The Brief

Atwater Village recently secured $2.5 million from the state budget for the construction of a “living sound wall.” Also known as a “mulch wall” — a type of freeway sound barrier made from ... mulch.

Hold on, what?

Instead of concrete, these walls are stuffed with dead plant matter. Proponents say they are more cost effective than regular old concrete walls and just as effective at blocking out sounds.

Their construction also produces less carbon pollution. Plus, there’s the cosmetic benefit of adding more green to areas that desperately need it, like a bike path between a freeway and the LA River, which is where the proposed Atwater Village project is intended to be constructed.

The backstory

Los Angeles has a bit of a history with using cinder block soundwalls to reduce noise pollution along freeways.

But our city's relationship with mulch walls has been much shorter. About a decade ago, a 600-foot long and 12-foot-by-3-foot wide partition, aptly termed the “Great Wall of Mulch” was built and funded by the City of Long Beach.

Long Beach's "Great Wall of Mulch"

(

Photo courtesy of Jim Muller

)

The side view of Long Beach's "Great Wall of Mulch"

(

Courtesy Jim Muller

)

The Atwater Village Neighborhood Council has been trying to put up its own version — between the 5 freeway and the L.A. River Bike Path near Los Feliz Blvd. — for just as long. Proposed to be nearly two miles long, it would be much longer than its Long Beach predecessor, which reportedly cost $150,000.

Recently, State Senator Anthony Portantino, who represents the community, took up the cause and secured $2.5 million in funding from the 2023-2024 State Budget.

Proposed mulch wall in Atwater Village

The proposed site of the mulch wall in Atwater Village

(

Courtesy Jim Muller

)

Atwater Village where a proposed mulch wall has been Photoshopped in.

(

Courtesy Jim Muller

)

The project has outlived the tenure of many members of the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council, but its River Committee — which does work on the parts of the LA River that run through their neighborhood — has held tight to the dream of one day having a miles-long mulch wall to beautify the bike path.

"I kept going with it and talked to different politicians and their staffs about it and made my presentation," said River Committee member Jim Muller. "Sen. Anthony Portantino loved the idea [and he] was able to get it done."

What's next

The proposed site for the mulch wall in Atwater Village.

(

Courtesy Jim Muller

)

Securing the funding is just one step. In LA County, both LA Metro and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) are involved in the counstruction of freeway sound barriers.

For the Atwater project, "Caltrans would have to approve the design of the sound wall and ensure that it meets state and federal requirements to reduce freeway noise," says Patrick Chandler, a communications manager at LA Metro. "The freeway and adjacent landscape are owned by Caltrans."

But with a backlog of soundwalls — the non-mulchy kind — that still need to be built, it could be any number of years before a “living” one comes to Atwater Village.

A long-awaited vision for Huntington Drive is finally coming into focus. In the future, the busy corridor will have dedicated bus lanes, protected bike lanes, two lanes of vehicle traffic in each direction, a thin median and wide sidewalks.

This was the plan chosen by the City for the Huntington Drive Multi-Modal Transportation Improvement Project, which runs on an approximately four-mile stretch of the street between North Mission Road near LAC+USC Medical Center and Alhambra/South Pasadena. This had much more public support than the competing alternative, which featured a wide median rather than wide sidewalks, according to Mary Nemick, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Engineering.

Nemick said the next step is to hire a consultant to create design and engineering documents. This phase is expected to take about two years before groundbreaking can occur.

Currently, Huntington Drive has three vehicular lanes in each direction, the bike lanes are unprotected, and about 25% of the corridor lacks sidewalks. Though pedestrians and bicyclists account for only 1% of peak-hour trips, they account for 54% of severe or fatal injuries from traffic collisions, according to a project document.

The design budget is about $10.5 million, Nemick said, and the overall project cost will be determined after designs are completed.

The project is being funded by some of the money previously allocated for the construction of the 710 Freeway extension, which was abandoned in 2018 after decades of local opposition.

The Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey held a groundbreaking ceremony Monday for a roughly 40,000-square-foot expansion that will include indoor and outdoor science learning areas and space for special exhibits.

The centerpiece of the buildout will include an interactive display of the Inspiration space shuttle mockup, where visitors can go inside the cargo bay.

Built in 1972, the 35-foot-tall model made of wood, plastic and aluminum functioned as a prototype and fitting tool for all of the orbiters that launched into space.

“We’re super excited to be able to put it on display for the public, really for the first time in forever,” Ben Dickow, president and executive director of the Columbia Memorial Space Center, told LAist.

The expansion will also allow for educational areas, where students can learn about the pioneering engineering and design work that went into building the model at Rockwell International in Downey.

The backstory

Last fall, after sitting in storage for more than a decade, the full-scale model was moved a few blocks to a temporary home.

The Inspiration space shuttle mockup was moved in sections to a temporary home last fall

(

Courtesy Columbia Memorial Space Center

)

The Space Center said renovation work on the mock up will take months and include rehabs of its 60-foot cargo bay and flight deck.

Dickow said Downey is where all of the Apollo capsules that went to the moon and all of the space shuttles were designed and built.

“This is part of the L.A. story as much as entertainment or anything like that,” Dickow said, adding that it’s a legacy he feels like Angelenos sometimes forget. “The space craft that took humanity to the moon, the space craft that brought humanity into lower earth orbit and built the international space station, these are human firsts... and they all happened right here.”

What’s next? 

The Space Center is looking to raise $50 million that would go toward building plans, special exhibits and more.

Dickow said the new building that will house the space shuttle mockup should be open to the public in about two years.

By early next year, he said the plan is to have the shuttle model available for bi-monthly public visits as it undergoes renovation.

Pacific Palisades homeowners looking to sell high-end properties after the January fires could escape the city’s “mansion tax” under a proposal advanced Monday by a key committee of the Los Angeles City Council.

Measure ULA is a voter-approved tax on real estate selling for $5.3 million or more. The city uses the revenue for rent relief, eviction defense and affordable housing construction efforts.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Palisades, said she has heard from hundreds of homeowners who say the tax is affecting their post-fire recovery plans.

“For some, recovery is going to mean leaving the Palisades,” Park said during Monday’s meeting of the Ad-Hoc Committee for L.A. Recovery. “In those instances — where a sale is by no means voluntary — I don't think we should impede that objective.”

Vote follows direction from mayor

Measure ULA levies a 4% tax on properties selling for more than $5.3 million, and a 5.5% tax on properties selling for more than $10.6 million.

Last month, Mayor Karen Bass sent a letter asking the City Council to pass an ordinance giving the city’s director of finance the power to exempt Palisades homeowners from Measure ULA within three years of the fire.

In her letter, Bass wrote: “After adoption of the ordinance, I will issue an executive directive instructing the Director of Finance to promulgate a temporary exemption that provides much needed relief for those Palisades residents who owned and occupied residential property in the Palisades at the time of the fire, avoids unintended loopholes, and furthers the purpose of ULA.”

Bass’ office said the letter was sent following a meeting she had with Rick Caruso, the billionaire real estate developer, former mayoral candidate and founder of Steadfast L.A., an organization focused on fire recovery.

How we got here

Any final tax exemption would still need further action from the City Council and Mayor’s Office to take effect.

The proposal cleared Monday’s committee in a 3-0 vote. But it needs further consideration by the full City Council before any ordinance is passed. Bass would then need to issue an executive directive with full details of the post-fire tax exemption.

This isn’t the first effort to cancel the “mansion tax” for Pacific Palisades homeowners. A state bill introduced days before the end of Sacramento’s legislative session would have carved out sales in the fire zone.

But the exemption would have only gone through if efforts to repeal the tax either failed to qualify for the ballot or were dropped by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, an anti-mansion tax group. The bill also would have sought to address concerns about depressed housing development in the city by lowering the tax on sales of recently constructed apartments.

Bass said she asked Sacramento lawmakers to shelve the bill so more amendments could be made in the upcoming legislative session.