Happy Holidays Everyone,
Here is a photo of myself and Jim Light inside the AES
Power Plant about a week ago. We were
here as part of a tour given by AES for ourselves, the State
Coastal Conservancy, and the consultants they have hired to conduct
feasibility studies on the potential for purchasing and restoring some or
all of this property for public use. As you can see, it was a beautiful
day and quite a view from the platforms high over King Harbor.
A few days later, myself and the State's land
acquisition consultant met with the plant manager, Buck Hunt, and the
President of AES Southland, Eric Pendergraft. It was a very productive
meeting in that we better understood each others goals, and we assured AES
that we would be led by their actions, but were studying the option
of purchasing all or part of the land they felt was in excess of
their needs, now or in the future.
We also assured them this was not a Redondo Beach
project, but a State project that would continue to leverage support at
all levels of government, and within the regional
community.
We developed a better understanding of each others
goals, priorities and possibilities for the future. Everything is on the
table. Everything! Including a potential partnership
with Southern California Edison which owns the land under the power lines
that stretch all the way to the 405 freeway. With the phasing-out of
once-through cooling, the need for AES to be sited on the coast goes
away.
Jim Light was a founding Director of the SBPC and has
been very active in the community for many years. He is now
back with us and in fact, was elected to replace me as President just last
week. I have resigned my post to run for City Council
in Redondo Beach this coming March.
I'm very excited that Jim has rejoined our team.
As I've said many times since I read the book, "He's the smartest guy in the
room." and shares the vision of a public project here, not a private
one. He's also in this for the long haul
like the rest of us, and I hope you are too!
If you want to contribute to a local charity that needs
your support, give a Christmas gift to future generations and make your
tax-deductible gift payable to the:
South Bay Parkland Conservancy
1719 Via El Prado #408
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Or visit our website below and use PayPal. We have
no paid staff and count on your donations to keep us going.
Happy Holidays from all of us at the South Bay Parkland
Conservancy!
p.s.
Below is our year-end letter, which makes this already
too long email even longer, but summarizes most of our activities of the past
year. If you haven't received one, send me your address and I'll get one
out to you right away.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Dear SBPC Member,
2008 has been a good year for
the South Bay Parkland Conservancy!
Most importantly, Measure DD
was approved overwhelmingly by 58.5% of the voters in
Redondo Beach. This measure, which the SBPC endorsed
and our President wrote an editorial supporting that appeared in the Daily
Breeze, requires a public vote before a major change in allowable land use
becomes effective. This protects
the AES power plant site from being rezoned without public approval by this
City Council, or any future City Council, for anything other than a park or
its industrial uses.
Many of you remember the Heart
of the City zoning that called for 2,998 condos on this site. It took 2 referendums to simply call
for a public vote. Now a vote
will always be required thanks to DD.
State Assembly Bill 31 also
passed and was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in September. This law deems much of the
South
Bay a 'critically underserved
community' qualifying us for $400 million in funding for community parks. We spent many hours educating our
local State representatives; Assemblymember Ted Lieu and State Senator Jenny
Oropeza. They get it about our
need for parks and have been willing to help.
The SBPC was also a signer and
contributor to comments for important input to State Water Resources Control
Board policy that addresses once-through-cooling processes that harm our
coastal waters. This process uses
the ocean to cool 19 power plants on the coast of
California. Three of the power plants are located
within 5 miles of each other in the
South
Bay. We are closely watching the final
ruling by the Board on when this practice will be phased out. We believe the sooner the better. It appears the date will be in 2013 or
2015. Whichever it is, this
ruling will in all likelihood sunset the operations of the
Redondo Beach power plant for
good.
As usual, we published the Blue
Heron, sponsored booths at many community events like the Riviera Village
Festival and Hermosa Arts Festival.
We also attended important policy meetings and events in
Sacramento, like the annual
convention of the California Council of Land Trusts. All dealt with parks, open space, and
coastal restorations, as well as the once-through-cooling debates.
In 2009 we plan to do all of
the same and more. The State
Coastal Conservancy will be completing their first feasibility studies on the
AES Redondo site to create the South
Bay Waterfront
Park. We will continue to comment and
watchdog the Water Board as they release their final ruling on the fate of
once-through-cooling. And Redondo
Beach will have an important election for 3 councilmembers and a Mayor. So all you Redondo residents be sure
and get out and vote.
And of course our President,
Bill Brand, continues to publish his monthly updates via email. If you don't get these, be sure to
email him at bbrand@earthlink.net.
In late 2008 we also received a
letter from Mayor Gin soliciting our help in 'greening' the right of way land
underneath the power lines at Herondo and PCH. This should prove to be a very high
profile success for us given that 80,000 cars a day pass by here. One of our Directors has taken a lead
role in bringing all the entities like Southern California Edison together to
make this happen. So stay
tuned for breaking news as this project unfolds.
All this important progress and
the efforts we make could not be possible without your generous support. We can't thank you enough! It has been four years since we
incorporated and your financial and moral support kept our vision alive. One day you will see the fruits of
your support in the form of a beautiful waterfront park for the entire
South
Bay to enjoy!
In these difficult financial
times, we hope that you have the financial resources to continue to help us
with our work. These types of
projects take years to complete and have to sustain themselves through good
economic times and bad. So please
consider an annual tax-deductible donation or membership that will see us
through 2009. We have no paid
staff and continue to rely solely on your support for the financial resources
we need.
Thanks very much in advance for
your support and consideration.
All the best for 2009 and Happy
Holidays!
Your Directors at the
South
Bay Parkland
Conservancy
Bill Brand
Steve Carey
Jillaine Force
Charlie Szymanski
Mimi Andersen
Irene
Kurata
Jim Vaught
Dave Wiggins
Florence
Swiger
Wendy Weber