Hawthorne Press Tribune
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 61, No. 9 - February 28, 2019
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................5
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals.................................6,7
Pets........................................5
Real Estate...........................8
Weekend
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Friday
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The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
Hawthorne High Gearing Up to
Unveil Its New “Noise Building”
Hawthorne High School’s newest building has begun to appear over the construction fence line. This building will house performing arts classes and the NJROTC. Code Name: The Noise Building. It will be
an exciting, creative space! Photo: Hawthorne High School
Council Opposes Bill to Remove
Local Control, Add Apartments
By Derrick Deane
The Hawthorne City Council stood united
Tuesday night against legislation that has
been getting proposed by the California State
Legislature recently. Of particular discussion
was a vehement opposition to Senate Bill 50
(SB50) that would essentially strip away local
control from cities and allow developers to
build multi-family low and moderate income
residential properties. The bill, introduced by
Senator Scott Wiener and co-authored by Assemblymember
Autumn Burke among others,
would be put into effect by July 1, 2020 at
the absolute latest for “sensitive communities.”
Mayor Alex Vargas took an impassioned stand
against the bill. Long known for his position
against high-density residential development
in the city, he stated that the bill would only
exacerbate local issues such as parking that
the city has been struggling to address for
the past few years.“I want you guys to pay
attention out there,” Vargas said to the residents
of Hawthorne. “We have a constant parade of
concerned citizens and everybody is asking for
preferential parking. We’re not going to be able
to issue it because the preferential parking that
you get is going to affect a couple streets over.”
Several citizens also addressed the Council
regarding the parking matter near Yukon. The
City Council approved one final area – 144th
Place, Kornblum Avenue and Yukon Avenue
as a preferential parking district. “We did it
today because it’s been a long-standing issue;
we recognize that,” Vargas said. “But we can’t
keep doing it because it keeps getting passed
on to the different streets.”
Vargas called out a number of issues he had
with SB50 including that [Governor Gavin
Newsom] and his associates are “saying that
it’s okay for people to build a residence inside
their garage. So now you guys are going to
ask us to resolve a situation and our own state
government is the current we’re working against.
I want you guys to be vigilant.”
Vargas continued, “What you guys should be
upset about are the people you elected to the state
office. We need to fight that because Ramona
and Holly Park are nice right now…but once
this goes through, you won’t be able to come
and complain to us when your neighbors have
a family living in the garage and two more cars
on the street. That’s what is going to happen.
[The issues] are going to double and triple.”
Vargas said that the City Council won’t be able
to protect Holly Glen from developments either,
adding, “This so-called genius Scott Wiener
is trying to say that it’s okay to build high-density
housing and allowing developers to come in
over the counter and apply for these permits
to build 90-100 unit buildings on one acre.”
Vargas went on to question how an area like
Rancho Palos Verdes that covers 16 square
miles has lower requirements for affordable
housing than Hawthorne, which covers roughly
6 square miles and has nearly 10 times the
required number of affordable housing options.
“They’re supposed to accommodate in their
city 10-20 units of low to moderate income
housing made available,” Vargas said. “Why
do we have 1,000 to 1,200 that we’ve been
assigned? We have a really valid argument that
we can make. Whoever the previous planning
directors were that just sold our city out and
didn’t fight anything, just let the damn numbers
be assigned to us like nothing, while these
other cities fought a good fight and got their
numbers really low. We’re pushing against a
current that is our state government that’s going
to create a problem that we’re not going
to be able to get in front of.”
Mayor Pro Tem Olivia Valentine echoed
Vargas’ opposition to the bill. “Most cities
would not be able to block new apartment
buildings within a half mile of public transit,”
she said. “I supported the Green Line Mixed
Use Specific Plan because it was specific to
that location and I specified that it was a onetime
measure and that it was not appropriate
for other neighborhoods. But it was also an
example of our city being able to control our
own development.”
Valentine added, “It is not appropriate to
approve it in other locations [of the city] where
the apartment complexes are already there and
the density is already very heavy. Our ability
to control where we develop is being taken
away from us. This is very critical.”
Valentine also echoed Vargas’ comment regarding
citizens pushing back against the state
government. “You have to fight back on these
things,” she said. “We can’t fight the fight.
All we can do is send our letters and say we
oppose it and hope there will be enough other
cities opposing it. You have to make your voice
heard to the people you elected in Sacramento.”
Councilmember Alex Monteiro added that
he and Valentine confronted Senator Steve
Bradford about a month ago regarding SB50
“because he [Bradford] is in favor of it. We
cannot afford to build any more apartment
buildings in the city of Hawthorne. This [bill]
has the support of Governor Newsom that’s
going to dictate that we’re going to have to
build apartments. They’re not going to come
here to us after the state has given them the
green light, so who cares what the City Council
and City Planning laws are?”
Monteiro clarified that while the bill has not
passed yet, the politicians who represent the
district and area that includes Hawthorne are
“already out getting together with other people
to go support this [bill].”
Vargas said in his closing remarks that
Hawthorne residents “need to take it seriously
because these people think they have
free reign to do this. There’s no checks and
balances with our [state] government. It’s a
one-party system up there right now. There’s
no counterbalance to check them, so they feel
they can do whatever they want and put all
their little projects they want to do into play.
We need to be the balance for them.” •