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L.A. County supervisor
calls for study into courthouse parking
Wednesday, October 06, 2004, By Alison Shackelford
Copley News Service
Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke on Tuesday called
for a parking study at the Airport Courthouse, one day before the county
Planning Commission is scheduled to consider a nearby apartment complex
that many local residents say will make parking in the area worse.
The study will seek to address parking concerns in the Del Aire
neighborhood, perhaps by increasing the number of spaces at the
courthouse, as well as cutting prices to avoid discouraging people from
using the courthouse parking, Burke said.
"We have just had many complaints about the cost of parking there and
the non-availablility of reasonable parking," she said.
But John Koppelman, a Del Aire resident who has organized hundreds of
community members in a fight to keep a 450-unit apartment complex from
being built in the neighborhood, called Burke's efforts too little, too
late.
If the parking study had come sooner, he said, it might have given more
weight to residents' arguments that the apartment complex will add to the
problem of overflow parking from the courthouse, which already clogs local
streets, he said.
As it is, the Planning Commission is scheduled to make its final decision
on the apartment project today, then pass the issue on to the Board of
Supervisors, Koppelman complained. Burke's parking study isn't due back
for three months.
"She's listening, but too late," Koppelman said. "She's
covering herself, that's my read on it."
But Mike Bohlke, assistant chief deputy to Burke, said the supervisor had
moved to conduct a study as quickly as possible after recently learning
about the neighborhood's concerns. Letters complaining about the apartment
complex brought up existing troubles with the courthouse, as did a recent
public hearing attended by hundreds of residents.
To help address residents' concerns, the parking study will also examine
how the proposed apartment complex could affect parking at the courthouse,
Burke said.
Julie Vogel, who has also been active in mobilizing Del Aire residents
against the apartment building, said she would like to see Burke's office
put more effort into stopping the apartment complex.
"The county should take care of the problems that already exist
rather than making new problems," Vogel said. "If they already
see a problem with parking from the courthouse, it's not going to go away
with the addition of 450 apartment units." |