Judge Halts Work to Rehabilitate Venice Waterway

A judge Thursday halted all work on a project to rehabilitate the Grand Canal Wetlands in Venice until an environmentalists’ lawsuit is resolved.

The order came one week after the same San Francisco Superior Court judge granted a temporary restraining order halting the draining, damming and deepening of the waterway.

The project, by the city of Los Angeles and the California Coastal Commission, has been challenged by local and national environmental groups.

“We have a reprieve for the animals in the Grand Canal,” said Marcia Hanscom, director of the Malibu-based Wetlands Action Network. “We are elated.”

Hanscom and the nonprofit network filed a lawsuit Jan. 8 alleging that the commission violated the Coastal Act by failing to consider alternatives and that it has endangered a sensitive habitat.

On Wednesday, the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust, the Coalition to Save the Marina and the Sierra Club joined that suit against the city and the commission.

The $1.5-million project would deepen and landscape the Grand Canal near Washington Boulevard to make it more aesthetically pleasing. It also is intended to improve the canal’s water quality, public access and wetland habitat.

But Hanscom said that “so far, the things they’ve tried to do here have been problematic.” For example, she said, saltbushes that have been planted along the canal aren’t natural to the environment.

“You have to know what to plant. Plant what Mother Nature would have planted,” she said.

But Assistant City Atty. Susan Pfann said, “We feel quite strongly that the project will be beneficial for the area. We’re anxious to get the project going.”

The judge’s stay means no work can be done until the lawsuit is settled, which could take six months or longer. The next hearing is set for March 12.

A condition of the project is that the southern portion be finished by April 30, when the local population of least terns returns to feed. That now appears improbable.

“It’s going to be difficult. We already were delayed one week by the temporary restraining order,” said Russell Ruffing of the city engineer’s environmental group.

Originally, the project was supposed to make the Grand Canal resemble the Venice Canal on the other side of Washington Boulevard. But, Ruffing said, the city had to make substantial compromises to comply with the Coastal Commission’s guidelines.

Still, the groups challenging the work say the Venice Canal should not be a model.

Coastal Commission Faces New Setback

“It might look nice and neat, but it doesn’t do much for the ecology,” Hanscom said.

Concrete planters make a wall along the Venice Canal, and gravel lines the bottom. Marine biologist Roy van de Hoek said it’s so artificial that the area’s natural plants can’t grow there and rare animals such as the fiddler crab can’t survive.

The Grand Canal, he said, “shows how marine biology should work” and the Venice Canal shows “how it can go wrong.”

“I think the city will want to rethink this whole project in an ecological way,” Van de Hoek said.

Also on Thursday, the Coastal Commission faced another setback when the Sierra Club and six other public interest groups filed a lawsuit challenging the commission’s approval of road expansion projects that the groups say threaten Los Angeles wetlands, including the Ballona Wetlands.