LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Potrero Canyon

Thank you for the front-page article on June 23 on the Potrero Canyon project, the decades-in-the-making largest public works project in the Palisades.

I and 40-plus residents of the immediately surrounding area have repeatedly expressed our very strong opposition to the proposed “west rim” public entrance and pathway on Friends Street (the Proposed Entrance), which the city has partially constructed without California Coastal Commission (CCC) permission and in violation of the Coastal Development Permit for the project (CDP).

I write to provide some context and additional facts:

1. No environmental review: There has never been any environmental analysis or traffic study of the Proposed Entrance—despite demonstrably untrue statements to the contrary in documents generated by the city in 2020 to support the final landscaping plan. Because of known conditions at the location—Friends Street is not a through street; ingress and egress is limited due to narrow neighborhood streets; the entire bluff area is one of “extreme hazard” due to geologic instability (per the CDP); “swarms” of park visitors are expected—public safety demands an adequate environmental review.

2. No coastal access: The ultimate project goal was to provide an access way from the Palisades Recreation Center to PCH and Will Rogers State Beach. The city does not presently have any concrete plan for an open access point at the PCH end of the canyon. Indeed, according to the current landscaping plan (never approved by the CCC), the PCH end (coastal access) will be closed off to park users.

If the park were to open with only two access points (at the Rec Center and at Friends Street), the negative impact on the Friends Street neighborhood would be substantially increased. A claim by other parties—that the Friends Street entrance is necessary for local residents so they would not have to drive to the Rec Center to access the park—ignores the current lack of the fundamental requirement of access to PCH, as well as the fact that the people who live immediately adjacent to the Proposed Entrance strongly oppose that entrance. The views of the immediate local community should be taken into significant consideration in determining whether this portion of the project should go forward.

3. Canyon guidelines violated: The city is proposing not just a gate and a trail, but a metal posted fence along the bluff top (now partially built) and a large (seven feet by eight feet) signage kiosk at the Friends Street entrance, structures that will create visual blight in the coastal view corridor for residents and park visitors alike in violation of the CCC’s guidelines.

4. Not needed for emergency access: It is completely false that there is any need for the Proposed Entrance as “a point of emergency access” to the park. When the project was in the early planning stages in 1991, the fire department was consulted and a then-proposed fire access trail on the west rim was removed from the plans and abandoned by the city. The fire department acknowledged that the main road (widened to 12 feet) would provide sufficient access in the event of any emergencies.

5. No community support: Countless records obtained from city agencies and the CCC reflect that the city was aware of and acknowledged the community’s stated position against west rim access, as set forth in the 2008 report of the Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee. Nothing has changed since that report was issued, and the committee itself has not met since then and is inactive. While certain individuals may be purporting to represent to the city the alleged views of the committee (and by extension the views of the community) regarding the Proposed Entrance, those individuals have no authority to do so and any such representations are utterly false, possibly illegal (as the committee was subject the California Brown Act) and shameful.

The city has now submitted an amended application seeking permission for the Proposed Entrance, which is now set for hearing before the CCC on July 14 (at coastal.ca.gov Agenda Item 17). I urge all concerned community members to address concerns with the CCC. I hope that the Post will continue to actively follow the story and report developments.

Jeffrey Spitz

A version of the following letter was sent to the City of Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners as a public comment and has been reprinted here with permission.

I’m with the residents who were recently mentioned in our local paper, the Palisadian-Post, as leading the movement for more Potrero Canyon Park access than just the main parking lot for the upper Palisades Recreation Center.

I moved to the rim of Potrero Canyon in 1989 and have watched this park be built, ever so slowly. Decades ago, we (our local Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee the late Barbara Breger was our chairperson of) were told that the city never fences in its parks and that accessing the future Wolfberg Park would never be a problem.

Now they are limiting access so much, that without warning, a month or two ago, a city fence was built right up to the edge of my back gate so that I can’t even open it anymore to access the park myself. The furthest I want to go to access the canyon at this point would be walking to Friends Street on my side of the canyon a few blocks away. I certainly don’t want to need to drive over to Palisades Recreation Center to park in the new expanded lot that is already jammed much of the time.

I just don’t understand the point of LA city building neighborhood parks and then limiting access to them. Please reconsider.

Rocky Bowman

The Palisadian-Post accepts letters to the editor via email at mypost@palipost.com or mail/hand-delivered at 881 Alma Real Drive, Suite 213, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. To be considered for publication, letters must be signed, and are subject to editing for length and clarity. Opinions expressed in letters do not necessarily reflect the views of opinions of the Palisadian-Post.