LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Harsh and Belligerent

Unfortunately, I received the HUG flyer about recent meetings to discuss the proposed eldercare facility in The Highlands after the hearing because I would like to have testified.

I have lived in The Highlands since 1998 and served on the board of Palisades Hills HOA.

Until now I have valued and respected our Highlands community.

Living in Michigan, I chaired a planning commission, served on a city council and county senior housing commission. I witnessed and legislated all kinds of housing, commercial and industrial development. I served as the chair of economic development in Tacoma.

For the last 24 years I have served on the board of United Cerebral Palsy.

I have witnessed opposition against African-Americans in the ’60s, students in the ’70s and ’80s, and the disabled in the 2000s. But I never believed I would see my neighbors against the elderly in Palisades Highlands.

It would improve The Highlands to have seniors living here with us and be an option for us when we need help.

I had caregivers supporting my wife fighting Alzheimer’s in our home for her last six years. They helped the neighborhood better understand the long, slow pace of Alzheimer’s and the dignity they helped give her.

I am saddened and offended with the harsh and belligerent opposition I have witnessed in my community.

I respect different views, but the behavior being demonstrated here is a stain on the Highland community.

Rod Hagenbuch | The Highlands

Highlands Parking Question

I felt that the question of parking for the proposed eldercare facility in The Highlands was not adequately discussed at recent Pacific Palisades Community Council meetings.

My wife and I live in a townhouse that is part of the complex that would be directly affected by the massive eldercare facility the developer wants to build on Palisades Drive. We are members of the group HUG (Highlanders United for Good) that opposes the facility.

The problem as I see it is the complete inadequacy of the parking the developer plans to build.

The facility is to have 82 rooms, some double occupancy: a total of perhaps 90-plus people. Proposed parking will be 67 spaces.

Support staff (the developer quoted 23 persons per shift) will have to come by car, since there is no public transport on Palisades Drive and the site is located three miles up the canyon from Sunset Boulevard. Add in delivery vehicles, doctors, therapists, hairdressers, entertainers, etc. and the proposed parking will be totally inadequate.

Parking on Vereda de la Montura and the adjacent part of Michael Lane is already used by local residents and is fully occupied from late afternoon.

On weekends, there is extra demand for parking from the hikers who use the state park entrance at the bottom of Vereda de la Montura.

Any overflow parking from the facility—which there most surely will be—will severely affect the availability of parking for local residents.

So, 67 underground spaces are insufficient to meet the real needs of the facility, which the developer has, I think, deliberately underestimated.

Geoffrey and Linda Symcox | The Highlands