Aiming to establish a clear community vision for Pacific Palisades, a group of volunteers is forming a Citizens’ Planning Initiative for Pacific Palisades (CPIPP).
Spearheaded by Donna Vaccarino, a local architect and member of the Palisades Civic League, the CPIPP hopes to produce a plan that will address future development in the community.
According to a draft of the CPIPP’s mission statement, the campaign is being sponsored by Palisades Beautiful, a nonprofit dedicated to local beautification efforts. Barbara Marinacci is president of this organization, founded in 1974.
“We’ve already had (steering committee) meetings and there are several local stakeholders, including property owners, involved with the initiative,” Vaccarino told the Palisadian-Post.
While not a direct response to developer Rick Caruso’s pursuit of 2.7-acres of commercial real estate space on Swarthmore and Sunset, the group’s formation was certainly spurred into action by news of his pending acquisition.
Between May and June, Vaccarino and Palisades Beautiful hosted three community forum meetings on the issue of forming a strategic plan for the Palisades.
Once officially formed, the CPIPP group will establish working subcommittees, prepare for a planning study, meet with local government officials and establish a line of communication with the “Caruso development team,” according to documents presented by Vaccarino.
One of the goals of the CPIPP will be to provide an open forum for “learning, discussion and responding to upcoming and proposed commercial development” in the Palisades, Vaccarino said.
Even though Pacific Palisades currently has a Commercial Village and Neighborhood Specific Plan, Vaccarino said the Citizens’ Planning Initiative will provide further “community vision” and “design guidelines.”
“The current design guidelines are out of date and have too many loopholes,” she said.
Vaccarino vowed that the group will provide neutral assessments of proposed commercial developments, and keep the public abreast about any future developments.
CPIPP events and meeting dates, which will be open to the public, will be announced on the organization’s Web site once it is launched.
For now, some of CPIPP’s core members are participating in local walkabouts, which will bring together “a select group of people familiar the development of the commercial districts in the Palisades,” according to an e-mail distributed by landscape architect Kelly Comras, one of the walk’s participants.
The walking tours (which began yesterday on the north side of Sunset from Monument to Via de la Paz, led by local historian Randy Young) will focus on the “history and memories of how the Palisades has developed and grown.”
When asked if these tours are related to the CPIPP’s effort, Young said: “The purpose of these walks is purely informational and no decision making will be involved.”
Young said that while future “walkabout” dates have not been announced to the public, they will be videotaped and chronicled for public consumption.
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