There is a buffer zone between the houses on Alma Real and the park maintenance yard (right).
Park Advisory Board Special Meeting Set
The Pacific Palisades Recreation Center Park Advisory Board will hold a special meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30 in the small gym.
Initially the meeting was set for a presentation of the Veteran’s Park/bocce ball court and a vote for approval for the park and plans.
But the agenda has been updated to include public comment on the plan to add green space to the Veteran’s Garden by moving the trash bins from the maintenance yard to the area next to the tennis courts in the lower parking lot of Frontera. The move would allow Veteran’s Garden proponents to take about half of the maintenance yard and annex it to that project.
At the quarterly PAB meeting on October 17, the board approved moving the bins, without input from tennis players or the people who lived on Frontera.
Residents will now be able to voice their concerns.
Erich Haas, the Palisades Rec Center director wrote Circling the News in an October 23 email: “Please help us get the word out to ALL affected patrons and interested parties on this matter. It is important to me that all voices, pro & con, are heard by the Board.”
Regarding the Veteran’s Garden/bocce approval (visit: veteransgardens.net), several PAB board members have asked that the dimensions be included in the presentation, including the entrance to the park and the area inside the Garden.
When the project was first proposed, the Board made it clear they wanted room for a bounce house and birthday parties within the space.
The Board was also told that the upper half of the yard, which extends to Alma Real Drive, would remain a lawn so that schools could still use it for physical education and kids could still kick a soccer ball and run in the space.
Members have also asked to see the lighting plans and inquired about who will be responsible for any damage caused by bocce balls to cars, houses, etc.
The lids are being closed on the trash bins in the maintenance yard, which also serves for parking for Palisades Rec and Park staff.
At the quarterly meeting the rat problem in the maintenance yard was addressed. Haas wrote CTN on October 24 about several steps he’s taken, which include: 1) All the trash strewn about the yard and in the area around the yard, including the area directly behind the yard, which abuts neighbor’s property, has been cleaned up. 2) All trash can lids have been closed and Haas said he would send an email to maintenance reminding them to keep the bins closed. 3)The old incinerator, where rats are believed to have a nested, has been cleaned out. Haas had sent an inquiry to maintenance to ask when it could be demolished, but has not received a reply, yet.
In an October 24 email, CTN asked if an exterminator had been contacted. Haas said that Rec Centers cannot contact individual exterminators, but he had contacted the Forestry division which handles pest problems.
The Board voted to move trash containers from the maintenance yard next to the tennis courts.
Tennis players think this is an idea that should be forgotten. Putting trash bins next to the courts, which are already poorly maintained and supervised will make a bad situation worse. There is no way to put the bins there that will not be problematic for people who park in the lower lot and who play on the courts. There is quite a bit of open space in the court, so there is no need to move the bins from their proper place in the maintenance area.
Is the PAB looking to move the bins to the tennis courts so they can assign more land to the Veterans Gardens project? Am I reading too much into what is stated in this article? If they are trying to add space to the project, that should be made very clear at the meeting. The board needs to be transparent on all reasons for this proposed move. The bins should not be moved to the courts for any reason, but it would help if the “NO” side was fully aware of what we are up against.
This is a recycled idea that needs to be forgotten. It didn’t work before and it really won’t work now. Maintenance equipment belongs in a maintenance yard–not between courts 5 & 6 and courts 7 & 8. The Frontera parking lot was legally established for tennis court parking, not as a maintenance yard. There are other more compatible places for trash bins.
The problems as stated were rats and smells, not the trash bins. It is not clear what facilitates rats and smells. A test may be made by emptying the trash bins more often or taking other correction actions. Perhaps, the area around the bins, including abutting private properties should be closely inspected.
If the problem is the trash bins, the people who moved near them chose to do so.
Tennis players pay taxes as do the complaining property owners. The solution should benefit all involved
There seems to be many wide open spaces in the park are easily accessible for garbage truck on pick up day without interfering by parked cars, nor risk causing property damage to park cars, nor having the need to take away parking spaces on trash pickup days.
The Park proposed new location at the lower parking lot is the most undesirable spot of all open spaces in the entire park for these reasons:
1. The small lower parking lot is already tight and crowded during busy hours without the addition of 6 large garbage bins.
2. Unlike other open spaces in the park where cooled by cross breeze, the lower parking is tucked in the lowest spot of the park where heat seems trapped there (except for court 6) without the benefit of air movement during warm days and months. The elevated temperature will likely make garbage rot in the bin and produce odor.
3. The driveway leading from Frontera drive to the lower parking lot is already badly buckled to take on any more loads to accommodate a heavy duty garbage truck on a regular basis.
4. The lower parking lot is fully occupied to capacity during busy hours. Having a garbage truck lifting large trash bins over these parked vehicles inevitably will cause property damages to parked cars in its paths. We certainly cannot afford to lose any parking spaces on trash days either.
5. With all the open spaces available in the sizable park, it seems to defy common sense picking the most confined and crowded lower parking lot for the new trash bins location.
I do have numerous photos (unfortunately unable to post here) showing examples of other more suitable alternative open spaces that do not have to deal with parked cars nor the need of taking away available parking spaces on trash days, also easily accessible for garbage pickup.
This has already been tried and failed. The parking for the lower courts is essential. There must be another location for these trash bins besides to block parking. I hope another solution is chosen.
Best
Mimi Kahn
I agree with everything MARTINA and Shirley wrote. Plus: Bocce Ball should not dominate the needs of tennis players (and softball players by the way) who park in the lower Frontera Parking lot between tennis courts 5-8. Even now, there is frequently not enough space during high use to find necessary parking, so adding four unsightly very large garbage bins is terrible planning considering how lumbering garbage trucks will further damage the road to the parking lot. Certainly, the architect and the committee can find an alternative location for the big bins. Feel free to ask any of the people now writing in for suggestions, if you want to show respect for all sportspeople in the Palisades. Also, there are many valuable ways to honor Veterans besides putting up a flag and a sign and saying this is a Veterans Garden, don’t you think?