Status:
Newman and Sons, Inc appealed the Letter of Determination of City Planning Commission that waived Waste Management from improving the streets. The appeal is not to stop the waiver. Rather, it’s for the City Planning Department to correct errors in the Letter of Determination and wait until a traffic and circulation study is completed.
Read more about these errors (Appeal to City Council) and provide your comments and ask questions. All questions will be answered within 48 hours.
Click on the GREEN highlights to view official documents and reports.
On February 4, 2020, City Council Motion CF 17-0244 (See Motion: Document) was reactivated instructing the City Engineer to study and prepare a report on the temporary closure of Peoria Avenue and Tujunga Avenue between Glenoaks Boulevard and 9000 Tujunga Avenue.
Even before the study was completed, the Department of City Planning decided Waste Management (9055 – 9351 North Tujunga Avenue, Case No. CPC-2007-3888-CU-ZV-SPR-PA1) can be allowed to NOT make street improvements because Peoria Avenue and Tujunga Avenue between Glenoaks Boulevard and 9000 Tujunga Avenue will indefinitely be closed. This decision should NOT have been made without a traffic and circulation study where all affected property owners were notified.
Issue: Temporary or permanent closure of Peoria Avenue and Tujunga Avenue between Glenoaks Boulevard and 9000 Tujunga Avenue leaving Bradley Avenue as the ingress/egress for semi-truck and passenger traffic.
Read how Ramco uses the streets and what they do to reduce traffic and circulation impacts. (See Traffic/Circulation Plan: Document)
Google Map Road Travel
The red truck is turning at the approximate location of the street closure. Click on Travel to use your mouse and travel up Tujunga Avenue and Peoria Avenue. Once selected, move your mouse onto the roadway and click to travel on the streets. Return to InfoPost by using the browser return arrow.
This has potential adverse traffic and circulation impacts for all property owners that use Tujunga Avenue, Peoria Avenue, and Bradley Avenue. It may also create a gridlock of trucks along Tuxford Street.
Are you affected? If so, please leave a comment or ask questions and receive a response within 48 hours.
The City Planning Commission public hearing was held February 25, 2021. (See Public Notice Document) where City Planning’s decision to waive street improvements was sustained. The next public hearing will be held by the Planning Land Use and Management Committee (PLUM)) then City Council.
Contact: SATT at Sattgovt@gmail.com, City Planning at (213) 978.1486 / email ester.ahn@lacity.org), and Council District 6, Max Podemski at (213) 473.7996 / email max.podemski@lacity.org. Let them know your thoughts on temporary or permanent closure of Peoria Avenue and Tujunga Avenue between Glenoaks Boulevard and 9000 Tujunga Avenue.
One more comment from property owners, PNM Properties, LLC and Hayward Associates, LLC:
The map in this report closes off the entire street between Bradley and Glenoaks. How is that even feasible with businesses that have driveways and operations between Glenoaks and Bradley? The last map we received from the Council District representative 10 days ago had a different closure proposed, so there seems to be a discrepancy between what the Planning Commission Report is proposing and what the City Council office is proposing.
The property owners of 53 acres, PNM Properties, LLC and Hayward Associates, LLC, with various tenants, including LKQ Corp./ Pick Your Part, opposes the temporary closure of Peoria St and Tujunga Ave. as it has a negative impact operationally and financially on the tenants with driveway and truck access along Peoria and Tujunga. LKQ/ Pick Your Part has spent a lot of money on clean up of trash along that roadway stretch as well as installation of cameras and daily monitoring in conjunction with the LAPD and City of LA prosecutors. Illegal dumping is a major issue throughout the City of LA but the City is not closing off every street where this takes place, nor is the City of LA responding to our repeated requests to clean up the homeless issue along Pendleton St where we have major rat infestations and feces, trash, illegal activity, etc. along our property on a daily basis. Waste Management agreed to do street improvements as a condition of their permit years ago, and if those street improvements were completed the dumping issue would most likely be rectified. In conjunction with LKQ/Pick Your Part we have indicated our opposition to a street closure for several years. In addition, this would create a major traffic jam and time delay in getting 95 trucks per day in and out of the Pick Your Part property, as well as the truck traffic associated with the other tenant, Art’s Truck Stop. This is a financial hardship! It seems as though the City of LA and BOE should have conducted an official traffic study and reached out to the other tenants as part of this review process.
Something is not right about this whole thing. In my experience, shouldn’t there have been some input from the Neighborhood Council? Where is the traffic study? The public hearing? The comments from the people and businesses that would be DIRECTLY impacted by such a closure? This decision seems to only benefit one party, but has significant impact on many. Why isn’t the Planning Commission following their own rules? I had to jump through major hoops to try and make changes to a private school property, yet a decision to close a major street can be done without due process? This is wrong and should not be allowed.
As an adjacent property owner operating a concrete and asphalt recycling business, we oppose the closing of Peoria Avenue and Tujunga Avenue. Trucks going to and from our business utilize Peoria and Tujunga on a daily basis for ingress, egress and staging/queuing. Closing Peoria and Tujunga would cause major traffic congestion on Bradley at Tuxford, the only other available ingress/egress point. This added traffic congestion would undoubtedly limit sales and production and cause business loss and unknown, irreparable harm. The Director of Planning should not have taken action without a public hearing. As an affected property owner we have a right to be heard. Additionally, the Director of Planning should not have taken action until the potential impacts related to traffic and circulation, among many other topics, have been investigated thoroughly by the Bureau of Engineering through their standard process for temporary and permanent street vacations.
Bradley Ave/Peoria streets are already congested on a daily basis with the truck traffic picking up and delivering from the local businesses on those streets. Closing down one of two outlets will certainly increase the traffic onto the surrounding streets as well as impact the traffic to those local business like Ramco, Bradley Recycling and Waste Management.
Was a traffic study even conducted? With the volume of semi’s and other heavy trucks traveling through the area, how does it make sense to close the road. Can you imagine the traffic nightmare from trucks making U-turns or trying to back down the street and the grid lock it will cause ultimately leading to loss of business for the companies on this street. Maybe that’s what Waste Management is pushing for, drive off the neighboring businesses instead of learning to work with them. Why have other cities been successful in dealing with dumping without closing streets?
The street closure on peoria ave will invite more of the same issues that we have been dealing with over the past years such as the fleet of meth selling mobile homes that piled up as repeated calls were made to the police department . Drug deals in broad daylight . and currently the single mobile home that is growing marijuana plants on a street that clearly states no parking after 6pm. So closing off that street would not only allow more homeless drug users to fill up the section while creating a traffic nightmare . My father runs a trucking business that uses that street daily, though you might say trucks can just go around that not only puts a strain on him but also the hundreds of other people that use that same road . Im wondering how many of the people responsible for this street closure would like to have to go to work with drug addicts smoking meth on the curb or human feces being dumped out on the sidewalk? Sorry but if you feel like this is the best decision ask yourselves is this bringing in money or is it actually doing more harm than good! Maybe instead of closing off the street you should put cameras and actually fine the people doing illegal dumping also impound vehicles or i guess we can just start closing off all the streets where illegal dumping is happening until there’s a road block everywhere!!! . Now that sounds like a plan!!!
the street closure will cause major traffic jams at this sections. will create chaos to the people that have travelled on this road for years. also might have a higher possibility of accidents due to cars accidently trying to pass by and the big rigs that are working for the material companies. being owner of a trucking company, this will definitely impact me in the form of traffic and will also hurt my customers because I wont get them the materials in a timely matter. i think this will also cause more attention to the homeless population knowing that there is street closure and no authorities will pass by. i disagree with this closure and believe this will hurt many companies physically and financially.
This closure will adversely hinder Ramco and Toro’s business and shall not be executed. Proper notification of surrounding businesses was not executed and studies to help mitigate the congestion have not been met. I ask that the closure be reconsidered.
The temporary/permanent closure of Peoria has the potential to cause large traffic build ups with all surrounding businesses. Ramco utilizes Peoria to adequately line up trucks on the curb when export is busy. The number of trucks could range anywhere from 20-40 waiting to be load so if they now have to stay on Bradley Ave then they will be lining up on the street with the other businesses trucks and vehicles. Traffic is already clustered enough with the street open, closing it could cause it to get worse for everyone.
Closing down this road would create not only more traffic, but could potentially hurt the surrounding companies financially. With less access to these companies means less customers. If this closes, it means our wide variety in customer and truck sizes is narrowed down to only the smaller trucks that could preform u-turns if needed.
Thank you for your comment. Ramco submitted their operating procedure detailing how they monitor and control traffic and circulation. It not only shows how they attempt to reduce the impact of accessing and leaving their site but also identifies how a street closure would affect them. This will be submitted to City Planning Commission for their consideration.
Why wasn’t there a public hearing before City Planning made the decision to allow Waste Management to NOT do street improvements?
City Planning form CP 7771.1 was prepared by the applicant, which enabled the applicant to request a “Waived hearing”. The applicant did not request a waived hearing. However, subsequently the decision was made. On June 26, 2020, Marcos Sanchez, District Director, of Council District 6 stated “On behalf of the office of Council President Nury Martinez, I would like to advise that our office does not object to the request for a public hearing waiver pertaining to Case No. Case No. CPC-2007-3888-CUZV-PAI, which was filed with the Department of City Planning’s Expedited Processing Section (BPS) on April 8th, 2020.”
This is standard procure. The Department of City Planning has a website (PCTS) created for the public to monitor the processing of such requests. However, no entry was made in PCTS to notify the public of the waived hearing. The public was not aware of City Planning’s action until a Letter of Determination was mailed to abutting properties and interested parties.
Newman and Sons, Inc. received the Letter of Determination and appealed City Planning’s decision (CPC-2007-3888(CU)(ZV)(SPR)(PA1)) that allowed Waste Management to NOT improve Peoria and Tujunga because in part the decision is based on the false premise that the streets will be temporarily and permanently closed.
It is not known by reading CPC-2007-3888(CU)(ZV)(SPR)(PA1), if Bureau of Engineering completed their study as required by the February 4, 2020 City Council Motion (i.e., CF 17-0244), which states, “matter of the Council-adopted Public Works and Gang Reduction Committee Report relative to instructing the City Engineer to report on the temporary closure of Peoria Avenue and Tujunga Avenue between Glenoaks Boulevard and 9000 Tujunga Avenue, as recorded under Council File 17-0244, which expired per Council policy (CF05- 0553), be re-activated and that the matter be restored to its most recent legislative status as of the date of the File’s expiration.”
Newman and Sons, Inc. stated the following in its appeal, “… there was abuse of discretion based on the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which requires reasonable notice and an opportunity to be heard. The Department of City Planning’s PCTS evidences the public hearing was not waived. However, there is no date and time of a public hearing. Nor does the Letter of Determination state a public hearing was held. Nor were Findings made in the Letter of Determination to justify waiving a public hearing. In fact, the action of the Decision-maker is with controversy, which should have been known due to prior appeals. (See attached) A public hearing on this matter will provide opportunity for property owners to be heard.”
The City Planning Commission public hearing on February 25th is your opportunity to be heard