When cartoonist Ann Cleaves joined the Palisadian-Post staff in 1988, she could hardly forsee Potrero Canyon serving as one of her favorite targets over the next two decades. This deep canyon, which extends between the Huntington Palisades and DePauw/Friends Streets and down to Pacific Coast Highway, has been a geological nightmare for the city of Los Angeles since the 1950s and the effort to stabilize the canyon by filling it in and creating a public park, is still ongoing. Here’s a brief recap of the project. ‘ January 1956. A Pacific Palisades Post article (‘Court Compels Resident to Evacuate Rim Home’) reports: ‘An elderly widow this week was ordered to evacuate or repair her home [15205 DePauw] perched on the eroding rim of a Pacific Palisades canyon. She was ordered to move out by Los Angeles Building and Safety inspectors four times since March 1954, when they found out the house was only two feet from the edge of the canyon. Erosion has now advanced 18 feet under the house. Inspectors said her belongings were strewn down the slope after falling through the floor of the home.’ ’ November 1957. Dwight D. Eisenhower is president, Russia has just launched Sputnik I and ‘Jailhouse Rock’ by Elvis Presley is climbing the charts, when a Post headline announces: ‘City Reckons 10 Years to Fill Potrero Canyon.’ Los Angeles officials propose filling the canyon with combustible rubbish, plus street sweepings, pavement removals, yard trimmings and earth. The Huntington Palisades Property Owners Corporation opposes the project. ‘ April 1964. The city uses eminent domain to acquire the canyon for $175,000 from owners Charles and Martha Patterson, who had wanted to build a golf course. ‘ Late 1960s through the mid-’70s. Heavy rains and landslides in the canyon result in a $75-million class-action lawsuit filed by neighbors who claim that the city’s failure to install a proper storm drain had resulted in damages to their homes. ‘ 1980. In the year that the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics, John Lennon was gunned down in New York City and ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ won the Oscar over ‘Raging Bull,’ the Post reports that ‘The canyon’s habit of losing large chunks of land to the rains has begun to take tall slices out of backyards of houses along the rim.’ ‘ December 1984. The city agrees to purchase 14 properties (13 on DePauw and one on Alma Real) for $6.8 million to settle a lawsuit filed by homeowners. Department of Recreation and Parks City planning official Kathleen Chan (who became the Potrero Canyon project manager in 1983) presents the ‘newest’ plan at a Community Council meeting. Potrero will be filled to the 30- or 40-ft. level [from the bottom] with 200,000 to 300,000 cubic yards of dirt and gravel, and a drainage system will be installed in order to prepare the area as a park. In an article headlined ‘Residents React Coldly to City Plan for Slide-Plagued Potrero Canyon,’ the Post quotes Millie Wilkinson, who has sued the city over damage to her DePauw home. ‘We are not interested in the damn park,’ she says. ‘We want to know what you’re going to do to save our homes.’ The Department of Recreation and Parks eventually acquires 33 lots for $13 million. ‘ 1985. An Environmental Impact Report is completed and the California Coastal Commission approves the project two years later. ‘ January 1988. Under a headline ‘Storm Drain Cost Skyrockets,’ the Post reports that Phase I, slated to start in March, will take one year and will include burying the natural stream that ran through the canyon, removing shrubs, plants and other wildlife, installing a subdrain and system of hydraugers (vertical drains) and building the road for truck access. ‘ June 1988. Ron Dean, president of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association, is quoted in an L.A. Times story titled ‘City to Resume Work on Controversial Potrero Canyon Job in Palisades.’ He warns that the project will take longer than the city’s three-year estimate, and he does not believe that filling the canyon will guarantee against future landslides. ‘If they would take that money and buy the houses on the cliff and admit their mistakes, they could work with nature rather than opposed to it,’ Dean says. ‘We’re going to take this beautiful canyon and destroy it for what? It’s very frustrating. It’s a waste of money.’ ‘ August 1989. According to the Post (‘First Phase of Drain Project Nears Completion at Potrero’), there have been numerous setbacks because of the complex geology of the canyon. Chan asks the City Council for an additional $4 million to $5 million to finish the entire project. ‘ November 1990. ‘City Given Four More Years to Complete Potrero Project’ says the Post. The Coastal Commission criticizes the Department of Recreation and Parks for failing to submit streambed restoration plans. The city claims that it needed to dig deeper than anticipated in order to install drains, which resulted in new cracks and landslides. The actual filling in the canyon begins in the spring of 1991. ‘ January 1992. Under the headline ‘Potrero Fill Project on Schedule at Last,’ the Post reports that the ‘The project [cost] has now reached $11 million.’ This is the same year Presidents George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin formally ends the Cold War, Johnny Carson hosts his last ‘Tonight Show’ and ‘Silence of the Lambs’ wins the Oscar for best picture. Calex Engineering, which is in charge of the fill and engineering of Potrero Canyon, is granted an extension to 1997 to complete Phase II. ‘ February 1998. The goal of finishing Phase II is missed, as evidenced by the Post headline: ‘Officials Vow ‘Full Tilt’ in Potrero.’ A year later, Kathleen Chan predicts ‘All the grading in the canyon will be completed by the end of next year.’ ‘ May 1998. Cracks start appearing on Friends Street related to a slide that occurred on a section of Potrero Canyon abutting Friends. CALEX workers had anticipated the slippage when they excavated the canyon. Friends homeowners who met with Chan are told that once the slope is rebuilt and compacted, nine lots will be sold, partially blocking views for those who live across the street. ‘There haven’t been houses here for 30 years,’ says Brad Johnson, whose childhood home on Friends slipped into the canyon in 1957. ‘ May 2002. The Post reports Chan’s vow, ‘The final infill and grading of Potrero Canyon should be completed sometime this year, and I will not leave until it’s done, even if I’ve reached retirement age, which I’m damn close to doing.’ ‘ Spring 2004. Lack of funding brings the infill and compacting to a halt with portions of Phase II unfinished. ‘ May 2004. The City Council establishes the Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee, headed by former Pacific Palisades Community Council Chair George Wolfberg. At this point the City has spent $30 million ($13 million to acquire 33 landslide-impaired lots and another $17 million on fill), but lacks $1.2 million to complete Phase II. The money needed for Phase III, to complete the riparian park, is estimated at $7 million to $12 million by the new project manager, Jane Adrian, who replaced Chan in 2003. ‘ May 2004-January 2008. The Advisory Committee holds numerous meetings to determine future access, development and park facilities in Potrero, below the Recreation Center. Two groups (Huntington Palisades and neighbors along the canyon’s west rim) present strenuous objections to some of the key proposals, but a recommended plan of action is ultimately forwarded to the City. At the latest groundbreaking ceremony last Thursday, officials vow that Potrero Park will be dedicated in five years. ’The people attending that park dedication haven’t been born yet,’ said Ted Mackie, a long-time member of the Community Council, who attended the ceremony.
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