The Vision Vote Postponed to the March Municipal Election

Most of you may already know, but the original plan by Redondo Beach to hold the Vision Vote between the Heart Park and Village Plan visions in November has now been pushed to the March municipal election.  This decision, at the June 3^rd Council meeting, was a 3-2 vote.  Seems the Council couldn't figure out dates, deadlines for getting the vote on the printed ballot for November, ballot formats, etc., etc.

While we are disappointed that the Citizens have to wait 5 more months to voice their own opinions on a process that concluded in March of this year, it does give us more time to promote Heart Park and win the March vote.  We will need support from each and every one of you to win this vote!  Our bargaining position with many other entities, including AES, will be so much stronger with a resounding victory in March.

Other Related City Government Activity

HOC Fiscal Analysis

To add insult to injury of postponing the Vision Vote, the City staff moved forward with their proposal to have some type of fiscal analysis performed on each vision to have something on the March ballot to educate voters.  City Council voted 5-0 to pay $50,000 to an outside consultant for this analysis with the results due in early October.

We in the Heart Park group disagree with both this analysis and with the scope of the winning consultant.  A fiscal analysis of general visions of what to do with the 65+ acres is pretty hard to do because a vision is not meant to be overly specific.  We feel it's unfair to the citizen visioning process to have both visions submitted to the rigors of a fiscal analysis, when we, the citizens, were never directed nor equipped to come up with a plan detailed enough to be fiscally analyzed.  The impact of costs and revenues can vary widely depending on what the Park may ultimately have.

Frankly, we believe that the City staff and Council will attempt to use the results of this analysis to convince voters in March that the Village Plan is fiscally feasible and the Park is fiscally irresponsible.  This is consistent with the City Council's and City Manager's open desire to have mixed-use development in this area, dating back to the original Heart of the City plans championed by outgoing City manager, Lou Garcia and mayor Greg Hill.  Our belief is further justified by the bias built into the scope of the winning consultant for this contract, David Taussig & Associates.  Please contact us for more details on this matter.

Initiative to return zoning to pre-HOC

Pushing the Vision Vote back creates risk that AES may decide to do something with this land if the current building moratorium (expires Sept 1, 2004) is not extended.  Did you know that despite rescinding the original Heart of the City plan, the AES site and surrounding land is still zoned residential (16-55 units per acre - yikes!)?  It's true.  But the City's General Plan (governing document) shows "Generate Power" for this same property due to the citizen-forced rescission to the old HOC plan in 2002.  This inconsistency, as more time goes by, could be a real problem and pushing the vote back just creates more time for things to get even murkier.  If the moratorium is NOT extended, or extended only till March, the current land-owners could petition to start developing.  We seriously doubt that bulldozers would show up any time soon, but things could wind up in court for a judge to decide instead of the residents. 

Even if the moratorium is extended, as many think it will, this is only a temporary solution.  We need the City to act responsibly here and make the zoning consistent with the General Plan document - their non-compliance is technically illegal!  We feel it is only fair to the City, its citizens and current property owners that the zoning problems be resolved by going back to what the zoning was prior to the original HOC plans.  After all, this was the zoning in place when current property owners acquired this land. 

The Coastal Conservancy is on record saying that turning this whole area into a Park is definitely possible but one of the first things that is needed is for the City to fix the zoning in the area.  So look for more information soon about plans to have an initiative put on the March ballot, which will require collecting many signatures from Redondo Beach residents.  If you want to restore these wetlands and have a Park in this area, please help us get our zoning back to what it was prior to the original Heart of the City changes.

Park acquisition funds from Quimby fees

One bright spot in recent days is that the City Council is moving forward with plans to implement Quimby fees in the city.  Quimby fees are a State provision that allows cities to charge residential developers a fee for new housing, the proceeds of which are expressly used for acquiring land for Parks.  This State provision has been around for years and sadly, Redondo Beach is just now coming around to taking advantage of this opportunity to raise additional funds for Parks.  Neighboring cities, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach have been charging around $5,000 per new residence (with some exceptions of course) for years!  Do the math! 

Oh well, better late than never.  Details are still to be worked out and nothing has been finalized yet for Redondo Beach, but it does look like some type of fee will be in place in the near future.  We sincerely hope that funds accumulated from Quimby fees can be used when the time comes to help acquire land for Heart Park!

Community Outreach and Awareness

We had a non-profit information booth at the Riviera Village Art festival last month (June 26^th -27^th).  We displayed our big concept picture, brochures, and other material on our park vision and the history of the area.  In particular we had some great old pictures of the original salt pond and wetlands area that we seek to restore.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by and to the many new friends and supporters we made.

We have a new website address http://www.heartpark.org that has some information on the Park.  This website is still a work-in-progress as we move material from our previous site to this new one, as well as add new information.  For more information on our effort and the website, you can email us at:   info@heartpark.org

Other key activities include recent meetings with local chapters of the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society.  The Sierra Club has a lot of interest in our vision and we look to expand our relationship and increase awareness within their active membership.  As a key part of our Heart Park vision is to restore a portion of the Coastal wetlands that once served as a nesting ground for many native birds and plants, the Audubon Society is a potential key partner for us.

Finally, we started working with Katherine Spitz & Associates (KSA), a landscape architecture firm in Marina Del Rey.  Thanks to the State Coastal Conservancy, KSA has generously agreed to perform a preliminary design of what Heart Park could look like on a pro bono basis.  KSA has been involved in other not-for-profit open space projects such as Ballona Wetlands and is very well known and respected.  Also, Eric Lloyd Wright, grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright, has agreed to participate as well. Look for further announcements from us as we finalize an updated rendering.

What's ahead?

As we finalize the development of key organizations such as our 501(c) and PAC, we will increase our fundraising efforts for the March vote as well as continue to work closely with all the interested organizations and individuals that want to see this restoration happen.  There is no question that with the correct zoning, community support, and a combination of available and future funding, that our vision for this area will become a reality.

We'll be sending out a meeting announcement soon to allow all who want to donate their time and efforts to this worthy cause to do just that.  Most of us were involved in defeating the Heart of the City nightmare, now we want to create something special not just for us, but for future generations.  We are at an early stage in our campaign and now is the best time to get involved.  

Attached is an article written for The Sierra Club that will appear in one of their upcoming publications.  This will  give some of you a brief history of the site, and an idea of what our goals are.

Any questions feel free to call me at 310-809-4405 or email me at the return address.

Thanks to Don Vangeloff for most of this write-up.  He is now as ensconced in this project as myself.

Sincerely,

Bill Brand