Local News in Brief : Plan to Preserve Canals
A project to line the dilapidated canals in Venice with mesh-like concrete mats is being studied by city engineers as a way to preserve wetland habitat while controlling further erosion of the canal banks.
The waterways, built in the early 1900s by a developer who wanted to re-create Italy’s Venice in Southern California, have fallen into disrepair. But neighborhood feuds over how the canals should be restored have for years delayed any work.
City officials are now considering recommendations from the California Coastal Conservancy to line the sloped banks with “Armorflex,” mats of interconnected concrete blocks made by a Georgia company. The conservancy also recommended planting native grasses, dredging the canals without draining them and increasing water circulation.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who represents Venice, backs the plan and is trying to sell it to neighborhood groups. Approval from the full council and the California Coastal Commission will be sought later, a spokesman for the councilwoman said.
The six canals, located between South Venice Boulevard and Washington Avenue, are a foraging habitat for an endangered bird, the least tern.
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