Isabel Duvivier, representing Verdant Venice, presented the group's Measure W public-education project to the Commission on Sustainability, Environmental Justice and the Environment on Dec. 15, framing local watershed work as a cross-jurisdictional effort and inviting commissioners to a mapping charrette.

Duvivier said Measure W collects approximately $350,000,000 a year countywide for watershed projects and described Verdant Venice's outreach to schools, businesses and residents. "You may not know, but there's $350,000,000 a year that's collected by LA County to do watershed projects," she said, framing the grant as a major funding source for community-driven projects.

Duvivier urged participants to consider interventions that slow and infiltrate runoff, reduce pollutants and increase visible water stewardship: swales, curb cuts, rain gardens, large cisterns and stream daylighting were suggested as potential options. She highlighted Rose Avenue as a known polluted storm-drain corridor that carries fast runoff from Santa Monica to Venice and said one of Verdant Venice's mapping conclusions was that a significant share of pollutants affecting Venice beaches originates in Santa Monica.

She described the Biona/Bayona Creek watershed's historical wetlands and called attention to local biodiversity: "As you get closer to the coastline... in LA County, there's 437 species," Duvivier said, noting endemic species counts and the ecological rationale for green infrastructure.

Duvivier asked the Commission to help by reviewing maps and sharing data. Commissioners offered to connect Verdant Venice with city engineering data and staff. Chair Dean Cubani and another commissioner recommended connecting the group with Josh Carvalho from the city engineering division to obtain storm-drain flow data and maps that would help prioritize interventions.

Duvivier said Verdant Venice will bring a large watershed map to the table and run interactive mapping workshops to identify sites for distributed green infrastructure, such as permeable alleys, bioswales and municipal cisterns. She cited examples in other jurisdictions (e.g., Westwood Greenway, stream daylighting projects) and said the group plans school and community workshops to increase public understanding of water flow and local solutions.

The presentation concluded with commissioners and attendees moving to a table to mark maps together during a charrette and with an agreement to share technical flow data and identify candidate sites for pilot interventions.

Next steps: Verdant Venice will run map-based workshops, and Commission staff offered engineering data (storm-drain flows) and informal follow-up to explore pilot designs and locations.