UCLA students announce plan to split from Westwood Neighborhood Council over housing

UCLA students who want more housing built in Westwood are leading an effort to splinter from the Westwood Neighborhood Council.

They announced their plan to form a separate neighborhood council Wednesday night at a UCLA graduate student government event, says Graduate Students Association President Michael Skiles.

Skiles tells Curbed the students want more of a say on neighborhood issues, and he says the existing neighborhood council has been “NIMBY and obstructionist” about building new housing.

He pointed to the council’s Land Use and Planning Committee’s recent decision not to support UCLA’s plan to convert a UCLA extension building into dorms for 1,350 students and to a 2011 decision to oppose the university’s plan to redevelop four residential properties in North Westwood Village with housing for 367 students.

Skiles says students want more affordable units in the neighborhood so more students can live close to campus.

Westwood is predominantly residential, but housing isn’t cheap. The median home list price is $1.85 million, according to Redfin, and a June Zumper report found the median one-bedroom apartment rents for $2,660.

More housing could help drive down the cost of rent. But it’s not just housing. Skiles also says neighborhood council members are deterring nightlife and popular restaurants such as Lemonade from opening in Westwood Village.

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UCLA urban planning professor Paavo Monkkonen says he supports the students’ effort to split.

“It makes no sense that a handful of local homeowners should be able to block new student housing projects and prevent Westwood village from being a vibrant area that appeals to students with restaurants and bars,” he says. He looks forward to having “a rare west LA neighborhood council that wants more housing and more activity.”

To form their own group, the students will have to apply to the city’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. If the application is approved, it would go to an election (eligible voters would include UCLA students and anyone who lives, works, or owns a business in Westwood.)

The department isn’t accepting applications for new neighborhood councils right now, but it will be doing so “soon,” says spokesperson Stephen Box.

Westwood Neighborhood Council President Lisa Chapman says there already opportunities for students to have a voice on the council. There’s a UCLA student seat on the council board and students are eligible for seats reserved for renter representatives.

The students want things to happen quickly, says Chapman. But creating affordable housing is “not something that can be accomplished overnight, and it’s not something that can be accomplished by a neighborhood council,” she says.

The council also has a newish ad hoc student engagement group but Chapman says she’s noticed that students who are involved in the neighborhood council “have been frustrated” by it and the pace at which it moves.

Still, Chapman says she supports the students’ effort. “It’s going to take a lot of work” to meet the requirements to create a new neighborhood council, “but more power to them.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately stated that only one UCLA student sits on the neighborhood council.