Trucks hauling ask debris out of the Palisades line the streets.
There’s an expression “when the rubber hits the road,” which means the point at which a theory or an idea is put to a practical test. That is the major complaint that many builders, architects and contractors have about a new “brain trust’s” (BT), suggestions for a Palisades rebuild.
Palisades Recover is a committee headed by Maryam Zar, a resident, a retired journalist, chair emeritus of the Pacific Palisades Community Council and a member of several local boards, including the YMCA. Although her home is still standing in the Marquez Knolls area, she saw a need and put together a group of people to aid in the rebuilding process.
“I invited people I thought were thoughtful, open to new ideas, not combative but cooperative and were ready to come to the table with a collaborative spirit of sharing ideas and emerging with a plan for rebuilding that we could take to the community and get buy in,” Zar said. “What emerged was the building blocks of a good logistics plan.”
She said there were about a “dozen people’s suggestions in the plan,” and it was presented to the Community Council on April 10.
Several contractors, who make a living building, spoke to CTN. They felt that their expertise and concerns had not been taken into consideration with this plan.
One builder wrote CTN “There are more than a handful of good local Pali builders and, according to the BT coalition list, none were invited to share what they need to help the rebuild process go more smoothly.”
Starting with the idea of having a cement plant brought to town. “Does anyone know there is a cement plant in Santa Monica?” one builder asked.
Another resident was concerned that cement plants generate dust and loud noises and said, “isn’t that what we’re trying to avoid? Use the plant in Santa Monica.”
A cement plant is located at 1620 19th St. in Santa Monica.
Another idea from the BT was to put a lumber yard in the Palisades.
A builder said, “a lumber yard won’t work because lumber does not handle coastal weather well, so it can’t sit out. No general contractor who knows what they are doing buys from Home Depot or Lowes (suggested by the BT). Supplies are usually from larger distributors, such as Ganahl Lumber or White Cap. Anawalt will serve the purpose of the “one off items” that general contractors use.
The BT also suggested staging areas that included Malibu Feed Bin (travel on PCH is limited), Westside Waldorf (owned by the Lake Shrine), the City parking lot (stores next to it are undamaged and could reopen), State Parks (Will Rogers has adjacent residents who will be rebuilding), Gelson’s (slated to rebuild), Ralphs (slated to rebuild) Marquez Elementary (rebuilding, potentially opening in the fall), mobile home sites (those residents want to rebuild) and Calvary Christian Church/School (the school plans to reopen in the fall).
There is a fear that with the rebuilding there will be more than 1,000 truck trips a day. What is that figure based on? Has anyone in the Brain Trust been in the Palisades the past month?
The Army Corps of Engineers has ramped up debris removal, and with independent contractors also working, the streets in Pacific Palisades are packed with trucks. It might be a conversation with ACE about how they managed the number of trucks with the contractors they are using.
Another BT idea is to build temporary housing for workers. Has anyone asked the ACE contractors where their workers are staying? They are not local. One thought was to put modular or ADUs on the mobile home parks. If they are going to do that for construction workers, why not do it for the people who were living there and lost their homes?
It was speculated that maybe someone who doesn’t want to build right away would lease their lot to a contractor, so he could house his workers there. Some workers are subcontractors and would only come in to work on electrical—others are plumbers and would be there only for the time needed to install pipes.
Contractors/builders already have the trade groups they use, why would they bring in workers from Arizona or other out-of-state areas, especially since so many people in Los Angeles are looking for work (evidenced by the number of advertising street signs that line Sunset and other areas in the Palisades).
The Brain Trust advocated putting in a mess hall to feed workers. Who will build it, where will it be and who will pay for the food? BT could ask, who has been feeding the thousands of workers already in Pacific Palisades? They would find out its food trucks, Palisades Garden Café, Chipotle, Vons, church groups and residents.
Garden Cafe is open.
One contractor told CTN that “food trucks are fine, maybe just have a central location where they can be.” Another builder said, “it’s best to designate a few spots in each community where lunch trucks can park and serve workers. If shuttles are bringing them to the construction site, there is not enough time for them to leave, get food, eat, and return to work on time. It is just not how local construction works.”
If you want to help the people who are building, one contractor told CTN that “the state should provide grants for plan check costs – including engineering and architect fees.” The contractor said even though a home had plans approved in 2017, they still had to pay $15,000 for an update for the city.
BT also proposed a hiring hall, materials and landscape showrooms, one-stop childcare and working conference rooms.
Contractors/architects/builders told CTN that, “The people coming up with these ideas (BT) have probably never built on a larger scale.” A builder continued that “one plan check desk for modification in the Palisades is okay,” but for everything else “Sawtelle is fine.”
The BT also suggested staggered building start times based on permits and funds. No explanation how that will be decided or enforced.
Suspend parking meters for 16 months, was another idea. Great suggestion to try and help returning businesses.
The BT suggested a moratorium on parking in narrow streets for 18 months, but did not define what was narrow and if that moratorium included contractors and workers.
They suggested that some streets be one way – but as one contractor said, “Don’t forget that people are still living in the Palisades.”
One resident said during the Community Council meeting that in the past if a house was under construction on the Alphabet Streets, other residents were inconvenienced with trucks/cars.
Would that resident be living at their house when construction is underway? Not likely because of the almost complete devastation of the area. Some people are still trying to determine if they can or will rebuild.
“Most of the ideas in the recovery plan would work IF one or two giant track home developers were rebuilding the Palisades,” said a local builder, “However, if you are preserving the charm of the Palisades, you can’t use these ideas and force all the various builders into this one single lane. It is not practical, and it doesn’t work.”
But as one speaker said at the Palisades Community Council, “At least Maryam is trying to think of things that might be helpful. The City is not doing it.”
Zar pointed out in an email to CTN on Tuesday that “there is no overarching authority responsible for coming up with a plan, and the community is working in piece meal to emerge with one,” Zar said. “But it would be good if instead of Hagerty, the city could hire a competent consultant group that knows how to rebuild a city and can take all of the great ideas percolating from this community and emerge with a plan that can be implemented with the support of the community.”
Has anyone considered asking those not returning who have put their lot up for sale to sell 2 or 3 or 4 contiguous lots to a contractor or to people who can afford to build? With the high cost of construction only the wealthy can afford to build and i’m sure they would like larger lots, especially in the Alphabet location. It was really too dense with the large rebuilds and all the cars families have today.
Traci Park went up to Paradise to understand what worked and what didn’t work with rebuilding their city since they are nowhere near where they should be these many years out. Perhaps, Traci Park is the one to organize and create a plan to address all of the concerns between those currently living in the Palisades, the breath of understanding of builders trying to restore the aesthetic charm of the Palisades, the residents who lost everything, etc. That’s my .02¢ given that the bottom line is to make as few mistakes if any for a streamlined building program. If mistakes are made, the backtracking involved not to mention the time suck will be bigger than any anticipated. The bigger picture is huge so the thought needs to convey that.
And what are their better ideas? Constructive commentary is what we need here, not arguments for business as usual.
Have any of these builders had experience building more than 5 homes at a time and taking 2 years to do it? Because that approach is going to mean $1,000+ per square foot and a lot of empty lots for the next 10-20 years.
I worked for years near the Ganahl lumber yards in Torrance and Gardena (where the trains unload), and it is foggy in the morning there too.
And finally, anyone who cannot see the value of reducing lumber and cement truck turnaround time by does not understand how large scale, efficient operations are managed. If you can reduce that time by half, you need half as many trucks to do the same amount of work, half as many drivers, and you have greater flexibility to reschedule the shorter delivery routes. It all adds up to time and money saved.
The trip back and forth to Ganahl in Torrance and Gardena is well over 2 hours for much of the day right now, and you are looking at 40-60 minutes for a cement truck to drive back and forth to Santa Monica. And, it is not like the area around the Santa Monica cement plant is an apocalyptic wasteland.
Maryam is a brave forward thinker.
The idea is too have materials TRANSPORTED CLOSER to where they are needed. Santa Monica source exacerbates the TRUCK TRAFFIC Flow. How about a cement and/or other yard at the parking lots at Will Rogers? Use Temescal as a short direct access.
The city needs to step up its creative problem solving efforts.
Lucia Ludovico
Why not also consider a model similar to what EPA and ACE have been doing, with assistance and support from traffic control, etc. Contractors know how to build and where best to get materials economically. Think the best role for the BT is to perhaps create a chat group for contractors to share Best practices. But then we have already chat groups who share their experiences including contractors the would recommend and Pali Strong. Appreciate BT volunteers for trying to contribute, but as this article suggest, so far their ideas are not viable. Thank you nevertheless.