Petition to Oppose the Museum of Tolerance Expansion

WE, the undersigned, request that the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, City Planning Commission and City Council DENY the Simon Wiesenthal Center's application (City Planning Dept. Case No. VTT-66144, EAF No. ENV-2007-2476-EIR) for a Plan Approval to permit construction of a new cultural center and banquet facility on the site of the Museum of Tolerance Memorial Garden, for the following reasons:

(1)    The Memorial Garden should remain as it is - - a place for quiet contemplation and a memorial dedicated to the many millions of victims of the Holocaust and other genocides;

(2)    It is a disgrace to the legacy and memory of Simon Wiesenthal to rent out the building that bears his name - - and that is known as the Beit Ha'Shoah (House of the Holocaust) - - for weddings, bar-mitzvahs and other parties and celebrations;
 
(3)    The intended use of the expanded facility for such types of events has no relevance whatsoever to the Simon Wiesenthal Center's mission statement, which is to "promote tolerance and educate the public about the legacy of the Holocaust and the dangers of hate and prejudice";
 
(4)    Construction of such an enormous (48 to 60 feet high, and approx. 105,300 sq. ft., including the proposed 4,000 sq. ft. rooftop garden) commercial facility on land that is zoned R1-1 (for single-family residential use only, with a height limit of 33 feet [or only 25 feet in certain areas]), to stay open until midnight six nights a week, and which is immediately adjacent to (i.e., separated by only 20 feet from) a quiet residential community of modest-size single-family homes, is contrary to the policies and goals of the West Los Angeles Community Plan (e.g., to "preserve existing single-family residential neighborhoods" and to protect such neighborhoods "from new out-of-scale development and other incompatible uses");
 
(5)    The proposed expansion will have very serious and dangerous environmental impacts on the surrounding community, which cannot be mitigated or justified; 
 
(6)    The Simon Wiesenthal Center should not be allowed to renege on the express agreement it made in 1986, pursuant to which it was permitted to exceed the 45 foot height limit in order for the Museum to have a fourth story, in exchange for creating the Memorial Garden as a 100 foot-wide buffer to separate the massive (currently 80,000 sq. ft.) Museum building from the adjacent, modest-size single-family homes; and

(7)     The stated purpose of the Museum of Tolerance to "reposition the museum as a cultural center," for non-museum uses as a function hall/banquet hall, does not justify granting the extraordinary relief that the Simon Wiesenthal Center is requesting from the City's zoning laws and land use regulations, including a zone change, height district change, amendment to the General Plan, a variance from the Transitional Height Ordinance, and substantial modifications to the current Conditional Use Permit, nor does the expansion and "repositioning" of the Museum as a "cultural center" and function hall/banquet hall provide any benefits which could or would outweigh the unavoidable adverse environmental impacts of the proposed project.

Thank you for your consideration of these concerns.