The California Coastal Commission (CCC) will be ruling on the Coastal Permit Application by Verizon Wireless for the “installation of wireless telecommunication equipment on new 29-43 foot high (grade level) wood utility poles in five various locations. The equipment will consist of six foot double extension arms, two panel antennas, microcell, power meter mounted on the five single poles, and one 25’ x 7’ underground transmission equipment vault” at four locations in the Palisades and one in Point Fermin. Application No. 5-09-125 is item number 20a on the agenda.

The locations of the proposed installations are:
* 2531 S. Western Avenue (west side of street in the ‘S’ curve south of 25th Street)
* 820 S. Paseo Del Mar (north side of street just down the hill from the Korean Friendship Bell)
* 4101 S. Pacific Avenue (corner of Pacific Avenue and Sheppard Street in Point Fermin)
* 3627 S. Gaffey Street (west side of street on south side of entrance to the Korean Friendship Bell)
* 3135 S. Gaffey Street (west side of street just south of 30th Street by the new entrance to SRHS#15)
To see pictures of some of these locations, please click the Related Articles link at the bottom. A map can be found in Verizon’s proposal.

Download a copy of Verizon’s proposal, including maps, diagrams, and two letters of opposition, by clicking Here (downloads a 1.3MB pdf) or click on the agenda link above and look for Verizon.

The CCC meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at the City of Oceanside, City Council Chambers, 300 North Coast Hwy., Oceanside, CA 92054

If you wish to speak at the meeting, you will fill out a “Request to Speak” form and give it to a staff person at the meeting.

Letters and written comments may be submitted to the CCC no later than three working days before the hearing. In the upper right hand corner of the first page of your submittal please identify the agenda item number (W22c), application number (5-08-251) & your name. Please summarize your position in two or three pages. You may attach any exhibits you feel are necessary. Please Note: You are discouraged from submitting written materials to the Commission on the day of the hearing, unless they are visual aids. Letters can be sent to:

California Coastal Commission
South Coast District
200 Oceangate, 10th floor
Long Beach, CA 90802-4416
Attn:Al Padilla

If you are unable to be present at the meeting you may view and listen to this meeting gavel to gavel live on the web. When in session, see:
* Just the webcast
* Webcast and the agenda in a frames page
* Just the audio

Related Posts:
Proposed Verizon Cell Towers

The Palisades neighborhood has been in the news lately but not necessarily in a good light.

“Dog Droppings Spoil the View” is Anita Mannila’s Letter to the Daily Breeze Editor this past Sunday.

“One of the most beautiful places to walk in San Pedro is along Paseo del Mar from Western Avenue to Point Fermin. A walk along this path is good for the body but not always for the “sole.” One has to be fleet-footed to dodge the landmines left by dogs whose owners don’t clean up after them. Dog walkers: Cleaning up after your pets is a matter of common sense and common courtesy.

Please don’t, don’t, leave the doo-doo.”

And then there is Diana Chapman’s article on page 17 of the August Issue of San Pedro Today where she talks about trash blowing from Point Fermin Park.

“The area becomes a piece of trash – or should I say hundreds of pieces of trash – that stream down from the park into the ocean.”

What can we do about this, neighbors? Schedule a litter pick-up volunteer day? Talk to Parks and Rec about trash cans with lids or more frequent trash pick-ups? Install dog waste bag dispensers? Let the Palisades Residents’ Association know your thoughts in the comments below.

Related Posts:
Parks Feedback
Keys Found on Weymouth
The Future of San Pedro Parks

A film crew will be on Gaffey Street at 36th Street on Tuesday, April 7 from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm filming for Sprint Nextel.

Questions were raised at the recent Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood council (CSPNC) regarding the entrance to the upcoming South Region High School #15. Neighbors to the school location have voiced concerns in the past about Alma Street being used as a main entrance due to it being residential, narrow, curvy and having no sidewalk. As we mentioned in a previous article, Alma Street will be widened and a sidewalk will be added.

LAUSD has stated that Barlow-Saxton Road at Gaffey Street will be the main access point for the high school. For that to happen a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) must be agreed upon between L.A. Department of Recreation and Parks and LAUSD. This will be decided at the next Rec. and Parks meeting. John Anderson, the CEQA Senior PM/Consultant on the SRHS#15 project, states that, from a CEQA or regulatory point of view, if the Campus operators choose to restrict access from Alma, no new analysis would be required and no additional Public and Agency notice or review would be required.

LAUSD’s Linda Del Cueto assured the PRA in an e-mail that “as the Local District [8] Superintendent and the person responsible for the “Operation” of the campus, I want to make it clear that when the site opens the primary access will be from Gaffey Street, as has been previously discussed. The Alma Street entrance will be reserved for limited access only.”

Tonight LAUSD is holding a public meeting to discuss the demolition at the site. Click here for details.

RELATED ARTICLES:
LAUSD to Answer Community Questions
SRHS#15 Pre-Demolition Meeting
LAUSD Updates the PRA on Angels Gate H.S.
Rec & Parks to Meet About SRHS#15-Postponed
More

The inaugural USC Fight On! Triathlon is coming to the Palisades and Point Fermin neighborhoods (and bordering South Shores) at the end of this month. The triathlon consists of a 1-km swim at Cabrillo Beach, a 16-mile bicycle ride along the coast to 25th and Western, and a 4-mile run from Cabrillo to Meyler Street at Paseo del Mar. There are expected to be 250–300 participants.

On February 28, several streets will be closed to through traffic and parked cars will be ticketed or towed (or both!). Plan ahead so you don’t have to run out in your jammies at the crack of dawn to move your car.

DETAILS:
Saturday Feb. 28, 2009
Race starts at 7:00am
Cabrillo Beach, San Pedro
Organizer: USC Fight on! Triathlon

Street Closures, 2/28, 6:30am—10:30amSee street signage for closure times (approx 4am–1pm):
Bluff Pl (Cabrillo Beach to Sunken City)
Oliver Vickery Circle Way (Cabrillo Beach)
Pacific Ave (22nd St to Sunken City)
Paseo del Mar (Western to Shepard)
Shepard St (Gaffey to Pacific)
Stephen M. White Dr.
Western Ave (south of 25th St)

At registration, the triathlon organizers will be collecting aluminum cans for the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and accepting donations for the Wounded Warrior Project.

Alma Street rendering 1 (click for larger image)

Several members of the Palisades Residents Association board met with representatives of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) yesterday to get the latest word on South Region High School #15 to relay the information to Palisades residents. LAUSD’s Regional Development Director Rod Hamilton, Board of Education District 7 Chief of Staff David Kooper, and District 7 Deputy Chief of Staff Jacob Haik filled us in.

This coming April or May, eight historic WWI buildings will be moved into the newly created “historic district” on LAUSDs property at Angels Gate where ten WWI buildings are already in place. Two of these buildings will eventually become prototypical historic buildings restored to near-original condition including redwood siding. The other buildings may be available to community groups in exchange for a low rent and building restoration. This is still in discussion. One of these WWI buildings may be available eventually for the Skills Center automotive program which was moved to the Harbor Occupational Center. The WWII buildings will be razed. Fort MacArthur Museum is in talks with LAUSD about possibly saving and moving one or two WWII buildings onto Ft. Mac property.

Also, in April or May, Angels Gate Continuation High School and the Early Education Center will be moved into portable classrooms placed on the sides of the parking area in front of the International Bird Rescue Center and Marine Mammal Care Center. Grading and remediation of contaminated earth will happen at this time. LAUSD will get back to us whether contaminated earth will be removed by trucks or recycled on site.

The migratory bird study, a special condition requested by the California Coastal Commission (CCC) for approval of the coastal permit, has begun. LAUSD will go before the CCC again in 2010 to seek approval for 36 wind turbines.

This fall the site will be ready for construction. Construction will begin no later than January 2010 and will last for 2 years and 4 months. The Point Fermin Outdoor Education Center (PFOEC) construction, which has already begun, should be finished in 2010. Offsite work on Alma and Gaffey Streets will be in late 2011 or early 2012. The new high school is expected to open in the fall of 2012.

Alma Street rendering 2 (click for larger image)

Alma Street will be widened by 7’ along the entire LAUSD property to straighten out the curves in the road and an 8′ sidewalk will be constructed. No residents’ property will changed. A traffic light will be installed on Gaffey Street at 32nd Street. This will be the preferred entrance and exit for busses going to and from the PFOEC provided a Memo of Understanding (MOU) and Joint Use Agreement with the Los Angeles City Department of Recreation and Parks are approved. Barlow Saxton Road (across Gaffey from 32nd Street) is on Rec & Parks land. This road will be slightly reconfigured near the PFOEC. The MOU gives LAUSD access to this road and parking in exchange for road improvements to Barlow Saxton Road, an engineering study on Osgood Farley Road and community access to the high school pool and fields. Rec & Parks will pay for the engineering study.

Alma Street rendering 3 (click for larger image)

Community access to the pool and fields will be after school hours and weekends when school is not in session and high school teams are not practicing. Estimates to restore the Gaffey Street (Hey, Rookie!) pool on Rec & Parks property at Angels Gate ranged from 9 to 10 million dollars.

The MOU between LAUSD and Rec & Parks will be presented at the next Board of Recreation & Parks Commissioners meeting on February 4. See meeting details here.

The historic stone wall surrounding the property will remain, however the fence on top of the wall will be redone. There are no plans to open the entrances to LAUSD property on 37th 36th Street. Utilities will be placed underground so there will not be utility poles on the property (see photos). The school will be 75–100% sustainable and will be CHPS certified. CHPS (pronounced “chips”) is the Collaborative for High Performance Schools which incorporates some of the ideas of LEED for Schools certification

Once the school is ready to be filled with students, the high school will be a magnet school housing 510 students sharing the same administration as San Pedro High School. Students living in San Pedro will be given first priority to entrance in these magnet programs. Currently at San Pedro High School there are slightly fewer than 500 students attending the Police and Marine Science magnets.

If you have questions regarding South Region High School #15 please
E-mail the PRA or attend the next Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council meeting when there will be a 30-minute question and answer period.

Related Articles:
Rec & Parks to Meet about SRHS#15
California Coastal Commission approves SRHS#15
Parks Feedback

SRHS#15 Site Plan

The L.A. City Board of Recreation & Parks Commissioners will be discussing a proposed memo of understanding (MOU) between LAUSD and Rec & Parks regarding Angels Gate Park. LAUSD would like to use Barlow Saxton Road as an entrance to South Region High School #15 in exchange for road engineering and improvements and community use of the new high school’s fields and pool.

The meeting details:
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 ***POSTPONED*** (see update below)
9:30 a.m.
EXPO Center, Community Hall Room, 3980 S Menlo Ave, LA 90037
(Parking located in ALot 1″, at the corner of Martin Luther King Blvd. and Menlo St.)

Commission Meetings can be heard live over the telephone through the Council Phone system. To listen to a meeting, please call (310) 547-CITY (2489) from San Pedro, 213-621-City (2489) from Downtown, 310-471-City (2489) from West L.A. or 818-904-9450 from Van Nuys. When you call the number, the first thing you hear is a menu of all the meetings to be broadcast on that day, and you may choose which one you want if it is not a Council day.

Information on agenda items may be obtained by calling the Commission Office at (213) 928-9040. Copies of the agenda (which were not available at the time of this article) and reports may be downloaded from the Department’s website.

***UPDATE*** The agenda for the 2/4 Rec & Parks meeting has been released and the MOU with LAUSD is not listed. We’ll let you know if this appears on a future agenda.
Related Articles:
Angels Gate

There will be a couple of filming projects on Paseo del Mar the next few days that will not result in any street closures.

The Mentalist, a crime drama on CBS, will be working at 1311 W Paseo del Mar Tuesday 1/20 7am-7pm, Wednesday 1/21 7am-10pm, and Thursday 1/22 7am-7pm. Crew parking will be at Paseo del Mar and Gaffey.

Also, MTV’s reality show Parental Control will be at 807 S Paseo del Mar on Wednesday 1/21 from 1pm-6pm.

Western Avenue will be closed from 25th Street to Paseo del Mar until this evening while clean up from an accident occurs. A heavy duty truck carrying dirt and rocks overturned around 3:30 pm today just north of the South Shores Manor apartments at the corner of Western and Paseo del Mar. One parked car was hit and the driver of the truck was taken to the hospital with leg injuries according to a local bystander.

You may want to alter your commute or errand route a bit October 7 and 8 if you regularly drive through the intersection of Western Avenue and 25th Street. CalTrans will be working at that intersection during those two days.

To assist with traffic there will be California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers at the intersection. In addition, signs giving advance warning notice to residents will be installed a few days before work begins.

The details:
Tuesday October 7, 9:00 a.m. — 2:00 p.m.
Southbound traffic will only be allowed to make a left turn onto 25th St.

Wednesday October 8, 9:00 a.m. — 2:00 p.m.
Only right turns will be permitted from all directions.

Related Link/s:
California Department of Transportation