The Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates community is still a mess nine months later, while the rest of the Palisades burn zone has been cleaned up.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency refused to include the 170-unit mobile home park in its debris-removal program, leaving residents with few options on how to proceed, the Los Angeles Times reported. Los Angeles’ Building and Safety Commission answered residents’ call this week to declare the area a public nuisance. In doing so, the city can order the site to be cleaned up and bill the landowners.
The situation comes after the fastest wildfire debris removal effort in modern American history. FEMA’s snub reportedly stemmed from the agency’s mistrust of the owners of the rent-controlled community, as it didn’t believe the owners would restore the property, on a bluff near the Pacific Coast HIghway, as affordable housing.
Meanwhile, across a shared property line, the privately owned rent-controlled Tahitian Terrace mobile home park did qualify for FEMA aid after the agency determined its owners lacked the financial means to clean up asbestos-laced debris. FEMA made an exception in that case, saying the cleanup would help preserve a piece of affordable housing in the Pacific Palisades.
The Palisades Bowl’s owners, heirs to late investor Edward Biggs, received $1.2 million in insurance funds and, according to FEMA, have the means to clear the property themselves.
Biggs and his family previously squabbled with residents and the city in court over rent control and alleged neglect, and at one point floated plans for redevelopment into an “upscale resort community.” Residents won multimillion-dollar settlements, though doubts remained that the ownership intended to maintain affordability.
Still, displaced residents wonder if the Palisades Bowl community will ever exist again.
“They never do anything unless they are absolutely forced to,” Jon Brown, a resident leading the rebuilding fight, told the outlet. “If we could go back, we’d start again — with a vengeance.”