We know you are tired of hearing about, and going to, meetings. But this next public hearing is the most important one of all - at the Los Angeles City Planning Commission. IF YOU CARE AT ALL ABOUT YOUR HOME, your peace and quiet, and your safety, you MUST attend this hearing at Van Nuys City Hall.   Public Hearing Information

L.A. Planning Commission meeting packed with homeowners and neighboring community members

March 26, 2009
Thank you again! For all the support at Van Nuys City Hall for the Planning commission hearing.

Community support strong at the public hearing 2/18/09

February 18, 2009
Thank you! to all who spent their day at City Hall for the Public Hearing on February 18, 2009. Our collective voices were heard as more than twenty people spoke out against the project to a packed audience.

MOT continues to fast track development, Final EIR released

February 6, 2009
It is extraordinary how fast the Museum of Tolerance is trying to ram this through.  Additionally, they want to start renting out the building immediately.

If you wrote comments on a section of the DRAFT EIR, please find and review the responses to your comments in the FINAL EIR. If the responses do not adequately address the concerns and questions raised in your comments, prepare a letter explaining how the FEIR fails to address the issues/questions raised in your comments to the DEIR. Read here: Get the Final EIR

South Robertson Neighborhoods Council Criticizes DEIR in Comment Letter

January 26, 2009
The South Robertson Neighborhoods Council (www.soronc.org), which previously recommended rejection of the Museum expansion project as it was originally proposed, again expressed serious concerns about the project in its comment letter on the DEIR, which was sent to the Department of City Planning on January 26, 2009. The Council's comment letter said that the DEIR "fails to address many issues that have been raised by our community and their comments on the Applicant's Initial Study. Thus, it is legally inadequate, and a revised DEIR must be prepared and recirculated." Read here: SoRo Strong Comments

Department of City Planning Schedules Public Hearing for February 18, 2009

January 22, 2009
The L.A. Department of City Planning sent out a Notice of Public Hearing, for a hearing at City Hall on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, at 1:00 PM. The hearing officers will consider all applications submitted for the Museum expansion project. In a nutshell, the SWC is making a desperate grab to railroad this project through the planning process, in order to get it to a vote of the full City Council while Jack Weiss (see www.recalljackweiss.com) is still in office - - while allowing the public virtually no time to read and comment on the many serious issues raised in the Environmental Impact Report. If you oppose the Museum expansion, and the thought of people having parties, drinking and dancing on top of a holocaust memorial, please attend the hearing! Public Hearing 2/18/09

H.O.M.E. Reads and Responds to DEIR On-Time

January 7, 2009
By word of mouth and community awareness, a significant number of people dedicated their holiday time to digest and respond to the Museum of Tolerance Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). Although office closures and legal holidays foreshortened the City's 45 day comment period by nearly half, H.O.M.E. responded with force and conviction. A summary of the findings and DEIR impacts can be read here: DEIR described

Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Museum expansion is released

November 24, 2008
The Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) was released during Thanksgiving week, with comments due on January 7, 2009, only a few days after the New Year's holiday. We believe that such timing was intentional, to discourage the public from reading the 2,892 page document over the Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah and New Year's holidays. Nevertheless, many people read as much as they could and sent a lot of comments about the many concerns raised by the DEIR and its many misleading and inaccurate statements. After reading the DEIR, we now know that the project is even worse than we feared! The entire DEIR is available on-line at the Department of City Planning's website: DEIR - Museum of Tolerance or on CD-ROM for $7.50 by calling Diana Kitching at (213) 978-1351.

Here are some instructions to help you download the DEIR: Get the DEIR

Preserve the Legacy launches website

May 7, 2008
Preserve the Legacy, the association formed by H.O.M.E. (Homeowners Opposed to Museum Expansion), launches the website PreserveTheLegacy.org, to provide up-to-date and accurate information about the Simon Wiesenthal Center's plans to expand and reposition its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles as a "cultural center."

MOT understates project space

April 28, 2008
L.A. Dept. of City Planning issues revised Notice of Preparation

On April 28, 2008, the Department of City Planning recirculated the Notice of Preparation (NOP) of the Environmental Impact Report for the Museum of Tolerance Project, due to an error made by the applicant in calculating the square footage of the expansion project (the applicant failed to include the floor area of hallways and corridors, as required by L.A. Municipal Code Section 12.03).  The required recalculation increases the total square footage of the expansion from the 13,500 sq. ft. mentioned in the documents previously submitted by the SWC, to 16,809 sq. ft. of floor area, PLUS a 4,000 sq. ft. open-air rooftop garden (designed to hold 500 people), and an additional 1,570 sq. ft. of usable outdoor space.  If the rooftop garden is enclosed, the building height will be 60 feet (four stories), and the total floor area will be 20,809 sq. ft. plus 2,230 sq. ft of usable outdoor space.  ONLY 435 sq. ft. is designated as new museum exhibit space, and the Project also includes the proposed annexation of 7,800 sq. ft. from the adjacent Yeshiva of Los Angeles property.

This brings the total size of the Museum to either 110,179 sq. ft. or 110,839 sq. ft. - - an expansion of almost 40% in the total size of the building (based on the Museum's previous statements that the current building has a floor area of 80,000 sq. ft.) This enormous building, with a 4,000 sq. ft. outdoor rooftop garden (which the SWC proposes to rent out for parties six nights a week until midnight) will be only 20 feet away from the property line of the adjacent single-family home. To read the entire NOP, see Key Documents.

Community Meets with Lawyers

April 10, 2008
Jan Chatten-Brown, Esq., managing partner and founder of the environmental and land-use law firm Chatten-Brown & Carstens (the firm retained by H.O.M.E.), and her associate Arthur Pugsley, Esq., gave an informative presentation to concerned community members about the California Environmental Quality Act and the process for challenging the Environmental Impact Report for the Museum of Tolerance expansion project.

South Robertson Neighborhoods Council Board of Directors votes to oppose museum expansion

April 9, 2008
In a unanimous decision, the Board of Directors of the South Robertson Neighborhoods Council, the official City agency representing over 35,000 stakeholders living and working in the neighborhoods within its jurisdiction, voted to oppose the expansion of the Museum of Tolerance and to send a letter to the Department of City Planning, urging that the City exercise its authority to reject the project as described in the Notice of Preparation. To read a copy of the Council's letter, see "Opposition Letters" on this website.

Community donations pay off

March 11, 2008
H.O.M.E. retains environmental and land use law firm of Chatten-Brown & Carstens

Opposition forces MOT to do full Environmental Impact Report

February, 2008
SWC must conduct full EIR process instead of limited study