The cities of East Palo Alto and Los Angeles are among 16 cities nationally that have been named Brownfields Showcase Communities. At least 15 federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, took part in selecting the projects. The designation recognizes problem-solving on the part of local government, and entitles the projects to additional federal funding and/or in-lieu services. In addition to funding and in-lieu services, the designation also entitles each community to a full-time "Community Builder" on the HUD payroll.
In East Palo Alto, an impoverished community in otherwise affluent San Mateo County, city officials won the designation for efforts to remediate and redevelop a 130-acre redevelopment site. In a statement, federal officials praised East Palo Alto for "showing how a small community can successfully leverage resources through partnerships."
"This program takes an economically marginalized and contaminated site, and makes it into a master-planned, R&D business park that could assist the city in job creation," said city manager Michael Bethke. "Otherwise, he added, "We have practically no options right now for (new) jobs in the city."
Formerly the site of a pesticide plant, the Ravenswood site is contaminated with arsenic and requires remediation at a cost of $3 million to $5 million. Bethke said city officials hope to attract high-tech businesses to the redevelopment area. The Showcase Communities designation entitles the city to $1.6 million in funding and in-lieu services, including funds to pay the salary of the EPA staffer. Other services to the city include consultations with other federal agencies and assistance in grant writing.
The City of Los Angeles won Showcase status for its proposal to remediate and develop two brownfield sites along the edges of the Alameda Corridor. A proposed 20-mile rail line between the harbor area and container yards southeast of downtown Los Angeles, the Alameda Corridor is intended to ease traffic congestion on major arteries serving the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
Los Angeles has identified two sites: the 20-acre "Prison Site," named for now-abandoned plans to build a state prison there, and a 208-acre "Goodyear" site, also known as South Central Renaissance Industrial Park. For the latter project, the city has received $400,000 in EPA funds and has applied for a $1.7 million HUD Brownfields Economic Development Initiative, according to Lillian Kawasaki, General Manager of the City of
Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department.
There is no evidence that California's enterprise zone program – the state's largest economic development effort – has increased jobs in program areas, according to a Public Policy Institute of California study. "Our main finding is that, on average, enterprise zones have no effect on business creation or job growth," PPIC researchers Jed Kolko and David Neumark wrote.
A major industrial project in the City of Los Angeles has received approval from the city's new Central Area Planning Commission. However, opponents of the "Cornfield" development next to Chinatown have vowed to continue fighting with a variety of legal and political tools. (See CP&DR Economic Development, January 2000)
The commission voted 4-2 in late July to approve Majestic Reality's plans for a 950,000-square-foot industrial and warehouse development on 32 acres of the 47-acre Cornfield. The commi...
Less than 10 miles north of the Cornfield, Walt Disney Co. has proposed a large "creative campus" on the grounds of the former Grand Central Air Terminal, a Glendale airport that closed in 1959. Disney's plans are sketchy, but the entertainment giant has revealed plans for four district projects on the site: a 52-acre campus to house the theme park research and development operations; a 24-acre soundstage and production facility; a 27-acre media and technology campus that would have space available for ...
San Francisco Airport officials have proposed an airport runway expansion that has a novel tradeoff for environmentalists. In exchange for filling up to 1,400 acres of San Francisco Bay for new runways, the airport proposes to restore 29,000 acres of bay wetlands that are located east and south of the airport.
The proposal, which is to be formally presented at the end of January, is already proving controversial in the environmental community, and is strongly opposed by Cargill Salt, whose land could...
Despite a developers' decision to drop out of a 40-acre sports-themed project in Anaheim, city officials are keeping the project on track.
Known as Sportstown, the entertainment project is taking shape in the parking lot of the Big A, home of the Anaheim Angels baseball team, and close to the Arrowhead Pond, home to the major league hockey team, the Mighty Ducks.
In November, Cleveland-based developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. dropped plans to develop Sportstown, which is to include sports-theme...
After years of contention, the airport redevelopment planned for the site of the former George Air Force Base in the High Desert of San Bernardino County may finally be getting off the ground.
The former base was annexed by Victorville in 1994 and is now occupied by an airport. The Victorville City Council, which also serves as the Southern California International Airport Authority, received a redevelopment plan from Stirling Enterprises of Laguna Hills at their October 20 meeting.
Afte...
A joint powers authority created to finance the San Diego Convention Center expansion can issue revenue bonds without voter approval, the California Supreme Court has ruled.
The $205 million bond issue was challenged in court by Richard Rider, a taxpayer activist who has frequently filed lawsuits against public agencies in San Diego claiming that two-thirds voter approval is required for financing public projects. Most famously, Rider won a state Supreme Court ruling that a sales-tax increase to ...
In the latest legal skirmishes associated with two ongoing natural resource controversies, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against environmental groups and in favor of the federal Bureau of Land Management.
In both cases, the environmental groups sought to use the National Environmental Protection Act as a vehicle to gain legal leverage over BLM actions on the east side of the Cascades, and both included proposed land swaps between BLM and a private land exchange. In one case, t...
The Campbell city clerk acted properly in rejecting portions of a referendum petition it sought to place a major development project on the ballot, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled.
The case emerged from the city's decision last December to change the land-use designation on a parcel of land commonly known as the "Winchester Drive-In Site" to permit development of a research park proposed by WTA Technology Park, a developer. The city council voted to change 20 of the 24 acres to busine...
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has begun scaling back Newhall Ranch, a huge project that has been heavily criticized by neighboring Ventura County. Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose district contains the proposed project, introduced a motion in July to create more open space and possibly reduce the proposed 24,000 home development by 3,500 homes. The board approved the supervisor's motion that the county's staff should implement the proposed changes at its July 28 meeting.
As approved by...
Trial judges may use their discretion in determining whether to award attorney fees to SLAPP suit defendants if the plaintiff voluntarily dismisses the case while the anti-SLAPP motion to strike is pending, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled.
In making the ruling, Division 2 of the Fourth District rejected the argument that defendant's attorneys should be either automatically entitled to or automatically precluded from receiving such fees.
The term "SLAPP" suit - the acronym stands f...
Reversing a district court judge's ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has concluded that a Native American tribe is not an "indispensable party" in an environmental group's endangered species lawsuit against the federal government.
The case involved the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity's lawsuit challenging the federal government's plan to use more water storage capacity behind Roosevelt Dam in Arizona. The group claimed that the government had not done adequate analysis of ...
