Mother Nature is always good for a surprise.  Just when you think you have her figured out, she throws you a new curve.  Such is the case with wildflowers.  What makes one year a better bloom year than others? Winter rainfall, no doubt, is a big part of the story, but it also depends upon what months the rain comes down and whether it saturated the ground deeply over a sustained period of time.  On the flip-side, some plants bloom more with below-average rainfall.

The May 2007 Griffith Park Fire may have been a factor in this year’s spectacular bloom of some the species in Griffith Park.  The smoke was everywhere, both in the burn area and outside the burn area.  The smoke was sustained and significant.  It’s well documented that smoke stimulates shoots and runners in some plants which can result in blooms that may not happen otherwise.  It seems as though native lilies species may have had especially favorable stimulation to bloom this spring, maybe because of last year’s fire!  It is also well-documented that some species are capable of producing a second, alternative type of seed which only germinates when stimulated by heat.  Biologically speaking, it’s called “dimorphism”.  Pretty neat trick, Mother Nature!

Please read Gerry Hans' photo-journal of his favorite five flowers of this spring in Griffith Park here.

In the twinkling of an eye, the long-labored-over Interim Control Ordinance for The Oaks passed in City Council today, Wednesday April 9th.  The vote happened so quickly that Blake Kendrick of the Planning Department missed it.  Blake, who with Kevin Keller, wrote the Ordinance, stepped outside Council Chambers to take a quick phone call and when she got back, it was all over.  Wayne Schlock, Oaks resident and our zoning advisor, who helped put together the survey of existing homes in our neighborhood and design the Ordinance, arrived at Council five minutes late and also missed the vote.  But Gerry Hans, Rainer Standke and Bob Young, of your Oaks Association Board, were in their seats in the Council Chambers in City Hall, poised to speak on behalf of the Ordinance, Item 13 on the day’s agenda.  Suddenly it came up for a vote, lumped together with several other items, there were ten “Yes” votes, no “No” votes and it was over.  Not quite the big splash we had anticipated but a Yes vote is a Yes vote.  The measure now goes to the Mayor’s office for his signature and then, after a waiting period of a couple of weeks, it’s an official Ordinance.

After the vote, Gerry, Rainer, Bob and Wayne went up to the fourth floor office of Councilman Tom LaBonge to find Renee Weitzer, the Councilman’s Chief of Staff and thank her for her effective support of the Oaks ICO for the past three years.   Renee was very pleased to hear the news – she had the Council hearing on her office TV set but had missed it, too.

It was a brief, but an important moment for The Oaks as all of us seek a way to preserve the character of our neighborhood.  But the ICO is only a temporary measure and now that it has been passed by Council, the Planning Department must start the work of developing permanent regulations on development for The Oaks.   That work will certainly occupy them for quite some time.  Stay tuned to this website for updates on the process.

On March 25th the Oaks Interim Control Ordinance moved ahead one more step. The City Council's Planning and Land Use Management subcomittee had previously approved of the proposed ordinance and referred it to the City Attorney's office for legal vetting. The result was a relatively minor change in the wording, mainly concerning the effective date of the ordinance. To read the full text of the revised ordinance please click here. The next and final hurdle the ordinance has to clear is approval by the City Council. It should be on the Council agenda some time in the near future.

Today, on March 21, 2008, the City of Los Angeles’ Board pf Public Works recommended that the City’s Department of Building and Safety suspend the issuance of all building permits for two of the four lots on Live Oaks East where clear-cutting of trees protected by the city’s Native Tree Ordinance occurred in June of 2006 (the two other lots had been purchased by neighbors and will not be developed). While the Native Tree Ordinance allows as penalty for violation a maximum building moratorium of ten years, the staff recommendation was for only five years, beginning in June of 2006. This recommendation was based on the opinion that the property owner had not necessarily had any intent to break the law, a contention supported by the owner and her attorney at the hearing today. Councilman Tom LaBonge, appearing at the hearing, asked the commissioners to suspend any permits for the full ten years to set the right precedent, since this case is the first one to be brought before the Board under the Native Tree Ordinance. His request was echoed by a long string of speakers, with current and past Oaks HOA presidents, neighbors and an emissary from the Los Feliz Improvement Association among them. The Commission’s deliberations then yielded unambiguous support for a ten year moratorium in its recommendation to Building and Safety which will now take up the matter in a hearing of its own.

As they have done every year for the last half decade, seven intrepid members of the Oaks Homeowners Association Board put on smart black aprons and became waiters-for-a-night at Vermont Restaurant. It was Tuesday night, March 18th -- Oaks Night at Vermont with a special three-course menu of beautifully prepared sea bass or barbequed ribs or mushroom ravioli or braised oxtails or... oh my gosh, what were the other two? There were six entrees, but it so hard to remember them all, especially when you were a novice waiter with five tables of hungry Oaks neighbors waiting for the next course. ... [continued here]

As they do every March, Oaks residents met in the upper cafeteria of Immaculate Heart High School to review the news and events of the past year in the Oaks.  Here are a few highlights of the meeting.

Beginning with the most important stuff first… Little Dom’s (newly opened on Hillhurst) provided a light dinner of fried rice balls (with a heart of creamy burrata cheese) and grilled artichokes.  Yum.

After folks had some food to stoke their furnaces, our new President, Bob Young, opened the meeting with words of thanks to immediate past president Gerry Hans for three years of extraordinary dedication to The Oaks and great results in both in advocating for our neighborhood with the City and in preserving the character of The Oaks for the future.  Then Bob gave a brief report on the association’s activities in 2007, which included working for the enactment of the Interim Control Ordinance that will stop “mansionization.”  Bob was able to report that the City Attorney’s Office had finally signed off on the ordinance and that he is hopeful it will go to the city council soon. ... [continued here]

Oaks board members Gerry Hans and Bob Young attended the Board of Public Works’ hearing on Friday, January 4th at City Hall at which the Board considered the application for removal of four protected oak trees at 5898 Lorae Place by the builder of the new house currently under construction there, Castle Management.   Gerry and Bob were joined by Doug Mensman and Jullian Harris-Calvin of Council District 4.

First the background:  The Native Tree Ordinance, adopted by the City to protect oak and walnut trees such as the ones in the Lorae Place application, was passed April 6th of 2006.  Castle Management’s building permits and documents for 5898 Lorae Place are dated April 23, 2006 or later.  In August of 2007, during the construction process, Castle cut down two of the four large native oak trees on the property – without having applied for a permit to do so, as is required by the Ordinance.  At that time, The Oaks Homeowners Association was told that the two remaining oak trees were to remain, and in fact Castle was asked by the City to place protective fencing around them.  ... [continued here]

On December 18, 2007 residents of The Oaks, HollywoodLand, the Eastwood Coalition, Franklin Avenue and the flats of Hollywood attended a community  meeting to see drawings and designs for the proposed new Fire Station 82 at Hollywood and Van Ness and for the renovation of the existing FS 82 on Bronson Avenue.

Rory Fitzpatrick of Council District 4 opened the meeting, introducing Allan Kawaguchi from the Department of Engineering.  Mr. Kawaguchi then moderated the meeting, introducing representatives from the Fire Department, the Planning Department, the Cultural Affairs Department as well as two architects from the firm that has designed the new fire station. ... [continued here]

At 7 pm, Sunday, November 25th, at the DWP “Walking Only” Light Festival, the Zoo parking lot was wide open and there was absolutely no traffic delay on the freeway or getting into the parking area. In fact, “oodles and gobs” of parking was available at the Zoo lots at this time. Also, all of the Autry parking lots were empty, although the attendants directed everyone into the Zoo lot. In contrast, folks parking south of the Festival route reported traffic congestion all the way from Los Feliz Blvd, resulting in a time delay of 25 minutes between 6:30 and 7:30. ... [continued here]

You've read about the proposed ICO here, you've read about it in our newsletter, you went to the workshop in April, and you've heard about it from your neighbors. But you have never seen it? No?

Well, that's about to change - if you click here. You'll see a pdf document of the Draft Version of the ICO as it stands now. We have compiled a list of Questions and Answers about the ICO to help clarify its language. The Q&A list is availabe here.

The last hurdle still to be cleared is approval by the City Council which is expected to occur relatively soon. As implied by the word "interim", this ordinance will only be in effect for a short period of time (between 12 and 24 months, to be exact). During that time the Department of City Planning will work on a set of permanent regulations to restrict out-of-scale building - what is commonly known as "mansionization" - in the Oaks. There will be ample opportunity for input from the community and for public comment. 

On September 18th, the Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) of the City of Los Angeles considered, among many other items, The Oaks’ Interim Control Ordinance (ICO). At the hearing, planners Blake Kendrick and Kevin Keller of the Community Planning Bureau presented the basis for the ICO (the Oaks neighborhood’s desire to control out-of-scale development) along with their research into the character and size of all the existing homes in The Oaks and the Ordinance they designed to preserve that character. ...  [continued here]

Many of you have seen the DWP work crews around the Oaks off and on since early this spring. As announced at our annual meeting in March, the DWP is upgrading the electrical system in the neighborhood in several phases. We asked The DWP’s Transmission & Distribution District Supervisor, Jay Puklavetz, for an update.

The focus right now is on the high-voltage lines that feed the four distribution circuits the homes in the Oaks are connected to. While each of those circuits has its own supply lines, they can also interconnect. This means if there’s a problem with the supply in one circuit it can be fed from another direction. ...  [continued here]

It's been nearly a year and a half since Friday, June 23th, 2006, when Oaks residents discovered a tree service crew illegally cutting down protected mature Oak and Walnut trees on four contiguous empty lots on Live Oak East.  More neighbors were summoned, and the police were called.  The tree cutting was stopped but only after a number of trees had been destroyed. The City Attorney is, as of this date, still considering charges against the tree service and against the owner of the lots and their representative for their roles in cutting down protected oak and walnut trees on the lot.  If charges were filed, this would be the first case involving the new Protected Trees Ordinance to go before the courts. ...  [continued here]