March Newsbites

In This Issue—

* Wildfire in Bel Air Hills - Community Meeting
* Burglary Increase 
* Roscomare/Mulholland Graffiti Update
* Homeowner Insurance Information
* Wildlife Ordinance Meeting Update
* Street Light Outage Update
* BAHA’s Annual Membership Drive

***Wildfire in Bel Air Hills - Zoom Meeting March 13, 7pm***  BAHA is hosting a community meeting with LAFD Battalion Commander Mario Garcia to discuss Bel Air Hills’ unique vulnerabilities to wildfire and our neighborhood’s challenges for evacuation and LAFD access. The information you get at this community meeting could save your home and your life. SAVE THE DATE IN YOUR CALENDARS NOW.  MARCH 13, 7:00 PM*.  Zoom link and additional information will follow. 

*Time and date subject to change due to unexpected/emergency unavailability of our LAFD Battalion Commander

***Increase in Burglaries***  Our neighborhood is experiencing a spike in burglaries - in the past six weeks there have been at least seven burglaries. The most common route of entry is by smashing a rear window or door. BAHA is in touch with LAPD about this increase and will keep you posted as we learn more. In the meantime, LAPD recommends hardening your home including by making your windows/doors harder to smash through by installing specials films, having a hard-wired security system with a backup battery, loud alarm, and motion activated lights, and being aware of, and reporting, anything that doesn’t look right in the neighborhood.  

In addition, if you have street-facing security cameras please sign up for BAHA’s Virtual Neighborhood Watch to help LAPD catch criminals by helping to identify vehicles used in crimes so they can be matched to BAHA’s License Plate Reading Cameras. Learn more and sign up HERE or by clicking on the red Virtual Neighborhood Watch signup button on BAHA’s website at www.baha.la 

***Roscomare/Mulholland Graffiti Fixed!***  Although it took many months and a lot of persistence, BAHA has finally been able to get the City to fix the graffiti on the Mulholland street sign at the intersection of Roscomare Road and Mulholland Drive! 

***Homeowner Insurance Information***  Following is some information regarding the homeowner insurance market and situation that may be of interest to our residents:

1. California Department of Insurance workshops - Insurance Workshop.pdf
2. California Department of Insurance brochure outlining their attempt to create a sustainable insurance market - California Sustainable Stragety.pdf
3. News Release from California Department of Insurance regarding State Farm's rate increase - https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2025/release018-2025.cfm

***Wildlife Ordinance Meeting Update***  This Town Hall meeting was originally scheduled for February 25th. However, according to BAHA’s recent communications with our Councilwoman’s office, the City has put the Wildlife Ordinance (WO) a bit on the back burner due to the recent fires. Given that the WO is less time-urgent at the moment, and that BAHA is having a Wildfire Community Meeting on March 13th, the Board felt that postponing the WO Town Hall was in the best interest of the neighborhood. BAHA still intends to have a Town Hall in the future on this very important issue that is facing our neighborhood. BAHA will keep you posted on new developments and plans for the WO Town Hall.

***Street Light Outage Update***  The street lights on a portion of Roscomare Road from approximately the 2200 block to Mulholland have been out since January. BAHA has been pressing for repair with our Council District 5 office.  The following is their latest response to BAHA:  “Thanks for clarifying the location with the street lights. As it stands now, BSL [Bureau of Street Lighting] is rotating maintenance requests for Street Lighting by the Council District. Because they are so short-staffed with crews and are dealing with protracted repair times due to copper wire theft, they're focusing on one Council District a week to address as many repair requests as possible. They were in our District last week, and unfortunately did not get to all of our requested locations, which included the one you flagged for us. Additionally, we just finished spending our BSL overtime funding, so it may be some time until they can get back to CD5. However, I have noted your request and the boundary it encompasses so that when resources come online again, they will know which sites to look at.”  BAHA will continue to press the City for repair of the streetlights as soon as possible.  

***BAHA’s Annual Membership Drive***  BAHA’s annual letter and membership form for joining or renewing BAHA membership was mailed to all residents in Bel Air Hills (except for those who had already renewed or joined for 2025). We hope that neighbors who received the letters found them informative and indicative of why being a member of BAHA is important.  If for some reason you did not receive a mailer and would like to read it, you can find a copy HERE. If you have not already done so, please either complete the membership form and mail to BAHA in the envelope provided, together with your check, or go to our website at https://www.baha.la and click on “Join/Renew Membership” for easy membership payment.  Thank you.