If you want to put in planters to prevent homeless encampments on sidewalks in Los Angeles—you'll need a permit.
That’s according to the city after they removed planters on Monday that neighbors had placed along Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
The planters the City of Los Angeles removed from Sunset near Highland Monday for lack of permits weren’t the first time someone in that stretch of Hollywood used planters to keep homeless encampments out.
Two blocks down at Sunset Sound recording studio, Paul Camarata took advantage of a time the City of Los Angeles carried out a deep cleaning of Sunset and Cherokee Avenue.
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“At that point we thought let’s try to take some of it back and we’ll put some planters down, we had no other alternative,” said Camarata. “All the news agencies picked it up and that’s when it got the mayor’s office attention and she called me and said 'we’re going to do an Inside Safe cleanup for you.'"
Camarata said the planters helped to an extent, but wherever there weren’t planters, encampments would pop up. Sunset Sound struggles with encampments which, at points, stretch a block in each direction.
In May, Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program cleaned out the encampment and has kept it clean ever since. Camarata said as soon as someone attempts to camp there, a City of Los Angeles employee clears them out.
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Camarata is pleased with the results of Inside Safe and Mayor Bass’ responsiveness to his situation. He added that the mayor did advise him his planters needed to be permitted.
Councilmember Hugo Soto Martinez’s office said community members require an "R" permit to install planters on the sidewalk.
Camarata said he's looking into it but there are "a lot of requirements."
Next door, his neighbors at the Assistance League of Los Angeles hope he’s successful.
“They’ve been like a layer of protection for our building,” says Melanie Merians, CEO of the Assistance League of Los Angeles. “There were fires, there were drugs, there were a lot of mental health issues,” Merians tells NBC4.
Assistance League of Los Angeles provides services to children including those experiencing homelessness but those same children were having to navigate the encampments.
Merians said she hopes the city permits allow a feasible path to placing planters in a way that can deter the encampments. More than that both of the business leaders hope the city can maintain the area clean.
“If it can remain clear out there where people can safely walk down the street and handicap can access, we don’t need planters,” says Camarata.
