Photos courtesy of PPCC
By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief
Pacific Palisades Community Council hosted a “limited community discussion” regarding Potrero Canyon and the pedestrian bridge and lateral trail projects at its most recent meeting on Thursday, May 11.
“PPCC passed a motion conceptually supporting a bridge that would connect Potrero Canyon to the beach, via a bridge over PCH, in May of 2004,” according to the PPCC agenda. “[PPCC President Maryam Zar] is aware that the community has emerging questions and concerns about the proposed bridge over PCH, connecting what is now the George Wolfberg Park at Potrero Canyon (opened on December 10, 2022) with the county parking lot at the shoreline of Will Rogers [State] Beach.”
Council District 11 Senior Planning Deputy Jeff Khau explained that the city of Los Angeles has posted a Task Order Solicitation to find a consultant to undertake the bridge project approval and environmental documents, which is required for the pre-design phase. Bids are due May 31 at 3 p.m.
The lateral trail is also in its pre-design phase, with the city preparing a request for a consultant to begin, Khau reported, and Caltrans has agreed to assist the city with an encroachment permit, as the agency owns the land. The completed trail would connect the mouth of Potrero Canyon to Temescal Canyon Road.
“Coastal Commission approval for the bridge is still outstanding and a timeline has been offered to us by [Senator Ben Allen’s] office,” the PPCC agenda reported. “The Coastal Commission has required ‘coastal access’ for the park and has specified building a lateral trail (along the toe of the canyon alongside PCH) to satisfy this requisite access.”
During the May 11, several PPCC Board and community members raised concerns over the bridge project.
“I do not feel like there’s strong support for the bridge,” PPCC Area 6 Representative Cindy Simon, which includes the area the bridge would be constructed in, shared. “It just sort of happened, and it needs to be revisited. It needs to be a transparent discussion between the community so that people know what this bridge entails.”
PPCC Legal Counsel Rob Weber later commented on the “long history of support for pedestrian access from the bottom of Potrero Canyon to Will Rogers,” dating back as far as an article in the LA Times in June 1988.
The Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Board, which included 15 people, was established in 2005 with “a wide representation of views within the community,” Weber explained. A series of more than two dozen public meetings were hosted to discuss “all aspects of the park”—including the bridge—at the time.
“We’re in 2023,” one resident said during the PPCC meeting, referencing that some of the meetings took place nearly 20 years ago. “We’re living in a very different city than we were even a couple of years ago … I think that we need to assess what the current level of community support is.”
Senator Allen has requested to hear from PPCC, according to the meeting agenda, as funding has been “secured and remitted to the city.” The lateral trail has $1.15 million in funding from the Congressional Omnibus Bill, secured by U.S. Representative Ted Lieu, while the bridge has $11 million in funding, which has been secured by Allen.
Zar explained during the meeting that, while there was unanimous support at the time, there was no letter of support written in 2004.
At a May 2 meeting of the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club, board members expressed support with a “unanimous vote” “for the concept of the bridge as an expression of the democratic principle of equity” in a letter sent to Allen.
In a timeline shared by Allen’s office, the lateral trail project is estimated to be completed in 2027 and the pedestrian bridge in 2029 or 2030.
Later in the PPCC meeting, Jake Ettinger, a district representative for Allen, spoke about the bridge, noting that it is a project that “came from the community” and would create “a really safe, easy way that people can get between the beach and the park,” helping prevent fatalities on PCH.
“We had one community member recently, who is part of this board, raise with us that they were neutral—they were not opposed to the bridge—but had some concerns,” Ettinger explained. “So we just wanted to check in again, even though we had support from the advisory committee … to get a temperature check and make sure that the community was still supportive of this project.”
The bridge will begin with a project initiation document, Ettinger explained, which will determine things like where the bridge will land in the park and the beach, and what are the soil conditions. Part of that process, Ettinger added, is a “comprehensive community outreach program,” which will give a chance for “people to weigh in” on “specific concerns.”
“Throughout the project initiation document period over the next 12 to 18 months,” Ettinger said, “people will really be able to raise those concerns.”
When it comes to Coastal Commission approval, Ettinger said he spoke with the agency and it would “have to look at the project,” but that “it would be very supportive of a bridge.”
“So in terms of thinking about accessibility and access,” Ettinger continued, “it’s something that the Coastal Commission is not going to have any issues with.”
Zar concluded the discussion by noting that the conversation with Ettinger and Allen’s office will continue when the PID is ready and the community outreach component begins.
For a video of the full discussion, visit youtube.com/watch?v=UK_pirOGuwM.
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