Temporary fencing around the flattened dunes
A month after local developer the Legado Co. bulldozed ecologically sensitive beach dunes in Playa del Rey — and weeks after a homeless man set up camp on the flattened remains — a restoration effort is finally beginning to take shape.
Last week the California Coastal Commission approved a plan submitted by Legado to install fencing around the habitat, commission spokeswoman Noaki Schwartz said. On Monday, Playa del Rey residents noticed white plastic bollards and yellow rope cordoning off the area; by Tuesday “Dune Restoration in Progress – No Trespassing” signs had gone up with them. Sturdier fencing is expected to go up before the end of the week, with the commission “monitoring the situation closely for noncompliance,” Schwartz said.
The commission also requires Legado to conduct interim erosion control and remedial grading to allow the dunes to begin to recover, with a state-approved specialist monitoring the effort.
As for reports of beach visitors lounging and even grilling on the flattened dunes, “People are going to do that type of thing. You can’t hold my client responsible for that,” said Benjamin Reznik, an attorney representing Legado.
Legado is suing the city for rejecting a controversial development proposal for the vacant triangular lot at Culver Boulevard and Vista Del Mar, also among the company’s land holdings. A large contingent of locals involved in that battle see the dune demolition as an affront to their neighborhood.
“I think [the Coastal Commission] should have someone monitoring the dunes more closely. I don’t think [Legado] wants to preserve that habitat,” resident Suzanne Napoleon said. “It’s going to be a constant battle with them, but we always look out for our community.”
— Gary Walker
The lawyer for Legado/Czuker is the same lawyer for the Villa Marina Tule Wetlands, which the community rallied to protect for two years and which ultimately received a reprieve last December when the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission approved appeals filed by Ballona Institute and Villa Napoli homeowners – all of whom wish to see this land remain as natural open space and habitat.
This lawyer tried the same argument with his clients there – allow and even encourage trespassing and encampments on to their private property so that the development they wanted would appear to be preferable to the trash that the trespassers left on the property.
For him, in this article, to claim that the landowner can’t be held responsible for what happens on the landowner’s property is ludicrous, and he knows that. The Planning Commissioners – related to the Tule Wetlands – told him as much. “Fence in the property and take care of it like other landowners do!”
It was the removal of the fencing at Toes Beach Dunes that invited others into the Czuker property, and Czuker’s lawyer knows that!
Thanks to sharing the information about the recovery of the Toes Beach Dunes