The Ballona Institute has recently saved The Villa Marina Tule Wetlands and 118 mature trees on the edge of the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve. The West LA Area Planning Commission voted 4-0 to support the appeals of community groups and neighbors, objecting to city planning staff approvals to pave over open space, divert a significant part of the wetlands through a concrete pipe and approve a new vehicle storage parking lot where live trees are currently used by birds and butterflies.  The Commission also ruled that a zoning change from agriculture was inappropriate and that the Coastal Development Permit was improperly approved under the California Coastal Act. Climate change was also a reason to not to approve a project that would have resulted in the loss of 118 mature trees and move or eliminate wetlands vegetation that is currently sequestering carbon.
The Institute thanked LA City Councilmember Mike Bonin for accepting the community appeals and the Del Rey Neighborhood Council for reversing its original support of the project and all who wrote letters, agreed to support the appeals and/or trekked to West LA on a rainy night last week to participate in a lengthy hearing.

The California State Coastal Conservancy is proud to announce the first draft of the Explore the Coast Overnight Assessment. The Conservancy would like to invite you to read and submit your comments on the assessment by Friday, January 25, 2019 via any of the following methods:

email: [email protected] ; fax: (510) 286 - 0470; or mail a hard copy to the State Coastal Conservancy. The comments received will be reviewed and may be integrated into the assessment, which will then be presented at the State Coastal Conservancy's board meeting on March 14, 2019. The draft assessment can be found here. More information on the Conservancy's Explore the Coast Overnight Program can be found here.