By Gary Walker
By Tuesday morning, county workers had removed most of the vegetation from the future park
Photo by Joe Piasecki
Los Angeles County workers wasted no time this week in stripping all vegetation from the site of a future wetlands park in Marina del Rey.
The undeveloped 1.46-acre parcel along Via Marina north of Tahiti Way is slated to become a saltwater marsh area based on recommendations by a California Coastal Commission biologist.
Planting of coastal saltmarsh plants, coastal prairie and coastal sage scrub is expected to begin this fall.
As part of county approvals for a new hotel complex nearby, hotel developer the Hardage Group is overseeing construction of the park, which will include public walking paths and nature observation areas.
Site grading will begin later this summer in order to complete the park as early as year’s end, said Aaron Clark, a land-use consultant with Armbruster Goldsmith & Delvac LLP who is representing the Hardage Group.
A handful of Marina del Rey residents and the nonprofit Ballona Institute had unsuccessfully challenged plans for the wetlands park before various regulatory bodies, including the Coastal Commission.
Park construction is not expected to cause road closures or traffic delays.
For more information, contact Michael Tripp of the L.A. County Department of Beaches and Harbors at (310) 305-9512.
There were several hundred (not handful) of residents who opposed this destruction of animals & plants in this existing wetlands to build a small contrived park. The Argonaut should note that the Public was slated to have been a much larger park. Unfortunately, that was land-swapped for the betterment of developers into this tiny park. And years of payment by prior MDR developer’s fees for the lost park disappeared in County coffers and projects outside of MDR.