Students Offer Ideas for Village Development

Students from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs presented their final class projects to the community Sunday morning, which consisted of ways to improve the Commercial Village. 

Some 40 community members and others attended the meeting, which featured several large project renderings proposing various changes to the Village, including bike parking areas and beautification of the parking lot near Swarthmore, located on almost three acres of land developer Rick Caruso is in the process of purchasing.

“People don’t realize how important it is to have the Luskin School involved in future development of the Village. They’re a think tank,” said Donna Vaccarino, chair of the Community Planning Initiative for Pacific Palisades Strategic Planning Committee.

The urban design students participated in CPIPP’s well-attended Visioning Workshop in January.

“I think one of the core concerns will be the need for a comprehensive traffic and parking plan that will better accommodate parking for the employees and patrons of the stores in the Village, but also keep in mind the effect that will have on the adjacent residential streets and areas, bicycles and pedestrians,” said Amy Kalp, Pacific Palisades Community Council board member. “I think all three UCLA plans were impressively done and helped provide valuable neutral input.”

One proposal, which struck a chord with Vaccarino, suggested connecting the east and south sectors of the Village by strengthening the streets that cross Sunset for mixed-use development and pedestrian environments, she said.

“We need to look at the entire commercial Village and not just the Caruso site. Swarthmore East, as it may become known, definitely needs some TLC but a balance of development and good planning is what will make the Palisades Village work. John Kaliski who led the class is a brilliant planner,” Vaccarino said. “This is just the beginning of a long process of urban design visioning and discussion. So from that perspective I thought it was very successful.  The students did a great job – I am very proud of them.

All three projects will be posted on the Palisades Beautiful website:   PalisadesBeautiful.org.