Noise was the main topic of discussion at the Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC) November 14 meeting held in the Palisades Branch Library meeting room. At the last meeting, many residents sounded off about the reverberations coming from the Palisades Charter High School swimming pool and band practice at the football field.
One Palisadian last month said he has lost “hundreds of hours of sleep” and has had his quality of life lowered because of the sounds emanating from PaliHi, as previously reported in the Palisadian-Post.
To solve this problem, several PPCC members met prior to the main meeting to have a discussion with Palisadian resident and sound expert Patrick Hart to figure out how to move forward. Hart offered an explanation why residents living near PaliHi think the most raucous sounds seem to occur during the evening. He said that sounds travel farther at night because of the lack of ambient traffic noise and cooler temperatures.
At one point Palisadian Craig Au, who has three children attending PaliHi, contended that PPCC members would want to stop the band from playing. PPCC Chair Barbara Kohn responded by saying the “purpose of [the] meeting is to start the process of working together.”
Hart also responded. “I don’t want [the band] to stop playing,” he said. “I want to show them how sound works and then offer solutions.” PPCC members decided that Hart would use his sound equipment to test the noise levels at the football field and swimming pool, then conduct tests at homes surrounding the high school.
Kohn told the Post in a later interview that it was “too early to make decisions and that hard data was needed to move forward.”
Motorcycle noise on Sunset was also brought up during the meeting. Residents have been complaining about the rumbling thunder of motorcycle engines for years. PPCC Area 5 representative Jack Allen contributed a Viewpoint to the Post (Nov. 14), illustrating how difficult it is to remedy the problem.
Allen proposed legislation that would “prohibit operating motorcycles on specified streets between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.” Allen admitted this would be very difficult to pass and would require cooperation of state and city politicians.
LAPD Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore spoke at the meeting about the difficulty of enforcement on motorcycle noise. He told the council that citizens could not attempt “private person’s arrests” because the noise issues are merely infractions and not misdemeanors or felonies. Moore also said police have trouble enforcing laws on single motorcycles since they usually do not exceed noise variances.
One community council member had a slightly different perspective on the chopper conundrum. PPCC area 2 representative Paul Glassgall reported on his time at the LAPD Community Police Advisory Board (C-PAB) summit. The year’s summit focused on community policing efforts, gang intervention and prevention and citywide public safety issues.
“After listening to all the area captains and seeing all the blight, graffiti and crime in many parts of Los Angeles, we should feel very fortunate of where we live,” Glassgall said. “It makes our motorcycle problems seem a little less pertinent.”
The PPCC agreed on one item that did not concern noise problems in the Palisades. Norm Kulla, Palisades liaison for city councilmember Mike Bonin, presented a proposal for a people mover to transport passengers from Metro light-rail lines to the terminals at LAX.
Mark Rossa, PPCC education representative alternate, asked how the people mover will affect Palisadians, and Kulla said “it really wouldn’t.” Nonetheless, the council voted in unanimous support.
Last month, the Post reported on the potential consolidation of two large city departments, city planning and building and safety. Allen said Los Angeles city council decided to delay the consolidation. “They put a hold on it because they wanted consultants to study other options to provide a more full report that city council can review,” Allen said. The report is scheduled to be finished by January 2014.
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