----- Original Message -----
From: B Brand
To: Heart Park
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 11:00 AM
Subject: Heart Park Update - January 2006

Hello everyone,
 
Thank You!
First, I want to thank all the generous citizens of the South Bay who either joined, or continued to support, our efforts to restore open space in our community.  Your financial support is the single most important effort you can make to our cause, as it allows us to continue our work.  The South Bay is an overbuilt community with over 10,000 residents per square mile and only 2.5 acres of parkland per thousand residents (the national average is 16.2), including the beaches.  Without your help, we could not continue.  So, many thanks from all the Directors at the South Bay Parkland Conservancy.
 
Moving Methodically
Tomorrow - Tuesday - the 17th, Peter Brand (no relation) of the State Coastal Conservancy was invited to address potential resolutions by the City Council of Redondo Beach which would engage their assistance with restoring the waterfront in and around the AES site.  I spoke with Peter on Friday, and they are still working out the details of allocating their staff and resources before a possible committment to this project, so the formal discussion with the Council will probably be tabled for another month or so.  Mr. Brand also spoke with Mayor Mike Gin, so I'm confidant that the Council and Conservancy can work out the details of timing and resource allocation that are always an issue with a project of this size and scope.  It's important to understand that the Coastal Conservancy has yet to commit even preliminary work to this project. 
 
No need to panic though, attached is a letter from Senator Debra Bowen to the Executive Director of the Coastal Conservancy, Sam Schuchat, requesting their assistance with this wonderful opportunity to restore a piece of our coastline - consistent with the results of the advisory vote last March.  This will be a monumental project that will require lots of effort and commitment from all parties involved, and its importance, along with the involvement of the CC, is highlighted in the letter.  Many thanks to Senator Bowen and her staff! 
 
Like most of you, this is not happening fast enough for me, but this is as much a political process as anything.  So what's a couple months when the restoration of our waterfront is at hand. 
 
El Segundo Power Plant
Below are two articles (I also attached a photo I took from the air - thanks again Tom!) from the Daily Breeze on regarding the El Segundo power plant, and what could possibly be another opportunity for South Bay residents.  Read them carefully, especially if you live in Manhattan Beach, and know that while they may have secured a license from the California Energy Commission to repower their plant, the future is still very much in doubt for this site. 

"NRG Energy, which is in the process of buying out Dynegy's share in the plant, said it still has not secured the vital contracts to sell the power the new plant will eventually produce."  Hmmm?  They've been working on repowering this plant for years and there is still not a buyer for the power?

We've been watching the developments for over two years now and after personally testifying during the hearings and seeing that they cannot get the long term energy contracts required to finance this project, my optimism is renewed that power generation on our coast will slowly move to less populated areas where the air and water pollution they generate has less impact on humans, and the jobs a plant such as this will generate are more in demand.  We'll keep you posted on this, and all the other events related to our mission that are sure to unfold in 2006.
 
Happy New Year! 
 
Bill Brand
President
South Bay Parkland Conservancy
PO Box 7000-408
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-809-4405
www.southbayparks.org
 

This first article is from December 20th.  The next article was last Saturday - January 14th. 

El Segundo invests $263,500 to rezone power plant property
Plan preps oceanfront land for the chance the facility will stop making energy. A resort area with retail and recreation areas is envisioned.
By Andrea Sudano
Daily Breeze

Betting the El Segundo Power plant will soon cease operation, the city of El Segundo has anted up the cash to rezone the generator's oceanfront property for commercial use.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously awarded a $263,500 contract to a firm that will undertake a laundry list of tasks needed to prepare the property so it can be turned into a luxury hotel with retail and recreation areas should the plant be mothballed.

The firm will be responsible for revising the city's local coastal program and studying the environmental effects of rezoning the property. The process, including approval by the California Coastal Commission, could take up to 18 months, city officials said.

Once rezoning is completed, the plant could cease operation for a year before permitting regulations would prevent it from producing energy again. The city, however, is also working to amend the cutoff to six months of idleness, said Director of Planning and Building Safety Seimone Jurjis.

The city began investigating its options for the land in October 2004, but Tuesday's move was spurred when plant backers earlier this month missed a $250,000 down payment deadline on a $5 million study of the Santa Monica Bay.

The study is a condition for the California Energy Commission's approval of the plant's plan for a $400 million reconstruction. But officials for the plant's backers, Dynegy and NRG Energy, said they do not want to start making payments on the study until they have secured new contracts for power to be produced by a revamped plant.

"Are we just putting money in a black hole?" asked NRG Executive Vice President Ershel Redd.

Next month, the commission will decide how to handle the plant's reluctance to pay up. In the meantime, the city of El Segundo is moving forward in case the plant receives no new contracts and the planned renovation never happens.

"It's just one more question mark about the future of the plant," Mayor Kelly McDowell said. "The city has backed them the whole way. ... Yet, they're still in neutral. Especially because of the lead time to rezone something on the beach, we have to act now."

The move to rezone is not an aggressive ploy against the plant -- El Segundo is only protecting its assets, McDowell said.

The city expected to receive $1 million in tax revenues from natural gas sales to the plant in the 2005-06 fiscal year. Currently, the power plant is operating at about 8 percent of capacity, but high energy costs have given the city more cash than expected this year.

However, with an 8 percent bed tax, the city could expect to generate at least $3 million steady annual income from a hotel resort at the site, McDowell said.

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Energy company will pay $250,000 owed for study
State energy panel may decide if El Segundo company must pay fine imposed after it delayed payment for ecology research.
By Lee Peterson
DAILY BREEZE

El Segundo Power has decided to end its holdout and on Tuesday will make a belated $250,000 payment on a Santa Monica Bay ecology study, keeping alive its plans to renovate the seaside electricity-generating station.

If the payment is wired as expected, it's not known whether the company will still be on the hook for a $38,000 penalty to the California Energy Commission for missing its deadline.

That's the fine proposed by the commission staff, which had sought to enforce a condition included in the commission's approval of a major rebuilding of the power station.

El Segundo Power has balked at the four $250,000 payments since they were first proposed. At one point, an attorney for the power plant said the requirement would force the rebuilding project to be dropped.

Under the schedule, the first payment was to be made 30 days after the official final approval of the renovation project, with subsequent payments every 90 days after. When the construction actually starts, then the plant is supposed to pay another $4 million, resulting in a $5 million fund for studying and improving the bay.

When it came time to make the first payment Sept. 30, the power plant filed an appeal. It lost the appeal but bought itself more time. It missed the new deadline of Dec. 5 anyway, telling commission officials that there was no appropriate trust mechanism established for the payment to the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission.

On Jan. 3, the Energy Commission staff asked the company -- a joint venture of NRG Energy and Dynegy -- to pay up.

The staff recommended a $25,000 fine on Jan. 4 and started the clock on a $1,000-a-day additional penalty.

The full commission is scheduled to consider the fine Wednesday.

NRG Energy, which is in the process of buying out Dynegy's share in the plant, said it still has not secured the vital contracts to sell the power the new plant will eventually produce.

But it has decided to go ahead and start making the $250,000 payments, anyway.

"We believe that energy reforms are taking place that sustain NRG's business growth in California," NRG spokesman Jay Mandel said. "We are optimistic about the future of California's energy market."

The condition requiring the $5 million fund for the ecological study grew out of concerns about the effect of the power plant's cooling system on the ocean.