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<\/p>\nCrews 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. <\/p>\n
Cleanup of the property \u2014 the largest site in Pacific Palisades still filled with fire debris \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s hardly a step toward returning home.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe owner, still, is not communicating with us … and the only reason they\u2019re doing this is because the city eventually threatened them,\u201d said Jon Brown, who lived in the Palisades Bowl for 10 years and now helps lead the fight for residents to return home. \u201cBut once they get it cleaned up, they\u2019re able to just sit on their hands again.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Bowl, like in many mobile home parks in the U.S., residents rent their lots but own the homes on them. <\/p>\n
The Palisades Bowl\u2019s owners still are disputing whether residents\u2019 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. <\/p>\n
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Crews used excavators to clear debris from the Palisades Bowl.<\/p>\n
(Christina House\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
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. \u201cWE WANT TO GO HOME,\u201d one read in thick, hand-drawn letters.<\/p>\n
Both the Bowl and its sister mobile home park next door, Tahitian Terrace, requested the federal government include them in its cleanup program \u2014 which focused on residential properties such as single-family homes, not commercial real estate properties like apartment complexes and mobile home parks.<\/p>\n
After local officials lobbied, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers\u2019 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 \u201crepresents a preserved or guaranteed source of long-term affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its evidence for the claim: the track record<\/a> of the Bowl\u2019s owners.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cupscale resort community.\u201d Residents also accused him of attempting to circumvent rent control regulations. <\/p>\n His death in 2021 split his real estate empire between his ex-wife and widow \u2014 an arrangement that residents say led to dysfunctional management.<\/p>\n The owners have failed to provide meaningful updates on whether residents will be able to return, they say, and when.<\/p>\n In October \u2014 roughly a month after the Army Corps finished<\/a> clearing debris from thousands of structures in Pacific Palisades and Altadena \u2014 the city declared the Bowl and seven other properties still filled with fire debris public nuisances<\/a>, giving it the authority to go in, clean up and bill the owners.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Signs at the Palisades Bowl, where homeowners say they\u2019ve heard little from the park owners since the Palisades fire and have been stuck in limbo, uncertain whether they\u2019ll be able to return home.<\/p>\n (Christina House\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Soon after, residents of the Bowl received a notice<\/a> from the owners informing them that debris removal would begin as soon as Jan. 2. Residents were skeptical, saying they\u2019d seen the owners drag their feet time and time again. <\/p>\n![\"Wildfire](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770982512_638_.jpeg\")
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