LOCAL, REFINED

THE VILLAGE POST SITS WITH MICHAEL GAZZANO

An interview with the Vice President of Development at Caruso to talk about their newest destination, Palisades Village. WHAT ABOUT THE PALISADES MAKES THIS CARUSO PROPERTY FEEL SO SPECIAL AND DIFFERENT?

Where we started was getting input from the community. We had a number of community meetings, farmers markets, coffees and in-home meetings. I hope the community feels that they had a lot of say in this project, which they did. It was everything from the types of uses, The Community Room, The Park, the movie theatre, the additional parking that we had, the design of all the buildings – they got to vote on all that as well.

WOW!

So, I think that input is very unique. The idea was that the Village ends up ref lecting the community is something special to us. TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS OF PALISADES VILLAGE AND CARUSO, ESPECIALLY AS IT PERTAINS TO THE PALISADES COMMUNITY. To start, we have recycled over 98 percent of all the demolition waste from the existing buildings on property. Then, when digging the parking structure three levels down, we learned that the city needed about 120,000 cubic yards of soil to complete a public park project in the neighborhood. This coincidentally is about the same amount of soil that we were digging out of our site! So, we were able to keep it here locally. We donated about $4 million in value to the completion of Portrero Canyon. It was something we were really happy and proud to be a part of and also, we could cut down on all the truck trips and the greenhouse gas emissions as a result of sharing the soil. In addition to our solar program, we also have two stateof-the-art water conservation systems that have not been used in the city of L.A. or anywhere else that we are familiar with. And one of them is in The Park landscaping areas that is essentially a capture-and-release system beneath the soil. We can capture any rainfall or irrigation water that comes through the soil in capsules for 48 hours and then release to percolate back up into the soil to irrigate the landscaping. It uses about 80 percent less water than you would use if you were to use a sprinkler due to the loss of evaporation. We also have a water conservation element for all the hardscape areas. So, if there’s rain on the sidewalks or rooftops, all of that waste water is collected in a 40,000-gallon tank that is underneath the parking structure. First, it filters and cleans it, and then releases the water into the storm drain system which goes down to Potrero Canyon Park which is the same park that we donated the soil to, helping the irrigation in the park down there. We also have a really cool bike share system. Palisades Village bikes have a fun little basket on the front and these are available to members of the community on the honor system, so they can borrow a bike, ride home with their groceries, and then bring the bike back the next time they come to the Village. We have a beautiful park area that is open space. We could’ve put buildings on it, but instead, to just kind of welcome the community and not have to drive somewhere else, you can have a nice relaxing picnic in our park.

YOU HAVE PICNIC BLANKETS TOO, RIGHT?

We have some great picnic blankets that are all complimentary to use. Anyone in the community can come and check out a blanket and have a picnic in The Park or read a newspaper.

TELL ME ABOUT THE CROSSING GUARDS.

So, when we started construction there was concern in the community that they haven’t had a project like this built here. As we do with all of our projects, we manage the site very, very carefully and we carefully monitor our impacts to our neighbors. I talked to all of our neighbors almost daily just to experience what they were going through, and how we could help. In the very beginning of the project, we elected to voluntarily hire crossing guards at three of the intersections nearby our site and they’ve been with us for two years. They have become fixtures in the community. Families will buy them gifts, they wave hi, and the kids get to know them, so we are very blessed to have zero traffic accidents at any of those intersections. And hopefully the crossing guards were able to play a role in helping make sure that everyone was safe. I think a lot of the sweet messages that I got were that parents felt so proud that they felt safe enough to allow their kids to walk to school. It’s part of the maturation process in life and the kids get some independence while their parents had a peace of mind about it. It was really neat. THAT’S SO LOCAL. Yeah. It was great.