Sunset Island Beautification Continues

The Sunset Beach Association continues its efforts to beautify the triangular median at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway. In the back row from left to right: Barbara Kohn, Robert Munakash, Mike Kirrene and John Staley. Front row: Stuart Muller, holding a copy of the group's logo, and Barbara Marinacci. Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer

By Danielle Gillespie, Staff Writer
2011-07-28
About three years ago, Pacific Palisades residents Barbara Marinacci and Stuart Muller teamed up hoping to beautify the triangular median strip and the parkways at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard.

To do this, they decided to form a nonprofit organization, Sunset Beach Association. The members include resident John Staley; Barbara Kohn, Pacific Palisades Residents Association (PPRA) president; Robert Munakash, the owner of the 76 station at that intersection; and Michael Kirrene, president of the homeowners association for the nearby Edgewater Towers.

The group received two grants in 2008 and 2009 totaling $1,950 from the Pacific Palisades Junior Women's Club to transform the concrete traffic median called Sunset Island into an oasis filled with native plants. Muller estimates that it will cost $20,000 to $30,000 to complete the project.

'Sunset Boulevard at PCH is one of only four entrances to Pacific Palisades, and is the major one, with at least 65,000 vehicles passing through the intersection daily, but its appearance is badly blighted,' the association wrote in its 2008 application to the Junior Women's Club.

The association has received support from former State Senator Sheila Kuehl, L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, PPRA, Castellammare Mesa Homeowners Association, Miramar Homeowners Association, Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce and the Pacific Palisades Community Council.

Resident Hannah Spitz, a sophomore at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, is drawing the plot plan. She is the daughter of Jeffrey and Chris Spitz, a member of the Community Council. Muller is searching for a landscape architect to work on the project pro bono.

Palisadian Terri Bromberg will create a mural on the pavement that matches the canyon floor in subdued browns, greens and yellows. She collaborated with Muller on painting the Clearwater mural on the CVS Pharmacy building on Swarthmore Avenue.

Now, the group needs to receive the necessary approvals from the landscape section of the City of L.A.'s Bureau of Street Services and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

'Once we get the plan, things should start to move along more quickly and a real fundraising effort can begin,' Muller said. 'We are also exploring sponsorship.'

There are three Caltrans traffic-control signal boxes on the median, where companies or organizations could display posters advertising their products, services or events. Muller said the advertising would need to benefit the public and promote good causes like recycling.

'We will basically be getting rid of the graphics [street art, a form of graffiti] by putting up more appropriate material on those cabinets,' Muller said.

Muller would also like to display the Sunset Beach/Pacific Palisades logo, which Bromberg designed for the group.

The association hopes to start work soon: 'We are greatly concerned about the perpetual occupation of that median by vagrants' unsightly belongings for the past few months,' Marinacci said. The group is trying to arrange a meeting with the Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles about the issue.

Meanwhile, the association has 'accomplished some fix-up work, such as getting the overgrown pine trees in the Sunset parkway trimmed,' Marinacci said, noting they also installed large rocks in the PCH parkway to prevent drivers from crossing over it to travel between Vons' parking lot and the 76 station.

The group has plans to collaborate with Vons on landscaping the parkways. In addition, the association was influential in advocating for the driveway realignment of Vons as part of its recent remodel, 'which has eliminated a real hazard that existed for many years there, and required shoppers heading westward on Sunset who wanted to turn left into the Vons parking lot to violate the law as well as endanger their lives and other drivers,' Marinacci said.

Courtesy: Palisadian Post
http://www.palisadespost.com/news/content.php?id=6809