AES development summit aimed to inspire

Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand, right, opens a discussion on Redondo’s AES power plant land, with Larry Kosmont, Ben Feldman and Richard Wilson. Photo

A series of presentations at Mayor Bill Brand’s summit to discuss possible futures for the AES power plant weren’t so much instruction on what the city and its residents should do once the plant has come down, but inspiration for what’s possible.

“Tonight’s the beginning of an education process. It explains what’s at stake and how we can best look at it and move forward,” Brand said. “The more educated the residents are, the better decisions they’re going to make.”

Brand’s summit, held on Oct. 4 at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, was born by his trip to the Mayors’ Institute on City Design – West conference, in Alaska, in October. Brand was among a small group of mayors invited to discuss planning and design challenges in their cities.

While there he offered a presentation about the AES site, which is up for sale, though a buyer has not yet been announced.

Brand addressed two realities. First, the massive plant is closing in 2020, in keeping with state laws restricting water-cooled power plants; with it will likely come the power lines leading from the plant down 190th Street. Second, the residents of Redondo Beach have the power to approve or deny major land use changes, through a City Charter amendment passed in the wake of previous attempts to rezone waterfront-area land.

Architect Richard Wilson, of Chicago’s Smith+Gill Architecture, was in attendance at the Alaska conference, and was “blown away” by the fact that residents have a say in zoning. His presentation, he said, wasn’t a sales pitch but a conversation about ideas.

Wilson’s focus was on Chicago’s Millennium Park, a reclamation of a train yard that helped usher change to the city’s lakefront and spurred major economic growth around the park.

Establishing landmarks was a key, such as a partnership between local performance groups that led to the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Pavilion, a multi-use bandshell and theater complex.

The park also established active recreation routes and restored natural wetlands, particularly relevant given the AES plant’s site over Redondo’s Old Salt Lake, a state historical landmark.

“I think there’s a rich opportunity here,” Wilson said. “Don’t do a copy and paste from any place, even if it’s cool like Millennium Park, but really have a conversation about what’s right here and authentic.”

Ben Feldman, of Los Angeles’s Studio MLA, went into his firm’s study of the Piggyback Yard, a 125 acre train yard adjacent to the LA River. The study was done pro-bono for the Friends of the LA River, who seek to restore the river’s natural features.

Studio MLA’s study looked at creating active public play spaces as well as islands, to help rainwater flow through the site. Though the Piggyback Yard plan hasn’t come to life, as Union Pacific has indicated no plans to sell the rail yard, Studio MLA’s study was incorporated into the larger LA River Master Plan, which was adopted by the Los Angeles City Council in 2016.

Larry Kosmont, a consultant to the City of Redondo Beach and expert on public-private partnerships, discussed the economics of financing the project. Kosmont helped the city create an overlay tax district that will draw funds from new development.

The community, Kosmont said, has a lot of leverage with a public vote. “But you have to come to the table with a source of funds,” he said, which is where a partnership between a developer and the public comes in.

But there’s a through-line between these redevelopments, Brand said.

“The constant with these projects is they start with no money, they have a group of people with a vision, who see something different, and stick with it.”

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