The sole item on last night’s Planning Commission meeting was a hearing on
the very large mixed use project on Colorado Avenue that requires the
removal of the Village Trailer Park.

City staff wanted the Commission to recommend that the Council approve
The project’s tenant removal plan,the Environmental Impact Report and the
commencement of negotiations on the development agreement.

As at all recent Planning Commission and City Council meetings, a whole lot of people signed up to speak – well over 40.

A number of them – mostly young and ambitious – spoke glowingly of the
project. Clearly, they were what one local sage calls “Costa Hawkins people” — just passing through, renting cool apartments, working hard at cool jobs, and playing hard. They were nearly all crazy about the project, and couldn’t wait to wave goodbye to the VTP tenants, most of whom are old, and fragile, in their eyes, and definitely OVER.

The rest of the speakers didn’t like the project, and objected to the VTP tenants being forced out of the community they loved.

Pacific Palisades historian Randy Young made rich fun of the project. Local union leaders expressed their support for the tenants and the necessity of preserving existing affordable housing and building more low cost housing.

The trailer park residents may be old, even fragile, but they are also quite hardy, smart, very articulate, and they delivered several bombshells. A land use lawyer who is representing them explained in great detail the flaws, conflicts and contradictions in the staff reports that could lead to the ultimate triumph of the tenants. A legal aid attorney found the “tenant impact report” and other documents wanting in several ways.

The tenants’ lawyers, a number of angry and articulate tenants,including Brenda Barnes, Peter Naughton, Catherine Eldredge, David Latham, actor Jack Donner, and Ron Goldman whose plan for the property, which is superior in all ways to the developer’s plans, reduced the Commission to profound silence.

The Commissioners seemed literally stunned. They asked questions of the City Attorney, but seemed all at sea, overwhelmed by what they had just seen and heard. and soon adjourned.

The fate of the Village Trailer Park and the massive development remain in limbo, while the City’s role seems a bizarre mix of sinister…and witless.