CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY AT NORTHRIDGE Urban Studies and Planning: Field Work and Law and Planning
UNDOING COMMUNITY DESIGN: EDENDALE Legal and planning analyses of community issues in two Los Angeles Neighborhoods
“Places make memories cohere in complex ways. People's experiences of the urban landscape intertwine the sense of place and the politics of space." Dolores Hayden, Power of Place: Urban Landscapes and Public History
CSUN URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING
Courses URBS 460 (Law and Planning) and URBS 490 (Field Work) Fall 2009, Spring 2010 and Fall 2010. Instruc- tor in Law and Planning: Phyl van Ammers, MA, JD. Supervisor of Field Work students, Phyl van Ammers.
18111 Nordhoff St. Northridge, Ca 91330 • http://www.csun.edu Table of Contents
Preface 2
Executive Summary 3
History: Echo Park & Silver Lake Neighborhoods in Edendale 5
Sense of Place 11
Analysis of City of Los Angeles’ Anti-mural Ordinance 16
Legal Analysis 21
Stairs and Sustainable Development 26
Sustainable development Creates Walkable Neighborhoods: 28
Public Stair Closure Consistency Analysis 30
Legal analysis of the City’s withdrawal of public rights-of-way in Silver Lake and Echo Park 34
Whitley 36
Hathaway Hill 37
Contributors 38
Images 39
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
1 Preface
Analysis by California State University Northridge Urban Studies and Planning Department students of City actions to with- draw public stairs and to create a process so that the City Art Commission may decide on the artistic merit of large murals on private walls before issuing a permit.
Informational document prepared for the Echo Park Improvement Association and the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council
The Silver Lake Echo Park Elysian Heights Community Plan (“Community Plan”) emphasizes the words “links” and “linkages.”
“Silver Lake and Echo Park…. have a network of public staircases … originally built in lieu of streets, typically be- cause of steep terrain, to provide public access from hillside neighborhoods to main streets and the electric cars serv- ing them. This unique network of staircases found throughout the Plan Area also potentially supplement greenway systems and provide linkages to existing and future open space, recreational paths and parks. As a result they should be identified, maintained and, in cases where adjacent property owners closed them, reclaimed as public rights-of- way for public use. A network of stairs along the Pacific Electric Railroad Right-of-Way property leads to the property and could provide hillside residents with access to a future trail system that could lead to the river and Griffith Park.”
Beginning in about 1980, the City Council withdrew some of these stairs from public use and allowed only the adja- cent property owners or their tenants to use them. The City Council also withdrew public streets at the top of one of the Silver Lake hills, but it allowed then and allows now residents of the development to use those public streets. The Bureau of Engineering, which has no power delegated to it to withdraw or to vacate streets or stairways, authorized the withdrawal of at least one stairway – Fargo – by calling that withdrawal a “revocable permit.”
The Community Plan also recognizes the neighborhoods’ public murals as distinctive features that should be pre- served. The City Council, however, proposes Art Commission review of new murals as well as of some existing mu- rals, and this review means private property owners will need permits, they will have to pay for those permits, and the Art Commission will have the power to decide whether the larger works have artistic merit.
The following analyses in this report determines that the City Council of Los Angeles has undone and is continuing to undo aspects of the Community Plan, which is the design developed by the residents of Silver Lake and Echo Park.
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
2 Executive Summary
This work reflects the collaborative efforts of three California State University Northridge: Ur- ban Studies and Planning students, over a period of a year and a half from Fall 2009 to the end of Fall 2010.
The Fall 2009 URBS 490 (field work) class conducted a survey of the municipal stairs in the Sil- ver Lake neighborhood. Matt Correia helped with that survey, headed the project, conducted his own survey of the Echo Park municipal stairs, and created the flickr that contains the class’s methodology, bibliography, contemporary and vintage photographs, and essays on the Red Car, Smart Growth the stairways. The flickr is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/43922087@N06/
The Spring 2010 URBS 490 class members walked through the neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Echo Park (“Edendale”) photographing murals, outdoor art in private homes (e.g., Randy- land), sculpture and street art. Samantha Auld headed the project’s research and created the flickr and the flickr side show for this project. These are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/47940788@N06/
The Fall URBS 460 class (law and planning) analyzed the City’s decision to close the Parkman Stairway, which is one of a number of publicly owned stairways, alleys and walks closed to the public and effectively gifted to the owners of adjacent properties who wished to privatize public property to enhance the value of their private property. Councilman Tom LaBonge’s office pro- vided the 1990 City Council motion and related correspondence that resulted in the Parkman Stairway closure to the public for over 20 years. These stairs are still gated and locked, and only adjacent residents are allowed to use them.1
Chris Leiva went to the City Clerk’s office, and from there to the Department of Engineering, and learned that in 1993 the Department of Engineering at issued a revocable permit to Paul Apostle, the adjacent tenant, after neighbors on Fargo Street (Now a cul de sac because the stairway is locked) signed petitions asking that the stairway be closed. Paul Apostle also sub- mitted a police report from the City of Long Beach police department in support of his
1 A YouTube of a student’s interview with Councilman La Bonge about the stairway closures is on the Fall 2009 URBS 490 flickr. Councilman La Bonge said in that interview that the stairs “were closed for health and safety reasons.” (The student had asked who closed them. Councilman La Bonge did not answer that question.) Councilman La Bonge also said that some people don’t like other people walking near their houses, which may be the City’s actual motive in withdrawing the municipal stairs and alleys and walks from public use. Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
3 application.2 Chris investigated further and learned that the Department of Engineering con- tinues to issue revocable permits to close off City rights-of-way if no one opposed opposes the closure.”3 On 12/14/2010, Chris handed a California Public Records Act written request to the Department of Engineering staff, asking for a copy of the Parkman Stairway file, but the De- partment did not provide the documents. Phyl van Ammers mailed a second letter on 1/9/ 2011.
The stairway legal analysis includes scrutiny of both the City Council decisions to close the Parkman Stairway and the Effie Mohawk Stairway and also discusses the Department of Engi- neering decision to allow Paul Apostle to gate and lock the Fargo Stairway. Both Fargo and Parkman are within the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council boundaries. The Effie-Mohawk stairway is within the Echo Park Neighborhood Council boundaries.
Carlos Hernandez provided the discussion of sustainable planning and stair closure. Ben Gib- son drafted the analysis of whether or not the City’s stair closures were consistent with the Echo Park Silver Lake Elysian Heights Community Plan.
In a companion project, URBS 460 student Jesus Dionisio Hernandez-Rangel, analyzed the City’s anti-mural ordinance (currently stayed), which is aimed at reducing murals and other street art in largely minority communities like Echo Park and areas of the City in eastern Los Angeles, but which will also have an adverse effect on art in Silver Lake’s minority and LGBT communities in the Sunset Boulevard area of Silver Lake, and around Sunset Junction (the birthplace of gay rights activism).
Jesus Dionisio Hernandez-Rangel organized all of the three classes’ work and published it in this document.
2 The City of Long Beach is 26 miles from the Fargo Stairs, and in another jurisdiction.
3 Inasmuch as the Department of Engineering doesn’t hold any hearings, in spite of its having co-opted the City Council’s quasi-judicial decision making authority, it is unclear how there would have been any public opposition. Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
4 History: Echo Park & Silver Lake Neighborhoods in Edendale4
Phyl van Ammers, JD, MA, Attorney-at-law Los Angeles is a pal- impsest, and it is easy to see through the present layer to the earlier ones in the Sil- ver Lake and Echo Park neighborhoods, which were once part of Edendale.5
In 1850, the American government inherited 28 square miles of the pueblo’s municipal land, the north-west corner of which is marked by a plaque at
KCET studio at Sunset near Franklin. Land Tract Map of Los Felis(s) - 1795; 1.1 That boundary cuts through part of the Silver Lake neighborhood. The district of Echo Park lies within the original pueblo legacy. That part of Silver Lake north of the boundary was part of the “Los Felis Rancho”, which extended over the now-Griffith Park hills into the San Fernando Valley.
4 Compiled research from Fall 2009 URBS 490 class final project flickr – established and coordinated by student Mat- thew Correia -- about the Silver Lake and Echo Park municipal stairs (http://www.flickr.com/photos/43922087@N06/) and spring 2010 URBS 490 final project flickr about art in Silver Lake and Echo Park. http://www.flickr.com/people/47940788@N06/. The following is Samantha Auld’s sideshow of Edendale art. http://www.flickr.com/photos/47940788@N06/sets/72157623458376811/show.
5 Interview with Eric Gladstone, historian and curator of photo collection of historic Edendale photographs in the Edendale Grill on Rowena, 11/2005, Eric states that Edendale was not only a district of Silver Lake-Echo Park, but that insurance maps show Silver Lake and Echo Park up to the Vista Theater were known as the Edendale District. See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edendale,_Los_Angeles, Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
5 The Los Felis Rancho was a cattle ranch, and cattle grazed on the steep hills of both the pueblo land and the Rancho under the Spanish and then Mexican regimes.
The grass and brush had been transformed from how they had been in early pueblo days be- cause of animals grazing and non-native seeds that stowed away in boxes from other places that blew over the hills. Native plants regenerate to the Griffith Park hills after fires.
In 1868, the Los Ange- les Canal and Reservoir Company created Echo Park Lake as a reservoir in what was then called the “west end” of the city. Developers built Victorian houses around the Echo Park Lake and in Angelino Heights in the 1880s, after the Southern Pa- cific Railway reached Los Angeles. A cable car brought prospective purchasers from down- town along Temple. Echo Park - 2010; 1.2 Around the same period euca- lyptus arrived from Australia; becoming common in the area homes.
The City acquired land through its power of eminent domain in the 1880s. William Mulholland designed the Ivanhoe and Silver Lake reservoirs, having been built in 1907. He used hydraulic pumps to remove material from the lake's bottom, which was recycled to form the dam. He in- troduced Black Bass to control the Minnows, in order to prevent the clogging of pipes.
The City fountain at the intersection of Los Feliz and Riverside Blvd, was buit in 1940 in honor of Mulholland, long after Griffith W. Griffith donated Griffith Park to the City. At night, lights change the colorful aura of the water slowly along the spectrum of color in rainbows.
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
6 The Pacific Electric Railway left the subway station downtown and ran along Glendale Boule- vard past Echo Park Lake, and it continued along Sunset Boulevard on one branch and in 1904 was extended on to Allesandro and went through a tree shaded private right-of-way to the hill overlooking Riverside Drive, over a viaduct to the Monte Sano Station, and from there one set of tracks went across the Los Angeles River, and another curved around Griffith Park into the San Fernando Valley along Chandler.
The concrete feet supporting the Fletcher tracks can still be found on opposing hills. Walkers climb the hill, where anonymously placed temporary steps are, and where someone has planted a garden, up to the easement, which has small barriers that prohibit trespassing. The walkers igonore such impediments and they continue through a fence with an opening into the shady area where the electric car once passed. Municipal stairs lead down to Allesandro elementary school on one side of the easement and up a Silver Lake hill on the other side. Commuters, were connected to downtown offices, to Glendale and Burbank stu- dios and to the San Fernando Valley; they walked those stairs from Echo Park and Silver Lake to reach the elec-
Above: Red Car Concrete Feet -2009; 1.3 Right: Viaduct from Weavely -2009; 1.4
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
7 tric railway aswell.
In 1909, William Selig established the first permanent movie studio in Southern California on Glendale Boulevard, near where the 2 Freeway now debouches into Glendale Boulevard. Until a few years ago, a concrete obelisk obscured by bushes indicated that this is where film comedy began. This area is now a vacant lot. A few years following their departure, Bison Studio opened in what was then a house and a barn.
In 1912, Mack Sennett – the innovator of slap stick comedy on film – built the Keystone Studio on Glendale Boulevard not far from Sunset, in what was then still a largely rural area, which was reached by the Glendale-Burbank electric railway line, which conveniently ran in front of the studio.
The original main building, the first totally enclosed film stage and studio in history, is still there, but it is now part of Thriftee Storage. Unfortunately the only film memorabilia remaining in the building is a photo of a Chaplin impersonator.
Many important actors started their careers with Sennett, including Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, Raymond Griffith, Gloria Swanson, Ford Sterling, Theda Barra, Fatty Arbuckle, The Keystone Cops, Bing Crosby, and W. C. Fields, and the “Ur pretty” film comedian Mabel Nor- mand, Sennett’s girl friend. When she was nineteen years old, Normand opened her own studio across from what is now Thomas Starr King Middle School, although the name on the building is “Sennett Studio.”
The early filmmakers used the Silver Lake Hills, Glendale Boulevard, Angelino Heights, and Echo Park Lake as the scenes for silent films. Various scenes of cowboys on horses, Indians, baby buggies, automobiles, fire engines and police cars slid crazily down Glendale Boulevard, into Echo Park Lake (“Muddy Waters” and “Hot Water”) and up into Angelino Heights.
In 1916, Tom Mix, the seminal White Hat Cowboy and early mega-star, built Mixville, a pre- Hollywood and pre-Frontier land 12 acre western town with banks, houses, a desert, Indian te- pees surrounded by miniature mountains, a saloon, hitching posts and a stable at Teviot and Fletcher Drive.
The Mixville Drive-In Market and an auto camp replaced the outdoor stage set in the late 1920s. The Mixville Shopping Center, a liquor store, a bank and several other small businesses re- placed the auto camp. In sobering memory of that era the bones of Tom Mix’s horse, Old Blue, lie beneath the parking lot in front of the Ralph’s supermarket in the shopping center.
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
8 The inovation of sound reels, were a mixed blessing for the Edendale community; the early film studios were forced to leave after the invention of “talkie” films because of the noise from the electric railway that ran in such close proximity of their studios.
The community eventually evolved to be home to artists, writers, spiritualists who established the Sub-tropical Spritualist Tract, and the famous bookseller Jake Zeitlin moved into the Silver Lake and Echo Park hills. Nature engraver Paul Landacre’s cottage has an historic cultural marker in the back of it. Carey McWilliams, who wrote Southern California: An Island on the Land, was a political activist and lawyer. He lived on North Alvarado before he moved to New York to edit Nation magazine. Echo Park hills infamously gained the name of Red Hill because of the number of artists and writers with socialist leanings later Blacklisted in the McCarthy era.
With little modern fanfare, Walt Disney established his first studio on the side of Hyperion that is in the Los Feliz district. He produced the first talkie animation, “Steam Boat Willie,” starring Mickey Mouse in that studio. He produced Snow White, the first full-length color animated film in that studio. As with much of the era’s gradure it has been razed and replaced, a Gelson’s market stands where the Disney studio once stood.
Writers, artists and actors who lived in the Silver Lake hills included Raymond Chandler, who lived on Redesdale, erotica author Anais Nin, and Latino screen star Anthony Moreno.
The commercial buildings along Sunset fell into decline and the residential neighborhoods de- cayed in Echo Park after the Los Angeles Housing Authority used its power of eminent domain to condemn the communities of Loma Linda, Palo Verde and Bishop for a large housing project designed by Silver Lake architect Richard Neutra and his partner. Anti-communist fervor tagged public housing -- which the federal government had already paid for -- as socialistic. The City sold the land "for pennies on the dollar" to Walter O'Malley to build his Dodger Sta- dium, with a Conditional Use Permit that allowed the ballpark to invade the public's use of the municipal park surrounding it.
Subsequently, the City has repeatedly attempted to change Elysian Park (Created in 1886) from an inviting park where everyone is welcome, to a helicopter landing field, a businessmen’s golf club, and a convention center. In contrast, community members allied with the Citizens Com- mittee to Save Elysian Park, and defeated the City’s elite wish to eliminate public space in order to benefit private interests.
Latinos lived in Echo Park and Silver Lake since pueblo days. A significant number of Asians have lived for many years in both neighborhoods. A small enclave of African-Americans has
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
9 existed there, east of Alvarado St. and west of Bonnie Brae Street, since the 1920s. Renowned 1970s beauty queen, actress and model Veronica Porsche, third wife of boxer Muhammed Ali, came from this neighborhood.
Among the many movements around the country the local strug- gle for gay rights began in 1967 at the Black Cat on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, and area residents continue to include many members of the gay, lesbian, and transgender communities.
The street art and the municipal staircases are the public’s entrances into Los Angeles’s past and its Parkman Stairs - 2010; 1.5 vibrant present. The two very diverse and eclectic neighbor- hoods of Silver Lake and Echo Park expressed their wish to retain these portals in their Sil- ver Lake Echo Park Elysian Heights Community Plan, which the City adopted in 2004.
Cove Stairs - June 2010; 1.6
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
10 Sense of Place
Jesus Dionisio Hernandez-Rangel Community identities and of sense of place are important factors in the positive devel- opment of communities. The concept of place has become something that contemporary urban designers and architects strive to replicate by using the built environment to represent an exist- ing location that has that sense of place. A “sense of place” is a primary principle of Smart Growth.6
The walls of Los Angeles have become magnets for urban artists, who seek to evoke their un- derstanding of this complex multi-ethnic city through large murals. While some see urban artis- tic expression can as blight, the art form of graffiti has grown from it; and on its own right as recognizable and distinguished art form. These murals, which are throughout Los Angeles, but highly concentrated throughout the Silver Lake and Echo Park communities, are discernible and recognizable images, which form the back- ground of neighborhood identity.
The Echo Park and Silver Lake municipal stairways are also valuable com- munity assets. The area’s stairways, built for resi- dents to reach the electric railway, were the original backbone of silent film studio innovations before the studios moved to Hollywood and Echo Park - 2010; 2.1
6 Smart growth recognizes connections between development and quality of life. It leverages new growth to improve the community. The features that distinguish smart growth in a community vary from place to place. In general, smart growth invests time, attention, and resources in restoring community and vitality to center cities and older suburbs. New smart growth is more town-centered, is transit and pedestrian oriented, and has a greater mix of hous- ing, commercial and retail uses. It also preserves open space and many other environmental amenities. http://www.smartgrowth.org/about/overview.asp (retrieved 12/10/2010) Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
11 Burbank.7 The advent of “talkie” films meant, in the days before sound studios, that the first studios had to move elsewhere because directors then had no way to mask the sound of the electric railway.8
The Neighborhood Council jurisdictions of Echo Park and Silver Lake in Los Angeles join at an imaginary line that runs on the eastern environs of Silver Lake roughly parallel to the 2 Freeway and then, less precisely, along Glendale Boulevard through Historic Route 66 (Sunset Boule- vard) to a point near the 101 Freeway.
“Echo Park is one of the oldest neighborhoods of the City–rich with both the City’s history and tradition of diversity and a reflection of its dominant industries and patterns of development. Just north and east of downtown Los Angeles, Echo Park is close to the Pueblo of Los Angeles, the birthplace of the City, and the Zanja Madre, or “Mother Ditch” the first water system that supplied water to the fledgling city. As an early residential suburb of the City, Echo Park con- tains Angelino Heights, the wealthy first suburb of the City which was subdivided and devel- oped in the 1880s, bequeathing to the City a valuable architectural legacy in its concentration of grand Victorian homes. Angelino Heights became the location of the City’s first Historic Preser- vation Overlay District (1983) aimed at preserving the numerous examples of period architec- ture, as well as examples of later waves of architectural styles represented throughout Los An- geles. Carroll Avenue, where many endangered houses were relocated and period street lighting was installed, has become a showcase for the City’s Victorian-Era homes. Echo Park addition- ally contains the city’s oldest park, Elysian Park.
“Established in 1886, the land on which the park now sits was part of the original 1781 land grant from Spain to the Pueblo of Los Angeles.
“Angelino Heights was served by mass transit from its inception. A cable car system carried passengers from Spring Street along Temple Street to its terminus at Temple and Hoover Streets, providing transit from the residential suburbs north and west to Downtown. Lines also traveled west along Second Street and east along present day Spring Street and to Boyle Heights along First Street. A horsecar also traveled north along Echo Park Avenue, serving the remote hillside neighborhoods. They were eventually replaced by the electric cars, operated by the Pacific
7 See Electric Railway Historical Association on the Edendale Line. http://www.erha.org/pewel.htm. (Retrieved 12/ 10/2010)
8 See, Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics, byDaniel Hurewitz (UC Press) Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
12 Railway Company, which served Echo Park for the next 50 years and connected it to an exten- sive transit network that extended across four counties.
“Echo Park also has a unique stair system which, during its early subdivision (circa 1890s) pro- vided pedestrian access from the main streets to hillside homes. The original network of stairs consisted of 36 wooden stairways, most of which still exist though they have been replaced with concrete stairs. These public rights-of-way continue to provide functional pedestrian passages and a recreational outlet–stair walking–to the community.
“Originally known as Edendale, the once remote valley that is now the Glendale Boulevard cor- ridor, housed many early movie studios.”
“Originally, named Ivanhoe by a Scotsman who settled in the area and was reminded of his homeland by its rolling green hills, the community today takes its name from an influential member of the Department of Water and Power’s first board of commissioners, Henry Silver.
“While many of the street names in the neighborhood originate from the charac- ters found in the Scottish novel that lent it its original name, Silver Lake today is a thriving community, a mi- crocosm of the qualities that are unique to Los Angeles and distinguish it from other cities–a place possess- ing urban character and amenities but also a rustic tranquility. Silver Lake is one of the City’s 10 original open-reservoir communities. Silver lake Reservoir - 2010; 2.2 The reservoir, built as part of a Citywide system of water storage and delivery has become a focal point of a community, serving as both a source of its identity and a valuable recreational and aesthetic asset.
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
13 In the decades after the turn of the 20th Century, residential neighborhoods developed around the reservoir, with homes oriented toward the reservoir to take advantage of the views afforded by both the reservoir and the surrounding hillsides. (Some of these houses also view the HOL- LYWOOD sign and the Griffith Park Observatory.)
“Because of its idyllic setting and inherent desirability, the residential neighborhoods surround- ing the reservoir have become a showcase for some of the finest architecture in the City. Neigh- borhoods surrounding the reservoir are particularly known for their rich collection of Modern homes and structures designed by some of the most renowned architects of the style, such as Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler and Gregory Ains. (John Lautner’s ‘Silver Top’ http://www.johnlautner.org/wp/)
“Inspired by the landscape and its incorporation in design, the interplay between form and function and the fluidity between indoor and outdoor space, the Modernist architects designed homes that conformed to challenging terrain in a creative and sensitive manner.
“Like Echo Park, Silver Lake was very much shaped by the early (silent) movie studios which made their homes in Silver Lake, Echo Park and Edendale (Much of both of these areas was originally called ‘Edendale,’ not only the narrow valley where the Keystone, Mack Sennet and Poly-Chrome studies were built) and shares the spotlight with them in the early history of the motion picture and entertainment industries. People employed by the early motion picture stu- dios, including filmmakers, actors and directors lived in Silver Lake. Laurel and Hardy (Also, Charlie Chaplin and Gloria Swanson. Frank Capra started as a gag writer at the Sennet studio. “The Little Tramp character evolved at the Sennet studio in 1914.) are among the notable, as was Antonio Moreno, a silent film star (and later a “talkie” movie star) whose home, the Canfield- Moreno Estate (at the top of today’s Moreno street) built in the Mediterranean style, greatly in- fluenced architecture in the area.
“Coincidentally and maybe as a result, many creative and artistic people reside and work in Sil- ver Lake and Echo Park today–adding to the distinctiveness (sic, distinction) culture and iden- tity of the area.
“Silver Lake, along with Echo Park, has historically provided a valuable mix of single and mul- tiple family housing for the City’s residents and served a wide range of socioeconomic back- grounds. Given its proximity to Downtown Los Angeles and other employment centers, a re- vived interest in urban living and its central location in relation to the rest of the City, it increas- ingly becomes a desirable place to live and work.” (Id.)
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
14 The first Walt Disney studio, where Mickey Mouse inaugurated the first “talkie” animation was located on Hyperion Boulevard, near the west side of the lake – although within the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council jurisdiction today, and where Disney animators created the first full- length animation, “Snow White.”
Tom Mix, the seminal White Hat cowboy, was a real cowboy at the end of the Wild West era. He was working as a ranch hand on a cattle ranch on the Silver Lake hills when he found work as an actor. He built “Mixville,” a fake Western town, where the Mixville shopping mall and Astro Family Restaurant stand today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mix.
“At the Edendale lot Mix built a 12-acre (49,000 m2) shooting set called Mixville. Loaded with western props and furnishings, it has been described as a "complete frontier town, with a dusty street, hitching rails, a saloon, jail, bank, doctor's office, surveyor's office, and the simple frame houses typical of the early Western era." Near the back of the lot an Indian village of lodges was ringed by miniature plaster mountains, which on screen were said to be ‘ferociously convinc- ing.’ The set also included a simulated de- sert, large corral and a ranch house with no roof, to facilitate interior shots.” (Id.)
Tom Mix; 2.3
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
15 Analysis of City of Los Angeles’ Anti-mural Ordinance
Phyl van Ammers, JD, MA, Attorney-at-law & Jesus Dionisio Hernandez-Rangel The urban landscape in Los Angeles, unlike that of other metropolises, lacks the human presence on the streets. It is sometimes seems as if this city exists without people; however, the city con- tains pockets of visible humanity in neighbor- hoods where the sidewalks that have been worn by multiple feet and the street-facing walls have been colored by many peoples’ hands.
The neighborhoods collectively named Edendale in this work have pockets of vibrant streets, which many people of many ethnic and some- Silver Lake - 2010; 3.1 times several sexual identities walk, and murals and other forms of street art both illustrate and illuminate their diverse perspectives on the world.
Los Angeles City Code, § 91.6201 requires pri- vate owners obtain permits for all signage. On May 8, 2000, Ordinance 173988 created a broad definition of super-graphics, and super-graphics now fall in the category of “signage” in the Mu- nicipal Code. Echo Park - 2010; 3.2
Ordinance 174517, enacted in 2002, regulates murals on private property even more strictly, and requires that a legally adopted specific plan approve all murals.
On March 4th, 2008 the City Council passed or- dinance 179714 , which requires that all murals be approved by the Cultural Affairs Commis- sion.
Echo Park -2010; 3.3 Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
16 This ordinance allowed for the fining of owners of private walls with murals because murals fit within the definition of “graffiti” in LA City Municipal Code: Article 14 of Chapter IV:
"Graffiti" means any form of unauthorized inscription, word, figure or design which is marked, etched, scratched, drawn, sprayed, painted or otherwise affixed to or on any sur- face of public or private property, including but not limited to, buildings, walls, signs, structures or places, or other surfaces, regardless of the nature of the material of that struc- tural component.”
On March 5, 2008, Tom La Bonge moved, and Councilman Huizar seconded, a motion that the Planning Department, with the assistance of the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Depart- ment of Building and Safety, the Chief Legislative Analyst and the City Attorney, be directed to report with recommendations relative to the feasibility of establishing a process which would permit the installation of fine arts murals on private property.
On March 28th 2008, councilman J. Huizar, who represents the 14th Council District –an ethni- cally diverse part of Los Angeles –, moved for a stay of the City’s efforts to enforce its anti- mural ordinance through the imposition of fines. Tom LaBonge, representing Council District 15, seconded the motion.. The moratorium is set to expire on July 13, 2012.
At the June 1, 2010 joint meeting of the APHA (Arts, Parks, Health and Aging) and PLUM (Planning and Land Use Committees), Councilmember Ed Reyes read into the record the fol- lowing instructions:
"Direct Planning, Cultural Affairs, and Building and Safety Departments and City Attorney to report back in 30 days on how both proposed models (Portland, Oregon and Time, Place, Man- ner) would address the following:"
A) Ensure access for local artists
B) Ensure expeditious processing/permitting
C) Ensure a cost-neutral program in terms of implementation
D) Allow for the permitting and maintenance, as appropriate, of someexisting murals with orders to comply
E) Legal defensibility
F) Ensure the maintenance of newly permitted murals
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
17 On July 6, 2010, in response to this request, the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) devel- oped an adaptation of Portland's two-part mural permitting process (Time, Place, Manner and Public Art Easement).
The DCA’s proposal is as follows:
Ensure access to local artists:
Historically, the murals created in Los An- geles have been produced by local artists. The Department of Cultural Affairs' data- base shows that out of 400 City-sponsored murals produced between 1971 and 1999, over 90% of the artists were locally based.
We believe this predilection for local artists will continue under both of our proposed processes, particularly given the fact that small-budget projects tend to be cost- prohibitive for artists who live outside of the Los Angeles region. Echo Park - 2010; 3.4 Ensure expeditious processing/permitting
Under the Time, Place, Manner process, the City's role as regulator would not be compromised, and mural permits would be issued through an over-the counter permit process. We acknowl- edge that a new mural permit needs to be developed to accommodate this new process.
Under the Public Art Easement process, the City's role as owner or art patron would facilitate the creation of large, monumental public art murals that will involve local communities in in- novative ways. The Public Art Easement process would be administered by DCA and mural permits issued through the Cultural Affairs
“Commission review process.
Ensure a cost-neutral propram in terms of implementation
If the City were to employ the Time, Place, Manner and Public Art Easement processes, we be- lieve that both programs would be cost-neutral for the City to implement, in that no additional City funding would be required to pay for the creation of new murals. Furthermore, the Public
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
18 Art Easement would be launched within budgetary allocations provided through existing City- wide programs such as Council Civic Funds, Neighborhood Matching Funds, CDBG, and Mayor's Day of Service Funds, that are already used to support the creation of new murals.
However, that said, it is also important for the City to recognize that, as part of the Public Art Easement process, there might be an attendant increase in graffiti abatement costs to the City for City-sponsored murals, as well as an increase in DCA's staffing or contractual service costs to administer this new processes.
“Allow for the maintenance and permitting, as approoriate, of some existing murals with orders to comply.
“Of the l500 murals in the Department's database, 1100 murals (or 73%) were funded through private sources and are located on private property. The remaining 400 murals in our database either received City funding or are located on City property. Between 2002 and 2007, the Cul- tural Affairs Commission approved 52 murals located on private property. However, these mu- rals are currently considered non-conforming because they were created while the billboard ban was in effect. In terms of funding, 40 of these S2 murals were funded through City sources such as Council Civic Funds, Neighborhood Matching Funds, or Neighborhood Council funds, to name a few. In terms of physical size, 42 of the 52 murals created are larger than 300 square feet, and the remaining 10 murals are 300 square feet or smaller.
In order to address and correct these non-conforming murals, the City could issue retroactive permits for the smaller murals under the Time, Place, Manner process, and Public Art Easement permits for the larger murals, provided property owners are willing to enter into easement agreements with the City. It should also be noted that both recommended permit processes in- clude criteria that each mural remain in place for a minimum of five years, and that 48 of the 52 non-conforming murals already meet or exceed this time requirement.
“In addition to those 52 murals, there is another set of 11 murals that have received citations and orders to comply. All of these cited murals are located on private property and only one was City-funded--the other ten were privately funded.
“Furthermore, these 11 cited murals located on private property:
• Are all ground-level murals that do not exceed 3S feet in height.
• Have no exterior lighting.
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
19 • Are comprised of original artwork mural images painted directly on the walls.
• Appear to be well-maintained and are graffiti-free, as evidenced by the images we have seen, although it is unknown if the mu- rals have anti-graffiti coatings.
• Have been in place from 1-17 years.
“Again, based on the above facts, these 11 murals would qualify for a Time, Place, Manner permit or Echo Park - 2009; 3.5 Public Art Easement permit-the final determinant would be mu- ral size.
“Legallv Defensible
The City cannot regulate signage on the basis of content, as ensured by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Therefore, the Time, Place, Manner process is legally viable as it is a content- neutral permitting process. Further, we believe the requirements listed on the following chart would constitute quantitative, measurable criteria that would attract fine art murals and ex- clude murals containing commercial messages. Based on the City of Los Angeles' 40-year his- tory of mural production, we consider this approach well-tested and one that generates a posi- tive enhancement of the City's visual landscape.
“Ensure the maintenance of new/v- permitted murals
The Time, Place, Manner permit would require a property owner to apply an anti-graffiti coating to the mural and be responsible for mainte- nance over the mural's lifespan. The Public Art Easement permit would also require the application of an anti-graffiti coating to the mural and, in this permit scenario, either the Silver Lake - 2010; 3.6
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
20 property owner or the City, depending on the funding source, would be responsible for mural maintenance. Murals protected with anti-graffiti coatings are easier and less costly to maintain than murals that have been left unprotected.
“Conclusion
The current issues pertaining to mural permits in the City are complex. For one, there are publicly-funded murals located on both City property and private property, as well as privately-funded murals located on both City property and private property. Second, there is the group of 52 recently created murals that were issued permits that are now deemed to be non-conforming. Furthermore, the City actively oversees many culturally significant murals that were painted over 30 years ago, and many of these are technically un-permitted because property owners were not required to have mural permits at the time they were created. It is because of these intricate and conflicting issues that the City needs to adopt a bifurcated permit process that al- lows for flexibility given the variety of conditions.
“Recommendation
The Department of Cultural Affairs therefore recommends that the Planning
Department, in conjunction with the City Attorney and our Department, be instructed to pre- pare a City-wide ordinance that amends the Zoning and Administrative Code to adopt both a Time, Place, Manner process and Public Art Easement process for the purpose of issuing per- mits for fine art and public art mural to be located on private property.”9
Legal Analysis
The primary question is “Do these people have nothing else to do?”
The City of Los Angeles is working with the Getty Foundation to partially restore Sequeiros’ “La América Tropical,” near La Placita -- although City officials had been the ones responsible for whitewashing this great work of art. The Autry National Center’s “Censorship Defied” ex- hibit closed on January 9, 2010, and this exhibit illuminated the City’s efforts to censor the work of many different muralists in Watts, Arroyo Seco, and East Los Angeles. The City’s effort to sanitize walls of original aesthetic expression through its anti-mural ordinance is ironic when no one calls for it, and when there is no need for it.
9 Letter from Olga Garay, General Manager, Department of Cultural Affairs, dated 7/16/10. Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
21 Also, the City presently experiences great financial difficulties.
The City should spend its money more frugally than to lavish it on scheme to change the “vis- ual landscape” of ethnically diverse communities to a more neutral one. To homogenize how people are allowed to perceive their lives, and to whitewash or beige-wash our built environ- ment.
The City’s anti-mural effort raises not only first amendment free speech issues, but also four- teenth amendment equal protection issues because of the disproportionate impact of the legisla- tion on minority and/or largely minority communities. The proposed legislation purportedly will be content-neutral, but the elaborate process itself means private owners will be disinclined to allow murals on their walls out of fear they will have to pay fines. The proposed regulation chills free speech by making it cost money.
The nation’s courts give broad latitude to cities to regulate design or architecture. See Me- tromedia, Inc. v City of San Diego, 26 Cal. 3d 848, 864 (1980), see also Ehrlich v. City of Culver City, 12 Cal. 4th 854, 881-882 (1996). The leading case is Novi v. City of Pacifica, where the court upheld a city’s ordi- nance that precluded “monotonous” devel- opments and uses det- rimental to the general welfare.” 169 Cal. App. 3d 678, 682 (1985)
On the other hand, a city cannot unduly infringe Silver Lake - 2010; 3.7 Echo Park - 2010; 3.8 on a person’s freedom of speech. Courts scrutinize closely a city’s action in furthering aesthetics when the action jeop- ardizes a citizen’s right to free speech. See, City of Ladue v. Gilleo, 512 U.S. 43, 54-55 (Local or- dinance prohibited “For Peace in the Gulf” sign on private property.”)
The Supreme Court developed a four-part analysis to evaluate the constitutionality of Time- Place-Manner restrictions. To pass muster under the First Amendment, Time-Place-Manner re- strictions must be content neutral, be narrowly drawn, serve a significant government interest, and leave open alternative channels of communication. Application of this analysis varies in accordance with the circumstances of each case.
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
22 There is no significant, or even important, or even slightly entertaining government interest in regulating murals on private walls. Moreover, the elaborate and possibly even incoherent li- censing, fining, permitting processes that the City pro- poses to adopt will result in content control.
The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that "no state shall ... deny to any person within its ju- risdiction the equal protection of the laws" (United States Constitution, 14th Amendment). The Equal Pro- tection Clause can be seen as an attempt to secure the promise of the United States' professed commitment to the proposition that "all men are created equal" (United Silver Lake - 2010; 3.9 States Declaration of Independence) by empowering the judiciary to enforce that principle against the states. As written it applied only to state governments, but it has since been interpreted to apply to the Federal Govern- ment of the United States as well.
It is necessary that one claiming harm through the dis- parate or disproportionate impact of a facially neutral law to prove intent or motive to discriminate. ''[A] law, Silver Lake - 2010; 3.10 neutral on its face and serving ends otherwise within the power of government to pursue, is not invalid under the Equal Protection Clause simply because it may affect a greater proportion of one race than of another.”10 Only if the unfair impact on minorities is deliberately intended by the legislature will the Court demand strict scrutiny; otherwise, the legislation must simply be using a classifi- cation that is a rational method of accomplishing social goals that the legislature believes impor- tant.
10 Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 242 (1976). A classification having a differential impact, absent a showing of discriminatory purpose, is subject to review under the lenient, rationality standard. Id. at 247-48; Rogers v. Lodge, 458 U.S. 613, 617 n.5 (1982). The Court has applied the same standard to a claim of selective prosecution allegedly penal- izing exercise of First Amendment rights. Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598 (1985) (no discriminatory purpose shown). And see Bazemore v. Friday, 478 U.S. 385 (1986) (existence of single-race, state-sponsored 4-H Clubs is per- missible, given wholly voluntary nature of membership). Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
23 Elysian Park - 2010; 3.11
Silver Lake - 2010; 3.12
Silver Lake -2010; 3.13
Silver Lake - 2010; 3.14
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
24 The evident purpose in reducing public art in ethnically diverse lower income communities is to erase or diminish cultural identity. If challenged, the courts may well use the strict scrutiny standard in evaluating the proposed anti-mural regulation. If that happens, the City will lose what may be cast as a civil rights case.
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
25 Stairs and Sustainable Development
Carlos Hernandez The neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Echo Park are riven by the incessant noise of automobiles on the 2 Freeway. The history of these neighborhoods and geography connects them, and the historic municipal stairways help connect Silver Lake and Echo Park streets.
Silver lake - Early 1900’s; 4.1
Loma Visa Stair Way -2009; 4.2 Fargo Stair Way - 2010; 4.3 Cove Stair Way -2010; 4.4
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
26 The electric railway tracks curved from Allessan- dro -- a street named after the doomed hero in Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona -- past the Sub- Tropical Spiritual Tract, around one of the Ivanhoe hills, named after the lead character in a Sir Walter Scott novel -- over the Fletcher Drive viaduct and then over the Los Angeles River to Atwater, where Disney animators often walked with their large pads, gathering ideas and inadvertently created the gang name for the area: Toonerville.
Real estate developers deeded the municipal stairs to the City of Los Angeles to make the steep hill- side properties attractive to prospective residents, and, by the time Laurel and Hardy filmed “The Music Box Stairs” on a stairway near the longer Micheltorena Street Stairs, people used the stair- Hamilton Way and Elevado St - 2009; 4.5 ways often to reach the electric railway to get to work and shopping downtown.Today, residents and visitors use the stairs for recreation and for access to public transportation. The Echo Park Historical Society regularly conducts guided tours of the stairways, and Dan Koeppel’s The Big Pa- rade walks all of the stairs in both Silver Lake and Echo Park in one day.
Sustainable development seeks to create interest- ing, unique communities which reflect the values and cultures of the people who reside there, and foster the types of physical environments which support a more cohesive community fabric… pro- vide residents with a distinctive and beautiful place that they can call “home” for generations to come.
3600 Landa St. - 2009; 4.6
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
27 Sustainable development Creates Walkable Neighborhoods:
As the personal and societal benefits of pedestrian friendly communities are realized – benefits which include lower transportation costs, greater social interaction, improved personal and en- vironmental health, and expanded consumer choice -- many are calling upon the public and private sector to facilitate the development of walkable places.
We spend more time traveling, typically by car, to the next building than we do enjoying out- door spaces between them.
Parkman Stairs - Present Day; 4.7
They [sidewalks] bring together people who do not know each other in an inanimate, private social fashion and in most cases do not care to know each other in that fashion.
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
28 The built environment has made us solitary creatures, creating barriers for human interaction. The Rockford/Fargo and Parkman stair closures have crippled accessibility of surrounding residents.
…walkable communities make pedestrian activity possible, thus expanding transportation op- tions, and creating a streetscape that better serves a range of users…
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
29 Public Stair Closure Consistency Analysis
By Benjamin Gibson and Phyl van Ammers, JD, MA, Attorney-at-law This section analyzes whether the City of Los Angeles City Council withdrawal of the Parkman stairway and the City’s Department of Engineering authorization for Paul Apostle to lock and gate the Fargo stairway is consistent with the Silver Lake-Echo Park-Elysian Valley Community Plan, which was adopted on August 11, 2004. (Hereinafter, “Silver Lake Echo Park Community Plan.”)
The City has withdrawn alleys, rights-of-way, and other stair- ways in Silver Lake and Echo Park, which exclude the public from entering these areas but allow those who own property adjacent to these public routes to continue to use them. This re- port only focuses on the Park- man stairway withdrawal and Land Use Map - 2010; 5.1 the Fargo stairway withdrawal.
California State law (Government Code Section 65300) requires that each city prepare and adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for its future development.
A local government’s general plan is that government’s basic planning document. It is the blueprint for development. It is the vehicle through which competing interests and the needs of the citizenry are balanced and integrated. (Curtin’s California Land Use and Planning Law, 30th edition, Cecily Talbert Barclay, 2010). The Community Plans are an area’s General
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
30 Plan. (See, City of Los Angeles, General Plan, Framework element, Chapter 5, “Neighborhood Design.”)
Because the general plan is the constitution for all future development, any decision by a city affecting land use and development must be consistent with the general plan. See Friends of Lagoon Valley, 154 Cal.App. 4th at 815.
“An action, program or project is consistent with the general plan if, considering all its as- pects, it will further the objectives and policies of the general plan and not obstruct their attainment.” Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, General Plan Guidelines (2003), page 164.
This analysis uses the prism for analysis provided by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Re- search.
The following references are all from the Silver Lake Echo Park Community Plan.
Goal 4-Adequate recreation and park facilities, which meet the needs of the residents in the plan area and create links to existing facilities to expand recreational opportunities citywide. (III,37)
Objective 4-1: To conserve, maintain and better use existing recreation and park facilities
4-1.1
Program: This Plan inventories and identifies staircases and dedicated but undeveloped streets …. as existing public rights-of-way that should be preserved and which can potentially provide or enhance linkages in greenways and trail systems.
4-1.2 Program: Encourage City departments to reuse and/or convert unused or underused publicly owned land and facilities for recreation and open space facilities, whenever feasible.
4-1.3
Program: Preserve and maintain public staircases in the Plan area and other public rights-of-way that could provide or enhance linkages for greenways and trail systems.
Program: This Plan inventories and identifies staircases and dedicated but undeveloped streets (see Exhibit J) as existing public rights-of-way that should be preserved and which can poten-
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
31 tially provide or enhance linkages in greenways and trail Systems.
Program: Encourage the landscaping of areas adjacent to public staircases and in- corporating them into the larger street, open space and recreation networks, as ap- propriate.
Program: Designate as his- toric public staircases in the Plan Area that have particu- lar historic and/or cultural significance particularly those in Angelino Heights.
Program: Coordinate with the Department of Public Works and other relevant de- partments a schedule for maintaining the staircases and reclaiming them for pub- lic use, in those instances where public staircases have been Echo Park Staircase Map - Historic Echo Park . Society; 5.2 vacated or barricaded without formal vacation procedures.
Program: Discourage decision-makers from vacating staircases, undeveloped streets or other public rights-of-way in the future.
Analysis: The stairway withdrawals are inconsistent with the City’s general plan, Silver Lake Echo Park Community Plan, Objective 4.1 and following policies.
Goal 11: Encourage alternative modes of transportation to the use of single occupant vehicles in order to reduce vehicular trips. (III, 48)
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
32 Objective 11-1 Pursue transportation demand management strategies that can maximize vehicle occupancy, minimize average trip length and reduce the number of vehicle trips.
Analysis: The stairs provide hillside residential communities with pedestrian access to com- mercial corridors in the valleys below. The closure of public stairs hinders this possibility and the attainment of Goal 11.
Goal 16: Identification, preservation and restoration of cultural resources, neighborhoods, and landmarks, which have historical and/or cultural significance.
Objective 16-1 Ensure that the community’s historically significant resources are protected, preserved and/or enhanced
16-1.1
Program: This Plan inventories and identifies all public staircases (see informational staircase map labeled Exhibit I) in the Plan area and encourages a program for their preservation as pub- lic resources and for their regular maintenance. This Plan also encourages the incorporation of staircases in the larger recreational and non-motorized transportation network, as described under Policy 14-2.1
Analysis: The stairway withdrawals are inconsistent with Objective 16-1 and the implementing policies.
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
33 Legal analysis of the City’s withdrawal of public rights-of- way in Silver Lake and Echo Park11
Phyl van Ammers, JD, MA, Attorney-at-law
Beginning in the early 1980s, the Los Angeles City Council authorized privatization of city streets in order to allow developers to create gated enclaves, employing Government Code § 37359 (“§ 37359”) to do so.
By using § 37359, the City circumvented its own vacation of street procedures (Administrative Code, Article 7), which would have required payment of fees and also avoided having to make a finding that the vacation is consistent with the City’s general plan. Because general plan adoptions and amendments go through California Environmental Quality Act review, a vaca- tion is exempt from CEQA. The City Council continues to “find” that the withdrawals from public use are “like a minor vacation,” and so exempt from CEQA.
§ 37359 states: “Unless otherwise provided by law, the legislative body having control of any property owned or controlled by the city may at any time withdraw the property from the personal access and use of mem- bers of the public, or limit the access or use in area or time or in any other reasonable manner deemed necessary. Any person thereafter using the property without permission or in a manner other than that prescribed is a trespasser. This section does not limit or restrict any person from access or use who has a private right in the property.”
The City, in those authorizations, allowed those people who lived in the subsequently gated communities and their visitors to use the roads but not any other member of the public.
Gate on Clifford Stair Way, 6.1
11 California State University Northridge URBS 460 Law and Planning students Paul McClaren, Chris Leiva, Tammy Williams, Ashley Imai, Julie Irabon, Kevin Kay, Andrew Perry, Alexander Fuchs, and Hugo Figueredo made valuable contributions to this research. Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
34 § 37359 states that anyone who uses the property without permission to be a trespasser. It does not allow adjacent property owners or their tenants or their visitors to use the property.
The properties the City withdrew on those occasions were rights-of-way, also called easements. Easements are dominant tenements over servient tenements. The party gaining the benefit of the easement is the dominant estate (or dominant tenement), while the party granting the bur- den is the servient estate (or servient tenement). The owners of servient tenements have no property interest in the rights-of-way, although they own the underlying fee. Cal. Civ. Code §§802.
By allowing property owners in the enclaves and their visitors permission to enclose the public property, the City in effect made a gift of public land to those people. The California Constitu- tion, Article 16, prohibits a municipality from giving away public property.
Whitley Heights was one of the gated enclaves, and the Hathaway Hill Estates the other.
Whitley Heights is not in Silver Lake or Echo Park districts, but that authorization led to the case of Citizens Against Gated Communities v. Whitley Heights Civil Assn. (1994), 23 Cal. App. 4th, 812, 28 Cal.Rptr. 2d 451, review denied by the California Supreme Court. (“Whitley”).
The City Council also authorized privatization of municipal stairways – which are also public easements – using § 37359 as its authority to do so, until the Whitley decision. In Echo Park and Silver Lake, those stairways include Parkman and Effie-Mohawk.
Clifford Street now cul de sac, 6.2
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
35 Although § 37359 limits the power to withdraw public property to the legislative body (the City Council), the Bureau of Engineering gave a revocable permit to Paul Apostle to close the Fargo stairway without any delegation of power to the Bureau from the City Council.
The Clifford Street stairway, which leads from Clifford to the Hathaway Estate, is locked and gated. There is no record on the City’s website that shows the City Council moved to withdraw that public easement.
After Whitley, the City Council no longer used § 37359 to allow developers or homeowners to gate and lock developments. The City instead uses Vehicle Code § 21101.4.12 Councilmen Tom La Bonge and Eric Garcetti moved and seconded a City Council motion to use that Vehicle Code provision to close the St. Andrews Place stairway. This change in procedure indicates the City is aware that § 37359 does not provide it with the authority to close streets.13
Whitley Between 1981 and 1985, members of the Whitley association held meetings with the city attor- ney’s office and other City representative in support of a project to build fences and gates around their neighborhood.
12 §21101.4. (a) A local authority may, by ordinance or resolution, adopt rules and regulations for temporarily clos- ing to through traffic a highway under its jurisdiction when all of the following conditions are, after a public hearing, found to exist: (1) The local authority finds and determines that there is serious and continual criminal activity in the portion of the highway recommended for temporary closure. This finding and determination shall be based upon the recom- mendation of the police department …. (2) The highway is not designated as a through highway or arterial street. (3) Vehicular or pedestrian traffic on the highway contributes to the criminal activity. (4) The closure will not substantially adversely affect traffic flow, safety on the adjacent streets or in the surround- ing neighborhoods, the operation of emergency vehicles, the performance of municipal or public utility services, or the delivery of freight by commercial vehicles in the area of the highway proposed to be temporarily closed. (a) for not more than 18 months, except that this period may be extended for not more than eight additional con- secutive periods of not more than 18 months each if, prior to each of those extensions, the local authority holds a public hearing and finds, by ordinance or resolution, that all of the following conditions exist: (1) Continuation of the temporary closure will assist in preventing the occurrence or reoccurrence of the serious and continual criminal activity found to exist when the immediately preceding temporary closure was authorized. This finding and determination shall be based upon the recommendation of the police department …. 21101.6. Notwithstanding Section 21101, local authorities may not place gates or other selective devices on any street which deny or restrict the access of certain members of the public to the street, while permitting others unre- stricted access to the street.
13 Los Angeles City Municipal Code § 1101 provides” “Street” shall include all streets, highways, avenues, lanes, alleys, courts, squares curbs or other public ways in this City which have been or may hereafter be dedicated and open to public use, or such other public property so designated in any law of this State.” Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
36 On February 28, 1985, the city planning commission reviewed the City Engineer’s report and approved the project. It sent a notice of the hearing to owners of property within 300 feet of the area. After a public hearing, the public works committee recommended to the City Council that the project be approved. In 1985, pursuant to § 37359, the City Council orded the withdrawal from public use of streets, sidewalks, walkways and stairways within the Whitley Heights area, but allowed residents who lived within the area to use them.
On May 18, 1992, the Petitioners/Complainants filed their petition and complaint and named the City and the Whitley Association as defendants. The complaint alleged that the Association was poised to begin operating the gates in a selective manner to exclude members of the public from public streets in violation of the Vehicle Code.
The Whitley Court held that the City couldn’t withdraw publicly owned streets to allow some members of the public to use the City property and not others.
Council File 94-0030: In open session the City settled the Whitley case, and the Association agreed to remove the gates and electrical equipment from the seven locations mentioned in the complaint/petition. The City removed seven pillars and fences from the City’s rights of way and restored the streets to public use.
Hathaway Hill Garbutt House looms impressively on its summit over Silver Lake within the Hathaway Hill Estates. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (1987). Real estate ads on Internet extol the views in the homes in this still-gated community.
Los Angeles City Council File: 84-0785. City Council member Robert Stevenson moved that the public streets within the Hathaway Hill subdivision be withdrawn from public use. On August 31, 1984, the Public Works Committee report approved that McCollum14 and “other cul de sac” streets be withdrawn from public use (McCollum, Aaron, Benton Way, Branden and Apex.)
Signs on the private gates on both ends of McCollum state that the city’s streets in- side were withdrawn pursuant to § 37359.
Garbutt House atop hill, 6.3
14 McCollum was not a cul de sac. Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
37 Contributors
Fall 2010 - CSUN URBS 460 Law and Planning Spring 2010 - CSUN URBS 490 Fieldwork: Re- students: Legal analysis of municipal stairway search and documentation of street art in Echo withdrawal Park and Silver Lake
Adamian,Vartan Anthony Antanesian,Sarmen Aklilu,Nathaniel Auld,Samantha Skye Barragan,Jessica Adriana Delrio,Jaime Figueredo,Hugo Santiago Garcia,Daniel Jesus Fuchs,Alexander James Kleckner,Mark Alex Gibson,Benjamin Cook Narcisse,Lisa Cecily Hernandez,Carlos Pollack,Adam J Hernandez-Rangel,Jesus Dionisio Quintana,Humberto Imai,Ashley Marie Rodriguez,Andres Irabon, Julie Kay,Kevin Michael Fall 2009 - CSUN URBS 490 Fieldwork: Re- search and documentation of municipal stair- Leiva,Christopher Brian ways in Echo Park and Silver Lake Lindsay,Damian Robert
Lopez,Yvette Correia,Matthew David Mabasa,David Gassner Maynus,Drusilla Sheri McClaren,Paul Jason Powell-Stevenson,Ginger Ann Mcgee,Melodi Dianne Ramirez,Albert Anthony Mooney,Matthew M Ramirez,Johnpaul Naanos,Jason-Roger Saucedo,Melba Alejandra Norberg,Michael Anthony Vargas,Paul Tonatiuh Perry,Andrew Thomas Virula,Marvin Giovanni Savala JR,Daniel Monolete Williams-Anderson,Tammy Sue Wooten,Gerald Anthony
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
38 Images 1.1 Land Tract Map of Los Felis(z) - 1795, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Los_Feliz
1.2 Echo Park - Dec 2010, Jesus D. Hernandez-Rangel; http://www.rokotsu.com/
1.3 Red Car Concrete Feet - 2009, CSUN URBS 490; http://www.flickr.com/photos/43922087@N06/
1.4 Viaduct from Weaverly - 2009, Diane Edwardson; http://www.flickr.com/photos/43922087@N06/
1.5 Parkman Stairs - 2010, Jesus D. Hernandez-Rangel; http://www.rokotsu.com/
1.6 Cove Stairs - June 2010, Dan Koeppel
2.1 Echo Park - 2010, Jesus D. Hernandez-Rangel; http://www.rokotsu.com/
2.2 Silver Lake Reservoir - 2010, Jesus D. Hernandez-Rangel; http://www.rokotsu.com/
2.3 Tom Mix - Undated, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mix
3.1 Donkey Gorilla Silver Lake - 2010, Urban King League
3.2 Echo Park Glendale & Rt 66 - 2010, Artist Unknown
3.3 Echo Park Glendale & Rt 66 - 2010, Artist Unknown
3.4 600 Glendale Echo Park - 2010, Cache
3.5 Kimberly and Justin mural in Echo Park; CSUN URBS 490 http://www.flickr.com/photos/43922087@N06/
3.6 Circus Of Books Silver Lake - 2010, Artist Uknown
3.7 Alverado and Montana in Silver Lake - 2010, Artist Unknown
3.8 Bus Stop Art at Glendale and Sunset Blvd in Echo Park - 2010, Artist Unknown
3.9 News Mural in Silverlake - 2009, Artist Unknown
3.10 Dream Again Mural under Myra Ave in Silver Lake - 2010, Artist Unknown
3.11 Elysian Heights Elementary Cat Mural - 2009, Yuriko Etue
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
39 3.12 Jesus and Flock Mural on Korean Church - 2001 (Church Rep. Chun Chon)
3.13 Size at Branden and Sunset in Silver Lake - 2009 Unknown Artist
3.14 Gateway to Silver Lake under 101 Frwy - 2005, Artist Unknown
4.1 Red Car Track - 1900’s
4.2 Loma Vista Stair Way in Silver Lake - 2009, CSUN URBS 490; http://www.flickr.com/photos/43922087@N06/
4.3 Fargo Stair Way in Silver Lake - 2010, Jesus D. Hernandez-Rangel; http://www.rokotsu.com/
4.4 Cove Stairs - June 2010, Dan Koeppel
4.5 Hamilton & Elevado St in Silver Lake - 2009, CSUN URBS 490; http://www.flickr.com/photos/43922087@N06/
4.6 3600 Landa St. - 2009, CSUN URBS 490; http://www.flickr.com/photos/43922087@N06/
4.7 Parkman Stairs - 2010, Phyl van Ammers, JD, MA, Attorney-at-law
5.1 Land Use Map - 2010, Neighborhood Plan LA City; http://www.lacity.org/
5.2 Stair Ways of Echo Park - Unknown Date, Historical Echo Park Society; http://www.historicechopark.org/
6.1 Gate on Cifford Stairway -2010, Phyl van Ammers, JD, MA, Attorney-at-law
6.2 Clifford Streets as Cul de Sac -2010, Phyl van Ammers, JD, MA, Attorney-at-law
6.3 Garbutt House atop hill - 2010, Phyl van Ammers, JD, MA, Attorney-at-law
Law & Planning Courses 460 and 490: Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 Edendale
40