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DECEMBER UPDATE

Hello Everyone,

A lot has happened since our last update, most importantly, four of us filed for elective office last Monday morning: Ellen Allan for Mayor, Dave Wiggins for City Attorney, Jim Light for District 1 Council Member, and myself for District 2. We call our slate 'Slow Growth 4 Redondo', and all of us support Heart Park. In fact, all of us have been fighting the massive development plans for our harbor area for over 3 years now, and if we win our seats and the advisory vote in March, we will be a huge step closer in securing some of this land for public use.

Also, I was interviewed through e-mail at length about the Heart Park vision by Garrison Frost of 'The Aesthetic' - http://theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/parkinterview.html - This interview makes for a good synopsis of where we are and how we got here.

There are 83 more days till the March 8th, 2005 advisory vote. Our next meeting is January 5, 2005. That's right, 2005 is upon us. It will be our campaign kick-off meeting leading up to the vote. If ever you wanted to help, now is the time. Meet us at the Beach Cities Health District, 514 North Prospect Ave, The Redondo Room, floor B, at 6:30 p.m. We will be addressing two main goals:

First, we will be laying-out the strategy for the campaign itself. I'll send out a reminder and more info the last week of December.

Second, we want to move forward with an initiative that re-establishes the zoning in our Harbor area that existed prior to the Heart of the City mess. Most people don't realize that this area is still zoned for 16-55 RESIDENTIAL units per acre, and has been under a building moratorium for 1.5 years. Our aim is to force a special election, which we are sure to win, and bring this zoning into compliance with the General Plan, something our Council has failed to do. This is a dangerous situation and requires a definitive and binding response if we are to prevent a de-facto Heart of the City from happening. Otherwise, once the moratorium is lifted, we run the risk of who knows what our Council would 'rubber-stamp' into that area.

This initiative is already written, but we need funds for legal expenses, printing and binding that we estimate will cost $2,000. Write a check to Friends of Heart Park for $10, $20, $50 or more and send to 125 South Broadway Redondo Beach, CA 90277.

One of the ways EVERYBODY can help is to find venues where we can pitch our vision. Homeowner Associations are great, luncheons, PTA meetings, club meetings...we will go anywhere anytime (Jim, Don or myself), even on short notice. Just call me at 310-374-4001 or Don at 310-374-1405.

Finally, I picked-up the final drawings of Katherine Spitz and Associates. Wait till you see them if you haven't already. And get this, they are designing a t-shirt for us! More on that later.

Bill Brand

Heart Park

www.southbayparks.org

www.heartpark.org

p.s. Attached are some aerial photos I took of the AES site recently - it was a beautiful day! Notice the lack of open space to the east. And remember, half this land is not in use - the tank farm has been out of service for at least 10 years.

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NOVEMBER UPDATE

Everyone,

Things continue at a good pace and in this update we'll brief you on a visit from the State Coastal Conservancy, status of the South Bay Parkland Conservancy; good news from the Sierra Club; the City's recent planning for the Vision vote in March, 2005; and another profile of Open Space success.

General News

On October 6th, we had a great meeting with Peter Brand (no relation) of the State Coastal Conservancy, where he discussed some of the projects they have funded and completed that are similar to our Heart Park vision. Peter also laid out the process by which communities organize around their desire to secure coastal open space and secure State funding. Peter is a State official who has spent the last 20 years restoring and preserving many coastal areas for open space and has been working regularly with us since March of this year. As with most communities that Peter has worked with, he reinforced that the most important thing is for the community (both City leadership and citizens) to first decide this is what they want and then begin the proper land-use designations. Peter told us that Heart Park is definitely a viable option for this site and has worked with AES, in particular, in acquiring other power plant property in the State.

Sierra Club passes Resolution to support Heart Park

The Palos Verdes South Bay (PVSB) group of the LA Chapter of the Sierra Club passed a resolution in October, to formally recognize and endorse the Heart Park vision. We are very proud of achievement for several reasons. One, this endorsement proves that, along with the State Coastal Conservancy, a major institution with a strong reputation believes our vision is a viable alternative to over-development. Second, this will garner additional publicity for us throughout the South Bay, publicity that will also call out the real danger we have in over-development. Third, we can anticipate political, organizational AND financial support from the PVSB group as we get closer to our advisory vote in March, 2005. Many thanks to Barry Holchin, Johanna Zetterberg, Al & Barbara Satler, and others at the PVSB/Sierra Club for all their help and encouragement. Several people in our Heart Park group are also members of the Sierra Club and we thank you, too. If any of the rest of you are interested in learning more about the PVSB group or joining the Sierra Club, go here:

http://www.sierraclub.org/

The SBPC continues to gain ground

The South Bay Parkland Conservancy (SBPC) is gaining members and beginning its fundraising activities. After the first meeting in September, they have raised $3,300 and continue to build their membership. They have a goal of 500 members by year-end and are putting together a Communications budget, fundraising plans and a push for new members. The SBPC is a non-profit, public benefit corporation that seeks to educate the public on the need and viability of open space in the South Bay, to preserve our quality of life.

If you are interested in joining the SBPC, annual dues are $25 for adults and $40 for families; dues are tax-deductible. Or please make a tax-deductible donation of $50 or $100 to help them get the word out on what the South Bay stands to gain with more open space, and what we are at risk to lose with more over-development. Make your check out to: South Bay Parkland Conservancy and send to P.O Box 7000-408 , Redondo Beach, CA 90277

Open Space Success Profile

Most everyone has heard of Hearst Castle. If not, its a mansion on the Central Coast of California built by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing magnate and land baron. I highly recommend a visit if ever you find yourself up there, just north of San Luis Obispo.

Well, for many years the heirs to the Hearst family fortune wanted to develop their land - 82,000 acres with 18 miles of coast line. Originally they were going to build 400 homes, 2 hotels with a total of 640 rooms, and golf course. Sound familiar? Spread-out over 82,000 acres that doesn't seem so bad. Down here in Redondo, if you ditch the golf course, all we need is 50 acres. In fact, we already have a name for it, The Village Plan.

Anyway, The citizens in this community realized the value of what was about to be developed and mounted a long campaign to find a way to save this area for all the generations to come. We are often struck by the enormity of what we are trying to do, but can you imagine the courage it took to think you could somehow save 82,000 acres, and 18 miles of coast line in California, AND YOU HAVE NO MONEY. Now that sounds familiar. We can only imagine what a fiscal analysis of their vision would have looked like after zoning all that land for 55 units per acre.

http://www.hearstranchconservation.org/

Forge ahead they did, and with the help of the State Coastal Conservancy, the Federal Government, and the citizens of the rest of California, success is finally theirs! You can read all about it in the above link, but let me explain the financing of the deal to give everyone a taste of how complicated, but doable these projects are.

The land was valued at $230 million by an independent appraiser and is being bought for $95 million by the California State Coastal Conservancy. The Hearst Corp. is seeking a federal tax write-off for the difference, which gets them another $70 million, approximately. They also will receive another $15 million in state tax credits. Of the $95 million being packaged by the Conservancy, $23 million will come from the federal transportation dollars to preserve scenic highway views, $57 million from Proposition 40, and the balance from the Wildlife Conservation Board.

Obviously we have our work cut out for us, but again, can you imagine the odds these people were given of success just 5 years ago, never mind the 20 they've been working on this project? And lest we forget, the citizens of this area are not paying a dime for this deal! Not even a penny.

City's Fiscal Analysis of HOC Visions:

Overview and summary:

At the Oct. 12th Council Meeting, the results of the Fiscal analysis were presented, by the City's paid consultant, David Taussig & Associates. As you might expect, the study painted a grim picture of the potential of the Heart Park vision, but also cited major risks with the Village Plan. Bottom-line, the consultants said both plans have minimal financial chances for success. For Heart Park, the key point is acquiring the State funding (ie. Coastal Conservancy) to buy/build our Park and wetlands, which in the consultant's opinion has a low chance of happening. For the Village Plan, financial success depends heavily on the 400-500 room, 5-Star resort hotel and the 50 room boutique hotel, because the proposed residential development (350 units now) is a big net money-loser for the city. The consultants went to great lengths to state their analysis was basically number-crunching only, NOT a feasibility analysis. In particular, they strongly recommended that if the City chose to move forward with the Village Plan they should do a hotel marketing study first to truly evaluate the hotel's potential.

For our vision, other than having to combat the outrageous cost numbers being thrown around, nothing has changed. We've always known that our vision depends on State bond funding and NOT pushing City coffers over the brink. Given that the State has raised $billion (yes, billion) over the last 6 years for acquiring/restoring Open Space along the coast.. we feel pretty good about Redondo's chances, IF the city and residents give it a chance. For the other guys... well, how badly do you want another hotel in the area? And a resort/convention destination hotel at that. Doesn't that Development plan sound more and more like the original HOC plan??

More details:

In terms of summarized dollars and cents, the study calculated the one-time costs of the Village Plan to be ~ $50Million and for Heart Park at ~ $350Million. Why the outrageous variance you say? Well, the consultants ignored the cost to acquire, clean-up and build ALL property associated with the Village Plan's residential and commercial (Hotel, retail) components because it is assumed that private development would pay it all (including the 65foot-wide canals!) and that calculating all this cost was out-of-scope. In contrast, all the costs were included for Heart Park because no private development is anticipated. It's important to note of the study's $350M number for Heart Park, nearly $320M is for acquisition and remediation of the land (mostly to AES even though they are required to clean-up the land), based tax-assessed value and AES's own estimated costs for clean-up. In follow-up last week, the consultants indicated privately, that obviously this $320M would also be part of what Private Developers would be expected to pay BEFORE they begin their additional infrastructure development of canals, roads, utilities, etc. Funny how that didn't make the final printing.

As for recurring annual costs (mainly the forgone annual revenue from AES plant's tax pmts [~$900K] + annual operating expenses of each vision, net of revenues generated), the study shows Heart Park "costing" the city about $2.9Million/year. This is way inaccurate, because the Study assumes that Heart Park is 76 acres and replaces all of Village Core South with green grass and trees, which was NEVER our intention. PRO zoning allows for visitor-serving commercial which... guess what... is what is already there at Village Core South!!! As we've publicly stated earlier, we are happy with VCore South the way it is. Plus, Heart Park is only ~ 60acres of Areas A, B and C. So if you correct for this error, our vision's "lost" revenue for the City goes from $1.8M, down to $1M/year. Plus, the Study mostly ignores the potential for significant revenue from our parking structure, fees from playing fields, aquatic center and fees/sales tax of our proposed community center/restaurant near the corner of PCH and Herondo Streets and concession revenue along Harbor Dr, which could further reduce the annual net "loss" to around $1.5M/year.. not $2.9M. And this doesn't include any money that City of Hermosa Beach may be willing to contribute to help operate and maintain a 55+acre park directly across the street from their Southern boundary. Given that Hermosa was suing Redondo over the original HOC plan for the negative impact it would cause, it's fair to say that HB may be a willing neighbor to help with operating a park that will help increase their property values too. We just have to have the vision to ask.

Meanwhile, the Village Plan is estimated to "earn" the City about net $775,000 a year in fees, revenue, etc. Think about that for a minute. After incurring the risk of private development building 350 homes, 2 hotels with fractional-ownership condos, 5 acres of freshwater lake and 65foot-wide canals (built 12ft above Harbor Dr), a pedestrian bridge to the pier and 100,000 sq ft of additional commercial space... generating over 12,000 additional DAILY car-trips... over X number of years of construction and financing... our City earns $700K or about 1.2% of the City's current general fund of $50M. You evaluate that risk/return balance and make your own decision.

What's next?

At the November 9th City Council meeting, Council will review and debate proposed language for the description of each vision on the advisory ballot. This ballot language will need to be finalized by early December to meet the March 8, 2005 election deadlines.

See you next Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., at the Beach Cities Health District, 514 N. Prospect Ave., Beach Cities Room, Floor B, to for our meeting with Katherine Spitz and Eric Gibson, of Katherine Spitz Associates, a land scape architectural firm in Marina Del Rey. The Coastal Conservancy cajoled them to do a pro-bono design for our vision. The same Coastal Conservancy that cajoled $95 million for Hearst Ranch.

Bill Brand

310-374-4001

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OCTOBER UPDATE

All,

This coming Wednesday, October 6th, we will have the special opportunity to hear Peter Brand (no relation) of the State Coastal Conservancy discuss some of the projects they have funded and completed that are similar to our Heart Park vision. If ever you wanted to hear from a State official - one who has spent the last 20 years restoring and preserving many coastal areas for open space - talk about the potential of Redondo Beach, this is your chance. You don't want to miss this!

Please join us Wednesday, October 6th at 7:30 p.m., at the Beach Cities Health District, 514 N. Prospect Ave., in the Redondo Room, floor B.

Below is a link to a website that describes the ongoing wetlands restoration in Ormond Beach, a coastal zone about 60 miles north of Redondo Beach, in the City of Oxnard. This area was purchased with State Bond money for $9.6 million, and not a penny was paid by the local residents. Notice there was a 60-acre tank farm similar to the one on the AES site.

http://www.ormondbeachwetlands.org/

And this is a brief prepared by Peter Brand describing this area and updating the status of it.

STATE COASTAL CONSERVANCY

ORMOND BEACH WETLANDS RESTORATION PROJECT

With the unanimous support of the Oxnard City Council and the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, the State Coastal Conservancy has taken the following steps at Ormond Beach:

1. Acquired 265 acres of wetlands (and former wetlands), beach, and dunes from Southern California Edison;

2. Reached agreement at the staff level with the Metropolitan Water District and the City of Oxnard on purchase of the 276 acres they own adjoining the above property;

3. Reserved funding for acquisition of an additional 210 acres from another willing seller; and

4. Begun a year-long study of various wetland restoration options at Ormond Beach and its adjoining wetlands.

SITE DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY:

Ormond Beach is a 1,500-acre area composed of agriculture, industry, and wetlands. A two-mile-long beach extends from Port Hueneme to the northwestern boundary of Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station, which encompasses Mugu Lagoon.

Prior to development, the coast of Ventura was a vast complex of dunes, lakes, lagoons, and salt and freshwater marshes. From the Santa Clara River estuary to the beginning of Mugu Lagoon, it appears from historic maps that there were seven lagoons. Most have either disappeared, been severely degraded, or been converted to marinas or ports. Nevertheless, this is one of the few areas in southern California with an intact dune-transition zone-marsh system. Over 200 migratory bird species are reported for the Ormond Beach area, and more shorebird species are known to use Ormond Beach than any other site in Ventura County. Six threatened and endangered species and six species of concern have been identified on the former Edison site.

The Ormond Beach wetlands have been drained, filled, and degraded over the past century to accommodate agriculture and industrial uses. The wetlands at Ormond Beach once covered approximately 1,000 acres; approximately 250 acres remain. The lagoons have been used as a city dump, developed with a magnesium smelting plant and with the electrical generating plant, and drained for agriculture. Drainage and developments, including the naval air station, have left the Ormond Beach wetlands hydrologically isolated and significantly reduced in size. The remaining wetlands on site are degraded from compaction due to human use and dumping, contaminated from runoff, and suffering from hypersalinity due to lack of flushing.

For the last three decades, there have been numerous proposals for marinas, resorts, and residences in and adjoining the remnant wetlands. Each of the development proposals for Ormond Beach failed. During the 1990s, the Conservancy worked with the City, the community, and the landowners of Ormond Beach to extinguish lots on the beach, prepare a plan for restoration of the remnant wetlands on the Edison property, and develop a consensus plan for development and wetland restoration on the private lands there.

PROJECT GOAL:

Ormond Beach is considered by wetland experts to be the most important wetland restoration opportunity in southern California. The biological significance of this area has been recognized and its restoration potential endorsed by all of the federal and state resource agencies that participate in the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project. With their support and the support of the County of Ventura and the City of Oxnard, the Conservancy has begun acquisition at Ormond Beach with a goal of acquiring at least 750 acres to accommodate wetland and other habitat needs and at the same time complement the City's goal to complete development of the south Oxnard community. Acquisition and restoration of these properties could at least triple the extent of habitat at Ormond Beach

A critical mass of 750 acres of restored wetlands and associated habitat at Ormond Beach is expected to create a self-sustaining biological system and enough tidal prism and flushing action to maintain health and hydrologic function. Anticipated restoration at Ormond Beach would include modifications of the site hydrology to restore tidal action and bring back freshwater flows that had formerly drained across the Oxnard Plain to the coastal wetlands. When integrated with the adjoining 900 acres of freshwater wetlands and the 1,500 acres at Mugu Lagoon, this will be the largest coastal wetland in southern California, spanning nine miles of the coast from Point Hueneme to Point Mugu.

PROJECT STATUS:

In June 2002, the Conservancy acquired the first property, 265 acres including a former tank farm site, from Southern California Edison. the Conservancy at its October, 2003, meeting reserved funds for acquisition of the additional 500 acres as proposed. The City of Oxnard and the Metropolitan Water District are co-owners of the adjoining 309 acres. The City still owes MWD for most of the cost of acquisition. The Oxnard City Council has voted to endorse the sale of the property to the Conservancy. MWD has passed a resolution unanimously authorizing staff to negotiate a sale of the property to the Conservancy. Negotiations are underway and staff of all parties are in agreement on the sale terms. All parties have been negotiating on the assumption that two pieces of the property would be excluded from the sale - (1) the northwest corner of the property, which adjoins a paper recycling plant owned by Weyerhauser Corporation, which they would like to buy for a storage site and (2) a 20-acre piece that MWD would like to reserve for a potential desalination plant that they may want to build in the future. Therefore the proposed acquisition is 276 acres.

The Conservancy has also reserved funds for the acquisition of the adjoining 210 acres of former wetlands that are currently owned and farmed by Southland Sod. The owner has since offered to sell all of the 340-acre former Edison property to the Conservancy conditioned upon his purchase of other suitable agricultural land where he can transfer his operations. One option at this time is to acquire 210 acres and an agricultural conservation easement over the balance of the property.

The Conservancy has begun a restoration feasibility study for Ormond Beach and adjoining wetlands that would show how this area could be restored and linked hydrologically and as an ecosystem. The study will develop recommendations that address habitat needs of the coastal landscape ecosystem, habitat needs of special status species, water supply and quality issues, mitigation of contaminants, wetland restoration alternatives, priority and timing of restoration activities, public access and interpretive center opportunities, and costs for restoration and management.

Peter S. Brand, Project Manager

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Attached is a new flyer we, The South Bay Parkland Conservancy (SBPC), will be distributing at The Manhattan Beach Hometown Faire on Sunday...we will be sharing a booth with another non-profit group.

Visit our website at www.southbayparks.org

And attend one of the up-coming workshops regarding the development of Torrance Blvd.

From Ellen Allan -

The City of Redondo Beach is holding two workshops
regarding possible zoning and urban design changes.
Join land owners, businesses and neighbors to share
ideas about the future of Torrance Blvd.
Attend one of two workshops:
Saturday, October 2, 2004 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Redondo Beach Main Library
303 N. PCH, Redondo Beach
Monday, October 4, 2004 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Knob Hill Community Center
320 Knob Hill Ave., Redondo Beach

Hope to see you at one of these events!

Bill Brand

310-374-4001

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AUGUST UPDATE (No September)

All,

http://www.pvplc.org/land/forrestal/forstprs.htm

More important than anything I can write in this e-mail is the specific example presented in the above link. The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy has marshaled Federal, State and County funding, along with significant private donations to preserve and restore hundreds of acres of open space on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Explore the various links nested in these pages to see the road map to success as it is unveiled before your eyes. They began 16 years ago, and now have an annual budget of over $1 million. The residents of Redondo Beach and the rest of the South Bay have to ask themselves, "What can we do to improve the quality of our lives?" (other than driving back and forth to work in our ever increasing traffic, of course), and "What can we do for future generations?"

And NO!, they didn't have to pick the pockets of the local residents like all the pro-development forces would have you believe. None, that's right NONE of the monies for the 160 acre Forrestal Property on the coast of the Palos Verdes Peninsula came directly from the local residents. Did I say, NONE? How about 'zero', 'zilch', 'zippo', or 'icksnay' (is that a word?), 'nada'. That's right, NONE!

Of the $8 million used to purchase the land, the majority came from LA County Bond Measure A, with the remainder coming from other conservation organizations such as the California Wildlife Conservation Board and the State Coastal Conservancy. The PVPLC also had monies earmarked for future land purchases on the Peninsula in the Los Angles County Safe Neighborhood Parks Act, which eventually passed overwhelmingly and added millions to their coffers. This is how it's done folks.

They did have a City Council that supported this type of land use, though, which is key in securing donations and grants.

I'm going to profile a different area every month to demonstrate to our citizens that the type of restoration we are working towards at the AES site in Redondo Beach is being accomplished not just in our own backyard, but in cities all over California, America, and in fact, the world. Each area I will profile in the coming months are unique in their own way, but there are lessons to be learned and inspiration to be had from all of them. Next time I'll discuss the 256 acres that was recently purchased by The State Coastal Conservancy at Ormond Beach, in Oxnard. Their City Council voted unanimously to save this area for open space.

Heart Park and the South Bay Parkland Conservancy

We have made great strides in the formation of our 501(c)3! We've identified who the Directors and Officers will be, signed and filed the Articles of Incorporation, and we will be holding our first meeting to adopt the by-laws and kick-off our activities very soon.

This non-profit public benefit corporation will serve our needs as we work to educate the public about the importance of creating more open space and parklands in the South Bay - the biggest near-term opportunity being the 'Heart Park' plan in Redondo Beach. This organization will continue to serve the visions of those of us in the South Bay who want to improve our lives by restoring and creating open space at every opportunity. The full announcement will be coming soon, so stay-tuned!

Many of you have called or written me expressing your support and wanting to know how you can help with our cause, but we were still formalizing ourselves and the time has not been right. Both of those have changed now, so, on September 22nd, at 7 p.m., in The Beach Cities Room of The Beach Cities Health District (514 N. Prospect Ave.), we will have a 'kick-off meeting' to describe our organization and the people involved to date, and to present the various activities we will be performing in the next several months.

Now is the time if ever you wanted to participate in a movement that will successfully, and significantly, improve the quality of your life and that of the generations to follow. Your help is needed, we can't succeed without individuals like you. This will be an important meeting, kind of like the first day of class, so try to make it.

We have created an organizational structure/foundation that we think will provide the necessary information to the residents of Redondo Beach when they go to the polls in March and decide what is best for the community in the former 'Heart of the City' area. We have identified 5 committees that volunteers will be able to choose from based on their interests and skills. It should be a lot of fun! Bring your neighbors and anyone else in the South Bay who would like to help...we already have some people from PV, Hermosa and Torrance.

The more people we get, the less work everyone has to do, and the more fun it will be. We successfully stopped the development plans once in this area, and we can do it again by offering up our own workable, open space and restoration plan. This town is long overdue.

I'll send out an agenda and reminder the week before. E-mail me if you have time and let me know your plans,

Bill Brand

310-374-4001