Rotary Club members gathered for the revitalization of the corner at Temescal Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway that started with a tree planting.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT
The beautifully landscaped corner of Temescal Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway was burned to a crisp. No vegetation survived, neither did the wooden fence.
The entryway to Pacific Palisades by the pump station was known as the Rotary Corner because of that group’s effort in beautifying it.
It was 2006, when Rotary Club member Perry Akins pointed out the area was overgrown, filled with trash and litter and an eye-sore – for anyone driving by or anyone stuck at the four-minute light at that intersection. He said it wasn’t a great introduction to such a pretty town.
He approached David Card, a landscape designer and Rotary member, and asked for a plan. With permission from the city, the land was cleared, graded, an irrigation system and plantings installed by the Club members, Jamie Hubbs’ Eagle Scout project team (Troop 23), and with the assistance of contractor Great Western Landscaping in 2008. In July, the late Councilmember Bill Rosendahl was at the dedication.
But a mere two years later, the City dug up most of the landscaping to install pumps for a year-round diversion system that sent water to the Hyperion.
After that project was completed, the City relandscaped the site and in 2014 with another Palisadian stalwart Stuart Muller to add plants to the landscaping including raising the fence to allow bougainvillea to cover more of the pump equipment and removing a power pole in the middle of the landscaping.
Another Troop 23 Eagle Scout Greg Gold added a two-rail wood fence to prevent people from walking through the middle of the landscaping.
Card told CTN then that “Landscaping has been difficult to maintain, due to frequent water shut offs caused by work on the storm drain diversion project in the park and due to the old park irrigation system that breaks down regularly.”
The landscaping grew in, including naked ladies, providing an attractive corner
Everything was destroyed in the fire.
Now plans underway again to restore the corner. A Monterey Cypress tree was planted there on December 13. At the Rotary’s request, Los Angeles Conservation Corp and CityPlants provided the tree and labor to plant it.
After the planting, an Eagle Scout project of invasive weeding at the site was headed by Gabi and her team from Palisades Scout Troop 223G, supervised by Jordan Corral (Resilient Palisades). A second weeding is planned for January. The wooden fence will be replaced through another Eagle Scout project by Cleo, from the same troop.
Card said that an irrigation system fix/replacement is in the works, pending a Right of Access Permit from LA City Rec & Parks. “We’ve asked Tracey Price of American Landscaping to give us an irrigation proposal,” Card said. “Meanwhile, Tracey’s water truck is watering the surviving plants and the Monterey Cypress.”
The local Rotary Club received a grant from the District to pay for irrigation work, which included remediation of the soil and restoration of the plantings.
And will the naked ladies return? Naked Ladies (Amaryllis belladonna or Lycoris squamigera) are popular, low-maintenance bulbs known for sending up tall, leafless stalks with fragrant pink or white flowers in late summer, appearing after their strap-like foliage dies back in spring, hence the “naked” name.
“Yes,” Card said.
Rotary club members David Card (left) and Perry Akins discuss new plantings to replace landscaping destroyed in the Palisades Fire.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT