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Friends Of Flores Park News QR Code, Facebook: FloresParkProject,thefloresparkproject@gmail.com Calli Goldstein, Tom Wright

Flores Park News West Hollywood

City Council Approves $12 Million Increase in Funding for West Hollywood Park Redevelopment

Residents of North Flores Street have launched a campaign to have an empty lot designated as a park and “pollinator garden.”

COMMUNITY FUNDING FOR FLORES PARK

West Hollywood (West Hollywood Today) 4/23/20—We are asking the City of West Hollywood to purchase the property at 1216 North Flores Street to open a community park that demonstrates sustainable garden practices for local residents and wildlife.
www.westhollywoodtoday.com
floresparkproject@gmail.com
Friends Of Flores Park
SIGN UP In Support For Flores Park 1216 West Hollywood
http://chng.it/yCPbZqN7d8

NEED FUNDING FOR WEST HOLLYWOOD FLORES PARK

Residents of North Flores Street have launched a campaign to have an empty lot designated as a park and “pollinator garden.”

The campaign is the latest effort to block development of an apartment building on the lot at 1216 N. Flores, which has been empty since 2013.

Residents Push for a Park to Stop Development of an Apartment Building on N. Flores

West Hollywood (West Hollywood Today) 4/23/20-–We are asking the City of West Hollywood to purchase the property at 1216 North Flores Street to open a community park that demonstrates sustainable garden practices for local residents and wildlife.
www.westhollywoodtoday.com
floresparkproject@gmail.com
Friends Of Flores Park
SIGN UP In Support For Flores Park 1216 West Hollywood
http://chng.it/yCPbZqN7d8

WEHOville (4/21/20/—Tom Wright and Calli Goldstein, who all live on the street, are the organizers of the campaign and have created a petition online to solicit signatures from supporters of the park idea. The petition asks that the City of West Hollywood purchase the lot and “open a community park that demonstrates sustainable garden practices for the residents and wildlife in West Hollywood.” To date 65 people have signed it.

The 9,000 square foot lot is owned by Barry Shy, one of whose current projects is the Hill Street Lofts, a 33-story building with 239 apartment units at 920 S. Hill St. in downtown Los Angeles. Shy is asking that the City of West Hollywood re-issue a permit obtained by another developer, Boaz Miodovski, who had planned to construct a five-story building with 14 condo units and underground parking. Five of those units were to be reserved for low- or moderate-income people.

Shy bought the property after a lengthy and expensive effort effort by Miodovski to get the city’s permission to build a condo building there. Eventually he decided to drop plans for the project and sell the property.

Miodovski had faced pushback from residents who said the building’s design didn’t reflect the character of the street and who opposed a staircase that would have been on the front façade of the building. Ron Emmons, who owns the historically designated building at 1224 Flores, next door to the 1216 N. Flores lot, objected that it would cast a shadow over his property. Nevertheless, the project was approved by the city’s Planning Commission in 2015, a decision that Emmons and George Credle, another neighbor, appealed to the City Council.

The City Council asked for changes to the project, with John D’Amico saying he found the staircase unattractive and John Duran said he would prefer the building be only four stories, even if that meant eliminating the five affordable condo units.

Miodovski responded by setting back the building from the northern edge of the lot, which is where the 1224 Flores building is located, and changed materials on the building façade to make it more compatible with the stucco facades of nearby buildings

A year later, in November 2016, the City Council rejected Credle and Emmon’s appeal in a 3-to-2 vote, with Councilmembers D’Amico and Meister voting no.

Wright has lived on Flores for many years and successfully advocated for the installation of speed bumps to slow traffic on the street. He said he had offered Shy $2 million to buy the property, but that Shy declined the offer.

Shy’s request that the permit given to Miodovski be reissued was filed with the City of West Hollywood on Oct. 25, 2019 and currently is under review. WEHOville has reached out to Shy for a comment but has yet to receive a response. In addition to the attention has gotten for his various real estate developments, Shy also was in the news for suing two owners of units in the SB Grand Lofts (located at Fifth and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles) for libel and slander because of comments alleging he was “dishonest” and a “slum lord.”

City Council Approves $12 Million Increase in Funding for West Hollywood Park Redevelopment

The West Hollywood City Council last night approved a $12 million increase in the budget for the renovation of West Hollywood Park, which will bring the total cost of the second stage of the renovation to $113.5 million.

With the inclusion of phase one of the renovation, which included construction of the West Hollywood Library, the City Council Chambers and the five-story parking structure, the city’s overall spending on the eight-acre park is anticipated to be $22.2 million an acre.

City Councilmember Lauren Meister objected to the $2.8 million increase in the city’s contract for construction management services with CBRE Heery Inc. That 56% increase means the city will be paying CBRE Heery a total of $7.8 million. Meister was the only council member to vote “no” on that portion of the overall increase.

The second stage of the renovation was initially anticipated to be completed this year. However, now the final completion is expected in the Spring of 2022.

Mayor John D’Amico suggested that the city consider putting up a barricade around the entire park so that the renovation could move faster. The city initially had decided to leave as much of the park open to residents while construction was underway on specific parts of the redevelopment. However, D’Amico noted, the entire park now is closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The renovation has drawn criticism from some residents, who have cited expensive aspects such as the $1.75 million “grand stair.”

West Hollywood (West Hollywood Today) 4/23/20—We are asking the City of West Hollywood to purchase the property at 1216 North Flores Street to open a community park that demonstrates sustainable garden practices for local residents and wildlife.
www.westhollywoodtoday.com
**floresparkproject@gmail.com**
Friends Of Flores Park
**SIGN UP In Support For Flores Park 1216 West Hollywood**
http://chng.it/yCPbZqN7d8

Friends of Flores Park News

West Hollywood( West Hollywood Today) 4/22/20/—–Tom Wright and Calli Goldstein, who all live on the street, are the organizers of the campaign and have created a petition online to solicit signatures from supporters of the park idea. The petition asks that the City of West Hollywood purchase the lot and “open a community park that demonstrates sustainable garden practices for the residents and wildlife in West Hollywood.”

We are asking the City of West Hollywood to purchase the property at 1216 North Flores Street to open a community park that demonstrates sustainable garden practices for local residents and wildlife.
www.westhollywoodtoday.com
tomeright@gmail.com
Friends Of Flores Park
SIGN UP In Support For Flores Park 1216 West Hollywood
http://chng.it/yCPbZqN7d8

NEED FUNDING FOR WEST HOLLYWOOD FLORES PARK

WEHOville Reports

City Council Approves $12 Million Increase in Funding for West Hollywood Park Redevelopment WEHOville Reports

https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wehoville.com%2F2020%2F04%2F21%2Fcity-council-approves-12-million-increase-in-funding-for-west-hollywood-park-redevelopment%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHtPVuMuguRfN_fZIBavrJ4C3OIuw

https://www.wehoville.com/2020/04/16/residents-push-for-a-park-to-stop-development-of-an-apartment-building-on-n-flores/

West Hollywood Budget For a Park

City Council Approves $12 Million Increase in Funding for West Hollywood Park Redevelopment WEHOville Reports

NEED FUNDING FOR WEST HOLLYWOOD FLORES PARK

SIGN THE PETITION

1216 N. Flores Street West Hollywood Friends of Flores Green People’s Park

FRIENDS OF FLORES STREET COMMUNITY PARK

Friends of Flores Park West Hollywood Today

I believe community input and engagement is so important when it comes to urban development— thank you Henry for covering this story. I wish more consideration was given to the neighbors’ voices that live on these streets…if our voices are indeed heard, then what is the determining decision based on? Cali

West Hollywood Friends Of Flores Park

We are asking the City of West Hollywood to purchase the property at 1216 North Flores Street to open a community park that demonstrates sustainable garden practices for local residents and wildlife.