LAFD Officials Provide Palisades Brush Clearance Updates

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Los Angeles Fire Department Brush Clearance Unit Captain Bryan Nassour and Inspector Warren Sutton were guest speakers at the Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting on May 25—providing updates and answering questions from those in virtual attendance.

“May 1 we started doing our inspections,” Nassour explained. “We are approximately about halfway done through all our 155,000 parcels all throughout the city and in your particular area.”

At the time of the meeting, Nassour reported that 54% of inspections were complete for the Palisades and Brentwood area.

“Roughly about 10 to 15% of the people that have been inspected have been cited on our first initial notice,” Nassour shared.

LAFD provides a “thorough and comprehensive brush program to protect lives and property for those who live in and enjoy the hillside communities within the city of Los Angeles,” according to its website.

Initial inspections of parcels began May 1 and will continue through June 30. Those who are not in compliance have 30 days to comply with the notice of violation, or face additional inspections and heavier fines.

Those that fail again will be cleared by city contractors, with the property owner invoiced a “noncompliance fee, an administrative fee and the contractor’s fee,” according to LAFD.

When it comes to brush clearance at George Wolfberg Park at Potrero Canyon, Nassour said he spoke with the Recreation and Parks Department as well as brush clearance administration: “That was just put out to bid, just like what we do on a bi-monthly basis when we put our contracts out.”

Nassour expected the work to be done within approximately 14 days of the completed bid, with the brush “to be all cleared out” by mid-June.

After Nassour finished his presentation, Sutton spoke on a “strip of land between Marquez Avenue and Marquez Terrace” which goes from Jacon Way to Sunset Boulevard that needed to be cleared.

“There’s been some question about it,” Sutton explained, “and there’s no ownership … there’s no assessor parcel number assigned to it.”

Sutton explained that while it appears to be city land, he was not aware what department owns it, whether it’s Rec and Parks, Street Services, General Services, etc.

“Right now, if we can’t identify it, we will take the ownership of it and just clear—it comes out of my budget, which we won’t receive that money back,” Nassour explained. “But what we’re trying to do is find out who’s actually the responsible party of the city entities, so we can have them make sure that it’s maintained.”

PPCC Business & Commerce Organizational Representative John Padden shared that if he is able to identify the contractor who is maintaining the parcel, he would relay that information to Nassour and Sutton, as he has previously worked with an entity associated with it.

In an update shared June 6, Sutton said the bid was expected to be awarded to a contractor by June 8. The contractor would have roughly four to eight weeks to clear the space from there.

“I know we’ve had a lot of complaints on it,” Sutton said, “and when I was there a couple of weeks ago, there was definitely some brush and palm fronds and just overgrown and needed to be maintained.”

The remaining time with Sutton and Nassour was reserved for board members to ask questions, including Area 4 2nd Alternate Representative Daphne Gronich, who brought up weeds and brush at Asilomar View Park, which Sutton said has been cited.

PPCC At-Large Representative Chris Spitz spoke on an area on Friends Street with brush that was previously trimmed but has “all grown back,” asking who is responsible for its maintenance. Nassour responded that would probably be Street Services, but he would check with Rec and Parks.

For more information about the brush clearance program, visit lafd.org/fire-prevention/brush.