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by George Wiley
Around Redondo Beach City Hall the staff is in heavy prep mode. Documents running to hundreds of pages are being sent to a consulting group that specializes in advising cities how best to use available land. Redondo's Economic Development Manager, Aaron Jones, who put together the books says frankly, "I'm tired."
But between now and March 10 there will be no rest for the weary. That's when the Urban Land Institute (ULI) team will present its findings on optimal uses for the land around the AES power plant to an open meeting of the city council.
In the city manager's office is Lou Garcia, a former member of ULI and the man responsible for bringing the team to Redondo at a cost of $105,000.
"We're only going to get one chance to plan this, and we've got to do it right," Garcia said.
Garcia refers to the city's plan for what will become of the site when AES downsizes. Three of the power plant's smokestacks have already been torn down.
"But this goes way beyond AES," Garcia said, scraping a finger around the harbor area on a giant aerial photo of Redondo on his office wall. "This goes from Herondo all the way down the Catalina corridor," he said.
The project's scope as well as its cost has prompted the city to solicit contributions for the planning study.
"I want partners to help sponsor ULI," Garcia said. More than 20 letters went out attempting to recoup about $50,000 of the ULI fee, Garcia said, but he refused to confirm the amount asked for in the letters or to whom they went.
At ULI headquarters in Washington D.C., a sense of urgency is growing as a ULI investigative team shifts into gear for its visit to Redondo. They'll arrive Sunday, March 5 and stay through the following Friday.
ULI environmental land use policy director Michael Pawlukiewicz, who will oversee the team and write the final report for Redondo, is getting ready for his first-ever visit to Los Angeles.
"I've been to San Francisco more times than I can count, but never to L.A.," he said. "This will be fun."
But Paulukiewicz isn't planning any kind of vacation. Once the ULI team arrives in Redondo, it will be a total immersion for five days of review, site touring, interviewing, assessing, analyzing, proposing and presenting a report, he said. And even after that Pawlukiewicz will be at work on the project. He is charged with formally writing the ULI final report, something he guesses will be take about three months. Pawlukiewicz has been on several ULI "advisory panels" and they always achieve good results, he said. Even if the sponsor doesn't follow the suggestions of the ULI team, the report still serves as a jumping-off point for the local interested parties after the "objective" ULI team has gone home, Pawlukiewicz says.
He recounts examples of projects in Oxnard, New Orleans, and Cleveland to prove his point. In Cleveland, he said, nobody had paid any attention to an old railroad yard a ULI team found ripe with potential, and although the site wasn't developed in the way ULI suggested, it was more highly regarded and eventually was developed, he said.
Kevin Lawler, a West Palm Beach, Florida, real estate consultant who will chair the ULI panel of volunteer experts is also busy backgrounding himself and getting ready for the trip to the South Bay. Lawler grew up in Southern California and knows the area, although he hasn't been to Redondo since the mid-80s. Like Pawlukiewicz, Lawler has served on a number of ULI advisory panels. He dismisses any thought that a ULI panel is all talk and no action.
"These aren't free-form exercises," he said. "We will follow a definite format that has been shown to work. We know it can work, because we've seen it work time after time."
Lawler explains the four-team procedure that ULI uses: Between eight and 12 ULI-member volunteer panelists will divide into teams to interview Redondo locals and business owners. Each team of ULI panelists will focus on a different area. One will look at the development potential of the AES site and the harbor, a second team will focus on planning and urban design, a third will look at development and marketing strategies, and the final team will focus on how to implement the ULI team's suggestions.
Before the ULI panel's arrival, the city will have told the institute whom it wants interviewed. Aaron Jones added that those who contribute to paying for the ULI team's visit will have some say in who gets interviewed. They'll also be invited to a sponsor's dinner near the end of the process.
Les Guthrie, owner of Marina Cove, Ltd., probably the city's biggest harbor leaseholder, said that he received a letter two weeks ago from Garcia asking for a contribution of $5,000. "It was not a surprise at all," Guthrie said, noting that Garcia had said weeks earlier at a city council meeting that contributions would be requested. Guthrie said his reaction was to call Garcia and ask for a meeting or at least a conversation by phone. "My letter said I will be included in the ULI process," he adds. "After ULI has been here and made its report, I will have lots to say. Right now I'm just a fascinated observer."
AES management is also paying an undisclosed amount of the ULI fee.
"We're one of the sponsors," AES chief executive manager C. J. Thompson said. "What we're paying is a nominal amount. It's a fraction of the total cost. We don't want there to be any perception that we're buying this process,"
Under a two-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the city and AES - an agreement now in its second year - the power company is given a reprieve on utility user's taxes that may be assessed against it. Jones said that in the case of AES that tax could amount to as much as $3.5 million yearly, payable to the city. The tax is based on the consumption of natural gas, which the AES plant uses in massive amounts.
The MOU is an attempt to give AES a grace period while it cooperates with the city in planning for harbor property. Of 52 acres in the total AES site, as many as 25 to 28 acres will be freed for redevelopment as AES downsizes the old Southern California Edison plant, Jones said.
While AES will own that land, the city's role in redevelopment will be pivotal. Anything done with the site will have to match the city's general plan, zoning ordinances and other regulations. Under the MOU between AES and the city, said Jones, the site will be used for commercial development, but just what that means hasn't been defined yet. Proposing uses for the site is part of what the ULI team will do.
While the ULI panelists will look at the whole harbor from a planning aspect, the AES site will be the focus of their assessment.
"This is the most critical thing we can do," Jones said of the ULI visit. "The city needs to be proactive. This is the way to do it."
Thompson says he doubts the ULI panelists will come up with any harbor concept that will cause the power company to alter its plans for the AES site. "I don't think ULI will come back with something we're not planning," Thompson says. "I think our plan is pretty solid, but whatever ULI comes up with we would be receptive to." As of now, AES is sticking to its original plan to retain the building at the corner of Herondo and Harbor Drive and redesign it for combined upper level residential units, while the bottom levels would be given over to offices and shops. Beyond the original structure, AES would eventually reconfigure the east and south sides of the property as a hotel or an assisted living center, or both.
When AES finishes downsizing, all that will likely remain visible of the current facility is the 'whale building' on Harbor Drive. It will be part of a completely redesigned and modernized power plant that AES will continue to operate for 20 years or more.
As for the actual conversion and reconstruction of the AES plant, that is still a long ways off. Given the fact that environmental impacts will have to be assessed and Coastal Commission approvals received, the actual work on the plant won't be a reality soon. "We're talking several years," says Thompson. "Unfortunately, that's how long it takes."
Also at issue is the "power line transport corridor" behind the power plant, said Jones. Currently, that land is vacant, except for the giant power lines and their stanchions that stretch uphill away from the beach and bend out of sight over the crest of the hill. Undergrounding is "extremely expensive," said Thomson. Rather than underground, AES would like to eliminate as many of the power lines as possible. "It's something that's going to take a lot of work. The costs are very high," he said.
While undergrounding the power lines and taking down the poles that support them is expensive, city leader have been saying that AES or SCE will take that step at some point. The freed-up land, prime residential or commercial property, will make it too financially lucrative to do otherwise. ULI will also be asked to assess the power line corridor.
"The city is taking a lead role in what happens with AES," said Jones. "The city does have an interest. The city owns the entire harbor, and we're a major stakeholder. We're obligated to plan for any major redevelopment in this area."
Jones said the "briefing book" being sent to ULI for panelists to study before their arrival has been put together with the help of staff in 13 city departments. The books, which cost about $130 each to print, have been presented to the city council. Copies are also available in the library and may be put on the city's web site, Jones said.
"The city wants maximum public exposure," Jones adds, noting that ULI's final report will be televised.
City manager Garcia concurs. "You can't plan it in a vacuum," he said. "My only expectations are a dispassionate, professional assessment by ULI."ER