During a speech Monday night at the joint annual meeting of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association (PPRA) and No Oil, Inc., Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl outlined his priorities to slow, manage and sometimes reject pending development projects in the Palisades and the rest of his large Westside district. The councilman’s 30-minute talk was a welcome message to members of the largely slow-growth groups. Since its establishment in 1958, the PPRA has fought against various commercial and residential developments in the Palisades. Some of the same members helped found No Oil! in 1971 to battle Occidental’s bid to drill for oil along Pacific Coast Highway, near Potrero Canyon. Although Rosendahl’s speech mainly focused on much larger projects elsewhere in the district–LAX expansion, city transportation, the West L.A. Veterans Affairs property and a proposed Santa Monica Bay LNG terminal–he also discussed pending Palisades issues. Rosendahl said he ‘took a strong position’ against Shell station owner Jin Kwak’s appeal of an L.A. zoning administrator’s decision denying Kwak’s bid to replace his station’s garage with an automated car wash and a 24-hour mini-mart. The councilman said it is ‘very hard’ for an applicant to successfully appeal a zoning administrator’s decision. A decision on this appeal could come as early as next Wednesday at a West L.A. Planning Commission hearing. Despite owner opposition, Rosendahl said he is trying to ‘have a hand’ in the attempted conversion of Palisades Bowl’s mobile homes from rental units into resident-owned properties. The process, if completed, could effectively mean eviction for many of its lower-income residents. ‘The owners are saying, ‘You can’t have a hand in this. It’s a state issue.’ Well, we’re trying to,’ Rosendahl said. Citing fears of terrorism and environmental damage, Rosendahl reiterated his strong opposition to Australian-based Woodside Natural Gas’ plans to import natural gas through underground pipelines from an offshore LNG terminal in Santa Monica Bay that would connect to Southern California’s existing gas network. Controversially, the pipelines would travel below the west end of LAX and then along Westchester Parkway. ‘I came out strongly against it. Very strongly,’ Rosendahl said. ‘LAX is a main terrorist target. It [the LNG terminal] should be built somewhere else.’ Rosendahl, who chairs the city’s Public Works Committee, said it is ‘too early to say’ what direct role he will have regarding the project. But he said that ‘opposition [to the proposal] is lining up in the right way.’ Woodside representatives dismiss fears of a terrorist threat to LAX and environmental damage. They say that the underground pipelines would not be visible to the public and would pose no greater threat than the existing 90,000 miles of natural gas lines already present in Southern California. A longtime opponent of developing the VA’s 388-acre campus, Rosendahl said he has stepped up efforts against commercializing the property. In March, he traveled with Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver to Washington, D.C. to lobby the Department of Veterans Affairs to modernize the VA facility on behalf of veterans, and he wants 300 beds built to accommodate homeless vets. Rosendahl, who chairs the Southern California Regional Airport Authority, wants to limit growth at LAX. He said he is working to promote Ontario Airport as a substitute for Orange County and San Bernardino residents, noting that more evenly distributing traffic among the two airports would also reduce traffic congestion. ‘Fourteen percent of our traffic at LAX comes from Orange County,’ he said. ‘[But these travelers] don’t want to be on the 405.’ Rosendahl said that an $800-million renovation of LAX will modernize the Bradley Terminal and help pay for a people-mover to transport commuters to the light-rail Green Line, which now stops a mile-and-a-half away from the airport. He said the cost of this modernization will be ‘passed off to the airlines.’ The councilman, who is vice-chair of the city’s transportation committee, told the audience he expects that traffic ‘will get worse before it gets better.’ But he’s optimistic about mass-transit projects. ‘We can truly have the [light-rail] Expo Line into Santa Monica in seven years if all goes well,’ Rosendahl said. ‘And we can have the Green Line connect to LAX in the next five years.’ On Monday, Rosendahl along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other L.A. leaders unveiled a ‘contra-flow’ system for Olympic and Pico boulevards. That system will restrict parking during rush hours on both streets. Traffic lights will be reset to give commuters traveling west on Olympic and east on Pico longer green lights. City officials estimate that commuters could save as much as 45 percent in travel time. —- To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call (310) 454-1321 ext. 28.
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