Annual Meeting!

It's official! Thursday, March 22 is the date to save for our annual meeting at University Synagogue. This year, the format will be a little different, with a strong emphasis on police and crime in our area. On hand will be area Councilmember Mike Bonin and senior officers from LAPD. Evites will be coming soon.

Design Review

A long-time member recently wrote us, disturbed about all the new CCCC* houses erected on her block in the past five years. She asked why this is allowed as her block now resembles a tract development rather than the exclusive enclave. The originators of our Brentwood central territory did not foresee the necessity for CC&R** requirements in ownership deeds. Therefore, builders are only subject to local zoning laws which do not stipulate home style, although they do further restrict size and encourage front articulation to reduce the possibility of "box" style homes.

* Cookie-cutter Cape Cod

** Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions

Drones In The Sky

A neighbor near Kenter and Sunset has been seeing several drones flying just south of Sunset in the late night hours. This is both a disturbance and disturbing, as we don't always know their "mission." In many cases, it may just be an unsupervised teen using less than reasonable discretion, so we ask our member parents to monitor this activity and restrict uses to times and areas which won't impact neighbors. In addition, California drone laws specifically prohibit the use of drones to record audio or video without permission with steep fines for infractions starting at $5,000.00. If you know the source of the drones we mentioned, please let us know so we can reach out to the home who may not know of the issues.

Home Sharing Ordinance

Santa Monica City Staff have put out a report that AirBnB hosts make millions on illegal home sharing listings. The City as yet has been unable to enforce its recent home sharing ordinance. This is why the BHA and many other local HOAs are imploring the LA City Council to clearly limit the ability to rent out homes for commercial purposes and to limit the short-term nature of these rentals, which impact residential neighborhoods.

For an article summarizing the situation in SM, click here. 

Party Houses

The LA City Council has passed an ordinance which is meant to curtail the ease at which people have rented their houses out for large parties in residential neighborhoods. We receive one or two complaints a year on this issue but did not weigh in as it hasn't been a significant problem recently. The concern seems more prevalent in the Hollywood Hills area. For more information, follow this link.

Homeless Encampment

We are aware of the small homeless encampment on Bringham Ave and San Vicente, adjacent to the VA fence. We thought we had the problem solved when we contacted the VA and LA County Supervisor's office and they brought in counselors and homeless affairs specialists who offered housing options. Nevertheless, people have returned and the VA, Council office and County Supervisor's office are attempting to again address this systemic issue.