On Saturday, we reported that the Hancock Park Homeowners Association had entered the city council mapping conversation, with a suggested map that – unlike others presented so far – would include the full Greater Wilshire area with communities of interest to the west, in what would likely be Council District 5 instead of its longtime placement with communities to the north and east in CD 4. This was based, said HPHOA president Cindy Chvatal-Keane, on shared characteristics with those more westerly areas, such as single family zoning, religious institutions and communities of interest (including large Jewish communities), and designated historic neighborhoods.
Later on Saturday, however, the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission released its own set of new draft plans I-K, including two maps of particular interest to our general Greater Wilshire area.
The first of those maps, Draft Plan I, Map M, includes a visualization of a suggestion made by CD 4-appointed redistricting commissioner Alexandra Suh to join both the Greater Wilshire area and a newly united Koreatown area in the same council district instead of splitting them between two or more districts, as previous proposals had suggested. Suh’s suggestion was intended to eliminate controversy about where the border between the two neighborhoods should be drawn – either at Western Ave., as the city has officially defined it, or at Wilton Place as a group called the Koreatown Redistricting Taskforce has requested. That dispute would be rendered moot if both areas were included in the same city council district. This proposal would place the western border of what would likely be City Council District 4 La Brea Ave. on the west, and and the southern border at Olympic Blvd., and then move northeast up through Koreatown and East Hollywood to also include Echo Park and Silverlake, as shown below.
The second map of interest in this latest set of plans is based more on community comments heard at the last redistricting commission meeting on Tuesday, September 23, at which Chvatal-Keane first made her request to move the Greater Wilshire area into the more western-oriented district that will likely be the new CD 5. This idea was included in the city’s new Plan K, District J, below, which located most of the Greater Wilshire neighborhoods in the likely CD 5, but kept Windsor Square and other neighborhoods along the Greater Wilshire area’s eastern border in what will likely be CD 4.
On Sunday, however, the redistricting commission sent out a correction notice, saying, “On Saturday, September 25, the LACCRC posted a Map Plan K that was developed by Commission Staff. Unfortunately, after that Map Plan was posted, a technical mistake was discovered that splits the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council such that Windsor Square is in a different district. This was not intended and the Map Plan has now been corrected. ”
The new version of “Corrected Plan K,” with its corrected District J map, can be now be found at  https://mcusercontent.com/c1bb41af0551e4d30a5b74fa1/files/0eb068dc-420f-c66a-7be2-2805eb68c318/City_of_LA_RP_Draft_Plan_K_Corrected.01.pdf And this map does indeed locate the (almost) the full Greater Wilshire neighborhood council area, with its official eastern border one block west of Western Ave., with other neighborhoods in the likely CD 5 area, as shown here:
After the Draft Plan K Corrected Map J was released, the HPHOA endorsed that map, and put out a call to area neighbors to attend tonight’s continuation of the redistricting commission mapping meeting, and asking stakeholders to speak up on behalf of that option…with several other local neighborhood associations, including Windsor Square and Larchmont Village, signing on with support as well.
This morning, we learned that a group called Laurel Canyon United has also officially supported the Corrected Plan K over earlier plans, because unlike previous proposals, this one unites Laurel Canyon neighborhoods on both sides of Laurel Canyon Blvd. in a single city council district, which other proposals did not.
But of course, nothing in this process is without controversy…and we also learned this morning that the Bel Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council has objected to the way the Plan K Corrected maps divide its territory, recommending alternate approaches outlined in a set of maps the group submitted earlier this month – Maps # 47000, 47001, and 47002. (Note that the last of these does show the BABCNC area in geographic context amid surrounding districts, including the GWNC area, but according to the map submission letter from the BABCNC, the wider view is for context only, and it does not make recommendations for any areas beyond the actual BABNC boundaries.)
So the discussion continues…both among neighbors, neighborhoods, and at today’s redistricting commission meeting, which will start this afternoon at 4 p.m., via Zoom. This is actually the third session of a single meeting that convened last Monday, and continued on Tuesday, so although public comments will be taken, as before, at the start of the meeting, only people who did not speak at one of those two earlier sessions will be allowed to speak at this session. Also, it’s worth noting that there is limited time allowed for public comment at each of these sessions, and there will be many more people who would like to speak than time for speakers. So if you would like to comment at the meeting – in favor of a specific plan, in opposition to a specific plan, or in any other way – be sure to log in as early as possible, and raise your hand as soon as it is allowed.
The commission’s goal at today’s meeting is to conclude discussion of the mapping alternatives, so a final choice can be presented at its next meeting on Thursday, September 30.
[This article was updated after its initial publication to correct and clarify the BABCNC’s map requests.]
