Residents Fight Street Lights In Las Pulgas

The fight to keep 13 street lights in remote Las Pulgas Canyon will move to Councilman Bill Rosendahl’s office after the canyon’s sole owner, Barry Maiten, failed to get support from his neighbors and the Palisades Community Council at a contentious meeting last Thursday evening. Using a Department of Water and Power program that subsidizes the cost of constructing lights, Maiten had the 20-ft.-high street lights installed throughout his 26-acre property, which begins south of Bienveneda Avenue and empties onto Pacific Coast Highway between the Bel-Air Bay Club and Palisades Bowl. To Maiten, the deep canyon has been a magnet for vandalism and fire risks, from smoking teens to adventurous taggers and incendiary transients. He points to graffiti-covered storm drains, cigarette butts and a history of homeless encampments. Many smaller existing lights surrounded the 1930s-era ranch house at the mouth of Las Pulgas near PCH, but Maiten hoped that the 1,000-watt street lights would act as a deterrent to ‘criminal activity’ deeper in the canyon. That decision has angered his neighbors ever since the lights were turned on in 2006. Living hundreds of feet above the lights on the rim of the large canyon, on streets like Bienveneda Avenue, Granola Street, Puerto Del Mar and Muskingum Avenue, his neighbors say that the lights spoil their sleep and their views. ‘I’m directly affected by these lights,’ said Paul Moore, who lives on Granola. ‘It really does detract from the natural setting. When night falls, it’s an absolutely exquisite view. But the light changes that. Your eyes are directed toward this bath of light.’ Maiten, a real estate investor who lives in West Los Angeles, tried to accommodate neighbors’ concerns. He reduced the lights’ wattage from 1,000 to 100, changed the luminosity from an industrial white to a more natural yellow, and placed shields to restrict the lights’ range. But neighbors say the lights continued to be a nuisance until last September. That was when Coastal Commission inspectors, responding to a neighbor’s complaint, order the DWP to turn the lights off until Maiten gets the correct permits. ‘Normally, these lights are installed on private property, so we rely on the property owner to get the necessary permits,’ said Darlene Battle, a DWP spokesperson. ‘But this [canyon] is a unique strip of the city. As soon as it came to our attention that this was an area that needed Coastal permission, we had the lights turned off.’ As part of his effort to drum up local support for the permits, Maiten spoke to the Palisades Community Council last week, where he and his land-use consultant, Howard Robinson, presented the needs for the lights. ‘These lights are part of a plan to stop vandalism on his property and your property,’ Robinson said. ‘We’re very familiar with the danger of homeless encampments. And Barry has experienced a graffiti problem. These lights will act as a deterrent.’ But neighbors dispute the representation of the canyon as dangerous and Maiten’s need for the lights. After an overwhelming show of opposition to his plans from neighbors at the council meeting, a motion to support Maiten was not supported. ‘There has been no crime reported there,’ said Frances Tibbits, who lives on Puerto Del Mar. ‘The only crimes committed are from skunks and deer–and maybe coyotes.’ A petition signed by dozens of neighbors argues that the lights will invite more trespassers to the canyon, by lighting a path. It also says the multiple gates that block access to the canyon are sufficient to prevent trespassers. According to LAPD Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore, the lights will probably have little impact on reducing vandalism in the canyon. Maiten’s determination to get the lights has also unnerved rim residents, who fear that lights are part of a larger plan to develop the canyon. Maiten said he has no plans to develop the property. He bought the canyon in 1996 from an Australian development company, and has made few structural changes to the property. For more than 30 years, development in the canyon has been stymied by negative land appraisals, community outrage, political opposition and geological infeasibility. But the past has not dampened developers’ ongoing interest in the property. ‘I’ve gotten calls once or twice per week from developers, saying they want to buy this property,’ Maiten said. ‘I’ve always said, ‘No, it’s not for sale.’ But now, after this, I’ll start to listen carefully to their proposals.’ Because Maiten did not win support from the Community Council, he and neighbors will try to find a common ground at an upcoming meeting organized by Councilman Rosendahl’s field deputy, Andrea Epstein. But the two sides seem unwilling to compromise. The date for that meeting has not yet been set. —————- Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. Ph: (310) 454-1321 ext. 28; E-mail: reporter@palipost.com