The Comment Period has Ended

The public comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Report concerning the Ponte Vista at San Pedro development has ended.

Many folks are glad that the clock has finally struck midnight. I have typed and typed and been at least slightly involved with many sets of comments, including three personal ones of my own.

All the comments will now be reviewed by members of the City Planning Department in their quest to create a specific plan for the development and construct a Final Environmental Impact Report. It has been reported that the comments will be reported on sometime later, in the Summer.

Is your job done? No!! Now we shift to creating recommendations for inclusion into the specific plan and your help is still greatly needed.

The Community Advisory Committee, created to aid Ms. Janice Hahn in making recommendations to be included in the Final Environmental Impact Report and the specific plan Mr. Bisno will use to develop Ponte Vista, will need your input to help it make those recommendations.

At the next public meeting scheduled for February 8, 2007, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the committee will work on and take public recommendations for what should be included in the 6 acre public park Mr. Bisno is promising for the southern area of the Ponte Vista site. Public input and comments are vital because Mr. Bisno has claimed that community members and not his development company will build the park according to the wishes of the community.

As we wait to view the outcome of the comments to the DEIR, there is still much the public can do to let everyone know what should be done, and not be done with the 61.53 acres that make up the Ponte Vista site. I will be creating a post relating to my current opinions on the proposed SRHS #14 that looms in the background of any discussion concerning the Ponte Vista property. Folks who support and oppose Mr. Bisno's current plans should continue to meet and create strategy for their respective paths forward. Groups may want to high tail it up to 200 N. Spring Street in Los Angeles with placards letting the folks know at City Planning what they want at Ponte Vista. Protest and support should not end now that the public comment period has ended.

During the following few months, I would like to post some of the other comments concerning the DEIR to let folks know some of the issues the Planning Department needs to clear up. Some of the most important comments extremely critical of the DEIR were not about traffic or population, at all.

Perhaps we are nearer to the end of the beginning. I think when the results of the comments come out, then we will either be at the end of the beginning or the end of the end for the prospect of building 2,300 homes at Ponte Vista.

I am still looking for the word "compromise" to come out of the trailer on the site of Ponte Vista.

To all the supporters, opponents, and undecided folks who cared enough to send in your comments, thank you. Your concern and your interest in finding the best outcome for the area and the entire community is appreciated.

Now, please be well and go to bed.