Latest news with #Oviatt
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ooh La La! Art Deco Exhibition Ends Today
Exactly one hundred years ago, the most fashionable designers from around the world gathered in Paris to debut an entirely new kind of modern design. The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes launched the style we now call art deco, and the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles has been celebrating all weekend at one of L.A.'s most magnificent secret spaces, the Oviatt penthouse. The private residence of clothing magnate James Oviatt sits 12 stories above his magnificent men's store on Olive Street downtown. The boutique closed in 1967 and sat empty for decades. His widow lived alone in the penthouse until she died eight years later. The space was restored in the 1980s and is occasionally open for special events. Today is World Art Deco Day, and until 9pm, guests and club members will be mingling amidst icons of decorative arts from the 1920s at 'Art Deco Tous Les Jours'—an original exhibit of stunning period artifacts including textiles, furniture, fashion, fine art, and a newly recovered painting long lost to the Oviatt. 'They can come see the exhibit and enjoy our centennial cocktail menu curated from period books by our vintage cocktail expert,' the society's executive director Margot Gerber tells Los Angeles. 'We'll have French music and curator talks in the gallery explaining the significance of the original expo and how it impacted Los Angeles.' Los Angeles City Hall, the Wiltern, and the Eastern Columbia building were all influenced by the style. The 1925 Expo sent shockwaves around the design world, inventing a whole new design vocabulary that found its way to fashion, architecture and everyday household objects. Suddenly, everything from vacuum cleaners to clocks went modern. A zeppelin-shaped cocktail shaker will be on view near original fabrics and souvenirs from the Expo, including some very expensive playing cards that were intended to be sold in Oviatt's clothing store. They're displayed near a carved bar that Oviatt had sent back from the original Parisian expo. The Art Deco Society is cooking up months of fun to celebrate. More outings to vintage venues like the Queen Mary, Tam o'Shanter and Yamashiro for their popular Cocktails in Historic Places series are on the roster. L.A.'s legendary Bullocks Wilshire department store, a temple to commerce and art deco, opens June 7 for a lecture on jewelry history of the 1920s and a perfumier will address the group at the Saban theater in Beverly Hills on June 29 to discuss Jazz Age fragrances used in everything from perfume to chocolate. What will become of L.A.'s mini expo tonight when the doors close at 9? 'When we wrap we'll just bulldoze it into the Seine river,' Gerber jokes. 'That's probably what they did in 1925.'
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
County's latest attempt at local oil permitting includes new concessions
Public review begins today on a set of revisions to Kern government's third attempt at a comprehensive environmental review that, in combination with a proposed county ordinance, would allow local petroleum producers to get permits for new drilling and other oil-field activities as long as they pay fees and abide by certain standards. The document includes substantial concessions designed to correct shortcomings identified by California's 5th District Court of Appeal, which two years ago shut down the county's permitting system over concerns about ag easements, setback distances and impacts on water supplies in disadvantaged communities. If the review passes legal muster when it goes back before the court sometime in mid-2026, it could offer a lifeline for an important local industry starved for permits and beset by opposition by environmental groups and Sacramento lawmakers. Director Lorelei Oviatt of Kern's Planning and Natural Resources Department, who has led the county's efforts for more than a decade, said the document addresses the three outstanding issues in ways that raise costs for oil and gas producers but should finally offer them permitting certainty. "This is enhanced environmental protections for an industry that we all need and we all use," Oviatt said. "This time, I am very interested to see what people have concerns about regarding the CEQA document," she said, referring to the California Environmental Quality Act governing the process officials must go through to ensure full disclosure of projects' impacts and steps taken to cushion them. Since 2015, groups including a local farming company and environmental justice organizations have targeted the county's industry-funded work, which would basically take the lead in local oil permitting from state officials whose own reviews have been bogged down in delays. While opponents of the effort have spent much time challenging the review in court, their overarching concern is that the county should consider oil projects individually instead of trying to create a blanket review for virtually all local oil activities. One group that has opposed the county's efforts, the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, was skeptical of the latest version of the environmental review. 'Once again, Kern County is making decisions with profound consequences for our communities — without meaningful engagement or coordination with those most impacted," CRPE Community Organizer Maricruz Ramirez wrote. "The oil and gas EIR revision must prioritize the health, safety and voices of frontline communities. Yet, the process continues to favor industry over people. Without genuine community input, this plan cannot serve the public interest.' A lawyer with one of the firms challenging the county review on behalf of a local ag company, Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP in San Francisco, said by email the county "has a clear road map toward doing the right thing, and we hope they'll follow it this time." 'The courts have repeatedly told Kern County it needs to find real, enforceable ways to protect farmland, including by removing old oil and gas equipment that's blocking agricultural production and by preserving additional productive farmland where possible," wrote Kevin P. Bundy, a partner at the firm. Five new mitigation measures are proposed as part of the latest review to address such concerns. One of them would require that new wells on farmland be preceded by the removal of old oil-field equipment. Also, the oil producer involved would have to secure an ag easement within the county measuring the same size as the lost farmland, and it would have to be held by a qualified holder of such easements. Another major new mitigation measure proposed in the document would address the appellate court's concern about setback distances by ruling out local permits for oil-field work within 3,200 feet of sensitive sites such as homes and schools. Any such projects would have to be considered by the state's primary oil regulator, the California Geologic Energy Management Division. The other big change, and possibly the most financially impactful among them, relates to impacts on local water supplies. The county is now proposing that oil companies looking for permits pay into a fund that would match state investments in water systems serving local disadvantaged communities. Fees for each new oil well would amount to $9,732. The county projects that total contributions would average $17.3 million, based on 1,800 new wells per year. The maximum amount, if the industry drills the cap of 2,697 new wells per year, would be $25.9 million annually. Oviatt said the two oil trade groups funding the review, the Western States Petroleum Association and the California Independent Petroleum Association, have been briefed on the new review. Asked for comment, CIPA CEO Rock Zierman responded by email: "Kern County's oil and gas ordinance is the most comprehensive in the nation, ensuring environmentally responsible local production that replaces foreign imports and reduces gasoline prices for California families.' A spokeswoman for WSPA wrote, "WSPA will be reviewing the Draft Supplemental released by the County and due to active litigation we do not have further comment at this time." Members of the county Planning Commission are expected to consider the document starting at 7 p.m. June 12. From there it will go to Kern's Board of Supervisors in July. If they certify the review, and approve a related zoning ordinance, it is expected to go back to court for consideration about a year later. The environmental review, formally known as a second supplemental recirculated environmental impact report, is available online at A 45-day public comment period starting today is set to end April 28. A virtual workshop on the document has been scheduled for 10 to 11:30 a.m. April 15. Written comments on the document are to be sent to the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, attention Keith Alvidrez, 2700 M St., Suite 100, Bakersfield, CA 93301. They can also be emailed to OG-SSREIRComments@
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
County oil proposal would help fund water system consolidations
Local water systems on the brink of failure would receive assistance totaling tens of millions of dollars per year from an unlikely source as part of a proposal being floated by Kern government to resolve a series of lawsuits that have held up county oil permitting for more than two years. The plan unveiled Friday would set up a fund to help struggling drinking water systems link up with larger, stronger peers nearby. The county estimates the fund — supported entirely by fees of $9,732 per new oil well — would receive an average of $17.3 million, and up to $25.9 million, per year for what are called system consolidations and related efforts. If approved by the county Board of Supervisors later this year, and assuming California's 5th District Court of Appeal signs off on Kern's broader permitting proposal, the plan would offer a new source of grant funding for local water systems at a time when existing financial support appears at risk from state budget vulnerabilities. Individual residential wells and those serving agricultural interests, as well as local groundwater sustainability agencies, would not be eligible for money under the proposal because the county's idea has been to assist disadvantaged communities that may be impacted by the oil industry's water use. The plan's architect, Director Lorelei Oviatt of Kern's Planning and Natural Resources Department, said the county wanted to help as many people as possible. "This seemed like an area that is a bigger result — more people being benefited in the disadvantaged communities," Oviatt said Friday. "It's clearly a need." Support for local water systems took on a degree of urgency for the county, and by extension the oil industry, after the appellate court ruled in March 2023 that Kern's massive environmental review undergirding a local permitting ordinance was insufficient in three respects. One of them was a finding that more must be done to address local oil production's impacts on poor, disadvantaged communities. By the county's estimate, the local oil industry consumes a little more than 11,760 acre-feet of water per year. The proposed Disadvantaged Communities Water Relief Fund would be administered by the county Public Health department in coordination with Oviatt's department. Water systems, or organizations serving them, would need to apply and undergo a qualification review before they could receive grant money. Oviatt said some of the support for water system consolidations could be conditioned on some level of support from the state or other sources, though details remain to be worked out. It is expected that a primary recipient of grants could be Visalia-based Self-Help Enterprises, which is like a first-responder agency helping people whose wells have gone dry or whose water has become contaminated. While Self-Help offers assistance to individuals suffering from water well problems, it also helps entire systems consolidate with neighboring districts. Money for such work now largely flows from the State Water Resources Control Board, whose spokesman said the agency was not in a position Friday to comment on the county's proposal. But as Self-Help President and CEO Tom Collishaw explained, there is concern the board's financial support could be limited in the years to come. Collishaw, who said he was aware of the county's proposal but not deeply familiar with it, welcomed the idea that oil industry money could help support his organization's mission. He added that the nonprofit has been hoping a new source of funding would arise now that state support appears to be in jeopardy, "so, from that standpoint, this is really exciting to us." The state board's website for water system consolidations shows a list of projects awaiting action, including several in the valley portion of Kern County, where the proposed fund would focus. The list is available online at Oviatt said the need for such work is "pent-up" and so "there needs to be other sources of funding." Such work can involve drilling new wells, installing water storage tanks, putting in pumps, laying pipelines and expanding water treatment facilities — all of which may be paid for by the proposed fund, Oviatt said. She estimated that the cost of a full consolidation at between $600,000 and $1 million per consolidation. Another possible use of the money, she added, could be helping an organization like Self-Help hire new engineers to meet the needs of struggling local water systems.
