PThe Park is immediately adjacent to the Huntington Palisades, and many homes in the Huntington overlook the canyon. The HPPOC Board has not taken a formal position on this issue, and the following is provided for information purposes only.

Potrero Canyon Park is scheduled to open on Saturday, December 10th. The opening ceremony is at 10:00am, and the public is invited.

The Palisades Communit Council has been working hard with the various government agencies to insure that the park is as safe as possible and convened a virtual community meeting on December 1, 2022 to discuss security issues. There were approximately 125 attendees. Following is a brief summary of some of the issues discussed at the meeting:

1. Opening has been pushed back to December 10th because the sodded field may be soggy from the recent rain.
2. The Palisades Recreation Center will administer the park during daylight hours. Call 310-575-8014 to report any issues or concerns during daylight hours.
3. The entrance gates and rest room doors will have electronic locks that will not permit entry after sunset. The gates and doors will not be locked on the inside, so people can exit the facilities after hours.
4. The city has constructed a 4 foot fence around the park borders to delineate the barrier between city and private property. Home owners may build higher fences on their property for additional security.
5. No dedicated staff has been assigned to the park, and there are no patrols scheduled to sweep the park at closing time to insure the park is empty at sunset.
6. Persons observing trespassers in the park after hours should call the LAPD Non-Emergency Reporting line 877-275-5273. The wait may be long, but these calls are important because the number of reported incidents make a case for increasing the LAPD presence in our area. If incidents are not reported, additional LAPD resources will not be assigned.
7. LAFD plans to patrol the park periodically. Wildfire risk is expected to be lower than surrounding areas because the landscape has been designed to reduce wildfire risk.
8. The Paliades Community Council is working hard to make sure that the park is safe and well managed. The PCC has a Park Advisory Board that will meet regularly to discuss park issues, including signage, access from Will Rogers State Beach and Temescal Canyon, the possibility of a private security patrol, traffic and parking impacts, etc. The Park Advisory Board email address is palisadespab@gmail.com

Interested residents are encouraged to participate in Palisades Community Council meetings and to make their concerns known to the Park Advisory Board and the HPPOC Board.

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A number of residents have expressed concerns about park security. The Palisades Community Council has been working hard to insure that the park is locked after hours and not open before sunrise and after sunset. The Council were recently told that the park will not be patrolled by park rangers due to budget issues, and it is not clear that the new bathrooms below the tennis courts will be locked at that time.

Concerned residents are encouraged to support the Palisades Community Council in this effort and to make their views know to the Parks Department and our elected representatives on the Los Angeles City Council. Contact information can be found on the Palisades Community Council Website and at the bottom of this page.

An email address has been set up to coordinate communications on this issue: securepotrerocanyon@gmail.com.

If you email this address, you will be included in future communications on this issue. Below are copies of the 3 most recent emails that have been distributed (effective 11/271/22):

VIRTUAL COMMUNITY MEETING RE. POTRERO CANYON PARK 12/1/22

Dear Residents/Neighbors/Friends:

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Here is information about an important upcoming public meeting this week.  

Ahead of the December 3 opening of the new park in Potrero Canyon, PPCC is sponsoring a

Virtual Community Meeting on

George Wolfberg Park at Potrero Canyon

This coming Thursday, 

December 1, 5:30-7pm

Stay tuned for the Zoom link to be distributed and

posted in advance of the meeting on www.pacpalicc.org

Several key City officials will be present to provide information and address community concerns about park maintenance, public safety and security, including:

• Sonya Young Jimenez, West Region Superintendent, LA Recreation & Parks 
• Jasmine Dowlatshahi, Palisades Rec. Center Senior Facility Director
• Chief Ranger Joe Losorelli, LA City Park Rangers
• Officer Brian Espin, Palisades Senior Lead Officer, LAPD 
• Sergeant Scott Alpert, Community Relations Officer, LAPD WLA Division
• Chief Joseph Everett, Battalion 9, LAFD West Bureau
• Tamar Galatzan, Neighborhood Prosecutor Supervisor, City Attorney’s office
• Noah Fleishman, CD 11 Deputy District Director

It will be important for community concerns to be conveyed to City officials, and for us to hear in turn about measures planned for the park and what other measures might be implemented to protect public safety and ensure maintenance going forward.

Please spread the word — You’re welcome to forward this email . . . and I hope that many of you will attend!  Thank you.

Best regards,

Chris Spitz

PPCC At-large Representative 

Resident, Via Bluffs

On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 3:45 PM Secure Potrero Canyon <securepotrerocanyon@gmail.com> wrote:

We’ve learned that Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC) has sent out a notice that it is working on scheduling a meeting with “public safety stakeholders” (LAPD, LAFD, Park Rangers, RAP management staff are invited) to discuss park issues in the Palisades.  If there is enough interest, the meeting would be on December 1, 2022 from 5:30-7:30pm, in person (venue not yet announced). 

On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 11:46 AM Secure Potrero Canyon <securepotrerocanyon@gmail.com> wrote:

Good morning! Thank you all again for your support in keeping Potrero Canyon safe! 

The City has assured neighbors that the hours will be from sunrise to sunset, but Bonin has not filed that motion yet. We should be receiving more information this week. 

City officials told residents that they are scheduling a public meeting on December 1st where residents will have the chance to voice their concerns. We will forward that information as soon as we receive it. 

Hopefully the City will help us with security, but we have been told that there will not be anyone monitoring the canyon, day or night. We were told there will be locks for all of the entrance gates that will automatically lock from the outside only at sunset and automatically unlock at sunrise. We are waiting to hear if someone will be locking the new Potrero bathrooms at night. We feel it is extremely important for these bathrooms to lock when the park closes at night to keep the canyon safe. For those of you that don’t know, the City built new bathrooms inside the Potrero Canyon Park below the tennis courts, inside the Frontera Entrance. 

We are looking into hiring private security for the canyon. Palisades Patrol owns ATVs and is willing to make sure people leave at the end of each day and to respond to issues that may arise in the canyon. We will need permission from the City, so we are working on that now. Please forward this email to any other neighbors who would be interested in hiring private security.

On Tue, Nov 15, 2022 at 9:39 PM Secure Potrero Canyon <securepotrerocanyon@gmail.com> wrote:

Today, the Pacific Palisades Community Council, the Palisades Rec Center and one canyon rim resident received an email from Bonin’s office saying the Councilmember will be introducing a motion at LA City Council next week in support of the sunrise to sunset hours. This change must be approved by the City council by Ordinance but we believe these sensible hours will go into effect when the park opens December 3rd. 

The Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC) and Palisades residents were told for years that the Potrero canyon park would be closed from sunset to sunrise. Signs reflecting this were designed and approved. On November 10th, PPCC was informed by the City that the hours changed and new signs were going to be designed to state the park hours were 5am-10:30pm.An official from LA Recs and Parks explained the default hours for LA parks is 5am-10:30pm, and said the Potrero Park would follow these hours, and the signs must be changed to reflect these hours, which is why we felt we had to spring into action.We are still exploring security options, as there is no park ranger, no one monitoring this park, no one locking the doors, or making sure everyone has left the canyon for the night. 
We will email with any other updates. Thank you again for your support!

On Tue, Nov 15, 2022 at 8:14 PM Secure Potrero Canyon <securepotrerocanyon@gmail.com> wrote:

Some of us have emailed Bonin and other City officials to voice our concerns about park hours and the lack of security. Here is a list of people we emailed:

Mike Bonin, Councilmember, CD 11  mike.bonin@lacity.org

Jimmy Kim, General Manager, Rec & Parks jimmy.kim@lacity.org

Cathie Santo Domingo, Asst. GM, Rec & Parks cathie.santodomingo@lacity.org

Darryl Ford, Supervisor, Rec & Parks darryl.ford@lacity.org

Kristen Ly, Project Manager, BOE kristen.ly@lacity.org