Wildfire debris removal underway at Palisades Bowl Mobile Home park

Crews finally are removing fire debris from the Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates, a roughly 170-unit, rent-controlled mobile home park along Pacific Coast Highway.

Cleanup of the property — the largest site in Pacific Palisades still filled with fire debris — is starting more than a year after wildfire destroyed the park, and more than four months after the city of Los Angeles declared the site a public nuisance.

The sights of excavators and hazmat suits this week prompted a sigh of relief from Palisadians worried about the health risks of the potentially toxic debris. But for residents of the Bowl, it’s hardly a step toward returning home.

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“The owner, still, is not communicating with us … and the only reason they’re doing this is because the city eventually threatened them,” said Jon Brown, who lived in the Palisades Bowl for 10 years and now helps lead the fight for residents to return home. “But once they get it cleaned up, they’re able to just sit on their hands again.”

In the Bowl, like in many mobile home parks in the U.S., residents rent their lots but own the homes on them.

The Palisades Bowl’s owners still are disputing whether residents’ leases remain intact. Further, the owners need to fix or replace damaged foundations as well as the electric and water utilities before residents could start rebuilding.

Crews used excavators to clear debris from the Palisades Bowl.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

On Thursday, mangled metal screeched as an excavator compacted the skeletons of former homes. Crews in white hazmat suits laid out tarps and sorted through potentially hazardous materials. Cars on PCH raced past pink and red posters adorned with flowers and fixed to the construction fence. “WE WANT TO GO HOME,” one read in thick, hand-drawn letters.

Both the Bowl and its sister mobile home park next door, Tahitian Terrace, requested the federal government include them in its cleanup program — which focused on residential properties such as single-family homes, not commercial real estate properties like apartment complexes and mobile home parks.

After local officials lobbied, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ cleanup efforts, agreed to include Tahitian Terrace but not the Bowl. In a letter last July, FEMA argued that in contrast to Tahitian Terrace, it could not conclude that the Bowl “represents a preserved or guaranteed source of long-term affordable housing.”

Its evidence for the claim: the track record of the Bowl’s owners.

The park, which began as a Methodist camp in the 1890s, was bought by Northern California real estate mogul Edward Biggs in 2005. Court rulings over the years found he routinely failed to maintain the infrastructure and worked to replace the park with an “upscale resort community.” Residents also accused him of attempting to circumvent rent control regulations.

His death in 2021 split his real estate empire between his ex-wife and widow — an arrangement that residents say led to dysfunctional management.

The owners have failed to provide meaningful updates on whether residents will be able to return, they say, and when.

In October — roughly a month after the Army Corps finished clearing debris from thousands of structures in Pacific Palisades and Altadena — the city declared the Bowl and seven other properties still filled with fire debris public nuisances, giving it the authority to go in, clean up and bill the owners.

But the city seemingly struggled to find money to front the cost. In December, City Councilmember Traci Park filed a motion to order the city to come up with a cost estimate and identify funding sources.

Signs at the Palisades Bowl, where homeowners say they’ve heard little from the park owners since the Palisades fire and have been stuck in limbo, uncertain whether they’ll be able to return home.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Soon after, residents of the Bowl received a notice from the owners informing them that debris removal would begin as soon as Jan. 2. Residents were skeptical, saying they’d seen the owners drag their feet time and time again.

Through it all, residents remain in limbo. As members of the eclectic community of artists, teachers, lifeguards, boat riggers, bookstore owners and chefs began running out of money from their insurance for temporary housing — if they were even fortunate enough to have insurance — many began to doubt they would be able to return.

Even now, skepticism remains. After all, they still are disputing with the owners over whether or not the fire effectively terminated their leases. And while experts in mobile-home law doubt the owners legally could displace their tenants, residents still fear the owners will try to use the fire as an opportunity to convert the park into a more lucrative real estate endeavor.

The Palisades Bowl cleanup process began this month only after intense pressure from residents and the city.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

And even if the residents are allowed to return, they wouldn’t be able to build new homes until the owners fix or replace damaged foundations and hookups for electricity and plumbing. The residents aren’t holding their breath.

“Every one of us are ready and willing” to start rebuilding, Brown said. The owners “just won’t communicate with us. Literally, if we had a briefcase of $10 million, we wouldn’t be able to do anything with it because the park owners won’t return an email or a phone call.”

The Bowl’s owners did not respond to requests for comment.