Before Palisades Chabad opens a preschool on Sunset Boulevard near the western end of Marquez Avenue, the Pacific Palisades Community Council wants the religious group to conduct a traffic study. After listening to citizens express concern about traffic safety last Thursday evening, the Council voted 13 in favor (with three abstentions) to ask the city not to issue any permits until a traffic study is conducted and a traffic plan is approved by the L.A. Department of Transportation (DOT). On behalf of Chabad, property owner Richard Jones and attorney Alex DeGood have applied to the city for approval-in-concept, plus pre-inspection and building and certificate of occupancy permits to place two modular classroom buildings at 17000 Sunset Blvd. The building permits have not yet been approved, but the city has approved the approval-in-concept application. ‘This approval entitles the applicant to apply to the California Coastal Commission (within 30 days) for an administrative coastal development permit (CDP). If the Coastal Commission determines that a CDP is required from the city, the applicant is then referred back to the city,’ Councilman Bill Rosendahl told the Palisadian-Post. ‘This project is at the Coastal Commission now, waiting to see if the commission will grant the CDP or if it will send the project back to the city.’ Greg Shoop of City Planning said an approval-in-concept application gives residents and business owners who are pursuing minor or temporary developments an opportunity to try to forego the city’s CDP process, which takes longer and is more expensive. The preschool would operate from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and educate as many as 40 children (20 in the morning and 20 in the afternoon), said Rabbi Zushe Cunin, the school’s director. ‘This is a temporary home,’ Cunin told the Council. ‘Our plan is to have this for this year [2008]; our arrangement with the Jones family is until the end of the year.’ (Chabad is still negotiating a lease agreement with Jones.) Cunin hopes to relocate his school, previously located in Temescal Gateway Park for the past eight years, permanently to a vacant storage building off Los Liones Drive adjacent to the Getty Villa property and the Mormon church. Chabad is trying to secure conditional use and coastal development permits for that location. At last Thursday’s meeting, Officer Chris Smythe of LAPD’s West Traffic Division and many residents explained that they think it would be dangerous for parents to make left-hand turns into and out of the Sunset property, which is located close to a sharp curve. ‘I would not want to witness an accident of a child at that location,’ said Marquez resident Denise Kwok. Hamed Sandoghdar of DOT agreed and said his department would recommend only right turns, which could be achieved by installing no-left-turn signs and right-turn-only signs. Residents were also worried about traffic congestion and flow, so the Council, which has no legal authority, passed a motion asking the city to prohibit left turns for ingress and egress, assign a traffic officer to the school to enforce traffic rules and ensure that parents with children who are walking use the proper crosswalk at the Sunset and west Marquez intersection. The Council also asked that no Chabad preschool traffic travel through the area referred to as the Marquez Flats (Marquez residents exempt), and that no Chabad preschool parking be allowed in the Marquez flats. ‘If the traffic situation can be worked out for a short-term basis, it should not be a problem,’ Council member Gil Dembo said. Cunin agreed to conduct the traffic study and devise a traffic plan. ‘We would like to create this place for children and work with the community to mitigate any inconveniences,’ Cunin said. ‘We will make sure that we enforce whatever commitment we make.’ At the meeting, Malibu Village residents, who reside below the Sunset property, also raised concerns because the modular buildings would be placed on a landfill that could slide. ‘We did have the grading inspectors review that part of the application,’ said David Lara of the L.A. Department of Building and Safety. ‘Because it is a temporary-type structure and limited as far as use, the grading area was approved.’ Chabad’s researcher David Lacy said because the buildings would not be anchored to the ground, there would not be any disturbances to the soil and the plumbing would be self-contained. The Council passed a motion asking that ‘There shall be no irrigation or other water used to flow into the grounds of the property in order to prevent any adverse impact on the geological stability of the property.’ Cunin agreed that he would not landscape the property. Council member Jack Allen said he thinks Chabad might try to stay at the Sunset location longer because he doubts the religious group will secure the Los Liones site. The Council agreed and passed a motion asking Chabad to vacate the Sunset property by August 31, 2009. The storage building off Los Liones is not easy to access because it is located behind the Mormon church’s gated parking lot and along the Getty Villa’s service road. The Getty and Mormon church have denied Chabad access. Chabad found a dedicated public easement (existing only on paper) but would have to receive permission from the city to pave a road. On September 5, the Department of City Planning suspended Chabad’s conditional use permit application. ‘The neighboring property owner (Getty) has informed my office that a portion of the building being proposed for the child care use is located on their property, and therefore the Getty must also sign the Master Land Use Application authorizing the use of their property,’ according to a notice from the L.A. Zoning Administration Office. The suspension was in response to an August 11 letter from Getty attorney Jeffrey Haber who wrote, ‘The warehouse is located in part on the Getty’s property, and the Getty does not consent to the proposed use of the warehouse.’
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