I respond to the pressure to increase density. Safety is an issue I address and control of our infrastructure as well.
My position on this is that while a revision of the General Plan is necessary, the city has gone too far in revising the plan. We needed to recognize that Marineland is no longer here and has been replaced with a beautiful hotel. We do not have to make it easier for others to commercialize residentially zoned land while updating the plan. I feel that the pressure is on the city to do just that. Our General Plan needs to recognize that Trump National Golf Course exists as a legitimate revision to the plan. There are other areas that need to be recognized in the plan as having changed. Changing the goals in my opinion is not the proper way to achieve that simple task.
We do have a relatively safe city, but it seems to me that we lack traffic enforcement with many drivers exceeding the speed limit by tens of miles per hour. The sheriff does a very cost effective job for us, but there are areas of improvement. I have long supported the hiring of special deputies to work with our youth to develop relationships and encourage law abiding behavior. I became alarmed recently when it was reported that the program might be cut. I have attended classes as an observer and I appreciate what these deputies do for our community.
Fiscal responsibility does not mean that we collect taxes and let our infrastructure suffer without proper maintenance. I have noticed that the main roads in RPV need major repair. I feel that the money should have been used to slurry seal, and otherwise keep the pavement from cracking and further deterioration. Maintenance saves money in the long run because major repair costs many times more than the amount needed for ongoing maintenance.
In my opinion fiscal responsibility includes the acquisition of funds to repair the drains at lower San Ramon Canyon and direct the storm water to the sea. It currently is a problem below Terapaca where the South Shores landslide intersects Palos Verdes Drive East. I would consider that this may be very much beyond RPV's ability to fund and look to Federal funding to repair this problem. It involves the City of RPV, Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County and talks have been ongoing, apparently without result since around 2001 with those agencies. We must solve this problem before we lose PVDE in a heavy rainfall year. That would cut the city in half and result in a loss of fire safety and police response. According to what I was told by Dr. Perry Ehlig, while he was our city geologist and landslide expert, homes also may be lost if the land starts moving This repair is long overdue.
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