
By FRANCIS SHARPE | Editor-in-Chief
Wearing a “Don’t Mall the Palisades” t-shirt at the Jan. 22 PPCC meeting, longtime Palisadian Joan Graves detailed her efforts in the 1980s and ’90s to prevent what she saw as the over-development of the Palisades.
Graves recounted how in 1982 the Land & Water building was going to be demolished so a mall could be constructed in its place.
“I thought, ‘We can’t lose that building. It’s our anchor, our heritage,’” she said.

Graves met with the PPCC and asked them to sponsor a town meeting. Then she gathered 10,000 signatures in opposition to the mall development.
Eventually, the buyer backed out, and the mall project was dead. Graves also spoke about sign blight on Sunset Boulevard in the 1980s.
“It looked hideous, worse than Western Avenue,” Graves said.
Graves said she went to all the businesses on Sunset and asked them to take down their signs from the windows and the rooftops.
One business owner said he would only take down his sign if the business owner across the street took his down.
“And they both did,” said Graves.
The activist said that every battle she fought was very contentious, but the results included building and sign height limits that are currently part of the Pacific Palisades Commercial Village Specific Plan.
The Specific Plan is currently being updated by the Pacific Palisades Design Review Board guidelines committee.
Graves lauded the PPCC and DRB for their past efforts in creating and implementing design guidelines and offered her support to the current DRB committee as they undergo the process of revising those guidelines.
The DRB will be soliciting comments from the community regarding the Specific Plan via a website that is currently under development.
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