SOUNDING OFF:

Local residents who attended the City Council meeting Dec. 17 left confused and disappointed about the five-year plan adopted for the Southeast Huntington Beach Redevelopment Area. That plan essentially focused on the AES plant and the Ascon/Nesi site.

The plan characterized the AES plant as a “major source of air pollution” and “a visual impediment” in the area. It saw it as having a negative impact upon property values in the area when those properties are compared to other coastal properties.

The plan described the Ascon/Nesi site as a landfill that “suffers from severe contamination” and listed such pollutants as styrene, sulfuric acid and chromic acid. (The Department of Toxic Substances lists 64 “potential contaminants of concern” as confirmed to be present on the site.) The plan concluded that, “attempts to remediate the environmental degradation on the site is considered cost prohibitive and some of the parties responsible for the contamination issues have refused to participate in the [Department of Toxic Substances] remediation plan due to the cost of remediation.”

Residents of the area who spoke at the hearing voiced concerns that the goals proposed lacked a vision. There was nothing presented that would give residents hope that this area would ever enjoy a usage akin to adjacent beach front property. With the addition of such industries as Poseidon, and with plans to utilize the tank farm sites for further industrial development, the Redevelopment Agency Board condemns our neighborhood to suffer even greater pollution of the air and ocean.

The plan lists 12 goals for the area to address the blighted conditions. Many of them are introduced by limiting phrases such as “to assist,” “to facilitate,” “to assure,” leaving the reader with the impression that the agency does not have any leadership role in planning the future of the area and that it will always be industrial.

The “vision” of the area presented by a member of the board was that of a block wall on Pacific Coast Highway and a sidewalk on Magnolia Street. The No. 1 goal talks about screening, etc., to “limit impacts upon adjoining neighborhoods”. The No. 12 goal is for increasing the community’s supply of affordable housing. One would never know this is a site 600 yards from the ocean in an area where millions of dollars have been spent to create a community worthy of its ocean location. Why must visions and dreams stop at Newland?

JOHN SCOTT is a Huntington Beach resident.