Odds and Ends 132

I normally write these particular posts Thursday evening.

At this moment I hope to get this post done before the power goes out again.

I don't know if the Ponte Vista site is on the same power grid lines we are on, but if it is, I hope they can use their influence to finally correct a decades long problem.

We lose power on our side of Trudie Drive while the other side keeps its light on. It has been this way for as long as I can remember.

Unless there is a large area power outage, our side of the street along with other places local to Western Avenue, but not necessarily everywhere, lose power.

It happened four times today. That is unusual. The first one cost me my 1TB external hard drive. Ouch! I lost all the videos I was working on editing. I'll have to go back to upload them from the DV tapes.

But that is not about Ponte Vista.

Really, I have nothing new to offer about Ponte Vista directly.

I do like the paint now all along Western Avenue where it was resurfaced. I think the project is just about finished.

I had a dream where I drove south along Western Avenue at Avenida Aprenda and I didn't see any work being done on the sewer system. Sadly it was just a dream and the fencing and workers are still there. Perhaps they never intend on leaving.
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As many of you were watching the sky and/or TV on Thursday, you probably saw the glow of a fire burning. It is a scary sight to see the glow and smell the smoke.

Where the Ralph's Supermarket now stands there once was a canyon that stretched from just about Western Avenue all the way to almost Gaffey. It was only bisected by a street connecting Park Western Drive with a part of the Channel Heights housing project.

Each and every year that I was alive and the canyon had not been filled, it burned.

There were other brush fires along Western Avenue and the photo of our Western View Homes was taken just after a fire burned the brush to the north and south of the homes.

Fires are not new and it looks like they will not go away.

Keeping our eyes open when we pass brush filled areas like Ponte Vista and the Defense Fuel Supply Point could help keep homes from burning if some idiot decides to light a match.
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Odds and Ends 131

I didn't expect to read what I read in the Letters to the Editor in The Daily Breeze on Thursday August 20, but here is an unexpected letter:

Little support for Ponte Vista

Once again the Ponte Vista project is lurking around the corner for yet another attempt to crowd San Pedro. This project has been denied at least a half-dozen times. When will they get the message that it's just not wanted, no matter how you design it. Please go away. I ask that our city Councilwoman Janice Hahn would finally put an end to this fiasco and go with the majority of us that oppose the project.

Did anyone else happen to see Peck Park this past weekend?

Hundreds of out-of-towners and numerous cars parked in the park. If Ponte Vista plans to build a park that the "public" can also enjoy, God help the north end of San Pedro.

- Carlos B. Trevino

San Pedro

Mr. Trevino is the father of an acquaintance of my, also named Carlos. Both father and son share their opposition to having condominiums built at Ponte Vista.

This was the first letter to the editor concerning Ponte Vista that I have seen in many months and I find it refreshing that there are folks other than us 'regulars' who keep the Project in their minds.

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I hope we do get our first look at the artist's depictions of the 'new' Ponte Vista Project next month.

When we learn what the developer and Outreach Team think the site could look like and have written statements about the buildings, amenities, retail space, and other things that are being planned to put forward through the new EIR process, it will allow all of us a chance to reevaluate our thinking on the project.

With that written, I am still going to find it almost impossible to keep me from continuing my call for the dwelling density equivalent to that of The Gardens. I will continue to hold for no more than about 832 dwelling units at Ponte Vista.

Remembering that the 1,100-units on 80 acres at The Gardens still allows residents living in that condominium project easy access to both Western and Gaffey, it still doesn't seem wise at all to allow for greater dwelling density for a development with only Western as an access route.

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The group called Concerned Citizens Coalition/Marymount College (CCC/ME) still continues to call for the expansion of the Palos Verdes Drive North off-campus housing site for Marymount College.

This is just somewhat important because the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council is now working towards final action granting or denying the College's Facilities Expansion Project.

CCC/ME wants new Marymount athletic facilities, large field and expanded off-campus on the Palos Verdes Drive North site even though the city of Rancho Palos Verdes has no say about what can be done with the off-campus student housing site, known as Palos Verdes North.

The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council will take up the matter CCC/ME's appeal of plans approved of by the Rancho Palos Verdes Planning Commission regarding the College's Expansion Project on Saturday September 12, 2009 at Hesse Park, beginning at 9:00 AM.

Hardly anything was heard from by San Pedro residents concerning plans the College has and how those plans may effect both the Palos Verdes North facility and the off-campus housing apartment building at 24th and Cabrillo, in San Pedro.

Though nothing should really change at the two locations, the College is hoping to expand its enrollment with the new Project and many of the new students will be coming from outside the local area and will need a place to live.

The 'Pacific Heights' building at 24th and Cabrillo may be already completely filled and the College has made claims it would close that facility, but it never did what it promised.

There could have been San Pedrans who feel that having off-campus housing in San Pedro for a Rancho Palos Verdes College is not fair, but they didn't speak up to support on-campus housing when they had so many chances.

But for now, it is expected that the approved plans for the Facilities Expansion will 'only' add another additional 1,567 vehicle trips along Western Avenue between Trudie Drive and P.V. Drive North, each and every day Marymount is in session.

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Odds and Ends 130-Additional

Here is the post from www.yourpontevista.com concerning the August 13 Planning Commission meeting where the project was reviewed:

Ponte Vista Update at Los Angeles City Planning Commission

Aug 14th, 2009 by Ponte Vista

On August 13^th, Los Angeles City Planner, David Olivo, presented a status report to the Los Angeles City Planning Commission on the Ponte Vista residential community.

Mr. Olivo informed the Commission that discussions between the planning department and the developer have been successful since the last Commission meeting on Ponte Vista in April of 2009. The planning department and the Ponte Vista team have made progress towards the development of a revised plan. He also told the Commission that he expected that a Revised Specific Plan for Ponte Vista would come together within the next 60 days.

The Revised Specific Plan for Ponte Vista will be amended to reflect the changes to the residential community as well as to the park, trails, and retail areas. The Revised Specific Plan once approved will guide the future build-out of Ponte Vista. The Specific Plan includes architecture, landscape design, color palette, building heights, circulation, parking, Mary Star access, water elements, and open space features and design.

Mr. Olivo told Commissioners that he believed that a revised DEIR would be circulated for 45 days on the revised project for public review and comment.

Commissioners were further informed that the planning staff would be back to them within 90 days with another progress update and that the overall project would be back to the Commission for consideration in about 9 months.

Representatives for the development team were in attendance at the meeting and told the Commissioners that they look forward to returning to the Commission at the first meeting in November to present the project timeline, which would include the schedule for the recirculation of the revised DEIR.

The Ponte Vista development team will begin to prepare the Recirculated Revised EIR for the Ponte Vista Specific Plan immediately after the revised development plan is formulated and ready for presentation to the community.

Ponte Vista is a planned residential community that features a two-acre village green with adjacent retail shops, walking trails and open space, workforce and senior housing, and town homes and courtyard homes in a sustainable, high-quality, energy-efficient design.

The development team plans to release a schedule to the community for the revised plan in September 2009.

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"Anonymous" left a comment with the article apparently from The Daily Breeze dealing with the same meeting:

Revised Ponte Vista plan under discussion
From staff reports
Posted: 08/13/2009 06:06:29 PM PDT

Los Angeles planners reported Thursday that progress was being made in discussions with the developers of San Pedro's Ponte Vista housing plan.

A revised plan, however, probably won't be ready for formal consideration and approval for another six to nine months, said Betsy Weisman, principal planner for the city.

The report was made at a meeting of the Los Angeles Planning Commission.

"Staff has been meeting with the applicants every two weeks," Weisman said after the meeting. The discussions have been focused on "very general concepts," she said, with a follow-up report scheduled at the Nov. 12 meeting of the Los Angeles Planning Commission.

The private meetings will continue as more details are worked out for the development proposed for the 61.5-acre parcel on Western Avenue across the street from Green Hills Cemetery.

The big sticking point remains the number of homes and the project's effects on Western Avenue traffic.

The status report presented Thursday, Weisman said, "was all very low key," with no questions posed by commissioners.

12:27 PM

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I am still expecting to learn that the revised plan includes 1,395 units.

Odds and Ends 130

Go away!

I'm not here right now and I don't know what happened at the Planning Commission meeting.

I may publish a post between now and next Friday.

Thank you for stopping by.

Buh-bye

Odds and Ends 129

The Ponte Vista Outreach Team published a new post on their: http://www.yourpontevista.com/ site.

The post is their take on what they have been doing since last April and what they expect to happen when Ponte Vista at San Pedro comes before the Los Angeles City Planning Commission on August 13.

As expected, there will be nothing earth shattering during that meeting, concerning Ponte Vista.

I do hope we all get a chance to see the new drawings and public publication of the new plans for the 61.53 acre site, beginning in September.
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And now for something completely different.

I feel there has been a paucity of humor in the discussions concerning Ponte Vista. There have been some remarkably hilarious quotes coming from all sides of the issue, but I feel there could always be more humor in the issues being talked about

When I found out that Ponte Vista was born in the same hospital as President Obama seems to have been, according to some folks, I made it my duty to find Ponte Vista's birth certificate.

Here below, is the birth certificate:

Now unlike when President Obama was born, according to his "Kenyan" birth certificate, Ponte Vista was born in Mombasa which by that time really was in Kenya and not Zanzibar like on August 4, 1961.

I am sure Mr. and Mrs. Bisno were very happy to finally have their newborn out and about. Who know that just a little under four years later, the little site would turn on its parents and force them out?
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This is another reminder that R Neighborhoods Are 1 hasn't left the playing field or ridden off into the sunset. The machinery is still oiled and ready for quick start up, if necessary.

Some of us are not finding the inclusion of folks beyond the development team and the City Planning Department, in current discussions about what may be the best results for OUR community.

I hope the Councilwoman's office, Mr. Fentin, and he Planning Department will welcome into the discussion serious representatives of OUR community to assist in creating the best Ponte Vista as San Pedro as possible.

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