The Venice Coalition to Preserve Our Unique Community Character, a Venice neighborhood group, filed a complaint against the City of L.A. on February 25 over zoning issues.
According to a March 9 Argonaut story, “The complaint seeks an injunction to keep the city from approving any more exemptions to coastal-area zoning restrictions and to prevent administrative ‘signoffs’ for pending projects.
Attorney Sabrina Venskus is representing the coalition in the lawsuit that alleges that “Venice is at a tipping point. The City of Los Angeles, the Department of City Planning and real estate speculators and developers threaten to irreparably alter what makes Venice unique and threaten Venice’s status as a special community.
“Developers are destroying Venice’s quaint, historic neighborhoods and their affordable housing at breakneck speed,” it continues. “They capitalize on presumed loopholes in local laws to obtain approval for illegal development without the input of community members.”
In the story, Venskus said “The pattern and practice [of the city Planning Department], from my research, is illegal. This [lawsuit] is one of the only ways left to stem the tide of illegal activity. The transformation of neighborhoods is happening so quickly.”
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