Hello – It’s been awhile since there’s been an update on the proposed ordinance to prohibit national chains on Ocean Front Walk, so here’s what’s going on. Please read this entire message as I tried to keep it as short as possible. We really need the help of all of supporters (and more) this time and it will literally only take a minute of your time.
To put it bluntly – this issue has trickled down the priority list recently for the City and I don’t think Covid-19 is a valid excuse given the timeline. This movement started with our petition on Change.org and our 2 protests in front of Starbucks in early 2019. We got the attention of our City Councilman Mike Bonin who then on April 19, 2019 publicly praised the idea and motioned for the Department of City Planning to do a study on the effects of similar ordinances in other cities and how it could affect Ocean Front Walk and Venice. City Planning then held a town hall on August 26, 2019 to show what they discovered and to get feedback from the community. After that town hall, they were supposed to use the feedback and do more research to figure out the best way to implement the ordinance. After over a year of patience and prodding from us, we finally had a meeting 2 weeks ago with the City to which the City told us a lot of things we weren’t happy about.
They said they are still in favor of putting in an ordinance to preserve the uniqueness of our famous walkway, however they feel the best way to accomplish this is by doing it with the Venice Community Plan Update which could take at least 2 years, maybe more. We knew this couldn’t be accomplished overnight, but we obviously find this unacceptable. It’s been almost 2 years already and the rumors are still circulating about Chipotle, McDonalds, 7-11 and more. We told them we’ll be ready to protest if any such business arrives before this ordinance is implemented, and we are currently trying to find alternative ways to get faster results- such as an ICO (Interim Control Ordinance) and more.
Having said that, one of the City officials said we need to comment on the Community Plan Update website so they can get more feedback from the community. THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN. They want feedback AND A LOT OF IT so they can say without a doubt that this is what the community and residents want. PLEASE click on the link below (and attached), scroll to the bottom of the page, and leave a quick comment about prohibiting national chains on Ocean Front Walk, and preserving the uniqueness of Venice, and saving the small businesses out there that are also like family to so many of us. Our petition, our Facebook group and our email list combined would be over 3,000 comments of feedback from the community that they won’t be able to ignore, and hopefully it will speed up this whole process. The deadline to submit a comment is October 15th, but you might as well do it right now as it literally only takes seconds. Please forward to any friends or family also. THANK YOU!!
https://planning.lacity.org/.../comm.../planning-westside...
Much Love,
The Venice Dogz