By CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA | Reporter
The brewing storm surrounding the proposed eldercare facility project on 1525 Palisades Drive finally made landfall at the West Los Angeles Planning Commission appeal hearing on Wednesday, April 18.
After extended conflict between appellants and representative bodies such as the Pacific Palisades Community Council and its Land Use Committee, which was a result of alleged premature support amid claims that the project violates Coastal Commission laws, the appeal was finally set to be heard at the city level.
Five days prior to the hearing, PPCC Chair Maryam Zar submitted a “final” letter to the zoning administrator to clarify that the council’s initial motion that found Brentwood developer Rony Shram’s proposed eldercare facility to be an appropriate use of the land, but “was not intended either to imply support for the design of the proposed building” or to address the question of whether the project conformed to the California Coastal Act and related regulations.
The letter further stated that the board “declined to consider, or make any determination, about the project’s compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act and whether or not the city acted properly in June 2017 when determining the project was categorically exempt from the provisions of CEQA.
“The board made clear that we lacked the requisite knowledge and expertise to engage in a well-informed debate on this aspect of the project.”
Zar further reported that the office of Councilmember Mike Bonin is inclined to lend “formal support to the project.”
Sitting at the forefront of the appeals are local attorneys, and Highlands residents, Jonathan Klar and Robert Flick, who have been fighting the project by crowdsourcing funds and filing formal appeals to the city.
Since Klar’s initial 58-page appeal, more than 10 additional community members have added their names to the documents to fight alongside Flick’s appeal, a formal petition and the Pacific Palisades Residents Association opposition, which is the only community organization explicitly opposing the project.
“We intend to fight to represent the community, to represent the environment, to represent the parklands and to represent The Highlands,” Klar said in an interview with the Palisadian-Post two days before the city appeal hearing. “And to hopefully save this community from turning into Brentwood, which is apparently what Shram would like to turn The Highlands into.”
At the same time, Shram has made some not-so-public efforts of his own, hosting a private exhibition of his recent photo series that documented “elderly parents of Palisadians.” Shram said the photos were intended as an “opportunity for me to get to know some older members of the community, their families and their stories in an intimate setting and through a medium in which I am well-versed.”
Reports of an arranged bus to transport fellow supporters to the WLAAPC hearing were also circulating just days prior to the event.
Check the April 26 edition of the Post for full coverage of the WLAAPC appeal hearing.
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