By Rick Thomas
I started writing this piece over 6 months ago. Still an ongoing, never-ending mess. A mess. Not one person on either side of this issue, after reading this, is gonna like it.
So here we go.
There are no winners here. Only losers.
City of Los Angeles? Loser. More to come on the debacle LA has created with this Public Benefits Project that benefits no one living in the Green Meadows West section of Harbor City.
Those residents, losers too. Losing a ton of value in their homes, losing safety, and losing the look and feel of Green Meadows West.
Stewart Silver, owner of Silver RV Park? He’s losing as well. A lot of sleep, a decline in his personal health and a lot of money.
A lot of money.
Put up $2,000,000 cash into Silver RV Park. He’s going to lose more money but has promised not to go away. Well, unless he’s compensated. Nicely he says.
This is a nasty story. I’ve heard more name-calling so horrific that I can’t post it here. And it’s still going on. I could hold back on telling this story until the end but there doesn’t seem to be an end.
The address is seared in my memory ―― 23416 President Avenue in Harbor City. I’ll try to clarify the fiasco Los Angeles has created with the infamous…at least to the residents of Green Meadows West, Silver RV Park.
I got a call back in June of 2024 from neighborhood activist David Matthews. He asked me to tune into that day’s LA City Council meeting.
I did.
“Item 25” was on the agenda for public comment. Which was the new Silver RV Park. 15th District City Councilmember Tim McOsker made a motion to stop its opening, built smack dab next to an upscale residential area, Green Meadows West in Harbor City. Homes priced at a little over $500,000 to over $1,000,000.
I mean right across the street.
Silver RV Park, according to its owner then, was “97% complete.” That means done. Fully cooked. That was at the end of June 2024.
Stewart Silver bought 23416 President Avenue in Harbor City with all cash in November 2023. The Silver RV Park was taking reservations for summer 2024 occupancy.
Then, SCREECH!!!!!
The motion passed. Everything stopped that day. The residents of Green Meadows West got their wish to basically shut down Silver RV Park.
Yay, right?
Um, no.
Not even close.
“I can’t say much because we are being sued,” said Tim McOsker.
Thanks to a little-known program called the Public Benefits Project. Simply put, a Public Benefit Project for housing can be built with no public input.
One more time, no public input. Stakeholders living in the community, ya ready…you DO NOT have to be notified that such a project is coming into your neighborhood.
“There was no communication about the plans for this RV park,” one Harbor City resident said. “I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 40 years and we are being blindsided.”
No process or system in place forces the developers to make residents aware that such a project is moving next to million-dollar single-family homes. They don’t have to pitch their plans to a Neighborhood Council Plum committee, nobody in the community.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Stewart Silver went through the process legally and correctly.
Blame the city.
Roll back to ‘Item 25’ on the Council’s agenda. Tim McOsker was pissed. You could see the frustration on his face. About the RV park but more about getting run over from behind. Nobody knew this Public Benefits Project as in Silver RV Park was happening.
Nothing he could do about it but stop it. And Tim McOsker did. According to Stewart Silver, he considers this an illegal, corrupt move on the city’s part.
Stewart Silver bought 23416 President Avenue in Harbor City using the foundation of the Public Benefits Project and went through every step needed in his 21-page application to get to that 97% completion. And the city has no standing to stop Silver RV Park from opening.
In an August 23rd, 2024 interdepartmental memo the Planning Department and the LA Department of Building and Safety wrote to LA City Council, “The city does not have an ability to impose additional conditions, outside of the Public Benefits provisions for the use of the land associated with the proposed RV park.”
That was six months ago.
Let the nastiness begin.
The site sits empty.
I spent almost an hour speaking with Stewart Silver and spent more than enough time going to public meetings on the issue and speaking with residents living in Green Meadows West. I made it clear to both sides of the issue that I don’t like this RV project pulling up next to million-dollar homes.
It stinks.
But how did this get this far? How does the City of Los Angeles put an RV park in this type of community? I am not playing a culture war card here, but c’mon Los Angeles. You gotta be kidding me with this Public Benefits Project concept because it’s just not fair.
It’s not.
And if Tim McOsker has some power, which he does, this Public Benefits Project thing needs to be reviewed. From my perspective, if people have money, buy million-dollar homes, drive nice cars, and want a safe neighborhood, they should be able to have it for themselves and their families.
Why in the world would they want an RV Park across the street from your home?
I had to ask Tim McOsker about this at a Harbor Gateway South Neighborhood Council meeting. As in, “How do we prevent this from happening in my area?” And I live in what’s considered the hood. It’s gentrifying quite nicely after 8 years as brand-new projects or upgrades are happening.
But not a dang RV park.
That ain’t happening at 206th and Western nor be happening at 235th near Western. And there are no million-dollar homes in my area.
Back to that loser thing at the beginning of this post. The biggest losers will be all residents in Los Angeles. Because Stewart Silver wants his money back. And he’s going to make us pay. An appraiser has valued Silver RV Park between $9,000,000 and $10,000,000 once people are living there.
“I’m not somebody you can push around,” said Silver responding to his treatment by the city. “I will make sure that I will settle for nothing less than what I’m owed.”
See what I mean is this story has no ending.