Board of Directors is making every effort to protect the entire communityπs quality of life despite the challenges of doing so. The decisions made by the Board reflect the needs of the community. The Board has been an advocate for all segments of the neighborhood. All traffic issues have been brought before the Board during our publicly held board meetings. The Board of Directors believes that every resident deserves to enjoy all that our community offersãsafety, environmental protection, and as much peace and quiet as we can possibly preserve.

[1] Cheviot Hills Area Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan

[2] Fox Studios Speed Hump Overview Summary 9/15/1998

[3] Statement of Intent regarding neighborhood protection plan funded by Constellation Place and capacity increase from Constellation Place Mitigation Program 6/16/98

[4] Letter from Allyn D. Rifkin, Principal Transportation Engineer, LADOT to CCCHA 11/11/1998

[5] Development Agreement, Fox Studio Expansion Project

[7] Major Condo Plan filed for Century City, Los Angeles Business Journal, December 20, 2004

[8] See for example, Tract No. 7260 Association, Inc. and Richard Harmetz v. City of Los Angeles et al (Los Angeles Superior Court no. BS084778 July 30, 2003) wherein the Tract 7260 Homeowners Association supports its complaint against the City with specific reference to the long-promised mitigations finally installed in Cheviot Hills.

Website Designed and Hosted by Ocean Drive Media