Two officials of the city's Human Relations Commission were in Palms on Wednesday, Oct. 18, to tell how they might help settle a dlspute over the border between Palms and Mar Vista.

The meeting was one more step in a lengthy battle by people in Northwest Palms to leave the jurisdiction of the Mar Vista Community Council and join with the Palms Neighborhood Council.

Some 277 petitioners living in or doing business in that area have signed on to that campaign.

The Palms Representative Assembly on Sept. 6 approved the idea of engaging in an outreach program there.

Among its other duties, the commission offers "facilitation services that help Neighborhood Councils’ leaders and stakeholders to resolve their own differences." (Go here for more information about the commission.)

The meeting was held in the Culver–Palms Church of Christ, 9733 Venice Blvd. (corner of Dunn Drive).

Board members of both the Mar Vista Community Council (a city agency like the Palms Neighborhood Council) and the Westside Village Civic Assn. (a homeowners group) were invited to the gathering, but nobody from those groups showed up.

Northwest Palms is often called Westside Village, although the district in question includes much more than the single-family residential subdivision of that name famously built without sidewalks by developer Fritz Burns in 1939 and 1940.

About 8,400 people live in apartments in the district and 3,600 live in the Burns-built or other houses. There are large commercial areas at Sepulveda-Palms and Sepulveda-National, a Trader Joe's at Westwood-National, a Blockbuster at Overland-National and a small commercial strip at Overland-Palms-Rose.

It was placed into the Mar Vista Community Council by the city upon the urging of the Westside Village homeowners' board.

For more information on this subject, go to this page with maps and background.