Tonight: Mar Vista Council to Again Vote on Venice Blvd Safety Project

Tonight the Mar Vista Community Council will be voting on a series of resolutions critical of the Venice Boulevard Great Streets project. Implemented by the L.A. City Department of Transportation (LADOT) in May, the project includes 0.8 miles of new and improved pedestrian crossings, parking-protected bike lanes, and vehicle lanes reduced from three to two in each direction.

Tonight's meeting will start at 7 p.m. at the Mar Vista Recreation Center Auditorium at 11430 Woodbine Street in Mar Vista. The MVCC is the elected neighborhood council representing the area where the project is located. The MVCC can and should weigh in on all matters within its Mar Vista jurisdiction, but its actions are essentially advisory, with no binding authority to instruct elected officials or city departments to do anything.

In July, the MVCC board supported the Venice Boulevard improvements by voting down a motion calling for an immediate reversal of the lane reduction.

On tonight's agenda there are four Venice Boulevard motions:

• Motion L calls for L.A. City councilmember Mike Bonin to appoint an empowered point person to interact with elected officials and city departments, and to make Venice Blvd streets project materials available online. (Plenty of Venice Blvd project details are already online at LADOT's project website.)
• Motion M calls for immediately reversing Venice Blvd lane reductions as "the only remedy that addresses the constant, voluminous, community outcry on this issue."
• Motion N calls for reversing the Venice Blvd lane reduction, urging LADOT to study alternatives "that will achieve the programs’ goals of reducing speed and thus injuries and deaths without adverse impact to the community and surrounding neighbors," and calls on Bonin to create a "community panel" to further study and survey Venice Blvd issues.
• Motion O calls for immediate removal of the Venice Blvd lane reduction but the addition of "improvements, including a resurfaced roadway, bike lanes that are clearly designated with green paint, and a reduced speed limit" as well as further study of "a regional network of safe bicycle paths and routes."

Yesterday, Councilmember Bonin shared some LADOT statistics comparing injuries and collisions before and after the recent improvements.