Where were the coffee and cookies? Last Thursday’s Community Council meeting, held in the community room at the Palisades Branch Library, was one of the longest in recent history, running from 7 p.m. until just past 11 p.m. Besides dealing with complicated agenda items such as the proposed preferential parking district in the Palisades, efforts to deal with the ‘mystery pond’ at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon, and a controversial L.A. City Council proposal on inclusionary zoning and how it might affect the Palisades (see story, page 4), considerable time was taken up by comments from the floor on equally contentious issues: Playa Vista and the Renaissance Academy, which opened Monday in the 881 Alma Real building (see adjacent story). PREFERENTIAL PARKING DISTRICT In a surprise move, council advisor Jack Allen, who was initially opposed to preferential parking district (‘Preferential Parking Is Not the Solution,’ Palisadian-Post, July 15) is now supporting the proposal. ‘While I’m opposed in principle I think the city has worked out a reasonable compromise,’ Allen said. ‘This won’t have the domino effect that I worried about, residents are going to be able to park in front of their houses, and the two-hour limits will remain as they are now.’ Allen did wonder why the proposed district was so large (a six-block area around the Palisades Recreation Center and the business district) and why some residents want to restrict night parking on Carthage. He was also concerned that the city will ‘sweep the real problem’the lack of adequate parking’under the rug.’ Discussion then focused on how residents can get their street included (the petition requires signatures from two-thirds of the residents on the block). Concerns were also expressed about parking limitations around the Recreation Center, which one resident said has impacted him ‘for 32 years.’ On the recommendation of chairman Norman Kulla, the council voted in favor of not taking a position on the matter, deferring the matter to the mandated L.A. Department of Transportation public hearing to be held in Mort’s Oak Room on Monday, September 27, starting at 7 p.m. A color-coded map showing all the impacted streets is now on display in the library. PLAYA VISTA During the public comment period, Paul Herzog, who works with Ballona Wetlands Land Trust, invited Palisadians to a town hall meeting on Phase (Continued on Page 6) . Renaissance Academy So heated was residents confrontation with RA principal Paul McGlothlin that the meeting was never formally adjourned by council chairman Norman Kulla. The debate on the new charter high school (250 students in four grades, 14 full-time teachers) continued in the library parking lot. Residents’ concerns brought up during the public comment portion of the meeting focused not on the kind of school it is (individualized, college-prep curriculum) but its location: 881 Alma Real, where RA has a five-year lease for 13,000-sq.-ft., spread out over two floors in the commercial/retail building. ‘Is there anything we can do to stop it [the school from locating there]?’ asked one resident. ‘This board does not have that authority,’ relied Kulla. ‘But we can modify what is being planned.’ ‘I don’t care about the traffic or the parking problems,’ said a Corpus Christi parent. ‘I care about the safety of our children, given the proximity of this high school. I want to know what LAUSD will do if there are behavioral problems. Where’s their gym? They need a place to hang out but not next door to four elementary schools.’ ‘When I was in high school I wasn’t free to roam in a business district,’ said resident Joe Collins. ‘What’s appalling to me is I don’t see that an effort has been made by Renaissance to communicate their intentions to this community,’ said another resident. ‘I’m sorry you don’t think we have,’ replied McGlothlin. While plans for the alternative school have been in the works for over a year it was only after the school secured the Alma Real location in July (Palisadian-Post, July 29) that some residents expressed fears over traffic, parking and safety in an already congested area in the village business district. Their fears were compounded at the raucous August 26 Community Council meeting in which McGlothlin was unable to answer specific questions about the school’s operational plans’from how many students will occupy the Alma Real building at any one time, to where the students will be dropped off. McGlothlin was also accused by several people of giving ‘misinformation’ at the August meeting. ‘You certainly led us to believe that you had an agreement with the library to hold classes in this room,’ said Monique Ford, field deputy to Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. ‘Do you have a written agreement with the library?’ McGlothlin admitted that he did not, eventually apologized for not keeping the community properly informed and said that he would make every effort in the week ahead to answer residents concerns. It was agreed that he attend the September 23 meeting to bring residents and council members up to date.
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