The Oaks Annual Meeting was held on Monday, March 12th at the   Immaculate Heart High School Cafeteria.  About fifty Oaks neighbors attended and were greeted by a selection of very tasty food donated by the new Little Dom's restaurant which is set to open soon on 2128 Hillhurst Ave, where La Belle Epoque used to be.

Oaks President Gerry Hans opened the meeting with a brief overview of issues the Oaks Board has worked on during the past year, particularly the Griffith Park Master Plan, the liquor license application for the Griffith Observatory, and the proposal to make the Annual Festival of Lights in Griffith Park a pedestrian-friendly event. The Board of Directors of the Oaks Homeowners Association was introduced and then re-confirmed for the upcoming year.

Neighbor and friend of the Oaks, Wayne Schlock next gave background on the proposed Interim Control Ordinance (ICO) that could limit new out-of-scale construction in the Oaks. The ICO is a temporary measure (in effect for only one year with the possibility of a second year extension), designed to slow down large-scale development while the City's Planning Department works on permanent regulations. The ICO would deal with size of home relative to lot size, and would not in any way govern architectural styles or other aesthetic matters.

Wayne introduced Blake Kendrick and Kevin Keller from the Planning Department who are designing the ICO and conducting a Neighborhood Study intended to lead to more long-term solutions for over-development. Blake pointed out that there exist in The Oaks many sub-standard lots created more than fifty years ago that would not be legal residential lots were they created today but that are “grandfathered in.” The Interim Ordinance could be in effect as early as late spring or early summer of 2007. On Tuesday, April 10th, a workshop will be held at the Auditorium of Immaculate Heart High School at which representatives from the Planning Department and our Council Office will be discussing the proposed ICO. All Oaks residents will receive an invitation from the City by mail. See the invitation mailer here.

Patty Malone and Doug Mensman then spoke for Councilman Tom LaBonge who was unable to attend the meeting due to other commitments. Patty and Doug told us that a hearing in front of the Board of Public Works should be scheduled soon to deal with the illegal destruction of native oak trees from lots on Live Oaks East last year. They confirmed that Council District 4 favors the maximum possible punishment under the Oak Tree Ordinance. The hearing represents only the civil side of any prosecution and it is up to the City Attorney to decide if there will be a criminal prosecution.

The last major item on the agenda was the upgrade to our electrical power system that had been promised by DWP to Oaks residents last fall. Winifred Yancy from the DWP introduced Andrew Sparks, the Electrical Service Manager, who’s overseeing the upgrades in and around The Oaks. There are several crews working in our neighborhood currently and to date the work is slightly ahead of schedule. The electrical overhaul actually consists of a number of smaller projects, some of which are temporary in nature and only necessary to keep the juice flowing while infrastructure is rebuilt. To that end, underground lines will be put above ground temporarily. Mrs. Yancy and Mr. Sparks apologized for power outages The Oaks has experienced over the last few years and were hopeful that things will run much more smoothly this coming summer. They pointed out that last summer, over-heated transformers had no chance to cool off over night, because the nights were so hot. The major point of failure was an underground facility near Franklin and Western. Oaks residents will be kept up to date with information about the power upgrades from Mr. Sparks through The Oaks website and occasional email notifications from DWP through our homeowners association. (To sign up for email notification, please send an email to announcements@oakshome.org.) Since the meeting Mr. Sparks has followed up with an email to the Oaks HOA. Read it here.

The meeting concluded as Board Member Jeff Copans handed out copies of the new Neighborhood Watch Manual. Jeff announced there will be a meeting to set up a Neighborhood Watch. Stay tuned to this site for announcements.