July Newsbites

In This Issue—

* RRES Stop Signs
* Agricultural Land in Bel Air Hills
* Electrical Transformer at New School
* Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project
* I-405 Caltrans Re-pavement Project
* Library Strategic Plan
* Good Neighbor Policy

***Stop Signs at Roscomare Road Elementary School (RRES)***  The safety of children and their parents during school hours at RRES has been of great concern to the community over many past years. Efforts of the RRES Principal, concerned parents of the school children, and our Council District 5 office, resulted in the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, Western District, conducting a traffic study to improve pedestrian safety at RRES. The study concluded as follows: 

"That stop signs, along with all appropriate signs, pavement markings, and red curb zones be authorized for installation to control northbound and southbound traffic on Roscomare Road and eastbound traffic from the Roscomare Road Elementary School southern egress driveway at 2425 Roscomare Road, thereby establishing all-way stop sign control at this intersection. (L.A.M.C. Sections 80.07, 80.08.2, 80.21 and 80.55)"

Recently, 3-way stop signs were installed at the exit driveway opposite from the parking entrance to RRES. Hopefully, a safer environment has been created for school children and their families. However, that safer environment will depend upon members of our community, as well as others, complying with the new stop signs.

***Agricultural Land in Bel Air Hills***  BAHA members and residents may not be aware that there are some parcels of land on the east side of Stradella Road and upper Roscomare Road that are zoned A-1, Agricultural. These parcels are located between the land owned by LADWP at the bottom of Stone Canyon (i.e., the reservoirs and adjacent land) and the homes at the top along the east side of Stradella Road and Roscomare Road. It is our understanding that these A-1 parcels were originally part of LADWP land, but were sold off by LADWP to private owners. Also, these A-1 parcels do not always line up with the residential lots above, so that one A-1 parcel can extend beneath several of these lots. 

BAHA and the Bel Air/Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council believe that these agricultural lots should remain as open space in the Stone Canyon area and are working with the City Zoning Administrators to ensure that any new development restricts building on these sites.

You can check to see if there is an A-1, Agricultural, lot beneath your house by logging into the City of Los Angeles ZIMAS site, and putting in your address: https://zimas.lacity.org/.

***Electrical Transformer at Canyon Crest School***  The BAHA Board has become aware of an electrical transformer that is proposed for the new Canyon Crest School located at the site of the old Bel Air Foods Market. The Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&R’s) that govern most of the residential lots in our area do not apply to the commercial properties. Also, LADWP is significantly involved in the location of the transformer. However, BAHA has reached out to the school for more information to confirm the location, and to be able to advocate that all safeguards and safety protocols are followed in the installation. 

***Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project***   Metro has issued a Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project. The Draft EIR and related files in PDF format can be found at  Draft EIR Folder. The 90-day comment period will end on August 30, 2025. Comments will be accepted throughout the comment period online, via email, project hotline and U.S. Mail as follows:

• Comment Form
• Email: [email protected]
• Project Hotline: 213.922.7375
• U.S. Mail: Peter Cater, Metro, One Gateway Plaza, MS 99-22-6, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Public information sessions will be held in July and public hearings to accept verbal and written public comments will be held in August. 

***Caltrans I-405 Re-pavement Project***  Just a reminder of the I-405 Pavement Rehabilitation Project between Van Nuys and Westwood along the Sepulveda Pass; according to Caltrans, “this project will apply about $143.7 million to improve the safety and mobility along I-405 between Van Nuys and Westwood as well as sustainably extend the pavement”. There will be intermittent closure of lanes at night and full closures on some weekends. For example, from Monday, July 7 through Friday, July 11 up to two lanes of northbound and southbound I-405 between Wilshire Boulevard and Mulholland Drive/Skirball Center Drive will experience intermittent closures between 9:00 pm and 6:00 am. Saturday, July 12, the same intermittent closures will occur on up to two lanes of northbound I-405 between Wilshire Boulevard and Mulholland Drive/Skirball Center Drive. If you are not currently receiving email notifications about the project, you can sign up here:  Sign up

***Los Angeles Public Library Strategic Plan***  Our Councilwoman, Katy Yaroslavsky, has encouraged members of the community to respond to the Library’s community survey to ensure that the future reflects our community’s needs and aspirations. Completing the survey will also provide you with a chance to win a $200 gift card: https://gensler.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9yOxduGYgGbEReu 

***Good Neighbor Policy***  We live in a wonderful area of mountains and canyons and are blessed with the unique beauty of the natural environment that surrounds us. As a community, we need to protect this special area as well as to watch out for each other by being considerate neighbors. In that regard, please remember to respect our neighborhood and wildlife by putting out your trash cans on the day before pickup, and bringing them back in as soon as possible after pickup. Also, keep the street facing portion of your property neat and attractive, so that together our area remains a beautiful oasis in the middle of the large city in which we live.