Pacific Palisades resident Al Werker’s two-year effort to have Los Angeles County complete a sidewalk, build a new fence and landscape the area along Pacific Coast Highway at Castle Rock has yielded results, with construction now planned for early 2010. In addition, the county has approved constructing a north exit at Will Rogers State Beach parking lot 3, across from Las Pulgas Canyon, to help drivers exit southbound onto PCH. The total cost of construction for both projects is estimated at $452,000, with completion scheduled by next summer. Gregory Woodell, planning specialist for the Department of Beaches and Harbors, sent Werker minutes from an August County Board of Supervisors meeting that stated: ‘The chain-link fence in parking lot number 5 will be replaced with a cable and post fence. The existing unpaved pedestrian path between the restroom in parking lot 5 and the Castellammare pedestrian overpass will be paved to provide beach patrons with an improved path from the overpass to the beach facility and restroom.’ Woodell told the Palisadian-Post on Monday that the supervisors also approved construction of the new right-turn-only exit onto PCH at the north end of Will Rogers parking lot, which will help alleviate delays for beach patrons exiting from the main entrance/exit at Temescal Canyon Road. The proposed driveway will also enable emergency vehicles to exit the parking lot more quickly. Werker, a retired McDonnell-Douglas computer service and software salesman who frequents the beach at Castle Rock (just north of Sunset Boulevard), began his beach-improvement quest in 2007 after renovations on Will Rogers beaches were deemed complete. In particular, he noted that at parking lot 5, the entrance to the beach was unsightly and filled with trash. ‘They may never want to do anything, I thought,’ Werker told the Post in a 2007 interview, ‘but as long as they complete one area they should finish the job.’ He speculated that the county had run out of money by the time they reached that location. (The two-year project that began in 2005 originally had a budget of more than $12 million, but ended up costing more than $13 million.) Werker contacted Woodell, who said that everything was completed. Disagreeing with the specialist, Werker invited him to come see for himself. At first, Woodell didn’t think that strip of the land belonged to the county. The location was originally the entrance to parking lot 5, but when the lot was reconfigured to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the entrance was moved south, leaving the former driveway vacant. After checking a map, Woodell realized it was county property and had the area cleaned up. Werker also asked for a sidewalk and landscaping that would run along PCH from the Castellemmare overpass south to the new bathrooms. He was told there was no money. Undeterred, he contacted Maria Chong Castillo in County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s office to press for funds. After a two-year period of contacting government officials, Werker’s persistence has paid off. Regarding the requested landscaping along PCH by the fence and sidewalk, Woodell said money hasn’t been budgeted, but promised some landscaping would be done in-house. ‘It took a lot longer than I hoped,’ Werker said. ‘But knowing how government works, it seems that patience is the key.’
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