Council Authorizes City To Proceed With Wetlands Trade

Politicians in Washington, D.C., still flinging money with the hope that something will stick to the shattered remains of the economy, deduced that what $1 trillion will not fix, $3 trillion just might. And thanks to their solutions, each of us are left to bear an additional $10,000 slice of the national debt.

Perhaps knowing this, the Long Beach City Council–which some might say are facing their own budgetary Armageddon–turned their collective super powers to an issue sure to take the sting out of the roughly $5 billion in future tax burden laid on the Long Beach citizenry by the feds earlier in the day.

Tuesday’s primary mission for the Council, judging by the length of time spent discussing it, was actually a barter to save local wetlands.

By a 6-2 vote, the Council voted to authorize City Manager Pat West to finalize a real estate trade of 12.1-acres of city property on the industrial West side for a nearly 34-acre parcel of oil wells, ponds and grass on the southeastern edge of the city.

The city property, located between San Francisco Ave. and the Los Angeles River just south of Pacific Coast Highway, is currently being used by the city as an operations and storage yard.

The triangle-shaped wetlands property, which abuts the San Gabriel River, is bounded by 2nd Street on the north, the Market Place Shopping Center on the west and the imaginary southern extension of Studebaker Road on the east.

According to the plan, after City Hall receives the wetlands property, sans the mineral rights which stay with current owner LCW Partners, the wetlands parcel would be sold to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority. This quasi-governmental group would then restore and maintain the property–minus the dozen or so oil wells that will remain private property–as wetlands in perpetuity. 

While all of the Council members agreed that the protection of wetlands are a laudable cause on which to focus city energies, some Council members raised questions about details of the land swap.  

Council member Gerrie Schipske, who appeared to have conducted a one-person fact-finding mission regarding the swap, said that according to commercial real estate firm CB Ellis, the city parcel sits in a prime industrial area due to its proximity to the Port of Long Beach. She said that according to CB Ellis estimates based on similar property in the port area, the city parcel would be worth between $12.6 million and $14 million.

In addition, Schipske said that according to the city’s own insurance assessment, the West side property was worth $10.9 million, still well above the $7.9 million valuation determined by the city’s Department of Public Works.

Public Works chief Mike Conway, who has been involved in the negotiations with LCW, said that the lower value of the city parcel was due to the cost of cleaning up the site, demolishing the current structures located there, and access issues with the property.

Schipske countered saying that she did not understand why the city should have to pay for clean-up on the city property while LCW is not paying for the same on the wetlands parcel.

Given that the existing oil wells and other oil production equipment would remain on the property, Schipske also said she was concerned that “while we talk about the importance of saving wetlands, there may not be much left after these other things are deducted.”

One point only briefly touched on by the Council is the possibility of having the Port of Long Beach pay for the mitigation of the wetlands. The port receives what are called mitigation credits for each acre of wetlands it pays to restores. These credits are banked by the port and can be used to create new land, typically through landfill, at the port. Though the port still retains a large stock of credits from earlier wetlands restoration projects, new opportunities to obtain such credits have been virtually non-existent over the past decade and in the past have been considered a wise investment by port management.  

Council member Rae Gabelich also questioned the estimated $500,000 that the city will have to pay from the Public Works budget to relocate the city operations currently located on the West side property.

“We don’t have $500,000 extra dollars to be good Samaritans or good keepers of the wetlands,” said Gabelich, adding that she was surprised to hear that Public Works had such funds considering only last week the Council was “fighting over street money.”

Schipske, also highlighting the cost to the city, pointed out that the $500,000 was $200,000 more than each district receives annually for sidewalk repair.

A motion by Gabelich to include the $500,000 cost in the negotiations for the deal was defeated 5-3, with only Gabelich, Schipske and Tonia Reyes Uranga supporting the change.

Conway later clarified that the city expects to be reimbursed for the $500,000 from the proceeds of the sale to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority, though he admitted this could not occur until the LCWA actually pays for the property.

One change to the deal did manage to make it to the final passing vote was a motion by Council member Gary DeLong to include a deed restriction in the transaction requiring the 34-acre parcel only be used for wetlands.

Ironically, while Schipske and numerous members of the public raised concerns about the oil wells that dot the parcel remaining amid a restored wetlands area, one idea not mentioned is that Long Beach is a prime example of what is called directional drilling. Sometimes referred to as slant drilling, this nearly 90-year-old technology allows an oil well to be drilled in a non-vertical direction.

A local, but sometimes overlooked example, are the oil islands offshore of Long Beach. These four man-made islands have hundreds of wells that are drilled out from the islands in all directions–many extending well under the city.  

In the case of the wetland property, it may be possible using directional drilling technology to consolidate the wetlands property oil wells in one location on the parcel while still providing access to the underground oil reserves.

Finalizing the land swap deal is expected to take 90 days, according to Conway, and the city will have a six-month post-escrow period to move out of the service yard.