WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENTS
READ INTO THE RECORD
From: Darian Bojeaux
To: City Clerk
Subject: Item E 1, to change schedule of fees
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 6:38:33 PM
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It is indicated in the agenda report that the city wants to encourage the building of ADU’s and affordable housing, and therefore the permit and associated fees were not raised that much. Well if the city really really wants to encourage something, the city should lower the fees, not raise them.
Hasn’t the city failed residents enough in failing to do anything to make it easier to build guesthouses and ADU’s despite the city acquiring knowledge of the RHNA requirements years ago? Similarly, the city intends to raise a water efficient landscape plan check fee from $514 to $545. If the city wants to save water, the city should reduce the $514 fee, significantly, not raise it.
Darian Bojeaux
From: Darian Bojeaux
To: City Clerk
Subject: F-2 Increasings in Building Height
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 6:44:23 PM
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There isn’t much in the agenda report because this item will be continued to April 26, but I reviewed these proposed height increases when they came before the Planning Commission, which ignored all public input.
The proposed 10’ increase in building height for an elevator is based upon the claim that some elevator systems require extra height. 10’ is a significant height raise—almost 1/4 of the height limit for commercial buildings in our city, and these elevators are often in residents’ view. Therefore the height for elevators should only be increased if the builder can demonstrate that the extra height is needed and will in fact be utilized for a superior elevator system.
Darian Bojeaux
From: Charlene
To: City Clerk
Subject: Re: Public Comment for item G1
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 8:02:08 PM
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Done!!
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 12, 2022, at 8:01 PM, Charlene < > wrote:
Subject: Fw: Public Comment for item G1
I'd like it to be known that I support Council's interim action to establish a maximum rent increase of 3.1% until July 2023. Your support in this matter will help a lot while we try to recover from the economic trauma of Covid and current high inflation.
Thank you very much,
Concerned fixed-income Senior and BH resident for decades Charlene Amateau
Beverly Hills 90212
I have lived here since 1972- yep, 50 years
From: Maureen Berry < >
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 4:17 PM
To: BH Rent
Subject: Please read this at the April 12, 2022 City Council Meeting CAUTION: External Sender
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Dear City Council,
I have been living in Beverly Hills for eleven years and, barring the two years of Covid-19, have had my rent raised every single year.
This year, with inflation at 8%, the highest it’s been in 40 years, will you please take into consideration that the average employee does not enjoy even a 3% cost of living increase. The average employee spends close to half of their income on rent.
Providing landlords with the opportunity to increase monthly rent greater than 3% is egregious and expands the gap even more between the rich and the poor, with no middle class.
Please do not allow a rent increase beyond 3%. We just can’t handle one more thing.
Sincerely,
Maureen Berry
.
Beverly Hills, CA. 90212
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From: Linda Carolei
To: City Clerk
Subject: Tonight"s meeting on Allowable Rent Increases
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 1:52:58 PM
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Hello City Clerk,
I would like to applaud and support the City Council's proposal to limit the allowable rent increase to 3.1% until July 2023, and thereafter maintain reasonable economic increases to rents.
As a renter/tenant in Beverly Hills, we cannot see rents raised and calculated on an everescalating CPI as we have it now, which is around 7.4%. Raising rents to 10% or beyond will be untenable for many many renters in this city. Approximately 60% of the population of Beverly Hills lives down here in the "flats". We send our kids to the schools, go to our doctors and dentists here in BH, we do our grocery shopping and support the local businesses in the city, not the elite tourist places on Rodeo drive. 60% of the city's population has to mean something, and if rent increases are allowed to jump into the 10% range, many of us will have to pack up and leave, and take our kids out of the school system. That would decimate BHUSD.
We need protection. Of course landlords have a right to make increases, but inflation is soaring -- and increases cannot be based on a soaring CPI -- we need to rethink this. Gas, food, utilities, healthcare, meds, shelter. Renters here should not be ignored or dismissed.
WE are the lifeblood of the community. We enjoy the city, work for the city -- my daughter is a city employee/summer camp counselor! '
Please understand, many of us were hit hard economically by Covid. We are rebuilding our lives. WE WANT TO STAY IN BEVERLY HILLS. We want to be able to afford our rents, send our kids to the schools and remain engaged and enthusiastic members of the city.
I urge the council and potential new council members (we are voting!) to remember the population of apartment dwellers in this city, we are not transient members of this community. Many of us live here for decades and beyond. We need rents we can afford.
Thank you,
Linda Carolei
--
Linda Carolei
From:
To: City Clerk
Subject: IT"S TIME TO END Eviction and Rent Increase Moratoriums Date: Monday, April 11, 2022 9:53:05 PM
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Dear Council Members,
Schools have resumed, mask mandates have been removed, people are eating in restaurants and going to movie theaters, and businesses can't find enough workers to fill jobs. You already know this. So why shouldn't eviction and rent increase moratoriums end on May 31, 2022? The last rent increase for our property was more than 3 years ago in 2019. Our tenant stopped paying rent 2 years ago and still is not paying. We have received some partial rental assistance from the state program for 12 months, but I am still in the hole for another 12 months rent if we end the moratorium by end of this May. I seriously doubt we will ever receive this large sum of past due rents. Our tenants seems to be living their lives like they were before the pandemic, but due to self certification of pandemic loss of income, we have no choice but to accept they don't need to pay rent.
Please make a fair decision that ends the moratorium by end of this May.
Thank you.
Jeannie Chow
From: Jay Cohen
To: Michelle Ramos-Vergara; City Clerk
Subject: Revised/Updated: Public comment for item G1 For Tonight’s City Council Meeting Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 3:21:30 PM
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Hi Michelle..Will you please replace with this version to be read? Pls and thank you! Start:
Dear City Council,
LA County extended the freeze on rent hikes through Dec 31st, 2022. How is the City of Beverly Hills ignoring and or going around this? I am imploring the City Council for no raise in rents so people can get their footing. People are still trying to recover. I will say I appreciate what the Council has done to help constituents in our City along the way. I hope the Council will clarify why we are not going by LA County as to rent hikes.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration!
From: CHERYL FELDMAN
To: City Clerk
Subject: Owner Occupied Duplexes
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 10:48:20 PM
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Have owner occupied duplexes been excluded from these ordinances? This question has never been answered.
Please exclude owner occupied duplexes from these rules. This is a mom and pop situation not a multi dwelling business.
Thank you.
Sent from my iPad
From: Jerri Sue Gienger
To: City Clerk
Subject: Rent Increase Moratoriums
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 6:58:12 PM
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Hi BH City Clerk and City Council,
As a renter in the city for the past 13 years. [Please do your best to fight for tenant rights. The CPI #'s are the highest in 40 years. Please do not allow a double rent increase. Please consider decreasing the amount of a yearly increase to an affordable rate, below 8%. Personally, my income has not increased by 8% ever. Raising the rents by 8% will cause a lot of displacement. Please consider a more lenient maximum allowable rent increase. If you allow the double increase, my rent will go up by $440 and my salary has not increased that much.
This will have a devastating effect on me personally and to other renters in our neighborhood that face this same issue. Thank you for your support. Sincerely, an extremely concerned renter at in Beverly HIlls. #104 J.S. Gienger
From:
To: City Clerk
Subject: WRITTEN COMMENT: Item G-1 Agenda Report, April 12 2021 Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 6:10:07 PM
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Greetings,
I fear it is too late to submit a written comment for Item G-1 at this evening’s City Council Meeting at 7PM PT - but if there is still time, I would like to submit the following for consideration:
“Esteemed council members, fellow residents, citizens, I thank you for your time.
This is a travesty that we are all used to seeing on the silver screen. The soulless businessman who wants to tear down the heart of a community to build a mall, a parking lot, his personal Xanadu. But it is not too late, and this is what I hope we may learn from the cautionary tale of Charles Foster Kane: that no amount of money ever bought a second of happiness.
Cultural heritage preservation is the ship upon we cast our history. It is the binding knot which ties us together with our forefathers, with our families. Without it, we’re not a people, we’re just a person. This is the chain of our cultural continuity. It’s the voice on our shoulder that tells us to do better, to be kinder.
Tearing down a historic residence with as much significance as this one is akin to burning a book. In the absence of its permanence, Beverly Hills may very well become a mirage in the desert of Southern California. This is the desecration of those memories of our town. Where we were born, where we grew up, where we loved, and where many of us will say goodnight to that quiet midnight sky.
If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its authors and finishers.
The future is a mystery and its certainty lies beyond the second star. But not the past. Not our history. Shall we not listen to the better angels of our nature? Shall we not imbue the measures of our pasts with the virtues of our decency? I believe we shall, and we must.
Thank you for your time.
— Victor Kong”
From: audrey linden
To: City Clerk
Subject: RE: PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEM # G1 RENT INCREASE Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 3:46:20 PM
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4-12-22
Thank you for including my comments for the above referenced Agenda item G1 Rent Increase Cap at
3.1 %
I support the council capping the rent increase or limiting it to 3.1% until July 2023.
I appreciate the council supporting our tenants in this time of economic need and hardship brought about by the pandemic and high inflation.
We cannot afford more. Gasoline is up as are groceries.
Thank you so much.
Audrey Linden
From: >
Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2022 5:07 PM
To: Lili Bosse <[email protected]>
Cc: WebCBH MAYORANDCITYCOUNCIL <[email protected]> Subject: April 12 City Council Agenda
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To The Honorable Mayor of Beverly Hills
Mayor Bosse,
Congratulations to your third term as Mayor of our lovely City!! We are very happy to have you as our Mayor during the next year and also excited to hear about the new safety measures you are going to propose.
My husband and I have been Beverly Hills residents since 1979 and since 1980 we have been renting the same apartment in a not very well maintained building at (Chapter 6). Our son is a graduate of Beverly High.
I have been informed that the Council on April 12 has on its agenda, among other matters, the allowable rent increases after the moratorium ends. We are both seniors (91 and 80 years) and we have been paying full rent during the moratorium. In the past our rent increases for several years have been 9.8% and 9.9.% until the Council finally changed the 10% rule.
I understand that now in addition to a regular rent increase you are also planning to add a certain percentage for the landlords to re-coup some of their losses . Furthermore, it seems we also have to pay part of certain utilities. This can add up
and it is really scary for many of us seniors at this time with high inflation, no bank interests and minimal Social Security increases.
It seems to us that being a Landlord is a business and like many businesses some years you have a profit and other years you have a loss. Almost every business has had a loss during the last two years and not everybody has been compensated. So the compensation (if any) to the Landlords should be calculated over many years to come in our opinion.
Finally, when discussing the above issue we would very much appreciate it if you could take the situation of us seniors in your City into consideration. It is hard to make any changes at this age.
Mayor Bosse, thank you for your time reading this e-mail.
Sincerely,
From:
To: City Clerk
Subject: Tonight’s SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL - Comments Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 1:38:46 PM
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Hello, I would like to submit this comment for tonight's meeting of the city council.
I just wanted to say I support the council's initiative to cap the rent increase or limit it to 3.1% until July 2023 and
I truly appreciate the council's support for tenants in this time of high inflation and economic hardship due to the pandemic. I have taken a loss in my small business in the last few years since the pandemic and this would help.
From:
To: City Clerk
Subject: Rent increase comment
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 9:02:48 PM
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I am a resident of Beverly Hills and I would ask the council to delay any rent increase for 12 months.
There could be an argument by real estate owners that CPI is CPI and therefore they deserve some "help", however real estate is a business that the largest cost is debt service, Loans can drop in interest rate and therefore get "re-financed" which is to say that for that transaction there is DEFLATION. Then when rates go up, owners tend to hold tight. The next costs tend to be ones NOT vulnerable to CPI. In contrast new construction might be vulnerable to materials inflation, and deliver (gas) increases, but real estate that is subject to rent stabilization and control tend to be beyond the exposure to CPI forces........
Therefore to allow an increase because the CPI went up would be to cave to pressure, Thank you
Roger
From: Martha Stevens
To: City Clerk
Subject: Re cap on Rental Increases
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 1:40:37 PM
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1. I would like to state I support cap on Rental Increases at 3.1%. Which is comparable to the city of Los Angeles, following a most difficult period of time. As a small business owner I can state that my own professional services business has still not recovered from the pandemic
I would like to thank the Council for your kindness and continuing concern for the community during COVID and willingness to help the renters of the City for the last two years of the pandemic and terrible economic conditions Martha Stevens
Beverly Hills, CA
90212
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From: Tom Thompson
To: City Clerk
Subject: Public Comment for item G1
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 7:19:45 PM
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I'd like it to be known that I support Council's interim action to establish a maximum rent increase of 3.1% until July 2023. Your support in this matter will help a lot while we try to recover from the economic trauma of Covid and current high inflation.
Thank you very much,
Concerned fixed-income Senior and BH resident for decades From: Alex Woodbury
To: City Clerk
Subject: Item G1: Moratorium on Rental Increases
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 5:09:35 PM
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Please read the following to the City Council at tonight's meeting:
Honorable Mayer and members of the City Council,
My wife and I have been Beverly Hills residents for the past ten years, and we have three children.
We understand that it is time to move forward and allow landlords the ability to once again begin increasing rents. We DO NOT agree, however, with allowing them to "catch-up" for past increases that were not permitted during the past couple of years.
I and my wife suffered great income loss as a result of being furloughed, and when we were able to begin working again, our income was reduced significantly. Even now, our combined income is 3/4 of what it once was. Regardless, we paid our rent every month, and put food on the table for our family. We unfortunately depleted our savings, so are starting over again.
We know that landlords are business owners, and the rent they collect is income. What we do not understand is why the City Council believes that landlords have the right to past annual increases, when millions of tenants, like my wife and I, permanently lost huge chunks of our salaries (and savings) to survive during the pandemic? We have read the reports from Deputy Director Morales and listened to the meetings. A key issue that was NEVER mentioned, was that any "catch-up" for past increases would be IN ADDITION to any current allowable CPI increases. Does the City Council realize that the current proposed minimum increase of 3.10 % would be added to the current Core Inflation Rate 6.50 (assuming that stays the same by the end of May)? That means that for this year alone, tenants could face 9.60 rent increase. My wife and I pay over $32,000 a year in rent.
The increase could be almost $3,000 more a year.
Inflation is at the highest rate in 40 years. If these types of increases are allowed, our family, and countless others, will be pushed out of the city.
Please do not let that happen. We love living in Beverly Hills, but we also need to survive.
Sincerely yours,
Alex and Angelina Woodbury
From: Lynn Vogel-Zuiderweg
To: City Clerk
Subject: Allowable Rent Increase After Moratorium
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 8:20:34 AM
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Dear City Council:
It is our understanding that the City Council will be addressing the issue of how much of a rent increase would be allowable after the end of the moratorium on rent increases during the Covid pandemic.
While we understand that the landlords will have the right to increase the rent after the end of the moratorium, we are asking that there not be a highter allowable percentage than there was before the pandemic. The moratorium was meant to ease the economic difficulty during a very trying time. It would not be fair to allow a higher increase. This would cause economic hardship to the renters of Beverly Hills. An increase of more than 3 or 4 % would be unjust. Please do not approve a rent increase of more than this.
Thank you for your consideration. We are sure that the City Council will fairly take into contact the economic difficulties that would be caused by an increase of more than 3 or 4%.
Sincerely,
Lynn and Gordon Zuiderweg