District 2 Redondo Beach City Councilman
After Redondo Beach Measure A was narrowly defeated two years ago, Eric Pendergraft of AES stood before the City Council and residents of Redondo Beach promising they would work with the community to “re-purpose” the 38 acres of their land that they didn’t need for their new power plant. (Remember their colorful renditions with a smaller power plant and 38 acres of open space proposed under Measure A). That was the spring of 2013. Then AES disappeared for over a year.
AES went behind closed doors with their own lawyers and developers to craft their own zoning for their 50-acre site, with no power plant at all.
AES had finally come to terms with the reality that while the State Energy Commission would award a license to operate a power plant in Redondo Beach, the Public Utilities Commission would never award them the required long-term contract to finance rebuilding a power plant in Redondo Beach that was not needed.
In truth, AES has known for a long time they would not get a required long-term contract to provide power from a Redondo plant. Their other two plants in Huntington Beach and Los Alamitos, along with other local non-AES plants, can easily meet the future energy needs of our area and are closer to where the new power is needed – something we’ve been saying for a long time.
Southern California Edison confirmed this when they denied AES Redondo a long-term contract last summer. And nothing in the foreseeable future is going to change that, despite AES’ threats.
So, AES went silent for a year and came back with their own developer developed zoning plan with 600 residential units (mostly condos), no power plant and no defined park area. All under the false ultimatum that they will build a new power plant if you don’t vote for their plan.
Then AES used the citizen initiative process and hired out of town signature gatherers, who lied about their initiative’s content, to quickly qualify what became Measure B, which is now on the Redondo ballot for March 3.
AES will no doubt spend hundreds of thousands of dollars threatening to build a new power plant (that they know will never get built, anyway) if you don’t vote yes for their 600 housing unit and commercial development plan.
Is AES to be trusted, after all this and after suing the City, a former council member and a school board member (now an incoming council member) for their opinion on a ballot?
AES has already been buying support through donations to the Chamber of Commerce, the education foundation, the Lobster Festival, the King Harbor Boater’s Foundation, the Christmas Boat Parade, the CERT group and the Sea Fair.
Now, here comes their big push to buy your vote — a flood of mailers, paid door knockers, TV and print ads, and even billboards, as they attempt to fool and threaten residents and the City again if they don’t get their way.
What you won’t see in AES ads are the cookie cutter, four-story condos that will dominate Harbor Drive if Measure B passes, the high density and scale of the development or the absence of open space.
Despite the misleading text, there is zero requirement for any public parkland in Measure B zoning, despite the fact the residents have twice voted for parkland on this site.
Essentially, Measure B defines any property that isn’t built on as public open space, including traffic medians, walk streets, landscaped drainage ditches and development setbacks. All the normal spacing required as part of any development plan qualifies as open space.
AES campaign literature states that Measure B is supported by the City Council. While technically true, it was not a unanimous vote. Two council members, myself and Steve Sammarco, did not succumb to AES’ threats and do not support their closed-door process after saying they would work with the community.
Measure B does allow another 600 housing units (mostly condos), a sixth hotel for King Harbor and another 85,000 square feet of commercial development across the street from the 520,000 square feet of commercial space the mall developer CenterCal Properties is planning. And when the Coastal Commission requires affordable housing (this area is in the Coastal zone) the developer will be awarded height and density bonuses of at least 25 percent. This will take the number of new housing units to 750 and allow the project to go to five stories. For those of you in District 1, this is how the Legado development at the old Bristol Farms site on PCH will go to four stories.
Don’t be misled by elected officials and council candidates like Christian Horvath who say they will throttle the development back later. They can’t. Measure B grants AES or a future developer the sole power to veto any Council decision to limit the development allowed. This is something unheard of in land use planning and possibly illegal, as stated by our City Attorney in his impartial ballot analysis statement.
This alone is enough to oppose Measure B.
What should happen is a comprehensive rezoning of our waterfront that includes not just the power plant, but the power-line property up 190th St., (yes, those are coming down too) and the rest of the waterfront. This new zoning should be the result of a transparent public process, not closed-door meetings in Arlington, Virginia.
The community needs balanced zoning that would revitalize the waterfront without an over-bloated seaside mall and high density residential development plan that will ruin the Redondo waterfront and clog our streets forever. I haven’t even mentioned the huge traffic and parking impacts Measure B will bring to King Harbor.
As for clean-up, AES has admitted they’re responsible for remediation of this site (Federal and State laws require them to do so anyway), so the idea that they would then ‘squat’ on 50 acres of waterfront property in Southern California is absurd.
It’s not hard to see and it’s not a hard call to make. Residents have the power to reject this corruption of the city planning process and save our precious waterfront.
Vote No on Measure B to send this Virginia Corporation back to a transparent, proper City planning processes they promised to follow, and where this belongs.
And if you are a Hermosa resident, vote NO on Measure O. Our community is no place to drill for oil, build a new power plant, or overdevelop King Harbor. These projects may serve the property owner, but they bring great risks and impacts the community should not be forced to live under. This is why we have zoning laws.
No to Measure B and Measure O. And yes to candidates like Candace Allen Nafissi in District 3, who are willing to stand up to out of town developers in defense of your quality of life. ER
