by Garth Meyer
After two years of design and planning, a two-and-a-half-acre park of native plants is coming to the land under the powerlines just up from the AES plant, on the hill where city officials held a ceremony to mark the shutdown of the power plant on New Year’s Eve, 2023.
“I was ecstatic when I got the news yesterday,” said Mayor Jim Light, who announced it at the city council meeting Tuesday night, Jan. 4. “We were bogged down in nitpicky design details.”
The city has a current five-year lease for the park acreage, owned by Southern California Edison (SCE), just south of the large power-line bases, by the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and 190th Street.
Because SCE will need access to the lines, no development will take place inside a 50-foot radius of the bases.
The pedestrian park will consist of a walking path and native plants – the ground landscaped to appear as it looked before European/American settlers arrived, though denser.
The list of plants was developed by South Bay Parkland Conservancy. Light was part of that effort, before he was mayor.
He and the late Mayor Bill Brand first proposed a park on the SCE ground 15 years ago, in public comment at city council meetings, as regular residents.
“This is phase one of my vision for the area as a Green Belt to the Sea,” Light said.
The powerlines will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
“Currently, there are no plans to remove the towers, without a formal AES request,” said Diane Castro, SCE spokesperson.
The small park will go in just east and up the hill from the 51-acre power plant site, which Brand, Light and many others have sought to become parkland as well.
Development of the new 2.5-acre park – the cost partially-covered by a state grant – will now begin the city process to choose a contractor to build it. ER
Thank you Easy Reader for bring us this good news.
As Jim Light says, this could be the start of the “green belt to the sea,” connecting with Hermosa and Manhattan Beach, then all the way up the power line corridor into Columbia Park in Torrance.
Imagine all the neighborhoods connected some day, with bike paths, urban trails, delightful play and rest areas, and healthy green space.
So many other cities in America already have done this in former rail and other easements.
Great cities have great parks. We can too.
So, the residents get no input? I guess that’s a thing of the past with Jim Light at the helm. He’s the guy who sues the City, and while residents are still paying for those lawsuits, he wants us to fund a park at the AES plant to realize his one and only “vision” for the City. No doubt his friend Varvarigos, will get the contract to landscape the park with City money that goes through South Bay Parkland Conservancy (Jim Light founder and President). When you see behind the curtain, it is all very self-serving.
Maggie – thanks for the compliment, but the design was done long before I was Mayor. And SCE has constraints on what you can do under their wires. So other than the plant palette and how the path meandered (to meet ADA requirements) the city had little say. SBPC will not get the construction contract. This will require a lot of grading, a huge irrigation system, and drainage. SBPC does not do that. The city will be putting out an RFP for a contractor who can do it all.
I have much more of a vision than a Greenbelt to the Sea, though I am not sure why you would dislike that one. Read the Wilderness Park Master Plan. Read the harbor Amenities Plan. Read the Pier and Harbor Commercial Plan. And look at my platform on http://www.jimlightformayor.com.
Sounds promising.
Why not remove all the AES industrial materials? Both sides of the table want it gone: the community to remove the eye soar and the developers in hopes to develop a mix use property. Whatever the outcome, it will take years and if the community is lucky to have more greenery then we will have to pay for it. So why not pay to clear the ugliness now instead of living with it?