The Culver City Council and a group of residents are at odds with their local college over a campus expansion.

Residents were vocal last Monday night about a lack of courtesy they believe has ensued on part of West Los Angeles College and the Los Angeles Community College District during the construction period of their 2009 facilities master plan, which is slated to be complete in 2013.

The proposed development consists of six new campus buildings, as well as renovation to some existing structures. While residents and the council say they want the campus to succeed, they were dissatisfied by changes to an earlier plan for the project.

Many of the changes outlined in the 2009 Facilities Master Plan and 2010 Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report — released in March — appear to ignore a 2005 memorandum of understanding that limited construction hours, rendered provisions regarding on-campus parking and addressed construction-related noise and pollution.

The new modifications change the construction hours per day, making the start one hour earlier and the end two hours later; extend the campus construction period to 2013; allow campus expansion to increase by nearly 60,000-square-feet, which some say could obstruct resident views; replace an ombudsman with a 24 hour hotline that will handle community complaints; add a 9-acre parcel for non-classroom related uses; reduce the number of meetings between the city and the college; discontinue the use of a temporary haul road located near residential areas; minimize cut-through traffic; discontinue bus services on the campus, opting to have drop offs on Overland Avenue; and give residents access to campus facilities, provided they have a permit.

Camille Goulet, general counsel for the district, said that the parties have “made great progress and I believe that if we continue to work together we will be successful at reaching an appropriate resolution.”

But some residents disagree. Many — including the Culver Crest Neighborhood Association, the Raintree Townhouse Association and other neighbors — were concerned that their comments were not inserted in the new draft SEIR.

City staff and district officials had been meeting since April to address concerns by the community and form the amendment that was presented to the council that night. But according to residents, homeowner associations were locked out of the last meeting, and it was during that meeting that the terms of the amendment were outlined.

Resident John Keegley said residents were not aware of the new terms until a few days before the council meeting. After analyzing the amendment, “It did not lead to an agreement, rather it emboldened the college to publish a final EIR last week which makes very few changes to the original draft,” he said, adding that there are “many significant issues that have not been addressed…The college has felt free to ignore its obligations.”

According to residents, dust and debris has been coming from the site, intruding on their neighborhoods, while noise has posed a nuisance.

The college, said officials, has tried to minimize the dust by watering the sites, and that construction hours have been changed to allow contractors to get into the site before and after commuting peak hours, which would minimize traffic. The extended hours would also allow the construction to be completed on time.

In addition, with the removal of free parking, students have been leaving their vehicles in residential areas, causing homeowners and their guests to be inconvenienced.

School officials said they have lowered their parking rates to $20 per semester and have encouraged students to apply for transportation costs, which are included in financial aid and grant applications.

“There was not a neighborhood parking problem until many of the curbs at the college were painted red,” said one speaker, who is a resident of Culver Crest. “There are people that don’t want to pay for parking…They come and park on the streets closest to the college. The neighbors don’t like their streets blocked by students.”

Also, with few entrances into the campus, traffic has built up on Overland Avenue. School officials, however, said that the construction of a new entrance on Jefferson Boulevard and two parking structures on the north and south sides of the campus will reduce congestion, as will the opening of the Expo Line in 2011, which will allow students to connect to the campus by a shuttle.

The Ombudsman is supposed to be reachable 24 hours of every day and upon getting complaints is to address them by the next business day. However, residents contend that they have constantly called but get little to no response.

Replacing the Ombudsman with a 24 hour hot-line, said some residents, will make response times even longer and is nothing more than an attempt to pacify the community without offering real solutions.

“Instead of having a person you can contact 24/7, we will have an answering machine. That is always effective,” Arthur Kassan, president of the Raintree Townhouse Association, said sarcastically. “You often wait for the call back for a long time.”

The amendment, he added, is “still not up to par.”

These same sentiments were expressed by the council who, on July 12, rejected an amendment allowing West Los Angeles College to proceed with new development.

The amendment, said Councilman Scott Malsin, has hardly addressed any of the concerns. “There is absolutely no way I can vote to approve this settlement agreement,” he said. “I will not do so because I absolutely want to preserve the right of the city of Culver City to enter into litigation to ensure that what we had agreed upon before is honored. I am really troubled with the idea of also doing anything that puts the city in the position where we are not supporting the document that was agreed upon by other parties, including our homeowner associations.”

Councilman Andrew Weissman agreed that certain things were left hanging.
“I don’t know how they can decide that they are going to no longer abide by the provisions,” he said, “and for that reason alone I have trepidation in the city’s participation in the amendment that will perhaps be seen as some passive approval of all of the provisions in the SEIR, which I don’t think we agree with.”

Hesitation was further increased after Councilman Jeffrey Cooper asked acting WLAC president Betsy Regalado whether the college could commit to further negotiations with the community.

Regalado’s response: “No, not at this time.”

Cooper shot back: “The line needs to be drawn in the sand. We want to see your succeed but we also want you to be a good neighbor and deal with these people. We are going to protect all of the neighborhoods, not your campus.”

Despite the unanimous rejection, the school district’s board of trustees can still approve the SEIR. A public hearing will be held at the board meeting on July 14 and a final decision on the 2010 SEIR is expected August 11.