Alarcon proposal could benefit new wife - Councilman's bid to reclassify part of a street would mean she could develop her site without giving land to the city.
Traffic congestion is a sensitive political issue in the San Fernando Valley, especially for residents frustrated by the cars that cut through their neighborhoods.
Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alarcon quietly drafted a measure two months ago to deal with a tiny piece of that traffic, calling on the city bureaucracy to downgrade a street in his district from a busy highway designation to a quiet "collector" street.
The proposal affects just one block of one street in Panorama City. And that block of Wakefield Avenue happens to be the place Alarcon lists as his home -- a 1950 tract house belonging to Flora Montes de Oca, the woman Alarcon plans to marry today.
The councilman's proposal seeks to "preserve the residential character" of Wakefield. But the plan could provide another benefit to Montes de Oca, who plans to tear down her rental house and replace it with as many as nine homes.
Montes de Oca faces the prospect of giving part of her property to the city for a required street widening once she builds. But if Alarcon's request is approved by the council, she would be spared from forfeiting up to 2,850 square feet of her lot at Nordhoff Street and Wakefield.
Nothing legally prohibited Alarcon from writing the council motion; the state's conflict-of-interest law keeps politicians from acting on property owned by spouses -- not girlfriends or fiancees.
Still, the proposal troubled Robert Stern, who heads the nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies and wrote the 1974 law.
"Is there no shame?" he asked. "There's nothing illegal. But [this] is doing something that affects him personally."
Alarcon disagreed, saying he won't own the property even after he is married. But he will be required by law to recuse himself from voting on matters directly affecting the property, leaving the decision to his colleagues and the city bureaucracy.
"Obviously, when we get married, I can't be involved," he said.
The house owned by Montes de Oca is one of only two on the east side of Wakefield between Nordhoff and Terra Bella streets -- the 338-foot stretch covered by Alarcon's motion. Just two lots away from Montes de Oca's property, 26 town houses are under construction.
Alarcon said his proposal, drafted in June, would bring a long-awaited traffic fix to Wakefield. Asked why that proposal didn't create the appearance of a conflict of interest, Alarcon replied, "Well, we weren't engaged when I did it. Or at least, when the issue came up."
