WEEKEND EDITION
INSIDE SCOOP
COMMENTARY
CASH IS THE BEST BET PAGE 3 BYGONE DAYS OF FLYING ARE GONE PAGE 4
APRIL 12-13, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 130
Santa Monica Daily Press
IOC WON’T CROSS THE LINE SEE PAGE 18
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE COVERING NATURE ISSUE
Report: SM Mountains threatened BY KEVIN HERRERA Editor in Chief
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com
DOWNTOWN The nation’s leading voice for national parks is calling on federal officials to set aside more money to purchase privately held land in the Santa Monica Mountains before residential development and agricultural operations destroy the ecological integrity of the park. In a report released this week by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), advocates for more park land said the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the world’s largest urban national park, has an estimated $62 million worth of privately held land — around 25,000 acres — within its boundaries that needs to be acquired to protect watersheds, wildlife corridors and sensitive habitat areas for more than 1,000 native plants and 450 animal species. Federal funding to purchase these private lands has been unavailable since 2000, and approximately 1,300 acres of private lands within the park are lost to development annually, the report states. “If the current rate of development continues, all 70,000 acres of private lands within the park’s boundaries will be developed by 2062,” said Ron Sundergill, NPCA’s pacific regional director. “This will fragment sensitive habitat for large carnivores such as bobcats, coyotes, and mountain lions, whose survival in the park is already in jeopardy.” Tight park budgets also prevent the National Park Service from properly managing Santa Monica Mountain’s natural features and archaeological treasures, and cause it to rely on
GETTING OUT INTO NATURE: Running along one of the many trails throughout the Santa Monica Mountains, Doug Olin from
SEE MOUNTAINS PAGE 11
Pacific Palisades enjoys what he called ‘one of the great natural resources of the Los Angeles area.’
Attorney: Co-defendant too ‘simple minded’ to be guilty BY LINDA DEUTSCH AP Special Correspondent
LOS ANGELES An attorney for one of two elderly women charged in an insurancemurder scheme portrayed her Friday as a victim of her co-defendant who hatched the plan to insure homeless men for profit but never told her it involved killing. Deputy Public Defender Mark Sklar told jurors that his client, Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, was “simple minded” and was obsessed with Helen Golay, a relatively wealthy woman she met in 1999. He accused Golay, 77, of manipulating Rutterschmidt but said it was Golay alone who committed murder. Answering evidence about the women’s purchase of a car that eventually was tied to the death of transient Kenneth McDavid,
BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
OCEAN PARK A proposal to build a series
Sklar said, “It’s clear that vehicle was used by Helen Golay to run over Mr. McDavid.” “Helen Golay funds the scheme. Helen Golay writes the checks,” he said in a final argument which led Golay’s lawyer to dub Sklar as “another prosecutor” trying to win his client’s acquittal at the expense of her codefendant. Sklar said Rutterschmidt had no knowledge of a murder plan and thus could not be convicted of conspiracy or aiding and abetting. Both Sklar and attorney Roger Jon Diamond, who represents Golay, admitted in their summations to the jury that their clients were guilty of insurance fraud for taking out millions of dollars worth of poliSEE GOLAY PAGE 14
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of townhouse-style condominiums in the heart of a beachside neighborhood where development has become a growing concern won’t be seeing the light of day any time soon. At least not for a year after the Planning Commission on Wednesday denied a design permit application, forcing the property owner/developer to wait until next year before he can take another crack at the project. James Thielen presented a plan to tear down an existing two-story apartment complex at 2721 Third St. — a block comprised of mainly multi-familly residential development — in favor of erecting five townhouse-style condominiums, one of which would be sold as an affordable unit. The commission acted on the recom-
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mendation of city planners who concluded that while the density of the proposed structure would be in compliance, it is still out of line with several standards set forth in the Zoning Ordinance, raising issues with its tight parking layout, perceived mass and scale as a result of design, and the distinctively small size and lack of amenities in the affordable unit as compared to the market rate condos. The project will have to wait a year because it has already received the maximum number of extensions as allowed under city code. Development has long been a concern in the Ocean Park neighborhood where new projects have been popping up sporadically along Main Street and in residential neighborhood for years, causing residents to be alarmed that the character of their laid-back surf community is in jeopSEE PROJECT PAGE 15
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