VAPP Community Issues

Overview

  • The VAPP Project will have a significant, negative impact on this densely populated Venice community as well as the surrounding environment including the Grand Canal and Ballona Lagoon, both recognized as ESHAs.
  • Mitigating the project impact on the community and the environment should be paramount, not treated as throwaway considerations.
  • While the community acknowledges the critical nature of this infrastructure project, our goal has been to incorporate modifications that will materially address the communities’ quality of life and mitigate substantial environmental damage to these sensitive habitat areas over a multi-year construction timeline.

History

  • The original VPP (Venice Pumping Plant) was built in the late 1950’s when the Marina Peninsula was primarily comprised of oil derricks and marshland. 
  • During this time, Venice was considered the “slum by the sea,” which may in part explain why the original Venice Pumping Plant was located on the shores of the Grand Canal and adjacent to Ballona Lagoon.
  • As far back as the 1930s, this area was considered of poor quality and the area around the VAPP was redlined as a “Grade D.” It is likely the legacy of these attitudes that lead this neighborhood to host the pumping plant for sewage from the much of the westside of Los Angeles.
  • The first residential properties on and around Hurricane St were constructed in the mid-1960’s so design and other impactful attributes of the VPP were not material considerations.

Issue: Loss of Street Parking on Hurricane St During Construction

The VAPP Project proposes that all parking on Hurricane St will be eliminated during construction hours. This will displace 20-25 resident-owned vehicles that park on the street year-round, including during times of low demand, non-summer, non-holiday days, Monday-Saturday. It will also exacerbate an existing parking issue as follows:

The Shoreline Access Chapter of the current Venice LUP (Section II.A.3) references a “Venice Parking & Traffic Study” which states: Public Parking is extremely limited in the area between Galleon St and Ketch St, particularly on summer weekends, which restricts public access to the beach and creates traffic congestion on Pacific Ave and adjacent residential streets. Reduced parking in this corridor is considered a Coastal Act public access constraint. Any project reducing parking or increasing demand must be evaluated under Coastal Act §§ 30210–30212.5. Both the City and Coastal Commission have already recognized this area as parking‑deficient and access‑sensitive.

This city has never offered any viable solution to mitigate this loss of street parking.

Issue: Release of Methane Gas and Other Chemical Hazards

The VAPP Mitigation Plan acknowledges “a significant hazard to the public or the environment through reasonably foreseeable upset and accident conditions involving the release of hazardous chemicals into the environment.” This includes encroachment or seepage of methane into the VAPP structure whose impact is considered potentially significant. The community is seeking:

  • A sufficient # of detection devices placed throughout the community to provide ongoing accurate measurements. The data from these devices should be accessible in real time. LASAN has only agreed to soil vapor testing, which is insufficient.
  • Proactively addressing the same exposure concerns for the community as defined for workers in the Mitigation Plan.
  • Should any analysis identify this issue, the entire Project must be shut down immediately until a realistic plan can be put in place to mitigate both short and long-term impacts.

Issue: “Significant & Unavoidable” Residential Property Damage

The VAPP Mitigation Plan acknowledges “significant and unavoidable impact to surrounding land uses including ground-borne vibration levels that are distinctly perceptible at a receiving residential use or could potentially result in building damage. Section MM-NOI-2 of the mitigation plans does not adequately protect residential property from potential damage. Construction GEO-1 of the Mitigation Plan states the Project will “Expose people or structures to potential substantial adverse effects, including the risk of loss, injury, or death involving strong seismic ground shaking and/or seismically related ground failure, including liquefaction.”

  • The plan to address residential impact uses terms such as “may include,” “if considered appropriate,” and “as feasible and practical.” The discretion is left entirely to a Project assigned engineer. The city has strong motivation to look past issues that may arise as a path to completing the project faster, especially with the Olympics on the horizon.
  • There must be an enforceable plan to cure defects to any adjacent or neighboring residential property caused by the project. There is also no timely mechanism to address root causes in the event damage is done. The “process,” as we have been told, will not mitigate additional damage before the cause is investigated and modified.
  • The city should be required to set aside adequate funds to pay for all damage in a timely manner.
  • An independent inspector, approved by the community and paid for by the city, shall be contracted to inspect all properties within 500’ of the Project prior to construction to determine baseline conditions. Additional inspections shall take place no less than semi-annually or upon resident request for the duration of the Project.
  • The on-site city representative should be empowered to satisfactorily address these issues in real time or shut the Project down pending an appropriate resolution.

More To Come…