Neighbors Find No Common Ground in Las Pulgas Canyon Residents who oppose lighting Las Pulgas Canyon with 13 city street lights found no resolution with that canyon’s owner, Barry Maiten, during an April 12 meeting at City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl’s office. A nighttime tour of the lights is planned for neighbors, but no date has been set. As reported in the Palisadian-Post (‘Residents Fight Street Lights in Las Pulgas’, March 29), Maiten, who owns the 26-acre canyon, wants to use the 20-ft.-high lights for safety. He says that they will prevent tagging and homeless encampments on his property. However, neighbors living on the canyon’s rim say that many of the lights disturb their sleep and their views. They also dispute safety threats to the canyon. In place of lights, representatives of dozens of neighbors whose property borders Las Pulgas Canyon offered their suggestions to reduce threats to the canyon, including a willingness to participate in a Neighborhood Watch program that would monitor trespassing. But Maiten is intent on using the lights. The Department of Public Works installed the lights at Maiten’s request beginning in 2005. But the lights have been turned off since mid-2006, pending Coastal Commission approval. The commission has asked Rosendahl to weigh in. His office says that it will approve the lights only if there is a ‘consensus’ among the canyon’s neighbors. Sprint Relocates Site; Council Takes No Stand After complaints by neighbors, Sprint Nextel Corp. has relocated its proposed cell-phone tower across the street from the Sunset Mesa home of Dr. Walter and Andrea O’Brien. But the O’Briens and their neighbors, who fear effects to their health and property values, want the company to move the 30-ft. tower out of their neighborhood. The company needs the approval of the board of the Department of Public Works to acquire a variance for this tower, which would be disguised as a concrete pole. As reported in the Post (‘Two Proposed Cell Towers Draw Ire,’ March 1), Sprint Nextel originally planned to install the tower in the public right-of-way immediately outside the O’Briens’ home on Surfview Drive in Pacific View Estates. That proposal meant the tower would be within 25 feet of their children’s playground and 50 feet of their bedroom. The O’Briens had hoped the Palisades Community Council would support their opposition to the current proposal at last Thursday’s meeting. But the Council did not vote to oppose the project. Members said that they needed more information from Sprint representative Courtney Schmidt and the O’Briens to make ‘an informed decision.’ They might take a stand on the project at a future meeting. Rustic Canyon Renovation ‘On Hold’ The most recent city estimates far exceed the bond money designated for renovations at Rustic Canyon Park, said Neil Drucker, an L.A. Bureau of Engineering program manager who oversees park renovation throughout the city. ‘To be honest, the estimates were laughable,’ he told the Palisadian-Post this week. As reported in the Post (‘Upgrades in Rustic Park Await ‘Reasonable’ Bid,’ March 1), the completion of the park’s renovation depended on lower estimates from the General Services Department, which was awarded the contract. GSD spent more than $300,00 to modify a bathroom and build a handicap-accessible ramp between 2004 and 2005, leaving all of the community’s priorities for renovation unmet. Among their goals, community members want to resurface basketball courts, replace aging tiles and repair the park’s entry courtyard. Drucker said that if GSD and their subcontractors cannot commit to a bid that is within the approximately $430,000 remaining budget for the project, he will urge the city to look to outside bidders. ‘It will probably be a month to two months before we have a handle on which way we’re going,’ he said. ————- To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call (310) 454-1321 ext. 28.
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