Restore Wetlands for Breathing Room

Thank you for recognizing the need to consider additional open space at the Ballona Wetlands (“Playa Vista’s Public Role,” editorial, July 16). Unfortunately, even the initial phase of the Playa Vista project will add to existing problems of congestion and habitat loss. With 8,000 residential units and 5 million square feet of commercial space slated in Phase I, Playa Vista will cause increased traffic on Lincoln Boulevard and the 405, destroy valuable wetland and upland habitat and violate water-quality standards.

Meanwhile, we will once again miss a genuine opportunity to restore our urban landscape in favor of more open space for human and nonhuman animals. It is time for us all to recognize the benefits of additional breathing room at Ballona. Indeed, we should strive to preserve all 1,087 acres before it is too late. Otherwise, when our children ask us what happened to our wetlands, in the not-too-distant future, we will have to explain to them how it was too hard to do the right thing. That is not a conversation I intend to have.

Steve Fleischli

Exec. Dir., Santa Monica

BayKeeper, Marina del Rey

Your editorial focuses correctly on political decisions that need to be made at L.A. City Hall, but other nearby communities have much at stake as well.

Playa Vista’s traffic and pollution would have unacceptable regional impacts, with Santa Monica particularly being hard hit by congestion. Conversion of the entire Ballona Wetlands to park use, on the other hand, would create a remarkable regional resource. We’re all in this together.

Kevin McKeown

Councilmember, Santa Monica

Here in Rancho Palos Verdes we seem to have a different problem regarding parkland. It seems we have too much! Former and present city officials have asked a for-profit company to propose developing and using public parkland (approximately 65 acres of ocean-view land) for a company-controlled golf course. With this development, a good portion of today’s public land would be off-limits to nongolfers, thereby excluding the general public. The citizens of the Palos Verdes area sorely need the same recreational amenities mentioned in the Playa Vista editorial.

Stasys Petravicius

Rancho Palos Verdes