Fire Concerns Prompt Temescal Brush Clearance

Two CAT excavators with shovels scraped and removed vegetation adjacent to Temescal Canyon High School on Monday morning, south of Palisades High. The Los Angeles Unified School District, which owns the property, gave several reasons for the brush removal. ‘On previous site visits, inspectors noticed standing water,’ said Neil Gambol, LAUSD’s director of maintenance and operations. ‘It wasn’t deep enough for fish, but it was a possible breeding ground for mosquitoes, which led to concern over safety and health issues.’ A second reason was fire safety. ‘LAUSD was given a brush clearance notification in May,’ said Captain Tina Haro, a public information officer for the L.A. Fire Department. The district was responsible for clearing the brush, or the city would have cleared it and then charged the district. A third reason for the removal of vegetation and small trees was that transients were camping in this area of the canyon. Temescal Canyon High Principal Allan Tamshen said he has called police during the past three years with concerns about students’ safety. Transients had been cited but continued to return to the area. Elaine Weiner, who lives on Erskine Drive, overlooking the school, was upset that the excavators were uprooting all vegetation. ‘There was no warning, no mention to any of the neighbors,’ Weiner said. ‘The trees hedged people that lived on that street from Temescal Canyon Road noise.’ Weiner says that removing the trees has devalued her property and five adjacent homeowners. Others might disagree with her assessment. ‘When I walked on the site this morning, five transients were sleeping in different areas,’ said Ray Zunia, who owns Action Demolition, the company clearing the land. ‘A guy had a home in there. I told him he had to pack it up.’ The other trespassers were also asked to leave before the clearance began. Weiner called the Palisadian-Post Monday morning to report an oak tree being cut. Zunia later said the tree was not cut, but that branches overhanging the high school property were trimmed. In addition, poison ivy that was growing through fencing was dug up. Before LAUSD hired Action Demolition, a survey of the property showed that one owner’s boundary wall encroached on LAUSD’s property by nearly five feet and that a second property owner had also encroached on the land. Stakes placed during that survey had been removed. ‘We have asked the crew to go back out and verify the survey,’ said Mike Brady, LAUSD department director of maintenance and operations, The rumor has been floated that the area is slated to become a much-needed parking lot, but Brady denied those rumors, saying, ‘There are no plans for development of a parking lot.’ According to Brady, the emphasis is to correct the long-term water problem caused by a natural spring. This was not done before because ‘we recently identified funds to deal with the water issues,’ he said. ‘Just because we haven’t had funds to deal with the issue before doesn’t mean it is not important.’ Although LAUSD officials currently have no plans for the vacant lot other than correcting the water situation, it is on Principal Tamshen’s wish list. Currently, street parking is about the only parking available for students or faculty at Temescal Canyon High School. ‘We need a parking lot,’ Tamshen said.