The City Council Tuesday night asked staff to prepare a letter opposing the proposal to build an ocean water desalination plant in El Segundo.
The plant has been suggested by the West Basin Municipal Water District.
Mayor Mark Burton took the lead on the issue, condemning the proposal, which he said would pollute the ocean and was inappropriate to build next to a residential community.
“This will ruin the South Bay,” said Burton. “We need to oppose this as soon as possible.”
Several residents, including Craig Cadwallader, the chair of the South Bay chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, also spoke against the plant.
“The report notes that there’s no access to the beach off Vista del Mar,” said Cadwallader. “However, people do surf and swim there.”
Preparation for El Nino
Anticipating heavy rainfall, the city will buy two mobile high capacity pumps to be used to remove flood water. Although the pumps, which cost around $52,000 each, can be used anywhere, Polliwog Park, which was constructed as a storm basin and has flooded before, was specifically mentioned.
Public Works Director Tony Olmos said he was requesting the equipment because of the unusual agreement among experts that El Nino “will continue to evolve” over the coming months. The total cost for the pumps and related equipment was $335,000.
“Preparation is going to be key to minimize any impacts,” said Olmos.
A representative from the county, which owns much of the machinery at Polliwog Park, said they were planning on replacing the aging equipment in “a year or so,” although he couldn’t say exactly when. The Friends of Polliwog Park, some of whom were at Tuesday night’s meeting, have been pushing for an upgrade.
Mansionization laws tweaked
The City Council approved changes to the law attempting to curb the construction of extremely large houses.
A maximum lot size of 7,000 square feet was given for Areas III and IV, much of which are along the water. Staff said that the rule was accidentally left out of an earlier ordinance, but that no projects exceeding the size had been approved.
At least 10 percent of a house’s structure above ground must be retained. Previously, it hadn’t been specified that it had to be above ground.
The changes were suggested in 2013 by the planning commission.
The council and planning commission will review more substantive proposed changes at a date yet to be determined.
Apartment smoking ban delayed
The passage of the city’s ban on smoking in multi-unit housing was put on hold at the request of the Manhattan Village Homeowners Association. As the law, which was was introduced on Sept. 15, is currently written, the housing complex is considered multi-unit housing. The association wanted more time to work with the city. The item was moved to the next city council meeting on Oct. 13. ER
