The City of West Hollywood will host a virtual West Hollywood Housing Symposium on Wednesday, March 23, 2022 at 5:30 p.m. via the Zoom platform. The Housing Symposium will bring together policy makers and policy experts in the areas of housing and land use in the State of California.

In addition to participating via Zoom, the Symposium will also be viewable on the City of West Hollywood’s WeHoTV YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/wehotv. Community members who are interested in submitting questions during the panel discussion may do so; registration is required in advance via Zoom. For updated information about the West Hollywood Housing Symposium, please visit www.weho.org/calendar.

As the State of California continues to respond to an unprecedented housing affordability crisis, and as thousands of residents continue to fall into homelessness, it is imperative that cities and counties throughout the state work to accommodate the creation of additional housing units. To meet this challenge, though, the California State Legislature has enacted some laws that preempt local ordinances. As a result, this can have the effect of curtailing the ability of local municipalities to make decisions that best fit community characteristics.

The West Hollywood Housing Symposium will feature a moderated panel discussion to provide the community with information about recently approved state legislation and pending housing legislation under consideration in Sacramento that may impact the City of West Hollywood. Panelists will discuss the challenges that exist in balancing a broad vision to accommodate higher-density developments with the desire of many local communities to protect local control with fewer restrictions.

Symposium panelists include: Aaron Eckhouse, Regional Policy Manager for CA YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard); Alex Fisch, Culver City Councilmember and Westside Cities Council of Government representative to Southern California Association of Governments; Peggy Huang, Yorba Linda Councilmember, and proponent of a statewide ballot initiative to protect local control; Jason Rhine, League of California Cities Assistant Director of Legislative Affairs; and Marcel Rodarte, California Contract Cities Association Executive Director. The West Hollywood Housing Symposium will be moderated by Hernán Molina, City of West Hollywood Governmental Affairs Liaison.

For more information, please contact Hernán Molina, the City of West Hollywood’s Governmental Affairs Liaison, at hmolina@weho.org or at (323) 848-6364. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

The City of West Hollywood remains in a declared local emergency in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. West Hollywood City Hall is open for in-person transactions by appointment; to make an appointment, visit www.weho.org/appointments. City Hall services remain accessible by phone at (323) 848-6400 and via the City’s website at www.weho.org.

City of West Hollywood coronavirus updates are available at www.weho.org/coronavirus and the City encourages community members to follow @wehocity on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and turn on notifications. For up-to-date news and events, follow the City of West Hollywood on social media, sign up for news updates at www.weho.org/email, and visit the City’s calendar of meetings and events at www.weho.org/calendar.

For reporters and members of the media seeking additional information about the City of West Hollywood, please contact the City of West Hollywood’s Public Information Officer, Sheri A. Lunn, at (323) 848-6391 or slunn@weho.org.