Did you hear that Councilman Mitch O’Farrell mysteriously wrote a letter saying “additional seismic review should occur before this project advances any further in the entitlement process”?
Could LA City Hall finally be facing the truth? Did city officials realize their conduct could cost taxpayers billions of dollars when those skyscrapers come crashing down? Public Resources Code Section 2621.8 states the city “may be liable for earthquake-related injuries or deaths caused by its failure to so adhere” to the Alquist-Priolo Act, California’s earthquake law. That law prohibits allowing buildings to be constructed over, or within 50 feet of, active fault lines.
Superficially, O’Farrell’s letter looks promising. But we don’t really believe O’Farrell and Millennium have found religion. We do know this: we can’t let our guard down, and LA City Hall must earn our trust.
Only honest trenching of the site as described below will have legitimacy. Anything else will be a cover up.
PLEASE JOIN US NOW BY EMAILING:
Mayor Garcetti, O’Farrell, Council District 13 Planning Director Craig Bullock, City Planning Director Vince Bertoni, Planner Mindy Nguyen, LADBS General Manager Osama Younan, and LADBS Engineering Geologist Daniel Schneidereit. Here are their email addresses for easy copying and pasting: mayor.garcetti@lacity.org; councilmember.ofarrell@lacity.org; craig.bullock@lacity.org; vince.bertoni@lacity.org; mindy.nguyen@lacity.org; osama.younan@lacity.org; daniel.schneidereit@lacity.org
Copy and send the below. Or modify as you deem best.
We demand trenching of the proposed Hollywood Center site that is:
1. Designed and overseen by independent, unpaid, neutral experts, including from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and California Geological Survey (CGS). The protocol these neutral experts design should be made public for review and comment before trenches are dug.
2. Deep enough and far enough north and south. The USGS in their May 8, 2020 groundbreaking new study found evidence of up to 4 (!) active fault lines crossing the site. Therefore, the entire site must be trenched, north to south. The CGS already noted in their July 16, 2020 letter that Millennium’s earlier trenching was worthless, as it fell short of the area mapped by the CGS as having one of the fault lines, and also did not go deep enough.
3. Dug on both sites east and west of Vine Street.
4. Performed in a fully transparent manner, with unfettered access to the trenches by governmental (USGS and CGS) and other experts. Soil samples should also be competently collected under established protocols and the neutral authorities’ watchful eyes and sent for Carbon-14 dating at a world class lab like Lawrence Livermore Labs. We will not stand for any more false claims by Millennium of “contaminated” samples so that they can deny the truth.
We won’t assent to city officials and the developer duping the public with a pseudo-scientific cover-up.
For the past seven years, our attorney Robert Silverstein has shined a spotlight on the city’s illegal processing of this project. See and read about some of his tireless efforts here:
We need your help to continue this fight. Please consider donating now.
