Hello Friends of PPRA and HUG,

You’ve probably heard that the California Coastal Commission has denied our appeals.  Misleading information provided by the proposed eldercare developer’s lobbyists, lawyers, and supporters and mishandling of documents by the Commission’s Staff clearly dictated the outcome as evidenced by the statements of the Commissioners at the hearing last Wednesday.  Several timely PPRA filings were not given to the Commissioners by the Staff as the Commission’s procedures require. Moreover, while the developer’s filings were given to the Commissioners, they were not made available to PPRA in a timely manner as the procedures also require.  But most tellingly, despite the fact that certain appellants did not even receive proper notice of the hearing at the Coastal Commission, neither the developer nor the Commission extended the common courtesy of delaying the hearing for even the minimum amount of time. It became obvious that the outcome was predetermined — to the detriment of the public and in clear violation of law.

If the project is allowed to proceed as proposed, terrible precedents for the entire State of California will be established: developers up and down the coast will be emboldened to run roughshod over the Coastal Act, and the Coastal Commission’s Staff will have little reason to act even-handedly with advocates seeking to protect coastal resources.

The fight is not over. We must move on to the courts, where the developer’s lobbyists cannot interfere.

The developer may have money to burn and attorneys and lobbyists who are cozy with government officials — but he does not have broad public support. We, PPRA and HUG volunteers, have a following of thousands of concerned citizens.

We must now convert this following into donations. If we are to be successful in court we must have a steady flow of donations, large and small, private and online.

To do this we need to build a broader multi-disciplinary well-coordinated team of volunteers immediately. This will take a village…

Here’s our key actions so far:

✩ PPRA has become our main volunteering platform for collective action, thanks to Sarah Conner and the Board of PPRA. HUG is now part of PPRA, and we have the right apparatus to fight effectively. The volunteer effort is now approaching 11 months of action, and — especially in the legal realm — we have built a massive knowledge base and set of valuable assets and tools to use in the continuing fight.

✩ PPRA is an IRS 501(c)(3) entity and has established the capacity to accept donations directly and via its GoFundMe site. Funds raised will be used to counteract the City’s neglect of the Coastal Act, CEQA, and other rules relating to the developer’s eldercare project. Here’s the GoFundMe link: [LINK] — Please help us get the word out to potential donors!

✩ A group Highlands homeowners and PPRA volunteers are formally requesting additional financial assistance to PPRA’s efforts from area homeowners’ associations. We hope significant HOA donations will act as a model and a catalyst for further donations — from other associations, organizations, and individuals.

We need you now! Here’s why:

✩ Our next round of public communications needs to “push the boundaries” to elicit passion to inspire donations. We need to inform the public about what we know is true: the City of L.A. and the Coastal Commission neglected their duty to citizens by allowing this developer to go too far. Our volunteer legal team can help develop a PPRA-sanctioned easy-to-use set of guidelines to follow when writing publicly.

✩ We need to reach beyond the Palisades with a new, stronger message. The message must be combined with a compelling request for donations to PPRA’s legal fund to overturn the City of L.A.’s disgraceful decisions, counter the developer’s misrepresentations and misinformation, and protect the Coastal resources and parks surrounding the Pacific Palisades Highlands that benefit the entire L.A. area – as the laws intend!

We need VOLUNTEERS in these key areas:

⇨ Social media and PR… we need a “Blogging Army” of volunteer writers and posters, to educate and drive donations, via repetitive postings on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Nextdoor, specialized sites and in the press…

⇨ Ground game…  we need volunteers soliciting donations in key places such as: trailheads to parklands, the Cosa Nostra restaurant, Starbucks on Palisades Dr., Pacific Palisades Farmers Market, and beyond…

⇨ Big donor outreach… we need to concisely target the multiple philanthropic, environmental and other funding sources who may be inspired to donate to PPRA’s Save-the-Parklands efforts…

⇨ Key logistics specialists to help with administration, communication and coordination of volunteers… to maintain and update PPRA’s websites and web-presence, and to maintain PPRA’s contact database of volunteers and donors.

We can do this. If we are organized and focused, a broad base of support will carry us to our collective goals.

Please respond to this email or reach out to PPRA – via email, on our website or via Facebook — to let us know how you can help.

✩ HUG + PPRA ✩