Advisory Committee to Tackle Potrero

Pushing the massive Potrero Canyon infill project closer to a resolution before she leaves office in July, Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski has named a committee of 16 Palisadians to work with advisors and the city on design plans for the third and final phase. The committee, headed by former Community Council chairman George Wolfberg, will hold its first meeting on February 16 at 7:15 p.m. at the Palisades Recreation Center. All meetings will be open to the public. To date, the city has spent at least $13 million to acquire 33 landslide-impaired lots and another $17 million to reconstruct Potrero. Bureaucratic demands, fiscal constraints and lack of consensus on landscaping and public amenities in Potrero have brought work to a halt. In order to pay about $1.2 million to complete the final phase of construction (Phase II) and $7 million to $12 million to complete Phase III, the L. A. City Council approved Miscikowski’s motion to sell two houses on Alma Real which the city currently leases. The proceeds will be used exclusively for completion of Phases II and III. The city forwarded its draft motion to the California Coastal Commission to consider this option and is awaiting the commission’s staff report. Two major tasks face the advisory committee. One is the currently unfocused completion of Potrero Park, from the Palisades Recreation Center down to Pacific Coast Highway, a plan that has always called for riparian restoration and a hiking trail with limited amenities. The second challenge will be the staged auction sale of city-owned lots. Members of the citizen’s advisory committee, selected by Miscikowski and Community Council chairman Norman Kulla, represent diverse interests and include: John Anderson, a real estate businessman who lives on DePauw in a city-owned home; Charlene Baskin, a member of Palisades Beautiful; David Card, a landscape architect with expertise in open space; Nancy Castle, an Alma Real resident who lives near the Recreation Center; Judith Collas, a Swarthmore resident west of Potrero and member of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association; Gil Dembo, co-environmental representative on the Community Council; Dennis Hackbarth, a developer who lives on Via de las Olas; Leonard Horn, an engineer knowledgeable about Palisades land-use history; Carl Mellinger, an arborist and chairman of the Palisades Civic League; Stuart Muller, Potrero neighborhoods representative on the Community Council; Susan Nash, a Chapala resident who led the fight for a skatepark at the Recreation Center; Norma Spak, a member of the Getty Villa Oversight Committee; Ellen Travis, a Lombard resident who lives near the canyon and is a member of Friends of Friends; and Roger Woods, president of the Village Green Committee.