Key Documents

Environmental Impact Report - Final
Get the Final EIR
What this is: The FEIR (Final Environmental Impact Report)is the completed study for the EIR process. It contains a description and all environmental factors affected by the project.

Draft Environmental Impact Report
Get the DEIR
What this is: The Draft Environmental Impact Report is the second phase of the EIR process. It contains information in response to comments received by the City Planning Department regarding the applicant's Initial Study. Please note that the Draft EIR is actually written by the applicant (in this case, by people hired by the Simon Wiesenthal Center) and not by the City; thus, it is written in a manner that is substantially biased in favor of the applicant. Nonetheless, the DEIR does identify many significant environmental impacts of the proposed expansion, which it concludes cannot be mitigated. See our summary of the findings.

Initial Study / Museum of Tolerance Project
MOT Revised IS w graphics 04-24-08.pdf (3MB)
What this is: The Initial Study is the first phase of the EIR (Environmental Impact Report) process. It contains a description of the project and of the environmental factors potentially affected by the project.

Revised and Recirculated Notice of Preparation / E.I.R.
Revised NOP 04 28 08 .pdf
What this is: The Notice of Preparation (NOP) is sent by the City Planning Department to notify the public that an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is required by the applicant. In this case, the NOP was recirculated because the applicant failed to comply with L.A. Municipal Code requirements and thus miscalculated and understated the square footage of the project by 7,309 sq. ft. The NOP includes a brief description of the project and a list of all the zoning changes, variances, etc. that the applicant is seeking. Because the NOP was recirculated, the public now has an additional 30 days (until May 28, 2008) to submit comments regarding the impacts of the project.

MOT's 1986 Conditional Use Permit
City of LA - 1986 Conditional Use Permit.pdf
What this is: This contains all of the conditions that the City imposed on the Museum of Tolerance in 1986, in order to protect the adjacent residential neighborhood. Representatives of the neighborhood, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and then-Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky's office worked together for an entire year from 1985 - 1986 to negotiate and reach agreement on these conditions. If the SWC had not agreed to these conditions, Zev Yaroslavsky would not have supported the project, and it would not have been built.

Note in particular: Conditions #4 (use of the property "shall be solely for museum uses"); #5 ("total floor area shall not exceed 81,000 square feet"); #6 (hours of operation shall be 10 AM to 5 PM M-F and 11 AM to 5 PM on Sunday); #7 (the facility may not be used for private use such as "parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs, receptions, etc."); #17 (the memorial garden shall be used primarily as a "well landscaped buffer area, separating the museum building from residential areas to the south," with only 2 [later amended to 4] events per year in the garden, and only during daylight hours, with no food or beverage service, and each such event to be no more than 1-1/2 hours); and #18 (no food service [i.e., restaurant or cafeteria] to be provided for the general public). The SWC is now seeking to revoke ALL of these conditions!