Oneonta Residents Still Looking for Answers on New Construction

A group of Oneonta Drive residents have submitted a letter to Councilman Ed Reyes requesting that he put a halt to the construction of two properties on their block until a public hearing regarding the project is held.

According to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, the plans to build two homes on adjacent lots at 822 and 828 Oneonta Drive are already fully permitted. The permits include clearance under the Mount Washington/Glassell Park Specific Plan.

However, residents said that the permits were last issued in 2005, and the community has been left in the dark since then.

Guru Singh, who lives near the construction sites, said he's not totally opposed to new construction, he just wants the builder to address the community's concerns.

"We're fine with the construction on the land. it's only going to help us out because there's going to be new homes there, but at the end of the day they really didn't go about the process properly," Singh said during Monday evening's meeting of the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council's Mount Washington Local Issues Committee meeting. "The main concerns we have are the fact that the building permits for these houses were issued and the hearing was done in 2003 and there was no public hearing since. The permits were reissued automatically with no public hearing."

Though residents received an informal letter from builder North by Northwest Communities, Singh said notices of construction were never posted on either property.

In the letter sent to Reyes' office, the neighbors also aired frustrations over the fact that the project is to be built over a utility pipe used by neighbors.

"We understand that some of the delay since 2005 is due to the fact that the current plans required building over an important utility pipe that each of our homes is dependent on and that there was concern from the L.A. City Engineer's Office that this was not feasible," the letter states. "However, none of us know what was decided and whether in fact the building of these homes may impact any of our residences either during construction in the future."

Albert Winn, a member of the local issues committee, said he addressed his concerns to Council District 1, and was told by a field deputy that "the builder was in complete compliance with all conditions."

Nevertheless, on Monday evening the local issues committee voted in favor of requesting that a representative from North by Northwest Communities attend a future meeting to discuss the project.