By 6 a.m. about 24 trucks were already lined up on Temescal Canyon Road, where they stayed until about 9 a.m. before leaving for the Highlands construction site.
Circling the News reported in a September 7 piece on Resilient Palisades, a new environmental group in Pacific Palisades, that rim residents above Temescal Canyon Road are concerned about the toxic fumes released by trucks idling along both sides of the road before heading to construction sites.
One Temescal Canyon rim resident responded with an email that stated, “It is completely normal to get a haul permit which allows staging for the trucks that make a loop to a site and back, just as they did for Palisades Village. Because it is a temporary condition a permit is almost always granted.”
The reader noted that truck drivers are allowed to idle their engines for five minutes maximum, and she provided a website that residents can call to report drivers who idle longer: Http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/community/idlingtruck.htm.
Another reader wrote: “The trucks for the [Highlands] eldercare project start arriving at the project [1525 Palisades Drive] at 9 a.m. and only two are allowed on Palisades Drive at any time. I wonder where they ‘hide.’ Most of the trucks belong to the companies Giron and Salgado.” The resident wondered if the trucks that are currently idling along lower Temescal are part of the controversial eldercare project.
At 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, September 9, there were 24 trucks, each with two trailers behind them, on the west side of Temescal, facing the ocean. Three were idling and all were identified as either belonging to Giron or Salgado.
Circling the News asked one of the truck drivers where the trucks were going and he said, “Palisades, via PCH, Sunset and then to Palisades Circle,” which would be the location of the eldercare building under construction by developers Moyshe and Rony Shram.
CTN obtained a copy of the April 2019 L.A. City Building and Safety haul document for the project. The approved hauling route for empty trucks is “from the disposal site travel southbound on I-405, transition westbound on I-10, continue northbound on PCH, turn right on Sunset Boulevard and left on Palisades Drive.”
The approved haul vehicles are bottom dump and 10-wheeler dump trucks. The April 2019 hauling permit noted that grading and hauling activities shall be discontinued during periods of high winds and Red Flag days.
Hauling hours are between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. (No hauling on Sundays or City holidays.) “The total amount of dirt excavated shall not exceed 19,308 yards,” the document noted.
An April 30, 2020 letter updated one of the original conditions that “only one hauling truck shall be allowed on Palisades Drive at any time,” to allow two trucks at a time on that roadway.
The original document noted that staging is allowed on the site and the east side of Palisades Drive, north of Sunset.
Why do Temescal Canyon neighbors have to live with diesel fumes and truck traffic when the vehicles could be staged on Palisades Drive?
CTN contacted Steve Cron, who represents the Highlands on the Community Council, and asked, “Why do Areas 4 and 6 have to deal with air pollution generated by a project in Area 2?”
Cron responded on September 2, “I have no idea. As you know, I’ve been against the eldercare facility from the beginning, and I’m sorry that other parts of the Palisades are suffering along with us in the Highlands.”
The dirt-hauling trucks go from Temescal, turn right onto PCH, turn right onto Sunset and then left on Palisades Drive.
Does anyone know why truck drivers leave engines idling for so long? Besides making noise and polluting the air they burn diesel fuel needlessly. Wouldn’t you think that it would be in the trucking company’s interest to instruct their drivers to turn off the engines when waiting?
I’ve been wondering why they are allowed to park overnight (as I have seen on a number of nights recently) when the few legible signs along Temescal state that parking is not allowed from 10 PM to 5 AM.
On a related note, if the recent car chase fire in Topanga had started on the Highlands side of Topanga Canyon Bouevard, how would the evacuation plan have worked out? And with Santa Ana Winds?
The additional problem is their high rate of speed up and down the canyon, Palisades Drive. It sounds like that is not the case on Temescal Canyon, as they are waiting. I wish we could get LAPD to enforce speed limits. These are double-trailer trucks, which have full loads on the way down. Worrisome!