Welcome to the Brentwood Hills Homeowners Association home page. The purpose of this site is to provide our local homeowners with information relevant to the community as well as easy access to our association. Regular BHHA board meetings are generally held on the first Wednesday of each month and are always open to members. Please contact us if you are interested in attending. If you live in Brentwood Hills we invite you to join us.
If you live in the community, please sign-up for our community update e-mail list.
Last fall Southern California Gas Co began pipeline and road maintenance work in Sullivan Canyon. The canyon was closed for a number of weeks and reopened with a new road surface, various erosion control features, and 29 fewer mature Sycamore trees. Unfortunately, much of the new road was washed out or otherwise re-engineered by nature during this winter's heavy rains and needs to be repaired before the second phase of SoCalGas's work (covering the remaining exposed portions of the gas pipeline) can continue this summer. More information about the planned work, including a link to the permits, is available at SoCalGas's web page.
Visitors to Sullivan Canyon should expect the trail to be closed to through-hikers/cyclists for two weeks starting May 26 (the Queensferry entrance will remain open, but the northern access will be closed). A three-month closure of the entire canyon is currently scheduled to begin June 14. We will post any changes to the schedule as we hear of them from So Cal Gas.
As part of Metro and CalTrans' I-405 widening project, three bridges are being rebuilt in the Sepulveda Pass, including the Sunset Boulevard Bridge. An e-mail from Metro regarding the Sunset Bridge portion of the project follows:
From: ROBLESY@metro.net Sent: 5/3/2010 1:12:48 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time Subj: Sunset Bridge Demolition & Reconstruction Good afternoon. I wanted to share with you the latest scheduled activities regarding the Sunset Bridge demolition and reconstruction. As you are aware, the new traffic configurations for the Sunset Bridge and adjacent streets will go into effect on May 7. Implementing these new traffic configurations and isolating the work zone will help the Contractor prepare for demolition. The Contractor will be: protecting an existing water line in place surveying the existing bridge's condition removing any hazardous materials that may exist installing temporary pipe supports removing false deck from inside the bridge; and building temporary bents The demolition schedule will be dependent on what the Contractor encounters during these activities. Demolition could happen as early as the end of May. However, if the conditions are such that additional prep work will be needed, then actual demolition can occur in June. The I-405 Project Team will continue to keep you informed of construction activities as we move forward with the project and in particular the activities related to the Sunset Bridge demolition and reconstruction. Thank you. Yvette Yvette ZR Rapose Community Relations Manager Construction Impact Mitigation Programs One Gateway Plaza, MS 99-17-11 Los Angeles, CA 90012-2952 213.922.2297 F 213.922.2898
From: ROBLESY@metro.net Sent: 5/3/2010 1:12:48 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time Subj: Sunset Bridge Demolition & Reconstruction Good afternoon. I wanted to share with you the latest scheduled activities regarding the Sunset Bridge demolition and reconstruction. As you are aware, the new traffic configurations for the Sunset Bridge and adjacent streets will go into effect on May 7. Implementing these new traffic configurations and isolating the work zone will help the Contractor prepare for demolition. The Contractor will be:
The demolition schedule will be dependent on what the Contractor encounters during these activities. Demolition could happen as early as the end of May. However, if the conditions are such that additional prep work will be needed, then actual demolition can occur in June. The I-405 Project Team will continue to keep you informed of construction activities as we move forward with the project and in particular the activities related to the Sunset Bridge demolition and reconstruction. Thank you. Yvette Yvette ZR Rapose Community Relations Manager Construction Impact Mitigation Programs One Gateway Plaza, MS 99-17-11 Los Angeles, CA 90012-2952 213.922.2297 F 213.922.2898
For more information about the I-405 project in general, please visit the project web page. Metro also maintains a page for Sunset Bridge specific information. The project may also be followed on FaceBook, and Metro now has a Twitter feed for all things Metro. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky also has an interesting article on his web site about the the Sunset Bridge demolition.
As most residents of Brentwood Hills are aware, not just from the posted signs, but also from the ongoing brush clearing and occasional BHHA newsletters, it is illegal to have open fires or to smoke out doors here, because we live in the most restrictive fire control zone within Los Angeles (called a "Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone")*. Despite this clear and common-sense restriction, smokers are frequently spotted throughout the community. Polite requests to "please put out your cigarette" are sometimes met rudely or simply dismissed. (I've even had the same conversation with a resident who says he has lived in the neighborhood for thirty years and has never heard of such a restriction, despite having had the same conversation with me only a few months before.) So, just as with speeding and stop-sign scofflaws, we will probably not be able to stop some of our own residents from putting themselves and us at risk.
Visitors to the neighborhood, on the other hand, are usually very responsive when asked to stop smoking, because they often have no knowledge of the smoking restriction, since they don't live here and likely missed the conspicuously posted signs, which are now faded and don't command the attention they should. Or they have seen scofflaw residents smoking and assume that it is permissible.
The bottom line is this: we are all collectively responsible for the fire safety of our community. If you see someone smoking where they shouldn't (basically, anywhere outside in the neighborhood), please ask them to put it out. You can mention that there are posted signs and potential fines for violations. You can try to call the police or fire departments if the smoker doesn't comply. You can call a business to let them know that you saw their employee smoking where they shouldn't. (The purpose of these calls is not necessarily to get a specific employee in trouble, it is to ask the company to tell employees not to smoke when visiting our community.) Lastly, you can contact BHHA to let us know. If enough community concern is expressed and anecdotal evidence collected, there is always the outside chance of convincing LAPD and/or LAFD to enforce the law, as LAPD has done with stop-sign-running and speeding in the neighborhood.
* More information about the precise municipal code applicable is available online (note - the page may take a moment to load, but will eventually bring you to the pertinent code section once fully loaded). The pertinent portion for this discussion states: "There shall be no open burning or smoking in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone." (LAMC Sec. 57.25.02, amended by Ord. No. 176,943, effective 10/5/05.) - And - "It shall be unlawful for any person to light, ignite or smoke any cigar, cigarette, tobacco in a pipe or other form of smoldering substance within the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone." (LAMC Sec. 57.25.14, amended by Ord. No. 176,943, effective 10/5/05.) Links to the LA County FHSZ map.
* More information about the precise municipal code applicable is available online (note - the page may take a moment to load, but will eventually bring you to the pertinent code section once fully loaded). The pertinent portion for this discussion states:
"There shall be no open burning or smoking in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone." (LAMC Sec. 57.25.02, amended by Ord. No. 176,943, effective 10/5/05.) - And - "It shall be unlawful for any person to light, ignite or smoke any cigar, cigarette, tobacco in a pipe or other form of smoldering substance within the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone." (LAMC Sec. 57.25.14, amended by Ord. No. 176,943, effective 10/5/05.)
"There shall be no open burning or smoking in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone." (LAMC Sec. 57.25.02, amended by Ord. No. 176,943, effective 10/5/05.)
- And -
"It shall be unlawful for any person to light, ignite or smoke any cigar, cigarette, tobacco in a pipe or other form of smoldering substance within the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone." (LAMC Sec. 57.25.14, amended by Ord. No. 176,943, effective 10/5/05.)
Links to the LA County FHSZ map.
We have received reports of some dog-owners taking strolls with their dogs and not cleaning up after them. This is, of course, illegal (see below), but it also rude and un-neighborly. None of our residents should need a reminder to clean up after their dogs (the pooper-scooper law has been in effect for more than thirty years!), but those that need such reminders should consider that if they don't want to do it, why would their neighbor want to? Many of us have children, but regardless: no one wants someone else's dog defecating repeatedly on their property without its owner cleaning up. Please, clean up after your pets.
"It shall be unlawful for the owner or person having custody of any dog to fail to immediately remove and dispose of in a sanitary manner, by replacing in a closed or sealed container and depositing in a trash receptacle, any feces deposited by such dog upon public or private property..." (LAMC Sec. 53.49, amended by Ord. No. 151,707, effective 12/29/79).
More information regarding dues payment, including paying dues online through PayPal, is available here.
© Copyright 2010, Brentwood Hills Homeowners Assn. Please send comments or corrections to: webmaster@brentwood-hills.org site last updated 5/17/10