After much planning and work the HPHOA’s new website is up and running - https://hancockparkhomeownersassociation.org/ !  This new website gives us the ability to post more information and provide a more interactive experience.

Start out by looking at the photographs scrolling through that show some of the beautiful houses in Hancock Park.  Then look at the pull-down menus that alert you to important news; help you contact either the Association or Councilman Ryu’s Office; Provide updates and information  on Filming Guidelines, Parkway Trees, Streets and Sidewalks, the Highland Median and the John Burroughs Renovation;  and A Safety and Security Pulldown.  There’s also information about our HPOZ and an online means to pay your dues.

This is a big step forward in the Association’s efforts to keep Hancock Park residents informed and provide opportunities to participate so take a minute, visit the site and let us know what you think.

Our thanks go to long-time web wrangler Greg Glasser for keeping the previous website up, running and up to date with important information.  Thanks also go to Jennifer DeVore and Cindy Chvatal for researching and helping to build the new website.  And, Greg will continue managing the new site as well as being on our Association’s Board of Directors.

Remember that the holidays are a prime time for opportunistic crime, so be careful and lock your doors, your car doors, and keep the outdoor lights on.  If you are the unfortunate victim of a crime, be sure and file a police report by contacting Officer Dave Cordova.  Call his cell phone, 213-793-0650 or send him an email, 31646@lapd.lacity.org with all the information, including your name and telephone number.  

If you plan to change your landscaping or make changes to the exterior of your house please contact our City Planner, Kimberly Henry (kimberly.henry@lacity.org) before starting to make sure your plans comply with our Preservation Plan.  The HPOZ Preservation Plan, which regulates our HPOZ can be found at http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park   There is also an online form you can fill out to help speed up the process (http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening.checklist).  Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System - http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm?CFID=1007&CFTOKEN=411CDB4F-0FC3-4EE1-89DE58DCCB435538 and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180. 

Thanks for Joining Us at the Annual Meeting 

The Association’s annual meeting was a great success and we thank everyone who participated and attended. In particular we thank the staff of 3rd Street Elementary School for hosting the meeting, the representatives of the Council Office and the LAPD for attending and answering questions. And most of all though we thank our members for attending and for continuing to work hard making Hancock Park the great place it is. 

The Association also elected Tim Allyn, Martin Beck, Greg Glasser, Peter Gorelick, Susan Grossman, William Newby, Cami Taylor, Jon Vein, and James Wolf as members of the Board of Directors. All members of the Board of Directors chair and participate in the Association’s committee work. Any Association member, meaning any Hancock Park resident, can also serve on a committee and we ask you to consider doing so. Just a few areas our committees work is planting trees, pushing the city to fix our concrete streets, manage filming, and preserving our historic neighborhood. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but steady work keeps progress happening. So think about and contact us via the website. 

And speaking of the website, we’ve got a new one and it’s fantastic. Take a look and tell us what you think: https://hphae1.wildapricot.org/ The website is one of the many things your dues pay for. 

Remember - if you plan to change your landscaping or make changes to the exterior of your house please contact our City Planner, Kimberly Henry (kimberly.henry@lacity.org) to make sure your plans comply with our Preservation Plan. The HPOZ Preservation Plan, which regulates our HPOZ can be found at http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park There is also an online form you can fill out to help speed up the process (http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening.checklist) Remember to and lock your car, secure your house and, if you are the unfortunate victim of a crime, be sure and file a police report by contacting Officer Dave Cordova. Call his cell phone, 213-793-0650 or send him an email, 31646@lapd.lacity.org with all the information, including your name and telephone number. Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System - http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm?CFID=1007&CFTOKEN=411CDB4F-0FC3-4EE1-89DE58DCCB435538 and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180.

Please join us on Tuesday, October 24 at 7 PM at Third Street School for our homeowners association annual meeting. We will have updates on security, trees, historic preservation, development and other fascinating topics. If you have paid dues for the year, you will receive a ballot for HPHA Board elections in the mail after September 15. See you there!

As part of the Sidewalks LA Repair Program and to bring our sidewalks into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) the city is evaluating our parkway trees. If a tree is determined to be dead or dying (with no prospect of recovery), or if the tree is tearing up the sidewalk such that the sidewalk isn’t accessible and there is no safe way to trim the tree’s roots, the city will initiate the process for removing the tree. As part of this process the tree is evaluated by a city arborist, the Department of Historic Resources and the HPOZ Board review the analysis, the Council Office consults with the Association and the Association has our arborist do a second evaluation. This is to ensure that every possible effort will be taken to save the tree. If a tree must be removed it will be replaced.

There has been some misunderstanding recently that the City is engaged in wholesale tree removal without review or input and that’s not the case. Last year, in the process of doing much needed tree trimming, the City took it upon themselves to cut down trees that many of us believed were salvageable. The Association, the Council Office, the Department of Historic Resources and the HPOZ Board, and the City’s Department of Urban Forestry have worked together to develop a process where no parkway tree is removed unless it is unavoidable for safety reasons.

If you do know of a dangerous sidewalk and want an immediate repair or if you’re disabled and there is a broken sidewalk call 311 or file a request at the Safe Sidewalks LA website – http://sidewalks.lacity.org/

So, if you plan to change your landscaping or make changes to the exterior of your house please contact our City Planner, Kimberly Henry (kimberly.henry@lacity.org) to make sure your plans comply with our Preservation Plan. The HPOZ Preservation Plan, which regulates our HPOZ can be found at http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park. There is also an online form you can fill out to help speed up the process: http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening.checklist

Unfortunately, crime continues to be a problem so be sure and lock your car, secure your house and, if you are the unfortunate victim of a crime, be sure and file a police report by contacting Officer Dave Cordova. Call his cell phone, 213-793-0650 or send him an email, 31646@lapd.lacity.org with all the information, including your name and telephone number. 

Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System – http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm?CFID=1007&CFTOKEN=411CDB4F-0FC3-4EE1-89DE58DCCB435538 and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180.

Councilman David Ryu has successfully proposed that $800,000 be included in the Fiscal Year 2017-2018 City Budget for repairing our concrete, with concrete. Thanks go to the Association’s Street Committee: William Newby, Tim Allyn, Jon Vein, Cindy Chvatal and Jim Wolf for tirelessly pushing the City to follow its own regulations. The Hancock Park Preservation Plan explicitly calls out that our concrete streets be maintained.

A few years ago the City had started repaving concrete streets in our area with asphalt. As we all know the asphalt looks good for about a year and then pot holes start forming, the ground becomes uneven, and the streets are actually in worse shape than they were before being covered with asphalt. Concrete lasts for at least 50 years; Hancock Park’s streets were paved in the 1920’s so we’re coming up on a 100 year anniversary, and many of these ancient streets are in better shape the newly paved asphalt ones.

Los Angeles is a big and diverse city and it is often difficult to get a focus on the specific issues of a small area. This is where your Homeowners Association plays its part. By pushing, demanding, investigating and more pushing the Streets Committee was successful in challenging the original, highly overinflated numbers estimated by the City, forced the City engineers to do some real analysis and design work and encouraged our Council Office to support this effort. Remember, don’t give up; dig in!

The block captains met at Marlborough School and one of the biggest items was safety. Crime is up and the best defense is our block captain network. Do you know your block captain? If not, contact the Association and we’ll let you know. If your block doesn’t have a block captain please consider becoming one. An alert network of homeowners keeps crime down. If you are the unfortunate victim of a crime, be sure and file a police report by contacting Officer Dave Cordova. Call his cell phone, 213-793-0650 or send him an email, 31646@lapd.lacity.org with all the information, including your name and telephone number.

The HPOZ Preservation Plan — http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park regulates our HPOZ. Contact our City Planner, Kimberly Henry (kimberly.henry@lacity.org) and use the online form (http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening.checklist) if you plan on making changes to the exterior of your house. Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System – http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm?CFID=1007&CFTOKEN=411CDB4F-0FC3-4EE1-89DE58DCCB435538 and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180.

The RFP for repaving McCadden Place from Beverly Blvd to 3rd Street has been issued and bids for the construction will be in soon. This construction will not only repair and repave McCadden Place, but repair the concrete curbs that are broken, install curb cuts in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities act (ADA), adjust maintenance holes and water meters and repair concrete aprons. This is the first step in evaluating the response, cost and competence of private firms. For information about the status of this RFP see website: http://www.labavn.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=contract.opportunity_view&recordid=29502.

There have been a increasing number of home burglaries including the ransacking of a car in a garage, and the robbing of a house while the owners were out to dinner. Many of these homes had security systems, but weren’t turned. Please remember, if you have a security system, turn on your alarm. If you leave your house be sure it is locked and secured; even if you’re only running a short errand. Be aware of any suspicious activity and call 911 if you think there may be a problem. If you are the unfortunate victim of a crime, be sure and file a police report. This enables the LAPD to assign precious resources to our neighborhood. Contact Officer Dave Cordova if you are a victim of a crime and Dave can take a crime report. Call his cell phone, 213-793-0650 or send him an email, 31646@lapd.lacity.org with all the information, including your name and telephone number.

You can pay your dues on the Association’s website at: http://www.hancockparkhomeownersassociation.org/ ! Those homeowners who have paid their dues by June 1st are eligible to vote in the Association’s elections and run for office.

The HPOZ Preservation Plan -http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park regulates our HPOZ. Contact our City Planner, Kimberly Henry (kimberly.henry@lacity.org) and use the online form (http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening.checklist) if you plan on making changes to the exterior of your house. Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System – http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm?CFID=1007&CFTOKEN=411CDB4F-0FC3-4EE1-89DE58DCCB435538 and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180.
Updating the City’s General Plan – https://ourla2040.org/

In 1974, as a result of federal funding, the City of Los Angeles passed an ordinance placing the obligation for maintaining sidewalks on the City. Years have gone by, funding has disappeared and our sidewalks are now often obstacle courses. In 2016 the City Council and mayor approved the Safe Sidewalks LA repair program. This program will ultimately review and, if needed, repair all the sidewalks in Los Angeles. After the review is done and the repairs, if necessary, are made the City will provide maintenance for the sidewalks for 20 years. After that the property owner will be responsible for sidewalk maintenance.

If you have a sidewalk that needs repair and you are willing to pay for the repairs, there is a rebate program where you can be reimbursed up to $2,000. The first step to getting your sidewalk repaired is to go to the Safe Sidewalks LA website – http://sidewalks.lacity.org/ and fill out a request. Select the Rebate Program and fill out a request. You can also call 311 to file a request. If you know of a dangerous sidewalk and want an immediate repair or if you’re disabled and there is a broken sidewalk use the options on the website for reporting these locations. In these cases, the repairs will usually be temporary asphalt patching.

Don’t forget to VOTE on March 7th! One of the most important items on the ballot is Measure S, which deals with growth in our city. Please get informed and VOTE! A good place to start your research is site: Ballotpedia – https://ballotpedia.org/Los_Angeles,_California,_Changes_to_Laws_Governing_the_General_Plan_and_Development,_Measure_S_(March_2017)#Overview

Safety is still an issue so lock your house, car and activate your house alarm if you have one. Contact Officer Dave Cordova if you are a victim of a crime and Dave can take a crime report. Call his cell phone, 213-793-0650 or send him an email, 31646@lapd.lacity.org with all the information, including your name and telephone number. The Association’s website is: http://www.hancockparkhomeownersassociation.org/ . The HPOZ Preservation Plan -http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park regulates our HPOZ. Contact our City Planner, Kimberly Henry (kimberly.henry@lacity.org) and use the online form (http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening.checklist) if you plan on making changes to the exterior of your house. Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System – http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm?CFID=1007&CFTOKEN=411CDB4F-0FC3-4EE1-89DE58DCCB435538 and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180.

The Neighborhood Integrity Initiative (Measure S) on the March 7th ballot will ask Los Angeles voters to make a big decision about which direction development should or shouldn’t take. Measure S would: 1) Establish a temporary ban on all development projects requiring zoning that lifts land-use restrictions or increases permitted building heights and ban zoning changes that increase the allowed density or height of buildings or a net loss of land dedicated to open space, agriculture, or industry; 2) Prohibit project specific amendments to the city’s General Plan; 3) Require a public review process for the City’s General Plan every five years; 4) Require that environmental impact reviews be done by city staff, and 5) Limit reduction of on-site parking requirements for development by no more than one third. There are exemptions for some types of affordable housing developments and natural disaster reconstruction.

Opponents argue that the development process is transparent and open to citizen input and that Measure S would severely limit housing construction to the detriment of renters, businesses and the city. This measure reflects many residents’ frustration with what seems like out of control development, particularly in Hollywood. However, there are reasonable arguments on both sides and it is up to us, the citizens of Los Angeles, to carefully consider the measures proposed and decide if this is the right course of action. A good place to start your research is site: Ballotpedia – https://ballotpedia.org/Los_Angeles,_California,_Changes_to_Laws_Governing_the_General_Plan_and_Development,_Measure_S_(March_2017)#Overview , which lays out both sides of the argument and has links to further information.

Don’t forget to keep you and your family safe. Lock your lock your house, car and activate your house alarm if you have one. Contact Officer Dave Cordova if you are a victim of a crime and Dave can take a crime report. Call his cell phone, 213-793-0650 or send him an email, 31646@lapd.lacity.org with all the information, including your name and telephone number. The Association’s website is: http://www.hancockparkhomeownersassociation.org/ . The HPOZ Preservation Plan -http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park regulates our HPOZ. Contact our City Planner, Kimberly Henry (kimberly.henry@lacity.org) and use the online form (http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening.checklist) if you plan on making changes to the exterior of your house. Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System – http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm?CFID=1007&CFTOKEN=411CDB4F-0FC3-4EE1-89DE58DCCB435538 and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180.

The Association has been working with the City on figuring out what happened when the City started trimming our street trees and ended up removing a large number of trees. Hancock Park is an HPOZ and as such our street forest is protected. Any removal of a street tree in the parkway section of our streets need to be reviewed by the HPOZ Board; something the City did not do. Now, however, the City has agreed to follow its own rules and will not be removing any more trees unless an arborist reviews the decision and the HPOZ board agrees. The tree trimming will resume in the near future. This time, though, they’d trim one block, the Association’s arborist will check the work and determine the job is correct before the crews continue trimming.
As part of our reforesting effort the Association’s Tree Committee has been investigating different varieties of our existing street tree species to find cultivars that are better adapted to the challenging circumstances in our parkways. As many of us have removed grass to install water saving landscapes, the watering of parkway trees has often been forgotten. This means our street trees are suffering a double whammy: less watering from homeowners and extreme drought and heat conditions. As a homeowner you can help by being sure your trees are well watered.

The City has a new contractor to maintain the Highland median and we’re still in the evaluation period as to whether the contractor is doing their job. The Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council has sponsored an asphalt truck to do spot fixes in asphalt paving. If you see a pothole in an asphalt street, let your block captain know or contact the Association.

Don’t forget to keep you and your family safe by locking your house, car and activate your house alarm if you have one. Contact Officer Dave Cordova if you are a victim of a crime and Dave can take a crime report. Call his cell phone, 213-793-0650 or send him an email, 31646@lapd.lacity.org with all the information, including your name and telephone number.

Join a committee and be an active member of the Hancock Park Community. The Association’s website is: http://www.hancockparkhomeownersassociation.org/ . The HPOZ Preservation Plan -http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park regulates our HPOZ. Contact our City Planner, Renata Dragland (renata.dragland@lacity.org), and use the online form (http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening.checklist) if you plan on making changes to the exterior of your house. Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System – http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm?CFID=1007&CFTOKEN=411CDB4F-0FC3-4EE1-89DE58DCCB435538 and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180.

Don’t forget to attend the Association’s Annual Meeting on Monday, October 17th, 7PM at 3rd Street School. There will be speakers from the Association, the LAPD as well as Councilman Ryu. This is also the time when the election of the Association’s Board of Directors takes place. If you are a member in good standing, meaning you’ve paid your Association dues, you’ll have received a ballot. The nominees are: Patricia Alexander, Cindy Chvatal-Keane, Jennifer DeVore, Indy Flore, Joel Kozberg, Joanne Medeiros, Pam Newhouse, and Victoria Vickers. Visit the Association’s website to read brief biographies. Either send in your ballot or bring it to the meeting. This is a great opportunity for you to talk to your Councilman, the LAPD and the Association, have your questions answered and find out how you can help your community.

Many homeowners have seen the terrible job of ‘tree trimming’ done by the City’s Department of Urban Forestry. Not only were the trees trimmed much more aggressively than was promised but a large number of trees were simply cut down. The Association demanded the work be stopped and the damage evaluated before anything else was done. We’ll be pushing the Council Office and the city to come up with a plan for replacing the destroyed trees and to hire qualified arborists and workers to work on our trees. The parkway trees of Hancock Park are a vital part of our historic streetscape and are explicitly protected in the Preservation Plan.

Don’t be a crime victim. Lock you house, car and activate your house alarm if you have one. Contact Officer Dave Cordova if you are a victim of a crime and Dave can take a crime report. Call his cell phone, 213-793-0650 or send him an email, 31646@lapd.lacity.org with all the information, including your name and telephone number.

Join a committee and be an active member of the Hancock Park Community. The Association’s website is: http://www.hancockparkhomeownersassociation.org/ . The HPOZ Preservation Plan -http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park regulates our HPOZ. Contact our City Planner, Renata Dragland (renata.dragland@lacity.org), and use the online form (http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial.screening.checklist) if you plan on making changes to the exterior of your house. Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System – http://anti-graffiti.lacity.org/welcome.cfm?CFID=1007&CFTOKEN=411CDB4F-0FC3-4EE1-89DE58DCCB435538 and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180.