By Sue Pascoe
Editor
Starting the end of July, residents walking or driving along Temescal Canyon Road noticed 60 dirt-hauling, double-bed trucks lined up.
Pacific Palisades Community Council President Maryam Zar contacted the Palisades News and asked whether the trucks might be involved in Caruso Affiliated’s current storm-drain construction on Swarthmore.
A City spokesperson said the trucks were not involved with the storm-drain project, and Caruso’s Michael Gazzano told Zar, “Our export hauling doesn’t begin until November.”
On August 1, the News asked one of the truckers, standing next to his vehicle, “Why all the trucks?” and he replied, “It’s a big project at Colorado and Stewart in Santa Monica.”
A quick check on the Internet showed that the Santa Monica Gateway project, located on a 1.8-acre site, will include 200,000 sq. ft. of office space above a 627-car underground parking garage, which is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2017 (santamonicagateway.com).
PPCC Vice President George Wolfberg asked Councilman Mike Bonin’s field representative Sharon Shapiro in an August 1 email, “What does the City of L.A. get for being Santa Monica’s default parking lot for dump trucks? (It also happens on San Vicente near the golf course.)”
Shapiro replied the next day by email, “This issue is extremely important to Mike as we have seen an uptick in the number of construction projects that have been staging in the district. I believe that adjacent municipalities like Santa Monica issue a permit for a fee, which is why many of these trucks are migrating into Los Angeles. As of right now, I believe that the state regulates trucks idling for more than 5 minutes (http://www.arb.ca. gov/msprog/truck-idling/truck-idling.htm) but other than that and the posted no-parking regulation, we are severely limited since it is a public street.
“I believe that Paul Backstrom from our office has been working on a motion which the Councilmember will be introducing shortly to address this issue in Los Angeles,” Shapiro said.
The News spoke to a hauling manager on Temescal Canyon Road on Aug. 8 and asked how much longer the trucks would be staging. “A couple of weeks,” said the man, who asked not to be identified.
He was asked if he knew that Palisades High School (with nearly 3,000 students) would be starting on August 16. He did not, but said he would mention it to his boss and maybe they could change the staging location.
Last year, trucks were staged along Temescal for a major construction project in Castellammare above PCH and Sunset. Most likely, trucks used in the dirt excavation for Caruso’s three-level underground garage off Swarthmore will also use Temescal Canyon Road for staging.
You must be logged in to post a comment.